Me and My Handphone

My handphone recently decided to take a vacation. It's not ringing as it should, and has intermittent problems vibrating as well.

I sent it in on Friday morning for servicing, and was due to collect it yesterday at 11+am. I promptly went to the Nokia Service Centre on Saturday (as I should), took a queue number (no. 14) and waited until queue number 12. Then I received a call (on SG's handphone) from the Nokia Service Centre - they said that my phone had been taken to 'Headquarters', and would not be ready yet. I said I was waiting outside for my turn at the Centre, why didn't they call me earlier if they had sent it to HQ on Friday? Why did they make me take a wasted trip on a Saturday morning, to wait until no. 13 (as I was talking, it was nearly my turn), then tell me the phone is NOT THERE???!!! I have to wait about 5 days to collect it. It's barely 3 months old!

I was flabbergasted, upset, frustrated !!??? to say the least. I can't function without a handphone. Tell me anyone who can.

My First Lunar New Year

Here is me and my great-grandma. We had a long day today - left home at 8am, and visited 5 places by 2pm - that's an hour per location including an hour of travelling time. We covered 160km on the road, and used up about half-tank of fuel. Wow - a lot to do in a day!

This is how we spend our typical 1st day of the Lunar New Year - 'mad mad' travelling and visiting. We covered locations as far as Choa Chu Kang, Bt Timah, Farrer Road and Tampines. You can imagine how tired we were by the time we reached home around 2.30pm. Everyone slept for the rest of the afternoon as soon as they jumped into bed. Zzzzzzz....

The good part - lots of 'Ang Bao' collections for the day! :-P

Visit to the Zoo

Today was one of those days you wake up, and you don't know what you want to do for the rest of the day. How do you try to spend meaningful time without the kids driving you mad?

Well, the answer - bring them to the Zoo - there's lots to see, and lots to do, and today, we brought them all to the zoo by ourselves. Armed with 3 bags of kiddie supplies, 2 prams, zoo pass and tram tickets, we found ourselves at the zoo at 9.45am in the morning. It just started to rain, and we did not stop. With 2 small umbrellas, we proceeded on, and fortunately, it was a passing cloud.

We went first for the Polar Bear feeding area, but as the pool was really misty, we gave it a miss, and took the tram ride to Station 3, where the Amphitheatre was, and we waited a while before we saw the "Wonders of the Wild" Show. Zachary particularly liked the Sea lion who was splishing and splashing around doing some of his tricks for the audience.

For the trip today, we managed to see the giraffes, the chimpanzees, zebras, lions, otters, ostrich, boa constrictor, monkeys, penguins, manatees, hippos, pony, etc etc. Among all the zoo trips we had in the past, today was the first time we sat on the tram with the kids. Ethan loved it and kept asking to go on the tram. It's a good thing the tickets are valid for whole day trips - you can hop off and on anytime. Zachary had fun walking with a peacock, until my heart skipped a few beats (he got too close), and I insisted that SG brought him away before he got pecked at.

There were still unexplored areas which we did not do today - Children's World, Australian Outback (where the kangaroos were). It was too much to do, and towards lunchtime, we headed for KFC, and then for home.

Reunion dinner was at Mum's place, and we had yummylicious food today - big prawns, chicken abalone soup, cabbage with stewed pork, Char Siew, Roasted Duck, Siew Yok (Crispy Roast Pork)...pity we didn't take a photo of the food - it was delicious. Just a note - I mistook salt for sugar when Mum asked me to put some into the prawn dish. As a result, we had to improvise and get rid of the gravy -we ate the prawns without Mum's traditional tomato ketchup sauce.

Quick fact : Sophie now has 6 teeth! You can see 4 of it in this photo of her on the tram seat!

The Legends at Fort Canning Park

I was attending a company course today at "The Legends" at Fort Canning Park (it's a lovely place), and happen to be having a buffet lunch at the restaurant there, when we heard a loud crash as the waiter had dropped the block of ice (meant for the Ice-kachang corner) on the floor.

In less than 5minutes, we heard a shout/scream, and I turned around to realise that a lady who was wearing high heels had tripped at the same spot. Apparently, they did not clean the ice on the floor properly, and she sprained her ankle. I empathised with her. I was angry when I could not see any of the restaurant staff attending to her, or attempting to help her. It was only her friend who was trying to get her back to her seat. I cannot imagine none of the staff heard her shout or scream, and did not make any attempt to mediate the situation. I was upset. What kind of customer service is this? (Sigh).

I immediately caught hold of the restaurant manager, and got him to attend to her. I identified with her since I also sprained my ankle recently. By the way, my ankle is much better now than I imagined it to be. The Tiger medicated plasters really work!

Swollen Ankle & Bird Park

Mark the date today. It's the first time in my life I've swollen my ankle. The moral of the story, don't wear lousy slippers, carry your 14kg son, and try to manoeuvre between an uneven kerb and your car to buckle him into the car seat. It is a dangerous combination, and it has its price. As you can see, my swollen ankle will have to nurse itself before the New Year comes.

