Ball Ball Rash

Yesterday the school called(3pm plus), said kieran got rashes all over his body, ask if someone could come and bring him back home.(i tempted to ask:" is he turning green green?" just saw the trailer of Edward Norton's Incredible Hulk, ROCKS MAN!) Then we realised we had not teach our helper, Modesta, what to do when the kids fall sick in school. Thank God for Mel's mother, she was able to help. I found out later that, even with my MIL, kieran refused to go back home. He only wants daddy and mummy. Teacher called Mel, Mel talked to kieran,(no used one, cannot talk to a 2 and half years old kid lah) finally with Kayzia's help, who was willing to scarifice her playing time in school, they got Kieran back home.

When I came back home(6pm), I expected to see a cranky boy, crying in pain with rashes all over. Nope, he was happily jumping and dancing with Barney's music! When he saw me, he went, "see, see, ball-ball, ball-ball, so many ball-ball " like he had a new toy! I brought him to the Simei GP, Doc Chua, who also specialised in treating skin problems. On the way, Kieran kept looking at the ball-balls and kept asking me to look at them. I asked, "you like ball-ball?" pointing at the rashes. I could see it was a very complicated and confusing question. On one hand he loves playing with ball but on the other hand, he felt the itch of the rashes growing all over his body. Finally he went, "dun like ball-ball, ball-ball go home". Even then he kept laughing at himself for having so many ball-balls on his body. Normally he is quite cam shy,(not a problem with Kayzia thou!) but in this case, he was like a proud kid showing off his new toy!

Dr chua confirmed he had Urticuria, (dun ask me is simi, i only know rash), can happened to anyone, anytime, anywhere. No cause, wont spread, just need to take med(Zyrtec oral drop) and will be fine in 24hrs. By 9pm, after dinner, med and bath, the rash is 99% gone. Thank God!



Look daddy look, ball-ball on my hand.


Ball-ball on my face.



Doc Chua gave him a sticker book. Look at how shy he is with the cam.... He didnt cry at all when Doc Chua was checking him. In fact, he was proudly showing Doc Chua where all the ball-balls were!

Andrea's birthday party and Kieran's happy pics

Last Sunday was Andrea's birthday (Chee Wan and Yoke Ling's daughter). We were invited to Jacob Ballas Children Garden. It is opp the old NIE school at Bt Timah Road


It is on the same road going into the old NIE school. On the left u can see the NIE running track. Look out on the right now.....





Please note,
1. Close on Mon, unless Mon is holiday.
2. Opens from 8am - 7pm.
3. Got car park but no ferry bus. Can take SBS bus, 48,66,151,154,170,186, SMRT 67,171. Stop after Old NIE school, 5mins walk.
4. Only children aged 12 and below will be admitted and must be accompanied by adult(s).
5. For adults not accompanied by children, please contact a staff to arrange for a viewing.
6. No pets allowed.
7. FREE.


Not much food at this cafe, so better pack own food.


Chee Wan and family















I realised many of Kieran's pics in our blog tends to be moody or gloomy.
So these are some rare happy pics of him!

Help is here! part 2 (getting a helper)

My good friend Christina asked me, "you not afraid the kids will be close to the maid?" First of all, Mel and I prefered to use the word helper than maid. My answer is, yes, they will be close to the helper, as she will become a part of our family. I am not worry about that. But the kids will never ever be closer to the helper than to the both of us. We are very clear about this issue. Personally, we think many parents leave the task of raising the kids to the helpers.

When the kids have fun in the park or playground, who is there with them? Helper. When they whine and cry, what do parents do? They half expectingly wait for the helper to bring the kids aside so that both the parents and kids can cool off. which to me, is the worst thing to do. So in good and bad times, the helper is with the kids. They go to school together, play together, they bath the kids, sayang them when the parents scold them, talk to them about anything under the sun, cook for them their fav food, make their hairdo, etc.... And the parents wondered "why my kids not close to me?" It is not the helper's fault but we have forgotten the reason we hried a helper for.

I dun think, any parents want the kids to be closer to the helper than themselves. Most got lazy, find it hard to deal with their kid's character issues, let their work and career take out more time than it should. This is especially true for fathers. They are the most adsent firgure in most family outings. You seldom see fathers bringing their kids out by himself, but you will see lots of mother doing that, or worst still, helper. I am not refering to non working mums bringing the kids out on working hours. I talking about weekdays night and the weekends. Where are the fathers?

