8 Already!

WF's birthday party this year was held at The Cage located in Kallang. It was an evening event because we figured that that way, there would be least disruption to everybody's usual Saturday schedule.

The day started out a wet one. Then, finally the skies cleared about one hour before we arrived at The Cage. So the evening turned out to be a cool and breezy one.

A total of almost 20 children came. Most were WF's classmates in KHS; others were classmates from SHHK ACT and Yamaha. A handful of these brought their siblings along. It is always amazing to see how children of tender ages can mingle and socialize so easily when they meet children of similar ages for the first time.



We arranged for a coach to organise the children and guide them in their soccer attempt. This is an excellent option because that left us more time and energy to deal with other matters, such as F&B and photo-taking. The coach seemed very experienced handling the little ones, what with warm-up exercises, practice rounds and various challenges before finally getting the children into a 'match'. Throughout the 1.5 - 2 hours of play in the pitch, the children were given frequent water breaks.



It was good that we had prepared the drinks early. So the chilled bottles of water, straw-packs of Ribena and cans of chrysanthemum tea were a big hit amongst the kids and adults alike. The labels which we had prepared earlier also came in handy because everyone was then able to identify their drinks the next time they were released for water breaks.

When the game ended at about 9pm, unknown to us, the waiting parents, the coach organised the children into a 'train' and moved off to the outside of Pitch 6 to autograph WF's poster! I was very touched by this gesture of The Cage because I had thought that all they would have wanted to do was to simply give us the poster.

After that, the children washed up. We tried very hard to organise the children to take the group photo with the birthday cake. It was tough because some famished children had already started to help themselves to the food on the table. Eventually, we were able to get them to stand properly for a photo shoot after some cajouling.



Food served included the birthday cake + mini chicken pies from Prima Deli, chicken wings + curry puffs + sotong balls from Old Chang Kee, kaya buns + butter buns from The Fresh Bread and keropok from the uncle vendor who sells all kinds of keropok from a van parked near my office. Everyone loved everything. (And fortunately, except for the buns, all the food were halal and so the coach and his colleagues were also able to share the food.)



At the end of the evening, some parents (who are closer to us) also had 'take-away' of some of the food at our urging. All thanked us gracefully except for one father, who uttered some nonsense that I found extremely offensive. I will let his wife know how rude he had been uttering such nonsense, the next time we meet.

We cleared up the place at about 10pm, and left The Cage feeling exhausted but great and happy at having had a wonderful party that evening. We left a very satisfied customer of The Cage.

What a Wednesday Plan

My original plan for tomorrow was to bring WY and WF for their dental checks in the morning, followed by our outing to the Science Centre. Then we were supposed to end the day with a game of badminton at the CC.

But alas, the plan has been changed dramatically.

Tomorrow, I will go with M to Gleneagles very early in the morning. Admission will be at 6am, procedure at 7:30am. Then I will hop into Camden nearby to visit Prof A, before running back again to Gleneagles to check on M. I think I will be spending the rest of the day with M there. R will have to deal with the boys throughout.

It sounds like a hectic day with some uncertainty. Hopefully everything goes well.

Rose Experiment

Last week, we heard over the radio something about a DIYAH (do-it-yourself-at-home) experiment using roses. Something like colouring white roses 'naturally' by putting the stalks in coloured water.

WF was very keen to try it out at home. So, I braved the hot scorching sun last Tuesday to go and get him the roses from Chinatown. Then on Wednesday, the food colours (all 5 of them) from NTUC supermarket.

On Wednesday night (almost close to midnight, actually), WF declared that it was time to carry out his great experiment. So, we got all the containers and generously poured about half bottle of each colour into them respectively.

I cut the roses' stems (so as to ensure that they would be accessible to the colours) while R went about 'setting up' his improvised stand for the experiment. WF, in the meantime, busied himself admiring the flowers and taking charge of those whose stems I had finished cutting.



Then, we all took turns to decide whch stalk of rose would go to receive which colour. This was how they looked. Ya, the poster-filled wall of this part of the kitchen seemed a little messy in the photo, so R helpfully held up a 'background cardboard' for these pictures.



Before WF went to bed, he asked, "The flowers will really turn into different colours, right?" "Hmm, yes, probably," came our reply. "By tomorrow?" WF asked again. "Hopefully," I said.

"Then we'll surprise 哥哥 when he comes back. Will he be back tomorrow?" WF asked again.

WY had gone on his Sec 1 camp at St John's Island last Wednesday, so he had had to miss out on our carrying out of the experiment. But by the time he returned on Friday, he would definitely marvel at the results of it.

