Parent Teacher Meeting

Went to the meet the parents meeting the other day in Ace's school with Max... thanks to his very understanding boss... when Max mentioned I will be going alone, his boss said Max should take time off to go as we have just arrived in Dubai.. in his words, "Your wife will appreciate it very much if you go with her..."

We reached there early and thank goodness we were early cos the school hall was so full there were some 30 pax who had to stand around...

As I looked around, the parents were mostly ang moh... sprinkling of indians here and there and I think as Chinese, we are unique.. and we also seem like one of the youngest couples as most of the parents there look pretty old.. like they are in their forties, some even look like they are in their fifties...

Anyway, I was quite impressed with the opening speech the the headmistress made and she made this presentation called Shift Happens.. (They took down the school link, I can only find this which the school presentation is based on.. and they changed it to show how an education in this school will actually prepare the students for this very different world our children will live in...)

Max says nowadays want to be headmistress also buay kantan.. has to be master of persuation, master of sales, master of PR (she greets every one of us as we sit down in the hall during PTA)... tsk tsk tsk... impressive!

Anyway, then after that, we went to the individual classes so that we could talk to the teacher one on one... there are not many students in Ace's class... I think there are at best 20 students in the class and his english teacher, Ms O'Donnell is a very young lady from Scotland who likes to dance, make friends and exercise.. (she has a tattoo on her calf so i think she quite happening one...) and because she is from scotland.. she has someone an sort of irish accent... so I had to pay extra attention to what she is saying in order to understand her and I figured that Ace will probably have an even harder time than me understanding her... I hope he gets used to it soon.. the little girl int he same building we stay in who goes to the same school has been in this school for three years and she speaks with an english accent.. and I am thinking Ace might develop an ang moh accent in time to come as well:)

Anyway, after the session, we went to have a talk with the teacher and she says that Ace is a fabulous character (dun ask me what tat means.. the english like to tell you that you are a star, you are fantastic or wonderful all the time...) but she says he seems to be struggling with his english pronunciation as wel and suggested that we allow him to attend English As An Additional Language (EAL) programme.

When I heard that, I had two thoughts immediately come to mind. Number one: Must be Ace's singaporean accent his special brand of singlish (sometimes when Ace speaks in english, you need to translate it to chinese in your mind before you understand him...)

I am slightly ashamed to admit though that the second thought was an immediate judgement on his teacher as in.."Wah, your accent also very difficult to understand wor... dun see us chinese so think we cannot speak ang moh.. in Singapore, ENGLISH IS FIRST LANGUAGE... not a SECOND LANGUAGE... nim peh is writer and got A for the GP and English for GCE O Levels one.. cannot be so jia lat right?:P"

After discussion with Max, I decided we will let it go and skip the extra english lessons as we feel that Ace merely needed time to acclimatize to the accent and that in time to come, he will be ok... cos I make him read alot and some of the words tat he cannot pronounce properly.. he hasnt been able to do so since young one.. go extra lesson also no use... if can be corrected, i long long already corrected lor...

And then the teacher also suggested we sign up for some math programme on computer one... cos they are using it in school.. so tat they have to practice at home.. I gave it a pass too as it means additional $$$... I will try to teach on my own first I think....

And that was it lor...

We found out that they have an interesting lesson structure and their classroom is divided into parts.. one section is for reading, one section for numbers, one section for art, one section for a theme topic like the topic for the moment is UAE... one section for english... and depending on which group you are assigned to.. you are doing a different thing as compared to your classmates... I think learning is very general so Ace cant really tell me what he has learnt...

We were also offered a chance to volunteer in the school to help... so the reason why they can do this is because they have many parent helpers.. all the ang moh expat wives with nothing to do when their children are in school:)

And in the school, everything is posted on the net and as parent, you are supposed to go and check what is up coming... i din know till now then I realized i missed out on quite a bit:)

Anyway, some 2 weeks ago, Ace's swimming teacher asked if we would like to let Ace take part in the school extra swimming class... we gave it a pass as we felt since swimming is part of cirricullum, that should be enough...

But yesterday, his teacher wrote in the SOS book again and requested that we let Ace have swimming lessons as he is struggling with just kicking across a small pool and so we agreed to let him have extra swimming lessons.. which translates to another extra hour of free time for me on wednesdays:)

Previous Post: Ace's School Days

Ace's School Days

Finally got my butsudan set up....

