CDO TI Family

The Commando Training Institute's annual Family Day is here again. As Kel is 1 of the sponsors, we were invited to the event. This year's theme is "Street Parade". Thus the organizers had enacted a racing track on the parade square to coincide with the theme.

We reached the camp at about 6.30pm where we proceeded to the mess for dinner. Dinner was buffet style with foods such as potato salad, laksa, mee siam, kebabs, cha soba, etc. While waiting for Kel to come back with our dinner, I took some pics.

















































See how cheeky Daryl is when I told him to say cheese...

I gave up trying to take nice pics of Daryl, so I went to check out the wall where the organizers had put up posters of the previous years' Family Days. It was then I found Daryl's pic among them. Can you spot it?





















Daryl got restless waiting for Kel to come back. Thus, he played with the toy fireman's hat which was given to him as a door gift.

















































Then Kel came back with our dinner. After our dinner, me, Daryl & Asty proceeded to the parade square for the parade while Kel stayed back in the mess to chat with his friends. The parade was very impressive. 1st, there was a go karts 'race', then a mini motorcycles' 'race'. After that, there were performances by the dog club, SAF Music & Dance Club, stilt walkers, fire eaters, the Civil Defence, etc.

The highlight of the parade is the mini fireworks show at the end. When the fireworks show started, Daryl walked to me & snuggled up to me on my lap. From his action, I knew that he was scared of the noise created during the fireworks. I asked him whether he was scared of the fireworks, he said "yes". I told him not to be afraid as I am with him. His reply, "Daryl no scared, mummy is here." He's such a dear at times...

The parade ended on a high note after the fireworks show. We made our way back to the mess as there was an awards ceremony there about 1/2 hour later. On the way back, we stopped to admire the 2 fire engines which was part of the parade just now. Daryl was very excited to see the fire engines. He kept telling me, "Mummy, see... fire engine... fire engine..." Seeing how excited he was, I asked 1 of the fireman standing beside the fire engine whether I can take a pic of Daryl together with the fire engine. He told me to go ahead as they are there for picture taking. I guided Daryl to stand in front of the fire engine & took these pics.









































































When the fireman who told me to go ahead & take pics saw how happy Daryl was, he volunteered to lend Daryl his hat for picture taking. The above pic is of Daryl with the hat.





















Daryl with another hat lent to him by another fireman.

That's not all... The fireman, on seeing how happy Daryl was, asked him whether he wants to sit at the fire engine's driver seat & drive the fire engine. Daryl was hesitant initially. He only changed his mind when I re-assured him that I would be standing beside him when he drives the fire engine. See how happy he is...

















































When we were done with the photo taking, we walked back to the mess to meet up with Kel & for the awards presentation. After the presentation, we decided to go back home as Daryl still have to go to school tomorrow. We think he enjoyed the parade, especially the photo taking with the fire engines as he kept talking about it to Kel. What a night...

Daryl's New Haircut

I took some more pics of Daryl's new haircut today as I still can't get used to it. :p



































Daryl striking his poses for me before school





















Me & Daryl

Later in the evening, I took some of Daryl with Kel. You can see how alike they looked like now with their new haircuts. :p

Haircut

Kel went to cut his hair just now after dinner as he complained that his hair is too long already. We decided to tag along so that Daryl can have a haircut too.

This time, we decided to cut Daryl's hair shorter so that we wouldn't have to keep bringing him for haircuts. The result...

Both Kel & I feel that Daryl's new haircut is too short already. Thus, we are not very used to it yet. However, both he & Kel looks like a replicate of each other now. :p I guess that's the only consolation now...

Call Da Yi

Today is Vesak Day, thus Daryl & I went back to my mum's place for dinner. At the same time, I can pass them their presents which we had brought from Sydney.

My mum was very pleased to see her grandson, probably coz she hadn't seen him for like 3 weeks already. Pity that Pris had a wedding dinner, so she only managed to 'see' Daryl for a while. After she had finished her makeup, she played with him for a while. However, the cheeky boy didn't want to play with her. After she had left to go to the dinner, Daryl did something very funny...

