Enlightened over the weekend

It has been a crazy busy long weekend. It kicked off with the 14th MCCC last Thursday. I wasn't attending but Daalin did and we are also hosting a participant from India. (present tense because he's still here and only leaves tomorrow).

I was working till Thursday and then on Friday my MDA/FDI dental conference started at the KLCC. That's the convention centre. Not the shopping mall. I had to leave home at 7am, just after Joe woke up but Joy was still asleep. And I hate having to leave before the kids wake up.

I want to be there to greet them, hug them and smother them with kisses and pray with them when they open their eyes.

So anyway, I went downtown by LRT. Found my way to KLCC (first time to the convention centre!), registered and found a seat in the plenary theatre. I tried listening and paying attention to the oh-so-boring-speaker but restlessness and sleepiness got the better of me. So after a short nap, I sneaked out and went to check out the trade exhibition instead. Walked around collecting all the freebies from Colgate, Listerine, Sensodyne etc and then found the free internet terminals.

Thereafter I spent most of the rest of the day catching up with ex-coursemates and friends and stuffing myself with smoked salmon at the buffet lunch. Then I bought 2 rotiboy on my way home, for Joe, and got home just as Joy woke up from her nap.

On Saturday, I decided to gate-crash the MCCC instead of going downtown. There wasn't much of a programme besides the Opening Ceremony and the AGM. I didn't fancy hearing boring VIP speeches (by the DeputyPM) and neither did I quite care about who sits in the MDA committee.

I'm so glad I went to DreamCentre instead of KLCC. Hearing Pastor Dr Daniel Ho, Pastor Dr Chew Weng Chee and Pastor Dr Philip Lyn speak was so much better. Three fantastic senior pastors in ONE session!

In the afternoon, we went from DC to Sentul for Timothy's 4th Birthday Party. His mummy is one fantastic party-planner!

She had helium balloons all over the room, and individually wrapped & labelled party packs for the kids.

She even had a bouncing castle! But the kids didn't play in there long because it was leaking air so they sank instead of bounced.

And the cake... it was really good chocolate fudge cake inside. It's a pity all that good-looking fondant (which I'm sure took a long time to put together and which cost so much!) ends up in the trash.

Joe didn't need to eat. He was happy playing in the pool! He enjoyed this shallow pool so much! The pillars had knobs that you push and water squirts out horizontally.

After the party, Nana, Joy and myself went home first while Joe accompanied Daalin to go back to church to fetch our guest and take him out for dinner. They had a good time eating Hokkien Mee, Satay and Or Chien at Jalan 222. I think Joe felt very important because it was an all-guys dinner.

Sunday morning - they all went to church while I had to go downtown again because I had to collect the attendance certificate.

Again, the speaker was so boring. His content may be interesting. But the monotony of his speech could just put me to sleep. So I decided to take a stroll in the mall. I went window-shopping.

The mall was so full of people paying homage to all the brand names which I can pronounce. I don't know what's so attractive about walking around KLCC. Everything is so expensive! I did pop into Kinokuniya but had to quickly make my exit because my eyes were popping out just looking at the prices!

I saw this swimsuit at Gap. RM99 for the rashguard and RM129 (I think) for the shorts! Who in their right mind would spend so much?

It's USD20 for the top and USD22.50 for the shorts online. I'm sure that you can get it for much less at the outlet store. And YeeTeow says Gap is disposable clothing. Very expensive disposable clothing!

Over buffet lunch at the conference, I chatted with a group of much older dentists one of which was shocked to find out that I got married before I graduated. He told me that if I were his daughter, I wouldn't be alive!

Then I bumped into Jean on my way out and ended up chatting some more. Jean kindly gave me a lift home after that so I was spared having to walk up the hill from the LRT station.

It sucks that I have to work today after a long weekend. I would much rather stay home and do stuff with my kids.

Attending the conference was not really in vain. I did learn a one thing - and that is that I'm sure I do not want to do dentistry for the rest of my life. The other thing is that I would much rather be with my kids than anything else. I had so much 'me time' at KLCC. I suppose I could have really shopped or gone for a manicure or a massage or whatever else it is that 'tai tais' and mak datins do. But even with window shopping, I was only in the kids departments looking at stuff for kids.

So I'm thankful for the busy weekend. Because it was enlightening!

School during the Holidays

Joseph has been very happy to NOT have to go to school in the past week. I was pretty happy too to not have to rush him in the mornings. But I thought he shouldn't just all play and no work coz that makes Jack a dumb boy right? So I pulled out some books that were given by a homeschooling friend in Singapore.

