Woah! What's word is this?

At 57 strokes, this is a really cool character that doesn’t show up in any 输入法 shū rù fǎ - character input method.

From wikipedia:

Made up of 57 strokes, the Chinese character for “biáng” is one of the most complex Chinese characters in contemporary usage, although the character is not found in modern dictionaries or even in the Kangxi dictionary.

The character is composed of 言 (speak) in the middle flanked by 幺 (tiny) on both sides. Below it, 馬 (horse) is similarly flanked by 長 (grow). This central block itself is surrounded by 月 (moon) to the left, 心 (heart) below, 刂 (knife) on the right, and 八 (eight) above. These in turn are surrounded by a second layer of characters, namely 宀 (roof) on the top and 辶 (walk) curving around the left and bottom.

Because the Chinese character for “biáng” cannot be entered into computers (the character has not been added to Unicode), phonetic substitutes like Chinese: 彪彪面; pinyin: biāo biāo miàn) or Chinese: 冰冰面; pinyin: bīng bīng miàn) are often used.

Images & text from here - read more:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bi%C3%A1ngbi%C3%A1ng_noodles

I'm so proud of her

Received a second mail when we rummaged through the mails on our table.

I'm surprised with the Good Progress Award, goes to show how jialat her previous results (SA1) was to have that big jump in grades in SA2. Haha!

Prior to leaving SIN earlier this month, we received one other letter. I never knew such thing existed. Well.... that's coz' my girl wasn't good enough to qualify for past 2 years lor! We can't get the bursary but oh well, it's great comfort to know that she's the top 60.

I know she's happy too with her 'even I can't believe it' results. She has worked hard and she has finally seen the light and understood what her mother had been nagging at her about that being hardworking and meticulous is important. I hope she has matured as what I've noticed during her preparations.

Most importantly I needed to prove to everyone around me, who seemed so cynical about the way I dealt with her. I needed to prove to hubby too, who had to tolerate the crazy wife shouting when he got back home from work, that I had my justifiable reasons for berating my girl.

Whatever it is, I'm so proud of her.

A new blog!

I've started a new blog for the girls. It's all educational information for them as they go through school.

I'm really excited compiling the knowledge and tips I've found as I try to teach them intheir subjects daily. Friends know, I'm a PRO-TEACHING mother - very hands on with my kids. Exhausted! But I must admit it has been a good learning experience for me. Perhaps i can consider being a part-time teacher next time.

As for now the blog will be kept as a private blog. When I'm totally ready, I'll open it up.

Wish me luck!

Birthday trip to Batam

It was a different way of celebrating her birthday. Hubby wanted to bring her out somewhere near but there wasn't any tickets. Well, let me rephrase that - there wasn't any tickets on budget airlines. I suggested a staycation at the hotel again, since the girls enjoyed it the last time. Hubby said boring, stay in SIN might as well stay at home. But different lor.. we don't have to clean the room and we get the shopping centre just next to us. The plus point is we don't have KZ with us. (okay, so that's the thing about having live-in maid. We get the convenience of leaving household chores to her. But ... we are deprived of our privacy)
Then the idiot me suggested Batam, thinking that it might have developed further from the donkey years ago since I last years. It was a bad move.

We didn't really enjoy the stay, there was practically nothing to do there. The girls went to the pool to play (watching daddy joining and playing with them is such a joy)

Wanted to canoe but when hubby and me saw the dirty murky waters, but the parents were put off. Except for the enthusiastic che-che who was so keen to go and sulked.

Spent cheaply at a games arcade. Oh man! They played like siao! It was really dirt cheap!! In order to make the birthday girl happy we asked if she wanted to do a Spa. And she was stuck with me in the Couples Room while hubby has the priviledge of relaxing fully. NOT FAIR!! Mei-mei is too young for such thing. I felt bad and asked the lady to use some of my time on her (she was fully clothed) as well. She liked it. The highlight of the whole spa treatment was the jacuzzi for them. I was in the steambath when the lady put the jacuzzi for che-che and they let mei-mei go in as well. After everything was over, they were still relating the whole thing to daddy.

What a birthday!

Ps : Honestly speaking, I think a 3D 2N in a staycation would have been so much better. But I guess spending that time with the family is even more precious than any venue. (sobs sobs... trying to console myself)

The rest of the photos :

Leaving for Batam
In the boat. Age is catching up on me... I could even sleep on this short boat ride.
The suite

A wet birthday kiss from mei-mei and a donut as her birthday cake

Athena's Science Party

This year's theme was planned in secrecy. I had two themes to choose from but in the end chose this. I shall save the other for the next party. It wasn't a difficult choice too coz' che-che love Science.

Venue is always a big problem for me. I checked out 2 places for rental of their function room but it wasn't available. Shucks! In the end, stuck at home (again)

Birthday invitation cards designed and printed out

slipped in the itinery as well

In the nights, I was busy packing favors. I love these test tubes and petri dish which I bought online.

