Visit To Soka's Exhibition

Just before I came back from Dubai, I went for a women's division meeting with SGI Gulf.. I met a few friends there and one of them was a japanese lady called Mayumi.

Mayumi told me that she had been living in Singapore for a good 1 year plus but has never been able to connect with anyone from SSA and so, she was lonely and did not have many friends... when she finally made some friends, she was posted to Dubai..

Shortly after I reached Singapore, Mayumi emailed me and told me that she would be coming to Singapore for a short holiday and so I arranged to meet up with her so tat I could link her up with the association and maybe link her up with the japanese group here so that she has people to talk to...

As Ace had been at home for a number of days, I decided that I would perhaps bring Ace along for the "outing" since I had to bring him to his primary school to take a photo of him in his school uniform:)

When Mayumi saw Ace, she went gaga over him and says he looks very caucasian and is so handsome:) hahaha...

Anyway, we went to the Soka Centre in Tampines and someone showed us around... I discovered there is this new room where they had an exhibition that showed the history of Singapore Soka Association... And to my surprise, I found two photos of me there!;)

I never knew i was feature so prominently in the history of SOkA:) hahaha..

Anyway, my son was initially happy to be there.. but after a while, he started to lose patience and started turning somersaults and playing inside the room by himself...

To my surprise, Mayumi told me that my son is very well behaved... "Haha.. didn't you see him jumping around in the room?" I asked..

"Oh, but it must have been so boring for him to follow us around and it must have been so tough for him.. but he did not bug you and just played with himself.. I think he is a wonderful kid.." she said..

I really need reminders sometimes that my kid is already a very very guai and good kid.. I really should appreciate him for what and who he is.. hehehe..

Anyway, I asked Ace if he enjoyed himself and even though he was just sitting around and doing nothing..he said he had fun!:) wahahahahahaha..... Ok, king of self entertainment!:)z

Previous Post: Ace's Bus Card

Ace's Bus Card

When we first came back and tried to take the MRT, we discovered that Ace's MRT card is no longer valid.

We discovered then that once a child reaches 7 years old, his card will no longer be valid. And usually by then, as all Singaporean children are required to go to primary school, they will be receiving their student's concession card from their school.

I wrote in to EZLink about it and they promptly replied on the same day that this is not something they are in charge of.. and that the people in charge are the TransitLink people and to my pleasant surprise, they actually have already helped me forward the email to TransitLink.

However, TransitLink took their own sweet time to reply me wor and by the time they replied to me, it was something like 2 weeks later. I found out that in Ace's case, he will have to to to the primary school where he has a LOA and collect a form called Annex D and then he will have to bring his birth cert, a picture of him in school uniform and the form to one of the few stipulated locations and they will make the card for me on the spot.

I emailed ECPS where Ace has an LOA and they said they could lend me a school uniform to take photo:) And so, this is how Ace would look like in his ECPS uniform had he gone on to primary one here:)

Ace was rather excited to see his school and he was happy with what he saw:)

This is Ace's bus card:)

But leh, it is a long way to walk or take bus there from my mum's place.. so I am also wondering that when we do get back, do we want to apply in some other school nearer to my mum's home...

Oh well, I don't even know if we will be back... so I guess we will think about it when we are coming back..

Meanwhile, I discovered that with an LOA, the kid can actually apply to go for immersion program with the school and study for a short time in the school!:) Woohoo! Maybe next holiday back in SGP, I will do that!:) Then Ace Chua wun sit at home with nothing to do everyday!:)

PS: Actually I cannot understand why a kid has to go to school in order to get concessionary status on the bus. I mean if the kid is too poor to go to school, what makes the bus company think they can afford full fare? Totally stupid! Also, for those kids who may be really young and have come home from abroad, they are made to pay full price...  aren't they Singaporeans too? Pray explain why foreign students studying here gets concession but our own children of Singapore have to pay full price??? Someone should get this sorted out lah..

Previous Post: Ace's Cooking Club

Ace's Cooking Club

 Perhaps it is all the good food in Singapore.. or perhaps he is just bored...

A few days ago, while he has had nothing to do, Ace took out his "cooking" set and decided to cook a few meals for me.. he even had a makeshift tray tat he created using his lego box.. wahahaha:)

"Mummy, what do you want to eat?"

"Chicken rice.." i said.. "But I only got duck leh..." he said.

"Ok, then duck rice.." and when the food arrived, I finally understood why...

