Gong Gong's Birthday

Gong gong's birthday mah.... so early morning when the cousins gathered at his house, they spent some time to make cards for him.

Then dinner time, we all went out to dinner at some "famous restaurant" near our house.

Dunno why they so serious... maybe cos hungry man/woman is a very sian man/woman... hahaha:)

The restaurant very poor service lor.. ask for a bowl and cutlery for baby Cay and asked 5 times before they arrived with a small melame ware bowl and a those eat and throw plastic spoon? Crazy or wat? Wait the bb bleed in the mouth how?  And the food also not fantastic.. will not be back anytime soon..

But when there is beer, nothing can dampen our mood:) hahahaha

Then went to gong gong house to eat and cut cake...

Ace volunteered to help cut the cake.

So hard to get a nice picture of them cos Cay keeps wanting to watch ADs on the TV! hahaha

Ace knows gonggong likes beer and so he drew a cake and a beer for his card:) hahahah:)

Previous Post: Milo Milo Milo!

Milo Milo Milo!

And so we bought LOTS of Milo so that Ace could get his free pencil case... and I mean LOTS... hahahaha

And so for the past week or so... everyday, our good fiend will put a milo into the freezer and make his own milo ice cream and cut open the box and scrap with a spoon to eat...

The other day, I told him that since he already had a sweet drink, he is not to take the milo ice cream he made.. so he put it back to the freezer.

Somehow, after spending more time in the freezer after being cut open, the milo become a little harder than before and so Ace decided he will chut new pattern... he cut open the box and just eat it straight like a Popsicle! hahahaha...

Buay tahan this boy..

Previous Post: I Hurt My Thumb!

I Hurt My Thumb!

I saw somewhere online that there is a method to bake apple chips using the airfryer!

I was so excited and so I decided to try.

On my first try, I noticed some parts of the baking paper I put in got burnt.. and I sliced and stacked the apple slices on each other so some were a little more crispy.. some parts were actually burnt and I wondered why...

But they were generally quite tasty...  As cooking is like doing experiments, I decided I have to have the never say die attitude and make MORE chips.

This time round, I only sliced a few slices so that I can lay them out flat in a single layer.. Alas, after just a minute, I smell the smell of caramel.... and in another minute.. a burnt smell!

OMG, the apples flew up and got stuck at the coil! Few slices were already burnt!

I went online and asked why this would happen and a kind friend told me that you need a sort of net over it to prevent it from flying. And she offered to give me one as she has two of them.

But I thought since I already sliced half of the apple.. maybe I can repeat what I did in the morning and slice the rest of it  and overlap them and at least I have some sort of chips to eat.

But... as I was slicing the apples, I accidentally sliced off a corner of my thumb... OUCH!

Immediately, it started bleeding.. Ace was at home at that time and I was a little surprised at his reaction. I thought he will get all flustered or that he will call his dad for help.

Instead, he automatically took over the role as "man of the house" since Max was not at home and he tried his best to help and take care of me.

First, as I was pressing the wound to keep from bleeding, he kneel down and chanted in front of my bleeding thumb and started chanting for my thumb... as how he would help himself when he is in trouble.. hahaha..

And then when the bleeding got better by the third tissue paper not showing that much blood, he took out his phone and started pressing buttons. I thought he was going to call his dad but no, he was on youtube... and I was thinking why he was on youtube when I am still in pain... and then he assured me by telling me that he is going to watch Dr Oz's video about how to care for injured finger...

As he watched the video, he started to give me instructions..

"Mummy, wash your wound... Did you wash the wound? If you never wash, it will get infected!"

"Mummy, try move your thumb up and down like this..." And he demonstrated to me how he wanted me to move the injured thumb. I complied.. ."Ok good,  you didn't slice a nerve..." He announced and looked visibly relieved cos I think maybe the tissue with lots of blood scared him a little...

"Ok Mummy, you need to keep your arms raised for 10 minutes so that the blood wun flow down..." And then he kept and eye on me to make sure I kept my hand raised.

