Ear Worms

What's drifting out of my earphones today?

1. Jung Joon Young's playlist
With my favourite song of his "Sympathy" on several repeats. And his duet with Roy Kim "Becoming Dust" on many repeats as well.

2. Jung Yup's It's Love
I'm very much in love with this particular OST from the drama "Doctors".

3. Goblin's OST
Because while there were some dips, the Goblin fever has quite ended yet....:) Chanyeol & Punch's "Stay With Me", Crush's "Beautiful" and Sam Kim's "Who Are You" are my favs from this playlist....

4. The King & I playlist
More because I miss listening to "Shall We Dance" and "Getting to Know You". :)


Suddenly realised I'm listening to more Korean stuff these days haha....

Wednesday

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival everybardee! 

Early morning tio giap between 2 man-spreaders on the train lol. Hope one of them gets off before me! Lol....

Get well soon sweetie

In gist:
Small wound on right elbow from hitting a door frame at home. Scratched the scab off. Wound bled again. Scratched somemore. Bacterial skin infection. Touched wound. Touched other parts of body. Now skin infection spread to torso and left elbow also. PD gave antibiotics yesterday and need to use antiseptic cream as well. Running a fever and nursing a phlegmy cough today.

Get well soon Peanut....:(

Music. Life.

So who's accompanying me at work today?

Fred Astaire and Frank Sinatra

and also....

Zhou Sheng and Jung Joon Young haha...

From jazz to Chinese and korean songs...

Yes, I listen to a wide range of music... :)

I hope the girls like music too next time.

Conversations with a 2yr-old

Peanut's speech is suddenly improving exponentially.

Each week...no actually, every other day, she seems to be saying something new or surprising me with something she says haha. She still babbles sometimes and mispronounces things but you can clearly hear her intent and there is also a structure to what she says.

====================
She poo-ed in her diapers the other day.

She came to me and said:
"Meimei poo poo. Mama change you. Auntie Hope no."

Translation:
"Meimei just had a poo. Mama, please clean me up and changed me diapers for me. I don't want Auntie Hope to do it."

====================
We were at Jalan Sayang just last night. We went to the opposite neighbours' place and stood at the gates looking at the dogs there. One was a Pomeranian, the other one was a Shih Tzu.

Me: Alyssa, which dog is cuter?
A: *blur* (I think she didn't understand the word "cute")
Me: Alyssa, which dog is prettier?
A: ME!!! (without any hesitation)

Lol....it was a hilarious "facepalm" moment.

====================
Some of her favourite phrases these days:

"Zard poo poo."
Translation: "The lizard poo-ed. Or the lizard is pooing."

"Who is that?"
And she would say this in a deeper voice.

"S'wan. I want s'wan."
Translation: "I want this one."

====================
Animals sounds that she can make these days:
Dog, cat, duck, chicken, bird, cow, goat, sheep, donkey, monkey, snake, bee, frog, owl, mouse.

Animal names that she can say clearly these days:
Dog, cat (though she still prefers to refer to them as "wou wou" and "meow meow"
Owl, mouse, duck, frog, elephant, bird, bee, sheep

Animal names that she is still trying to master:
butterfly (fly)
chicken (kern)

====================
And....her first Chinese words to me came over the last weekend when she said "喝水" to me. :)

====================
Some of the songs that she roughly knows and can either hum along to or sing the last word of some sentences....

Shall we dance - Yul Brynner & Deborah Kerr in The King & I
Do, Re, Mi - Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music
Because it's Singapore - our national day song for 2017
Where I belong - Tanya Chua
Let it Go - from Frozen
Rasa Sayang
Mr Sun - from Barney & Friends
BINGO - Nursery rhyme
Brown Bear - Nursery rhyme
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star - Nursery rhyme

....amongst others....

*breathe*

Stress is when........

