pictures of Janine during party

Very captivated by the big blue ball on the Christmas tree..

What colourful lights...

Curious Janine (not George)

Curious Janine at work again..

Janine walking quite comfortable already..and she's only 11 months old

Christmas gathering at my mum place

Today, CT had to go work though it is a Saturday. He is now on 12-hour day shift, so he has only certain rest days once in a while. For lunch, Marianne invited me over. I dropped by the fish farm before going her place to buy fish for my dad and for Marianne.

When I arrived, Marianne was bathing Phoebe and I noticed that a lot of patience is needed because the child would be playing in the tub for quite a while. After that, we had lunch. Joshua cooked steak for lunch. Here is our widespread of food...

I enjoyed the lunch a lot because of the thick juicy ribeye steak! It was quite bloody at first and I knew I couldnt eat raw food. So Marianne cooked it a while longer and it tasted so nice...though some red parts at certain areas. To me, if I am not pregnant, I would love it medium rare. Haha..So, I didnt mind the blood. It was so delicious because of the fats and veins. Yum!

After lunch, I did art and craft with my god-daughter,Phoebe...

She just simply took pictures from magazines and pasted it on the construction paper. It was Christmas-themed pictures..

As you can see, Phoebe is left-handed. She will grow up to be a creative girl I can tell as she has been doing wonderful art stuff...

After that, Phoebe and I drank orange juice and each time she drank one sip, she would want to do "cheers" with our glasses..

After having so much fun, Joshua cooked tang yuan for us. Yummy...

I left their place about 3pm..to my mum's place.

Had Christmas party at my mum's place. There was so much food, so, my mum invited Marianne and Phoebe over. Joshua could not join us as he had to attend another party. There was turkey, roast beef, ham, huge sausages (all donated by Uncle Edwin-President of Chinese Swimming Club), I cooked mash potatoes with bacon and cheese, mum made salad and pumpkin soup and Esther brought 2 huge chicken pies from "Don shop"

I enjoyed the party as I could see Janine, my niece. I miss her so much. She is so so cute..Her curly hair is growing more wild.

Pictures of Janine will be shown next blog...

Sam: A Mother's Journey of Faith

About a week back, I was watching CNA in the morning again and it was showing a segment where they introduced a book. This time, it was a book entitled, "Sam: A Mother's Journey of Faith". They even went on to show an interview with the author, a local mother of 2 sons whose one of the sons, a teenager was fighting with cancer.

I was very touched by the interview and I wished I had taped it that time. But I was just so amazed by the interview that I forgot all about taping. I was reflecting on the interview and would like to share with all of you...

This mother of 2 boys, is a believer in Christ and she was sharing her reaction when she found out her sec sch son was diagnosed with cancer and the process she went through with all the treatments and stuff. She said that despite all that has happened, she mentioned that she actually thanked God for allowing this to happen because of the peace and joy that she experienced not only from God but by even looking at her cancer-stricken son. Her son was even assuring her and having so much peace inside.

Check this site-a blogger who penned down about this book as well...
http://qqlibrarian.blogspot.com/2006/12/sam-mothers-journey-of-faith.html

Read and listen to her interview
http://dl.nlb.gov.sg/highbrowseonline/2006/10/about_a_boy_his_mother_and_the_1.html

I was touched because it is just so similar with my dad's case. The reassuring peace and joy that the Lord gives us is just so amazing and something to shout about!

I believe very strongly in one thing- that is, everyone will def meet up with adversities in life be it you do good or do million charitable things..no matter how much "good" you do, there will always be obstacles in life- it can be an accident like my dad, it can be a close one suffering from an illness or it can also simply be your family member who passed away... These things are unescapable...

But one very fact remains for Christians that is no matter what happens, there is peace and joy and love from Him..I think this is the most assuring news I can find my security in..Just look at Chinese religion funerals, or other religion funerals as compared to Christian funerals, you will then know what I mean...

