Snap Shots

J will grow up to be....

2012-01-10T23:15:00.001+08:00

J will grow up to be ... like this?

The Little Fairy

2012-01-10T18:16:00.000+08:00

G has always wanted to be a fairy. She really wants to have wings so that she can fly from place to place. Well, this is the best pa pa and ma ma can do for her now.

Kodak Tri-X 400
HC-110 Dilution B

Korea - A Road Less Travelled via F&E (perhaps?)

2011-11-13T00:02:00.001+08:00

1. We first stayed in Incheon (left blue house).
산솔펜션
http://www.mountainpine.co.kr/main.php

Please don't be decieved, Incheon is huge, so huge that it can take some 2 hours from 1 Incheon corner to another! We put up at 중구 (Chung Gu) for the close proximity to the airport (~30mins). This is largely due to us taking the redeye flight, arriving at 8am; anymore travelling may just kill the little children. Furthermore, we have to pickup the Koos the following morning at 7.30am. So staying near the airport is the best solution. At Incheon, we visited the Chinatown near Wolmido.

2. We took the purple top route from Incheon, through Seoul, ChunCheon, then arriving at Yang Yang, about 5 hours drive. This is the longer route, compared to the direct expressway to Gangneung and heading up north to Yangyang (~3.30hours). The problem was, with little understanding of Korea, and the Korean GPS, it is hard to force the GPS to route via the Gangneung expressway. Lesson learnt --- bring a Korean dictionary next time!

다빛펜션
http://www.dabipension.co.kr/

3. At Yangyang, we went to Seoraksan via the blue route north. Took about an hour. The plan was to take the 10minutes cablecar up to one of the peaks and walk around a bit. It turned out to be the hottest period (Autumn foliage). Cablecar wait was 2 hours. We decided to use our own foot to make the way up to Ulsanbawi, a trek we took a few years ago when we were carefree without children. Even then it took us about 3.30hours both ways. This time round, we took 5 hours; and short of 500metres to the peak. It got too steep for both the families with babies on their backs. Next time perhaps!

4. From Yangyang, we took the southern route down towards Gangneung, and turned inland towards PyeongChang. The drive was about 2 hours. We celebrated the 2 fathers' birthday (3 days apart) with a local yummy cake!

안단테
http://www.sjpension.co.kr/02_pension/pension_view.asp?p_code=2321299

5. We stayed at 5 minutes drive to Herbnara Farm 허브나라농원. As guests of the nearby pension, we got ourselves some discounts to the farm. Nice walk in the garden, quite a well kept place. We sat in the garden's restaurant to have a simple meal (sandwich for G and bibimbap for myself. Can't remember what LS had!)

6. Took the blue route back to Gangneung (~1 hour 10mins) to take the local tourists Seatrain (http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/SI/SI_EN_3_1_1_1.jsp?cid=1064143). The train headed south to Samcheok (1.5hours 1 way). Apparently this is the closest track to the sea. It was a nice trainride, with J sleeping in my arms all through. It was raining, so not a bad idea to stay indoors, kind of.

7. Took the blue route to Yangdae MookChang 양떼목장 (Sheep Farm). The enclosed sheep farm is a vast piece of rolling hills land. G got to feed the sheep with her bare hands!

8. On the way back from the Sheep Farm, we visited a sculpture musuem - Mu-I Musuem 평창무이예술관.

9. Took the purple route towards Wonju turning south to MunGyeong 문경. We stayed at the pension that was formally a train. This pension was run by Korail.

http://www.korailpension.co.kr/pages/sub1_1.asp

9. The original intention was to visit the apple farms. However due to language barrier, we couldn't find an apple farm that allows us to pick. We ended up trekking a fort 진남교반일원.

10. We headed up the expressway to Yeoju, and westward back to Incheon.

을왕라1박2알
http://www.wooripension.com/pension/woori_m.asp?pension_code=w0119001&rsrm_date=2011-09-08&room_code=#1

11. We went to Wolmido, pretty disappointed at the absent of activities. We visited the museum of Emigration History (free entrance). It was also nice walking on Eurwangbi Beach just minutes of drive from our pension. There was even a movie shooting going on, hidden behind big screens. Can't see any of the stars though.

Sisterhood

2011-10-09T16:28:00.000+08:00

When the parents are gone (eventually), the sisters still have each other.

Likeness?

2011-09-19T15:47:00.000+08:00

When G was a baby, she has the distinctive look of grandpa, and grandaunt. As G grows older, more commented she'd take on mama's look.... Judge for yourself!

娘惹琪

2011-09-16T14:38:00.001+08:00

我们家的小娘惹。

Bronica SQ-Ai, PS80mm, Fujifilm Neopan Acros

Wheee! ....

2011-09-15T19:28:00.002+08:00

J might not be able to walk yet, but that's not stopping her from enjoying the slide!

J playing with the slide at the Biopolis playground

Bronica SQ-Ai, PS80mm, Portra 400.

The Growing Girl

2011-09-15T19:22:00.000+08:00

I thought I am able to spot the growth of G every morning when I wake her up for bed. I often ask her to please stop growing up, and be my little G forever. She would say "I can't!".

And here she is - in the baju kurung that grandma borrowed from the neighbor for her school's Hari Raya Party. She looked so much more mature than her actual age of 4! Daddy's little girl is just growing up too fast!

G in baju kurung, all ready for the Hari Raya party at the school.

Photo taken with Bronica SQ-Ai, PS80mm, and Kodak Portra 400.

Raffles Hotel Mooncake

2011-09-11T12:29:00.002+08:00

Raffles Hotel Champagne Truffle is one of our favourite mooncake. Since the time when it was introduced by Shirley yearns ago, we'd looked forward to it on every mooncake festival without fail. And here's G growing up with each mooncake festival!

What is a performer without a supporter?

2011-08-24T23:52:00.002+08:00

J is the biggest fan of G's singing!

Planking

2011-08-07T14:24:00.002+08:00

How else does a kid kill the boredom of staying at home due to the rainy weather?

Witnessing G's Growth

2011-08-07T00:41:00.009+08:00

It's amazing to see how fast a kid can grow. I can literally see the transformation every morning when I wake G up for school. When she was younger, I could see her simply getting 'bigger', in all dimension and direction - bigger head, thicker limbs, rounder tummy, etc. Lately, I can see her body shape began to change from that of a toddler to a young child - her limbs are getting longer, and she starts to loose a little of the baby fat on her limbs.

And every morning my heart stirred a little at the thought of losing this wonderful little gem. I wish that time could stand still, and she would never grow up.

Whenever I ask G if she can stop growing at night, she will gleefully say: "I can't help it!"

G posing under the tree

This picture was taken during lunchtime today using the Toyo 45A, and not will one of the silly camera apps.

The faded color is due to the pack of expired FP-100. The tilted focus plane was due to, well, the back of the camera was tilted. This is the real McCoy.

Not that I intended to be this way though - I forgot about the expiry date of the film; and I also forgot to reset the back after the camera decided to experience free fall for itself by leaping off the top of the tripod to the grass patch below.

G's Lego Interpretation of "Papa and I"

2011-06-13T09:40:00.000+08:00

G constantly amuses San and I with her imagination with Lego. This G's interpretation of Pa Pa and I.

The subtlety of her broad face with the nose between her eyes versus Papa's nose below the eyes really cracked us up! I don't think I can do better than her!

G and Riki

2011-04-07T01:29:00.000+08:00

G and Riki first met in November 2009, when we visited Mike's family in Japan. G was a loud kid - babbling and singing non-stop; and Riki was a quiet kid - shy and reserved. One and a half years later, they met again in Singapore. And G is still a loud kid, and Riki is still a man of few words.

