Love Fantasee

Makan at Hwa Chong Institute...

2007-07-08T23:42:00.000+08:00

Today, we went to the Hwa Chong Institute or whatever to have dinner...

Little Day Shaan was playing with the glass door, opening and closing it...

He was really excited and making a lot of noise...

I had to carry him out of the restaurant and let him run wild...

First Step

2007-05-01T18:55:00.000+08:00

Yes! Victory!!!

What an exciting day today... Day Shaan walked his first 5 to 10 steps today and it was caught on the video cam...

Time to get some jogging shoes!

Day Shaan 1 Year Old!

2007-02-19T23:39:00.000+08:00

Today is Day Shaan's Birthday. He got a baby blue birthday cake. And he had many friends and relatives coming to celebrate with him... hehehe

Happy Birthday!!!

Back For Good

2006-05-11T18:32:00.000+08:00

After a long absence, I am back with some stuff to add. (Finally have the energy to do so...)

I have wanted to write about the following for quite some time but simply just did not have the time to and now here it is.

My dad is really a spender if he wants to be. During the confinement, he spent over $400 worth of chinese herbs for my wife in a single shopping spree. He wanted the best for my wife.

He also bought a pendant for our kid. A dog pendant from the Singapore Mint.

Now, Day Shaan, our baby boy is about 2+ months old. He is healthy (so is my wife... who has slimmed down by almost 15kg...) and making plenty of noises... especially when we talk to him... or when he wants attention...

(By the way, I just realized the little anklet with a bell allows us to hear him when he wakes up even when we are not in the same room.)

Bath Time

2006-04-21T12:52:00.000+08:00

Fanny

2006-04-12T19:10:00.000+08:00

Day Shaan has got a new friend today.

The name is Fanny, the Lion.

But I think he is more interested in his thumb.

Long Leave

2006-03-17T09:54:00.000+08:00

Finally, I have the energy to write blog again.

I have not been having much rest for the past few weeks and my eyes are getting smaller and smaller.

Recently, I met up with my friends and they said that I had slimmed down quite a lot. In fact, I had lost 7kg since our baby was born.

Anyway, I believe that it is all worth the while. Seeing the baby grow day by day is truly a satisfaction.

Pat My Back, Please

2006-03-01T21:29:00.000+08:00

My wife always burps our baby after he drinks the breast milk. Usually, she will pat the baby’s back.

Today, she patted her own stomachache.

I wonder what she was thinking.

Panda Eyes

2006-02-28T23:19:00.000+08:00

Back to work and back to panda eyes…

Yesterday, I wanted to go home at about 3.30pm. But my boss caught me at 3pm and asked me to take part in supervising the juniors.

By the time I reached home, it was 6pm. Very tired.

Music To My Ears

2006-02-27T20:58:00.000+08:00

Now, we are very familiar with our baby’s cries.

He cries when he is hungry, when he pees, when he poops and when he needs attention. So if he cries, it is definitely one of the above. (Crap!)

Anyway, he loves to listen to the Kevin Kern CD. Whenever we play the CD, the tendency of him crying will greatly be reduced. It must be because my wife listens to the CD quite often when she was pregnant.

Seems like the information in the pregnancy books that we have read really worked.

Name

2006-02-26T22:51:00.000+08:00

Finally, we have decided on our baby’s name, 劲源.

The name means a powerful source with endless energy. We also decided to give our baby an English name, Canyon. It totally fits the Chinese name of a powerful source.

We consulted everyone and nobody liked it… My dad-in-law said that names with fire element in it will be better for baby. He liked 志明. My wife and I find it a common name.

Gosh… I have been slogging for a week to find a name for him. Now I have to start all over again…

Fatty Lazy Confinement Nanny

2006-02-25T20:50:00.000+08:00

The confinement nanny is very lazy.

Our confinement nanny, who started coming on 22 Feb, is very fat and lazy. She is about 50 years old. Other than cooking the confinement food and mopping the kitchen, she didn’t really do much.

She would try to chat up my mum so that she can keep herself busy (her mouth rather than her hands.) My mum, as usual, is very friendly. Thus she will definitely entertain the confinement nanny.

Hey! Who’s paying? I thought the confinement nanny is supposed to be running to change baby’s diapers? Why is it my mum, my wife and I doing it while she reads newspaper?

Maybe I should ask her to pay me instead.

I Want Sleep

2006-02-24T22:49:00.000+08:00

Finally, it is Friday!!! I can play with baby happily… no more worries about work!!!

And I can have a longer sleep…

Mild Jaundice Only... Phew!

2006-02-23T17:48:00.000+08:00

Today, baby, my wife and I went to see the pediatrician.

At the clinic, the pediatrician said that baby has mild jaundice and he needed to be sunned. His mucus has cleared and he is well and healthy.

Great news!!!

Wake Me Up

2006-02-22T20:42:00.000+08:00

Hahaha...

My eyes are like panda’s eyes. I didn’t sleep well yesterday night as baby woke me up. He cried and I had to wake up to find out what’s wrong with him.

As compared to my wife, I was more fortunate. I only hear him cry once at night while my wife heard 3 other times. (Altogether, she woke up 4 times.)

First Day At Home

2006-02-21T22:28:00.000+08:00

Baby’s first day at home.

Finally, baby has stepped, or kind of stepped, into our house. We reached home at about 5pm. My wife didn’t want to stay in the hospital anymore, although the check out time was 5pm. She wanted to leave at about 3.30pm. (I thought initially she felt it was like hotel.)
This is the first day he is with out here with us. Not only can we see him, we can also feel and touch him.

Most important of all, we can hear him. And that is very frequent too. Hahaha!

Anyway, tonight will be the first night of many sleepless nights…

But I think it is going to be worth it.

Sinus

2006-02-20T20:16:00.000+08:00

Baby has got mucus and thus he has to stay in the hospital.

He was actually scheduled to be discharged on Monday evening. But the doctor said that he has to stay for observation.

We were wondering if it was due to the poor skills of the nurse in sucking out the mucus that our baby is suffering. However, we realized that it was the dusty curtains that made our baby sneeze.

Seems like he has inherited my wife and my sinus.

Happy Birthday, Our Baby!!!

2006-02-19T01:28:00.000+08:00

Our baby waited and waited, not really wanting to come out. Based on our gynae’s latest prediction, he would be out at about 10pm, 18 Feb 2006. Again, she was wrong in her prediction.

Our baby arrived after 12 midnight on 19 Feb 2006; lunar calendar is 22nd of the 1st month!

After much huffing and pushing, my wife was still unable to get our kid out. Finally, our gynae had to use the vacuum to suck him out from the mummy’s womb.

Finally, he was out in the world!!! All nurses hurried to suck out the liquid from his lungs so that he could catch his first breath.

Ah… there goes his first cry.

(The process of giving birth was about 10 min. But the dilation process was really long, about 1cm per hour.)

Pain As He Is Coming Out!!!

2006-02-18T20:59:00.000+08:00

The gynae has cut open the water bag! Our baby is coming out very soon!

We went to see the gynae at 2pm and she said that my wife had already dilated 2cm. (On Thursday, it was only 1cm.) The gynae told my wife to go to the hospital at about 3pm so as to get ready for delivery.

However, my wife thought otherwise. We went to have our lunch and went shopping for groceries. In the end, we arrived at the hospital at about 4.30pm to 5pm.