When I took my phone and tried to message dad, he even offered to message for me... But hor, he type so slow.. i think I type faster injured lor!:) hahahaa

Max was quite impressed too.... When I posted on FB, his comment was, "Good job Ace! Did what I told you always. Take care of your Mother when I am not around!"

I can see my son will turn out to be great boyfriend and husband material:) hahahahaha...

Anyway, Ace found me a bandaid and helped me tape it round my thumb..

After a day, I took the bandaid off.. and there was alot of clotted blood and that piece of flesh left hanging at the wound as it did not totally sliced through. After a few days, it fell off cos it got so dry and hard... and so now you can see here how it seems like a corner of my thumb is being cut off...

PS: I also made banana pancakes the other day and they were delicious!:) Just bananas and eggs... But a little hard to handle cos they are so soft.. so very difficult to flip...

Previous Post:  My Zuo Wen Improve

My Zuo Wen Improve

作文 (Chinese composition) has always been difficult for Ace.

Firstly, he has no concept of what a good composition piece constitutes.. Doesnt understand how to do an opening and ending... (especially when he does not like to read story books but prefers non fiction/ factual books) and then he is weak in vocabulary and is often unable to use many descriptive words except the very direct, simple words... and he is poor in grammar which makes most of the sentences he writes rather awkward...

And to add to that, it is really difficult for me to teach him all of the above... and so, since this year June, I have been sending him to tuition classes with classes that specifically teaches him how to write compositions.

The other day, Ace happily told me that his teacher says he has made great improvements in his composition...

"Xie Laoshi says that my composition has really improved! He says the composition that I wrote was the best in the entire class!" he declared..

I asked him if he finally passed his composition...

"No, still fail..." he replied... But he quickly added..."But Xie Laoshi says it is because he was the one marking and he is very strict.. that is why it is a FAIL.. if another teacher were to mark it... it is likely I will pass... Anyway, he says I really improved alot because now I finally get double digit scores for composition because I used to only score single digits... I remember my worst score is only 4! "

Hahaha.. so cute lor this boy.. fail compo also so happy!:)

But I am glad to know he is at least improving. He said he managed to complete his chinese composition exam with 30 seconds to spare and he told me the exam was to write a story about how a boy met with an accident on his way home after school... he even had an opening paragraph start off with something like... "放学了，同学们像笼中放出来的小鸟跑回家..."

Not perfect but I am suitably impressed given his former compo will be likely something like... “放学了，小明回家了.."

Hope I will have good news to share when the results are released:)

Previous Post: Cousins Forever

Cousins Forever

Someone said this..



So I am glad the two cousins are besties now:)

Ace started bringing his Nerf Guns along whenever we go to Popo's house so that he can play guns and robbers with Cay... While Cay has his own Buzz Lightyear gun, it only has lights and no bullets... so he is always envious of Gor Gor's nerf guns.

Ace only allows him to use the Nerf Gun once in the blue moon as Cay will sometimes shoot the bullets out of the window.. hahaha :)

So leh, we told Cayden not to be envious.. we will buy him a nerf gun for his birthday :)

The other day, Cay was at Kiddypalace with his parents and he saw the Nerf guns shelf and kept asking his dad if he can buy him a gun cos "Gor gor has a gun and I don't have a gun.." And his mum reminded him that we are going to buy for him for his birthday.. hahahaaha:)

I hope his parents dun hate us after we do buy the gun.. hahhaha..

Anyway, the two brothers played with each other happily.. and Cay played so much till he did not want to zzzz... He finally KO 3 hours after his usual nap time and then when he finally woke, we were about to leave Popo's house...

So when we said goodbye to him.. he whined and said, "But I don't want you to go home..." Hahaha... So we made a date to have dinner together the next weekend....

On a side note. something really funny happened...

Cay wore a Man U shorts out and his mum asked him to tell Yee Zhang what shorts he is wearing.. and he says very happily... "Man U..."

So Yee Zhang ignored him... and then his mum asked him... "Do you know why Yee Zhang ignore you? Do you know which team Yee Zhang support?"

And Cay replied... "Powerful..."

