Random pictures

L drew some pictures for me at my request. I was shocked & surprised. He actually knew how to draw & can really draw very well too. I love the man wearing the hat best. Yo gt to sort of tilt ur head to the right to see. Clear? And i also like the bird he drew. Resembles woodstock? Good image of the claws. For the boat, the strokes below the so call moon is actually the water. The P is the sail. For the girl, those circles above the head is the hair. And he's clever enuff to actually draw a neck.

Progress Report - Term 2

The following is my report for term 2. Today marks the end of sch term. I do not hv classes today but its the parents - teachers meeting.

Language Arts:-
I am quite satisfied with Lionel's progress in term 2. Now, Lionel is able to recognise more high frequency words as compared to term 1. He knows his alphabet & needs more practice on the phonics sounds. He also likes to ask & explore in class. Able to accomplish task given when encouragement is provided.

Maths Concept:-
Lionel knows his numerals from 1- 10. At times, when prompted by the teachers, he is able to spell up to ten. I'm sure Lionel is capable of achieving good grades if he practice & work harder in term 3.

Chinese Language:-
志聪
有个性的他，真的象他的名字一样；有志气，又聪明。这个学段表现不错，能够完成老师教给的任务。能集中精神听老师讲课，发音需加强。

Others:-
Lionel processes good fine motor skills in this term as he is able to produce a neater piece of work within the time scope. He shows improvement in his written work especially his colouring. Well done, Lionel ! :) He also mingle fairly well with his peers whereby he shares, take turns & follow instructions.

(Disclaimer: above report word for word. No editing done!)

I achieve mostly Bs in all my work except for 1 C which is my oral communication & 4 As for my counting, number recognition, listening comprehension & my interaction with peers. Teacher Shufen did mention to mummy that i need more practice in words recognition cos next year during kindergarten, i will need to read the instructions by myself already.

Mummy has already begun reading & spelling to me alot of individual words even before teacher Shufen mention this. And she also expects me to write the individual words.
(mummy: this lazy boy. the more i aks him to write, the more he throws his temper at me. One min. he remembers hw to spell, the next, he forgets.)

Overall comment by my teacher on my progress report:-
An active boy who enjoys playing and interacting with his peers. Overall, has shown improvement in his studies as compared to term 1.

KL / Genting Day 1 - 22 May 2009

The long awaited holiday, we hv been asking daddy & mummy when we're going again & again... anyway its just a short getaway for a 3D 2N to KL & Genting.

We were supposed to wake up at 4am on 22 May 2009, Fri. Why so early? Cos daddy wanna avoid the morning rush hour. So mummy set the alarm clock for 4am but when it rang, mummy stopped the alarm & fell asleep again. ( mummy: actually, i meant to laze in bed, u know, like another 5 mins that kind but ended up falling asleep again).

In the end , we all left the house at almost 5am. We need to go over to granny hse & picked her up too. Granny woke at 3am, thinking we would be arriving at 4am but instead, we went at 5.30am.

We hit the causeway close to 6am. Alamak! We didnt know that the new causeway has begun its operations over at JB side thus we ended up not knowing how to drive ard to the highway. In the past, when u exit from the causeway, u only need to make a u-turn, past Pelangi Plaza & exit on ur left, towards the NS highway, following the sign board directions. Now, it seems daddy lost his way & ended up driving towards Tuas checkpoint instead & turn up onto the highway from there.

Sway we were, daddy exited the speed limit & kenna summon by the traffic police. At first, he wanna give the officer some kopi $$ but mummy warned that the msia gov is watching very closely on such practise now; dun take the risk. So we were issued the summon & we moved on. Daddy need to pass something to his fren in Malacca, so we decided to hv our breakfast there as well.

After breakfast in Malacca, we head on towards KL. Daddy asked mummy where she wanna go first & mummy replied Berjaya Times Square. Mummy studied the map & guided daddy the way up to BTS. Upon reaching, we decided to hv lunch first as us kids were both very hungry. R kept saying "mum mum".



This was where we had our lunch - Dynasty Dragon Seafood Restuarant. They hv a promo at RM$2 only for a plate Sea Grouper. We ordered that, prawn with salted eggs, deep fried meat roll with special sauce, boiled spinach & rice. The total bill came out to RM$83.95

After lunch, we went to the indoor theme park. Mummy thot that BJS hv a water theme park for the kids but it seems we only saw this Cosmo World. So many height & age restrictions, we didnt get to play anything. We were disappointed but daddy promised us more fun when we go Genting 2moro.

