At the end of last year, we moved the TV out of the house. James also
stopped watching movies (He's a big movie fan). When James stopped
watching movies, I stopped too which made me realise that I'm not such
a big movie fan. The only two movies I watched the past 4 months were
Tangled and The Sound of Music, both with Sophie.

However, halfway through school, I was longing to watch something for
fun on lazy nights. Like a series or something. I prefer watching
short TV shows rather than a whole movie. I used to enjoyed watching
Hero (that's like so ole sch now), Gossip Girl, Modern Family, etc...

Guess what I picked up this time?

Hahahaha.... Annabel Langbein, The Free Range Cook!

We watched her TV series once at some hotel last year and we were
really drawn to how she grew her own food and always featured and
cooked with some local produce in season. And of course, it is set in
beautiful South Island! In each episode, she would cook a 3 course
meal complete with starter, mains and dessert. Very cool.

Even Sophie keeps asking to watch it with us. Since we started growing
our own food, she's really grown in her understanding of where her
food comes from. She makes comments like "Oh! We have that in our
garden too!" and this morning, she used the salt dough to make a
"sausage roll", just like Annabel. Cute lah.

I'm sad to say, we finished watching the last episode tonight. On to
something else, any suggestions?

Here's a random post. This is my desk. A peak into my life. Of the things that are important to me and things that are not that just somehow pile up.

A few significant things from left:

1. A page of nicely designed calendar from my bi-monthly indulgence - Frankie Mag.

2. A page of sermon notes from a sharing my pastor's wife did on Grace. Beautiful words and verses that I must commit to memory.

3. On the table - My daily sustenance - Word for Today, a daily devotional, my journal, my bible and current stash of books and magazines.

4. Middle of the table - a cat pouch with my lovely Canon S90, crucial for documenting our lives.

5. Noticeboard - library ious, hand drawn birthday card from Wan Lin, a note from Sophie's dance class, brochure for upcoming Parachute Festival, our family daily schedule hour to hour (i'm very organized one... ya right), church leaflet

6. Whole pile of books and files - those are Sophie's homeschool stuff.

7. My alien pencil case given by Vicky and Dan (?) some time back

8. New red felt notebook for the new year given by James

9. Red handbag that I love but have yet to find an opportunity to use in ulu land.

10. Finally, Christmas wrappers still rolled up meaning that I've yet to wrap Christmas pressies!!!!

My desk is in a mess and still in a mess even after I clear it... but yep, a snippet into my daily life these days.

Btw, can you guess my fav colour? :) What's on your desk?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/13247131@N04/5165649257/

I'm quite a scardy cat and tend to avoid the hard stuff. But God seems to delight in pushing me to the edge, like what a good Father does. The bible says in James 1: 2-4: "Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."

Yesterday I had to do one of the most challenging thing in my life thus far. I had to pack up, drive with two kids up to Auckland n meet James there. It is prob easy for most but it was harder for me for a couple of reasons. One, one of my two kids is a newborn. Two, I only started driving in June. Three, I have never driven long distance to an unknown location without James helping to direct me.

But but but with the grace of God, a praying husband, relatively obedient n independent 4 yr old, a newborn who slept n woke up at the right times, google maps, a kind Shell attendent who directed us when google maps failed to pick up info of a road closure that threw me completely off n finally the familiar M sign that assured us of a familiar menu, toilets, a playground n even changing table. What an adventure! We left at 330 n finally got to the motor lodge at 7. Took a bit longer than usual coz we took a break when we missed a turning and got lost but very glad when we got there.

Thank you Lord and thank you all for praying. I'm writing on the way to V2.

I read this on A Magical Childhood and was inspired to write a post about my childhood. Plus Wanz started this thread on Facebook about our MGS school days and triggered many many happy memories.

Compared to kids these days, I think I had a pretty carefree and fun childhood. My parents were at work most of the time and we were cared for by our grandmas. That meant that we spent most of the time just playing with the cousins. School work was hardly like how it is nowadays and my parents were quite relaxed so I had it pretty easy. These are some of my favorite memories:-

1. School holidays! Walking to the market hand in hand with all my cousins and grandma. We used to stay at my cousins' during the holidays coz grandma lived with them. She'll look after all 4 of us - me, Kel, SL, SM and later KH at the same time. Wonder how she did that... I miss my Ah Mah... I wanna be like her when I grow up.

2. Weekends! My dad used to play mahjong at my uncle's place on the weekends and we'd all go along. The cousins would play together while the adults play mahjong. I remember mashing up bouginvillas and rubbing them on our legs like medicine.

3. Going to the beach with my parents and sometimes with my cousins.

4. Family holidays to the US, Perth, Brisbane, Malaysia - we were not all that well off but Mum and Dad made it a point to bring us out of the country every 3-6 years. I went to the US/Japan/HK when I was only 6 and then to Perth when I was 12. But those were super memorable trips.

5. Going to the National Library at Stamford Road with my mum on the weekends.

6. Buying otak and bread from the stall outside my primary school. 10 cents ice lollies! Tuk tuk sweets! Mamee!

7. Chinese New Year celebrations, reunion dinners, ang pows, cookies, visiting, staying up late and playing with cousins etc...

8. Thomson Plaza (or Thomson Yaohan as we used to call it), spent lots of time there when we lived in the North. We only moved to Bukit Timah much later.