He picked up the telephone & started pressing the buttons on the telephone. My mum who was nearby saw it & quickly went to disconnect the cord. She then asked him, "Who you called, call papa ah?" You know what was Daryl's reply? He said, "No, call Da Yi, asked Da Yi come back home!"

When we heard that, we started laughing... I told him, "When Da Yi is here, you don't want to talk to her, now she's gone, then you start looking for her." His retort to me? A cheeky smile... Can't stand my notti boy...

Sold...

We have just signed the Option to Purchase (OTP) form to sell away our flat. After staying here for 5 years, we decided that it's time to sell already. We had considered a few factors before making this decision.

1. Our flat is beside PIE, thus it would not be easy to sell it.

2. We bought the flat in its original condition. Due to the very short time frame (we took over the flat on 18 Mar 2003 & moved in on 21 Mar 2003), we didn't have time to renovate it. In addition, our finances were also very tight then. Thus, we didn't have extra cash to do any renovations. We only repainted the flat then. After 5 years, the flat is in need of a major overhaul. However, if we were to renovate the flat, it would be very troublesome as we need to shift out & rent a place for the time being. However, it's not very feasible since Daryl is still young & mei mei is due in Aug.

After serious consideration, we decided to sell our flat if the price is right & find another place.

We are very fortunate that our buyer is willing to pay $3,000 above valuation & he'll be paying our agent's commission on our behalf. Even though the selling price is not as high as we expected, we still decided to sell it.

Let's hope that we can find our new place soon.

Sydney Trip - 4th Day

This morning, I woke up feeling much better while Daryl was not in a very agreeable mood. We suspect that it's coz he didn't have enough sleep. Poor boy... All the walking for the past few days must have worn him out.

Therefore, he refused to wash up. We let him be as we didn't want him to throw a tantrum. Then we went down to the kitchen to have our breakfast.

We had plans to go to the Direct Factory Outlet or DFO in short today. Thus, we went to get ready after our breakfast. After we changed Daryl, we tried to get him to wash up, but he refused to again.





















Daryl lying on the floor & refused to move





















Sticking out his tongue when he realised that we are taking his pics





















Striking a pose for us

We decided not to force him & went to the car.

















































Me & Daryl. See how cheeky he is this morning...

When we reached DFO, it was already lunch time. Thus, we went to the food court to have our lunch 1st before shopping. Kel & Pat went to buy lunch while we waited for them at a table. While waiting for them to return, Daryl decided to aggravate me again. We were sitting on a bench with cushions on it. He kept walking on the sofa stepping on my sweater & bag. I told him a few times to stop walking about & sit down to wait for Daddy & Gu Gu Pat to come back with his lunch but he refused to listen to me. The last straw was when he stepped on me. Thus, he kena smacked by me again. This boy... I swear that he's going to shorten my life by a few years. He started crying, thus Kel came back to the table to check on us. I told him what had happened & he told Daryl to say sorry to me. However, the stubborn boy refused to. Therefore, Kel brought him to 1 side & asked him to sit down & wait for him. He had no choice but to comply.


When Kel & Pat came back, they got a sandwich & 2 pcs of cake to share while Pat got a chocolate for Daryl. She thought that it was a cookie, however, she was wrong. It was actually a very big piece of chocolate. Daryl had a great time eating it.































































See how much Daryl enjoyed the chocolate. I had to stop him when he had eaten 1/2 of the chocolate as I didn't want him to have a sugar overload.

After our light lunch, we went shopping. To our disappointment, there isn't much to shop there. We were looking forward to shopping at factory outlets such as adidas, nike, etc. However, they don't have it there. We took a break after some time as I am tired already. I didn't want to overexert myself coz of the accident last night. We sat at 1 of the benched outside DFO to enjoy some fresh cold air.





















Kel & Daryl





















Daryl & Me

After the break, we went inside DFO again for more shopping. However, Daryl was tired & wanted to nap. Thus we found a bench inside & sat down again. I laid Daryl down on my lap & petted him. He was so tired that he fell asleep within minutes. I told Kel to go ahead & shopped while I accompanied Daryl. When he woke up, we would find him. Kel went ahead to check out the rest of the shops.

