Meg's haiku - "The wind"

Meg told me she had to write a haiku and asked for my help. A haiku?! Primary 1?!

Okay, I must admit I was momentarily stumped. I looked at the instructions and saw "5, 7, 5". I asked her what's that and she explained that a haiku consisted of 3 lines and the numbers meant the number of syllables in each line. Hmmmm ........ but it still didn't mean anything to me :p However, thank god for the advancement in technology, I managed to look up the internet and refresh my memory of what a haiku is.

The topic was "WIND" and so I told Meg to write down how she feels about the wind. And from there, I helped her craft it into a haiku.

The wind makes me feel fresh.
I need it to fly a kite.
I love breezy wind!

The sentences were all hers, I just helped her fit it into a haiku. Not too bad for our 1st attempt, I would think. But then again, I am a lay person and therefore not the best judge :p

Lil' Miss Scatterbrain

I have outdone myself once again! Remember the last time when I left my handphone on top of the car and then drove off? The story just gets better .............

I threw my handphone into the rubbish bin this time round -_-"'.

I did not realise that my handphone was gone and when I started looking for it around the house, it was 4 hours later after it ended in the bin. I had initially thought that I left it in the car again (I do it too often) and sent the maid downstairs to help me bring it up. However she told me she couldn't find it and so I started calling my phone whilst she went down a 2nd time to search.

Panic sets in when I realised that the phone was shut off! "Arghhh ......." I thought with dismay, "my new phone lost again! But how could it be? I vividly remember using my phone in the car."

The maid once again told me she can't find it and so I went down personally to search for it. After turning the car upside down, I walked dejectedly back to the lift, accepting my fate of yet another lost phone. That's when I walked past the big black bin in the void deck. I stopped, looked at it and realisation dawned upon me that I made a stop here after I got down from the car! Don't tell me .................

I attempted to rummage through the stinky bin and everyone was staring at me! Ewwww ....... I needed aid. Meg and the maid armed with their gloves volunteered to search for it. And true enough, it was right at the bottom of the bin soaked with the yuckiest liquid imaginable. In fact, I think I contributed to a part of that yucky liquid because what I threw into the bin together with the phone was my unfinished McDonald's meal and coke :p

You might think that I left my phone in the McDonald's plastic bag and accidentally threw it together but I didn't. I was holding it in the palm of my hand and when I open my palm to release the bag, it fell out at the same time. And I didn't even feel anything amiss. I so can't believe myself! But then again, this is something that Erycka says only I am capable of and she didn't express surprise when I told her. Bleh~

Ken is amazed at my capability to accomplish spectacular feats like that all the time! He says I never fail to astound him :p

A family valentine

This year's Valentine was a little unusual. That's because Meg had learnt in school what's Valentine's day. She came home from school the day before Valentine's and asked me if all of us are going out for Valentine's day dinner. Huh??!! Valentine's day dinner??!! I guiltily told her we are not, even though Ken & I had discussed about dinner. But of course we didn't make plans to include her whatsoever!

In any case, Ken had to go back to camp on Valentine's day and we agreed to postpone it to Friday. And then my bad, I overlooked that on Friday, there's a CNY party at the previous clinic where I worked.

Feeling really guilty, I went and got both of them a Valentine's day gift to make it up to them. I think both liked their pressies :) And in the end, all 3 of us compromised and we had a post-Valentine's day supper instead. Haha ...... yeah, supper :p

By the time, Ken and Meg collected me from the party, it was already 10pm. We decided the only place available would be Swensen's and so we trooped there. But poor Meg was less than enthusiastic that day because when the food arrived, it was already close to 11pm. Meg was dying to get home to bed.

So all in all, a fairly uneventful Valentine but at least I managed to assuage my guilt by including Meg in our celebration. Hmmmm ........ it looks like we will have to plan 2 Valentine's day celebrations from now on, 1 for the entire family and 1 just for Ken & I.

Checking out my make-up before I leave for the party :p

In the queue outside Swensen's

Meg was driven by boredom & forced us to make funny faces with her

I was highly amused by the fact that Meg could raise 1 eyebrow. I just couldn't do it for the life of me.

6 lian pai. (6 consecutive shots) Wahahaha!!!

Synonymously speaking

Falling sick is synonymous with feeling miserable.

And if that is the case, given the rate that I fall sick, I must be in misery half my life.

Geez ............ That is PATHETIC.

Blogger in the making

Megan has a blog! Wahahaha!!! Her school has got an online learning system whereby the teachers can assign homework and you access it online at home. I was trying it out and realised that other than accessing assignments, it even comes equipped with email, a media gallery and a blog!

