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.

Shin Yang's Birthday : Oct-12

This year Shin Yang's birthday happened to fall on a Sunday and also coincident with our October discussion meeting.   We wanted to keep this event hush-hush and celebrate within the family after the meeting. However, our fellow comrades secretly prepared a birthday surprise for Shin Yang. After our meeting ended, Qiqi came out of the kitchen holding a lighted up cake. Everyone then started to sing the birthday song for shin yang. What a heart warming gesture! Shin yang was almost touched to tears.

Qiqi presenting birthday cake to her mummy

Happy Family

Our District group photo in October

Playing "Shakubuku Song" with our Ukulele

Our original plan celebration spot, at Papa'a place. Dor even helped to prepare a beautiful bouquet of flowers. So grateful to have such nice people around you, isn't it?

One big family

Shin Yang enjoying her moment

Another family shot

Shin Yang and her presents

Turning coins to bicycles : Oct-12

After dropping my daily unused coins into the wooden box for almost two years, it is time to 'harvest' the savings.  Initially my intention is to use the coins to upgrade our iPad, but after our fun time cycling at Punggol park, I changed my mind to 'exchange' them with two bicycles instead.  So there we have our new toys, a blue lady bike and a black mountain bike. 

GSK F1 Pitstop Challenge : Sep-12

It always feels great to be able to officially take some time-off during working hours to do something fun.  Another commemorating event for Jurong GSK 30th anniversary celebration is the F1 pit stop challenge.  GSK is the official sponsor for Mclaren, thus the company is able to bring in this Pit Stop training car for us to experience changing the F1 tyre during this F1 season.  Our entire department has signed up for this event with each team consisting of 3 members to change one tyre.  Although I am not a F1 fan and sometimes even condemns the F1 races being so environmentally unfriendly, I must say I am impressed with technology used in the F1 cars.  Each tyre weights about 14 kg and is secured with a big bolt… with one team member responsible for the bolt gun, one removing and one replacing the tyre, we are able to change one tyre in 4.5 seconds (only after 5 mins of briefing)! Apart from the pit stop challenge, the event organiser also brings in the F1 simulator for us to try driving in the Singapore F1 track, very nice experience without the deafening F1 noise.

 

Mad about Ukulele : Sep-12

I started playing a little bit of guitar since my college days, where I had always enjoyed strumming and singing together as  a group.  However, I did not go very far in mastering my guitar skills apart from some basic chords like G, C, F, Em, Am and D.  I would just give up in any chords which required me to press the entire 6 strings of the guitar as it would be too difficult for me to play any sound out of the chord.  Nevertheless, it was still fun to play music out of this instrument with my limited skills.

In our recent trip to Bangkok this September, I had bought a relatively cheap ukulele for the kids.  This guitar-like instrument comes with 4 strings instead of 6 and the size is at least 2 times smaller than a normal guitar.  In comparison to a guitar, it is easier to play and also much portable.  I had no experience about ukulele nor heard any ukulele music before.  But with the help of modern technology, Youtube and Iphone apps, we were able to watch tutorial classes and use applications for tuning and song chords.  This flame of learning this new toy “spread wildly” in the family, and everyone started to learn one or two of their favourite songs on the ukulele.  Just within two weeks, we added another 2 new ukuleles to meet the demand in the family!

Among us, Xuan seems to excel in playing this instrument, mainly due to her beautiful voice and ability to sing well while playing the ukulele.  During our recent farewell gathering for Kumari, she even presented the song “Safe and Sound” in front of a group of audience… very captivating, watch for yourself. :P

A drawing in return : Sep-12

Chinese culture possess a strong sense of returning favor and gifts among friends and relatives, but I guess this gesture is probably universal. When Xuan knew that Louis always had to travel for work in Bangkok, she drew a picture for Kumari on how she would miss him while he was away for work. Then, Louis in return, drew back a picture on how we would miss them when he and Kumari had gone back to the States. Very interesting…

Xuan's Drawing for Louis & Kumari

Louis Drawing in Return

Cycling at Punggol Park : Sep-12

Since Jiun and Keng taught Xuan to cycle, we had never gone cycling with her.  On a sunny Sunday, we decided to try out the newly opened bicycle rental shop at Punggol Park and went cycling.  We rented three bicycles, two mountain bikes and one lady bike with a seat behind for En'en.  With her newly acquired skill, Xuan was nervous on her bike.  She would tumble with people or other bikes closed to her.  It took a while before she finally seemed to be able to have better control, however, the sky suddenly turned dark and started pouring cats and dogs.  We were trapped under the highway about half an hour, before we gave up waiting and raced under the heavy rain back to the rental shop, everyone soaking wet... but fun.