March 2011 - G and Riki playing together

November 2009 - G and Riki played together

G's Valentine's Day Card for San and I

2011-02-18T00:51:00.001+08:00

These are the two Valentine's Day card from G.

I don't know why San got a heart, and I got a square. But I like her way of writing our names: she wrote '33' (laterally inverted) and 'LOSN' - her numeric interpretation of San's name, and her phonetic interpretation of mine.

Priceless gifts :-)

G's Lego Interpretation of Pa Pa in uniform

2011-02-14T01:04:00.000+08:00

琪琪：“爸爸，这是你穿军服的样子！”

Dad's Third Death Anniversary

2010-09-21T18:52:00.001+08:00

And here's G paying respect to grandpa on his third death anniversary. Time flies and it's a strange feeling that the dad that I've known for all my life is here no more. Sometimes it feels like he's just away on one of his many trips, and that he will be back some day.

Just a few days ago I asked G if she had any dreams after her afternoon nap. She said she dreamt of grandpa. She said grandpa told her that he would guard over her. I don't know if G really remembers what grandpa was like. There was only one photo of both of them taken together, when G was only a few months old.

But in any case, thanks Dad, that was nice.

so lovely aren't they?

2010-09-21T15:17:00.001+08:00

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: SS Chan
Date: Tue, Aug 31, 2010 at 11:59 AM
Subject: so lovely aren't they?
To: losheng@gmail.com

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Posted via email from ls's posterous

J Shaved!

2010-09-21T00:24:00.000+08:00

Alright, it's the time of the life - the fourth month, the time to get a shaved head. And here I present you, the shaved J. After much howling and gnashing of teeth - ok, J hasn't got her teeth yet - grandma managed to shaved most of J's hair off. J actually looks pretty good bald!

Even at fourth months, J has shown to have a very different personality from G. For one, J seems to be extremely social - making faces at strangers, as long as she's in the comfort of San's arms. Unlike G, J clings onto San a lot, and refused to carry by most people. When bedtime approaches, J wants her cradle - badly.

One amazing part of watching kids grow up is to see how they are all the same, and yet very different.

Graduating out of the bottle

2010-07-11T16:42:00.000+08:00

It took a lot of persuasion, pleading, and gnashing of teeth, but finally G has agreed to dump her Avent bottle for her three daily milk feeds. The main problem with the bottle feed was how long it took her to finish. She could easily spend a good 20-30 minutes suckling, and that became a major problem to get her to school on time in the morning.

Drinking her milk out of her metal mug - that's another mini milestone.

G's Unique Way of Keeping Her Shoes

2010-06-20T00:22:00.000+08:00

G has a wierd sense of creativity. No one taught her this, so we don't know where she received the inspiration to keep her shoes organized in this manner.

A visit to the Central Fire Station

2010-05-16T02:06:00.001+08:00

Last week G suddenly said she wanted to see fire engines. I look up online, and found that the station has a open house every Saturday 9-11am. Since San is undergoing her confinement, struggling to rest and cope with the every-two-hourly demanding J, I thought it's a good time to take G to visit the fire station, so San could have one less kid to add to the din at home.

The Central Fire Station sat in a small, but beautiful colonial building. Just like in the movies, fire engines and ambulances were all sparking clean, and every metal piece shinning, reflecting the sky and the cloud so clearly that they looked like they have been painted on. School children were roaming about, and friendly firemen were giving tours, explaining the various firefighting tools and equipment. The highlight for kids was the demonstration by the firemen sliding down the pole. G was totally facinated by the display, just like every other kid, breaking out in applause every time a fireman landed. These men must have been heroes in their little minds.

What fascinated me was how frequently ambulances were dispatched. A loud siren, followed by an announcement, and you'd see a three men team board an ambulance and roll out of the gate. They were required to set off from the station within a minute from the siren call. During the short stay, it looked like an ambulance was dispatched from the station every 10-15 minutes. A civil defense commander explained that in order to ensure no parts of Singapore could not be reached within 8 minutes of a fire alarm, and 11 minutes of an ambulance request, scores of men had to be deployed beyond the stations at fire posts around the island on standby - 24 by 7.

I remembered just how fast these civil defense guys responded on the fateful day when my dad suffered a stroke and fell in the bathroom on the evening of September 5, 2007. Literally within minutes they were knocking on the door, ready with their stretcher. They appeared so fast that it was like they were living upstairs.

The responsiveness was made possible through the efficient, dedicated, and well lubricated chain of individual teams involved in the entire chain - from the person manning the emergency hot-line, to the dispatcher, to the men and women on the ambulance teams. And the well tested and time horned processes that have been distilled over decades. The ease and understated manner with which the commander described the system made the robustness and reliability of the civil defense system looked easy. So easy that everyone can take this for granted.

In comparison, the religious pursuit of reliability is a virtue that's completely missing in the IT world, where no system is ever expected, believed, designed, tested, revised and trusted to be fail-safe. Breakdowns and failures are expected and tolerated. In fact, the very idea of a reliable and robust system felt so remote that my head spun a little when I was reminded of their existence this morning.

These men in blue, are heroes, in my mind too.

The Road Ahead

2010-01-26T20:29:00.001+08:00

One of the greatest joy of parenting is the opportunity to witness the incredible growth of your child. From a little bundle of joy, capable of only making poo's after every meal, to a toddler that is able to hold a conversation with you. At every milestone, the child grows a little more towards independence, and a little less dependent on you. In due course, she will leave you to pursue her own life.

It does get a little sentimental at the thought that the child will no longer cling on to us in the not too distant future. It feels a little like tearing a plaster off the skin - slowly and surely, the separation will happen, and while it is happening, it hurts a little.

Ah .. I wish G the road ahead may be a fun ride. There will be disappointments and happiness, and I wish she has the strength to overcome the former, and the fortune to enjoy the latter in abundance. And I wish that she will be a wise person. Wisdom is a treasure, and her name carries the meaning of 'collecting treasure', and I wish that is exactly what she will have, just like how grandpa wanted when he gave her the name.

A hat is just a hat, right?

2009-11-09T01:11:00.004+08:00

A hat is just a hat, right?
On this saturday morning, San went out to do some gardening. It was a sunny day, so San donned a hat. Then came G, who's now getting to the age of trying-to-be-like-mom-and-dad, decided to follow suit. She only had one hat, which is the Viking's cap that we bought from the Lego store.

A hat is just a hat, right?

G Does Gardening

2009-10-25T22:53:00.004+08:00

It's hard to appreciate gardening when one was young - it's sweaty, dirty, itchy, and the plants never show any sign of affection, or can never be taught any tricks. But as one gets older, one appreciates gardening for being one of the very few predictable things in the world - it follows a natural course, responds to known environmental conditions, and unlike many endeavors in life - your hard work always translates to results that can be seen. There's also a philosophical aspect of gardening that's fascinating: it's an attempt to guide the course of nature in a humble way. You can't rush things, and you can't go overboard in changing the environmental factors - but nonetheless you bend the great forces of nature in a humble, patient manner, to serve you. It's both empowering and humbling.

G enjoys gardening too. But only the part where she gets to play with water, or shovel the soil.

The little adult

2009-10-24T16:21:00.002+08:00

And so she has come to age, some one and a half decade early. She insisted to choose her own cloths, to put on glasses, like dad, and to carry a handbag, like .... eh ... even mom hardly carries a handbag, so I wonder where she got that idea from. Don't assume the bag is just a superficial accessory - in the bag are her toy mobile phone, comb, and other ladies' stuffs.