It is like a loved one saying to you, hey, no matter what I will be with you and not only that,I will be pouring forth my ever flowing love, joy and peace unto you. What more can we expect?

So for those of you reading this and have doubts about the God I am talking about, please look around and reflect...search and I know you will one day experience Him and know Him in your own personal way.

in God whom I will always trust..

Have a blessed and meaningful Christmas this year, reflecting upon God's wonders, His creation and His greatest gift of all-His Son..

Jesus died that we might live.

Merry Christmas to one and all!

2 pm weather update

Just when I thought the rain would stop in the morning, it started to pour again. Now the rain map shows all parts of Singapore wet and some areas, with heavy rain.

Though the weather is still 25 degrees and its afternoon now, I feel stuffy cos I have to close my windows since the wind is so strong and the rain keeps coming in. I have already mopped a few times already so decided to shut it...

Am just glad I am staying indoors today. Going to jump in my bed soon and enjoy this weather...

Singapore's winter season is here!

Whole of yesterday, last night and this morning, it has been raining cats and dogs. I love this kind of weather since I am indoors and just relaxing at home. Its nice especially with the cool weather too.

This morning, woke up and saw on my computer that the weather outside was 25 degrees Celsius. Cool! I love air con temp weather.

I have a rain map on my desktop as well and this is how it looks...

Yup, most parts of Singapore drenched! The whole night it was raining and I didnt turn on the air-con. But in the middle of the night, I told CT to turn it on because I was bitten my mosquitoes..sigh. I was wondering how mosquitoes can make it all the way up to my house..Guess they were desperate to seek shelter somewhere..ha.

Anyway, hope this sunday would be a great cool day with no rain as I would be having a Christmas Eve Party at my place!

Charlotte's Web Movie Preview

Every morning whenever I turned on my TV to have my breakfast, it would be CNA as it is the default channel. There was one friday when I switched on, and it was featuring the upcoming show, Charlotte's Web and the contest for the viewers to participate and answer a question posed in the CNA website over the internet.

So since I was bored, after my breakfast, I went to answer the question-"Who was the author of Charlotte's Web?" Well, I am not much a reader and I know Charlotte's Web has been many student's literature book and I know it is a very popular book. However, since I am not much a reader, I made a guess in my head and thought it was George Orwell. Haha..how stupid and ignorant right? I know that guy is probably the author to Animal Farm or something like that. But I always thought or imagined Animal Farm and Charlotte's Web is about the same book.

Anyway, due to the advance of technology and being more internet savvy than picking up a book to read, I went into my trusted yahoo search, went to wikipedia and found the answer to confirm it and of course, I was wrong. So, I gave the full name of the author Elwyn Brooks White just to impress the judges, gave my personal details and click Submit.Results will be announced one week later.

Exactly one week later on Friday, I happened to wake up the same time and as usual, turned on my TV and they happed to show the same segment where they introduced a book or movie, and they were introducing a new one. So, I thought to myself that I had missed the results and went on to tell myself that I wouldnt win anyway.

But who knows as I was about to change channels, they talked about Charlotte's Web and reminded the viewers about the contest last week. I quickly stayed on the channel and waited for the results. They said there were close to 600 contestants and when I heard that, my heart dropped cos I thought no one would catch CNA at such a time like 8 plus am..since most would be working..Housewives would usually watch other shows than CNA, so, how is it possible to have so many contestants? Sigh..

So, they said they have picked up 3 winners. In my mind, I was like,"Oh boy..only 3 out of 600? Gone lah..sure cannot get." So, they went on to announce the first winner..and obviously, I wasnt expecting much already..then they announced the second winner, my heart sank and just thought thats it. Why am I still staying on this channel? And when they announced the last winner, they said, "Dawn Ling!" I was like" What??! Are you serious?? This cannot be?" So I quickly recorded that few mins of glory into my DVD recordable and quickly called CT excitedly and happily! Haha..

