Monthly Archives: April 2011

Its challenging talking to a 5 year old

April 28, 2011 – 2:00 am

These days I will tell my friends that I will stop at 3 kids. Its not easy raising them especially when they turns 5. Everyday is a new day and its a challenging one. Let’s take Ethan for example.

Although he is 5, he behaves just like an adult. He will be cheerful at times and turn moody after that. He has his own set of thinking and will sometimes challenge you by asking you WHY! It is these WHY(s) that sometimes I feel just like banging my head against the wall. If you are a parent, you will know that its not easy to answer their questions.

While we may send him to school, we will have to take into consideration his emotions and the stress that he might possibly be going through.

The road ahead raising the kids is not easy, but it will definitely be a challenging and fulfilling one.

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Bringing the kids to experience Kampong Life (sort of)

April 24, 2011 – 11:17 am

After that really short goat farm visit, we decided to head to Pasir Ris Kid’s Kampong. I’ve always heard about this place, but never been there, so why not just bring them and explore the place together.

Located at Pasir Ris Farmway, there are ample parking lots (with no shades) available. They offer Longkang fishing and feeding of some farm animals. However, in my opinion, its not cheap too. The entrance fee for a children is $10 (free for 1 adult to accompany) and an additional $4 for a bucket and net for longkang fishing.

The children had a great time catching fish.

Frankly, it was not easy catching them and instead of a children thingy, both wifey and I started to help the children and it became a family effort. In the end, we got about between 18 to 20 fishes home.

After longkang fishing, the children, the children came up close and personal with rabbits, ducks, tortise and chickens and even got a chance to feed them.

Just before we left, we got the fish pack in an oxygen bag and brought it home to give them a place to live in.

Before I forget, each ticket entitle you to get a free ice cream and a free drink. The ice cream and free drink is definitely useful after a hot and tiring day.

Our 2nd visit to Hay Diaries

April 23, 2011 – 12:26 am

We got up early to visit Hay Diaries, apparently, its Singapore’s only Goat Farm. We were all excited to see the milking of the goats and of course to have the opportunity to feed them.

We arrived at about 10am and managed to catch the milking process. It was Ezanne’s first time and she was alittle fascinated with it. She was alittle worried at first since she did not see any live goat before.

After that, we thought of feeding the goats, but we saw a notice that mentioned that the feeding of goats by the public has ceased as advised by AVA as they were afraid of the goat transmitting disease to us and vice versa. In any case, we can still see the goats from a distance but I thought, it isn’t that educational anymore.

Nevertheless, the children enjoyed themselves but since we spent just about 30 minutes at the farm, I thought I should compensate them with other activities. We headed to Pasir Ris next which I will talk about in my next post.

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Maid is a liability?

April 21, 2011 – 12:46 am

I’ve got a maid for almost 3 years and since my very first maid left us, we’ve got quite a lot of problems with the next few ones. With these problems, I started to think and wonder if there are any safeguards for employers? While we discuss about human rights about maid, apparently, these maids take it for granted and starts a thing that I call, EMPLOYER HOPPING. Basically, they will start to choose their employer and if they are not happy with one, they will tell their current employer that they are not happy and wish to return to the agency and change to another employer.

While we bring them back to the agency, the agency is just not able to help us with interim measures and when you engage maids from small agency like the one I visited, Orange Employment Agency. The agency had limited maids and even advised that if we can’t wait, we should just move on to the next agency and they will do a refund. But I thought the fundamentals is, THIS IS NOT RIGHT! It is the most irresponsible way of solving the problem.

While I’ve since moved on to another agency and has learnt more through this incident, I wonder if having a maid is to help us or to become a liability to us. I thought, they are a liability to us as employers like me, are living in fear everyday, fearing what is on the maid’s mind and what they will be doing next? If only every maid is like Leticia, the celebrity maid from The Noose.

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Engaging residents through new media

April 20, 2011 – 12:43 am

I’ve attended a new media sharing dinner on how new media are used to engaged residents to participate in community events. By now, new media is not something new to you and me, but rather, what new media tools do you use to connect and be kept updated with your friends and neighbours.

