Giving Thanks ... reminder too

It's the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) season again... and Lydia is going to take the exam in a matter of days.  As one who had gone through this horrendous examination many moons ago, I have difficulty imaging going through this tough period... not to mention the standard has gone up, up and up.  Math questions are beyond whiz kids of my era... why do the examiners set such tough questions? 

Year in year out, parents question the purpose of setting tough questions, yet every year such tough questions continue to get tougher...

Lydia was disappointed with her results and was shaken too... Seizing the opportunity, I had to share with her this EQ and IQ principle... I thank God that our kids are normal - they play, fight, quarrel, read, sleep, eat well... though their results are not great, I am thankful that grades is NOT the end in itself, but likely a matter to testing one's determination and perseverance.

While sharing with Lydia on the importance of EQ, I too, am reminded of this qualities too - even as an adult.  That EQ comprises of also the Fruit of the Spirit - Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Gentleness, Faithfulness and Self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).

Hamsters!!!

We started keeping pets recently - 2 hamsters to be specific.  Just a couple of days back, my neighbour (who also has 2 hamsters) decided to go for a holiday and hence asked us to take care of their pet hamsters while they are gone. 

Before I know it, Rachel shared that her classmate was giving her yet another hamster for her birthday!  I didnt think it was real, but boy! when I returned home last night, I was 'welcomed' by a sight of 5 hamsters!!! Sheesh... I felt that we have a mini-zoo here or something.

After getting over the initial shock of being invaded by hamsters, I felt that it is pretty therapeutic just watching them run around and nibbling on their food and even sleeping.  If only life for us is simpler.

I also reckon having hamsters help the kids to learn some responsibility as they have to change the bedding every now and then, maintain contact with the hamsters, and feed them.

Humour Books Online

I remember how I used to borrow joke books in secondary school and enjoy the humour that spring from the pages; not to mention riddles such as 'Why did the chicken cross the road?' Cannot remember the answer, but such were the things that occupy my free time.

Pastor George Ong spoke at our church yesterday and brought along his 12 volumes of books. While I was unable to attend the sermon due to my commitment to teach the kiddies at the same time, I had the chance to browse through his books... and again, the funny bone gets tickled.

Have decided to include just one example of his humour: Teacher: If I give you two sentences: Danny is walking home. He saw a dead man. Can you join the 2 sentences together? Student: Danny saw a dead man walking home.

Hopefully as the kids grow up, they will learn to add humour to their lives and learn to enjoy the journey along with the sparks rather than to take life too seriously... I know Rachel will... she is already picking up joke books... :)

Kuantan - the Sea, Sand and Skies

During the recent school holidays, we decided to drive to Kuantan for a short family vacation. Ambitious plans were made whereby we decided we would meet at Woodlands at 8:30am!!! The kids packed their bags and hit the sack real early in anticipation of their early rise. Lo and behold! The kids were really up early... and were roaring to go :)

The drive took about 8 hours and were interspersed with multiple stops. With 3 MPVs and 22 persons (adults and kids) in tow, regular stops were a given :). Finally being guided by GPS for the final leg of our journey, we passed through a very unfamiliar stretch of residential estates before arriving at Swiss Garden Hotel where we would be spending the next 2 nights at. En route to Swiss Garden, we stopped by a pottery shop where I managed to snap this photo (along with an unnamed mozzie). I thought the colours were pretty!

The day after the kids (and the fathers) were ready to hit the sand and sea. In all they spent more than 2 hours catching hermit crabs and playing by the seaside and going out to sea. Nathan and Theodore did lots of stunts including 'flying fish' stunts... wonderful to have caught him in action.

After 2 hours, we had to drag ourselves away from the sea else we risk being totally sun-burnt. All of us were definitely a tone or two darker, but all had great memories of the times spent together.

New York Hotel

Just before school was out, we decided to take a 2-day trip to Johor Bahru. Managed to secure a good rate for New York Hotel.

While the hotel is not swanky, it was a very comfortable 4-star hotel. The rooms were large enough and had a great view - we could see the path that leads to the New Immigration.

 

What is a trip without food - we took the kids to a hot stone lunch. Each of them ordered their set lunches and watch the raw food transform to cooked food. It was great watching them share their food and discussed how to slice the dory fish from the hot stone.

After breakfast the next morning, we decided to be the first guests to enjoy the hotel facilities. The kids had a fantastic time switching between the jacuzzi and the mini-lap pool.

All too soon, it was time to head back home... we'll be back to Johor Bahru again... that much we are certain of.

