Spar Me

Zyan has been doing his Taekwando for about 3 weeks now.

He's not very attentive in class. Attention span is a problem. Hmmmm

Also, his moves, are a little, out of whack. LOL.

There's sparring involved. Afterall, it's a contact sport. :)
Then these little white-belters are looking it more of a fun game.
Everyone wants to volunteer to spar, whereas the other people are hoping not to be chosen to spar.

With all enthusiam shown, I present to you, Zyan's sparring session. 

If it is not clear, the one facing the camera is Zyan.
The one back-facing the camera is a boy that join this class from another community centre.
That CC does it in open air, so due to haze, his father changed the session to our CC here, where it is done indoors.

Don't cry ah!
Hehehe

Taekwando Class

Last Sunday, Zyan had his first Taekwando class.
Signed him up as part of the free courses provided from the community centre. Cool right? :)

Since it's his first lesson, he went there in his normal home attire. Not the Taekwando outfit.
Hopefully, this can instill more self-discipline in himself.
He's a little too active in many ways.

Well, that's how kids are. Always excitable.

His whiter-than-white belt will only do basic stuff. Just basic kicks, and stance.
See my little boy in action:


There were a few new students. Also joined as part of the free courses provided.
At least they have new group of playmates. That's nice.



See how Zyan kick with same leg/hand forward!

His co-ordination looked a bit funny.
On some parts of the movement, he even looked like dancing! *peng*

Anyway, it's a good outlet for him to release his energy. Then can have a good night sleep at night.
Would it be a wishful thinking? Hehehe

This coming Sunday I think will have to don the Tawkwando outfit already.
A new martial art expert is born. :P

Zyan! 加油！


Yoga Lesson

Inspired by Skip's yoga lessons, I told myself to sign up for some yoga class.
Beautiful settings for yoga isn't it?

I did just that, and today, just had my first yoga lesson at the community centre. :P

The lesson is very different from what I experienced previously.
It's all basic exercises and movement.
Strengthening neck mucles, arm muscles, abdominal muscles.
Hahaha! All I don't have!

Some familiar poses appear.
Downward dog! Upward dog!
No warrior pose in the lesson at the CC. Maybe that's intermediate or advance class content.
I am only doing the elementary class now.
One step at a time.

The class has about 12 persons. I think 3 or 4 are new in the class.
Some existing students are simply cool.
One uncle can do headstand somemore.
Salute man!

I also tried to do. Can only put my head on my mat. That's all. :D

And today, my left leg has this tingling pain feeling when stretching, kinda uncomfortable doing the exercises.
Anyway, let's see how it goes. Probably will take 3 months or more to see good improvement.

Namastae

Specs Me

Yesterday, my son creatively broke my spectacles.

Of course, he had a good scolding from me!
I didn't resort to violence on him though. Hahaha. What a nice daddy right?

But hey, I can't do without a spectacles. Feeling quite helpless.
Had to take my older specs out for use in the meantime.

So had to go to optician earlier to change my frame. Didn't change lens, as it would be expensive. :P
Had to choose from the same model though.
I'm not so particular with that, so no issue. Had to get it done anyway.

So here, I am back to my lenses!
Please ignore my hair! :P

It's changed, yet it's like no change.
How wonderful. :)

Poke Pimple

I had this pimple growing at one end of my cheek near to the end of my lips.
It was there since May I think, might be earlier. Didn't pay much attention to it.

Usually, I poked and that's it. Let it rest a while and it will disappear, so called.

This time round, it was a little resilient to my pokes and pokes and pokes. :(

I didn't really care about it. It grew quite big at one time, much like a carbuncle.
It irriates the people around me (my wife lah...) more than myself.

My sister asked me to go to her shop, but I was pretty much busy to go down for the past many many weeks.
Sometimes I had some time to spare, but was lazy at those times. hehehe

Today, happened to have some time, and have the energy to go.
So I went to her shop.
A little advertisement for her. It's at Blk 108 Hougang Avenue 1.
Click the link to the Facebook page.True Beauty Care

 

I don't know what she did lah.
I just lie there, let her laser here and there I think, at the pimple of course.

