One last (?) ride

After the grand celebrations for Founders' Day on Thursday, Friday was a rest day for everyone, i.e. no school! With our Legoland annual pass expiring on the Tuesday of the March term break when Kai would have his second day of chess NSI, Friday was our last non-weekend chance for us to use our pass.

The bus from Bukit Panjang was less crowded than our previous trips, even the one school day trip Sito and I took. The whole journey was very smooth. Left the house just past 8am and got past JB checkpoint by 9.40am - our earliest ever. Coming back was equally smooth - we left JB checkpoint just past 7pm and reach HV MRT by 8.45pm via Kranji. In fact, the bus at JB checkpoint was waiting for passengers!

We wonder why - was it due to Ramadan??

No surge pricing for our Grab ride to Legoland. Less crowd, good weather. And since the weather was good and we were hungry, we had a little brunch at Jubilee's Nanyang Coffee at Medini Mall. We were careful not to overeat - don't puke on the rollercoasters!

We ordered four sets of kaya butter toast (oooh the thick slab of butter!), two sets of half-boiled eggs, one spaghetti, one mee siam, two milo dino, one coke, one kopi and one barley. Guess who had what :p

Standard uniform for the boys :p

Took the above using my new selfie stick tripod. Didn't use the tripod function as the floor was wet from a night-morning rain. But it's still worth a mention coz I used the bluetooth remote control. I was very pleased with this new toy :)

While Sito went to the rollercoasters with Kai and Yang, I accompanied Yu on his Ninjago conquests. No queue at all just about everywhere. Only a few PRC/Korean families besides us. It was just like our early trips when Kai was still in preschool and we could go on regular days.

Top, second and fourth - all Yu!

He's so big now :)

Spent an hour racing!

It was a good break from the midday sun. And the races were fun with these fancy tracks and proper cars made from bricks of various shapes and sizes, vs. the old race room with only rectangular bricks.

Stepped out of one aircon place into the next - observation tower. Checked out the solar panels and "bushes" and the big Legoland sign. Which kid said it was like Hollywood?

And came down just nice for "Officer in Pursuit!"

Why this Yu so cool??

Went back to the Ninjago/Egyptian area to play more but we didn't let them go into the ball pit playground - that one sucks a lot of time!

Two teams this time!

Of course, Kai and Yang won. The staff directed us to the live show. Not our first or even second time but it was nice to watch. While accompanying Yang to the toilet to wash his bottle cap that he dropped, I found the popcorn kiosk open. The staff said we could bring popcorn to the show so I bought one - still warm!

Happy in front row with popcorn

Yu doesn't know why he showed his palm. Kai's gesture means ✌️ but instead of putting it behind a brother's head, he used his thumb to direct it to them instead!! Don't know what logic...

We didn't take the big train in the end as it was getting late... But must take another family shot using our tripod!

Never sick of this pose in front of the Singapore Flyer

Sito still has the 2019 version as his phone wallpaper! How they have grown...

Took a boat ride. While there was no queue, there were also very few boats. The kids got on three. There were only two others - one was just coming in to fetch another small kid for the ride while the other one was overtaken by our three boys... So Sito and I gave up waiting for a boat 🤷‍♀️ 

Candy floss bigger than their heads!

Can bury face inside, hahaha!

And so we left Legoland on a sweet note... Will we ever return? We shall see...

Bought some buns and candy at BIG before hitting the malls. Standard - foot massage + phone games, dinner at Zanmai Sushi, Ming Ang. Also checked out a mini pasar near the bridge and I ended up with a cup of cheese lekor for supper :p Also bought a new Tupperware water bottle for Yang - 750ml so that he has more water on CCA days.

That ended our excursion. No more such excursions for the boys this year as we prepare for Yang's PSLE!

Yu won awards!

We were so pleasantly surprised to receive PG notifications on 5 February about Yu getting two awards at Founders' Day - Young ACSian and academic - for his work last year. Later, Yu told us the latter was for the top three in class. As he knows his classmates' grades, we know he was third.

He went for a rehearsal during school hours and told me he would receive both medals at the same time. I thought it would be better to have the kids go up separately for different awards but oh well.

So we had a logistics issue - Yu had to be in school by 8.15am, Yang in school by 11.45am to catch the bus to the stadium for Founders' Day 140 celebration and Kai to the stadium directly by 12.45 pm. 

