Barracuda

Max has been telling me about this place where it is a alchoholic's paradise.. it is a wine and beer supermart where you can find ALL types and ALL BRANDs of wines and beers... According to my friend KA, it is a place which is her hubby, J's equivilent to her children's Toys R Us "because the look he has on his face when he goes there is like A's look when he goes to toys r us!" she says.

It is quite a long drive...  and the other day, our group of friends decided to go together as an excursion since some of us have not been there before.

During the long drive there, the "LUCKY" F and WL were treated to a Ace personal concert of his favourite car tunes like "I'm sexy and I know it, Skyfall, I'm At The Payphone, We Are Young... etc" Had to keep asking him to sing softly cos I was almost going crazy with his s̶i̶n̶g̶i̶n̶g̶ screaming

When we were driving past the desert, we saw some donkeys and so I happily took out my camera to take pics because this is a rare sight.. BUT ONLY AFTER I took the picture, I realized that there is something interesting happening here...

p

One of the donkeys seem to have 5 legs! I dun need to tell you what the 5th leg is... wahahahahahahah.. dam, do they have big dongs!

Sign outside the alchohol supermart.. can buy cannot drink there:) wahhahaahah...

The beach outside of the supermart... well, so so only.. nothing like Jumeriah Beach....

Not supposed to take photos.. so i illegally took some... when no one is looking...

Think my sis will go crazy for these amazing vodka bottles:)

These are cute.. they are small shots of alchohol and some other thing that gives them extra punch.. but Max dun dare to buy...

Ace was so bored while others were choosing their alchohol.. so I walked around with him and pointed out all the nice designs for the bottles lor.. at least got something to see...

WL who said dun wanna buy dun wanna buy ended up buying alot as well:) wahahaha..

Cannot be so 猖狂 .. so all must wrap wrap wrap... as we were also ferrying F and WL, they were afraid our boot not enough space.. but of cos.. there is enough space:)

Hahaha.. this is Max, F and WL's total damage:)

Saw an old airplane tat was just left on the sand pit as some sort of advertisement on our way back..

We even stopped by to buy some local produce.. Max bought some mangos:) Not bad.. quite sweet but is quite ex..

Finally reached DUbai again.. saw the bus with a sign that says "Articulated bus.." I asked Max if it meant the bus can talk.. he says though, it could be a spelling error.. googled about it and found out tat it just means those super long bendy buses...

PS: we realized the ginger beer we bought tastes super good! Dam, should have bought more!

Previous Post:

Xiao Xiong Qing Ke

I was going through some chinese homework with Ace and I came across the phrase "

请客"

That sort of reminded me of this children's musical my mum bought for me in a tape called

小熊请客. I loved it so much as a kid and listened to it so many times and so I told Ace I will go search for it on youtube.. and to my surprise, I found the exact sound clip I was listening to!

Listened to it together with Ace and it brought back so many happy memories of me and my mum..

But my son is dam jia lat.. at the point when a new animal came in and the animal said "Wang wang wang.. wang wang wang.."

I asked him to guess what animal it is..

HE GUESSED A FROG!

Wah lau eh, frog got wang wang wang one meh????

Answer is OBVIOUSLY a dog mah!

Tsk tsk tsk..  this boy is really jia lat...

Previous Post: Packing Up

Packing Up

School holidays again..It is usually the time I ask Ace to pack his toys, his book shelf and clothes drawers because it is likely to be in a BIG MESS after a few months of stuffing things here and there
:)

But my son never fails to ENTERTAIN himself on top of all the CHORES:)

Here he is.. "donating" all his clothes that are too small to his SOFT TOYS.. yes you heard me right...

HE dressed all of them up and displayed them on his bed... hahahaha

On a different occasion, I asked him to please pack his toy drawer.. he started packing from 2pm in the afternoon. By 8pm.. it was still not done because while packing, he "met up" with all the toys he has not seen in a long while and will take EVERYTHING OUT.. play with it for a while before packing them into the box!

As I was working from home, I did not have much time to supervise him... so I think this time the packing FAIL because still so messy! hahaha

And then whenever I asked him to pack things, he will wear his goggles because "I don't want the dust to get into my eyes..." wat sort of cukoo logic is that man... Desite them, he is just running around and making funny faces with his goggles on...

Sigh...

But well, got pack a little is better than never pack:)

Previous Post: This Is Just A Movie

This Is Just A Movie

 

Watching Rise of the Guardians with Ace and they showed many sleeping children in their beds as the tooth fairy goes to collect their teeth.....

Max: Did you see, Ace?

