My lovely......

I must be CRAZY! Blogging about ENG CAI (KANG KONG lah)!!!

Months ago when I first arrived in Utah, Anna told me she was able to find Kang Kong in one of the Chinese Mart at SLC. But I looked up, down, left, right....... waited and pined. No Eng Cai.... sob sob.. my favourite veggie...

Then ENG CAI! My ENG CAI! Finally I saw it at Super China today! Luckily I went to the veggie department and scan around as usual, wishing it might just appear, and it did! The season is in. Yeah! Now I don't have to eat Gailan n broccoli week after week. Though it wasn't that economical. A bunch (well, quite a huge bunch) cost ard US$6. Who cares! It's my lovely ENG CAI!

Sleeping

En slept on her own last night, the 2nd time. I was trying to copy pictures into our digital photo frame, so that we can bring it for her Spotlight session next Tues (for her birthday) during pre-school. So I convinced her to sleep alone as she knew I was doing something for her. Y not sleep with Daddy?

About 2 weeks ago (16 Mar), I was trying to copy some VCDs for her, as we had to return them the next day. So she agreed to sleep without me. Daddy went with her, then she started protesting saying she didn't want to sleep with Daddy. Thus, she was left to sleep alone with her Tang Poems book beside her. Well, Daddy did sneak a peek at her and it took her quite a while before she finally slept. But she did, alone. That was quite an achievement. 1st time sleeping on her alone.

Now, I'm sure she can do it. Most of the time, she just wants to have Mummy around.

最简单与最难

幸福，是世上最简单与最难得到的东西。

新加坡人不快乐。为什么？为何生在第三世界国家的子民可以得到幸 福，可以开开心心过日子，丰衣足食的新加坡人，过着安逸的日子，人手一机（即使几岁大的孩子，都有手机，管他会不会用，需不需要），去到哪儿都有车代步 （巴士、地铁、德士也是“车”啊！），我们却能高举双手，对全世界的人说：“我们不快乐！”

政府征税多多、物价高涨、生活压力大、钱不够用、房子不够大、汽车不够“拽”、老公买的砖石太小、孩子考的“A”太少、老婆身材不够棒、名牌包包比人少、旅行地点不够远、还有呢？反正就是没一点顺心，没一样顺眼。

一声“谢谢”、一句“她煮的饭菜越来越有酒楼的水准”、孩子窝心的拥抱、生病时有人带你去看病、至亲至爱都还健在、天天有饭菜在桌上、能够呼吸到一口新鲜的空气，这些不是幸福吗？不值得我们快乐吗？

偶 尔，难免被他人的情绪影响，或周遭的人、事、物感染，觉得很难快乐起来。但这也不足为过，毕竟，人生本就该有喜、怒、哀、乐、酸、田、苦、辣，才够“色香 味俱全”嘛！重要的是，在不如意时，该如何应对。是让不满情绪不断累积，怨天尤人，理直气壮地认定全世界都欠你的，还是当冷静下来时，自我反省，到底自己 能做些什么，能改变些什么？生命掌控在我们手里，幸福与否在于我们如何调整自己的心态。

这不是一篇对社会的控诉，更不是自命清高的解说，而是对自我的提醒--把双眼朝人间看，双脚朝地上踩，踏踏实实的感受最简单的幸福，别到咽下最后一口气的那一刻，才慨叹一生为了追求一些虚无缥缈的事物，错过了感受原本已属于自己的快乐。

Museum of Ancient Life

15 Mar

Is this a place about ancient civilisation? Ape men?

Did anyone guess dinosaurs? U're RIGHT! En's pre-school's theme for the month was about dino so we decided to bring her for the 'actual' thing (the bones r better than nothing right), though I think they had moved on to sea creatures already ;p.

The Museum of Ancient Life is located at Thanksgiving Point in Lehi, where there's also a show barn (farm), garden (which will be scheduled for re-opening this weekend), theatre and shopping place (went to the theatre following Mon with Anna and kids to watch "Dr Suess's Horton hears a Who". A pity we couldn't stay while Anna n her kids went to the farm, cos En had a long day, as she had ballet in the morning, so she needed her afternoon nap).

Entrance for children under 3 is free, so we paid for 2 adult combo tickets, which included a 3D show. Well, En was a little taken-back cos the dino looked really near. So we taught her to tickle them when they came too near. Ha ha!

Little Marcus, En's first friend in Utah was there too and we met 2 new friends - Faith n baby Enqi. A pity they came later, so we had little time together.

Pics in order from left to right : Entrance, Lobby, Fish fossil prep, Tiny En, Dino on log, Don't feed me to the shark, Fossil of ancient sea creature, Not so tall daddy, Dino torso, Walkway, En refusing to step into sand pit (she wanted to play at another location with sand n water too. However, the moment she put on the apron (with sand particles on it), she said she didn't want to play anymore)

En walking on 4s during Gym (b4 we went to the museum)

K working on the fossil prep

Reputation

Is it important? Obviously, some doesn't think so. Guess many of u experience spam emails, some claiming to be sent from reputable organisations that u'd won prizes etc. I had my fair share. Recently, I received one claiming to be sent from one of my email service provider, so I forwarded it to them to alert them that there's a possibility that someone out there is using their name for fraudulent purposes.