The gynae came at 6pm and found out that my wife had only dilated to 3cm. That was when she cut the water bag. According to her, she said that would hasten the dilation process. In addition, she also put my wife on a drip also with the purpose of quicken the dilation process. The gynae said that my wife was very tolerant as she was able to endure the pain from the contractions. It seemed like my wife need not use epidural (a pain killer).

Again, we thought otherwise. At about 7.30pm, we asked for epidural. At about 8pm, the anesthesia doctor came. He prepared and gave my wife the epidural. He said that the effect of the pain killer would only come in at about 8.30pm, half an hour later. At about 8.15pm, my wife was suddenly in huge pain. The pain from the contractions had suddenly surged to intolerable levels. My wife was in tears, crying really badly.

Fortunately, at about 8.30pm, as the doctor promised, the epidural effect kicked in. She was able to smile again.

When Is He Arriving

2006-02-17T22:49:00.000+08:00

After yesterday’s false alarm, my wife was starting to get anxious. She was wondering when our baby would arrive.

As our baby is getting heavier day by day and my wife is feeling more and more of the weight, she just hopes that the baby will pop out soon before her legs become super swollen with water retention. (Her legs are already exceptionally swollen, although all other parts of her body remain relatively normal.)

According to the gynae, our kid should come out today, but there is no movement or indication from our kid that he wants today’s date.

Guess we have to wait some more.

Baby Is Here!!!

2006-02-16T22:27:00.000+08:00

My baby is arriving!!!

My wife had contractions early in the morning at 3.30am. After that, she couldn’t sleep although I told her to. Then she tried to relax as best as she could so as to conserve energy to push later.

I carried on sleeping till 8am. My wife then called to inform her boss about the situation.

At 8.30, my wife felt a hot gush. We called up our gynecologist and told her that my wife’s water bag had burst. Our gynecologist then told my wife to get warded.

We were pretty cool about it and even went for breakfast.

After that, we admitted in to Mount Alvernia at 11.12am.

I left for lunch alone at 12.30pm and went home to sleep till 5.30pm. I then went to see my wife at the hospital.

We then checked out at 7pm. False alarm. Water bag did not burst and no more contractions. Baby not willing to arrive yet. At least my wife tried the lunch and dinner at the hospital.

Crash In To Pieces

2006-02-15T23:22:00.000+08:00

Finally, I have completed my pottery project.

Happily, I stepped in to the pottery studio ready to submit my work to my pottery teacher.

I left my work under the table, where it would never be an obstacle. Eager to submit, I bent down to take out my master piece.

To my horror, it had been shattered. The erected piece which has got an angle to it collapsed. I had no idea why was it so…

I guess the slip (glue) that I applied did not really gel the pieces together… Sigh… Redo.

And I made a new piece by sticking all the broken pieces together, titled "Appreciate Flaws".

Valentine's Day

2006-02-14T23:21:00.000+08:00

Our last Valentine’s Day…

I came home at 9.30pm with the cooking from my mum. My wife and I ate potato soup with rice.

Actually we wanted to celebrate our last Valentine’s Day together before our baby arrives. However, since my mum had already cooked for us, we decided not to waste food. We decided to appreciate it. (Actually, we were too weak and hungry to leave home to eat.)

I guess this makes the last celebration more memorable…

Irritating Deadlines

2006-02-13T23:21:00.000+08:00

Deadlines again!!!

I have not been sleeping well recently trying to clear deadlines.

Man… I am going to have a good sleep after completing all projects!

15th Day Of Chinese New Year

2006-02-12T22:19:00.000+08:00

Today is the last day for celebrating the Chinese New Year.

I went to my parents’ place for lunch and my uncle-in-law’s place for dinner.

I forgot to bring tangerines to my uncle-in-law’s place. And no one really remembered too.

Rehearsal Nightmare

2006-02-11T23:18:00.000+08:00

My friends came to my place and made a din tonight.

We rehearsed for an upcoming performance to impress but I guess it was at the expense of my neighbors.

Alwin was really in to his witch character. He was screeching at almost every line at the top of his lungs. I felt like calling the police. The rest felt he did great, which I also agreed, as he screamed… However, I felt awkward. It seemed like my neighbors would kill me.

They left my place at about 10.30pm. If they stayed till 11pm, I think the police would have visited me.

Friday Date

2006-02-10T21:17:00.000+08:00

So happy that today is a free day for me… and my wife.

My wife took leave and both of us went out on a date to places where we usually won’t go.

We went to the gynecologist for a check up. After that, we wanted to go to Hard Rock Café, a place where we hardly go to. In fact, I had only been there twice, same as my wife.

In the end, we still didn’t manage to go because we think it is too expensive.

Leadership

2006-02-09T23:39:00.000+08:00

Project work that involves many people is usually a pain in the neck. This is especially so if the project members are childish.

Simple decisions that can be made in seconds are usually dragged on and on. Discussions usually go nowhere.

In retrospect, as a project leader, I may not have managed my project members well. I think I need to read some leadership books.

Extra Marital Affairs

2006-02-08T22:22:00.000+08:00

Extra marital affairs may not be physical. It can also be emotional.

I guess I discovered that today when I saw my colleague flirting with her boss.

She had admired him for quite some time and I had always wondered if they did go out on dates. Although it should be none of my concern, I was still curious.

She is married and so is him. But they seem to put their spouses aside when they are together. Although, I choose to believe, that they did nothing physically, but the mannerism between them, I feel, is already betraying their love ones.

And yet again, who am I to say that.

New Boss

2006-02-07T23:42:00.000+08:00

Today, I met my new boss.

She seems pretty friendly. Well, at least at this instance.

Anyway, I am looking forward to work with her.

I’ll will then see her true colors.

Wish myself luck!!!

Redo...

2006-02-06T23:18:00.000+08:00

Project redo…

The project I did was thrown back to me…

Reason: I did not submit in the right format.

Solution: Look at the instructions again and redo…

Sigh…

3 Crabs

2006-02-05T23:16:00.000+08:00

Yesterday, my family celebrated the 7th day of Lunar New Year.

It was to celebrate the birthday for all human beings. A Chinese culture.

We had the 3 crabs for dinner. Chili crab, black pepper crab and crab bee hoon.

After that, we “Lau Yu Sheng”.

I didn’t eat the crabs at all because I dislike crabs. But I did eat the “Yu Sheng”.

3.1KG

2006-02-04T19:10:00.000+08:00

My baby in my wife’s tummy is 3.1kg.

We found this out today at the doctor's place.

2 weeks ago, he was only 2.5kg. Within 2 weeks, he shot up 600g.

My aunt was said previously that he was very small in comparison to other babies.

Seems like my baby wasn’t happy to hear that and has decided to prove her wrong.

I just hope that he doesn't make my wife too uncomfortable.

Cover For Tissue Box

2006-02-03T23:08:00.000+08:00

Hahaha… Finally, I have completed my porcelain cover for the tissue box.

My friends saw the cover I made during pottery class and many of them exclaimed that I should never let my child carry it with the tissue box.

It is too big and heavy to be a cover for the tissue box.

Anyway, we’ll see if it fits in the first place. It may not even be big enough to enclose the whole tissue box into it.

Cord Blood

2006-02-02T22:04:00.000+08:00

Today, my wife and I purchased the service of Cord Life.