Wahahahahahaha... I think Liverpool is just too difficult a word for him:)

PS: But they still like to quarrel.. they like to shout at each other and the latest quarrel they had was a shouting match that had the two boys, one who is ten this year and another coming three... shouting at each other, "You then is baby ah!" Hahahaha... I think both very baby lor.. wat a childish way to quarrel.. I told Ace that he has to speak nicely to his didi.. dun always scream and shout at didi.. cos if he did.. didi will learn and do the same and they will be stuck in a vicious cycle... and told didi he has to tell gor gor nicely what he wants.. cos gor gor so easily hurt lor.. but Cay says.. "But gor gor did xxxx.." hahahahah

Well, as long as they are still best friends:) They usually make up when they feel like playing with each other again. The other day they quarrel cos Cay dun want to share his toys with gor gor and kept screaming at gor gor cos gor gor took his toys... and when ace got upset, threw a tantrum, went into the room, we told Cay.. "see, gor gor angry, dun want to play with you liao.."

And the little guy said..'But I want to play with gor gor.. I just want to play myself a little bit and play together with gor gor later..  " hahahaa..

Previous Post: Chinese Pop! 中文歌最屌!

Chinese Pop! 中文歌最屌!

When we are in Max's car and the radio is on, Ace never fails to amaze me as he sings all the newest pop songs...  I asked him how does he learn about all these songs that he sings and he says that his friends will tell him and he will look up the youtube video to learn and listen.

But I always hear Ace singing english pop songs and wondered why he never sings any chinese ones.  so I asked him if his friends ever tell him about any chinese songs and found out that NONE of his classmates listen to any chinese songs at all. Wah lau... we are chinese leh, how can they not listen to chinese songs?!

So I told my son what Jay Chou said... That "中文歌最屌"...  That Chinese Songs are the coolest!

Or at least this mummy thinks so... Cos they can express many more layers of feelings with fewer words due to the beauty of the Chinese language... I wanna intro my son to Chinese pop songs. My son likes Maroon 5, Bruno Mars type of music.. Anyone has any good suggestion which songs or singers I can start from?

A friend suggested Jay Chou's 听妈妈的话! hahahahaha

I looked through many songs after this and decided tat XIN YAO is maybe a good place to start.... Their lyrics are quite easy to understand and the tunes are usually cheery.. most importantly ,it is on tv now everynight... if I can entice him to watch on toggle and get him interested.. will be good:)

I wanted to buy a karaoke system and maybe let him learn chinese songs at home... and I researched on this thing I have been thinking about buying for a long, long time.. it is a mircrophone called MAGICSING and it comes with some sort of drive/tape tat contains few thousand song.

Alas, when I tried to look through the song list, I nearly fainted lor. those songs so old.. even I wun sing.. much less my son lor! hahahahaha..

Anyway, his dad says he will bring him to karaoke after exams!

Kara永远OK!

Previous Post: Planning For Exam Revision

Planning For Exam Revision

When I had graduated from school, I once did a personality test that found out that I am a totally disorganised person... and the senior who did the test for me told me, "Girl ah, you go out and work cannot be totally disorganized like that. You will need to learn to be organized."

And so I made it a point to be organized and learn how to plan and execute projects. When I was working, I always plan ahead and created marketing roadmaps, deadline timetables, daily task lists...

And then I got involved in personal development and became good in teaching others about the merits of goal setting.

So when Ace is of a certain age, I tried to impart some of these important skills to him. Since young, his teachers in Dubai have done goal setting somewhat with him. So he is not new to this concept...

Before his CA2, I did a round of goal setting with him and explained to him the mechanics behind goal setting and why it is so important to set SMART goals...

And I must say that setting those goals seem to help even though I did not feel that he worked harder:) hahahaha... But I think it reminds him of what he wants and he tries to remember to write faster and also concentrate better in class which are all important as well.

Before the final year exam, I decided that I will now teach him another aspect of goal setting. which is PLANNING.

My friend Jez Meinu taught me this..

And it is to start one's day at 9am and draw out a timetable that has 1.5hour slots. And then one can fill in the blanks and decide which slot you want to play/eat or study. The aim is on a non schooling day fit in 3 slots of study.

