My birthday gift from Jiun & Florence : Dec-08

It was slightly more than an hour before my birthday arrived but Jiun & Florence couldn't wait to give me my birthday present. They kept us waiting in suspense for a while before inviting everyone into the room to present me my birthday gift! I was actually wondering what kinda of tricks they would be coming out with and was mentally preparing myself... however, hidden under the blanket, were 5 T-shirts for Shin Yang, Qiqi, Xuanxuan, Enen & myself... every T-shirt is specially designed with a cartoon character for each of our family member & printed in front and a cartoon of our entire family printed at the back! I was so impressed with the artworks and needless to say, overjoyed in receiving these gifts. Florence told us that she had asked a friend to design these cartoons via viewing our blog. Whoever the artist is, if he/she visits this blog again, here is a big "THANK YOU" to you! Another big "THANK YOU" to Jiun & Florence for their nice pleasant surprise, one of best gift i'd ever received.

PaPa's Birthday : Dec-08

Every year we will start a year's of events with papa-in-law birthday and wrap up a years' of events well with papa's birthday. This year is papa's 62th birthday. We went to a buffet dinner at Imperial Court restaurant@AMK ave 8 and then came back to cut the cake. En'en is starting to enjoy every birthday event we have in the family.

2008 - Yeye's birthday : Dec-2008

 This was nice that these moments were captured.

"Life Transformer" Program for Qiqi & Xuanxuan : Dec-08

One of the things we started doing this December is Spring Cleaning and one big nightmare is the gals' room. It is unbelievably messy, totally lack of discipline in cleaning up. So happen that there's this program showing in Channel8, "Life Transformer" which helps people in cleaning up their houses so that they could lead a better life, I relate this spring cleaning event of ours pretty similar to the program... :P

Update on PD Anniversary's Horsey : Dec-08

Remember the dear Horsey we created who majestically stood on the cake of our 15th Primary Division Anniversary celebration?

Well, with Aunty Nancy's help, he now stands proudly in the reception lobby of our HQ and has a new mission.. to usher in a Victorious 2009!

On Dec 7, 2008 (then)


On Dec 29, 2008 (now!)

En'en opening her first X'mas gifts : Dec-08

Last year X'mas, En'en was only 5 months old and too young to open up her presents... This year, she is old enough to enjoy receiving, opening and appreciating her presents.

Trey's Propose-To-Dorothy Project : Dec-08

Our dearest brother has finally decided that he wants to settle down, now he needs to persuade his sweetheart to settle down with him. To do that, he has embarked on a 'big-scale' project.


Take a look at what he did to get Dorothy to say yes.. ;)

Tung Tung, Our Little Friend from Hong Kong : Dec-08

If Cannes is akin to mummy's god-daughter, then Tungtung will be my god-niece and my girls' god-cousin if indeed there's such terminologies!! Tungtung came Singapore to visit with her parents and grandmother. How time flies, she is such a big girl now! The last time we met up was almost two and a half years ago.. but Qiqi and Xuanxuan wasted little time to re-acquaint themselves with an old friend. In a very short while, they were playing like they have been playing together all their lives! ;)

(2003 - Gals met up in Singapore) (2006 - Gals met up in Hong Kong) (2008 - Gals met up in Singapore)

Victor's Omamori Gohonzon Conferment : Dec-08

Victor has always had the good fortune to have a Gohonzon in his home since he was very young - his mum's and subsequently mine. Having become a district leader, he is now eligible to receive a pendant Gohonzon, and the opportunity to go through the Gohonzon conferment ceremony.

On December 21, Qiqi, Xuanxuan and I accompanied Victor to the Senja kaikan to receive his GHZ. That day happened to be also Ah Jia's angmoh birthday; she would have been 90 years old if she is still around. Ya, we went to sing Ah Jia a birthday song before we proceeded to the main hall for the ceremony.

Presenting you Victor receiving his GHZ.. :)

Hougang Sunshine Aunties Annual Pot Luck Party : Dec-08

Isn't this a wonderful spread? Sushi, fried chicken wings, popiah, fried beehoon, party sausages, curry chicken, roasted duck, otah, turkey, yam cake, grapes.. these were but the beginning of our feast! They were later joined by kelly's baked rice, yoon lee's special chilli bbq seafood, and sharon's swenson ice-cream cake and bird's nest longan almond jelly!! Unlimited flow of soft drinks and red wine too.. Mere reminiscing also caused me to salivate! Victor claimed to always look forward to this once-a-year gathering because the food is always very very yummy!! ;)

This is the Hougang SAs' annual family get-together at Aunty Kristie's house. According to Kristie, we had over 40 adults and more than 30 children dining and running around in her house! Fortunately for Kristie's very sound-proof walls, our din was very well-contained. Oh ya, something unexpected happened - a blackout! But all was under control and Uncle Poh Lai had the house lit up again pretty shortly.



What used to be purely a Hougang SA thingy has evolved tremendously over the last two years - formerly Hougang SAs have spread their wings to Serangoon and Ang Mo Kio while Hougang has continued to welcome new SAs. While our dear mother-hen Huili is now vice PD chief, and Kristie, Betty and Pauline continue to take care of the Hougang and Serangoon SAs, Kelly and Joanne who have shifted far from Hougang quite a while back have also decided to continue their PD dedication in Bukit Batok and Toa Payoh respectively. Furthermore, three veteran SAs have graduated this year - Yoon Lee, Agnes and Yean Fong.

Agnes and Yean Fong have graduated from PD together with their P6 lion cubs to become FD auntys; Yoon Lee will now fully focus her time & attention on her 4-division district as well as her two young boys.