1. You send out a draft warning letter to your legal team for vetting. It goes out to them 100% in black text in a word doc. Then it comes back to you with tracked changes. 95% of the document is now in purple amended text and yellow highlights. And many comments within the text as well. Now you need to go through the proposed changes one by one and reply to all the legal team's comments and requests for clarification. 
2. Your colleague was out of action for August and September. You've been covering her for some aspects of her work. And now your boss is asking you to suddenly take on more pieces of her work as her medical leave was extended till end Oct. Some of the work is not straightforward and requires you to read up and gather background knowledge on the project before you can do anything. But the project is already underway and there are deadlines to meet. Fixing the wheel when the car is running.....boo. 
3. Your kids' birthday party is coming up and the vendor screws up your order of goodie bag items. NB. Now need to waste extra time to work with them on a solution. 
4. Your younger girl's wound doesn't seem to be healing and now looks a little puffy. Kind of like a blister. It's worrying that her skin seems to be very sensitiv, especially to wounds and insect bites. A mosquito bite can swell up to a red bump of 5cm X 2cm and end up leaving a mark on her leg. :( There are several such dark scars/marks on her legs already....;( 

一只鸡，一只鸭

Instead of packing from home, I decided to get breakfast from Subway this morning for a change.

In front of me in the queue was an older auntie, maybe 50-plus 60 years of age. Poor lady couldn't converse much in English. And the unfortunate thing was that the entire staff were either non-Chinese or non-Chinese foreigners. I think there was only 1 local staff (who happened to be Indian) amongst the crew of 5.

I had to help the auntie order and was her proxy to decide which bread to choose, which vegetables to add to her breakfast sandwich and which sauce to take.

Sigh...wonder how many of such situations are there around Singapore?

The elderly who can't speak English and getting hindered at establishments where they only have English-speaking staff.
The elderly who can't speak Mandarin and getting hindered at establishments where they only have Mandarin-speaking staff.

Another good example. My Dad and his friends are all kantang Peranakans in their 60s, 70s and 80s who simply cannot handle Mandarin at all. They get extremely frustrated at foodcourts where stall staff are China-born Chinese who cannot speak English or Hokkien. My Dad came home one day and ranted his head off because a Chinese stall helper got his order wrong and he had to spend an extra 10-15mins trying to rectify his order...

More questions again

Had an hour-long Whatsapp chat with the mother of one of Nadya's classmates.

We lamented and also wondered if we were slacker parents. Because other parents were sending their kids to enrichment classes left, right and centre. I recently found out that another of Nadya's classmates is attending Chinese and ballet on Saturdays, and English and Math classes on Sundays.
And our kids were playing masak masak at home or hanging out in malls.

On one hand, I feel we need not tax the kids so early...On the other hand, I'm scared Nadya will start lagging behind.

How like that? ...... :(

Nevermind....I shall mull over it abit more....

First up, swim classes for her....this is a life skill she should have.

I hope she is interested in music classes too...Academic classes...maybe in the next 1-2years?

I didn't have such stuff when I was young. No enrichment and only Chinese tuition simply because my parents were hopeless in Mandarin. Sigh...we all still ended up ok right?
Hmm.....Has the climate changed so much in 30 years?

work

Not concentrating well at work these days.

Why neh? No idea....Could be any of the following or a combination of them.

• Just xian. Or in Korean "kern-yang" (no reason)
• Fatigued. Lack of sleep.
• Fatigued. No work motivation. 
• Boredom. No new stuff at work. 
• Just me.

zzz

This whole Presidential Election 2017 thing....is one big fiasco.

Enough said.

Jiejie

Never a good thing when your kid wakes you up at 2am and asks for tissue paper.
In my case, 99% of the time it means that Nadya is having a nosebleed.

And so yep....she woke me at 2am and then again at 530am. She had nosebleeds both times.

Complained of tummy ache at 6plus but couldn't poo. Made gagging sounds a couple of times and finally, she vomitted twice at 7-plus. She retched quite badly the first time round....sigh. Her vomit even had bits of blood in it. Remnants from the nosebleeds she had during the night.

To the doctor we went, after dropping Alyssa off at school.