Gave them all a simple breakfast - we left with Yu just before 7.30 am when Kai just woke and Yang was still asleep. When we came home, all the plates were on the kitchen counter instead of in the sink as instructed, grrr... But at least they locked the door properly and turned off lights etc when they left...

Yu saw a friend the moment we walked into the school. After a trip to the toilet, he walked with a friend away from us - 不告而别！We caught up with him to say bye bye before he went to report to the concert hall.

Sito and I ate breakfast in the school canteen. Only two food stalls and one drink stall were open. Good enough since there was chicken rice. We were prepared to run out to buy macs! :p

Bumped into AT whose younger boy is in P5; JY/JD just bumped into him two days ago at the hawker centre so we call him a celeb - take picture show each other, hoho!

Didn't manage to get seats in the centre block so our own photos aren't too great. But they had professionals take photos and print out for the kids, yeah!

Congrats, my 圆圆！

It had been a long time since we sang the National Anthem and said the Pledge in school, accompanied by sekolah sedia! And I also heard the school song for the first time, as in properly sung with accompaniment.

The awards ceremony ended way earlier than the 11 am expected. But Kai and Yang also left the house very early. We spent some time looking for Yang in the canteen but the boy went to 7-11 with a friend on the same bus! Yu got changed in the meantime and then I remembered that I should have taken a photo of him and his medals first *.*

But it was very messy. Butterfly has friends, must go to classroom (for what?) and walk around. Sito and I were looking for Yang. Then they must queue up for lunch. 

Yang admiring Yu's medals

Yang said he wished he had medals. Hey, must study way harder leh... 

Watching the video that Papa took of Yu receiving his awards

Anyway... We left them to roam the school just past 11 am, and came back to our hawker centre for our lunch. 

They're all at the stadium now. Will be home rather late - ACSP alone has over 40 buses ferrying the kids, teachers and volunteers between school and stadium! Just leaving the stadium or just getting into the transport centre would take an hour each?! So Kai should be home first.. 

Horseh year!

The horse doesn't lend itself to many funny phrases unlike the snake year. I see mostly horseh - 好势 - so indeed, hope this will be a horseh year! To get us going, I pasted a horse sticker saying 马到功成 on Yang's room door in January - for his PSLE :p

Anyway, we had a rocky start this year - viruses!

Last year, Kai missed out on LNY celebrations in school as he was nursing a cough. This time, Yu woke up with a tummy ache on Monday. He couldn't even finish his milo. In the end, he stayed home and missed out on celebrations too. Yang wondered if it would be his turn next year...!

Yu's tummy ache came and went a few times. Else he was mostly fine and had no other symptoms. He couldn't eat much though, as late as Wednesday dinner, which was telling as it was Macs...

Sito didn't feel well since the week before. Sore throat and phlegm and coughing. By the time he felt better, it was my turn - I started with my usual drippy nose a few hours before going to Mother's place for dinner on Sunday, via YQ's place as we had never been there since he moved over two years ago!

Ill but still can eat!

Anyway, I think we're finally on the mend now...

Sito and I were guessing what Mother would cook - we both guessed fried prawns and we were right, haha! And that's not all, there were also fried wontons, woohoo! Kai had a few of the wontons while Yu preferred the prawns to the wontons. Yang - oops, forgot, probably coz he didn't want to try. But no fear, there was also salmon and braised eggs so I was sure Yang got his proteins. Adults also lapped up the curry chicken and braised vege. Everyone missed out on the meat in the soup though, expected since the soup pot was on a side counter.

There was a scary episode just after we started dinner - I stepped away to grab Kai's water bottle and came back in time to see a lizard darting away under my chair! So daring of it to come out of hiding when there were so many people! It went to the wall and ran to behind the curtain separating the kitchen from the living room. I tried not to think about it...

After dinner, Mother opened up the sewing machine to show the boys. Finally a working one after seeing so many during our Chinatown trip!

Yang and Yu took turns to step on the peddle

Kai was more interested in its $ value :p

YQ brought some mandarin oranges again so we shared a few. Yang really enjoyed them! He has expensive taste (up to $8 each?!) coz he isn't so enthusiastic about the usual oranges haha! 