Over the past 5 years, I’ve learnt that there is no one platform suitable for all and there is not one platform be successful in engaging resident. It is a collective effort and how each of them is able to complement each other. In Punggol, residents are engaged through 3 platforms, Forum, Facebook and Twitter. Through the process of setting up and maintaining these platforms, I’m glad that I’ve met fellow residents who have helped me along the way and provided guidance, suggestions and support to improve and keep these portals running.

I wouldn’t dare say that we’ve been successful in engaging residents, but, I thought we’ve made progress thus far, though the road ahead is a challenging and difficult one. I’ve always been asked, “What keeps you going?” I will always think that its the increase membership/ followers and the participation of the residents that keeps me going. I’m not too sure how long can I keep this going, but as long as there is the support, I guess, it will be the motivation to keep me going.

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Life is…

April 18, 2011 – 11:42 pm

What is life all about? Have you ever experienced at any one point of time when you just hope that you can stop working and start spending time with your loved ones, especially your children? I’ve such thoughts before after all, I’ve experienced myself how my children felt towards me depends on the time spent with them. I remembered learning from people that they want to spend as much time as possible with their children, they want to be part of their growing up years and be a part of their life that they will remember. But without working, do you think this is possible and achievable? Personally, I thought its impossible that’s why I want to fight on for a better future.

Sometimes, I wonder why do we need to work so hard? Maybe we should just let go and lead a simple life with the children, yet, sometimes, we are unable to do so due to REALITY.

No matter how it is, I always think that it is important to stay positive. Life is short and I guess, we just have to work hard in order to play hard and enjoy.

What’s life to you?

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Ethan and Ezanne are heading to the cinemas to watch Thomas & Friends

April 17, 2011 – 4:40 pm

The date is set, 8 May 2011 and this will be Ezanne’s first trip to the cinema to watch a movie. The movie is Thomas & Friends: Misty Island Rescue. I thought this is one of the best chance for Ezanne since its just a 60 minutes show and since she knows the character Thomas as well.

I’m so excited and looking forward and this will be the first of the few exciting activities we have planned for the children in May!

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My children and I

April 16, 2011 – 8:15 pm

How time flies, its already April 2011 and the children are growing. Ethan is now approaching 5 years old and so far, he is still trying to cope with the changes in school, like for example the higher expectations from Daddy and Mummy and the additional writing. As parents, we are trying our best to help him to cope with the changes. Its not an easy task and I thought its pretty challenging but at the end of the day, its all worth it.

While we are busy with Ethan trying to help him cope with school, we are focusing on Ezanne too! Its been slightly more than a month since Ezanne started going to school and somehow, I thought and I assume, she is adapting well but maybe she needs some assurance from us. Ezanne has become more sociable since and has been exposed to much more stuff as we observed improvements in her vocabulary.

For Evan, he is beginning to recognise the people around him and starts choosing who he wants. This is surely not easy since Mummy has started work and giving him the option to choose, might not be a wise choice, since his selection is quite limited. Nevertheless, its really a great thing to see how the children has grown and developed. Each of them with a different character.

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Its Carbonara Day!

April 16, 2011 – 1:07 am

I’ve got craving for Carbonara for the past weeks and had this urge to eat it. During lunch, I finally got a chance to eat what I want, Carbonara with Grilled Chicken. Looks good?

For dinner, I’ve had Carbonara with Ham from NYDC!

I’m not too sure if this is alittle too much and alittle too fattening. But I guess, its time to exercise (provided I’ve recover from my really bad cough).

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Ethan sprain his ankle

April 14, 2011 – 11:13 pm

I’m not too sure if I’m right to use the word sprain or should I use the word strain, but I thought sprain could be a better one to describe. Ethan was in school 2 days back and playing with his friends at the playground, basically, no one observe any abnormalities. The next day, he woke up limping and said, “My legs are painful and I can’t walk.” We started wondering, what’s wrong?

In the evening, wifey brought him to KKH A&E for a quick check. After nearly 3 hours of wait, the doctor recommended Ethan to go for an X-Ray.

Like I mentioned on my Tumblr, I’m always impress with Ethan’s courage. No matter how much pain or discomfort he is in, his smile will always give you the assurance that he is fine. I secretly took a photo of him while seeing him going through the X-Ray process.

Based on the X-Ray images, the doctor told us that it was probably a strain and we shouldn’t be too worried about it. She gave some painkillers and gel to ease the pain. We will like to thank everyone for their well wishes and we are glad to say that Ethan is fine and has somewhat recovered.