Best wishes for 2012

It's the 2nd last day of 2011. And I'm now a mother of 2. Yikes! Scary!

But I look forward to 2012 with a myriad of reasons:

1) Jenson will turn 1. Can't wait for him to be older. I'm not good with babies. I prefer to be able to have a comprehensible conversation with my kids. Jilliane at age 3 is a non stop talking machine, but at least she makes sensible talk. It's a joy to be able to call home during lunch & have a decent conversation with her. And of course when Jenson turns 1, there's going to be a party! He didn't have a man yue celebration so he's definitely going to have a one year old party. Mommy's worked up about it, as she hasn't had a fun party for eons! In fact, I've already started sourcing around for a venue..

2) A new helper. Yes the previous one did a nasty turn around on me. Packed her up & sent her home immediately. I hope my new helper will not do something stupid and break my trust. So far she's been good. Not a fast learner as my previous one but then again, the clever one turned out too clever for her own good, so maybe a not too clever one may be better. Well, but as people say, the horns come out after a year. Gotta X fingers on this one & hope for a better helper for 2012.

3) New job responsibilities. I now have marketing under my wing as well. Am excited about this but frankly speaking, the only marketing experience I have are those credit card ones which empty my wallet every festive season. But hey, they gotta be good since they have that effect on me right? So I guess I'm on the right track.

4) Trips!! I haven't had a decent trip since my cruise in May. I'm heading to BKK in June. But before that I hope to bring Jilliane to HK Disney and make another trip at the end of year with the 2 kids!

5) I12! Finally there's a cinema at my doorstep! I hope to be able to catch a midnight show with Dw soon, when the kids are asleep :)

All the best for 2012 folks! May the New Year bring us abundant luck, wealth & great health!

Learning Mandarin

How can I encourage Jilliane to be excited about Mandarin!

I speak to her in Mandarin & she blatantly ignores me. Exasperated, I sought help from Huang Ying, Head of Mandarin at Julia Gabriel. She encouraged me to read to Jillliane & use television as an aid. Yes! Tv! I like that idea :) It is assuring to know that tv when used sensibly, can be a powerful learning tool.

Out I went & bought my 1st ever Chinese songs DVD for jilliane. She wasn't too keen at the start, jumping around & couldn't spend more than 2 minutes watching it. But somehow a few days later she started to show more interest & soon she began to have her most favorite, 2nd most favourite & even 3rd most favourite song! She can sing 小星星 & 三轮车 on her own now! I'm sure many kids at her age can do alot more but for me, I'm just glad she has shown great initial progress. I've also bought a couple of Chinese books for her which she will bring to me on her own accord for me to read to her. This, to me, is good enough, at this point. I'm happy she now displays interest in this language.

Other ways that Ms Huang Ying shared with me were to label items in the house in Mandarin & to play games with jilliane in Mandarin. I've yet to do these as these would take alot more effort for Dw & myself to consciously & constantly speak the language. Nonetheless these are fab ideas which I will want to implement soon, when I've settled baby Jenson in his routine :)

Coping with 2 kids

It has been a tiring 2 months.. Somehow when 1 thing goes wrong, other stuff just collapse all at the same time!

Firstly Jill has been having on off fever a couple of days after jenson came home & this fever lasted for more than a month ( only after a recent chest X-ray & blood test then we discovered it was due to bronchitis). On top of that she has ear infection & her visits to the ENT have cost me a bomb! Next our helper did something very wrong & we sent her back immediately. Needless to say, Jill has been very clingy & whiny which I don't blame her since she's sick & had to vie for my attention at the same time. But somehow i felt so guilty about not giving her my 100% attention that i finally broke down 1 night. Both Derwin & I were totally exhausted & really wanted to throw in the towel!

I prayed hard for God's protection & guidance. Through my prayers I was lucky to have received excellent tips from Ms Fiona Walker, Principal Director of Julia Gabriel, on how to shower my attention on both Jill & Jen.. Her idea on getting someone else to concentrate on my newborn was definitely very apt. Through God's will, I am thankful to have gotten a great stay in nanny to help us care for Jenson. Now I am able to shower more love & care on Jilliane & she's recovering well. Ms Walker also reminded me that it is vital to be understanding & give Jill a sense of security. With this in mind, I will always reassure her that mommy loves her and she is very important to me. I shower her with lotsa hugs & kisses. She's also a much happier child evidently as now she even tells me she misses her baby brother & will find every opportunity she can to kiss & "sayang" him. This is so different from the initial stages when she would cry whenever she sees me carrying didi.