The teacher at school told mom just last week that G acted and spoke like a little adult. Today, G is still only 2 years and 7 months old.

Another milestone for G - schooling!

2009-09-29T23:44:00.000+08:00

There are a few major events in the kids' growing up process that parents never forget - the first time they flip over, the first step, the first word, and of course, the first day of school. Just two and a half years go, I held in my arm, a new born, warm and bloody, fresh from the oven, so to speak, all tightly swaddled up; and now, I am looking at a little girl, in her freshly washed over-sized uniform, carrying a little school bag, filled with a fresh set of cloths, fruits, a water bottle, and boundless excitment and anticipation, all geared up to attend school. Life ahead is a journey of making discoveries, building wisdom, experiencing both joy and grief. It's a going to be a long journey, and having been through that ourselves, how we wish we could walk all the difficult paths for her, and leave her with only the joyous moments. Alas, but she has to walk that path by herself.

And so today she takes her first step out of her comfort zone. And out of ours too.

Discovering the kitchen

2009-06-30T12:12:00.000+08:00

"Every corner hides a new adventure - I just knew it! ...."

G exploring the new kitchen.

Handwriting

2009-06-16T15:02:00.003+08:00

G attempts to write, mimicking Mama's handwriting. On the left is Mama's series of binaries. On the right is G's copy.

G insisting to help

2009-06-07T19:16:00.002+08:00

I've noticed how families are getting disconnected these days. During family dinners, you can see each member fully engrossed in his/her own activities - sms'ing on the phone, playing games on the psp, or simply looking dazed and disinterested. Doing things together as a family is now a premium activity.

So I really can't complain when G insisted to help with the window cleaning. This will surely not last forever. In a few years' time, I would have to beg her to turn down the volume of her iPod, or to go out for a family dinner together, or to have a few words during family outings.

I treasure and appreciate every minute of this.

Sparing with contractors

2009-05-31T23:02:00.002+08:00

In the last few months we have dealt with a lot of contractors, and I've learnt a lot about how they operate. Not that I am capable of dealing with them without getting my head bitten off by now, but at the very least, I am learning to smell a rat when there's one.

The quality of work differs widely. Our door subcontractor ranked right at the bottom. He was known as the 'butcher'. All the doors were literally mangled into their assigned places, and you can make out how he did it by following the trails of battle scars around the house. My suggestion for him is that he should try his career with more malleable materials next time. You know how frustrating it is to deal with someone that constantly try to meet the expectation by the slightest margin - and if he can't, he tried to lower the expectation? Yep, that's exactly how we felt.

Then there are contractors that considered every appliance comes with loads of un-needed parts that should go straight from the packaging to the dustbin. Oh, so that would be my electrical and plumbing contractors. They left over a trail of unopened mounting tabs, screws, and parts and pieces from the lights and bathroom accessories that we bought. Then when you looked up, you saw the light was mounted with ugly protruding counter sunk screws, instead of the pan-heads that came with the packaging. I suspect it was the trouble with constantly changing the electric screw driver's bits, so he just brought along a pack of screws and use them everywhere that needs one.

Sometimes you'll just have to see the humor in all these. Otherwise your blood pressure will boil trying to get them to put in some effort in their work. I do that by reminding myself that I have chosen the lowest bid - and to some extend, I got what I paid for.

But the quality of one contractor stood out - that of Mr. Lee from EML. He was highly recommended by my architect, Kelly from Hunters and Gatherers. We used him for all our carpentry work and any visitor to the house will noticed that the quality of the carpentry work exceeds the rest in the house by a large margin. You know you are dealing with a guy that carries a lot of pride in his work when he began to fix problems before you knew it. A week after the cabinet doors were installed, his workers told us that they needed to schedule a date to come back to replace the doors. I was wondering why, and he said the boss noticed the solid doors were warped, leaving a small gap at some of the edges between the door and the cabinet. Honestly, I didn't notice it, partly because of all the other work that were going on in the kitchen. Maybe I would eventually, but he didn't take the chance. So there you are, someone who takes pride in the quality of his work, without the customer having to push for it.

What's the big deal, you may asked - isn't that something to be expected? Just for comparison, the glass contractor frosted the bathroom glass pane on the wrong side. And the bathroom mirror was meant to be mounted on the upper right hand corner of this piece of glass. Despite knowing a mistake had already been made, the contractor proceeded to mount both the mirror and the glass by flipping the glass upside down, and then asked me if it was ok. Because the glass was flipped, the mirror ended up at a height that's worthy for dwarfs. I was so amused by the way the contractor trying to get himself out of this. I asked him: "at this height, can you even see yourself in the mirror?" Then he quietly pull it down and replace it with another.

And there was another that tried to blame his poor quality work on my luck. When he laid the pebble wash in the kitchen, he didn't take steps to protect it from rain. Of course it rained overnight, totally ruined the pebble wash. When confronted about the quality of the job, he explained the rain had caused the damage, and sympathetically told me that heaven was just not on my side. So it was my misfortune that this happened. This is when having an assertive architect helped - Kelly put it very simply across to the main contractor: "it was unacceptable and please re-do everything." So the guys came yesterday to knock out all the pebble wash, and will be returning tomorrow to relay it. I suspect it would have taken the contractor less trouble to put up proper rain protection, or even to knock out the whole thing to re-do it before the rest of the kitchen came up. But he tried to get away from this. In the end, it caused everyone inconveniences - he had to pay his workers additional days to do this rectification work, and it caused us a lot of delay.

Taking pride in your work is a very simple work ethic. Your teachers taught you that. The army reinforced that. And in your work your boss and peers expected it. But in the world of the contractors, it is something that they happily bet it against your ignorance.

So, if you would like to get a quote from Mr. Lee of EML for your next project, you can reach him at his email.

Renovation in progress - Week 11

2009-04-30T17:47:00.000+08:00

Renting out our current apartment was easier than we thought. The downside of that is that the new tenants are going to move in on the 7 May, and that means we have to get out of our current place on the 6th. On hearing this, our main contractor started whipping all her sub-contractors to try to finish our new place in time for us to move in.

And the deadline is next week.

So where are we at this point - things are getting very close:

The living and dinning area are at the last stages: the workers are laying the sukabumi tiles, and the walls painted.

Parquet floorings have been laid and polished in the bedrooms. Windows and grilles are in place. Painting has been completed. But the wires are still dangling in the air.

Roof detailing has been completed, and glass tiles have been installed to lit up the stairwell. A common problem of terrace houses is the middle section tends to be dark, due to the longish layout. The glass tiles opens up the central area of the house to add a more upbeat atmosphere.

Over the next few days - toilet wares, lights, switches, water heaters, are all going to be installed. And then on the 6th of May, San, G and I are going to move in.

Packing G

2009-04-24T00:00:00.000+08:00

As the deadline to move out of our current apartment draws nearer, San and I struggle to get the packing done on time. G, on the other hand, is having a great time with the boxes and emptied shelf.

G's Private Concert

2009-04-14T16:34:00.000+08:00

To be an all round entertainer, you need to do more than just pole dancing - singing is also very important. And we have seen that she has practised hard to develop this with her rendition of the Mandarin classic Tian Mi Mi.

All that is now over - it's time for a trial run of a full performance. Here's G's little private concert, held only for pa pa and ma ma:

Band of brothers - Roofing contractors edition

2009-04-13T16:39:00.000+08:00

Here's the roofing contractors posing in the same macho Band Of Brothers fashion.

