My exploration in life… (diary for baby!)

Happy New Year!  I hope 2005 was a good year for you!  I had been a great year for me, and I can only hope 2006 will be as good, if not better; I know already that it will be an exciting year with the impending birth of RYEN’s first child!  =)

In the past year, both EDDIE and I have gotten married to HUIJUN and YEN respectively.  EDDIE and HUIJUN are going to have their customary wedding dinner held in Jan 07, so starting a family will have to wait till after that for them.

It has been a good year for EDDIE in his car dealer job at HYUNDAI too - he just attended his company’s annual end-of-year dinner this past Friday and he was awarded  the top new dealer of the year for his company.  =)  I heard mum say that he ranked seventh in his company in sales, and is the top new dealer.  His boss gave him a $500 prize as a reward (he does not have any annual bonus as a dealer), and the KOMOCO (HYUNDAI dealer in Singapore, I think) boss who was invited to the dinner as the guest-of-honour, topped that with a promise of a $1,000 reward!  Happy happy!

And YEN came back on Thursday with a SGH calendar for 2006.  Guess what?  She is one of the two nurses shown on the calendar!  YEN is a calendar girl, ha!  You can see her pictured here:  http://nianzu_ryan.blogs.friendster.com/photos/our_moments/calendar_gal.jpg

I wrote about WEILING’s wedding dinner earlier and my suspicion that it may be some prank, but no I am wrong!  I finally received the wedding dinner invitation card for 15 Jan 06.  I don’t recognise the groom’s name, and this is really a surprise to most of us who have worked with her.  I swear we have not heard her mention before that she was attached in the past two years I was working in the same office with her.  If this was planned long ago, it certainly has been a well-kept secret!

In a few hours, 2006 will be at our doorstep.  What hopes do I have for the new year?  Other than good health and best of luck in everyone’s careers, I hope for the well-being of YEN and our unborn child.  I hope she will face little problem for the delivery!  And an adorable and healthy little one to be brought to the world.  That much I hope for the new year!  =)

Happy new year!!

YEN is now 17 weeks pregnant - let me chart the changes in her…  her tummy, like I said earlier, is showing just a little.  Her temper is somewhat a little shorter (poor me has to bear with it…  nah!  She treats me just the same, the best I could have ever asked for!), she is getting cramps in her feet a little often (I think it’s due to the pregnancy?), and she is definitely changing her likes and dislikes in food she takes - she cannot stand having food with sticky sauces on her plate, she doesn’t really like dairy products now; she loves spicy food…

We were talking during the Christmas break and it suddenly hit us that Lunar New Year is just around the corner; and that means - we have to prepare red packets to give out, the first time in our lives!  Who are "entitled" to them - only our juniors; or anyone else who see during the New Year period?  How much do we put into the red packets??  Do we give out the red packets in pairs; or is one enough???  Hmmm…  I’d better done some research on this!

2005 is coming to an end.  I feel that the year has past me rather quickly.  It seems like it was just yesterday when I was still serving in the SAF.  And I was wondering when YEN and I will be getting married.  We are now expecting our first child (the first of ??th; haha), and I’ve cleared one semester in NIE already.  This time next year, I’ll be playing with our little one while I type my blog here!  Big smile!  =)))

Ho ho ho, Merry Christmas!  Interestingly, I’ve got a new nickname - a few of my mates at NIE are calling "Father Ryan" as YEN is expecting!

Christmas to YEN and me is, well, a much welcomed holiday break (especially so when I was still working, unlike the school holidays I have now).  I feel that most of us in Singapore see it that way too, less the Christians and Catholics.  And it is an excuse for some to spend a night boozing, partying, etc.

My good friend ZHAOZHONG opened his much awaited shop in MARINA SQUARE early this week.  His shop is called TAIWAN LAO ZHAO PAI, sells delicacies and food stuffs well known in TAIWAN.  He has really put in a lot of effort (not to forget money!) into this shop, and I can only help by supporting him with words of encouragement and buying the products.  And I have to say - they taste GREAT!  I bought more than S$90 worth of delicacies from my visit, and I have to admit I’ll be back for more!  The homepage of the shop and products is found here:  http://www.taizhong.com.sg/

This week also saw us trainee teachers needing to register for modules (subjects) that we are taking for next semester.  Perhaps someone knows the reason why modules need to be registered, ‘cos I really don’t see the point.  I mean - everybody from the same course will take the same modules at the designated period, with the timetable drawn up for us - so why make us register??  So that we can make mistakes and leave out registering for modules, so that we will spend more time studying at NIE (and this is OUR FAULT for not registering the needed modules!)??  I can’t fathom that.  And nobody tells us which are the subjects we are to register!  I had to make a trip to the admin office to confirm which subjects to register, and spread the word to my fellow classmates…  can someone explain the rationale for registering the modules to me??  Please??

