Ace's Idea Of An RA Rating

Ace says he is writing a book..

I don't know what sort of book it is but he has been bringing his notebook around and putting in chapters with all sorts of drawings and writings...

He says the other day that for this new chapter, me and daddy will have to draw something inside...

So he asked me to draw a butterfly...

Daddy hor can only DRAW ONE THING.. wahahahaha.. so so he drew what he drew best and the only thing he knew how to draw.. the vikings from some comic..

Then we told Ace he has to draw something as well and when he was done, he showed it to me and I really cannot tahan but LOL lor:)

That is my son's version of RA rating...  not a mosiaced private part but a totally blanked out one with an explaination as to why it is totally covered and a strange looking private part sign.. tat I am not sure is meant to be circle and a cross out thingy or a peeing penis... (OK i checked, it is supposed to be a peeing penis!)

wahahahahahahahahha...

PS: My son says someone took off her shirt in the school bus and so he asked me to complain about it because he says it is not right to show off your private parts to other people other than your own family:) wahahahaha...

Previous Post: Spanish Restaurant

Spanish Restaurant

It has sort of been tough in the past two to three months because Max has been super bz.. bz at work, bz at soccer... bz bz bz... eventually, it came to a point where he was working some 10-16 hours a day, 7 days a week!

As a result of him playing soccer so often and that I had to prepare him lunch as well for the next day, I have started to do those one dish meals like fried rice, japanese curry rice, etc. And so, nowadays, three dish one soup with rice has become more of a luxury we indulge once a week when we go to Lan Kwai Fong for dinner..

The other day, Max managed to come home and bring us out for dinner and when he asked if I prefered thai, chinese or spanish food, I thought I would pick the spanish one since the other two are rather commonly found in Dubai..

Ace as usual doodling on his book..

Max letting his hair down.. Ok, he has no hair.. he is merely DESTRESSING with a beer:)

I ordered a lemon mint because I was so curious about why many of my friends ordered this drink when we eat together:)

As part of their service, they served us free entrees:) This one is a honeydew cold soup with a piece of ham. Max and Ace donated theirs to me and the waiter promptly brought another one without the ham for them:)

Since Ace was bored, he started to practice his arabic lor. dun ask me what those means.. they recognize me but I dun recognize them.. But my son is doing quite well in arabic now. Suddenly, he went from totally uninterested in it and having zero understanding to becoming first or second in class during his class tests. He just got 49 out of 50 for his last class test.. it is like something suddenly connected in his brain or wat.. I dunno...

It took some persuasion before Ace was willing to try the cold soup. Despite being Singaporean, he is unfortunately not VERY adventurous when it comes to food...

Since we were ordering vegeterian dishes, we ended up with lots of potatoes and egg.. hahaha.. First dish that came was fried potatoes with some sort of chilli sauce.

Then came the Spanish Omelette and Ace really liked it and kept asking for more.

Then is some sort of garlic bread with tomato sauce or something tat looks and tastes like tomato sauce:)

Traditional spanish rice...

Ace ended up only liking the egg so he mostly ate that...

Then it was time for desserts! Me and Max's favourite- Creme Brulee!

And a cheesecake suggested by the waiter.. so so onli lah..

We hung around for a while cos we noticed they have two places for people to sit and perform..

And indeed, there were two people performing. They were good! I was thinking of how in their country, it must be difficult to find work now and wondering if they missed home while listening to them...

As for my son? He said he was tired and prmptly lay his head on the table to SLEEP! Wahahaha.. Max say the guitarist must be feeling very du lan!:)

After that he come and sit on my lap and zzzz....

Then it was time to go.. I think we might come here again... once in a blue blue moon:)

Previous Post: Make Up Swimming Lesson

Make Up Swimming Lesson

Remember how the school screwed up Ace's first swim lesson? To be very AH Q about it.. I guess I can tell myself tat everything happens for a GOOD reason...

Because of the screw up, the swimming school has very kindly offered to do a make up lesson for Ace because the teacher, L, says that Ace lacks confidence and needed fine tuning and a one on one lesson will be very helpful for him.

This meant that we had to bring him to the class.. but it also meant we finally got to see how swimming lessons are like here in Dubai and how they are different from the ones that Ace attended with Mr Loke, his swimming teacher in Singapore.

Gearing up for the lesson:) Wanted to ask if you can see his muscles but I guess all you can see are his ribs:) wahahahahahha:)

The swim lesson was held at another international school and compared to Ace's school, this was a really huge school and the swimming pool was lovely.

That is Ace and his swimming teacher, L.

L teaching Ace how to kick properly and how to turn...