It is about keeping the cord blood of my baby in the blood bank for emergencies and unforeseen circumstances, such as leukemia.

Based on the sales person, in such misfortunate cases, 15 million cells are used for every 1 kg. This means that if my baby boy grows to manhood of 75kg, he will need 1125 million cells to save him. However, the cord blood that can be retrieved is between 400 to 600 million cells. Mathematically speaking, the cells can only help my baby only if he does not grow beyond 40kg, which is highly impossible.

But, no matter what, having some protection for him is better than having none. I guess it is parental love. We are not taking any chances.

Sore Throat

2006-02-01T22:33:00.000+08:00

My mum just gave me a box of fried prawn rolls.

I finished all of it in 1 hour.

Now I have sore throat…

So angry with me for being so ill disciplined towards food.

Best Part Of New Year

2006-01-31T18:37:00.000+08:00

More visiting.

Went over to my ex colleague’s place, and my friend’s place.

Food, food and more good food, I simply love it!

Anyway, I think I am falling sick from eating too many New Year goodies. My throat is falling apart. I have to drink plenty of water.

Disappearing Act

2006-01-30T23:37:00.000+08:00

Yesterday, we had a short breather from the many visiting.

My wife and I managed to squeeze out an hour and have some time of our own. We went over to McDonalds at United Square, ate a brownie and drank some fruit juice and chit chatted.

Although it was brief, it was enough to help us rejuvenate. After that, we carried on with our visiting.

CNY Day One

2006-01-29T23:31:00.000+08:00

First day of New Year is always hectic.

We’ve got so many places to visit and that we have got so many pairs of hands to shake, those we are familiar with and those that we see them once every New Year.

Just do it anyway.

Survival Of The Fittest

2006-01-28T23:24:00.000+08:00

I had reunion dinner yesterday at my parents’ place.

I just had reunion dinner at my grandparents-in-law’s place.

They were a great difference.

I was stuffed at my parents’ place, enjoying the luxury of picking up the last few pieces of meat and vegetables while I didn’t really have a good meal at my in-laws place.

Not that the food at my in-laws’ wasn’t good. In fact, we had great food. We had steamboat and we had many people crowding over one stove. It was pretty difficult to try to grab anything to eat without putting up a fight.

In the end, I decided to move aside and let the rest battle for food.

I learned something from the lesson. If I am to organize a reunion dinner next time, I will not have a steamboat session unless I have plenty of stoves.

Separation

2006-01-27T22:14:00.000+08:00

I wanted to ride my motorcycle to my parents’ place and park it there.

I had gotten a parking ticket at 4am this morning and it cost me $25. Although I had avoided parking tickets for more than 2 months, and maybe it is about time to get one, getting this one still makes me feel unhappy.

I decided to park at my parents’ place to prevent getting more tickets. Wait till I buy the season parking coupon, then I will ride it back to my place.

Meanwhile, she will have to be separated from me.

CNY 2006

2006-01-26T18:14:00.000+08:00

It’s 3 more days to Chinese New Year.

All ready to receive it although we did not buy any New Year goodies.

Last year was different. We had house warming and new year together. So we did a lot of preparation. This year, we did not buy any New Year goodies as we do not expect any one to come to our house.

We will be doing a lot of visiting to relatives’ and friends’ places. In the end, it will seem like a working day rather than a holiday.

Just that there is no stress.

Bright Light

2006-01-25T23:20:00.000+08:00

Someone complained that I did not update my blog…

The reason is because my head is having pulsating pain. Stupid migraine seems to fall in love with my head and refuse to go away.

The doctor said that I should avoid bright light as it will increase the pain. And thus I am staying away from the computer monitor for some days.

Pain Pain

2006-01-24T22:16:00.000+08:00

The stupid migraine is killing me…

The reasons as according to the doctor are as follows:

Stress
Lack Of Sleep
Cheese, Chocolate or Some Food That I May Be Allergic To
Withdrawal From Too Much Coffee

I suspect that it may be due to stress and lack of sleep.

So from now on, I am going to sleep early.

Migraine

2006-01-23T18:12:00.000+08:00

Migraine.

Never had I expected to have migraine.

Went to see a doctor and took some medicine.

Hope to recover fast.

Headache

2006-01-22T23:10:00.000+08:00

I woke up with a headache…

Took Panadol to try to stop the pain.

Attended my family reunion dinner…

By night, the headache was still bad…

Baby Check Up

2006-01-21T22:09:00.000+08:00

Today, our baby’s checkup was pretty exciting.

Our baby is 2.5kg, and still growing.

Our doctor advised us not to deliver on Chinese New Year because she was going back to Malaysia to do visiting. We hope we can grant her wish.

Anyway, the baby should be staying in the womb for about 4 more weeks.

By then, I should have him in my arms.

Day Off

2006-01-20T23:07:00.000+08:00

A day off is used for running errands and so I did just that.

Paid dog’s license.

Check up on different housing bank loan packages from different banks.

Shopped for baby stuffs.

Attended the last baby preparation lesson.

Home Improvement

2006-01-19T23:53:00.000+08:00

Today, I found new hope in my pursuit of having a dream house.

I am very excited about it and I am working towards it. The plan seems super feasible because I have given a lot of buffer for error.

It better work!!!

Clay Improvement

2006-01-18T22:47:00.000+08:00

Very tired from pottery class.

Finally, I have completed some pieces.

After 1 failed attempt to make a rounded vase, and 4 to 5 failed attempts to stretch the clay, I have finally completed 1 rounded vase and 3 mugs.

Ready to proceed to the kiln next week.

Ha! Ha! Ha!

(Hopefully the pieces will not explode in the kiln due to the trap air bubbles.)

Never Ending Deadlines

2006-01-17T23:46:00.000+08:00

Clearing deadlines I do best.

One after another I’m put to the test.

I press and punch and move my fingers.

I print and print till no more papers.

But as a seasoned procrastinator,

All’s done and given to the trainer.

Banks Make Mistakes Too!

2006-01-16T22:28:00.000+08:00

Dealings with banks: Please read carefully before signing on the dotted line. Upon signing on the dotted line, request for a copy of it. And keep it with love and care.

Reason: Banks may give a wrong or outdated form to fill up. When you discover the mistake and that they bill wrongly, the filed copy will then be a timely piece of evidence for self protection. May bring up to C.A.S.E. and file as a case of misrepresentation and ask for compensation against the bank.

Unity Beats Solitary

2006-01-15T23:07:00.000+08:00

It is important to stay united among siblings.

As the old saying goes… well, I don’t know what is the old saying actually…

But I have heard of the story of a single chopstick that can easily be broken while a bunch of chopsticks will not.

In short, a family is actually like a company. If a company cannot function as a unit, they will not be competitive and eventually have to be dissolved. Same for a family. If the family is not united, there can be many selfish disputes over trivial matters. And eventually the family will split.

However, the opposite is true. If a company has employees that are totally united and work for the benefit of the company, the company, through selfless contributions, will eventually prosper and so does the bonuses of individuals.

As for a family, if the family members stay united and work together to keep the family close knitted, then the relationship will blossom and everyone will be emotionally accomplished. If the family works together, through synergy and selfless contributions, the family will prosper much faster than a family of solo effort.

Do the math and one can see easily that unity beats solitary.

