My Little Angels: 2009

1 + 1 + 1 = 2

My elder brother and I have never been close since young. The relationship I have with my sister only become closer when she started working and became more mature in her thinking and behaviour. It was then that we started to share responsibilities for our parents.

Being a boy and the only son in the family, my brother was spoiled rotten by my mum since young as my mum was the type of traditional woman who favours boys to girls. We grew up in the kind of home environment that as girls, we have to help out in all the housework but get no credit for it for being well-behaved and obedient. Even when we do well in school, we never get praised of. On the contrary, my brother did not have to lift a single finger to do things around the house. But when it comes to anything, my brother would get the priority. He would be at the top of my mum's mind in everything she does, even right till the time he got married and has his own family. When he has kids of his own, the love and concern my mum has for him was extended to his children in the way she loves and takes care of my nephews all these years.

Deep inside, of course we know our mum cares for us (my sis and I) a lot. It's probably just the way she shows her love and concern for us. It may not be the same explicit way as how she showed it towards my brother. Over the years, we just grew up getting used to it and living with it but still loving our good old parents the way they are.

You would probably think that my brother would grow up to be the most filial child among the 3 of us given the kind of special care and attention that was showered on him. On the contrary, he is not. In my view, he grew up to be a MCP and is one man that has no (or little) sense of responsibility towards to his family, work and life and no sense of gratitude and filial piety towards his parents who have given life to him, gone through so much to bring him up and provide for him to be what he is today.

My sister on the other hand was the more sensible one even though she was much younger than both of us. To be honest, she was the one who had influenced me to be more forgiving towards my parents for their past actions, to look at the good side of them and accept the shortcomings of their characters. This was especially so after I became a parent myself; a mother to my own children that I truly understand the love and pain of being a parent.

I know our family will never be the same again. If it has to get to this stage for my brother and sil to shoulder up the due responsibilities as parents and children, so be it. It's really sad....but life's not perfect.

I Need More Space!

Not me, it's my 3G 8G iPhone. I have been grumbling to P about the limited space in my iPhone and that I'm running out of space to store more songs, videos and photos. He must have been sick of hearing all my naggings and suggested I sell my iPhone away. He did all the work of taking pictures of my phone and posting the sale on ebay.

I didn't have much hope of closing the deal actually thinking who would want to pay S$450 (or more) for an old iPhone with limited memory space. It took 5 days for the bids to go up and guess what? At the end of 5th day, the deal was closed at S$502.50! My old iPhone was sold!

With the money I received from the sale, I paid an extra of S$6 for another iPhone, a 3Gs 32G. What a superb deal!

Grandparents' Day 2009

We celebrated Grandparents' Day with a fun-filled 1.7km walk from Chinese Garden to Science Centre Singapore this morning. Those who participated in the event were of course none other than grandparents in the family (i.e. my mum and dad), P and I and the 2 kids.

Grandparents' Day is celebrated on the fourth Sunday of November every year. The annual event is organised by the Council for Third Age, an independent organisation that promotes active ageing in Singapore.

If not for my sister who works at C3A, I don't even know we have an official day named and dedicated specially for Grandparents in Singapore.

It was a good workout for everyone. Shannon was truly amazing as she walked the same distance with us. Worried that she might be tired, I wanted to carry her but she refused to let anyone carry and insisted on walking all the way.

With concession rates to IMAX movies on this day for the Grandparents' event, we caught a show "Under the Sea" at Singapore Omni-Theatre. I never failed to enjoy the experience of watching IMAX shows with its dome screen and surround sound systems.

My Sister's Getting Wiser!

We had a small family dinner today to celebrate my sister's birthday. Such family times and gatherings together mean a lot to me, especially now that we all have our own families and living apart and busy with work and 1001 other things....

Can't tell you how old my sister is, else you would know how old I am.

My dear sister, don't worry, you are not getting older, just a little wiser.....

