First drop off class

Today Madison attended her first drop off Mandarin class.

She's been attending the accompanied class for almost a year now, and the lessons were starting to repeat.

Also, her classmates were gradually getting younger as the older ones left for the next class up.

Hence, the decision to start her on classes that she attended on her own.

Wow. The screaming lasted a really long time. I guess the teachers are used to it; they didn't even bat an eyelid with all the cries that came from the classroom. I thought I should stay around outside just in case the teacher decided she couldn't cope, but boy, was she determined! In the end I had to go take a walk to escape the noise.

The lesson went on for 2 hours, and when I went to check in 45 minutes later there was peace. Wow.

At pick up time she was all smiles and didn't want to leave. Lao Shi ( teacher ) was smiling when she came out too. And then she mentioned that Madison REALLY liked the cakes that were served for tea. ( GASP .. the class runs from 4-6PM.. there goes dinner! )

The Botanic Gardens is just next to the school, so we went to Casa Verde for dinner. As expected, she was not hungry and didn't eat much. But the rest of us had a great meal. A mini celebration for a small milestone.

Well, I am hoping for the best for the next class, which will be on Tuesday. I'm expecting another showdown, but hopefully it'll not be for as long.

And yes, I think I should tell the teacher to try not to give her too much snack just prior to dinner! She missed a good meal at a nice cafe!

Baby 2 and preschool hunting

All seems to be ok with baby 2. I had the fetal anomaly scan on the 22nd of March and everything seemed to be fine. And it's confirmed, we're having a baby girl..

Time flies quite quickly, it's already midway through the 2nd trimester! Another 14 weeks or so and she'll be here. I can't imagine what life with 2 will be like, but everyone survives it... so I guess we'll get there.

In other news, I've been preschool shopping for Madison. Since we've been back from Melbourne, I've been to see 3 different schools.

The first was Preschool for Multiple Intelligences( PMI ). Grounds were a little small but mostly the principal intimidated me a little. Well... she did run something for NTUC, so she kinda reminded me of a strict primary school principal.. they run on the concept of appealing to different "intelligences" that a kid possesses, doing a different theme everyday. Only trouble was that the "intelligences" classes were all held in the afternoon. Hence she strongly encouraged us to do "full" days rather than "half" days. But 830am to 5 Pm 5 days a week is quite tiring for a not-yet 3 year old?

The next school I went to was Pat's schoolhouse at Whitley. It's been newly renovated hence the classrooms were superb. The principal was really friendly and patient, taking me through the classrooms without rushing. The kids all seemed to like her too. Only downside to them was their waitlists. Unless I started Madison this year in the toddlers class! And the noisy, dusty piling works next door on a residential project.

The last one for the week was the Montessori school at Newton. Again, really nice principal. I didn't know anything about the Montessori methods of teaching, so was a little surprised to see all the kids ranging from 3 to 6 all mixed up in one classroom. Each quietly doing their own activity, with the teacher moving from kid to kid supervising them. Great in my opinion for the 3 year olds to be able to mix and move quickly upwards in terms of their skills. But what of the 6 year olds? Still in the same classroom as the 3 year olds? Another drawing point? Proximity to the Novena house. So someone could walk over and pick Madison up from school.

Next on the list... carpe diem at Watten estate, another Pat's at Buckleys and Cambridge at Novena... it's pretty good to visit the schools, to get a clearer idea of what each does during the day... so that we know what $700 -$1000+ /month gets us!

Holiday withdrawals

It's true... you do get post holiday blues...

It's kind of an adjustment type of disorder.. from a carefree, fun existence where everyday was a breeze back to the daily grind.

Also the weather in Singapore isn't really the best... hot, humid and sticky to say the least. Melbourne was refreshingly cool, dry and occasionally sunny. It was certainly a nice change to be able to function outdoors without breaking into a drenching sweat in 5 minutes.

Today the Heal Joo Chiat Clinic had a clinic inspection. The inspectors came last week while I was away in Melbourne, and made an appointment to return today. Unfortunately they weren't able to give us an approximate time that they would be coming by so I had to be at the clinic from opening hours onwards.

Days like that really made me feel that maybe I should have just stuck to being an employee, rather than being the one responsible for the clinic. Go to work, see the patients and then leave and the rest of the business just simply wasn't my problem! Now I have to worry when there aren't enough patients, listen endlessly to staff issues and of course, be around for official events like clinic inspection!

