let me just add one more post to make it 180 blog entries for 2008.

in the year 2008,

one thing that affected me the most:
grandma's death

one thing that i'm appreciative:
marcus passing his chinese and mabel's good results

one thing that i'm happy:
4n1's good results.

two things that i'm grateful:
relationship with hubby is still going strong and steady
husband spends time bonding with the children

this afternoon, i wanted to complete the report for the police for 2 of my students. but i could not complete as i find it very depressing to be doing this on the last day of the year.

let's recall, 2008 has been an eventful year. not mentioning many international things that happened. i'll leave this to other people to recall.

on the family front, glad to change school for my children. even though i was reluctant to, i guess in the long run, it's the convenience of going to school that finally push me to do the change. i actually like the school culture, but it's really too far and it's costing a lot for the children's transportation. so i really hope that this change is beneficial to the children. i mean it's easy for adults to say, change as the immediate benefit is to us. but you must consider that children feels shy easily and i'm not sure how they will cope on the first day of school. strangers among people who already know one another. i'm sure it freaks the adults out, so i believe that it should also freak the children out. and the sad thing is i will not be there to support them. i guess i cannot be there all the time for them, they have to learn.

on the extended family front, sad to say, after grandma's death, many things have changed. siblings are not so restrain now that they get into conflicts. it does not help that some of them still have not gotten over grandma's death. during cny, i'm not sure if all the members will turn up or not. we'll just see.

i just feel that people are very pragmatic. it's like people see that you drive big car or live in a big house, they think that you have made it rich and they start being nice to you and they start coming to your house during the cny. very pragmatic.

let me post the last few posts for the year 2008.

first, to recount the day's events.

morning, went back for meeting. well, next year, it does not seem many things as there is one clear focus, one clear direction. nevertheless, it will definitely be a busy year.

later when i come back, it's back to brewerkz for a late lunch. after we come back, i actually fell asleep on the sofa. then it's dinner time.

i felt very warm after dinner. i was perspiring. then i dunno what got into me, i think it started with a piece of play doh which was left on the dining table. i was furious and started scolding the kids for not keeping their toys. first, it was marcus. the psp is lying around. then mabel, whose toys are all over the place, same as max.

i dunno what got into me. i wonder if it's pms or the warm feeling. after that, i went to have a cold shower. after that, i just wanted to leave the house and cool down. then max saw me going out and he gave me that sad face. so i brought him along.

brought max to the playground. it was much cooler downstairs even though i had to follow max around at the playground. i guess after a while, i kind of like cool off, then i went up.

am watching the countdown on channel 8. the kids are bunking in my bedroom tonight. marcus and mabel are watching the show too. max is sleeping already.

today during lunch time, i rushed back to bring the kids to their new school to buy textbooks and school uniforms. max came along.

after all the purchases, i had to fetch them home and then back to school. i was actually late for the session after lunch. so i called and asked the maid to come down to bring them up.

When i said bye bye to max, he actually bend down his head and sobbed. i asked him what happened, then he just cried and said he wanted to follow me to work. i really can't bring him along. so i had to try to coax him. but he hugged his hands around my neck real tight and refused to let go. when the maid had to forcefully carry him, he was wailing very loud, as if we are going to be separated for a long time.

i assured him that i will come home after work. when the maid carried him to the lift, he was crying all the way. i felt so heart pain.

my takeaway from the workshop

today went back for workshop. the first speaker was the most inspirational. a few quotes i remember from his talk, 'faith energises, fear paralyses.' how true.

of course, the crux of the talk was to let us see that most of the times, the problem does not lie with other people, sometimes, instead of asking people to change, we should start the change ourselves first.

i was also very inspired by his stories with prisoners and children from children's home. today he showed us a video which was very touching. i think most of the ladies in the room cried.

i hope i can remember his words in the year 2009

today i went back for a meeting. max is already looking for me. when i come back, the first thing he asked me, 'mummy where you go?' i told him that i have to go to work, he said, 'mummy no need work.' i guess he will slowly get used to it.