We left pretty late - forgot about school the next day! But anyway it was just celebrations. 

Sito and I decided to whip up a good reunion dinner at home on Monday so we were busy in the morning even though Yu was home. But when Yu decided to stay home, I told him that we would be busy so he just read and played on his own :)

I prepared ingredients for four dishes before handing over the kitchen to Sito to prepare his second dish - roast pork. He had already dumped his char siew in marinade on Sunday. But I didn't manage to wash the toilets before Kai and Yang came home so my work extended beyond lunch time. Barely rested and had to start preparing dinner!

We started from about 2.30 pm. So much work... But it was all yummy!

六六大顺！

So we had roast pork and char siew, thanks to Sito. It was originally 五福临门 then Sito added char siew :p But the char siew was very good! Better - and easier - than the roast pork! The pot was 盆菜，with wonbok, carrots, taukwa and glass noodles buried under scallops, prawn paste, fish and mushrooms. The soup was good but the taste didn't extend to the toppings.

The lion's head meatballs were amazing though I now have a big pot of leftover filtered oil waiting to be used up. The steamed chicken/sausage is my usual steamed claypot rice recipe, minus the rice, just to add some 腊肉 to the LNY mix. The pork dumplings were the only dish we finished, as they were less easy to keep. So ya, 年年有余！

All of us thought the food was good, except Kai. Sighs, so difficult to please his palate..

This time last year, Kai was still shorter than me. And Yang was thin. So we couldn't all fit into our bed anymore, sighs.. We started out in the living to snack and watch TV together. This year, for the first time in years, we did not snack much - Sito was still coughing and I started to develop a sore throat :( Kai snacked the most as he finished 15 Rocher chocolates! We have six big boxes and three small boxes this year, very scary....

After the movie on Channel 5 ended, Sito and I retreated to our room to watch our TV, leaving the kids to their Sonic the Hedgehog marathon until almost midnight! The kids wanted to stay up more but nope, parents wanted to sleep haha! But since it was almost midnight, Sito and I stayed up a little bit more to watch the countdown on TV.

Tuesday morning came suddenly. Yang and I were the first to wake - I saw him pop his head into our room. So I went to his room to hug him for a while. But I really had to get the day going. Yu was the last to wake at almost nine and only coz I went to his room. Kai went, "Aren't we supposed to leave at 9am?" Hoho!

We left after 10 am! Coz after breakfast, we needed to take photos and give the kids their first hongbao of the year :)

All decked out :)

Yu was just asking me a few days ago for more recent photos on our photo wall. Indeed, the most recent photo there was from 2023 so we're already short of three LNY shots! Should get down to it one day...

Oh, Yang broke our selfie stick tripod stand while I was trying to stand the thing on his sofa seat *.* 岁岁平安！Quite sad though coz I just spent ¥20 in Beijing to keep it in a locker outside Universal Studios :(

Forgot to go through the greetings with them but ok la, they remembered a few simple ones that they kept repeating through the day.

It was raining so we left with four umbrellas and even took bus from AMK interchange to Mother's place instead of walking. The snacks were out - and Kai attacked the Rocher again! 

We got to AhYee's place quite late but lunch started late this year too so just nice! AhYee made 盆菜 too and hers was better than mine haha! But this meant there wasn't much protein for the kids, especially Kai. Yu had the most - a large piece of roast pork, a fuzhou fishball, bah kwa and vege on rice. Yang had the same but no roast pork. Kai had only bah kwa and vege on rice. Nvm, would compensate at dinner!

Lohei!

Some had left by then but oh well, not enough space! Good to see JieJie over LNY as she's usually on holiday. Also caught up with other relatives here and there. I even got to carry our baby niece who's now almost 1.5yo! So soft, so cute :)

Got home quite late this year. Only managed to dish out dinner at 6 pm. Just added some glass noodles to the pot, and heated up the other leftovers. Finally broke out the pineapple tarts while watching Frozen II on TV!

On Wednesday, day two, things became normal, i.e. like a weekend, with the kids having work time. I spent the morning baking hotdog buns, burger buns and muffins for the coming school days. 

Happy with their loot!

All the hongbaos from day one. Also passed them hongbaos from AhMa who brought them over on Saturday before leaving for their cruise on Sunday.

Dinner was Macs!

