Almost 40

I celebrated my 39th birthday today by bringing the family to Gardens By The Bay for a family day out. Nothing beats having family around on a festive day. I don’t recall ever celebrating my birthday on the day itself. I work in Finance so month end are always peak periods where I cannot step away. So it is specially meaningful that I now have the luxury to do so.

It’s the tail end of the pumpkin exhibit at the flower dome but the colours are still vivid. OO loved all the bright colours and keeps trying to touch the flowers and pumpkins. More importantly we captured many photos with NyaOng and NyaMa.

Although we couldn’t go to the Children’s waterplay area due to the light rain, it was a fruitful and fun day out. *Thumbs up.

Gynae Visit - Oct 2017

I didn't blog about last month's visit as there wasn't really much updates. What's important is that both Meimei and baby is doing well. 

This month's visit was preceded by a test for pregnancy diabetes. It was quite a torture not being able to eat or drink 8 hours before the first test at 8.30am. Meimei was pricked at the arm for blood and again at 10.30am for another test.

We made up for it with lunch at Wild Honey. It was a birthday treat for me hehehe. But more than the food, I like Meimei's company.

We were back at Dr Loh's place early after lunch and went through the regular checkup. The only thing worth mentioning is that he OK-ed Meimei question on ice cream. Haha. She's always throwing such stuff at Dr Loh.

Consolidating The Blogs

It's tough to keep my other blog Little Rascal Productions blog updated with snippets and pictures. And I think no one, even myself, ever reads it. So I've decided to combine the two into this one blog. 

Thankfully Blogspot has a fairly easy export import function to let me transfer all the posts. And they keep their posting dates too. I had to clean up the tags though and label all of the transfers with 'snippet' tag. Small effort that took me a little less than an hour.

Popping Bubble Wraps

OO has a thing for bubble wraps. I think we can save quite a tidy sum by giving her an endless supply of wraps. No more buying toys from the department store hehehe.

Trip To Hillview - October 2017

OO managed to ward off any illness for the past month so we've been to Hillview every other week. She's always happy to run around the garden, something she loves very much.

Stars And Reward #1

OO's completed the first set of Stars and Reward and received a Hello Kitty cup we got from a McDonald's Happy Meal.

Pampers For Brown Meow

OO likes to reprise and mimic adult roles. Today she is helping Brown Meow 'change pampers'.

First Taste Of Ice Cream

Meimei has been getting ice-cream off and on as kind of a pregnancy craving for sweet and cold stuff. We have been grocery shopping at Bedok mall and before we make our way home on foot, Meimei excused herself to go grab a vanilla cone from McDonald's. She wants to hide the ice cream from OO haha.

I had just passed the corner of a block when Meimei messaged and say she has a treat for OO. Huh? What?

Well it turns out McDonald's was giving away free mini ice cream cones to children. Wow, what a smart gimmick ... hook them young! So Meimei took one and brisk walked to meet us so she can pass it to OO.

I've always thought either Nyaong or me would be the first person to introduce OO to ice cream. Hahaha ... but it looks like Meimei jumped ahead of both of us. Well at least I'm never gonna get an evil eye now if I treat OO to ice cream hehehe.

Single Patty Double Cheese Burger

I ordered double cheese burger from the McDonald's drive-through at Tampines Shell station for lunch today. Oddly someone seemed to have taken "double cheese" literally and gave me a normal single patty cheeseburger with two slices of cheese. They should improve on their staff training and quality control.

I went to check the Mac website and thankfully double cheese are still pictured as double patties. Imagine the horror if they changed it quietly to a single patty. Now don't get me started on the half slice of cheese for the fillet.

OO @School - Fish @ Aranda Excursion

OO's school has another excursion today. I think it's like a mid-term break sort of activity. Although it was expensive at $25, we were not about to deny her the participation in school outdoor activities if we can help it.

As usual she is all dressed up for the excursion in school attire. She likes to wear it too. I think it helps her feel like a part of the group. We'll get more outfits if we continue with the school next year.

Everyone had their head staring at the fishes in the pond that it took quite some time and close scrutiny to find pictures with OO in them. OO seems to be enjoying the outing and getting right into the action.

The only unexpected thing that came out of the excursion was OO bringing back a tank of fishes. Oops ... hmm I wonder how long this will last.

Stars And Rewards

Meimei says she spends every waking moment thinking of how to teach and train OO. Now that's real commitment and a whole lot more effort than just simply raising your child. And I'm glad Meimei does that, I would never have given it as much thought and consideration.

Meimei came up with a stars and reward system the past week. And it's been working like a charm for the most part. OO would react positively to the stars and reward scheme and do our bidding. There was only a minor glitch when she start toying and taking joy with removing the stars because she was naughty.

I suspect it's an excuse for Meimei too to buy more toys for OO. Haiz ... she spoils her rotten just like the rest of us. Wait ... maybe more than any of us really. Hehehe.