And that is Ace chanting... he says he is chanting for a little brother to happen soon... wahahaha.. But i think perhaps he also chanting from the stress of a new school ;)

Even though Ace does not need to go primary one in Singapore and I am glad we dun have to go through that huge transition from kindergarten to primary school, to me, the fact that Ace goes to an international school in Dubai gives me lots of stress and added responsibilties...

Firstly, I have never studied in an international school and do not know what is the norm. Do we buy our own school bags or do we have to buy those with his school logo on them? What is the norm here? And because parents are not allowed into the schools, I don't really know how lessons are like here and what he learns... all the unknowns give me alot of stress...

Not to mention, I worry about whether he can fit in.. whether he can understand his friends and teachers (since they have got accents from all over the world) and whether they can understand him (since Ace is more fluent in Singlish than English..muahahah)..

Then come the matter of lunch boxes. I was told in the teacher parent handbook that they have two snacks times a day and are required to bring two snacks.... but wat do you prepare? is it a norm to prepare the night before? or do I have to wake at 5am to do it? What sort of lunchboxes are good? Do we need to buy a lunchbox bag? And these gave me another few strands of white hair...

Then comes the matter of how is Ace going to learn Chinese and learn enough math so that he can catch up when he goes back to Singapore? If I were to teach him myself, what do I teach him and how do I teach him? Where can I get a good lesson plan? how can I make him respond to me like he would respond to his teachers in school... and so, another few strands of white hair appeared....

Most of my friends think I am enjoying life and always ask me questions like "How is your tai tai life in Dubai?" But the fact of the matter is, while I think I have close to tai tai life in Singapore, I think I am ah sum life here in dubai lor...

You see, on top of these things that I have to constantly worry about, my typical weekday starts like this:

6am: Wake the little prince and also wake myself so that I can go prepare breakfast. Nowadays I make soy milk before hand and let him eat either soy milk with cereal or a banana as breakfast because it is something he can eat fast and doesn't take me much to prepare it... Then I have to keep chasing him to move quickly so that he doesn't miss his 6.30 school bus.

6.30am: Ace goes up his school bus and I try to go back to bed. If I cannot sleep, I wake and try to watsapp or FB my sgp friends since it is already 10am in sgp... If I cant zzz, I will watch some online drama till I feel tired (currently watching The Big Bang Theory and I just LOVE Jim Parson's character Dr Sheldon Cooper! I can't stop laughing at him!)

Usually i will wake around 10 plus.. on days where I sleep late the night before, I wake at 12 plus...

I brush teeth, potter around the house a little bit.. clean a little here and there... mop, sweep, vacum, wipe, clean toilet, clean the kitchen, wash kitchen towels (not all at on the same day thankfully) and around 2pm, I have to start to make Ace's tea break snack.

2.50pm: Go downstairs to pick Ace up. Usually the first thing he says to me when I see him is, "I am very hungry.." That is why I need to pre-prepare his snack so that first thing he can do after he takes off his shoe is eat. Ace will take his own sweet time to eat and meanwhile as he eats, I have to clean his shoes (cos dubai is very sandy and the outside and inside of his shoes is always filled with sand), clean his bag (because he puts his bag on the ground in the bus and his leg kicks it so it becomes sandy as well), take out his bottle and lunch box to wash and check if he has any homework and if there is any message from his teacher in his SOS book.

3pm: Just as I am about done, we have to start our lessons! In Horizon School, they require you to raed to and have your child read to you daily... so we will spend 15 min reading.. and afterwhich we will do some work, watch some videos related to what I want to teach him... and then in between while he is doing work, I have to prepare snack number two because this boy is a hungry hippo...

4.30: This hungry little boy eats another snack and we continue with our studies after that.

5.30pm: It is time to prepare to cook dinner. Time to wash the veggies, cut them and prepare to cook them... Around 6 plus, I will start to fry veg and wait for max to come back. We usually have dinner at around 7 and thankfully, Max helps to wash up after dinner... and then I have a bit of time to watch tv, check email and FB and then by 8 plus, I have to either make salad sauce (for Max's salad) or soy bean milk (for Ace's breakfast). Then have to iron the clothes that the King and Prince are going to wear tomorrow... In between also wash, fold and keep clothes....

