En's SK Open House Again : May'12

En in classroom with their playground-homework display..  hers is ||

En's open house again.  The last time in March, Xuan and I were at the P5 camp, hence it was only Victor and Qi at her open house.  This time it was Xuan and my turn who were around to bring her as Qi has left for Shanghai, and Victor has just left for KL..

En pointing to her shoes.. her design for contribution to their class-shoeshop!

En was very proud to bring Xuan and I to her classroom!

Xuan was attracted to the creativity of some of the class displays!

What playground equipment do you make out from here?

Creative way to depict activities at the playground!!  hahaa.. this could be En's drawing too; they look the same!!

En's 自拍 with her best friend Samadrit

Yeeks! Errie look? Rik's eyes are so big & beautiful..

Psst.. without the constant urging-to-go by the pa, we spent a considerably longer time wandering around the classroom, looking at the displays and classwork done by the children during the past term.  En had fun time catching up and running around with her friends.  I also managed to chat up with her teachers and other parents.. (^_^)

En took a picture of another class playmate -- Raena

En's 自拍 with Raena.. naughty look?

a better version of En's 自拍 .. at least most of both faces seen!

Second Encounter With Abandoned Pet : May-12

a stranger calming husky & stopping his 'window shopping'

It was only days after we settled the abandoned bunny..  En and I strolled into Hougang Mall one day and to our surprise, a huge husky actually walked briskly past us from the back!!  It seemed to know exactly where to go, heading straight towards the Cotton On shop.

Husky was large and beautiful.. and En was so excited that she insisted on following it into the store.  Two elderly security guards followed the big doggie from a safe distance..  Upon closer look, husky was collarless and the two guards were trying to stop the dog from alarming more shoppers.  A kind Cotton On shopper immediately went forward to the dog to stop it in its tracks and calm it down.  She proceeded to request from the sales staff some water for the poor dog and asked the guards what did they want to do with the doggie.  Knowing that no one could hold the dog for any prolonged period, she even gave $20 for the guard to buy a leash from the petshop in basement 1!

Though En liked and even wanted to touch the husky, when it strolled past right in front of En, she was frightened out of her wits and cried!!  hahaa..

En and I left the mall shortly after but kept wondering what happened to the husky..

More than a week later when Xuan, En and I visited the mall and saw the uncle-guards again, Xuan offered to ask the uncles.  We were very relieved, happy in fact, to learn that husky was not an abandoned pet, but a wandering one.  It had simply walked out of its home and wandered into the mall.  Its owner picked up husky that very evening.  Nevertheless, lesson was not learnt and its owner came running to the mall the following day to search for its pet; this time husky did not come hougang mall..

Buddhist Entrance Exam Tutorial : May-12

This year, 2012, marks the 60th anniversary of the publication of the Gosho Zenshu (The Complete Writings of Nichiren Daishonin), and the SGI is holding Buddhist study examinations in 52 countries and territories around the world, including Singapore.  More than 150,000 SGI members are expected to sit for the exams!

Our district's response to the Entrance Exam was pretty good too - 12 in all!!  To such enthusiastic response from our eligible leaders and members, we have to support them all the way, to study the exam materials together with them and conduct the tutorial sessions!  Yee Lim was equally supportive and all four revision sessions, as we prefer to call it, were held in his home!

June 10, 2012 - the SSA Buddhist Study Examination for the Entrance Level was held.

Attentively looking at our visual aids as Vic explaining ..

Wow.. what a serious student !!

group 1's discussion during quiz: kumari, dionne & daryl

grp 2's discussion during quiz: kanish, sreya & kia

Replacing Our Air-con Units : May-12

then even our window grilles were removed !

After servicing us daily for more than 12 years, our split unit air-conditioner had finally decided to give way.  Its constant leakage of gas had made several nights in May almost unbearably warm.

With the kind help of our 4th uncle, we were fortunate to secure a second hand air-con which was much cheaper and still in excellent working condition.  On the day of installation, three air-con professionals spent a good four hours to put the new units up. I was impressed by their amazing skills, to perform such risky installation with ease and grace.