It's time for Thanksgiving & I'm thankful for the wonderful support that I've gotten from those around me & I continue to pray for strength to be a good mum to 2 children & for my new helper to come in soon. And of course a good one too.

Arrival of Jenson Dylan Wu

Never in my life have I ever dreamt that I will go through actual labour without any pain relief. But with my son, I did just that. The whole experience was different from Jilliane's birth and now I finally can get tell people, what labour actually feels like, being totally conscious of the pain & noise around me.

After Cheng's wedding on 24th Sept, Dw & me sent Jilliane home, washed her up & prepared her for bed. We left the house close to midnight and headed to Mt Alv. We checked in abt 12.30am and we ended up in the same delivery suite as I did for Jilliane. Best part was, both occasions were on Sundays.

Midwife checked my cervix, not dilated so proceeded to insert the induction pill. If there's any advice that I can give to potential mums, I'll say, NEVER opt for this route. It's disatrous! Once the pill took effect, the contractions came, at intervals closer & closer. Unfortunately, these contractions do not cause the cervix to dilate so at 3am, whilst I was in terrible pain, I could not opt for epidural as I was not dilated. The pain was unbearable, I was biting myself, pulling my hair, basically inflicting more pain on myself in the hope that it will distract me from my painful contractions!

3.30am - nurse suggested giving me a pain relief jab on my thigh - pethidine. Ok, whatever that works, just bring it on! Sadly, it NEVER relieved me of any pain, but I did keep wanting to drift off to sleep. This drug is scary, I can't even control my eyelids. One moment I was awake, the next I was knocked out. Then the pain kicks in & I'm awake again.. & yes, NEVER eat or drink anything once you are jabbed. I puked like mad just after a sip of water.

5am - Pain just kept on increasing. Nurse suggested to check cervix again to see if epidural could be administered. But I refused as midwives checking cervix is 100x more painful than my lovely, gentle gynae. Afterall Dr Fong was coming abt 7am, if i weren't dilated at 3am, how much difference would it be at 5am right?! Wrong!

6.45am - Urge to push, told DW & the nurses. Had to check cervix and I was 10cm dilated!! Piangz! My heart sank, I knew this means no more epidural was allowed. Goodness gracious me. But a very nice Indian midwife very patiently taught me to use the gas at the right timings and God was definitely there with me, as the gas made me so high that the pain was alleviated and I started hallucinating about Bach & music scores. This beats alcohol anytime!

7.30am - Pushed as hard as I could, baby just refused to come out until Dr Fong threatened that he was going to send me for emergency C-sect.. oops, I panicked, that would bring my bill up to more than $10k!! no way! I pushed damn hard, and finally Baby Jenson was born.

True labour indeed... how did those folks in my grandma's generation manage to go through this 10x?!! I'm done with 2 kids!

From now till Sunday

Baby no 2's reserves are getting low and Dr Fong highly recommends to induce. I'm quite disappointed as I really wanted baby to choose his own birth date. Nevertheless, there's still a couple of days till Sunday midnight for things to occur naturally and I'm still keeping my fingers crossed and praying hard for a miracle.

Jenson (pronounced as yen-sen) Dylan Wu, we're looking forward to your arrival! Esp your jie jie who kisses you through mummy's tummy every night & is all excited to bathe you, clean your poop, teach you to walk etc. Let's just hope her enthusiasm doesn't wane!

What changes when you have a baby?

Came across these points in an article on Babycentre's website...

1. You finally stop to smell the roses, because your baby is in your arms.
W: Er, not exactly smell. I'm still not a fan of flowers but yeah, I do stop when I see flowers, but mainly is to educate Jilliane on flower types & colours.

2. Where you once believed you were fearless, you now find yourself afraid.
W: Oh yes!! Before, I would have ridden Gladiator without thinking twice. Now, I won't even ride it even if you paid me a 1000 bucks. What if it collapsed & I died & my kid won't have a mom to take care of them!!!

