Reality Shows

I think I am a reality show addict haha. My favorite reality shows are Top Chef, MasterChef, Junior MasterChef and Next Top Model lol. :P Yes, yes, I know. I am sad haha. :P

Paradox

I did nothing, absolutely nothing today. It is liberating but at the same time, suffocating. What a paradox.

Cold Weather Shopping

We will be going to Tokyo during the March break. As the girls have never been to a cold country or experience cold weather before, we took them to buy thermal wear, gloves, etc, at Winter Time, 313 @ Somerset. The girls were really thrilled buying their cold weather clothings.
Before shopping for their cold weather clothings, we had dinner at Kamado. The girls both had the Tonkontsu Ramen ($16.80) while I had the Bamboo Shogayaki Rice set ($15.80). The pork belly was absolutely oily and delicious! :)

To Laugh or To Cry?

It has been a week since my father's cataract operation. He has not really been the perfect patient. He was warned not to do cooking. Guess what? He has found a way around that.
My father loves to cook and he just has to be in the kitchen cooking up something. So now, he wears a pair of swimming goggles when he cooks! I didn't know whether to laugh or to cry when I saw him. My two girls had stitches from laughing too much when they saw their grandfather with his goggles cooking in the kitchen. Sigh.

Japanese? Korean?

Coincidentally, both my girls were asked in school today about their nationality.
Marieann was asked if she is a Japanese. Marieann said, "No, I am Chinese". Straight answer.
Juliane was asked if she is a Korean. Juliane said, "I am born like that". Haha. What an answer.
In my childhood days, I was also asked if I am Japanese. I was often mistaken for a Japanese by the Japanese community at UQ when I was studying there lol. :P
Sorry, we aren't Japanese or Korean. We are Chinese. :)

"Aliens" are Coming!

My girls were shouting that when they rushed into my room yesternight. To prove that they were telling the truth, they dragged me to the window. We saw this.


It was the celebration at Marina Bay Sands. I told them it's too late, the "Gambling Aliens" have already landed. :(

"Early Bird" needs more Sleep!

My domestic helper knocked on my door in the morning and I woke the girls up for school. I was surprised that my alarm didn't go off at 6am. I was still feeling dead tired as I only slept at 2am. 5 minutes later, Marieann noticed that other households were still in darkness and it was very quiet. She saw the time on the clock. It was only 5.05am!
No wonder, my alarm didn't go off. I shoo-ed the girls back to bed for at least another 50 minutes of shut eye.
"Rrring, Rrring, Rrring"
It is really 6am. Time to wake up.

"Early Bird" calls for the Taxi

It has been a long time since I arrive in a school before 7am. The last time was when I was teaching back in 2000. GOSH!! 11 years ago! :P Today is the start of our data collection. I left for the school at 6.30am. I didn't want to try my luck flagging down a taxi on the street at 6+am so I called for a taxi. The journey to the school was smooth as there was hardly any traffic on the expressway. :)

Visit

After our annual staff high tea, another colleague and I went to visit a good friend/colleague who is hospitalised at NUH. However, we were given the wrong ward number, Ward 48 by another colleague and it ended up with us at the O & G ward lol. With the help of the nurse at the O & G ward, we managed to locate our colleague who is in Ward 78! 48 is way off from 78! Lol. :P
We chatted for quite a while with our colleague. Unfortunately, the results of her ailment were inconclusive at the point of our visit and she was waiting for more test results.
I hope that there will be conclusive results soon so that she can have the correct treatment. Sharm, speedy recovery! Come back to work soon. Miss our chats lah haha :P

Annual Staff High Tea 2011

It is the annual staff high tea for our organisation. It is held at Fairmont Hotel this year and there were as many as 70 tables. It was really nice to see everyone all dressed up lol. We were supposed to come dressed in red, blue, yellow and white and lots of glitters! Nah, I didn't follow the theme and came only in a blue strapless dress lol. Our table 46 was very near to the stage, good that we could watch the performances close up but downside, the speakers were blasting away. :( The food and the performances were a little disappointing this year. But at least the company was great. Oh and the lucky draw too haha. As always, I won a lucky draw prize!! :) My friends think I am a pretty lucky person. :) Statistically, it is one lucky draw prize per table as we only have 70 lucky draw prizes. However, at our table alone, we had 3 lucky draw winners lol. We deprived two other tables of a prize. :P

Some photo moments with good friends/ colleagues. :)

Cataract Operation II

My father went for his 2nd cataract operation early this morning. The operation went smoothly and he was home by 10+ am. I only hope he remembers the instructions on what NOT to do after the operation.
There was so much drama at home before the operation lol. First, my father woke up late. He was supposed to be at the hospital at 6.40am for the pre-operation check. But at 6.10am, he was still at home. When walking out to get a cab, we realised he had forgotten to bring his appointment card so had to double back to get it. As we were running late, we tried to call for a cab but to no avail. In the end, the girls' father sent him to the hospital. I was already drained by all that "excitement" before the op. :P

Mission Accomplished

We had a briefing/ training session this morning for the part-timers we are hiring for the current study that will start data collection from 21 February onwards. I prepared most of the materials but my RAs helped in printing them out and putting into folders for the part-timers. I couldn't have gotten everything ready by 10am without their help. Thanks, Ladies!
The briefing/ training went well and we are all confident the data collection will go well. :)

Condolences

My counsellees are really sweet. They found out from the school counsellor why I was absent two weeks ago. When I met with them today, they offered their condolences. I am touched by their gesture. :)

Ambitious?

