Helping Parents Concert

Ace told me that there is going to be some sort of performance for parents.. But I wondered why I was not invited at all..

Then I found out from the school noticeboard that the concert is actually for helper parents... in Ace's school, alot of the teaching is also done by helper parents.. for example, they have a corner where they children will read to the "teacher" and the teacher is usually a parent....

As I have NEVER helped out in the school before (I dun think the ang moh parents want their children to read with a singlish accent.. wahahahaa) I am not invited to the concert lor..

Ace told me that they have been practising hard for a song called Sometimes I Wonder... it is a very peculiar song and I wondered why the teacher picked this song for performance.. cos the lyrics goes like this:

Sometimes I Wonder
Sometimes I wonder
Why people suffer
Why all the pain and sorrow?
So much injustice
Weeping and sadness
Here in our world today.

Chorus
Pain wont be here forever ( ah ah ah)
Sadness will turn to laughter (ah ah ah)
Mourning will turn to dancing and our tears will be wiped away.

Looking around me
I see such anger
Why must we hurt each other?
So many people
Living in sadness
Here in our world today.

Chorus
Pain wont be here forever (ah ah ah)
Sadness will turn to laughter (ah ah ah)
Mourning will turn to dancing and our tears will be wiped away.

Where there is heartache
Where there is grieving
I want to feel compassion
May I give comfort
Where there is hurting
May I bring love again

It is good to talk about compassion but a tad depressiong for 7 year olds don't you think?:P

Nevertheless, I am not disappointed wor... I was given a full PERFORMANCE complete with crescendos and decrescendos when Ace was in the bathroom.. Me and Max are so amused he suggested tat I quietly video it down..

So here you go.. sharing with you... the first ever Bathroom Concert of Bathroom Song Prince, Ace Chua!:)


Previous Post: Mummy, I'm So Popular

Mummy, I'm So Popular

Remember how I said Ace has been quite popular with the girls because they all wanted him to fold the open and close thingy for the game?

Perhaps it was that.. or perhaps it was due to the fact that we bought a packet of coloured paper for him from Daiso.. and perhaps it was furthur encouraged by Max, who downloaded some sort of app tat teaches you how to make different types of origami on his ipod for Ace... Ace has gotten to be very very good at origami!:)

And I think he has some sort of talent for it too cos he just needs to do it once and he can do it again by heart already... So far, he has made  heart, piano, flower, lion, S screw, dog face, etc..... That is a flower that he made for me...

While he was folding something today, he absentmindedly told me, "Mummy, I am so popular in my class now cos everyone wants me to fold something for them..."

Most of the girls wants him to fold something cute like the doggie face you see above..

As for the boys, they want this S screw thing tat can twist as it drops onto the ground...

Ace was of course happy to oblige.. especially since all he needs is some paper.. which is easily available since there is always a stack of wastepaper somewhere in class waiting for him to recycle.. hahaha:)

No wonder his teacher's comment in his report card is that he loves to make props and share with his classmates.. hahaha..

Previous Post:  Parent Child Conference

Parent Child Conference

This is another one of those things I like about Ace's school where I feel would be great if they could implement it in Singapore...

We were informed that there is going to be a Student Parent Conference but did not know what it was and what to expect.. just that we were to make an appointment for about half and hour during one of the school days....

The letter from the school just said...

Dear parents,
This will be an opportunity for you to make an appointment with your child during the school day so that you and your child can discuss their progress and achievements this year. They will guide you through their learning and show you their learning journals, projects and other learning experiences during this time.
Please check with your child’s class teacher regarding their timetable. If you want a meeting with any of the specialist teachers please feel free to make an appointment through reception with them before the end of term.

This has been rescheduled from the 12th to 18th / 19th of June. Apologies if this has caused any inconvenience.

Kind Regards
Horizon School

When we reached the school, we were just standing outside the classroom... not knowing what to do.. cos Ace's class looked as if they were having lessons as usual.. thank god the teacher assistant passed by and so she said to wait a while and she informed the teacher for us.

Then, out walked Ace with some sheets of paper and all the the workbooks he has been doing his work on...

As we did not know what to do, we let Ace guide us.. he said we have to find a place to sit down and so we did.. Ace was given this question and answer sheet that he filled out in advance and he started reading to us...

