Aunt Di tagged me a 2nd time... hope I won't get this again...

1. Name one person who made you laugh last night? Cheryl

2. What were you doing at 0800? In class

3. What were you doing 30 minutes ago? Putting Cheryl to bed

4. What happened to you in 2006? Lost 6 kg

5. What was the last thing you said out loud? Don't disturb Daddy, Daddy's not well...

6. How many beverages did you have today? 300ml of water

7. What color is your hairbrush? Black

8. What was the last thing you paid for? Train fare back home

10. What color is your front door? Dark Brown

11. Where do you keep your change? Coach skinny

12. What’s the weather like today? 26-31 deg celsius

13. What’s the best ice-cream flavor? Cookies & Cream

14. What excites you? Cheryl, Holidays, Shopping

15. Do you want to cut your hair? Not at the moment

16. Are you over the age of 25? Yes

17. Do you talk a lot? Depends

18. Do you watch the O.C.? No

19. Do you know anyone named Steven? Yes

20. Do you make up your own words? Yes

21. Are you a jealous person? Depends

22. Name a friend whose name starts with the letter ‘A’. Asrina

23. Name a friend whose name starts with the letter ‘K’. Karen

24. Who’s the first person on your received call list? Agent

25. What does the last text message you received say? "Ok, Joy" - Carol's student

26. Do you chew on your straw? No

27. Do you have curly hair? No

28. Where’s the next place you’re going to? La La Land

29. Who’s the rudest person in your life? Far too many to list out here...

30. What was the last thing you ate? honey

31. Will you get married in the future? No, been there, done that, move on.

32. What’s the best movie you’ve seen in the past 2 weeks? Haven't seen a movie in 2 years

33. Is there anyone you like right now? Yes

34. When was the last time you did the dishes? Dinner

35. Are you currently depressed? Yes

36. Did you cry today? No

37. Why did you answer and post this? Reminded a 2nd time that I had been tagged

38. Tag 5 people who would do this survey:

1. Asrina
2. Shirley
3. Joanie
4. Petcy
5. Vincent

It is routine and Daddy kisses me once he enters the house and this evening, as he bent over to kiss me, I knew from the watery eyes and the redness on his face that he's probably been sneezing forever.

True enough, after Daddy came out of the showers, he confirmed that he had been as he was packing up and preparing for the move to the new office premises.

Poor Daddy, he couldn't even finish his dinner peacefully. I had to give him some really strong medicine so that he could sleep his dust-induced flu off! I asked Daddy if I should get him this:

But he said he would be too embarrassed to wear it and yes I understood what he was trying to say but I thought this would be his best bet against the dust mites because he's got an ultra-sensitive nose and if he doesn't want another precious evening to go to waste.

So the long-awaited Friday evening came and went by just like that. Daddy was in bed by 8.30pm and Cheryl didn't get her nightly dose of Daddy time.

I am been granted 2 days leave from the doc to rest my throat.

An irritating itch developed in the throat on Saturday and I thought nothing of it. Actually I had been suffering from a blocked nose for the past few days and every night, I had been popping medication to suppress the symptoms.

Well, I thought I had it under control until it erupted into something else totally. By the evening, I had completely lost my voice. I drank a lot of water and tried to salvage the situation but I was still "speechless" on Sunday and a visit to the doc had him sending me home with 2 days of medical leave.

The medication made me groggy and sleepy. In the afternoon, I took a nap with C. I had wanted to wake up earlier to do some work but I couldn't even sit up because of a throbbing pain in the head. Thought it would go away with sleep but it didn't and I am very conscious of not shaking my head to hard because I can literally feel my noodles shaking from left to right. I can't remember when I felt so bad. It was 2 weeks ago and I was vomiting and suffering from diarrhoea. I felt as if I was on an eternal boat ride and my head was swimming the whole time. NOT fun!

Come to think of it, every one's ill. C has been coughing and her nose has been dripping since the beginning of the Chinese New Year; I can't remember how many notes I have received from Ms Sally regarding this matter. Daddy was on medical leave 2 weeks ago with flu and cough.

This is my life saver:

I have this on my bed all the time in case of emergencies and last Saturday, it came into good use.

We call this the Puke Mug. Last Saturday, C started coughing in the middle of the night and instinctively I sat her up from her bed and gave her this. Within seconds, she vomited her night feed into it.

Phew! That was lucky... The mess was contained. If not, I would have to bathe her at 3 am and not to mention, change the sheets.

Saturday is always a much awaited time for Cheryl because she looks forward to seeing Joshua and playing music with Teacher Xiu Li. (except last Monday, when I brought in the cane after numerous times of telling her to not play on the keyboard with her toes. She was in tears and told me that she didn't want to play music any more. But that was settled after I explained to her the problem. phew!)

Today, Uncle Eugene had to join us as Aunt Chloe had to work. The class was alright; the kids sang some songs and then they had to do activities where they would need to recognise the different notes on the keyboard.

Joshua and C also played a matching the different note-values game. Joshua was pretty good with the game!

After class, we went for lunch and then headed back home for C's nap.

Minutes after C woke up from her beauty sleep, the girls and Cheryl together with Uncle Junmeng and us went to Aunt Joo Meng's place for a swim. It has been ages since the children got themselves wet and when they found out the itinerary for the day, they were thrilled.

Cheryl didn't want to leave the pool even though she was all clean after her shower.

We were all very well fed after the swim and just look at the happy faces on our kids.

The children loved their chicken and we had some very delicious pizza from Sarpino. They offer a greater variety from Pizza Hut and the new taste was very refreshing. We will definitely order from them in the future.