I hope her tummy settles soon and that this was just a one-off thing.

Their birthday celebration in school is next Friday! Both need to stay healthy!

Terrible Twos are here again....

Alyssa got angry when K and I chided her for playing with the shoes in our shoe rack. She was rubbing the soles of the shoes on her face and body. She was throwing the shoes around as well.
She threw a shoe down in defiance and stomped on it.

When I chided her again for doing that, K chimed in as well. She got more upset and threw a smack on his face. I think she narrowly missed him but she immediately turned to me and took a swing at my face as well. I was at that point in time kneeling on the floor to be at her level. My glasses were hit. Luckily they were not damaged or she would have gotten it from me BIG time.

Both K and Nadya know that I am very sensitive about my glasses. I do not allow the girls to touch them at all. Alyssa will need to learn this. I'm sensitive because I used to only have a single pair of glasses. If that gets broken, I'd be blind as a bat. Given my high myopia, I'd only be able to see things clearly if they were like 10cm from my face. Anything further than that and it would just be blobs of colour in my vision.

Anyway, I digressed.

After Alyssa hit both K and I, I was furious and brought her to my room, away from the "crime scene", away from Nadya and away from our neighbour who happened to be standing near our doorway taking to us. That 5-10 second walk back to my room helped calm me down a little. I spoke to her again and explained what she did was wrong.

She refused to listen to me and walked away whenever I got within 1m from her. Her tiny lips were fully pursed and she stomped her feet while getting away from me. I guess she made sure to show me that she was not happy about the whole situation as well lol.

In any case, I managed to speak and explain to her after she had calmed down abit more. She then came over to hug me.

On hindsight, I realised I forgot to get her to apologise for hitting K and I.
Opps.

Oh the arrogance

Met a conceited and arrogant taxi driver this morning.

The proud cuckoo rejected my route (PIE/KPE/MCE) and confidently told me that "PIE got jam". "Anyway, your route is so long. Go one big round also. Uncle show you a shorter way."

He thumped his chest when he said "Uncle show you!"
If he were a peacock, he would have been fluttering his plummage in my face by now.

In my heart I was thinking that I've tried out all routes before and I think my route is still the most direct, even if there is a jam. But well...the usual doormat-that-doesn't-like-conflicts me just said whatever, we'll go your way if you're so confident about it. I was tired and couldn't be bothered to talk much.

My eventual fare of $25 ended up being $4 more than the usual $21 or $22 in the morning peak traffic.

When he stopped the car, he conceitedly asked me: "How??? Uncle good or not? Good or not?? Good right??!!" He said it with a straight face. It wasn't a simple proud moment. He was just being arrogant and downright egotistical.

I told him: "No. Not at all. My usual fare is just $21."

I still paid him $25 but left with no pleasantries. I usually wish the driver a good day before I exit the car.

He shut up as well.

Anyway, I didn't quibble with him over the extra $4.
Let that be a lesson to me not to give in to conceited taxi drivers in the future. I had no time anyway as I was rushing for a meeting too.

Just that I started the workday in a not-so-good mood. Bah.

Insurance

Met up with our insurance agent during lunch today near my office. K was there too.

Glad we finally met with her to get the edu plan settled for Alyssa.
So now H&S and edu plans are all settled for both girls.

Time to relook at my own stuff...

I hate these $$ and number issues because I simply cannot understand them.
Guess that's why the first D I ever got in my life was for Financial Management back in Uni year 1.

I'm spending a fair bit of $$ each year on these things...I'd better buck up on my understanding!!

rant

When I travelled frequently in the past, I cleared my work while on the go. It was only the rare minor task that needed my physical presence which I couldn't do and needed someone to help cover.

I wonder why I'm covering 2 person's job when they are travelling next week.

FML?

More questions

10 more days on 17 September, I'll be hitting my 10th year anniversary in this place.

I think my brain synapses have stopped forming or slowed down alot, given the long years spent doing almost similar tasks.

A part of me is content for things to be status quo. Afterall, family and the kids are of a greater priority to me now. And I'm also mighty afraid to try something new.

