Random

While Cayden was in class today, I popped down to Orchard Road to run some errands. I needed pick up a bag which I reserved at Ngee Ann City and to go to M1 to see if they have the screen protector for my new phone - the Samsung U700. No I am not kiasu and want to 'baby' my phone, but I hate finger prints on the screen. Unfortunately, I leave finger prints every single time I use it because the phone is a slide phone and my fingers inevitably leave prints when I slide the phone to answer it or to send a sms.

Anyway, while waiting for M1 to open, I had a coffee at Starbucks. I met one of my really old ex-colleague. I met her when I was in my first job - I was innocent and naive. We were in the same team and even though she was more senior than me, we got along well. However after close to a year, she moved overseas with her then-boyfriend and I changed companies too. It has been 12 years since I last saw her. I didn't know if I should go up to her and talk to her. I thought for a long time, and in the end, still decided against it. She sat facing me, so I was quite certain that she saw me, but she also did not walk up to me and say hi. Wonder why?

I don't know why I didn't go up and say hi. Maybe it was because i was afraid that she couldn't remember me? Am I anti-social? I have no answer.

Dora Show

We went to the Dora show at United Square today. I have been feeling really bad that I have not brought Cayden to see any of the shows so when Shareen asked me if I wanted to go to watch Dora show together with her son, I immediately agreed.

The show is scheduled for 1pm, but knowing that there will definitely be a crowd, we decided to go early. Shareen & Brion went to the Barney show the day before at Marina Square and they had to queue up for 1.5 hours!

We arrived at United Square at 12pm and there was already a long queue. We got into the queue and started taking some pictures for the boys, but were not very successful. Its impossible to get them to look at the camera at the same time, with all the distractions around them!
















We were finally urshered into the sit down area at around 12.45pm. Cayden seemed excited enough. But when the show started he became scared! He refused to stand up and only wanted to sit on me. I could see that he was really interested, but he was too scared to participate. He kept stretching his neck to see the stage.

Only after 15 minutes he started to stand up, but only within the confines of my crossed legs. After 5 more minutes, he started to jump up and down. Not scared anymore. :)








Cayden & me



Shareen & Brion

Finally Settled In school

Finally, Cayden stopped crying whenever I leave him at school. We arrived in school early today, and I spent some time with him in the classroom as his classmates are not here yet. When most of his friends arrived, I turned to him and said, " Ok, Cayden. Mummy will see you later, ok?" His face immediately turned red, and his eyes filled with tears, but he put up a brave front and said "OK" with a very sad voice... It was so heartbreaking for me!!!! I nearly teared myself. When I stepped out of his classroom, he waved to me and said " Bye mama! Bye! See you later!".

My brave boy! I was so proud of him!

Some pictures we took before his classmates arrived:


In his classroom... the playdough the school uses are home made.


The school's "make-do" Xmas tree!


Where are my friends?



He was bored so he started dancing


The school foyer

Get Together...

We had a get together amongst ex-colleagues last night. One of our ex-colleagues, Jesley, will be packing up her bags and leaving for Shanghai to work in mid December. This get together is her farewell.

During dinner, I had felt disconnected with my friends. Somehow there is an invisible barrier and exists between us. No matter how I hard I try, I couldn't. After a while, I gave up. I guess this is inevitable, because I am no longer working so we have different lives. On top of that, I live in a another country, so we have lesser things to talk about. I guess now our status is now downgraded from "friends" to "acquaintances"?

But I was still glad to have went for dinner because I could catch up with Jesley. She and me can talk for hours and hours. I am sure to be visiting her in Shanghai soon.

I wonder if its true that as you grow older, you have lesser friends? Or it is just happening to me?

Amazed...

I can't help but be amazed at what Cayden says sometimes... he makes me laugh...

Yesterday, he had a bit of runny nose, so I wanted to wipe his nose for him. He was on the floor playing with his truck and cars. For the first time, he obliged me and attempted to blow his nose. Then I wanted him to do it again, just to be sure that its clean. He got irritated because I was interupting his game so he told me "Mama! Sit on the chair and watch TV!". After that he returned to his game.

