My exploration in life… (diary for baby!)

After waiting for a couple of weeks without much interest shown to our flat, HUIJUN’s mum brought another 2 prospective buyers to our flat today on 30 July 06.  The first family was a Chinese one.  They came into our flat as quickly as they went out; I mean - it was like they were window shopping for some goods at a shop in a shopping centre, not too much said.  I take it that they weren’t too interested.

The second couple was a Malay couple, who brought their one-month-old baby along.  We were told she was their second child.  They showed much more interest.  In fact, their agent called HUIJUN’s mum a few minutes after they left to discuss about a possible buying price.  They offered $10k below the valuation price (which was $228k) which we did not accept.  Their agent returned upstairs to our flat to counter offer after some apparent discussions with the couple and we agreed on selling the flat to them $5k below valuation, at $223k.

YEN and I had no idea on the price to sell the flat initially, before we got the valuation price.  When the price came in and after looking at sale prices for the past three months (can be found using http://www5.hdb.gov.sg/bb33/ispm051p.nsf/Search), I felt that the valuation price was high, considering our location and the fact that it is a low-floor unit.  In my mind, I was thinking that it’ll be extremely difficult selling at above the valuation price.  Even selling at valuation was a little difficult…

I can’t say that we are extremely happy with the agreement to sell at the price we have, but at least it is a load taken off our minds.  All we need to look forward to now is to receive the keys to our new flat, renovating it and buying furniture for it.  The new home is going to be ours to stay for a long time, and I want it to be as comfortable as we can make it…

YEN and I joked that RACHEL is our director / actor, and we are her filming crew - YEN is the make-up artist, and I’m the props-guy - YEN is in-charge of her "make-up" (changing her, cleaning her, etc.) while I get her bathing equipment ready for her to bath, clear it up after she’s done, etc.  Get the idea?; ha…

I have to go on record here to let everyone who reads this know - how wonderful my wife is.  Through her maternity leave period, she has been the one taking up the "night shifts" to take care of our little princess through the wee hours of the nights.  She does so as she is so considerate, knowing that I have to wake up early the next morning as I have to go to NAN HUA to work.  Thank you, dear!  =)

My 5-week stint in NAN HUA has ended.  I have enjoyed my time (mostly) with observing MS MING teach her class, 5C, the English language.  It has also been an eye-opener most times when my Co-operating Teacher, MR DYLAN CHUA, is around to teach his classes for Physical Education.  I would have loved for more time to observe their teaching as it has allowed me to pick up some teaching strategies, if not for their involvement in bringing students to compete in the National Track and Field competition.

I’ll be having a week’s break before I continue where I left off - another year of studies with NIE.  Going on my practicum has brought me to see that I am actually far from being ready to start teaching at the moment.  I will have to do much work in the remaining time on preparation before I go out on my next teaching expedition!

Our little RACHEL is growing, so slowly; but surely.  She has yet to be able to take part in meaningful play with us yet.  I await impatiently for her to grow to play with Daddy!  =)

We suddenly find ourselves in this stage of Practicum in NAN HUA, with only one week to go.  PEARLE, a student who was embarking on her third year degree studies in the general programme came in our second week for a one-week school experience (we hardly got to know her!); YI-AN is starting her one-year Post-Graduate studies in August in NIE and she left last Friday after a four-week stay.  We (FAIZAL, SUMIKO and I) have got to know YI-AN better in our stay together in these four weeks, and it is sad to see her go before us.  She had gone a long way with us - from not speaking to us in the same room at the beginning, to speaking openly with me on some things she would normally hide away from friends.  We think it is probably because I’m older (more mature), married (with kid too!) and she feels comfortable speaking with me…  But don’t try to fish details from me - my lips are sealed!

