Birthday tea party.

It's koko's 9th birthday! And everyone gathered for a tea party here.

Busy entertaining the guests.
(didi and meimei arrange the party for them)

Even Transformers so give face.
(didi made this, btw, he loves to play these toys more compared to koko)

And so, it was just another ordinary day other than the extraordinary guests for the tea party. Went to school, came home, showered, took a nap, went out to choose his own cake, had dinner, finished off homework and played Wii with a friend who stays downstairs.


Guess it was a far cry from the previous years' parties we arranged for him, but he didn't complain. At least he got his electronic dictionary and we went to Chillis the Saturday before. And papa promised for a Tony Roma's dinner someday when he's back.

Oh, the cake, orange Italian cheese cake was sinfully delicious.. And koko reminded me to leave some for papa. The kids miss them. I do too. But I'm so in dilemma, should I let him in when he's home, or shoo him out to go and self-quarantine for 7d7n before he comes back and hug hug kiss kiss? Or is it ok to just take the risk and let him in? Then hug+kiss seem not-right, no hug+kiss also seem not-right. How? Just hug+kiss and whole family self quarantine together? Might as well go for a 7d6n holiday then. hmm.....

Random pictures from their lens

Recently, I let the kids explore their creativity through the lens by letting them having some fun with my camera. And here's some pictures selected from the hundreds they had been snapping.

A very basic phone I use, since I won't be so heart-ache if I lose it.
And I like it slim, so I can tuck that into my jeans pockets.

Singapore Museum and my nephew so tall liao. He was our tour guide that day.

Pink tanks. For sissy soldiers.

What we had one of the nights in Sinkapor.

Her Royal Highness.

And Her royal toys.

V sign!

Come, let's sing some nursery rhymes.

Go! Go! Green Fun Family Day..

.. is organized by didi and meimei's preschool. It was supposed to be held on the Sunday right when the school holidays started in end of May, but was postponed to today. I feel glad about the postponement as we would have missed it for our Spore trip if it hadn't. And it turned out to be a fun and enjoyable Sunday morning for me and the kids. Too bad papa wasn't here as well.

The venue is Bukit Jalil Recreational Park, and it was our first time at that park. Surprisingly, the park looks very nice. The weather was very favorable as well, and it was quite a crowd on a Sunday morning there. There were people jogging, running, bicycling, taichi-ing, badminton-ing, fighting, lovemaking, kiting, camwhoring...

It was a long walk to the preschool gathering place, apparently, there are 2 carparks there, and I had chose the wrong one!

The preschool put much effort to turn this into a fun event for old and young alike, with a warm-up of zumba dancing from the teachers' lead. Quite just nice as there's a higher "platform", serving like a stage.
The teachers are all very young, energetic, pretty and "sock", of course, they are caring and love children too. Can see from their smiley faces everyday when dropping them off in the mornings and picking them up after school hours.

We had some games, which include both parents and children's participation. Very nicely coordinated.



Each family brought picnic mats and food along. With the cooperative weather and the shade from the trees around, it was very enjoyable and pleasant.


In between the various games and treasure hunt, children burnt their extra energy running around, parents lazing on the mats, chatting up with each other, most likely bragging about their kids' results (I'm one of them, blek!), and teachers playing with their students, and snacking on the food.

The treasure hunt was very entertaining and fun, with koko helping me out to find the answers to the questions. It's his first treasure hunt, and he admitted it was very fun, though hot and exhaustive in the end. I had so much fun myself, I'm thinking right now to get together some friends with their families and play it as well. Furthermore, the place is a good place to take pictures indeed, and I didn't had the time to take some for my kids. I can't wait to go back to that park again.

It was noon when we finally get going, I didn't even realize time flew by. It sure does when you are having fun! We went home, have a shower and went out again to have lunch with their paternal grandma and her whole entourage of gang to accompany someone on her first day in UM. Then we came back and totally knocked out!

Having fun ourselves

Heiz.. hubby had to postpone his trip home and left us all fending to ourselves over the weekend. I don't have much problem with that, but I don't quite like sudden changes almost at the last minute.

