Vivocity! Here we come!

We're heading off to Vivo in a couple of hours' time. But, kids are having runny noses, so they might not get into the water after all, PLUS, the weather! *boohoo*

Science Centre perhaps? :)

My Inspiration

Both Ben (Underwood) and his mum. May I be like his mother, whose attitude is amazing. She has given him life, twice over.

Watch it.

We went to the Zoo today!

After dropping Ben off at work this morning, we headed for the zoo. Since we paid for the zoo membership, we had better make good use of it! :) We've been going quite regularly, and I'm glad that this time round, we saw more than just the Elephant Show.

We managed to catch the Splash! Safari show - with penguins, manatees and sea lions as the kids took their lunch. Abby was, as usual, whingy, coz we were seated very near the speakers. She doesn't like loud noises. After her ears were covered, she was much better.

Thereafter, we headed to the Children's Playland. After we grabbed lunch, I asked the kids if they were keen to head into the water play area. At first they were quite hesitant, then after their feet got the first taste, they were hooked. After I removed Shalom's tee and placed it at the stroller, I was shocked to find out that Abby had removed her top as well! She got really wet and didn't like the wet tee, so note to self: BRING SWIMWEAR, BIKINI AT LEAST! Sigh. Shalom, on the other hand, roamed freely around topless.



The kids knocked out soon after they rinsed up, and Shalom was so tired he fell asleep right after he saw his favourite - giraffes!



He was really very tired. They really enjoyed themselves. :) I know I did. ;)

Wine Appreciation

I did something I never dared to do last night. I stepped into a wine cellar, or shop rather. Shalom looked like he wanted a change of scenery after he put Peking duck into his hair and spitting out whatever food we put in his mouth. He had more than enough.

So I took him for a walk. As I stepped out of the restaurant, I saw the shop. One of the list of things to accomplish for 2008 is to get to know wine better. So I stepped in to enquire for courses. And I was in for a surprise. :)

The boss was very welcoming and replied that they don't usually hold courses, but I was most welcome for a glass of whatever's opened. So I joined in the party there. And in the course of doing so, I met two teachers! :) One of them initially asked what we thought her profession was, and I guessed correctly! :) It's just the vibes I guess, then the gentleman who guess that she was an engineer said that his partner (wife?) who was there is also a teacher, and fianlly it ended off with me revealing that I, too, am a teacher.

I learnt a lot last night, and most importantly, I made some new friends. I think I'm close to dying of loneliness if I don't break out of my rut soon.

I am now certified!

Was feeling kinda bored with all those after-school-term meetings, so I decided to join in one of the courses which came through the school's email. I thought since it'd be just a few hours event of learning something new, why not? My life's a li'l stagnated right now.

So I decided to go Sports Climbing.

Usually people call it Rock-climbing, but since it's known as such, you actually need... erhm, rocks, or a rock at least. Real ones. Those moulds they mount on walls, that's Sports Climbing. I seriously didn't know the difference, until yesterday.

So after 5 hours of setting up, learning to tie figure 8 knots, understanding that karabiners are NOT Carribenas (erhm, something close to the Carribean Sea?), put on the harnass, getting my flesh jammed in the ATC while belaying my colleague, overcoming my mental obstacle and reaching the top of the school wall TWICE!, wrapping up and getting inspired by all the mountaineering videos, I AM CERTIFIED!

Sports Climbing Certificate Level 1.

No big deal, but it's my FIRST ever climb! The only thing I usually climb is up onto my bed. Not trees, definitely not moulds on walls. I wanted to give up, really give up, and just polish up my skills as a belayer. But no... this session provided an excellent opportunity to bond with a not-so-familiar colleague whose going to be in the same level next year. With her help and support, I managed to press on and reach the top, which I never thought I could do it. I just wanted to cross the red line - about 2.5m off the ground. But the top, it's about 3 stories high I think!

But the catch which came later - now since we're certified, we'll need to be on call for kiddos who need to boulder or sports climb. Supervise; be their belayer. There's talk that there's going to be Level 2 training.

When I told Ben I was now certified Level 1, he asked me, "So how many more thousand levels to go before being fully certified?" :P

Actually, 2 more - Level 2 then Supervisor or Instructor Course. The latter is very expensive.

He was quite impressed I think. :)

Well, here's a video to inspire! However, Dan Osman's not around anymore - equipment failure. Watch the video! :)

Regaining Momentum

As most can see, i've hardly been blogging. Not that there isn't the motivation to do so-i've so many things to record- but i've gotta consider too many factors before i post anything. It's getting too crowded in here.

Not that i don't welcome readers reading my blog, but it's just that there are also who snoop around and criticise every single thing that is said. If this place irks you so much, i highly recommend a detour to the other blogs listed on my right.

Hopefully with the holidays coming up, i'll be able to post more. Just for the record, i'm stopping Diane. She's screwing up my life big time.

Last Week of School

The school year's almost coming to an end. I'm up in the middle of the night wondering what i'm going to bring for the class party tmw. Hopefully the canteen's got some party-worthy stuff to contribute.

The kids asked for mac's, but would breakfast suffice? I did think about that, but the b'fast sets don't seem too exciting. May check pizza out too-but do they deliver at 8 in the morning? Who eats pizza at 8 in the morning anyway?

I'll be having a mini prize giving ceremony before the party commences, thereafter followed by a Spring Cleaning Party, which the kids are excited about too. Really quite heartening, the way they love the class, except one or two aristocrats who think the rest is too lowly for them.

Need to sleep now...

Eyes...aiks!

Since the start of our SONbeam toddler ministry, we've been celebrating what God has created for us - our eyes, ears and mouth. So, for the start of the new month, we revised what we had learnt for the previous month by consolidating the activities - for the eyes, ears and mouth.

So for this particular activity, we were supposed to search for eyes in a woman's magazine, cut it out and then paste it on a piece of paper. So as I was happily cutting the eyes out, I decided to do something. I placed the cut outs over my face. The kids were strangely amused. Even Shalom was really amused. So I put it over his face and took a photo.


When he saw it, he went, "EEE!"