BBQ and crabs

School holidays are here for the kids again. To break the school routine, we decided to check into a chalet and invited cousins over to spend some time with us. As we stay in a flat and have no garden of our own, we decided to take this time to have BBQ - the kids were thrilled and mom had to work out the menu.

While grocery shopping, we chanced upon crabs at Sheng Shiong, and they were going for a song! So with little hesitation, I picked up 4 crabs, not to mention live prawns. The kids were eager to watch prawns swim, and see crabs move.

Helping mom start the fire was probably a highlight of the day. They had a chance to 'play' with fire! Here I was, with no scouts training, I ended up using almost half a box of fire starters to start a fire!!! Nathan was also thrilled to be able to watch crabs in a pot. At the end of the day, I realised it was not so much the food that left impressions, but the experience of starting a fire, touching the crabs, using semi-dried leaves to sustain the flames... such activities stay with the kids.

Milestone Birthday

Lydia is turning 12 this year and has made a special request to invite a few of her friends home to celebrate her hatch day with her. As we usually celebrate birthdays at home, and among family members, I felt her request was valid.

As her birthday was on a weekday, I decided to take the afternoon off and played chaffeur cum event co-ordinator. By the time the girls came over, we only had about 2.5 hours before it's time to get the girls home. Together with 6 friends, the girls waited excitedly for me at the school porch, and hopped in when they spotted our MPV.

Once home, they sang the ever-familiar birthday song to three (!!) of them - Lydia, Valerie & Amanda, who had birthdays within weeks from each other. I thought this is pretty unique too as there's collective memory of the birthday!

Thereafter we decided to share the salvation necklace with Lydia's friends, and positioned it also, as a Mother's Day gift from the girls. As they were all 12 years old, they were able to co-ordinate and helped each other to complete the task. Regardless of whether they understood the salvation story, the fact that they completed the necklace was a great achievement!

Soon, it was time to go - it's wonderful to have photos ... for memories' sake. I hope the girls will continue to remain in contact regardless of which secondary school they go to...

Pixar in Singapore

The Singapore Science Centre has partnered Sheares Asia Production to bring Pixar Exhibition to Singapore! We were priviledged to be invited to the Official Opening last evening.

Nathan was there with us and was thrilled to see his favourite Pixar characters which include Woody, Jessie (from Toy Story); characters from Monster Inc, Cars, Bugs Life. What thrilled me even more was the Zoetrope which makes use of static pictures or figures and alongside rapid circular motion, causes moving pictures. What we witnessed was like magic happening in front of our eyes. We watched Toy Story several times to enjoy the illusion.

While at Pixar Exhibition, we also took some photo memories... Had assured Lydia that I will take her to the exhibition after her examination. I am sure she will enjoy it as much as I did.

Good Friday - Agapella

This being Good Friday lots of churches hold various musicals and performances to commemorate Jesus dying on the Cross, but more importantly His resurrection 3 days later.

We had the priviledge of inviting the Agapella group to share their voices with us; and also Rev Edwin Lam from Calvary Baptist Church to share "The Day God Died". This is the first time I hear Rev Lam speak, and I must say he is a fantastic story teller. Yet through the stories, he brought out the truth.

The truth on How Jesus was there when God created the universe, when the stars were cast to decorate the night skies; and yet the pain Jesus endured when He was humiliated and in pain. Jesus chose to die on the Cross for us. Right from the start He knew He came to seek and save the lost.

A Sunday Surprise

Our domestic helper has decided to take her off day today; instead of spending Sunday at mom's house, we decided to surprise the kids by letting them know we weren't planning to go to grandma's place. The children were unhappy and were grumpy when we left church. Little did they know that mom had hidden their passports in my already-heavy handbag!

Along the way, we shared that we were heading 'north'... Lydia lamented that we should have told them earlier so they could take her savings along. Throughout the next hour or so, we had the most well-behaved children in the car!

We drove through the educity portion of Iskandar region, and saw the plot of land where University of Newcastle will sit on. Further down, we noticed a very grand looking building - think it is Bukit Iskandar. This is likely to be the government office of sort. I was impressed that even before the area was developed, Bukit Iskandar was already one grand dame and the roads leading to it was very well paved.

Well... right after Bukit Iskandar, we felt that the route looked unfamiliar and retraced our route. Heading back to the highway, we were certain we would go back to Tebrau City where we are 'regulars'. However minutes later, we spotted 'Bukit Indah' and made a turn out of the highway. The next few hours were spent milling around the mall.