Yes, we succumbed to the lohei treasure box of nuggets, wings and twisty fries! Yu had been mentioning this every time we passed by a poster. And Sito saw that there was a discount so ok, quite worth it. 

But we didn't eat properly at the dining table as the kids wanted to watch Wonder on TV - it's the film adaptation of Kai's sec 1 literature book of the same title. That carried on to Turning Red, quite a funny show that we enjoyed even though the kids frowned at first at the girl protagonist.

With that, it was the end of the LNY holidays. School started on Thursday and things went back to normal routine, albeit with a bit of a shit show in Yang's 听写 which we totally forgot! But 拜年 didn't stop there. On Sunday, we went to AhMa's place with mandarin oranges.

And lohei again!

Nowadays, we have to say lohei instead of 捞鱼生 coz no 鱼生 inside at all! At AhYee's place, it was all fruits; here, fruits were buried under the standard seasoning and topped with abalone.

And I must say that JieJie is very 厉害 - in order to prevent Mum from massive cooking, she first booked them on a cruise over LNY, and then booked dinner outside when we visited 👍 

We went to Man Ting Fang - second time and the kids ate a lot again! Yu kept getting sweet and sour pork and tomato omelette sans tomato for himself. Yang had his big bowl of rice plus YeePo's half bowl *.*  Kai was the only one who had the duck. 

And I suppose that ended our visiting and feasting this year... Coming up will be 元宵节 when we usually had hotpot but this year, we had something interesting to do - akan datang - so hotpot will be separate...

On a side note, one unrelated person kept getting mentioned last week...

This year, we watched a lot of TV, as in free-to-air channels, over the holiday season. On Monday, it was The Tiger's Apprentice, very apt with zodiac animals and stuff. Kai commented on the accent of the villain, which wasn't very angmoh. So we found that it was Michelle Yeoh.

Later in Frozen II, when he heard the matronly voice of Yelena whose accent was harder to place, he asked if it was Michelle Yeoh 🤷🏻‍♀️ Next in Turning Red, he heard yet another matronly voice in the Grandma and asked if it was Michelle Yeoh again! No, both weren't! 

But best, on Thursday, when somehow the kiddy movies continued, Kai and Yu were watching Paws of Fury - Legend of Hank, and Kai heard a third matronly voice, "Wait a minute... Is that Michelle Yeoh?!" Now this really was Michelle Yeoh! 

We found it really funny somehow! Tried to convince Kai to choose a Michelle Yeoh movie on our movie night on Friday so that they could hear AND see her :p But nope, he wasn't keen..

Every boy a wonder :)

We're so pleased to learn that Yang made the school team for track and field :)

Yang, however, was less pleased. He said he had seen the school team train and it was challenging! He regretted doing well in the selection test last year... So we agreed that he should go for the training first and see how from there instead of rejecting it from the outset.

Since 13 January when we told him after seeing the notice on PG, he would say on and off that he didn't want to be on the school team. We got him running shoes anyway before our Chinatown trip. Then CCA started on Monday, 9 February. He came back from Evans Stadium very tired...

Then after his second training session on Wednesday that same week, he came back with a slip of paper informing parents of an upcoming track and field meet in March, before the National School Games later in term 2/3. He kept whining about not wanting to go for it. He doesn't want to go for any competitions. But he could not tell me what exactly he was afraid of.

Actually, I find that Yang is just like me at this age so I could completely understand. I was very self conscious and I didn't want to be seen by anyone coz I thought I was ugly 🤷🏻‍♀️ So I told Yang that there would be many things happening at the same time so attention wouldn't be on him alone. In fact, only people who love him would look at him and cheer him on. But of course he didn't buy it. 

Last time, we supported him when he wanted to learn piano. We also didn't force him to continue when he lost interest. But this time, we wanted to push him more since it's part of his CCA anyway

Then Sito talked to him at length about it. He went to fetch him from Evans on that first day of CCA to familiarise him with the route to the bus stop so he could come home directly instead of going back to school with the rest. And he saw that Yang was the biggest boy there in terms of height and build. His size is already a natural advantage. Even the coach said Yang was suitable for throwing events. 

In the end, it looked like Sito managed to convince Yang. When I tucked him in, he said Papa's "inspirational speech" made him feel better about going for the competition. Phew! So Sito signed him up for shot put.

