Pre-Christmas Party

mom with nat

our family portrait minus the 3.5 yr old who ran off but standing in her absence, her huge dora doll

my sis & her family

sis with nat (6 mths old)

We had a family gathering @ our home this afternoon followed by dinner. The girls had a wonderful time ripping off the wrappers of their presents.

It was delightful watching their happy faces and the anticipation. The 3.5 year old received a huge Dora doll and she loved it. She said in a serious expression, "I thought I won't receive a Dora, you know"... She also loved the Play-Doh set which I bought her. She had earlier watched a Play-Doh advertisement on telly and she confided in May... "I really liked a Play-Doh set but I don't think Santa Claus would send me one..."

My little niece especially liked the Cinderella night lamp and a trolley school bag which we bought her. I heard she fell asleep with her lamp lighted by her side.

The girls are so endearing and I wish for them a Healthy and Blessed year ahead of them and for many more good years to come...

After months of groaning and count down, we are finally going to head off to Bali tomorrow evening. Our luggages are all packed and we are ready to go except for some currency exhange.

Bloggin

Sometimes, my 3.5 year old views my blog via my laptop.

She enjoys lookin thru the photos and videos of our family and her life.

She gave me an idea. She said "Hmm, this is like a book, you know".
She's so right & logical. Her mummy is blogging bits & pieces of our life electronically.

A blog is like a diary (silly old me...), & therefore, should I've the chance, I should print out all the entries in colour and have it binded as a book and it becomes our journal.

My girlfriend took the trouble to copy and paste all our emails into a word doc for me. She even copied all our SMS conversation in a black book. I think it's so wonderful of her. I should really get into printing our emails and have it nicely binded as a book.

But I will keep it under lock and key as it contains girly information and secrets.
MOTH - this is out of bounds to you... Hehe.

Popularity @ Stake

I've encountered many friends and colleagues. Ladies.

They always smile so brilliantly like the sunshine and are so eager to help everyone at the work place. They try their best to please all co-workers. Perhaps they wish to be Ms Popular or Mrs Popular.

Yet when the requestors turn their backs, these ladies would immediately grumble and lash their tempers. "What do they take me as... a courier person?" or "Why're they asking me questions? Shouldn't they be asking you instead?"... The list of grumblings goes on & on.

I feel that if they are unhappy to be helping others, learn to say NO, REJECT... and assign the tasks to others.

An ex-boss once gave me a valuable advise which stay stuck in my head. "If you are so eager to help others & be Ms Popular, then don't complain. Otherwise, learn to say NO."

I shld be so LucKy

I received my letter today. I raised my eyebrows at the figure.
I was surprised by the payout as I didn't expect the amount.
But the increment is disappointing though - not exactly in line with economic situation & performance basis.

Ah, never mind, I thank my lucky stars to receive a red packet from the co.
I know of others in my company who are under contract, therefore, they will not even receive extra in their December pay packet. When their contract ends in a year, I'm not sure if they will be retained either.

The second thing I feel so lucky about is my MOTH. Whenever I'm down or worried or sick, he will pick it up immediately. Even if I keep all quiet and not say a thing, he knows about my feelings right away. Is this what we call telepathy?

I made my third visit to the Chinese Physician on Sun afternoon. His clinical assistant told me that there's no need for me to have acupuncture this week. Phew, I heaved a sigh of relief. Another sign of luck? She told me that I need some herbs for application to my feet... Hee... I was really elated and thrilled, I thought I had escaped the clutches of Chinese medication... My face fell at the prescription counter. I was given an large bottle of Chinese medication (to bottoms up) + 2 smaller bottles of pills... Ay yo. HELP!

School

Photos taken: w/c 10 Dec 07

Fun Cookery - The children learnt to make 'Rainbow Truffle' and they had fun crushing cookies, mixing the cookie crumbs with milk and cocoa powder, and rolling them into little balls. And for the final touch....sprinkle with lots of rainbow beads. Yum! Yum! See the 3.5yr sucking her thumb - must be good!

