“cannot see”

She wanted me to keep her chocolates so that nobody can touch it. 

This idea came from her from 11 years back 🤣

Lil’ one n ADHD

Following the last blog entry on this issue and my last talk with Ms Lock on 27/8 while getting the report.

She explains that she did better this time round in similar tests that she did 3 years ago. But confirmed that lil’ one has ADHD coz her focus attention is not the best. So I guess the un-rectified eye problem did cause the test results to be a little inaccurate back in 2022.

However coz lil’ one’s ADHD is not the disruptive and extreme kind, I refused treatment. When I asked her what is usually recommended for people with ADHD, she gave me the medication name : Ritalin and the more common Medikinet. I walked away from the centre with the names and definitely wanted to do more research. Nope! I’m not keen to let my kid take medication. The medication helps in focus but every medication has their side effects which I’m not ready to expose my kid to. And is she going to be so reliant on it that she will always asks for it? No way! I mean … if there’s a way I want to help her, I’d rather do it the natural or TCM or essential oil ways not introducing some drugs or chemical laden stuff into her tiny weak body. 

We know she has focus problem, she knows she has so we have to give her more time. Most importantly she’s still my precious little baby, I don’t want her to lose confidence in herself and had to constantly remind her that there are many ADHD people who are doing well in their adult life. Don’t use ADHD as an excuse but rather find a way to help yourself to be a better person. 

Lil’ one asked me an innocent question - why didn’t we suspect she has ADHD when she was little? We all thought it was her just being naughty. The moment I said that sentence, OMG! that’s what they thought of my sister. However lil’ one was more well behaved in school than my sister 🤣. We probably also mistook her mischievous naughty behaviour as her being the youngest in the family - wanting attention. And she gets her work done! It’s not like she was so disruptive until she don’t finish her school homework, on the contrary she was more responsible than anybody else. She was naughty and fidgety in Shichida but when she needed to give answers she was able to do so. She was listening to our conversations when she was playing games on the phone. Darn! With those misleading signs I would have thought she’s a genius not a kid with ADHD. 

Interestingly I was watching this Korean fictional drama : Teach You A Lesson. In episode 8 -  showed how parents gave their children ADHD pills to improve focus. In the episode the parents, desperate for their kids to do well to get good grades and get into medical school, gave them medications without prescription. It is illegal to do so and can KILL kids too! It’s a drama but I’m sure there’s accuracy in what they show. 

I copied from the subtitles “methylphenidate and atomoxetine - two drugs prescribed together. In extremely rare cases and for high risk patients in particular methylphenidate. It’s classified as a controlled psychotropic substance.” & “It’s an addictive drug” 

Maybe I can go into TCM to calm her down. I think I need this too coz it’s like never-ending worries about this girl

It got me thinking why she has this? Does she really have it? But I’m not really so very affected with this diagnosis coz we really wanted an assessment for her AA application asap. Is it genetic? Or did my durian  consumption during last month or so before the 37+ weeks pregnancy cause the ADHD? For this second pregnancy I ate durians coz the obstetrician was saying baby is too small n need to put on weight of baby. When I think back, I suddenly remembered the medical hall lady was telling me about durian and ADHD. 是不是我自己害我的孩子？

Japan's Secret 5th Season - Part II

Let’s skip ‘Part 1’ because we all know itinerary planning is always the first step of any holiday. 

Welcome to Part 2 : checking my leftover ¥, mostly to see if I can finally buy a rural Japanese house like what E joked about my frequent trips to NGO (still not as often as FUK 😜) if I was going back to my house to collect rental. 🤣😂

So I checked my Revolut account and somehow I have more money in JPY than in SGD 🤣. With ¥505,000 (roughly around S$4021), I can buy a run down rural Akita house - probably haunted by a friendly old couple. Plus I still have ¥60,000+ cash and ¥15,000 on my Suica card. 