Waiting for the inspectors felt like I was sitting for another examination.... fortunately Jolene
( clinic assistant) was pretty on the ball and did most of the work cleaning and sorting things out.

Finally the inspectors arrived, and to their credit, they were actually really nice. Being a quiet sort of clinic we were generally pretty tidy and they were able to quickly assess the clinic.

So..one down... now for the clinic at Balestier to undergo its' inspection.... sigh...

Holiday in Melbourne: Part 2, Madison's birthday

The next few days the weather cleared up significantly. The weather was quite cool in the mornings, but would warm up nicely by mid morning to early afternoon.

Friday night was spent in the company of old uni mates, who are now consultants or fellows in various departments of hospitals.. Austin booked us for Rockpool at the Crown casino at 630PM, but by the time everyone arrived it was probably closer to 8PM!

Still, the company was good, food was decent-- the steaks were well cooked but the other mains were not as impressive. Chris had a rib-eye steak that was tender while my pigeon was dry in some areas and undercooked in others... the sides were unusual.. mac and cheese, mushy peas to name a few. Service was prompt and efficient, once everyone was seated and the orders taken the food arrived fairly quickly. They were good in replenishing the table bread as well as water.

Only Angus, Chris and I had dessert: Angus had a chocolate mousse with a rice crisp base while Chris and I shared a passionfruit pavlova. Desserts were above average though not the best we've had.

Saturday arrived quickly enough... it was a flurry of events. Of course it didn't help that Madison woke rather early and was grumpy by 10 in the morning. We'd been on a whirlwind "tour" of the Queen Victoria Market, buying our meats and vegetable for the party first thing after we woke.

Next stop was to collect our helium balloons from "pinocchio" master.. we took Madison along hoping she'd have a nap while we were at it... as soon as she nodded of we took a detour to the beach to buy a cup of hot chocolate. Of course the cafe we chose HAD to be so popular it took 20 minutes to finally receive our order. I forget the name of the shop. nine something or other..

The balloons nearly didn't fit into the car! Chris could barely see with them all over the front and back seats! They were really colourful though ... we got Madison an Elmo balloon as well.

By the time we got back, preparations for the party were in full swing. We were so fortunate that the family all chipped in to help. Many thanks to Chris' mum, Anthony, Neil, Kei, Chai and Han Ting, and of course not forgetting my helper Warni. After that it was a simple act of transporting the gear to the park and setting up the tables for the party.

Unfortunately... we lost the Elmo balloon... the string broke and it flew away in the park(sob)...

Otherwise, the rest of the party proceeded without event... I have to thank Neil for kindly doing ALL the bbqing during the party, allowing Chris and I to entertain our friends. Madison had a great day out in the sun, running around in the park and being entertained by his uncles and their girlfriends.. Cheryl brought Kayla and Paul, Olivia brought Sam, Helen brought Praise, and Selene, Chung Fei, Peter Kelley, Michael, Yen, Angus and Lydia were the other guests.

It was a beautiful day that ended with an equally beautiful evening. We had a little thank you dinner at Beachcombers at the St Kilda beach. I think there was a stunning sunset that night too. After dinner we dropped Madison off at home and went to Brunetti's at Lygon street for dessert and drinks.

Sunday was the last day in Melbourne... we had lunch at the Callabrian in Carlton then it was pretty much packing and off to the airport. We had a tense moment organising transport to the airport, but in the end all was good...we made it in good time and we were soon in the plane back to Singapore.

The return flight was fairly uneventful.. Madison took awhile to finally fall asleep, but she woke just prior to landing. Pa and Ma picked us up from the airport and amazingly Madison stayed awake all the way home even though it was past midnight. The night, needless to say, was terrible... she woke crying several times because she was now used to having us sleep next to her.

All in... a great holiday and a well-deserved break from the monotony of daily life back in Singapore....

Holiday in Down Under Part 1

We're in Melbourne at the moment...

And it's been great fun. I'm so glad I decided that Warni had to come along to help so that we could all relax and have a proper holiday.

It was a real hassle organising her visa and Madison's passport but it's all worth it.

We took a gamble and decided to fly at night. Madison did pretty well. She fell asleep just prior to boarding the plane so it was an easy take off. She woke though, about halfway through the flight and was a little figety. I broke out the entertainment and between the 2 of us, managed to keep things calm. She fell asleep again just before we landed too, so that was great.

