No longer a P plate driver

After passing my driving test on my 5th attempt on 21 April 2008, I am no longer a P plate driver today! Well, to be honest, I've driven a grand total of 5 times including today...and I've always had someone with me.

The first three times, Simon accompanied me, and all I remember was him telling me, "Slow down, use your brakes."...and also a pesky mosquito that bit me all over my face and arms. And my hub thought I was nervous and imagining things. Well, fortunately (and unfortunately) I had those huge swells to show him.

The last two times, my driving instructor was with me. This morning, i went all the way south to the airport and on my way back home, I even bought nasi lemak for our helper, my driving instructor and myself!

Today, Jill woke and her cousin woke up later than usual and had to be fed. This also clashed with the timing to pick Jon up. So I told my MIL that I will go pick Jon up and buy noodles for his lunch while she feeds the toddler Mabel and Jill.

I wanted to go buy noodles first then go pick Jon up, so that will cut down Jon's time in the car with me (MIL's car doesn't have child seat and he may tend to sit at the edge of the seat or stand up. But that would mean more cars at the nursery. So I decided to go pick Jon up first to avoid double parking and negotiating the small lane.

I was mighty pleased with myself and Jon's teach Ms Mida congratulated me on driving (she didn't know it was my first time driving alone + picking Jon up). But when we reached a shop in our estate to buy the noodles, it was closed. As Jon insisted on having noodles and we didn't boil soup today (was planning to make tang hoon soup with meat balls), I decided to drive to the next estate.

I made two rounds so I can park near the coffee shop. It was just before 12pm and they've sold out! It is a popular noodles shop. So I had to go to the nearby food court to buy noodles. I found a lot right in front of the food court and parked nicely. But a Toyota Hilux (pick up) parked super close to me and I knew I would have problems coming out.

After buying Jon's noodles, it was the lunch time crowd. I prayed that no one would want my lot (it was the corner lot). As I reversed, I turned a little too early and my back right wheel hit the curb a little. I said never mind, I will go in again. This time, a suave looking guy (well, he had these huge sunglasses) accompanied by his girlfriend could see I was in a tight spot. I went into the lot again, and many cars passed by behind me. I was hoping that they would drive by, which they did. This guy was still there. He was waiting for all the cars to go by so he could help direct me out of the lot.

With his help, I reversed out straight and then turned. Phew, I did it in the second try! and I made it home with Jon and the noodles. And what was Jon doing all these time? Taking this out of the glove compartment! haha!

Feeling all empowered as I bought lunch and picked my son up! I will go and drive more...practice makes perfect.

Lilibee: Super Sassafras give-away

Calling all Sassafras Fans!

Check out this stupendous give-away at Lilibee's blog. You may stand a chance to win Sassfras' Apple Jack stash and then do a mini album just like the wonderfully talented Leila. Leila rocks SSF's papers and goodies. There're free tutorials on her blogs and her tutorials on Etsy are really affordable too.

*tsk* Singapore *tsk*

Singapore will be hosting a major education conference in September and has invited distinguished scholars and teachers from throughout the world to share ideas and presentations. One such distinguished teacher is Susan Elliot, the 2009 Colorado State Teacher of the Year and one of four finalists for the 2009 National Teacher of the Year.

According to an article on the blog Teacher Mag , "once the Singapore education officials discovered that Susan was hearing-impaired, they retracted her invitation. The so-called discovery and subsequent retraction of her invitation was an act of disingenuous statesmanship because the Singapore education officials knew all along that Susan was deaf. The official in charge of inviting and then disinviting Susan attributes the mistake to miscommunication."

The writer, Anthony Mullen, asked readers to write their feedback to the MOE officer concerned. Then what seems to be a file note at the end of the article, Mr Mullen said that thanks to the feedback, MOE has re-invited Ms Elliot to the conference.

In the reply letter to a public enquiry that Mr Mullen referred to, the chairman of the Organising Committee has since contacted Ms Elliot and spoken to her personally to convey our sincere apologies."

Er, how did the chairman speak with a hearing-impaired??? Beats me.