There's no way we're spending S$500 a day on this short trip! (But I have a shopaholic girl with me ….so yah I need to be mentally prepared I’ll return home broke.) Thus the amount I have in Revolut is definitely more than enough for this trip. Six out of our eight major expenses (75%) are already fully paid for, so we only need cash for the remaining two. We aren't doing a massive souvenir haul this time either coz I did it last year—though I definitely still have to grab Mom’s favorite beef furikake because she always asks for it! 🤣 And perhaps all my ah-soh cleaning stuffs if the luggage space permits? 

But coz exchange rate is still quite alright - ¥125.53 so bought another ¥100,000 (S$796.62) making it around S$4815 in equivalent. I always keep JPY coz we travel to Japan quite regularly 

Getting ready part 3 - Praying hard to ti gong and guangyin bor pi for clear skies! ☀️ Please let it rain only when we are back in the hotel. I really need this trip to go smoothly. 

With the future so uncertain, every trip counts, and this might be our last chance to visit. I really want to make this a beautiful and memorable trip for lil’ one.

Trip #3 in 2026 : Japan's Secret 5th Season - Part I

Hubby told us of his month long China trip some time in June and both lil' one & I are so 心痒痒 wanting to travel too. Both che-che and hubby got the chance to travel and we don't have, not fair! 🤣 I keep getting emails from SIA about their Spontaneous Escapes offers. 30% off to redeem the Saver award tickets. Sounds really tempting but I can't just go for a trip like that.  

Fast forward. Sometime in early July I was checking on my Krisflyer miles and thought maybe I should redeem a return ticket. However the redemption doesn't work on a flexible timing. And even so some redemption tickets can be hard to get. Ehh….Japan can be extremely hard to get. 

Destination : Korea or Japan. More geared towards Japan - I've been wanting to go Kochi. Maybe summer will be a good time for me to go so I can buy lots of yuzu products. Can stock up my yuzu air freshener which is always so impossible to find when I'm in Japan.    

So eventually I did use up my miles (able to fly to Perth/Darwin if I redeem my miles) to offset payment which to many will say it’s giving poor value. I do have a bulk of miles expiring in the next 6 months, and not foreseeing any other trips to use it I might as well use it now. 

🗓️ Dates to travel 

Coz little one has to take her exams (last paper on 9th Sep) so I need to work with the remaining timing. She only has a week break after that. 

Date to avoid : Japan - silver week 19/9 to 23/9. School would have started so no way I would still be in Japan. Anyway we have a cello concert to attend on 19th

Korea - Chuseok 24/9 to 26/9

PROCRASTINATED and when I decide to buy noticed price keeps going up. At one point it went so high to $1800++ crazy! Told lil one if it continues this way then maybe we have to go ICN. But you know our heart and mind is geared towards Japan.

Learnt about dynamics shit and perhaps I was the one who keeps checking the price and they thought there was a demand so increase price.. 

Weather

Don't you hate it when it gets too hot or too wet? Unfortunately the timing that she can go in September is the peak typhoon season. (I would prefer to go in October when fall foliage blanketing the streets/plateau in vibrant colours.) Ehhh.... back in 2024 we had rainy days in Korea. Haha! Another choice is to move up north to Hokkaido where I can totally avoid the typhoon season. We have talked about wanting to go Hokkaido out of winter season before. But it means a whole load of researching and planning again. And 8 days? Travelling would take some time off coz I need to transit at the airport to fly to Chitose. 

Unless we change the destination to Australia - which is winter. She did ask to go Australia (I was thinking of Melbourne she's never been before) but only 8 days??  

Aiyah! Just make do with the stupid weather. This is the only chance I can go to the alpine to see the lake properly if it doesn’t rain there.

BOOKED! TICKETS SECURED! 🤗

On 2nd Aug at 9+ pm finally booked the tickets with my miles. My miles can maximally redeem a saver round trip to Perth/Darwin or if I want my Japan trip I can redeem a one way trip on Business Class but … ok so like always so restricted to dates. Now I can go coz hubby is not in SIN so I might as well go away too. We won’t even know what life will be like it in the near future. 

Extra request - 🎂

Half an hour after booking tickets, I emailed SQ to request for a birthday cake for my nottie girl with proof. I'm so excited. For years I’ve presented countless birthday cakes, anniversary cakes to passengers. Finally this is the only time my family is the recipient.

