Mr Baoz

My Malaysian colleague, Violet bought me a bun from Mr Baoz.

I wasted no time in sinking my teeth into the delicious and pretty looking fusion steamed bun that I forgot to take picture of it.

I bugged my brother to go to JB City Square to buy the buns for me. Clement and I ate 6 buns in a day. We forgot to take pictures again. By the time we remembered, the buns were already in our stomach. Each bun is the same size as the big steamed pork bun you get from Hong Guan.

I am looking forward to Violet buying more buns for us to share on Monday morning when school reopens.

Enough said.

My Thoughts on the Chinese Language

Recently, MM Lee gave his comments on the Speak Mandarin Campaign. As a Chinese teacher and a lover of the Chinese language, I welcome such support from our government with both arms.

In our family, we try to speak in proper language. My parents speak to Jaimie in proper Cantonese, myself and my in laws speak to Jaimie in proper Mandrain (because the 3 of us are Chinese teachers!) and Clement in proper English. There are many times we slipped into the casual mode and started to speak in Singlish/ mixing 2 languages but we tried as much as we can to speak properly.

Recently, we realised that Jaimie is speaking more and more of English. She is using a lot of English to express herself. We were happy with her ability to communicate in the English language and we are still happy although Clement and I have decided that we will do some adjustment with the home language used.

Clement is the only person speaking to Jaimie in English. As for me, sometimes I do too but most of the time I still speak Mandarin. We started off this way with the intention of allowing Jaimie to learn 2 languages at the same time. However, as MM Lee suggested, it is better for BOTH parents to speak in Mandarin to their children at home even if they are effectively bilingual. We see his point. As you can see, the number of adults using Mandarin to communicate with Jaimie to the number of adults using English is about 3:1. However, the use of English in the social and school environment is strong that Jaimie is gravitated to speaking in English more. If we do not do some adjustment at home as MM Lee had suggested, Jaimie will probably lose her interest in the Chinese language in a few years' time. By then, it will be too late to revert the situation.

Many people think that Chinese is more difficult to learn than English. Indeed, with each chinese character is a picture on its own and it has no phoenics to assist in the learning, it is relatively harder. The Chinese language is a right brain language because it requires more pictorial memory of the brain while English is more of a left brain language. Perhaps that is the reason why some people find it difficult to remember the strokes.

Personally, I really hate it when people associate the importance of learning Chinese with the economic rising of China. No doubt that is one of the reasons and motivations but I do not like it at all. In my 12 years of teaching, I have never once used that as a reason to encourage my students to do well in the language. I do not even discuss with them why must they pay attention in my class. The richess of the Chinese culture, the stories behind each idiom, the origins of the words are enough to captivate them and make them not-hate the language. In fact, a lot of my students told me that they had never known that Chinese is such an interesting and fun language and they looked forward to Chinese lessons. And I can proudly tell you that the percentage of my students achieving distinctions in major exams is quite satisfactory.

I am not being a show off here. I am just sharing the fact that to learn a language well, you need to first like the language. That goes the same for everything, actually. Hence, in my opinion, there is no such thing as a "difficult language".

Fishy Fish

After a relaxing and rejuvenating facial at Jurong Point today, I met Clement for lunch and then we shopped around to see if there was anything to buy for Jaimie's upcoming birthday.

Toys R Us had moved out so we went to Kiddy Palace to look around. We didn't find anything very appropriate for birthday yet but I decided to buy the fishing game for myself Jaimie.

In the evening when we returned from my MIL's place, I opened the box excitedly and put in 2 AA batteries. I gave Jaimie and Clement a fishing rod each and with the digital Latin music, we started to play the fishing game.

It wasn't that easy, really. Step 1, you have to wait for the fish to open its mouth. Step 2, you need to drop the hook accurately into the fish's mouth at the right timing. Step 3, you need to pull out the fish gently from the spinning disc. Jaimie could hardly catch a fish even with us helping her with step 1 and 2. In the end, she gave up and started stealing our fish and claimed that they were her catch.

I pictured the 3 of us playing the fishing game together when I bought this toy. Well, in the end the 3 of us did play together but the scenario was a little different from what I imagined it to be. Clement and I were having a competition to see who caught more fishes. I lost all the games. Jaimie was pretending to be a chef and prepared the poisson with all her fine cutlery skills and exotic seasoning.

Well, it is still a family game...

The Taitai Dream

It started off like this.

So, today, the 4 taitais met at the Hanabi Restuarant at Odeon Towers. When we met, of course, as taitais, we started by admiring one another's outfit and accessories and sang praises of one another for an ego boost. All of us came in our most taitai possible outfit and put on full makeup.

