New Year's 2018

Another year, better than ever. We have settled in nicely at 405 and I'm truly enjoying the convenience of the place. The unit may be smaller but the proximity to Nyaong and Nyama really makes all the difference.

Zodiac Lanterns

Not sure if they are temporary fixtures at Heartbeat@Bedok but the zodiac lanterns are a pretty sight. Standing at about 3 metres they look grand and tall especially when they are lighted up at night.

Christmas 2017

This year's Christmas was a quiet affair. We have a couple of Christmas decorations up. Meimei wanted the tree set up but I sat on it. It's too much work, especially with OO being sick the past week.

We have Nyaong, Nyama, YeeYee over for dinner together. And then it was a simple present opening for OO, to plant fun into her day.

We bought her a set of Hape bricks and she seems keen on building up a house or structure. She does get into her usual destructive self though and kicks everything down.

Digitizing My DVD Collection

I'm been busy digitalising my DVD collection since I switched iMacs with Meimei. With twice the storage space I am confident I can fit all my DVDs onto the hard disk. It took me awhile to get the right formatting for the subtitle and resolution. But once I got it, it's just running through the disc one by one. 

OO is fascinated with all the disc I keep. Whenever I'm switching the next of discs to burn, she'll be there to help me 'pick' titles. As usual I try my best to keep her away from them. And it's a good thing she doesn't have the strength to pull out the drawers yet. Well ... it'll be soon when she can do that so it's all the more important I get the DVDs to a digital format so I don't lose them when the little ones play with the DVDs.

Gynae Visit - Dec 2017

It's always exciting when we go for the gynae checkup. Baby has grown to close to 2kg so we are making good progress. Meimei asked her usual queries on what she can eat. But she missed one after we were done so we waited patiently for him to finish the next patient.

Meimei caught Dr Loh as he was walking into his office and exclaimed with a sweet grin "Dr Loh, can I start to eat coconut?" Everyone in the clinic was staring at Meimei and I can see a couple of them letting out a grin at the corner of their mouths hahaha. I think everyone was amused and tickled about the question. Hehehe that's what I love about Meimei. She has this youthful persona that invigorates me.

BoyBoy Names

It’s time to brainstorm an English name for our Boyboy. It feels easier this time with a number of good boyboy names that goes well with my surname. I seem to lean towards names with 3 syllabus to match OO’s, but it’s not a must.

Anthony - Meimei finds it old and traditional. I think it's ok but somehow it reminds me of a Shakespeare play. Hmmm maybe not then.

Gavin - Gavin is a good name that strings well with my surname. However one of Meimei’s cousin is named Gavin so we are dropping this down the list.

Jonathan - This used to be my first choice before Meimei came up with Justin. Somewhat common and traditional but I like that it’s 3 syllabus and yet you can use the short form of Jon readily.

Justin - This is the top choice as of writing. Justin. Nice ring to it. Meimei came up with it and it looks to be her prime choice too. Helps that there are famous singers named Justin too, like Justin Timberlake, Justin Bieber, etc.

Kenneth - Meimei seems to like Kenneth but I have a cousin with the same name so I wasn't as keen.

Leonard - Leonard is one of the male protagonist in The Big Bang Theory sitcom. LB has a nice ring to it too.

Matthew - This was a strong choice till we ran it with Mama. She had a hard time pronouncing the name so this went down the list.

We have about 3 months to go before Boyboy arrives so if no new suitable names pop up, he may well be named Justin. The tougher task would be finding a good chinese name for him.

Lock Me Not

A stunning milestone happened today. OO managed to turn the bedroom lock and let herself out of the master bedroom. We were shocked.

There goes any hope to keep her confined to the bedroom when we try to get her to sleep. OO has always been an observant kid. She picks up our actions very quickly so we always try to be careful around her.

But we were not expecting this from a two and half year old .... haiz. A mix of proudness that she is smart yet a tingle of 'oops what now'. Oh well ...

Although I didn't managed to get a picture of her opening the lock, here's one where she is trying to stick a key into the door to open it, just like how we would.

Honouring A Gentlemen's Agreement

I've completed the 2nd round of interview last evening for this new opportunity I mentioned a couple of post ago. I think the VP Finance really liked my style and experience. I have a good feel that I'll get the role. But before I get any further, I have to honour a gentlemen's agreement I made months ago.

I've been deliberating about this since the first interview. It just doesn't feel right keeping this in the dark with the folks at work. And its been bugging me to no end.

You see ... I had given my word to my manager that I would inform her if I was ever looking out for another role. And in turn she will be my character referee. It was a good deal ... who better than your direct manager to authenticate your work ethic, experience, skills, etc. It puts you miles ahead of your competitors to be able to provide this reference.

So today I took the courage and asked my manager if she had a time to chat and laid it on her. She took it well but insist that I do not sign up for anything till she has had a chance to work through something on her end. Although she was careful not to commit anything, she kept sounding out that she will get all her resources and leverage to get me a permanent role. And if she can't, I have her blessing to get onto the next role.

I liked how our conversation went. Happy that I may have a more permanent role at my current workplace. I'll be here for 3 years come next January and have a good handle on things here. It'll be great to continue here if the permanent role materialises. But as always I keep my expectations down and wait. 

Year End Concert 2017

Today's OO first year end concert, and it's ours as well. So we were all excited about the event. Meimei has already spent a $100 odd on the dress and I'm glad OO is not ripping it apart when we try to put it on. Everyone had woken up early as we were given strict instructions to get the children to school by 7am.

