I have been out of action for so long now. To summarise, these were some highlights of the past fortnight:
2 BIG rounds of Germ-Battling
Just before Deepavali, WF came down with a relatively mild flu. So, much to his delight, we kept him away from school. Mother helped to look after him during the day and at night, he and I slept on mattresses 'outside the bedroom' (which is what we usually do when any one of us is unwell). As he got better, however, I caught the bug from him and fell ill myself. It always happens....
On Friday night, suddenly I felt my throat tightening so badly that I could hardly swallow my saliva. This progressed very quickly and by the morning, I was already knocked out silly and couldn't get up at all. I had to lie in bed round-the-clock for both days of the weekend, only sitting up to sip water and to pop pills every 4-hourly and getting up to go to the toilet. Felt completely miserable and all I could do was to gesture to R and the boys that they were to stay away from me.......
That Saturday, I had to forgo the Bee Movie and the following day, I had to also miss the Hokkien Huay Kuan Family Day Carnival at the Expo. R had to bring the boys to the cinema and the carnival by himself.
Then, I started on a course of antibiotics prescribed by the doctor at my request (it was just over a week before our scheduled flight to Australia, mah) to hasten the recovery. For the 1st 3 days or so, the medicine seemed to work wonders.
On the 4th day, however, I felt the medicine losing its effectiveness - the throat seemed to become congested again. As I completed the course of antibiotics, the tonsils became so swollen that I actually felt pain at the sides of my throat when I tapped gently at the sides below the ears. Yes, the germs had returned with a vengeance!
This time, I visited my usual doctor (who had been away for the past 2 weeks, so I didn't get to consult her earlier). She described my swollen tonsils as '2 BIG FISHBALLS'!! Yes, it was that bad - I even lost my voice and could not speak any louder than a whisper. It was really such a torture....
In view of the flight on Friday, I pleaded with the doctor for a quickest end to this germ-battling (I mean, as much as we can try, lah!) and was prescribed another antibiotics and a concoction of other 'usual' medicine like Korzen, Dextramine, Loratadine etc. Her strategy is this: Antibiotics will help clear the inflammation, and Korzen will ease the swelling while the concoction of antihistamines will clear the nose - she says it is critical to treat the 'source' = the blocked and mucus-filled nose, lor.
Now I am into 3rd day of this different antibiotics. The swelling has eased a little but it is still painful to swallow even water. The nose has cleared up a lot but I am still unsure if everything can be alright by Friday......
WY's promotion to P5
In between all this germ-battling, WY brought back his examination scripts and we reviewed quite thoroughly his performance. Actually, he has improved for this SA2, but because he had fared badly for SA1, the overall marks were 'pulled down'. The final results were Band 1 for EL, Maths and Science. For CL, he managed only a Band 2 but because this Band 2 score is regarded by the school as 'a high Band 2', WY qualified to continue to read HCL at P5.
Much to his delight, he is promoted to his 'dream class' next year and he will continue the BICEP programme. This means that he will get to go for some overseas trip (usually to China) with his teachers and classmates some time next year. This is keeping him motivated, I think.
One conclusion we have come to after reviewing the report book is that WY needs to improve on his creative writing skills. So, after agonising over 2 days and after lots and lots of thinking, I decided to enrol him on a Creative Writing programme. As much as I hate to trade our very limited 'free time' for more 'tuition' time, we have to be realistic and Do As Romans Do When We Are In Rome. No choice. Please don't criticize.
We have brought WY to view and feel the place where the programme is going to be conducted. We spoke to one of the very friendly ang-mo teacher (all teachers at this school are ang-mo!) and read some very interesting works of the students on the notice boards. WY says he is looking forward to starting the course in January.
Birthday
We celebrated CP's birthday last Saturday. We had not one but 2 cakes that evening! I will upload the pictures later on.
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Monday, November 5, 2007
Evaluation And Plan Unveiled
Deciding where to go for a holiday this time round was not a particularly difficult decision to make. See matrix:
As with all matrices, of course, there have been some 'forced' scoring. But this is as objective as I can get about it already. Here are the scale and assumptions:
Scoring scale: 1 (low, ie no good) - 5 (high, ie good)
Explanations/Assumptions:
1. Weather too cold = no good for R, WY and WF. All have sensitive noses, and tend to get blocked/runny noses in cold weather. HK scored worse that Genting because air pollution in HK is known to be worsening. Experiencing and playing snow are nice but I don't think their noses will take well to it. I was also cautioned that if it rains at the Great Wall, it will be particularly slippery and perhaps dangerous (especially for children) to try to climb it at this time of the year. This item is a very dilemma thing for us to decide.