3. The sacrifices you thought you made to have a child no longer seem like sacrifices.
W: Hmm... nah, I still regard my lack of zzz & lack of me time as sacrifices.

4. You respect your body ... finally.
W: HUH??

5. You respect your parents and love them in a new way.
W: Oh yes, it's tough being a parent. Can just imagine all my shit mine had to put up with. But then again, it's a mutual thing..

6. You find that your baby's pain feels much worse than your own.
W: I definitely can vouch for this. I will never forget the day that Jilliane was hospitalised at 2 months for viral meningitis and she had to have a lumbar puncture as well as the antibiotic drip inserted via her foot. Man, I was in pain too. My heart broke.

7. You believe once again in the things you believed in as a child.
W: Haha, suddenly I'm once again excited by the appearance of Strawberry Shortcake & Noddy!

8. You lose touch with the people in your life whom you should have banished years ago.
W: Yes, but I shan't elaborate on this. Sensitive topic.

9. Your heart breaks much more easily.
W: Only if it concerns my little one.

10. You think of someone else 234,836,178,976 times a day.
W: Referring to the little one I'm assuming.

11. Every day is a surprise.
W: Er... maybe baby days, when we were amazed by simple things like flipping, pulling oneself up etc. But as days grow, expectations too. New single word vocabulary no longer surprises me. It's gotta be alot more & these certainly do not occur daily.

12. Bodily functions are no longer repulsive. In fact, they please you. (Hooray for poop!)
W: They don't repulse me but I'm still not thrilled by the sight of poop, other than if my little one has been having constipation and finally all came out. But then again, I would be thrilled myself if I finally pooped after a week's constipation :P

13. You look at your baby in the mirror instead of yourself.
W: As a new mom who wanted to do everything right, I certainly neglected myself at the beginning. But slowly I started to learn that I needed to take care of myself too & I didn't want to be labelled as a frumpy, grumpy, ugly mommy so I once again took care of myself, clothes, make up etc. That's something really important.

14. You become a morning person.
W: This one chop confirm stamp. Especially when my little one wakes up at 6am on a Saturday morning... I'm like WTF! When she's up, she insists we all get up too :(

15. Your love becomes limitless, a superhuman power.
W: Yeah, I shower her with hugs & kisses every single day. Many many of them. And I tell her how much I love her every single day.

:)

It's about there...

Had a false alarm yesterday... leaks started again but decided against going to the hospital, just in case it wasn't time. Mother's instinct also told me it's not time. So we just did an urgent walk in at Dr Fong, just to make sure that all is still in order.

Nah, not dilated yet but Dr Fong can now feel baby no. 2's head. It's about time he says, be prepared for some action very soon.

Ahhhh.. when?? Ah Cheng's wedding is on 24 Sept, it'll be nice to attend but I'm getting really exhausted with the heavy front load. Baby's 3 kg as of yesterday.

Anytime soon...

A little update on my pregnancy

I'm in week 37+... Dr Fong says cervix is still pretty far back, so I should be able to last another week at least. So there goes my "chap gor meh" baby.. Jilliane was born on the 1st day of the 8th month, so I had initially thought if baby no. 2 pops on the 15th day of the 8th month, it would be perfect..

In any case, any day works fine for me. As long as my baby comes out healthy & happy. Sleeping at night has been difficult. Once I get up to pee in the mid morning, I hardly fall back asleep till 6am. I seem to be constantly out of breath throughout the day and no sleeping position seems to work. Well, we're pretty much in the doldrums if we really want baby no. 2 out soon.. it's a case of getting it over & done with OR let's get as much sleep as we can now!!!!

Potty training - check!

Ok, I've officially packed up ALL of Jilliane's pull ups to put aside for baby no. 2.

Thanks to Janet's encouragement & my own "neowness", JD's potty trained for both day & night. It's a huge relief on our wallets now that we only need purchase diapers for 1.

But boy, it was tough having to wake up in the middle of the night & drag a 14.5kg sleeping kid out of bed, not mentioning those accidents when we were awakened by wet bedsheets. I'm glad that most of the ordeal is now over & I feel proud of my little girl when I happen to toss & open my eyes at 3am & spot her sitting by herself at the potty, with the trickling sound of pee. *smiles*...