I won 4 movie preview tickets, a movie poster and "Wilbur" soft toy. I said I would like to give the soft toy to my baby when he/she is borned. CT told me how apt since next year is year of the pig! haha!

So last Saturday, I went with CT and my parents to the Singapore Zoo for the movie preview by the lake. I invited my parents cos my dad prob had not seen a movie for ages and I thought he would like to visit the zoo. Slightly disappointed as it was actually like a picnic event where people laid their mats and catch the movie. I didnt want to sit on the ground as I was certain I would feel very uncomfortable. So, we sat inside the pavilion with seats provided but it was so far from the screen.

We went earlier to have dinner there..

On our way to the lake, we passed by some animals and managed to take some pictures of it.

(Having problems posting up the pictures as it refused to appear after uploading. Will do so once this works again..)

1st visit to gynae

Yesterday night was my first visit to the gynae. The clinic is in Bedok Bus interchange there. It is a satellite clinic for East Shore Hospital. I chose East Shore Hospital because it is in the East- easier for people to visit and easier for me to go there as well. It was my colleague who introduced me to this gynae and I have to trust her since she already had 3 kids under this gynae-Dr Heng.

The gynae is quite bubbly and friendly but I guess the only downside is that she has many many patients.Heard she has about 67 patients per month. So, my first visit with her only took 10 mins! She just asked me a series of questions about my family's history medical condition, any drug allergies, my last menstration date and then told me my expected due date. She told me it will be around 4/5 Aug 2007. We asked her a series of questions and she just told me to abstain from liver, sting ray and shark meat. She said I could eat anything...how nice cos I love to eat.hehe

Then she told me to lie down as she put a gel on my tummy to do an ultrasound scan. Thank God the baby can be seen through the scan if not it would be more troublesome and painful to detect the baby which I wont want.

From the scan, the gynae told me that the baby is healthy and even showed me and CT the baby's heart pumping. He/She is only 0.65cm long. Haha..I cannot imagine how small that is! Amazing. Here is the picture of our scan. Heard from my colleague that every month when I go visit the gynae, she would scan for me and give me a picture of the baby. Yay!

Ok, so this is the picture of my baby now during 7 weeks...coming to 8 weeks. Cute? haha...

When we got home, CT was mentioning how amazing a sperm and an egg is enough to create a baby. How simple and yet,complex! So, the whole night, we were just so amazed at seeing God's creation unfolding right before our eyes...

We spent the whole night praying for our baby and thanking God for all that is happening..God is good.

what have I been doing?

Everyday I would "sayang" or soothe my tummy and wonder to myself-is this fats or is my tummy bigger because of the baby inside? Sometimes, my tummy would seem so big that I just think its fats because of the constant snacking..sigh..haha..so depressing.

Today, CT and I went to new Ikea Tampines to do some Christmas shopping for our house party during Christmas Eve where we invite the whole cell group over for dinner. So, got some nice cutlery and Christmas decorations for the tree. I love the new Ikea as its spacious and big. After shopping from 10 to 11am, we had lunch there. I had the poached salmon while CT had the today's special: Chicken Rendang, which was amazingly yummy. And of course, lunch at Ikea is not complete without ordering their Chicken Wings. Yum..

I called my dad while waiting for the food to arrive, to let my dad know that it is wheelchair friendly and there are handicapped lots available for him. So, it is wonderful. Passed by Courts Megastore beside it too. Still lots of touching up to do before the grand opening on the 16 Dec.

Pretty exciting as I love seeing new things sprouting. That is one reason why I chose to stay in Punggol. There are always new developments and construstion around the area. Ikea Tampines is just 10 mins from my house. So, very convenient. Cant wait for Giant to open there, though I could still see it building.