 When I opened up the pots and pans, there were two rubber duckies inside.. wahahaha.. no wonder he said he only had ducks..:)

And then he kept cooking and cooking.. and he started thinking that he needed like a special outfit if he were to be a waiter.. and so he put on a Christmas hat tat he found and also gong gong's shirt to be used as his waiter uniform..

 After serving me a few sets of food.. he decided he will also give me a freebie.. a FREE membership at Ace's Cooking Club..

He ran into the room again and tried to make me a membership card complete with photo, name, details and serial number!:) wahahaha..

Midway, he came out and had the following conversation with me...

Ace: Mummy, how old are you? I need to put in the card...
Me: Just write "SECRET"! Woman's age is a secret...
Ace: No, I have to write a number.. tell me lah...
Me: I don't want to tell you...
Ace: What about I write 24... or 25?
Me: Okie, onz!

Ace came back a few moments later with the card and under the  "Age" section, he wrote : 31.

Me: Oi! Why you write 31?! I thought you promised to write 24???
Ace: But... but I cannot... (lie).. So mummy, are you 31???
Me: Sigh.. no lah, I am 35 already...

Anyway, my super creative little boy got tired of playing with the cooking set and changed to playing with a torchlight he found... he disappeared for a while for a few minutes and came back to show off his "lightsabre" that he made by wrapping a piece of paper around the torchlight and adding designs and colouring to the paper...

After playing non stop for a few days, I am glad he finally settled down to do some work!:) hahahaha..

Previous Post: Ren's Bakers With Godma Annie

Ren's Bakers With Godma Annie

After treating Ace to four pieces of chocolate cakes, Godma Annie still feels that she should celebrate Ace's birthday one more time and so she gave us a treat at one of her fav bakeries, Ren's Bakers...

The set lunches of the day are tuna sandwhiches, teriyaki chichen or ceasar salad.. Since Ace is vegeterian.. the people at Ren's Bakers made a special vegeterian salad for Ace and also gave him a bowl of jap noodles for free..

Alas my son does not appreciate the sesame seeds tat made the noodles smell and taste heavenly.. and so he donated his seeds to me..

Anyway, we had fun and the cakes are heavenly!:) We all tried the lychee martini cake and it was really smooth!:)  I let ace take one small small bite and he liked it too...

As for the rest of the cakes, we finished eating them before we remembered tat we forgot to take pictures!:) wahahaha

Anyway, Ace really likes this place and says he wants to come again.. I told him we will come again when Daddy is back:)

Previous Post: Camp Magic

Camp Magic

Some time before we came back to Singapore, Max did some research online and found this camp called camp magic.

Apparently, it is a camp where the children will listen to stories, learn to dance, bake, do art, learn some acrobatics and play.. the camp has 7 full weeks of activities and each week follows a country theme. For example, Ace went to the camp during the week titled PERU and so he did Peruvian stuff and baked peruvian goods....

We thought Ace will have alot of fun since those are all the things he enjoyed doing and so decided to sign him up lor. Alas, the camp is very ex lor.. wahahaha.. so we only signed him up for one week and told him that that will be his birthday present from us.. so he will not get any toys or books as presents..:)

We made arrangements for Ace to take a school bus and so I tot I would just let him go to the camp on his own.. as I usually do when he goes anywhere new... Hahahaha.. But the other people around me are quite concerned that I did not go along with Ace as it is the first day... Erm..  Well, in my experience, my son always forgets my existence the moment he sees other children and has fun so my presence is not necessary:)

Anyway, he was also very excited about the camp and we spent some 20 min the night before surfing the camp magic website so tat I can tell him what to expect... Anyway, that is him saying goodbye on the bus.. a little apprehensive and a little excited:)

When he came home that day, he told me he made a new friend called Kai who is Japanese and sits next to him on the school bus ;) And then when I asked him what he did, his reply was "I forgot already cos we did so many things..." And all he would talk about is Kai this and Kai that and then he declared Kai his BFF...


I could tell though that he really enjoyed himself:) And that was enough for me..

The next day when he came home, I asked him again what he did and his reply? "The same lor..." Hahahahaha... and he said he made ONE MORE friend.. a girl who is Kai's kindergarten friend.. wahahaha...




Anyway, I know he must be having alot of fun as he is super agreeable most of the days and usually does whatever I ask him to.. which tells me he is in a good mood... (as oppose to him being in a bad mood over little things these few days which I suspect is a result of not having seen his dad for about a month..)