Qi's Immediate Post-Exam Project - Rainbow Cupcake : May-12

Among many of Qi's motivation to help her get over her mid-year examination, was "to bake rainbow cupcakes after the exam"!  Almost every other day, I would hear Qi rant about her rainbow cupcakes.  Although I did not find out what exactly is a rainbow cupcake, but as long as that kept Qi going during her exam period, I'm fine with her baking after the exam.

As it turned out, rainbow cupcakes are rather interesting albeit gross too.  Interesting and gross both because of its colors, they turned out really vibrant but did not look like food..  They taste pretty good though.

Box of rainbow cupcakes made @Bernice's home ..

the rainbow cupcake i dissected before devouring ..

Qi's second attempt @ah mah's place ..

Cross-section of her second attempted rainbow creation ..

Qiqi's Brush With Customs/Police : May-12

Upon return from Qi's first overseas trip alone, all of us including En'en and Ma-ma went to Changi Airport to receive her.  Qi's plane from Shanghai reached Singapore about 9+pm, and there were many parents and family members waiting for the children at the arrival hall in T3.

Alright, the monitor on top updated that Qi's plane has landed.  From a distance we saw Qi..  We thought it should be very soon that Qi would come out from the glass door with her luggage.  The "very soon" shot past 30 minutes..  We wondered what was taking her so loong??

A teacher who accompanied Qi's group to Shanghai came towards the thinning crowd of family members still waiting for the children to come out..  "Who's Boon Ki's parents?" she asked.  She informed the group who gathered around her that Boon Ki and three other boys were detained by the customs, who have called for the airport police to intervene.  These students were found with illegal weapons in the luggage - catapults bought from Shanghai on their last day.  The teachers had warned that it's illegal to bring catapults back to Singapore and told them to discard.  According to the teacher, obviously some of them did, but others like Qi and the other boys juz threw away the rubber band and kept the sticks.  Qi had declared her catapult and her luggage was being put under the x-ray..

The police took police statements with Qi and the boys.  They were given a very stern warning and told that should they commit the offense a second time, they will surely be punished.

It was midnight by the time we got home..  To think Qi was almost jailed!!

WDFD Part III - Invite Cards & Souvenirs : May-12

interior of our handmade cards to invite friends

First Prep Meeting -- Invite Cards ..

Last year I designed and printed the invite cards for all the districts in our chapter using MS Publisher.  This year I refused Angie's request to do the same as our home computers somehow no longer have MS Publisher.  Also, I would like to make use of the card making session as a bonding time for our district WD members.  I'm sure the other districts would benefit much from this bonding activity too.

My initial ideas for our handmade invitation cards were grand.. to make use of fabric or felt to create simple but pretty pictures on the front cover; or to make use of stock paper for layering to create elegant yet simple effects; or do a paper handicraft of a sun to suit our theme to become brilliant suns of the world..  Eventually, all these grand ideas, breakthrough ideas couldn't materialize because I simply have insufficient creativity, experience and resources to make them happen.  What turned out was juz a simple card, a patchwork of what I'm very experienced at -- bookmarks and cards.  The outcome was satisfactory enough.. though the entire process of conceptualizing this was stressful and truly agonizing!!

As planned, our district members met at Sam's home for our first WDFD prep meeting on a Sunday afternoon.  Those two days before were damn stressful for me as I couldn't decide what to do for this invite card.  Finally at the eleventh hour, I came out with the artwork for the four elements on the card and decided how the card should look.  Most fortunately for me, Hougang Mall has recently a new tenant, Xorex Press, which could print good, reliable color printouts on the spot quickly.  A trip to Xorex Press and Popular on Sunday morning relieved almost half of my anxiety and tension before this first prep meeting.  So lugging 4 sets of color printouts, 3 packets of maroon and gold card papers, 2 laminating machines, and lots of miscellaneous stationery and pens, I set off to our first prep meeting.

exterior of card, beautified by Mona's painting

At the first prep meeting, Mona showed me the picture she wanted to paint for the cover of our card.  Beautiful cherry blossoms!

buddhist god Nancy's creation of my WDFD souvenir prototype

sachets for rice beautifully sewn by Karen

final souvenir with En'en who insisted on taking picture with it

basket of souvenirs all ready to be given to attendees of WDFD

Second Prep Meeting -- Souvenirs ..

