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.

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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.

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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.

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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。

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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.