The interesting thing is, I could walk through the whole of Bird Park, and I must say we did enjoy ourselves. It has been more than a year since we visited, and many exhibits have changed/are new. The penguin parade was under renovation, but otherwise, we caught sight of the lories (in the Lory Loft), the colourful birds in the waterfall aviary, the monitor lizard, the kookaburra, the storks, shoebill, etc etc...

It was a family trip out with Gong-gong and our friend Laurence, and thanks to Laurence for the yummy lunch at Bongo Burgers'!

Sophie the Executive

Sophie was fighting to sit on the 'executive' chair today. She was clamouring all over me, as I struggled to ensure that she doesn't fall off the chair that I'm sitting on to type today's blog.

What would she want to be when she grows up?

To me, the most important thing is to be happy.

Perhaps, the answer is most poignantly answered: Que Sera Sera, whatever will be, will be. The future's not ours to see, Que Sera Sera.

Making a Will

Yesterday, my company organised a lunchtime talk to understand more about "Making a Will". It is most advantageous to make a will before you die, as there's a lot of law kicking in if you don't, and basically, when there is a lot of law involved, there is paperwork and unnecessary money which you would not have otherwise spent if you had made a will.

I never knew quite a lot of the things he mentioned during the talk - eg. if a couple dies simultaneously (eg. freak accident), and the time of death for each person cannot be determined, it is assumed that the older one (the one born earlier) dies first, and as a result, the estate of the older person passes on to his spouse, and this has further implications on how the estate is split among his/her parents, children......etc etc. Complicated, to say the least. The lawyer who made the presentation gave several real-life examples of what he had handled in the past, and how those cases impacted the people involved.

The moral of the story is, make sure you have a will made out by a lawyer before you die. It saves a lot of time, money and inconvenience later for the dependants, and also, gives more piece of mind. The cost of making a will - anything from S$300 onwards...depending on the complexity of the estate.

Sophie and Her Pout

This is what you get when you ignore Sophie for several minutes while you are busy with the boys, or busy with your stuff while you are in the same room.

Sophie is pretty vocal when she wants your attention, and she does this by blowing bubbles, giving you various vowel sounds, and also, sounding really pitiful when you approach her but do not attempt to carry her out of her 'cage'. I love it when she grins with delight as soon as she is carried. Though I know I shouldn't be doing it too often, my heart melts whenever she moans for attention and no one else but me is interested in 'rescuing' her.

Still, her pout is the cutest!

Sophie's been Bitten!

Yes, it looks awful, but it's OK. Sophie was recently bitten by an insect or mosquito, and it caused a big swelling on her left hand. You can see the difference when you compare her 2 hands together. Fortunately, the swelling does not itch, so she is not bothered by it, but we have since seen a doctor and have given her some oral medicine, and ointment to apply.

Looks really scary actually.

Bak Kwa

I had a short walk around Chinatown and you could see the bustle of activity as Chinese New Year is approaching. Tentages have been set up to sell New Year decorations, tid bits, etc etc.

One item not to be missed for the season is 'Bak Kwa'. It smells irresitably yummy when you approach it. They BBQ it on the spot, and you can eat it on its own, or eat it together with bread (like a sandwich). It can range from $33 to $42 per kg, depending on the season. In the coming weeks, the price will increase as New Year approaches.

Mmm...we already ordered ours to make sure we avoid the queues that form when you NEED to buy it near New Year dates...Phew!

For those overseas, you can 'lick' and savour the picture here.

HRM Awards 2007

I just returned from the HRM 2007 Awards where Sony was nominated for the Best HR Team. It was the 2nd time we were nominated and the 2nd time we did not win :-(

Much like the Academy Awards in terms of award presentations, each of the categories is presented, the nominees read out and the winners announced following the tearing open of ‘the envelope’. All winners remain strictly confidential until the announcements during the gala awards ceremony itself.

Anyway, it was tough competition as we were placed amongst other MNCs who were just as well-known for their HR practices. We just have to work harder next time!

Dinner was 'so-so', with salmon as the main dish, and tiramisu for dessert. Service at the Marina Mandarin Hotel was unspeakable if I may say so - too many 'blur' temporary staff who do not know how to handle guests and their needs. Cutlery was missing, water was not served when requested, coffee/tea cups were placed nicely for us but nothing was served after dessert. (Sigh) - I wonder what happened to GEMS ('Go-the-Extra-Mile for Service').

It's sad.

Gluttons Bay

My hubby and I had the chance to eat dinner at Gluttons Bay yesterday, thanks to a mix-up where we were supposed to go for an evening movie (but the movie was not being shown at the cinema that we went).

Anyway, we ate the Alhambra padang satay, Zhong Zhong Fine Spice (Ngoh Hiang) and Hup Kee (Orchard Road) Fried Prawn Noodles. The food was simply to 'die for'!!!

We have yet to try some of the other food stalls that are also critically acclaimed. The only catch is, they open daily from 6pm to 3am - they are not open for lunch.