Here is a sample of what I did for Ace...




The benefits of this timetable is this:

1. The child learns to concentrate for 1.5 hours.. which is min time needed to complete an exam..
2. The child realizes that other than studying, they actually have alot of time for play and other things that they might want to do and more motivated to study.. One day 24 hours leh... 3 x 1.5 slots hor.. only 4.5 hours mah.. such a small portion of their time onli...
3. Helps them stay focused on the task at hand and they will be able to master self study and self planning eventually

And so I did this NICE NICE timetable for him to fill up.. and even went through another goal setting session and did up another GOALS list for him..

I even did up a calender that lists all the exam dates and exam topics so the can tick off after he studies...

One week after I did up all the tables, my son has yet to fill them in and still walking in around in the house or playing with toys everyday when he is free!

I nagged and nagged and reminded and reminded but he just didah apah...

I couldnt take it anymore and I started scolding him.. and I really gave him a good one cos when I asked when it is his exam and what date is it now.. he doesnt know the answer for both.. which means he does not even know how much time he has left to study and how much more he needs to prepare..

After that bout of scolding, he decided that he will finally go and fill up that timetable that I did. When he is done, I looked at it and nearly fainted... It is 11 days to exam and he has NOT started revising at all. Yet, he only plans to do one slot of revision every day.. Rest of the slot he filled up with the words "youtube" and "play"...

Told him he only has 11 days left for revision... But at least 32 topics to cover... Go do the math... How is it possible to cover so many topics in 11 days given he has to go to school and tuition as well?

So he says he replanning... And started replanning again...

Then he announces to me that he plans to revise 9 chapters of Chinese in 1.5hrs..... I told him it is not possible and he asked... "How u know it is not possible? "
Son, if u can do tat... You will be 神童！Dun need to revise!

I want to faint lor!!

But maybe I am asking too much of him lah:) hahahaha.. So now i plan for him wat to do in the slots of study.. Glad to say we at least finished most of the topics. I really hope he can do better this exam.

I have enticed him to do well because:

1. It is good preparation for an easier PSLE prep
2. It is taking one step closer to going to Anglican High School where he can be Alumni with me, Tashi and Oracle jiejie..
3. I heard that only students in 5.1 are asked to go for trip to Taiwan and it is something he wanted to do very much. So wk for it.. if get it.. woo hoo! If dun get it as least tried... if never try.. confirm no chance.. so is very loogi.... hahaha
4. Told him I will buy him a Nerf Modulus if he really achieves all the goals he set out for the various exam results.

Jia you, Ace!

On a side note.. We almost finished revising Chinese 4B text so I asked Ace to take out the 4A textbook to standby only to find Best Student In The World lost his book and dunno where it is! sigh...

PS: And so, on day 1 of his full day "intensive revision" during PSLE marking day. With 18 chapters worth of chinese words to revise and having only done ONE, our good friend spent his first half of the day walking around, playing in his room despite constant reminders from me to start revising... the result? I told him he must be a genius and told him in that case, he needs no help from me and there will be no need for me to nag at him... Reverse psychology works! He started to learn the chapters I told him to and when done, he even did the next chapter without me saying anything! Then he begged me to give him spelling and asked me to pls stop calling him "GENIUS".. wahahahahaha...

As a private joke, cos he took off his shirt the other day to show off his abs flabs instead of go study and so I teased him and told him I am going to give him a new nickname..  Since he dun wanna need to  study and like to show off his fats... he is going to be known as PTG.. Pui Terh Genius! (Fat Pig Genius)... and Ace immediately retorted ... "Yeah, PTG.... it stands for PROT(d)IGY! I am a prodigy!"

Sorry ah, son.... being smart alec dun mean high scores for exams leh... hahahahaha:)

Previous Post: The Pom Pom Guy

The Pom Pom Guy

 Someone sent me this picture some time back and asked me to confirm if it is Max:) hahahaha

I told the someone does look a little like Max at first glance but Max not so slim lor:) hahahaha...

