Chinese New Year Group Photographs : Feb-15

This Chinese New Year, I had make the deliberate effort to take my heavy DSLR along during our visiting and take some group photos.  The entire process was full of fun and also provided me an opportunity to enhance my photography and coordination skills.  It could be due to the fact that it was CNY, everyone seems very cooperative when I 'summon' them for a group photo.  It was filled with laughter and everyone was smiling their best for the shot.  Yet another unforgettable and memorable experience.

Encourage photography reward : Feb-15

Enjoying photography for many years, I had always kept it as a personal hobby and never really had any chance to officially shoot at any events.  With the help of Shin Yang, I had the good fortune last year to participate as a photographer in the SSA Youth Friendship for Peace.  It was an extremely rewarding experience although very tiring.  I had never shot so many pictures within two days in my entire life before, and was very lucky to be allocated at different locations for each show to capture different perspectives and angle. 

Despite the hard work, it felt nice to be able to contribute back to the organisation with the thing I enjoyed doing.  Even better, I was overjoyed when I found some pictures I took appeared in SSA times as well as our SGI website, simply priceless!

2 of the 3 photos posted were taken by me!

Another event picture taken by me.

Xuan got another Edusave Award : Feb-15

Moving into Secondary education, Xuan continued her diligent effort in study and did us proud again to obtain another Edusave award for her 2014 effort.

Something different from the past years, this year's award ceremony was held at the RC right below our block at a much smaller scale to cater for the convenience of the award receivers as well as their family members.  I thought was definitely better than the usual high profile annual "PAP campaign" and more importantly, much time was saved too.

In some way, this award did drive Xuan to work hard to get some yearly monetary reward but we hoped she will continue to strive for excellence with or without this little additional reward.  There will be more to receive in life when hard work is incurred, isn't this taught to us as human revolution? :-)

Studio fun during CNY at home : Feb-15

This year's CNY home party we did a similar fun last year, a photo studio for our guests.  This studio seemed to work very well for everyone and we took photos non-stop. 

I guessed many people would love to take a nice shot and capture moments with their love ones, this principle would not change and pretty everlasting...

Xuan's First Public Concert : Jan-15

It has been a year since Xuan entered Nan Chiau and to my un-expectation, joined the wind orchestra (aka band) and began playing the saxophone.

Her fondness of the wind orchestra, its members, her instrument, the music.. seemed to have increased little by little over the past one year. By the end of 2014, she was humming the music she played almost everyday!!

Once every two years, there is the SFY whereby all the various performing arts in schools would participate in a competition and be graded. Xuan's wind orchestra is also practising hard for the 2015 SYF since the December hols. Another motivation for their intense ice training was their annual concert, this time selling tickets and held publicly--at the Lee Foundation Theatre at NAFA. 

The entire orchestra was all thrilled with this public performance and they even custom-made new uniforms!! Xuan was so proud to be part of it.. In fact, she was also one of the few Sec 1s (as per 2014) to be selected to play the SYF pieces and the ensemble together with her seniors!!

 There were two sessions on performance day, 4pm and 7pm.  Thinking that there would be no difference, we bought tickets to attend the 4pm one..

the saxophonists.. look like chipmunks, don't they? (^_-)

the wind orchestra and their conductor

at the backstage durin intermission

one specially for her pa's camera!

stand & bow after a piece.. Xuan lookin straight into her pa's camera!

Xuan and us after the concert

Xuan and ALL HER SUPPORTERS after the concert

Claimed a Late X'mas Gift : Jan-15

Was it the Christmas two years ago or three years ago when Victor was extraordinarily generous.. Upon their request, he bought Qi a MacBook Pro and Xuan a Canon G16. He also asked me what I would want. I thought of a flute but I wasn't sure if I had wanted it badly enough to play on it regularly.. Hence I told him I wanted a flute but would claim my X'mas gift at a later date!

The first recent trigger was the YFP. Although performance was only over a weekend, but those two days at the toa payoh stadium waiting area sitting where the Kotekitai and Brass Band would do their warm up, I badly wanted to play on my instrument and join in a performance again.. The longing, the ache acted up. 