Update on baby no. 2

Guilty as charged, I haven't been spewing out as much as I ought to for baby no.2. Life's alot more hectic with a kid & there's juz not enough time to really sit down & pen all your thoughts.

Nonetheless I'm now on my way to work & since I've got a nice little seat on the bus this morning, I figured it'll be perfect to translate some feelings into words .. ie abt baby no.2, preps & all.

As I was changing into my workwear this morning, it suddenly dawned on me that I have yet to spend a single cent on maternity wear! & i'm hitting 32 wks in a couple of days! Granted, I had some pretty hand me downs from dear June but I'm still pretty impressed with myself for my self restraint! Cash does seem to still disappear rather quickly & beats me where it all went :p Prob to my daily doses of barcook bread, esp my new found favourite, custard milky!

We've yet to fix a name for baby no. 2. Dw's initial choice of Joshua dylan has somewhat drifted off. His favorite of the moment is Jenson, after F1's Jenson Button. I'm cool with that, just that we can't seem to decide if it should be spelt as Jensen instead. Then there's the other name.. Should it be Darius, so the initials will still be JD but then would that cause any confusion with the real McCoy? I would have gone with Taylor Jensen, afterall Taylor Lautner is sooooo charming & TJ Wu sounds hip but the meaning of Taylor totally sucks. It means... tailor... literally. So we're still trawling books & the web, hoping for some inspiration soon! Btw ask JD what name does she want to give didi, and her reply will be "House", with a big grin flashed across her face :P

Then there are baby clothes... Who on earth said there's nothing to buy for boys! I went nuts at the Fox sale recently, the little men's shirts hanging on the racks were just too cute to resist! & thanks to Eve who passed me little E's clothes..

Weight gain is limited this round & I attribute it to the 1st nasty 5 months of nausea & loss of appetite & also to the twice weekly swimming sessions that I embarked myself on. And somehow I think the old wives' tale of different tummy shapes whilst expecting a girl or boy holds true! I'm not as wide as I was with jd but I'm definitely more protruding in front & the belly button turned into an outsy very early, prob mid 5th month.

That's my quick update & next up will be my decision on which hospital to deliver at... Mt E or back to Mt Alv... Will need to decide soon, after my maternity tour of Mt E next week :)

Japanese Soft Cotton Cheesecake

With DW on the road to recovery & JD having recovered fully from her fever, I feel alot more relaxed and am up to baking again! Last weekend, I tried baking another cheesecake, this time Jap style.

Overall I thought the texture was slightly harder than what we usually buy from the shops. Gotta research & try to find a way to get around this.. but definitely I will only go the au naturel way, no chemicals, no essence. Only the best, the purest ingredients!

Choc Chip Cheesecake

Tried my 2nd cheesecake last weekend as DW had requested me to bake one for his birthday. It turned out pretty ok, not as heavy & sweet as my 1st one as I had searched for a different recipe with less cheese & sugar content.

But because of me trying to prevent too much air from entering during the mixing process, I may not have whipped the mixture long enough and this may have resulted in a "not as soft as it should be" cheesecake.

Oh well, as what my mom says, you will need many many tries to bake the perfect cake. Can't doubt her on that... she IS the master of baking...

AND, because it had chocolate chips, JD refused to eat it :( I know my little girl hates chocolate but I had assumed that little dots of brown would still be acceptable to her but apparently NOT! Sigh, At least I still had my dad & dw devouring it!

Next up, strawberry cheesecake! :) JD loves strawberries, so I'm sure she's gonna enjoy this one!

Shepard's Pie

It's been ages since I've had a decent Shepard's Pie. Frankly I think the best ones I've ever had were the ones at Gab's parties during our college days. Recently those I've eaten pales in comparison, especially those commercially made ones sold at the shops. No matter how authentic the claims are, they just somehow do not make the mark. So much so, that I promised myself to make my very own. I trawled through tons of recipes online, and finally found 2 that seemed tasty enough and combined the best parts of both to create my very own Shepard's pie!

And so I did. Not the best I admit but it's good enough for my family to enjoy. JD came up to me with her thumbs up and my mom & helper (both of whom are not into overly sweet nor salty stuff) were enjoying up to their last bits.

