New Year's Eve, Cats and Food

It's New Year's Eve. I was invited to my friend, Vanessa's New Year's Eve dinner at her place. A small gathering of 10 people, nice and cosy. 
The food was good, the company was good and the cats are wonderful! :)

Quiet Office

Office is pretty quiet again. I think almost everyone is on leave! Wondering why am I in the office then...

Updating

I tried to make it a habit, to update my CV every year at least. However, I was too busy to do that and could only do it whenever I remember or someone ask for it. I am paying for it now as I cannot remember what happened in between the last update and now! Note to self: Must start taking Ginko.

If It Snows

This is what I will do with Snow :)

You Should Experience It

You are the type of person who finds joy in the little things. You don't need much to be happy. For you, snow is a gift all on its own. Just being out in the snow (or even close to snow) is enough for you. You are very engaged with the world, and you experience everything you love fully. You can easily picture how it feels when it snows. You are up for a snowy adventure if that's what snow brings. But you're also content to sit by the window and watch it snow.

What Should You Do With Snow?

Last Weekend of 2014

It is the last weekend of 2014. I realised that 2014 passed very quickly, too quickly for my liking. It could be because I was preoccupied and stressed with Marieann's PSLE this year. Hopefully we can relax a little in the new year.

Boxing Day Office

It is Boxing Day and I was back at the office.It was almost empty except for myself and another two colleagues. Kind of nice to have the office all quiet and peaceful except for our chattering together haha. :P

Merry Christmas 2014

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas filled with family, friends and fun! :)

The Hobbit and The Lights

On Chrsitmas Eve, we had a great girls' afternoon/ night out (my mom, my girls, my friend and myself). It has been ages since we all watched a movie together. What is better than to watch an epic movie?! We watched The Hobbit at Lido. It was great! Time passed really quickly and we hardly registered that it was almost 3 hours for the movie. Somehow I wanted more! :) We all agreed it was the best movie of the year for us. It was emotional for me too as it is the last Middle Earth movie.Wonder when they will start the remake of The Lord of the Rings...about time haha :P 
The Hobbit trailer (uploaded by Warner Bros. Pictures)

We walked home after our dinner in the cool weather (after the rain) and saw the pretty Christmas lights along Orchard Road.

Christmas Sweets from some sweet colleagues of mine. :)

冬至 Dongzhi Festival or Winter Solstice 2014

Yesterday happened to be Dongzhi Festival (冬至) or Winter Solstice too. One of the more important activities of Dongzhi Festival is the making and eating of tang yuan or glutinous rice balls. My mother prepared a big pot of tang yuan in brown sugar soup which we could eat throughout the day. Actually my mother already cooked tang yuan in savoury chicken broth on Sunday. Eating tang yuan in a savoury broth is Taiwanese style as most, if not all Singaporeans usually only have their tang yuan in sweetened soup.

Sec 1 Reporting Day

Today is Secondary 1 Reporting Day. Both Marieann and I were at her new school by 8:15am.
The Principal's Address started at 8:30am promptly. By 9:30am, I was queuing up to buy Marieann's Sec 1 textbooks and other school materials. I managed to get the books within 20 minutes. By the time I was done with buying the books, the queue for uniforms was extremely LONG! Thank goodness, my father was already queuing up while we were queuing for the books. He is the seasoned shopper in the family lol. :P 
By 10:40am, we were back home. However, I had to go back to school again to change the size of the new uniforms as they were slightly too big for Marieann. We are really thankful that we live close by to her new school. :) A mere 10 minutes' distance by car/ bus. :)

Marieann's new secondary school

Escaped...Almost!

My colleagues/ friends and I went to Lockdown at The Central for our first escape game! According to their website, "Lockdown Singapore is a reality first-person adventure game simulating online room escape games. In the game, the player is locked in a room and must exploit his or her surroundings in order to escape. The escape game requires players to be observant and use critical thinking skills in order to solve the challenges and riddles." (Source: Lockdown.sg)
I will not reveal anything about the "Kidnapped" escape game we played but that we had lots of excitement, fun, laughter and calling for help! Hahaha. :D We almost escaped! If we only had another hour!! LOL :P

All excited and ready to tackle the escape game!

Before the game

After the game

My wonderful friends and colleagues! You are the Best! :)

It was really a good mental exercise with plenty of thinking out of the box and team work required. :) It's also great for team bonding. :) We are definitely going for another escape game when we need to escape! :)

Happy Belated 44th Wedding Anniversary!

Yesterday was my parents' wedding anniversary! They have been married for 44 years! Marieann's posting to her first choice was the best anniversary present for them! They have been rather anxious for her too.
 
Happy Belated 44th Wedding Anniversary, Ma and Pa (Ah Ma and Ah Gong)! :) 

Gotten First Choice!