We actually wanted to use the self-timer function on the camera to take the pictures but because we all looked so taitai, a very kind angmo didn't think we know how to do it and offered to take the group pics for us. He must have thought that we were desperate housewives.

As usual, we had a fabulous time eating, chatting and laughing. We ate until so full that we could hardly walk. Joyce had to go off to meet Chai San (the birthday boy) for Swensens ice cream while Viv had to go back to her office check on her maids.

Did I just say we were so full that we could hardly walk? Well, after some shopping with Wolfgirl in Bugis Junction, we decided to extend our taitai day by having afternoon tea and dessert at MOF.

To be a taitai, you need to spend like a taitai. Hence, I bought 4 pairs of shoes today.

Just look at the details on the shoes! Each pair is about $95!!!! but they are really comfortable and pretty!!!!!! Ohh! What am I talking about? Taitais do not need to justify their spending!

I bought some clothes too. Going back home in hands full of shopping bags is an important characterisic of a taitai.

We had such a fun day today.

However, the "taitai feeling" ended the moment Jaimie stepped out of her childcare centre. I was transformed back to the desperate housewife immediately.

Cinderella's fairytale ended at midnight. Mine ended at 4.30pm, when Jaimie comes home.

Fidgets!!

Wolfgirl blogged about the outing at Fidgets. Since we have already been there a dozen times, I shall just ride on her post. :) Clement took these photos while enduring the very bad backache. Btw, we seemed to find a relief for his pain. He felt better every time we dipped into the hot pool at our place. Maybe heat therapy will do the trick!

Opps. Sorry, I digressed.

Sherrilyn and Caleb, Vivian and Ezra, Joyce and Cherrlyn were supposed to join us but they all could not make it last minute. How unfortunate. Next time, then!

Jaimie must be really hungry after the workout at Fidgets. She finished a plate of chicken rice on her own!

A Quiet Sunday with Jaimie

It has been some time since we blogged about Jaimie. OOpps. Sorry darling, I think I have neglected you!

To make up for it, I spent the whole day with Jaimie today. In the morning after watching some children's educational program on channel 8, I brought out some crayons and drawing papers to do some colouring with her.

We had a few rounds of Memory Game whereby she was to flip the cards to look for the cards with the identical objects. I started with 2 sets and slowly progressed to 5 sets of cards. She needed a little help from me but generally she was able to remember most of the cards. The picture below was her doing her victory dance when she completed her set of 5 cards. =_=

Clement was ok to walk to the market for lunch and so we went. Jaimie and I shared a bowl of fishball mee-pok. She is loving mee-pok now.

I promised her to bring her for a swim after her nap. Unfortunately, it was raining cats and dogs when she woke up. She watched Clement played Mario Kart on Wii for a while and I read her some storybooks.

She went to bed at 8.30pm, which was unusally early, I started to chat with her and asked her about school. I think she was spinning stories about what happened in school based on the questions I prompted her.

She was asleep by 9.30pm. That was very, very early. Why? Because I told her she would need to sleep IMMEDIATELY if she wanted to go to Fidgets tomorrow morning.

It has been some time since I spent such quality time with Jaimie... and I am loving it.

It Never Rains, It Pours

福无双至, 祸不单行.

*Sigh*

This heart attack scare came shortly in the wake of the blood clot in brain episode.

I spent the whole of yesterday back at the now familiar environment of Tan Tock Seng Hospital. They ran a battery of tests on me, including chest x-ray (to check for lung infection), blood tests (to check heart enzyme reactions) as well as ECGs. The good news is that all the test results turned out to be fine i.e. it is unlikely that I am suffering from any cardiac problems. The doctor informed me that it is likely that my chest and back pain is muscular-skeletal in nature. Probably an infection of my rib cartilages. I was then given lots of painkillers (of different variants - 2 x oral ingestion types and 1 x gel application type), and discharged. Thank goodness I need not be admitted for the second time in two weeks.

I'm now back home, recuperating. The pain still persists, so I'm in a constant state of slo-mo, like in a Zack Snyder movie. Oh well, slo-mo is good. That's the only way to dodge bullets from the agents.

Alvin sms'ed me to wish me well. "Take care, man. Things will only get better."

I really hope he's right.

Heart Attack!?!

After a headache turned out to be blood clots in the brain, you really cannot blame me for being paranoid.

Since yesterday Clement complained of chest pain and at night, the pain spreaded to the back, the neck.He experienced palpitation and could not turn his neck. I had no idea how to help him except looked up the internet to see what might be wrong. To my horror, which almost caused me a heart attack, he displayed symptoms of a heart attack!

