Ice Cream

I like my ice cream without any toppings and garnishes as I think they take away the flavour of the ice cream.

Your Ice Cream Personality is Classic

When it comes to ice cream, you don't need too much fuss. It's good on its own! In fact, you tend to think that too many toppings or weird flavors detract from ice cream's glory. You prefer a scoop or two of the highest quality ice cream. You like a rich texture and just a hint of flavor. For you, a good scoop of ice cream has a good nostalgia factor. You love any ice cream that reminds you of your childhood!

What's Your Ice Cream Personality?

The Last One

Today, my collleague, Khin is graduating. He is the last one of the group of us who were PhD students from Core 1 research. Congratulations, Dr Khin Maung Aye!

Photo with Dr Khin and his lovely wife :)

The newly minted Dr Khin!

Favourite Subject is...

Counselling. 
Today, a Primary 3 counsellee, whom I am seeing for the 3rd time, replied me in all seriousness that her favourite subject is counselling. I don't know whether to be happy or sad. 
I am happy because I have definitely built rapport with her to have her open up so frankly to me. I am sad because somewhere along the line, education has and/ or us adults have failed her... 

Meow 2015 IV

Saw these adorable and friendly beauties! 

This beauty is roaming in my estate

This Ginger has adopted my friend's son as family

A cutie who understands my "Stop" hand sign :)

Hari Raya Dinner

Mouth-watering, delicious Malay food and great company? Who could refuse? :) My ex-colleague from MOE HQ, Rahidah invited us over to her place for the annual Hari Raya meal. :) Marieann always looks forward to this meal for she enjoys Malay food (and Rahidah has kindly toned down the spiciness). She has been waiting for this invitation since the first day of Hari Raya.  

Great food, great company, what more can we ask for?! We all had a wonderful time catching up and this year, I met another ex-colleague of ours, Joy! It was such a bonus. :)

Party Mom

Instead of being a soccer mom, I am a party mom. I have been accompanying Juliane to attend her classmate's birthday parties. This week, the birthday party is at Wild Wild Wet at Downtown East, 9:45am to 12:30pm. While Juliane was at the party, I sat at Ya Kun to have my breakfast and to do some reading. 

I went to Wild Wild Wet to wait for Juliane at 12:15pm as the children showered and changed. 

A drink from Chatime while waiting for our transport

Although the party ended at 12:30pm, we didn't get home until 2:20pm because her father was a poor manager of time even though we agreed on the pick-up time of 1pm. He only arrived at 1:45pm.

Online Data Collection III

In a few minutes, our online data collection will be over. :) 
It has been an interesting experience. I think there is definitely room for improvement and we will look into it. 

Yoghurt Dessert

I tried llao llao for the first time. My ex-colleagues have been raving about it.
Unfortunately it didn't do much for me. :( The sauce was too sweet for my liking and the various toppings are ordinary. There wasn't anything spectacular or special about llao llao yoghurt.

I will stick to my Greek yoghurt and fruits any time.

Vaccination Side Effects II

The side effects that Juliane suffered after taking her booster Tdap vaccine has subsided somewhat. There is less pain, the swelling has started to go down and the redness has subsided too. I think by tomorrow, the side effects would have disappeared. Thank goodness. The side effects definitely caused some concerns. :(

Online Data Collection II

"Business" has been slow. :( Not many participants have logged in for the online discussions. Either they are very busy or not used to this type of data collection format. We'll monitor the situation...

Vaccination Side Effects

Juliane took her booster shot of Tdap vaccine just this Saturday past. The vaccine is supposed to protect adolescents from tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis. 
Today, her upper arm where the shot was given started swelling and there was pain and redness. The swelling felt very warm to the touch as well. :( I had Juliane applied the ice pack to her arm, hoping to reduce the redness and swelling. 
Will check with the doc tomorrow if this is normal as Juliane has never experienced any side effects for her other vaccination shots.   

Online Data Collection

I am excited and nervous. Tomorrow we are starting our online data collection for the entire week. I just hope everyone (100 participants) is able to log into their CourseSites accounts without any issues and begin their discussions in the online forum. 
Fingers crossed! :)

Family Visit

My parents are flying off to England tonight to visit my brother, my sister-in-law and my nephews. The last time my parents were in England was two years ago. My parents are really excited to see their son, their daughter-in-law and their three grandsons again in person. They will be in England for three months. 

Bye, Ma and Pa. Have lots of fun in England! :)

Happy Hari Raya 2015

Here's wishing all my Muslim friends and colleagues and your families: Selamat Hari Raya 2015!

Remember to save some kueh kueh and cakes for me, ok? :P 

Seoul Trip 2015 Updated! Finally

I have finally updated and uploaded all the blog posts on our Seoul Trip 2015. 
For the ease and convenience of your reading, here are the links for each day of our Seoul Trip 2015. 
Enjoy! 