But what to do, have to tolerate for awhile. Koko has a replacement class today, and we sent him to school as usual, just that this time when we returned, we need not rush to get the other 2 for their lessons. I planned to take them to the wet market and stock up the food a bit, but the carpark was really overloaded with cars, spilling them into the side of the roads too.

So, I detoured and went to our favorite hakka mee stall for breakfast. It was a very leisure morning with them, and I enjoyed it. I thought the traffic might have cleared a bit at the market by then, but it wasn't really, and it was getting hot, so I thought, WTH, just go home and try my luck another day. I know it that it's not so advisable going to the market in the weekend, as it's normally too crowded.

We went home and I surfed the internet a bit while the kids lazed around watching TV. Life's good for them. By 1, it was time to pick koko from school. As I *beat chest* promised a neighbour to pick his daughter home for him as he's in Spore, I queued along with other cars on that road to the school, snaking my way there for almost an hour. Geez! Really not easy if I were to do that everyday in the scorching heat.

Then we headed to our favorite nearest mall, intending to just have a simple lunch there and suenpin grab some stuffs. I asked the kids what they would like to have and usually it's koko who's more suggestive. Remembering hubby's going to miss celebrating koko's brithday together with us this year, and I was longing to pamper myself a bit after slogging for a whole week here in the kitchen, we went to have my favorite lamb. It was another one pleasurable and enjoyable meal together with them as the ambience was so comfortable. They love the food and didn't fuss at all. We made it without me shouting or yelling at them at all, amazingly.

In the car, I talked to koko about his birthday this year. I said papa is not going to be home in time to celebrate it with us, so how? He suggested to delay it for just one day since it's just a day difference. I said that's not going to be special then lor. He said that's ok la. I said why don't we get a cake on that day and just leave 1 piece for papa, is that ok? He asked what cake it's going to be and can he get to choose what kind of cake he wants? I pulled his leg a bit and said I should be the one to choose, since I had to sacrifice to let the doctor cut open my tummy on that very day to let him out wor (have to keep reminding him that every year! brainwashing...) ... Then he said "But I let you chose what kind of cakes to eat for the first few years already!!!" Wahhh... his negotiation skills getting dem terror now. Where he learns it from ah? I was speechless for awhile too, and nodded, yeah, son, you do have a point there.

In the end, actually he meant he wants to decide what kind of icing that goes on top of the cake and the flavour is unimportant. YES! So that means, I still get to decide what cake to eat, coming soon. I love birthdays, because it's the best excuse to indulge in it.

We went shopping for awhile and shockingly it was more than 4 hours spent at the mall when we want to go home. Feeling so tired already. Going to be a few more nights of "camping" together in my room. I feel lucky that they are around to accompany me for the nights, instead of the other way round actually.

Tough question

Now that my eldest son is all grown up, it's time to own some responsibilities of some house tasks around here.

So, when he was putting the laundry up for me just now, he suddenly came out and asked me "mommy, why do you need to wear this everyday?"

I looked up from my laptop and saw he's holding my C cup bra. How to answer his question ah? *wipe sweat* I think more tough questions are on the way.

What a pleasant surprise.

I saw her blog somewhere.. either she left some comments here before or somehow I stumbled upon her blog.

Then she blog hop and stumbled upon my brother's blog, I think.

Then today my brother blogged they met up.

Then I hopped over and saw my bro with her hub whose face immediately stared back at me. SO FAMILIAR GEH?? MM HAI MAH?? Those guys knew each other from a golf tournament.

Then I realized she's the wife of a friend whom I've met briefly 20 years ago in Melbourne and who also got to know my brother now. Isn't that such a funny coincidence and makes the world like so tiny?

*waves to LTF* HI!!!!!!
and *shakes hand* Nice to meet you, Mrs. Liew... hehe..

I'm so happy today.. weird moe?

Backache problem solved.