In the last posting, part 1, I stated the 3 main reasons for us hired a helper. I am not going to compromise with my time with the kids. I will still cycle them to school and back home daily. I will bring them to the playground how ever tired I am. I will read the bible and pray with them. I will discipline them myself and never let them go crying to the arms of the helper. When they cry I want to be there to feel their pain. When they laugh, I will be the one laughing the loudest and when they sleep, I will be the one carrying them (but seriously they are getting heavy for the both of us...), protecting them from all dangers.

I know I do sound very self rightous, I am saying this so that people can hold me accountable if I fail to be a good father to my kids. We love them more than our very lives.

So will they be close to my helper? yes. Will they be closer to my helper than us? Never! They are our kids, not the helper's.



"You talking about me??????"




"I have a bad feeling about this....."

Help is here! part 1 (getting a helper)

Mel and I had being talking about having a helper for a long while. I had alway not being keen about having someone we do not know well in our place. On the other hand, I also know we do need help in our house. 6 years on, the time is right for us to have a helper. As Kayzia will be studying pri 1 next year, her classes will start at around noon time and being working parents,we cant send her to school. Yes, we had went thru many times about Mel not working or working part-time(even worst!), they are not the best solutions. Having a helper earlier will help the kids to get used to her.

We also very kiasi(afraid bad things will happen), what if we get the time bomb one, how? We read so many nasty stories about helpers ill-treating the kids when the adults are not around. Well, also many inhuman stories of horrible sir/mdm torturing the helpers. We prayed for the right helper and determine to be good masters. Our church friends, Siew Hee and Joyce have a wonderful helper. She is a committed disciple in our church. She told us that her cousin wants to work in Singapore to ease the family financial difficulties. We prayed and asked God to show us if there is any reason why we should not take her.

Before i go further, I will list the 3 reasons why we wanted a helper.
1. As stated above, Kayzia is going to pri 1 next year, someone needs to be at home.
2. We need help with our house chores. Someone to help with all our daily cleaning so that we wont be burden and tired by all these unimportant yet necessary responibilities.
3. When the kids are sick, we cannot always take leave to be with them, or get our parents to come down to look after them.

How about getting our parents to stay with us? Without even praying or having any sort of discussion, we knew the answer is no. Not that our parents are not willing to help, they had in many ocassions, even on last minutes notice, came over our place to take care of the kids. They deserved a break, they had it hard raising us(especially me), should we burden them even more with our own kids?

So with that in mind, our help came last Sat. Her name is Modesta, she is 40 years old, married to a pastor back home in Philippines, and they have 4 kids. The youngest is Kieran's age. It must be hard for her to leave them behind. She called back on Sunday, the kids were crying for her. Mel took Monday to Wednesday leave to be with her and teach her the routine of our home. She used to work in Taiwan in 1999, but have forgotten most of the Chinese she had learnt back then. O, her pastor husband dun get paid in church for preaching, voluntary work. They sell veg to get by monthly. How much a month? 1000 peso, which is about SGD30! O mine! I almost fainted when i heard that. Then we told her why we needed a helper (the 3 reasons), her pay, the kids, and so on. We had a good talk. Both of us think she is a good person in nature. We prayed sincerely that she will care for the kids like she will care for hers.

For the past few days, both Mel and I felt physically less tired. After the talk with Modesta, we had time to go for a jog. The last time we did that was just before we found our Mel was pregnant with Kieran. Hm, is this a sign? Help is here. We are grateful for her.

Labour Day outing

My mum called us to go makan(Whampoo market) and walk walk(Lower Peirce) on Labour Day. Her friend(school bus driver) was going to pick us up from my place. Free transport, good breakfast and most of all, the kids are excited about it... what else can i asked for? the only problem is this. I stayed up on wed morning(230am till 5am) watching Man U beat Barcelona(COME ON!) and then caught Ironman on wed night, 11pm show. Reach home at 2am with Bruce in my house watching Liverpool vs Chelsea till 530am(they went into extra time!). What time is the uncle coming to pick us up? 730pm? no, what time? 730am... I am dead.