Seoul Trip 2015 13 June 2015 - 21 June 2015
Seoul Trip 2015 Day 1 13 June 2015 Sat
Seoul Trip 2015 Day 2 14 June 2015 Sun
Seoul Trip 2015 Day 3 15 June 2015 Mon
Seoul Trip 2015 Day 4 Part 1 16 June 2015 Tues
Seoul Trip 2015 Day 4 Part 2 16 June 2015 Tues
Seoul Trip 2015 Day 5 17 June 2015 Wed
Seoul Trip 2015 Day 6 18 June 2015 Thurs
Seoul Trip 2015 Day 7 19 June 2015 Fri
Seoul Trip 2015 Day 8 20 June 2015 Sat
Seoul Trip 2015 Day 9/ Home 21 June 2015 Sun

My girls and I will definitely go back to Seoul and there are many places we have yet to explore! If you think there are some places which we should visit, leave me a comment. Thanks in advance. :)

Jurassic Park Theme by The Piano Guys

I didn't get the chance to watch the new Jurassic Park movie but at least I got to hear The Piano Guys' take of the movie theme. :) 

Jurassic Park Theme (uploaded by ThePianoGuys)

Adventure is Sweet

Oh yes, I definitely think that adventure is sweet! :) 

You Think Adventure is Sweet

You know how to "go with the flow" and take advantage of what is given to you. You don't follow trends, but you still shake up your life a lot. You set your own trends. You have a sharp and lively intelligence. You are quick-witted and always ready for some verbal battle. You are wickedly cunning and off the scale confident. You don't second guess yourself.

The Sugar Test

Work-Life Balance?

Worked from home today. But I think I worked even more when I am home. 

Teacher-Student Meeting

I met up with two of my students from Primary 4 Prudence 1998 late this evening at 8:15pm, Tiong Bahru Bakery, Raffles City. It was arranged last minute as I happened to be on Facebook late Friday night when I read that Nicole Sze-to is going to be in Singapore for the weekend. Guess as their ex-teacher, they couldn't say no to meeting up haha.:P

Hot Chocolate and Apple Crumble (extremely sweet)

Nicole and Xue Ting, my 4P 1998 students! :)

It was fun catching with both Nicole and Wee Xue Ting over what has happened since I left SCGS and what they have been doing. We didn't part until close to 10pm. I hope to get to meet up with more of my students and catch up on what they are doing now. :)

NE Show 2015

Being in Primary 5, Juliane gets to attend the National Education (NE) Show together with all the other Primary 5 students in Singapore. The NE Show, first started in 1997, has been organised to foster national cohesion, to instill a sense of national identity in students and to bring across the significance of our National Day. 
Juliane reported to school at 2:30pm before departing for the Padang where the NE show is being held and she came home close to 10pm. She enjoyed the show immensely and was extremely delighted to receive the SG50 fun pack. 
Here are just some of the photos that she shared with me. 

Here are my photos as I tried to take as the planes flew past Padang and over our estate and Botanic Gardens. 

The formation of 50 breaking apart as they flew overhead Botanic Gardens

Early Bird catches ...

... the chocolate! :)
I was invited to an internal MOE PERI initiative sharing at MOE Language Centre, 8:45am - 12:45pm. As usual, for all my appointments and meetings, I always like to be early. It is a show of respect for others and for myself. Today, there was a bonus for being early. I won 2nd prize for being early at the MOE internal sharing! :) 

My Early Bird prize: a bag of chocolate! 

The internal MOE PERI initiative sharing

Online Learning

I am currently involved in a project which is using online platform to collect data. It is my responsibility to source for a suitable online platform for our data collection. It was initially challenging for me, someone who is IT-unsavvy! Lol. But I am glad that I came through. It is indeed an exciting learning experience. :)

Counselling is...

an adventure! :P

Teaching Adults?

I have been asked if I am interested to tutor a class of undergraduate students in Assessment. Me teaching adults? Wonder what it is going to be like... 

Ginger Ale

I am not sure what to make of this Blogthings quiz results.

You Are Ginger Ale

You are a very powerful person, and you tend to dominate a situation without really even meaning to. You are just naturally strong, and people flock to your strength. Your confidence gets you far. While you can be overpowering, you are quite soothing and comforting. You just naturally set others at ease. You know how to settle nerves and overpower a chaotic situation. You are often just the antidote that people need!

What Type of Soda Are You?

Buddhist Art@Asian Civilisation Museum

I was at the Asian Civilsation Museum yesterday with my neigbour, Vanessa. The Buddhist Art exhibits, from The Indian Museum, Kolkata are currently on exhibition.

It is amazing how some of these art from as early as 1st century BC have been preserved. :)

After the museum visit, Vanessa and I walked back to Raffles City where she parked her car. It was a good thing that she parked there too as the roads have been cordoned off because of the National Day Parade rehearsal. I managed catch a bit of the rehearsal at Padang as well as a close up of some government/ historical buildings. :)