I can smell the chow-ta-ness. Not far from my nose after all.
Can feel the blood oozes out as well.
Felt like needles prickling too. LOL

So there I was, given some cream before the procedure. Need to put that for about 20 minutes.

When it is time, no time was spared to poke the pimple off.
Managed to steal a picture halfway. LOL

Pitiful or not?

When my son got home, and having his yogurt, he photobombed me.



 

He quite sweet lah. Tried to kiss my pain away at the plaster.

N-Day Reception

I've been reminded many times to remember to go for the National Day Reception Dinner today.
Enough for me to remember.

As usual, I am early.
Reached UE Square just before 6.30pm. Went to clear security and boarded the shuttle service to Istana.
Needed to show IC and the invitation card.

 

It's the 2nd time I came to Istana. The previous time was during the CNY Reception if I remember correctly. Previously, my Chairman was with me. This  time, I am alone. :P
So took a little bit of time to walk around the place. Only a small place to move about, not the whole place opened for people to roam around ok.
So took some pictures while I was there.

They had this big birthday cake for Singapore!

There are a couple of celebrities & faces recognizable.
Saw Fandi Ahmad, and his soccer team. Nazir Nasri was there too.

Saw Adrian Pang as well, think with his wife. Of course, many other politicians were there as well.
JJ Lin was there as well, singing this year's National Song.

Just before 8pm, President & PM & ESM arrived. After the announcement of their arrival, and upon they get seated, the birthday cake was pushed out for them to cut, after singing b-day song to Singapore.
Then the dinner reception started.

The food was not so bad. I saw it was from Conrad.

Then the VIPs went around to mingle with the crowds. Didn't get a chance to take picture with President. Managed to steal a selfie with our PM!
See how cool is my double chin! Terok!

And then, also managed to take picture with this guy.
If you know this guy, you would be of certain age. :P

After all the makan etc, it's time to head back home. Headed up the shuttle service back to UE Square.
But at UE Square, had to wait for 20 over minutes to get car out of the place. Nightmare!

Well, I believe I will go there again in future.

Pioneer Generation

Last Tuesday, started my first duty as Pioneer Generation Ambassador.
Went to meet the coordinators at 6.30pm.
First time doing it, so it's on-the-job-training with the experienced cordinators.

So after a short briefing, we started to go the the selected Pioneer Generation folks' home to do house visit.
My coordinator that day was Kelly. She's was doing full day that day for this PG work. She's very involved in all sorts of community work.
The other PGA was Jarel. He's doing his NS now, but also very involved with many volunteer work.

Anyway, we visited 4 houses that day, interviewed 5 PGs. One of the houses had 2 PGs. Husband and wife.
In a way, we were sort of lucky. All the PGs allowed us to entertain them. Hehe

Basically, it is a way to reach out to the Pioneer Generation group, and let them be aware of the benefits of the PG package.
Explain to them the 5 benefits of the package, and how it can be utilised.

At the end of it, pass the information back to the government agency, so that certain feedback may be used to help fine tune the policy, which is good.
Example, osteoporosis was not covered as part of the chronic ailment in the PG package initially. After the various feedback, it is now included. That's the way!

Anyone wants to join as Pioneer Generation Ambassador will need to go through 2-half-days course. Then only can be arranged to do house visits to the PGs around your own estate.
Can check out with various CC I guess.
If anyone interested but not sure who to reach out to, ask me. :P

Actually, the song has all the basic essential points of the benefits.

N-Flag 2015

National Day is just around the corner.
SG50, big celebration for the nation.

Since it is the time of the year, putting up the flags around the estate is back again.
Remembering from last year, it was quite a daunting task, as we only had 2-3 persons doing all of it. Probably a good 60% was done by Mr Koh.

This year, the commander is back. Mr Koh of course.
Bought new flag poles, and also some SG50 flags.

We had a meeting on Wednesday evening. Halfway from the meeting, few of us adjourned out to prepare the flags.
Mr Koh, Jason, 2 Erics, and myself.
Due to larger manpower, we prepared the 40 flags pretty fast. Impressive. Mainly near the Eunos MRT side alone Eunosville.