Beware Of Some Banks

2006-01-14T22:46:00.000+08:00

If you have a debt of $2000/- and you write a cheque of $2000/- together with a letter of notice to clear all your debt, do you expect the bank to take your $2000/- to open a new account while continue charging you high interest for the debt owed?

Confused?

Debt : $2000 owed
Cheque : $2000 to clear debt
Letter of Notice to clear debt stapled together with cheque.
Bank takes the $2000 to open a new account for you without your notice.
Bank currently carries on charging you interest for the $2000 owed because you did not repay your debt.

What’s going on???

Beware of some banks… better check all letters sent to you from them and also the monthly statements.

Never Use Standard Chartered

2006-01-13T23:15:00.000+08:00

Standard Chartered.

I will NEVER have any dealings with them.

Reliable bank? No comments. Reliable 24 Hrs customer hotline? No comments. Reliable billings of credit card? No comments. Lost my Standard Chartered credit card and expect to be able to seek help from them? No comments.

In Love

2006-01-12T23:57:00.000+08:00

FF, my friend, seemed to have a crush on our pottery teacher.

She always giggles whenever he speaks and apparently, she is the only one laughing at his jokes.

Yes, I agree that he is good looking and very charming, however, we should focus on the lesson, isn’t it?

Anyway, it is none of my concern and I should mind my own business.

Pottery Is An Art

2006-01-11T23:13:00.000+08:00

Pottery is an art.

The feeling of caressing the soft moist clay in the palm of one’s hand makes one feel sensuous.

The molding of the elastic clay is ever so fragile that requires one’s delicate touch to bring out its fullest form but yet understanding the subtle weakness.

Frankly speaking, no words can describe the experience. Just simply try pottery. (Have to have very short nails but it’s worth it.)

On Diet

2006-01-10T23:06:00.000+08:00

Poor Almond and Berry.

Almond and Berry, my 2 dogs, currently forcefully adopted by my dad, were overweight. Right now, they are on diet.

My dad used to feed both of them 1.5 cups of food twice a day. Now, he feeds them 1 cup of food twice a day.

This morning, my dad discovered that part of his rattan chair had been chewed off. It wasn’t for fun. It was for food. Almond had gotten so hungry that he decided to have rattan for appetizer.

Currently, the rattan chair has only 3.5 legs.

Ah Lam, What Happened?

2006-01-09T23:03:00.000+08:00

I am worn out today.

I had driven more than 100km today traveling around the island from my house to my wife’s office to my work place and from my work place to my parent’s place to my wife’s office and then to her boss’ place and then and then and then…

I waited for my wife who loved her work so dearly that I had to wait till 9pm with an empty stomach. I then had to fetch her boss home. (Actually it was on the way to our dinner place.) I was going to faint.

When we finally reached our destination, Ah Lam Abalone Soup coffee shop, it was not open for the day. We were utterly disappointed. We were totally lost. We were famished.

In the end, we simply went to the nearest available place and grab something to eat. Or we may have starved to death.

Allergy

2006-01-08T23:03:00.000+08:00

It has been raining for the whole day.

The weather was cooling but it was a chore to leave home running errands. I had to carry the umbrella whenever I leave a sheltered area. My sandals would then be soaking wet from the accidental steps in to the puddles of water on the irregular ground. The feeling was yucky.

The feeling was worse when I returned home with rashes. I never had body rashes but today, nightmare began in the day. I had no clue of how I got them as I believed that I was allergic to nothing. I thought it might be the rain, THE ACID RAIN. But it sounded rather crappy to me.

Anyway, I quickly went to take a bath upon reaching home. After the bath, the rash disappeared. My wife suspected that it could be the food I ate yesterday that caused the rash. We couldn’t figure exactly what food it was, until I ate a pork bun, 大肉包, which I bought yesterday. I started developing the rash again.

It seemed ridiculous that I get an allergy from the pork bun as I had eaten it so many times before. In the end, we concluded that the pork bun was contaminated. With what? I prefer not to know.

Movie Marathon

2006-01-07T23:37:00.000+08:00

Today, we had movie marathon at night.

We watched:
Joseph, King of Dreams, by DreamWorks,
Shall We Dance?, acted by Richard Gere, Jennifer Lopez and Susan Sarandon, and
Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, acted by Harrison Ford.

We didn’t quite complete the third movie as our eye lids were becoming heavy.

In the end, we watched for an hour of Indiana Jones and went to sleep.

Hair Cut

2006-01-06T22:39:00.000+08:00

For days, my wife and friends had been harping about my hair. They had been asking me to cut my hair as my hair was growing messy.

As I have a goal of not spending much on my hair per year, I have to keep my hair to the longest bearable length before visiting the barber. And every time I visits the barber, I would ask for the crew cut.

I calculated that if I were to spent $9 per trip to the barber, and 4 trips a year, I would only spend $36 as compared to some of my friends who visit the saloon once a month at $30 per trip. I felt that it would be much better to visit the barber than going to a saloon and have a hairdo that could last only for a month before the next touch up is required.

I also save on the amount of shampoo used. Cost effective totally... (Anyway, I had my hair cut today. Next trip to the barber would be around April or May period.)

Food!!!

2006-01-05T23:45:00.000+08:00

My sisters took the opportunity of the absence of my parents to play mahjong. (They went Genting to make money again.)

And they ordered pizza… something I had not have for a long time.

I am really envious of them…

Not the mahjong but the gluttony. I AM GOING TO HAVE PIZZA, DRUMLETS, FRIES, OTAH, LUCKY PLATE THIS WEEKEND!!! (In my dreams…)

Pottery

2006-01-04T20:53:00.000+08:00

Pottery is something I had never thought of learning. However, due to unforeseen circumstances, I am having pottery lessons. And it is really interesting.

Hasan, my instructor, looked like my friend Lik Wuk. The mannerism, the speech, even the looks resembled each other. Both are artist, one is a potter, while the other is a violinist. Anyway, I thought Hasan was pretty handsome and charming.

Half way through the course, however, he started being sarcastic to other learners and during the break, there was a private outburst of disapproval of him. The learners felt that he was arrogant and disliked his actions.

I couldn’t say he is arrogant. I would say that he is proud of his profession. I would say that he has an artistic air in his gestures and he really knows his stuff. In fact, I admire him for being able to be do what he is passionate about, enjoying pottery and teaching at the same time.

Not everyone gets to do what they love for a living.

Lisa Victoria Koh

2006-01-03T15:38:00.000+08:00

My friend Lisa Victoria Koh did the stupidest thing today.

She wanted to reserve the usage of a computer so she went over to the booking counter and tried to reserve one. This was her first time booking a computer.

She slid her identification card across the card reader. The screen changed to show a map of computers for her to select. She touched the screen to select the computer she wanted to reserve. There was no reaction from the computer screen. She then tried touching the computer screen again. There was again no reaction. Not giving up easily, she tried again and still there was no reaction.

Finally, she noticed that there was a mouse just beside the booking counter.

Start Work

2006-01-03T15:32:00.000+08:00

Started work today…

Sigh…

After a long break, I had difficulty restarting my engine.

Well… what needs to be done has to be done… so here I am…

Mattress And Cot

2006-01-02T15:24:00.000+08:00

My wife’s boss gave us a baby mattress and a cot recently. As the mattress was pretty old, we decided to throw it away and buy a new one.

