I skipped Seimpi again today. Ayah didn't feel like going. He said that he's not very fond of "his classmates". Therefore, Emak decided that I will not attend Seimpi until she makes further decision.Yahoo!!! Emak did say, however, that if she can't think of anything better, I will resume classes there at the beginning of next year. Whatever, lah! Let the parents go figure it out.

The teacher called, though. She wanted to know if I was unwell. When Emak told her the plan, she was disappointed because she said it's such a waste as I have been with the school for a year now and I've been showing a keen interest in music. Oh well!

Since there was no Seimpi, we went to Dempsey Road to do some shopping. It was at an organic "market" recommended by Auntie Prema.

It was raining and the floor was a little flooded but that was the fun part!
The best thing about this place- they have my favourite fruit! Since I was 6 mths old, I've been fed avocado for lunch everyday and I simply love it.
We bought this bag to keep our vegetables and yoghurt fresh. It was a good buy indeed because even after more than 4 hours, everything in it was still cool and fresh. While we were paying for the goods, Ayah told Emak that I'm a high-maintenance kid. Sigh.

Since tomorrow is Children's Day, may parents gave me a treat today! They took me to watch the "Pied Piper" at the Esplanade. It was a wonderful performance put up by Act 3. We were really very impressed with the actors and actresses. Good acting, very good intonation and excellent articulation. We didn't really like the studio, though. We felt that for $75 we could have got better seats. But it was great that we managed to sit right in front as that allowed us to have a very clear view of everything that was going on. When the play started, I was all interested. But the minute the rats came on stage, I cried because they looked so scary! Ayah took me outside for 3 minutes to calm me down before taking me back in. Once inside, I think I got used to the idea of those horrible-looking creatures and paid total attention for the next 70 mins.

When Emak first asked Ayah if she could purchase the tickets, he said it was too expensive and was not for the idea. But Emak went ahead to buy it anyway and we're glad she did. Among the 3 of us, it was pretty obvious that Ayah enjoyed it the most and he insisted on taking pictures with the characters in the play!!! Muahaha!

After the play, we picked Nenek and Larry up as it is Larry's birthday today. We gave Uncle Larry a treat and I was very well-behaved, eating everything that was served on my plate.
Happy 23rd birthday, Uncle Larry!!!

The piano teacher called Emak last night to discuss my behaviour. She wants to know how she could help increase my attention span and if there is any method that I respond positively to. She said that she is willing to spend 5-10 minutes after class to go through what I had missed if I decide to "take a walk outside" while lesson is going on. It seems that she heard from the receptionist that my parents are planning to "suspend" me from further lessons and she feels that it is a waste to do so as I have been with the school for a year. This is not the first time that the teacher is trying to help. A couple of weeks ago she did try asking my parents how she can help me control my active behaviour. I guess I'm lucky that out of 3 piano teachers I've had, 2 are really good teachers. The first one was a wonderful teacher too and she used to call to find out how I was if I missed more than two lessons but I had to leave her class as I was "promoted" to the next level. The teachers and the people there are the reasons why my parents like the school. I guess it's now all up to me to make the experience a pleasant one for everybody.

Here's the latest update on the kindy story. The Enrolments Registrar of School A informed Emak earlier today that once there is a vacancy, we will be called for an interview. An interview?! What the *&^%!

She elaborated by saying that Emak, Ayah and I will have to attend an interview with the Director of Preschool before we will be offered a place. This is apparently standard procedure as they are such a popular school. Uncle Man went hysterical when he heard about it and suggested that I shout "hep hep" during the interview. Very funny!

My parents were discussing this earlier today and I think Emak was rather afraid that Ayah would strike this school off the list. Sigh. If he does, then there goes her Gurkha guards.....

My parents are still school shopping for me. I don't know why they, Emak especially, are so serious about it.Hey,it's just a school, what's the big deal? This actually reminds me of a story Auntie Mas told Emak while she was school shopping for Ophelia (who is now studying at School C, which is one of my parents's choices). Auntie Mas and Uncle Zul went to this kindergarten, let's call it Kindergarten K and while they were brought around on a tour of the place, they saw a class in session. It was gym class and the 2 teachers were just hanging around, talking with each other while the kids just did whatever they wished. Then, one of the teachers caught a student doing something wrong and she said,"why you do that, ah? i how many times must say you cannot do that, ah?" Is it a wonder why children love speaking in Singlish? Isn't good grammar/good English something we should pick up while we're still young so that we can grow up speaking grammatically sound English? Why are people paying $700/mth for their child to be able to speak Singlish?

