Now that the mag is being printed and I can breathe, this is what I’m doing now -

1. Trying to figure out the weather in Melbourne and what to wear??????

I’m such a Singaporean girl - I wear sleeveless t-shirts, jeans and slippers, at the most I have a cardigan. I have no idea how to dress myself or Sophie in warm clothing. I did a REALLY bad job in Shanghai. I think Sophie was underdressed most of the time compared to the China babies who looked like they could roll away in all their bundles and layers! And I don’t want to look silly with a trench coat in Spring.

Sooooooo I’ve been surfing on aussie blogs to see what kids and adults actually wear! And guess what????? They wear sweaters to the beach! Ok I can junk that bikini.

Oh and about the wedding we’re attending in Melbourne - what do people wear to dinner parties? I need a dress! Or do I?

2. Where are the Haji lane type shops in Melbourne? The hidden shops and places?

I think we’ll still go to the usual places of interest. The usual tourist sites have the usual stuff but there’s limited info on what’s current and unusual. I’ve also been surfing blogs and sites. This has been helpful - Craft City Melbourne.

So exciting! I’d love to hear from you if you’ve got recommendations ya?

Left: Sophie reading with A.
Right: Sophie having dinner with kor kor Chris.

I think I’m all ready for No 2…………………… right. Maybe just for an hour a day, ha!

Recently I’ve been doing some babysitting.

First of all, I LOVE KIDS!

Second of all, Sophie loves company and she’s so much happier when there are people around. I’m a great believer of having more kids because they take care of themselves eventually.

And since I live in the neighbourhood of spas and cafes, I’ve offered my friends - come, leave your kids with me and go have a dinner date/spa treatment and enjoy yourself. (I even thought of making this into a business considering the number of expats around this area who wouldn’t mind paying for this!)

So, some time back, Wanz dropped Ally (3 yrs old) and Arya (18 mths old?) with their helper and went for her hair cut. Just last Friday, B dropped A (2 yrs old) off to go do her nails. And on Fri night, I went over to S’s house with Soph to look after my godson Chris (6 yrs old) while his dad went for F1 and his mum was at work.

Ooooooo ok, truth?

The first hour is BLISS! The kids play nicely - sharing toys, food, books……….. I even sat down to read the papers at some point.

The next hour, the kids suddenly turn on each other! Share! No! Snatch! Cry! Fight! Etc……. Here’s where I come in with distractions - here have this other toy, biscuit (somehow someone elses’ biscuits always tastes better!) etc…….

Finally, I put on the TV while waiting for food to arrive. Rest. For like 15 mins……. and then I realise, not everyone’s kid is like mine! I went thru 3-4 vcds because Sophie wanted the "The Backyardigans" but A wanted "Barney". When I put on one, the other say "No!". My part time helper had a good laugh watching me trying to satisfy the two little two year olds!

My conclusion??????????? An age gap of 2 and above is great! 4 years apart even better coz Chris was such a gem and was constantly trying to play with Sophie. Having twins is disastrous unless you’re there watching them all the time at this stage.

But I still LOVE KIDS.

I finally got a copy of The Creative Family by Amanda Blake Soule! I love her blog and when she launched her book I wanted to order one from Amazon but I found it at MPH (plus Citibank card holders get 20% off now).

I had such a wonderful time reading it on my off day. Yes! My off day! James watched Sophie on Wed afternoon while I went off for my long awaited off day. Not quite an off day but nevertheless, a whole afternoon to myself. SO NICE LAH……… What did I do? I went to the National Museum to collect some tickets for Sophie n her kiddy friends for this Sunday’s Museum for Toddlers, jumped in in time for the guided 1hr tour, walked to City Hall, had to go to MPH (cannot help myself!!!), bought books, sat down at Ben & Jerry’s for ice cream (also cannot help myself) to read, shopped around a bit and met James for dinner and movie coz it was also our date night.