While waiting, Pat & Mother joined us. Mother offered to look after Daryl while he's napping so that we can shopped. I took her offer & went to find Kel. We had a great time shopping without Daryl. :p In the end, I bought a Nine West handbag @ AU$39.00. Surprisingly, Nine West stuff is cheaper than Singapore, but that's provided that it's on sale. If not, it'll be about or more expensive than Singapore. For Daryl, we got him a new Rivers jacket for AU$14.95. He only got 1 jacket which we bought to Sydney, however, it's soiled already. Thus, we need to get another jacket for him to change. For meimei, we bought 3 Pumpkin Patch dresses @ AU$10 each. We were expecting more bargains at the Pumpkin Patch boutique. However, that was not the case. Poor Kel didn't buy anything as he didn't find anything suitable.

We went back to check on Daryl after our shopping. He had woken up by then & was not very happy to find that we are not around. Pat had to bring him to find us as he was about to cry already. Luckily we went back in time. Since he was such a 'good' boy, I brought him to the foodcourt to buy a cookie while Kel & Mother rested at the bench. Daryl had developed a liking for cookies with M & Ms on top while we were in Sydney. After buying the cookie, we walked back to the bench. He looked so cute holding the paper bag with the cookie inside. :p I forgot to take a pic as I was busy 'admiring' him. When we reached the bench, he sat down to eat his 'cookie monster' as he called it.



































The aftermath after he had finished eating his cookie

By then, it was about 6pm already. We left DFO & proceeded to Castle Hill for dinner. Pat had made a reservation for us at Hog's Breath Cafe there for dinner. After we were seated, the server brought the kids' menu & a cup of crayons for Daryl. He was so happy when he saw that & kept telling me that he wants to 'colour colour'.



































Daryl with his partially done drawing & his crayons





















Daryl & Kel. This is 1 of my fav pics. See how alike the 2 of them are? :p

For dinner, Kel finally had his fav steak. He's been wanting to eat the steak in Australia as it's supposely to be much nicer than Singapore's. I ordered the Natural Prime Rib - mega cut for him as he don't like any sauces on his meat. I had the Blackened Prime Rib - lite cut. They have 3 sizes for the steaks - Mega, Normal & Lite. The mega cut is very big, just nice for Kel who loves his steak. Luckily I ordered the lite cut coz I couldn't finished it after a few mouthfuls. Apparently, meimei doesn't like to eat meat at all. She's got the same taste buds as Daryl when he's still a foetus. When I was expecting him, I also can't eat meat as I would feel very nauseous. Thus, Kel finished up my steak & I finished up his sides.

After dinner, when I went to the toilet, I found that I had slight bleeding. I was very worried & told Kel about it. Therefore, after dinner, we went back straight so that I can rest. Hopefully, everything will be okie...

Sydney Trip - 3rd Day

The 3rd day of our trip is quite uneventful. We went out to eat dim sum at Kum Fook Restaurant which is located at Chatsworth. I find that the dim sum were not as good as those which we used to have at Crystal Jade Restaurant. E.g. the skin of the har gar & the chee cheong fun was too thick, thus they don't taste as nice. Well, what can we expect of Chinese food in a western country?

After lunch, Pat brought us to Victoria Plaza where she had made an appointment for her mum to see a Chinese sinseh for acupuncture. She was hoping that the acupuncture treatment can help to relieve some of the pain which her mum felt when walking.

While Pat & her mum was in the consultation room with the sinseh, Kel brought Daryl out to walk as he was getting restless. He took these pics of Daryl outside Victoria Plaza.















































































See how difficult is it to get a good pic of Daryl these days?

After taking the pics, the 2 of them came in as it was very cold outside. Kel then went inside the consultation room to check on Pat & his mum. While waiting, I took a pic of Daryl inside the clinic.





