this friday is the first day of school. hope that marcus and mabel will adapt well and get used to their new school. also hope that marcus is not so blur.

boxing day was just an ordinary day, nothing out of the blue happen.
on sat, after dinner, brought the 3 children to my cousin's house. we stayed overnight there. the children play games, actually we all played together, dance revolution, taboo etc. the children slept at 2am.

the next morning, after the children had breakfast, it's back to playing games again. at lunch time, (by then, my other cousins have woken up), the adults ate lunch and catch up with one another.

after we came home at about 430, we all had a quick shower and then we rushed out again. got wedding dinner. Max pee in his pants and we had to buy a new pants for him. luckily it was at suntec city. then the children said that they were hungry. so we bought some chocolates for them.

it was also kind of a mini family gathering among the relatives.

halfway through the dinner, max fell asleep. by the time we got home, it was almost 1130. quickly changed and had a good rest.

mil

mil has been going to church lately since the beginning of december.

her complaints about the maid has also increased.

i really dunno how to deal with the complaints. i'm tired of it.

xmas

this morning, the sky was overcast. we put on hold the www plan and hope that there is sunshine later. by about 1030am, we decided to brave the cold and go www. we reckon that if we do not go today, we may not have any more days to go and the voucher is expiring on 7 jan.

so met my sister in law and her family at downtown east. we had lunch first before we go www.

the children went off to play with the slides and stuff. max, as usual, still not confident with the slide. so he went to the toddler's pool. we went to the shiok river. this time, there are waves in it. but the beginning is very chaotic as we have to secure the floats and place the children on the floats. whoever got the float got to hold on to net at the sides so that all of us can go at the same time.

after that, we went to the wave pool. but we didn't stay long becos the children seems to be shivering. came up and we took a break. bought milo and popcorn chicken and whipped potatoe for them.

after eating, the children went to the foam party area. max is too short so he couldn't join in. we stood outside and i just catch hold of some foam for him to play. after that, the children went back to the slides for the last time. we left the place at around 330pm.

the children were tired and took an afternoon nap when they came back. we went to the zi char stall for dinner as it was xmas and my mil did not cook.

xmas eve

on xmas eve, went to uncle's house for family gathering. but i can say that after grandma's death, the family has become more or less separated. a few expected ones did not come. so anyway, for those who come, we had a good time chatting and of course exchanging presents.

it was discussed also that during cny, we would go to this uncle's house as his house is way much bigger than my mum.

max was the happiest,receiving presents and helping me to give out presents. came back and the children had an early rest becos the following day, we planned to go wild wild wet.

stiff neck

had stiff neck when woke up this morning. it was on the left side of my neck, i couldn't turn my head properly.

so decided to go ma kuang. the neck was so 'tight' so the person slowly massage for me. it feels so much better after the massage. at least now i can turn my head with less pain. gave me ko yoke too. i'll put one before i sleep tonight.

omg, it's been raining the whole day on xmas eve. xmas day better not rain, cos we planning to go wild wild wet.

anyway, went to fetch marcus and mabel from the airport. their plane landed at 0057. by the time, they take the luggage and said their goodbyes, we reached home at around 2am. as usual, i slept at 3am, after watching 'perfect strangers' on hbo.

woke up in the morning at 9, cos i need to go chinatown to buy xmas gifts for the family gathering tonight. yeah, it's a nice place to shop. can get toiletries at cheaper price. but the shops open at 11 plus. by that time, i've finished shopping and on the way home.

i'll definitely drop by to do my cny shopping.

on sunday, we had steamboat at my house, early xmas celebration. in the morning, we went to shop for the food.

since it's a sunday, started early. we started eating from 5pm onwards. 6 of us had 5bottles of brewerkz beer as appetizers and after dinner, a bottle of chivas. I'm so glad that it was at my house, no need to drive. tired, just go to my bedroom and i can sleep already.

if not for max who called me up in the morning, i think i would have slept until 10am. today, spend time with max. we played with his toy cars, toy trains, then bowling. he is quite a fun loving boy.