Anyways back to the book, it totally inspired me. I like it that she was so personal about her life and her ideals in bringing up the family creatively, very Waldorf. And of course, the photos totally swept me off my feet. Plus the fantastic craft ideas.

Two things spoke to me
1. She believes in purchasing good art and craft materials that can be used by anyone in the family. Not separating what the adults use from the kids. I thought that was pretty cool. That helps to educate the kids about these materials, encourage them to be creative as a family and to be careful with the materials that they use. It’s like WOW even the adults use them, it must be very special!

2. She writes about family creative time where the family just sit together quietly and do their own creative thing - e.g drawing, crafting etc. That’s really cool! Funny how James is an artist but we’ve never done this before.

The book is inspiring and causes me to think in all directions BUT unfortunately, not all can be done easily here in Singapore since we do not have a strong crafting culture and we do lack creative spaces e.g. parks, oceans etc. But it’s ok, I love the challenge of thinking out of the box and doing within my means anyways. I’ll just work with what we have!

As a result, I have since brought Sophie to the park and made sure she walked on the grass and not just the pavement, I’ve bought a pair of shoes and earrings on a whim just because they looked pretty (I’m generally a stinge), we’ve also drawn and painted together just Sophie and I.

I’m taking a break from blogging about the trip to announce: MY DESK IS HERE!

It’s a little antique looking Indonesian made solid wood foldable desk! I love it! It’s so pretty with little drawers and secret compartments. Even a little shelf to put my bible. Sweet! I’ve always wanted one like that! The best part is that it fits into the little corner in our dining area. I was so excited, spent the whole afternoon and evening last night moving our furniture around. That’s the problem with a tiny place, if you have one more piece of furniture, you need to move everything around so that it all fits like a puzzle. But I love doing that. Therapeutic.

This will do as my little sanctuary. A place to call my own. A place for me for my quiet time, to keep my stuff and to work while Sophie toddles around me (although she very quickly figured out how to pull out the drawers :(). And it closes up nicely as a feature piece when guests come around. Perfect.

This is the first Saturday in ages that both of us have no commitments. No birthday parties to go to, no practices, no cell, no nothing. The whole day! Woo hoo!

We made our way out of the house bright n early at 11am (haha…). The plan was 9am but… oh wells… it was too early. We went to Ben & Jerry’s for breakfast. The plan was Jones the Grocer but it was too packed. But ooo so nice… I love eating at Ben & Jerry’s coz there’s hardly anyone there and the food is great too! Sophie loves eating with us. She finished half of my foccacia bread (ooo i love foccacia bread!) and drank some of my hot chocolate, to which she said "so yummy!". So cute lah.

After that, we went shopping for my WORK TABLE!!!!!!! Yes! I’ve been waiting to buy this for a long time! A nice work table where I can put my laptop and organise all my stuff. And we found a perfect one! I’ll post pictures once it arrives………. I’m so excited! You know, since we’ve moved here… 3 years to be exact, I haven’t had my own proper table. I have one in the backroom but I’m hardly in there and it’s just not the way I want it. I’m REALLY happy to finally have my own table. Question is where does it go right? Haha in our tiny place? I bet that’s what all of you are thinking…. well you’ll see soon enough! Yipee!

Came home………….. Sophie took a long nap while I drank Ribena and read magazines (shiok ah…) on the sofa…… after that I also knocked out. She woke up, made her some lunch, ate and we spent the rest of the day just hanging out at home. So relaxing……….. Sophie’s asleep and it’s dinner now. James gone to get Jap food for us and time for some video and more rest. Nice…

I’ve been tagged by littlegastronomy to share 5 things about myself that most of you probably wouldn’t know (yes, littlegastronomy wants to dig out my ugly past!!!!!), in no particular order of importance:

1. I LOVE fast cars and motorbike rides. In my past life, I wd take bike rides without helmets around NUS grounds (don’t tell my dad. He almost lost his life before he got married to my mum due to a bike accident), go to Sepang to watch F1 (I am secretly very happy that it’s coming to S’p… shhhh don’t tell anyone!), go for late nite drives w friends. I’ll be the first to volunteer to ride with the one who drives a fast car - e.g my cousin in UK (except that it wasn’t very glam - it started to rain and we had to stop to take out the top to cover up the cute lil convertible). Btw, I still love a ride in a fast car.

