Its a been a week since we're back from the Thailand trip, I thought all the residue of the trip should have worn off by now. But how we just wish to go back there soon.

I feel comfortable there... The people are humble, warm and friendly, hard working and helpful... Love it there.

This time its going to be just me and my lovely wife. Just the two of us blending into the people there, eating along the streets. I always wondered how a deep fried cockroach would taste like. (I swear they really sell that)

They also sell those icicles sticks made from soft drinks frozen, like Pepsi or Coke. Cost 3 baht per piece, which is like only S$.0.10
Later in Singapore, I saw some punk selling in a Pasat Malam the same thing but made from syrup water costing S$0.80 Whoa man... step away from the stall.

I remember teaching Isabel how to greet the locals when we are there. The only one I myself know is "Sawadi-Kap", But I also told her that the girls have to say it differently... like "Sawadi-Kah" or Kap Pun Kah"(thank you from girl), "Kap Pun Kap" (from the guy).

I didn't know how much Isabel could understand the concept until yesterday...
I found a small toy Harmonica for her to play with. After a while, she turned to me and asked: "Daddy, is it you say Harmoni-cup, I say Harmoni-ca???"

How cute is that??

I almost flipped laughing.

Its true I tell you...

Whenever I make a cup of coffee and set it on my table, the phone will ring... I'll be called away to attend to some issues whereby it will take long enough for the coffee to get cold when I come back.

I need my coffee today...

See Lion Show?? Sea Lion Show??

Harlo!!!

Just took a break... Went to Bangkok for shopping!! Or rather I went there for weight lifting, I'll explain later.

Anyway, went there with my wife and my elder daughter, who was on the plane for the very first time in her life. I was worried at first that it might be a bad experience for her as I heard kids would cry becos of the cabin pressure causing pain in the ear. But she was fine, ate and slept thur the journey.

Bringing kids for vacation is never the same as going on your own. "Just a kid" you might say... but the kid comes with whining and crying, can't walk for long hours so need to be carried most of the time, needs nap every afternoon, drinks milk 3 times a day.

The first day there brought back memories of the previous trip I went with my wife. The Tuk-Tuk in particular... in the day time its cheaper to ride than the night. Why? Becos they will drive you to other places rather than your destination. They will tell you "Please help me... I bring you to gem shop, you stay there for 10 mins, I get coupon for free gas, after that I drive you to your shopping". Every Tuk-Tuk you flagged down in the day time will be like that, waste my time. But I have to admit, riding it is fun, especially if you hum the James Bond theme song to it.
Taxi is cheap, starting price is 35 Baht (S$1.45), 15mins later at most is only 60 Baht (S$2.50) CHEAP! CHEAP! CHEAP!

We went to this place call the Safari world, where supposedly the animals are running free in a controlled environment. Lions, Tigers, rhino... except no elephants. Not a single one. Funny we all think why is there no elephant in Thailand zoo? Are there so sacred they there are not to be kept captive?

We told Isabel that we are going to Sea Lion Show, she happily sat and waited. the sea lion came and performed. But the expression on Isabel's face was not exactly right, a sort of puzzled way. only after the show then I realized why. She asked me: "Where's the Lion? I thought Daddy you said we're watching a Lion show?" She was not wrong to ask that cos the way I put it was misleading, as I said we going to sea lion show, she thought its see lion show.

Saw this article on the web:

Today's Next Magazine got both of them beat. In the words of a Disneyland restroom attendant named Emily: "The child is already six or seven years old. This is not an infant. But the mother still picked him up and put him into the handwashing basin to relief himself ..." The reporter interrupted her: "Yes, the newspapers have photos of a little boy urinating right outside this restroom." Emily continued: "No. He was not urinating. He was defecating into the handwashing basin. When I saw him, he was in the middle of the process of defecating. Someone else was washing her hands in the adjacent basin. It was disgusting." Thus, on opening day at Disneyland, Emily's Magic Journey experience was to pick up feces from the handwashing basin. "This place is huge with more than twenty partitions. At the time, some of them were still unused. I told the mother that there were more partitions. She replied in putonghua: 'It'll be quick. It'll be quick' and continued."

Wake up this morning with a shock... "wha liao...almost 8am!!!"

Usually I will try to leave the house by 8am, but end up always late by 10 minute, reach office lagi another 20 minutes late. Haha... Although boss never say anything, but long term like this also paiseh la. Tomorrow must wake up and leave earlier. Maybe even early enough to do some exercise.