The reply I got was that it wasn't sent from their ISP so they couldn't do anything about it. Then they listed some tools which I may use to track down this conman.

This was what I told them:

"Hi,

Thanks for your reply. I have no intention to track the sender, after all I'm just concern that this is an email sent with the intention to con people using XXXXX's identity. It'll be great if your organisation takes action against such fraudulent activities, since it's the reputation of XXXXX which is at stack.

If XXXXX can't do anything to protect it's name, guess there's nothing I can do too.

Best Regards,

Loi Yi"

Aftermath: I just received a reply, from another staff, with EXACTLY the same message sent to me previously. Guess they r not too concern whatever was delivered to them. Just sent back a standard template. Goes to show one thing, they must have received plenty of similar alert. Yet......

If they have to......

Couple of days back, I sent an email to the USPS enquiring about delivery notices being dropped at mailboxes without attempting to deliver items to recipients, as all my parcels, whether big or small had to be self-collected and some other families faced the same issue.

Early morning, I received a phone call from them. Guess what? "We do not send the parcels up to the apartments. If we have to do that, it'll take them the whole day to do their delivery." How does this reply sound?

Oh, yah, perhaps we have lifts back home, so it's less time consuming and tiring for our postmen. Or what about those 4-storey flats with no lifts? Hmmm, perhaps Singpost can also excuse their postmen from delivering there.

Ok, ok, I know we should just 入乡随俗 but it's just the way the message was being put across.

I'd met many kind souls here, those who will come up to you to point u to the nearest clinic, those who'll bring their dogs to let ur kid pat them, older kids who'll take care of the young ones n many more. Guess I shouldn't let the small nos that, perhaps had woken up on the wrong side of the bed irks me.

Spring with a BANG

Yes, it's officially spring today and what better way to welcome it than SNOW!

Ha ha, that's just how the weather is over here. We had 3 days of warm weather, so warm I could go out for my walk in t-shirt and felt some perspiration coming. Then, BHAM! Temperature falls some 20 deg Fahrenheit. Still consider good weather though. The snow is light, so I guess it'll melt real soon.....

Daylight ROBBERY

I received my final bill (certainly hope so) from the hospital. The figure was STUNNING - >US$3500 (after discount)!!! For a 5 hr stay in hospital. This is for what? A laxative, blood test, urine test, chemical test (????), stay in ER and a CT-scan ($3K!). At the end of the day, they did not dare to make a diagnosis (citing inflammation of intestines, with no diagnosis), and prescribed me with a narcotic-based pain killer n NOTHING else. Then sent me for colonoscopy at another facility in SLC that set me back by another >$300 (after 50% discount for upfront payment). After they woke me from my drugged state, they quickly whisked me home in wheel chair without even explaining what could be the cause n preventive measures. Just concerned there wasn't anything cancerous. As I was referred to the ER by a GP, paid another >$100 (at 20% discount for upfront payment again).

The total cost - a whopping US$4k, and the possibility that I may have to fork out this kind of $$$ again as I do not know the root cause.

If that wasn't daylight robbery, tell me what was it???!!!!!!

21 May @5pm

Finally, the actual hunt! The moment we got out of the apartment, we could see many families already gathered at the playground. Yes, there were quite a number of Singaporean families there, some I'd met for the 1st time. Then, the Easter Bunny arrived! En was in the group of 1-5 yr olds. As the siren from the fire engine rang, all the kids (n adults too) rushed into the field, picking the goodies n placing them into their baskets. Though the event was short, it was a special experience.



Oh, our loot was little (but that's what mummy prefers ;))....

Easter

YEAH! It's Easter morning now!

Though it's not holiday here, we still have activities going on later in the evening - Monarch Meadow's 1ST Easter Egg Hunt! It's also our 1st Egg Hunt. Believe there'll be many Singaporean Mummies bringing their little ones, everyone with baskets going for the treasure hunt, Shirley with her 3 kids, Zhang Hong n her boy, Faith n Enqi with Mummy....

Look out for my updates!

Daylight Saving

什么东西来的？简单来讲，就是我们被“吃”了一小时咯。

As of Sun 9 Mar, 2am, our time got FAST FORWARDED.

First tell-tale sign - 平时小鬼起床的时间大概是8点30分。今天“迟”了一小时。别看这只是小小的一小时，还是要调整，要adjustment的leh! 无缘无故lost an hour，还真是lugi......

As of now, we r 14 hrs behind Singapore time. Look out, we r catching up!

大日子

究竟是什么大日子？？？

阿爸的60大寿啊！

哪里可以没有表示？？

怪天气

享受了一星期的阳光，惊喜于和恩恩发现了附近的公园，手牵手去散步，身上的外套越穿越少。是的，春季即将到来。正当缅怀于冬的离去，皑皑白雪覆盖大地的景致不再复还--下雪了！

顷刻间，一切的蓝、黄、红、绿都变成了白。天空好似破了个大洞，雪花就从这洞里不断地洒下，白、灰、黑吞噬了所有颜色，蓝天不见了，山脉也躲起来了。

春的脚步退了一步，冬再一次施展了它的力量。这一场季节之战，冬扳回了一局。但是鹿最终会死在谁之手，是不言而喻的。。。