  

“I thought you said you have the itinerary already?” 

11th Aug : supposed to go JB with the SQ girls but had to postpone so I took the time to quickly get down to planning. Lil’ one was at home and she exclaimed “I thought you said you have the itinerary already?” 

Although I have the itinerary, I can follow what I did but there are adjustments to be made. I don't travel to NGO that often to have the schedule timing at the back of my head. In 2025, I stayed overnights in Nagoya before I made my way to GH so yah I know there's bus to go there. But (1) I needed the timing again coz when I left my hotel it was early. Now I'm flying in on the day and making my way directly to GH. No point wasting one night in Nagoya coz we only have 8 nights I need to save as much time as I can. 

Hey! maybe I don't have to go to Meitetsu Nagoya to take the bus to GH. I shall take the train to Gifu. Then it means more checking and checking to ensure everything is ok. Factor in some delay, I wouldn't know how long immigration will take. I can run to the train station in Airport but do i want to rush like siao on the first day of my trip? Nor do I want to arrive at ungodly hours in a quite secluded place.  

Sigh...whichever bus I'm taking from Nagoya or from Gifu, none of them stop in the plaza. So I'll need to arrange a taxi to pick us up. 

So yah, though I have the idea I need to re-check timing. It's not like I have a car where timing is flexible.    

   

11th Aug 

Needed a break just thinking about the transportation to GH from airport. Couldn’t find how to buy tickets for Gifubus. Last year it was clear cut for me just getting Meitetsu bus tickets. But this time, somehow although I want to remain fluid with timing but I’ll have problem getting from the drop-off point to the main town area. It’s quite far off and I’m partially on the expressway which I can’t walk or maybe if I can - go underpass to where the taxi driver dropped me off wrongly last year. Sigh.... let me use my small brain on other matters.

Things accomplished today, 11th

(1) Being cheapo I compared prices across various platforms - Booking.com, Agoda, Expedia and the hotel directly. 

Settled hotel in Toyama - same hotel and I joined the member so I get another ¥200 discount 😂. I opted for no cleaning, not sure if I can tahan the mess from the snacks, ice-cream and rubbish wrappers 🤣. Hands up 🙆‍♀️ if you’re just like us when travelling in Japan (we do the same in US too!) Che-che and I endured 2 nights without cleaning before. I might 🏳️ and pay ¥1000 for per cleaning. 

Hotel membership

I told Che-che to apply as a APA member since she likes to make her countless trips to Japan. I don’t think she did. I joined Comfort so hopefully I get a chance to use it other times. Aiyah! Anyway membership is free so…

(2) Bought the Alpine Route ticket. I hope the timing is sufficient for us. For sure we won’t get lost coz pavement will be clear, no snow. I’m also hoping I can spend some time outside instead of getting down from one and queue for another immediately. AND I MUST DO THE POSTCARD THING. Must remember to pack sunhat, UV sleeves etc.. coz will be at 2450m, closer to the ☀️ than from the city. 

I scored 2 early bird tix @ ¥17600 each (34 days later ticket) Last year I paid ¥19320 for 18 days later ticket 

 

After that had to send che-che to the airport so I stopped all bookings. 

18th Aug

Kapo - coz I want to make sure nobody takes the middle seat between us. $1992.40 for return tix. Siao!  

-booked hotels for next 2 places. Joined to be a member in SANCO-inn coz maybe I foresee myself using this hotel in the near future. Haha! Or maybe I should buy a home here. Ok that’s really me joking coz I don’t have that kind of money to spare. 

- booked the taxi from GH hotel to the IC which is far away. Booked online and payment by cash only on the day. Costs only ¥350. Now I know I need to tell taxi driver to stop at the correct place towards Shirakawago not Nagoya. I wouldn’t want to run to the bus stop again, not with lil’ one. 

- I will need to ask to book a taxi to go up the castle again when we’re there. Should I also book a taxi to go to Monet’s Pond, an hour away? Think Uber price will be about S$100 one way? Abit crazy. Nah! Maybe next time i can consider driving then will KIV this spot and many other spots.  

- made the 2 buses reservations from GH —> Shirakawago —> Toyama

I can’t make reservation for the bus from Chubu Aiport to GH as it’s risky to make a fixed timing booking. Bus from Gifu to GH is by Gifubus and they don’t take reservations, I checked with them. At least there’s this bus that goes all the way into the town centre. It’s a small quiet place, really! Wonder why a week ago I didn't SEE this bus service?   

- the previous hotel i stayed in GH is fully booked? But I managed to find one just opposite and booked it today

23rd Aug 

Dunno busy with what around the house and then got so lazy and didn’t want to tire my brain for the last 4 days. Anyway coz I was also out of the house so didn’t have time. 

Finally booked the journey back from Toyama to Nagoya. Decided to go with the express bus, I have an account from last year and earned some points again but not sure what I can even do with the points 😂. Make another trip using the buses again. Yah I’m kinda hooked on taking buses instead of train, my solo trip last year has made me change my mind. 

Two options to go back :

1) The Hida train which I took last year. I took a later train and scenery wise is quite ok. Journey is 4h 6mins for Hida6 (dep 0758hrs arr 1204hrs). ¥10,320/pax from japantravel.navitime, a 3rd party website.

 https://e5489.jr-odekake.net/e5489/ibpc/CBTopMenuPC is the official JR west to go in. ¥7590 from official site

2) Express bus costs ¥4300/pax and takes 3h 40mins. As for scenery most will be on expressway, so it’s more like “oh yah Shirakawago is somewhere there [points] but you can’t see it” . Views will be better if seated on the left side of the bus when travelling from Toyama to Nagoya. Problem is the luggage size 🤭

Most importantly both pick up and drop off points I’m familiar with so don’t need to reccee. 

The final choice - BUS. Coz I need to save money, which turns out I’m also saving time as well so… Went to book and I couldn’t select seats 😭, I 🙏 we get assigned the left side. And …… processing ... duh! we were assigned the right side 🤦🏻‍♀️!! 

I plan to takubin the luggage both ways, I don’t want the bus drivers to hate me with the huge 32” luggage. We’re allowed in total 2 luggages coz there’s 2 of us. The huge luggage I’m bringing measure 171cm so I still fall short of the 240cm restriction. Altho Japanese are generally polite but I’ve seen drivers being unhappy and impatient with other tourists before when dealing with their luggages so I do not want to take the risk to get scolded 😬. 

Anyway after arriving in NGO I can’t check in, so might as well let them have my luggage delivered over, I save the trouble to go back to hotel to drop the luggage and come out again. But maybe I do need to go back to put my/our haversack/s first before chiong-ing whatever shopping this girl wants to do. My luggage will be heavy after all the お土産 shopping so takubin will carry the weight for me. Lil’ one already said she will buy a lot of soba back and dunno what else she will pick up in the new places. I might pick up another 4 bottles of pudding in Shirakawago to make my collection 12. I will need to stuff myself with pudding 🤣. So much effort in collecting rubbish.

27th Aug : Omg! Torlong when we go it won’t rain until so jialat! 

  

Power of music

Music while ironing. Small batch to iron, phew! 

And nope! It’s not a great day to work. I want to laze and do nothing 

YES! Finally

All looking good. 

Itinerary all completed at 12.43am. Too noisy to print out everything so will do it tomorrow. Yippee! 

Power of music

I’ve been dragging my feet a bit on finalizing the holiday plans! Once I know I have a reliable copy-and-paste style itinerary, I tend to procrastinate 😂. 

All the tickets and accommodations are sorted out, though. As someone who needs an itinerary planned down to the T, I just need to fine-tune the timing, sequence, and spots to visit. Yep, I’m that rigid! It’s not that I’m inflexible—I can work to accommodate some changes based on situation/s—but I just prefer having a solid plan. Plus, my memory isn't good enough to remember the details. 

I hope I get all completed by this weekend. 

Music to keep me going. Jiayou! 

@ 10.05pm. 🎶 Tum tum tum. I opened the word document and stared at it. Mind BLANKED OUT. No motivation leh …wasted 7mins staring at the screen and trying to listen to the beats of the song (above) and can’t work.

