Hello Again, Kitty

The "Lantern Fantasy 2008" exhibition was held at the Chinese Gardens for an entire month from 28 Aug 08 till 28 Sep 08. It literally spanned across both the Olympics and the Formula 1 events. That was why they cleverly put up lantern displays featuring the various Olympic sports, and also Hello Kitty and her many adorable friends in multicoloured F1 racers.

On each of the Saturdays (and also the first and final Fridays) during this period, there were even fireworks displays. These were actually really small-scale affairs and frankly speaking quite pathetic (especially since it wasn't too long ago that we have been wowed by the spectacle that was the Beijing Olympics opening). Nevertheless, every Saturday, Jaimie would still be thrilled whenever I bring her to the bedroom window at 8:30pm, to gaze across Jurong Lake at the mini pyrotechnics flashing and popping in the darkened skies. At the end of each session, Jae would, without fail, ask that we bring her to see Hello Kitty again.

"要看Hello Kitty! Please..."
"喏。Hello Kitty就在那里啰。"
"要进去！"
"爸爸妈妈不是已经带你进去去看过了吗？"
"要再去看！Please..."
"Ok, ok....如果你乖乖的话，爸爸妈妈就带你去。好吗？"
"好！"

So, when I realised that yesterday was the final day of the lantern exhibition, and that tickets would be sold at half price (!!), I decided to make good of the promises I have made. Nick came by in the afternoon for some jamming (he brought along the PS3 "Rock Band" game, with guitar and mic!), and decided to also come along since his boy Ayden has never visited the Chinese Gardens.

The photos turned out fairly nicely. I attribute this to the lens upgrade I'd gotten recently, when I found that my EFS 18-35mm kit lens had signs of fungal growth - no doubt due to my extended procrastination over the purchase of a proper dry cabinet for my camera equipment. The lens I bought is a second-hand EF 28-135mm lens. This is an ultrasonic lens. with image stabilisation feature. I find that it is working pretty well, delivering faster focus and sharper pics than my previous kit lens. Of course, immediately after procuring the new lens, I also went ahead to get that long overdue dry cabinet to make sure history would not repeat itself.

Alright, enough of talk.

Tag: A Picture Meme

Thanks Lovelyloey for tagging me (although it was for tracking purposes... heh heh... you are so cunning~~).

************************************************************************************

Instructions:

a) Answer the questions below, do a Google Image search with your answer, take a picture from the first page of results, and do it with minimal words of explanation.

b) Tag 5 other people to do the same once you’ve finished answering every question.

*************************************************************************************

1. The age you’ll be on your next birthday

2. A place you’d like to travel to

Europe. Prague.

3. Your favourite place

Drama Land.

4. Your favourite food

Japanese food.

5. Your favourite pet

I don't like to keep real pets.

6. Your favourite colour combination

7. Your favourite piece of clothing


8. Your favourite TV show

9. First name of your significant other

10. The town in which you live

11. Your first job

12. Your dream job Namaste.

13. A bad habit you have

14. Your worst fear

To become the kind of person I loathed unknowingly.

15. What you’d like to do before you die
I am going to tag:

(1) Meekfreek (2) Joyce Long (3) Ernest (4) Stardust (5) Absolutfaith

Me, a name I call my song

Here's my rendition of a song I like very much from the movie "Sound of Music" .

I call this song "Me".



Doe, a deer, a female deer
Ray, a door of nn-nn sun
Me, a name I call my song
Far, a long long way to rung
Sew, a needle who thread
La, a doo-ahahah sew
Tea, a drink hehehe grade
Eheheh back a doe doe doe doe

YEAH~ I want to go karaoke!!

So You Think You Can Dance

Just give her some music (even if it is just the simple beat of a tambourine).

Just give her an audience (even if it is just her own daddy).

She'd instantly transform the living room into a dance floor. Get into the groove, baby! Yeah~!

Dancing Queen, feel the beat from the tambourine
You can dance, you can jive, having the time of your life
See that girl, watch that scene, diggin' the Dancing Queen

Wall.E and Jaimie

Clement promised to bring Jaimie for her second movie experience a few days ago. This time, we were going to watch Wall.E. To prepare her for her movie, Clement brought back a Wall E movie poster and taped it to Jaimie's door. He even taught her how to say "WWaaaAAllLLL EEeee" as how the characters in the movie pronounced the name.

Upon checking the internet, Cathay Cinelesiure was the only cinema which had a 10.40am show. So that was the obvious choice for us.

We went to the coffeeshop opposite Great World City to have our second favourite lor mee (we had our top favourite lor mee at Tiong Bahru Market yesterday... sharks' meat lor mee~~ yummy yummy~~~) before we proceed to the cinema. Jaimie was all excited about the movie. She was in high spirit, unlike her mom who was suffering from PMS at the momement.

