Fireworks

Saturday, 18 Aug 2007

9.00pm

We ventured to the neighbourhood of Tanjong Rhu, "hiked" a bit into the breakwaters section, overcomed the fences and barricades and arrive in a section overlooking the city landscape of Singapore (part of the Ferris wheel, the Esplanade Bay & Benjamin Sheares Bridge).

The reward???

A spectacular fireworks performance (by China) for a whole 15 minutes. I believe the theme was "garden" - coz we could make out flowers (with shape of the chrysanthemum - the national flower of China) and bees created by the fireworks during the performance.

Growing Pains

Our newly furnished bedroom

Friday, 17 Aug 07

Today's the last night in our family life history that the 3.5year old would sleep in her own bedroom without US (but with May, our helper instead).

We had her bedroom decorated in pink, kid's-sized table and chairs, writing boards & some cute cartoons (the list goes on).

We kept our fingers crossed as night approaches. Surprisingly, the 3.5 year old asked "Mummy, can I relax in your bedroom for a while?"

So she came, listened to some music, lie on our bed... and then suddenly she said "Ok, I'm going back to my room."

She fell asleep on her own without kicking any fuss and only reappeared in the morning when she woke up for a cuddle with US in our bed. We had a nice night of rest.

Though it's nice that the 3.5 year old is learning to respect our space & enjoys having her space, I feel kinda sad also. I will miss looking at her sleeping and sniffing her little hands or hair while she's asleep. I will also miss giggling at her when she's sleeping in her funny poses.

MOTH thinks I should just let go and that I shouldn't feel any sadness. Of course, I will let go but it's also natural to feel a bit of sadness. We can't be sleeping together in the same room forever. I feel that the 3.5 year old is growing up too quickly and as a working mother, time is so limited for us (When she's home, I'm at work. Sometimes when I arrive home, she's fallen asleep.)

Blah... Mars Vs Venus - we are both entitled to our own point of views.

Nearly DONE!

Our Master Bedroom
New Gate
Light for Bathrm
Staircase

1st Flr Overview
Our Balcony
Our Kitchen
Strange light for our staircase

We started with our renovation on 9 July and our new home is nearly DONE!

I arrived home last night, realizing that the contractor has fitted a beautiful glass door complete with a lock in our master bedroom toilet and I screamed with JOY! Yahooooooo.... PRIVACY at least.

You can compare the works done at our home against my earlier blog with pixs of the renovation works. You will note that it's a great and hell a lot of improvment. At least, we have lesser dust and mess now.

MOTH HITS 35!

"MOTH & 3.5 looking beautiful together"

"3.5yr old thinks it's her b-day. She's blowing out MOTH's candles."


13-Aug-07

In another 5 years, MOTH will turn 40. I was thinking about his comments "Babe, we need to save as much as we can before we hit 40. Coz I think we may become unemployed (ie:being fired, sacked, terminated)... & unwanted..."

Hmm... It's a sad comment. Anyway, MOTH, it's ok. Enjoy your 35th Year on Planet Earth.

And Yes, I agree SAVE as much as you can. Coz the family gets to benefit with additional funds.

With lots of love, your loving wife (as usual).


11-Aug-07
We celebrated MOTH's birthday in advance at the Changi Village Hotel. Nothing fancy, just a nice nasi-lemak dinner with a nice choco-banana cake. He was rewarded by 3.5yr old cooing "Happy Birthday" song in English and Mandarin version.

We had lots of fun soaking up the sun, relaxing by the pool.

Watch it, MOTH! If we are spending this way, we will not be able to save much by the time we're 40.

Singaporean Tourists!

7 August 2007

MOTH and I specially took a day off work to accompany the 3.5-year old on a school excursion.
We caught the play "Baby Love" at the Singapore Repertory Theatre, located along Singapore River. It was a short 45mins play but lovely for young children and we were surprised that the 3.5-year sat still throughout the whole play, completely absorbed with the story.

Oh, silly me - a bit of summary about the play - it's about a young boy who has to welcome a baby sister and how they learnt to love and play with each other. That's it. Else the script-writer and producer of the play may come after me for revealing the whole story.