So what if Singapore produces some of the world's smartest Math students. This incident just stinks of stupidity and bureaucracy! As my friend said, "Firstly, uninviting someone to a party, not cool. Secondly, RE-inviting, lame. Especially after how the story has been spreading."

I wonder how's the press coverage in Singapore? I hate to be the Comms/Public Relations person at MOE at the moment!

The party ended for this one

The rats were having parties every evening. We would see a couple of them scurrying along the perimeter wall to the back of our compound where the dogs are kept. They would even eat from a plate of food left outside for the dog that has adopted us (Mr Secu comes back in the evening for food, sleeps over and guards the house and goes out during the day).
Well, it was party over for this particular rat, which was caught in the mouse trap yesterday.

Our helper, we call her kak kak, happily showed us the finding and called out for Jonathan. Jon was of course more than happy to go see the rat, which he will call "mouse". He gamely took a photo with the trapped rodent and moved so close that grandma kept telling him, and me, repeatedly not to go near. coz it had fleas. That's reason enough! Jon would go close then then recoil whenever the mouse, I mean, rat, moved.We think it's a pretty big rate by home standards, body about 15cm long and a tail of similar length.

Jon recovered and went to nursery yesterday. But we made sure we picked him up immediately at 11.30am when school ended. Otherwise he will play up a sweat and we're afraid he may catch a chill (and fever) again. So I was with Jillian during the day. This time I know better. I let her wake up at 6am, and sacrificed that extra 45mins of sleep. Why? This is so that after I came back from sending Jon off to nursery and bathe her, she will be tired and feeling nice from the bath and will sleep. The previous day, I fed Jill some milk and rocked her to bed in the sarong so I could take that extra snooze. The result - Jillian woke up at 7+am and didn't go back to sleep until 11am. Which means I didn't get to do things, like clean up the rooms, wash up, have a nice leisurely breakkie and read my newspapers, and scrap.

And so I managed to complete a layout of Jon, who was two years when the photo was taken, who was lying on the floor watching a video of himself. It was taped by jie jie Vanessa, who came with my friends to visit Jillian who had just turned one month young. Jon loves watching videos on the camera. He finds it amusing. I find it amusing that he finds it so amusing.The poking of the holes along the scallop border took quite a while. And the sewing took longer. And I realised why - I sewed the blanket stitches from right to left, instead of left to right. No wonder it felt weird. I was feeling left handed for an hour or so (of course broken into 15min sessions coz of the two kids). It's been that long since I sewed, huh?

Has it been a week already?

Aiyo! How time has flown by!

It's almost impossible to read emails, blogs, post photos on FB and update my blog regularly. Jill's awake more during the day from 7 to 11am, then from 1 or 2 pm to 5pm! So I am downstairs entertaining and feeding her in the morning, then while she naps, Jon will be back from nursery and I'll need to clean him up, feed him lunch, bath him and make him nap. Then it's off to grab a quick bite before Jill wakes up. When she's awake, I may catch some winks while she crawls around. But more often than not, I will be playing with her, reading a little something or scrapping if I am lucky.

Anyways, Jon was down with fever over the weekend. Yes, we suspected he caught a chill last Thu, then he developed a full-blown fever last Fri night. over the weekend, we had to take care of a sick and sticky boy (as in super manja). Simon also gave up his fishing on Sat to bring Jon to the doc and to help me a little. He's better now, but we kept him home today in hoping it will be a definite recovery and that he will regain his appetite. Pic of Jon smiling with his temp at 38.5degree celsius.Yes, I still don't drive despite having a driving license for two years. Which reminds me, the license is up for renewal. But since I drove only a grand total of 3 times in 2 years, I didn't get any points deducted, so I should be getting my license renewed without any problem.
Jill is an absolute doll, always smiling and giggling. She's very alert and responsive to her surroundings. Although now she will cry when she sees me walking away. Btw, how on earth do you entertain a baby who can crawl at the speed of hmmm, quite fast lah, and who's awake for 3-4hrs straight? She babbles quite loudly too, and thus I had a hard time containing her excitment and joy coz I didn't want her to disturb Jon's naps...the sick boy has to rest.
I managed to do a simple card for my niece, and started on a LO for Jon, which should be completed by tom. Psst, Elaine, do you see your crochet flower here??