We stayed at Citrus Hotel, off Jalan Raju Laut. Again, mummy hv to study the map & guide daddy along the roads. This is a 3 star hotel but the exterior & interior seems more than that. It location is also easily accessible; 10 mins walk to Sogo & PWTC. On the west is the STAR LRT & on the east is the KL Monorail. We were given a Superior Twin Room & we requested an additional bed for granny. The cost for the additional bed was RM$57.50. The front desk told mummy he will upgrade us to Deluxe Double (King) room first. We can all go up & hv a look. If needed, we can still ask for the extra bed. Good service!

Once inside the room & after the extra bed came, we all settled in. Daddy & granny immediately plonked down onto the bed & fell asleep, leaving mummy & us kids. ( mummy: Idiots right? Both of them falling asleep within mins. & leaving me to tend to the kids.) U see, we kids didnt want to sleep; we were so energetic. We run ard the bed, climbing up & down. In the end, mummy took fotos of our acts. We were so happy, playing ard that we soon woke daddy up too. Haha!

After our bath & all, we proceeded to Jalan Cheng Lock, KL's Chinatown, also known as Petaling Jaya. Am i right? R fell asleep in the car & didnt wake up till its almost time for dinner. Hmm, the pics looks somewhat like our very own Chinatown leh. We bought clothings, shoes, tau sa pia, chestnuts & we had our dinner at Kim Lian Kee Restuarant. Dinner tasted so much better compared to our lunch.

We managed to find our way to Jalan Cheng Lock but we lost our way back. We all ended up at dunno what Damansara Link; where is that? We stopped at a petrol kiosk & mummy asked for directions. Finally, we arrived back at the hotel. It was already 11pm.

2moro morning, we will be heading towards Genting. Mummy headache already. How to get to Genting? Map also dont show any directions. Let's see how ba.

KL / Genting Day 2 - 23 May 2009

Good morning! Its 23 May 2009, Sat. What a good sleep! Hurry, hurry, we are going up to Genting today. Great fun awaits us all. We went for breakfast at the hotel & after checking out, we were on our way.

Like i mentioned the night b4, mummy & daddy didnt know the way up Genting & true enuff, we were lost again. Mummy's fren told her to drive along Jalan Kuching & follow the directions leading to Genting from there but daddy's fren told him to exit thru Batu Caves. Whichever way - all roads leads to Genting. So we went along Jalan Kuching but somehow, we did not managed to see what Genting Tunnel or Karak Highway. OMG! We also dont know where were we. Us kids fell asleep soon, leaving peace for the adts. ( mummy: the roads & directions in Msia very sickening lor. The sign board always appear right at the exit & if u happened to be on the right lane, u defintely cannot cut across in time. End up, u hv to drive along till u come to an area where u can do a u-turn. And its not easy if u are on the highway. Another incident is that they show u the direction, say eg: Genting ->, Kl <-, so u turned right. But after turning right & travelling for some time, still no directions telling u when or where to turn. End up u will come to a spilt traffic telling u some other destinations but no mention of Genting. You hv to take a gamble, to keep right or left.)

So we got really lost & hv to stopped at a petrol kiosk to ask for directions again. Daddy went in this time & he came back & told us that even b4 he open his mouth to ask, the pump attendant foresee what daddy wanna asked: " u gg to Genting right? Follow the direction for Batang Kalik" Okay, we did that & again, we got lost cos basically after the sign board says to turn right for Batang Kalik, no more instructions from then onwards. Like mummy mentioned above, we always hv to take a gamble whtr to keep straight or make a turning, especially when it comes to split traffic.

We managed to find our way up Genting in the end. Upon reaching Genting, we took a q no. & realised our no. was 386. Mummy looked at the screen. Its only 83. Goodness! Over 300 plus nos. b4 our turn. We hv a long way more. So daddy said to go for lunch first. It was abt 12 noon already. Genting official check in time is 3pm anyway. We had our lunch at Hainan Kitchen Restaurant. i shared fried rice with mummy. Daddy ordered porridge for R & granny had pork cutlet.
After lunch, granny went off to the casino & the 4 of us went to our theme park. Daddy bot the 1 day pass ,family pkg (2 adts & 2 children) with access to both the outdoor & indoor theme park at a promotional rate of RM$167.