We measured the dimensions of the mattress before throwing it away and we happily set off to purchase the replacement yesterday. After arriving home, my wife took the mattress and placed it into the cot. To her surprise, the mattress did not fit.

Why in the world did her boss give us a mattress that did not fit the cot? Anyway, we found it comical and went to take the actual measurement of the cot. Then we took the mattress and exchanged for one of the right size today.

Welcome 2006!!!

2006-01-01T23:17:00.000+08:00

Happy New Year 2006!!!

Today is the first day of 2006. Plenty of excitement ahead.

My wife and I wanted to try the breakfast at Sloane Court Hotel. Upon arriving, it was already 11.30am. At the main entrance, we were greeted with an Old English styled cottage. It was pretty inviting on the outside. However, when we stepped into the hotel, it was REALLY OLD. And a bit dirty too. It felt more like going to someone’s place rather than a hotel.

We walked into the hotel’s restaurant and were told that there would be no ala carte today and only set lunch would be served as it was a holiday. What kind of a hotel is this? But we were fine with the arrangement and placed our order.

After having our meal, when we were about to leave, we found out that 2 groups of people were having ala carte. We were told that there would be no ala carte today, then why were these people having ala carte?

Although we felt puzzled and a little bit of injustice, we decided not to spoil our day with petty matters. Just that we wouldn’t return for long while.

The rest of the day was pretty hectic. We did household chores and bought stuff for our baby boy. Really tired now.

Last Day Of Year 2005

2005-12-31T18:03:00.000+08:00

Another year is about to disappear, never to see the light of the day again.

Year 2005 will never be reinstated, joining its predecessor, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001, 2000, 1999, 1998 and many more years.

How time flies since we celebrated the crossover of the Millennium, Year 1999 to Year 2000. And now, no one bothers about it anymore.

Although people are still celebrating the countdown, I sometimes really wonder, do they really have to do it? What is there to celebrate that something will never be here again? Do we celebrate the lost of our love ones? Do we celebrate the lost of our friends? Do we celebrate the lost of our jobs and business contracts? We do not celebrate the lost of anything unless that something causes us pain and sufferings, for example, the lost of a cancerous tumor from our body.

We have taken time for granted, thinking that it will be here forever. But this is not true. Time is always counting down, leaving our grasp. The next blink of an eye, another year would have passed. Do we really wish that time flies?

Personally, I feel that time have passed too quickly. And I would love to slow it down. However, I know that this is impossible and hence, I just have to make full use of the present remaining time and savor the last few moments with Year 2005.

After Year 2005 has gone, I will then fully embrace the new birth of Year 2006.

Finally, We Are Punctual!

2005-12-30T21:48:00.000+08:00

Finally, my wife and I were early for today’s course at Mount Alvernia Hospital. Today is the fourth lesson. (We had been late for the past 3 lessons.)

We reached the hospital at 6.15pm, 15 min before the course started. As we were early, my wife went to the ATM machine to draw some cash.

It was about 6.30pm. We strolled into the seminar room and found out that we were the first. As the room was unlit, I turned on the lights and the air-con to wait for the rest of the participants. We waited. And waited. And waited.

Finding it rather usual, I called the reception to verify today’s course venue. The reception told me that there was no course today. The course will only resume next week, as stated in our previous handout.

For once, we were punctual. Too punctual. In fact, we arrived a week before the actual course date which is on 6 Jan 2006.

Manly

2005-12-29T22:36:00.000+08:00

My dad and I went into Johor, Malaysia today.

He wanted to show me City Square, Lakin Bus Interchange and the route to Tuas second link. He had planned the itinerary and all I needed to do was to follow him around. Basically, he was the Boss, the Tour Guide, the Man for the Day.

When we left City Square, we somehow talked about Giant, the hypermarket. As I had not been to Giant in Malaysia before, he spontaneously decided to deviate from the plan and bring me there. While we waited for the bus to Giant at the bus stop, a man signaled discreetly to my dad that he had forgotten to zip his pants. With lightning speed, my dad used me as a shield and zipped up his pants. After that, he looked embarrassed. Nevertheless, he honorably thanked the man.

When we reached Giant, we shopped around for a while. Somehow, I jokingly reminded my dad of the glaring incident. And I noticed that his pants were unzipped again! I told him and he quickly pulled up the zipper and carried on walking, hoping that no one noticed. However, I told him that although he had pulled up the zipper, his pants were still unzipped. This was because the zipper had been broken.

In the end, we had to walk around Giant looking for a new pair of pants for my dad to change into. Before finding the replacement pants, most of the time, my dad had to totter around with his hands covering the hole, feeling very edgy. (After changing into his new pants, he was as jovial as before.)

Indeed, my dad have proven that he is the MAN. Ha! Ha! Ha!

Outback Catch Up

2005-12-28T23:36:00.000+08:00

Today, we had dinner with our ex-colleague, Jan, and ex-school mate, Yee Hwee.

We arrived at Outback Restaurant at about 7.15pm, late as usual. Jan and Yee Hwee had already arrived.

We placed our orders and did some catching up while waiting for the food. It was a happy occasion for all of us as we had not seen each other for quite some time.

The dishes arrived after some time. We were all very hungry by then. The food at Outback was great. However the service wasn’t the same standard as the food. All the waiters and waitresses walked around with their heads focused on the floor instead of the vigorous waving hands. We couldn’t blame them as they were really busy. They were moving from table to table with ever arriving dishes.

I wanted to ask for Tabasco sauce and started waving my hands frantically. It didn’t help to get their attention. I decided to walk up to a waiter and asked from him. He then walked towards the sauce cabinet. I followed him, afraid that he might forget my request. He searched his sauce cabinet and couldn’t find any Tabasco bottle. In the end, he walked into the kitchen and brought me a huge bottle of Tabasco sauce.

I presumed the chef didn’t need to use it at the moment.

Never Say Die Attitude

2005-12-27T23:06:00.000+08:00

KK Fong, ex-CEO of Xpress Print, the company that my friend, May, used to work for, is back in town.

When May was working for Xpress Print, she told me that her boss, KK Fong, was going bankrupt. It came true. He owed a debt of 80 million dollars. This is not the first time he had been bankrupt.

After more than 4 years, KK Fong is back. He had cleared his debt of 80 million dollars in 4 years. This is also not the first time he had come back from bankruptcy.

Simply impressive. He can make 80 million dollars in 4 years to repay his debt. Giving him another 4 years, he will make another 80 million dollars to give himself an option to retire.

Simply a fighter. Always learning. Never say die attitude.

"Four years I've disappeared from the scene, hiding in China, learning how to do business with China." - Mr KK Fong

Boxing Day

2005-12-26T23:06:00.000+08:00

Today, my wife and I attended a post Christmas party at our friend, Gary’s place. (Maybe I should call it a belated Christmas party.)

We had wonderful lunch prepared by Gary, his mum and his 2 maids. Gary is a great cook. He often hosts parties and cooks for us.

Although we had curry for 2 consecutive days and today we had curry again, (which meant that we had curry for 3 consecutive days), today’s curry was the best. The curry powder wasn’t premixed. It was his mum’s secret recipe. She bought the various spices, mixed them in calculated proportions and delivered the yummy curry chicken.

The roast chicken tasted fantastic too. Gary marinated the chicken and roasted it till golden brown. The chicken was crispy on the outside but juicy and tender on the inside.

Anyway, the variety of dishes was great.