Primary One Orientation

Today was orientation day at Rachel's new school for both parents and new students. Rachel will start her primary one on 4 January 2010. We reached the school at 9am sharp and paid S$10 for an orientation package which consists of information materials on:

Code of Conduct
School bookshop, uniform supplier and transport
FAQs on start date of new year, school hours, proper attire, school fees etc
Things to bring on 1st day of school
How can parents help lighten the child's school bag
Mother Tongue Language
2010 Primary 1 Booklist
'Joy of Reading' booklet
'Healthy Living for Children' booklet
Report Book
Stationery
Name Tag

We were asked to complete and hand in some forms on the spot. The orientation lasted for about 2 hours. As we were leaving the school, we saw that the queue for uniforms and text books were really long. I had to come back another day to buy these and will do it on one of my leave days in the next couple of weeks.

The Jungle Book

It's Play time but not the usual ones! We went to watch "The Jungle Book" today. It was a great performance put up by the Singapore Repertory Theatre's The Little Company. It was much better than I expected from my experience of watching "The Boy Who Cried Wolf". I felt like a kid again, singing, clapping and doing actions along with the actors and actresses.

Rachel enjoyed herself too and told me she wanted to go for another play (Bear and Chicken get ready for school) showing next year as advertised on the jungle book brochure. Shannon missed the fun as she fell asleep half way through the performance because the show time was near to nap time.

I love bringing the children to concerts and theatre shows as I feel this is one way to cultivate their interests in music and arts and build up their creativity and self expression.

This is it!

I have a date with P this evening to watch Michael Jackson's movie "This Is It". It was a pair of free tickets we got from the purchase of the newly launched Sony Ericsson Satio handphone. I was never a Michael Jackson's fan; had never sat through to watch one complete music video of his, and had never understood why so many people are heads-over-heels crazy about him. I finally could understand it after the movie and was amazed at how good his dances were. The one part about him that truly touched me was his passion for all creation of life, conservation of the environment for future generations and his love for children.

It was really a pity that he had passed on. As we walked out of the threatre, P was commenting he had chosen the wrong title for his concert and should not have called it "This is it".

Family Holiday to Pangkor Island

We planned a 2D1N family holiday to Pangkor Island Resort in Malaysia over the long public holiday weekend with my parents-in-law and my 2 sisters-in-law and their family. It was a long drive to the Jetty where we had to catch a ferry to take us to the island. The first thing we did when we reached the resort was to get changed and head for the beach. The kids were really excited as they had been looking forward to this trip when we told them we were going swimming at a beach and of course they longed to see their cousins again.

We spent the whole afternoon at the beach/swimming pool and chartered a mini-van to drive us out to town for a seafood dinner. When we were back at the resort after dinner, we had wanted to go crab catching at the beach but the bad weather spoiled it all. No choice, we headed back to our rooms and called it a night. It could have been more relaxing if we had not stayed just for one night. I told P that our trip to the next resort must be a longer stay.

1st Lesson at LNT!

We have finally signed Shannon up for her 1st enrichment class at Little Neuro Tree. She took a short while to warm up but was really enjoying herself at the end of the lesson. The methodology, class structure, teaching materials of LNT are similar to that of Shichida which Rachel attended for slightly over a year when she was 2. However, the course fee is 3/4 of Shichida's. LNT focuses on right brain training of children between 3 months old to 6 years old using very creative teaching materials. I was pleasantly surprised with the standard and quality of the teacher at LNT. I will recommend LNT to my sister for Elysia.

Mooncake Festival

It was a fun-filled day for the kids today. We were at the carnival this afternoon and headed for my mum's place in the evening for dinner. Today was also the actual day for mooncake festival (or lantern festival as some called it). My mum had even prepared paper lanterns and sparklers for the children to play after dinner.

Children's Day

We brought the kids to West Coast Park for a belated Children's Day celebration. That was not the original plan. We had wanted to bring them for a bicycle ride and kite flying. When we reached the park, we realised there was a carnival going on in celebration of Children's Day. It was a perfect coincidence as Rachel had fallen ill 2 days ago and had missed the Children's Day celebration in her school.

Elysia is One!

My little niece Elysia turns one today! My sister and brother-in-law held a BIG birthday celebration for her. There were lots of people, lots of balloons, lots of food and lots of children! The function room where the party was held could almost burst!