Well. I hope it's the start to a good week for everyone!

Jumping around and scrapping

OK, the kids did the jumping and I did the scrapping.

My friend, Wendy Anne, dropped off a baby Einstein Jumperoo for Jillian at the Inn when I was in Singapore for 24hrs last week. I didn't even get to see her. When we arrived back home, Jon insisted that we put it up for him to play. Here's him hogging the Little Einstein Jumperoo. Of course it can't take his weight! I removed the seat and he promptly crawled in from underneath and had a fantastic time with the little toys all around. In the evening, Simon's uncle and aunt came and she noticed Jonathan kneeling on the floor in the Jumperoo. She took a small stool and asked Jon to sit on it, so he didn't have to kneel. Now, why didn't I think of that?Only when Jonathan is in nursery in the morning or when he is napping, then Jillian will get to be in the Jumperoo. She absolutely loves it and can spend an hour in it! I just have to contain her excitement. So when she squeals too loudly, I will ask her to lower her volume otherwise she will wake kor kor from his nap. I had to resort to using the pacifier, but it only works to a certain extent. How can we keep babies or kids from squealing when they are so deliriously happy? No way.

Jillian's schedule and appetite are changing and that put things out of whack. But I managed to scrap a few simple cards, using up my scrap. I know I will not be able to scrap as fast as I buy new stuff, but that doesn't stop me from doing both....heehee!

24 hours in Singapore

Simon and I were back in Singapore for 24hrs from Mon to Tue to sell our 5rm flat in Yishun. It's our first home and we've been renting it out after we moved back to Miri. As the price was good, we figured it would be better to sell it than to continue to pay interest. I will always remember the flat with fond memories as we shared it with our cats Tiger and Tigger, I got pregnant there, we celebrated a few of my family's birthdays there, and it was where we invited our friends to come over for a simple meal or just to hang out.

In that 24hrs in Singapore, we went to Ikea to buy a kiddy table and four chairs (+ some frames), walked through Orchard Central and went to Esprit at 313 Somerset and Uniqlo (so love it, bought 2 tops and a hat in 20mins), then went to Plaza Singapura to meet my mom for dinner at Crystal Jade.

Then I went to Made With Love to shop for an hour. Although I couldn't meet my friend to get my discount card back, there was an Easter promotion where there was 30% for 15pcs of patterned paper. I got 45pcs! and I managed to get two albums for the price of 1! Then MWL was closing, so I quickly popped over to Spotlight and bought a few stuff, but mainly to get packing tape to pack our huge items for checking in. I even got an empty carton box from the cashier.

Then it was closing too, so I went to Carrefour to buy some water, and some Meiji chocs & biscuits.

What a whirlwind trip. By the time we're done at HDB and the Town Council on Tue morning, we were rushing to get our stuff to go to the airport. But I didn't know that we have to check in our Yakun kaya! So, the two bottles were thrown into some bin at Gate 22 at Terminal 2....sigh. Next time, I know better!

I was so tired and had a headache that when we transited in Kuching, I ordered a drink at Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, and promptly fell asleep on one of their armchairs until they called for final boarding.

We didn't bring our kids with us coz it was such a tight schedule. They didn't even missed us. Mainly coz we stay with Simon's parents and they were happy with grandparents and Aunty Cat who was there to help look after cousin Mabel, so grandma can look after them.

A little of everything

Here's a latest photo of Jillian playing on the activity mat. Before I can adjust the camera setting, she crawled over to me in double quick time! Then I would put her back on the mat and try again. Anyhow, this is the best shot I can get of the cutie.

And here's Jon who came back from nursery yesterday showing off his little Easter basket with three choc eggs. He asked to hug me too. THen hen I asked for a choc egg he thought for a while, asked me to unwrap the choc egg, and then proceeded to gobble it up himself. And the second one, and the third one!

Here's a layout that I managed to do of Jillian. Actually, Jillian is a morning person, just that she was looking a little puzzled/groucho in this photo that particular morning. But I love the photo and just have to scrap it. But daddy and grandma kept asking if I should use a better photo, i.e. a cuter or prettier photo. Anyways, the words belong more to the mommy!