Mum's frd came with one of those non seat belt school bus(which is a hot topic in Singapore). Pick us and the parents up. The brealfast at whampoo was nice! But i was feeling sleepy and falling sick(sore throat).The weather was good, too good, infact it was hot. Er, this morning the aircon was running cold but by now, it seems a little warm. But free transport, better dun complain. wait uncle tell me go take bus. Found out from mum later on, that the aircon has not being working fine recently.

Mel and I had not come to Lower Peirce before. No transport mah. Once I stepped into the place, I actually felt much better! The air was fresh, it wasnt hot, infact it was cooling. I felt refreshed n recharged! We had a good 45 mins walk and the kids love ths place.

Since i havent update for awhile, i will load more pics this time.


"where is uncle?" as usual, kieran is sleepy.


Yeah!


Even with food, kieran looks sleepy.




Whampoo market.


Lower Perice.


entrance to the serect garden?














This is where they shot 臥虎藏龍, Chow Yun-Fatt and Zhang Ziyi fought here.....


Mafoo n Kafoo.


I think Kieran still not fired up that we woke him up early.....(Kifoo with my mum).


Kafoo and Kifoo.


My dad with 2 little foos.


Group photo minus me.




where is everyone?


Kayzia, queen of the jungle?


Singapore Tarzen.




Going home. Note, this car kena fine but not ours. Cause he/she parked in the grass. NEA fined him/her. Next time make sure you park nicely....

Have $50 notes with 'KF' mark?

By Esther Tan
WHEN Mr G.S. Lee withdrew some money from an OCBC Bank ATM at Compass Point earlier this month, three of his $50 notes seemed a bit strange - the letters 'KF' were on the top right hand corner.
The bank told him then that there was 'no problem with the notes', he said, but the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has since clarified that such notes have been mutilated on purpose and are therefore worthless.

The letters looked 'legally imprinted', said Mr Lee in an e-mail to The Straits Times online portal, Stomp, asking what the letters might mean. But 'KF' is not part of the $50 note's design, said MAS' spokesman, adding it did not know what 'KF' stood for.

'Notes with such markings are considered to be deliberate mutilation and they command no value,' she added.

Anyone who has notes with the markings can take them to the banks to be exchanged, she said, and MAS will take the notes back as an 'act of grace'.

When contacted, OCBC's head of group corporate communications Koh Ching Ching said currency could have become defaced while being circulated.

She said the bank's ATMs will be checked so any other mutilated notes can be retrieved.

She added that OCBC's tellers are 'trained to look out for defaced or mutilated notes and handle them as per guidelines provided by MAS', and that it has reminded its staff to be vigilant.


If any of you have this note, dun worry, you can change it with the banks as we have a gracious MAS. As an "act of grace" they will accept it back. Seem to me that "KF" wasn't written on it as Mr Lee noted that they looked "legally imprinted". Wondered how could OCBC's trained tellers tell Mr Lee the KF note has "no problem" while MAS commented that the note is mutilated. Maybe MAS got special scanning machine that our highly effective banks dun have? Maybe MAS printed wrongly? Surely NOT! NEVER! Must be some bored fellas somehow managed to "print" the letters into the notes in remembrance of their love ones.

Currently we dunno what KF means. KAE(hokkien for not real), FAKE? luckily not NKF otherwise will have another strom. Actually I would like to have 2 of this worthless $50 if anyone of you have it. Cause to me, KF means Kayzia Foo or Kieran Foo. Contact me.For the record, I dun work for MAS or any banks;) so I didnt do it ok?.....

What not to wear when going where......

Last Sunday morning, was wondering what to wear for church. Took out a yellow short sleeve and blue cargo pant. There was something odd about it but I just couldnt pinpoint what was it. It became all so clear after church when our friends Malcolm and Joanne suggested that we have lunch at Tampines Ikea. Great, I can be Ikea staff for that few hours when I am there! At least 2 guys asked me for help when we were there.

Dear Readers,
Please note the following uniform,

Ikea : Yellow Top Dark Bottom.(see below for sample)
Mac : Red T DB
Cold Storage: Green T DB
Burger King : Dark Blue T DB
Borders : black Polo T DB

Please feel to comment and add on....