Category: Kids

We balloted for the NDP tickets like every other year and this year we got it! We basically punched in ALL the available NRICs into the NDP website from our household and opted for 4 tickets each. I did not know the odds, but yay! we got them. Green Zone! Which meant we would have the city skyline as the backdrop for any photos we take.

The ushers did a fantastic job. They calmly guided people to their seats systematically. You could see from their perspiration and volume of their instructions that they must be super tired. They still did it with a smile. Kudos to them.

The motivators at the venue were all very enthusiastic, they tried their very best to do all the dance moves and encouraged the audience, but the chilled out crowd was not really in the party mood just yet.

Out came the emcees and they got us on our feet. We waved our flags, shouted MAHJULAH! did the wave and shouted lots. Instagram version of this photo here.

As with tradition, the parade displayed our country’s military might. All services were showcased. Army, Navy, Airforce, Civil Defense, etc.

Then came the marching contingents. They moved in quickly and when the country leaders arrived, we all sang the National Anthem with the flag fly pass like every other year.

This year’s performance was like a huge musical with In A Heartbeat as the theme. As far as musicals go, I do feel that it was nicely arranged. The musical score and different renditions worked well with the overall storyline. Kinda emo in the end where the mom died. However there were also cringing moments in the performance that seemed like a hard sell effort to relate to the general commuting public. No matter what people say, I still think overall it was a good musical and it brought out the essence of the theme song.

After the pledge moment at 8:11pm where the whole nation recited the pledge, the fireworks started.

BOOMZ! BOOMZ! BOOMZ!

The best pop song that they played that night to me was LMFAO’s Party Rock Anthem. Hearing it really makes me wanna PaRtY!

Kids were tired and hungry, so we went to Marina for dinner and talked about how the parade was put together using the booklet that was given out. We explained to the kids who the different people were and their roles in the parade.

My daughter Clié then out of the blue said “daddy, can I not do PSLE and just go to Secondary School?” I was like huh… Apparently the mammoth task of putting the parade together was to her like the mammoth task of doing well in School.

Anyway… we wish Singapore a very Happy Birthday and hope to come to the Parade again with our baby Clara next year.

After driving our VW Jetta Sport for 2 years, we’ve got ourselves the VW Touran Sport in Jan 2011. We bought our Jetta back in 2009 for around SGD86k, but manage to sell it for SGD81k. I think its a pretty good deal. We got the Jetta during the crazy $2 COE week and also when it was the last VW model being introduced back in 2009 before the new range of VWs came into Singapore lead by the Golf MK6. Now while the New Jetta have not arrived in Singapore yet, we thought it would be a good time to let it go, else the value will drop dramatically when the new model is in town.

Its also no surprise that we needed more space due to the arrival of our Clara.

I love the Jetta and do have some emotional attachment to it. Its elegant, its sporty, its to me, the perfect sedan.

The Jetta’s interior is also of great quality. You don’t get the whole plasticy cheap shiny chrome feel, but a firm and dependable well leathered cabin.

Anyway, its time to let go and welcome our VW New Touran Sport. Wassssuuuupppp…..

The specs of the Touran vs the Jetta are almost identical, but the space of the interior is what we needed. The black exterior had the same serious sophistication, while the interior is  well planned with loads of compartments. One of the lesser know feature is that on the front seats, there are 2 storage compartments below each seat and the lower compartment is perfect for storing my iPad. Its a perfect 1.4 family car to me with a compact exterior while having a generous interior.

You can read more about the New Touran on Oneshift or check out its price from SGCarmart.

The best part for me was the RNS510. It had a navigation system built in to the touch screen device which can also accept voice commands. Its also a DVD player (which i’m still figuring how to hack).

I think we’re going to be driving this 7-seat family sports car for quite some time.

Any VW New Touran drivers out there? ;)

We just crossed over to 2011 and a lot of us were counting our blessing for what happened in 2010 as the economy bounced back. Some of us even looked back at the past 10 years. So what’s different for you when you compare your 2000 to your 2010?

