Celebrating Shan Le's 4th Birthday at Urban Toddlers

We celebrated Shan Le's 4th birthday at his school on Thursday 14 October 2010.  His birthday is on 18 October 2010 but we decided to do this little party earlier as he needs to attend speech therapy in the afternoon on his birthday.

We had a very close shave on Thursday and we almost missed the time the school allocated for parents to hold birthday parties.  Well, we actually arrived at 1.20pm when we were supposed to start at 1pm.  After 1.30pm, all the kids will start to leave. It was a hectic day really.  Our driver, Samir, had to go for a minor operation and I had to drive down to Maadi with Irene to collect the cake and cookies.  I was held back because of work and left late.  Worse, I could not find find my way to Kum's Cake and spent about 15 minutes circling Maadi looking for the place and got muy bumper dented in the process :-(

The worst part is getting stuck for a good 10 minutes in Kasr El-Nil street in downtown Cairo.  I should not have taken that road! But fortunately, the road cleared up and I managed to get to the nursery in time for the party.  We rushed to place the cake and laying out the plates and serviettes while the teachers and helpers get the kids to sit down.  We sang the birthday song for Le Le in both English and Arabic, blow the candles, cut the cakes and finishing them up all in 10 minutes!!!

The sad thing is that I lost the video clip I took with my Android phone....

金虎年！万事大吉!

听说今年是金虎年。希望新加坡的生育率不会跌得太惨。毕竟是金身的老虎，应该不比龙子龙女逊色吧。我们一小家子今年就在开罗过了年。今年没办法回国和家人团圆，心里不乐意可是也别无他法。不过我们还是可以通过电脑视讯和父母及家人拜年也还算不错了。除了到同事的家和其他新加坡同胞聚会，我们也没有什么庆祝，家里也没多加春节的摆设。

不过值得一提的是我们的家在上个月内添了不少的新摆设。所有的画，拼图和电影海报都挂上各处的墙壁。我们也物色了不少家庭装饰比如埃及的木制屏风（Mashrabiya），室内植物，花盆，灯具，蜡烛，等等。。。你可能在纳闷，怎么住进来将近两年后才来布置家内摆设呢？这是因为我们在上个月在寒舍宴请亚西安(ASEAN)各国同辈的外交官。攸关国体所以必须把家里布置一番。也因为如此，在经过一番努力后，我们的家也变得更加亮丽温馨。操劳了一天后，回到家中安坐在舒适的小厅，听着醉人的音乐，闭上双眼，一天的疲劳就减轻了不少了。

上个礼拜我们和使馆所有的同僚及家人们一同到了埃及红海的度假胜地埃因素纳(Ain Sokhna)渡过了美满愉快的家庭日。乐乐玩的很开心。海水虽然冷冰冰，他却一头扑了进去，还不感觉冷。我们耗费了不少功夫才把他从水里就出来。过了不久，他就鼻水直流了，真是伤脑筋！这第二次造访Stella Di Mare，因此我们没有拍下多照片。这有几张照片留作纪念。

Shan Le First Stage Performance at Urban Toddlers' Christmas Concert

Shan Le gave his first stage performance during his pre-school, Urban Toddlers', Christmas Concert, on 16 Dec 09, just two days before the long winter break.  Sadly, I was not there as I was down with a very bad cold.  Irene managed to take a few video clips of Shan Le's segment but you will probably have a hard time looking out for him.  While he did not really sing, he certainly demonstrated his skill in "taking cover".  All the kids  were probably stunned by the huge turnout.  Not only the parents turned up, but also the grandparents and probably uncles and aunties...

Days Without the Internet

About three days ago, a break in two fibre optic cables in the Mediterranean Sea disrupted communications across the Middle East and into India and neighboring countries. Suddenly, I wasn't able to video call my wife in Singapore, no Facebook updates, no Youtube, no online newspapers, no movies download and no otlob.com for home delivered meals.

I understand perfectly how my life has been and will continue to be entwined with the Internet. But when reality hits, it was simply too painful to bear. The blessing in disguise was the greater amount of time I put into revision. Being too lazy to cook my own meals, I had to drag myself outside for meals. I hate to dine alone outside the comfort of my home.

Fortunately, the breakage was repaired and here I am back into the virtual world. Two weeks from now I will be on my flight to Singapore. Much has been accomplished so far and I have found the apartment to stay when I returned to Cairo with my family in Mar 08. I am glad that I can do away with the prospects of househunting around the chaotic city with my wife and toddler. With the accommodation settled, I will be able to concentrate on taking over the work and get off on a good start.