Today, he wanted to pee pee, so my mom's maid, Dewi, wanted to help him. He refused and wanted me to help him instead. Maybe its because i do it differently. I went, pulled down his pants, positioned him to aim properly. While he peed, he told Dewi "Its like this, Dewi!".

My boy is so funny...

Love the Look

Love the look of Katie Holmes recently - hair and makeup. Every time I see a look that I like, I feel the impulse to go out and buy makeup or have a hair cut! Since recently I chopped off most of my hair, all I can do is to buy makeup. haha!


Love the look and dress...






Because of this look, I went to town and bought a new nude / coral colour lip gloss from Christian Dior today! Lipstick has always been one of my weakness...

Afternoon in Town

Sent Cayden to school today and thankfully, he has stopped to fuss. Keeping my fingers crossed that he will continue this good behaviour from now on. I was told by Teacher Kelly that Cayden was happy and well behaved even during the transition from Playgroup to Music workshop. Playgroup starts at 9am and end at 11am from Monday to Thursday. Every Wednesday, Cayden will attend music workshop which starts st 11.15am for 1 hour. During the 15 min break, the teacher will keep an eye out for Cayden and bring him into the class when it starts. When I picked him up at 12.15pm, he was happy and looked like he enjoyed his class.

After class, I brought Cayden & my mom to town, because I wanted to take some pictures of the Xmas decorations on Orchard Road. We went to Mandarin Hotel's Chatterbox to have chicken rice for lunch!!! It was yummy-delicious, but VERY pricey. It was $21.50 before tax! I was taken aback by the price, and decided to splurge since we don't have it often.



Picture of Chatterbox Chicken Rice Set




Cayden happily tucking in...





Actually, this trip back, I realised that prices in general have risen, quite substantially. I had a conversation with one of my girlfriend earlier and both of us made the same observation. When we shop for clothes, I realised that most items costs around $59 or $69, even for a simple top! This morning, I stopped by This Fashion (a shop which supposedly offers cheap clothes) and saw that 1 simple cotton short sleeved shirt costs $30! In my mind, I thought it should be about $15? Am I getting more stingy? haha?

Did not get a chance to take pictures of the Xmas decorations because it started pouring!!!! Only managed to get a shot of the huge Xmas tree at Ngee Ann City. No pics of Cayden too because he was sleeping! Have to make another attempt next week.


Xmas Tree at Ngee Ann City

Fun At MacDonalds

After Cayden woke up from his nap today, my mom & I decided to bring him to the MacDonald's near my parent's house. We could have our lattes and he could play at the playground. PERFECT! It turned out to be a great decision, because Cayden had a good time.

Initally, he was quite resistant in entering the playground. He just hovered around, taking his time to observe the place. I could see that he wanted to go, but he was apprehensive at the same time. I decided to step back and let him take his time. After a while, we could see him inching forward by the minute. After a good 20 minutes, I thought he just needed a tiny push. I stepped into the playground area, turned around and asked him to join me. He needed no more persuasion. Immediately he jumped to me and entered the tunnels. haha! Took many pictures.

Great place for a quite afternoon hang out.










Cayden trying to copy Ronald's pose





Hugging Ronald



Me & Cayden

Friends?

Feeling quite disappointed with some friends this trip home. Ok, I have to admit that it is not easy for me to make friends. I think its because I can be quite anti social in nature. But I do treasure all the few friends I have.

However, this trip back, I feel like I have been let down by one specific girlfriend, whom I thought I was close to. Despite many of my invites and suggestions to meet up since I returned 9 weeks ago, we have not met up. Yes, I do understand that she has recently started a new job and have been travelling, but I feel that she is not making the effort. What really pissed me off is on one night, she called me. I was happy to see her name flashing on my mobile phone. But after a while of talking to her, I realised that she is only calling me because she just had an argument with her hubby and needed to rant at someone. After she has finished her rantings, it was obvious that she wasn't paying any attention to what I am saying anymore coz all she said was "huh,huh" at appropriate pauses and she sounded distracted.

She told me its too bad that we can't meet up as she was going on a 2 week holiday in 2 days time and she would be very busy at work until she left for her hols. I mentioned that I may extend my stay in Singapore til Xmas. I don't even think she heard me because she had no reaction. Or maybe she did hear me but pretended not to. I don't know. All I know is I am done reaching out to her. Its her turn. If she does not contact me, I won't.