9.00pm: I shoo Ace into the bedroom and read a book with him, talk to him a little and leave him to sleep.. and then I start to prepare the snacks that Ace will bring tomm and also prepare Max's salad lunch for the next day. Then i will have to pack Ace's school bag. Usually by the time I am done, it will be 10 plus 11pm in the night already. And then i try to spend a little bit of time alone with Max just to chat or watch tv together...

The feeling I have is that I start working from 2-11 everyday non stop and cannot eat snake one.. so sometimes I really feel very tired. To the extend that when weekend comes, I am all spent... last weekend, I was so tired that when max told me he is going out to watch soccer and that I have to cook dinner, I felt like dying.. I was so tired it was almost impossible to wake up and I literally had to drag myself to go and cook dinner.....

And very unfortunately, on Fridays, most restaurants are closed during lunch hours (as it is weekend and time to go mosque) and so leh, friday have to cook at home too...

While I do enjoy cooking but I also really look forward to taking a break from it during the weekends. But leh, me taking a break brings us to another issue to worry about, :"What do we eat today?" Wahahahahaha... And since there are not tat many good and cheap restaurants here, we have been playing rounders and visiting and revisitng the same restaurants again and again... but I am not complaining.. at least we managed to find thai food, nasi padang, chinese food and even a super nice indian restaurant to go to :)

Anyway, my point is this.. Ace going to school has created alot of extra work for me... like I told my friend, the difference between dubai and Singapore for me is this: I have to take over Gong Gong's job of cooking and providing bfast lunch and dinner for Ace, Zhen Popo's job of nagging at Ace for all the dos and don'ts, Popo and Ah Yee's job of teaching him abc and 123 and chinese, Yeye Nai Nai;s job of playing with him... That's one person doing 6 person's job leh!:)

Today, because Ace was not feeling well, we skipped the afternoon lesson. I felt so much more relieved and less stressed as a result. I just hope that all this extra stress and work is all worth it and that Ace will have something to show for it when we are done with it.

PS: Okie, this is just a post to complain about how much work I am doing and how much I am sacrificing for my family.. wahahahahahaha... Even though i complain, I do love what I am doing because it is really sweet to have Max beside me to talk to me, tease me, spend time with me and just be with me....

PS: The Many Faces of Ace In School
That is Ace in his Horizon School uniform...


Smart boh... after he went to school, we found out that actually no need to tuck in one.. so after day 1, he goes to school with his shirt tucked out:)




Initially when I am lost about wat sort of lunch box to let him bring to school, I just use any Lock Lock box I had... and his Toy Story water bottle we brought from SGP...

After he came home from school, his shoes are so sandy.. so got to wipe with cloth.. this is compare and contrast before wiping and after wiping... Now I lazy liao.. i just kok kok kok on the floor and let the sand come out and wipe once every 2 days instead...

That is Ace in his PE attire for swimming days and PE days...



That is him in his school hat which he needs wear everyday as long as he is under the son.. to give maximum protection, all the school hats here are like tat... look like Ace with long hair hor...

Maybe that is how my daughter, if I have one in the future.. will look like:) hahahahaha:)

Ace and his swimming gear...
This pic is hilarious because he wants to take pic but say he cannot show off his nipples and so he used his hands to cover his nipples.... wahahahahhaa:)

Previous Post:

I Want The Angry Monster To Go Away!

Even though Ace has promised that he will study in our home-school (aka Police Academy), ever since his toys from SGP came over, he has been very distracted by them...

Everyday, from the moment he reaches home, all he wants to do is play with his toys and nothing BUT play with his toys. Ask him to do homework, and it will often end up with me either nagging at him or shouting at him.

So leh, he pek chek.. I also super pek chek...

Then he got angry and started banging things on the table and pushing the table away and I reminded him that it is normal to be angry.. BUT it is not acceptable to me that he acts out his anger...

Sensing that I am right (and partially taking this as a good chance to call for attention I think), Ace told me that he is unable to just feel his anger and not act it out... The more he tried to feel his anger, the angrier he got... it was like he got into a vicious cycle and he looked as if he was about to pull out his hair..

Suddenly, he broke out into and outburst...

"I hate the angry monster! Mummy, can you ask the angry monster to go away.. I don't want to be angry anymore! Go and die you angry monster, I will kill you... and kick you... you stupid angry monster.. I want you to die.. go away!"