2. I ACTUALLY HAVE a driving license. And for almost 10 years. REALLY! For those of you who know me, know that I DON’T DRIVE. It is pretty ironic - I love fast cars but I don’t drive. I got scared when I first got my license. Two incidents put me off driving for a long time. A police car horned at me coz I was taking a while to make a turn - how can a police car horn at a P plate driver?!??! How rude! Another time, I had a car load of youths and I couldn’t make it up a slope. So scary!!!!!!!!!!!!! I kept going down and towards the drain. Eeeeeeeeeeeks. I get scared easily. That’s why I won’t drive unless God kicks my butt. I’m quite happy cabbing around. It prob costs me less than owning a car.

3. I ALMOST TRIPPED at my own wedding. I knew it’ll happen, these kinda things always happen to me!! I mean - heels, dress, 600 pp looking at me! I think only some saw it. I think. My heels got stuck in the sliding door groove as I entered. How glam. My friend had to help me remove my shoes and put them on so I could continue the walk in. I definitely can’t do the actress red carpet stuff. Too embarassing.

4. I GOT STUNG by a giant jellyfish and almost died. I was in my 2nd year of university. I was at Bintan with 9 other friends. I walked into the sea, right into a giant jellyfish, screamed in pain, fainted, got carried off by 2 friends, woke up few mins later, thot I died. I still have visible scars if you notice my legs. From my ankles to my thighs. The thing was I didn’t call home or tell my parents until I got home 3 days later. Hiak. My legs swelled up like elephant legs (actually similar to when I was preggie! Eeks. Flashback!) Anyways, I still eat jellyfish, love eating them actually. I still go snorkelling although I have flashbacks.

5. I NEVER THOUGHT I would become a stay home mum. Never crossed my mind. I like working. I still do. But I wanted to be home when my children come home from school. To be there to open the door for them and hear all their stories first hand. So I prayed about it. A big consideration factor was our finances. How were we going to cope with just one salary and we just started the business? BUT God spoke loud and clear. In the time I was praying about whether I should stop work, He sent 3 different persons who didn’t know our situation to give me a love gift ($$) each. God kept providing like that out of nowhere. It was then that we knew deep in our hearts that He who calls, will provide. So I quit, even without worrying about the three months of maternity pay. God has been so good to us - the jobs just keep coming. A lot of hard work but we have never been in lack. The current arrangement is great - I get to work somewhat, look after Sophie and still have good time to hang out with friends.

There must be more to my drama life but for the life of me, I can’t remember them! And now I’m going to tag June, Pris, Steph, Vicky and Jiayuan.

What type of Mother Hen Are You?
by Montessorimom.com: Educational Resource

I missed Daph’s 21st birthday few weeks back coz Soph was sick so we arranged to meet up together with Beks, who also celebrated her birthday in Dec.

These two precious gals - one I’ve known since she was 8! and she still calls me jie jie (elder sis) coz her bro and I used to hang out a lot and the other used to be so scared of me coz I was (still am!) so much older and she’s going to graduate and start work this year.

It was great catching up with them - they help me to remember to dream and have fun and I, being a bit older and wiser (hopefully, hiak hiak) can inspire and encourage them to keep dreaming and living! Sometimes people my age can be too practical and too darn boring.

Oh yes and I got to sit in Beks’ new car, a Peugeot Convertible! I love fast cars and bikes! Ok, but I felt quite self conscious getting out of the car at Ben & Jerry’s at Dempsey coz everyone was looking, esp in my new vintage smurf t-shirt and flip flops (!)…….. the plan was to go downstairs and eat and go home… oh but, who cares! It felt great! Thanks for the lovely ride, Beks!