Still trying to settle in...

Cayden is trying to settle in class. In the mornings, he is still putting up a struggle when we send him to school.

On his third day at school, I did not walk into the classroom with him but stood outside by the door. When the class started, the teachers closed the doors and he started wailing! It was so loud that I could hear him at the waiting area for parents.

Ethan (the boy with the show off grandma) came with his mother and maternal grandma that day. Ethan was also quite upset that his mother could not stay with him in the classroom and started crying. When his maternal grandma saw from the outside that Ethan started crying, she blamed Cayden for crying and thus affected Ethan. She kept saying "That boy is crying, that's why Ethan cry" without knowing that I am Cayden's mother. After she repeated this comment twice, I looked at her and said "That is my son". I wanted her to know that so that she would not say more things that might upset me even more and cause me to argue with her. After that, she stopped making that comment. Yes, i am very protective of my child.

On his fourth day at school, Cayden also fussed when I left him in the classroom and he wailed when the teachers closed the doors. But this time, he cried for a much shorter time.

I hope things will get better next week.

Where are my pictures????

I am getting so frustrated with Blogger. I have not been able to upload any pictures for 1 week now, and I finally managed to upload some via Picasa this morning. Now they are all GONE!!!!

Does anyone else have this problem????

Second Day at School

Today is Cayden's second day at Learning Horizon. I think he enjoyed the program better than yesterday. Once we arrive at the school, I followed him to the classroom but slowly made my retreat to outside the classroom. Initially he was doing very well, playing with friends and teacher, without needing my company. Then the boy with the "show-off" grandmother arrived. The boy whined a little, wanting the grandmother to stay with him in the classroom and she did. Once Cayden saw that, he started to look for me and ran outside the classroom to pull me into the room.

I took quite a while to convince Cayden to stay in the classroom to play with his friends and teachers without me. I left the classroom and after a long while, I heard him wailing. I decided not to go into the classroom and see if he will stop shortly. True enough he did. After 10 minutes, I peeped in the class and he was playing happily, colour Santa Clauz picture.

When the session ended, he came out of the classroom and told me excitedly on all the things he did in class. :)

Tomorrow will be another tough day, because from tomorrow onwards, no parents are allowed anymore in the class, so I am expecting more crying...

More update tomorrow.

Good weekend :)

We had a good weekend. Hubby stopped by Singapore for a few days. He is on his way back to Mongolia from a meeting in Bangkok. He arrived on Friday so Cayden & I went to pick him up at the airport.

Before we saw hubby, I was wondering what Cayden's reaction would be when he sees daddy, someone he has not seen for 6 weeks. Surprisingly, he recognized hubby and called "Da-da" right away. But when hubby picked him up, he was VERY quiet, almost shy. Anyway, it took them less than 5 minutes for them to warm up. Now he is so attached to Da-Da. He wants Da-Da to go upstairs together when he is supposed to bath and sleep. He wants Da-Da to put him to sleep and willingly wave me away with a "Bye, mama! I love you!"

Hurmp! Obviously I have dropped in ranks from his favourite people list. When Da-Da is not around, I am No.1. Now Da-Da is here, I am No.2! Oh well. I am grateful that hubby is such a hands-on daddy. He takes care of Cayden and both of them enjoy each others so much!

So pictures that we took over the weekend:

Cheeky picture taken at lunch


Taken at the fountain at Bugis Junction


With Daddy


He loved the fountain!




Swimming at Temasek Club

First Day

Cayden started his first day of school in Singapore. No, this is not a permanent situation. We have been here in Singapore for the past month, to escape the harsh Mongolian winter. While we are here, I thought its a good idea to let Cayden join a playgroup that allows him to interact with other children. We couldn't get a place in the school with the regular program, as the class is full, so I have registered him for the holiday program instead! Its a 4 week program that is on from Monday to Thursday every week, 2 hours a session.

