Coping With Morning Sickness...

Morning sickness kicked in since last Sunday. Wonder if it's due to the progesterone medicine prescribed by my gynae. I pray that it won't be as bad as my 1st pregnancy:p Don't have any craving for any special food right now. I took some Pringles potato crisps to ease the nausea discomfort just now. It works and I'm feeling slightly better now as I'm writing this post:) Can't believe it!! cos I don't have the habit of eating titbits:D

Going to see my gynae tomorrow. Pray that we can see our little baby tomorrow!

Sleeping And Eating:P

I have been very sleepy for the past week. So, all I did were sleeping and eating, sleeping and eating...repeatedly! God, thank you for giving me an understanding husband whom has been helping out in the housework. God, thank you for my dear daughter for her understanding! God, thank you!!!

I'M PREGNANT!!!

Dear hubby bought the pregnancy test kit today and I tested POSITIVE!

PRAISE THE LORD!!!

Taiwan - My Holidays Plan!

Dear hubby booked our air tickets to Taiwan last friday. We'll be flying there next month for 6Days Free & Easy Tour. My immediate task now is to plan the itinerary. So excited, after grounded for 1.5yrs:p Can't wait for the holiday!!

Testimony: God Healed My Right Ear!

I started to have earache for my right ear few days ago. I could sense the buzzing in the ear and full sensation in the ear. However, I decided not to consult doctor after my bad experiences with the GPs previously. Dear daughter and I started to pray together for God's healing last night. This morning, my right ear didn't give me anymore aches or discomfort!!! Praise the LORD! I'm healed!!!

A NEW LOOK!

I did a minor "overhaul" to my own blog this morning!! Hehehe...basically just changed the skin colour but didn't change the backbone:P Why did I do that?? No particular reason. Just feel like a change of LOOK!! Do give me your comment if you have any:p

Feeling blue...

I have been SO MOODY recently!!!

Two days ago, a friend called me. And she's asking me when do I plan to have my 2nd child??? And this friend of mine is still considering whether to have her 2nd child...

Yesterday, MSN a friend whom I had not met for a while. And I was told that her EDD is next month!!!! It seems to be just yesterday when she told me that she's going to TTC. And I recalled...Yes, it was somewhere last year!!

It's simply so easy for others to "PLAN" as and when they wish to have babies!! Then those questions started to REPLAY in my mind again. WHY???????

White Hair, White Hair, Go Away!

Guess what was I holding ??? If you're smart enough, you will guess it right!!! YES, it's a strand of white hair..And it belongs to WHO??? YES, IT BELONGs to.... ME!!!

Recently, dear hubby and dear daughter frequently "discovered" white hair from my head:( Last Saturday night, dear hubby found another strand of white hair and it's the fifth strand... I'm only in my thirties and I'm already having white hair. I wonder would all my hair turn white when I'm forty years old???!!! My mother only has few strands of white hair although she's already in her sixties...WHY SO EARLY FOR ME???

Dear daughter asked me, "Mummy, how come you have white hair??". I jokingly told her "because of you lor!!". Wow, she cried instantly!!! I asked her "Why are you crying? I should be crying right?". Guess what??? She said I blame her for that and she was hurt by the remark I made. Alas, I quickly apologised to her:p

But I still must say this : White hair, white hair, GO AWAY!!! And I don't need you to show my wisdom now. It's simply too early!!!

Pulau Ubin Again:D

Last Saturday, we went to Pulau Ubin again. Well, we couldn't visit my mother since my 3 nieces and nephew were having HMFD. So, we decided to go to Pulau Ubin again since we didn't finish most of the attractions previously.

It was not as crowded as previously and we managed to find a parking lot easily at Changi Village. We took a bumboat there and rented a 3-seater bicycle this time:p Hehehe..so dear hubby has to cycle more!!!

We cycled further this time round because we wanted to visit Chek Jawa Wetlands. It was quite a distance from the jetty and the journey to Chek Jawa was quite bumpy and full of slopes. So, it wasn't an easy ride:) Most of the time we had to get down from the bike and walked:p

Finally we reached Punai Hut and was told that we have to park our bike there and walk in. We saw quite a number of rubber trees. I explained to dear daughter how the rubber tree was tapped and how the rubber milk was collected. I have seen how my granny did it when I was young. Hmmm...really missed those times....

Guess what is this??

It's a rubber tree seed!!