Another story: Emak has this friend who speaks very well and so does her husband. Her son used to speak very well too, until he went to kindergarten. According to that auntie, ever since her son went to kindergarten, he's been using Singlish to converse and all the good that she had done was undone the moment he went to kindergarten.

But then again, attending a school where the teachers have good grasp of the language also won't guarantee that I will grow up speaking purrfect English either, eh? So maybe my parents just shouldn't bother? I mean they grew up alright and Emak only attended 1/2 a year of PAP kindergarten and Ayah probably never went to kindergarten! Hahaha!

Anyway, last week, my parents went to check out another school. Let's call it School EH. School EH has received many good reviews from parents but Auntie Prema had been there before and she wasn't impressed.She was, at one time, considering to put Arati at EH but changed her mind and Arati is now in School C.

Auntie Prema was right. EH wasn't impressive at all. To be fair, my parents visited only one branch but they didn't really like it. Firstly,the uniform is ugly. Secondly, the school looks old and thirdly, they feel it is not value for money.

And so it seems that Emak is now rooting for School A. She keeps telling Ayah about School A's wonderful facilities, which include a swimming pool, a huge library, an indoor playground,an auditorium and good-looking Gurkha guards! MUAHAHAHAHA!

Ayah's question is, is it worth the money to pay more for facilities? Are good facilities really that important? Looks like another debate will ensue and knowing how fickle Emak can be, she might just start rooting for another school next week.Haha!

I was very ill-behaved at Seimpi today. I blocked the other kids' views when I insisted on standing right in the middle of the class and I annoyed some parents when I tried to take away their kids' score cards. One of the parents even scolded me, can you beat that?! They now think I am an ill-bred kid as I always cannot keep still, while THEIR children will just sit down and keep still throughout the entire lesson. Some of them even gave Emak THE STARES! These people, who are of a particular kind, are so different from the parents at the other schools I go to. The other sets of parents are very understanding people and they always say that it's natural for kids to be running around and are very understanding when it comes to children who are very active. Ayah believes that it has something to do with the Asian and Western mindsets which I will choose not to elaborate as it might offend some people. But I'm sure people who know my parents know what they mean as this is something they openly discuss with their friends.

After class, Emak suggested going to Cafe Vienna for lunch because of the $7.80 offer per person. Ayah warned her that there would be a terribly long queue but Emak insisted that there won't be any because she said not many people knew about it. BUT boy, was she wrong! When Ayah drove past the hotel, the long queue was the first thing that caught our attention. It went all the way to Pacific Plaza!!!

In the end, we made a U-turn and went to the Straits Kitchen instead. After 30 minutes at Straits Kitchen, I threw a tantrum because I was so sleepy so in the end, my parents didn't get to enjoy their lunch.

For this week, we went on an excursion to the Central Fire Station. Ayah read everything on the information board to me and surprisingly, I kept still and listened to everything he read.
When Ayah was young, he wanted to be a fireman because he found this fire engine very awesome.
We tried to get in but the door was locked.
Apparently, this fire engine had only one seat- for the driver. The other firemen had to hold on to the sides of the fire engine!!!
Check out those cool helmets!
I was so tickled by the street telephone system.
The minute I picked up the phone, there was a woman's voice saying that there was a fire.This telephone system had a very big impact on people back then as reports of fires came in earlier, which improved the firemen's response to fire calls.
Now we know why!!!

And what's a trip to the Fire Station if you don't try out the fireman's outfit, eh?

Today, while everyone was outside watching TV, I went to the kitchen to wash my hands. However, there was no one there to help me so I decided to be more independent. I pushed a chair to the sink, climbed onto it and tried to turn on the tap. Hehehe! When Emak discovered what I had done, she warned me not to do that again as it could be dangerous.