I met up with our Motor Transport Line (MT Line) members, a.k.a. Old Men’s Club, yesterday morning for breakfast at MacDonald’s next to BOON LAY SHOPPING CENTRE.  Why do we call ourselves the MT Line??  That’s because ROZALI, ADRIAN and myself are driving, and you can find us coming early so that we can get a carpark lot, almost every morning during school.  And ANDRE would join us to do some reading / discussion if we do not have lessons.  The four of us are among the oldest in class.  We caught up with each other on what went on during the break after examinations.  I always feel at home talking to or sitting around with them.  Really humble and nice guys, giving you their views based on their past experiences they had prior to NIE.

We spoke about the practicum (actual teaching!) we have, coming in June to July 06.  This reminded me that I didn’t know where I could go to teach.  You see, most of my classmates had done some contract teaching at a school near their place of residence, and would already know if they liked that school (most of them do like the schools they taught at).  We were told that they could get their principals of those schools to write in to NIE to request that these trainee teachers returned to their contract teaching schools for that one month.

Luck would have it that FAIZAL taught at NAN HUA PRIMARY SCHOOL - the school I spent six years of my life studying at.  FAIZAL wishes to return to NAN HUA for practicum, and I asked him to help check if I can join him.  He wrote an email to check.  If everything goes well, NAN HUA’s Principal has to write in to NIE’s Practicum office to request that we spend our practicum in that school.  I’m keeping my fingers crossed!

YEN got a pair of complementary tickets from her colleague in SGH to see a stage comedy performance, Dr. Harlequin, @ NANYANG ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS (NAFA) last night.  The show was put up by about ten graduating student stage crew and performers for quite a few nights.  We left NAFA disappointed as we didn’t really enjoy the show.  Hack, I even fell asleep at the very end, and I normally have the courtesy not to do so!

YEN’s tummy is showing a bit!  =)  She wonders if the cause of the tummy is due to our child, or from the mere fact that she has been eating quite a bit (a big bit!) more than normal.  It’ll be a month or so before we’ll get to know the sex of the child.  I’m excited!  =)

The results for my first ever examinations in NIE are out - and I did okay, I guess…  out of the 9 graded subjects (in which I managed to pass all), I scored 1 A-, 3 Bs, 4 B-s and 1 C+.  This has earned 20 Academic Units (based on the hours spent for lectures and tutorials), and a total grade point of 29.5 out of a possible total of 45.  The grade point average calculated is 3.28 out of 5, which is between a B and B-.  I thought I could have scored better at some subject, while I could have done worse for others; a result for someone who has been away from school for almost ten years - I guess I did okay…

YEN was working real hard over the weekend - she returned to work on Saturday (she works alternate Saturdays, and the past Saturday was not her official work day) AND Sunday (she needn’t work on Sundays currently!).  The way she’s working and the stress put on her - I’m afraid that it might affect her and the baby…

And so I decided that we MUST take a break the past weekend and take a walk around to shop (or at least window-shop) for stuff we may need for her pregnancy.  So we went to Suntec City (near the Carrefour area).  There is quite a few shops selling maternity and baby stuff there, and we looked around to see what was available, should we need the things.

We ended up buying nothing but a book;  I insisted on buying her this book I saw in one of the shops, titled "The making of me".  This book was a journal for mothers-to-be to pen down their thoughts, or paste some of their photos during the pregnancy.  Ha; the book included common local myths around too!  This will be a gift for the baby when he/she grows up, and there is some sort of memory for him/her to build on already…  =)

YEN had another scan done over the past Thursday.  She was told that the baby is growing bigger (not told the exact length, though =( ).  But at least the baby is growing.  Is the baby a boy or a girl?  We’ll come to know that; I’m not worried.  I’m just worried of the mother’s health, and the safe delivery of a healthy baby.  We’ll come to love the baby all the same, be the baby a boy or a girl…  =)

Was thinking of going to take a walk and window-shop at the Suntec City area.  Saw quite a few shops selling maternity dresses and baby stuff (toys, clothes, etc.).  We’ll go see them on Sunday.  Just get out of the house for a while, albeit for a few hours.  Get a breath of fresh air (hope the air is fresh!) and take a walk about.

I couldn’t accompany YEN for the scan as I was attending Prof. MICHAEL KOH’s sharing session on GYMBUS at the same time.  I was still scratching my head over what GYMBUS was when he told us over an email that he was sharing with us how gymnastics can be conducted in a bus.  A bus?!  I went ahead anyway as I thought it will widen our knowledge, whatever it is.  Six other of my coursemates - RACHEL, EMILY, YUSMAN, FAIZAL, ERIC, YONGSHENG - and me went ahead for the session without a real clue what it was about.  And we really had an eye opener!

