CNY Gathering

Hi guys,

I'll like to thank Qiwei for inviting me to the 1st CNY gathering with you guys in years!
Although the amount of time spent there was short (in part because some of us were late from other "bai nian" activities, and in part because of children's committments), it was nontheless heartwarming to see so many familiar faces under the same roof.

I have been so distant from you guys that at times I feel like an intruder into someone else's gathering, but familiarity and good hospitality soon took over and my wife, daughter and myself soon warmed up to all of you. It's like a rebuilding exercise for me, but I am trying.

It's so fun to see the children of my friends (well, I don't have that many chances because my own close circle of friends are still childless by intention). I was pleasantly surprised by Peishun's 2 children who came up to me like they saw an old friend and wished me "xin nian kuai le". They also eagerly shook my hand like an election candidate on his walkabout.

Justin was a bit shy with me at first, but being the big kid I am, it's not difficult to break the ice with him. I met Guohao and family at Serangoon Garden's Pao Xing chicken rice once and that's where I first met Justin. So I guess raking up the past helped a little, when I mentioned I also like chicken rice. Seeing we have a common denominator, I think he more or less has less negative vibes about this silly "uncle". Not much chance with Darren because he was tired and cranky and hungry. He did make himself heard most of the time.

And lastly, Yiqiang and family came and Si En (pardon the spelling) made many of us laugh with her mature posing in front of the camera. She even used my daughter as part of the furniture to pose for her daddy. It was really funny. I have attached a picture to share. It's a good way to round up my CNY activity. Cheers to you guys, and for good health and prosperity.




The girl on the right looks like a Singapore Idol in the making while the one on the left might be a Glutton Champion in future.

Happy Valentines'!

Happy Valentines' everyone! Wishing everyone a day of friendship, love and lust!

I still remember the youthful days in Hwa Chong where the guys would try to impress the girls by giving them flowers... and the girls would be so flattered that they have flowers that they flaunt it all around. I guess it is still the same now, just that we are too mature (not old) and wise to be bluffed into buying all those little pressies to impress someone... although, we always wouldn't mind receiving gifts! (women are always like that lah... nag nag nag to our hubbies that they should not spend unneccesary money blah blah blah, but deep inside, we are quite happy to receive pressies!)

Happy Valentines!!!

CNY

It didn't feel as if CNY is just less than 2 weeks away! I've not started spring cleaning, yet to change those new crisp notes for the Ang Pow and there's no love letters, pineapple tarts, bar kua at my house, yet to buy new clothes for Justin Darren and myself?! and also had not found time to even go for a haircut. Guohao's gone for a week of reservist since 29 Jan and with one more week to go, I'm left to cope with 2 kids (thankfully with the help of my maid, Weng) till he's freed from national duty this Sat. By then, we'll be left with just 7 days to prepare for CNY.

We were supposed to start our "preparation"/shopping/spring cleaning 2 weeks ago but unexpectedly, Justin ended up in hospital. This is his second hospitalisation in his 2 years 4 months of life. When I was working on a paediatric study a few years back I always wondered why some of the kids on my study end up at hospital with bronchiolitis/febril fits etc.... Now that I'm a mother myself, I understand what it's all about. Jusin was still well when he retired for the day on Sat night, but at 2am in the morning, we were suddenly awaken by a shrieking cough (on the internet, they described it as "seal barking" noise). We thought it was Darren but it turned out to be Justin. He seems to have difficulty breathing as the skin under his rib cage sinks in with each breath. Guohao quickly sent him to Thomson Medical, and the doctor admitted him, though he was much better after being put on the nebulizer. His peadiatrician said he had an episode of croup. Thankfully, Justin recovered very quickly and basically was enjoying his time in the ward watching DVD and playing with his Ye Ye and Nai Nai and Daddy. He was discharged after one day.

Being a child is really the luckiest thing. only when I become a parent do I truly appreciate this. For the child, there's always the parent to solve their problems. As a parent, you'll always worry and think of how to solve your children's problems or give them the best. So when you start to grumble about how naggy your mom/dad is, remind yourself how lucky you are.

So CNY will be a funfilled time for Justin to collect his Ang Pows and eating his favourite goodies (Darren probably still dun know what's happening). And for me, it'll be a busy time to get ready!

spring cleaning

this year yancy and i engaged a cleaning company to do the spring cleaning of our place. initially we discussed the possibility of doing things ourselves, but looking at the stain on the shower glass door, the choppy layers of dust accumulated on the ceiling/electric fans and the many many other little corners, we decided we could take a chance on the task and see how it goes to outsource this to save time and possibly ineffective way of doing things. we also thought we could learn a trick or two from the professionals :)

the head cleaner clarified on their work scope and they jumped into work as soon as they arrived. there were 3 other cleaners as well as a supervisor who came later in the day to do PR. their job took about 4 hours and it included the usual stuff such as cleaning air-con filters, all windows and doors, stove and cabinets in the kitchen, all mirrors, as well as sweeping and mopping etc etc. they also helped to steam all curtains (after yancy insisted that it should come free, hee!) and scrubbed all bathroom floors which i thought were value-added service as a novice customer.

overall their job were quite satisfactory except for certain aspects related to work quality; for most of these i would attribute them to the meticulousness/attentiveness of the staff to small details, rather than any specific work that is not done. for these they needed some reminders from the head cleaner after we "complained".

i think what we will do for the next time, if ever, is to amend the job scope to be more specifc to what our needs are (they did not touch the furniture and was reluctant to dust/wipe shelves and table-tops with movable objects), and we could also take away unnecessary stuff (eg. cleaning of air-con filters since we seldom switch them on) in this way we thought we could ask for a better price next time.

what are your experiences?