So at the end of it, he has actually a SATS test result.. I did not even kow he had any sort of test!:) Hahahahaha

I think it is such a wonderful idea for the child to be able to show off the work he has been working hard on all through the year himself... you can see the pride and joy in Ace's eyes as he presented his work to us and I am sure this will motivate him to continue to do his best the next year...

For the parents, me and Max are also happy cos we are so proud of our boy:)

I can see that Ace has really worked hard and played hard in school and I am very happy with that..

I wondered though if it is easier for an International school to produce students like that because most of the students here come from ok, if not, well to do families... they do not face to face the hard struggles of life at a young age and do not have to worry about things like whether they will have food to eat tomorrow....

Also, I think it is good for the soul and their self confidence that they are constantly doing well the work they should be working on and rewarded for performing up to standard.. instead of being given work that is suitable for a higher level and feeling upset that they cannot achieve it... not all children rise up to challenges and setbacks the same way.. some just feel defeated and it affects them for a long while to come..

Anyway, to add an icing to the top of the cake, Ace received two new awards this week.. one for swimming his first 5m in the big pool where Mrs Myers, his swimming teacher said he still lacks confidence in swimming...

And he gets one more for using excellent similes to describe characters from fairytales... The funniest part has to be this... max looked at this award and asked... "What is a Simile?" hahahaha

Anyway, while I was there I saw on the noticeboard a project about jobs and occupations.. That is Ace in his dress as your ambition day.. and he is a SPY:)

When we were done with the conferencing, we saw many other children also reading out their work to their parents.. I think Max was the only father who came along cos most of them were reading to their mums only...

But it looks like Ace will not be bringing his work home cos it seems that some of his work has to be passed to his year 3 teacher so that she knows which level he is at and she could continue with where the other teacher left off.

Previous Post: Learning Singlish

Learning Singlish

Some time back, Max brought me to eat a very very nice dish called Canenolli or something like tat... we ate that when Godma Annie came to dubai to visit and Ace was staying over with her in her hotel.. so we said tat we will bring Ace there to try that dish one day...

Since we have been talking about this for a while, we decided it is time to bring Ace there.. alas when we reached there, we realized that they have changed the menu... so we ordered some other things instead...

Ace got a mushroom spaghetti with white sauce...

I got some sort of stew that I have never seen before.. the sides of steamed and lightly salted veggies tasted much better than I tot they would:) Yums:)

Max had lasagne...

After a very full and satisfying meal, we had to make our way home as Ace had school the next day...

While we were in the car, we were talking about Singlish and how I felt Ace should learn some Singlish:) So I started teaching him a few local slangs and singlish phrases like Wah lau, wah piang, wah kauz, sibeh xian, steady bom bi bi.... and "your england is very the powderful.."

And then I started testing his hokkien and we started talking about coffee shop phrases because Ace always has this game with his Yeye.. where he woulld go to their house to stay overnight and just before he sleeps, he will request for milo to drink.. Yeye told him he has to say to Nai Nai, "Aunty, Milo jip buay..." And the old and young will giggle non stop over this...

I told Ace that if he really goes to a coffeeshop to order milo, he has to ask for Tak Kiu.. because it means "kicking the ball" as Milo has a person kicking the ball in front of the tin.. and if he wants chinese tea, he has to order "diao hee" because it means "fishing" with reference to the teabag that they dig inside the drink.. just like they are fishing with a rod...

Ace was very much amused.. But by the time we reached home, (which was only like 10 min later), he already forgot most of what he has learnt! Hahahahaha.. He was supposed to bath before he went to bed and so he said, "Mummy, can you take down the dan tart for me?" And giggled. He had meant if I could bring the showerhead down for him... and afterward, everything he said, he said dan tart...

"I want to dan tart now... can you read a dan tart for me?" And he kept giggling.. I later realized that he had actually wanted to say Tak Kiu.. but as he forgot the phrase, he ended up saying dan tart for everything.. thinking tat it meant Milo.. hahahaha... And then he said that is his secret language.. you know.. like how smurfs always say smurf in their conversations... Ace just sprinkled dan tart liberally in his sentences and it seems to be able to replace any word he feels like replacing....

The funniest thing is that by the time he called Yeye about a week later, he tried to tell his grandpa that he knows how to order milo properly in hokkien, but he already forgot how to pronounce all the words... so he ended up with a very ANG MOH accented "Uncle, Tak kiu jit pueh..."

