Theatrical Tots 'A' Dance Exam

After all the practices, drills and rehearsals, finally THE DAY is here. Today is the day Jaimie takes her first examination (in her life) -- the Theatrical Tots 'A' Dance Exam.

I am the guncheong mommy who checked and checked that I had packed all the necessary costume and accessories into the bag last night, scrubbed her dance shoes clean and bought her a pair of new stockings. God knows what I will do when she sits for her PSLE!!

Anyway, the first time I bunned up Jaimie's hair during her concert was a disaster. Luckily the school arranged another full dress rehearsal for the children before the exam and I asked one of the mommies to show me how to do up the hair properly. I think I did a better job today.

The best part of the exam, to Jaimie, was to put on makeup.


It's Jaimie's turn to perform to the examiner, Mrs Shanks. They were taught to greet her properly with a curtsy. The lady pinning a coloured ribbon on Jaimie is Jody Marshall herself!!

While Jaimie and one of her classmates were inside dancing, the other 3 kids got themselves ready.

Jaimie and Lea coming out of the studio. Now it's Ashley, Isabel and Zoe's turn. Good luck and have fun, girls!

We do not know the results yet but the kids were absolutely thrilled to receive a badge from Mrs Shanks. Can't stand my daughter. Must she strike a dance pose even when taking photos?!

What next after the exams? Don't know yet. Jaimie will continue to take a few lessons on pre-jazz and we see how it goes. As long as she enjoys dancing, I think we might let her continue with her hobby.

Thank you~~

Dear friends,

Thank you so much for writing in our comment box to tell us that you have been following our blog and enjoying the posts we put up. It's very heart-warming and we're truly very touched by your friendship and readership.

After a lengthy discussion with Clement, we felt that for the privacy of our family, and our friends whose photos we put up in our blog too, it is more appropriate to be put a password to our blog. However, we also treasure friends whom we have not met in person and supporters who prefer to be invisible. Hence, I will duplicate those posts in my private blog to the bento blog (http://kinigu-bento.blogspot.com) which I feel comfortable sharing in public.

A thousand apologies and we thank you for your understanding. :) Do continue to follow my public blog. See you there!


Cheers,
Angie and Clement

Bento #148

Message from the Mad Robot:

Dearest Kinigu Blog readers,

Thank you for your support and interest in the Kinigu blog. This blog started as a family blog and this mad owner's intention is to document the growth of her daughter and her family's crazy activities. Her daughter is growing up at an incredible speed and she thought it is right that she should give her foolish daughter some privacy. Hence, she created a random blog http://kinigu-bento.blogspot.com/ whereby she will continue to share her nonsensical bento ideas and will keep this one private.

This cuckoo blogger is in the process of cutting and pasting the bento posts to the new blog. As she is an IT-idiot, she will need to sort medical help from a nutty professor to help her with the setting up of the new blog. Once that is done, this blog will be closed for private visitors only.

Thank you again, and see you in http://kinigu-bento.blogspot.com/

Bananas,
The Mad Robot

p/s: check out my hair. It's insane.

Great Eastern Run 2010

My buddy and I were on the run again!

The atmosphere at the starting point at around 6.50am was excellent but the flag off was delayed by 15mins for some reason. People started to get impatient and the whole carnival ambiance died down. It didn't help when we were all made to listen to the GE advertisement before the VIPs blasted the airhorns.

Nonetheless, we enjoyed the run! Some runners were dressed up since it's Halloween today. I couldn't overtake them even though they had hats and put on witches' nose while running! Wicked!

My finishing time: 1hour 6mins45 sec, according to my watch. I checked the official timing and ranking of the race and I am the 948th to finish the race!! Gosh!! The ranking sounds bad but I was happy with the timing! I didn't train for this run because I was ill for a while and when I was well, it's peak period at work. Yet, I made another improvement in my timing! It's a 6mins improvement from my Bay Run!! Quite impressed with myself... hahahaha!!!

Anyway, something unpleasant happened during the run. When we were into the final 100m or so, I felt a push on my back. It wasn't a strong push so I thought it might be HappyPig someone I knew. Instead, I saw a stranger behind me and she was saying things like "Don't block the way!". The music was blasting very loudly at the finishing area so I couldn't hear very clearly. I was flabbergasted before I felt really angry. I wanted to catch up with her to confront her but my legs couldn't carry me any faster. So I had to let the matter rest... hiaz!