Second trigger was Xuan's wind orchestra concert. Brought back vivid memories of my own performances and competitions.. The longing to be on playing acted up again. 

Background trigger must be Victor and En on the ukulele! For so many months, Victor has been playing, practising on his uke everyday. Surely I can pick up and try to master an instrument like them too! The instrument have to one I like.. maybe one which I have not touched for ages??!

A man of action, very soon after I told Victor that I may want to claim my X'mas gift, he immediately spring into action and before I knew it, we were in PlazaSing's Yamaha buying a flute!!

I love Victor!!

Tokyo Trip iPhoto Book : Jan-15

Like our Taiwan trip, I had decided to create a iPhoto book for our Tokyo holidays and print it out for our fond memories.  I exactly spent a week to select and develop the book.  When it was finally completed, I also utilised the iPhoto capability to export the book into a slideshow.

Before our visit to the Hall of Great Vow... - Jan-15

We finally did our Tokyo holidays in 2014 and visited the Hall of Great Vow!

Although it was a very enjoyable trip, the entire process of planning and execution was not as easy and there were several obstacles which we had overcome before going too.

Early in 2014, we had planned to go Japan with a tour agent.  However the December holidays travel advertisements would only be out in May for us to book the holidays.  When they were finally published, we immediately went to check out a few reputable tour agents.  Unfortunately, the outcome was disappointing as most of them were either pricey or inflexible in their offers.  Ruling the tour package out eventually, It left us to decide if we would still want to continue with our Japan trip ourselves.  After a good discussion, Shin Yang and myself decided we should go ahead and bring the family to Japan (especially Papa and Mama) and visit the Hall of Great Vow.  Once we had made that decision, I started to source for our flight and hotel and settled down with ANA and Keio Plaza Tokyo.

After these confirmation, we were hit with several challenges in the next few months before our trip. 

First, Xuan contacted these hives or rash all over her body which refused to go away for months, both Eastern and Western medicine could not help her recover and the hives kept returning.  The only way to relieve Xuan from the itch was the Western pills which would subside the rash a while before it returned.   When chanting, I was praying that that this misery must leave Xuan before our holidays.  I could not remember how long this stubborn situation lasted, but Xuan actually recovered before our trip!

Then came Shin Yang’s problem where she was having some abnormal and prolonged bleeding.  After visiting the genealogy, the scan revealed that there were cysts discovered in her.  Luckily, the bleeding stopped shortly but she was asked to return for another check up after a couple of months.  With much determination to win over this illness, she was also cleared from the cysts during the next consultation, they were no longer found anywhere!

Papa was next in the queue, where he had been complaining about his consistent dryness in his throat for several months.  Despite visiting several doctors, his situation did not improve.  In September, the polyclinic referred him to the ‘mouth, nose and throat’ specialist in Tan Tock Seng Hospital for a through checkup.  Two specialists attended to him and after the examination, they decided to retrieve some tissues from his throat for a biopsy.  Whenever a biopsy was recommended, the situation would not look pretty.  The result would only come out in a month time but Papa and the family anxiety and nervousness were raising day by day.  I believed many of us have chanted for Papa wellness and good outcome and I had also applied leave to accompany him to ‘face the music’.  During consultation on that particular day in October, the doctor told Papa that his tissues were perfectly fine and encouraged him to reduce smoking as a preventive measure.  Another wonderful victory!

The final ‘episode’ was myself.  Shortly after Papa’s incident, I was down with a high fever and was later diagnosed to have blood in my urine.  On a Sunday evening, our family doctor advised that in worst case scenario, there could be some stones in my kidney which caused the inflammation and fever, if the inflammation entered into my blood, then it could be fatal.  To rule out the worst case, he urged me to visit the A&E at the hospital immediately and wrote me a reference memo.  At the same time he prescribed some anti-biotic and asked me to take them if I had chosen not to visit the hospital.  I made the decision to take the anti-biotic first and observed my situation. I was also determined and focused on my prayers to get well with this medicine.  The medicine did work for me! And in a week’s time, I was fully recovered.