I'm very encouraged to make a 2nd attempt, to make it slightly saltier the next round. DW says the beef & potato could be a little tastier. I did cut back on the salt by ALOT (almost non existent) as being the ever health conscious me, I thought the butter & sweetness of the ingredients would more than sufficiently make up for the blandness. But apparently not... I'll just opt for the healthier version: pan salt :)

Lion King

We chanced upon an article that published kids under 3 get to watch Lion King for ... free!

Wow! This is almost perfect since JD totally recognises the play's ads on TV, newspapers & banners attached to street lamps. But of course being the ever considerate parents (ahem!), we were a little worried that she may cry in the midst or talk too loudly and disturb the rest of the audience. So, we decided to just play it safe by getting aisle seats nearer to the back to allow us an easy getaway should the need arise.

And wow again! When we got there yesterday, we were shocked at the number of kiddos present! Somehow I was relieved as if a heavy responsibility was lifted off me. In addition, the seats that we got, though the 2nd cheapest ones in the house ($85), were just as good! We had a clear view of the stage & even had the "animals" and the "cast" coming by next to us during the play which of course got JD even more thrilled!

Kids around us were talking loudly, such that Jd's comments like "Oh, where's baby lion now?" & "Mommy Mommy, giraffe! I also have a giraffe at home!" and what else not seemed negligible. When the cast took their final bow, she even told me "Tomorrow we come & see Lion King again". *__*

Wah lau, baby girl, your mommy doesn't print money ya know! *__*

Yes, we had a great time but I felt terribly bad for those people with no kids, who went for the play. I could just imagine how irritated they were to be disturbed. It didn't seem fair that they had to put up with the unnecessary chatter when they have paid good money to enjoy themselves sans noise. Perhaps, for future plays, the organisers could instead set aside certain timeslots, specially catered for families with kids. *shrug*.. just a thought..

Our first gifts from JD!

Mother's Day


Father's Day

jd's in an ad!

Babies, Babies & More Babies

Had a spate of baby galore recently.. started with Pam & baby CD, then had Gab with baby Brandon. Last week alone, I visited Jas & baby Trevor and Mei with baby Ashley in hospital. There's still Selina who's due in July.

Baby Ashley so reminded me of JD with her incessant loud cries and how they were comforted by only 1 method, being in the arms of a loved one, be it Daddy, Mommy or Granny. These girls sure know what they want! Maybe it's a XX chromosome thingy as CD, Brandon & Trevor were all so quaint & were satisfied with just sleeping & a little feeding!

The little one tumbling in my tummy is of XY chromosome so I do pray that he'll be a little easier to care for versus his Jie Jie JD. But whatever is, I'm anticipating his arrival and wonder if he will resemble DW or me. Last visit at Dr FY, baby XY has already turned, his head is down but of course not engaged yet. I'm getting excited especially after seeing all my good friends with their newborns and can't wait to carry baby XY in my arms. On the other hand, I'm terrified just at the thought of the sleepless nights and given that this time round, I'm pretty determined to work hard at breast feeding, I really hope I will be alot more relaxed this round.

And now.. we've gotta work harder at figuring what to name him...

Fibs & excuses

scenario 1
Jd's classmate had a birthday party in school and the kids were given a goody bag each. In it was JD's favourite sweets - gummy bears.
She told my mom: Mommy says I can eat all.

scenario 2
in the goody bag, there was also a biscuit which she was happily holding & eating.. until my mom who was sitting next to her idling decided to read the newspapers. Jd immediately objected. My mom very nicely tried explaining to her that since she was busy eating her biscuit, she ought to let Ah mom read her papers. Jd said no, she wants ah ma to hold her biscuit & feed her so crumbs will not fall all over the floor.

.......

Kite Flying

Before we headed to Todai at MBS for our annual 3G + Granny's lunch with Dw's family, we decided to pop by the Marina Barrage to embark JD on adventures of kite flying. It was great day, windy & a little cloudy, perfect for a short daddy - daughter bonding session!

All things PINK!

The little one wants all her stuff in pink. Clothes, balloons, candies.. EVERYTHING!!

Even for this animal ride at Vivo, she insisted on the pink er.. whatever animal that was, hippo or rino or pig or a cross breed of a pig with rino horns, I haven't been able to decipher it yet :P

Luckily those in the front of her in the queue were boys so they rushed for alligators, giraffes etc and she managed to get her pink creature car successfully. There were MANY giraffe cars but only ONE pink car!