Baby Ethan with Mummy Joo Meng. He is so handsome and is very alert; a real Dear!

The girls could not get enough of him and were cooing all over his cot and bouncer.

You will never believe the trouble we went through looking for this toy.

Daddy and I even contacted the distributor to try to make arrangements to bring this toy in and Daddy also tried to organise a bulk purchase.

Unfortunately, I guess our orders didn't quite match up to the expectations of the distributor and my numerous emails to them came to an abrupt end. Today, Daddy had to attend Townhall at Suntec and he had the opportunity to do a little shopping after the event and he found these little treasures.

Cheryl was equally excited when she saw these cars and she even wanted to help us fix them.

Even though the cars were tiny compared to other remote control ones, the attention to details was not overlooked.

The amber Stream belongs to Daddy and the whilte Crossroad is Cheryl's. Yeah, Daddy reckoned that C should have her own in case she went after Daddy's.

On the top of my almost-forgotten wish list is actually a trip Down Under.

I had wanted to spend my Uni years there but that didn't materialise. Then I had wanted to go for vacations there; visit Jackie and family and ... well, that didn't quite come true too...

So no prizes for guessing what I did when Daddy sent me a link to Unexpected Australia this morning.

What can I say, I am a cheapo!

**updates**
received an email ... I have to make a creative video to be uploaded to YouTube before I can even be qualified. Guess I can't even be a cheapo and try to win a trip there. So


See you ... never.

Cheryl has been practising on the keyboard every night; well almost every night except during the weekends where we usually come back late and by then she will be in La La Land already.

But on most days, I sit her down to revise what is being taught in music class.

Aunt Margaret is a real darling. She knows that C doesn't have a decent keyboard and she suggested getting one for C last Christmas but I told her that it was not necessary. Aunt Margaret argued that C needs a proper keyboard to flex her fingers so Cheryl got her new keyboard.

After almost 1.5 months of playing, she finally could play 1/2 a scale. (Hippee!)

Cheryl is not fond of her greens, much to our exasperation.

The only vegetables she eats are broccoli and carrots.

I returned from work and she wanted me to feed her dinner so I did just that and decided that she should try some "chai xin". This is actually my second attempt and like the previous time, I snipped the vegetables into small bits.

Much to my relief, she took to the vegetables like the first time and she was very proud of herself too. Occasionally, she looked at me and shook her head furiously as she spat out the food in the mouth and then told me, "too much (vegetables)" but I would try again and give her soup to run the food down her throat.

At least she is eating some other kinds of vegetables now and she is also slowly eating more of other food like noodles instead of rice; which is a very welcome move because this means I can order some variety. :)

Since we spent Saturday visiting our relatives, we decided to spend Sunday on our own.

Daddy had his private time with his games and he spent the entire morning playing at his computer. Cheryl, well she watched her favourite Mouse on telly and I did a little reading. Then in the afternoon, we decided to go get Daddy's new phone and headed to the Airport where he got his Cruise. It was blazing afternoon and when we got into the car, Daddy exclaimed that his "backside [was] burning".

Here, father and daughter enjoying the water fountain and looking at the other children playing.

Doesn't Daddy's phone look neat?

Then we went to MacDonald's for a little snack as Daddy was a little hungry. Both C and Daddy had a great time munching away on the fries and posing for the camera. And of course, Daddy was playing with his new phone in between the fries, his fillet-o-fish and monkeying with Cheryl.

When we got in the car this time, Cheryl asked, "Daddy, backside better?". Both Daddy and I burst out laughing because we didn't expect her to remember the burning seats but she did and we were extremely surprised that young as she is, she could show concern still.

After we got back, Daddy and C gave our ride a long-deserving wash. Of course, Cheryl was very busy cleaning, and wiping and even told me to stay away because "it's wet".

In the evening, we met Aunt Angie at the train station after we got Lo Hei from Sakae Sushi.

Our little ones had a great time and it was time well-spent; Aunt Angie is usually busy with the girls during the weekends too and we hardly get to go out and Uncle Junming was missing in the pictures because he was on duty. Busy, busy people.

Thanks to Aunt Angie, we have a nice family picture!

Tender moment between Zinnia and Cheryl. Zinnia is always the doting elder sister :) Cheryl, honing her chopstick skills again.

Today is the 8th day of the Lunar New Year.

Traditionally, Grand Daddy and Mummy would drive around the hometown and look for friends who are Hokkien because the 8th day of the new year is a big thing for them and they will order roast pig; the entire thing, complete. There would be the usual praying that last till the middle of the night and then they loved to see the many different styles in which these people would placed their offerings to the gods. Then it would be the feasting in the wee hours of the morning. I guess for Grand Daddy and Mummy, it was like a kind of a gathering with their good pals.

Grand Mummy and Aunt Di cooked up a storm again this evening and Grand Mummy initially wanted to order a suckling pig but the exorbitant price put her off (from $80 t0 $120 is ridiculous even by my standard) so she cooked her very delicious roast pork and we had yusheng!

And of course, today being Valentine's Day, it was nice to be around family and loved ones.

Daddy usually gets a little something from me every year and this year, I got him a very small gift; Munchy donut.

Cheryl picked out a nice card for her Daddy dearest and the both of us wrote on the card. :)

If you are as old as I am, you would most probably have come across this book too!

When I saw it at the petrol kiosk, I picked it up and immediately headed for the counter! I loved this book when I was a teenager and I wanted Cheryl to have as much as I did when I tried to find Wally.

True enough, Cheryl tried searching for Wally in the pictures and she even managed to find him! :)

I am very pleased to have found this book because I have not seen it for a good 16 years... at least.