Parent-Child Time.

There was no counselling today as the school is having CA1 this week. In place of counselling, I went out with my parents. It was really nice doing things with my parents. It has been ages since I last did something with my parents, even if it was just going to Tiong Bahru market to have lunch and buy lunch back for my girls. :)

Glee 3 Episode 6

Songs from Glee 3 Episode 6 "Mash off"

I Can't Go for That/ You Make My Dreams (uploaded by GleeOnFox)


Hit Me with Your Best Shot/ One Way or Another (uploaded by ChristianVonRappard)


Rumour Has It/ Someone Like You (uploaded by GleeOnFox)

Presentation Prep II

I am done with my Phd oral defense presentation. It is version 6 and currently stands at 56 slides. My earlier versions had far more slides! Haha. I either have to talk very fast in 40 minutes or I will have to cut it down further. I have sent it to my supervisor for vetting and approval. Awaiting her reply now.

Travel Fair

Lots of people said it is a good bargain to book the holiday packages at the NATAS travel fair which is held over the weekend. However, I really dislike the crowd and have never attended any travel fairs before. I believe there is always a good deal around (if you just search for it) and not only during the travel fair. Why go through that hassle of jostling with the crowd and long queues just to save a few bucks? I prefer comfort any time lol.

Birthday Planning II

All the mothers of Juliane's classmates came back with favourable replies. :) I called and managed to book the weekend soap-making workshop, which Juliane requested for, as her birthday celebration. All good to go. Now just have to decide whether to get a birthday cake or cupcakes for the girls.

Presentation Prep

Started working on the slides for my PhD oral defense. I have a maximum of 40 minutes for my presentation. Ideally it should be about 30-40 slides for a 40-minute presentation. However, at the rate I am going, I may exceed 40 slides! Let's see how it goes when I am done.

Birthday Planning

Juliane's birthday is coming up real soon. Originally wanted to hold a small birthday gathering for her on the weekend before her 1 March birthday. It is too late now. We can only do that on the weekend after her birthday. I have contacted the mothers of her five classmates and am waiting their favourable replies.

Glee 3 Episode 5

I have got a system to remind me to watch Glee 3. My girls! Haha. They reminded me that there was Glee last night and I managed to watch it.

America (West Side Story) (uploaded by MsCherrybombVEVO)


Tonight (West Side Story) (uploaded by GleeIsrael)


One Hand One Heart (West Side Story) (uploaded by GleeIsrael)

Farewell

Another colleague, Lin Du is leaving. Her official last day is on 29 February but with leave, she will be gone by 24 February. Han Jing and I took Lin Du out to lunch on Monday 20 February. Unfortunately the other two colleagues, Filzah and Azlina couldn't join us as they were sent last minute work to do before their 1pm meeting. :( Lunch was really nice but a bit rushed as we also had to go back to office by 1pm.


Here's wishing you all the best, Lin Du. Take care.

Fickle-Minded

Our June holiday plans have changed yet again. Sigh. The girls are so fickle-minded! Now they said that they want to go to Bali because I promised that I would take them to Bali. I have already shortlisted a couple of tour agencies for their Korea+Jeju tour package. Sigh.
Now, it is back to New Search, this time for Bali. I will NOT entertain any more changing of minds!

My Girls Are on Facebook!

OMG! My girls have Facebook accounts!! Despite me telling them that they were too young to have Facebook account (for security issues), they went ahead. They are so going to get it from me.
How did I find out? It was most silly. I was checking my Facebook and one of my girls blurted out excitedly that her sister has Facebook too. The sister seeing that she was betrayed, quickly retorted that the "traitor" also has Facebook.
I posted this on my Facebook and I had various reactions from friends, ranging from sympathy to "Oh goody, give me their names, I will friend them!". I think most of my friends thought it is quite funny. Guess I will need to talk to them again about cyber-safety.

Hello!

I bought my girls across the road to Food For Thought, Botanic Gardens for lunch. It was just after 11.30am and the place was packed! We looked around for an empty table and we managed to snag one near the cashier. :) Just as I was going to grab a menu for the girls, I heard "Ms Wong". I thought I misheard as it was quite noisy at FFT and didn't bother until I could sense someone running towards me. Oh my goodness, it was my former student, Petrina Ho whom I taught in P3(?), way back in 1990 something, err... never mind it was a LONG, LONG TIME AGO lol. I am glad that I am still recognisable after all these years. :P It was really great catching up with Petrina in person (and not just over Facebook haha) and I brought her over to see my girls. With Petrina's words, my girls finally believed that I once taught at SCGS lol. All the Best in the new year, Petrina. :)


We got our food after half an hour (they were really packed!) but the girls were doing their homework while waiting so time was not wasted lol. I had Brunch (scrambled eggs, sausage, garlic mushrooms) ($8 for 3 items), Juliane had Creamy Mushroom Soup with bread, and Marieann had Creamy Pullled Pork Linguine ($16). The pasta was really good! I couldn't help but kept stealing bites of Marieann's pasta even as I was struggling to finish my brunch lol.