Ace: What?

Max: Why these children all sleep straight in their bed ah, Ace?

Ace: Aiyah.. this is just a movie show mah...

Looks like I am going to be kicked in my sleep still...sigh...

Previous Post :  Chinese No Good

Chinese No Good

I know hor, having studied Chinese as a first language, that my Chinese is better than Max's lah... But I never thought his cheena is so bad lor!:)

The other day, we were outside and the very bored Max was scrolling through his FB. He came across something and he said to Ace.. "Nah, read this.. read this. and remember this!"

I read together with Ace and then started to laugh at Max!

I don't know hor whether hor.. is his teng lang boh ho... or hor is he never read through and he just saw the words "孝顺是..." (Fillial Piety is..) and decided that Ace needs to read it because it is about how he should be fillial to his parents.

You see... translated to English, the message in the pictures means something like "Filial Piety is never forgetting your parent's repeated reminders for you to come home .. Filial Piety is when the old one is lonely, the children are around to keep them company..."

Hahahaha.. I told Max that he of all people shouldnt be showing Ace this since we are not beside our parents long term and cannot do  at least the second one...

Funny to me also because this man who insisted that it doesnt matter to him where in the world he stays as long as his wife and son are with him.. and this man who looks forward to staying long term in Dubai away from his original family because life in Dubai is more relaxing than in SG.... thinks this is important...

I guess, like a tough shell coconut, this softie inside DOES really care lor:) .. despite the fact that he is always trying to act cool:) wahahahhaahahahahah...

I wonder though, how it will be like for me and Max if Ace grew up and decided he wanted to work or stay overseas...

Previous Post: Trash Packs In A Trash Bag

Trash Packs In A Trash Bag

Since a few months back, Ace has been telling me about this "wonderful toy" called Trash Pack that his friends brought to school.

Essentially, it is just some teeny "monsters" made of rubber that were put into trash cans. The purpose of the toy is for you to collect all 100 designs of them... and then you could trade with your friends... or you could like stack the cans up and see who can stack higher.. or perhaps you can put the cans far and see who is an accurate good throw and can throw the monsters inside the can...

Sounds like a dam useless piece of toy and a waste of money and so whenever he talks to me about it, I told him he can forget about it as I will never buy a useless toy like this for him. So he kept asking and asking and asking and I just kept saying no....

And then leh he asked me if he could use his money to buy it and I said NO... he is not allowed to waste money on useless things like that and as long as he lived in my house and eat the food bought using our money, we will have a say in things like that. When he is all grown up though, and can take care of himself ,then he will have to make his own decision but for now, he has to listen to us first because now when he is young, we can teach him and guide him about how to make good decisions about his money so that in future when he is grown up, he knows how to manage his money.

He would listen but he would still try to get us to buy him by going "Trash pack!" whenever we saw some and also telling me about who has how many trashies and telling me stories of how much fun the trashies are....

During CNY when we were back in Singapore, his godma brought him out for a day and then  during their time together, she told him that she would give him $50 sing dollars to be put with daddy. If he scored well in his chinese test (at least 75 points and above), then he will be allowed to use the $50 to buy whatever he liked.

Ace was very happy about this 150 dirhams and kept talking about using it to buy Trash Pack...

And finally, after so long.. we came to a point where we could test him on his primary one chinese...

And guess what!? To my surprise, even though I think his chinese sucks, he scored 75 points for his test! Just nice to earn his reward...

He was so happy when he found that he scored 75 points that he was jumping into the air! I must say too that he has come a long way. When we first started studying chinese together, Ace was barely able to read most words... and finally when he could, he was unable to string them together in a proper sentence. His grammar was atrocious and he could not understand a 5 sentence passage enough to answer 3 simple questions about it. I was literally tearing my hair out and vomiting blood whenever he started doing chinese homework.. Now, he can read many words.. and he can attempt to do the comprehension passage himself even though he may not get the answers right all the time..

He even attempted to read chinese comics by himself and because I am aware he is not good in his grammer, I am exposing him to more chinese programmes and also reading more chinese story books to him. Happy to see that all our effort and hard work has bear fruit:)

Guess what :) Godma says even mummy is going to be rewarded.. WITH BUBBLE TEA! wahahahah.

Anyway, after he scored the 75 points, he started to want to go out EVERYDAY because he wanted to get his Trash Pack there and then. We told him that out of the 150 dirhams, he is only allowed to spend 50 dirhams.. and we tried to persuade him to save it up to buy something else but to no avail, he was very firm on buying it and he couldnt wait anymore.