Dinner was again a treat for the kids - we decided to take them to the Hot Stone restaurant where they cooked their food on stone! We finished off our meal with an A&W float before heading home.

Thankfully the traffic at the customs was smooth - this enabled us to hit home within 1 hour. The girls were so proud about their good buys and were eager to share stories of their meals with our domestic helper. All in all, an enjoyable Sunday for the family.

'Painted Scenes'

Guess who we saw today??!! None other than our very own Mr & Mrs Prime Minister! This evening we decided to attend a concert "Painted Scenes" at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music at NUS. Thought it would be great for the girls.

When we arrived, we noticed that there were two rows of reserved seats - naturally the choice seats in the house. Minutes before the concert started, there were some commotion and we could hear camera flash lights sounding behind us. Lo and behold! Our Prime Minister walked in with flanked by the other Reserved Seats members and his body guards. Naturally the girls were excited, but we had no opportunity to capture photo moments with our PM. The girls were dejected. Hopefully there could be another opportunity to meet PM in person again.

The concert was great, featuring students and staff from the Percussion & New Music Ensemble. Three pieces were prepared for the audience, and we were very impressed with the 'Pictures at an Exhibition' - not only just the technical fingerworks on the piano but also the accompaniment by all the percussionists! At one part, it reminded me of 1812.

What was a pleasant surprise was the encore when the musicians came out dawned with dark shades, looking real cool; and performed to the 'Mission Impossible' theme. Part way through, Thomas Hecht, pianist & lecturer pulled a bunny out with the theme from 'Pictures at an Exhibition'. You can tell the house loved it! The claps and laughter that came along with it ... such a 'cool' looking set yet with a 'serious' tune. Very quickly, the Pictures theme came and went, and we were back to Mission Impossible. Not only was the audience enjoying the music, the performers were swaying and moving to the beat - clear indication that they too, are having fun.

Certainly a very good way to spend the evening. Also I reckon such regular stage performance offers the students at the Conservatory multiple opportunities to horne their performance skills and also feel very comfortable playing in public. We are already marking our calendar for the next performance at the YST Conservatory.

Kite Flying Sunday

It's one of those rare Sundays when the family decided to eat out... by that I don't mean eating at some fanciful restaurants. It was more bringing finger food, canned sardines, bread, fruits to the park. The occasion this time was simply to fly kites at the nearby empty field in Sengkang. The early evening sky was peppered with kites of all patterns and sizes.

Very quickly the children pulled out their kites in the shapes of mermaid, zebra and spiderman and with the aid of the wind, could set the kites off very quickly.




The colours of the evening skies provided fantastic lighting to amateur photographers such as us. In fact I must say Lydia took some pretty great shots, considering that she is even more unfamiliar with the camera than I. What amazes me is how little it takes to satisfy the children - an empty field, simple kites, ground sheets, simple meal --and all these spelt FUN for them!

As adults, we were more concerned about whether the children have put on their mosquito patches, whether they are wearing proper footwear (didn't want mud on ground sheets!); whether there's water to wash their hands prior to them touching foot... geez... with more knowledge and awareness, we become great worriers!


I am glad that we were able to pull the entire extended family (22 of us) out to the field and have about 3 great hours of fun. Will have to do this more often...

Philanthrophist - the Art and Heart of Giving

While Rachel was having her piano lessons, I had an hour to browse through whatever magazines and periodicals I could get hold of. What caught my eye this time was an article on Philanthrophy and women philanthrophists in particular.

Mrs Rohini Nilekani, the wife of tech-giant Infosys Technologies' cofounder Nandan Nilekani has been generous in donating to multiple causes for the betterment of her people in India. Mrs Nilekani is touted to have donated more than $40 mil over the years. The project mentioned in the Forbes Mar 2010 article wrote about how one of her charities - Arghyam ('offering' in Sanskrit) had helped a group of villagers to build toilets... something that most of us take for granted to be part of our homes!

I also liked the comment "We were so middle class to the core, and we had the typical denial attitude towards money". However, she was also able to realise that there is something of a different scale that can be achieved with money. I must say this is money in the right perspective.

My aim in bringing up the kids is that even with the little (pocket money) they have, they will learn the art of charity. I have noticed that whenever Lunar New Year comes along, St Luke's Hospital will issue hong-baos for the children to think of the less fortunate and to share their hong-bao collection with the hospital. While the quantum from the kids are insignificant in comparison to the expenses involved in running a hospital, the act of caring for people will help them to be more appreciative of the blessings they have.

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