The souvenirs for last year's WDFD was provided by SHQ - an A3-sized 20-year calendar till 2030, SGI's 100th anniversary.  This year however, it's on our own, another source of stress and headache as I have to crack my head to think of something simple enough, functional, presentable, and involving group preparation.  Wow.. that's a tall list for me!! (-_-;;

After much surfing with Uncle Google, I finally decided on making a fragrant rice sachet.. that model I saw don't even required needle and thread; I juz got to glue the two square pieces of muslin fabric together!!  Sounds easy enough.. but what is muslin fabric and where can I get some pretty ones?  If can't find muslin, will normal fabric allow the fragrance from the rice to come out?  And where to get fabric glue??  Uncle Google was good enough but down to the specifics in Singapore, I need to speak to a pro!  That very morning immediately after I decided what to do, I called up Nancy who's the expert where it comes to craft and stuff; she sews her daughter's bags and purses, and hubby's keyboard carrier bag on top of baking own bread, logcakes and mooncakes among her many varied endeavours.

Nancy was really my buddhist god and such a angel.. the following day I met her at her home where she showed me how to make a fragrant rice sachet from scratch with her rice, lemongrass essential oil, rustic linen cloth and her sewing machine.  She taught me how to cut the cloth, stitch up the cloth patches with her sewing machine, mix the oil and rice, and finally hand-sew up the sachet.  In less than an hour and a half, I was ready to go chiong to make the souvenir with my WD members!!  What's more, she gave me her beautiful rustic linen cloth, equally rustic plain ribbon (as hook for the sachet) and all available ribbon labels to make 30 rice sachets for my WDFD..  Boy, I am so very touched!!  But that's not the end, that evening, she went to shop for more ribbon labels and even bought for me another roll..  Nancy is really such a godsend and my true blue buddhist god, isn't it?

As all those happened before our First Prep Meeting, I was able to show the prototype and cloth and ribbon labels to the district ladies.  Before the end of our card making session, Karen volunteered to sew up all the sachets with ribbon labels and plain ribbon as hooks!!  I didn't know she was such a accomplished seamstress that I even repeated everything Nancy had taught me to Karen..  Who knows, Karen completed sewing all 30 beautiful sachets in juz one afternoon, and even ironed them neatly before handing them to me at our yonsha rehearsal juz three days after our First Prep Meeting!!  Karen was so amazing..

hard at work puttin & sewing up lavender-fragrant rice into sachets

This was the gathering at Sreya's place, our Second Prep Meeting, where we slogged at our souvenirs and distributed our completed invite cards for us to invite our friends.

We found out that most of us couldn't sew so well.  Mona and Kumari were almost intoxicated by the strong french lavender essential we used to mix with our rice before we put them into the sachets and sew them up.  We really had a good time working and chatting!! (^_^)

thank u Nancy, for givin me idea for craftwork for WDFD

Additional Prep -- Craft Work ..

I had initially wanted to do away with the craft time, but realized that craft time also makes very good bonding time.. which comes in useful if we want our invited friends to feel comfortable and warm up quickly with us.

This craft idea came about after buddhist god Nancy (again) came across this on the internet and actually made one and posted it on her fb.  I became a sucker for its ingenuity and usefulness.

While bathing one evening, I stared at my empty shampoo bottle and realized that I could use that as well instead of juz getting J&J body lotion bottles!!  I became all excited once again and began my search for empty plastic bottles..  After getting the bottles, the next tedious task was to wash and clean them.

Sam & I performin transformation work with dangerous tools

totally transformed shampoo & shower gel bottles !!

As I was still trying to figure out exactly how to cut the bottles, Sam asked if I want to go over her place so that she can help me cut them together; she was on half day leave.  Boy, I am really so blessed so fortunate.. to have so many buddhist gods to give me helping and pushing hands juz when I most need it!!

