Monthly Archives: January 2012

Do you know what’s a book? Or…

January 31, 2012 – 1:54 am

During a community function yesterday, I was sitting around with a few people and we were discussing about how we should let our kids display the creative side of them. Then we were talking about how different children are these days. Based on my own experience, they learn things much faster, more active, smarter and are able to articulate things at a much younger age. One of my friends that mentioned that some children doesn’t even know how to read a book. Surprised? The children didn’t know that in order to read a book, they have to flip the pages, instead, they swipe it.

While technology helps us in providing more interesting and interactive e-books, but sometimes, we got to go back to basics and let our children understand what the basic things in life are. Agree?

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Ezanne’s 3rd Birthday Celebration

January 30, 2012 – 12:13 pm

Ezanne celebrated her 3rd birthday yesterday evening. Although it was a day she was looking forward to, but it was a day which she couldn’t enjoy herself much because she was having a fever. Throughout the night, she was moody and was spending most time with mummy.

This year’s celebration, we had our cousins and niece who were back from Australia to celebrate with us and this occasion itself was a good time for us to catch up.

While Ezanne’s birthday celebration with our relatives are over, we will now be preparing for her birthday celebrations with her friends at school on her 15 February. Its her first time celebrating with her friends and she told me that she wants her friends to sing “Happy Birthday” song for her.

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Evan at 13 months

January 27, 2012 – 9:52 pm

Evan is already 13 months old. How time flies, I still remember when he was baby whom we carried him around, at 13 months, he just learnt how to stand and is beginning to learn how to walk. He has been blabbering alot, probably due to the influence of his elder siblings who just keep talking non-stop. For now, Evan is addicted to me. I use the word addicted because sometimes their mood change and they might just want to stick to others. These days, the first thing he does when he sees me on the bed is to call, “Dad Dad”. Whenever he goes, he will always remember me and call for me. You might probably think that he gets bullied by Ethan and Ezanne and he will just prove you wrong. In fact, Ethan loves him alot and he actually bullies Ezanne (there have been instances when Ezanne actually cried).

We are looking forward to his next milestone.

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Double Rainbow

January 26, 2012 – 1:45 pm

Last week, many people posted about the double rainbow that they see at various parts of Singapore. According to a news report, double rainbow is believed to be auspicious in Chinese culture. Based on the research which I’ve conducted online, a double rainbow is a sign from the cosmic Universe that you are about to have something great fall into your lap, and that one good thing will lead to another.

While I was going for my run yesterday, it suddenly rained heavily. After the rain, I saw the rainbow. But it seems, I could only see just 1. After taking the photo, I realised that there is 2. I’m not sure if its a sign of good things to come but I definitely hope so.

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Ethan was shocked!

January 24, 2012 – 11:48 pm

As we were walking into the lift, I was talking to Ethan and telling him to be prepared to go back to school tomorrow, since the public holidays are officially over. Guess what was the expression he gave?

This boy is really dramatic these days, I’m not too sure if this is the after effects of his speech and drama class that he is attending in school. But I’m not complaining, but enjoying every moment talking to him.

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Our children’s future

January 24, 2012 – 1:01 pm

During a dinner recently, I was having a chat and discussion with a group of people who were parents themselves as well. One of the topic that we talk about was housing and how our flats prices have appreciated so much that some thought its a good thing, especially for the home buyers. Personally, as a flat owner, I’m happy about it, but like one mentioned, when you sell high, you buy high too, so seriously, there isn’t any difference.

The next thing that I talk about was how expensive our housing are these days that I begin to worry for my 3 children. I’m worried if they have a shelter when they grow up and I’m worried if they are ever going to own any homes in the future, or will they just be renting it for the rest of their life. Then someone just made this comment, “Worry about yourself now, you should be worried if you can own a home now. It will be your childrens’ problem in the future and you should just leave it to them.”

Frankly, I was quite turn off with that statement made. Its a selfish statement I thought. What do you think?