Surely, they are no less macho than the real guys:

Renovation in progress - Week 08

2009-04-11T01:42:00.001+08:00

It's has been about 2 months since the beginning of the renovation project. In the last 8 weeks, I have learnt a lot about buildings, electricals, water supplies, and everything else that I didn't need to know when I lived in an apartment. And I have dealt with more contractors in the last 8 weeks than I've met in my life. Some of them, have surely taken this opportunity to try to rip me off. You don't believe me? How about:

1. The quotations for the gas piping work ranged from SGD850 to SGD5400+.
2. The quotations for an water tank and pump ranged from SGD5000 to SGD11,000+
3. The quotations for water plumbing work ranged from SGD1400 to SGD2800, and then conveniently slipped in a dubious SGD900 charge. The contractor quietly dropped it after I raised the simple question: "what on earth is this charge about?"

Every single day in the last few weeks I felt like in a war zone - I had to be constantly on guard, or else I would fall into the numerous traps these contractors have laid along the way. I had to called on friends that either have professional knowledge, or prior battle scars, to help me through. It's not to say that there aren't no honest and great contractors - for e.g, my network contractor, Teng Quee Communication Services, is one such exception, as well as several others - but the unscrupulous ones just marred the experience so badly that I think I need to seek post-traumatic treatment.

But finally it's the eighth week, and most of the 'broad stroke' items are done - structure, electrical, plumbing and such. What's the place looking like at this point?

The place still looked messy - try to spot the differences with the shots in this post.

And that's the backyard. The structure for the study room is done. Concrete tiles are being laid.

And this is the view from the second floor bathroom. The columns for the lourve windows have been erected, and tiles, shower pipes had been laid.

This is the guest room. Although it's not very big, it looks like it is going to be the coziest room of all!

Wall plastering has began in the master bedroom. Aircon ducting by Gaincity is also done.

This is the view of the living room from the entrace. The battle scars on the war hide all the concealed electrical, network, telephone and TV cables. A second storeroom has been added on the left, behind the ground floor bathroom.

This is the view from the stairwell looking towards the living room and the front yard. The front door extension is now in place, and the columns for the lourve windows are there waiting for the glass panes.

This is what the living room and entrance looks like.

San and I are targeting to move in by 7 May. So in another 3-4 weeks or so, the place has to be livable, even if not all the work can be completed in time. In the following week, roofing work will start, follows by all the rest of the finishing touches. We look forward to this house's new lease of life in the near future!

Simple, delightful things in life

2009-04-01T11:24:00.000+08:00

The innocence of G frequently reminds me how delightful simple things in life can be. Here she was, fully captivated by the swinging man at Vivocity's Sky Park. There's no need for mega budget fireworks, life threatening stunts, or luxurious trips to the Disneyland - just a simple swinging figure on a pole was enough to kept her entertained.

For now, at least.

Essential skill in life - squatting

2009-03-28T15:37:00.002+08:00

You just can't be treated as a tough street kid without knowing how to look the part. And you start by learning how to squat, with the right finesse - buttocks on your heels, eyes looking into the distance.

Important skills in life are to be taught from young.

G sings with mom before bedtime - beats Dad for sure!

2009-03-16T23:38:00.011+08:00

G is a happy baby. Her current favorite pastime is playing with her toy cooking utensils, or the simple 3D jigsaw puzzle. Also, she has learnt to sing quite a few songs, which she often sings with mom during her bedtime. And here it is:

Some 34 years ago, her dad attempted the same song and forgot the lyrics - and that was when he was already five years old. And now, G does the same feat before she's two!

If G doesn't smile...

2009-03-16T14:07:00.000+08:00

It is hard to make G smile in her grouchy mornings. When she eventually force a smile, well... I guess its better to do without...

Lovers from the past life?

2009-03-10T01:34:00.003+08:00

They say daughters are daddy's lovers from the past life.

Renovation in progress - Week 02

2009-02-24T19:00:00.004+08:00

Another week has passed, and Jane's contractors and workers have been making good progress. All the walls that needed to come down have been demolished. New walls that are needed are taking shapes. And the ceiling structures are being tidied up.

Friends have told me that you'll need to expect surprises during the project. I have been, and we already have to deal with our first surprise - low water pressure. The previous owner did tell us that the water pressure on the second floor is low, but he reckoned that the pipes might have been blocked. Since we were planning to relay all the pipes anyway, we thought nothing of the problem.

Then the plumber came to check out the pressure, and found that the it is already low at the mains. I was sure that was nothing a call to the friendly PUB won't resolve. The friendly folks from PUB turned up on Monday, and told me the bad news: being located on a fairly high ground, the house is not too far down from PUB's reservoir level.

Nonetheless, they replaced a section of the pipe near the mains that has already been partially choked with rust accumulated over the last 4 decades. And they also offered to replace the meter with a new one. All this may improve the flow, but they were certain that we are not going to have shower heads that shoots water like water cannons.

But there's always got to be a solution. The PUB officer pointed out to me that some houses in the area have installed their own pressure booster pump.

"Klunk ..." and that was my jaw hitting the water meter - this meant more money! This meant the renovation budget is going to go up again!

And for someone who has lived in apartments in his life - what on earth does a pressure booster pump look like?

Denial - your best friend in dire situations. There are a whole lot of houses that are on higher grounds than ours. Surely, we are not destined to take showers under dripping hoses?! Doesn't my architect has an aunt that lives in a huge semi-detached house further up the slope? Surely she doesn't have this problem?

I came back to the office and wrote to the architect, and within 2 hours she came back with the deadly news: "... pressure is very bad. They had to install their own pressure pump ..."

Alright, looks like we will be needing a bail out plan soon as well. In the mean time, we are asking the contractor to propose a solution. Hopefully a solution that doesn't cost too much to implement.

Suddenly, I start to dread a little at the thought of attending this Saturday's site meeting.

Renovation in progress - Week 01

2009-02-15T22:02:00.007+08:00

How exciting! We are at the end of the first week of possibly a total of 12 weeks of renovation! So, how far along are we? Well - not very far yet. It has been a week of mostly tearing down the walls and the false ceilings. The house is now spectacularly airy and bright. The contractor has done a good job keeping the site clean and organized, despite the amount of debris that must have been generated over the last few days. For the neighbors, well, I can only imagine the noise and dust that they have been putting up with so far. Probably another week of wall removal, and hopefully there will be less noise from then onwards.

Site meeting was conducted between the architect and the contractors. Structure design, material selection, joints, truss, and all things foreign were discussed and deliberated. For a layman like me, it's the more mundane stuffs like how to hide the ugly telephone cable, and where to locate the electricity meter to, that are of immediate concern.

We sited the electrical, network, and cable points, and discussed if we should install a junction box in the garden in case we want to install an auto-gate in the future. That sounds like a really good idea to me, but that will mean either stretching the budget, or something else in the house has to go. This is very much like managing resources and product lines in the company - the hardest questions are often related to what not to have.

There's probably another week before we need to finalise all that. In the mean time, I just pretend that these problems don't exist and I don't need to worry about it. On the other hand, this is the just the beginning of a whole series of decisions on what not to have in the new house.

And updated photosynth can be seen here.

Pole Dancing - G's way

2009-02-12T16:52:00.018+08:00

Alright, if lineage is of any reference, G is not likely going to have a killer body with a pair of sensuous long legs and a curvaceous waistline. But maybe she can still make that up with the right moves? Given the distance she has to cover, it's timely for her to start young. So, what about some basic pole dancing moves to get the ball rolling?

And it's cheap - there's no need to spend money installing poles at home! These public infrastructure works fine!