While we're walking towards Chek Jawa Wetlands, we heard a strange sound and guess what we saw?? We saw a wild pig!!! Think the wild pig didn't like us:p It quickly disappeared in the jungle...

And finally we're at the House No. 1 - Chek Jawa Visitor Centre. We walked towards the coastal and the shore is full of sea grass!!

After a long walk, we decided to make a move as the sky has turned dark. Prayed hard that it wouldn't rain. After the 30mins' "tiring" ride, we finally reached the jetty!!

We had our delicious dinner (including our favourite satay) at Changi Village. On our way home, we passed by Changi Airport and managed to catch few planes taking off and landing... And Thank God, it wasn't raining at all.

You Know What Is This Circle Shape??

Haha...It's a piece of wafer. It tastes like love letter. Very thin and melt easily in your watery mouth:) I love it when I was young. But don't have the "luxury" to buy it:(

That day, dear daughter and I were at the playground. We saw a mother and her toddler were eating that. Dear daughter was looking at them and I think she's drooling:p The next day, I searched around my neighbourhood. And I found it in a bakery shop. It's about 12 pieces in a packet, and selling at SGD1....I gave dear daughter a surprise yesterday and she was SO HAPPY!!!

Hand Foot Mouth Disease Scare!

I read the newspaper today. The number of hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) cases continues to rise, with another 702 last week, bringing the total number of cases to 4,423 this year.

My mother informed me today that 3 of my nieces and nephew also infected. Most likely got it from shopping centres because none of their classmates was infected by HFMD. I have been reminding dear daughter to practise proper hygiene be it at home or in school. Pray that she's protected and 3 of my nieces and nephew would be recovered soon. I also pray that parents with infected children would be considerate and keep their children at home!!

Testimony: Trusting In A Faithful God!

In early 2001, I resigned from my hectic job. This hectic job required me to be on 24 x 7 standby. Though the salary was attractive, but it really stressed me up. So, I tendered my resignation without any job offer on hand.

One day, I went for a job interview at Suntec City. After the interview, I walked back to City Hall MRT. I had lower abdomen pain while I was walking. I didn't know what had happened to me. When I reached home, I started to have slight bleeding. I thought I was having my mensus. But the discharge disappeared on the following days and I continued to have lower abdomen pain. Then I was prompted to do a pregnancy test. And I found out that I WAS PREGNANT!!!

No words could describe how I felt at that moment. I was overjoyed because I have been waiting for this miracle child for more than a year. But on the other hand, I was wondering how was I going to get a job with my pregnancy. I called dear hubby immediately and he was SO EXCITED with the good news!! Less than 2wks ago, we were both involved in two car accidents and I was so thankful that God has watched over us and our unborn child!!

We went to see my gynae and was told that I was in my 4wks pregnancy. But gynae said he couldn't detect any heartbeat. I was shocked. For the next few weeks, I continued to have bleeding occasionally and was ordered a bed rest. The pregnancy was not an easy one as I was down with severe morning sickness. It's so bad that I could not eat or drink. As a result, I was hospitalised due to dehydration. But it's also through this hospitalisation, God has blessed us with a better gynae and lower consultation fee too:p He's more optimistic and his advices were valuable. And the best of all, the baby heartbeat was detected by then!! Praise the Lord!

God was good and He saw me through. By 12th week, I was up and ready to eat anything I craved for such as roti prata, curry, fried meehoon and etc:-) God has blessed me with a great in-laws. My MIL has been looking after me throughout the ordeal and bought me food that I craved for:p

With our HUGE outstanding loans and my jobless status, we're not struck by fear. God has blessed me with a flexible job. It helped to lighten dear hubby's burden and provided me with more time to rest. When dear daughter was born, she was cheerful and love to laugh:D And I wish to tell you that all our outstanding loan were paid off by 2005!!! Praise the LORD!

I hope that this testimony will serve as an encouragement to those who may be walking on a path of bleakness or going through the darkest hours of their lives. We may not always understand why certain things happen in life, but what I've learnt is when it comes to God, all we need to do is to continue trusting and believing in Him.

1st April

Today is 1st April. It's April Fool's Day and it's the date I lost my unborn baby last year. I must thank God that He has healed me and set me free from the pain of the lost. And indeed I'm thankful and grateful.