My parents have noticed that I'm always attracted to musical instruments. At school, we get about 10 mins of play time before lesson starts and there will be all sorts of toys in the classroom but I will always head for the musical instruments section first so last week, we went piano shopping. But we didn't see anything that we liked and now Emak is considering renting a piano for me. Yes, there is such a thing as a piano rental service. You rent a piano from them for 6 months and after 6 months, you decide if you want to buy it or return it. If you buy it from them, they will deduct the rental costs that you had paid from the final cost of the piano but if you decide to return it to them for good, you don't get a single cent back. Sounds like a good idea, doesn't it? Especially if you're not sure how long your child will remain interested in that particular musical instrument.



I also enjoy playing with paint and getting my clothes messy and dirty.

And I love fishing for things from the treasure box. The treasure box is something that Lydia takes out in the middle of a lesson and everything in the box starts with the letter of the day. Each time the box is out, everyone will be so curious but this week, I was frustrated I didn't get a thing and guess what I did? Yeah, I CRIED!

Emak was a Chinese drama serial addict and a few years ago, she watched this drama serial where there was a character who was really kiasu. Even before her child was born, that character started shopping for a kindergarten for the child and immediately after the child was born, she registered the child in a school! Emak used to laugh about it and couldn't believe how kiasu some people could get.

BUT guess what just happened? The same person who thought that drama character was super kiasu has just registered her child at two schools 2 years before she is due for kindergarten! Hahaha!

Well, can't help it. Both schools have waiting lists with School A having a REALLY long waiting list. When my parents called School A for an application form, they were told that they should have applied last year! School C still has a few vacancies for classes starting in 2 years (see, my parents are NOT the only kiasu ones) so we quickly went to pay the fees to "chope" a place for me. Hahaha! Never in their whole lives did my parents think they would have to succumb to this.

We were brought around School C by the Principal earlier today and Ayah really likes the school. Unlike School A, where almost everyone comes from a particular country down under , School C has students from many nationalities. We were told that the school celebrates United Nations Day every year so that the students can learn more about each other's customs, traditions, language etc. That sounds really cool.

The best part about both schools is their curriculum. It's learning through play, play and more play. Isn't that what all kids do best?

Before we left the school Emak bought me a set of the school uniform, plus the hat, for me to wear at home. She thinks the skorts is cute. Looks like a skirt from the front and shorts from the back.

Dear Uncle Man,

Nenek said there is a parcel for me from Hong Kong and that was two weeks ago. Until today, I have yet to receive that parcel. Can you tell Auntie Sandra to quickly deliver it to me? And since it is meant for me, why was it delivered to Auntie Sandra's house???

One more thing. I know what is in the parcel although I don't actually know how it looks like and I'm telling you it's not enough! I want more! I'm sure you have heard me shouting the word "more" many times, right? Uncle Man, why you so stingy?!

Love,
Tata

Emak is into baking these days. She made a chocolate cake and some cookies yesterday. She also made some jellies which she kept in the fridge. Now, she thought I didn't know about the jellies but she was wrong. I saw her putting the jellies in the fridge and when no one was looking (or so I thought), I opened the fridge, dipped my fingers in the jelly and ran away before anyone saw what I had done. I thought it was fun, until I got a terrible scolding from Ayah. I was sobbing so much only Nenek could comfort me.

We went out for dinner with Momok today. Momok is Ayah's elder sister and I think she has a very interesting nickname. Isn't Momok what you normally call a ghost? Anyway, Momok said she wants to set up a website and call it momok dot com. Actually, Momok has another nickname. Some people call her Kak Men. Ayah said it's because when Momok was younger, she thought she was Superman and insisted everyone call her Kak Men.Muahahhahahahahahahaha!

Ayah's siblings really have very interesting nicknames. There's Mummy (Ayah's twin sister) who is also known as Dede and there's Ayah whose nickname is BOBO! Muahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

We went to catch "Wizard of Oz" at the Victoria Theatre just now. It was a wonderful performance put up by the students of Tanjong Katong Primary School. Emak managed to buy tickets from Uncle Raku whose wife teaches at the school. His daughter, Vidya, acted in the musical and she was a fantastic witch! We voted her as best actress of the night. Good job, Vidya! Emak, Ayah and I enjoyed the performance thoroughly. I even tried to imitate their dance and couldn't stop clapping my hands after each scene.