****************************

The next morning, we were greeted by this wonderful sight of the now-coloured roses. See, what beauties, right?



See how we didn't forget to put a stalk in just plain water as a 'control set'? Hahahaha, true blue 'scientists' we all are!

Root Canal Treatment & Alice In Wonderland

Yesterday, WY kept his appointment with the root canal specialist at the dental clinic. The dentist checked and announced that the tooth was now fully treated and ready to be filled with the root canal filling. The permanent filling would then follow.

The permanent filling marked the completion of the root canal treatment.

Phew! I am so glad and thankful that WY's treatment had been, so far, smooth and relatively painless. This was such a contrast to the torturous treatment I had had more than 2 decades ago.

So, we thanked the dentist profusely when she bade us goodbye at the end of the visit. Really, I truly appreciated her kind and gentle handling of WY's poor tooth and her generous sharing of her expert knowledge, every time we visited her.

**********************

After the dental visit, we quickly picked up WF from his LW class (this was a special class to replace the lesson the school missed during the CNY weekend). Then we all proceeded to Great World City for lunch followed by a movie.

Lunch was at Crystal Jade. WF had his favourite meatball porridge while the 3 of us had an assortment of noodles. We also ordered 2 tim sum items while WF asked for his 小笼包, which the auntie waitress had to 打包 from the outlet 2 floors down the escalator. It's always amazing to see how WF will proclaim loudly and clearly as he tucked into his porridge, "Mmmm, this porridge is so, so, so, so.... delicious!"

The show which we eventually decided to watch was Alice in Wonderland. It was a nice mythical movie although I do confess that I have never ever read any book or story about Alice In Wonderland. The special effects were good; I liked especially the vanishing effect of the cat who could turn invisible at will. The hat-ter also looked good and somehow, he seemed very well-dressed as compared to Alice who went big and then small and then big again, before becoming normal-size again.

The theatre was exceptionally cold that day. Fortunately, we were seated at the last row, so we were spared the cold air directly blowing down because there was an awning of sorts above our heads.

We ended the day with a short grocery shopping trip to Cold Storage at the basement of GWC.

**********************

The day's programme seemed kind of mundane, but as WF so aptly summed it up as we unloaded the grocery from the car: We had our outing today, a movie outing, correct? :)

1998 年台湾之旅

去年，R 和我带着WY 和WF 一起参加团队到台湾走走，感触很多。

虽然R 和我在1988 年都到过台湾，这一次旧地重游的感觉，是截然不同的。

****************************************************

首先，1988年的时候，R 和我都还是高中生，能够到台湾见识、参观，就只是因为我们的初级学院铜乐队到那儿演奏。现在呢，初步踏进中年的我们是带着我们的两个‘家宝’到这个宝岛‘吃喝玩乐’！

学生时期，身上的钱都是父母给的，所以不敢随意乱花。虽然F 和M 都说，该花的就花，需要买的就买，脑子里总有些顾忌。所以，那一趟台湾之行，我仅有的纪念品就是一些较精美的小卡片和小玩意儿。R 也是一样，我记得他说，他没买什么，只带回来了一个大枕头！

那一趟的表演，共有两、三场。我们接触的台湾朋友，大多都是那儿的学生。 大家都非常非常地热情，对我们的表演都赞不绝口，一直说我们‘好棒啊！’。我们的演奏，其实只是普普通通罢了，所以我们听了这些夸奖的称赞，都很不好意思。

两位负责带领我们的台湾哥哥和姐姐都是台湾的‘模范青年’。

我记得那位女的长得高高瘦瘦，样子没什么，可是脾气却很大！有一次，学生宿舍的餐厅为我们准备晚餐时，呈上了一道台湾人的最爱‘卤猪脚’，把我们这群不懂得欣赏的新加坡学子吓呆了！大家都不习惯吃猪脚，对那一支又大又黑的猪脚，都视而不尝。到最后，每一张餐桌上，所有的菜都一扫而空，就只有那一碟一碟的卤猪脚，原封不动！

那位姐姐看了火冒三丈，把我们痛骂了一顿！我记得她指责我们不该浪费那些‘好料’，说我们真是生在福中不知福！那个难堪的场面，到现在我还记得，哎。

另外那位个带领我们的哥哥，就不一样了。他长得高高瘦瘦，外形有一点像张帝。他的脾气比那位姐姐的好多了，不但没高嗓骂我们，还小心翼翼地为我们这些常常落在后头的同学，讲解景点的历史和故事。尤其是在鹿港小镇里的‘摸乳街’，他还示范那条狭窄得离谱的小巷的名称是怎么得来的！（横着走，乳还是被墙‘摸’了！）