Btw, whoever thought of bringing this event in must be making tons of $$! It freaking costs $8 for a mere 5 mins of driving round the little tentage. If it ain't because JD is now sooo into driving and I didn't want to disappoint her, I probably wouldn't have splurged!

Bali

this post has been in my draft folder for the longest time... just didn't have the energy to upload the photos..

We've gone & we're back. A short 3 day vacation.

The villa we stayed in was great! Service was excellent, location was convenient with food & shops just outside but yet it was really quaint, away from the hustle & bustle of busy Jln Legian.

It wasn't a perfect trip. I was in my 1st trimester and still feeling pretty much nauseous almost the whole day. Dw was down with a very bad throat and cough. If it weren't for the fact that we had to use up our Krisflyer points before expiry, we would never have booked the trip more than 6 months ahead.

But both of us still made it a point to enjoy ourselves and to make this trip a memorable one for JD. Afterall, this could potentially be our last family vacation for 2011 with this totally unplanned & unexpected pregnancy. We would need to cancel our UK trip in July (I'll be abt 30 weeks and as much as I really wanna be there for C's wedding - my 1st English wedding and as much as I feel so guilty for jeopardizing JD's 1st chance of being a flower girl, there was just no way that I could do the long haul flight at that stage)

It didn't help that JD refused to walk for the entire trip, saying that the floor was dirty and she didn't want her shoes to get dirty. Dw was frustrated at some point but he still gave in to her demands. I tried to carry her every once in a while but to carry a 14kg load & walk on badly paved path was abit too much for me to handle & I often gave up after 5 mins. It was great relief for him when we had a personal driver for the 2nd day, bringing us to Ubud & Jimbaran. And whilst she was driving me nuts whilst seated in the car as one minute she wanted to sit on my lap facing the road, the next she wanted to face me, as per Dw, it was only fair after all the carrying he had to do.

But I'm sure JD had a great time, judging from these photos. She had a great time having her dinner by the beach at windy Jimbaran. She kept wanting to swim in the beautiful pool in our villa and squealing with delight when she was able to swim from end to the other (with the help of fairy wings of course!). She had a great breakfast of ham, sausage & scrambled eggs for 2 straight days. And she had a wonderful time running around our spacious villa, space which she doesn't get back home.

Remind me again?

Can someone pls remind me again... why am I pregnant? Ok ok, apart from the fact about birds & bees, I somehow had forgotten about the tiring 1st trimester, the clumsy & painful 3rd trimester, the sleepless newborn nights, the fat fat body etc etc.

This pregnancy is taking its toll on me. Maybe it's age catching up with me. Apparently 3yrs do make a difference. I'm feeling so lethargic. I can hardly swallow & smell food without feeling the need to gag. Add that to having to deal with a feisty 2yr+ toddler and it sure doesn't make life any rosier.

I hardly have the energy to shop and I just want to lie in bed ALL DAY. I think about the freedom that I will lose once again and the lifestyle compromise that I need to have and I get all emotional & depressed.

Up till this day I can't believe that I actually got myself pregnant, with no planning at all. If you knew about me, my lifestyle, my biological make up, you will know that it's almost impossible for me to get pregnant, much less without any proper planning or preparation.

So I can only attribute this to God's will. So yes, I treasure this little one in me and I am excited at his/her arrival. I know my heart will melt when I see this little one & carry him / her in my arms for the very 1st time.

Meanwhile, I pray for the little one to grow well and for God to give me the strength to survive well for the coming months.

Jd's very own!

check this out!

My balloon man

A couple of months back, I posted that DW had a great imagination with mega blocks. He has decided to put that imagination to use again, this time round, on balloons!

And he's so darn serious that he's actually signed up for a course on this! I'm expecting many more designs after the course definitely, but meanwhile these are the few which he has done so far. Very impressive for an amateur! So if any of you out there needs a balloon man for free for your kids' parties, you know who to call *wink*

(Fr L: Poodle, flower with stalk & leaves, simple butterfly)


Flower Bracelet


An improved, more colourful butterfly!

Buying over Borders

The Borders at Parkway is one of JD's favorite playgrounds. There're books, DVDs and cute inanimate objects for her to shop.