Although we did not have time for craft time during our WDFD meeting, Sam and I had a wonderful time yakking and joking as slaughtered those plastic bottles!! :D

I am sure we could fit the craft time into our zadankai one day soon.. (-_^)

First Encounter With Abandoned Pet : May-12

It was a normal Wednesday evening where we had our dance training at Wai Kuen's home in preparation for our WDFD.  Hong was with us as the trainer and I brought Xuan and En along that night upon their request.

As Hong came out of Wai Kuen's home with the girls, I was curious to see them walking along the road with bent backs - they spotted a big beautiful rabbit and was following the rabbit as it wandered from the road to th and e nearby garden and back to the road again!!  Hong and the rest of us turned our heads all over to find which house had let its pet out but we saw nobody and nothing.

Gradually everyone left and it was only me and my carload of Mona, Xuan and En.  By then bunny had already wandered into the lane heading towards the main road (macpherson road).  "Bunny will really be run down by a car before the night is over.." i thought.  After Xuan agreed to hold on to Bunny on our way home, I went down the card to pick it up.  It was a lil' frightened but was very cooperative all the way home, staying very still and quiet.   It stayed in our bathroom for the next two days while we tried all means to locate its owner and racked our heads our what to feed it, short of buying the pellets from the petshop.  This is a really big rabbit, almost as big as a grown cat.  From what Xuan and Victor had described to their bunny-rearing friends, this is a Dutch bunny or of some Netherlands breed!

At the end of the second day, it seemed to have turned more aggressive, possibly because it hardly ate the food we gave it, and from what i read, bunnies usually have a voracious appetite having to snack throughout the day!  Anyway by then, Wai Kuen had identified its owner as her next door neighbour and that the grandmother there had deliberately let it out late that night with the intention of abandoning this poor rabbit!!

"Since I have brought this bunny home, it's only right that I bring it back".. with this thought in mind, after packing my stuff and all ready to head for my PD meeting that Saturday afternoon, I walked into the bathroom with the intention to bring bunny home before attending my meeting.  However, bunny was very hungry and in a very agitated state.  It even bit me on the arm!!  Boy, i got really scared..  In the end after chanting some daimoku and mustering some wisdom and courage, I lured it into my garbage enzyme bucket which came with a lid and brought it home to Wai Kuen's neighbour.

The girls (about Qi's age i suppose) were very excited and happy to see their pet bunny once again and nestled it in their arms as they thanked Wai Kuen and I for bring bunny home.  Later that evening, I received a message from Wai Kuen saying she saw bunny resting peacefully in its cage, fast asleep.  Haiz.. sincerely hope this bunny's adventure and the family's near-lost of their pet would give bunny an even cosier home than before.

Bunny was first sighted on the road ..

Bunny as we settled him in our kitchen bathroom ..

Bunny bit me on my arm .

In covered bucket in my car, goin home ..

Letting bunny some air ..

Full view of bunny in bucket ..

Qi's Contortionist Act Again : May-12

With Qiqi current size, it seems a bit scary to see her bend like a rubber.  Nevertheless, her flexibility is admirable and it is only achieved through lots of investment in stretching.

Smiley faces : May-12

Dear all, let me brighten your day with all more princesses smiling at you...

WDFD Part II - Indian Fusion Dance : May-12

This was the very first item on the WDFD agenda to be confirmed and placed in the safe hands of my capable brother.  I have seen how he worked with my lion cubs at last year's 2 PD camps as well as this year's P5 camp.  He is truly a committed and professional dance instructor, making all the dance training such fun and enjoyable sessions!!  All my WDs look forward to attending these 3 scheduled training sessions.

Out of our 11 WDs in the district, 7 of us actually performed together with our chapter WD leader, Angie, who had all the while been very supportive in our WDFD preparation.  The remaining 4 couldn't join us due to health issues and work schedule, although Ros did join us during our very first training.. (:

All of us so thoroughly enjoyed this dance that we accepted the invitation with no hesitation at all to perform at our July Chapter Prayer meeting too!

Life of Nichiren Daishonin : May-12

This year our district has 12 members/believers participating in the SSA Entrance Examination in June!  In preparation for their revision in the coming weeks, I started the first chapter and took me more than a day to complete the presentation slides.  So, here is the first chapter, the Life of Nichiren Daishonin... happy to share.