Max says though he will not be caught dead wearing this and doing this :)

Apparently, this is some award winning dancer who is in his performance gear for this dance titled CHeerleader Of Europe.

So the thing is.. I posted this on FB to see if anyone else thought he looked like Max and too may people thought it is Max lor! Hahahahaha....

• Max's mum asked him why he dress like that and take photo and said even his dad says is him.
• Cay ask his mum why Yee Zhang like tat ah?
• Our friend's mother who knew Max since he was in secondary school when shown the photo said it must be Max
• My other friend exclaimed that they dun look alike but the expression exactly like Max
• Many others commented that they really thought it is Max!:) hahahahahaa...

And to add to the drama... my good son went to search his room for this and made me take the following photo with the caption- Look what i found!?

Hahahahahaha...


Max says it is all my fault everyone thinks he is cheerleader in tights.... But it made him realize 原来这是他在每个人心目中的形象 cos too many pax thought this is him!

Previous Post: I Am An Honest Boy

I Am An Honest Boy

The other day, Yeye called me in the afternoon and asked if we were visiting as it was Saturday.. which is our usual visiting day...

I told him that we were having a Lions Club event and will be unable to make it and he mentioned that he "sort of missed the little one.." And so I promised Yeye that I will bring Ace over either on Sunday or Monday.

Sunday came and I had plans to go visit but Ace suddenly remembered that he has not  finished his homework... and so we had to go home and finish his homework instead.

We went over on Monday night for dinner and Ace finished his food rather quickly and proceeded to go into NaiNai's room to lay on the bed and play with Nainai's tablet.. which is his new routine.

As Yeye was still eating, I just let Ace be lah..

And then leh, after Yeye finished eating and sat down to watch TV... I went into the room and told Ace, "Ace, we are here today because Yeye says that he misses you leh.. can you dun stay in the room and go keep yeye company.. Even if you dun talk to him and just sit with him and watch TV with him is also better than you coming into the room by yourself..."

"Ok.." Ace said and he promptly switched off the fan and went out to sit beside Yeye in the living room.

"Eh, how come you came out?" Yeye asked...

I thought my son so slick will say things like "I want to watch TV with you mah.." or "I keep you company mah.."

No wor.. instead my son replied.. "Because my mummy asked me to come out.."

*kua kua kua*


When we were on our way home after dinner, I told him I thought he will reply to Yeye and said he wanted to keep Yeye company.. and I nearly fainted when he said it is because I asked him to go out..

"But but... " he insisted..

"At least 我是诚实的孩子嘛.." he retorted...

Ok.. at least he is being honest... I will give it to him for that!:) hahahaha...


Anyway, shortly after sitting with Yeye.. he told Yeye he wants to teach him how to play app games... and instead, Nainai was the really happy one...  Cos... "If Ace teaches him how to play game.. he wun always nag at me to rest my eyes when I play games.." hahahahahhaa... Yeye and Nainai so cute right?

Previous Post: YNPS Sports Funanza

YNPS Sports Funanza

I received a letter stating that there is going to be some sort of Sports Funanza thingy.. which is sort of like the school sports day.. and the Parent Support Group asked for volunteers and I thought if I go, I can go cheer for Ace and so I volunteered myself.

Alas, the haze came along and their full fledged sports day became some sort of sports funanza plus children's day party.

Ace kept asking me what I wanted to contribute to his class party.. but when I asked if anyone buying cutlery, anyone buying drinks, snacks etc.. he said YES to all... And he said his teacher is going to treat them PIZZA... so leh, I told him I will not contribute anything since it seems like they have lots of food liaoz...

He kept asking me then if I can air fry some fries because e said the last time I did them they were very tasty... but I told him they will be cold by time he reached school lor...

So that was tat..

A group photo before we start..

We were split into two teams as there are three things happening at the same time... class party for the lower pri and sports events at school hall and indoor sports hall...

This is team School Hall... some of them are parent volunteers hoping to get theri kids into the school...

We are in charge of the nerf gun..shoot into the box game.. The game goes like this.. two by two theyhave to tie their legs together in a three legged race and walk to the shooting point... shoot into the box two points..hit the box 1 point...