GYMBUS is, really, gymnastics conducted on a double-decker bus!  The bus is BOBBIE, a former SBS bus.  It can take a maximum of twenty students, aged 6 to 9, each time, with ten students and an instructor on each deck.  The bus was fitted with mats and cushions, with things like ladders, ramps, monkey bars, parallel bars, etc. installed for students.  Students can, at the orders of instructors, perform fundamental gymnastic movements using the apparatuses.  According to Prof. KOH, more and more schools are jumping on the bandwagon to take up the services of GYMBUS.  He hopes that this will be the way for movement education of children to go.

I received an email from an ex-colleague, WEILING, in the past week.  She asked a few of us for our mailing address, as she is getting married and holding a wedding dinner on 15 Jan 2006.  What!?  I NEVER knew that she had any intimate guy friends all along whilst I knew her at work.  And I haven’t left SAF for very long!  Wow, I thought only YEN and I could find each other and want to get married with each other within such a short time!  Not sure if this is a hoax, though…  haha, we’ll see…

I received a phonecall on Friday night from KEN, a previous colleague while I was serving in SAF a couple of months ago.  He told me that GARY, who was formerly from another office and was transferred to my office (after I went on leave til ORD), was killed in a traffic accident.  He didn’t give me anymore details; I got them later from DORA and STEVEN.  I couldn’t attend the wake on Saturday night due to CHIN SOON and KAR HOON’s wedding dinner, so I could only attend the funeral on Sunday.

It was there that I found out from DORA - GARY had just got his motorcycle licence and bought himself a motorcycle, unknown to his parents.  It was about three days after he got the machine that he got into a traffic accident - he skidded and was ran over by a container vehicle, and passed away on Friday night at Alexandra Hospital.  Sigh…  Though I hardly knew him too well, I just feel sorry for his parents - he is not even twenty-one and is the only son, leaving behind his parents and two sisters…  I sincerely hope those of my friends who ride will be more careful on the roads!

I do not know exactly how the accident occurred, but it just irks me further when I witness the irresponsible way most Singaporean drivers whiz around on the roads - late (or even no) signaling of intention, the bullish behaviours shown, etc.  YEN agreed with me too when I realised that I have very low tolerance of witnessing irresponsible driving on the roads, and I seem to be unable to help it…  okay - enough of heavy, heart wrenching stuff!

On a lighter note, I have given YEN a surprise last Friday - I went shopping with my project mate, LEE CHING, in the afternoon for baby stuff I can get YEN.  I was thinking along the lines of baby photos / posters / pictures, those that she can wake up to every morning and smile at.  I got four nicer ones and stuck them in the room before she got home.  =)  She was so pleasantly surprised!  Think we should go around more during the weekends to look at the baby stuff available around…  =)

Since the examinations have ended, I haven’t really been spending my time too wisely.  Save for joining ANDRE (and an occasional special appearance by YONGSHENG) in the NIE GYMNASIUM on weekday mornings, I’ve been kind of just waiting for time to pass so that I can go fetch YEN home, and we can be together again.  We needn’t do too much together, really, just snuggling up close to her makes me feel so contented already…  =)  I’m going to give her another pleasant surprise (hopefully soon enough) so that I can see her smile brighter.

I want to accord my appreciation here to YONGSHENG and ANDRE.  The former for not minding my inability to contribute too much and studying with me during the examinations period; the latter for motivating me in training up my fitness now.  I can only try to do more as the “class rep” to repay the help they have given me.

The weekends go by too soon!  Last weekend, I accompanied YEN to this shop called “Mother’s World” in JURONG POINT to shop for some maternity stuff.  I’d better find out and compile a list of things I am to get for the baby’s impending arrival - a baby pram, a few sets of baby clothes, a baby car seat, etc. etc.

This weekend, we are going to attend my friend – KAR HOON and hubby CHIN SOON’s - wedding dinner.  I lament about not having enough time to meet up my friends (especially the closer ones).  Even when I do have some time, I just feel too lethargic or lazy to do so; haha…

Partly due to the recent hype, I’m thinking of going to watch the cabaret – CRAZY HORSE PARIS.  The tickets are very expensive!  But I thought I should go see once for myself what it is all about.  I’m definitely not going so that I can get to see topless women prancing around on stage; I want to go appreciate what they are selling and hopefully, find some sense in it.  Tell you about it if I get to see the show…  =)

Haha, think I’m too excited that I forgot to mention that the baby measured about 3+ cm at nine weeks, and about 7.5 cm now.  =)  I better spend some time looking through the Chinese dictionary these coming few days to lookup some words that may be suitable for names.  =)