When the committee meeting ended, Sunny joined us to go around the estate to put the flags up.
6 guys putting up the 40 flags. Finished around 10pm. Pretty good I must say.

 

Then Thursday evening, we continued. Because less people this time round (only Mr Koh, Jason and myself), it was a long and tiring task.

Putting the flags along Changi Road towards Geylang.
Walked back and forth quite a few times from Kampong Ubi CC, as most of our old flags were pulled out from the store room.
There were about 80 flags from last year!

Can't believe it, we were doing from 7pm to 12midnight.
Si beh jialat.
And guess what? Not finished yet. LOL
Tying the flags to the railings can take quite some time. These were the ones without the poles. We had a lot! :P

Some more important sites, we had to put up the flag poles first also.
There were a couple of things to do.
See the men at work!

The only good thing was, we were doing it in the evening this time round.
No scorching sun. No sunburn.
Just aches. :)

Today is holiday. CC not opened, so cannot continue as we cannot get the flags out.
Tomorrow is another day. if not, will be Sunday.

Wow! Tomorrow quite a lot of activities.

Punctured Tyre

Since yesterday (could be Saturday even), kept hearing some bumpy noise when driving.
Suspected it is the tyre.
Didn't really have a chance to go to check it out. I think most of the petrol kiosks near my place do not have such service. Come to think of it, there might be one. Anyway.

Thus, this morning, before heading to office, I went to a petrol kiosk to try and pump up the air first, before checking out the service centre.
Went to this Esso station, and when I tried to pump my right-hand-front tyre, I can hear 'hissssssy' sounds from the tyre.
Ooops! Doesn't sound good.
Nevertheless, took out the cap and tried to pump.
Usually, in bad cases, I would see the tyre pressure maybe at 180-190 range.
This time, it showed 23!!!!
Terok!!
Tried to pump, doesn't go up much.

Jialat, quickly terminated the task, and drove off, to the service centre.

On the way there, my car dashboard shows a big red warning.
TYRE PRESSURE LOW!

Alamak!
Managed to call the service centre hotline (hands-free of course), and the customer service officer told me it's best to stop driving, and wait for help.

Stress!!!
Hasn't felt so stressed driving. LOL
The last time I was so stressed, was probably when I was working as a medical coordinator, arranging private jet to bring patient from elsewhere to Singapore for treatment.
For a period of about 2 hours, I had no news of the jet.
It was some big case, and my big boss actually went back to office to check things out.
I was a night shift worker. It's like 2/3am kind of timing.

Anyway, life has its different problems at different phases. So be it.

Along Eunos Road in the morning is not exactly a smooth ride. Traffic is still pretty heavy.
Anyway, managed to drive into an open carpark near Eunos Primary School.

Towing service was arranged, and I was told have to have for about 1.5hrs!
Alamak!

What can I do right?
So in the meantime, take picture lor.

 

A little hard to see from here, but the front tyre is a little flattened at the bottom.

At first I thought the towing vehicle would be something commonly seen when something happen on the road.
But no. it came a big truck.
Then my car was moved up for delivery. :P

Oh well, it's been an interesting experience. Not that I looking forward to it though.

At the end of it, it's just a hole that needs patching.

So the morale of the story is: Don't wait. Just get it done. :P

Little Volunteer

This afternoon, was supposed to help out my Neighbourhood Committee to prepare Funpack letters to be sent to residents at 2pm.

I actually forgot about it, until about 3pm.

So I drove down once I was reminded, and brought Zyan along.

It's basically quite simple.
Just take those printed letters, slot into the envelope, seal it up. That's it.

So I showed Zyan how to do it, and to make sure the address can be seen from the envelope.

He's a little slow, but still manageable to do it himself.
Only sometimes didn't seal the envelope properly. Actually just about 2-3 times lah. Not so bad.

I said I wanted to take a picture of him 'working' to show his mommy. He got his post ready and here it is:

With the strength of  the other members, this task was done very quickly. Cool.
So the letters should be out to the residents of Kembangan Chai Chee under Eunosville NC by mid-week.

After task is done, I let him play at the community centre area for a while. There's a small playground near, and some small excersise corner.
Both areas he also want to enjoy a little.