After going to Ikea, we went to the fish farm and met one of our ex-cell group members there-Tay and Debbie with their 2 kids. Tay was teaching CT how to get rid of "faeces" in our aquarium by buying shrimps. The minimum price we could buy was $2 and the shop gave us like 80-100 shrimps! And guess what, Ct was so excited about this new discovery that he just threw the whole bag in with abour 100 shrimps infesting our aquarium. I told CT I was quite disgusted just looking at it. CT just glued his eyes on it for a while. He was intrigued.

Here are some shots of the shrimps...

From the tank picture, if you stare hard, you can see lots of shrimps swimming around. I do find it disgusting but CT say leave it for a few days to clear the "faeces" before we place them in another tank. Oh well...

Little one on the way

For the past few weeks, my tummy has been giving me some problem. I felt it was very sensitive and I just did not feel too good for the past few weeks. I had shortness of breath and I thought I was down with some illness. So went to doctor 2 weeks ago but did not find anything. Doctor just concluded it might be some muscle contraction that I was feeling in my ribs that caused me to be breathless.

I thought it was my lack or no exercise that caused it.

Anyway, after that, I started feeling slightly nauseous..very slight. I told myself that I think it is just psychological and that it is not true. I didnt want to raise my hopes too high as every month, I always feel disappointed when my menstration came. So, this time round, I told myself that I should not expect anything.

After missing my menstration for a few days already, I told myself that it might be due to stress cos I have been given a lot more responsibilities by my new principal and so, I told myself, I cant be pregnant.

Who knows today when I finally plucked out courage to take out my pregnancy kit (the cheapest one I could find from the store yesterday) and test, it came out positive! I was shock as I have tried 2 pregnancy kits before many many months back or a year back, it has always been negative. So, it was strange to see 2 lines there this morning.


Being skeptical, CT asked me to go to the doctor to confirm. I agreed as I felt preg kits can be wrong, especially when I got the cheapest one from the shelf. Haha..

Yep, the doctor confirmed it after waiting for an hour place to see the doctor and doing the urine test. He said I was 6 weeks pregnant already and will roughly give birth around 27 Jul 2007. Hmm....I just hope the baby will be due on a date CT and I can remember easily. Hehe..

Who knows it might be due on our wedding anniversary-8 Aug? :p

Vivocity

CT and I have been to Vivocity twice so far. Our first time was probably in October when we went for a Charity Movie Premiere there, and watched "An Inconvenient Truth". It is a show starring Al Gore-the ex-vice president of USA.

Basically throughout the whole show, you just feel as if you are sitting in a lecture hall listening to Al Gore give his wonderful speech about global warming. I must say I did not expect the movie to turn out like this, but it does create an awareness in me about how the world is dying with all his statistical findings and evidences. I would recommend this movie to everyone if you do not mind sitting in a lecture hall, where Al Gore is the speaker. I did enjoy it very much.

Before the charity movie, we had free dinner buffet in the cinema as well as free flow of champagne, red, white wine. Minister of Environment was also there..There was lots of leg room space and the screen was much wider.

This is how Vivocity looks like for those who have yet to go there..

This is the entrance of Vivocity

I love the architecture..

On the other side of the building, you can actually see Sentosa and you can go out of the building on the 2nd/3rd floor to view a small pool there as well as enjoy the view and breeze

Our second trip to Vivocity was recently this month where we went to catch the Doulos ship where I used to volunteer in. I worked in the ship for about 3 weeks and I must say it was the longest and toughest 3 weeks, but yet the most enjoyable. I got to know so many friends from all over the world in this Guiness World Record ship. It is only 2 years younger than the Titanic as well as the largest floating book fair held in it. Loads of fun working there, but it wasnt all pure fun, it was hardwork.

We had to reach 7am at the ship every morning to spend time doing our devotionals together as a team and sometimes, we stay back as late as 9pm or 10pm to have prayer meetings. I was exhausted after working whole day in the ship but as I said, it was all worth it because of the fun we had at the same time.