我们也到了一个有个大湖的公园参观。我记得那里叫九曲桥。那儿的入口处有个许愿池。又阔又矮的许愿池里放着一个小陶碗，陶碗的四周都是凌乱的硬币， 可见很多人都尝试许了愿了吧！陶瓷里只有几个硬币。

同学们看到了这种情形，都心血来潮，各自把自己口袋里的零钱拿来向着淘碗扔掷。大家你一个，我一个，又是扔，有是叫的，把整个地方都弄得喧哗起来。

突然，同学们发现站在一旁的我只是傻傻地站在一旁，没扔硬币。有好几个男生，都异口同声地喊道：“LP！你也来一个！一定要的！”

为了不扫大家的兴，我也只好拿出了个硬币，握在手里。我注视着淘碗，心里的心愿也随着同学们的欢呼，像硬币一样，飞过了眼前的空间，平平稳稳地落到淘碗里。看到自己的硬币很顺地往淘碗里飘落下，我是何等的喜出望外！尤其是那些还在扔了又扔的男同学们喊到：“LP！ 哇！你怎么这么厉害！你许了什么愿？”

许愿池边的一个牌子写着：心诚则灵。我没把自己许的愿告诉大家，可是，我知道那个愿望已经实现了。

我们到了一些名胜，如巫莱、佛光山、小人国、自然博物馆等等， 到处游览。同学们偶尔吵吵嘴，有时大声欢笑。大家对各自都有了一点点地更加认识。我对我们乐队的指挥老师，也相近了许多。

WF - Grade 1 ABRSM 2010

Piano exam for WF this year was on 3 March 2010 at Juzmusic in Parkway Centre.

I was concerned that because we hadn't rented the studio for practice before the exam, there might have been some un-familiarity with the piano. But the youngest pianist in our house said it was ok, leh. According to him, the exam went well.

Results are expected only several months later.

Gavot



Songs of Erin



African Dance

KidsDash 2009

Kids Dash 2009 was a significant event in last year's calendar.

Significant because it marked the end of my 6-month break from office work. And even more so because it was the 1st race where WY and WF ran 'independently' whilst R and I watched from amongst supporters lining the route.

We started the morning with breakfast outside. Then R walked the boys to the part of the route near VCH before joining me outside the old Supreme Court building.

Weather that morning was good. A little breezy and not too sunny (yet). Many supporters stood around, armed with cameras big and small. Everyone seemed to be in a cheery mood.

R and I waited for a long, long time before we heard the emcees announce that the participants for the Kids Dash had been flagged off. From then, it was an intense neck-craning exercise as we tried hard to spot WY and WF amongst the many runners on the road.

We waited and waited, then suddenly, we spotted WY! Can you see him? I cheered loudly but I am sure he didn't hear me. He was focussed on his run/jog.

After WY ran out of our sight, it was another 10-15 minute wait before we spotted WF on the road. The little boy was, for the first time since we started taking part in KidsDash several years ago, running all by himself! R and I are so proud of him!



WF saw us amongst the crowd and waved hard at us, too! We must have waved about 100+ times in those 10 seconds or so.

Our brisk walk to the Finish Line after that was a headache. R and I found that all the various sections of the street which had remained open for access in previous years' events, were now closed. So we had no choice but to make big detour around 3-quarters of St Andrew's Cathedral's boundary perimeter in order to get to the Finish Line. And we had to dash about and manouver carefully in case we knocked into any of those sweaty but jubilant marathoners who had finished their race and who were roaming about.

When we eventually met up with WY and WF, they were all smiles and grins. WF, especially, was so proud that he hadn't needed WY's company for the race. WY told us that the ushers had organised the Kids Dash participants according to their age group, so he had no chance to run along with WF. But it worked out fine, afterall.

We took a leisurely stroll back to the car in Clark Quay and then went home for our showers.



To our surpise, the organisers sent us an email after the event to invite us to purchase WF's photographs that their official photographer had captured. We did, of course, even though R initially baulked at their price. I think the photos are worth every cent paid.