Dreaming of the toy rewards?? ;-)

Caddy MPVs Sightings

It's hard to find another Caddy MPV on the road. I've only seen 3 Maxi on the road and never the shorter variant.

Starlight Blue @ Beach Road Army Market - I've seen this twice already at the same carpark. The owner is either living or working at the block beside the Beach Road Army Market. I really like the tone of the Starlight Blue. It teases with a tint of blue in bright sunshine.

Chestnut Brown @ Marine Parade - Seen it at Marine Parade and on the PIE towards Bedok. Meimei doesn't like brown ... says it looks like poopoo colour.

Fontana Red @ Orchard Road Presbyterian Church - The owner is a church member and is always parked in the church carpark on Sundays. This is the first Caddy I've seen and one which built my interest in the car.

At the price the Caddy MPVs are going for and the niche that it fills, I doubt there'll be many more of these on the roads. I continue to keep a look out for them while taking pride that I drive a rare and understated car.

Friends Of The Zoo

We decided to take the plunge and buy the Family Friends of the Zoo membership. We even added Siti so she can come along and help look after OO. I think it's a wise choice seeing how OO loves playing water so much. Plus with the new Caddy I was more confident to drive such a long way to Mandai.

OO lazing on Papa after water play & lunch

OO watching elephants

Cheerful as we make our way home

Good thing is that it only takes 2 trips to make it worth our money. And thankfully OO is getting better in the car these days.

OO @School - Mid Autumn Festival 2017

I didn’t know it but OO’s school organise a walkabout with lanterns to celebrate Mid Autumn Festival. Its a good thing OO is dressed appropriately ... I supposed Meimei and Mama must have known about the event.

OO looks pretty happy and contented to sit and wait. When OO’s at school she is the nice and obedient little girl ... not the little bossy tyrant she is at home.

Mid Autumn Festival 2017

I didn't know it but Meimei had a KPI to bring OO downstairs to play with lanterns. This is a rare occasion where we let OO out of the house after dark.

OO was especially hyped about holding a lantern with a candle. She keeps trying to stare at the candle light through the top. I think it reminds her of the birthday cake candles.

We went down for a short walk around the basketball court. There were other older children playing with lanterns too. We took turns to take selfies with OO and came up after about 20 minutes. OO seemed disappointed that we didn't play longer but we didn't want risking her catching a cold in the night breeze. We'll go for longer strolls next year :-)

Bringing Back Our First Maid

Our first maid Siti has always been in contact with Meimei and Mama. She had just finished a 2 years contract with another employer and was back in Indonesia. She didn’t extend her contract as her current employer was not willing to give her 2 weeks home visit. 

Because she has been conversing off and on with Meimei, she sounded out she would like to come back to work for us. Meimei immediately jumped at the idea as we couldn’t take Emi no more. But I was cautious that she may be using us to come back to Singapore before jumping to another employer yet again. We made sure it was 100% clear that we would not allow her to transfer before her 2 years was up.

It's important we set the expectations right and make sure Siti knows we are having to spend a lot to hire her. We are giving up the agency fee we paid to bring in Emi and potentially incurring as much to bring her into Singapore. Plus Emi still has a month to go before she clears her loan, which we already paid upfront to the agency. That's money down the drain too.

A lot is riding on Siti owning up to her commitments. To her credit she offered to pay her own flight to Singapore. While I'm sure she thinking about not having to pay the agency several months of commissions, it is still a nice touch to show keenness. So it's up to us to see how we can bring her into Singapore.

Naturally the first step we took was to check with our current maid agency to determine how much it cost. And it was a shocking amount. It would cost us $2.6K for the agency to help bring in a maid. They cite that this is without a loan burden for the maid and engaging an agency helps to ease the immigration entry at both the departure and entry customs.

Hmmm ... it doesn't sound right. Singapore isn't like other countries. The rule of the law is strong here and procedures are nicely set out and freely available 24/7 on the Ministry of Manpower website. Why do we have to pay such a hefty sum to bring in the maid? I was expecting a couple of hundred as administrative fee ... not the $2.6K.

Meimei and I both agreed we were not going to pay this no matter what. We'll either live with our useless maid or try to bring in Siti on our own. So that point on, Meimei began her research on how to get Siti back as our maid. It's now about saving that $2.6K ...

So lo and behold ... Meimei actually did it! And it cost not more than $500. $500 vs $2.6K ... imagine the margin the agencies earn just to fill up a couple of forms on your behalf. I'll share how Meimei did it in the next post.

We brought in Siti a day after letting the useless one go. It's been a month now and the efforts are totally worth it. Siti is just as capable as when we first had her 2 years ago. Mama was able to go back to Indonesia for a break without worrying about Meimei and OO. We just hope she will stick around and at least complete her 2 years contract with us. If she can stay longer that'll be perfect but well ... we are keeping ourselves grounded for now.