Transformation of an old house to the new home - the preface

2009-02-09T23:43:00.069+08:00

Alright, so San and I have been looking for a bigger place for the last few years, and specifically, we were looking for a place around Hillview. We like the greenary, and the proximity to Bt. Batok Natural Reserve and the Bt. Timah Hill. Bt. Batok Natural Park has become the default route for my morning runs in the last 2 years, and it's beginning to be part of my routine to enter the park just before first light, and leaving it for home shortly after.

But it wasn't easy to find a place in the area. Not that there's a shortage of houses, but our budget is small. And we are picky - we want to get a place in its original condition as much as possible. The simplicity of the old design, straight lines, the lack of frills and other pretentious elements, and above all, the nostagic feel of the old houses are such great draws to San and I. And as my architect friends put it more succinctly - "why waste money tearing down other people's ugly design?".

Finally we found one that pretty much fitted the bill, and barely within what we could afford last October. What followed was a whole series of discussion with the architect and contractors to decide how to transform the old house into our new residence. Our personal friends from Hunter Gather, whose aesthetic sense we trust with our last dollar, proposed a design that totally captured our imagination. It was a plan that San and I won't be able to conceive all our lives, and a stark reminder why they are the architects, and we are the engineers.

After a short period of surprise and elation, our exitement was quickly doused with the worry of the renovation budget. Rounds of plan revision, quotation tender, and even going back to the drawing board for a scale-down design were carried out. But we really love the first proposal, and decided that we are going to build this out in stages, rather than sacrificing for something that is going to leave us with a sense of "if only we have done that ..." kind of regret for the rest of our lives in the new place.

So finally we are at the starting line - the renovation will kick off at 10 Feb 2009 at 10.00am - exactly sixteen days after the Chinese New Year. But we don't want the memories of the original place to fade into history, and on the last Sunday before the kick-off, we went to capture the house on our camera.

From the pile of pictures, we have created both a photosynth, and a series of panaromic shots. And here they are:

And below are some pictures of the house:

Taking pictures - the G way

2009-01-30T16:24:00.006+08:00

G started her photography career very early, clearly due to the influence from her wonderful parents. But being a toddler, the complexities of a camera is still overwhelming, and she can sometimes have problems differentiating between a video cam and digital cam.

Big Splash!

2009-01-26T23:47:00.000+08:00

Grandma started G on water training very early in her life. While G was taking her bath, grandma would pour water over her head. First it was just a little, to get G used to the feeling of water running over her face. By now, G's pretty confident with running water over her head. G definitely likes playing in the pool. For the last days, she has been constantly reminding us to take her to the pool. There's really no reason not to - since the pool is right in the middle of the estate. But hey - G's dad is inflicted with the lazy genes. :)

Lazy genes, lazy G

2009-01-26T23:35:00.000+08:00

Ma ma said G has inherited a lot from her (outstanding) dad. Besides the looks, it's the lazy genes. It's not very often to see toddlers her age to dive into the bean bag and roll around like a pig in mud the first thing in the morning.

Duplo

2009-01-06T00:55:00.000+08:00

Mama & G built this together. Well, almost... G passed some duplos to mama and instructed her along the way. :) So here's a duplo of Mama taking G for a walk. :)

A writer in the making

2008-12-31T19:29:00.000+08:00

Yes, G is very playful and cheeky, and she has her intellectual side. Besides computer lessons, it's also important to learn the old art of writing with a pen. The best place to start is none other than the daily newspaper. So here she is, penning her first poetry in a thoughtful mood. I couldn't make out her writing, but I figured that she couldn't either.

I'm very interested to see when she has to do her homework for real, whether that happy smile of hers would still be on her face, and for that matter, on ma ma's face? If past trends from other kids and myself is of any reference, the future picture is likely to be G at the table, with tears rolling down her face, and ma ma standing behind her, folding her arms with a duster in her hands. We shall see. :-)

Christmas Party @ Glendale

2008-12-31T19:13:00.000+08:00

A month after G learnt to say "party", we brought the party to our home. San invited her friends and their kids to come over for a Christmas Party. There were plenty of gifts, foods, kids and din. In fact, our place in Glendale Park has never had so many people packed in at any one time. And you can see G gleefully holding on to her gift in the picture.

Grumbling G

2008-12-24T09:04:00.001+08:00

"Ma ma! I don't like to exercise! I don't want to take part in vertical marathon! Why can't I spend Saturday mornings lazing around on my bed? Why do you have to drag me to a park? Can't you see that I rather be sleeping right now? ..."

G paying respect to dad during Dong Zhi (冬至)

2008-12-24T08:56:00.001+08:00

Dong Zhi (冬至) is a time in the Chinese calendar that marks the extreme of the winter season, when the night is the longest in the year. Dad's name carried the word Dong (冬) because he was born around this time of the year.

Dong Zhi is also a time for family reunions done over a bowl of tang yuan (汤圆). This is also a popular day for families to pay respect to members of the family that have passed on. Mother-in-law did all the preparations - getting the tang yuan ready, bought the offerings, and even acquired a small, portable table that we can bring to the columbarium.

By now, G's vocabulary has increased leaps and bounds. She was able to say "爷爷，吃！"! I can imagine dad smiling ear to ear if he were alive.

G learning A-B-C

2008-12-13T16:44:00.004+08:00

This is G's second computer lesson. The equivalent of 'Hello world' in the toddler's world is A-B-C. And there she is, doing her 'A-B-C' to the pace of the website :-)

G's first computer lesson!

2008-12-12T11:18:00.002+08:00

You might have seen pictures of G typing furiously away on the keyboard to update her blog, but that doesn't mean she doesn't enjoy some simple, entry level computer lessons. Here she is, taking her first computer lesson to learn to pronounce "apple".

Naughty face G

2008-12-10T11:56:00.000+08:00

G has become professional at making faces. :)

G's rendition of 甜蜜蜜

2008-12-07T21:26:00.006+08:00

Although G is not yet two years old, this doesn't mean she can't enjoy a song that's at least two decades old - 甜蜜蜜, sang by Teresa Teng (邓丽君). This is of course the works of her grandma - who sings this song daily when she put G to her nap.

And so here it is, G's rendition of the classic, recorded with mom during the car ride to dinner this evening.

PS: This reminds me of the Lexus ad a few years ago that featured the silence in Lexus' cabin by showing a guitar artist recording a live performance in the car while it was moving. The quality of the G's clip, however, was made on a Nokia E51 in a Suzuki Grand Vitara, and edited with Audacity. Not too bad for the price, eh? :-)

Keeping warm in mom's arms

2008-11-28T17:40:00.001+08:00

What better place to keep warm in the icy winds of Eagle Point, Australia, than in mom's arms? :-)

Cheeky Face

2008-11-28T16:57:00.004+08:00

We missed out this photo. It was taken together with heaps of other photos, earlier this year, when we took G to Australia, her very first long trip. Was looking back at some of those photos and found this, her signature cheeky look.

As you can see, papa actually video-ed the trip. But nobody has any idea what was in the video as it was never muvee-ed.

KBox

2008-11-24T11:17:00.006+08:00

There are limited activites over at Grandma's place; eat, sleep, marketing, and karaoke-ing. G has obviously picked this up from Grandma, whenever she's in the mood, she'll hold a microphone-looking stick and pretend she's singing. She'll even pass it over to you when she wants you to sing! :)

Checkout G in her latest MTV: Singing in a box! :)

Video from the past - first few steps

2008-11-13T19:15:00.003+08:00

G is a late-starter when it comes to walking. This video was taken on 31 July 2008, when she was around 16 months old. She was barely walking and her legs were still shaky. Precious video of her first few steps!

G wearing mom's shoes!