I reminded him that those are words of anger and whenever he speaks angry words like these he merely makes the angry monster even stronger and therefore, he will feel more anger and be over taken by his anger... "Besides," I added, "Everyone has a angry monster inside them.. even you, me, daddy... everybody.. and it is not possible for the angry monster to disappear... it is merely however possible to either choose to change the angry monster into love by feeling the anger to burn the anger away...."

"But I don't know how to just feel my anger..." I told him he can feel it in his heart.. or I can hug him and send him love to erase away the angry monster...

After I hugged him for a full 5 minutes, he said, "Mummy, I think the angry monster haven't go yet.. can you hug me somemore..."

(And I remembered how my teacher says tat psychologically, anger cannot last more than 7.5 minutes.. anything longer than tat it is because you invest in the anger and want to stay angry...) But I decided to just hug him...

After lots of hugs, he became peaceful again and was incredible hulk no more...

"Next time I am angry, mummy... can you hug me again?" Ace asked me..

I told him I can hug him but he has to tell me he is angry and ask if I can hug him politely instead of screaming and shouting at me or throwing things at me.. This is EQ.. and emotional awareness.. a very useful skill...

Anyway, I have been mindful to give him more hugs throughout the day.. thankfully, since that episode, he has no more "incredible hulk" episodes anymore... and instead of listening to me only 10% of the time, he slowly normalize to listening to me at least 80% of the time... PHEW...

Previous Post: Friends

Friends

They say no man is an island... and I agree...

I have always been surrounded by alot of friends. So has Ace. I can't say we are the most popular people in the world... but when I said I was going to relocate to Dubai, there were many many pple who told me that they would miss me.. and I am so used to having a huge network of close friends to bitch about things, gossip a little and just chill out together....

So is Ace. I have been watsapping her Kinderland teacher and she says that the whole class has been asking about Ace and when he will be back.. everyday, when she marks attendance and asks, "Is anyone not here?" They will say together, "Ace!" And then leh, when they go out and play, they will point out a car to the teacher and tell Teacher Elaine, "That was Ace's favourite car.."

If you ask me, the biggest hurdle about getting used to life in Dubai is the lack of friends. I know families are important and it is great we are a close knitted family with alot of love... but I think it is very very tough for me and Ace here.. reason being we do not have much friends here.

I think Ace feels it too because one the first weekend that we had gathering, he was sooooooooooooo happy to see someone else other than me and Max (back then he just started going to school) and he literally sticked to our friend, Adam. In fact, he enjoyed it so much that he asked me two days later when we could meet uncle adam again and whether we could celebrate mooncake festival with Adam over dinner...

Ace and Adam.. Ace brought all his barang to show off to Adam.. his angry bird lah, his walkie talkie lah...

The other day, Ace asked me why his life in Dubai is so boring because everyday after he is home from school, I will be busy making dinner and so there is no one to play with him.. after dinner, have to wash up lah, do this and that, ask him to do homework.. etc... so whenever he asks me to play with him, I can't.. especially those few days tat my stuff from Singapore has arrived...

I told him though that he is not in a position to complain.. cos relatively speaking, my life is even more boring than his.... At least, he is in a better position as he gets to go to school and while he only remembers the names of two classmates so far (I wonder why since he was a naturally popular person in kinderland and could tell me about his classmates and their names in a short time), I am sure he has interacted with tonnes of people.... Poor mummy only face four walls and talk to Max (who has been working lots of OT lately) and grumpy Ace (who is no fun to talk to because he is grumpy and rude). Also, he has tonnes of toys tat I shipped over for him.. Mummy only has her online movies and her online movies.. tats it... (tat's why I am keen to buy karaoke and kinect. wahhahaha)

Anyway, I told Max I have to meet some friends for dinner like once a week.. if not I will go crazy... I just need to talk to some other pple... (Today is not so bad since I msned with Steffy and my sis and talked to my parents and grandma over skype) I even suggested he invite his drinking kakis over to our place for drinks just so that I can get to have some fun too...

Anyway, I really miss my sisters and our sister time... my real sister Clari.. my bestie Karen, my MCI sisters GH, KP and Linda, my POV sisters and brothers..especially Jo and Steff and Veron, my shi zi lu kou kakis TK and Jez.. HAI.. in one word, I really miss all of you lah..