The Danger of Post-Natal Depression (PND)

Late afternoon, I brought dear daughter to play badminton near the playground. A neighbour told me that a lady from nearby block had committed suicide. She left behind her husband, a 3.5yrs old son and a 2mths old daughter. The funeral wake is near the playground. We saw the 3.5yrs old boy running around the playground while his aunt following him behind. Apparently, he wanted to see his mother. His aunt doesn't feel good of letting him go over to the wake. He was crying badly...

According to the neighbour, the lady was suffering from Post-Natal Depression (PND). Post-natal depression is a depressive illness in a woman following soon after she has given birth. Maybe hospitals should provide information about PND for mothers who had just delivered in their hospitals. At least they're aware of the symptoms and know where to get help...

Testimony: God's gift -> My Miracle Child

In 1999, I went for my annual checkup. I was told by my gynae that the chance for me to conceive was low. Both hubby and I were disappointed. But as we're young back then, we're not really bothered by the results given.

Whenever we met up with friends and relatives, they would ask us when we're going to start a family. At first, I would tell them the standard answer -> we're still young and not ready for parenthood yet. But as times passed by, I felt very annoyed and stressed up by the same question raised by people over and over again. And I started to wonder why I have not conceived yet. And somehow wanted to accept the "LIE" that maybe what the gynae said was true.

But God is faithful and sometimes, His timing might not be the timing we expected. In 2001, I found out that I was pregnant and I have conceived naturally. Praise the LORD!!

The Power of Testimony

Today, our snr pastor mentioned about the power of sharing testimony. How others would be blessed through our testimonies. I was touched and would like to share mine as well. So, I have decided to start in my blog.

Library is to RE-OPENED!!

Today, dear daughter and I went to the nearby Community Children's Library. We're supposed to return books. We thought it'd be our last visit as we're told previously that it would be closed by end of March. To our surprise, the librarian informed us that it would be reopened again in May. That's great news for us. Dear daughter was so happy to hear that. She can continue to borrow books there:)

Mom 'N' Tots Movies Promotion!!

Just saw the above promotion from Cathay Cineplexes. Free ticket for children below 7years old between Monday to Friday!! But valid only for shows before 2pm:-(

You may visit cathay cineplexes' website for this promotion. http://www.cathay.com.sg/promos08/cp_promos_239.html I'm going to bring dear daughter there during school holidays:-)

Which animal will slip easily??

Just heard a joke and would like to share here. If you can understand chinese, you'll find this joke all amusing!!!

什么动物最容易跌倒???

狐狸 => 因为狐狸.....狡猾(脚滑)!!!

hahaha:D

Good Friday at Pulau Ubin

Dear hubby wanted to visit a fish farm at Pulau Ubin. He suggested to go on Good Friday. I hesitated for a while as I knew that I would have to cycle there:p Hehe...don't want to have muscle ache effect after that...Also, I wonder if I would have strengths and stamina to cycle the island (since I have not been exercising for a long time:p). Well, dear daughter was excited about it:) So, off we went!

We drove to Changi Village for our yummy lunch. Dear daughter and I decided to try the western food, while dear hubby ordered for his favourite chicken rice. Dear daughter chose yummy pasta and I chose the chicken burger. It comes with soup too:D Not bad. While having our sumptuous lunch there, we witnessed a few cars were summoned by traffic police due to illegal parking. I must say it's really hard to find a parking lot there. Thank God, dear hubby managed to park his car near the carpark at Changi Point Ferry Terminal.

After our yummy lunch, we walked to the Ferry Terminal to take the bumboat.



Alas, we didn't know that we could bring along our bicycle:( We joined the long queue to get into the bumboat. Even though there are many people queuing up and each bumboat can take 12 passengers only, we waited for less than 15mins to get on board:-) Thumb up for their high service standard. I heard the uncle captain had yet to take his lunch!!

We were truly elated during the bumboat ride especially our dear daughter:p

It took us about 10mins to reach Pulau Ubin. As we get down from the bumboat, we were welcomed by the sunny sun!

After a 2mins' walk, we saw a few bicycle rental shops. We quickly rented two bicycles. Dear hubby and daughter shared a two-sitter bicycle, while I cycled on my own. We cycled towards the fish farm direction and passed by several villages or "kampongs".

durian trees:p yumyum!!