Jaimie was so happy to see Wall.E posters all over the lobby in the cinema. She danced around and while waiting to be seated. We bought 2 tickets as Jaimie has yet to reach the 90cm mark. Furthermore, it was a morning show and there would be lots of empty seats. True enough, the next 4 seats beside us were empty. Hence we conveniently moved one seat to our left and made space for the little princess to sit on a booster seat.
Like her first movie experience, Jaimie was very attentive during the commercials and movie thrailers. After an hour, she was all fidgeting. She was told before hand that she was not to talk loudly or cry in the cinema or else we would be thrown out of the theatre hence she whispered that she wanted to go home to watch Maisy (again) instead. I told her we could not leave the cinema so I just carried her on my lap, brought her out for a toilet break, let her walk around the space between Clement and I, and we stayed through the movie. Yipee~~

Again, I fell asleep towards the end of the movie. It was an average animation with dull colours and very cliche storyline with not much excitment. Kung-Fu Panda was so much more enjoyable.

The Long and Short of Jaimie's Hair

I saw in Meekfreek's blog that Izzy's hair has grown so long and nice that her proud mommy can start tying them in plaits! I am so envious! I have been waiting since DAY ONE for Jaimie's hair to grow/ grow long!

This is Jaimie@ 1 mth old. No hair.

Jaimie @ 1 year old. Still no hair. So I need not post any pictures between 2-11mths because Jaimie had the same, er, hairstyle.

Finally, at 23 mths, Jaimie had her first hair clips. This is the first picture of Jaimie wearing hair clips. Before that, hair clip is an item not found in our house.

At 24 mths, Jaimie had slightly more hair to keep the clip on her hair. Before that, we had to watch out for slipping hair clips.

I bought this hairband for her when she was 20mths old. Now finally she had some hair to carry that hip hop look!

However, sometimes the clips still slipped, like the ones above. Jaimie @ 24 mths was in the airport waiting for Daddy to come home.

This is the amount of hair Jaimie had finally grown after 2 years.

Since the day Jaimie discovered the beauty of hair clips, she always wanted to put them on and thought she looked gorgeous in them. She would run to the mirror to check out her hair each time I put on hair clips for her. The picture above is Jaimie's first day to childcare centre. We put on some nice hair clips on her to make her feel better.

The billy goat nearly mistook Jaimie's hair for food. Phew~~

Just when she could feel the wind in her hair @ 25 mths...

something disastrous happend.

Thankfully Jaimie was not psychologically adversely affected at all although she was spotted with the WORST HAIRDO OF A 25mths OLD IN SINGAPORE.

She still put on hair clips on whatever that was remaining on her scalp. This was only possible one month after the disaster.

She could still doll up and go partying @ 27 mths.

Hair clips are essentials to Jaimie @ 27 mths.

See, even when she was clad in a tom-boyish outfit, Jaimie @ 28 mths still insisted on the slight touch of feminism in her look.

Because of my latest hobby, ie, bento-making, there was a sudden flood of Hello Kitty merchandise in our house. The hair clips on Jaimie @ 28 mths old would not be possible if not for the Hello Kitty craze going around here.

Jaimie @ 29 mths. Still waiting for her hair to grow.

Benefits of Steam Bath

No wonder I had a mild fever out of nowhere last night!

Must do more steam bathing.

See the beneifts of steam bath here.

A New Perspective

I was eating my oatmeal as breakfast just now and used a magazine distributed to us in my school letter rack as place mat. When I was about to throw it away, I flipped to this page and found it quite meaningful and helpful.

Click on the image to enlarge it so that you can read it. :)

Anger Management

I want to place this down on record.

I need to put some serious discipline into controlling my temper. My tendency to flare into a foul mood is especially prevalent when I'm driving. This is when I would have a tendency to easily get very affected by the attitudes and behaviors (bad ones obviously) of other drivers.

Things get even messier if I'm in a lousy mood to start off with, for example after taking a wrong turn. Teeny weeny issues, stuff that would otherwise be trivial when I'm in a cheerier state of mind, would become a trigger point that sets off the time bomb within me. I'd experience a (as Angie would put it) 'Hulk out' event, in the middle of the PIE. I'd start uttering "tsk! tsk!" incessantly. I'd start hurling curses at whoever tries to cut into my lane. I'd start inching closer to the lane dividers whenever I feel others are doing the same in my direction - "You wanna play 'Chicken'?! Huh?! Come lah!!"

All these while, my poor girls would have to endure the ordeal of this horror ride. Little Jae, obviously affected, would whimper "Baba....baba.....baba....." in her car seat, beseeching a response from the driver indicating that everything's alright. When she realised that such a response wasn't forthcoming, she'd break into sobs. Mommy, badly shaken up herself, would face the uphill tasks of attempting to concurrently calm the tearful little one beside her as well as the swearing mad one in the driver's seat.

I've lost count of the number of times that in the aftermath, I have silently vowef never to lose control ever again. Never to bring hurt and fear to my girls ever again. I've lost count of the number of times that I have failed. Angie is right - so what if I win the meaningless tussle on the road when I risk losing everything else.

I want to place this down on record, that I'd put some serious dicipline and effort towards containing my temper.

There. That's a promise. One I make to my girls.