Thankfully, I made a few new friends in Dubai liao... and some of them are girls too:) hehehe... Someone linked me up with some Dubai taitais but I havent had a chance to meet up with them yet as I am still bz settling down...

Tomorrow is PTA in Ace's school... maybe I will get to know one or two mummies too:)

PS: I am friendly person but I take time to really become close to a person.. so in tat sense I am quite kor tak... so maybe tat is why I dun have MORE friends in Dubai yet.. wahahaha...

PPS: As I type this, I have two visiting friends who are here to visit me. It is such a wonderful experience to have them here with me in Dubai... provide me and Ace with company and laughter and made the fact that max is not around so much easier for me... HUGZ:P

Previous Post: http://verityy.blogspot.com/2011/09/ph-is-for-phoenix.html

PH Is For Phoenix

The other day, we were preparing to go to bed when my son suddenly informed me that his teacher had given them some homework..

That startled me because it was bedtime liao and I did not see anything written in his SOS book..

Ace explained to me that the homework was that they had to discuss with their parents and come up with words starting with PH having the "ph" sound....

So I gave it a thought and immediately came up with the most common word starting with ph.. "Phone..." And immediately after that, my mind drew and instant blank.. try as i might, I just couldnt think of any other word tat starts with PH...

At this point, Ace excitedly told me, "Phoenix!"

"Wah, your teacher already went through with you in school is it?" I asked Ace..



"No, I came up with this myself!" he told me happily...

I was really impressed lor... I mean, never in a thousand years will I come with the word Pheonix lor... I couldn't even think of one more word starting with PH and my son comes up with this really difficult and rarely used word...

"YOu are very good leh.." I told him as I high fived with him..

But then, I was not so impressed when subsequently, he said to me, "You know mummy, there is also a Phoenix in Beyblade..."

Chey.. no wonder he knows Phoenix.. and then he quickly came up with another word, "Phonics..." And after thinking about 5 minutes, I finally remembered the word, "photo"..

After that, I lazy liao lah.. I flipped my iphone, went to google and typed, "Words that start with PH" and tada, got one whole list of words lor... Phyisical, Physiological, Photograpy, Phi, Phot, Phase.... I never knew there were so many words that starts with PH!:)

Anyway, it ended with an even score, me coming up with two words and Ace coming up with two words.. hehehe:)

Previous Post: Juice!

Juice!

My son can read!

I mean, Ace started reading a long time ago but I only started to read those books with lots of words and very little drawings like Enid Blyton's Secret Seven when I was 7 years old and the other day, on his school library day, Ace borrowed Dairy of A Wimpy Kid.. which is a books with alot of words... And he even told me that he read it silently on the school bus by himself.. I am very impressed:)

Anyway, the book also became our bonding "let's read together" book to read before bedtime..

One of the stories inside, Greg, the protagonist in the book talked about this nerd in his class who had his own language.. when he needed to go to the loo to pee, instead of asking for permission to go toilet, he would say, "Juice! Juice! Juice!" And the kids would all understand what he meant but the teacher would really go pass him a packet of fruit juice.. wahahahaha:)

Anyway, the other day, while we were in Juicy Couture's outlet in Dubai's Outlet Mall (which is a mall filled with factory outlets from branded brands... tat is where we bought a REAL $20 sing Liverpool Jersey that made Max super duper happy)

And all of a sudden while we were inside the JC shop, Ace started shouting, "Juice! Juice! Juice!"

And because Max did not read the book... like the teacher, he DIDN'T get it and told Ace, "No Ace, it is JUICY... not JUICE..."

Wahahahaha.. so I told Max that Ace meant he needed to go to the loo and so his dad brought him to toilet...

So now, whenever Ace needs to go toilet, he will say he wants to JUICE.. so the other day, in the car, we discussed what will be the CODE for wanting to go poop.. after a round of selections, we settled on CHOCOLATE....

Max says though, that it means if Ace says he wants to eat chocolate, we will feed him poo.. wahahahha.. Ace was so tickled by this he bent over while laughing... oh well, kids just love to luff at these things:)

Previous Post: Complain King

Complain King

Perhaps it is the fact that we are far away from home now and we are still getting used to this huge move and huge change.. perhaps it is just time of the month for me... Perhaps all the waking early is taking its toll on my mental state.... irregardless, I have been rather upset recently and not in a very good mood at all....