This is where we stayed. First World Hotel. We booked 2 deluxe rooms & requested for connecting rooms. Mummy mentioned the room size were even smaller than Citrus Hotel in KL. Not even coffee making facilities provided; we hv to get water from the cooler/boiler along the corriders. From the lift to our rooms, its like a maze. Turn left, then turn right then turn left again. R seems to hv supernatural power. She knows where our rooms were. She ran ahead & stopped outside a room, proclaiming & pointing. Mummy asked R is that our room & she nod her head. When we looked up at the room no on the door, hey, she's correct.

This is the outdoor theme park. We played almost everything we can get our hands on, except for some rides with age & height restictions. The whole afternoon were reserved for us. From abt 1pm till abt 6pm, we played non stop. Of cos, we forego our afternoon nap as well.

This is the indoor theme park. And again, we played everything we can laid our hands on. Granny joined us & we proceeded for dinner. We ate at Shanghai 10. We had dim sum for dinner & it was yummy, better than lunch. How come dinner is always better than lunch huh? After dinner, we went shopping. Again, we all bot clothings, shoes, accessories & such. Mummy even did fish spa. ( mummy: its so ticklish. I cant help laughing & wriggling )

Yet another day. 2moro, we will be going back to Singapore. Again another happy but tired day. Once back in the hotel room, we had our baths & all fell asleep in a couple of mins.

KL / Genting Day 3 - 24 May 2009

Okay. Its the last day today, 24 May 2009 Sun. We are going back to Singapore today. So after our usual morning routine & breakfast, we went to check out. The check out service was so much faster & easier. They hv an express check out machine whereby u only need to insert ur room keys & u're done. Granny says she didnt get to buy much last night & so we went to do more shopping. Again, we bot additonal items. "Aiyo, daddy exclaims ... so much shopping to do , so much to buy meh?"

Once we hit the highway, daddy suggested going to Batu Caves enroute lunch. So we ate our lunch & visited Batu Caves.

We climbed some 200 plus steps up to the top. Going down was of cos easier. One scary incident happen to granny. She was holding onto a can of sprite & drinking from the straw when all of a sudden, 2 monkeys leaped onto her. She screamed & squat down. 1 monkey grabbed hold of the can of sprite she was holding & sprang away. The other monkey followed. We were all glued to the scene with horror. What if granny missed her steps & tumbled down? Blasted monkeys! Were they so thirsty? There were at least 30-40 of them all ard Batu Caves.

There was also another funny incident. R's 七星茶 was inside the side pocket of the haversack that daddy was carrying. 1 monkey managed to leap onto the bag & pulled out the bottle b4 daddy realised what happened. The monkey tried to undo the cap that closed the bottle but didnt managed to. The monkey gave up & threw the bottle down. Mummy thot of retrieving the bottle back but daddy said to forget it cos the monkey already bite into it.

End of our expenditure. We drove all the way back, stopping over at 大姨婆's place to buy ikan billis & dried shrimps. She owns a provision store along Parit Sulong, Yong Peng.

We had dinner at JB, Taman Sentosa before going across the causeway. Traffic was slow moving at the customs. We reached home ard 12 midnight after sending granny home.

Hmm! I wonder when is our next holiday!.

Hotel Voucher

Mummy: Went down Chinatown to collect my hotel vrch from one of the travel agencies there. ( Hint: 1 of the mega ones there).

Well, i can tell you that their service sucks big time. I went down last week to do a booking & u know what? They hvnt even gt the tour code created yet. For those layman out there, a tourcode is something u will usually see on a tour itinerary, eg: 05HKSP2009. Might be a code for the tour agents/suppliers to refer to. 05 - 5 days, HKSP - Hong Kong Special, 2009- year. I gt to sit there waiting for the staff to create the code. Not that it takes very long, but the staff seems inexperience. Okay, i give the benefit of doubt; he's new, maybe.

Then when i mentioned i only want to book the KL hotel, he claims i hv to book the whole pkg ( i paid for a 1n KL & 1n Genting trip during the fair). I told him that his colleague at the fair told us we can book the 2 destinations seperately. After insisting that i hv to book as a whole, i told him to check with his superior. He went over to chk with his next door colleague who doesnt even seems to know anything. To me, the way she talks shows that she doesnt even know that they hv this pkg. OMG!

Then after clarifying with his supervisor, he went ahead to make the bkg for me. I ask him when he can let me know the status. he told me by Thurs. I really want to knock his head! I'm checking in on Fri, he only let me know on Thurs. Then if dun hv rooms, how? Where on earth can i find other hotels at the very last min?

So i told him off:" I am checking in on Fri, do u know that? Today is Sat. You can always send the reservation over on Mon. Hotel should be able to let you know the outcome by Tues. Why must u wait till Thursday?"