We arrived on Sunday morning and the rest of the day was quite a blur of events. It felt like a super hang over from the lack of sleep on the flight and time difference ( Melbourne is 3 hours ahead ). Chris' mum and Anthony came to pick us up so that was really nice. We went to Ikea to pick up a baby chair as well as a mattress for Madison.

Selene invited us to dinner at her house Monday night, so we got to meet up with Cheryl, Jake, Kayla and Paul; Chung Fei, Dean, Mei and Damien, Lok and Jia Jia. Selene's house is huge by our standards; only thing it is not quite in the city. She's expecting her first child this year too.






We hired a MPV and drove to Belgrave to catch the Puffing Billy on Tuesday morning. It was a cold drizzly day but we still made it. The Puffing Billy is a heritage steam train that takes people on an experience of old Melbourne. You get to choose the distance that you want to take, ranging from 20 minutes to over an hour. There was a big group of tourists with us, but they got off at the next stop ( Menzies Creek ) just like us. Anthony picked us up from the station. ( takes 6 minutes by road and 20 on the train! )

After the train ride we had our picnic lunch at Emerald Lake, 15minutes drive from Menzies. It was so wet and cold. Fortunately the picnic site had sheltered picnic tables so we were eating in the rain, surrounded by all the wetland birds. After the picnic we HAD to get some hot cocoa and dessert at the little town nearby.

Next stop was the Dandenong ranges, a 30 minute drive from Belgrave. We went to Sky High, where there is a hedge maze and some tearooms. The maze was unfortunately closed due to the bad weather, but we did wander through some English Gardens.

Wednesday was spent at the Werribee zoo. Initially we were intending to go to Healesville Santuary, but after having the drive to the Puffing Billy we'd had enough of long car rides.

Again, it turned out to be a wet and cold day. Fortunately the showers never lasted terribly long so we had periods of sunshine. We had a safari bus tour, which took 45 minutes and took us through different types of grasslands. We walked around after, had a look at several different types of animals in their enclosures before breaking for lunch. Post lunch we were fortunate enough to be in time AND be able to observe lions getting fed. Apparently they normally aren't fed daily to mimic their natural pattern.




Dinner was at home, steamboat courtesy of Anthony. IT was really nice having the hot soups in the cold weather. Post dinner Chris and I met up with Michael and Yen for drinks at San Churros in Lygon street. It's a place famous for spanish donuts with thick syrupy hot chocolate for dunking. The food and drinks were average, but the donuts were a tad expensive. Almost $7 AUD for 3 little pieces of donuts.

Yesterday the weather was slightly better, albeit still quite cold. We took Madison to the Melbourne sport and aquatic centre to play in the wave pool. MSAC is great when fairly empty during off peak hours and they have multiple pools for different activities that seem to run through the day.

After the swim we went to MART 130 for lunch. It's "tram" spelt backwards, and Chai reccommended it to us. Service was quite good though the wait staff were, what shall I say... quite sharp with their words.. ?sarcastic?. Had their famed corn fritters, pasta, lamb salad and eggs. IT was a tad pricey but the food was good. Also quite difficult to find, as it was on the side of the road that was opposite to all the other stores.

The afternoon Chris had to attend a funeral/wake so I didn't go with him. Shopping was on my agenda. I got dropped off at Chadstone shopping centre to wait while Chris went to the memorial. Managed a spot of shopping in the 2 hours or so that I was there. Shops in Melbourne close rather early so we left by 4. Next stop was the balloon shop selling party supplies to buy stuff for her birthday party on Saturday.

The shopkeeper at the party supply shop seriously reminded me of Gepetto ( of Pinocchio )! He was friendly and quite helpful and seemed like a pretty nice guy in general. We ended up ordering 30 helium balloons for the party and getting some Elmo themed table covers and cutlery. He was probably more expensive than other shops but I guess he could use the extra business... we'll see... the balloons are to be picked up on Saturday.

The day ended with dinner at Shark Fin house. I had a feeling the "English" menu was significantly shorter than the "Chinese" menu... unfortunately my written Mandarin has deteriorated to the stage that I am unable to comprehend a Chinese menu in a restaurant... we were charged for a dish that we didn't order but was delivered to our table... I felt we shouldn't have to pay for it since it was the restaurants' mistake and not ours.. we honestly didn't realize it wasn't the correct dish until another one arrived. I didn't want to pay and was persistent about it enough for the charge to be taken off.

Now ... just awaiting for the weather to clear up and for the party to begin...