At 6:10am, I received an SMS from Ministry of Education informing me that Marieann has been posted to St Margaret's Secondary School. 
Yippe! Marieann has been posted to her first choice secondary school! :)
I know some people will be having this question in their minds, "Why isn't Marieann going back to SCGS"? Well, she didn't qualify to go back with SCGS's cut-off of 220 for old girls. She qualified for Express/ Normal Academic. Being her first educator and an educational researcher, I made a choice which some people didn't agree with, including my husband who thought I was dumbing down my own child. I would rather she learn at a comfortable pace and excel than to be forever struggling to catch up.
I hope you will not look down on or think lesser of my child as every child has different learning needs and pace. I was also only an average student back in school and I still get an occasional remark from old classmates, "I would never have thought of you as someone who would get a PhD".
A big thank you to my many friends and ex-students who thought and agreed that I have made the right choice for my daughter! Thank you for your words of encouragement and support. It means a lot to Marieann and me! :)

PS. I will be sleeping very well tonight! :) Last night has been horrible, could hardly sleep a wink due to my anxiety. 

Edgy

I am on edge. Tomorrow is the results of the Secondary 1 Posting. It is so agonising! This is almost as bad as PSLE results day. :( I am hoping for the best for Marieann.

Graciousness on Public Transport

The Graciousness on Public Transport campaign began in June 2014. I only managed to see all 5 of the Thoughtful family characters at one of the underground MRT stations. I have not seen them at the two above-ground stations which I frequent, namely Commonwealth and Boon Lay. 

(Source: LTA)

However, I find them a bit familiar... Oh you know they look like those yellow cylindrical creatures who have one or two eyes.... lol :P

(Source: http://partyhatmy.blogspot.sg/2013/09/minion-party-theme.html)

Mobile Phones

In my family, we have 6 mobile phones and from 5 different brands.

Nokia (Finnish)
LG (Korean)
Samsung (Korean) 
HTC (Taiwanese)
Apple iPhone 4 (USA)
Apple iPhone 6 (USA)

Guess who is the patriotic one in the family. :P (Ans: My mother uses HTC)
Guess who is the technologically challenged  one in the family. :P (Ans: Me, using Nokia windows phone) 

Review Books

Books for review... Need to process them before looking for reviewers to review them.

Interested? :)

141214

Today's date. Nice number. :)

Taylor Swift "Blank Space" Parody

This is a really adorable and humorous parody of Taylor Swift's Blank Space by WhatsUpMoms! I can totally relate to the lyrics!! :P Hahaha. I guess all moms do need to have a good pinch of humour and a good latte to keep sane! :)

Taylor Swift's Blank Space Parody (Mom Version)(uploaded by WhatsUpMoms)

Taiwanese style Lunch

My mother invited some of her friends over for lunch. She just loves to cook despite the trouble. :) Well, we are not complaining as we get to eat too! :P

Fish soup with vegetables: Tasty soup with fish, yam, pumpkin, mushroom, cabbage

Fried Tang Hoon with prawns

Taiwanese Kou Rou Bao/ Kong Bak Pau (扣肉包): place the garlic, grounded peanut, pickled veg and pork belly in between the bun

Savory glutinous rice

Happy Birthday, YM!

Here's wishing my dear brother a wonderful birthday and an even more wonderful year ahead! 

Lots of love, your sister :)
and the rest of us in Singapore! :P

Adventure and Game

Heard of escape adventure games that have been appearing all over the island. Apparently they are real-life escape adventure games where for each game, a team of 2-10 players are locked in a room and must work together to escape from the room. There are many themes to choose from for the adventure games. Sounds like major fun. I can't wait to try one! :)

Wanderlust

Why do I feel like I need a holiday?
Even though I had a holiday recently with my girls in Penang, I still feel the wanderlust in me largely unsatisfied. :( Travelling with my girls, I can't always do or see what I want and/ or when I want. I had to be mindful of their needs and limits (e.g. cannot walk too much lol) and changed the travel plans accordingly.
I love nothing better than to travel on my own, to do and see what I want and when I want, ... 
Maybe I should go away ALONE...

Decision Time

A particular situation at work occurs year after year. 
I have finally reached my limits. 
I have finally made my decision. 
I have finally taken the next step. 

Night & Light

Night shots of lights taken with my Nokia 930. :) 

Marieann's 13th Birthday Celebration (in advance)

Today, Marieann held her 13th birthday party celebration in advance of her actual birthday, 2 January. It was held so early because most of her friends would be going to different secondary schools when school reopens and it will be a busy time for all. 
She planned the whole event herself, from the design of the invitation card, to the party activities and to the type of party food served! She also did the shopping for the materials for her party activities such as making flower crowns and the ingredients for the party food such as brownie. 
Her friends arrived consecutively between 3-3:30pm. The party started off with DIY activities, e.g. Marieann teaching her friends how to make a flower crown, Brownie decorating, hair dyeing with chalk, etc. Dinner was pizza at 6pm and the birthday cake cutting at 7pm. Another game just before the opening of presents at 8:30pm. The last of her friends left at 9:30pm. 

Friends who arrived earlier getting ready to make flower crowns

Making flower crowns while waiting for the others to arrive

Pizza dinner

Happy Birthday, Marieann!

Making her wish

Opening her presents

It was a successful birthday party since Marieann planned it and executed it. :)
Happy Birthday (in advance), Marieann! :)