Filled up the test tubes with semi-sweet M&Ms which I bought from Candylicious. And filled the petri dish with Jelly beans from Candylicious too!

I had the intention of giving something else to the mummies and I tried filling up with Johnson Shower Gel. Turned out it looks like a test tube filled with sperm. Haha! Dropped that idea.

Then packed the goodie packs. It's an interesting theme but I'm faced with "what the heck am I going to put inside?" I didn't put much things, only 4 items inside. But the tube science experiment already costs $12.90 each. Oh my! The amount of money I spend on goodie packs every year!

Each bag is filled with :

1) Instructions for experiments which I took from the internet and printed

2) Science experiment thing

3) Twisties

4) Strawberry Panda biscuit

Since it's a Science party, we need to do experiments. I had wanted to organise and do my own. But it means that I need to spend more time sourcing for containers for whatever things for each kid. And I didn't have much time left.

I like to keep everything to the theme and wanted to get lab coats but there wasn't enough time for shipment.

But it proves to be a blessing in disguise afterall. A check on the internet, I found out two places in Singapore organises Science parties. I checked with both companies but in the end chose the one that lets the children don lab coat and safety googles. And with that, I went to design a lab pass for each kid. Then I was faced with another challenge - how to get pictures of them. I had to resort to taking photos from playdates or from Facebook. I'm happy with the outcome.

We put up some decorations the day before, but had to leave the main door decorations on the day itself. As you can see, again I've done alot of photoshopped stuffs.

My cake pop stand - had to make full use of it. It was late for mei-mei's party. But I didn't have time to prepare cakepops unless I want to look like a panda and die gradually from liver problem from all the late nights. Instead I used oreos and coat them with chocolate. For the decorations on the oreo pop (if that's what you call), I was so eager to decorate with those chocolate painting but in the end dropped up the idea - 40 sticks leh!! So chose the easy way out by writing down the chemical names on them.

Food - ordered some from Neo Garden. Mum bought mee-siam and brought fruit salad. I bought some food in the fridge, just in case the food is not sufficient we could always fry them. I didn't have a huge crowd today and when we had a bigger crowd, we were always left with alot of leftovers. This time round, I noticed that Neo Garden had the Mini party sets which is for 10 pax. In total I had 17 kids and 8 adults. Guess what! First round we were still left with leftovers. Small eaters!

Kids eating the oreo pops

After some time, I asked the girls to adjourned into the study room. They had to sit for an Entrance Exam. No prize for good marks though!

I couldn't cope with so many exam scripts so asked the mummies and daddy to help me mark some.

The pile of exam scripts

Perfect time execution - the lady came and the experiment began. The kids donned on their coats; safety googles and watched. In total, they did 3 experiments.

Since I didn't have much space, some kids had to sit on the floor to do their experiments. Haha! Talk about being a good host. Just incase you forget, 2 years ago, che-che's Little Mermaid party - the kids also had to sit on the floor to do their crafts.

Mei-mei had a great time too!

A group picture

The kids played for awhile while the mummies go for second round of food. After some time, brought out the cake for them.

I felt guilty for not giving her a nice fondant cake as she had wanted. But I did explain to her that there would be alot of leftover for sure for a 2kg cake, we didn't have enough space in the fridge to store the cake plus I didn't have time to go all the way down to Serangoon to collect the cake from the baker. I compensated by decorating the cake with decorated science chocolate painting pictures and ordered the cake that she liked. Well, I'm thankful she was happy with the cake

As the party draws to an end, the goodie packs and favors were given out to her friends and aunties.

Here's a picture of my lil' girl - potential Miss Singapore

Yah hoo!

Exams are over. Brought girls to Orchard for awhile after school for a breather. I've been so tensed up for the past few days.

Now I start to worry about her results.

And ............. plans on a birthday party??

In the night, I cast all thoughts aside and threw away her books. Her textbooks and assessment books. Get out of my sight you P3 books!! You made me lose my freedom!!

Halloween 2011

I saw how hard she worked these days. I don't know if it's for this Halloween thingy or if she's suddenly matured. I really hope it's the latter. But this final decision was made in the afternoon. A last minute decision you should say. I told her "you don't study hard, no more Halloween next year onwards."

We had to make a pact- two hours only. Had to ask KZ to cook their dinner and they'll eat in the car on way home. Che-che agreed.

Prior to leaving house, gave them the ugly treats I prepared

Trick-treating
Reached the place 5.15pm, officially start trick-treating at 5.25pm. We were practically rushing and mamarazzi was busy snapping pictures.



What is Halloween atmosphere? You need decors
Buckets to fill up the treats
And you need the kids too!

My Little Red Riding Hood and Queen of Hearts

Did you know that APPLE came up with it's latest gadget? A huge iPOD. Woah! Loved the way these people

She was running. Infact, we were running! Don't forget we had to cover everything in 2 hours.

Mr Wolf, Mr Wolf trying to devour my girl.

At exactly 7.18pm, we were back in the car ready to go homw.

By 8.30pm both kids were in bed. Happy Halloween Girls!