When I was about to leave the house, my mother-in-law came in, which means I am REALLY late man... I usually don't get to see my MIL, cos I leave before she reaches and she leaves before I reach, haha like play catching like that.

At the LRT station, I saw this malay couple pushing a stroller. When the train comes, everybody chiong inside, leaving the couple and the stroller still on the platform. Of course la, some of the people step in the train and ke-blakang puseng at the door to face outside, want to be the first to get out, don't care whether there's anybody behind them that hasn't got on the train yet. Mostly this kind of people want to chiong for the lift, as if the lift will be faster than walking down the stairs. Actually by the time the lift reach the LRT platform level and bring them down to MRT platform, I would have reached by stairs already. Really don't know why these people so KS for what? So hard up for seat, for lift, everything has to be the first. Some even willing to snatch seats from pregnant women. *tsk tsk tsk...*

Nowadays the gov'ment "encourage" or "educate" the people to stand on the left if you are not walking up/down the escalator, the right side is for the fast pace people to rush for time. But every now and then there is sure to be one or two tortoise that just came down from the mountain, never receive the message from gov'ment that will stand on the wrong side. Then the people behind will purposely make a loud "tsk tsk" sound to signal their displease. Most of the time they bo hio the "tsk tsk"sound, especially those teenage couples, making use of the time to catch up on hugging, totally oblivious of the people behind them. If I ever catch one of my daughters like that I sure give her jia-lat jia-lat.

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Headline in the newspaper: "Seawater fit for drinking now a reality".

At least this type I don't mind drinking, but the Newater comes from waste water... those that we flush down the toilet, filtered, then goes back to your tap... think of it already scared. But gov'ment says its very safe, you always see all the gov'ment people will each be holding a bottle of Newater during any big event, trying to promote the brand and the safety of it. Now they have another brand call the "Desaline H2O"(seawater)... Sounds like for washing contact lens. hahaha

Of course I trust the Singapore Gov'ment, they have the highest standard in everything, especially the safety of the food. Other country can get food poisoning, animal virus and stuff but not here, everybody still can eat, drink and be merry.

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Ok better get back to work, if not my boss will fry my cuttle fish.

My parents came and visit us for a change yesterday, mainly to see my newly painted house with its multi coloured walls in different rooms, mah-chiam like child care centre like that(in some ways it is).

I like it when my parents visit, they bring me goodies as if visiting some long-time-no-see old friend (we visit them every weekend), this time they brought me fruits, tibits and 30 eggs...

The eggs in my fridge disappear at the rate of 2-3 eggs a day, but I don't see the eggs in my dinner dishes everyday!!??!! Where can it be?? Hatched and become chicken?

I think its my maid using eggs frying rice for lunch everyday, maybe if I do a cholesterol level test on her, it will shoot sky high.

Anyway, the main entertainment for my parents when they are here are my 2 princess. The Song & Dance & Stand-up Comedian all-in-one will be Isabel. Ally only need to be cute and cuddly, she'll get all the attention.

Isabel don't get as much attention from people beside us parents anymore. Just the other day, with a group of friends came over to my place, I saw her quietly sitting in the centre of the living room floor by herself eating a piece of cake, even with so many people around her, nobody seems to notice her. My heart went for her and I sat down next to her. She shared the cake with me as if showing appreciation of my company. My God, sometimes I wonder to myself, how did she grow up so fast. How much have I missed from her life, I do miss the times when she was just a few months old, when me and my lovely wife are so excited over every little thing she does.

Isable surprised me with her vocab of Melayu the other day, who knows she might even know more malay words than I do. Not only can she count from 1-10, she can tell the maid " Makan Nasi", where to put things by saying "Taruk Sini", "Mao? Tak Mao?"... Very soon she'll be having a real conversation with her in Melayu.

During the earlier days when the maid first arrived. Once, she was cleaning the floor when Isabel said to her: "Auntie mati", Yani looked up in surprise, she tried to smile but she must be thinking: "why this little girl so bad? Tell me to die?"
But in actual fact Isabel was saying: "Auntie ma di (clean the floor in mandarin).

Of course we explained to Yani what she meant, hopefully she believe us.

This cannot be true...

I can't be that weak...

I take vitamins supplements regularly, I sleep enough (at least 6 hours), I take fiber from vegetables and fruits, I finished my antibiotics the other time I was down with flu.

WHY AM I SICK AGAIN????

It came so fast... my nose was a little runny on Tues night, then...
WHAM!!!