I remember it was also during Christmas time when the ship came and I took a group of my Nigerian friends from the ship to Takashimaya and see the Christmas decorations and to the East for supper. They had curfew which was 11pm to go back to the ship and my local friends all sped back in our cars to send them back along ECP. So fun..Anyway, this is the picture of the ship..

Food glorious food

Most people would know that I love to cook. I always tell myself when I cook is that as long as it is edible, it is good. So, I do not really put too much pressure on myself. I believe that the food has its own taste, especially when the ingredients are fresh. So, you do not really need to put much seasoning into it. So, as long as I make sure it is edible and that people do not get a stomachache after eating, I have succeeded.

A couple of weeks back, I cooked nasi lemak and it is my first time cooking it. I have time now to cook since I do not spend whole day in school.

Here is how it turned out...

My very own nasi lemak with egg, cucumber, ikan bilis, ngor hiang and prawn paste fried chicken. Not forgetting sambal balachan. Nasi Lemak without sambal balachan is not nasi lemak.

There are times when I like my cooking to be elaborate and go through a lot of time to cook a meal. But there are also times when I enjoy just eating rice with soup or sometimes just rice and a beef/chicken stew.

Testimony

My dad, right from day one since the accident, has been focused on giving his testimony about how God has been good in his life despite what he went through-the peace and joy he receives.

So it is not surprising to learn that he has been invited to speak in churches to give his testimony.

A couple of months back, the family went to support him at Frankel Bethesda and the church actually did a video presentation and showed it before my dad went up to speak. So, I would love to share this with you.

Note: Pls turn on your speakers! Enjoy...

cute puffer

On Sunday, Marianne passed me lots of snails from her aquarium for my puffer to eat. I got a shock when I saw her snails cos it was so huge!! All my water snails that I have are so tiny..maybe only 0.2cm..but hers is like 2 cm long!

So gross...but I felt happy cos at least now, my puffer gets to eat something.

When I reached home, I quickly played one big snail and one small snail into the puffer tank and boy, it immediately went up to the snail and surveyed it..

I felt so scared for the snail..sigh...Feel so bad. The snail actually shitted quite a number of times..haha..it practically 'shitted in his pants'..poor snail.

I loved this picture I took cos the puffer looks so cute and innocent...with its two cute "precious moments" droppy eyes...

The puffer was trying to get its body but the shell seems too big..so the puffer even over turned itself just to get to the body...


I had fun snapping pictures of the puffer attacking the snail. I told CT that it was like National Geographic channel where I actually get to experience the killing.

But just for your info, up to date, the snail is still alive. It seems the puffer just gave up after a while and the shell seems to big. Ha..

Happenings lately

My daily routine is to go work, cook dinner, sometimes eat out when I stay back in school till late, or during weekends, visit parents, visit in laws, playing with my niece etc...and the list goes on and on.

No complains but its a fact that when we are in Singapore, the busyness of life catch up on us and at times, wears us down.

My niece, Janine has been growing up very well and cute! Here is a picture of her in her sunday dress to church.

I have also been busy eating good food. My dad's birthday just passed and he invited all my relatives, including my bro's in-laws and my in-laws for dinner. We went to "Imperial Treasure" at Great World City.

Few weeks ago, Sunday Times came up with the top 50 best restaurants in Singapore. Among the list were restaurants like Morton's Lawry Prime Rib, Lei Garden, Crystal Jade, and Imperial Treasure...

I feel that these restaurants are top not only for their food, but more importantly, their excellent, professional, warm service. Dad wants to go Imperial Treasure for birthday as it is in the list and so, loves to try the food there since we have eaten to some of the top restaurants already. Just few weeks back, we went to Lei Garden at Chijmes for dinner to celebrate Chloe's (my dad's god-daughter)birthday.