I think Ace too hasn't been in a very good mood.. and so we snap at each other alot when we are at home. I cant say which is worse... seeing Ace 24/7 at home and mummy this mummy that and driving me crazy with his incessant demand for attention or having him go to school (which translates to ALOT more extra work for me but alot alot of extra PEACEFUL time for me) and come back to suddenly snap and me and make hurtful remarks at me....

Anyway, one day, we had a quarrel and he got upset and went to his dad to complain.. he complained and complained and complained.. and poor Max, sandwhiched in the middle, tried to be the peace-maker... But I was very hurt that he went to his dad to complain about me.. and about something I did not even do! So it took me a while to work on my anger.. and when I finally felt better, I went to talk to Ace and play with him and then he misunderstood my joking gesture of pinning him down as bullying him and ran crying to his dad to tell his dad, "Mummy qi fu wo..."and cried like I tortured him or something...

Wah, tat one made me super angry lor...

But when I cooled down, I talked to Ace and told him that it is not good to complain to other people. "If you have a problem with me, about what I do, then you have to talk to me and tell you how you feel... then we can resolve it among ourselves... it is not right for you to go to daddy and complain to daddy about me and bad mouth me like tat.. especially I am your mother. Even if I am not your mother, you shouldnt treat your friends like that too... If you have a problem with your friend, you should tell them straight.."

If there is one thing I have learnt, it is that going to a third party to complain is the cause of most human relations problem and it is not even helpful at all... the only helpful thing is really to tell the other party how you feel....

I restrospect, I did feel a little bad as I think that I too snapped at him more often than I normally would as I was starting to feel a little depressed here.... I lead a boring existence where everyday, I just clean the house, cook, watch tv, watch more tv, worry about Ace and his school and what he will have to bring for lunch, what to cook for dinner, wash clothes, wash toilet, vacumn the house, mop the floor.... and BLOG:) The only times we go out are either for a meal or to go supermarket shopping.. or aimless window shopping...

Compared to life in Singapore where I was free to nua at home.. didn't have to do housework and always free to go out with this friend and that friend to sing karaoke, have tea, watch movies... have POV gatherings to attend, workshops to look forward to and attend, life here in Dubai is well, just less exciting...

It is of course nice to have Max around with me at night and good to have him listen to my grouses and have him smile and tell me how xin fu I made him since I cooked such a wonderful dinner for him... somehow though, this life is not as perfect or as easy a I envisioned.

I don't really mind the housework or the cooking.. since it is not much anyway.. we live in a really small place... and I really enjoy cooking, I just missed home too and missed my friends...

Anyway, Ace started going to school and things got worse.

I would get into arguments with Ace daily and he would get upset or angry and he would take my words literally and really tell me what in think.. as in he tells me all the thought processes inside his head....

Eg, the other day we had a quarrel.. i forgot over what.. and then he got upset and he pushed the table away... I went to make dinner and then he started a monologue... "I am so angry with you mummy.. and I think, I want to scold you.. but if i scold you, daddy will scold me and you will also scold me later.. so I cannot scold you.... and then I think I want to throw and smash all your things on the floor... but I know if I spoil your things, you will take money from my bank to buy you new ones.. I dun want to lang fei (waste) my money and so I cannot do that as well... humph..."

Wah... really angry lor.. part of me felt like I was in so much sacrifice (wake at 5plus 6 every morning and take care of his every need.. including clean his bum after his shit) and all I got in return is this??!!!

And then the next day, he got angry because I scolded him for something and he gave a monologue again... "I am so angry.. I want to push you till you fall down when you are standing up..."

And so, he was asking for it lor.. I refused to talk to him for the next two hours.. refused to help him with washing his bum... (because initially when he asked for help, I walked into the toilet to help him but as I was walking in, I nagged at him and he said, "I don't want to talk to you.." and so fine lor.. I also dun want to talk to hin and dun want to help him in that case...)

Max says he thinks I am like a kid, quarrelling with Ace.. I tell him he should try taking care of Ace 24/7...

While I was very angry during the incidents.. I kept thinking about why I behaved this way and why Ace behaved this way.. it is like he is a different person since he came to dubai like that... I also noticed that my fuse is very short lor.. i get upset and fly into a temper easily. .much more easily compared to when I am in SGP... I jokingly told him I will write in his SOS book (which is a book for teachers to communicate with parents) and ask his teacher if they taught him how to be rude to their mummy in school....