I was not as brave and strong as I would like to be sometimes. So in my pleads and tears, I begged him to go to the A&E immediately which he simply refused and insisted on waiting till the next day to see how things go. I literally cried myself to sleep as I already had a very bad day to begin with-- I scratched the car against the pillar when I turned out of the parking lot. I burnt a hole in my pocket to get it repaired and was racing against time to send the car to the workshop before my horrible timetable began.

Anyway, to cut the long story short ( I had a long day today), Clement's ECG and blood test for the heart enzyme and the chest Xray was ok. The doctor did not think that the pain was caused by cardiac problems. Most likely it was muscular pain due to perhaps too much lying down or whatsoever. I had lessons in the morning and in the afternoon so after my morning lesson, I ran off to TTSH to accompany him in the observation ward. He needed to take 2 blood tests at an 8 hour interval so he was practically there the whole day. Then I rushed back to school to deliver my lesson at 2pm. After my lessons ended at 4pm, I made my way to TTSH again. I had to stand all the time as there was no seat in the observation ward. Finally, he was allowed to go home at 8.30pm.

Some concerned friends messaged me and asked if we were ok because our blog was unusually quiet these few days. Well, to be honest, things are not exactly fantastic but we are managing. I mean, life goes on as usual, I made the same bentos as the previous one so I didn't bother to blog about it, Clement was getting really bored staying at home the whole day and he wasn't in high spirits, I had to manage work, home, Jaimie and self so I was under quite some stress too. That explains why I scratched the car... I just couldn't concentrate yesterday. Clement said it was due to my lousy driving skills. Oh well, that too.

Thankfully the March holidays are here. And since Clement need not be admitted, we are all feeling happy and good and that keeps us going. Having Jaimie around at home with us cheers us up very much. This evening when we came home from the hospital, it feels so good. My in-laws have been of great help in taking care of Jaimie while I managed all the necessary in the hospital with Clement. We are just so glad that we ruled out the worst case scenario.

This period has been a rough patch for us but we always remembered to count our blessings and continue to be strong. Every challenge in life makes us a stronger and better person!

All I wish for now is Clement to have a speedy recovery. I cannot afford to have another heart attack!!

Bento #72, #73

Instead of the usual sushi rice, I stuffed brown rice into the inari skin. Of course the rice does not stick together at all but it tastes not bad (actually, anything with inari skin is not bad or good) and feels healthier too.

I tried to bake chicken thighs in oyster sauce. Unfortunately, I burnt it a little. The chicken skin was meant to be cripsy but in the end it became chow-dar. Nevermind. So I stripped away the skin and it became *ahem* healthy baked chicken thighs without the sinful skin.

I tried baking chicken parts several times but none of them turn out to be cripsy. I think the reason of behind my not-cripsy baked chicken is because I put them on a baking tray. I should have used a guaze or something so that the juice drips away, am I right? Or is it my oven's problem? Or is it the marinate I use? Any tips?

My lunch.

Clement's breakfast. Kind of big portion. I like the colour combination of this bento too.

The Return of the Jae-Dad

Hello my friends.

I'm glad to be able to say hello to you once again on this blog.

I have just returned from a trip to the Polyclinic to get my stitches removed. My heart sank a little the moment I stepped into the place. That place was packed! However, no more than a minute after I'd sent out an sms to Angie telling her about the long wait that I was bracing myself for, the buzzer sounded and surprisingly I found my Queue Number flashing on the display panel above Treatment Room Number 5. If there is one thing that this whole blood clot in the brain episode has taught me, it is this - things arn't always as they seem; Life is unpredictable.

The nurse made me lie on couch and asked me to close my eyes before pushing this very bright lamp over my face. With my eyes shut, I then heard her went about preparing her tools. The sound of flowing water, metal equipment clanking, the slipping on of latex gloves. Thankfully, the actual removal of the stitches wasn't half as bad as the anticipation bit. It did sting just a tiny bit, and was over in about a couple of minutes.

The nurse told me the wound had healed pretty well, but the closure portions wasn't 100%. She taped it up and instructed me to still keep the patched up area dry, before the review session which was to be this coming Saturday. I asked if I could go get a haircut in the time being, and was told that I could.

So, that's it. I would likely go for hair cropping tomorrow, after contemplating the suggestions you all gave in the earlier blog entry.

Not feeling particularly verbose now, so would just part here with a BIG Thank You to all my friends and family, who have over this unexpected turn of event, showered us with lots of support, both physcically and emotionally. Much appreciated. Thanks also for your gifts and well wishes. And of course, biggest hugs to my wife. You've been so very strong and brave throughout this trying period, and I'm so very proud of you.