I explained to her what a blog is and asked if she remembers seeing me always typing non-stop into a particular website with lots of our photos in it. I told her that that is my blog and she enthusiastically replied that she wants her own blog too. I wasted no time in getting her started. We picked out a template together and very soon she's completed with her 1st post. I was so very proud that she chose to write about me in that 1st post of hers! :DDD The blog however can only be viewed by her teachers and peers though.

I think it's really good if I can get her to persevere. It not only helps in her English but I will also understand more about what's going on in that pretty little head of hers. For example, she wrote that 'I am always busy'. I had no inkling I came across like that to her. I had all along been complacently thinking that I have done an okay job as a mum since I spend almost every available waking minute with her. But apparently not in her opinion. There must be something I must be doing wrong. Perhaps I haven't been giving her my 100% attention when I am with her. Well, I can only cross my fingers and hope that it's not too late for me to start paying more attention to her.

I can just see Ken rolling his eyes if I tell him that I intended to get Meg interested in blogging :p As if all the time I invested is not enough and now Meg too?

Proudly presenting ............. Can you make out what she wrote?And now some pics taken over the 1st few days of Chinese New Year. Nothing much except Lo Hei and more Lo Hei.

Reunion dinner at my parent's place. We missed grandma .........

Meg says she can't stand the smoke from the steamboat and hence was isolated to 1 corner :p

We had the soup steamboat and the BBQ steamboat. My favourite!

Cheers for a good year with her sparkling juice and dad's beer.

Told her to smile but look at that mischievous imp

Then we headed off for round 2 of reunion dinner at Ken's parent's place. The kids were hooked on Wii at the cosy corner while the adults relaxed watching TV.

Meg calls it the 'messy thing'

Met the FJC peeps later in the night (morning) to watch the 1.30am show - CJ7 in Tampines Mall.

It hadn't occurred to me till then that Meg's standard of chinese is actually very unacceptable. She couldn't understand most of the movie's dialogue and I had to rattle off the English subtitles to her throughout the show.

1st day of lunar new year - more Lo Hei with Ken's mum's side of the family

Most of the ingredients were on the table rather than on the plate after we were done Lo Hei. This is actually rather mild, there have been years whereby the yu sheng landed in one's hair instead! We joked that it is safer to carry an umbrella with us :p

2nd day of lunar new year - this time Lo Hei with Ken's dad's side of the family. Meg claims that she hates it but yet is always the 1st to rush over to the table with a pair of chopsticks. However as she's the smallest, she invariably gets yu sheng all over her everytime. Haha ........

Brought Jonathan & Meg downstairs to play with bomb bags

Meg's 1st & actually my 1st as well

Awwww ...... they look so sweet together!

Gentle Meg

Jon & sidekick Meg

A big wonderful family - Meg had so much fun that she stayed there for 3 nights straight!

Went to Jason & Jamie's house for some new year gambling before adjourning to watch Ah Long Pte Ltd

As always, we visited Kelly's house on the 3rd day of lunar new year

And then guess where we went that night? More movie that's what! Kung Fu Dunk this time :p

I am disturbed

I just saw this on the news and I couldn't believe such evilness existed. (And this happened right here in Singapore.)

A maid was caught on camera abusing a 2 month old baby. (Go see for yourself on YouTube.) If you had seen the video, your reaction would have been the same as mine. I was full of outraged when I witnessed the footage. You can see the maid hitting the defenceless baby repeatedly and when she lifts the baby up, she didn't bother to cradle the baby's neck. As the baby is unable to support his own neck at this age, you can see the head flop helplessly backwards. I was completely stunned and horrified when I saw that. Another really distressing scene was when the baby was placed in an old-fashioned sarong cradle. The maid would viciously kick it, rock it extremely vigorously and even push it so hard that it swings all over the place. I really fear for the baby when the sarong cradle went swinging all over because it bangs into the surrounding furniture.

As I was watching the video, my hand grabbed at my chest and I mumbled "ouch" over and over again. It was totally heart wrenching to see a little baby being mistreated like that. I can feel my heart drop right to the pits of my stomach by the end of the footage. It was just way too appalling for words. From one mother to another, I can truly feel your pain. It must have been so hard watching your most precious thing getting hurt.

I am just glad that this was discovered early before the baby came to any harm. I hope that the law will mete out the just punishment for this cold-blooded maid. I believe what goes around comes around.