The Lunar New Year is drawing near. This is not the first time I will be missing the reunion dinner. But I never wanted to be at the table with my family so badly in the past. This will be my son's second reunion dinner but sadly his Daddy will not be there to give him his big angpow.

Singapore National Day Celebrations - Fireworks 2007

Our whole family went for the Fireworks 2007 on 18 Aug 07 at the Marina Bay. The fireworks musical display was put together by a team from China as part of the Singapore National Day Celebrations. Thanks to Irene who got the tickets through her company, our extended family of 14 have a rare get together. We brought Shanle along and some cotton wools as well to muff the loud bangs. Shanle seemed alright and stayed cool throughout the show. He's probably too young to understand fear. His two cousin sisters were both scared by the noise, cried and fell asleep nearing the end of the show. Here is a short video clip to share.

Happy Chinese New Year 新春愉快

我们这新新小家庭在这里预祝各位亲朋戚友

新春愉快

猪年运开

财源广进

身心安康

步步高升

大吉大利

Shanle's 1st Month

The past two weeks were really hectic days for me and my family. We celebrated Shanle's 1st Month on 18 Nov 2006, the day Irene was discharged from SGH. Fortunately, we were able to reach home at around 1:00 pm, just in time for the luncheon. By the time we got home, the place were already swarmed with our relatives and family friends. Our dear Shanle had to hold the fort alone for a while. After the luncheon, our friends and colleagues started streaming in for the afternoon tea. Everything went smoothly and it was a great time to catch up for everyone. The only regret I had was that I did not have the opportinunity to take more video clips and photos. Otherwise, I will have a longer video clip to share. Anyway, below is the video clip I did for Shanle, capturing moments of his first month. The main attraction will be the shaving of his newborn hair. It's really amazing how cooperative Shanle was.

We will like to thank everyone for taking your precious time off to visit our humble home and share our joy. Thank you very much for all the gifts, voucher and angpows. They really come in very handy at this financially squeezy time for us.

The 1st month party was just the start of our hectic days. On the Thursday of the following week, I had to sit for an exam on Computer Comms, the final module of my long-drawn part-time degree programme in Computer Science at SIM University. I had only three days to prepare for it. At the same time, my workload doubled as my colleague left for his pre-posting language training without a successor. I got to hold the fort of our little unit alone for probably the next one month or so. As Irene was just recovering, I had to do all the household chores from mopping to washing the window panes.

Fortunately for us, my mother-in-law volunteered to take care of Shanle full-time for the week of my exam, sparing me from the disruptive nights. For the benefit of those who could not turn up for the party, my in-laws lived in a nearby block within the same precint, 5 minutes walk away. If that is convenient, that's not all. My parents occupy the flat directly below ours. We are akin to living in a mansionette except that the staircase is external. I am reaping the fruits of good foresight when we planned our home back in 2004.

With the strong family network support, we pulled through without too much hardship. We have been taking care of Shanle in the night since a week ago. The feeding timings are becoming more regular nowadays (11-12pm, 3pm, 6pm) so I have been able to get enough sleep to fend the following day's work. It's hard but I find it quite enjoyable... caring for Shanle and seeing him grow bigger and cuter each day. I will put up more photos as we go along! Watch this space.

An Invitation to Shanle's Full Month Party

Dear aunties, uncles, elder brothers and sisters,

Little Shanle says hi!

Please mark your calendar. My full month party is scheduled on 18 November 2006 (Saturday). As hordes of relatives and friends will be coming down to meet me, we will need to arrange different Meet-the-People-Sessions (MPS) for different groups of relatives & friends.

My parents, Kee Chor & Irene, will be contacting you soon either by phone, email or SMS. This is their first big assignment for Shanle. The tentative plan is to have two MPS. Lunch (11 am - 2 pm) will be mainly for our relatives and family friends. Afternoon Tea (2 - 6 pm) for friends and colleagues. The reason for doing so is to avoid overcrowding so that I can get to say hi to everyone. The segmentation is flexible. It is perfectly okay if you wish to come at a different timing that suits your schedule. The important thing is that you let my parents know well before hand so that we can cater sufficient amount of food for everyone.

I don't think my parents will be inviting the whole world to my big day. They are shy people and they may not want inconvenience you unnecessarily. If you are free to join us on 18 Nov, do drop my Daddy an email to let us know in advance. Alternatively, you can indicate your interest by writing a comment for this posting.