There's this little corner, I will cringe all over when stepping on them.
Here's Zyan enjoying the experience.

Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!
Tak boleh tahan!

Maybe I will bring him to try 20 years later, then see if he ouch or not. :P

After the short enjoyment, it's time to go fetch his mommy home else.
Mommy was attending some course.

Next grassroot activity: Put up N-Day flags. *scared*
si beh siong ... ... ...

Bonding Time

Took childcare leave today.
Zyan had a dental appointment at 1030hrs.
Reached there earlier, took me a while to look for the building.
However, once reached the building place, Zyan is the one that direct me to the clinic.
He had been to the dental clinic once, probably last year with his mother.
Good memory for little kiddie!

Well, it was empty, so managed to let him go earlier than appointment time.
So the dentist checked, and said he has 3 cavities. 2 on the right side, and 1 on the left.
Need to clean, and then fill up the holes on the right side.
Left part has to do another day, else he would have a hard time having his meals for the day. :P

He was brave, doing what the dentist told him to do most of the time. In fact, the 2nd cavitiy on his right part of his set of teeth, was done after getting his approval.
Cool or cool? :P

Will have to arrange for another appointment to do the cavity on his left part.

But hey, dental damn expensive. Pocket pik-jia big lobang liow. Hehehe

After the dental appoint, went to Tampines Town Council centre to pay up the balance of payment, preparing for the HDB 2nd appointment tasks. Chop chop finish before forgetting to do so.
So I guess we're all prepared and ready for 2nd appointment now.
Nice!

So for the day, the itinerary is basically for dental and to collect Zyan's passport.
Previously I tried to arrange to collect his passport and mine together. The last appointment I made, i FORGOT to bring Zyan there, and thus cannot collect his passport.
@$#$%^$^%&@#$@$#$%^^
Only mine was collected at that time.

Thus, tried to make e-appointment to collect his, but due to whatever reason, the system does not appear to recognise his birth certificate number, and passport reference number anymore.
I emailed to ICA, but no reply from them except the standard reply of working in progress.
So gave up, and just go and queue without appointment.

Took more than 2 hours to get to our queue number. By the time got his passport, already about 3pm.

Since it is already a 'full day' event with Zyan, I brought him to IKEA, so that he can enjoy the playground. That was  the only 1 hour that I was free from him. Hehehe
Life was a little peaceful during that hour.

Still, he pretty much enjoyed himself there, as expected.
Brought him home after that. Already 5pm!

To extend the bonding with him, brought him to the nearby playground.
Happy like bird.
Cycle cycle, play play. Perspired quite enough already, then brought him home.

Well, this bonding time is good
Another time when going for his next dental appointment for his cavity on the left side?!?!? :)

Caricature Us

This morning, went to Kampong Ubi CC, where there's an Interfaith Harmony Day going on.
Brought Zyan there.

He has been a good boy, for letting his mother go holiday with her friends.
Only cried when he himself wanted to go North America, because he has never been there.
Anyway, the trip to Changi Airport yesterday evening is still good.
He enjoyed himself when I brought him over to T3 to play at the play area.

So this morning, checked out the carnival. Have coupons to get some food, and do some fringe activities around the CC.
There's food for vegetarian bee hoon, some kuehs, curry puff, carrot cake, popcorns, kacang puteh, drinks.
Some activities to learn how to make some cultural items, chinese caligraphy, and then there is this caricature thingy.

So we queued for it. The guy was simply amazing. Can draw with his both hands, and it took him probably just 2-3 minutes to finish drawing for one person.
And there you go, the senior and junior Tay.

 Of course, some balloonist was also around to keep the children happy.
Zyan got himself a balloon sword again, and then he tried to 'cut' me with his sword. :P

Cannot stayed there too long, as I have a seminar to attend in the afternoon.
So had to bring him for a proper lunch, and then got back home to get ready for my seminar at Lifelong Learning Institute.

Just a pity, Karinna wasn't around to have the caricature done.

Mr Lee

This week is a special week in Singapore.
The demise of founding father of modern Singapore, Mr Lee Kuan Yew.