说说演演 2010 - 2

题目：我最喜欢的活动

老师、同学们，

大家好！

课余的时候，我最喜欢看电影。有时，爸爸妈妈买录影光碟，让我和哥哥在家里一起看。有时，爸爸妈妈带我到电影院看电影。这是我最开心的事了！

到了电影院，爸爸先去买票。这时，我吵着妈妈买爆米花和汽水。妈妈说，爆米花不可以常常吃。所以，当妈妈买爆米花的时候，我和哥哥都开心极了！

走进电影院，里面又暗又冷，妈妈帮我穿上外套。找到位子，我们就安安静静地坐下来，等电影开始。看电影的时候，我们不可以大声说话，因为大声说话会吵到别人，那是不对的。

看完了电影，我们要记得把自己的垃圾丢进垃圾桶里。

我看过很多电影。 其中，我最喜欢的是变形金刚的电影。变形金刚很厉害，到现在，我还是忘不了！

同学们，今天我带来了爆米花跟大家分享， 希望你们会喜欢。也希望你们跟我一样爱看电影！

谢谢！




*These photos were taken a long time ago when we first tried to make popcorn at home. We made the popcorn last night, similar to these shown in the photos.

The caramelised popcorn, or 'PC' as WF calls it, is WF's 'prop' for this 2nd CL Show N Tell this year.

里外不是人

古人有一句话：见贤思齐焉，见不贤而内自省也。

意思是说，当我们看见正义、好的事的时候，我们应该多多向它看齐；当我们看见非正义、不对又不好的事的时候，我们要提醒自己，千万别跟它一样。这，就是人与兽的不同。

我想，古人是生活在一个比较清幽、俭朴的社会里。那里没有今天的世界里的那种虚伪和装作。

为了正义而把事情说穿了，本来就是对的。即使知道‘不贤’的当事人听见了一定会火冒三丈，还是大义灭亲。

哪里知道，道高一尺，魔高一丈。各种上下不接的‘解释’汹涌而来，让受了委屈的人也不得不说‘是，是，是’、‘好，好，好’等等。

为什么要委曲求全呢？

我不同意委曲求全是好事。现代的人，就是以为大家肯定都会委曲求全，所以随心所欲，把仁、义、道、德，全抛到脑后。借一句‘我忘了’或者‘我不知道’，就草草了事。说不相信，就被指是蛮不讲理、固持己见。

怎么能让人心服口服？ 黑能变白？哎。

反正，伸张正义的，现在是猪八戒照镜子。反被赤责是‘反派人物’，是个又好管闲事又爱钻牛角尖又爱把小事化大的闲人！还被提议去看医生！值得吗？！

等着吧。自古，忠言总逆耳。或许，有朝一日，人们不再把只有好的、美丽的，说给你听，让你觉得自己是多么的幸福， 而是把真实的呈现在眼前。

Politics

The greatest evil on earth has been not greed, but politics.

Not the politician type of politics, but politicking type of politics.

Don't make sense? Never mind. So long as we know and remember, that's fine.

Complainant also politicking. Complaint until sky high, then later pretend to be so 'understandingly' understanding, accepting without any questions all sorts of 'explanation' offered. Yet after that, revert to not believing anyway.

Shitty. All shitty.

Just Wait

I was told this morning, "It's the nature of my job. You don't like, then boh-bian."

Really? I boh-bian?

Ya, maybe for now I boh-bian. Just wait. I am waiting. Waiting for my sons to grow up. Then I will correct the wrong I have done. Then it will no longer be I boh-bian.

Maid = Solution?? *pui*

This morning, M said to me that it is about time to get a maid. She said she is very tired already.

That she is tired, I can understand. Tired of marketing, tired of getting WF ready for school, tired of cooking etc etc. I can accept this. In fact, I have been telling her to stop marketing, stop cooking, stop doing this and that, but she would not listen.

What I cannot accept is all her protests and arguments when I disagree to engage a maid. And her yelling at me because she thinks that I will 'retaliate' by sending WF to a student care.

Based on my experience, having a maid makes more trouble than there already is. Maid is not a solution for me. Why?

I have neither time nor patience to train and train and train the maid to do things as I want them done. It has never worked out before, and it never will. I ended up previously getting all agitated everyday, so much so that I was just a hand away from hitting the 1st maid. The 2nd one drove me up the wall similarly. You don't know what a relief it had been, when we were suddenly maid-free.

Everyone at home had assumed that I was the fussy one. That I was the difficult, miserly and mean employer. All the time, they 'good-intentionally' told me to close one eye here, another eye there and to lower my expectations/standard etc. I did. I really did, but it still didn't work out. I was going crazy, relapsing into the hyperthyroid thing and getting headaches every day. Why?