2. Travel to all desinations will be by air except Genting. Air travel to Europe will almost certainly be by SQ. Air travel to Australia likely to be by either SQ or Qantas, and to HK by either SQ/SilkAir or Cathay Pacific, and to China by either China Airlines or equivalent. Hence the scoring based on perceived safety record of airlines. Travel to Genting will be by coach/cable car. In year-end wet weather, perceived to be least safe, especially since there has been numerous landslides on the hillsides.
3. Safety while at destination = general perceived safety of the environment, including likelihood of 'getting lost' physically (mostly because of lack of familiarity/ability to read foreign road signs etc), encountering robbers, conmen and security in lodging and food etc. Quite obvious why China scored worst for this item. Genting scored high for this item because we think we can still figure out the various parts of the resort and what most directional signs say or mean.
4. Affordability (cost) = $. Mostly influenced by currency exchange rate. Except for Europe (where we know we can probably request to bunk-in at HA's new house for some parts of the trip), all the rest are based on enquired rates (which differ from published rates) of package tours and all those dunno-what taxes + surcharges (which, rather oddly, fluctuate and are not commonly published).
5. Affordability (time) = time needed for planning + time for travel + time for trip + time for 'recovery'. Europe scored lowest for obvious reasons. Based on our Swiss expedition 2 years back, we took more than 3 months to settle down (back to 'reality') after the 6-week May/June school holiday. By the time it was school exam time in October that year, WY was still reminiscing his trips to Deutsch Legoland, Eiffel Tower, Arc De Triomphe, The Glacier Express, The Matterhorn, the Ballenburg etc etc and of course, the fun times he had spent with his uncle, aunt and cousin both travelling and playing at their home. 人是回来了，可是“心”还没回来啊！
6. "New-ness" = the question of 'have we been there?'. This is definitely an artificial scoring in that actually, we cannot even say we have been to Genting because our last trip (the boys haven't even been born then!) there has been more than a decade ago! And of course, there are so many many places in Europe that we have never even set foot upon, so how can we possibly regard ourselves as having 'been' there, right? Even for those places where we had visited in our previous trip, it had been largely a 'touch and go' quick glance only, also can hardly consider ourselves as having 'been' there..... Come to think of it, I think this item should not have been included since all are quite 'on par'. Should be disregarded.
7. Activities for WY and WF = recreation and educational value. Theme parks are an obvious choice for the boys, but scores vary for WY and WF because generally, WF may be too young or too short for some rides. Also taken into account is the boys' respective ability to appreciate things like scenery and history of the destinations. HK didn't score high for WY because WY has been to the Ocean Park and some other museums there during his previous trip to HK with CP, so these attractions will be a repeat for him.
8. Attractiveness to adults = what generally appeals to R and me, as individuals and as parents, porters, safety-managers etc. To a small degree, this item also sums up our own gut-feel of the choices.
It may be obvious from the matrix that the real contending destinations were China vs HK vs Australia.
Genting was ousted easily for the items scored '1' (safety issues mainly). Europe was dropped for the low affordability scores (both $ and time), even though we know that Europe offers a big bonus in that we will get to base ourselves in Zurich (thus saving some $) and then venture elsewhere for some days and on other days, WY and WF can get to play with their cousins, too.
So, in the end, we booked this package.
The offer for S$1K rebate per visiting family is definitely a sweet gesture. (But not enough, lah!) Also, we came to know of it a little late. Deposit for package already paid by the time we saw the offer. Maybe next time we should check whether there is any offer for rebate first, hor?! Hahaha...
Well, the latest I know is that YP and BK are bringing WS and WP to HK (again!) in December. Mother intends to do her own holiday planning soon. I am quite sure Father doesn't plan to travel anywhere.
As for CP, I am not sure of her travel plan yet though I think she did mention earlier that she has some courses lined up for November/December, so she will be quite occupied during this period.