After the fish farm visit, it was almost 4:30pm. We returned our bikes and decided to go home. As we made our way to the jetty, dear daughter saw the beautiful seaside and wanted to collect seashells there:p

spiky "roots"

At the end, dear daughter collected about 10 seashells. As the sun was about to set, we bade goodbye to Pulau Ubin. While in the bumboat, I asked my dear daughter "Did you enjoy yourself?". She replied "YES!!!".

Pulau Ubin, we'll come back again!

Art & Craft: My "Winnie the Pooh" Butterfly!

Dear daughter loves art & craft. She decided to make a butterfly yesterday.

Materials needed:
· Paper plate
· Wavy Scissors
· Stapler
· Glue
· Disposable Wooden Chopsticks
· Winnie the Pooh sticker
· Highlighter

See her beautiful butterfly!!

Opps...the antenna is missing??!!! You can curl a strip of construction paper to make the antenna:D

Art & Craft: Elegant Dressy Jewellery Set for Kids

Since young, dear daughter loves to dress herself with nice jewellery such as necklace, bracelet, rings, etc. When she was 4yrs old, she saw my new handmade beaded necklace which I bought at $35 and hardly put on!! She asked me how to make it. I told her we could simply purchase the beads and make our own jewellery (I merely explained to her the process of making those jewellery). But she took it seriously and was thinking of making it herself!

That Christmas, we bought her the "Elegant Dressy Jewellery Set for Kids" box which is full of beads of all kinds. Then she started to make her own jewellery. She gave away some of them to her cousins as gifts too. See some of her jewellery...

A set of necklace, bracelet and ring

Necklace

bracelet

"Teen Couple" at playground!!

Yesterday afternoon, I brought my dear daughter to nearby playground. There was a teen couple from SAJC behaving intimately, touching and kissing each other. It's really uncomfortable to see such behaviours at the playground. The teen girl was still in school uniforms. And don't forget there are children at the playground too!!!

Oh My Windscreen Wiper??!!!

This morning, as we walked to the carpark, we were shocked to see that one of our windscreen wipers was bended! Dear hubby checked around and found out that several cars were affected as well. Some naughty fellow had deliberately bended all windscreen wipers here. See one of the vehicles' wipers were bended badly!

Dear hubby tried to fix it, hopefully it'll function as per normal again!!

Not long ago, these vandals had scratched our car and some others for fun. Now, bended the windscreen wipers! God, please give them something meaningful to do so that they won't waste their time to create trouble!

In Memory of My Lost Baby

1st Apr is drawing near, the very day I lost my precious baby last year. I still miss my dear baby.

Baby, I don't know why you were taken to heaven before you were born. But I'm sure you're now in heaven, safely.

Finally, I can go to beach!

Last Saturday was a sunny day! So, I announced to my dear daughter that we're going to the beach in the afternoon. She shouted loudly "HURRAY, finally I can go to beach!!" Since the beginning of school holidays, she had been staying indoors due to the heavy rains. And she was waiting to go out and play!!!

After our afternoon nap, off we went to East Coast Park. It was a hot day and the park is crowded with people. Some people were roller-blading and some were cycling. The beach is crowded too. A lot of people camped there. Some people were swimming in the sea. Some people were walking along the shore. And we smelled something yummy!!! A group of girls were having barbecue (BBQ).

We managed to find a shady area and spreaded a mat. Then dear daughter unpacked her sandbag, and took out her bucket and spade. Off she went to collect water from the sea. After minutes of playing, she found several seashells. She put the seashells into a white bottle. Then, she decided to build a sandcastle.While she was playing, dear hubby and I relaxed on the sand. We were admiring the scenery and love to watch the waves rolling in. We saw several planes on and off in the blue sky and were planning for our June holidays too:p

After 30minutes of playing, dear daughter decided to play with the sea water, the waves were quite strong and she loves to let the water splashing against her feet.

By 6:30pm, the tide came in and we decided to make a move. We had a great time at the beach and dear daughter was looking forward to come again soon:D

Back to School!

Term 1 school holidays is going to end pretty soon. I asked my dear daughter to write a composition about her term 1 school holidays. I have mixed feeling after reading her composition. See the following excerpt...

"

I do not like school holidays because I have no friend at home and it was raining everyday. I love to go to school because I have a lot of friends and the school is very big and beautiful. My mother brought me to the playground on Thursday and I love to blow bubbles at the playground. On Friday, I went to the shopping centre with my mother. My mother bought the window art for me because I like it, so that I can make my window beautiful. I had a great time at the shopping centre. I made the window art as fast as I reached home. I have been playing the window art.

