School Holidays Part 3 – Johor Bahru Trip : Dec-12

Another planned trip was a short stay in JB and visit to the newly open Legoland and Hello Kitty, Sanrio land.

It was a scorching day when we arrived at Legoland as our first stop.  The place was packed with people, mainly kids and their family, rather than family and their kids… It was really a place for the kids.  Fortunately I had purchased the ticket online prior to the visit, the queue to buy the tickets was ridiculously long and would take an estimate of at least 2 hours if we did not have them purchased beforehand.

Judging from the number of patrons in the Legoland, I got a feeling that the management had oversold the tickets and overcrowded the park.  Each ride was at least 45 mins, we decided to give up after taking two of them.  The miniature lego world was impressive though, creating several countries with the art of the bricks.  Unluckily, It did not take too long for the sky to grant us showers in compensation of the hot weather, it was raining cats and dogs soon after we finished the miniature world.  We were forced to take shelters outside the lego shop for almost an hour as there were no covered walk ways, definitely an improvement opportunity for the park.  We had tried this place once at least and we doubt we would try it again.

Like every young kids, En’en was very excited about the idea of staying in a hotel.  The last few hotels we stayed had disappointed the kids a bit as there was no bathtub, so this time I took special attention in ensuring this hotel comes with one.  En’en was trilled seeing the bathtub, and suddenly loved bathing so much, such simple fun of playing with water.  Another bonus for the kids was the complimentary hotel breakfast buffet, a luxury experience I supposed.

We visited Hello Kitty land the following day, this time lesser people but smaller space.  The place was truly a kiddie palace, and for those Hello Kitty fans like Qiqi, they would be overwhelmed.

Overall, a good short break with lots of eating and shopping along with the kids stuffs. 

While I ‘envied’ that ways the kids are ‘pampered’ today, I do still cherish the carefree childhood I had undergone.  During those days, parents normally focused their time in meeting ends and did not really have time for their kids, not to say holidays.  I remembered my childhood playing simple and inexpensive things but still having similar fun if not, more than the kids nowadays.  Technology advancement and modernisation have definitely “rob” the simple ways of childhood happiness and “corrupt” the mindset of many adults and kids.   How nice it will be to sometimes just go back to the basics, living simple, that was the way our ancestor had kept our world protected and unpopulated for thousands of years, isn’t it?

School Holidays Part 2 - Garden by the bay : Dec-12

We planned to visit Garden by the Bay at MBS during this holiday along with Papa and Mama.  We started off by stopping by Macdonalds to give Papa and Mama an untypical breakfast which they seemed to enjoy as much as the kids.

We reached Garden by the Bay at about 10.30am and decided to visit the two iconic domes, Flower Dome and Cloud Forest.  We began with the Flower Dome.  When entered, I was instantly impressed by the majestic view of the artificial garden inside this fully air-conditioned dome.  We could even smell the fragrance emitted by the flowers and Qiqi even claimed she could smell the high level of oxygen!  The amount of flowers blossoming inside the dome were countless and of course, beautiful.  I was not sure how much man effort were incurred and needed to replace these flowers or do they really blossom naturally?  If it was the latter, it would be more admirable.

After the Flower Dome, we proceed to the Cloud Forest… this time it was an breath-taking man-made waterfall that greeted us at the entrance.  We spent a fair bit of time enjoying the view before moving on to the lift which took us to the top level.  Starting from the top, there was a long bridge which would bring you to the ground level and present you the journey of the various types of forestation.

At the end of the Flower Dome tour, there was also a room which exhibited how MBS had built this two domes to be environmentally friendly.  I just felt so ironic to believe that the amount of energy used to maintain these domes would be environmentally friendly or reduce any carbon footprints.  Xuan and I joked that this must be some tricks to divert some negative feedbacks from the tourists.

Nevertheless, the sceneries inside the domes were astonishing, we could not stop taking photos inside them…

School Holidays Part 1 – Un-cluttering : Dec-12

It is December holidays again and the usual children’s holiday planning in action… In this particular aspect, I sometimes wish I am a kid in this era where I will be pampered by my parents and have a series of holiday events planned out for me, then followed by my “assessment” on their performance in making my holidays enjoyable.

I took my 2-weeks of annual leave during this holiday period, but deliberately started it with a series of “miserable” un-cluttering activities in the house. I decided to make sure that the top two messiest corner of the house were cleaned before we moved on to enjoy the break; the storeroom and the study room.

I started off with the storeroom which was relatively simple to housekeep due to its size and usage. A good 4 hours got the job done – all by myself.

Then come the nightmare, the study room… although I had just painted the room last year, we did not really spend much time packing our stuffs. The whole room was filled with stuffs, some more than 10 years. You never realised how many things you had bought over the years until you started packing. There were ‘ton’s of colour pencils, markers, pencils, pens and all sorts of stationery discovered everywhere in the room. Shin Yang took several hours just to sort out and categorise them, and we could use them in the next 5 years, minimum. The amount of books and magazines we decided to discard was to an admirable size too, I estimated them to be at least more than 200 kg! Then, the toys, the computer wiring, the souvenirs displays… It took the entire family more than 2 days to finish the packing and cleaning.

With my own personal satisfaction in achieving these two un-cluttering objectives, I was ready to start our holidays!

Thoughts On Our D4, Looking Back 2012 : Dec-12

Time flies..  It is Victor's and my second December in this English District 4.  This is such a happy and delightful place, I think another word for it should be the Buddha Land! (^_^)

Nichiren Daishonin's Buddhism enables us to transform the place where we are now into a 'Land of Tranquil Light' and there construct a palace of happiness..