I must highly recommend Lei Garden if you love double boiled soup. I think this restaurant has one of the best soup! We ordered huge scallops( one piece per person), double boiled watercress, porkrib, fish soup, peking duck, etc ...and one unique thing I tried was the dessert. It came out in a bowl which had the taoist sign-one side black, and the other side white. It was actually black sesame and almond. Very skillful to split it up to look so nice.

At imperial treasure, we booked 2 tables since there were quite a number of us and dad paid for it. We ordered suckling pig each table and boy, it was huge! My aunt who works in Hyatt hotel bought a birthday cake from Mezza9. The best cake I have tasted so far. It was a green tea cake which had cream that tasted so fresh and not sweet. I loved every bit of it though I am not a cake lover.

We had a lot to eat..seems like a usual wedding dinner course. One meal like this easily costs about $600-1000 per table as I know one suckling pig already costs 100 bucks. Wow..sounds extravagant but when I think about it, I feel every cent is worth it. Why do I say so?

Firstly, for the quality of food and secondly, for the service.

I am the type who is satisfied with hawker food that is good and cheap. But when you come down to the art and skill of cooking, top restaurants does use fresh ingredients,spend hours boiling their soup with lots of ingredients and know the art of cooking, rather than just adding more oil and more lard and more MSG.

And also when I think of my dad who is now wheelchair bound, there isnt really much he can do but to eat, do exercise, read and watch TV. Hawker food is kind of out for him as the places are not really wheelchair friendly and there are always a lot of people. There are times we buy back food for him but I am sure he would love to go out.

So, restaurants like these would have less people, and wheelchair friendly as they have lifts or ramps..

Anyway, God has really blessed my family even more since the accident and my dad is still working, despite his condition. He never gives up and continues to persevere and fight the good fight! I love you dad! My dad has taught me so much when I was young, and even more so, now.

Thank you Lord for everything...including the accident. I mean it.

New look

I just changed the layout of my fish tank and bought a new sucker fish. Any fish that eats and vacuums my algae is called "sucker" in my dictionary.

Here is how my fish tank looks like now-adding slope effect to the substrate soil...

Here is my orange sucker fish..

Up to date, I have 17 fishes- 5 black tetras, 4 neon tetras, 6 harlequin rasboras, 1 golden/yellow puffer fish, and 1 sucker..

It is a joy to see them everytime I am at home. I would always greet them when I come home and bid them goodbye when I leave the house. Ha..

My puffer is really small. Its the tropical kind, not the marine, salt water type that blows like a balloon when in danger or frightened. Here is how it looks. I love to look at it cos it looks cute and pathetic.

Will keep you updated when there are more changes :)

I am back again

Latest updates on my fishes..well the dwarf gourami which you saw in the previous post has passed away. It survived about 4 weeks. I have no idea why it died. It was feeling so miserable and refused to eat. So, I put it in another tank so that it can eat, instead of the small fishes snatching his food. But he refused to eat and always staying at one position. So, we knew that it was a matter of time that it would die..sigh..

So, right now, I still have 7 neon tetras and 5 black neon tetras. I love them as they swim in a school...very nice to see them so united. Whenever one leaves the party, I will panic as I am so afraid it is sick or something like that... But so far so good. *cross my fingers!* hehe..

Last Saturday, CT's company organised a family day out free! We met at IMM as it is the place where parking is free..yup..THE place! The company hired 3 buses to take us around. We first went to a pottery jungle next to NTU where there were monkeys roaming around. That was more interesting then their huge collection of pottery and vases. Haha..

Of course if you like pottery stuff and chinaware, this is a nice place. Anyway, after that, we went to Qian Hu Fish Farm. Oooo..I was def looking forward to this one because of the fishes I would see! I saw many wierd looking creatures in the tank..Took some wierd ones only. For more, go visit the place! It is free to look!

Below is a blue lobster..really blue and purple in colour.

This is a fish which reminds me of my friend..hehe..*You know who you are*
This fish seems to have lipstick on..with a pouty lips look to it. So cute


I will update my pictures once this site works. I always have problem uploading more pictures..dunno whether they have set a size limit or not.