Argh!!!!! What’s up with lawyers and doctors???

I’ve been having such bad experiences with lawyers and doctors recently! They are so full of themselves! I think they are the ones who need to go for service upgrading rather than the supposedly "lower" level service staff like the nice and polite Mcdonalds staff! I mean, at least the Macs staff say hello! and good morning! with a smile. Seriously, I appreciate that.

I just got off the phone with our lawyers. We needed to engage them to redeem our house loan. I called the nice lawyer whom I got in touch with initially and she directed me to her colleague. Fine. Her colleague picked up the phone, heard what I said and immediately said, I don’t handle this, pls talk to my assistant, she’s on the phone, pls call back later in a very up there kinda tone. Argh. I told her, pls take a message and get her to call me back and put her in her place. Hello! I’m your client rem?? Paid $500 bucks?!? Thank God her assistant got off the phone and HER ASSISTANT WAS SO NICE! I so wished the $500 bucks we paid went to her instead! She prob did most of the paper work anyways! Her boss prob just signed the paper. Double argh!

The doctors. Ok they are a better bunch I must admit. But the younger doctors can be such #@*! James asked one so what does the med do? I mean he’s a medic so he wants to know what the meds actually do right. The doctor in the most grudging "why do you even question me" voice ever said it does cefenyrhwnshbage. Something like that. Hello! We’re patients, not doctors. Speak in English please. The doctor was met at the A&E was the worst! We had to bring Sophie in at about 1am some time back. He came out looking like we just disturbed his nap. His accent was incomprehensible. He’s Indian, which is fine but donno why he kept mumbling. He prob thought it was all a dream. Argh. He didn’t say very much nor answer our questions. He said to come back tomorrow for x-ray of the chest and take paracetamol, nothing we can do. Right, tell that to new parents with a tod running 39 degrees! The nurse explained to us what to do and how to do it.

I know that’s why lawyers need secretaries and doctors need nurses - coz they are too busy to care. Come on! If I knew the answers to all these medical mumbo jumbo and the way round the law, I would not call you. The days where people just took what you said is way gone! People want to know and they’ll ask questions. I hope that doctors and lawyers know that despite the high salaries they get and prestige, they are really still providing a service. Thank God for secretaries and nurses.

P/s Argh… ok lah it’s not so bad but it just erks me that people can be so not nice. Lawyer/doc friends n family, I still love you and please be nice to your clients k?

I really can’t drink. Seriously.

Our guest today brought me some goodies from Japan. The little bottle is some collagen drink from Fancl. So sweet of her. Plus a little love note.

Scrapbooking has become popular these days with the opening of specialised scrapbooking shops. They even conduct classes.

Siew Min, Siew Lin’s sis arranged for us to go for one of those classes at Made With Love, Plaza Singapura, prior to the wedding. A few of us went - close friends and family etc. Even her dad was supposed to come but he had last minute work. BUT his entry turned out to be the main tearjerker.

Anyways, our task? To complete a scrapbook for Siew Lin for her wedding!

I’ve been a scrapbooker (is there even such a word?) and wrote journals for years. I even compiled an entire scrapbook prior to my wedding that detailed the 29 - 32 years of our lives, prior to marriage. So precious! But I didn’t really believe that real, hardcore journalling and scrapbooking involved expensive, nice paper! It’s supposed to be scrap - gluing bits of articles, photos, handwritten notes etc. Hello, scrap???

Anyways… I’m hooked. How can anyone resist all the pretty paper, hooks and buttons!?!? I think I walked round the shop almost 5 times just looking at all the gorgeous stuff. Check out my first time creation.

The best part of it was the experience of sitting together with the family, recounting our growing up years and laughing at all the photos we’ve chosen. So much fun! Plus the food was really good. They had this yummy cookies and cream shake. I even brought home the leftovers - mash potatoes and sausage.