Reluctantly, we brought him to a toy store to pick his present. To my surprise though, while Ace will usually spend all or most of the money he has, he showed constrain... He decided that he will buy the smallest pack available as it is much cheaper and he will keep the rest of the money to buy a book...

Max suggested that he can also choose to donate it and he was willing to go ahead as well.

Anyway, we went to the bookshop but couldnt find anything suitable for Ace and so, we decided to go home..

On our way home, Ace started to tell us about how someone had all the 100 monsters in the trash packs? "So what?" I asked him. I asked him what does having the 100 monsters mean? Does it improve someone's life or their own life?

And then Ace said that he agreed that having the 100 monsters is not a big deal. Perhaps he was seeking approval from me and Max and trying to make us feel better about the 5 Trashies that he bought...  he started to say that he feels that the father who bought the 100 trashies for his son is maybe crazy... "There are so many other things he can spend of instead of buying trash pack for his life!" Ace declared...

Looks like my son is finally getting some money sense!:) wahahahaahhaa!

Previous Post: If Don't Want People To Know, Don't Do It

If Don't Want People To Know, Don't Do It

The other day, I went shopping with my sister during my Dubai Sisters Day out with my Dubai sister, F. While trying out clothes for fun, I found this really nice dress that I really liked and so I decided to buy it.

When I met Max after that, I told he I bought a dress and he did not say anything. Nor did he ask me how much the dress cost.

Fast forward to almost one and a half months later, Ace was  having his school holidays and so, I brought him along with me to my Soka Tea Party at R's house. My promise to him was that if he chanted for an hour together with us, I will bring him to Mac Donalds as a reward.

Ace only managed to last like 25 minutes before he got bored and started to fidget. But since it was good effort on his part, I still brought him to Mac D lah.

It has been a while since we got to spend time alone and really talk to each other as everyday we have been bz reading his english story books or chinese story books. We did not really have a chance to talk or chat except talk about what happened at school.

While we were having lunch together, Ace told me that actually when I was not looking, his dad took out the reciept from my shopping bag, saw how much I spent (I spent close to 200 dirhams which is about $60 sing dollars on the dress and 3 belts because my belt disintegrated) and commented... "Aiyoh, 200 dirhams.. this mummy ah, very rich now ah.. next time ask her to buy things for the family...."

When Max reached home that night, I asked him if he did that and he acted blur while giving his "bao toh kiah" dagger looks...

"Got meh? I got say that meh?" Max insisted...

Me: Ace did daddy say that?
Max: Where got where got.. what did I say?
Ace: Yes, you said mummy so rich now.. next time ask her pay for the family things..
Max: Is it? I said that??
Ace: Yes you did! You said that to me!
Max: No lah.. the money I give you is yours mah.. you can spend in however you like..." and he hugged me while turning to look at Ace and telling Ace, "You are so dead, you are so dead!"

Since I should protect the whistle blower for giving me IMPORTANT INFORMATION, I told Ace that I will teach him a new chinese phrase that he can use if his dad threatens to do anything to him....

The phrase is 若要人不知，除非己莫为

Which means "If you don't want people to know that you did something.. then dun even do it in the first place..

Unfortunately, this phrase consisted of too many words that Ace is unfamiliar with... until today, he is having problems remembering the full phrase! Wahahaaahahahahaha....

Anyway, Max did tell Ace he was joking with him only lah. "It is always good to tell the truth..." his dad affirmed.. wahahaha...

Now, everytime I remember, I will test Ace and see if he remembers this phrase. Till now, no improvement.. sigh..

Previous Post: I Wish I Can Experience War

I Wish I Can Experience War

The other day, I was having some ALONE time with Ace and we were having some random conversation. Somehow, we started talking about history...

So Ace asked me why do people study history. I asked him why he thought people studied history and he said, "So that we can know what good things that other people did in the past and we can remember these things..."

And he went on to share with me some things he learnt about Singapore's history when he was at CAMP@Home about war hero, Lim Bo Seng.

Somehow though, the discussion turned to the topic of WAR. So Ace asked me if anyone I knew survived war.  I told him that zeng popo and laoma probably survived WWII... "Does anyone you know survived both WWI and WWII?" he asked me.

So I explained tat WWI happened a really long time ago and that is why very few people alive now have surivived BOTH wars.

Then we started to discuss about why there is war. I explained to Ace that wars start for various reasons. Most often than not, it is when the kings or the leaders of a certain country, wanted to expand their country.. want to make their country bigger and stronger and so they will try to fight another country and make it part of their own.  I think WWI started because this guy by the name of Hitler wanted to be King Of The World and so he started war against many countries around the world to make them his own. "So mummy.. how did hitler die? Did he get shot by someone?" I told him I didn't know and will know after I googled it.. (Found out that hitler died by suicide... guess he couldnt take losing the war...)