This blogthings quiz results just blew me away. I have never thought of or seen myself as being ambitious! Totally off the mark in my conscious mind or absolutely on the mark in my unconscious mind?!

Your Dominant Personality Trait is Ambition

You are a very confident, take charge type of person. You know who you want to be, and you're going to do everything in your power to achieve your goals. You throw caution to the wind. You know that risks are necessary to get ahead in life. If you fail, you learn from the experience... and try harder next time!

What's Your Dominant Personality Trait?

Statistics

I tried doing some of the statistics for the pilot study over the weekend as the results might be needed for our meeting this morning. I wasn't sure if I was doing it correctly. When my colleague and stats expert checked it, I was on the right track. Phew. Lol.
I guess stats is a matter of practice makes perfect! Recently I was helping another colleague with stats in his project. So all that "helping out" has been revision and practice for me lol.

Mee Sua

Today, my mother's friends came over for lunch. They wanted to have our Hockchew Red Wine Chicken mee sua. In the evening, my cousin and his wife came over for dinner lol.
My mother will be going back to Taiwan for a couple of months so she has been inviting family and friends over for the mee sua and her other specialities like glutinous rice, chicken rice, and many others.

Bubble Tea

Bubble tea was a craze in the late 90s and then it sort of died down for a couple of years. It seems the bubble tea craze is back again. I know there is Gong Cha and Koi, that are two of the popular bubble tea chains around in Singapore. I tried Gong Cha and found the various bubble tea drinks on its menu fantastic. :) My girls love the "bubbles" (that are small tapioca balls) in the bubble tea.

This afternoon, the girls and I went all the way to Junction 8 just to get our Gong Cha bubble tea drinks! :P Yup, we are hit by the bubble tea craze haha.

Team Players

I am really grateful and glad that I work with a great bunch of RAs. They are independent workers but they are also team players, and we help each other in our work. We will be starting the main study soon and I think we will have fun. I look forward to having a BIG meal out again after the study lol. :)

Teacher Voice

After not having used my teacher voice for at least 10 years now, I am surprised that I still have it. The first day when I used my voice in the class, it was sore because I have not used it for so long. But today, I could project my voice with ease without straining my throat. :) No, I think I still won't go back into teaching. :P Research is way too fun. :)

Out of the System

I think I have been out of the school system for too long lol. I was really tired, being out in the school for the past 2 days. :P I don't think I can ever go back to teaching again. Also I don't think I can ever confine myself to just teaching after having done research. Research is really interesting. :)

Pilot Study II

Today we tried out the survey again and the interview instrument. It has been a while since I used my teacher voice. Took a bit of getting used to. :P

Pilot Study

This week is going to be really busy with the pilot study.
Today was busy trying out the survey. It has been a while since I was last in the classroom. It brings back memories, fond ones. :)

Skyping with Family

Skype is the best tool for connecting with family overseas. My brother and his family in England exchanged CNY greetings with my parents, my girls and I who are here in Singapore. It is really quite funny, all of us trying to squeeze into the frame to talk to my brother and his family who is also trying to do the same. :) It is so nice to keep connected with family.

Relaxing CNY 2011

I don't think I have had such a relaxing CNY before. Ok, maybe once before, I think it was one of my grandparents' death as well. I didn't have to prepare the Ang Baos beforehand. I didn't have to wake up early on 1st Day of CNY to go visiting. :P
It was a nice rest. I could recoup in peace and quiet from all the recent deaths and stress.

Happy Chinese New Year Day 2

We always have our traditional Mee Sua in Hockchew Red Wine Chicken Soup on 2nd Day of CNY. This year was no exception. We have friends who came over for lunch and dinner. They said food very important lol. :P

Happy Chinese New Year 2011

Happy Chinese New Year!
It is the Year of the Rabbit.
May it bring to all good health, and good fortune!

It is Chinese New Year. However, as our household is in mourning, we are not able to celebrate CNY, much to the dismay of the girls because they were looking forward to receiving their Ang Baos. As we are in mourning, we can't go visiting families and friends, out of respect for the dead. However, others can visit us because they are not in mourning! Unfortunately, people can be quite superstitious, and avoided visiting us. I have even heard of some who just stopped email contact because of death in the family. Sigh. Throughout the day, the girls kept looking out the window and asking us when are people coming to visit us. :S
Thank goodness, we did have some friends who came over to visit in the late afternoon and at night. It was then much more like CNY. :) The girls were smiling most brilliantly too.

Eve of Rabbit Year

The girls have an extra day of rest because their school declared today as a school holiday. The girls were extremely happy. But I wanted them to complete their homework first before they have fun. That's my fun lol. :P
For our reunion dinner, we have our usual steamboat. The girls, being older now, enjoyed cooking their food. :) Since we don't have to wake up early to go visiting tomorrow, I allowed them to stay up late tonight to watch the CNY programmes.

CNY In Advance

The girls' school is celebrating CNY in advance today because tomorrow, CNY Eve is declared a school holiday due to the good 'O' level results. The girls could go to school in traditional Chinese clothes. Since the girls won't be celebrating CNY this year, they wore their CNY clothes that were bought in Taipei when we were there last June. The girls came home excited that there were no clashes with other girls in their choice of traditional Chinese clothes. :)
After dinner, I brought the girls for a walk at the Botanic Garden to look at the CNY decorations.