2008-10-30T14:25:00.003+08:00

Mom's office is at Shenton Way, mine is at Middle Road, and G's is at Ghim Moh, where grandma lives. Every morning G will give grandma a call to let her know that she's reporting to work, and that she will be expecting grandma to be waiting for her at the void deck with her stroller. This morning, G decided to hijack ma ma's shoes before the call. Ma ma then complained to grandma, but that doesn't bother G a bit!

G Loves the Beach

2008-10-24T00:21:00.001+08:00

This is the 1st time G plays on the beach. Prior to this there was a
mini-trial at the West Coast Park sand patch, where G ended up eating
sand. But this time in Koh Samui, G played with sand and sea. She
simply loves it! Initially she was carefully feeling around the new
texture and the salt water. Soon after, she played creatively with her
spade and bucket, allowing herself to be buried in the sand and water.
It's a simple pleasure just sitting by her watching her discover the
beauty of nature. :)

Tasting coconuts

2008-10-23T07:50:00.000+08:00

G has reached an age that she imitates everything the adults do. San and I ordered a coconut at our dinner, and before you know it, she was reaching for the straws to try out the taste for herself.

Struggling with buttons!

2008-10-22T22:34:00.000+08:00

G has always had great facination with buckles, buttons, and all kind of two-piece attachment devices. She can spend a long time fiddling with these items until they come together. This is G struggling to button up her own nightie after the shower.

Playing in the resort pool

2008-10-22T22:26:00.000+08:00

Zarzen Resort is a really beautiful place. The pool at the resort is not big, but is very clean and well maintained. G loves to play in the water. She explores the pool just like how she explores the rest of the world - she tried to find out how it tasted by sipping water from the pool, and then she tried to take a look at it better by trying to get her head underwater! And you can imagine how hard it is when it is time to drag her out of the pool to go for dinner!

G wears her own shoes!

2008-10-22T22:18:00.000+08:00

Without any adult supervision, G decided to learn to put on her own shoes, to get ready to explore the world on her own. The intent was valiant, but the execution comes up slightly short - this was how she put them on ...

Conversation with G!

2008-10-18T14:59:00.013+08:00

At nineteen months old, G is starting to blabber. She has a vocabulary of about two dozen words. Top of the list are those that are related to survival needs - such as 'Mum!", for food, and then follow by those that earns her brownie points, such as 'Ma' (mom), 'Pa pa' (dad), 'Por Por' (maternal grandma), 'Nai Nai' (paternal grandma), and 'Ker' (short for uncle). Lastly are those things that interests her, such as 'Poot Poot Chey' (motorcycle). In this short conversation with her, she showcased some of her verbal skills, or the lack off.

Setting off for Koh Samui!

2008-10-17T21:26:00.000+08:00

San and I first visited Koh Samui in 1996, when it was still a place mostly visited by backpackers. The friendly Thais, the laid back lifestyle, the beautiful beaches, and above all, the great Thai food left a strong impression in us. Subsequently we returned several times: once with Yeow Chong and Tan Fong via a flight to Hadyai, and then we drove there with them, in our red Suzuki Jimny, named SLRC (Snoopy, the Little Red Car); and also another time just San and I in SLRC. And then I with Motovarsiti fellas on our motorcycles. This time, it's with the new family member, G!

Now that direct flights are available via Bangkok Airways, it's easier for us to take G there. Tickets worked out to be SGD500+ per adult, and SGD79 for G. San did a lot of research on the place to stay, and we finally settled on Zazen Resort. We've found that one of the best place to get Koh Samui's lodging price is Late Stays. The resort is located on the northern part of the island, and the garden villas looked like a good place to spend a week with the little one. We spent two days packing two pieces of luggage, full of stuffs for G. At 19 months, San feels that G is not ready for outside food, and certainly not the spicy ones in Thailand. So, we packed in the kitchen - from hot plates, vacuum flasks, knife to chopping board. And then tonnes of diapers, G's books, thermeters, etc etc. For all the gory details about packing for a trip, see San's SG Mother's blog.

The pictures here were taken on Day 1, ie 4 December. Koh Samui - here we come again!

A trip to the park

2008-08-27T21:09:00.004+08:00

The weather was beautiful, and the little feet were eager to walk, so we took G for a stroll at the Bt. Batok Natural Park. How not to carry the wonderful Fujifilm Instax 200 with me to capture the day on instant films?

There's always something very special about pictures taken on instant films. For one, it is the only singular, authoritative copy of that special moment - a copy that you can't reproduce easily. Secondly, the distinct rich color tones of the instant films. And lastly, the wonderful perspective and depth-of-field of the 95mm lens. The art of analog picture taking is so beautiful, and I hope the art will continue to thrive in this day of digital cameras and Photoshop manipulations.

A family portrait

2008-08-26T23:57:00.000+08:00

Every family needs a family portrait, and here's one - clothings proudly sponsored by my brother, Lo Shuan!

Ma Ma's effort to document all childcare knowledge

2008-08-26T23:36:00.003+08:00

So ma ma got really serious about bringing up a baby. She started reading furiously when G was 1 cm long, and now that G is coming to near 18 months old and 75 cm long - she has enough knowledge in her head to qualify for a minor in child care. It's really hard to keep all this knowledge to oneself, so she has decided to document everything she knows on a blog. If any of you is going to have a kid and wanted an executive summary, or if you are taking care of a kid, and wants a second opinion, or if you had a kid long time ago, and just want to relieve all the joys and pains - check out her blog: http://sgmothers.blogspot.com.

G in her girlie dress!

2008-08-20T23:58:00.000+08:00

G has always look like a little boy since young. So, we've decided to correct that, and put her in a little dress.

Anyone else blind enough to mistaken her for a boy again? :-)

A little kiss from G to mom

2008-08-19T22:29:00.000+08:00

The magical and innocent kiss that G gave mom made all that late nights, diaper change, exhaustion, and everything irrational about having a child seemed all worth the sacrifice. A little too wet and slippery to the extend of being a little disgusting, because G is still drooling due to teething, but nonetheless it never failed to put a big smile on mom's face after that :-)

What do I want to be when I grow up?

2008-08-17T00:14:00.000+08:00

hmm....... a developer perhaps? Redmond anyone? :)

G paying her respect to grand dad

2008-08-16T16:35:00.000+08:00

It's seventh lunar month, and it's time that we spend some time remembering those that has passed. For the first time, she calls out 'ye-ye' (grandfather)!

Simple joys in life

2008-08-15T18:13:00.001+08:00

Such is the simple joys in life - like G having hell a lot of fun taking a bath in a bucket!

Chatting on the phone

2008-07-17T16:22:00.001+08:00

G has some serious business on the phone. Just look at her expression.

G teaching Mama Tricks

2008-07-17T16:19:00.000+08:00

G is so expert in pouting that she goes around teaching the trick to everyone, including mama.

Young Driver

2008-06-02T23:21:00.000+08:00

I clearly remember when my parent asked me what I want to be when I grow up, I said I wanted to be a taxi driver. Driving around in a car was the coolest thing on earth - this whole thing about turning the wheels, shifting the gears, getting to places ... those were such manly things.

And clearly, G shares my aspirations.

Dad, can you do something about my hair?

2008-06-02T23:14:00.000+08:00

"Can someone do something about my messy hair ...."

G's ONE!

2008-04-02T00:05:00.002+08:00

G has finally reached the milestone; she'd turned ONE! It has been a really eventful year watching her develop. The very basic things that we all take for granted has to be practised, adjusted, adapted and perfected. It is amazing looking back when G can't even release the biscuit from inside her grip to her mouth properly, to the current constant shouting of "MOOOM" indicating that she wants food!