Nevertheless, I am sure Kristie will invite all again to this gathering a year from now, and she will have no qualms about getting a bigger house even if it is merely to host this once-a-year get-together for all of us! ;)

What can occupy En'en : Dec-08

We were shopping at Parkway Parade and nothing seemed to be able to make En'en still and at rest except for those kiddy rides available there. I actually spent more than an hour with her there, while Shin Yang & the gals could finally go and shop at ease.

2008 - Zoo Trip : Dec-21

 This was 13 years ago, see how the girls have grown now... time really flies

Visit to the Zoo : Dec-08

It's being a while since we last visited the Zoo as a family... the Zoo had changed quite a lot since, with many shades around, a well connected route and a few comfortable spots to rest and dine.

Life of Nichiren Daishonin : Dec-08

I am posting some pdf files about the life of Nichiren Daishonin which I think I had downloaded from the US SGI site some time ago (steal with pride :P)... They quite well written and presented.

Papa receiving award from Prime Minister : Dec-08

After serving in the grassroots for more than 40 years, Papa received a token of appreciation from our Prime Minister, Mr Lee Hsien Loong. For the past 42 years, Papa has been very active in the MacPherson area. Even up to now, he still helped out every Monday at the meet-the-people sessions translating into Mandarin the issues brought up by the elderly citizens who can only speak dialects.

Gone Fishing : Dec-08

Everytime when we drove past our nearby big "Long Kang", there were always many people there with their fishing rods. So this time, we decided to give it a shot and try our luck... We did not managed to catch any, probably not using the right bait and float... The uncle next to us who used prawns and float got 12 "Japanes" fishes before we left that place! I am sure we will catch something next time we're there again.

Kids' Kumpong : Dec-08

One main thing which the gals enjoy doing in Kids' Kumpong is to feed the fishes and animals in that place. Xuanxuan has always been very daring about feeding the Koi with her hands directly but Qiqi has yet to overcome this fear. This time Qiqi finally managed to overcome her fear and enjoy the feeding process entirely.

PD Anniversary : Dec-08

Joined the Deco comm this year for PDA and cake sub-comm. Our task was to construct a WOW! cake with a splendid white horse Toya, a main character in this year's drama - a white horse who could talk, grant wish and travel back in time.

Our white horsey did not come by easy, but Aunty Vivian, Aunty Nancy, Aunty Mary, Aunty Sharon, Aunty Kristie, Aunty Huili and I had a most enjoyable and memorable time constructing the Pegasus from scratch, and standing it proudly on the cake. The response from the hall when the cake was wheeled in was so tremendous that it definitely made it all worthwhile!



Our second prototype by Mummy Vivian who worked on it alone for many hours at home.. a cute little horsey no taller than Aunty Kristie's altar cabinet. It was from this horsey that gave us the confidence that if our paper is hard enough, horsey can definitely stand juz on its hind legs and tail, with wings spread wide. With this renewed confidence, we proceeded to construct the giant horsey..

Our final horsey as on the cake.. but still work-in-progress..

Finally a joined-together horsey.. although he still couldn't stand on his own, we were thrilled to see a dear horsey at last.. he was huge, we thought.. at least in Kristie's house. We really did not expect to see it so pony-like in the huge ICA hall on the actual day! The equally important CAKE and the VERY challenging wings..

After ensuring that Horsey is able to stand smartly on a neat piece of acrylic, he needed a coat of paint to hide the reinforcement masking tape all over his body..

Horsey shone a pearl white after an entire afternoon's hard work of painting by his mummys - body, hooves, tail. Vivian was still painstakingly pasting Horsey's mane and tail after putting on acrylic paint on his hoofs that very night.. Horsey mummys also put together the birthday cake, an equally important part of the final product. The day was Wednesday, 4 days before the cake was to make its appearance on Anniversary on Sunday. A full day's work continued on Thursday..

You know, Mummy Vivian suffered sleepless nights worrying about Horsey's wings; they were simply too heavy for him to hold for prolonged period. It was only after Mummy Mary reprinted and other Mummys cut, paste, put together a pair of lighter wings for Horsey, that Mummy Vivian managed catch up her sleep before Horsey's big day. Otherwise Horsey would have Panda Vivian as companion going up the stage!

Friday morning saw Mummy Nancy transporting Horsey to kaikan for a second time.. All of us were working on Saturday morning on our Horsey cake once again.. repairing the cake, touch up on Horsey, and put on his wings.. Fortunately Horsey only needed to appear on Sunday. We were able to work on him with lesser time pressure than the rest of the PDA team bustling around the kaikan on Saturday.

After Vivian set out to make Horsey's eyes bigger, there was no turning back.. Horsey's eyes juz became more and more mesmerizing.. with eyelashes & bling-bling.. many of us SAs were simply besotted by his charming eyes! ;)

Up to almost the last minute, the wings were a huge concern. All thanks to shoten zenjin Uncle Philip Poh who showed us how to tie Horsey's wings as an additional means to help him hold them up..

Rehearsing on how to put the cake onto the stage, we realized that nothing short of a grand entrance from the main door would do.. the cake simply could not be sneaked up onto the stage unknowingly! ;) The program was amended to fit the cake rolling down the aisle.. A rare Konica moment with Horsey on the ICA stage!

No matter how prepared we were for the Anniversary, thoughtful and creative Auntys would inevitably come up with ideas too precious to abandon.. juz like this impromptu carton box of scultured balloons for our graduating Auntys..

Proud SAs with the fruits of their labour..

Some touching and inspiring letters from our Hougang graduating lion cubs.. ok, a couple were not from Hougang.

Happy 15th Anniversary, Primary Division!!