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Chinese New Year Eve

January 23, 2012 – 9:54 pm

Once again, Chinese New Year is here and as a Chinese tradition, we spend the eve of Chinese New Year with our family members. This year’s dinner is slightly different as my other cousin has just gotten married, which means we are one member less at the dinner table. But nevertheless, everything else remains unchanged.

Other than the good food, it was a perfect time to catch up and spend quality time with our family members. After dinner, everyone were doing final preparations before meeting again to go to the temple together.

Due to the heavy downpour, we reached the temple later than usual. The crowd was thinner (not too sure if its the rain or the time) but at 2.30am, everyone were still pretty much eager to get into the temple as soon as they can. Its yet another simple yet meaningful Chinese New Year eve.

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My dad is creative

January 22, 2012 – 10:55 am

Since retirement, my dad has been spending most of his time looking after the grandchildren and probably because he is less stress these days, he seems to be alittle more creative.

If you remember, he did a Christmas Tree on the wall using the materials which he could find at Daiso. That I thought was quite impressive.

Then, when we were preparing for Chinese New Year, he did a “福” on the wall.

I hope you guys like it as much as I do.

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Seeing Professor Brawn from a different side

January 21, 2012 – 12:41 pm

I attended a dinner at Professor Brawn’s new restaurant at 10 Boat Quay last week. It was this dinner that I started to appreciate this restaurant and see that its different from others. The owner of the restaurant has an autistic son and like many other parents who had autistic children, he was wondering if son will be able to support himself when he grows up.

Then, he had the idea of setting up a cafe and thought he could create a social enterprise where he could employ people with special abilities to help in the day to day running of the restaurant. From the kitchen to servers, each of them played an important role in the operations of the restaurant. I remembered that he mentioned one staff who loved to peel the skin of the potatoes that he is the one who peeled all the potatoes that were eventually served as rosti.

But the most meaningful part of the restaurant was the logo of Professor Brawn was designed by the son of the owner.

The next time you visit Professor Brawn, don’t just appreciate its food. Appreciate its contribution to the society.

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Finally its launched, Watertown

January 20, 2012 – 12:01 am

Over the past 10 years, Punggol residents have been making requests after requests, asking questions after questions, “Where is our shopping mall?” “When will our shopping mall be opened?” Finally in 2011, the site which has been identified for tender of mixed commercial and residential site was tendered and finally, a consortium by Frasers Centrepoint, Far East Organisation and Sekisui House won the bid. The bid price $1.02 billion.

The shopping mall, Watertown Point is a shopping mall that consists of 4 levels and I understand that its going to be larger than Compasspoint. On top of that, it has a facility that I think every Punggol resident is waiting for, CINEMA! But, we just have to be patient as it will only be completed in 2015. One of the most important thing its located next to Punggol MRT Station which makes this place super convenient.

I was invited to the sneak preview of the launch of its residential project yesterday. It was actually my first time at the sneak preview of a residential project and I was really very surprised by the turnout and response. First and foremost, I had to park at a distance to get to the showroom. The temporary sales gallery was actually like a busy marketplace. It was crowded and announcements were made to potential buyers whenever a unit is sold. As a buyer, after listening to such announcement, I will want to close the deal as soon as possible.

One thing I like about the temporary sales gallery is that you may choose to close the deal at the outdoor area, appreciate the surrounding and get an opportunity to see the site of your future home.

On the day when I visited, more than 16o units of the 250 units offered were sold. I was also told that Watertown has one of the largest showroom in Singapore. I guess, its the commitment and confidence the developer had in this project. They are definitely expecting large crowd visiting the showroom.

Well, when I visited the showroom, it was not ready yet and the workers were putting on the finishing touches to it. Watertown consists of 992 units which comes in various types such as Sky Patio, Suites, SOHO and Condo. The project will be officially launched tomorrow and looking at the response, I’m quite sure this project will be sold out pretty soon considering that not much developments these days are build above the shopping mall and has a waterway view.