She looks great in the princess dress, though the makeup was rather unnecessary in my opinion. They're just little kids and their youthfulness shouldn't be masked by layers of power or lipstick. Really don't get why the teachers insist on the makeup ... phhfff.

In classic OO character though, she had to be quirky about it and put on the helmet we just got her  to complete the look haha. Thankfully Nyaong and the maid managed to get her out of the house without it!

We arrived later at the community center to watch the performance. However OO froze on every playground or joint dance segment. It pains Meimei and I to see her close to tears as she stood awkwardly on stage when gazing around unsure of her surroundings. She simply stood there in her spot while the rest of her classmates danced to the tunes.

Haiz ... I think it might be better to pull her out of the year end performances next year. I noticed some of her classmates are also missing so I don't think it matters if she misses it.

Turtle Head

Since OO’s bad fall on her head while on the glider skate, I’ve been trying very hard to get her to wear a helmet. The problem was that when I first tried to get her to try one on, I accidentally clipped her and left a nick on her neck. From then on it was a up-hill task in convincing her to try on any helmet. I think we might have tried 3-4 times on separate occasions but she simply refused.

To try to entice her to put on a helmet we would point out to her other kids who are wearing helmets and tell her that she would only be allowed to skate on her own if she wears one. There were times when she would reply that she just wants me to push her and never wants to skate on her own.

Finally I caught her in a better mood after an hour of play at the paragon kids playground. I ushered her into the Mothercare store gingerly with promise of her cornflake and granola snack and got her to try on a helmet. She refused to let me clip on the helmet but at least I could confirm the sizing of it is correct. 

Interestingly ... once I bought the helmet, OO kept wanting to put it on. She would walk around the flat with it, like a badge of honour of sorts. We let her be since this might help her get used to a helmet and not have a phobia of it.

An Unsolicited Opportunity

It wasn’t that I was not looking. I sent 3 application via WDA’s jobsbank portal when I lost my SSO a month ago. Nothing was heard of those application, plus my heart wasn’t in it so I didn’t follow-up on them. 

Today, a familiar name messaged me on whatsapp. Joanne, one of the recruiters I’ve met before a couple of years ago. The usual catchup talk ensued, “oh how have you been? Are you still with this company, yada yada”.  Once she ascertain that I might be on the lookout for a new role she shared the prospective job description with me. 

It’s a permanent finance project role under the finance hierarchy with an e-commerce platform. Now I’ve seen a lot of finance project roles and very rarely are they permanent ones. It’s just the nature of this niche area of finance. Finance projects are typically finite, you are brought for BPO or ERP implementation or restructing, etc and once its rollout the role is surplus as maintenance is transferred to the operations or IT teams.

It definitely interest me since a permanent role will alleviate the stress and uncertainty I, and probably Meimei as well, go through every year when my contract role comes to an end. And now with OO and another kid coming along, it’s that much more important I cement a firmer role. Even if I love my current job very much I have to take a broader view and take one for the family. Simply put, it’s no longer about what I want but what is best for the family. Potentially longer work hours, more traveling, less time with family, but ... better security, more money and less uncertainty. 

So I diligently updated my resume and sent it off to Joanne this evening. No delays nor hesitation. *grin here’s the start to a potential new adventure. 

Exchanging I-Mac

Meimei doesn't use her iMac much, especially after OO arrive. So rather than leave it idle on her desk I decided to swap my hand-me-down iMac with hers. Well technically both are hers but the one she is using now is a late 2015 retina model with 2TB hard disk. Definitely better than the older mid-2010 model.

I've been carefully backing up both iMac into a portable hard disk the past week. The most critical of the files are the photos. We can replace music or movies or whatever else. But those photos are the precious memories of yesteryears and simply irreplaceable.

Now that I've completed the switch successfully, I can finally begin to 'digitalise' my DVD collection. With an extra 1TB of free space on the new iMac I might just be able to get them all into the iTunes library.

Winnie The Pooh Figurines

You would think we bought this for our kids. It definitely looks the part.

But this ain't no ordinary toy. It's more of a display piece and not for any kid's hands. These actually belong to Meimei.

She has been collecting them and trading for missing pieces over the past fortnight or so. A grown women with another kid coming along running around (I try to chauffeur her) exchanging pieces with strangers. And they don't come cheap at $5.90 each in random sealed boxes.

It's like there is more than one kid at home. And this one has lots of spending power to buy tons of toys. Scary? Hahahah.

Bruises From School?

When I question her she says two of her classmates hit her leg. Hmmm, tough to make out how true that is when it came from a 2 year old. But at least we can rule out anything more sinister.

It pains me to see the multiple spots of blue-black on her left leg. But I suppose that's part and parcel of going to school. Kids are going to get into fights, bad falls, silly bumps and whatnot. We just need to make sure it's not a bullying case or some adults dishing out unwarranted or excessive punishment.

Trip To Hillview - Dec 2017

We have not been to Hillview for close to a month. Gareth has been having bouts of diarrhoea so Dad and Mum advised against bringing OO there.  

So we were finally able to go this week and Meimei brought a treat for OO. She had prepared a tub with all the water-play toys. It was immense fun and OO was practically grinning ear to ear as she scoop and pour the water around.

I'm so glad Meimei thinks of these stuff. Now there are additional perks going to Hillview in OO's eyes. And it also satisfies our desire to let OO have more opportunities to have fun and play with water. A 'hitting two birds with one stone' example.