For their Christmas project, they made their own paper Snowman. After reading the story of 'The Snowman', the class came up with different ideas to decorate our snowman. Finally, they agreed on a yellow scarf, red eyes, yellow nose and blue buttons (using bottle caps) and a colourful baseball cap. It looks so cute!

Ps. My 3.5 year old is in orange-tee shirt.

Season to Be JOllY

Tis a season to be jolly... starters, shop till we go dead-broke. The sales for this season is really so tempting. I can't help but to pamper myself with new lingerie, new tees, new jackets, new crocs, new shoes, new swimwear + the loads of presents under the tree for my family.

Why am I making a list of items which I purchased? Given my damn bad memory, I'm bound to forget what I spent on and I'll hit the panic attack button when I see my bank balances.

Actually, I feel damn guilty coz I'm supposed to be saving up for a rainy day.

I'm a bit loop-sided with my spending. I found a cost-efficient provision shop near my neighbourhood. Last weekend, I congratulated our family for saving over $3 per tin of milk, $0.30 for tissues... etc and here I am, spending money on other stuff.

Grrrghh...

For the past 2 weeks, I have been making weekly visits to the Chinese physician for acupunctures and bottling down dutifully 2 big bottles of Chinese medication since. The Result? Great! The constant pains & water retention seem to be under control and bearable. I'm beginning to regain my sanity and I'm not as depressed as I was in the earlier stage. I'm going for my 3rd treatment tomorrow.

Don't tell my boss, the Chinese physician & Santa Claus about this - I was naughty this Friday. I hit a bistro with Ms Diva R at lunchtime. Both of us had 3 glasses of sparkling wines each and we were giggling non-stop for feeling "high" during office hrs. I had problems typing my emails and answering phone calls. Alas, the highness is short-lived. The moment a stack of invoices landed on my desk, I went right back to work attacking the paper work.

Oh-la-la. C'est la vie!

Christmas Mood

Our first Christmas tree.

Our home is now filled with a beautiful scent given out by our pine tree. The presents are all wrapped up and ready to be given out...

To feel the festive mood, we made our way to Orchard Road on Saturday evening. We walked through the street, admiring and enjoying the lights. Our last stop was at Raffles City with the giant tree. The 3.5 year old was so happy and thrilled...

and she is completely smitten by Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer... watch how she jingles along with the song.

Ps... A note to my friends ~ Sorry if I've not been actively in touch or replying to your emails or missing our dates... my body discomfort, illness, medication has drained out my energy and on certain days, I struggle to pass through the pains. I hope that you will understand. : )

Turning 31

26 - 30 Nov 07

I turned 31 on the 26 Nov. I was blessed with well-wishes from several of my good pals, treats from my colleagues (A wonderful lunch from Ms Diva & a suprise cake when I was in the midst of scolding the guys) and you won't believe it (A PRESENT from my BOSS???).

MOTH sent me a big bunch of roses. I don't know why but I blushed when I received his flowers. We had a nice quiet dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant in Mhd Sultan over a few drinks and nice Vietnamese & French cuisine.

In my younger years (which was not too long ago), I enjoyed having a few wild nights a week at Mhd Sultatn. But now the once happening partying district has become all cold and deserted. The pubs which I used to frequent had winded up.

This has been a great year for me except for pending health issues. Never mind, I'm sure I'll recover and get better soon with all these medications and treatments.

30 Nov 07
Took leave to accompany the 3.5 year old for her medical follow up. We made a dash and made it in time for the Dora the Explorer performance at United Sq. Wow, there was a big crowd but we queued and made it into the front row. She was so excited and happy to watch the Dora performance. "Ahem", even her mummy was singing and jingling along. It's a real interactive performance compared to Barney or the Seasame St ones. Great show!

After the show, I took the opportunity to do Christmas presents shopping for my nieces and the 3.5 yr old. We spent a great afternoon together.

In the evening, I had a date with my good girl pals for a belated b-day party. They drove over to my place and we made our way to TM for a sumptous dinner at BaliThai. It was such a wonderful dinner and we took the whole night catching up. They even visited our home and stayed for a chat till nearly 11pm. I am so glad to see them after such a loooong time.

School

- week of 26 Nov 07