Later in the night, I asked Ace why he behaved like that these few days... and he told me that it is because since we arrived in Dubai, I haven't been hugging him enough.. and I remembered that I haven't been joining with him before bedtime for a while.. so i did a short joining with him and resolved to stay my center more.. and hug him more...

Also, Max reminded me that Ace is also still trying to get used to a new school.. which is a big thing for him too as he has to get used to hearing english with slang.. making new friends who look different from him... so I tried to be more understanding towards him...

I noticed that he seems annoyed when I ask him about school and he keeps telling me answers like, "I don't remmeber" or "I don't know.." when he used to tell me all the details about wat happened in his school in Singapore...

Today, when he got home from school, he seemed to be in a pretty good mood.. so I had a little chat with him... I explained to him that I keep asking about his school because I cannot go to the school with him.. I dunno what is happening in the school and I am concerned about whether what he is doing there and whether he is happy there... I asked him if he has gotten used to school yet and he said, "no.."

I also explained that my life is boring here since I am at home the whole day.. since he has been outside of home, he will see more interesting things and that is also part of the reason why i want to know what he has done, so he can share his more interesting life with me and I feel less bored...

And then I apologized for snapping at him pretty often these days because I explained, "I also still have not gotten used to life in Dubai yet and am trying to get used to my life here... " I told him that my life here is very different and I really miss my friends and family in Singapore.. "Dubai is not like Singapore.. if anything upsets me or I am very bored, I can just go out and have a coffee with my friends and talk to them... here, I only have two friends I see everyday, they are Ace Chua and Max Chua and if he keeps talking rude to me, it makes me even more upset..."

Somehow, all this communication seem to work.. he is a superb little boy today.. helping me with housework... giving me lots of hugs and kisses and eating his dinner with little fuss and even volunteering to do homework!:)

Hopefully, things stay this way...

PS: Well, Ace has more or less settled down and started behaving slightly better.. but his dad is going away for a business trip and so he started acting up again and crying and throwing tantrum over the smallest thing.... I told him to please behave when daddy is away and I asked him why he seems to be better behaved when daddy was away... his reply is that when daddy is away, his job is to protect me... wahahaha.. I told him he should behave the same way and protect and love me whether daddy is here OR NOT!:) wahahahahaha....

Previous post: A Very Good Little Boy

A Very Good Little Boy

We were walking around the shopping mall and suddenly saw this Mac Donalds fries red paper packaging on the floor...

"Aiyoh.. dunno who so inconsiderate, throw this on the floor and dirty it..." I said as we walked past it..

"Ya... why don't they throw in the dustbin? Can we throw in the dustbin?" Ace asked...

"Do you mean you want to pick it up and help to throw it into the dustbin?" I asked Ace.

"Yes.." he replied..

And so he did...

I am very proud of my little boy :)

Previous Post: A Typical Weekend

A Typical Weekend

Fridays and Saturdays are weekends here in Dubai...

Sundays... are actually schooling and working days...

A very typical weekend goes like this here.... On thur night, Max usually has soccer... then he comes home for dinner (but last weekend he didnt have soccer and we met up with frens for dinner instead) and by 11 or 12 midnight, it will be ME TIME for Max as he will go out with his uncle frens for a beer and return later in the night...

Friday, being a day for mosque means it is a day where pple sleep in late.. that's because i think due to the friday prayers, almost all restaurants and eateries are closed from 11am till 1.30pm... so it would be best to eat at home..

So anyway, after you have your meal, you can do nothing but go shopping at the many huge malls here....

This wkend, we went to Mirdiff City Centre.. a shopping mall so big that Max says you cannot finish walking around in... and we found a sports shop inside it called Decathalon which is like Carrefour.. only, it only sells sports stuff...

That's Ace posing with the shuang jie gun...


Ace trying his luck at boxing...


Jumping on the trampoline.. but my funny boy kept sitting down.. it took him a long time to realize that he has to stand up and keep in momentum of standing up and jumping up and down so that he can stay upright..


Ace trying his hand at golf...

Skateboarding....