Watching Ace learn how to swim, I realize that in this aspect, my son is like me. When we learn things, we need to be told exactly what to do.. every single detail and someone needs to go through the motions with us till we get the "feel of it" and then we will be able to get it.. kinesthetic learner when it comes to things like driving, swimming, etc.. sigh...

Pretending to sleep after his lesson....

I think he is happy to have completed his lesson:)

Updated on 11 Dec 2012:
The school screwed up and Ace missed his lesson again!

Made me fuming mad... but it is a long grandmother story so I lazy to type it out again.. I shall thus copy and paste my complaint letter....

From: Angel Chua <123456 yahoo.com="yahoo.com">
To: Horizon School Info
Cc: Max Yahoo <123456 yahoo.com.sg="yahoo.com.sg">
Sent: Sunday, 9 December 2012, 23:52
Subject: School Bus Mix Up AGAIN!:(

Hi

I am writing again because my son was sent home on the school bus again even though I told him that he had a swimming lesson today and I was not even informed when he was sent on the school bus.

At the start of the term, due to Ace's swimming form being misplaced, his name was not on the list for swim class and he was sent home on the school bus while I made my way via a ONE HOUR JOURNEY to pick him up. Before he boarded the bus then, he requested the school nurse to CALL ME and inform me so that I would not make a wasted trip. The NURSE did not call and I wrote in to feedback about this.

The school took action to find out what went wrong and what may have caused the incident only to find out that Ace's form was misplaced and his payment was not sent to Desert Sports but to the accounts office because apparently I am suppose to label that the money is for Desert Sports and just labeling it as "SWIMMING" is not enough.

However, the school did not address any of my other concerns about why the school nurse did not call me to inform me that my son was on the school bus even though my son asked if she could do that.

Fine, I left it at that... thinking the school may have given feedback to all involved to prevent this from happening again.

Two weeks ago, I when I picked Ace up from his swimming class, I was told that there will be a make up swimming lesson on 9 Dec to make up for the National Day holidays.

Afterward, I received an email from Desert Sports:
From: Lisa Hancox
Sent: Monday, 26 November 2012, 16:17
Subject: HS Swimming End of term dates

To the parents of Ace,

Following the recent closure of the pool (Monday to Wednesday) and National Day on the 2^nd December (Sunday) DSS are pleased to announce that we are arranging an extra week of classes from the 9^th to 12^th December 2012 to make up for the lesson cancelled. 

The after school paid swimming lessons will therefore finish on Wednesday 12^th December, please don’t hesitate to contact me should you have any queries.

We look forward to seeing your swimmer in the water!

Best regards,

Lisa Hancox

Therefore, I specifically told Ace that he is having swimming lessons today.

Imagine my surprise when the school bus called me because MY SON WAS HOME ON THE SCHOOL BUS!

By then, my husband had already driven half an hour from his office to Horizon to pick Ace up! And so he had to drive another half an hour back to office all for nothing!

I tried to find out what happened from Ace and I also called the school nurse to find out what happened. Apparently, at the end of his lesson, Ms Roberts told the class that there are not after school activities today. Which is true for everyone else except Ace. I guess she may not have known that there is a make up lesson for the paid swimming lessons as all other activities have ended. It may have been Ace's fault that he did not check with Ms Roberts at this point and just accepted things. But he is just a kid and one with low situational awareness. I would the expect the adults to guide him along.

Then Ace went to the school hall and the school nurse told me she was surprised to see Ace as she has marked him out of the school bus list today. Besides, he was not changed into his swimming gear (he did not change because he assumed what Ms Roberts says is true.) The school nurse said she asked Ace why he was not dressed and if he had swimming and Ace said he did not have swimming today (as per what he assumed from what Ms Roberts said).

Even though there was a disparity between the two info received, the school nurse told me and admitted that she should have checked to verify if Ace has swimming lessons BUT SHE DID NOT.. because, in her words," doing so would mean going down to the clinic or the office and it would mean a delay in the setting off of the school bus which will result in complains from other parents about why their children are home so late." (Does that seem like a good reason NOT TO DOUBLE CHECK?)

Before Ace went on the bus, he asked the school nurse if she could call me to inform me that he will be on the bus because we told him we were going to fetch him after his swimming class. When I asked her why she did not call me, her response was that it was important that she sent the children off. The school bus, she says, needs to go off at 2.30. Ace reached home at 3.30pm.. was there not enough time for her to call within that one hour?

I am extremely displeased at what has happened. This is not the first time this happened. It is the SECOND TIME within the last 4 mths! Each time a screw up like this happens, that means time and money wasted for me and my husband. Ace's swimming lessons are paid lessons and i am not sure if desert sports will be able or even willing to make up lesson for Ace since it is no fault of theirs that Ace missed today's lesson.

