School hunt

I started out as a mother who just wanted to send her daughter to a playschool for a few hours, twice or three times a week. But after hearing "Sorry, we are full" for more than 10 times in two days, I have been transformed into a mom-zilla who is sucked into the crazy Singapore 'rat' school chase system.

See the conversation highlights below and you'll understand why majority of the Singapore parents have no choice but to conform to the competitive system.

#1

Teacher: "Our waitlist is very long and priorities are given to existing children's sibblings."

#2

Teacher: "Sorry the registration for playgroup is full. Waitlist registration is also closed."

SK: "Are you saying that my child will not be able to go to your school forever and ever?"

Teacher: "Yup, sorry and thanks for your interest".

#3

Teacher: "It's good if you can come for full day because sometimes I cover that cannot finish in the morning during the afternoon sessions."

SK: "What do you mean cover?"

Teacher: "Syllabus! We have to prepare them for PRIMARY ONE!!"

#4

SK: "How long is your waitlist?"

Schoool: "Very long. A couple of hundreds."

I've seen schools where the teachers are very proud of their 'education' system and good environment. I've also seen some schoools in the heartlanders where children looked very happy despite in a slightly run-down environment.

In all honesty, I want S to attend a school where she can play, learn and be happy. BUT the "kiasuness" in me gravitates towards schools with good environment (spacious and well kept), genuinely enthusiastic teachers, children from mixed cultural background and near our home. Can we have all we want?

Stay tuned to see our school-hunt update.

5 years ago today

This is me 5 years ago today.


I took a leap of faith and joined the equities world, not knowing much about the stocks market. This position (the longest in my career history) has seen me transformed from a bride-zilla preparing for her wedding, who cried every other week over work stress, to one who has some knowledge in the oil & gas related stocks, balancing motherhood and work. The crying has reduced significantly, of course.

I disagree with Daddy M every time he tells me that I love my job. But walking down the memory lane, I think I had more good than bad days in the 5 past years....

My top work experiences (from best to not-so-pleasant) from 2006-2011:-

• Received the best ever (yet) bonus in 2008


• Made some good friends along the way


• S was born on the day the team received an Asianmoney award that we worked hard for and my colleagues nick-named her "Asia"


• Experienced first-class suite on SQ


• Visited some states in the US (eg. Charlotte and Alabama) which I would not have gone otherwise for leisure


• Made my first TV appearance


• Being on a stretcher (from back injury) in a Chinese shipyard and survived CT-scan and X-rays in a hospital where doctors were allowed to smoke in front of patients!


• Worked till 4 a.m alone in the office one of the nights during my 3rd trimester


• Not in Singapore when daddy M had to go for his knee surgery

All in all, it has been good... Thank you Jesus!

Secret library

 

I have a secret library – my closet.  A place where I keep at least 5  to 6 children’ books for big S who loves to read. But I have to hide the books and give it to her on piecemeal basis because she is a speed reader! By speed, I mean she can finish a Geronimo Stilton book in 45 minutes! It’s remarkable for a 9-year old! I don’t even think I could do that. 

So we don’t stop her, as long as she gets her work done first. I’m a firm believer that children who love to read (or love Jesus) will turn out well…It’s ironic coming from a person who doesn’t really read.

Thank God for SANS bookshop, where I can rent the latest books for a fraction of the cost of book stores. So we have a happy kid and a happy adult (not burning a hole in the pocket).

 

xoxo,

Book aunt.

Hansel N Gretel

What’s a better way of supporting Hansel N Gretel (online kids fashion started by my dear friend, WL) than showing off a kid who’s  happy to be the model parading herself  naturally for some glamour shots?

PS: She didn’t want to take off the straw hat!

First visit to the library

She got all excited when she saw the endless shelves of books.  I smirked proudly thinking that my daughter loved to read. 

20 minutes later, the bubble burst. She had more kick removing books from the shelves than reading them.

Happy 20 months

S is no longer in her ‘teens’ months as of today. She’s 20 months old!

A milestone worth celebrating.

So we had a 10 minute impromptu birthday party with a piece of cheesecake, a birthday song and an Elmo sticker book as present!

Playing cupid

We named it “Bring a friend night”.

It started off as good intentions by a few married women trying to ‘gather’ a few of their single female and male friends under one roof.  Who knows what will happen right… Some things may just happen at the right time and place.

It was fun, although the single guys supernaturally outnumbered the girls. Conversations were casual, natural with no awkward silence.  Good food and wine helped, of course.

Everyone’s a good sport. We had girls and guys in their 30’s (married and single) running around to grab the right balloons as they answered quiz related to sexuality and anatomy. Nothing dirty. All perfectly ‘clean’ general knowledge questions, eg. what did Napolean and Hitler have in common? Answer: one testicle. The fact that everyone was in their 30’s (and above), questions were handled with good humour, with no one giggling or blushing away.

Did we meet the objective? Did we have any successful match?

I’m not sure.

It didn’t matter in the end because everyone had fun.

We'll probably have some good hit rates next round :)

Let the weak says 'I am strong'

"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness..."
~2 Corinthians 12: 9a

The world judges how well one handles challenges or crisis but the bible tells us opposite. What cannot be cured makes us dependent on God's power. God doesn't always remove difficult circumstances in our lifes but He is always there to support us. It is not about how strong our faith is but how much we KNOW God because He is the one who is faithful, not us.

When we fall, His grace is sufficient to pick us up.
When we fall, don't let condemnation cloud our minds.
It's the weak who need God.