Wednesday 25 February 2009

A Rainbow


A rainbow contrasting the still-grey sky after an afternoon of rain.

1st instinct upon seeing this from our study room window: take out handphone and snap a pic.

2nd instinct: call Sam to come & see this. And surprisingly today he came running at my 1st call (if only he's so δΉ– everytime!) and was thus held up high to see the rainbow.

He seemed more puzzled than excited at the sight. But at least he caught a view of the phenomenon........


Apparently there's a 2nd rainbow above this one, just faintly visible in my photo. I only knew about the 2nd one after reading someone else's blog........

Saturday 21 February 2009

Free Visit to Peranakan Musuem

Went all the way to Clarke Quay today only to find the free 2009 tickets for the Singapore Bumboat rides had been given out already. So made our way to the Peranakan Museum instead, which was given free admission this weekend (21 & 22 Feb 09), thus saving us $8/adult.

Most importantly, are the activities available for children, including free clay modeling, stencil-making & Chinese calligraphy, and also featuring Chinese Orchestra performances and cooking demonstrations! I expected the activities to be targeted at older children (I was right, designed for ages 5 ~ 10 yrs), but thought Sam may be able to handle the clay modelling, since it would be similar to the Play-doh he enjoys, then I'll have a chance to catch the "Serenity in Stone: The Qingzhou Discovery" exhibition.

The Old Tao-Nan School campus seem flooded by people today, partly because it's so small, I think. The children activities were hosted in the Lecture Room on the ground floor. Sam was way too young for the stencilling, but fortunately for me, the clay modelling was done on Ikea tables & chairs, just the right size for Sam. So hubby & I took turns to visit the exhibits, while the other watched over Sam.

Sam is really too young to make full use of the materials to make the intended lotus flower on the cardboard, which can then be placed in the provided photo frame. He also poured glue into the tealight, which was meant for sticking the clay petals around to form a tealight holder. But he made his clay balls & generally got occupied, so that was enough for me. ;)

The exhibits of Serenity in Stone are mightily impressive. It's amazing how the colours on the stone sculptures got preserved all these years, all the way from the 6th century!! True, as hubby commented, the similar-looking Buddha statues bored us non-artists after 2 full rooms of exhibits, but I still find it interesting to note the different art styles used in the 2 different periods the sculptures were made.

I made a quick dash through the Peranakan wedding exhibition rooms on the 2nd level, and found several stations designed for children (about Primary school level, I guess. There's an area designed for school programs) to participate in, including embossing Peranakan designs on a specially designed paper provided at the ticket counter. The lady there kindly provided one for me upon inquiry, but the colouring picture on the other side of the paper is way too advanced for young Sam, esp. since he seemed to have inherited my lousy artisitic talents, or rather, non-talents.

Sam hadn't torn down the roof when I returned 20 min later, but he's pooped! Fortunately there's a diaper changing fold-down station in the toilet for the disabled on the ground floor.

Meanwhile hubby had found out the Asian Civilisations Museum would be hosting a new exhibition from mid-March, featuring artefacts from Emperor Kang Xi's period. So now he's looking forward to our next visit to that museum, while I'm praying the ACM would be a more toddler-friendly museum than the National History Museum. Perhaps if I'm lucky, the ACM would be holding some kind of open-house next month too................

Tuesday 17 February 2009

New Measures at Playschool

Took nearly 10min to get Sam into the playschool today, and he was only the 5th in queue. All because of the new measures the playgroup adopted against outbreak of Hand, Foot & Mouth Disease.

Apparently there's been an outbreak of such cases in the area recently, and the principal of Talent Plus group came to inspect the branch here yesterday, and was astonished our branch washed the toddlers' hands with water instead of the anti-bacterial lotion used in other branches.

So today all parents were not allowed into the main room of the RC. Each child was supposed to be seated just inside the entrance of the doorway, where the teacher would inspect the mouth, hands & feet of the toddler with gloved hands, before squirting some anti-bacterial lotion on the hands for cleaning purposes.

Well, after 1.5 mths of the old routine parents/grandparents/maids accompanying the toddlers all the way into the small classroom & taking their shoes off & washing their hands, most of the toddlers were appalled at having someone else trying to do it for them. The 3rd girl in the queue started crying & refused to sit down on the chair for inspection, clinging on to her grandfather. That started the rest of the children in the queue, including my Sam, crying too.