As with all matrices, of course, there have been some 'forced' scoring. But this is as objective as I can get about it already. Here are the scale and assumptions:
Scoring scale: 1 (low, ie no good) - 5 (high, ie good)
Explanations/Assumptions:
1. Weather too cold = no good for R, WY and WF. All have sensitive noses, and tend to get blocked/runny noses in cold weather. HK scored worse that Genting because air pollution in HK is known to be worsening. Experiencing and playing snow are nice but I don't think their noses will take well to it. I was also cautioned that if it rains at the Great Wall, it will be particularly slippery and perhaps dangerous (especially for children) to try to climb it at this time of the year. This item is a very dilemma thing for us to decide.
2. Travel to all desinations will be by air except Genting. Air travel to Europe will almost certainly be by SQ. Air travel to Australia likely to be by either SQ or Qantas, and to HK by either SQ/SilkAir or Cathay Pacific, and to China by either China Airlines or equivalent. Hence the scoring based on perceived safety record of airlines. Travel to Genting will be by coach/cable car. In year-end wet weather, perceived to be least safe, especially since there has been numerous landslides on the hillsides.
3. Safety while at destination = general perceived safety of the environment, including likelihood of 'getting lost' physically (mostly because of lack of familiarity/ability to read foreign road signs etc), encountering robbers, conmen and security in lodging and food etc. Quite obvious why China scored worst for this item. Genting scored high for this item because we think we can still figure out the various parts of the resort and what most directional signs say or mean.
4. Affordability (cost) = $. Mostly influenced by currency exchange rate. Except for Europe (where we know we can probably request to bunk-in at HA's new house for some parts of the trip), all the rest are based on enquired rates (which differ from published rates) of package tours and all those dunno-what taxes + surcharges (which, rather oddly, fluctuate and are not commonly published).
5. Affordability (time) = time needed for planning + time for travel + time for trip + time for 'recovery'. Europe scored lowest for obvious reasons. Based on our Swiss expedition 2 years back, we took more than 3 months to settle down (back to 'reality') after the 6-week May/June school holiday. By the time it was school exam time in October that year, WY was still reminiscing his trips to Deutsch Legoland, Eiffel Tower, Arc De Triomphe, The Glacier Express, The Matterhorn, the Ballenburg etc etc and of course, the fun times he had spent with his uncle, aunt and cousin both travelling and playing at their home. 人是回来了，可是“心”还没回来啊！
6. "New-ness" = the question of 'have we been there?'. This is definitely an artificial scoring in that actually, we cannot even say we have been to Genting because our last trip (the boys haven't even been born then!) there has been more than a decade ago! And of course, there are so many many places in Europe that we have never even set foot upon, so how can we possibly regard ourselves as having 'been' there, right? Even for those places where we had visited in our previous trip, it had been largely a 'touch and go' quick glance only, also can hardly consider ourselves as having 'been' there..... Come to think of it, I think this item should not have been included since all are quite 'on par'. Should be disregarded.
7. Activities for WY and WF = recreation and educational value. Theme parks are an obvious choice for the boys, but scores vary for WY and WF because generally, WF may be too young or too short for some rides. Also taken into account is the boys' respective ability to appreciate things like scenery and history of the destinations. HK didn't score high for WY because WY has been to the Ocean Park and some other museums there during his previous trip to HK with CP, so these attractions will be a repeat for him.
8. Attractiveness to adults = what generally appeals to R and me, as individuals and as parents, porters, safety-managers etc. To a small degree, this item also sums up our own gut-feel of the choices.
It may be obvious from the matrix that the real contending destinations were China vs HK vs Australia.
Genting was ousted easily for the items scored '1' (safety issues mainly). Europe was dropped for the low affordability scores (both $ and time), even though we know that Europe offers a big bonus in that we will get to base ourselves in Zurich (thus saving some $) and then venture elsewhere for some days and on other days, WY and WF can get to play with their cousins, too.
So, in the end, we booked this package.
The offer for S$1K rebate per visiting family is definitely a sweet gesture. (But not enough, lah!) Also, we came to know of it a little late. Deposit for package already paid by the time we saw the offer. Maybe next time we should check whether there is any offer for rebate first, hor?! Hahaha...Well, the latest I know is that YP and BK are bringing WS and WP to HK (again!) in December. Mother intends to do her own holiday planning soon. I am quite sure Father doesn't plan to travel anywhere.
As for CP, I am not sure of her travel plan yet though I think she did mention earlier that she has some courses lined up for November/December, so she will be quite occupied during this period.
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