Category: Kids

This year I sang the National Anthem, recited the National Pledge for a total of 3 times. The first once was at my daughter’s school where a National Day celebration was held in her school. It was really cute to see little primary school girl guides doing the drills of marching towards the flag pole with the flag, the unfolding and raising of flag.

Clié’s class performed two dance numbers and I have to say dancing is something she excel in. You can see her in the above photo. She is the middle one on the front row wearing the white skirt.

Cleo also performed this year and it was at the Punggol National Day Observance Ceremony. She did a dance number too with her classmates and they sang We are Singapore. The kids were in four groups and when the chorus came around each group represented a different aspect for “This is my country, this is my flag, this is my future, this is my life”. Cleo was the third group, so when it was her group’s turn for the line “This is my future”, she raise a roll of paper which represented certification. Quite cute.

At the Punggol event, there was also a decorate your bike contest, so you can find all sort of bikes decorated with red, white, flags, stars, etc. It was really carnival-ish feel to it. Very nice.

At the Punggol event, there was also the traditional National Anthem, Pledge reciting too, so that makes it my second set.

In the evening, our good friends came over for dinner. We just ordered pizzas and watch NDP on TV. Living in Punggol, we get to see all the planes from Paya Lebar airbase taking off, getting into formation and flying eastwards in their formation, then turning south over Changi and then heading towards the Padang where the main celebrations were. On twitter, I can see so many people from all over Singapore tweeting about the planes flying over where they stay. Suddenly I felt Singaporeans were so close to one another and how dense our tiny country really is. But no matter how small we were, “NDP” made trending topic on twitter.

So during NDP on TV, I sort of did the National Anthem and pledge thing once again which completes my third set.

A few interesting NDP related links:

1. Singapore Swing (Singapore songs done with a Jazz touch. Free MP3 downloads.)
2. Fly our Digital Flag (an initiative started by Victor and myself to encourage Singaporeans to put up their flags online. Just before the NDP parade, we manage to get 2500 supporters. woot! You can also see Victor’s post here.)
3. Tweets with “NDP” on 8 Aug 2010 (NDP became twitter trending topic during the parade time.)

The following is taken from mypaper.sg where the “Fly our Digital Flag” initiative was covered.

So, we should do something for next year! Feel free to share your ideas here and we’ll see what can be done.

Once again. Happy National Day Singapore. This is HOME truly.

Its worldcup fever and even the girls got into soccer when the neighbourhood boys were playing.

The boys were aged around 8 – 11, so Cleo decided to stand between the flip flops to protect our goal. She have absolutely no concept of what a goal keeper does, but somehow feels extending her hands she could protect the goal just a little bit more.

Clié however was running around chasing the ball. She kept swinging her legs at the ball, many times missing it while laughing hardly while chasing the ball. Its hilarious.

The whole run around barefoot chasing after a ball brought back oh so fond memories.

I think we should playground more.

Its the end of the school holidays and we have to end it with a BANG! So to Universal Studios Singapore we go!

Clié and Cloe love popcorns, so when they saw the giant popcorn truck, Cleo was quick to ask me to buy. I promised her after lunch.

The whole stretch when you come in is filled with shops and characters  to take pictures with. It does give you a wonderful fun / holiday feel.

We did not take many rides as the kids were too afraid. Here is Cleo with her typical RAWR! pose.

We stopped for lunch at Mel’s Drive In. Its decked with styles from the American 50s.

While I went to order food, the kids went outside to see some dancing performance. Clié loves such live performances and maybe, just maybe she will grow up to be a wonderful performer too.

Cleo is always so cuddly to me. She have lost all her baby fat, but still… cuddly. :)

The funny hat shop. So whose’s hat is the funniest?

There was a manhole shooting out mist and the kids ran to it like a moth to the flame. This photo was extremely difficult to take as they were prancing around so much, while I was trying to not get the camera wet.

As promised. POPCORNS!

One our way out, we took pictures with the Universal Studios Globe and bought lots of Hershey chocolates.

It was a real nice day. The weather was cool and although there was a shower in the morning, everything subsided when we got there.

A day out with the kids is always fun. New experiences, new places. They are really growing very fast.

Its June 2010, and its the school holiday month. Its the wonderful time that kids get to stay home and do ANYTHING they want. As a busy parent, i really wanted to spend quality time with them and hence took 3 days leave in total and created 2 long weekends for myself. It was a good decision, we had a blast.

During the break, its inevitable for me to still think about things in the office. I’m unable to switch off the work brain i have and especially when there is lots of important stuff to do.

I think this whole work-life balance / time-management thing is not easy at all. You can’t have 2 priorities at the same time. I’m caught too many times while driving my family around thinking about stuff in the office. I’m like there, but not really there. I spend in-between times checking emails and thinking about processes. Its like memory leak in a computer, you have the main activity running in the foreground, but in the background memory resource is still being used and sub-consciously still taxing (not in a big way, but still…).

My parents were hard working business people. I recalled spending alot of time in their office when i was young. Saturdays were mainly spent in the office. I remembered playing with PVC pipes and the many type of white plastic joints my parents sold (they are in the toilet supplies business). I remember sleeping under my mom’s desk when i was tired. I remember my parent’s colleagues being my auntie and uncles when i was growing up (too many of them literally saw me grow up). I remember going to countless restaurants to have nice meals with my parents and their European / Italian / Japanese friends which i later found out were suppliers.

To them work and family blended. It was the same thing. There was no such thing as work life balance. Work was life.

My dad being the boss could make it to my school at anytime. I don’t recall him missing any major event in school. My principle called and he came. Of cause there were the more positive events which he made it too.

But life have changed. We are more connected. Alot more is required out of the working class. There is a high need for productivity, efficiency, thinking out of the box, creative solutioning, leading, mentoring, etc. AND there is still a family that we need to allocate our time for.

Its tough to focus and balance. There must be a way and there will be a way. I just hope that my kids have good memories of their dad when they grow up. Yes, I’m actively creating good memories for all of us.