happy birthday sweet sixteen.....

I can't believe it...this baby turned sixteen two days ago while we were in Singapore.

 At four months old; before going on solids....MIL has this tradition where the baby is given that thing in the picture to lick and prepare the tongue for solid. Up to you to think what that thing is....

 A picture with her at her babtism....she has little hair and I tried to make her look girlish with a ribboned hair band.

Well....not surprising that she is such an avid reader today...started young.

It's nice reminiscing these pictures and be reminded of how this little girl has grown the 16 year old today. She was an easy baby to care for. Never gave much problem. Quite an indepandant girl since young. Lots of imagination. Used to talk to her imaginary friend...can't remember the name. She would hold the friend's hand and talk to him/her. Once she fell down the stairs while busy holding hands and talking to the friend.

Very good memory. Once she started talking...when she turned 1, she started remembering things and repeating them. She could identify all the petrol stations and all the billboards along the Seremban/KL highway. That was the way to keep her occupied when we travelled north.

Nursery years were pretty easy as she was a very obedient and diligent student and the teachers adored her. She came out of her shyness and became confident.Primary years was a total story altogether. All the shouting and caning she got in school made her lose her confidence and became an extreme introvert. I used to pep talk her every morning before dropping her off. Sundays after the school holidays were the worst.....she would be real down and scared of school. Whenever I picked her up...I would check her mood...if she is happy; all is fine. If she is not, I know something had happened. Used to ask her, were you caned today? Extremely stressful years for both the mother and the girl.

Now that we are in the same school, it is much easier. As an indepandent girl, she doesn't join activities that I join most of the time. She wants to be on her own and find her strengths/weaknesses on her own. I give her that space that she needs and let her discover herself in areas that she enjoy like choir, kawad (marching) and various competitions.

We didn't have much time to celebrate her birthday so we thought we would make her birthday breakfast a memorable one. We took her to Starbucks for breakfast...just opposite the hotel we were staying. Had to rush back to Malaysia after that as the father had to sit for exam in the evening. E E cooked fish curry and sardine curry for her.

Well, that's my sixteen year old teenager. All grown up and have strong opinions of things. Thank God for this bundle of blessing that came 16 years ago.

universal studio singapore

I dislike theme parks, roller coasters and whatever exciting rides. I only want peace and quiet and enjoy the scenery around me during the holiday. But the kids want roller coasters, rides that will flip your heart around and swing your head up and down.....

Anyway....for the kids' sake we made our way to USS. We reached early as advised by all our relatives and friends. We were pleasantly surprised when a staff from USS approached us to open the park for the day!!!! We were ushered into the VIP room, given drinks etc. 15minutes to 10am, we stood at the entrance with Poo behind us. Lyn was given the mike and Dan help the clapboard. She introduced us and welcome everyone to the park and Dan clamp the clapboard after her statement. We were given free express passes (which were of tremendous help as the kids need not queue for the rides) and free photo shoot with Poo ( the above picture). What an experience!!!

 I did probably three rides. Most of the time I was sitting under the shade and chilling out. It was hot...and I was having a headache from the heat. Disneyland HK was easier as the weather was cooling. We took a picture with this lady...forgot to ask what's her name.

Kids went for rides after rides and only the challenging ones. They didn't bother to consider the kiddish rides as there is no fun but for my sake they took me for a few mild rides. The most challenging was the Cylon which they did twice. They did Transformer twice too....this is the advantage of the express passes. They were able to finish their rides fast and go for seconds too.

It was a lovely time especially watching the kids having a time of their life.

tea with the Irish ambassador

23 May 2012....Lyn was invited to have tea at the residence of the Irish ambassador. It was quite an exciting experience for her. KC came home to pick her up at 2.15pm. (I couldn't join them as Dan had school in the noon).

 This is the Residence....

 Twenty participants were invited to the tea. Waiting with their parents for the event to start.

 She won consolation prize...received a certificate and lots of goodies.

 The Irish ambassador : Declan Kelly.

A group photo....the boy standing next to Lyn won the grand prize; ie a trip to Dublin!!

After tea, father and daughter went to UPM as the father had to attend class. He is still a student. Pursuing his doctorate now.

another reminder

Dan has school in the afternoon this week due to exam. The school wants all the Form 1 to do their exams at the same time.

Above are reminders from him to himself and messages from me to him.

pics of zoey

Zoey has chewed 4 slippers. Everything is kept away from her reach now. It's good she can't jump. She is quite agile for a three legger. She can jump up onto the bench and sit herself prettily there. She is definitely an attention seeker. Whenever she sees us in the living, she'll knock at the glass door with hopes we will let her in. Sometimes we pity her, we take shifts to sit outside with her.

She's a pretty lazy dog. Hardly comes to greet us when we reach home. Not sure if she will make a good watchdog at all.

 She tried to bite the wheelchair. So Nelda gave Ma a stick to hold so that Zoey will bite the stick. Biting the stick lying down.

 Change posititon

 Take a break to look into the camera. She is a happy dog. Lots of smile on her face.

 From stick to bone.

In the beginning she would growl when KC tried to take the bone from her. Now she knows no one will snatch her food from her. She is not so possessive anymore. Even saw her hiding her bone once.

Zoey runs fast, just like how Jackie would gallop around the house. She puts her energy on her front legs and runs with her shoulders forward. I guess she is strongest there.

Ninth Dublin literary awards for young Malaysians.

Congratulations on this fine achievement. Out of about 1,500 entries, yours was one of just 20 essays that qualified for the final round of judging. This places your effort in the top 1.3 per cent of all the entries received. When you apply for a place at university, or for a scholarship, this is an accomplishment that you may wish to highlight in your CV.