Silence...

Wow..looking back at my last post..I just realised it had been 4 months since I wrote my blog...it was since I went back into teaching. Yep, that is what the busyness of work can do to me...

Oh well..

Right now, I am quite used to teaching and getting more and more 'arrows' from work. I have learnt to turn complains to gratitude. I guess I just see those 'arrows' now as my boss' trust in me for giving me such responsiblity.

There was once my HOD got me to attend a HOD and Level head Math meeting because he wasnt free. And just last week, it was Math week and I had to oversee 3 areas of the programme. I was in charge of the Lower Sec Assembly Programme, organised a Sudoku Challenge for Sec 1 classes as well as went with the Sec 5s to Temasek Poly for a Math Seminar.

I do not mind getting all these duties..but sometimes, it can be last minute...which I dislike. Also have been busy with my Girl Guides..going for campfires on Saturday nights till 10pm..Staying every Tues in school till 7 pm as it is CCA day. Another campfire coming up this coming Saturday at Chai Chee Sec.

CT is also not around for the past 2 weeks already. He would only be back on our wedding anniversary day-8 Aug! I still stay in my house in Punggol alone with my fishes...

Oh talking about my fishes, here are they!




I started off with guppies and neon tetras till all the guppies died and left a few tetras. It was due to lack of Oxygen. Haha..

Anyway, above are the fishes which survive for a record time of about a month! Hurray! The first picture is a dwarf gourami, more specifically called a Blue Coral Dwarf Gourami. I have another Gourami but more active, so hard to get a shot on him..it is a Flame Dwarf Gourami. He kept attacking the Blue Coral one so I had to split them up and put the flame one in another tank.

The second pictures are my tetras. They are the neon tetras and black neon tetra. Very lovely schooling fishes.

Though CT has not been around and I miss him alot, I still cook at home all by myself. I cooked steak with salad, pan fried salmon with salad, porridge with steam egg and fish and 2 nights ago, had rice with egg and veggies...

Had problem putting up my pictures for the moment. So, will do so when it works..

Have been so busy with work that when I come home, I just relax. Diff people have diff ways of relieving stress. For me, it used to be sleeping..but I have not been doing so as I feel sleeping away my time is too wasted. So, I play games instead. I have been playing my playstation 2 which my wonderful friend, Esther got for me.Thanks Esther for the wonderful gift!

Sometimes, I would play Maplestory, a MMORPG game..which stands for massive multiplayer online role playing game. It is a game which my students play and so, I meet them online at times and talk to them.

I have realised it does help as my students score better and listen more attentively in class now that I have struck a rapport with them. Cool!

Narnia Kid's camp

One week more and I would be back to school...It is the school holidays now.

Today, went to Marianne's workplace to help out in a kid's camp, jointly organised with "Focus of the Family". I was there to help take pictures. There were about 70 kids who signed up and the camp started about 2pm. It was according to the "Chronicles of Narnia-the Lion, Witch and Wardrobe" Theme. The kids had loads of fun!

The camp commandant was Jerry-the finalist from Singapore Idol who professed he was a Christian in front of the media. He did a great job as he was full of enthusiasm.

Anyway, we also had tea time for the kids where they sit according to their groups on a mat and have butter cookies, sandwiches and drinks. We tried to make it similar to the show where Lucy had tea with Mr Tumnus, but of course, with some local flavour added to it by having sardines sandwiches and packet drinks! haha..

One of the last games involved the kids using Narnia money to buy things from the supermarket and decorate someone or something to make Narnia come alive. It was fun seeing the kids involved in different creative works.

Ended the camp about 6pm. CT met me at Marianne's workplace and we had dinner nearby before we took MRT back home from City hall. It is about 30 mins journey back home to punggol via MRT and LRT. Quite convenient.