Because not only did I have to put up with the maid's nonsenses (which was quite a lot, too), I had to listen to daily doses of complaints and complaints, loads and loads of them. Earful after earful at the end of a long day's work, everyday. Cannot believe me? It's because you haven't tried this yourself.

Actually, now that WY and WF are much older than before, there should be even less reason to get a maid. Afterall, we never allowed the maid to handle the children nor marketing nor cooking because we don't trust the maid to do these properly and to our preferred standard. All that the maid did was laundry, ironing and washing up the dishes. Oh yes, and mopping the floor. That was all.

These days, WY's schedule is such that he will be out of the house even before the sky turns bright, and won't be back until the sky darkens. So where got need to get a maid to attend to him? Maid can coach him in his studies, meh?

And WF? He now knows how to shower and dress himself. It's only that if he 大便, then he needs some help to clean the buttocks and wash up. He eats by himself and loves to make his milk all by himself. He packs his school bag in the evening, so there's minimal that he needs to do to get ready for school. So how will the maid help? Coach him in his studies?!

Marketing? Cooking? I don't trust the maid.

I seriously don't think getting a maid helps in any way for me. Maids are, to me, a great liability and source of frustration. I was lucky to have been spared those nightmare of eloping maids, prostitute maids, lover-maids, voodoo maids, torture-kids maids and killer maids that we hear about both in the media and from our colleagues experiences.

The solution, as far as I can see it, must be a resolution of the problem itself and until the problem is acknowledged, there will be no solution. There Never Will Be.

Have I told anyone how my kitchen has ceased to be mine? How I cannot squeeze a few apples into the fridge because it is already packed? How I have to spend one hour or so everyday washing the dishes after dinner, scrubbing pot after pot? Bliss, you say? And I chose this?

Good Morning!

Starting from the 1st day of school this year, I have been coming in to the office at about 7:40am everyday. Only on Fridays, I arrive about 8:30am.

That's much, much, much earlier than I have been arriving at the office last year and the years before that. Then, it was common to find me in the office only closer to 9am.

A typical school/work day will start off when my alarm clocks rings at 5:15am. Once up, I wash up a little, then set about cleaning the table, boiling the water and getting the boys' water bottles ready etc. Then I wake R and WY up when breakfast is ready at about 5:45am.

As R and WY eat breakfast, I go for my shower. Then it will be time to settle the lanudry (sometimes it is to put the clothes to wash, sometimes it will be to hang them out to dry). By this time, R would (have to) finish washing up the dishes and be in his shower. WY would also have been shoo'ed into his shower.

By about 6:40am or so, everyone would be dressed up and ready to set off for school. We only briefly check that WF is ok (still sleeping soundly on his bed), then we would dash off to the lift.

The journey to school via PIE is generally quite alright with only an unexplainable slow-down just outside Kallang Swimming Complex. The challenge comes when we exit at Whitley Road.

The crawl from Whitley Road to the junction where The Equatorial (which has been morphed from Hotel Equatorial) is, will take an average of 15 minutes. During this time, I will watch the dark morning sky slowly cracking up to a new, soft glow. The process seems no faster than our crawl on the jam-packed road.

When we finally turn into Bt Timah Road, the going will be a little smoother along the stretch just outside NIE. But once we hit the Bt Timah Road / Farrer Road junction, we will have to slow down once again.

Starting from Coronation Plaze (where a long line of cars waits to turn into King's Road, presumably for NYPS), it will be a slow crawl until Gate 2 of the school. In between, there will be many cars inching in from the left to the right, and from the rightto the left....

The ride up to WY's classroom block is a great relief from the jam on the road outside the school. In fact, it is nice to just look over the field and tracks, where some runners will be jogging on. What a contrast to the crazy jam just on the other side of the school fence.

After WY alights from the car, we will proceed slowly to exit at Gate 3 where the wait for our turn to go out to the main road will take an average of 5 minutes. Then to get to the U-turn and actually making the U-turn into Dunearn Road will take another 10 to 15 minutes.

All in all, we will be on Dunearn Road by about 7:20am - 7:30am. Our ERP-less ride (ERP has not been switched on yet at that time, phew!) to the office via Stevens Road, Scotts Road, Orchard Road, Penang Road and then Havelock Road and South Bridge Road (or sometimes we use Temple Street in Chinatown for this part) takes about 10 minutes.

It's refreshing to be the 1st person around my work station to arrive in the office each morning. I am still not very used to it yet, but I think I will soon; the guards at the lobby always sound very loud as they cheerfully greet me, "Good morning!" :)