Wed, 20 May, still no call from them. Fed up, i called. The staff who took my booking was on leave. The nerves! His colleague, J answered my call & helped me to chk. What piss me off again is that after asking for my booking no, their computer screen shd show all details - my chk in date, my requested hotel, etc... But she always asked me 1 qn & tell me to hang on, will chk, then say hello & ask another qn again. She then told me she hv to call up C, the guy who took my booking & went on leave. Grrrr..." u mean u all cannot chk with ur operations side, u hv to call C? What the hell are u all doing? Dun tell me u dun even hv my booking? How come u keep asking me all the details? Dun u hv a record? "

She apologised & say will call me back asap. The time was 2.30pm. I told her to call back b4 3pm. Angry manz!

J called back within 5 mins & told me that my booking has been confirmed & that i can proceed to collect the hotel vrch. So i went down today to collect & again, their service is driving me crazy. I passed the booking form to C & told him i am here to collect my vrch. He looked at me & asked who called me to collect. I stare hard at him, wishing i hv a hammer with me. I told him i called & his colleague J told me its was ready. Who called me to collect was besides the question. I mean, today is already Thurs & 4.40pm. you still hv the cheek to ask me who called me to collect. You as a service staff, didnt even bothered to call me. You want to wait till 8pm then call me izzit. You expect me to drop by 2moro on my way to KL then coll izzit? You might as well tell me to coll my vrch only at 12 noon since the chk in time is after 2pm. You think i staying at Hotel 81 huh? Dun need to travel huh?

C went up to his operations dept to coll the vrch. R was with me & i was playing with her while waiting. C came down & just pass me the hotel vrch, not even bothering to explain hw to see the vrch. ( Luckily, i was previously from a travel line too, so i know hw things work). Shaking my head, i left the company, While walking past 2 girls who supposedly were gg into that travel agency, ( they were holding their itinerary), i voiced out loud:" XXX service sucks! Booked hotel only so much problem already, if booked pkg sure die one"

Wondering if i shd feedback to their mgmt or not.

HFMD

2 cases of HFMD had been reported at my school last Fri 15 May. I passed the newsletter to mummy to take note. Dun worry. My sch has undertook the neccessary procedures by informing MCYS & MOH & they are monitoring the situation very closely.

Nowadays, everyone all over the world are so prone to virus/bacteria infections. With the latest H1N1 virus spreading globally, no one knows when the next huge leap will be.

Even with the gov. lowering the emergency level to yellow, our teachers still do a temp take every 2 hrs. Once before we enter the sch & once during our lessons. Anyone that has a fever of >38 degress are not permitted to enter the sch grds or will be isolated during lessons till parents/guardian's arrival to take back the child.

Rachel was also sick the last few days. She gt cough, flu & fever. ( H1N1 symptoms?). Touchwood! Her fever has already subsided & doc rule out the possibility. Now her flu is also recovering except for her cough but that is also getting better. Doc says her phlegm is still very yellowish & thus prescribe antibiotics. The last 2 days, we can see her coughing very terribly, her tears swelling up in her eyes & "hear" her thicky phelgms. But now the phelgms are clearing up & she doesnt cough much in the night already. Wishing Rachel to get well soon.

Mummy: Darling, we are having big fun tis weekend. Get well soon.

Mellben Seafood

Post Mother's Day Celebration for 3 mummies. 外婆, ah ma n 姑婆. We went to Mellben Seafood, located at Toa Payoh. Its well know for its crab. They hv another branch at Ang Mo Kio. We reach there abt 7.30pm & boy, look at the crowd. We did not made any reservations so we joined the queue & ordered 6 dishes for 2 tables.

We had pork ribs, cereal prawn, steam fish, creamy buttered crab, mixed veggies & yam rings. Total bill comes out to $429. Faint!

Mellben Seafood @ Toa Payoh Lor 8

Look at the crowd.

The 2 mummies

外婆 n me

外婆 n Rachel

From left: 丽娟大姑, 丽琪小姑, 丽娇姑姑, 姑婆, 锦娇姑姑, 丽敏姑姑 n 庆锭叔叔.

Sze Chuan's Earthquake 1st Anniversary

Today marks the 1st anniversary of the Sze Chuan's earthquake which happened exactly 1 year ago.

Wishing all affected by this earthquake to move on with life & to try & overcome their grief as soon as possible.

Mother's Day Celebration

Today is a special day. Know what? Today is 10 May 2009, Sunday. Every 2nd sun of May, guess what day is it? Its Mother's Day.