in the evening, we went to trade in marcus' psp for the psp slim. there was some sort of carnival at the neighbourhood. we had only 3 tickets. max took 3 different ride. after the last ticket was used up, he refused to go home. he cried and wanted more. luckily an auntie gave us two of her tickets. so he took another 2 different ride. at the last ride, i kept telling him, it's the last ticket, last ride. he said ok. but i guess, he obviously does not have the concept of last ride. after the last ride, he cried again. i had to carry him home and max cried all the way home.

i told him that after dinner, i would bring him to the playground. but he has to stop crying and finish his dinner. he stopped crying. after dinner, he dragged me to the door and said 'playground?'. a promise is a promise. so brought him to the playground.

after about 20 mins, i slowly talked him into going home. he agreed. came back and had a bath.

on friday evening, send marcus and mabel to the airport. we know that max will cry if he sees them go away. so we didn't really say goodby to marcus and mabel. we just walked separately.

after a while, i think max realised that his brother and sister is not around. he kept asking for them. distracted him by taking him to sit skytrain. then to swensen to eat ice cream.

on saturday, bring max out to xmas shopping. after that we went to brewerkz at indoor stadium. we had a nice plate of steak, max had fun walking around and talking to the waitress and waiters.

later in the evening, i had to go to a wedding dinner. our table only had 6 of us. we were so full.

poor max. kena forced to take afternoon nap. now sobbing... looking to me, like asking me to carry him. aiyo, my heart break liao.

Mabel and marcus are going to Bali with my sis. children are so fortunate. It's so nice being children.

packed their luggage. they are so excited about going overseas. Well, i guess it's a break for them too, a break from their nagging mummy.

i wanted to type something but with mabel looking at me, i lost all inspiration. haha!

suddenly have this thought that wearing clothes is actually a chore, especially for woman. we got so many pieces to put on. and sometimes, you must match, not only the top and bottom, also the inside and the outside. it's really a chore.

if a lady's period is here, it's even worse. i want to be a man in my next life.

so angry with marcus. bought him vcd at downtown east. he actually forgot to take out disc 2 from the vcd player at the chalet. so what good is a vcd if it is only left with 1 vcd???? waste my money.

bad mood

i know they say bad mood brings bad kharma, but i dun care.

think must be pms.

i get irritated by the slightest mistake. if marcus move too slow, get scolding. if mabel cannot tap on wireless and ask me how, i get irritated. max walk down the staircase too slow also get scolding. i dunno what has come over me, but i'm just so damn bad mood.

could it be in laws? i dunno. i've been keeping my cool over a few things. i just dun feel like commenting on certain issues.

more pictures from max the photographer

more pictures of max

visit to singapore zoological garden

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i'll only add the photos where there are people in the pictures. those animal photos, i'll not upload. waste time and effort, no meaning.

finally went for a hair cut and rebonding. mabel also had a haircut. now both of our hair feels so much lighter. every time after a hair cut, i will tell myself to visit the saloon regularly. but every time, the next visit to the saloon is usually half a year later, if not, a year later. I think the last time i visited a saloon was about 1 year 3 months, or more than that.

also went to the optical shop to get mabel a new pair of glasses. her current one has so many scratches.

so now for 3 days, i can't wash my hair and cannot put my hair behind my ears.

today, we tore off the floor laminate to the living room and dining area. actually we didn't do it. We asked two helpers to do. just do the cleaning up. old already, don't have the strength to do it anymore. when they wanted to remove the flooring to the storeroom, they shifted out the boxes. i took the chance to clear some of the stuffs in the store room. managed to clear out 3 boxes. so now the storeroom is more spacious with 3 less boxes.

also took out the photo albums and we went through the photos. 2 findings:
1) marcus and mabel looked so cute when they were younger
2) i was so much thinner before i had children.

now, feel so tired. the cleaning was difficult because we had to squat or kneel to scrub some sticky stuff off the tiles. it didn't require much strength. but the squatting was tiring. Then also had to sweep and mop the bedrooms. The maid went with my mil to church, so marcus, mabel and max help out with the cleaning. after that, i vacuum the bedrooms.