Also like in WWII it started because Japan also wanted to become the leader of the world and started to fight other countries.. that is why the countries came together and formed the Allies to fight back.

Sometimes of course, it could be because people from two different countries have different ideas about things and they get into a disagreement.. or that two people from different countries do bad things to each other and the people in their own country get upset with the other country as a result and then they fight and war starts...

At this point, Ace suddenly said to me, "I wish I can experience war..."

I told him though that I wish he will NEVER have to experience war. "There is nothing good about war to experience..." I told him. I explained to him, during war, people are always running and hiding and always in fear, thinking that they might die or that their loved ones might die... families are sometimes seperated because they get lost or die... during war also, there is usually not enough food and so, people are often hungry as well... and during war, sometimes soldiers who invade a country do mean things to the people like they might kill anyone they do not like or they might kill women and even children...

I also explained to Ace that war is a lose lose situation for both sides. For the country that started the war and invade the other country, they have to send many of their people to fight the war and these people are are someone's family members and so families are torn apart.. and when you fight in a war, there is a chance that you might die as well.. and of course, the other country might fight back as well... Just like in WWII... while Japan managed to win many of the wars, many of their people are killed... on top of that, when the Allies fought back, they dropped this bomb called the Atomic bomb that did not just KILL people.. it affected their people many generations after as people living near the area were suffering from poor health and also many of them gave birth to children who were deformed or very sick at birth afterwards.

For the country that is being invaded, the people will surely lose loved ones and some of their things will be taken  and so for both sides, they don't become better even if they might win the war. Always there is a price to pay.

"And that is why people study history.." I explained.."So that we also learn from our past and not make the same mistakes that our forefathers did and we can help create a better world.."

I asked Ace why would he want to experience war and he said he changed his mind in that case... he was just wishing that because he is curious about history and what happened in the past.

Later in the day, while going out to dinner, I shared this story with Max and he told Ace a very important thing- history happened in the past, and what we do now could make history for the people in the future. People can be a part of history and be remembered for doing stupid things or they can be remembered for doing great things...

So, do you want to create your own history for people to remember and do you want to be remembered for doing great things or stupid things?

PS: Coincidentally, the night I was writing this, I came across this book.. called If You Knew Me You Would Care.. it is written by women who share stories of having surivived difficult situations like war, rape, etc... REad through one or two stories.. quite an interesting read.. salute these strong women....

Previous Post: Z Doesn't Like Me!

Z Doesn't Like Me!

You know how children always have their small quibbles and then make up the very next day, sometimes in the very next minute?

Well, Ace had a very good friend in school called Z and the other day, he told me he is going to share with me a TOP SECRET about Z. "It is top secret and you cannot tell anyone.. especially T or T's mum and dad..." I know T and his parents know Z and his parents but I was curious as to what sort of secret it is such that I am not allowed to tell these particular people.. so I asked  him what is it.

And the secret is...

"Z does not like me.."

"How do you know?" I asked him. "He told me.. he said it loudly to everyone in the bus that he does not like me!"

I surprised myself by not being upset about it at all. Hahahaha.. usually I am quite petty and take things personally if anyone attacks my son:) wahahahaha...  Perhaps I have grown even older and even more mature.. wahhahhaah...

Anyway, I remembered that Ace always comes home and tells me that Z says he does not like this person or that person. So probably no surprise. But I am curious why I am not supposed to tell T so I asked him why I cannot tell T?

"Because if T knew, he will think I got upset and if he thinks I am upset, he will try to cheer me up.. but he always does strange things to cheer me up...."

Apparently, T was not in the bus when Z said that.. and Ace said that the other time, when Z did not want to play with him and he was feeling lonely, T tried to cheer him up by touching his shoulder and running away... "It was like he is playing a Ace Cannot Catch Me game with me and it only made me feel worse... "

"But maybe he wanted to cheer you up by playing with you.." I said. "Yes, he wanted to cheer me up.. but it only made me feel worse...Because he kept running away from me and I was already feeling lonely. " "Then you should tell him that and tell him what you needed to make you feel better..." I told Ace.

Anyway, I tried to talk some sense into my son lah.. as I feel this is a fact of life..

Me: Ok Ace, let me ask  you, have you ever heard Z say he doesn't like other people?

Ace: Yes.