9. Playing badminton at SJI (now Singapore Art Museum) with a friend (can't even rem her name now!) and running to school at SAC when the bell rang. Playing 5 stones and skipping rope! Teddy bear teddy bear turn around, teddy bear teddy bear touch the ground... I sucked at zero point tho.

10. Mum making us writing letters to Santa and receiving what I wanted at Christmas on my pillow (this was before we became Christians and I realised that Santa did not exist!). So exciting!

Ooo I miss those days... My favorite times have been times spent with my grandma and cousins. I'm sure there are lots of other memories. Funny how I don't remember much of studying or stress but remembered only the fun times. I think the most memorable bits are mostly related to food and fun. Makes me think about the memories that I wanna help create for Sophie and Levi.

What about you? What were your favorite childhood memories? Being a mum sometimes I forget that I was once a child too.

... and I do what I want to!

I'm really bad at just doing what I want. I'm always doing something for someone else and feel almost guilty spending money to pamper myself. It's a bad habit and not a good thing at all because deep down, I really just want to do what I want to do and if it goes on for too long it festers into frustration and self pity! Yeeks!

But thank God, James knows me best and this birthday, he insisted that I go wild and I did!

We went to the Mount for sushi on Sat, bought a couple of Spring pieces from good ole Valleygirl, I had a whole lamb rack for dinner on the actual day, lovely pineapple and malibu cheesecake, and finally an absolutely well deserving massage at the local Matamata spa called Indulgence. Woo hoo! That's a real birthday treat! Ooooo and I almost forgot, Sophie gave me three dance performances on a stage at the place where we had dinner. So cutee..... I am truly blessed...

Our church organised a PINK pampering session for the ladies a couple of weeks ago. About 50 ladies turned up from all over Matamata! It was held in a really pretty family ran restaurant down the road from town.

They invited a professional make up artist, manicurist, hairdresser and masseuse and we could pay a minimum fee to sign up and enjoy the services! It was great!

I was actually really exhausted by evening time and wasn't up to going but so glad I did! I enjoyed the food, drinks and company. Although I didn't sign up for anything, I was blessed with a manicure!

Happy happy :)

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today was momentous! I drove to town and back on my own! It was all great except at one point, I bumped into an elderly man's car bumper a little trying to reverse out of a parking lot but thank God no damage, phew!

I drove all three of us to town to have brunch at the All Day Breakfast place in town to celebrate Father's Day (erm, NZ doesn't celebrate Father's Day today) and then to New World (supermarket) and Warehouse (like Kmart) for some shopping before we headed back home. I was a bit tensed the whole time coz it's the first time I'm on my own for almost 10 years since I got my license. And it was raining quite heavily at some point. In fact, I'm not sure if I've ever driven on my own before without a seasoned driver!

Anyhow, it's great! Looking forward to more! FREEDOM!!!!!

I'm finally driving after more than 10 years of getting my license!

I've had a phobia of driving after getting my license coz I was horned at by a police car (!) and almost reversed into a drain with a group of youths in the car. And I'm generally a scaredy cat. Driving was just too stressful a thing for me. There was never a real pressing reason for me to drive since transportation was so easily available in Singapore and it was too expensive to own a car anyways.

But here in Matamata, we can't go anywhere without a car! Plus James doesn't have a driving license although I think he can prob drive better than me.

You ask, how did we survive the past 1 and a half years? The first school we did, we thought we were just staying for 3 months and it wasn't so important that we couldn't get to places. There was a van run to town every week and if we needed to go into town, we could just get a lift from someone.

When we returned in July last year, Gin was here too and we decided to buy a car together. I thought I'll try driving then but still, the inertia was just too strong. She drove most of the time so I didn't feel like I really needed to.

BUT NOW! We have a car (7 seater at that!) and no one to drive us around anymore! So................. I decided to just get on with it. Turns out, it's really not that bad. Funny how fear can grip us so tightly that we can't see past anything and everything is an excuse to why I can't do it. But I believe God answered my prayer and gave me a breakthrough. I felt so at ease the first time behind the wheels and today, I actually drove into town and back with Claire as my coach. Sophie even fell asleep on the way home!

I'm SO thrilled!!!!! For those who know me well prob know what a breakthrough it is for me! I am so looking forward to driving into town on my own soon.... yay!

I LOVE to read. But i'm not one of those deep deep readers. For example, I'm not into Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter etc. Although when I was young, I read fairy tales, fantasy and mystery like Enid Blyton and Nancy Drew etc. I'm more a Amy Tan or Jodi Picoult kinda gal.

But in the recent years, I find myself gravitating towards coffee table books and magazines. I think I'm getting lazy. I like little words and pretty pictures.

Anyways for the past two weeks, I've been having Saturdays off where I go galavanting on my own while James hangs out with Sophie at home. As usual, when I shop, I end up buying books and magazines. Last week I got Sophie a craft book and this week I got myself a lovely coffee table book called Kids' Room for only $15 and one of my fav mags Frankie. It's hard to find Frankie around since it's an Aussie publication but I managed to find it in Hamilton.

So today, after lunch, I sat down to do my fav thing, read and chill. And lo and behold, the little one wants to do the same thing. But she says, "Mummy I like to peek into your book!"