Jaimie's First Window Artwork

After another satisfying dinner with my little princess, we walked around IMM and I decided that it's time for Jaimie to try out this window art thingy which many kids are addicted to. I asked if she was keen to try and Jaimie was overjoyed. She hopped into the enclosed area and took a while to decide that she wanted to paint Doraemon. So, I forked out $5.50 for her very first window artwork.

She always coloured the tongue first.
I took a while to convince her that Doraemon was light blue, NOT purple or dark blue. Then, I remembered that I should not interfere with her choices since this was her own work.

Spreading the paint to cover the corners.

So far so good~

She panted the hands pink and one of the feet violet. I have no objections until she started to choose another colour for the other foot.

Do you think I am too laissez-faire to allow a magenta-faced Doraemon???? Maybe Jaimie's idea was that Doraemon was flying on its Dragonfly until its face turned purple? Hmmmm..... you never know!

Done!!

Jaimie was so fascinated with the artwork and pleased with herself. She was admiring her masterpiece as she was walking until I threatened to confiscate her purple-faced Doraemon.

This was quite fun! No wonder my friend Pam (not her children!) was addicted to it!

Feasting With Jaimie

Jaimie has extra dance classes on Monday late afternoons to prepare her for her up-coming dance exam. Usually I will bring her there by public transport but since Clement is out of town and I get to drive the car, I drove today.

I don't drive that often so being a kiasu driver, I set off very early (the same time if I were to take a bus, that is). Needless to say, we were 1hr early for class. Hanging out in a fast food restaurant is the best way to wild away some time. Jaimie and I went to KFC, shared a chicky meal and played the soccer game which came along with it.

Then, we got a bit bored and decided to compete in doing silly faces. I did 10 silly faces and then it's her turn to do 10 too without repeating the expression. Silly game but it was fun for both of us. I hope nobody in the restaurant choked on their food when they saw us doing these...

Silly face #1

Silly Face #2

Silly Face #3

Silly Face #4

Silly Face #5

Silly Face #6

Silly Face #7

Silly Face #8

Silly Face #9

Silly Face #10
#7 is a repeat of #1! She lost!!!

While Jaimie was in the dance studio, I went around shopping and bought her some clothes. I got this set from a push cart and I let her tried the size in case I needed to do an exchange. It fitted nicely! Yeah! Forget about changing lah, let's go for a good dinner together.

We went to Sizzler. Jaimie has the "women's buffet spirit". She ate till she was super full and told me she needed to take a break and walk around to digest her food. Then, after 5mins, she downed 2 sundae and 3 waffle cones... you see, women always have a separate stomach for dessert.

When we reached home, I plucked up the courage to stand on the body fat scanner... WALAU. I told myself, I. SHALL. NOT. EAT. BUFFET. ANYMORE. if I want to keep this analyser.

It was a very enjoyable time with my daughter, though. :)

Bento #147

Since Clement is out of town for a week, I will pack myself some ultra simple lunch for a week. Alfafa sprout with cheese sandwiched with multi-grain and raisin bread, fruits and veg.

So healthy... until you read the next post.

Classroom Rules

Last week, after Jaimie's I Can Read class, her teacher came up to us and told us that Jaimie, although she was very bright and responsive in class, had not been able to sit down on her chair for a long time. Her teacher also commented that Jaimie was disruptive in class. She was either singing to herself or disturbing her classmates with the stuff toy she brought with her. She would also feel insecure and cried for us if the teacher corrected her behaviour.

Being a teacher myself, I always need to give feedback and comments to my students' parents. This was the first time I receive "negative" feedback about Jaimie. I must confess that it didn't feel good but I was very grateful for such frank comments. I must also admit that I was very embarrassed when I received the feedback. However, I suppressed my urge to scold Jaimie. Both Clement and I talked to her about rules and regulations in a classroom. I cut down on my internet time *guilty guilty* and spent 45mins sitting her down to get her to do activity sheets with me every night last week.