Singapore zoo

on saturday, brought my mum and the kids to the singapore zoo. mainly the kidzworld where there is water play.

i think we reach there at about 10am. after buying the tickets, we went in. yah, we took some pics but not a lot. i guess everyone is posing in front of the animals and taking pictures, so boring. anyway, we watched the 11am animal show. the sea creatures one. The children enjoyed the show, especially the sea lion.

after the show, we continued our way. when we reach the kidzworld, we saw the pony and rabbits first, the kampong house then finally, the water play. so the kids changed into their swimming costumes. marcus and mabel went off on their own to explore the rest. max took a longer time to warm up, before going into the water. he was just standing around the edge and touching the water.

after some time, when it's lunch time, we took the children out and changed. after changing, we had kfc for lunch. There was a long queue to buy food. after buying food, it started raining. after lunch, the rain was not so heavy so we continued on.

marcus and mabel asked a lot of questions on the animals and by reading the boards, they learnt a lot about animals, like how to respond when met with a snake. marcus is especially interested in reptiles.

The journey towards the exit must be the hardest for marcus. He was very tired already and i had a hard time encouraging him to perservere. He made so much noise while walking. When we reached the exit, we went to ben and jerry's to have ice cream. The children slept on their way back home.

another 15 days or so sees the end of 2008. good and bad, i suppose. bad because it marks the end of a very shiok holiday. good, because i guess, with the new year, at least people can look forward to changes though 2009 does not promise to be good.

i guess, take one step at a time. sometimes, things just cannot think too far and get worried.

weight issue

hmm, after the chalet, i think i put on 2 kg... been eating and eating and eating non-stop. what to do, raining the whole day on monday, nothing much to do except to stay in the chalet.

but though it wasn't as fun as we planned it to be, i think we all get to understand each other better. like other people's parenting style, other people's habits etc. It was worth spending the night together.

actually managed to cut down 2 kg for friend's wedding, but now put back the 2kg, so this week and next, plan to cut down on weight. but after i have my crabs tonight, then i'll go on a diet plan. hehe

it's been at least 4 months since i last ate crabs. this month, got 13th month, so thought of treating myself to crabs. must only go for golden bay at pasir panjang there. tried no signboard, it's nice but golden bay one is still nicer. thinking of it makes me drool.

family chalet

on the 7 and 8 dec, family chalet at downtown east.

on sunday, when we checked in, it was near to evening time. so the kids (5 of them) went to explorer kids to have an hour of fun first. Then it's bbq time. the kids blew bubbles and the adults bbq. it was drizzling, but not raining heavily.

the next day, actually we planned to go wild wild wet in the morning followed by escape theme park in the afternoon, but the whole day was raining. so after breakfast, we went to kbox to sing. we got the very big room, extremely huge. the children enjoyed singing. they were shy at first, but after that, we have to tell them to share the mike and sing together.

after that, we went back to the room to rest. then we went for a very late lunch, about 4 plus. then marcus went back to the room to watch his pokemon vcd, the girls went to do those handicraft stuff. max was sleeping, so he went back to the room as well.

later in the night, we went for japanese food. but i think we ordered too much food.
then much later in the night, we went back home. didn't want to stay for the night as the checkout time was 10 plus the next morning, so might as well drop the key and home sweet home. nothing beats the comofort of your own bed.

so generally, if not for the rain, the family chalet would have been more fun.

sometimes, it's funny, you need a nudge from close friend before you can find inspiration to blog.

since my last blog, last friday, was jie mei (or some call ah yee, in our case, should be lao yee already) for a good friend's wedding. After so many years, when it comes to teasing the groom, a little rusty already.

but it was a fun filled day as in, we did a lot of catching up while waiting. it was also tiring too as we woke up early in the morning. didn't have time to rest before i quickly changed and rushed to the hotel.

well, one girlfriend down. wonder who will be the next to marry?

some pictures that max took: