Halloween 2015

It's a different trick-treating this year. Instead of joining the atmosphere in our usual place, I brought it closer to home. Yes I did, I organised the informal event in our condo for about 50 families. I must admit it wasn't an easy feat trying to go through the proper channel but to be snubbed as an "only angmoh festival", "later people complain how come got white thing floating around" etc... MC wasn't keen in allowing any free access to the gates too.

Plan Execution :

Access to blocks

But I did overcome all and thankfully all the parents were obliging when I gave instructions that by default the uppermost level in each block will be the number the kids had to intercom should they can't get inside the block. Of course if there were any accompanying parents who have the access cards, just tap and let them go up. 

Leave all planning to me. Please trust me

Of course there are some who would try and tell me I should do this n that. I told them it's okay, I'll listen and take into consideration but I'll have everything planned out. When I do things, I like to plan it down to details so nobody would feel it lacking somewhere. Of course nobody here knows me well enough. 

Groups

I cannot let the kids wander on their own. Can you imagine the mess and noise there would be if every kid calls to the resident/s to unlock the gate? And the residents wouldn't know when to expect the little guests.

Thus I grouped the kids, with varied age in each group. Making the eldest as the group leader. What the group leader needs to do is to tell the kids where they should go and to paste sticker to the units they've been to. And they only need to call once. There were 6 groups, so the uppermost level resident would only get 6x of calls or maybe less. 

Movement

Cannot anyhow move also coz nobody will know when it'll end. As long as I tell the families, 6 groups. They'll know when the last group comes, nobody else would be ringing their doorbell after that. They moved in clockwise direction, a syncronised movement. Each group starts in different block. Of course sometimes the wait can be a little longer; can be shorter coz there's uneven number of units opening up in each block. But oh well, I can't think of any other plans better

Registration

I was meeting the neighbours for the first time and I got everything down. There were nice mummies who asked if they could help coz I was on solo. Guess I'm used to it. *wink* so I declined help. 

I even had stickers with kids names on it, with their parent's name as well, group number and age. It helped me a little coz at least I know who (the parent) I'm talking to later. 

Passed them a small goodie pack too. 

Warm up

A quick musical game. I was lucky I had some sporting parents who livened up the atmosphere and then the trick-treating commenced.

Happy kids

Happy kids were shouting and making noises as they walked from one block to another. Some were singing. Really happy to hear them happy. 

Some initiation on Aricia's group. They were trick-treating one unit, when the neighbour opened their door and asked, so J's mom said it's a parent organized event. The neighbour asked if their son could join in, so they let him join in. Well, it's good that he enjoyed himself so far. He was in his t-shirt and shorts but it's ok as long as he's happy. 

Event ended

My kids and Iggy was really happy. Sugar sweet high. Haha! And he said he'll join us next year again. Glad that parents said their kids were happy with the whole event, though I must also credit the families for making it fun for the kids. 

Here are some photos :

The only ground unit that is decorated. I swear I got frightened by the spider I pasted on the wall. How silly!

 The treats I prepared for the kids. So able to wrap up the glowsticks

 My little witch

 My nephew who can't wear his underwear properly

 Getting the kids to groove to the monster music

I'm waiting.... I'm waiting..... meanwhile heard some noise. Great! The organiser can't even enjoy it!!

Trick-treaters coming by. This group was relatively cheery, one parent got the kids singing and say some poem. As mine was the only unit on the ground floor that opened up my door, and despite the sign I wrote on my main door to direct them to come by the PES, I still had them knocking on the main door. I did write "DO NOT ENTER. ENTER VIA PES" Sigh..... totally forgot that's what most would write.

 Spare candies in the box

 Mom helping me out in the distribution

This dad is so sporting.

 ** Bro took some photos when he followed them as well. Too lazy to make a collage.

7th Oct 2015 #Birthday wishes or postings on FB#

 Dinner with parents on 6th.

Woke up half hour later than usual in the morning and they made it to school.

Rubbing eyes. Nice cooling and ...I didn't want to get out of bed too!

She complained it was cold and snuggled into bed while eating her bread. I would have nagged at her if she ever dare to move out from our dining table during mealtimes.

Scientist Aricia is 9

We celebrated her birthday late this year as daddy can only be back after her birthday, taking a long break that coincides with Mid-Autumn Festival and China's National Day long holiday. 

Security guard opened the doors and turned on the aircon only about an hour before the party starts. So everyone has to hurry with the decorations and the "forbidden table" spread. 

Got the photo corner ready. Designed the Instagram frame and printed some props. 

Then the forbidden table was arranged by che-che. She did a good job, didn't she? She must have observed me all these years. 

These alone can explain why it took me so many sleepless nights to prepare. Well, if I didn't have to do any housework in the daytime, it would have taken me a shorter time to prepare. 

Food

Food came. I told hub not to order so much. I know he's afraid of being a bad host by having little food but this was really too much. And all except four mummies (from Aricia's invited friends) did a drop off. Oh my! As for my che-Che's friends, the mummies (my friends)  did stay behind. It looked like it was barely touched at all and we had to ask everyone to pack some food back. Next time, we should just order pizza, chicken wings and fishball.  

Photographer

Too expensive! Hub will nag at me for wasting the money. But it's really a pity that we never had any nice professional pictures of my girls' parties all these years. 

Party organiser

Scientist came by, it's the same lady as I had hired for che-che's 9th party. Look at how much my girl has grown. 

I asked her to do different experiments as we had repeated guests. I'm so glad she didn't disappoint me. The kids had such a great time. 


Cake / Jelly
Ordered her favourite strawberry cake from Four Leaves and improvised with some design on the cake. She was suddenly "crazy" about Littlest Pet Shop and I decided to order a jelly cake for her as well. Don't like it, Mrs Chan's jelly tastes much better. 


Link to photos, CLICK HERE and go to "Aricia's 9th Birthday. Alternatively, you're also able to access just at the top of my blog - "photos"

Lil' one's 9th Birthday Party - Theme

The lil' one's idea of having a party is to R.U.N. A.M.O.K.and playing like how she always play with her friends during recess. Then she suggested "let's have a barbecue". Huh? Who's going to barbecue and moreover when you have those old folks, they will always say "it's heaty". Well... that includes my ah-lao. (ahem ahem... yah I think he's an old folk? Haha!) 

Next she suggested having a pool party. Not bad an idea but it's the baby pool that is right outside the function room, if kids wanna go big pool - who's going to look after them? Safety issue. Worst! Is having to shout out loud for the kids to come back for cake-cutting etc.. 

There is a theme which I had set aside for che-che but didn't get to do it, however that is not what lil' one likes. Barbie is out, Frozen is out. Left with only one choice suitable for a 9 year-old - Science.

Going down memory lane. That's exactly the same theme che-che did for her 9th birthday. It would have been easier if both my girls are named ATHENA. I can recycle all the designs I did for che-che's birthday. But I did make a lot of changes after that. 

As much as I'd like to give my girls a birthday party. I feel I'm too old and tired to do all these preparations now. Perhaps my mind is still thinking about organizing the house. Only one pair of hands to cope with so many things to do. Sigh....

M.I.A

I've been missing in action for 8 months!!

Had been busy. Really busy. I need to pamper myself soon with facial and body massage. A long overdue massage definitely can't help my stiff back for sure as I'll need a few sessions.

So where did I go? I remained so in the humble home of mine. Well, infact two homes. As hubby is not around, I had to do everything by myself from meeting vendors to get quotations to renovations to moving. I'm so damn P.I.S.S.E.D.... OFF when everything's thrown to me. I still have my usual things to do apart from my added responsibility. ARGH!

Hi there!

31st August, Monday
 
Hi welcome! 

If you're reading this, it means you were being curious if the QR code on the invitation card works. Yes, it works and that's how you're here now. Cool right? 

Hold on and wait. I may update this post leading up to the party or perhaps not ..... as I am getting lazy and lazier. I think age is really catching up on me.

Anyway, a short post. I really have to go now. 

Bye!    

9th September, Tuesday    

I must be a procrastinator this year. I've finally designed the birthday invitation card early this morning. I was hoping to give out the birthday invitation cards before the school holiday but I was busy. Every time when I want to design the card, I got so sleepy (from my exhausted long day) and went to bed instead. Anyway, thank goodness we have WhatsApp and SMS, I can get the invitation out before the hard copy goes out either by post or by hand.   

I think more or less everything's prepared. I only pray the party will go on well on the day.

By the way, my ah-lao (hubby) ordered so much food. I mean it's really a lot. So please starve yourself before you come, then we can finish the food. 

Ta daa for now!      

Traipsing along : The accidental gardener

It has always been my dream to have a nice garden in my house. Butterflies and colourful birds fluttering around my nice smelling garden, assumingly from the scents of the florals. ZIIPPPPPP to reality - I'd be thankful if I'm not breathing in haze and getting my lungs polluted.

FLOWERS

My dream is to have an assortment of colourful flowers, anything really anything coz I love flowers, ranging from daisies to thorny roses to the impossible-to-plant tulips. Colours that are as colourful as a rainbow which makes me feel like I'm in heaven. So that I can sit down, relax and enjoy the nature while sipping my camomile tea.

HERBS

I don't whip up fanciful dishes but I envied my British friend in Middlesex who had a garden full of herbs. So I thought it'd be nice to plant herbs and pluck them fresh from the garden when I need them (but then again... how often do I cook?).  I found out too how good certain herbs were for - cockroach and mosquito repellent. I said I wanted to plant lemongrass, catnip, mint, rosemary but I can't imagine a mix of sweet, fresh and chapalan smell I would get standing next to the pots. I'd probably need my peppermint medicated oil to make me feel better.

TREES

I love custard apple, mangosteen, guava, mango. It'd be nice to have my own fruit tree. Having grown up in houses with garden before, under the green fingers of my dad and mom, we had seedless guava, mango, chilli and ...what else I can't recall. I named those 3 coz I can associate them with my growing up years. First two for consumption and the last chilli plant - mom threatened (I think she did carry out, not sure if it's from our garden or she bought chilli padi) to put in my mouth when I was naughty.

I don't know to say if I'm really happy to have one, I can realize my 1/4 dream of growing some plants but yet when you have a PES, it means we're on level 1. It'd be nice to live in a penthouse (away from pests n still have our plants) but we're not financially capable. I did say "my dream", didn't I? For .....to get the plants to bloom and flourish and what nots is A LOT OF WORK!!! I went through ups and downs with my plants.

We made a trip to the nursery the day after we moved in. We were spoilt for choice but in the end we settled for christmas tree, pomegranate, allamanda, bougainvillea, lemon balm, basil, chilli, pandan, lantana. Given a small pot of orchid, daisy and rose FOC. I suspect there's hidden agenda - those were the first few plants to have flowers not thriving. We could have bought more but I didn't want to clutter the whole place with plants.

It seems so interesting to finally have a sense of ownership. For that first few days when everything is so fresh and new. I'd spend some time in the morning trimming the plants; talking to plants. I felt so happy when I saw that yellow butterfly fluttering above my bougainvillea, started screaming when I saw that yucky moth when I thought it was dead leaf and wanted to sweep it away. There were days I spotted this bee buzzing around my lemon balm. I was happy - really happy coz I thought to self my plants must have thrived under my care thus attracting the bee. But I tell you, if I see that bee elsewhere I'd be screaming my head off. I spend some time in the morning sniffing the lemon balm, like some drug addict. I really love that plant. 

After smelling, talking while plucking leaves, water the plants, I have to sweep the PES. Dang!!  All I can say is, I haven't sat down to relax and sip my camomile tea in the PES. I don't have time for such luxury in the mornings as I have other housework to do.

MY MISADVENTURES WITH MY PLANTS / THE PLANTS ALMOST DIED IN MY HANDS

When I talked about having butterflies and birds fluttering about, I imagined myself to be that gentle, caring Snow White. Truth is, I am the evil stepmother who cast a spell on my plants.

Pomegranate :

We have strong nice breeze here almost the whole day. I watered and talked to the plant, infact I talked to ALL the plants as read from somewhere need to talk to plants. Within 2 weeks or so after getting the plants, I noticed the pomegranate leaves keep dropping and I was helpless. Mom happened to be around one day and I asked her for help. I didn't know how to trim and what to trim. Mom told me, "leave it to me" and I did. When I got back later, I was shocked to see an even more botak plant. I felt so depressed. Mom taught me what I had to do and so for the next few days (when she wasn't with me) I religiously did but was hoping that I did the correct thing. Did I trim the new branch again?  There wasn't anyone around to check with. Needless to say, for the next few days I faced the botak plant feeling rather depressed.

24th May : Promegranate leaves looking like dried tea leaves. Real depressing!

 PS. I didn't take any pics of the botak plant. 

Meanwhile, these plants kept my spirits high. I so love the herbs rack

 My lemon balm. The flowers just kept growing more and more. I was so happy as it shows these plants DID THRIVE under my care. Then the blur me realised I had to cut the flowers right? I mean no leaves growing at all, just flowers so something must be done. I decided to check on the internet and it's confirmed I had to cut the flowers. The next question I asked myself is "where?" Aiyoh! Can't believe I'm so dumb.

 Sweet basil

 The allamandas that kept blooming. I love purple colour flowers

 The orchid

31st May
This morning I woke up, after a tiring long day the day before, and religiously went to water my plants. 
ARGH!! Holy shit! It's really R.E.L.I.G.I.O.U.S.L.Y of me to say this, my lemon balm and sweet basil withered. My pride and joy. I quickly SOS-ed a friend for help.
 
I followed what my friends taught me - to keep watering the plants. I walked into the balcony like every hour

My lemon balm woke up from coma first, followed by basil a few hours later. This is an important lesson for me. I SHALL NOT SKIP A  DAY OF WATERING

 

Katong Swimming Pool

I stepped into Katong Swimming Pool for the first time in ...32 or 33 years!!!

Lovely memories flooded my mind. I walked around and just feels like I'm walking into my old school.

Truth is, I swam like 2-3x a week there when I was young so I did spend quite some time in that swimming complex.

It's run down, condition as old as my age. I'm surprised they didn't renovate the place. But in a way, I'm glad they conserved it for me to see it today.

The ramp we used to run up and down before/after class. Oh! The doorless kids' shower area. On days when I went swimming with the school, I told my mom I washed myself. Haha! She had to deal with spilt ends and damaged hair.

And those water spouting animals in the baby pool still scares me. On our swimming days, my bro and sis had to gang up and go "deng deng deng deng..." Jaws the movie was popular then. I screamed and ran out of the pool. They left me in trauma!! If you think sometimes I am crazy, it's all thanks to them.

Keke! Actually, as I related to 2 other mummies, that becoz' of those water spouts animals I still had some fear in me. I was swimming in hotel in Istanbul, suddenly I saw Medusas spouting water from my sides. I was so frightened and went out of the pool after that.

I’ll be here on a few Fridays until the Swimsafer program is over for lil’ one. 

New house thingy - Fengshui

Had an appointment with Grandmaster Tan for him to view the place. 

Instructions given by their staff :

Be in Parc Vera at 8.15am, open windows and inform security guard to let him park inside carpark

I believe appointment must be at 9am??

Anyway, I will be there even earlier to open and air the house after I drop the girls in school. I wonder if there will be massive changes done to the house.

Halloween 2014

Didn't buy them any new costumes this year. Che-che had fussed about for the past 2-3 years back when she wore the Queen of Hearts and Mad Hatter costume, saying it's too tight at the armpit area; too itchy etc... Always getting me fuming mad. Well, I did try to get big size for her but she's way too fussy.

In order to ensure she don't get me angry, I decided she could use the devil or Dracula cape whatever you think it is for the 2nd or 3rd time. As for the lil' one, since she usually fits into the 6X US size, she can still wear LRRHood and Alice. I can save my money. 

We left Marine Parade a little later than 5.30pm. We arrived the place at 6+ with massive jam at PIE (Tuas), this time round I parked further away (which I realised I could have parked back the same place coz' there wasn't any bottleneck jam at the carpark - or maybe I left slightly earlier?) and we walked to the estate.

We started trick-treating at 2 mins to 7pm. By then the sky has turned dark so I didn't get any nice photos. Even the video camera I brought along was under-utilised. Oh well, as long as I had that few minutes snippets of the girls doing this during their childhood. Che-che did tell me it's boring.... My girl has grown, soon she wouldn't want to be seen with me.

Anyway, let the pictures do the talking --    

Cleaning up

The night before every next day's PSLE paper I would clear the exam papers and assesment books. Everyday, I see heaps and heaps of papers cleared from my room and it sure feels G.R.E.A.T. My head feels lighter with each passing day and crossing out dates; my vision in the room gets better.

Makes me wonder how that small size room can contain so many stuffs.

29th Sep :  This is the second stack where I cleared even more, two days ago I sold some to the garang-guni man. 

Those that I think I can keep for Aricia, I put them in a stack. I waited for about 11 days later (11th October) after she gets her deserved break and I get my boxes from brother, I assigned the free girl to help segregate some materials. Those are the materials which I had lumped together for her final revision. She had to put them back accordingly to primary level so that mei-mei can use it especially Science notes. 

I even got rid some of mei-mei's Primary 2 textbooks. I don't think she needs them anymore since she's doing revisions now.

As at 26th Oct : Cleared the side cabinets of some papers and mei-mei's P2 assessment books.

For the past 3 days I assign the girl to help me. She reads her book, sits infront of computer and scanner while I busy myself with revision with mei-mei. Alot of P5 and P6 stuffs to scan. Housekeeping in the hard disk is another thing!!  

Decluttering / Tidying Up

I get really frustrated when the girls mess up faster than I can tidy. My pair of hands can barely keep up with their two pairs of hands. Somehow I finally have the skill to live with my eyes half-closed. I cleared some of che-che's clothes on the 12th and still more to clear. I need to clear shoes. 

I hope I can clear alot of stuffs before we move. I have to keep telling my family members and friends not to buy anything for us coz' we have far too many things, it'll take years before I will use their presents. Aiyoh! How to tell them more firmly? 

I'm tired, I think I should really get a part-timer to help clean the house. But I have a feeling I'll sack her as soon as I start her coz I'm quite fussy about how my house is to be cleaned.