Daddy got home from work early, so he decided to bring us kids out. Ah ma & xiao gu were going for a wedding dinner @ Meritius Mandarin so daddy offered to sent them down. After that, we proceeded to Marina for dinner. We walked ard, not knowing where or what to eat. So many choices to choose from; we were spoilt.

In the end, mummy decided that she wanna eat Jap food. But knowing daddy, he dun really enjoy Japanese cusine. But becos today is a special day, daddy let mummy choose. We went to Ryoichi Sushi cos they were having a promo @ $8.60 per set meal. Boy! What a long queue!

Finally, after waiting for quite some time, we got our seats. We ordered 3 different sets; seafood, chicken & fish. Of the 3, the chicken tasted the worst. We all love the seafood best. Mummy asked daddy what drinks or desserts to order but daddy had something else in mind.

Daddy said to bring us all to hv ice cream after dinner so mummy clicked her tongue & asked for Swenson's earthquake. Daddy suggested something else; Haagen Daz; mummy's favourite. But where got HD at Marina? Yes, daddy said. But its @ Esplanade.

So we walked slowly over to Esplanade via the underground City Link. We ordered Vibrant Contemplation which consists of 8 scoops of ice cream (self choose) together with wafers & cream. Mummy of cos chose her favourite Macademia Brittle. I kept on saying i want the yellow one " I wan yellow, yellow yellow. i want yellow one". " What yellow one la? " Mummy exclaimed. The only yellow coloured ice cream she can see is the mango sherbet. So mummy ordered that for me too.

We walked ard Esplanade after finishing our ice cream. It was already abt 10pm plus. Mummy called xiao gu & checked whtr they hv finished their dinner. If so, we can go over & picked them up. Xiao gu said they were only beginning their 5th dish cos the dinner started only at abt 9pm plus. OMG! Xiao gu says its ok lor, we go back first. They will only finish earliest after 11pm, from the looks of it.

So this is our Mother's Day celebration. And i tink next weekend, it another celebration, together with ah ma & gu po cos its alss a yearly affair. Post Mother's Day celebration. :)

At Ryoichi Sushi

Set meals @ $8.60

Rachel & mummy.

Its not easy to hv us 2 kids looking at the camera at the same time.

Doing some monkey bar tricks outside Haagen Daz

i requested mummy to take a foto of me as well

Rachel wanna take a pic but u see la, she's not looking at the camera.

Its COOL to be cool

I was at 姑婆's hse when i saw this pair of cool looking glasses. Daddy offered to take some pics of me wearing it. Dun i just look darn cute? :P

ITS COOL TO BE COOL!

T4

Mummy: Went shopping...window shopping more likely with hb at Causeway Point. Went over to change a top which i bot for my girl on fri - wrong size. Clarify: i know my girls' size & i purposely bot an even bigger size for her. Generally speaking, isnt T4 for 4 years old? T3 for 3 years old & so on? If u are buying for less then a year old kid, normally the size categories wld reflect as mths instead - 3 mths, 5 mths or 8 mths, etc...

I BOUGHT a T4 for my girl but on the night itself, hb tried it on my girl to pacify her & found that the neck line cldnt even be pulled over my girls' head. There are no buttons or elastic to stretch. The opening cldnt even pulled through. Well, wrong size. No choice but to change. Looked at receipt. (retrieve from the dustbin, crumpled). Exchangeable within 7 days from date of purchase. Good!

So proceeded back to CP & hv it changed. Replaced it with another dress. My girl has become more & more tom boylish. Dressed everyday in shirt (her brother's) & pants. Actions has becoming more rough lately. Dashes ard like nobody's business. I hv to put a stop to it. So the only way now (i can think of) is to dress her in more sweety pie girly clothings.

And to narrate a worse scenario - my uncle went on to snipped my girls' fringe. He failed terribly as a barber. I faint on sight. I went down on my knees, howling in despair, knocking my head against the hard cold floor: " why, why, why....why did u hv to do this? You (pointing an accusing finger at my uncle)....u monster..."

Haha...i tink i watched too much soap drama. No such acting la... i made it all up. (wink)

But the snipping of R's hair is true. Haiz! What's done cannot be undone. So now, hair clips & ribbons came in handy. But after a good 10 mins or so, she pulled it off.

If only i can get a snapshot of R dressed daintilly, if only......

Mil commented that most of R's clothings are getting too small; temp solution is to fit her into her brother's clothes. Hmm..i tink a buying spree is on the edge again.