The assistant teacher resorted to letting the adults into the doorway of the main room to help take of the children's shoes, and the poor teacher had to peer into the screaming toddlers' mouth for the inspection, raising the soles of feet dangling in the air while hands were tightly clasped around the parents' necks.

Really, starting a new routine at this time is like starting a new school term all over again. Good luck to the teachers! And I'm expecting an unsettled Sam over the next few days to school again........

Monday 16 February 2009

How to Enjoy The National Museum with a Toddler

Don't bring the toddler along!!!


No, seriously, there was no way I could enjoy the exhibits in the Singapore National Museum properly with 2-year-9-month-old Sam turning the whole place into his own personal playground.

About the only time I had him under my control was when we were descending the stairs, hand in hand. The other times, he was running around the Film & Wayang exhibition room, touching every exhibit he could get his hands on & sending shrills of terror down my spine. The swinging pendulum art installation only held his attention for several minutes.

In the Singapore History Archives, I couldn't concentrate on my own audio guide, not when Sam was running ahead in the dark room, and then running back demanding to be brought out to the light where it was more interesting. I only made it as far as Raffles discovering Singapore before I gave up & left the room.

Hubby & in-laws all agreed the museum was worth the trip, esp. since we got in free, thanks to the 2009 sms initiative by the Tourism Board. And thank goodness I didn't have to pay for the ticket, cos it was a total waste of my time trying to entertain Sam in the big, empty, building (hubby was right - the Museum was about the only tourist attraction left of the 5 that would still have free tickets on Sunday).

After a mere half hour in the Museum, I gave up & brought Sam outside to the museum grounds, in a desparate attempt to keep him entertained & perhaps see the art installations outside. Well, it turned out to be a hot & sunny noon, I found only the "Seeds" installation after touring half the grounds, and Sam was entertained not by the garden/grass/flowers, but by the water cooler at the bottom of the escalator leading up to Fort Canning.

We must have spent nearly 10 min out there in the heat, while I drank water, then Sam pressed the button for me to drink water, I pressed for Sam to drink water, then Sam pressed for me to drink water, and so on and so on and so on.

I've never found a 45 min visit to a Museum so physically tiring! The Singapore National Museum is definitely not a place to bring toddlers!!!!!

Saturday 14 February 2009

Sam Learning in School

Sam's been attending the playgroup for about 1 month now, and today I realised how much that had affected him:

For one thing, when we were out today, he started going for the girls of his same age group. ;)
In the past, he usually went after the older girls, all the big 'jie-jie'. But today, the little girl he approached at Changi Beach & the little gal he was actively trying to engage in play (unfortunately for him, the gal was actively eating satay) were barely taller than him.
So I guess he must have gotten used to playing with people of similar ages in the playgroup.

He's also obviously learnt something in school, even though he always replies 'no, no, no' whenever I asked him what he did in school. During our dinner in Newton Circus just now, he started clapping his hands when he heard a song being played. Then, he asked us to clap too! I felt rather silly clapping to the music in the hawker centre. ;P

And tonight, he actually said the word "teacher", and demonstrated to me how the teacher blew bubbles in school!

Wow! Am I glad I took the trouble to send him to the 2-hr playgroup! Can't wait for him to get into the childcare centre and learn independance!!!!!!

Tuesday 3 February 2009

My New Job

Just realised I haven't blogged about my new job yet, so here it is:

Me got a part-time job as Tour Faciliator with this company Singapore History Consultants. It's like a tour guide, only I'm not licensed so can only take on groups for Singaporeans. Right now training for a Military Defence tour, to introduce Singapore's WWII history to our NS men. Next 2 months will continue to be trained for other tour, including a Kampong Glam tour to introduce our school children to the rich Malay culture. Read the company's website to understand more.......

Me rather excited about this job. A lot of training involved at this stage, but at least I find the job meaningful, and it's gratifying to know the company is putting in so much effort to train us: 4 days/2 weeks, trained personally by our big boss himself, the 2nd in command, & the head of research no less.

So even I myself am surprised at the readiness at which I dwell into WWII history, which wasn't one of my favourite topics in schooling days. But now I find a point to the stories, and a reason to relate them in these peace times, so I guess I got myself a suitable job in that sense. ;)

Oh, if you have any foreign friends visiting S'pore, you may want them to check out our island in a totally different perspective, thro' historical & cultural walks by our sister company, Journeys. ;)

P.S. In case anyone asking, I have to sign a 2 yr bond with the company, and I'm paid in cash only, no CPF or any medical benefits.