And Max and Ace posing in front of this mini table tennis table tat Max is very tempted to buy to recreate his memory of playing table tennis with his dad at home when he was young...

Then we went to a furniture shop and Max says this sofa is very comfy.. so both of them posed and pretend to sleep on the sofa...

After that, Ace got hungry.. and we discovered there is a carrefour here and so went there to buy drinks and cake... the cake plus drinks cost us about 20 dirhams and Max says that if we had gone to any of the cake shop or cafe in the mall and tried to have the same amt of cakes and drinks, we would have paid 3 times more lor....

I take back my words about saying that there are no good cakes in carrefour.. the hazlenut cake tat we ate was cheap and GOOD.. and here is PROOF of that! :) wahahahhaahaha...

Previous Post: An Observation At The Playground

An Observation At The Playground

The other day, while we were in Mirdiff City Centre shopping mall, we walked past a huge toy store... somewhat like Toys R Us.. only, they had alot more toys on display for children to play freely.. so it was also like an amusement park! ;)

Anyway, Ace got very excited when he saw this balloon house/playground. It is the type of playground where everything is supported by this really powerful fan blowing wind constantly into the structure.. so everything in side the "house" is soft and therefore considered SAFE...

Ace immediately took off his shoes to join the fun and me and Max just stood there and watched the children play.

After observing the children for 30 seconds, I am suddenly aware that this house is totally not safe at all. You see, this type of thing is a toy.. not for industrial use.. so at any one time, I think it can only take at best 5-6 kids but there were 7 or 8 kids running around in the house... on top of that, there is a very stupid helper, who in her bid to safeguard her little mistress, sat right inside the house.. harlow... you are 25, not 5 leh.. and she is like my size..

As a result of the above mentioned, the house kept crumbling and looking as it was going to crumble and smother the children any moment.

I noted with interest that the children just don't care! Neither do the parents, they continue to do their own thing and just watch.. they never stop their children.. or ask them to leave.. they just let the children do what they like and the owner of the silly helper also never stop the silly helper.. but somehow.. when the house is about the crumble, everyone inside playing will zat lat for a while and then when the house is fat and "strong" again, the little monkeys start all over again and cause it to crumble again and this thing just happens in a cycle...


I feel that if this happened in Singapore, by this time, 2 pairs of parents will pull their children away.. another two pairs will be looking for the store clerk to complain to them about how dangerous this arrangement is and why there are no signs to indicate no adults allowed and no more than 5 children allowed... another two pairs will be scolding their children there... wahahahaha...

Secondly, me and Max noted that the children there are buay kia si one lor! You know how kids in Singapore generally wait for their turn and even the most rowdy of the lot just maybe skip turns right? They still generally slide down the slide....

The children here are different one lor! No one waits for their turn.. whoever gets there first gets to slide down first.. even if you are there first and I squeeze past you.. too bad for you lor... And they very hiong one.. they dun slide down properly on their bum one.. they toh ba lek upside down come down with their heads first.. they tumble down with their legs and hands all over the place... and if you get in their way and they hit you, too bad!

So Ace was mostly stunned... he took view of the situation and he approached the house by trying to climb up the slide because it looked less crowded there.. and afterward, he just keep hanging around the places that didn't have much people....

Max said that this is a test for Ace.. we observed him and decided to see what he will be up to... and after about 10 minutes, he finally got it and started to jostle for the slide too...

Max asked me if Ace will be a different little boy when he goes back. I told him this is a one off.. he may not meet children like that in school. Anyway, Max thinks tat allowing your kid to play in this sort of environment is also a test for a typical singaporean parent who is always 2 steps away and asking their kid to be careful, dun fall down... always ready to pull them away from danger.... hahaha..

I guess we passed the test..


PS: After a while, we got bored and wanted to walk around on our own and seeing that no one helped him jaga his shoes now, Ace came and hid his shoes behind this huge stack of toys and continued to jump up and down in the playground.... STILL typical kiaseee Singaporean.. wahahahaha..

PPS: After observing the people here for a while, I feel that the children here (especially the arabic ones) are very rude. Even the rudest kid I have met when i was in sgp is not as rude as the normal children just walking about in the malls... When they want to get past you, they shove you out of the way.. even for the older children who can talk and should know better manners.. and boys are especially rude.. I wonder if it is because they are fed the info that they are all amighty and more important than girls....

Previous Post: Happy School