For me, the key highlight will be I had 3 kids and my career is now on the fast track. Of cause my digital life have also grown a lot amongst other things.

But what will the next 10 years be like? How can we prepare for 2020 in order to get a head start? What kind of mindset should we start adopting to get ready for the next decade? How can I as a parent prepare my kids for 2020?

Good Reads

A month ago I read The Four Secrets of Playtime That Foster Creative Kids by Frog Design and its a fantastic read.

So, my question is, “Are our children getting the play they need to thrive in the 21st century?” According to reports from sources such as Harvard University, Time magazine, Newsweek, and The Futurist, the answer is no. ~ Frog Design

Incidentally a colleague of mine bought me The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything by Sir Ken Robinson as a Christmas gift (thanks Preethi). Many would have known him from the Ted Video Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity.

I’m still reading it, but just the first chapter alone is powerful enough for anyone to start thinking about what are they doing now and what are they really good at. Life is short enough, so if you want to start living and stop complaining about the daily grind, then take action. Quickly find out what you truly enjoy doing and go for it.

When I was in Uni, my Internet Security Lecturer told us on the very first lecture that whatever he taught us will be obsolete when we graduate. He was mostly correct. The world is changing too fast and its really anyone’s guess on what it will become, especially for my industry which is the internet.

If we can’t predict the future and our best guess will still be a guess, then how can we prepare for it? I believe we can at least prepare our attitude towards it and adapt to it when it happens and invest time really discovering what we are naturally good at.

Threewords.me

Being in my mid 30s, I believe I know myself quite well and am quite sure I’m doing what I love and what i’m good at, but what if i’m wrong? What if there is a huge blind spot and I can’t see it. What if there is something else? I believe Web Project Management is my job, my day gig, but could I transform into a superhero outside of this day gig?

So if you are a personal friend of mine or have worked with me in the past, do help me discover my super power by just providing me three words at http://threewords.me/nickpan. Its super easy and you can do one for yourself too. :)

As for my kids

I’m on a mission to enhance education for my children, I want them to enjoy what they are doing in their life and at an early age discover what they are good at and encourage it. Right now I think Clié is a dancer, Cleo is a collector / curator and Clara is a leader. But its still too early to tell.

Here is Clié dancing in HK Disneyland. This was in 2008 when we visited Hong Kong Clié was 6 then.

The thing about her is she can’t sit still and will move to any melody she can pick up. As you know Disneyland constantly have a soundtrack going on, so the entire place is filled with music. We were just sitting down, waiting for my wife to pick up photos when I notice Clié dancing in front of me. Took out the camera and recorded this impromptu dance she did.

Also we have started a project to create a world where its filled with their imagination and we named this world Slant Land. The trees are slanted, the houses are slanted. We have a map of Slant Land and we are progressively filling it up with my kids’ imagination. I hope we keep at it and create something they can remember for the rest of their lives.

2020, see you soon.

The past few months have been alot about Clara. She is one lovely and adorable baby.

In the morning when she wakes up, she will smile radiantly and look at us as if we were exactly the people she wanted to see when she open her eyes. As parents, we yearn for her response. We want her to know we are her parents. We want her to understand the concept of parents. We want to know what she is thinking.

Pearl is still on maternity leave and have been spending alot of time with Clara. I constantly hear her calling “babyyyyyy” Its really nice and sweet. Sometimes i feel like just staying home to be with them.

Clara is alot more aware of the things around her now. She will look at things, interact with us in her limited facial expressions.

We are so absolutely blessed with our three children. Thank God.

Cleo is finally done with Kindergarten and onto becoming a big girl now. It seems like just yesterday she started Nursery 1 and enjoying her day at school. Its been a fun few years in Kindergarten for sure. For her graduation, she did a performance with the rest of her classmates and dressed up as a tin solider.

Clié is already a big girl, going onto P3, she will be guiding her sister as she joins P1. I’m really looking forward for all the interesting stories they will tell us at the end of their school days.

I’ve seriously gotta start spending more quality time with them in 2011.