We then had gift exchange and we got a porcupine mobile phone holder.

Curry Flavor

2005-12-25T14:40:00.000+08:00

Yesterday, we had a dinner party at my parents’ place.

I wanted to cook curry to surprise my parents. So with the intention, I went to purchase all the ingredients and started preparing the dish. It was 5pm.

By 7pm, the fragrance of my curry dish filled the whole kitchen. I tasted my curry dish and discovered that it was pathetically tasteless. Oh no!!!

I rushed to the nearest NTUC and purchased 2 more packets of curry sauce and poured them into the pot. By 8pm, my curry dish was still very watery.

In the end, I went to my parents’ place without bringing the curry dish.

But today, after boiling for so long, the curry dish is finally ready!!! And I just had it for lunch. Ha! Taste great!

Ideal House

2005-12-24T22:32:00.000+08:00

Today, my wife and I discovered the kind of ideal house we would want in the future.

We went to our auntie’s place at Serangoon Garden today and drove around the estate. Our tour led to the discovery of a few houses we liked there.

Whenever we saw those houses, we would exclaim that we loved the house. However, we were not able to identify the reason.

After loitering around the estate for about an hour, we were beginning to see the similarity between the houses we liked and the houses that we dislike.

We found out that we love to have a big plot of land for the garden, while the house itself can be small. It would be best if the house is an island sitting in the middle of an ocean of grass, with a shrubbery boundary to provide privacy. Then our dogs can roam around freely.

We’ll work towards that.

Gift

2005-12-23T21:25:00.000+08:00

Today is our wedding anniversary. My wife gave me a gift that touched me to tears.

She woke up at 6am yesterday to finish the gift. However, she was unable to complete it. It was so last minute that she had to complete it late at night. She then gave it to me at 12 midnight. Although it was quite a task for my wife, I was completely oblivious of her intention.

I woke up at 7am by the noise of the alarm clock. In my blurred awakening, I saw my wife scrambling into the room telling me to carry on sleeping. Without any queries or suspicions, I more than willing went back to sleep. (She was actually making the gift and she was afraid that I might find out.)

I finally woke up at 10am. My wife told me that she wanted to develop some photographs before breakfast and told me to wait for her at our car after I had washed up.

At night, about 8.30pm, while we were at my parents’ place, she wanted me to go and collect the photographs. We reached the developer at 9pm. The developer was about to retire for the day.

When we reached home, I took the bath first, while my wife kept herself busy with “something”.

At 12 midnight, she gave me the gift. When I ripped the wrapping paper to pieces, I saw the cover of a sketch book. I thought she knew that I liked to draw and had given me a sketch book to express my unappreciated artwork. When I opened the book, I discovered that it was actually a photo album. As I flipped through the pages, it unfolded our past, our rocky journey of plenty of ups and downs together.

At the end of the album, my eyes were moist. The effort and the meaning behind the gift was simply beyond the description of words.

I love you, Darling.

冬至

2005-12-22T22:09:00.000+08:00

Today is 冬至.

My wife and I went to my parents’ place for dinner and had rice balls.

But before that, we woke up at 9am, had breakfast at 10am, and went to the crematorium to pay respects to my 外婆, Ah Mah.

After that, we went to meet up with my wife’s friend and passed her some Christmas presents.

At lunch time, we met up with my friends and had lunch at Swenson’s until about 2pm.

We then went to Bishan Junction 8 to purchase clothes. We wanted to catch a movie, but it was sold out.

Finally, we arrived at my parents’ place for dinner.

On the move for the whole day. Feeling pretty tired now.

Silent Killer - Trans Fat

2005-12-21T17:52:00.000+08:00

Trans Fat is an insidious killer. It hides in every corner, even in the most healthy and common source of food assumed for breakfast, the WHOLEMEAL BREAD.

What is Trans Fat? I did some research and below is a short description I found.

There are four kinds of fats: monounsaturated fat, polyunsaturated fat, saturated fat, and trans fat. Monounsaturated fat and polyunsaturated fat are the "good" fats. It is generally accepted that consumption of saturated fat should be kept low, especially for adults. Trans fat (which means trans fatty acids) is the worst kind of fat, far worse than saturated fat.

Trans fat is found in partially hydrogenated oil. Partial hydrogenation is an industrial process used to make a perfectly good oil, such as soybean oil, into a perfectly bad oil. Why do they convert good oil into bad oil? For economic reasons!!! The process is used to make an oil more solid; provide longer shelf-life in baked products; provide longer fry-life for cooking oils, and provide a certain kind of texture or "mouth feel".

Partially hydrogenated oils are commonly found in processed foods like commercial baked products such as cookies, cakes and crackers, and even in bread. They are also used as cooking oils (called "liquid shortening") for frying in restaurants.

In short, as long as you see “partially hydrogenated oil” or "hydrogenated oil" in the ingredients write up, do not purchase the product. Unless you want to shorten your life. Buy only "unhydrogenated oil" food.

Not sure about vegetable shortening though...

The Result

2005-12-20T14:16:00.000+08:00

Yesterday, the test results were out.

I had been worrying about my test results for the past couple of weeks. As I did not read the test question properly, and thus answered incorrectly, I thought that I might fail my test. I was quite afraid to find out my grades.

However, what needs to be done, has to be done. I logged on to the network and checked my results.

D+

I read on to find out if D+ meant failure.

I passed!!!

Ha! Ha! Ha! What a relief!!!

I went to the temple, 四马路观音堂, to thank my God this morning.

Dinner

2005-12-19T21:04:00.000+08:00

Today, I prepared dinner.

I cooked pork chop, tomato based potato cubes with sliced lean pork, and China Broccoli. I had wanted to cook for a long time and had not have the chance to do so. Finally, I had the time.

I bought the pork at NTUC yesterday. Fortunately, I did not wait till today to purchase the pork as there would be no pork in the market every Monday. Anyway, I took 1.5 hrs to prepare the ingredients.

This is usually the case. The preparation takes a long time, while the actual cooking time is quite short.

In the end, the cooking time was about 20 minutes. After dinner, my wife said that my cooking had improved.

Female Bully

2005-12-18T23:54:00.000+08:00

My female red eared terrapin is attacking my male red eared terrapin.

It bit the male till it had wounds at his neck. I had just transferred them from their small tank to a big tank and it seemed like the female was trying to boss the male around.

I was so frustrated, I put the female back into the small tank. In doing so, I hope the female learned her lesson at the same time, allow the male time to recuperate from his injury.

Now, the male is not really moving, hiding in his shell for most of the time. While the female seemed to be oblivious of the punishment.

Packed Day

2005-12-17T23:50:00.000+08:00

0830 I wake up and wash up
0900 Wife wake up and wash up
0945 Set off for breakfast at Serangoon North
1015 Shop at NTUC
1030 Went Rainbow Aquarium to scout for rock to decorate terrapin aquarium
1100 Found none and went to plastic firm to collect custom made acrylic cover
1130 I fix up aquarium while my wife prepare food for dinner
1200 I start to mop floor
1230 My wife start to pack clothes for Salvation Army
1300 Both of us ready to go out for lunch
1400 Reach Far East Florist shop for present for my wife’s colleague birthday
1500 Reach Thomson Shopping Center to scout for rock
1600 Went back to Far East Florist to purchase rock
1630 Met my wife’s boss at Far East Florist
1700 Reach home and thunder storm
1800 Eat dinner at home
1900 Clear up, bath, read books
2100 Set off for Suntec Carrefour as there was a super big discount at 10pm
2130 Reach Suntec and my wife ate Swenson’s ice cream
2200 Reach Suntec Carrefour and the queue was super long
2201 Decide to go home
2230 Reach home
2245 Watch “Taking Lives” till 1.20am
0125 Lights out

In The World Of Your Own

2005-12-16T23:14:00.000+08:00

People nowadays are getting more and more inconsiderate.