Which brings me to another point. The other time, when the school nurse called to inform me that Ace was having a running nose, I specifically told her to ask Ace to take out his jacket and wear it as he was feeling cold. When Ace came home, he was still not in his jacket because he had forgotten about it. The school nurse did not inform him.

I understand Ace takes responsibility as well for his own things and I told him that he should have checked with either his teacher or the school nurse and if he did not understand or was not sure what they were saying, he should have verified with them. It is also his responsibility to take out his own jacket to put it on when he is feeling cold.

But he is in a school setting where I expect the adults who are involved in his education to take care of him and guide him along and not be led along by him.

I cannot believe that I am here complaining AGAIN about the school i was full of praises for in the previous year!

I would like to know:

- why there was no list circulated to Ms Roberts to let her know that Ace has a swim class today. I remembered that last year, Ace was always telling me about him checking if he has activities against a list that his form teacher held. Ace is always reminded that he has an extra lessons on days where he has extra lessons.

- why did the school nurse NOT have a way to check efficiently or quickly if Ace has a swim lesson today when she was at the school hall? Shouldn't a system to do that be worked into the "operating procedures"? Don't you agree that telling me that checking with the office or checking her list will make other children late is a VERY LAME EXCUSE? If there is this possibility, she should have brought all the information along with her. If she is given a list and there is a chance that she might need to refer to her list, why did she not bring the list along with her to the school hall. Or she could have used her mobile phone to make a call. She told me that she had ticked him off as not going on the bus today. She must have received this information from somewhere and why is it that she does not trust the official information that she received from the school but trusts Ace implictly EVEN THOUGH ACE ALSO ASKED HER TO, "PLEASE CALL MY MUM.. so that my dad wun come and pick me up for swimming" . Why is it OK to send Ace on the bus even though there is obviously some miscommunication involved since she has different information on hand to work with? Why is it even OK for her not to do her job of double checking?

- Why is it that the nurse did not call me AGAIN.. despite being requested to do so since the last saga. Why did she not ask Ace to put on his jacket even when I told her so? Am I wrong to presume that this is part of her duties and her job? I really wonder if this boils down to miscommunication, poor work attitude or a lack of genuine care and concern for the children's welfare. (But of course, I am comparing her to the wonderful school nurses in Horizon last year.)

- what exactly happened after the last time I provided the feedback. Did the school pass the message to the nurse?

I am really disappointed that this happened again. I was upset the first time it happened. And even more so given that this is the second time this happened! In fact, I was so upset, I did something I have never done in my whole life! I actually called the school nurse and started shouting at her! I don't usually shout at people unless they are my children!

I have since apologized to her for being rather ungracious and she has also apologized to me (in the end after giving lame excuses which only serve to make me even more mad) and assured me that this will not happen again. I contemplated letting this end there but decided to write to you in the end as I do not want to take any second chances of this EVER happening again.

I have excellent experiences with the previous school nurses who always took the initiative to check and to call me regardless of whether Ace asked them to do so and therefore equally high expectations of the service standards. Given that the school fees in Horizon has gone up and not down, is it not fair for me to expect at least the same quality of services?

Yours,

Angel

--------------

I was really livid! I was so angry I called the nurse and screamed at her.. intially I just wanted to find out what happened.. when she gave me lame excuse, I scolded her as if she was a little child! I have never done that to someone I dunno in my entire life! When I look back, I think I may have over reacted.. but well, what is done cannot be undone. At least I am proud tat I dun try to be nice anymore. The ending is that she told me she is sorry and assures me this won't happen again. I also apologized to her for screaming at her.

I think it is a lesson for Ace too because Mr Low Situational Awareness Blur Like Sotong when questioned by different people either says he cannot remember or just anyhow provide a story... I suspect it is cos he has low SA, he doesnt think this is impt and never remember the details of what happened and partially, he is afraid to tell the truth in case people get angry at him. I explained to him that if we want to sort this out, he has to tell the truth and tell it with accurate details and not give vague response like "I forgot" when his teacher asked him about it the next day. Have to say exactly what he forgot.. I forgot  can mean, I forgot I have swimming lesson.. or I forgot what I said... or I forgot what happened.

Another friend who has been doing the POV workshops that I used to do just got back from another workshop.. I posted about this on FB about how I was mad the person gave me lame excuses and she asked me, "So what 'lame excuses' have you been giving others?" Hai.. if apply what I learnt and assume that everything I see in this world is a projection of myself. I think maybe I am also tired of giving myself lots of excuses for still playing the role of a victim about all the disadvantages of STILL being in Dubai because I guess I just still want to be right and make everyone else.. god included.. WRONG. Thanks Jo.. it is good awareness:)


Previous Post:
Our Little Petunia

Our Little Petunia

About a month back, Ace came home after a trip to Dubai Botanic Gardens with the school with a plant in his hand.  I didn't know what plant it is at all and Ace just said he was told it needs to be in a warm place...