I have not notice RACHEL growing bigger.  Or perhaps that is because I get to see and hold her daily!  I was looking at the first batch of photographs the other day - those were the ones I took of her when she was newly born and there was this one that YEN was holding RACHEL in her arms the first few times.  She was such a tiny tot then; and look at her size now!  Further testament to this fact is that she is outgrowing almost all the clothes my mum-in-law has bought her the first time round!  =)  YEN and my mum finds it a little more difficult to carry her nowadays as they feel her weight acting on them…

Two sets of prospective buyers have visited our home since it was advertised.  We have received the valuation of house too.  It’s value was much higher than I had expected for a low-floor unit.  I had spoke to HUIJUN’s mother and relayed our wishes for the price we think we are hoping to sell the flat for and we keep our fingers crossed to developments of the sale in the meantime…

Our MARCH is back in action!  And that being after one-and-a-half months in the workshop!  But we’ve enjoyed the luxuries of driving the SUNNY too - more personal as well as boot space.  Also considering that there is some metal and space for others to go into if they "kissed" us from the behind - it is probably safer??  =P

The past weekend saw us filming for about one and a half days for MCYS and Channel U’s programme.  The shoot was a little tiring (we realised only when we went to bed and slept like little piggies!).  The crew of four and another 3 girls from the production company, Moving Visuals, took the shots of us doing some daily life things which wrapped up before lunch.

DARREN LIM and EVELYN TAN arrived a little after lunch.  We warmed up a little to them when we chatted about casual stuff - about how their child is doing, their work and what was to transpire in the interview we would be shooting later, among other things.  We found them a rather nice couple over what occured that afternoon and had a rather nice time during the shoot.  We were supposed to do another few scenes in JURONG POINT after that, but because JURONG POINT was having SINGAPORE IDOL activities on in the building that evening, we had to do the remaining shots on Sunday…

YEN and I might the crew before the two "stars" merried up with us.  We went to a park near JURONG POINT to have an outdoor shoot.  DARREN and EVELYN joined us and we completed shooting a little after one in the afternoon.  They told us they were going to meet another couple to shoot another episode of the show that afternoon / evening.  A little tiring; but hey, that’s their work!

My nice sister SHIRLEY has given birth to a baby son JULIAN!  =)  Though our contact was for a short span of a couple of months when I was working for our company during my industrial attachment days from Polytechnic, we have kept in touch since and she has proved to be such a nice friend that I treat her more like an elder sister to me.  I was so happy for her when I got the news of the birth of her second child!

The first three weeks of our school experience in NAN HUA has passed by in a jiffy.  Suddenly, we find ourselves past the halfway mark of our stay in the school, and we will begin our teaching for the final two weeks starting next week.  I have learnt much during my time there; hopefully, it can make up for my not having experience during contract teaching!  ("/)

Our little princess is going to be on TV soon!  =)  It’s like this: A friend of mine, SIMIN, was working for her company who had something to do with Ministry of Community, Youth and Sports (MCYS).  MCYS is collaborating with Channel U to produce a 13-part infotainment TV series entitled "Hey Baby!".  It is hosted by the couple of DARREN LIM and EVELYN TAN.

It talks about expectant young parents, young parents and their babies.  SIMIN reccommended us to the team of producers for the show, we spoke to them and were selected to do be filmed for the first episode of the series.  Though our appearance in the show will be just a short 10 minutes or so, it will be memorable for us, especially our little baby.  And filming will take place over two days this weekend for our short cameo!  We do not know the date the episode will be telecast on air; will ask them tomorrow and let you know!

Though I feel that she hasn’t grown much since her birth, RACHEL has grown to 55cm long (or tall??) and 4-plus kilogrammes.  I’ll be charting her growth impatiently…  ("/)

Everytime I receive a letter that says "ON GOVERNMENT SERVICE", my heart skips a beat - is it from the SAF?  Ha, it’s not that I don’t wish to serve the nation, I’m just afraid of the fact that it will disrupt much of our everyday life.  The most recent one I received informed me of my posting to a NS unit, NSSC (National Servicemen Services Centre), and of an impending call-up in August.  As I’m still studying in NIE then, I’ll have to get the call-up defered to another time…

A girl in a primary five class from NAN HUA fell down while I was conducting a PE lesson in lieu of the PE teacher, who was away due to bringing athletes from the school for the National Track and Field Competition.  I planned the lesson to train the students in their endurance running for their upcoming NAPFA test.  Although I gave specific instructions on the run and for them not to run at speed, the girl still collided into a boy from her class and had a bone chipped off from her left elbow (I do not know for sure which bone).  The Principal, MRS LEE, comforted me by saying that things could still happen even if we tried to cover safety from all angles.  Still, I feel bad for the girl’s fall…  =(