"

See her 1st window art

My heart is raining...

It has been raining for the past few days and finally the sun is shining brightly this morning. But somehow my heart is still raining....The rains did not wash away my sorrows because I am again disappointed by the fact that I am not pregnant! I cried badly last night and didn't sleep well.

Dear daughter has been asking for a little brother to play with. And I really don't want to leave this world leaving her alone by herself! She has many cousins but I still hope that she would have someone closer to look out for whenever she needs. I am really uncertain whether her wish will come true eventually....It seems so easy for other mothers to conceive, but I have been waiting for years...Only God knows when will be my turn...

To : Singapore Motherhood (SMH) Ladies

I have received emails from some of you regarding the potential of embarking on this blogging career. As I'm new in this blogging career, I can't provide much valuable advice to you. My 2cents worth advice is do not expect immediate monetary return. If you love writing and have content to write, give yourself a chance to try it out then!

Best wishes!

Sweet and Sour Pork

Besides Sushi, dear daughter also loves sweet and sour pork very much. Last time, I used to order from hawker centre or food court. Soon, I realised that they always coat thick layers of flour with little meat. So, I decided to give it a try.

My 1st attempt was not quite successful. The pork was not as crispy as it was supposed to be. But the 2nd attempt was good and I myself also love it very much:D

1st attempt

2nd attempt

Yummy!!!

Homemade Yummy Sushi:D

Dear daughter loves Sushi very much and it's really costly to eat at the restaurants. So, I decided to learn how to make Sushi. But my Sushi is of the "quick and simple" variety. Well, at least it was good enough to make my dear daughter's day:-D

See our yummy sushi, it surely makes you drool:p

Stop at ONE??

I wonder why people like to ask the same question over and over again. Aren't they tired? For the past few years, I had been bombarded by friends and relatives on the same topic "Stop at ONE??". I was really speechless and don't know how to answer them. Hey, it was never my intention to stop at one!!

Save Our Earth

Apart from receiving spam emails and calls, we're getting junk snail mails and pamphlets/flyers in our letterbox. In fact, we've better service nowadays, we got pamphlets and flyers at our door step. It comes from various advertisers - restaurants, food caterers, and property agents. Instead of throwing away those pamphlets/flyers, we recycled them!

Dear daughter loves origami. It helps in her creativity and train her to be observant too:-) So, she used those recycled papers to practise in making various pieces. Once she has mastered the skills in making a particular piece, she'll then use the colour papers to make the final piece. See her items...

carrier pigeon

boat

wastebin

peacock

A Morning Walk at Fort Canning

Recently, dear hubby and I went to Fort Canning Park. We went "dating" early in the morning after sending our dear daughter to school. The last time we went there was, at least 10 years ago when we got married there:-)

It's great to visit Fort Canning Park again especially early in the morning. The breeze was cool and refreshing. Also, the lovely birds were so chirpy... We saw a group of people doing exercise together and quite a number of people jogging there. We were just taking our own sweet time, walking slowly in the park:p

When we were about to leave, we noticed these two special trees...

Many little bumps on the tree trunk.

Many "roots" coming from the top of the tree.

It's so sweet to be there again after more than 10 years, to rekindle those sweet memories....:-)

Runny and Stuffy Nose

My dear daughter has runny and stuffy nose since yesterday. Whatever BUG it maybe, GO AWAY!! Hope she will recover soon!! Hmm...maybe lack of rest over the weekend. We travelled to Johor Bahru, Malaysia over the weekend. Will share about the trip later.

I'm accompanying my dear daughter now. She was in tears this morning because her dear daddy had to go to work:-( She was hoping that her dear daddy could accompany her since it's school holidays now. But no choice, her dear daddy has work to do this week.

Well, she's enjoying herself now with her Play-DOH:-) See her green snail:p



Let's see what creatures she will make later:D

Thirsty Sunday

This morning, we woke up and welcomed our new Sunday with a shock. There's NO WATER SUPPLY!! There's no "tangki" or "water tank" in our home. So, when there's no water supply, it literally means we have no water reserved at all!

With my disbelief, I called the town council...and was relieved to hear that they're rectifying the problem...However, without water, we could not do our usual "BIG BUSINESS" in the morning!! And I couldn't possibly wait until the water supply resumes you know??!! In the end, I used the boiled water ie. our drinking water instead LOL

30mins later, thank God, I could hear the water flowing out from the tap. Even though it's yellowish and a bit muddy, but it's good news cos it meant that the water supply would resume pretty soon.

