Succumbing to the pressure of Singapore education system, spends all energy on stretching the kid, making sure the kid scores the highest possible marks, questioning the teacher professionalism when homework is scarce and when teacher doesn’t comply to the teaching norms (ie, more homework, more challenging syllabus, more notes, more worksheets and never try to go experimental about new teaching methods, more is always good). Ace the exam, gets into top school, becomes a scholar.

Or returning to Singapore every winter and summer vacation, put the child back into the primary school here for immersion before heading back to Beijing when school reopens for the new semester. No month long extended holidays, no academic stress, hoping the kid can excel too, somehow.

We certainly think the other person is ridiculous.

嘿嘿，尽管落后了几年，亡羊补牢的工作还是是要地。就算不能成为什么手作杂货达人，也可以学学一些应时的潮流新语。在纪伊国屋书店买了夏米的《初学橡皮章的12堂课》和小间敬子的《橡皮章生活杂货》，芷遥也挑了一本《用纸粘土做超可爱娃娃屋》，回来后上网查了一下，发现实在是付了许多冤枉钱。算了，要我等上3个星期后回北京再上当当订购，我打死忍不住。先忍痛解解馋，稍后再回北京扫货。

手作－生活，随兴，情趣，创意。

真的是超可爱。

最后买了一本《乌龟饲养方法》，准备回北京后，好好为家里两只可怜的小乌龟打造一给优质的生活环境，希望它们能长命百岁。

Ultraman Mebius Phoenix Brave and Zero

And the next day, I found this adorable Scooby Doo metal candy box at Candylicious. Couldn’t resist not owing this silly dog.

Couldn’t believe my eyes when I opened it. $5 for that tiny packet of candy that couldn’t even fill one tenth of the tin, luckily I still got to keep that tin.

如果2012年是世界末日，那必须在灾难来临前好好整理并记录生活中的杂七杂八。若大幸没遭到灭绝，更不能在2013年感叹又让小小博客荒凉了一年。

Being kiasu helped, we managed to catch the Canopy Flyer with minimal queuing. It was such a short ride! But the shortest ride award has to go to the carousal at Madagascar, I have never rode a carousal that stops after 4 rounds.

The queue time was still tolerable in the late morning. The Treasure Hunter took us only 15 minutes. It was a 30-50min (estimated) queue time for that ride in the afternoon. It is such a children directed and thrill-less ride, why would grown-ups even want to spend that amount of time queuing up for it!? I reckoned they weren’t aware that ride is designed for children. I would have cursed and swear if I queued 30minutes and realised it is meant for babies.

I absolutely loved the river boat ride. It was the longest ride we had in the park, shaded, cool and safe on the lazy river, perfect for lazy parents to rest while the kids got entertained by the cartoons. We also took the junior roller coaster twice to enjoy some mini thrill as I believe I would have died mid air if I try the Battlestar Galactica.

Having survived so many carnival rides in various countries, I can’t help but feel overly protected, as they require an adult to accompany the kids, even on kiddy kiddy stuff like the Dino-soarin and Treasure Hunters.

It was an enjoyable day. Would have been better if we have a cooler weather + more attractions.

Go straight to the food court at B2 in Changi Terminal 3, order fishball noodle, kaya butter toast and extra cups of ice milo. Even though we landed at T1 today, we still took the skytrain over there for breakfast

Drive the car back as the grandpa is probably too tired having to fetch us so early in the morning (we always take the red-eye flight, reaching Singapore at 6am).

Read as many news paper as I can.

Head towards Bt Panjang Plaza to buy slippers and sandals  for everyone (the kids always outgrow their previous pair we left behind), buy the multi flavour Yakult (strangly, only original flavour is available in China, and straws aren’t provided), buy tidbits then buy fishball and curry puffs at Old Chang Kee.

Send the kids back to the grandparents so I can get a hair cut from my favourite hairdresser, who always insist that I need a scalp treatment.

Always the same ritual for our first day back home!

I decided to give the bike another chance of braving through the cold with me again this morning, as I really have to draw some money from the ATM to pay for Zeeyau school bus fees and our supplies in the fridge is running very low. I wrapped myself in extra layers - super warm merino thermal, a fleece pull over, another fleece jacket, with a final protection from my thick windbreaker, snow hat (though there is no snow), fleece leggings, gloves and a thick scarf that I wrap around my face, leaving only my eyes to be seen.

I definitely wore enough, but the wind was still as unforgiving. Leaving the two kids alone at home made me trying hard to pedal faster. I told Zeeyau to give me a call immediately if anything happen. Sure enough, she called me, though nothing happened, they just wanted to find out where I was. Damn iphone touch pad, I couldn’t receive the call wearing gloves. Got to pull off my glove. Answering that phone call in -10C windchill totally numbed my 5 fingers in less then 30 sec.

Looking forward to the lovely sunshine back in Singapore come Wednesday.

There are so much things to worry about ever since we moved to China two years ago. Water and food safety, air pollution, crazy traffic junctions, unsafe vaccination …. and there is this thing that constantly nagging in our head, what happens if we lost our kids in a busy street or shopping mall?

When I briefly lost Didi for 2min in a shopping mall in Shanghai 2 years ago, it felt like thunder and windchill struck me all at once. This country is huge and children are precious. If the kid got abducted and the baddie contact us for a ransom, that would actually be lucky. Most of the lost kids will not be found. There are also instances where the abductor got frightened, got desperate then killed and disposed the kid.

Couldn’t help feeling frighten, so we bought Zeeyau a mobile phone with a GPS tracking device last year (not the one distributed by Beijing Red Cross Foundation). Its a cool gadget, smaller then the size of our palm, weighing only 58g, and we could track her location from an online platform which will register her locations every now and then. We could also define a certain safe movement radius, if she moves out of the radius, an SMS will be automatically sent to warn the parents.

While I admit I have been over paranoid, its good to have such a gadget just in case the kid got lost somewhere so we can call her and find her as quickly as we can.

School holiday officially starts on the 22nd of January, but they children have been gently reminded that they don’t have to attend school anymore until the new semester reopens on the 22nd of February! Now I know school holiday begins right after the last paper ends for public school here!

That makes me remembered the happy days we spent in school after exam playing Uno, five stones, watching movies, non-stop chatting or having extended PE lessons and recess time. Well, not as enjoyable when I became teacher and had to deal with the chaotic classroom atmosphere, crack our heads to create original and positive comments to 40 students, counting the attendance of those kids as well as feeling the heartache when the kid couldn’t make the grade to be promoted to the next level. As much as I wish the kids would just stay at home so I could wrap up my work in peace, they are expected to attend school except for the 2 precious marking days after the final exam. Wouldn’t even think of trying to hint the students not to appear in school, and schools definitely couldn’t simply declare that the school will not be in session.

“So, Sophia, your boy’s name is Lee-der?”

“Yes, Lee-der.”

“Lee-der, as in l-e-a-d-e-r, ‘Leader’ ?”

“Yes.”

“Wow…”

Though it wasn’t anything surprising since names like Banana, Juciy, Spring, Pinky, Super, etc have been spotted. There is also a Handsome somewhere out there. Wouldn’t it be great to be able to have everybody calling your child “leader” every now and then!