The tin man, Dorothy, scarecrow and lion.
The grand finale. Some of the kids were really cute and they looked no bigger than P2 kids.
After the musical, we went to Earshot for a drink.

And guess what they have now?! Yes, my favourite musical instrument. Watch me in action below! Ayah tired to teach me a few things but I acted as if I knew it all. Believe it or not, Ayah used to take piano lessons from the late Zubir Said, the man who composed our national anthem.

I went to RH today.Third time in a week. I've been having flu for the past 1 week and last Friday, while at Mummy's house, I hit my face against the wall and now my entire left cheek is bruised. I also had diarrhoea this morning. Sigh.

Dr Toh was not available so we went to see Dr Wong. We discovered that there is a new doctor at the Children's Centre and she's a behavioural expert. Ayah said if I don't behave, he's going to make an appointment for me to see that doctor and I don't think Ayah was kidding.

Dr Wong said it would take me some time to recover and I hope I will get well very very soon!

As there was no Seimpi this morning, we went on an excursion to Lim Chu Kang. First stop was the Hay Dairies where we watched the goats being milked.It was really interesting as the owner, Mr Hay, gave commentaries and some really informative stuff on goats. Apparently, the goats are de-horned with hot iron as a safety measure!
The next stop was the dragonfruit farm. I've seen dragonfruits many times but I had no idea how the tree looks like until today. The man who works at the farm was really friendly. The minute he saw us, he offered to take us around the farm and he told us so many interesting things about not just dragonfruits, but also ginseng and orchids. Emak bought three pots of plants, some orchids. soil and fertilizer for Nyai.


Our last stop was the frog farm which was really noisy and errr.. well, there is really nothing to say about the frog farm. By then, we were all hungry so we went for lunch at nsrcc. We spent a total of 3 hours at Lim Chu Kang and it was a really interesting trip as we learnt a lot of new things.

In the evening, we went to Yai Pin's house for kenduri and everyone was besotted with the beautiful cupcakes which Bik Rozana made. I wish I could make such nice cakes too. I wonder if Bik Rozana is willing to teach me. She can even make wedding cakes and all!
I wore a baju kurung to the kenduri and people said I look like one mak nenek!

Nenek is not around. She has gone for a short trip with her makcik friends. Very happening those makciks. So guess who cooked dinner today? Yes! Ayah, of course! Ayah cooked dinner, cleaned the house, did the laundry, the works. Emak just sat and supervised. Good man he is, my Ayah. When I was born, he took 10 days off from work to help Nenek look after me and Emak. He spent 3 nights at the hospital next to Emak and bathed and cleaned her every morning as Emak had a C-section and needed a lot of help. For the first 5 mths of my life, when I used to wake up a couple of times at night for milk, it was Ayah who would wake up each night to feed me. Emak only had to do it for a week when Ayah was away in Korea. Actually she did it for only a couple of days. Nenek did the rest. But hey! You can't blame her! She carried me for NINE months and a Caesarean is no joke, OK! But yeah, my Ayah is a good man. Hahaha!
This was what Ayah cooked for dinner yesterday. Black pepper chicken. Nice one!

Emak wanted me to engage in some pretend play and guess what she did?! She bought a 4-men tent so that we can pretend that we're camping somewhere in the wilderness!?!? According to Emak, many many moons ago, when she was a zillion times fitter, she attended Outward Bound School in Sabah and had to sleep in the middle of the jungle without any tents at all! Never mind, that's beside the point.

So what did we do with the tent? Ayah "pitched" the tent right in the middle of the living room and then the 3 of us got into the tent and pretended that we were in the middle of the jungle. While we were in the tent reading a book, we heard the sound of a grizzly bear and we kept very quiet. After the grizzly bear had disappeared, we thought we were safe but we heard a lion's roar! Scary! Thank goodness the lion decided to leave us alone and when the coast was clear, the 3 of us lie on the floor and watched the beautiful stars while we sang "Twinkle twinkle little stars". Hahaha!

Emak suggested that we spend the night in the tent but Ayah refused to let go of his bed. Whatever it was, I sure had a lot of fun and I hope we can do this more often.