Bento #71

I am a typical auntie.

One loaf of Sunshine/ Gardenia/ Bonjour wholemeal bread cost abt $2.65 and the inhouse bakery in Giant sells a loaf of wholemeal bread double the quantity at half the price. Which one will I buy? Of course the no-frills one from Giant!

Because the loaf of bread is double the amount of a normal loaf, I made bread bento today and forced 2 of my other colleagues to consume it.

Here's Clement's bento. Thank you once again for all your concern and well wishes. He will be removing his stitches tomorrow. Clement is ok except he is still feeling tired. Carbohydates might do the trick! So I packed him this nutritious bento which he ate for lunch. Personally I really like the content of this bento. It contains most of my favourite food except grapes. I seldom take grapes because it makes my throat itchy and I tend to cough after eating them. However, the colour combination is quite appealing too, in my opinion. Heehee~~

These 2 simple bentos were for my friends YH and Violet. I made them help me with the giantantic loaf of bread I bought from Giant.

My own bento was "factory outlet" quality again so I didn't bother to take any pictures of it.

Calling for Votes-- Clement's new hair style

If you have a say in Clement's new image and hair style, which one will you vote for?

Style number 1.

Style number 2.

Style number 3.

Style number 4.

Style number 5.


Style number 6.

Style number 7.

(Recovering ) Sick man of the east -- Part Four

As you can see, the sick man of the east was all changed and ready to go home.

YES! The doctor gave him the green light to be discharged this afternoon. He would need to get his stitches removed at a later date and also to go back to the hospital for a review. Otherwise, he will be resting at home for the next week or so.

The first thing we did when we went home was to get a hair wash for him. Imagine you can't wash your hair for 5 days!! Yeeks!! How uncomfortable! I had to wash it for him because the nurse instructed him specifically NOT to wet his wound. I used a cling wrap to cover his dressing and asked Clement to use another towel to press onto it. Then, very carefully and slowly, I washed the back of his head, wiped it dry, asked him to turn his head around and washed the right hand side of his head.

We are all so glad that he is able to come home. Nothing beats sleeping on your own bed with the familar smell of your pillow and blanket.

I hope that with this post, I can put an end to the "sick man" series. :)

Sick man of the east -- Part Three

As you can see from the pictures, Clement is feeling much, much better today. He found a perfect picture in his favourite magazine, First, to describe himself. His stay in the hospital is nigh. He should be able to discharge this weekend.

Sorry about the wrong information in my comments in the previous post. Apparently the small blood clot was gone too! YIPEE! The scan results showed that there isn't any more fluids in the skull and Clement was on the road to recovery. Oh...what a relief!!!

Jaimie came with my parents to visit Clement in the evening. The little girl made daddy very happy. She took my camera and snapped some pictures. Here's her gong-gong.
Her por-por. And us...
Many of Clement's colleagues and friends came to visit him. And Stardust too. Thanks again!

We are really blessed to have such caring friends! Your friendship is invaluable to us!

Clement is looking forward to (1) coming home (2) washing his hair (3) getting a good shave on his chin. He is having second thoughts on item number 3 because he will need to cut his hair botak so that there will not be a missing patch. To make up for the loss of hair on the head, he wants to keep his hair on his chin.

Hmmmm.... ??..... I can't imagine how he's going to look!

Sick man of the east -- Part Two

Clement was feeling good and happy in the morning. However, he experienced discomfort again from 4pm onwards. He complained that his head was throbbing, felt a sudden lost of energy and his mood dipped suddenly. Welcome to the PMS experience we girls have to go through every month.

My worried MIL asked the nurse to call for the doctor to check on him. The doctor said that the discomfort will probably come on and off because of the operation. We suspected he watched too much TV and that caused the pain behind his eye sockets. Anyway, the doctor didn't mention about the TV so that was just our wild guesses. The results of the operation and the drainage will be more conclusive tomorrow when he goes for his CT scan at 6am. After popping 2 painkillers, Clement felt better and rested. I left early today as I already had a long and tiring day in school. Every Thursday is a nightmare at work for me.

Many friends came to visit Clement today and some sent their well wishes through fruit baskets and flowers. Once again, thank you very much. Thank you for your concern and your sms-es.

Ahh.. just for the record... we didn't get our COE again for this second bidding. :( And I made the same wrong turn at the same junction although I tried to follow the GPS. Hopeless me.

I was really glad that I plucked up my courage to learn driving 10 years ago. In times like this, being able to drive really makes a lot of difference.