Today we are gonna have some pics of the body under the clothes. *rub hands*

My hub has this lingering problem of backache for quite a long time. I supposed it's not surprising to hear these kind of aches from our generation nowadays, most of us suffer from it sometime ago somehow, I think. Specialists blame it on ergonomics. I think it's nonsense. It must have been some challenging yoga poses during night time activities. Anyway.. that's not what my post title is, so we come back to our skin pics for now.

He had gone to numerous massage therapies, Bali style, Thailand style, China style, GG style (which he claimed is the BEST so far!), and physio therapy. None had been able to make the problem go away.

Until somebody recommended a sifu to twist his body in and out. He called and made prior booking. When he came back, he showed me these photos.

Before (yeah, he was wearing yellow underpants that day :D)

After. Cantik tak his back? (na na na, goolypop, don't go and make it your wallpaper ah..)

If you can spot the difference, the back has 2 "spine lines" before, and 1 nice nice spine after. So, he came home feeling satisfied with the treatment, though it costs 350 bucks for just a mere 10 mins klick klack here and there. Certainly worth it. Guys, you want to find this sifu, give me your tel no. I sms to you his contacts. (p/s: also attach your pic too, nothing connected geh, I just want to see how you look only)

MIllionaire Mind Intensive

Heard of it before? It's a 3 long days "training" by this bestselling author of a book called "Secrets of a Millionaire Mind", T. Harv Eker.

My hub just loves to go to these kind of seminars. For me, I would have anytime preferred Jowera Chio concerts. Haven't heard of her before? Me neither. That shows how much I dislike whatever mind-opener secrets of the successful minds seminars, except of course, if they would be willing to spill some gossips or affairs for us to bitch about. I don't think so.



Anyway, back to this MMI. I finally relented to see for once, at least, if it's any interesting or stimulating the mind. Hub had taken leave to take care of the kids while I am allowed to "roam free". It was held in MINES exhibition hall at 9am on a Friday, expected to be on for the full day till 11pm. The next day would also be the same while Sunday would be till 8pm.

The whole hall was filled with about 3000 pax. That's quite a good show of people, if you ask me. I arrived a tad 10 mins early before the opening. An angmoh lady in baju kurung came up on stage and told everyone to "STAND UP" and started clapping. Everyone followed suit and with a widest grin on her face, she danced around the stage, boogeying like she had just won the jackpot. I thought, it was pretty weird to be "high" at 9am in the morning, no?

So...The speaker came onboard, after being introduced by the person who brought these kind of seminars here, and being given a very "warm" welcome by the cheers and claps of the whoel audience.

Sadly, the speaker I was expecting to be seeing wasn't him and I believe he's "training" someone else to take over or maybe handle part of these MMI seminars in future. He wasn't particularly lengjai or have any exceptional charisma though. I really do not like the "declarations" that all of us have to stand up to make with hands over the chest, more so, everytime it has to be ended with a hi5 to the person next to you and say in his/her eyes "YOU HAVE A MILLIONAIRE MIND!!!"...Harlo? Shouting it out and that's it meh?

Anyhow, I keep telling myself, "do not be cynical, keep an open mind". OK, so I stayed on... till 6pm and I had to come home. I do not want to be going home alone in the middle of the night. At least, I stayed away from the temptation to sneak off to the cinemas in the afternoon. I really tried, I really did.

The next day, I hate it more when I was left out for the family breakfasts and meal times, and I would be so thinking of the kids. Even though my body is there, my heart and mind were totally not there. Why bother, right? BECAUSE I WANT TO SEE THAT HARV EKER, DAMMIT! By noon time, he was still nowhere to be seen. I am going to make a scene if his face is not up there on the projector screen, I thought.

Sensing my displeasure (I think!), he showed up after lunch. OK ler.. considered quite lengjai geh.. eh, that's not what my mission is, right? So, I hang on listening to his sometimes whisper, sometimes YELLING OUT LOUD LIKE WAKING ME UP FROM SLUMBER talk and decided "that's it! quite enough for me!" I quit at 6pm again and didn't bother to show up the next day.

