En's New Build-A-Bear Bear : Jun-12

the bear ..

It was at the second prep session for our WDFD at member's home.  After the session ended, Angie asked me to pick up something from her car.  It came in a box in the shape of a house and I recognized it immediately!  It was not too long ago that Xuan and Qi were rather crazy over this and Mummy even indulged them in it by making them build a piggy to be given to their at-that-time yet-born baby sister.. (^_^)

Mummy is gone for two years and we have never built a toy for En.. But that day, Angie passed me a bear and said Georgia had built it for Enen.  That was really so sweet..  And En was really delighted at her unexpected new toy!

Below showed En saying Thank You to both Angie and Georgia..  Well, she was so soft at the very first vid that we simply had to do it again.  It is true that the first take is always the most natural one, hence even though it's hardly audible, it was a delight to watch.. (hehee.. that's but a mummy's point of view!)

Qiqi first rhythmic gym competition : Jun-12

After a few months of preparation, Qiqi finally went for her first experience in a gym competition.  The competition was held at Bishan sports hall, fully air-conditioned and well equipped with the gym facilities.  There were closed to 20 competitors under Qiqi's category, many whom seemed to have contested several times.  Qiqi appeared pretty nervous maybe because of the lack of continuous practice due to the Shanghai trip and the renovation closure of Bishan sports hall in May.  Nevertheless, the entire Koh and Oh family Clans were there to support her!  She performed three routines, beginning from string, ball and then ribbon.  Every family member cheered and encouraged her every moment they could find.

It was the experience which was valuable in this event, and more importantly we felt Qiqi had tried her best under the circumstances.  We will be looking forward to more from Qiqi in future, I am sure. :)

PD's Maritime Museum Excursion : Jun-12

see my car on the left? first time i get such a near lot!

 It has been many years since PD went out.  I still remember that time to the Mozart museum, we had lots of fun!  Think Xuan was only in P1 then.. That was four good years ago!!

a picture right after the entrance; before duty begins

 For this excursion, our own SAs act as our lion cubs' guides and I was one of them.  To familiarize ourselves with our role, PDC even had additional tickets for all guides to visit the museum to recce the exhibits and place first under the guidance of the museum guides!

This turned out to be a mega project as response from the cubs was overwhelming.  There were two sessions for cubs from different parts of Singapore.  The guides and other on-duty SAs were encouraged to take on both sessions as we were rather short-handed after many SAs were required to chaperon our lively cubs to and from and at the kaikans where all the cubs gathered.

my booth.. the second stop by the 19th century maritime route

the largest attraction at my booth.. vietnamese water puppets!

All of us were given scripts for our respective booths.  The museum were rather very conservative with the information they shared with us.. which was rather strange as we thought the role of museums was to educate the public, hence they should be more willing to share those information on their exhibits.  Well, we can work with and within constraints, no sweat!

a picture with a royal water puppet?

 Some of the SAs were so on-the-ball that they even memorized their scripts and did further research in a short span of a week so as to be competent guides for our cubs!  Admirable!!

one of the colorful water puppets on display

But boy!  It was a really exhausting task.. just one single session, there were like endless classes!  And there were two sessions!!  Well, exhausting but most rewarding. (^_^)

excited cubs all over my booth ..

cubs staring hard at the projection display showing water puppetry

my indonesian neighbor aunty Grace hard at work explainin ..

see aunty Grace's cue card in her hand?  these mannequins in Indonesian garb look so life-like!!

BFFs & Ging Gang's Afternoon Out : Jun-12

L-R: Audrey, En, Nicole, Xuan, Adel

BFFs: Huili, Kristie, Nancy, Sharon & I.
GingGang: all of our kiddos
Being in PD for so long have made us staunch buddies.  We share not only PD ideas and materials, but 4D ones too.  Our June hols start off with a big bang with a PD event -- excursion with our lion cubs to MEMA.  Of course, preparation for the event started much earlier.  Almost immediately after MEMA, and before we get too near to the date of our next big event in June, our WDFD, we planned an outing with our young ones! (^_^)

L-R: ben, linus, isaac

 Nancy discovered a healthy karaoke joint at Katong Shopping Centre where you can bring your own food and drinks and sing to your hearts' content for about two hours.

SAHM buddies Nancy, Sharon, Huili and I of course have no problem for an afternoon outing; juz sufficient prior planning, but buddy Kristie actually took leave off her work to join us!  Among the five of us, we have thirteen kids in all, and that makes it eighteen of us.  However, a few of our elder kiddos have to return to school and Colin is still at childcare, hence only nine of them made it.

Hahaa.. karaoke did not seem to be the children's cup of tea, and they took a very long time to warm up to the mics despite our attempts to choose their songs.  Although the auntys sing our oldies most of the time, our children finally took to the mics when it was almost time to go home.  (:  Well, we had a most enjoyable time singing and yakking, and the kids also have a pretty good time bonding and exploring the entire complex!! (-_^)

Introduction to SGI : Jun-12

In preparation for the coming Men Division district meeting, I had re-cut a SGI video which introduces SGI, named "the Shared Humanity" to a shorter version and embeded Chinese subtitles in it. This video was very well done, covering almost everything a new member should know about SGI.

Celebrating Worker's Party success : Jun-12

Staying in an estate under the opposition party may be deemed as 'under-privileged'.  But in our estate, Hougang, which is under the Worker's Party for more than 20 years, residents do not seem to be bothered.  In fact, this creates good amount of excitement during each election and revitalize the community sense of belonging... to the opposite party.  Being the resident for close to 30 years, we can feel the sincere effort that the WP has incurred and also many evidences in making Hougang better. 

The bond within Hougang is especially strongly and often envy by many other people outside of the estate.  This May, there is another re-election in the estate... Shin Yang and myself are present at the coffeeshop which the WP supporters gather to celebrate the success (if elected).  There are thousands of residents and Singaporeans there, atmosphere is just electrifying.