On Wednesday morning, something interesting happened. Ace requested to wear an orange shirt that he had worn before and when i asked him why, he said that when they were doing acrobatics, he and Kai teamed up and he managed to turn backwards to form a 'n' shape and let Kai stand on his tummy... so everyone said they did a good job (and everyone else wanted to stand on his tummy till he felt his tummy was painful... wahahah)

Anyway, he noticed that when he wore tat particular shirt, Kai wouldnt slip off as it has lots of prints... as compared to when he wore another shirt without prints.. so he wanted to wear that shirt again so that Kai wouldnt slip off... what a sensitive good boy ;)

Anyway, good time flies FAST and before we realize it, it is the last day of the camp already and parents are invited to watch their performance....




As the school that they are holding the camp is very far away from home, I decided to leave house early and so when I arrived at the school, I was like half an hour early.. and interestingly, while wandering around the school to look for the canteen, the first person I saw was Ace and his bestie:)

They were practicing on this wheelie thingy.. looks fun and I wish we could find this somewhere...:)

Ace suggesting that they try a stunt and pull each other while one person goes forward and the other goes backwards...

Ace performing the Diablo for me:)

Anyway, when I was seated at the canteen, I saw the children running here there and everywhere lor... they were doing all sorts of things and it felt like some long, extended break time! hahahaha.. No wonder Ace is enjoying himself here.. cos break time in school is his FAVOURITE TIME!:)

That is Bruce, one of the camp facilitators.. Ace says he loves Bruce cos he is so funny and Ace kept trying to tell me some story that Bruce told them about this character named Johnny Golfballs.. but most of the time, I did not understand what was going on in the story cos Ace was giggling throughout as he recounted the story... ownself tell story, ownself laugh lah...

Ace told me then that we were going to become trees.. and then ran off to gather with his friends to prepare for their performance... But I did not understand what he had meant..

I later found out that it was a totally interactive experience.. the parents were told we have two roles.. one was to stand in two lines and become the trees of the rainforest and another is to form a rectangle stadium...

That is us parents as a stadium and the children coming out into the "field"...

We were asked to only take pics and no videos as the songs were written by the children during the camp (they provided lyrics and ideas i think) and so they have the copyright...

And then they started singing a song that was about how our world is a village.. was a rather sweet and nice song actually:)

That's Ace clapping along...

As in Peru, their favourite playtime activity of the kids is to play soccer, they got some children and some parents to have a match...

Ace raised his hand and got chosen!:)

That is them fighting for the ball...

And so the story goes.. the ball flew out of the field far out into the dark dark forest...

And the parents had to form two rows of trees while the children walked back into the theatre..

The smiling trees:)

Once i the theatre, the story continued as there was this little girl named  Chimichuay went into the forest to search for her ball...

Interestingly, the parents were made to sit on the stage and teh sides while the children performed on the floor:) hahah

That is Johnny.. another of Ace's favourite story teller and he continued to tell of the girl's adventures through the forest where they met monkeys and cheetahs...

She tried to slip into the monkey house and the monkey lord snored... and inside the snores were words that said things that she did not want to hear... "We will keep her.. she will be our pet..."

And then the monkey lord turned into a jaguar and the snoring turned into a growling... and so there was some chase all around the forest...

 And she saw a blue butterfly and then turned into a butterfly...

I think the children were told the same story throughout the week.... this art piece is for them to draw their favourite part of the story after hearing it only once...

This one is them continuing to work little bit and build little bit more after listening to the same story everyday..

That is Ace and his BFF Kai;)

Since the camp, Ace has been bugging me to organize a play date with Kai.. wahahaha:)

This is another one of Ace's BEST FRIENDS.. the school bus Uncle who talks to Ace about how cancer is scary and how Tony Tan is president of Singapore..

That is Ace's camp tshirt:)

HE also made a necklace for me:)

That is Ace's group.. group 5

One more before Ace goes on the school bus to go home while I made my way to bugis to dinner with Ah Yee:)

I met Kai's mum and she was telling me that Kai also was raving about the camp.. Like Ace, he also requested to go for another week in the camp.. hahaha.. we both agreed though that the camp is very ex lor...  I really cannot imagine those ang moh parents paying $4k for their children to go for all 7 weeks!:)

Anyway, Ace told me that he wants to go to camp magic again next year when he comes back.

I am just glad that he enjoys it..

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