Emak was bored staying at home so she took me to Kidosport for me to get busy!

I'm still terrified of the tunnels and slides, though.

My first lesson at Centrestage went rather well. We were a bit late for class because Emak underestimated the travelling time and we got stuck in the morning rush hour. We almost got into an accident too! Lucky thing the other driver found no damages done to her car.
This week's colour is red, hence the red dress. Before lesson proper, we are allowed to explore the toys and games the teacher has laid out on the floor. The classroom is really huge. It even has a sink and a nappy changing station and outside the classroom, there's coffee and tea available for free for the parents.
The letter for the lesson was 'b' and Teacher Lydia took out a huge box with all sorts of things that begin with the letter 'b'.
While the other kids were still busy rummaging through the box for a 'b' thing, I stood at the side, quietly admiring the badge I found.

More about Centrestage: It is actually a school of the arts and they conduct quite a few drama courses. " The aim was to create the "drama club" style of class so readily available in the UK, Australia and the US. This could only be done with a team of experienced facilitators. The strength of the school is in its staff. All of the full time teachers trained primarily as actors and completed full time courses in UK drama schools, they have all worked and continue to work in the theatre and on television. In addition, they are fully qualified speech and drama teachers and have gained university degrees in Theatre. This combination of experience, practical application and theoretical expertise allows students a rich and vivid understanding of the numerous applications of drama." - extracted from Centrestage's website.

This class that I've enrolled in teaches little kids many things through the use of drama. Why did Emak choose this school for me? It is because "Drama is of value to everyone, not only to those who wish to become performers. It improves and develops confidence, awareness, expression, concentration, problem solving, motivation and promotes the use of unique thinking styles." - extracted from Centrestage's website.

Let the world say HELLO to the Drama Mama! MUAHAHAHAHAHHAAHAHAHA!

Emak sent the car for servicing today and while waiting for the car to be ready, we went to Greenwood Ave for a drink. We were at this place called Estivo.Nice place. There was even an area for me to do some drawing and reading.

After I got bored of reading, I did them a favour by rearranging the furniture. Hehe.

After collecting the car, we went to Nyai's place for a nap before going to the airport to send Uncle Kenneth off. Uncle Kenneth is Emak's good friend who has left to study at Harvard. According to Emak, Uncle Kenneth is a smartypants.
The best thing of the day was the present Auntie Lai Fong gave me. She was there to send Uncle Kenneth off too and she gave me a Polo RL blouse, for no reason. This is the 3rd Polo RL outfit Auntie Lai Fong has bought for me for no reason. She's the best! Auntie Lai Fong, make sure you go shopping more often, OK? ;-)

I bought Teachers' Day presents for my laoshis. I gave each of them a bouquet of roses and a "pot" of cookie.Happy Teachers' Day, laoshis!
After Tien Hsia, we went to Bik Sabariah's baby's majlis cukur rambut (hair cutting ceremony?).
Baby Syafiqah Nurina.

I attended my first Seimpi class with a new teacher today. Ayah convinced Emak to get me a new teacher as he had issues with the previous one. I like the new teacher and I surprised Emak by doing every single activity the teacher told me to do. Yes,for the first time ever, I actually did every single activity and did them all by myself! Something funny happened in class, though. I have a classmate named Khairul. For one of the activities, we were supposed to hold our classmates' hands or our parents' hands and get them to dance with us but I insisted on holding Khairul's dad's hand and I insisted that he dance with me and I refused to let go of his hand! Hahaha!

In the afternoon, we went to Nyai's place to collect some presents we got Mak Nyai to make for us.

This is an album Mak Nyai made.
These are for Auntie Woon Sin and Auntie Is. There is another thing called the nappy hanger but it's not ready yet.

While we were at Nyai's, Ayah kept whining in pain because a wardrobe door fell on his foot earlier in the day. Emak couldn't stand the incessant whining and we took Ayah to the A&E at RH. When we were there, we bumped into a nurse from the Children's Centre who was shocked to see me there and kept asking me if I was alright! Haha!

Kesian Ayah. I decided to comfort Ayah while we were outside the doctor's room.
The doctor referred Ayah to an orthopaedic surgeon after taking an X-ray of Ayah's foot.