What's next? :)

Who Says Funny Face only comes from Mama?

2008-03-18T16:56:00.000+08:00

Not too long ago, G's papa posted a blog that claims G's funny face came from the mom. Well, for all the objective readers out there, please see for yourself. :P

Second generation of friends

2008-03-03T00:23:00.000+08:00

How long can friendships last? Maybe across generations - here's Victor and Tong Guan's kids taking a walk in the park hand in hand.

Meeting of the Geeks (and their families)

2008-03-03T00:14:00.000+08:00

I got to know Victor and Tong Guan back in the days when we were colleagues in ISS. Back in those days, ISS was the coolest applied research centre in Singapore. It was filled with very cool people (like us), located at probably the most beautiful corner in the NUS campus. It was the kind of place that made one looked intellectual. Then the bi-annual top level reorganization started, and we all left for other cool places soon after. We made up for the geeky interactions that we used to have in the campus at various restaurants downtown. Latest technology trends compared, newest toys bragged, and hottest gossips exchanged. Such meeting was beginning to get harder to come by as families were formed, and jobs were changed. Victor and Tong Guan relocated to Melbourne, and since then, meeting of the round belly knights can only occur when one of them happened to be in Singapore.

This time round, I've decided to catch them in Melbourne instead. I don't know why it felt so good to catch old friends - maybe its because they helped you to relive all the good old days; or maybe it's the indescribable warmth you feel in your heart when you see them.

With our kids and spouses around us, geeky chat was hard to come by, but we did manage to squeeze in a quick comparison of GPS and PDA phone; and we also idenitifed some of the new toys that each of us was eyeing. When we get to meet the next time, we will compare notes on the toys that we said we were going to buy, and then list the next set of tech toys that we will each set out to buy. The agendas for geeks' meeting is always the same. :-)

Like mother like daughter

2008-03-01T23:37:00.000+08:00

Lately friends have remarked that G is taking on all my (good) looks. But comm'on, take a look at this picture - all her cheekiness comes from her mom!

Peeping G

2008-03-01T23:34:00.000+08:00

Here's G playing with me in the kitchen. This was taken on 16 January 2008, about 1.5 weeks before we left for Melbourne.

Can this pair of hands play piano?

2008-02-26T16:10:00.001+08:00

They all say we put our hopes in the next generations. As parents we always regretted what we're inadequate of and hoped that G will make up in some ways. Playing piano has been both our passion, yet we joked about our lack of talent everytime (and of course the lack of discipline and practise!).

Really wish G will take up piano some day. But checkout her little stubby hands. Can she reach 1 octave? :)

Food! Food! Food!

2008-02-24T00:05:00.000+08:00

After the red eye flight, we were both tired. It didn't help when G slept very little, and that kept San mostly awake throughout the flight. Along with her were of course the extremely irritated exit row passengers whom G decided to wake them up with her cries. For me, I really want to hit the bed to have a good nap, just like G. But this was the beginning of the showing of the true colors of a dedicated mother - heading to High Point Shopping Center to buy fresh food, so that G could have her porridge the next day. In the subsequent days, San just shown herself to be longer lasting than Energizer bunnies when it came to dealing with G. So she was fully derserving as the first person G learnt to call when she cried "mom!" some time later during the trip.

More on Planning

2008-02-17T23:37:00.004+08:00

As you'd seen in the previous blog, planning for the logistics was a major task by itself.

1st you need to be prepared with the general stuffs:
Level1:
1.1 eat
1.2 shit (yes we brought a potty!)
1.3 clean
1.4 sleep

Then you need to go into the details, whether you can locate the stuffs locally? Or should you bring over from Singapore? Will those things pass the infamous Australian custom's stringent checks? Do you need to bring a grinder to mash up the brown rice? Where can you cook? If you get a place with a kitchen, do they come with a knife? And chopping board (yes, we brought a chopping board too!)? And perhaps pots (we brought a rice cooker that can double up as a pot if needed)? What if they don't? Where do I feed (and yet be able to see the country?)? Can we find Pampers in Australia? What if G developed rashes with a local brand diaper? --- I think you get the point by now, how much logistics planning we'd done. :)

Beyond the regular items, we'd also need to consider the uncertainties such as weather change, falling sick etc.

It doesn't help when friends and colleagues add to the horror stories of their previous trips with their monsters... However, being incorrigibly optimistic, we were convinced that none of these can stop us from attempting the trip. If it doesn't workout, then we just have to cut short the trip; or probably seek refuge in 1 place and smell the fresh air for 3 weeks! Worst case, we always have FRIENDS in Melbourne who'll be certain to extend their hands, by force if we need to! ha ha!

If you set your expectation that low (of not seeing anything), anything else will be a bonus, right? :)

Setting off for G's first long vacation

2008-02-17T21:55:00.001+08:00

San and I haven't had a long vacation for the last one and a half years - you can say it was all G's fault! So, we were looking forward to a long break when G's old enough to travel. The airline says any baby older than 48 hours is fit to travel. But that's just one of many issues you had to consider when you take a baby out. For example, how much patience do you have on the plane if the baby broke out in non-stop screaming sessions? And how fierce are your eyes that you can stare down all the frustrated folks sitting around you that couldn't get any sleep because of the wailing monster? And what about her food? What about the 2-3 sets of cloths that she needs through everday, because she spit on one, shit on one, and needed another for her sleep? Medication? Food? In any case, we thought G and we would be ready by the time she was 10 months old. So, we set the dates of our vacation to be from 26 January to 13 Feb - a good two and a half weeks.

Just so that we can document the things we've considered before we decided on the destination: firstly, flight time - we needed to deal with a potentially diasterous wailing baby, and the potential ugly scene with fellow angry passengers on the plane. We thought 7-8 hours was the longest flight time that we could manage. Then we considered the weather - being the tropical parents that we are, we would have probably taking care of ourselves in the winter, let along adding a baby to it. So, any place in the northern hemisphere is out. Then we had to consider the kind of vacation - with all her gears, it would be easier to do a driving holiday, so that we can haul all her stuffs in a car. As such, it would be a place that's easy to do a driving - in another words, you don't have to battle insane traffic and blood-thirsty drivers. That took out India and many other Asian countries.

So after applying all the constraints, the destination was kind of easy - Melbourne. To rehearse the logistics, we even made a trip to K.L to check that we have got all the details work out. That was a worthwhile effort - we had her passport made, brought the rice cooker, her whole grain rice, tonnes of cloths, diapers, creams, stroller, carrying harness, toys, and even her potty, but we forgot about the blip. Alright, and so we packed in the blip and on 26 January, we set off for Melbourne. It was a significant trip - for this was going to be the first vacation that would not be just about San and I. It was to be a vacation that we slogged everyday and sight-see very little. And this was going to be the first time I'm going to spend 18 days straight with G with no relief provided by the mother-in-law. San and I had no idea what we were in for - and I think neither did G. But it was fun, a whole lot of fun!

Hello, Da-Hong (大红)!

2008-02-15T00:52:00.001+08:00

Ok, so since the day when San bought her first car, the Suzuki Jimny, she has been secretly eyeing the Grand Vitara. Bought during the days when Singaporeans were pushing the Certificate Of Entitlements to SGD40,000, the Grand Vitara was a dream. The Jimny was still a rock solid buy - it was San's first car, and the little 1.3 litre engine took us to Thailand several times, and left us with so much great memories of road trips that San and I still talked about today. And after some 100k over km's of travelling, the only time it left us stranded was when the fuel sensor gave way. It merely cost us SGD70 to have it replaced. Everytime we see a Jimny on the road in Singapore, or abroad, our minds still gets flooded with all those good memories the car gave us. May gave our red Jimny her name: Xiao Hong (小红).