化解危机

昨天我弟弟请客，在餐馆里，媛媛吃饱后就屁股有针似的坐不住，一直想把脚翘高，企图爬出婴儿椅。

我看到后，就喝道：“媛媛！把脚放下！”

可是，这个小朋友依然故我，把老娘的话当耳边风！我便开始严厉地数：“一、二……”。媛媛吃过苦头，知道数到“三”之后就要挨皮肉之苦了。于是在我的“三”还没吐出口时，慌忙把脚缩回去。她坐好了之后，看着我，模仿我的语气，数道：“一、二、三！”

反了！反了！她吃了雄心豹胆，竟然敢对我数一二三？！

我勃然大怒，骂：“什么？！”

媛媛看风使舵，觉得环境不对，立刻把语气放缓，若无其事地继续数下去：“四、五、六、七、八、九、十、十一、十二、十三、十四、十五、十六、十七、十八、十九、二十！一二三四、二二三四、三二三四、四二三四！”

媛媛的婆婆和公公已经笑到东歪西倒。我和老公互望两眼，哭笑不得。

Jaimie's Imaginary Possession

We read about children having imaginary friends. Jaimie has imaginary possessions instead.

My mom, who fetches Jaimie from school everyday, told me that she would always want to pick imaginary strawberries, cherries and even grass (!) and stuff them into her pocket. Today at Fidgets, we witnessed how Jaimie held her imaginary possessions dearly.

There was a tall structure at the back of Fidgets for older children. Jaimie climbed up the structure with her fist clenched. We knew she was holding on to something in her imagination again. Then came a group of older and rougher children who were chasing one another and rushed through the obstacles in the structure to get to the top of the super slide. Jaimie, who was at the second storey of the structure admiring the view from the top, was being pushed and shoved. She lost her balance and sat on the floor. When she stood up and cry, she was still clenching her fists. We were watching from the ground and Clement offered to help to "take care" of whatever she was holding and encouraged her to go over the obstacles and come down from the slides. Clement asked Jaimie as she was passing him the "things" through the net what they were. To our surprise, she was holding on to "insects", "apples", "oranges", "bananas"...

Clement returned Jaimie her "gar-gar" (insects) after she came back down. Jaimie held on to her invisible gar-gar again until we left Fidgets for lunch.

"Jaimie, let 'gar-gar' go."
"Where to put 'gar-gar'?"
"Errr.. just put it on the floor. It will crawl away."

And Jaimie squat down to release the poor insect which she had been holding on for about half an hour or more.

Hmm... I hope this imaginary stuff is not a sign of Jaimie's possessiveness!

Bento Style Dinner @ Home

We met YS and family in IMM for brunch. Inevitably, I was gravitated to Daiso and walked out of the $2 shop with another bag of bento-related stuff. I think why bento is so addicting is because the SHOPPING part of it doubles up the fun!

Since I bought so much stuff and so much ingredients, I invited YS's family to come over in the evening for a swim and have a bento-style dinner together. Actually, the Giant at IMM is a wonderful place to get all the things you need to cook a bento. The sushi counter in Giant has a wonderful variety. No need to go to Cold Storage.

I was wondering if I should serve the food in lunchboxes or plates. In the end, I chose plate because it would look a little silly to serve the guests with lunchboxes at home although it is easier to pack a lunchbox than a plate.

Tip number 1: I used those noodle snacks to hold the ears and the mouth. It looked great but after a while, the noodles turned soggy and the ears were going to fall off anytime.

Tip number 2: Bacon wrapped tomato is yummy!

This is what the guests had. I was very busy in the kitchen and serving the children so I only managed to take one picture. I realised that I bought the different types of kamaboko from Meekfreek. No wonder I couldn't figure out what she meant when she said "peel it like a mango skin" in order to cut out the shapes. I tried to cut it into rabbit as what the Japanese bento recipe books suggested. Arrgghhh~~ failed. Nevermind.
And I realised another thing... Jaimie doesn't like the rice I cooked. :( She eats the steam rice at Sakae Sushi, so it's not short grain rice she is rejecting. Sigh.

Jaimie's first theatre experience

Jaimie was looking forward to watching the Rainbow Fish. She couldn't contain her excitment when we were outside the theatre.

She couldn't contain her excitment either when we were inside the theatre.
She was very amused by the "Real" sea creatures which were luminous in the dark. However, her excitement only lasted for about half an hour. So was mine. I dozed off in the theatre and was woken up only by Jaimie's loud cries. Instead of sitting on her booster seat, the restless little girl decided to put the booster seat on the floor and stood on it. She missed her step and probably knocked on her lips. My daughter made herself the centre of attraction in the theatre for about 3-5mins with her wailing. Besides crying out loudly, she said that she "had enough" of Rainbow Fish and wanted to "go home to watch Dora" instead. I had to coax her and carry her on my lap. Finally, when I was about to leave the theatre, she stopped crying and leaned on me to rest, only looking at the stage for a while when there seemed to be something exciting going on.

The door gift was a packet of chocolate pretzels for the children. It was given to them only when we were leaving. The little one left the place very happy and satisfied with a packet of treats for her.