Is this because of the direction of our society? The “I win, you lose” mindset? The “me and myself” mentality? The Kiasu syndrome?

This evening, I went to Mount Alvernia Hospital with my wife to attend our baby preparation course. When we arrived, the room was quite packed with couples. There were mats placed on the floor for each pregnant lady to sit on and utilize at the latter part of today’s course. My wife settled down comfortably on a mat, while I stood behind her.

As the session began, more and more pregnant ladies walked into the room. The room became so packed that some of the ladies did not have an area to learn and practice the skills taught by the doctor. They had to stand at one corner and quietly observe. How could the hospital be so inconsiderate by scheduling so many ladies in one session but yet provide insufficient facilities? Were they trying to maximize their profits?

Then half way through the session, mobile phones started to ring, one after another. Please people! The doctor is trying to educate the couples. Shouldn’t they be considerate enough to switch their mobile phones to silent mode before the course started? With all these disturbances, it’s just like mobile phones ringing, and people talking loudly, while you are watching movie in the cinema.

Last complaint. During break time, all the people rushed out to grab the finger food provided. Milo packets and hot water were catered but insufficient. Reason was because people were taking 2 and 3 packets for ONE CUP. I overheard one guy saying that he liked his Milo thick.

Although I was fuming over all these events, I felt that I had to let go. After all, I am living in a society. If I am unhappy, I should migrate.

Road Reflexes

2005-12-15T21:43:00.000+08:00

Today, my wife and I almost had several traffic accidents.

First incident. My wife was almost knocked down by a speeding cyclist from behind when she stepped out of the car. The inconsiderate cyclist simply ignored my wife and zoomed past her. Had my wife not darted away just in time, her heavily burdened body would crash onto the ground.

Second incident. I was at a cross junction waiting to make a right turn. I had lighted my right signal light. As the oncoming traffic dwindled to almost zero, I engaged first gear, ready to move off. An oncoming truck signaling left approached the junction. Thinking that the truck would turn left, I inched slowly forward to turn right. But the truck wasn’t turning left even though it had its left signal light switched on. I was stunned. To avoid an accident, I revved my car and charge across the junction. The truck high beamed me. After high beaming me, the truck’s left signal light turned off. I guessed he realized that he had forgotten to switch off his signal light. (I was just telling my sister about being careful of drivers forgetting to switch off their signal lights earlier on.)

Third incident. As I was driving my wife home on the third lane, using the rear view mirror, I saw a fast approaching taxi. I moved to the second lane, giving way to it. Somehow, it moved left to the second lane too. It then moved to the first lane trying to overtake me. Failing to see that there was a parked vehicle on the first lane, the taxi jammed break. However, the distance wasn’t far enough to avoid an accident with the parked vehicle, thus the taxi swerved towards the second lane. Observing his reckless driving, I quickly moved to the third lane to allow it space to move into the second lane.

Fourth incident. Along the same way back, sigh. Enough said.

I guess today is a day to test my wife and my reflexes. Fortunately, we are not senile yet.

Flash

2005-12-14T16:05:00.000+08:00

Finally, the Flash lesson has ended.

After 2 and a half days of abusing my brain, finally, it can take a break. The instructor was not very good. He had problems answering our questions. He even had problems showing us demonstrations. In short, he had problems everywhere.

In the end, we spent most of the time learning on our own and troubleshooting our own questions.

When the class finally ended, a feedback form was given to us to fill in. I wanted to write negative comments about him, but I was afraid that it might cause him to lose his job. Yet, if I were to fill in neutral comments, it would go against my conscience. Thus, I did not fill up the feedback form.

Forget it, just go and borrow an instruction manual on Flash from the library.

Speeding Ticket?

2005-12-13T17:58:00.000+08:00

I was feeling really drowsy after taking the flu medication and was rushing home, from work, to get some sleep.

On my way home, traveling at about 110km/h, I spotted a traffic police vehicle by the road side. Immediately, I jammed my brake, reducing the speed to about 90km/h.

Somehow, I instinctively looked at the top of an overhead bridge. I saw a traffic policeman looking through some gadget. Seems like some speed checking device to me.

At that very instant, I got this ill feeling that I would be getting a speeding ticket. I felt unfair. Why am I so unlucky?

When I went home and told my wife about the incident, she said that if I had not sped, I would not get any tickets. It was brought upon me by myself. She sounded harsh but I knew what she said was right.

上得山多终遇虎

Christmas Flu

2005-12-12T20:03:00.000+08:00

Rightly deserved, I was down with flu and sore throat.

All thanks to my uncontrollable greed. I finished a packet of peanuts in about half an hour. After that, I did not drink any liquid to quench my thirst.

The result... bedridden.

Confinement Lady

2005-12-11T22:02:00.000+08:00

Today, we interviewed the confinement lady that we were about to engage.

The appointment was at 3pm. At about 2.40pm, the doorbell rang. Upon opening the door, we saw a stout lady in her late 40s, early 50s, smiling at us. She introduced herself as Sally, the agent.

As we had converse before, we let Sally into the house. After getting seated, she told us that we would not be meeting the confinement lady today. Her reason was that she was afraid that after meeting the confinement lady, we might go direct to engage the confinement lady rather than through her. As she had such bad experiences, unethical clients, before, she thought that it would be better that we could confirm all details prior to seeing the lady.

Giving us her assurance, we listened to her sales pitch. After about an hour of selling, my wife and I felt that her service was fine and that she sounded reliable. However, I felt a little uncomfortable. I wanted her to clarify the responsibilities of the confinement lady in the presence of the lady, my wife and myself, so that there would not be any misunderstanding on what to do and what not to do.

Sally agreed and she will be here to brief the confinement lady on the first day she works.

KK Hospital

2005-12-10T21:13:00.000+08:00

Today was a tiring day. My wife had to represent her company to go to KK Hospital to do some volunteer work for the children.

Unknown to me, she had volunteered me too. So I tagged along as if I was one of her company’s employees.

Acting as a photographer, I tried taking plenty of shots at whatever I could capture in pictorial format. While I was busy entertaining myself, my wife told me to snap a picture of her later on when she was going to present a cheque to KK Hospital on stage. I acknowledged.

At the crucial moment, when my wife presented the cheque to some doctor from KK Hospital, the flash didn’t work. The battery had run low. I managed to scramble 2 shots but not really great ones.

Hope she doesn’t mind.

Cord Blood Banking

2005-12-09T22:11:00.000+08:00

It was 6.30pm. I was still on the road with my wife, heading towards Mount Alvernia to attend a seminar on pregnancy which was to start at 6.30pm

All thanks to my workaholic wife, we were late for the seminar. We went into the seminar room, disturbing the speaker, in my opinion, although she just carried on as if we invisibly joined the audience.

