Happy 10th Birthday, Lionel

03 Apr 2015 (Friday):

Happy 10th Birthday to my boy. How time flies! It has been 10 years since the day you stepped into this world.

May you continue to grow up healthily, happily and be a good son and brother, nephew and grandson to all.

Grade 1 Ballet Exam Open House

02 April 2015 (Thurs):

This evening, Rachel has her Grade 1 Ballet Exam Open House.

Yes, some of you may remember she had a preliminary round last Nov but this time, Ms Wu has fine tune the steps and syllabus concerned and the girls were doing different character dance.

I will leave you with snippets of her ballet syllabus and dance items.



















Winter - Snowman




Spring - Planting Trees ~ Character Dance.

My Little Student Leader aka Prefect

30 March 2015 (Mon):

Rachel has been appointed as Student Leader aka Prefect.

When she told me about it last week as I was looking through her school activity notification form, I was half believing. Rachel as a student leader?!?! LOL.

The Prefects Investiture's rehearsal was held last Fri where she was present the Class Leader Badge???

This Certificate of Appointment was presented to Rachel for being appointed as a Prefect.

According to Rachel, she mentioned that her HOD told all P2s appointed student leaders will get the Class Leader badge first.

This is the Student Leader's pledge.

Grade 1 RAD Ballet Exam

30 Mar 2015 (Mon):

Rachel's Grade 1 RAD Ballet Exam falls on this coming 20 April 2015. The character shoes and character skirt and the sleeveless leotard are part of requirements. Oh my, the character shoes and skirt do  not come cheap.

Chingay 2015 - We Heart SG

28 Feb 2015 (Sat):

L n R were perfoming in the Wushu Contigent for this Chingay 2015 parade. Hence, we purchased the tickets through their Da Shi Xiong, Steve.

Practices begun back in early Nov 2014 and as the sessions became in depth, both the kids and the parents felt the strain as every Sat was spent doing practices and rehearsals. All the kids would only arrive back to the respective CCs after 11pm.

Luckily we have the wushu seniors, parent volunteers, da shi xiong (Steve) n da shi jie (Monica)to keep the practices sane and the kids well looked after. They would keep us parents updated thru watspps on the kids' practices, the whats to note and whats not to do, their progress and the time the kids left the practice grounds and the approx time they would arrive back.

Naturally, there would be reports on kids losing this and that item and both shi xiong n shi jie would try to find replacements. And then, there would be cases whereby the students reported sick and hence unable to turn up for the practices. Steve and Monica were very understanding and did not push. If the kids insisted on coming for the practices, Steve n Monica would update the parents on the status of the sick child.

CNY 8th day - Taiwan Vacation ~ Taipei to Singapore

26 Feb 2015 (Thurs):

This was the day we will be leaving Taiwan for Singapore which means, the last day of our vacation.

With no agenda for the day, I suggested going to CSK Memorial Hall as I wanted to catch the Guard Changing Ceremony. I took videos too.

This is just a little snippet of the ceremony. The whole ceremony is about 15 mins long.

We had Tim Sum back at Ximen and shopped around for another luggage. We bought too many stuff and our luggage was over-weight..

Ah Mao Risotto. This is really the dog at the entrance of the cafe.

Without realizing our flight was delayed for 2 hours, we checked in and was told of the delay. What to do but laze around and did more shopping. Luckily, Taoyuan airport was big with many things to see and we had some meals at the eateries around as well.

6 days in Taiwan is definitely NOT enough. I will be back, hopefully soon.

CNY 7th day - Taiwan Vacation ~ Taipei

25 Feb 2015 (Wed):

Today was a little "grey" day. I do not meant the weather. Our moods were a little affected by a wastage of time.

Train departs Taipei Main Station for Ruifang at 1005hrs which means we were hanging around at the station for 35 mins.

The ride to Ruifang station takes about an hour, arriving at approx 1105hrs or less.

There were many people and we got to queue to buy the tickets for the unlimited rides on the Pingxi Rail. Nonetheless, the queues moved fast but by the time we were done, the train on the Pingxi Line was too crowded for us to squeeze in. The next train would only come 1 hour later.

So we had some munchies first and headed straight for the last station on the Pingxi Rail when the train came. See how much time was wasted already.

First stop: Jing Tong Station.

Next, Pingxi Station.

Last, Shifen Station.

We spend a good 1 hour - 1.5hours at least at each station, though there were very little pics to show.

Mainly walking around the town area and exploring the vast countryside.

Shifen Waterfall, which we had to take a cab to the entrance as walking from the rail station was very far. And it closes at 1630hrs.

We released sky lanterns after writing our wishes for 2015. 

Back at Shifen station, we  set of fire crackers and fire works, much to the kids delight.

Back at Ximen, we had our late night dinner and saw Ah Zong Mian Xian. Not too bad.