On the other hand, Yu was envious and couldn't understand Yang; he wanted to be in the school team for robotics! In week 1 of school, he even coded a game for Kai who was lazy to do it! (In the end, Kai also did it himself.) But we didn't get any notification for Yu. 

After the first day of CCA, he confirmed he isn't in the school team. He said he didn't do well in the test last year - he scored full marks for the coding but didn't build the thing in time, or something like that. We told him to ask the coach what he should do to get into the school team but he went, nah, he would do better for the next test..

Even though chess is not a CCA in his school, Kai is effectively in the school team for chess since he represents the school when he plays at national schools games. 

So both Yang and Kai would be taking part in competitions in their respective fields in March. Jia you! 💪💪💪

Horses everywhere

For our annual pilgrimage to Chinatown for festive snacks in the past few years, we always picked a weekday afternoon - whisked the kids off after they came back from school and dropped their bags. But this year, there isn't a day when all three come home at the same time. I don't wish to stagger meal and shower times etc so in the end, we went on a Saturday this year.

With more time to work with, we worked in two on-the-way excursions.

Had our lunch early and set off about noon for Decathlon at Centrepoint to get running shoes for Yang - more on that next time.. I thought we would just randomly picked a size for him to try but wait! There's a foot scanner!

His feet are a couple of mm shorter than mine but he was recommended size 41 while I was recommended 39, probably coz his feet are much meatier. I didn't try shoes but 41 didn't work for him. In the end, he found 43 just nice. Kai didn't try shoes but I think he's would be 46 or so, bigger than the recommended 43 since his feet are meaty too. Sito also bought running shoes - size 43, he'll be dwarfed by all his sons soon!

Then we ran for the bus to Chinatown with a bag of shoes dangling from Sito's arm! We were at a bus stop waiting for a bus but that bus would take 15min to arrive while another bus to Chinatown was arriving at the next stop just a short walk away so we ran! And with this little exercise, we also made the 45-min connection and saved some money, yay!

The boys were getting hungry so we made a stop at good old Old Chang Kee before the second excursion - Chinatown Heritage Centre.

Annual shot outside Chinatown Point

This cartoon horse looks like a pig at first glance... There are many like-real horses along the road outside but oops, forgot to take photos.

Anyway... I remember going to the CHC many years back and found it interesting. But it was closed for some time. When I saw that it was open when I passed by it with Na during our - also annual - trip in late January, I thought it would be fun to bring the kids there.

Best part? Can use cultural pass so no money out of pocket! I used up my cultural pass for my date with Kai but Sito hadn't used his yet. As we weren't sure what time we would reach there, we didn't buy the timed tickets online. It was quite fast to buy on the spot anyway.

The CHC is not a big museum. But it has a lot to see. I figure we spent just over an hour exploring it and a good 20min playing with AI at the end.. Could have taken more time to explore if we scanned every single QR code for more info but you know, the kids aren't the type to stay still for long...

Papa explaining how a mechanical sewing machine works

The first floor is a tailor shop out front with a working area and a yard/kitchen behind. Yang really liked the sewing machines! Told him to ask WaiPo to demo when we next go there since she has a working one.

Playing with what I think is a tracing wheel

This shop brought back memories coz Mother sews quite a bit. When we were kids, she made dresses and quilted blankets for us. Now, I don't know what she sews apart from five stones! But the machine is still there.

She also has at least one of those wooden rulers and tracing wheel - I just called her to confirm! I remember the tracing wheel is quite fun - put tracing paper on cloth and roll over. Oh there's also this flat blue chalk for marking. Anyway, this Sunday, we'll go over to explore and hopefully not destroy things...

Old phones are always fun - we saw this at the National Museum before

Yang fiddling with an old iron

Goodness, a sarong cradle! Yu is pointing to a bamboo baby chair

Lots of altars in the shophouse

This is probably not a room for one or two...

I think my paternal grandmother had a big bed with drapes like the above. It was when she was living in a clan association house as a housekeeper. It must be before primary school coz it's hazy but I remember the whole family sleeping there and a big cockroach on the floor *.*

Anyway, the above was a big room in the shophouse. The rooms on the second floor were smaller and housed as many as 10 pax each! Appalling conditions, as I reminded Yang and Yu that night when they were in the comfort of their bed in a bedroom for one that is bigger than a room for a family of 10..

