Jayden's 1st Day in LSK

Finally, the day comes for Jayden to join her sister in school! Aileen and I are excited for Jayden as he reaches another milestone of his life - schooling! He is in pre-nursery and as for Joann, she is now in K1 :-) Time really flies!

Aileen and I have been praying that Jayden will be inducted smoothly into LSK, like her sister (i.e. no refusal to get up the school bus, no crying in school, etc).

This morning started with him throwing a small tantrum and not wanting to change into his school uniform :-( Thank God for a quick idea - I told him that I would make a race with him, with him in the school bus while I would "run" to school :-P He was excited and happily boarded the bus with her sister.

I won the race :-P (the bus diverted to pick up other kids at another street while I take shortcut to school).

From there, I also "set-up" a live sms broadcast to Aileen & my in-law on Jayden's status :-)

The school was packed with anxious parents whose children would be in school for the 1st time. Ha, being "experienced" now, I hid myself from Jayden, peeking from a distance to see whether he could follow the teacher into the assembly hall and classroom. Thankful to God that he didn't need me to jump in to help him settle in, though he spotted me somehow after 1 hour. He just waved at me and continued with his activities.

Throughout the short 2 hours in school (3 hours after induction week), I could see that he was comfortable with the environment, teachers and new friends as he participated in the sing-along, played his toys with his new classmates, listened to stories, followed instructions to toilet, took his morning snack, hi-5 with his teacher and sister (they met each other during the toilet break).

Will be following him to school on coming Mon and Tue again. Well done, my boy! Also thanks to Joann for being a great sister by watching out for him :-)

1st Family Overseas Trip - Hong Kong (Part 2)

The children enjoyed themselves thoroughly in HK Disneyland. The theme park is a great place for children; also for adults especially during the December period - the entire place was fully decorated for X'mas with a 3 - 4 storey high X'mas Tree at the Main St, Road parades with carols and artificial snow, princess ball, brilliantly lit Castle with spectacular fireworks nightly, just to name a few. We were fully immersed in the X'mas mood :-)

This trip to Disneyland was meant to be "slow paced" i.e. we just want to let the children take their time to enjoy the place. Even though we spent 4 days there, we didn't really manage to walk and see all the highlights in the entire park. We were pretty much stuck at Fantasyland where Joann tried the carousel, musical tea cups and flying dumbo rides for numerous times. Fantasyland is also the place where you can catch Disney princesses such as Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora (Sleeping Beauty), Belle (remember Beauty and the Beast?), Alice, etc (see, I've been educated well by my daughter ;-)) We spent half a day with Joann, chasing to take pictures with the princesses :-P


As for Jayden, he was mesmerised from day 1 by the "bubble machine" and would spend his daily routine, catching his bubbles :-) He loved catching up with his favourite Disney characters and taking photos with them. He also enjoyed the daily road parades where he could see all his Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy all at one go.

The nightly fireworks is also a highlight not to be missed. The crowd was wooed by the spectacular fireworks and songs! All of us except Jayden enjoyed the fireworks. He was afraid of the fireworks :-( I didn't manage to capture the fireworks using my video cam as I was carrying Joann but you can check it out at the youtube video provided below.

We thoroughly enjoyed our short stay at HK Disneyland and this trip provided a great bonding time for us as a family :-) Looking forward to come back next year if possible!




P/S: More photos at my facebook :-)

1st Family Overseas Trip - Hong Kong (Part 1)

Two weeks ago, we had our first family overseas trip :-) Aileen and I decided to bring the kids to Hong Kong Disneyland for four days.

Jayden had been asking for a trip to Disneyland since June 08 (Aileen and I made a trip to HK with Joann in June 08; we brought back lots of photo from Disneyland that got him excited). Thus in August, we started planning for a second trip back to HK Disneyland - this time, specially for him :-)

We had been talking to the children about this trip and they were all geared up for it - longing to meet their favourite characters from the Mickey Clubhouse in person.

We started our trip by trying out the new Crowne Plaza Hotel (at Changi Airport Terminal 3). We stayed there for a night prior to our flight. We thought that it might be more convenient for both of us and the children to check in for the early morning flight by staying near to Terminal 3.

The resort-style hotel boosts private gardens of tropical shrubs and is eco-friendly (the design of the hotel maximises the use of natural light to save energy). The hotel room was cosy and the children were excited to be able to see airplanes take off from a short distance away.

This is Jayden's first overseas trip by air. Apart from some slight fear during takeoff and landing, he generally enjoyed the 3.5 hours flight.

SCSM 2008

My colleague and I went for the 10km run last Sunday. This is my first SCSM and decided to just start with 10km for the fun. Anyway, I have not ran 10km since my time in Officer Cadets School (OCS). My colleague and I originally targeted to train weekly but as usual, been very caught up with our daily work. So, we went for the run, totally "cold".

The run started at 7.30am at the Singapore Esplanade. The morning weather was clear, with slight breeze - a great start for the run. This year's SCSM registered a record number of 50,000 runners. The place was filled with both competitive and non-competitive runners, young and old.

The first 6 km was ok for me i.e. I jogged with ease. My legs started to ache for the last 4km. So I have to walk and run several times until the finishing point.

Overall, the SCSM was a great big group run in a scenic route. Will surely come back again next year - hopefully for the half-marathon :-P

*Asia Conference*

Tremendously blessed by the messages from Pst. A.R. Bernard, Pst. Phil Pringle & Pst. Kong during the friday services! Every service was packed (not just Hall 8; also Hall 7 & 10 esp. during the evening service with Pst. Kong) & the presence of God was intense! Simply in awe as 20,000 people packed into the evening service! The hunger for God can be seen everywhere.

My Key Takeaways:

• Hunger, Hunger, Hunger! If I am hungry, I will be desperate & not settle for anything less - Maintaining the hunger for God is key to personal revival!
  
• In engaging culture & society, I must insulate myself with the Word of God and penetrate by radiating Jesus in me! External pressures can't crush me if I stay close to God and strengthened by God on the inside
  
• Renewed vision of "Loving God wholeheartedly & loving people fervently"
  

Back from Vancouver

Finally! Touched down in Singapore at 12.30am last night after 22 hours of flight! Have a fruitful conference and a wonderful short tour of downtown Vancouver - city which I would be glad to return in future :-)

Seeing Star....Bucks!!!

Have been in Vancouver for almost 4 days & everywhere I go in downtown Vancouver, I see Starbucks Coffee Cafes! Think almost one every 400m :-P Think the people here really love coffee! But... I have the privilege of drinking Starbucks coffee for free everyday :-) B'cos Starbucks coffee is being offered to participants of the conference! So I make sure that I have a cuppa every session break :-P