Initially, the plant had two flowers. One that looked like it is dying and another that looked sort of ok.

By the next day though, both flowers died. I am not sure if it is because I did not give it enough water or what. Anyway, I remember that my mother in law always trimmed her plants and so i trimmed away all the dead stuff and the leaves that looked like they are about to die as well.

After that, I took good care of it... watering it three times a day. Making sure it gets some sun everyday. Sometimes watering it with rice water.. cos I hoped it will sort of give it some nutrients:)

And then suddenly, one day, I suddenly noticed that there was this small thingy that looked sort of like a flower. It was there for a long time and nothing else developed and so I forgot about it and went on watering everyday.

One day, while I was watering, I suddenly noticed that there was a FLOWER! It was as if the flower came out overnight.. like magic! I was soooooooooooo excited and quickly took some pictures of it to post on Facebook.

Unopened flower...

Purple when unopened...

And after another one day, a miracle happened! The "thing" bloomed and opened up into a beautiful flower!

Ace was so happy too!:)

Max was all praises for me and said the plant looks revived and healthy now and I was very proud of myself. I never fancied myself having green fingers and I am an absolute dork when it came to plants. It was the first time I took care of a plant till it flowered and I was so so so proud of it!

By then, I noticed there was another small bud that is probably going to bloom into a flower. Day by day I watered it, waiting for it to bloom.... By then, Ace remembered what the flower is called and told me it is a Petunia.. Max asked me to take a photo of it and I said I will do that when the flower is bigger lah...

But it seemed I was never going to have a chance to do that after all....

As I had to sun the flower, I put the pot on a stool and moved the stool around the house.. according to where the sun is so as to catch the sun. One day, Ace was playing with his remote control car and as he doesnt have very good control of it, his car knocked into the stool and knocked my plant over.

I kept quiet because i wanted to see what Ace would do and I went about what i was doing on my computer as usual. Ace tried to stuff the plant back and clear up the mess himself. But he had been on the task for a pretty long time and I decided to finally go take a look.... That is when I noticed that the plant looked a little strange.... sort of out of shaped. Upon closer inspection, I realized that the plant was "injured" the stem broke into two at the point where it is shooting out of the soil!

And I was so upset... the more I thought about it, the sadder I felt.

I was so so sad... I cried and cried very long and very hard.. Max came and put his arm around me as I was crying and Ace happily went about his own business after he told me he was sorry.

I guess I was really sad because I partially felt like this plant has become a part of my very small family in dubai and now it seems to be dead... it felt as if someone close has died... so I was grieving for the death of someone close to me as well. Also, I think the two flowers were symbolic to me... it reminded me of the "shattered dream" I had... (My WBG POV friends will know what i am talking about. I swear I thought I am done with this heal and heal no end topic!)

Ace initially still very happy and go bath and this and tat.. only when I cried, i think he realized that he really fucked up bad. In tears, I exclaimed, "I will never see my second flower bloom.. now they are all gone.. " and I sobbed very hard. Ace was still quiet after he watched my outburst. And then when I finally quiet down, my son walked into the room and started crying aloud because he says he regret doing that to the flower.. "I regret, I am so sorry..."

I explained to him that my crying has nothing to do with him lah. it was really wat the dying of the flower reminded me... But he also admitted later after all the crying that he was also missing Singapore...

Anyway, I am happy to announce tat the leftover  parts attached to the root seems to be surviving well.. I am hopeful that in time to come, it will grow tall with flowers again... If you peer very closely, you can see a very very tiny leave forming at the side....

saying farewell to my flowers before i binned them.. farewell little flower tat never came. Thanks for all the hope you gave me....

Farewell little flower.. thanks for being in my house for whatever short time and brightening my life... thanks for letting me realize that anything is possible if you put your heart into it. I love you...

I posted about this on FB and Max offered to pluck one from the roads to bring it home. A few other friends shared stories of their plants who survived all odds (sickness and falling off the ledge of the building) after lots of love and water.

But i think I just needed to get the emotions out of the system lah. Now when I look at this, I no longer feel that deep sense of loss I did but just a teeny bit of hope tat I will once again see flowers:)

Maybe this is the message the flower is trying to give me. That if I hang on there and be patient and continued to "water" my dreams, I will see flowers again once more:)

Update on 11 Dec 2012:

There are small baby leaves growing out of my plant! woo hoo! My little petunia got chance to grow flowers again! :D Yee Ha!

Previous Post: Tali With Ace