Was driving on my way to fetch YEN home from work and saw a small red plastic bag floating slowing in my path, carried by the wind.  This brought back vivid memories of the time a couple of years back when I was still in the Army when I was sending my NSF colleague, ALAN KUIK, home.  I was still riding then and ALAN was the pillion rider.  A plastic bag got in our way and rested on one of our left foot then, and we tried to kick it off.  Haha…  we tried kicking frantically but it seemed to have a mind of its own, clinging on for dear life!  Finally managed to kick it off, and we had quite a good laugh over it.  =)

Times that I had a good laugh in the SAF was few and far between, and I really treasure them.  STEVEN reminded me again of one that we shared and fondly reminisce - we were in a serious meeting (that didn’t really involved us manpower officers), and STEVEN was so bored that he drew a funny cartoon of one of the higher ranking officers sitting at the meeting with us.  We were trying so hard not to laugh out loud, and so nearly failed when he had to add a mole to the drawing of that particular officer - I lost it there and then and we started giggling like little schoolboys at the meeting!  Haha!!

Was reading the past week’s papers just now and read that the Viet-Australian apprehended by local authorities for trying to smuggling drugs back to Australia was finally hanged.  The issue really strained the ties between the two countries.  And from my dinner gathering (on 2 Dec 05) with DENNIS, DANIEL, DE ZHAO, KWAN HUI, YI ZHONG and CHEE SENG (former colleagues at HQ 2 SIB), I spoke to DENNIS (who is studying DOWN UNDER with KWAN HUI currently) and he told me that the reactions over in Australia isn’t really that bad there now.  Hmmm; better play it safe and not visit Australia for at least the coming few months.

We ended dinner at DIAN XIAO ER @ MARINA SQUARE and went on to AI XING HAI (a bubble tea "min ge can ting") to relax.  As if the cake we bought DE ZHAO after dinner (for his birthday) was not enough (he was quite embarrassed when I initiated us singing him a birthday song aloud at the restaurant earlier), I dedicated SKY WU’s "happy birthday song" there again, and CAI LI LIAN (the one who sang "Guan Huai Fang Shi" with CHEN HANWEI) sang it for him, not after presenting DE ZHAO with a birthday present in the form of a sweet.  =)

I really enjoyed myself tremendously…

Experienced the joy of witnessing my younger brother getting hitched.  EDDIE & HUIJUN have tied the knot today at LEGENDS, FORT CANNING.  The forty guests who turned out today included HUIJUN’s relatives and friends, my mom and mother-in-law, our uncle’s wife plus her mom, EDDIE’s friends - JIANZHONG, WEIGUANG, GUORONG, JUNWEI, XINGFA - and me.  A marriage finally sealed, as I snapped away with my trusty camera.  =)  (http://nianzu_ryan.blogs.friendster.com/photos/our_moments/rom.html)

After the solemnisation and lunch courtesy of EDDIE, I sent my mother-in-law to work before I joined YEN at SGH for her second scan of the baby.  The scan today was to determine if the child will be born with the possibility of down’s syndrome.  YEN told me that she had a scan done earlier, but the baby wouldn’t co-operate and was inverted in her stomach (performing a headstand??).  Ha!  Didn’t know my gymnastic "talents" had been passed on to the baby too!  =P

She did a second one and the doctor assured us that the baby will be very much fine - with 1 in 2500+ of a chance that he / she will be born with the syndrome (http://nianzu_ryan.blogs.friendster.com/photos/our_moments/boby_13_weeks.html).  That really allowed me to heave a sigh of relief!  So that’s two piece of news that I can be happy over in a day!  This is really exciting and exhilarating to view your baby’s photos during everytime YEN goes for an appointment for her pregnancy!  =)

The physical portion of my GESL project (weeding, planting plus gardening in PIONEER PRIMARY SCHOOL) was surprisingly completed within the first day of my group’s fine work on the past Monday.  Kudos to BEE BEE and TYLER for leading my project mates in my absence (CLEMENT & I had to be in NIE over Monday to Wednesday for a First Aid certification course in which we passed).  I was worried that my groups 10+ girls and 3 remaining guys might take some time in the physical work without CLEMENT & I.  Worries were proved unfounded!  Thanks mates!

This will leave us with quite a bit of time to enjoy the rest of the December break, before coming together in January and February to put together the presentation needed to signify the end of the project.  I need to mention here that I really thank my former unit’s Regimental Quartermaster and store IC (WINNIE) for their help in lending me some gardening tools I requested for.  It takes incidents like this to reassure me that my beliefs in trying to help everyone out + "do unto others what you want others do unto you" are most correct - I mean, when do you see a NSman borrowing gardening tools successfully from his former unit?!  =)