Me: Does it happen often? As in he often says he doesnt like this person or that person?

Ace: Yes, but in the past, he will tell ME who he doesnt like and this time, he told everyone he doesnt like me!

Me: Yes, but Ace, if you are friends with a person who has the habit of saying that they don't like this person or that person, chances are that one day, they will also say they do not like you... Because, this is their habit.. their pattern and the way they handle things.  People have a particular way of doing things and it doesnt change easily...

Ace: I know...

Me: So, if you want to be friends with this person and you know that he has this habit, then you must ask yourself if you can accept it. If you have no problem with that and love him anyway and want to be with his friend anyway, then you can still choose to be his friend. If you cannot take it or don't like it to happen, you can choose to not be friends with him anymore or not be so close to him anymore. Besides, sometimes when people are upset, they say things they don't mean... sometimes it is their way of calling for attention or help...

Ace: I know... he was actually upset at something else and so that is why he said that to me...

Me: Well, so are you going to play with him still and be his friend?

Ace: Yeah..

Me: Ok, good, then just be his friend still and play with him. But find a day where he is in a good mood and you can have a talk with him. It is not right and doesnt feel good for you when he is upset at something else and vents the anger on you by telling you that he doesnt like you... Good friends don't do that to each other..  If he is upset, you can always listen to him or give him a hug or just sitting quietly next to him and letting him know that someone cares is also helpful for him.. he can come and share his problems with you but need not choose to vent it out on you.

So much so for this "TOP SECRET".. Hahahahaa!

PS: A week later, Ace declares that Z is is BESTEST Friend and T is his FOREVER FRIEND:) I dunno wat tat means though:) wahahahha....

Previous Post: Phantom

Phantom

No, not Phantom of The Opera...

I am talking about this Korean Mystery Drama called Phantom that had me and Ace glued onto my laptop and us gripping the edge of our sofa for quite some time.

A friend of mine recommended this drama to me. In her words, "It is so exciting I can only tahan watching one ep at a time lor, if not I think my heart will jump to fast or too hard and my body will not be able to take it."

Somehow though, I never got around to watching it because Max was watching Running Man and I was busy with various projects..  so we never really had time to sit down and watch K drama together.

While having lunch in our fav korean restaurant though, we saw a sort of nice Korean Comedy called Sungkyungwan Scandal and we were sort of lucky.. cos we were watching the first ep and as it was quite nice, Max asked at night if I wanted to watch it with him. And since watching Kdrama together is like a bonding activity for me and Max, I decided perhaps we can watch an ep or two during the weekends.

The drama is not too bad and the starting of one korean drama lead me to want to watch more of it and so I decided to watch ep 1 of Phantom alone to see if I would like it when Max was playing MJ with our sg gang. It turned out to be really good !  Every moment was exciting and there were so many twists and turns... so I asked Max if he wanted to watch with me when I got home. He said he prefered lighter comedies and so I decided to continue on alone.. and boy was it good.. every ep also so kan cheong and the evil villain is very good lor!

Someway along in the middle, Ace decided to join me as he is having his school holidays and is allowed to sleep late. He usually likes mysteries like me and since this show involves policemen, he was keen to watch as well and it got him all excited!:) He was either gripping on the edge of the sofa.. or jumping up and down.. and when the evil villian tried to kill people, he made his hand out into a shape of a gun and pretended to shoot the evil villain...

Midway, he even got so riled up by the evil villain and what he did that he asked me, "Mummy, can I use the F word? This man is so bad!" I told him he cannot use the F word and that he shouldn't be so kan cheong watching just a drama lah.. it is not real life.

Anyway, I only allowed him to watch 15 minutes at any one time and in order to watch the next 15 minutes, he had to complete a task... surprise surprise, he completed his tasks in RECORD TIME! And he did them beautifully and accurately too!

Anyway, my son now thinks that the solution to all problems is to hack into people's computers to steal their information as the lead, who is a hacker called Hades, does...

But it is good also that we watched the show together. I had a good chance to explain to him the dangers of what goes on in the internet and why it is important for us to protect our information like our passwords and why it is important not to click any file you receive. I also explained to him why you cannot believe every thing you read on the internet because people might manipulate the information and why sometimes people are not who they say they are on the internet. Ace says though that his computer teacher has already taught him in school to be vigilant on the internet...

We also had a short discussion about viruses and how they happen when you click a wrong file and how it is important to check the information you read on the internet as it might not be true.

Now that we have completed the series, have to think about what to use to ENTICE Ace to finish his work faster!:)

Previous Post: Outing To Jumeriah Beach