 Switched back to Christmas songs

@ 10.12pm 

This music really got me going. I’m typing fast and my mind is racing! 🤣 I’m copying and pasting itineraries and doing a bit of research because I realized I missed a few spots last year. I want to make sure we cover them this year with lil’ one. Before I knew it, it was already 3:45 AM on 29th August. 

Good morning, Singapore!! 🇸🇬 

Thankfully, hubby is still in town, so I can sleep in late today.

On This Day - 27th Aug #Reminders from FB#

27th Aug 2025

When one luggage zipper closes another opens 🤣. 

Hubby just got back few days ago and in few days time che-che is going for another short holiday alone.

Daddy asked her when he heard our convo about the luggage she is bringing "how long are you going?" 😂 #bringsuchabigluggage#

In the meantime .. I'm stuck here together with lil' one who can't travel 😥 

27th Aug 2020

27th Aug 2019

Che-che chose the flowers and combination. Lil' one wanted a certain colour rose but think it's too messy to have so many different type of flowers in a quite small vase, so I told her I'll get it the next round.

Umm.... 🤔 what's the colour?

#happyday#

Graceful, exotic and joyful

She's got good taste! The colour she chose really matches. Very 高いorchid, but orchid is lasting (I hope) so it can be gentle on my wallet.

The hydrangeas are browning but still quite ok-looking. 3rd week 了. Moved this vase over to coffee table. White roses from last week.

27th Aug 2016

U can see the difference. Che-che takes pride in decorating, so she's usually the patient one n doing it nicely

27th Aug 2016

Aricia's work

27th Aug 2016

Athena's crazed Pokeball

27th Aug 2015

OMG！人长得那么美，穿了挺

presentable.张开大口打呵欠...image gone! Cover your mouth, lady.

27th Aug 2014

Date: yesterday

Place: lift @ MSCP

Characters : 2 men and a woman (me)

One man with a box, one man with a trolley, one woman with 3 manageable plastic bags.

Lift door opens at our level in MSCP, since I was at the door I held the door thinking the last man who came in should be out first, since he was with the trolley. Followed by man with box then me.

But no......we were like a bunch of "you go first" ppl.

The trolley man put his hand at the door for me, I said it's ok let me hold the door. He looked at the man with box, he also give way to either one of us.

Hahaha! In the end, trolley followed by box and me. It makes logical sense coz the door is going to slam into someone's body if neither of them can hold.

I've never seen such chivalrous action for so long.

27th Aug 2013

Lil' one so sweet to give some sweets to her friend and her sister when she saw they picked little sweets.

Ah..... So deceiving! She fights with her sister for everything except food.

27th Aug 2013

Lil one told me today, 'Mummy, my Show n Tell today I speak very loud. The whole class can hear me." After picking che-che up from school. She asked her sister "Che-Che today I speak so loud for my Show n Tell. Can you hear me from your classroom?"

😝 *thinking to self* if sister can hear means almost half of the school can hear her.

27th Aug 2012

Aiyoh! Over the weekend was Che-Che puking n having some stomach virus. Today on MC, kept them a distance n spraying Dettol. And then when I was not watching, they both shared a jelly n hugged n sat so close *slap head* - usually at loggerheads today suddenly so good friend. Now it's my skinny girl puking.

Sianz! Choy! At the rate I take care of them n sleeping with the sick child.... Better pop all my Vit Cs.

27th Aug 2012

Bought her an ukelele. Cute right? Keroppi.

Now hv to tune using piano coz I gave my violin tuner away.

27th Aug 2012

Sigh...... First was the bed, now it's this!! Two girls at home to make me BUSY.

27th Aug 2011

Mei-mei so excited n wants us to see her work @ school Open House. Brought along her wings with her for ?!?!

27 Aug 2011 

Playing "who stole the cookie from the cookie jar?"

27th Aug 2009

Yay! Been assigned to a P1 class together with another mummy (whom I got to know at the training).

We shall combine efforts and make the children cry that day. Heeheehee (evil laughter)