After the play has ended, we decided to take a nice leisurely walk along the Singapore River towards Clarke Quay. As we were watching bum-boats passing by, an idea struck the whole family!

LET'S TAKE A BOAT RIDE AND EXPERIENCE THE RIVER CRUISE!

Amidst the loud narration coming from the almost-faulty speaker mounted on the bum-boat, it was a wonderful cruise experience down Clarke Quay, to Boat Quay, to the Raffles Place central and the Merlion Park. I went "WOW, This is my country, my city, my Singapore."

Though we are a small City with limited land area, we have done well preserving our culture, our old/traditional buildings and blending them with modernisation. On top of these, we have also managed to build and perserve a green city.

I'm sure my 3.5-year old would feel proud being a Singaporean too.

Ps. Okie, okie, guys - despite rising costs and living expenses, & 0%-1% yearly increment ONLY, we will SURVIVE!

My Love

I've always have a passion for arts and painting. Painting helps me to destress and rediscover myself. It takes me away from the real world and immerse myself into another.

When I was a little girl, I took great efforts in drawing and colouring. My mom upon seeing my works said this to me... "I don't know where you get this "talent" from? I've never been able to draw anything decent all my life."

When I told my parents that I would like to pursue art more seriously, my parents were dismayed and shocked. My father said "What, don't be silly! You can never earn a living through ART! Artists and Designers struggle to make a living. In real life, they never get to design coz they take orders from their paying clients."

At 16, I felt resentment towards my parents for not being supportive of me or my passion in life.

At 18, I landed myself in an interior designing firm (not as a trainee designer) but as a Secretary. I saw what my fellow ex-colleagues went through and I understood at that point what my father meant and his advise hit me.

Maybe I should thank my parents for dissuading me. That's why I am truly able to treat painting as a hobby and as an escape from my regular busy life.

After doing a painting as a gift to my friend, I did another one for myself. In this painting, the features on the Chinese lady is stronger with a broad-shaped face. She also looks more serious. In certain way, I find that she looks like me? Let me know what you think.

Ps. I got inspired to do the paintings of the Chinese ladies after buying an artpiece by a well-known Chinese Artist. But silly me, I forgot his name (as some of you might know, I've a real bad memory). Never mind, I promise I will do some research and his name will come to me.

I LOST MY NAME

1 August 2007, Wed


5.00pm

I received a call from Ms Shira (one of Emelia's Teacher).... "Hi Emelia's Mummy, I'm Shira. Emelia wants to confirm if you're coming to pick her up this evening?"...


Hmm, a thought struck me. Since I became a mother, I realised that I lost my beautiful first name... All of Emelia's acquaintances & friends (doctors, nurses, teachers, friends' mummies, friends) address me as "Emelia's Mummy". I lost my identity. What happened there? Months ago, I realised that I began to introduce myself as "Hi, I'm Emelia's MUMMY. And you're?" When I was at work, meeting business associates or new colleagues, I found myself dumbfounded. I couldn't introduce myself and say my first name. Knock-knock, wakey-wakey, Emelia's Mummy.


The second thought that came to my mind was "Ok, Emelia, if Mummy & Daddy don't pick you up from school, did you think that you will take a taxi or walk home on your own? [Don't forget you are only 3.5 years old]."



5.30pm - 8.00pm

Shut down my computer and made a dash to school. Brought Ms Emelia for her favorite wanton noodles. Gosh, she ate the whole plate of noodles plus dumplings plus cheese cookies plus some buns. She said "I'm so hungry, you know!".


She had her face and nose stained with the noodles' sauce. She looked real cute with the mess on her face and I regretted not taking a pix of her. But as she was wolfing down her noodles so hungrily, perhaps others would think that we've not been feeding this child at all until dinner time. I made a mental note to also ask the teacher about her appetite during the day.


Ms Emelia was able to "report" to MOTH that we went to the noodles store that is really near her school. Wow, we are impressed by her navigation skills. She is able to recognise routes, landmarks, and the location of her favorite food stalls.