After her class today, I waited for her teacher to ask her if Jaimie had improved in her behaviour in class. Her teacher gave Jaimie a thumb's up and said that she was behaving SO MUCH better than last week. She was not walking around the classroom AS MUCH, and she was not disruptive. For the first time, she did not cry in class and she did not asked for daddy and mommy. Her teacher commented that she was behaving like a "big girl".

Jaimie and I were both very pleased to hear that. I thanked the teacher and bought Jaimie her favourite lunch (McDonald's, what else!) to reward her for obeying the classroom rules. I told her again and again I was so proud of her for being a good student in class and she had shown improvement. Jaimie was beaming happily too. I messaged Clement, who is out of town for a week, about the teacher's comments and he was so proud of the little girl too.

Well done, Jaimie!

Healthy Lifestyle Starts With Shopping

Clement bought the Karada Scan last evening. Since we are in the "health conscious" mode, we might as well be more comprehensive in our "healthy shopping".

This is what I got for myself, a Solus heart rate monitoring watch. It will help to pace me to exercise in my fat burning zone. $105.

This is what I "encouraged" Clement to buy: A limited edition of the Metal Gear Solid MP3 player! I asked him to buy a new one so that I can take over his not-very-old one. Also, MGS is one of his all time favourite game. It will be nice to have this MP3 player. For those who have played MGS, you would know who is "Solid Snake" and "Liquid Snake". Clement has a coded name too. He is "Eat Snake". Muhahahahaha!!!

Karada Scan

(picture taken from http://unco.cc/?p=143)

Clement bought this thing. It not only measures your weight, it measures your body fat at various part of your body, your vascular fat, your body age and your resting metabolic rate too.

To my very pleasant surprise, the fat content in various parts of my body is all within the healthy range, my vascular fat is only 3 (anything below 9 is good), body age is one year younger than my actual age (while Clement is 7 years older!).

Happy!!! I can continue to eat my char kwey teow! Hahahaha~~

No. Actually I am not a fan of char kwey teow.

I will continue to watch my diet and exercise regularly so that I can have a healthy body to look after my family, watch Jaimie grow up and grow old with my dear old hubby.

This scanner costs $238 if purchased online. I think it is a good investment so that we can check ourselves regularly.

Bento #146

Quite a heavy meal. Cheese and egg sandwich packed separately plus a lunchbox of fruits, veggies, simley potatoes and chicken nuggets.

I finally tried the Australian strawberries. Hmmm... they are not sour but they are not as sweet as the Korean ones. Strawberries are always a good-to-have in your bento box. The presentation brightens up because of the nice colour!

Bento #145

It's the exam period now and school is busier than most people think.

Teachers do not shake leg during the exam period. We raced against time to complete our marking, write remarks for ALL our students, tabulate results, doing year end review, propose budget for 2011 etc etc etc. Yes, you read me correctly. If you have 160 students, you have to write 160 comments. On top of that, there's on-going intensive lessons for the graduating classes who have had their prelims earlier on. It's a lot to handle. The only consolation is we can count down the days to December vacation.

Due to the heavy workload during this time of the year, I haven't had much energy to make bento nor try out the lunch punch which I got earlier. :( However, the recent readings Clement obtained from a fat-measuring test kept were definitely not good numbers and I have to help him watch his diet more carefully. Making bento for him is one of the ways to a healthier body. Hence, no matter how tired I am, I will try to make bento as often as I can from now on. For that, dear, I deserve at least another LV bag. Heh heh heh.

Baked chicken wings and cheese tofu bento. Plus my usual favourites of the greens and fruits.

I found a new way to separate the food -- use thin slices of lemon!! First of all, it gives a nice fragrance. Secondly, it adds colour to the bento. Thirdly, it helps to stop my apple cubes from oxidising! I put lemon slices on the baked chicken wings and it gave the chicken wings a hint of citrus! Nice!

何止一包面？

我是五月天的歌迷。我为此感到骄傲。因为，五月天的歌迷都是一群不一样的人。

Idy是其中一个。我们从认识的时候就一起迷恋五月天。有好几次还是我们两对夫妻结伴出席五月天的演唱会。

Idy一家人最近到杭州去，她拖着一家四口的行李，还特地给我带回来这包面。

这何止是一包面？

所以我说，喜欢五月天的人，是与众不同的。

谢谢你，芬兰！