However in all fairness, I must add that this is one of the few isolated cases. Let's not make sweeping statements and generalise that all maids are like that. There are many many domestic helpers out there that renders many a great service to the families they work for. I for one, am grateful for the help I get.

I agree that one can never be too cautious but let's not slight them with mistrust.

Back to school

Andrew had already blogged about this 1 week back but I only managed to get down to blogging about it now. So it's kinda old news but something that meant a great deal to me. In fact, I'll call it one of the highlights of my life.

When I came in 2nd in the mock detailing competition last year, I had seen it as a major achievement - something worthy for my curriculum vitae. But this time a round, I got something even way better that would really boost my CV. I won the MD AWARD! And just when I thought things couldn't have gotten any better than this. They announced that I won a 2nd award :DDD I bagged the MD award for top sales in GP sector & award for top product sales. I had never in my life been so proud of myself. It was pure exhilaration. Even if it was without booze, I would be on a constant high the entire night just from the adrenaline rush.

Admittedly, things haven't been too easy after I got the award. There are many that weren't too happy about it or think that I just got lucky that's all. Sure, I won't deny that luck plays a part in my sales performance. And definitely if it weren't for my predecessor, Sam and fellow colleagues like Ben & Allan for laying such a strong foundation. I would have got nothing. But I am not about to discredit myself either. Being new in the trade, I think I did a pretty dandy job. So like it or not, I am here to stay. I don't give sh*t about what you think about me. I am good at what I do. And for those who didn't think that I am cut out for this from the beginning, I have proven you wrong.

Alright, enough with the heavy stuff. Let's take a look at how much fun I had that night during the company's Dinner & Dance, shall we?

The theme for the night is 'Back To School'. It was a real lucky thing I chanced upon Melissa's D&D (same theme) pics in facebook. I immediately pounced on it and borrowed the costume from her. I want to say a big thank you to Amy as well for helping me source for another 3 more sets of costumes for my colleagues.

I borrowed lots of stuff from Meg that night (all without her knowledge :p)

Pretty babes Diana & Joey. We were getting ready in the hotel room of Sheraton Towers as we had a full day meeting prior to the D&D. We decided to act as cute as we can for the night since we were given a legitimate reason for it. Not much of a chance to do that otherwise :p

You should have seen the guys' faces when we entered the ballroom, it's as if it's their fantasy come true! Japanese school girls. Wahahaha!!!

Angeline is hot grandmama!

Our big boss who's extremely sporting to dress the partBenjamin is a born actorDear Jeannie at the sideIFC???Dallas came up with what the acronyms I.F.C stood for - International F**king College. Hmmmm ....... ingenious :pSweetie Michelle - oh btw, Happy birthday girl!Pretty mummy Amy joined usErycka commented that this looks so 'Hentai' & I have to agree with her! Haha! Check out Shaun's ecstatic face :p Finally gorgeous Dionne arrived & our group is complete!From top left: Lionel, Karen, Jennifer, Taras & CharleneYou'd never guess that he's my boss!We were given the tags by the event company. We had to choose 'prefect' or 'perfect'. Of course, we chose PERFECT!Glenn & GregoryOur MC for the night is Daniel Ong. I love listening to him on 98.7 while driving to work every morning.These babes are just so much fun!With or without?Here's the group from Hogwarts SchoolNot to mention you but even I cringe when I see ladies our age, dress in school uniform acting cute. And even more so when it's aunties like the both of us with daughters already in primary school! Haha ...... sorry I knew I did not have a good enough reason no matter what, to act juvenile :p

Saccharine sweet Selina

Headline: School girls got caught red-handed on smoking breaks!

Shaun is 1 lucky sod I tell ya

Joey got arrowed for the school belle & hunk competition

Talent competition - 881! Kudos to Anna, Amy & Greg for taking part.

Noelle, our mock-detailing champion for this POA. As with tradition, we filled her trophy to the brim with beer & made her drink.

Going up on stage twice for my awards.

Boss & ex-bosses giving me the thumbs up.

Went down to Velvet & Phuture for more drinks after the D&D. Ken thinks that I am nuts bringing my trophy into the club. Yeah I am a poser but I was so proud of the trophy, I can't help myself :p Do you know I had never won a trophy in my entire life! I was never into sports & was always watching Uniz & Erycka receive their trophies in school.

I think Ken prefers me to look nerdy like that

They were so nice to come down & celebrate my win with me

My glasses was hot property

Darling Kok Ying

We rock!

Oh & I forgot to mention that I borrowed Meg's schnauzer toy & brought it with me everywhere I went. Yeah .... even in the club :p And the bag? Courtesy of Erycka :D

My proud moment