Books for Primary 1 but Joseph totally surprised me. He read the instructions and the words all by himself before I could even open my mouth. I didn't know he could read! So he did most of the work by himself.

Then after a few pages, we switched to numbers.

The first few pages are real peanuts. Joe just took one look and wrote down the answers. And then he gave himself stars! I thought he did deserve it because again, he read the instructions by himself.

Joy asked for her Dora school bag and wouldn't put it down after that.

She says she is going to school by bus and that Kor Kor is her teacher.

She does look pretty ready. And by January, she would have been toilet-trained for a whole year already.

She doesn't quite look nor sound like a regular 2-year-old. When asked questions, she answers in complete sentences e.g. "Yes, I did" or "No, I didn't".

But we are not planning on sending her to school till 2012 when she's 4-years old.

So Princess School will be at home till then.

Family Time on The Family Bed

Another of the kids' favourite activity for Family Time is playing/camping/reading/jumping on the bed. They can arrange the pillows and imagine it's a campfire or that they're in a boat.

Of course, jumping is an all-time favourite activity.

After 8 years and lots of jumping, the springs in the mattress are creaking and I know it's high time for a change.

YeeYee tells me that the kids should sleep on their own beds. (I'm waiting to see YeeTeow lock their kids out of their room...heh heh!)

But they are just so adorable when they sleep. And they smell so nice.

I love looking at their sweet-surrender look.

Sure I sometimes don't sleep too soundly because it's not uncommon to have a foot in your face or a leg landing on your tummy. And you find your bolster gets stolen now and then.

Or once in a while, you have to wake up in the middle of the night to help Joe hunt for Barney and then find that Papa is hugging Barney.

Sure I know there are lots of people who feel kids should sleep in their own beds. I don't want to pick a fight. And one day they will. But for now, they are most welcome to sleep with us.

In fact, I'm planning on having a GIANT bed when we move to our new place.

TWO King-sized beds next to each other!!!

Pulling the Baskets at Carrefour

I was telling YeeYee that this is one of the things the kids enjoy doing for 'family time'. Joseph says it's like rickshaws. Except that Joy-Anne is a bit too big and heavy to be his passenger.

Carrefour @ The Sphere is very convenient for us to get groceries. From our underground parking to theirs, it doesn't matter if it's pouring cats and dogs! And parking is FREE!

However, I have had several tiffs with them over wrong price scans. Once, they didn't want to honour the lower display price for a tray of eggs. I came home and wrote them a complain e-mail not quite expecting to get a reply (because you know la....Malaysian standard of customer service where got reply one). But to my surprise, they called me back and after doing their investigations, asked me to go back for a full refund.

So I got the tray of eggs for free. Another time, I found a rotten egg just one day after I bought the tray of eggs. The wrapping was still intact. So we brought it back for a no-questions-asked exchange. Looks like the kids can continue pulling baskets since I'm happy shopping there.

Jokes with Joe

Joseph has a cute sense of humour. He told me these jokes some time ago. I'm surprised a kid his age understands them.

Joke #1

Q : Why do golfers wear 2 pants when they play golf?

A : In case they get a hole in one.

Joke #2

Q : Why did six run away from seven?

A : Because seven ate (eight) nine.

So two nights ago, I tested this old corny joke on him.

Three couples were having dinner together. The first husband said to his wife, "Please pass the sugar, Sugar." The second husband, not to be outdone on public display of affection said to his wife, "Please pass the honey, Honey."

The third husband turned to his wife and said, "Please pass the pork, Pig."

Joseph burst out laughing. I was very surprised. When I told the same thing to Nana, she gave me a blank look.

Then yesterday, Nana gave him a book of animal riddles and he's loving it.

Test yourself on this one...

Q : There were 10 cats in a boat. One jumped out. How many were left?

scroll down for the answer....

.... have you got your answer yet?

.... don't cheat! Think of your own answer first....

.... ready???

.... the answer is NONE! The other nine were copycats!

:-)

Renewing Malaysian International Passports

Since we decided to make a trip down south to visit Dora & Diego, I had to renew my passport which had already expired in March. Joe would also need to renew his since it has less than 6 months validity.

First thing I needed were passport photos. Previously I had mine taken at a shop in Seremban which charged only RM5 for 12 pieces. It's surely the cheapest around. But that was not possible so I called several studios in Midvalley Megamall to find out how much it costs.

Extremely expensive! It ranged from RM12 for 4 pieces to RM15 for 6 pieces. One shop even quoted RM18 for 4 pieces!

Then via facebook, I found out from friends that the Immigration Department sometimes reject certain studio shots and require that you retake on the spot. A friend also mentioned that it cost RM10 for 4 pieces for those on-the-spot shots.