A smaller part of me is also wanting to transfer out and be in a new department to do something new. It has been at the back of my mind for the last few years.

In fact, I was due for a transfer when I found out I was pregnant with Nadya. I held back and did not go ahead with anything as I wanted to focus on the pregnancy first. And then after that, adjusting to life as a new working mum. The transfer thing just took a back seat. And then Alyssa came along and things just became as such...

Part of my fear of transfer is that I won't enjoy as much flexibility as I am having now. The flexibility to be able to leave on time to go home and spend maybe 30mins or an hour with the girls before they go to bed. The flexibility to work from home if needed. The flexibility to arrive late at work and not get chewed on by the boss when I get held up by the girls in the morning.

And then there's this other option constantly at the back of my mind.

Part-time work? Maybe work 3 days a week? Axe the helper and do all the chores ourselves? Will finances be affected drastically? What else can or should I do? Should I explore this now or when Nadya gets older and goes to primary school? So I can spend time with her on her primary school foundation studies as well?

Will I get myself into more of a fix with part-time work? Will I end up multi-tasking too much and not achieving anything in both work and home?

What gives?

What should I do?

Reminder to Self

Sometimes, things may seem common sense to you.
But others can't see it. Nor do they understand it. They need to ask. And ask again if need be.
Before they can comprehend and see the whole picture.

That staff has been around for the last 10 years.
And has worked for at least 15 years more than I have.

Nevermind. Patience. And understanding. And empathy.
Patience, understanding and empathy wins the day.

Another reminder to self.
Frown less when being serious.

Wednesday

Wet, weary, woeful, withering.

Dreary day.

Bad back.

Nasty nose.

Woe is me.

Dinner engagement this evening at 6pm.
Hope I can tahan!

*sniff sniff*

Telfast D to the nose's rescue?

Staycay

We had a staycation last Thursday & Friday. It was a 2D1N thingy at Rendezvous Hotel.

I'm not sure who enjoyed it most though lol...K and I were deadbeat tired.

We had room service for lunch on the first day. Nadya enjoyed it pretty much and fed herself quite okay but Alyssa was a handful. She was playing with her food and cutlery and climbing all over the sofa more than eating. Eventually, Alyssa vomitted her lunch out on the first day and we brought her to the PD clinic near our place in the evening. She had also vomitted the previous day and we were getting worried. Doc eventually diagnosed her as having stomach flu, on top of the cold that sh was already nursing and fighting.

So much so for a staycation hahaha....We dabao-ed dinner back to the hotel room to eat in the end.

When it was bed time, the girls' rejected the hotel's cots and they ended up on the queen-sized bed. K got relegated to the floor and he slept on the cot mattresses. I was on the bed with the girls and didn't sleep much at all because Alyssa woke every hour for the first few hours. Then Nadya threw a hugeass tantrum at 3am in the morning. The girls had also slept later than usual because they were not used to the room.

I'd always known that Alyssa slept in a "chor lor" manner. I didn't know she was THAT chor lor. Nadya pretty much slept within a particular area. At the most, her arms were spread wide. Alyssa on the other hand...rolled from left to right and then back to the left. She got up to a yoga child pose position, twisted herself, lay flat on her back and then lay flat on her tummy. And on and on. And of course, amidst all these "action sequences", she was sometimes on me, on my arm, on my thigh, etc. Plus I was punched by her a few times. Chor lor. Really chor lor. Lol.

Breakfast was pretty ok. Alyssa, after taking medication, managed to keep her food in. There being not much around the hotel in the morning, we just took a leisurely stroll to SOTA and Cathay and then back. Along the way, we ran a little, we took pictures, we played some games, we looked at trees and flowers and we took more pictures :)

Will we do another staycation anytime soon? I don't know haha...maybe not. ;p

Questions

Do well in a mediocre school or do mediocre in a good school?

Be in a mixed race school or in a school dominated by Chinese and whose curriculum is heavy on the Chinese culture?