Camera Phone

I was given a new camera phone by my dad. Actually, he owns it and when I saw it lying in the house, I traded my phone with his as he does not know how to use the complex functions.

The Nokia camera phone has proved very useful to me as I love taking pictures and it is difficult for me to bring my bulky manual digital camera all around wherever I go. So, sometimes when I see something interesting, I just simply snap.

One friday morning (a few weeks back) when I was supermarketing with my mum at Giant (one of my favourite past times), I saw this interesting fish called the hairtail fish. The tail of the fish is practically as long as a hair..very unique. So, I quickly used my camera and snapped a picture.

Last week, I have also been taking my Punggol LRT to the MRT station to have lunch and dinner appointments with my friends. Took pictures of Punggol as well before it becomes more developed.

I believe, in a few years time, the empty plots of land near the MRT station would be shopping malls...

That is what I enjoy- to see something develop and grow. Very interesting. But right now, I am very happy with my countryside lifestyle in the over-populated Singapore.

Took picture of my visit with my dad again this week to "Society Of Physically Disabled" for his physio session. He was made to remove the top cup and place it on the other side by turning his body. Took him a while to do that.

Just yesterday, I visited Marianne and my god-daughter as Marianne did not have to work. So, I went for a short while and was amused as Marianne bathed Phoebe. Amazed at the fact that she has so many toys to play with when bathing, and also that she understands so many more things now and how to speak up.

I was even given a bath as Phoebe splashed water on me and she kept laughing. Ha!

Janine's 1st month party

Yesterday, I cooked a hearty breakfast with Grapefruit juice. Check this out! As you can tell, it is Italian bread with fried eggs, and whole slices of luncheon meat with lettuce. I was inspired to cook this from a HK drama serial I watched where a couple went to an eatery to have this for breakfast and the gal was complaining that her mom uses whole slices of luncheon meat, rather than small bite sizes of meat. So, she was telling how much she would miss her mum's luncheon meat sandwich when we goes to US. Haha...So, that is why I pan fried whole big slices of luncheon meat.

It is definitely yummy..but I felt so so full after eating this. Tat was why I drank grapefruit juice to appetise my stomach.

Today, is my niece's first month party. The actual day is actually 2 days later, but being usual Singaporeans, we are all so busy that weekends are better for most people.

Went first to my parent's place to take the car together to Bukit Timah where my brother stays. But before that, we had to help carry my dad to the car.

We went earlier to play tennis. Played doubles with my cousin, and my god-sister, Chloe. My dad took Chloe as a god-daughter during his stay in SGH as she was his physiotherapist. She happens to be the same age as me, from HK and coincidentally, she is from the same church as me! Never knew..

That is Chloe helping my dad in the picture, with the helper and my mum, while CT is in the car pulling my dad.

We played for about an hour, as my dad was the umpire and scorer. My dad is a very good in tennis. Actually, my dad is an all-rounder who plays well in all kinds of sports. I am very sure he would very much love to play with us.

While we were resting, my uncle and auntie wanted to play. It was real fun watching them play as they were improperly dressed! Haha...

Above is my uncle playing in long sleeve shirt and pants.He used to be an accountant for many years but is now retired and happily taking care of his huge collection of orchids in his garden. When I went to his house one day, he passionately showed me his collection and told me a lot about orchids. I, myself love orchids but I am not sure whether I can take care of them..Simply amazed at how my uncle can take care of so many of orchids. Think it was about 100s of them.

This is my aunt. She is playing tennis without her high heels. She has been a teacher all her life and is still working in MOE in the CCA department, mainly looking into band. My parents all say my bro and I got her genes. Haha..

Anyway, we had a great time playing. My god-daughter, Phoebe came too! I was feeding her while CT was feeding me!

During the party, dad was holding Janine..

Brought Phoebe out to see the Koi fishes and playground as well..

Phoebe is only less than 2 years old and she already looks quite tall. Kids really grow up very fast!