Daryl sitting on a chair beside me

While waiting, he got very restless. He started to walk around the clinic. What irks me is that he would touch the items in the clinic & put his thumb inside his mouth to suck. At times, I caught him using his thumb to touch certain items, then he would proceed to put his thumb inside his mouth. Omg... I can't imagine the amount of germs that he was sucking on. When I stopped him, he would purposely do it & show me. After telling him off nicely a few times, I lost my patience & smacked him. He started bawling his eyes out. On hearing the commotion, Kel came out of the consultation room to see what was going on. When I told him what his baobei is doing, he scolded Daryl too. Seeing him standing there & bawling his eyes out is a very comical. If I wasn't so fed up with him, I would have laughed. Kel went to comfort his baobei & brought him out of the clinic for some fresh air while I stayed in the clinic & fumed.

When they came back, Kel told Daryl to come & apologize to me. He refused to, but he gave me a kiss instead. Well, at least he knows that he is in the wrong.

By then, Pat & her mother were done already, thus we went shopping at Chatswood Chase. We went to shop at David Jones while Pat & her mum went to walk around. While there, I bought a pair of Hush Puppies boots as I am freezing my feet off. I had only bought a pair of Birkenstock sandals to Sydney as I thought that I can withstand the cold. However, I was wrong. Serves me right for being a smart aleck... I wore the boots right away & went to pay for them. What a relief...

After shopping, we decided to go back as it was getting late already. On the way home, something unfortunate happened. While we were waiting at a traffic light which was red, an idiot driver crashed into our car! Can you believe it? We were not even driving, yet an accident can happened! Kel, Pat & me got out of the car to survey the damage & to confront the driver. I was furious as the driver could have caused serious injuries to us! When the driver got out of her seat, she apologized & said that she was distracted. Do you know what was the reason that she gave us? A piece of paper from her dashboard had dropped, thus she was trying to pick it up when she crashed into our car! Omg... what kind of reason is that?

I didn't know the reason of the crash initially as I was checking to see whether Daryl had sustained any physical injuries. After the crash, when I asked him whether he feel any pain, he told me that his back was in pain. Thus, I was very concerned. When I was satisfied that he wasn't hurt, I asked Kel what had happened. When he told me the reason, I was furious! I walked up to the lady driver & gave her a tongue lashing. I told her that she was a very irresponsible driver & she could have caused serious injuries to me, my son & my unborn baby. She even has the gall to defend herself by saying that she didn't cause the accident on purpose! I retorted that she better prayed that nothing happened to me, my son & my unborn baby. If not, she'll regret it for the rest of her life. With that, I walked off.

Kel took some pics as evidence.

















































The license plate of the driver at fault & the damage to her front bumper































































The damage to Pat's car. Luckily her car is sturdy, thus the damage wasn't that severe. If not, I dare not think of the consequences.

After Pat & the driver had exchanged particulars, we drove home. I went to take a hot shower immediately when we reached home as I don't feel that good. My tummy had hardened considerably & I can feel contractions. Kel asked me to rest while he takes care of Daryl. He bathe Daryl & put him to bed. He even read Daryl a bedtime story. Isn't that very sweet of him? It's times like these that I really appreciate him. :p



































Isn't the above 2 pics heartwarming? It always warms my heart when I see these.

I went to sleep after taking the 2 pics. Let's hope that I would feel better tomorrow.

Sydney Trip - 2nd Day

I was woken by Kel when he came back from renting his mum's wheelchair. He had woken me up as he & Pat had bought porridge back for our lunch. I reluctantly left the warm & cosy bed & ventured down to the kitchen to have my lunch. We didn't wake Daryl up as he was still sleeping very soundly. Since he didn't sleep well last night, we wanted him to have enough sleep.

After lunch, I went back to our room to nap again. By the time I woke up, it was time for dinner already. We proceeded to wake Daryl up as Pat had dinner plans for us.

After a quick wash up, it was off to Steven & Elaine's shop - Noodle.Com for dinner. Dinner was a sumptuous 1 as all of us were very hungry. Sam joined us midway through our dinner after his work.





















A family pic - Kel, me, Sam, Kel's mum, Daryl & Pat

















































Daryl & Me. He was sitting on Pat's car when Kel took the pics. See how cheeky he is...





















Our family pic





















Another family pic under the shop's signboard

After our dinner, we went back to Pat & Sam's house to rest.