Heh heh!

Sito drew their attention to the pail to collect excretion in the toilet. I think the old clan association house also had such toilets. I really didn't like to go to the toilets there...

He found a palm leaf fan!

The boys flipped every single light switch in the shophouse!

Sito tried too *.* One boy - forgot which - asked if they were old light switches. Yes, light switches used to be like that. My house used to have them, I think. Or maybe it was at the grands'. I can't remember.

Btw, these switches are all decor. Very safe. I think they spent a lot of time on the details, even what people would like to touch and try!

Rat. Also a detail and common back in the day

Yu's face is so funny! He very gamely posed for his trigger happy Mama so there're many photos of him while the rest ran about.

The third floor of the shophouse is more like a museum, telling the stories of people moving to Singapore, their lives and contributions, and old names in Chinatown.

Cher, are you teaching Chemistry - in Chinese?!

Two scales - one real, one fake

There's at least one of such a set of scales (the real one) in Grams' old provision shop, next to the dried goods and biscuits, easy to weigh in front of customers.

What a date would be like in the old days - watch opera together!

While the kids had fun at a cinema on wheels!

There's a girl in front of Kai. I blocked most of her from this angle but her shoulder is still visible. Writing this down so this doesn't feel scary years down the road :p

Told him to pretend to flip bah kwa but he preferred to flip the mesh

The boys found two AI machines at the end which captures our options using finger gestures, and we had such fun seeing ourselves transported 50y back. 

Kai the trishaw rider - so handsome!

Yang - is this a naughty or creepy smile? Haha!

Also Yang the street hawker - the forehead proportion a bit off...

Looks like some evil concubine plotting against fellow concubines :p

Yu - looks like an innocent concubine happy with her life, haha!

Yu again - somehow the system cannot capture his finger gestures well

This is, um, no system error!

My laogong very funny :p I'm less funny..

Just want to be 花旦！

Yep, so we had a lot of fun in CHC! But it didn't seem to be a popular spot; we saw only one other family who came in right after us. Such a pity. Maybe the cost turns people off? After all, it's free to visit the National Museum for Singaporeans. 

And I think it's very educational for the kids. Secondary school history covers some historical figures related to the Chinese community but nothing beats seeing for your own eyes how people used to live. Such a replica is as close as we get, I suppose. 

But of course our kids didn't look at everything in detail and were fooling around a lot. At first I thought they might not remember much but all managed to say something when Sito asked them to tell the grands the next day 👍

Got the kids some snacks - mantou biscuits and binoculars chocolate - at the ticketing area before we left. It was drizzling so we decided to have dessert at Mei Heong Yuen on the parallel street. By the time we needed to get out of the shelter, the drizzle was gone, yeah!

This year, we had the kids share one ice dessert as they couldn't finish two last year. Sito was hungry and had chee cheong fun while I had orh nee - my second in a week! First was at Curry Times on Tuesday. Similar except that this one also had sweet potato cubes.

Finally, it was time for shopping! We reached the jelly store first. This year, it's $2 per 100g. We saw $1.80 per 100g in Clementi but didn't get then =( It sounds cheap but I still remember spending over $30 the first time I bought them over 10y ago! Got the boys to choose three flavours each. By the time we were done with choosing and weighing (1kg) and paying, Yang had seven jellies from the sampling counter!

Next was the main event - traditional LNY snacks! Bought $45 worth of pineapple tarts and friends, less than last year coz (1) we already bought one can from Sheng Siong and a kuah lapis from Ikea, (2) it's iffy if the kids will eat much (Yu insisted on love letters again so we got a small bottle this year as the big one went soft after he stopped eating), and (3) I'm getting fat, must control. Lucky coz the next day, AhYee gave us a can of love letters too.

With that, it was time for dinner. Saizeriya made the kids happy with the free flow drinks bar. But I reserved my belly for Chinese pancakes :) Went to a different store this time to try different things. I ate some when we got home and heated the rest up to eat after showering. So good.

Unfortunately, Sito fell ill along the way. Late nights, haze, kiddy virus or all of the above. The kids were also tired since we were out for way longer than usual. So that night, everyone slept early.

It's now one week to LNY, woohoo!