I am managing well because I have a lot of support from family, friends and colleagues. My boss even gave me time off to report to school a little late when I requested to do so yesterday and allowed me to leave early. She told me I just need to tell her if I need time off. I do appreciate such kindness, especially when she and I had some misunderstandings not so long ago.

In situations like this, we can literally feel the warmth of the friendship and kinship. The blood clot thing is not a pleasant thing that is happening to Clement. However, we do believe that all things happen for a good cause. With that faith, we are keeping ourselves in good spirits and are optimistic about Clement's condition.

I will be posting Clement's progress to keep you guys updated and also to document it.

Thank you, our dear friends.

Sick man of the east -- Part One

I have conveyed all your well-wishes to Clement. We are very, very appreciative of your friendship, well-wishes, moral support and prayers. It means a lot to us. MERCI.

Here's some pics to record this drama...

These 2 pics were taken last night when he was warded and waiting for his surgery. The man was in great pain and discomfort. He couldn't even slip on his slippers as he lost the psychomotor control of his right foot. The nurse and I needed to support him to the bathroom because he couldn't even walk properly.


He was much better today after the surgery. A suction pump was attached to his head to drain off the clot. He had to lie quite flat the whole day. In the end, his headache was ok but he suffered from backache due to lying in this position for many hours. Because he had to be confined to his bed and in a lying position, I need to feed him. He was definitely happy to have "lunch in bed" with a personal nurse attending to him. Sigh... poor me. I need to feed a baby at home and a big baby in the hospital.
That was the suction that was plugged into his head to drain off the clot. Spot his new punk hair style.

In the afternoon he was feeling ok. The headache was gone and the only discomfort was the tube attached to him. And of course the pressure of the suction. Look, he could still "siong" me for taking unglam photos of him.

At ard 8.45pm, there was a little scare. The fluid flowed backwards into his head and Clement experienced a lot of pain and discomfort. We quickly called for the nurse as he was told to call the nurses whenever he experienced headache and discomfort. The nurses couldn't help so they called for the doctor to assess the situation. I was quite worried when I saw the happy man in the afternoon transformed back to the sick man last night. The doctor said that the op was "minor" but not that "minor" because afterall it was a brain surgery. Anyway, the doctor pulled off the suction and stitched his wound while answering endless phonecalls at the same time. About 10mins later, the pain inside went away and he had to deal with the pain from the stitch. Thankfully, he was alright after another 10mins or so.

I left the hospital at 10pm and drove home with the help of the GPS. For the record, last night I drove home using the GPS too and I still made some wrong turns.=_=

He will need another scan on Friday to check on his progress. Meanwhile, his condition is stable and I thank you again, our dear friends, for keeping us in your thoughts. Thank you.

More than a migraine

As I am writing this post at 1.07am, Clement is in TTSH having his minor operation done.

It turned out that his severe headache was more than a migraine. We got alarmed when the headache got worse today despite doubling up on his dosage of painkiller. Clement started to vomit, experience giddiness and lost the strength on his right limb. I drove him to see the GP again after school and he was referred to the A&E in TTSH immediately. A CT scan needed to do done urgently to see if it was just a migraine or could it be a stroke or something.

After seeing the doctor in TTSH, I proceeded to do the admission paper work while the neruo surgeon did the scan for him. It turned out that he had some bleeding/ blood clot on the left hand side of the skull. The surgeon said this was usually caused by knocking about 1mth to 2 weeks ago but I couldn't recall any incident of head banging. Anyway, fluid gathered at the clot area and put pressure on his brain, causing the acute headache and the lost of strength on the right limb. He needed to go on a minor surgery to drain off that fluid which was the root of the problem.

I stayed with him in the hospital until he was wheeled to the OT. I hope everything will be fine after the operation.

p/s: My MIL just sms-ed me to tell me that he's back to his ward and everything is ok. :))))) She took over me and waited for him to come out of the OT while I came home to rest...

Bento #70

I baked the broccoli and cauliflower in advance. It's yummy!! The usual suspects will get to try this dish in the next gathering! :)

Bento #69

Clement was having this terrible migraine for the past 2 days. Last night, his migraine became so bad that he couldn't sleep at all. Even panadols couldn't help. He sat up at 3am this morning and wanted to bang his head against the wall. I woke up to help him put some medicated oil and massage a little for him. In the end, he fell asleep but I was wide awake!!!=_=

So I went to the kitchen to make bento at 3am. Yes, ladies and gentlemen. 3am.

I made baked rice with the usual stuff. However, this time I added some biscuit crumbs just to see how it goes. Hmmm... not very nice. Should have stuck with my old recipe. This bake rice I give it a 3/10.

I went back to bed at 4.30am and slept till 6am... and I was yawning out loud the whole day....