By the time I came back from lunch, water supply has resumed:-)

In Singapore, it's so EASY for us to take having endless supply of water for granted and expect it to be there always! After this incident, I truly learnt that we're really blessed to have water as and when we need it. At least, MOST OF THE TIME!

Term 1 School Holidays

It's the 1st day of Term 1 School Holidays. My dear daughter got up as early as me. 7am!! She thought she has to go to school:p Well, after reminding her that it's 1st day of school holidays, she requested to go to "Kids Kampong" to catch guppy fish!! Well, not sure we'll go later. Guess I have to crack my brain on what to do for this 1 week break:-)

I am Responsible

Dear daughter was rewarded with a koala bear badge, saying "I am responsible" by her form teacher. She was so excited and I can't help but feeling so happy for her. My dear daughter is growing to be more and more sensible. As her mother, I'm indeed proud of her. She was so encouraged by this badge and insisted of wearing it everyday:-)

Motherhood is not easy but it's really heartening when you see your child is doing well (even though it maybe to others just a mustard seed achievement)!

[Excerpt from The Children's Bible Story Book : Mustard Seed is the tiniest of the tiny seeds. Once a mustard seed starts sending down roots, it grows and grows into a tall tree. Mustard trees are often the biggest trees in the garden. Birds love to build their nests in mustard trees.]

Choosing Suitable Primary School

Another 4 months, the 2008 P1 Registration Exercise would be carried out. I have been through the P1 registration exercise before, and I would like to share my personal experience. You may use the following criteria in choosing the suitable primary school for your child:-

Short-list a few schools and visit them

Make appointments to visit those short-listed schools. You may "interview" pupils there and observed the conducts of the pupils as well. Remember to bring along your child to experience how the primary school looks like:-)

Distance between Home and Choice of School

Distance is very important when come to choosing primary school. Going to nearby school means lower transportation cost (or zero transport cost - for school within walking distance). In addition, the child does not have to wake up early to travel a long distance. Also, it's very convenient for parents to attend any special events like PTCs. And don't forget, you have to pay extra transport fee to pick up your child after CCAs.

Affiliated Schools

It means that your child may automatically be promoted to its secondary school regardless of its PSLE result. It gives the child a more enjoyable primary school life and in fact, lesser pressures for both parents and child.

Statistics of Past PSLE Pass % and No. of Pupils promoted to Special/Express/Normal (Academic)/Normal (Technical) Stream

You may call up the short-listed schools to find out how each school performs for the past PSLEs.

SAP or GEP

If you think your child is gifted and bright, it's good to enrol him/her into GEP school, which is usually very competitive. If you think your child's Chinese Language foundation is good, go ahead and put he/she in SAP school, whereby the child would have more exposure into Chinese Language and Culture, ie. have to take Higher Chinese Language subject.

Your child's strengths and interests

As parents, we know best our child's strengths and weaknesses. So assess his/her potential and interests and fit he/she into a school that will mould him/her and develop his/her potential to the fullest.

Hope the above information provided is useful. You may visit the following websites for further information.

MOE Primary Education
MOE School Information Service
MOE P1 Registration Information
Phases of P1 Registration Exercise
2007 P1 Registration Exercise - Phase 2B Balloting
2007 P1 Registration Exercise - Phase 2C Balloting
Distance betwen Home and Choice of School - FREE svc
Distance between Home and Choice of School - Pay svc

Poor Pupil:-(

A friend had shifted to a new home. As such, she transferred her P2 son from "ABC Primary School" to "XYZ Primary School" which is near her home. Well, her son scored pretty well for his Chinese Language subject in ex-school, 95% overall.

One day, the Chinese Teacher was teaching about Chinese character, 开. She requested my friend's son to tell the class the HanYuPinYin for this chinese character. The boy was not able to tell the class. So, the Chinese teacher announced in the class by saying, "Class, you see, this pupil can't even tell the HanYuPinYin of 开 although he scored 95% in ABC Primary School" and so on (which I don't wish to elaborate).

My friend told me that the standard in ABC Primary School is not as high as compared to XYZ Primary School. In ABC Primary School, the Chinese Language exam would exam the pupils in the following method:-
开 _ai => pls fill in the missing character

ie. the pupils are not expected to write the whole HanYuPinYin kai1.