(Lyn received this email today and we are pretty excited. Do we dare to wish for more????)

Yap Kai Tien

She was 17. I taught her history in 4Alpha. One of my best students in that class.

Five years ago when she first came to school she was already different. Her head is always covered with bandanna. She had leukaemia. She took a year off. That is why she was in form four this year.

Today I cancelled her name from my record. She passed away yesterday morning. We made a collection from the teachers and students, totalling up to 1224.90. Then the whole 4A got on the bus to pay her our last respects.

17 years on earth and she tried her best to live to the maximum. I am glad I had the chance to get to know her personally this year. God bless your soul Kai Tien.

party in 4 Sigma

There was a little surprise for me today in 4 Sigma. It all started with Eunice telling me to go with the flow and not be stressed and enjoy ...whatever....

Then I look over the class and saw the gang of Malay girls not around. When questioned, the class said don't know....Diyana went to toilet.....

I was preparing the girls for exam next week...tips for what is coming out. Not sure how much went into their brains. While I was putting the exercises on the board, suddenly like there was a hush...turned and they burst into song and the whole jing gang of Malay appeared with two cakes all lighted up with candles!!!!!!!!

 Two tiramisu cakes and a huge birthday card with cute messages inside.

 We managed to stop a girl to take a picture of us. Everybody is vain and wants to look cute.

 But class goes on as usual, can't just stop lesson altogether. See how serious they are.

 One perasan girl managed to look cute for the camera.

Shamiha went around giving out cookies. She baked them and Nazira baked the cute little cupcake. Wow...they really prepared for my day and I was like totally blur. Diyana even cut out small plastic so that we could place the cakes on them for each girl.

4 Sigma....thank you thank you thank you....really had a blast with you today. So good to see all of you united in the Malaysian spirit to prepare this day for me. I know every one of you put effort into it...Thanks.

Thor

I managed to complete watching Thor after a few sittings....had to stop it once to sleep. Not that it's not that interesting; just that nowadays need my nap and can't sit through two hours watching a movie.

Well, I must say compared to Avengers, this story makes more sense. Chris Hemsworth plays this character. The picture below shows Thor in his full regalia; the hammer and the helmet. He is supposed to have red beard and terrible looking eyes. I suppose this Thor is still young; so the beard not grown yet. It looks blonde to me , not red. Pictures of Thor never look this good, Hollywood tend to fantasize a bit too much and make the heroes look better than they should.

I googled and found this article about Thor in the Norse legend. There is even a day named after him...Thursday. Quite an interesting article especially towards the end where he dressed as a woman to get back his hammer.  http://www.mythicalrealm.com/legends/thor.html

The movie....can watch.

captain America

I don't believe it...I'm actually watching Captain America. This movie has been lying in my laptop since last year and I was even thinking of throwing it into garbage. See how Dan has influenced me.

That's Chris Evans playing the role of Capt America...the blond hair blue-eyed American hero. It's real comical...comics come alive. This show has more depth than Avengers. No brain show...easy to watch for destressing purposes.

I think somewhere in my hard drive is Thor and a whole lot of other weird, violent, no brain, action packed  shows. Will go look for them.

Zoey

Zoey, my three legged dog. Stephanie, from 5 theta last year phoned me and asked if I wanted a dog. Zoey was a stray and had an accident last Cny. Stephanie and her family sent her to Dr Yee and had her leg amputated. Since then she had been staying with Stephanie. Unfortunately she couldn't get on with the other dog.

Being the junior she had to leave. That's how she becomes my pet. Just couldn't say no to her especially after knowing her condition.

Zoey is about seven months old now. She moves very fast with her three legs and barks real loud. Loves to bite plastic containers and shoes. Have to keep them away.

Her presence cheers Ma. She calls her 'sorry'. She says her leg is also bad like Zoey's. It's interesting...Ma seems very alert. She says Zoey is a female. She is not as blur as she seems to be. Zoey has a dark mark near her leg and Ma insists that it's a tick. I had to show her that it's not a tick.

Ing says Zoey means life in Greek. Well that's good to know. I hope Zoey will live a long life with us. Nice to see her hobbling around the garden and filling the compound with her barks.

Avengers

Dan had been talking about characters like captain America, Iron Man, Thor etc. I remember him asking me to take him for movies of such kind and I just shrugged him off....too violent, not good for you etc.

Last week he changed tactic and managed to convince Kc to bring him for the new movie ...avengers. They made appointment to watch it on labour's Day.

So that was how I ended up in the cinema yesterday together with Gladys and family. Thought it would be good to bring her boys out so we invited them to join us.

I was totally blur and the only person I know is the Hulk. Sitting beside Gladys helps. She is so knowledgable. She filled in my blanks and I learnt much about the super heroes and their power and background. Like Captain America who was late behind time because he was iced in and Iron Man who is without power without his suit and lives on battery(?) because he has no heart.

Without all these background info I would be totally puzzled. Sitting with Kc was useless because he was so focussed that he didn't utter a single sound.

Did I enjoy this movie. Yes and no. Too violent. Super heroes are all rather old men but ok with me because I like matured men. The humour in it was good....without the humour I would have been bored.

Which hero do I like the best? Hard to choose. I think I like the Hulk though I like Iron man n Capt America too.

After the movie we went for dinner and that was the best part of the evening. Wonderful bonding time because the topic was Avengers. There was so much to talk about and for once we were not glued to our own gadgets.