I understand from my parents that choosing gifts for newborn can be quite a hassle. To make things simple for everyone, I will love to receive gift vouchers from any store that sells baby products (e.g. Kiddy Palace or Mothercare). It has come to my attention that there are already a couple gift sets of newborn clothing for me before I was born. If there are more coming, I will be very disappointed if I outgrew the clothing before I get a chance to wear them. My parents are really great people and they will use your vouchers to get things that I need as I grow up ;-) If I am not wrong, Ang Pows will also serve the same purpose. I got a couple of them just hours after I was born. They got me useful stuff like Similac, pampers, toys and even painful vaccinations.

As my parents work on with this big assignment, I will do my part to eat well, stay healthy and prime myself for the big day. There will be a lot of photo opp for everyone, and trust me, I will look gorgeous! See you all soon!

Birthday at Covo Bistro & Lounge

Yesterday was Irene's birthday and her first day of leave, which will last until the end of her maternity leave. She has taken extra leave to nurse at home, preparing for the delivery of our baby boy.

I took leave too and spent the morning doing the laundry and cleaning the floor. We were out after two in the afternoon to see our gynae. Our baby was doing great, 3kg (500gm up since a week before), still kicking quite hard.

It was Irene's birthday but I had no present for her. I promised her to buy an OSIM U-Zap to help her slim down after the baby is out. To make up the day, I prepared three surprises for her.

We went to this nice little restaurant called 'Covo Bistro & Lounge' for dinner and I got my usual online Orchard Florist to send a table bouquet of roses and bears to Covo (Surprise 1). So when we got there, the flowers were sitting nicely on our table. Covo was very nice indeed to put us in their special outdoor area next to a small pond with a few koi in it. Here are some pics taken to share.

The setting was great with a small little candlelight with an open top. The only problem was the noise from the TV on the upper floor. But it was okay... quite interesting. You can choose to be indoors or sit at the bar counter. There's a small room for about seven for private gathering. The room even has its own music player for those who want to listen to different music. There are also a couple of outdoor sofa areas for people to retire for a nice drink after the main course at the table.

Covo serves a range of western-styled (I think it's Italian) dishes a-la-carte and also tapa food for those who just want to talk and have something light. We went for the 'Rack of Lamb', a Covo signature dish. The three pieces of lamb were marinated in honey and the dish taste quite unique. The salad with grilled chicken starter was wonderful too. We ordered a pan-fried salmon sandwich later as we were quite hungry still. The food was quite good. It is really worth a try. Covo is located at 16 Greenwood Avenue S(289209) Tel: 64668103.

Irene enjoyed the dinner very much. The table bouquet was a nice surpise for her. But there are two more in store. She was harping for a birthday cake all day long. We did not have one at Covo because we were too full. After we are back home, I quickly prepared the second surprise. I got a mini heart-shaped cake for her during the day while she was back in the office to retrieve her keys. It was hidden in the car all day. After we are ready to sleep, I light up the candle and sang her a birthday song (Surprise 2). She was overjoyed. The third surprise came not too long later when her name popped up over the radio YES 933. DJ Jiahui read my message for her '祝你生日快樂﹐邂逅了你﹐燦爛了我的一生'.

It was a great birthday for her. Her last before she becomes a mother and a memorable one!

Wedding of Karyn and Lawrence

I attended Karyn and Lawrence's wedding yesterday evening at the Beaufort Sentosa. The solemnisation was played out in a backdrop of the setting sun. The sky was bluish red. Thank goodness the haze lifted and the PSI was down to around 40 from the 150 mark the day before. Otherwise, all of us may have to be issued masks as a wedding gift!

I knew the two of them during my posting in Taipei. But I only knew about their long long courtship of nine years at their wedding yesterday. Nine Years! I have to take my hats off to them for sticking together these long years, peppered with frequent trips, relocations and time apart. My message to them, which I wrote in their wedding book for well wishers, is "Have kids, the more the merrier!" I am looking forward for a kids gathering with our ex-SAROC gang... the second generation...

It was a fun wedding... I was glad that Irene and I did not have to go through the same 'tests': smelling out the right hubby, passing bananas through the pants or lap dancing. I was lucky! Fortunately or unfortunately, Irene was not there. She may have missed the fun, but I would worried if she could take it, late in her pregnancy, the non-stop laughing during the games.

Thanks to Karyn and Lawrence for the great time. Sorry that I had to leave early as I got a pregnant wife waiting for me to coax her to sleep. For that, I had to miss the Patissier wedding cake once again (I missed it at John & Jenny's wedding last year). Who's next?