Oh yes, I also met my good friend/colleague at FFT. He was at Botanic Gardens exercising and went into FFT for a drink and bite. Since it was really packed, we shared our table with him otherwise the poor guy might have to stand and eat.
It has been a really nice day for us at FFT - meeting my former student, my friend and having a delicious meal. :)

Glee 3

I keep forgetting to watch the 3rd season of Glee. :( Need to put a note somewhere to remind myself.

Lush

I first started using Lush products when I was studying in Australia. I love its soaps and solid shampoo because they smell really nice and they LAST for a long time. :) It opened a branch in Singapore in the late 90s but after a while, it disappeared. Ever since then, I have been buying and stocking up on my favourite Lush products when I go overseas such as Australia, UK, and USA. However, I discovered by chance recently that Lush has started a branch in Singapore again! I couldn't believe my eyes when I walked past the shop at Wisma. Finally, I can buy Lush in Singapore. :)

The Black Sheep Cafe

My friends and I met for dinner and we tried this The Black Sheep Cafe. It is a cosy, quaint little cafe. Although little in size, this cafe's food pack a punch. :)
We ordered Duck Confit on Apple Rosti ($22.50) and Crispy Pork Cheeks on Sauteed Greens ($24). I loved the duck confit. The duck skin was crispy, the duck meat was tender and the mango relish complemented it well. The apple rosti was surprisingly tasty with apple in it, adding more zest to it.



I tried my friend's pork cheeks. OMG. It just melts in the mouth. Simply droolicious! Even by describing it, I am not doing the dish justice. You have to try it!


We wanted to try its Souffle for dessert but they were out of it for the night. :( We settled for Tiramisu which was pretty yummy too. I will definitely come back again to try its souffle lol.

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day 2012

Passing of Another Diva

This time, it is the passing of a Taiwanese pop diva, Feng Fei Fei at 60 years old. She passed away on January 3 after succumbing to lung cancer. The news of her death was only released today in accordance to her wishes because the Lunar New Year was approaching and Feng Fei Fei did not want her fans to receive the bad news.
Feng Fei Fei was a huge hit with my parents' generation. Every Chinese in that age bracket knows who Feng Fei Fei is. Her fans know her fondly as The Queen of Hats because she loves wearing when performing. Rest in peace, Feng Fei Fei.

Death of a Diva

I did a double take when I saw on Yahoo's Breaking News: Whitney Houston, Dies at 48. I almost couldn't believe my eyes! I told my mother and she was shocked as well.
I listened to Whitney's songs when I was growing up, such as Saving All My Love for You, I Wanna Dance with Somebody, So Emotional, I am Your Baby Tonight, Didn't We Almost Have It All?, Where Do Broken Hearts Go?, Greatest Love of All, One Moment in Time, and who can forget, I Will Always Love You from The Bodyguard movie. It is such a pity that her life is cut short. But I hope she will rest in peace and know that she has given pleasure to many with her beautiful voice and songs.

One Moment In Time (uploaded by Planetland)


Where Do Broken Hearts Go? (uploaded by AngelsFstyle)


I Wanna Dance with Somebody (uploaded by whitneyhoustonVEVO)


I Will Always Love You (uploaded by whitneyhoustonVEVO)

Staff Lunch 2012

My good friend and colleague gave me a lift to our staff lunch at Mandarin Hotel. We arrived around 10.40am and therefore entitled to the Early Bird Gift lol. We could choose from either Shaw movie tickets, NTUC Fairprice $10 voucher or thumbdrive. I chose the voucher because I could pass it to my father who often shops at NTUC Fairprice. :)
There were a number of pre-event activities - glamour shots, caricature sketch, silhouette snipping, airbrush snipping and hair extensions. As a memento, I would always go for the glamour shot. :) I was actually lining up for the caricature sketch but it took too long. After 40 minutes, I was still in the queue. I decided to "cut my loss" and joined the queue for silhouette snipping. Within 10 minutes, I was holding my silhouette lol. :)
By 12noon, we were seated at our Table 21. :P It was the usual people at our table - DK, YZ, C, CD, G, K, S, and a new colleague, YX. The goodie bag was really good this year - Garretts popcorn, postit notes, pen - useful and practical stuff. :) The buffet was not too bad, had the famous Chatterbox Chicken Rice. Yummy! :) This year's MC was really good too. He was funny without trying hard and without being rude. We were all laughing so hard with his jokes and antics. :)
Our Table 21 was really lucky as well, with 2 people winning prizes from the top 25 prizes and 1 person winning from 26th-100th prizes. Not bad at all, considering there were about 700 people (70 tables) at the staff lunch, amounting to about one from each table winning something. And we had 3 prize winners from our table alone! :)
The fun ended at 3pm. I am already looking forward to the next staff lunch lol. :P
Oh, what I went as? I was Fiona from Shrek 2, the before transformation haha. :)



My PERI team - "Jasonette", "Fiona", "Ponyo", "Star Trek"

Decision Made

Excitement is really building up at my work place with regards to Saturday's Staff Lunch at Mandarin Hotel. Everyone is discussing what they will be going as. I have finally decided who I will go as. :) I get to dress in my favourite colour too, Green! Haha.

What Are You Going As?