Me and Max luffed till pengz.... I certainly think he needs more Singlish lessons!:)

PS: Just FYI, when Ace was 6 months old in my tummy, I still had not found out what gender he was as he always crossed his legs whenever I went for a check up... the doctor asked me to go for a 10 min walk and come back again and see if he will uncross his legs and while walking, we promised Ace we will buy him a dan tart if he uncrosses his legs and let us know his gender.. and HE DID:) I guess maybe this is why he remembers DAN TART so well!:) hahahahahahaha

Previous Post: SGI GUlf Women's Division General Meeting

SGI GUlf Women's Division General Meeting

This post has nothing to do with Ace... hahaha.. more of something to do with me.. and more so updated so that my MOMO can see that I am taking part in SGI meetings and be happy:) hahahaha

Even though I was sort of apprehensive about going for a meeting after such a long rest from any SOKA meetings, I am glad I attended this meeting...

The meeting is held in one of the Japanese Member's house and she lives in this place called Dubai Green... But she said 10 years ago when she arrived, there was nothing GREEN about this place lor... no plants at all!

Anyway, when I arrived, the Japanese members were all busy making sushi... I tried to peep at how they were doing it to learn a little from them but alas, I realized that they were at the final part where they cut the sushi.. bummer:)

I felt sort of strange as well cos here in the Gulf, the soka members are actually divided into two groups.. the indian group (since they are the majority of soka members here) and the international group... If you came from any other country, you fell into the international group.. within the international group, there were the Japanese... a Korean... and a few ang moh.. I felt like the odd one out since I was the only Singaporean there...

And also, because it was my first meeting, I did not know anyone there and felt out of place... I noticed though that many brought their children and I made a mental note to bring Ace too if he wants.. but i think he will prefer to follow his daddy and spend some father and son time alone...

Then the meeting started proper... this is Sara... our MC for the day... we were all asked to write our names on a post it and paste on our shirts...

As everyone started to share and talked about themselves, I realized that most people have been in dubai for many years! Gosh.. many of them have been in dubai 8-10 years... I cannot imagine being here for so many years....

This is Nastuko.. who is really inspiring... she works with the UN and is currently working in Afghanistan cos she is with the UN. Amazing woman overcame lots of obstacles to make it to our meeting that day...

Then we were all singing the song Mother... the beautiful part of it was that they got the others to hum the song while the people of various nationalities recited the translations of it... President of SGI, Daisaku Ikeda wrote this song for his mother... Here is a beautiful english translation...

Hahayo Mother:
Oh, Mother.
How miraculous and abundant
Is your strength.
If the world
Lacked your presence
We would lose our way
And wander the earth forever.

Oh, Mother, my dear mother,
You have endured winter storms
And have held up your sorrow through frequent prayer.
I pray that until your desires
Take flight to dance among the clouds
You will remain strong and healthy,
Dear Mother.

Dear Mother,
With mind and heart
You express your desire for spring
On the face of the earth.
Please play for us a melody of peace
And rejoice as mother of the Human Century.

And here is the MTV in case you are interested to listen to the song..

Then we were divided into groups to discuss some questions......

My group was a rather lively group and I was so happy to just smile and keep quiet.. wahahaha:) I havent been to meetings for so long that even though I know the answers.. I dunno how to express them in Soka type of lingo.. hahahaha;)

These are some of our members from other parts of the world like Panama, Italy.. etc...

Two of the members shared their testimonial.. the first lady shared about how she prayed and chanted and overcame some health issues and also relationship issues as well.. she was really down and out and din even have a place to say and now she owns her own accomodation and has a wonderful life...

The other was struggling as a stay at home mum BUT with a job.. and I totally can related to her story as she described how for a while she had to work from home with her hubby and had to take care of her child and her hubby at the same time and how she was mostly facing four walls.... she mentioned she started wondering what she is doing in this part of the world and to make matters worst, her hubby lost his job and they also got into a huge fight... she chanted and chanted and now, they have resolved the issue bugging them... and hubby has a new, better job offer in another part of the world! I dunno if I can chant 3 hours a day like her for Max to get a better job offer in Singapore or not though!:) wahahahahah

Group photo before the end of the meeting:) I made one new friend..  a japanese lady who said she had been staying in Singapore before coming over to Dubai:)

Anyway, I quite enjoyed myself lah.. too bad my next appt was waiting for me already and so I had to leave:) hahahaha..