After about 1 hr, we had a break. It was a well deserved one too. My wife and I were very tired and were not really paying attention to the speaker as she was talking about what to eat during the first trimester. We were already in the last trimester. Anyway, we somehow ended up joking about chicken milk. Yes. CHICKEN MILK.

When the second part of the seminar ended, the speaker told the audience to stay back because there would be an external speaker (not part of the seminar) coming in to talk about cord blood banking. That was the interesting part that we would like to find out. Apparently, this bank could offer plenty of benefits. But by that time, most of the audience had left.

In the end, only 2 people stayed and spoke to the second speaker about cord blood banking. And they were my wife and me.

False Alarm

2005-12-08T23:36:00.000+08:00

Agonizing day at the Authorware course. Don’t bother to describe. It will only make me more demoralized. (As usual, the girls of rough, impenetrable brick like skin did it again.)

Anyway, today, a horrifying incident happened. Berry bled!

In the middle of the course, my elder sister message me telling me that Berry’s wound was bleeding and they were going to send her to the Animal Clinic. I was pretty worried. As I was in the middle of the course, I couldn’t leave. (If I go off, I need to compensate the company for failure of attendance.)

I was in a dilemma. What should I do?

At the earliest break, I quickly called my sister and asked her about Berry’s condition. She told me that it was just a tiny little bit of blood.

Later on, I discovered that it wasn’t blood at all, just the redness of her wound. Sigh. What a scare.

Gifts Of The Gaps

2005-12-07T21:34:00.000+08:00

Today, I attended a course on Authorware.

The course content was really heavy compared to yesterday’s Publisher. As usual, I was late for about half an hour. But I was quick to settle in. Very soon, it was lunch time.

I thought the second session after lunch was going to be tough too. But I was wrong. The course content was not the toughest to handle. It was the gaps of the 2 girls sitting beside me that I had problem managing.

The 2 girls were talking so loudly that I had to strain my ears to listen to the instructor. Furthermore, they had the cheek to ask the instructor to repeat his instructions every time they failed to follow the lesson.

Later, the instructor passed around a packet of sweets to all the trainees. He was very kind to do so as he understood that we were pretty brain dead and we needed something to keep our mind fresh.

After going one round, there was still about three quarters of sweets in the packet. Seeing that everyone had taken one sweet, one of the girls quickly grabbed the packet from the instructor and placed that packet at their table. Like greedy pigs, they started to unwrap the sweets one after another. (Not that the sweet tasted great.)

The 2 girls were simply gross. Not only did they talk loudly, being inconsiderate to the people around them, they simply went on to the extreme to abuse the kindness of the instructor. Oh, come on! The poor instructor did not even eat a single sweet, ironically, which belonged to him.

In conclusion, it is a 2 day course. I wonder how am I going to face them tomorrow.

Publisher

2005-12-06T21:18:00.000+08:00

I learned how to use the Publisher today.

It was not a difficult software to pick up for anyone with knowledge of Word, Excel and PowerPoint. I learned the gist in about four hours.

With a few clicks, a newsletter was out. Then an invitation card was ready to be sent. After that, I completed a calendar for the year 2006. Finally, I did up certificates using mail merge.

Not too bad for a beginner.

Berry

2005-12-05T22:04:00.000+08:00

Today is a very sad day. Berry was brought to The Animal Clinic to be sterilized.

Berry, the Golden Retriever, was a gorgeous lady. She had this elegance in her that made her different from other dogs, especially greedy Almond. Berry acts like a cat sometimes, classy and proud. Often, she takes things at her own stride, sometimes ignoring us.

We bought Berry with the intention of breeding her with Almond. However, as Almond was not well physically, we had to sterilize him. I wanted to mate Berry with another Golden Retriever as I felt that her genes was pretty good. However, my dad thought otherwise. He wanted her to be sterilized. He felt that there was not enough space for more dogs and also there would be too many dogs to handle. Also, if Berry was not sterilized and not mated, she would get cancer easily at the later stage of her life.

I felt angry with myself for not being able to purchase a plot of land for them to run around freely and breed naturally.

Berry is different. And now that difference will end with her when she grows old and dies.

Sports Exhibition

2005-12-04T23:02:00.000+08:00

Today, my wife and I went to Suntec City to see the sports exhibition.

Upon arrival, we were fascinated by the inline hockey event. Players were skating around gracefully, yet challenging one another for the puck. It was heart pumping, adrenalin rushing as I watched the game.

Later, we moved on to other booths. There was a trial diving pool booth, where people were able to try out scuba diving. Although it looked quite stupid to dive in a tank, I guessed it was the closest to experiencing diving in a training pool.

Anyway, there were other concurrent events happening and we moved on. Although, the exhibition compound was small, the events were rather interesting. Too bad, I forgot to bring the camera.

Shawn

2005-12-03T19:57:00.000+08:00

Today, I went to the Singapore Botanic Gardens again for the same project. This is the last day of the outdoor project. The next thing is to do a write up.

Anyway, my mentor, Shawn Kaihekulani Yamauchi Lum, 42, was with us. During the spare time at the Gardens, we had a small chat.

Shawn is a very nice and friendly person. He is from the City of Honolulu, Island of Oaho, and State of Hawaii. He is quite dark as his dad was half Chinese, half Polynesian and his mum was Japanese. He simply loved plants and hence, was doing research about plants around this region.

The next thing he realized was that he had been in Singapore for 14 years when he first arrived as a research student.

We then talked about Polynesian stuff. According to Shawn, different Polynesian tribes have different types of guardian angels, such as whales, dolphins and birds. And the guardian angel of his tribe is The Shark. I was simply amazed. He told me that there was this thing called the Polynesian Triangle too. (I only know about Bermuda Triangle.) Polynesian Triangle includes Hawaii, New Zealand and Tahiti.

It was really interesting talking to him. We would have carried on with the conversation if not for some work interference.

Pant Pant

2005-12-02T21:39:00.000+08:00

After about a month of rest from jogging, I went jogging today.

Partly because I needed to pass the army physical test in a few months time, I decided to train to run 2.4km and also to clock my timing.

I started rather slowly. As I progressed, I realized that I could not increase my speed. Instead, I kept slowing down.

Eventually, when I completed the 2.4km run, I clocked a timing of 21 minutes. I needed 12.40 min to pass the test.

I think, I will run again on Monday. Too tired to run tomorrow.

Summon AGAIN!!!

2005-12-01T18:38:00.000+08:00

I couldn’t believe it!

I had gotten another parking summon, $50, on the first day of December! I had bought the season parking but did not put it up yesterday. I was thinking of putting it up this morning.

Indeed, at 12.15am today early morning, I went to the car with the season parking. To my surprise, I found a summon clipped on the car wiper. The parking attendant came at 12.08am. Disgusting! Don’t they sleep? Coming at such odd hours to issue parking tickets! How unlucky of me!

Disturbed, I went back to sleep after placing the season parking. But I couldn’t sleep. I felt pissed off.

When I woke up in the morning, I went straight to the office to lodge a complaint. And I got the summon waived. Phew!

Parking

2005-11-30T23:58:00.000+08:00

Finally, December is here. I had just bought the monthly season parking today.

At the counter, the lady told me that I could have gotten a pro-rated season parking for the month of November for a new car. This would mean that I need not have to put any parking coupon for the month of November and go through the risk of getting summon when I parked overtime.

I could have avoided the summon. $6 for a lesson learnt.