Today is his first day. When we arrived in school, some children were there already and 2 of the girls were already wailing away. I have to say it disrupted the class quite a bit. I mean, seriously, the girls were crying for a full 2 hours! The parents/guardian of the girls just left them in the class and went away. Cayden was somewhat affected by the crying and he started to fuss too. He became super-sticky to me and wanted me to go everywhere in the classroom with him. He also became quite sensitive - when a boy, Jonas, pushed him away from the alphabet board, he started wailing, which is a really unusual thing for him to do.

The teachers were telling me that Cayden did pretty well, taking into consideration that it was his first day in an unfamiliar enviroment and all.

One of Cayden's classmates was brought to school by his grandparents. This boy is new to the school, as he is regularly attending another pre-school but that school does not have any holiday programs, so the boy's parents enrolled him at Learning Horizon for this holiday program. The grandmother stayed in class with the boy, but after a while, she started showing everyone (including me and the teachers) a video clip on her mobile phone. It was a video of her grandson performing in his school concert. He was holding pom-poms and dancing. Nothing spectacular. She said that this current class is not advanced enough for her grandson. He is already doing to things that other children here cannot do, so the grandson is bored. I was amused and thought that she was quite a show-off. I wonder if she will withdraw the boy from this program?

This reminds me of a conversation that my friend Shareen & I had earlier. We said that parents are normally more humble when talking about their children, but grandparents are more vocal & proud. They often singing praises for their own grandkids, not shy at all.

To sum it all, Cayden wasn't terribly happy in school. Fingers crossed, he will enjoy school better.

Below are some photos I took in school:

Taken right before we left for school...

Strutting confidently to the car


During the crafts session of the class


Teacher Anna helping Cayden




Aha! I caught the ball!


Daddy & Cayden having a word...

To work or not to work?

Not that I have a choice now, since we are living in Mongolia long term... but I have been thinking alot about this issue recently. To work or not to work? I have been weighing the pros and cons of this issue in my mind, and I ended with this list:

Pros:
1) Financial independence - I can buy all the bags / shoes / clothes I want. I can also spoil Cayden a little more. I do not have to put up with hubby's nagging on how and where I spend money.

2) Contact with the 'real' world.

3) Sense of satisfaction when you see your fruits of labour. Sense of power. Feeling useful. Feeling like I am making full use of my day.

4) Being able to spend more quality time with Cayden. Currently, I have not been spending enough quality time with him, since I am with him all day. I take it for granted. I spend long hours with him, but they are not necessary quality time.

Cons:
1) Miss being with Cayden all day long.

2) No more stress free days.

3) Having to delegate the care taking of Cayden to someone else and they might not do everything to your liking, especially with discipline.

4) No financial independence. Having to account for every dollar spent.

5) I feel like I am so cut off from the rest of the adult world. My world consists of kids stuff, receipes, cooking. They all seem so trival. On some days, I feel like I am wasting my days away.

I am not even sure if I am making sense now.

Finally Migrated Here!

Ok, I spent most of this afternoon cutting & pasting the content of my earlier blogs from Wordpress. When I first started to blog, I started with Blogger, but I "itchy backside" so I decided to migrate to Wordpress. That was easy enough. But after using it for a few months, I decided that it wasn't as user friendly as Blogger, so I decided to return to Blogger. However, Blogger does not have a import function like Wordpress. Tried to explore other options but it seems like the best thing to do is to do the manual "cut and paste". Which is what I did. Now I am staying put with Blogger.

Counting down

2 more days and we will be on our way to Seoul! Yes, we will be going to Seoul for a short holiday before returning to Singapore. Hubby has a conference to attend in Singapore, so I have decided to tag along and return to Singapore too!

I realised that Cayden is quite a sociable boy. He plays with just about everybody! Sometimes, in the afternoons, he will stand up from whatever activity he is doing and say “Play Finn” or “Play Taku” - his friends in the estate as well as his school. Recently he has also made friends with Paige - a 3 year old Australian girl who is so adorable! If he sees Paige playing outside in the playground, he will call out - Hi Paige! Hi Paige! and run to her.

He has also gotten over his fear for dogs. Finn has a Retriver dog name Mysha. Mysha is a gentle dog and she has a huge fan base here in the estate. Charlie (Finn’s mother) told me that a lot of children ring on her doorbell to ask if they can take Mysha out for her walk! Cayden was initally afraid of Mysha - always running to me and asking me to carry him when Mysha was around. But recently, he has become really good friends with Mysha! He has started to stroke her, let her pick up a ball from his hand and keeps calling “Here Mysha! Take this one” or “Hi Mysha” so excitedly. I am so proud of him.