I learnt a few things observing the kids while they were at play..

- Boys are definitely better at shooting nerf guns..

- One girl was very short and  scored easy cos the target was at her eye level... another girl who is a little more observant realized the target is very low... so she kneel down and shoot and got the bullet into the box.. afterward, the other girls all followed and scored!

- At the start, no one scored...but somehow when someone scored, the rest got confidence and they start to score and score.... Confidence helps people perform better!

-But hor, round two, they forgot why the scored and stopped kneeling down... I wanted to like tell them.."Guys, repeat the winning strategy!!!" Hahaha... Moral of story is children need lots of reminders!

- You know why sports team need coaches? Cos they can see things you cant and correct you. I noticed that many of the girls not shooting properly cos their guns are all tilted upwards and reminded them... They also like to just anyhow aim and shoot.. so I had to tell them how to use the iron sight of the gun to aim... After many reminders.. they finally got it right and scored some points:)

- Your tool makes a difference... but tat can be overcome if you understand it... the gun we were given was spoilt so they got another smaller gun that is not so powerful and so they were not scoring as much as other teams using bigger guns.. but as they understood their weapon more, they started to do better by compensating for its flaws in different ways...

I am buddy with my JC classmate, LX who is mother of two :) She so slim hor, I take photo beside her feel very fat! :)

Then after we were done, I was totally shagged cos we were given assistants to pick up bullets but my assistants kept chatting and missing out on the bullets and so I had to run here and there to pick bullets...

I thought can rest but then we were told we going to the sports hall for round two:)

When going to the sports hall, Ace's class walked past me.. I feel like some superstar like tat cos all the kids walk past me and went. "Hello aunty... " "hello, how are you.."

hahahaha....

Here in the sports hall, they were doing special type of soccer...

It's a little like table soccer.. they are segregated into areas and you can only kick the ball in your area... It looks quite fun...

That is Ace running forward to ask the teacher to select him for the next game..

Yay.. he is selected!

I just realized my son really very tall amongst all the P4s...

You see he alot of action. hahahaha

Dun ask me why he is dancing...

Ace cheering cos Blue Team scored...

But leh, they lost in the end cos initially is draw one.. one of his frens go and own goal... ON PURPOSE! Hahaha.. I dun understand what he was thinking man..

Games in progress..

Ace looking very sian cos now he has already played he has to sit down and watch..

I noticed most of the time he was just talking to his friends and trying to be funny..

Animated cheering when Blue Team scored..

Saw this really amusing girl.. who looked like she was forced to play.. actually the students usually volunteer one lor... so of all places, she picks this and goes and be the goal keeper for Blue Team... But hor, she spends the whole match standing like this.. with her hands in the pockets... Me and my fren were saying.. this is the world's most chillax goal keeper...

When the ball comes near here.. hands still in the pocket and she uses EYE POWER to will it away.. hahahahahahaha...

Guess what is Ace doing? He and his friends are doing water bottle stunts.. they trying to spin their water bottles for fun out of boredom.. remind me to NEVER buy him expensive water bottles...

Finally their games are over and everyone heads off to the school hall where the teachers played more games..

And I finally can sit!!

Someone bought ice cream for us!:)

I was really tired by then and then they had this special talk.. it is a talk but sportsman C Kunalan...

Actually, his story is very inspiring.

He was a puny sized teacher and he was discovered when he was quite old and he really trained hard with limited resources to become top athlete in Singapore... He shared with the kids if they want to do well in sports they need to have muscles in their legs, arms and tummy... so they need a 6 pack !:) hahahaha... And then he also shared about his family and his love story.. he married chinese girl during a time where inter racial marriages were not common and their parents were dead against it but they overcame all odds to be together.. :)

A picture with the great man:)

Anyway, all the kids were given a recycled bag as children's day present from the school and also a meal each cos everyone is a winner!:)

By the time i reached home that day, I was dead tired, I sat down on the chair and could not move for two hours!

I now really admire Ace for having energy to run around the house and play games and do this and that after school lor! Hahahaha..

Previous Post: Can I Have A New Pencil Case