Overseas Vacations

After looking through arwen's photo albums on friendster, I'm sooooo envious of her and jo!!!

I've always wanted to travel to many countries but I guess, I've chosen the path to marriage and having children. We plan to take Allyson to Australia next June and have decided to engage the services of a friend who will plan our trip. We will most likely choose Perth so that we may go visit one of my grandaunties staying over there.

Travelling is sooo fun and the thought of just going to a new country excites me tremendously hahaha. Hopefully, we will be able to travel further as the years go by. It's not going to be easy taking a child overseas but I guess we will be able to cope :)

A Poem to Share

It's the end of Week 3 of the school vacation. As I was reorganising some worksheets at my workstation, our school counsellor passed a very nice piece of article. It came from www.cgcreations.org/poems/courtesy.html. The title of the poem is

Our Kids Deserve Common Courtesy Too! The author is unknown.

I ran into a stranger as he passed by,
"Oh, excuse me Please" was my reply.

He said, "Please excuse me too;
Wasnt' even watching for you."

We were very polite, this stranger and I.
We went on our way and we said goodbye.

But at home, a different story is told,
How we treat our loved ones, young and old.

Later that day, cooking the evening meal,
My daughter stood beside me very still.

When I turned, I nearly knocked her down.
"Move out of the way," I said with a frown.

She walked away, her little heart was broken.
I didn't realise how harshly I'd spoken.

While I lay awake in bed,
God's still small voice came to me and said,

"While dealing with a stranger, common courtesy you use,
But the children you love, you seem to abuse.

Look on the kitchen floor,
You''ll find some flowers there by the door.

Those are the flowers she brought for you.
She picked them herself : pink, yellw and blue.

She stood quietly not to spoil the surprise
and you never saw the tears in her eyes."

By this time, I felt very small,
and now my tears began to fall.

I quietly went and knelt by her bed;
"Wake up, little girl, wake up," I said.

"Are these the flowers you picked for me?"
She smiled, "I found 'em, out by the tree.

I picked 'em because they're pretty like you.
I knew you'd like 'em, especially the blue."

I said, "Daughter, I'm sorry for the way I acted today;
I shouldn't have yelled at you that way."

She said, "Oh, Mom, that's okay. I love you anyway."
I said, "Daughter, I love you too, and I do like the flowers, especially the blue."


This very simple poem sets me thinking about how some of us actually treat our colleagues, friends and strangers with more courtesy than towards our own family members. I guess sometimes, we take them for granted as we are so close to them.

It's never too late to remember our thank yous and pleases when we communicate with our own parents and siblings and our own children. It's not late to start right now!! A simple good morning when we wake up and a simple thank you or please can really make our lives better and make the family a happier environment to be in.

Hong Kong Trip

Our HK trip lasted from 1 Dec to 3 Dec. It was a very interesting trip for both of us as there were many FIRSTS in HK. It's the first time I bought a pair of Crocs over in HK as I wore the wrong pair of shoes thinking everything would me fine. How wrong was I !! I had blisters and had to get a pair of shoes immediately. We chanced upon the Crocs shop and was over the hill as I could see that Jasper was as worried as I over my blisters. He chose a blue flowery pair for me sooo sweet hahaah.

It was also the first time we walked sooooo much in HK. Both of us are not the kind who will walk for hours even if we are shopping in Singapore. Our limit was at most 2.5h shopping in Singapore. In HK, we walked nearly 8 hours with only 15-20 minutes break in between for lunch and tea. I guess the weather was nice to walk..cooling not too much and sticky.

The next first was our ride on the tram. It was the one on the road not the one leading to the Victoria Peak. We just flagged one down and boarded it without even knowing where the tram was heading to. In the end, we alighted at some tram stop and asked two police officers for directions to the nearest MTR.

Another first was having their desserts. One was egg yolk steamed with almond while the other was egg white steamed with milk. Both was sooooo wonderful. The HK cafes in Singapore do not even sell them. I'm looking forward to going back to eat their dessert again *yum yum*

One more first was our trip to Disneyland. I took all the rides ahhahaha they were all very mild very suitable for me. After my trip to korea on the roller coaster and viking, I told myself I'm never never going for exciting rides. So Disneyland is jus for me. I was like a kid going on all the rides such as sitting in Pooh's honey pot, going on a mini cruise and watching a musical. The shopping in Disneyland was superb. I wanted to buy everything back from their shops. Both Jasper and I had to think very hard and just concentrate on buying some gifts back for our family members.

The Ladies Market to me was not very appealing as I'm not into buying their imitation handbags. The shopping malls in HK sells about the same things as in Singapore. We bought some tops from Giordano, Esprit and Bossini.

Basically, we just ate a lot on this trip, the dim sum, desserts, wanton noodles, prawn dumpling noodles etc. We wished we had more time for this trip. Before the plane took off back to Singapore, we told each other that we are going to spend more time in HK on our next trip which would probably be in 2 years. We will take Allyson along and go to Disneyland again. We also plan to visit Lantau Island, Macau and Temple Street Market. We may also go over to Shenzhen and Zhuhai if possible. We will definitely eat more on our next trip!
Yippee!! That's something to look forward to!