As for me, I have been busy on the internet (again) while Cayden is in school. I am completely addicted to this site The Purse Forum. The site has so much information on bags! OMG! And it has ignited my obsession with Chanel bags!!!! This is such a bad (and expensive) obsession! Though I don’t have the bags, its nice to see the bags and see others carry it. I am hopeless, I know…

Helpers Drama

I seem to have really bad luck with helpers these days. Its one drama after the other!

Background info:

I have written before that we made a bit of trouble with our previous helper, Nyamaa, so instead of working for us full time, I have asked her to work for us part time. She will come twice a week, in the mornings only, just to clean.

I have also managed to hire another babysitter, Undra, who comes in the afternoons every day to babysit Cayden.

Gosh, where do I start? Ok, lets start chronologically. Drama started last week. On Monday, Nyamaa came to me and asked me to help her. She wanted to borrow a substantial amount of money from me and Constanze (she works for Constanze too, same arrangement) to buy a fridge and a washing machine. Just to give you an idea -I pay her USD55 per month. She wanted to borrow USD 185 from me and another USD185 from Constanze. I was thinking, gosh, how long will she take to repay the total amount? I cannot possibly deduct her ENTIRE pay each month, because she needs money to feed her kids! But anyway, I told her that it shouldn’t be a problem and I will just need to speak to my hubby about it first.

On Tuesday, Undra came to me and said her son was sick and she wants to borrow some money. I agreed and told her that I will give her this week’s pay (she gets paid weekly at the end of the week) first.

On Wednesday, everything was ok.

On Thursday, I spoke with Nyamaa and said both Constanze and I agreed to lend her the money. We will deduct USD30 each month from her salary. She said she wants us to deduct ALL of her salary because she receives money from the hubby. I agreed, but told her that if she finds that she doesn’t have enough money each month, just let us know. We can deduct less.

In the afternoon, Undra called and said she was sick and couldn’t come. FINE. But mentally I was keeping track of the days she was absent from work since she first started working for me.

On Friday morning, Constanze called me. She said that Nyamaa came to her house in the morning and started crying, telling her that I was going to cut her pay!!!! Constanze was certain that I wasn’t going to do that, or I would have told her. I was livid when I heard, because here I am, trying to do Nyamaa a favour, and in the end, I was accused of something I didn’t do? Constanze assured me that she would clear up the misunderstanding with her.

Friday afternoon, Undra calls me and said she was still sick. Still coughing and runny nose and all. Said she can come in if I want. Who in the right mind would want a sick person to look after her child? I told her since she has not fully recovered, she should stay home.

At that time, I was already feeling really bogged down by all these helpers issues. I pay others to have them relieve my load and to help me, NOT to pay and still do all the work myself!

Monday morning, when Nyamaa came, I called her sister-in-law, who spoke excellent english, and explained the situation to her. I wanted her sister-in-law to talk to Nyamaa and find out how did the misunderstanding occur? In the end, what she wanted was another pay increase. She wanted me to pay her transport fees coming to my house because she spends about USD20 per month on transport. In relation, its 37% of her salary. I wasn’t too happy when I heard, and I told her sister-in-law that in her one year of working for us, she has had 2 pay increments already. If she doesn’t have enough money, then she should work more hours! She chose to work part time for us. Of course we pay her less in total, but on a per hourly basis, she gets more. Anyway, I agree to increase her pay by another USD10 per month and told her sister in law to tell her that if she still wants another pay increment, I will not agree and will have to let her go.

Nyamaa came to me afterwards and thanked me for her pay increment. She told me that life is hard for her because her husband was initially out in countryside working. That’s why she can only work for me part time - she needs to look after her kids. But last week, her husband quit his job suddenly and came back to the city. He said work life was hard in the countryside so he quit. Now he is jobless and he refused to go back to his job. He drank and even hit her. I really sympathise with her, and want to help her by offering her longer work hours again, but in the end I decided against it because I have had enough of it all. I still offered to loan her the money and wrote up a payment schedule for her. I will only deduct half her pay each month.