Previous Post: Lies Your Parents Tell You

Lies Your Parents Tell You

I am blogging about this because I am super amused:) And this one is dedicated to all parents including my own:)

This came from one of the books we rented for Ace to read called Bart Simpson's Guide To Life. Most of the things written inside are from the perspective of Bart Simpson.. so I guess you would expect it to be mostly very KL..

I had to explain to Ace that most of what is written inside this book is untrue and is meant to be funny because adults who read it will know it is untrue...

Anyway, Ace was flipping through the book one last time before he returned the book and we came across this page called Lies Your Parents Tell You...

How many of them sound familiar to you????:P

1. If you point, you'll get warts.
2. You'll understand when you 're older...
3. Someday you'll thank me for this...
4. You'll be sorry....
5. If you crack your knuckles, you'll get arthritis
6. No matter what happens, you will always have your family...

5. I'm only doing this for your own good..
6. If you tell me, I promise I won't get mad
7. If you cross your eyes, they'll stay that way...
8. I am only gonna say this ONCE...
9. When i was your age, I had to walk 7 miles to get to school..
10. If you eat all your carrots, you can see in the dark

As a parent, I have found MOST of this very familiar!:) wahahahaha... But I insisted to Ace that all these tat I did use or say are TRUE!:) wahaahahahahah...

Max couldnt help but laugh out loud as well and giving a sheepy grin as Ace read them out one by one to us:)

Ace insisted though that these are all lies and that Bart Simpson is right while giggling...

I AM glad tat we are returning THIS book!:) hahahaha..

Previous Post: Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day

As Father's Day was just round the corner, me and Ace made plans to spring Max with a surprise... we planned to make dan tart and card for Max..

After discussion though, Ace says it is better that I make the dan tart and he makes the card.. we divide the work and do our individual portion...

He asked me if we had any white paper left but alas, we dun have any plain paper at home.. so leh, Ace come up with a brilliant idea of cutting out the diary book tat his dad gave him.. and this is wat he made..

Totally without my help except occasionally asking me how to spell some words...

He is learning to write cursive now by adding a tail to most letters.. nice boh:)

Even got secret hidden message!:)

I dunno how he get the "I wish you the best wishes" idea from...

My egg tarts were on the other hand not so successful :( Bummer.. somehow even though I followed the receipe, i made the crust too thick and the custard too sweet...

So we had only lik 10 good ones.. the rest were all crumbled and broken.. hahahah:) I think I need to buy more eggtart bowls lah.. I only have the 12 assorted pieces my friend gave me and that is not really enough lor.. maybe I will buy more when I go back to SGP.. But it is such a hassel.. maybe I wun make any more again.. hahaha.. just go back sgp and buy and eat!

The left over egg custard I just put into a tray and bake lor! Tasted like my favourite creme brulee in the end! :) wahahahaha

Anyway, Max.. Happy Father's Day! Thank you for being a wonderful dad to our lovely son:)

Not to forget, we called home to our fathers in Singapore and Ace was pretty happy to be able to talk to his grandparents. I am happy to announce tat after once a week of xi yang yang and daily chinese homework, he is speaking mandarin more fluently now!:)

Previous Post: Singapore Zi Char in Fujairah!

Singapore Zi Char in Fujairah!

Some time back, one of our Singaporean friends here in Dubai wrote his FB tat he had crab and all sort of zi char type food and it was worth the 5 hour drive to Fujairah.... I was sort of surprised to find that there is actually Singaporean style zi char in this part of the world.. and surprised to find that it is in the little state of Fujairah where the population is only 130,000.. (third smallest state in the UAE but has the second least population)

Anyway, our Singaporean gang, saw two new additions after a few of them left and they were all excited to have an outing together to eat Singaporean food.. so since there was an upcoming public holiday, we decided we will drive there for lunch.

Alas, one of our friends said it was too warm to drive tat far and din wanna join us.. we STILL forced him to go.. hahahaha.. by offering him a free ride there in the front seat of the car with air con blasting full blast at him:) So leh, he said OK lor.. I mean, I think it was better than staying at home and doing nothing:)

Before we went there, we were warned that it was very difficult to find the place. Another friend said he had tried to search for it once but to no avail.. Max looked up the map and took down the number to ask for directions...

We woke bright and early that day and decided to go to Mac donalds for breakfast before we start our long long drive there... according to Max, it will take about 1-1.5 hrs...