As such, it was rather sad when I read that the "mother" in Australia was bankrupt as that could mean that the Singapore branches may jolly well close shop soon enough. So I've been constantly trying to drum this slowly into JD's mind that "Borders is closing soon" so she wouldn't feel so sad IF & when it really happens. However I don't think she has pretty much gotten the idea yet as she usually will follow up with "Borders close, wait, Borders open again". Ahhh, the innocence of a child!

So last night, I gave Dw something to ponder over. I told him why not consider buying over the Borders in Singapore! With his e-specialist knowledge, he can turn around Borders & perhaps built it to be more technologically inclined! Maybe launch an iphone app, create apps on each story, each song (afterall i-tunes aren't available to Singapore credit cards), each dvd, the list goes on... Obviously, the reaction from him was... "and where do you propose I get the funds from, ROLL EYES..."

Oh well, it's okay to dream isn't it!

*ps: anyway I read an article this morning that Singapore Borders ain't affected by the bankruptcy of her "mother" in Australia, let's wait & see.. I AM crossing my fingers X!

Decisions

The responsibility of an adult -> decisions, decisions, decisions.

So many new happenings in such a short span has left me confused, frustrated, sad, happy. And now I need to make decisions.

Oh, how I hate being an adult. I wanna be a little girl again, back in school & enjoying recess breaks! My bills are paid for, decisions are made by others..

For once, I relish mugging for exams than the independence I enjoy now.

BLEAH!!!!!

Preparing for CNY

Amidst Ah Ma's baking of pineapple tarts & kueh lapis, JD is now old enough to do her share of preparing for Chinese New Year.


First, she tests the beer, to make sure all is good for our gatherings, cheers!



Then she does springcleaning so our guests can catch up comfortably ;)


Getting a fresh cut to welcome our guests...


And, she gets her "pink ice cream" as a reward for being such a co-operative girl *mommy's totally pleased*

Aged

I was at Butter Factory last Friday & i admit, i've aged.

I felt a strong sense of yearning initially when I saw the Girls were oh so young & oh so Chio in their super short skirts & super high heels & worst of all I didn't see a familiar face at all! Getting into the club was already a hassle. There was the normal queue, the guest list queue, the VIP queue. Of course i had to be at the 3rd option else i wouldn't even bother being there but the difference now is i'm in that queue not because of MY own merit but because I was a friend of the friend whose friend has a friend who's the VIP. What an awfully distant relationship. So unlike the days when all it took to get a VIP table at Dragonfly was a call from me to the VIP direct. I thought back of my heydays at Zouk when I could simply stroll to the front of the queue because i knew the bouncers & everyone (almost) on the centre platform was my friend. And talk to these 1980s kids about the iconic Mdm Wong and they will not understand. I had asked around prior to this day where exactly in Fullerton was Butter Factory. I received a whole string of replies ranging from Starbucks turn left to above Overeasy ( another huh?!). Damn, if only the reply was where Centro was, I would have known!

As the night went on & as I sat with my back facing the Singapore River & the 3 towers of MBS, my eyes were transfixed on the hip youngsters, watching them groove to House & looking at them intoxicating themselves. I still love House & I still love drinking. But I realized that I've progressed (that probably sounds more sophisticated than aged).

I've moved on to the next stage of my life where I prefer to instead drink tea at the Mandarin Oriental lounge. A place where it's my front rather than my back that faces the Singapore river & the 3 towers of MBS. A place where soulful jazz fills my nights.

Simply put: my time is over.

Ice Age

Moninet calls the French high comm.

Moninet: hi, I would like to ask about Filipinos requiring a visa to France. Could you transfer me to the right person for me to speak to please?

Staff: sorry they do not answer the phone.

Moninet: how about an email address pls?

Staff: sorry they do not reply emails.

Moninet: then how can I find out more about the visa issue?

Staff: you need to come down personally to ask us any questions. We are open till 12 on xx days (or some weird timing which I can't really remember but definitely within the half day range & definitely less than the 5 work day norm)

Moninet: but I'm not applying for a visa yet. I would just like to find out more info like the fees etc. Can't someone just speak to me over the phone?

Staff: no, they don't answer calls & they don't reply emails.

Cork man, are they still living in the Ice Age or what?!!