There are too many posts online regarding the man, and there's no way that anyone with facebook with Singapore location to miss anything on the news.
It is a big thing.

There's Lying In State, as well as numerous locations being set up to pay tribute to our first Prime Minister.
The responses from the public are simply awesome.

People are queueing hours and hours just to pay respect to him at Parliament House.

I haven't been there yet myself, as the work this week was quite horrendous. Just take it as my excuse for now.

Earlier, brought family to Kembangan CC, where there's a tribute set up for him.
Of course, Zyan doesn't know much, so we explained a little to him about this man.

Karinna and I wrote on the tribunal books.
Zyan also wrote separately at another book after that.

Here's what he wrote:

After he wrote the words, he turned a little on the chair he was standing, and he fell.

Quite a little bad fall, and he wailed out loud.
So we had no choice but to bring him away, and home.

Whatever it is, it only makes sense to pay respect to this man. Without him, our lives would be very different.

And though it may sound odd, but I think a lot of Singaporeans are also feeling very proud this week.
His demise has brought attention to quite many countries and people around the world!
Looking the responses and willingness of leaders all over the world, listed to come for his funeral.
The list of attendees is simply amazing.

And what are we?
A small red dot.
Singapore.
The country Mr Lee Kuan Yew envisaged, and engineered, and built.

Thank you.

Saving Zyan

Yesterday evening, brought Zyan to Bedok.
Shopping is not really his favourite at the moment, neither is it my favourite waste of time.
We were there to look for something though.
Wanted to buy some cheap coin-boxes for Zyan.

As expected, not much to look for at Bedok Mall itself.
So we went out, roamed around the Bedok Central area.
Found some cheap ones. $1 each. Bought two.

This morning, it is time to start him a little on financing. Rather, concept of money.
I actually had played 'selling game' with him using my coins few weeks ago, before his bedtime.
We did imaginary 'buying and selling' of products.
We took turns to be buyer and seller. Selling imaginary toys, tidbits & goodies etc.
Then buyer will pay seller, which then he can think about counting in relation with money.
Kinda boring to me, but I think it is good for him as basic understanding.
Sometimes, the things he imagine to sell,  is interesting. :P. Only once in a while.

Anyway, this morning, I explained to him again about the concepts of jars.
This I borrowed from the T. Harv Eker's money jars method.
I don't use all the 6 jars for him, as he doesn't need all that at the moment. Maybe another 2 years perhaps to add more.
So instead of FFA/Necessities/Gift/Education/Play/LTSS, he only has FFA/Gift/Play.
I renamed FFA to 'SAVE' for his easy understanding for now.

I told him I will give him $1 every Sunday.
Out of this $1, he will put 70cents to "SAVE", 20cents to "PLAY" and 10cents to "GIFT".

Hopefully, this will cultivate his financial acumen, and be able to manage his finances better than me in future when he grows up.

Kinda exciting. Countdown to his 'first savings' tomorrow ... ... ...

别看我只是一只羊

别看我只是一只羊
我来了，世界变得灿烂
你来了，心里感到温暖
他来了，年年丰收就满
大家一起神采飞扬

别看我只是一只羊
我来了，世界就会平安
你来了，心里和谐至上
他来了，万事如意吉祥
大家一起幸福美满

喜洋洋 喜洋洋
别看我只是一只羊

MBTI Course

Yesterday went for MBTI course.
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.

It's a full day course.

It's a course to understand own profiling, able to recognise self, and to appreciate others using the MBTI approach.
It's quite interesting.

So the trainner was explaining the basic concept of it.
We were then doing a self-evaluation based on how we understand ourselves.
I was ISTJ (Introvert, Sensing, Thinking, Judging).

The other 4 type are Extrovert, iNtuition, Feeling, Perceiving.
Each person will be profiled into 4 letters.
I or E, S or N, T or F, J or P.

Then we were given a set of questionaires to answer to do a second profiling.
For mine, result was the same. In fact, it is skewed even higher in each of the profile.
Only 'J is moderate for me. The rest were Clear and Very Clear. LOL
Confirm and double confirm! :D

Thus, if you see me quiet quiet sit at one corner, please understand.
I am an "I". ;)