Me and Ace self enteratain by cam whoring while waiting for our mac donald breakfast..

My good son now eats a full mac donald breakfast liao lor.. cannot share anymore cos if we share, he will complain he is hungry very soon!:)

Fujairah has got lots of mountains.. only took a few pics since it is not very nice.. hahaha.. BUT nevertheless.. Fujairah is a mountainous region and thus is one of the places with the highest amount of rainfall in the whole UAE...

Our friends say these mountains are BOTAK mountains.. cos no plants, not trees... just plain rubble.. and the amazing thing is that in the middle of the mountains, I actually saw a small cluster of houses.. Gee, wonder who will live here in this literally HUANG SHAN YE LING...

But I guess maybe they are the people who are building things here or wat...

That is Ace pretending to SLEEP on the way there...

Finally we reached the restaurant.. and no wonder everyone says it is difficult to find the place! If you were to drive here and drive around looking for the signboard, you will NEVER FIND IT! Cos the entrance of the restaurant actually faces a little road in between two buildings... it is in an unobtrusive corner and you wouldnt find it unless you knew it was there and was looking for it there... Heng Max is smart and called for directions!

And it is so wonderful to walk in, see a fellow Singaporean and familiar Singaporean foods on display as the SPECIALS:)

We found out a few things about the place and its history chatting with the boss...

• Most of the clients here are Singaporeans or Malaysians and most drive many miles here to eat!
• Boss has been here few years already and she had followed her hubby here when he was sent here to work
• Her chefs are from Malaysia.. which is why they also have some malaysian dishes I have not seen or tried before
• Lao ban niang is from Tampines... easterner like me!:)

Anyway, it was a really warm day and so we ordered 100PLUS for Ace as a treat for surviving the long, hot journey cos I tell you hor, driving in that kind of heat is no joke.. I nearly DIED... I had to put my head in between the two seats in front constantly so tat I can have some cool aircon to cool me down.. if not I felt as if I was on fire!

And this is what we suffered for 3 hours for... hahahaha...

From top left: Xing Zhou Mifen (Veg), Salted Fish Fried Rice, Mai Pian Prawns, Furong Egg

From top left: Butter Chicken, Curry Fishhead, Fried Kangkong and some dish I dunno wat it is called;) It is a Malaysian dish of deep fried chopped kai lan leaves with stir fried stems and a sprinkling of yin yu on top.

Unfortunately, the main entree is CRABS.. hahaha but I din remember to take picture of it at all cos I was busy eating!:)

I think the food was so so.. now tat I can sort of cook, I think most of the vegeterian dishes tat max ordered like the egg, the xin chou mifen and the fried veg I can cook wat:) hahahahah.. And because I am not much of seafood person, I am happy not to eat seafood too:) So leh, if you asked me if it was worth tahaning the hot sun for the food.. I dun really think it was worth a 3 hour drive under the super duper hot sun... But as an excursion, it was sort of fun and I did enjoy myself :)

Max and Ace using the placemat to act as a photoframe.. as for the inside.. we tore it out so that Ace can use it to do his origami and not bug us throughout the long journey back.. hahahaha

We are Singapore! Ace holding a toothpick holder that has two merlions and the words SINGAPORE written on it...

I think even though the food was so so, it was just so so so nice to be in a restaurant where almost everyone who steps in is from your part of the world.. for a moment I felt more at home in the middle east and it almost seems compulsive to speak singlish and use singlish slangs loudly as we would in a hawker centre in Singapore!:) Happiness!:)

After the meal, we decided to drive back and stop by in International City to eat dessert as a reward to ourselves.. hahahaha... that is us waiting for the car to cool down before we set off:)

Dessert time! Mango ICE!

I sort of under estimated how large the portion of this taiwanese ice kachang will be.. I thought since there were many of us, no issue to order it and share.. alas, it was even bigger than Max's sort of big palm! Eat till heh heh chuan lor... cos we also ordered our fav peanut ice shavings and a mango ice...

After that, we brought our friends to the Chinese supermart here to buy stuff:) And then we shopped happily at the supermart and finally went home after that...

By the time we reached home, Max was totally shagged out cos driving such long hours under the super hot sun is no joke lor!

So will we go there again? I think maybe next year.. hahahaha.. or maybe might be a better idea to go in winter cos it is much more pleasant to drive in cool weather:)

Previous Post: Manga Sushi