If you are courageous in faith,
there is nothing to fear,
for the entire world
is a Buddha land.

Indeed, District 4 is such a Buddha land!!  All our members have become or are becoming champions in faith, and thereby transformed our district into a Buddha land.  The next step forward should be to open our doors wide and for all of us to invite more of our friends and family into our Buddha land whereby we will all embrace and encourage one another to be victors in life, learning from our mentor of life, Ikeda Sensei.

As Ikeda Sensei says..
"The essence of faith is courage, is bravery.  As Mr Toda's disciple, I summoned all of my courage to fight back against the devils of sickness and death.  At the same time, I also chanted and exerted myself with the resolve to use the 'sharp sword' of faith to cut through all obstacles that might beset the Soka Gakkai and my mentor."
"I am sure Mr Toda would be amazed and delighted to see that I am still taking the lead for worldwide kosen-rufu in such good health and high spirits.  This is all a result of my selfless dedication to the shared struggle of mentor and disciple to realize kosen-rufu -- a struggle through which I have gained the benefit of 'prolonging my life through faith'."

I am extremely touched by this above paragraph.. I want to call myself a proud disciple of Ikeda Sensei.. but in order to do that, I must first win.. win in all aspects of my life..

** ** **

For the new year, together with all my district leaders and members, I want us to share and inspire and encourage one another, to truly seek out our mentor and advance together with him, for kosen-rufu, for world peace.  Starting from me, us, our home, our community..

Looking back at 2012, we seemed rather busy and eventful.. and Victor did a wonderful montage to help us recap.. (^_-)  I'm looking forward to an even more eventful and victorious 2013!!

Papa singing performance : Dec-12

This is probably one of the silliest moments in my life.  On a Sunday evening, the entire family set off to Pasir Ris East community centre to watch Papa performed in a singing exchange between Singapore and Malaysia seniors.  Papa was the 20^th singer lined up to perform a solo.  After waiting for more than an hour, Hong, Qiqi and myself dashed forward to the front row with our cameras to capture Papa’s performance.  Qiqi was in charge of taking photos while I would be taking video.  After taking almost the entire performance, I then realized that the record button was not pressed!  How embarrassing… and in the end, I managed to captured a few seconds of the ending and loads of explanation and excuses to give after that… Luckily enough, Hong still managed to capture in his iPhone, a bit dark but definitely better than me.

Present for Xuan and Zaan : Dec-12

A few months ago, Xuan was up to her mischief by letting the birds off their cages while we were not around.  End result ; the blue bird decided to take his leave and flew away, leaving Zaan (the white bird) all alone.  From observation, Zaan did not seems to be easy to get along with, always disturbing and attacking the other bird.  After leaving Zaan a period to ‘repend’ on why her partner decided to ‘leave’ her, I finally went and bought another partner to accompany Zaan.  This time, a yellowish-green budgie. 

Reaching home, Xuan was puzzled when I handled over her a plastic containing paper box.  She then realised later and was overjoyed with the surprise.  Just hope she will continue to take special care over her birds and adore them. She called her Toco.

Second district outing : Dec-12

We did our first district outing just before Kumari and Louis left for US, walking the southern bridges and I just realized we had forgotten to blog it.

For our second outing, we decided to try cycling the north-east park connector and have a picnic like the first time. The weather did not fail us as usual, providing us with the best cloudy sky suitable for cycling. Although the turn out was not as many as the first time, I think it was a right size for a cycling tour group. After meeting and selecting the desired bicycles from the bike rental kiosk at Punggol park, we started our journey.

Gathering at the Bike Rental Shop

The journey started off with a small accident when Xuan tripped and fell, suffering a bit of bruises on the hands and chin. Our caring members immediately sprung to help poor victim Xuan who was already sobbing like a baby. After cleansing the wounds and applying the plasters, I made a quick decision to return Xuan's bike so that she could continue the trip as my passenger.

Xuan injured hand

We continued our journey after a good 15mins break and headed up to our picnic destination. It was about 7km cycling before we finally reached our destination, many of us were happy and relieved especially Qiqi, who was constantly complaining like a broken recorder.

WD & YWD

MD & YMD

Our picnic place

The scenery around the Punggol waterway was quite captivating, particularly this tree on top of the hilltop which resembled the "rainforest production" logo. I did notice this tree when I was cycling alone one evening and had captured a nice shot at dusk. We settled down for picnic for more than half an hour, pampering ourselves with the fruits and food brought by everyone.

Previous scene captured for the tree

We finally made our way back to the bike shop and conclude our meaningful Sunday morning.

A special performance : Nov-12

Our November district discussion meeting was lifted to a climax by a very special performance by the WD and YWD . Believed it or not , it was the currently hottest "Gangnam style"!

Jurong Bird Park Trip : Nov-12

Another trip to Jurong Bird Park using the company pass, however this time without Qiqi as she had to attend the school open house.

We dropped by West Coast Mcdonald for a quick breakfast before heading to our destination.  Weather was cloudy, very suitable for such outings.

We started off our Bird Park tour with the famous Bird Park Show.  Adding on to the excitement, Xuan Xuan had volunteered to participate in one of the events which two beautiful toucans would fly from the stage to her open arms. 

En’en mimicking Qiqi’s famous flamingo pose

 

En’en particularly enjoyed the Lory Feeding area, where she could easily attract the birds near to her.  Not sure what the park did to the poor birds, they seemed to be very hungry.

We also took the tram this time and saved us a bit of walking.  Overall, it was a short and nice outing on a Saturday morning.