The next day I was coughing like an old car that couldn't start.

I suspect the air quality in the office is really bad, I think everyone in it has been sick at least once for the past two months. Some twice, me THRICE.

My maid must be thinking "Why Sir so sick chicken? Me here 3 months, him sick 3 times... aiyo..."

I don't even dare to hold my baby so often.

Speaking of which, Ally was seeing me and Isabel off at the door this morning cos I was gonna bring Bel to my mom's place where her Gu Ma will bring her to Centerpoint and dress her up like a princess and pay $5 for each pic taken.

Anyway... it's the first time I see Ally cry when we were leaving.

Aaawww....

this means she's growing, no longer an infant who's oblivious to her surrounding except when the milk bottle is coming.

She is plain adorable.

I have a monkey tattooed on my behind... and no, I'm not serious.

But I do have a pierced ear .

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I remember some months ago, there were a few cases of fallen window casement, causing injuries... real bad...

Then I also vaguely remember something about the government giving order that all window casement units are to be retrofitted with aluminum rivets.

Few days ago, my mail box was stuffed with this "genuine" looking reminder, reminding the owners to have their windows inspected, otherwise there will be a fine of thousands of dollars.

Being a law abiding good citizen and not wanting to take chance of my window falling off and break someone's head, I called up to check on the so called "free inspection" that the reminder is offering. Only to find out that they are charging $40 for admin, although its true that them coming down is free.

(*snap* snap* finger)... Hello? Do I look like a sucker?

I hung up without agreeing anything to it but quickly called up HDB to confirm the necessity of such inspection on my flat.

"NOOOooo... Sir your flat in ****** is new sir, CONFIRM no inspection required, already passed QC one." exclaimed the nice HDB officer whom I may be sending a letter of commendation if I can recall his indian name correctly.

A-ha...

Moral of the story is: Please do a proper investigation before engaging a contractor.

Today my whole family had dinner in Swensen's with a "long-time-no-see" friend of mine and his family. We were suppose to meet up with another "long-time-no-see" friend cos he just came back from Canada for studying there for 2 years.

But I think there was some communication problem... so in the end there's only the 2 families.

Tip of the day: Don't use email to arrange meetings, SMS is fine, never use emails...

Dinner in a restaurant with 4 kids can be "fun"... my side of the table has 6 glasses of water, why? Because the children were toppling them all over if it's placed infront of them.

The art of conversation is to be able to communicate in adult and kids language simultaneously, being able to hold a senseable mature conversation with friends and talk to kids in child like language.

Zack, Ben's elder boy, is quite a chatter box comparing to my Isabel, he can hold a conversation with me pretty well considering I just met him 3 minutes before. He's smiling most of the time, curiously asking his father questions to satisfy his inquisitive little mind.



Isabel sat down at the table and looked thru the menu like an adult, she happily pointed to the "Coit Tower" which has an American flag on it.

"Daaaaddyyyy... I want the one with a flag." *eyes twinkling*

I should have read between the lines, she only wanted the flag. The ice-cream came, she took the flag, but refused the ice-cream (she never liked Ice-cream), I end up eating the whole thing myself.

Anyway, I'll be arranging for the familes another dinner party for a total of...1,2,3... 6-8 adults and 6-7 kids... productive familes, ya?? The guys are all born in the same year, went thru the same training in the army, we are now proud fathers to our wonderful children.

I'm in a mood for BBQ this time... The kids can run in the park and play swing, while the guys we can relive with our army days stories, the girls can sit around and compare labor pain.

"Epidural?... No Epidural???"

It should be fun.

I looked at my aquarium... so dull and lifeless, beside the green colour lobster who's suppose to be BLUE ( it was crystal blue when I bought it from the shop), I also have a Black Ghost who lost his partner 2 weeks after they moved in... poor thing, now the surviving one thinks he's a lobster and moved in to the same hole with the real lobster.

So I went to buy some newbies... in came the 3 little stooges: Larry Harry and Terry, the 3 apple snails, followed by 4 mini puffer, they are so mini, I couldn't capture it properly in my camera.

My lobster is the happiest when the snails landed, it didn't waste any time prying the juicy flesh out of the shell, but after umphteen tries it finally gave up and go back to the canned food that I drop in for him. The snails are just too tough... but that doesn't mean the lobster isn't trying anymore. Today, after 2 weeks, its still trying its luck, dragging the snails into the hole... when that happens, I have to go dig it out.