I just returned from HANYONG’s mum’s wake this evening.  His mum had been fighting cancer for quite a well and just passed away a few days ago.  I was surprised when I received the news as I had only just seen them in SGH the past Monday when our little RACHEL went for her Hep-B injection.  Though he seems to be feeling okay now, I’m sure he still feels sad deep inside…  =(

How silly can I be!?  Unassumingly, I set myself up to be caught in this difficult position!  It is like this - in NIE, we are supposed to register for the modules that we are taking the coming semester.  Simply, it means that we must study for the subjects that we will be studying in for the new semester.  This never made any sense to me - why would we want to register for more modules than we can take?  It will only cause us inconvenience if we register less than we know.  And we always have to figure out which modules to register - it’s not like NIE tells us upfront what modules we are to register as trainee teachers…

So, as the class representative of my class, I had tried to find out in the past and inform the rest of my cohort on the modules to register, without anyone prompting me to.  I felt - since I had to find out, why not benefit everyone?  But I was chided (ok, not too much of a chiding really; it was just a friendly chat =P) by Dr CLARA TAN sometime near the end of last semester for being too nice to the rest, and that may work against us as we are trying to train teachers as our future leaders of the younger generations.  Also, I agree with her that I will be at a huge disadvantage if what I share with others happen to be incorrect, and everyone who got my "wrong" info will blame me for originating it.

So this time round, I responded to FAIZAL’s mail, in which he told the cohort that I will tell them what are the modules to be registered, that I will not do so.  I told them in a light-hearted manner (that’s how I wanted the mail to be, but I’m not sure it was what they felt by the mail!) that if I could find out the modules to register, the rest of them would be able to, too!  Heck, I even gave them a place in the Internet where they should be able to find the information!

But little did I know - just a while later, one of my classmates sent out the list of modules to everyone.  I don’t want to say that he "acted as the hero", or that he was trying to show others that I was being selfish and put me in bad light; I hope that he really meant to help all our fellow classmates.  But that mail really came at a wrong timing, and I had a few problems communicating with the cohort (of 40 trainee teachers) over the last semester.  I’m trying to convince myself that his actions was over an innocent move, with no malice aimed at me…

Light-hearted moments, please! - Our little princess has been able to flip her body sideways on her own when she is lying on her back.  We first found out over the weekend, on 1 July 2006 to be exact.  I’m happy that her growth is evident; at the same time, my happiness has to be coupled with some caution as we will have to watch her more closely now when we lay her on elevated surfaces in fear that she might fall off…  =)

Little RACHEL’s jaundice level is finally down to a normal level of under 100!  It has taken quite sometime for this to happen, but we are sure glad it did, finally.  She is extremely adorable when she is awake, but we loathe it when she cries non-stop over no apparent reason…  =(

I have begun my stint at NAN HUA PRIMARY.  We are supposed to observe and reflect on the lessons for the first three weeks, but because the two teachers that I was paired up with are both involved in bringing the children to the National Track and Field Competition on most days, most of the lessons I observe become mass PE lessons where the children are taught the ACES (All Children Exercise Simultaneously) workout (ala the Great Singapore workout) in their absence.  Else, I will have to find something to teach them!  Having not too much experience in teaching children their age, I think I fared badly for the lessons I taught…  =(

Our NISSAN MARCH is not yet "discharged".  I called on Tuesday to be told that the spare parts they ordered from Japan had just arrived.  It was only then that they told me that due to the delay in arrival of spare parts causing a delay in repairs, they will provide me with a courtesy car for use until my car is ready.  I happily collected a NISSAN SUNNY from them on Thursday evening.

YEN sang children songs to our little princess in a bid to soothe her.  It was only then that I realised that a few of these songs had the same tune - Baa Baa Black Sheep, Alphabet song, etc.  And I am amazed at the amount of nursery rhymes that she knew (that, or the number of rhymes I have not heard!).  Think I’ll leave all the singing to her!  =P