Monday afternoon - Undra called me and told me she will be late because her friend’s house pipe burst and she has to go there. I was wondering why she chose to help her friend instead of coming to her proper job? I agreed nevertheless. Then I receive an sms from her telling me that she can’t come today because she is still helping her friend. I was really angry and felt that she was not putting her priority on her job. I did a count and realise that out of the 6 weeks she has worked for me, she was absent on 5 occasions and requested to leave early on 2 occasions. I have had enough!

On Tuesday morning, I told Undra to come to the house and told her that I can’t have her working for me anymore. I need a babysitter that I can rely on, not someone who comes as and when she fancies and still gets paid for it. But I did pay her for this entire week, as a goodwill gesture, even though I told her she doesn’t have to come anymore.

So, now, I am babysitter-less. Every afternoon, I play with Cayden. Its nice but a bit troublesome when I have to cook. He would not leave me alone. So, I turn on the telly for him to watch. Oh heck, something’s gotta give.

Korean Dramas

6 Sep 2007

Since Cayden has been going to school, I have been staying at home watching Korean drama series. haha!

In the beginning, I was not too keen on Korean dramas. But one of my girlfriends passed me one Korean series before we moved to Mongolia. Since I ran out of programs to watch, I decided to give it a go. Wow! I was hooked! Ok, the storyline is a bit long-winded and draggy, but it was so sad. I cried buckets. Really enjoyed it. I mentioned it to my girlfriend the next I saw her and she passed me more! Told her that I love all the sad, tragic storylines. The sadder, the better.

I have been watching 2 series - Stairway to Heaven and Sad Love Story. The male lead for both series is the same - Kwon Sang Woo. He is good looking, boyish and has a great body! My new hero! I went online to find out more about him and found out that he is very popular!

Both Stairway to Heaven and Sad Love Story have sad tragic storylines. Between the 2, I prefer Stairway To Heaven because somehow it left a deeper impression on me. It was more touching, romantic, though not realistic. The music was really nice too.

Stairway To Heaven

Sad Love Story

Now I am watching the 3rd Korean series called Beautiful Days. Hmmm… not as nice. I guess it could be due to 3 reasons: 1) the male lead is not as good looking. 2) It is quite a old production - made in 2001 so the styling is kinda dated. 3) Storyline is not as dramatic.

I am giving it a few more episodes. If the storyline still doesn’t pick up, I shall give up and start watching the Endless Love Trilogy. I was told that this show is the ultimate tear jerker!

Bargaining

26 August 2007

Cayden has started to bargain with me… oh oh… Last Thursday, he wanted to watch Dora in the afternoon. This was how our conversation went:

Cayden: Mama, watch Dora. Please mama.

Me: Ok, mama will let you watch Dora, but one episode only, ok?

Cayden: Two! (while at the same time holding up 2 of his fingers)

Me: No, only one.

Cayden: One more!

I can’t help but laugh. Oh boy, I forsee more trouble coming!!!

Finn's Hair Cutting Ceremony

26 August 2007

Today, we attended Finn’s hair cutting ceremony. Traditionally, Mongolian children do not cut their hair till they are 3 years old (Once the baby is born, he is considered 1 year old). It is an important occasion because according to Mongolian culture, the way your hair is cut, when it first cut will affect your entire future! Hair cutting ceremony also signifies the child is coming of age.

Sean and Charlie (Finn’s parents) are English, but they have lived here for more than 4 years, so they are totally immersed into the Mongolian culture. They consulted the Lama on a auspicious date and time of Finn’s hair cutting ceremony (its kinda like us consulting on the auspicious date and time to get married!). When its time, all gather around Finn and will take turns to snip a bit of Finn’s hair and put it into the bag. After we snip his hair off, we will either give him a present or give him some money.

I gotta say, Finn did very well! He stood there, let people cut his hair, did not fuss! He was really enjoying the attention and thought it was fun! It was good for us to attend the ceremony, because now we know the Mongolian culture a little better… Some pictures to share…

Everyone gathering around …

Little Finn in his traditional Mongolian attire.

Hubby’s turn to cut Finn’s hair.