The child was hurt that he requested his mother to bring his ex-school's report card to "convince" his Chinese Language teacher. The mother had spoken to the teacher and the matter has since closed.

Young children are completely defenceless under the authority of parents and teachers. I can't comprehend why the teacher chose to handle the matter that way...

Sarah means Princess

DAUGHTER: "Mummy, I want to change my name."

MUMMY: "Huh??"

DAUGHTER: "I want to change my name to Sarah!"

MUMMY: "Why?"

DAUGHTER: "Because I want to be a princess!!"

MUMMY: "Huh?!!"

DAUGHTER "Sarah means Princess!"


In the Bible, Sarah = the wife of Abraham and mother of Isaac.

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

It has been raining for days and we can't do outdoor activities at all during the past weekend.

My dear daughter was not required to report to school today and dear hubby was on leave too to accompany us:-) Dear daughter had already made her request last week => bring her to the zoo, pls! Though we hv been there countless times cos we're friends of zoo:-)

So off we went to the zoo after lunch. It was drizzling along the way to the zoo. The first big thing we saw was the Capybara, the Giant Rodent from South America. It was sleeping at the otter's compound. I hv never seen such a giant rat before! Thereafter, we proceeded to the treetop to watch Orang Utan. Hmm...saw plenty of babies orang utan, quite productive huh:-)

And as usual, we took the tram since it's FREE on weekdays! That's why we chose to go on Monday. No long waiting for trams and it's almost empty there:p Hehe and as usual we alighted at the 2nd stop "Children's World Play Land". My dear daughter quickly alighted and crossed the road. As she was running toward the Children's World, daddy shouted "let's see the cocoa first! 10 mins will do". You can imagine how unwilling my daughter was since her heart has already set at the Children's World thingy:p Well, we still dragged her to Tropical Crops Plantation though...Daddy wanted to show her what cocoa is since she had just read a book called "How chocolate bar is made". Singapore kids has little exposure to agriculture stuff. So, I won't be surprised if they don't even know where and how the vegetables come from. We walked along the plantation and showed her many kinds of fruits and plants. And she yelled, "10mins is over already! let's go!":p

Children's World Play Land is all children's favourite cos they can play at the playground and water as long as they like and parents could just sit down and chat non-stop:p The good thing of coming on weekdays is your child get to enjoy the swing ride w/o queuing. Hurray!!!

An hour later we decided to make a move cos both hubby and I were bitten by Aedes mosquitoes LOL We went to nearby KFC for a bite, teabreak time! When my dear daughter saw her favourite whipped potato, she refused to share with her dear daddy...You get to see selfishness is not cultivated, but by nature!!

After a yummy popcorn chicken, we took a tram ride again and reached the 3rd stop. We were supposed to walk to the Elephants of Asia. As we got down the tram, we heard a loud voice nearby and we ended up joining in the "Splash Safari" show. We were just in time to wave goodbye to the jackass penguins...sob...sob...we missed them. But we enjoyed the following show - sea lions splashes and performance:p It was really interesting esp. to see the kissing of sea lions to a little russian girl (volunteer to feed the sea lion)!!

After the Splash, we moved on to the Elephants of Asia. Along the way to the the Elephants of Asia, we saw a little hut. We climbed up and took the following photo :-)

Hehe, then we proceeded to the "Elephants of Asia". Oh, just nice to wait for the start of "Elephants at Work & Play" show. It started to rain but the zoo staff still carried on with the show. Salute them! We're at the 1st row and were welcomed by splashes of the elephants' trunks:p


After the feeding, we decided to go to the Australian Outback. While we're watching the kangaroos, my dear daughter told me that she shared with her K2 Chinese teacher during a lesson that there are kangaroos in Singapore Zoo. Guess what?? The Chinese teacher said "NO kangaroos in Singapore!!!"LOL

As we're making our way out of Australian Outback, we saw a group of youngsters catching a frog into a plastic bag. I wonder what're they going to do with that frog??? I remember as we entered the zoo, we're ushered with a frog cap saying "They're just a hop away from extinction". How ironic...

Moving on, we waved goodbye to white tigers, tapirs and parrots and headed out to the exit. As we're on the way home, I asked my dear daughter how's her day, she said she enjoyed her day!!. It's so heart-warming to hear that...

It was still raining but we had a great time together!