That has been the most frequently asked question at my work place for this week! Lol. This coming Saturday, our organisation is having a Staff Lunch with the theme of "Going to the Movies". We have to dress up as a character in a movie that appeared in the year that we joined the organisation. :) I joined in 2004 and there were a couple of 2004 movies that I enjoyed watching such as Harry Potter 3, Van Helsing, Dawn of the Dead, The Chronicles of Riddick, Resident Evil 2, Alien vs Predator, Anacondas, Blade 3, and i, Robot, lol. Not exactly easy to dress up as one of the characters from one of those movies.
I have dressed as a Hogwarts student during one of my MOE HQ staff retreat (and won first prize for best dressed character! Lol) so I don't want to do that again. Let me think about it... I may go as a character from the movies or I may just go as myself. :)

Missing

There is a new counsellee whom I am supposed to see once a fortnight. However, I have yet to see her because she was on medical leaves on those days I am supposed to see her. It has been four weeks since I started counselling in the new school year. I hope she gets well and I will get to see her the next time round.

Change of Holiday Plans

We were originally planning to go to Canada in June. However, due to the girls' father, we are now looking at holidaying in Korea - mainly Seoul and Jeju Island. As English is not prominently/ commonly used by everyone in Korea, we will be joining a group tour to minimise inconvenience caused by language problem.
Have to start looking at the tour packages offered by the various tour agencies.

Yuan Xiao Festival

My girls and I love eating tang yuan - balls made from glutinous rice flour, both unfilled and filled, as well as both sweet and savoury. We wouldn't miss festivals such as Yuan Xiao (15th day of the Chinese New Year) and Tong Zhi (Winter Solstice Festival) where making and eating of tang yuan (glutinous rice balls) are observed. :)
Today is Yuan Xiao Festival. My mother made glutinous rice balls/ tang yuan (unfilled) in brown sugar soup as well as glutinous rice balls/ tang yuan filled with minced meat and mushroom in chicken broth. We each had second helpings for both kinds of tang yuan! Yum yum! :)

Snow!

We were on Skype with my brother and his family. My brother, using his iPad 2, showed us the thick layer of snow outside his window. The girls were really thrilled to see the snow. Juliane commented that she wanted to go to UK the next day to build a snowman and have snow ball fight! Haha.

Old Bones

Age is definitely catching up with me lol. After attending Parents' Briefing at the girls' school in the morning, I slept for most the day. Yesterday's staff retreat at Universal Studio Singapore had a big part to play in my exhaustion lol. :P

Staff Retreat at Universal Studio Singapore

This is the first ever staff retreat that is all about teamwork and play. :)
We gathered at Universal Studio Singapore (USS) at 9am. By 9.45am, we were seated at the boardroom in the Far Far Away Castle. Our deputy head gave a speech followed by the USS game master's briefing of the scavenger hunt. There were about 70 of us and were split into 7 groups. We set off from Far Far Away Castle for our 3-hours duration scavenger hunt. Each group had to answer 30 questions by looking for the answers around USS. It was really fun. I was able to supply some answers to the questions and my teammates were surprised by my "knowledge" haha. I only realised then HOW MUCH tv series and movies I have watched! Lol. :P By 1.40pm, we were back at the boardroom at Far Far Away Castle. Although my team didn't get top 3 places, I definitely had LOTS of FUN with my teammates running around USS.

Our PERI team (one member not arrived yet)

My scavenger hunt team: Orange Squash lol :P

After the scavenger hunt, we were free to stay in USS until closing time at 7pm. I roamed around on my own - taking photos and watching the live shows lol. It reminded me of the time I spent at Universal Studio, Los Angeles but USS is definitely much smaller than US, LA. I met another colleague who was also roaming on his own and we went on the rides: Transformers The Ride: The Ultimate 3D Battle (first in the world), Battlestar Galactica: Cylon and Revenge of the Mummy. Loved the roller coaster rides. I was laughing the whole time while my colleague was screaming away. Strange to hear a guy screaming like that haha. :P




Transformer, my friend and I

I watch The Mummy because of him lol :)


I had a really great time at USS, and getting to know a few more colleagues. I am one of the handful who have been with the research centre since 2003/ 2004. We are known as "The oldies" to the newbies lol. Because we are attached to projects and / contracts, there is always colleagues leaving every year. After a while, it gets really tiring trying to keep up with who are the new colleagues and who have left. This retreat definitely helps to bring colleagues together. I hope future retreats would be of this nature too. :) Fingers and toes crossed. :)

Blog or Facebook?

Some of us have both a blog and a Facebook account. If you have both, do you have a preference for one over the other?
Seeing how often I have to send out a whole bunch of Belated Happy Birthday wishes through Facebook because I don't check in often enough, is evident enough which one is my preference lol. :P

The Mom Song

OMG. This is really funny. :) My mother has said some of those words to me! And I am now saying the same things to my girls!!
Best reason ever when the girls are not up to standard: "It must be your father's DNA." Lol.
Best reason ever to give when vetoing the girls: "I'm the Mom, the Mom, the Mom, THE MOM!" LOL.

(uploaded by clcintxx)