Then in 2004, we decided to try something more mainstream - we bought a red Honda Jazz. This time the little four door hatchback again took us all over Singapore and Malaysia. With the disturbances in Southern Thailand emerging over the last few years, the little red Jazz never had the chance to roll into Thailand. We called our second red car Ah Hong (阿红). It is still a solid and reliable car, but it never had the fun and adventure feeling that we had with the Jimny.

Finally in late 2007, when car prices fell enough, we pooled our savings and bought the car that has always caught our eyes - the Grand Vitara. We really wanted a manual version, but the local dealer didn't think any sane Singapore driver would want to get one, and refused to get one in. Then we also wanted a bright red - luckily the dealer relented on this, and agreed to allow us to indent one from Japan. It took some 3-4 months and it finally arrived on the day before we left for Australia - 25 Jan. This is our third red car - and she's called Da Hong (大红), carrying the fine family tradition in her name and color. We took the picture with the great salesperson we met at Champion Motors, Elynn. We went to drool at the Grand Vitara so many times in the showroom. In fact, the first time we met Elynn, G was still cuddling warmly in San's tummy! Elynn has been most helpful, and we highly recommend her if you ever decide to get a Suzuki.

And here it is, finally, our dream car. In the years ahead, we hope it will bring tonnes of joy, fun, and adventure above and beyond what Xiao Hong has given us.

G's two faces

2008-01-09T06:22:00.000+08:00

Here are the two faces of G - one of a sweet sleeping angel, and one an angry little devil. It's funny how adults are usually sleep deprived and the kids sleep adversed. G fights sleep with all her might, till the last bit of strength is drained. Then like a flicking a light bulb switch, she drops into deep sleep.

Then dad and mom can finally have some time to themselves.

G's New Trick!

2008-01-08T21:27:00.000+08:00

Alright, so G has learnt a new trick - buzzing her lips. She buzzes whenever she's happy, and she always very happy during feeding time. The result, food gets splattered all over her, over mommy, and all over the floor. So after the meal, she needs a change of clothes, and mommy needs a change of clothes, and the floor has to be mopped. The amount of overheads is no less than those of the royal family's.

G has a watch named after her!

2008-01-02T22:12:00.001+08:00

Well, G actually has a Casio watch series named after her! Now thats quite an achievement I must say! *proud father*

G's first overseas trip!

2008-01-02T21:42:00.000+08:00

There's a very good reason why we were sent to the army. Other than learning to swear in the most creative manner, the other important thing that you learnt in the army is logistics - the difficulty of planning, managing, and executing logistical support. All that 30 months of sweating comes in action when you have to take your kid out on an overseas holiday.

And we are not just talking about preparing a laundry list of stuffs to bring - we are talking about executing a precision operation like how the army does it - starts with a dry run. And that's what we did. We are planning to take G with us for a holiday in Melbourne from 26 Jan - 13 Feb. And to prepare for it, we actually go on a smaller scale dry with to Kuala Lumpur for a weekend. This was so that we can test the logistical support - rice cooker, potty, cloths, diapers, spoon, stroller, baby seat, etc etc.

All that hardwork went, of course, unnoticed by G. She just enjoyed herself in the luxury room of the Le Meridian with her room service.

G got trapped!

2007-11-25T22:15:00.000+08:00

On this fine Sunday morning, I got up before G, thinking that I could have some personal time for myself. Then shortly after, San asked me to go into the bedroom - and there G was - trapped between the mattress and the wall! She struggled to get out but couldn't - the sight of her was hilarous!

And G made our day :-)

Meal time!

2007-11-18T15:40:00.000+08:00

So the time has come - G is now seven months old, and she has a set of solid good four teeth. She has been hinting to us to put her teeth to good use by biting everything that comes into her sight, often that means my arm and fingers.

Ok, so let the solid food begin! During the weekdays, grandma prepares for her one meal a day, which is fish-brown-rice porridge, cooked in pork bone broth. In the weekends, San has to get to get up in the morning to prepare her meal, while I take the little monster for a bath. Then come lunch time is the messy affair, a war between the patient mom and the playful kid. Eating, chewing, biting, you name it. Everything to wear out the mom by the end of it. :-)

G's going to have her own passport!

2007-11-18T15:28:00.000+08:00

Ho ho ho ... G's going to have her own passport, and here's the picture we are using for it!

Yeow Chong and family took Ah Boy with us for a trip to K.L when Ah Boy was only 6 months old. Now G has crossed her seventh month, and has yet to cross the Causeway yet. This is a serious issue that should be corrected. But first, she needs to get her own passport. But before that, she'll need a photo that she can use for the application. So one weekend we took out the camera and tripod, waited for the sun to get to a good spot, then put the camera on the tripod and G on her Bumbo chair, and then we snapped away. After a whole dozen of shots, we chose this one.

Take a look at the picture, and you'll know why people always congratulate San and I for a really lovely son. But ... G is for G-I-R-L!

My dad says: "So long, and thanks for all the fish!" - Part 2

2007-10-20T16:02:00.000+08:00

This picture was taken shortly after my dad came back to prepare for the surgery. Here you are, three generations of Pigs, each exactly 3 cycles of 12 years apart.

When dad passed away suddenly, friends from the company overwhelmed me with support and compassion. In moments of stress, frustration, and grief, the sight of friends standing up next to you gives so much strength and comfort. One literally feels a warm spring overflowing in the heart.

After the funeral, I sent the following tribute to my dad to my friends in the company:

"Hi, Guys,

I’d just like to drop a few words to thank you guys for all the support and kind words rendered to me during my dad's passing. As my dad did not have many relatives and friends in Singapore, our family didn't expect many people to turn up at the wake - so I booked the smallest room, and cancelled the buffet dinner. But the turnout from muvee was overwhelming, and I can't say how much my family and I were touched. I wish I had spent more time with everyone of you - I'd like to apologise to those that I failed to come by to have a word with.

In many ways, my dad has always been a step of me. I remember when I told him that more RAM made the laptop runs faster, and soon after he had a laptop running with more RAM than the one muvee issued to me. I told him that Vista was the OS to wait for before upgrading his already better-than-mine laptop, and he had a brand new HP laptop running Vista before the IT Ops guys installed Vista on mine. He had so much fun with muvee autoProducer that came with the laptop, and asked me if muvee employees' family members can get a free product key! I asked him to look for the LG Shine clone phone in China, and two weeks later he told me that he couldn't find the clone, but the real one is really great - because he already got himself one. Just about two weeks ago, I remembered chatting with someone in muvee that the way I want to die is to have an unexpected massive stroke that knocked me out before I knew what was happening.

Again, my dad stole the show and did just that.

The death of a close family member will make you think more about life, and the people around you. It also brings about the regret that there were more things that you could have said and done. But the truth is that no matter how much you've done, there's always a sense that you could have done even more. So I don't suggest you do the American talk show's touchy feely thing of picking up the phone to call your parents, who might just be making payments at the NTUC cashier, and tell them in tears how much you love them, when all they need to do then is to remember to clock in the NTUC points for the year-end rebate; but to keep in mind to sprinkle some kind words and deeds to them once in a while. For these actions add to the pleasant memories you have of them, and also of yourself, after their passing.

Once again, guys, thank you all - many of you have spent your time with me during two of the most important events in one's life - the birth of the first child, and the passing of my dad - all within a year. If you are believer in fate, then ours are really messily entangled together.

ls"