Anyway, there was really 1 thing I do learned from him. He was saying "take what the universe is giving to you, else the universe is NOT going to give you more", citing an example of a field trip he went on a mission trip. I forgot what the mission is about, but he was saying he was alone, at night, whole night, under a tree. It started to pour and pour heavily it did, but he was saved from being wet as there was a protective layer of canvas over his head. Don't ask me why there would be a canvas there, I admit earlier I wasn't quite listening attentively, didn't I?

So, he thought he was pretty lucky that night. The next morning, he got up early, and went out of his canvas. And right on stepping out, he fell into this pool of water where all of it was "diverted" from the canvas. And blink! He got this idea..if you don't take what the universe is giving you, it goes to wherever, whoever else who WANTS IT! Ada sense tak?

So...for example...

We should be taking compliments happily and say just a THANK YOU when being complimented on. NEVER offer some other compliments back as there's just so insincere and totally veto the meaning of the earlier compliment away.

When your spouse say "I love you", just say "Thank you". Even when your spouse is waiting... "SO?? You don't love me anymore?" "YESSS, but not now! Haha.. We all laughed at his act, it was pretty funny, but it does make sense, no?

And it does feel good that when you really really is sincerely complimenting someone about how nice they look, and they feel happy all over it with just a sincere thanks, it makes the giver of the compliment happy too. Try it!

Yeah.. that's about the only thing I learned from this seminar. He failed or me failed? yala, yala, I failed la.

No electricty, no blogging.

No electricity here ah... go and sleep la!

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Our very first pets.. a fish and a dolphin!

Kids. Something simple can occupy their time on hours.

Like this. One day, on an after dinner walkabout, we came across a stall selling different little cheap toys. We saw these "plasticky" little animals before, expanding itself in 6 times more over 3 days when soaked in water. Since it was just 10 bucks for 3, I bought some home for them to "rear some pets" over the school holidays.

So, they happily put them in a pail of water and kept looking over them, asking me when they are going to "grow big". I told them it takes time la, the next day should be bigger, I guess.

And in the morning, didi and meimei happily scoot off to visit their cute pets and played with it for a long time. Koko, applied the "Pet society" rules and drew a chart for them

1. Need to be fed (feeding times) Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs, Fri, Sat, Sun
2. Need to be happy (playing times) Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs Fri, Sat, Sun
3. Need to be cleaned (water changing times) and so on..

Later on, meimei told me tomorrow, she needs to change the water for their pets. I asked why. She said because of 2 reasons.
Nombor satu : mosquitos will grow inside the water.
Nombor dua : then the mosquitos will bite their dolphin and fish.

*rolled eyes*

I think they will be heartbroken when I tell them they gonna die soon too.

What I was doing (like anyone cares, huh?)

There are lots of useful knowledge in my mind now I've gathered in the past few weeks that I would like to impart here.. let's see...

We have...

1. how we'd suddenly landed in a 5d/4n package deal with my inlaws, without the son.

2. how I got stuck at the customs with a slightly incomprehensible number on the car plate and cara-cara to manja the customs officer in letting you through. Oh, you certainly need more than cleavage and bare shoulders to do the trick.

3. the shopping spree I had in the Great S'pore Sale.

4. the National Museum we went to with my brother and his family. Intellects go to these places, surely, no doubt to enjoy the blasting aircon inside the premises in this hot summer season.

5. the friends I met whom I had not seen for the last 20 years and the one charming guy who still give me the goosebumps and weak knees.

6. the rants which involved 4 kids and 4 adults.

7. the mahjong game which made me poor by 30+ bucks in the beginning and came out the sole winner at the end of the day.

8. the discovery of a new yummy food in Tangkak and its famous beef noodles.

9. my grandfather stories which I'd dug from my papa when he was here over the weekend.

10. the book fair we'd been to instead of FRIM that I said I wanted to take my papa and my family over for a hiking trip.

11. the scary thought of meimei got lost and wandering on her own in MINES food court which I still am not sure if she was or was not.

12.. got some more, but I forgot.

So much of these sound advice and good information to tell, I don't know which one to tackle first, hence the long silence in blogging. Now that I've put all out in points form, I think I better move on.