So I decided to take a risk. I would do a DIY job. If the Immigration Department rejected it, my total lost would be a mere 30sen (for 2 persons!) and taking new photos on-the-spot would still be cheaper than making a separate trip to a studio nearby.

For those interested to know....here's what I did :

1. Have someone take a photo for you. Look straight in the camera (use a tripod if your cameraman has shaky hands). Hair behind ears, forehead clear. Don't smile too wide. No need to show your teeth. This is not for a toothpaste ad.

2. Crop the image and fill in the background with a light blue colour. I used PhotoFiltre. It's a FREE software you can download off the net.

3. Size the photo to the correct measurements (3.5cm x 5cm). Make sure your face is in the middle, not too big, not too small.

4. I copied and pasted so that I had 2 pics of each mine and Joe's photos on 1 piece 4R photo. Total cost = 30sen.

5. Cut the photos into individual pieces, leaving a thin white border.

We went to Pusat Bandar Damansara this morning, leaving home at 8am. I had already preprinted the forms which I downloaded from the immigration website and filled it up. But upon arrival, the officer told me that they do not use those forms anymore and passed me their green forms free of charge.

So I quickly filled up for myself and Joe, submitted all the documents and waited for our number to be called. I was actually afraid there would be a crowd since it's the school holidays. But the numbers moved quite quickly. We were out of there by 10am and collected at 12noon.

If you want to know, these are the things you need for passport application :



1. MyKad - photocopy and original
** Birth certificate - photocopy and original if you're under 12 years of age.
*** Also need parent/guardian's photocopy MyKad. (This means that if you're applying with your child, you need TWO pieces of your MyKad photocopy)

2. Passport photos 2 pieces, recently taken.

3. Application form - correctly filled in with black pen.

4. Your thumb.

5. Old passport for renewal, OR birth certificate for first time application.

I'm quite thrilled that my DIY job was a success. Needless to say, my 'finance minister' is even more happy that I saved him at least RM20. And to think Yee Yee paid USD26 for her passport photos!

So we're set.... Singapore here we come!

Joe's Wild Wild West Party

Joseph had a Wild Wild West-themed party at school this morning. He was pretty excited. Except for the hat, everything else in his outfit is self-assembled-DIY.
I bought the hat (RM12.50) from a toy shop at PJ Old Town. He wore a hand-me-down Raulph Lauren striped long-sleeved shirt, his favourite jeans from Target Australia and his page-boy vest. The red scarf is about 20years old.
The star badge (with his name on it!) is from USA and the belt buckle is a very last-minute thing I made this morning out of milo tin foil.
We got to school a bit late but there were lots of kids who came even later. I asked Joseph where his best friend was because I just didn't recognize her in her very nice outfit and Joe very shyly pointed her out. So I asked if he wanted to take a photo with her. He nodded but was still very shy. But his pretty best friend very happily came over to sit next to him for a picture. Their other classmate however wanted a piece of the action too. And I didn't want to be rude.
So after the photo above, I managed to snap another one of just the two of them.

And then another shot with Miss C's cowboy hat....and the other girl.

Then one more picture carefully trying to get just the two of them.

The kids ran around and around before one parent managed to get them to stand together for a group picture.

Then they went to wash their hands and settled back down for their food.

There really was a LOT of food!!! I'm sure the teachers had an abundance of leftovers for lunch. While the children ate, I busybodied a little and walked around checking out the other classes food and kid costumes.

a whole tray of Ferrero Rocher!!!

check out the cute pink butterfly cookie

woody-lookalike

someone in Joe's class brought WildWildWest-themed cupcakes!

After eating, I took somemore photos....

And then the princess arrived. Daalin dropped her off on his way to work.

I think Jovene really does like Joe. Either that or she just really likes taking photos. Since her mummy wasn't there to take for her, I kindly obliged her.

If there was an award for best-dressed teacher, I would have awarded it to Teacher Esther. She even painted her feet!

Teacher Jonathan came along for the official class party photo.

Yeeeha!!!! School's out for 2 weeks! (See the happiness on teacher's face!)

Joseph came home quite happy. He didn't win the best-dressed award but I had already prepared him for this because I wasn't expecting him to win.

The boy who won (one kid per class) had toy guns to complete the costume and I told Joe I didn't want him carrying guns. So he replied, "Then carry Bible lah!" and while I was quite impressed and amused at the same time, I didn't quite know how to explain to him that it wouldn't quite 'go' together. After all, have you seen a Bible-toting cowboy?

He finally said that he's the only Jesus-loving cowboy around. (I'm trying to get a video loaded but it's super slow)