In his Gosho, Nichiren always mentioned that if we were advancing in our faith, the three devil and four obstacles will definitely emerged and tried to stop us.  Our role was to continue in our faith, identify these obstacles, challenge and overcome them bravely.  I was pleased that we were able to overcome these challenges before our trip and they had indeed made us stronger to front any future hurdles in life. 

Thus despite all these challenges, we had successfully visited the Hall of Great Vow on 12-December 2014!

New Year and my Birthday : Jan-15

This year, my birthday was splendid and eventful.

It kicked off on the last day of 2014 when some colleagues were so nice to make deliberate arrangement back to the office and brought me out for lunch at Jurong Point.  While in the restaurant, Joey even secretly sneaked off and bought me a birthday cake for me to spend a few embarrassing moments cutting it.  It was a quick and simple lunch but the thoughts to celebrate for me were just wonderful.

That evening, the family gathered at Benny’s place for a year-end dinner.  Coincidentally,  Shin Yang had baked a fruit cake that day and some hesitation, she decided to bring it along to share.  At Benny’s place, Jackie was quick to offer the idea to the kids to convert the cake to my birthday cake.  And before returning back for our New Year Gongyo, the gals carried out the cake and sang the birthday song.  As a result, I had the honour to cut my wife’s tasty birthday fruit cake, specially baked without butter in consideration for me.  How nice!

After our midnight New Year Gongyo came the highlight!  I started to request for my presents… With much hugs and kisses, my presents were finally ‘delivered’ to me.  It was always such a nice feeling unwrapping presents, I got a pen engraved with my name, a superman T-shirt and 2 colourful shorts.  Just lovely!

The good thing about having birthday on a New Year’s day was that everyone would be in the same festive/celebrating mood as you.  It was also not so embarrassing for me as I could easily returned with a “Happy New Year” when someone wished me “Happy Birthday”.  On New Year’s day itself, Mama prepared my Birthday “面线” breakfast with a double dose of eggs and plenty pig’s “spare parts”… :P

Something unique this year was a NTU friends gathering at a vegetable farm in Lim Chu Kang.  The key spotlight was the fish pond where the kids really enjoyed fishing since the hungry fish never seemed to stop visiting the hooks.  Everyone got a least a chance to experience catching a fish and it was a pleasant feeling revisiting a long abandoned hobby.  After fishing, these “more than 20-years” friends also did not forget to cut a cake for me and treat me on the face!

The only uneventful thing that happened that day was when En’en fell into the drain and scratched her leg.  She was crying so loud that the neighbours must had thought some kids were been kidnapped.  Luckily the farm trip did cheer her up a bit.

Last event of the day was our usual double celebration with Papa where family would gathered for the traditional cake-cutting and present giving.  This year we had missed Ally as she was painfully down with HFM ulcers and was sleeping soundly after Hong and Dor brought her for a car ride.

It was very nice to be loved and my heart was filled with gratitude to have such a special birthday and wonderful start for the year, 2015 is going to be a good one, we will make it great!

Sequel to My Own-made Fruit Cake : Jan-15

Sequel to My Own-made Fruit Cake : Jan-15

We missed Xitong and her family at Alfred's place on Christmas Eve. Anyway, the girls were thrilled at Xitong's invitation to go her place on New Year's Eve!!

Ma, as usual, prepared something nice to bring along. Whatever Ma prepares, is always nice.. I already had intention to make my fruit cake no. 3, but should I bring it along? Recipe states that cake is "best eaten at least one day later"..

To bring or not?? Juz do it!! It's the heart that counts. Moreover I was inspired to make my first fruit cake after I returned from the Christmas gathering at Alfred's place..

Boy! Ain't I glad that I brought the warm fruit cake along; it became Victor's birthday cake!! (^_-) Thanks to Jackie's idea and the girls' contribution! 

I received pretty positive and encouraging comments on my fruit cake.. (:(:(: 

Juz a pity we did not take any group picture at all for the occasion.. ) :