Flying Again...

Yup, we are flying back to Singapore again to attend my sister's wedding end of November. 3 times in 2.5 years!!! This is really too much for me. Most of the wives envies me but I am not excited about going back at all. I really hate the flight journey... got to leave home at abt 5am, reach Paris at 8 and wait for connecting flight at 11, then stuck another 12 hrs in the plane. Argghh, this time J will just sent me to Bordeaux Airport only and I am going to do the transit with Shannon... Great! Of cos I can do it myself but I prefer to follow blindly behind J and do nothing...hehehe

J will be joining us in Singapore 2 weeks later as I need to help my sis with some of the wedding preparation and also sending Shannon to some "crash course". She will be 5years old in 5 mths time and she still doesn't know her ABC and Phonics well. It's common for French as they start learning ABC next year but to Singaporean, the kids are expected to know their ABC when they are going to K1 next year!!! Hopefully, she can pick up something and I can start coaching her when we are back in France.

Oh ya, whenever we tell Shannon that we are going back to Singapore, she will make sure that she will be able to come back as she regards France as her HOME. Anyway, we will be flying tomorrow and now I am already looking forward to the date to come back here again... LOL...

Back To School

Summer holidays ended and Shannon went back to her Maternelle (Preschool). She was not enrolled in the same class with Avril and Brayden. They were all separated into different classes.. Avril and Zavier (who joined the same Maternelle this year) got in Moyenne Section, Brayden in Moyenne et Grand Section and poor Shannon got in Petite et Moyenne Section. Funny right? "Sigh"

I was quite perplexed about the arrangement as she will still be stucked in Petite Section for the first half morning session. Well, being a Kiasu Singaporean mummy, I asked J to called the school principal to ask for a transfer to Avril or Brayden's class. To our dismay, our request was rejected as the principal said they will be learning the same thing even though they are in different class.

According to the research I have done, information on French Education is as followed:

The weekly timetable covers 24 hours, with the day organised by the teacher around varied activities and communication exercises. There is generally no specific timetable for lessons, which are left to the discretion of the teacher.

The learning priority at nursery school is language development, which is carried out through four main areas of activity:

Living together;
Physical activity;
Arts and science;
Imagining and feeling.

All pupils in the grande section of nursery school are expected to start learning a modern language, which is continued with vigour when the child continues into primary and secondary education.

However, we were all brought up in Asian KS style and we just can't help comparing what our kids are doing in the 3 different classes. I am still feeling uneasy and fustrated to let my girl continue in the Petite et Moyenne Section but there is nothing that I can do..

Window 7 Beta

At last, the PC and internet connection are up and running. However, J changed the operating system to Window 7 beta which I have problem uploading the photos properly. It seems that picasa is having problem running on Window 7. I can upload and view the photos but I cannot edit the photos. Once I do editing, the picasa program will hang. Any good recommendation for digital photo organizer?

The uploading part is another hassle; I couldn't rename my photos properly using the window upload program. Although Window 7 beta looks sophiscated but I still prefer Window XP which is more stable.

2nd Last Weekend In Sin

Last Saturday, I brought Shannon to the swimming pool with my friends again. After swimming, we went for a Karaoke session at the Safra Club. The last time I went Karaoke was in 2004!!! Singing is one of my favourite past times during my young days. We really had a great time with Renee's and Jac's families.

On Sunday, I stayed at home and helped my parent with some spring cleaning at home. I must help as my mother had been helping me alot when I worked. Seriously, it was not easy as all the things do not belong to me and those who own it are not free to clean it. However, I really couldn’t help it but to try my best tidy it and clean it. At least now the house is more presentable and ready for CNY.

Today, I went for a blood test as my leg was not fully recovered. The pain on my calf didn't really go away and the doctor suggested a blood test. After the blood test, I brought Shannon for a hair cut with XiaoYi.

We reached home at about 3pm and my sister showed me some blisters on her hand and body and we suspected that she was having Chicken Pox. We went back to the doctor with Shannon and she was confirmed having Chicken Pox. After some advice from the doctor, I decided to take the Chicken Pox vaccination with Shannon despite it might be useless now.

Seriously, I never blame anyone except for my luck. I am angry with myself, with my f$%^&@#$ luck. If it happened 1 month earlier or 2 weeks later, things will not be so complicated. It's not a big deal getting Chicken Pox with all the advance medication given now. However, if one of us got it next week, our trip back to France will be delayed. J will have to go back alone and I will need to bring Shannon back on my own next month.

J will be back in Singapore tomorrow evening and I am not excited at all....

Ramblings

Last night, Shannon couldn't sleep well due to coughing. She was having slight cough on Friday night but it was kept under control with some left-over cough syrup. However, the cough became bad after we came back from my FIL's place. I believe that the cough got worse after she ate some prawn crackers and chocolates at my FIL's place. I brought her to see the doctor this morning and I took the chance to ask the doctor for more medicine for the pain on my left calf.

"Sigh"

Life has been kind of "sway" to me since November 08. Stressful work was one of them. Lots of things are new to me and I have to learn and pick up fast but that is not the worse. The worst is that my health has been giving me problems too. I took about 3 weeks to recover from the bad cough in November. After recovering, Shannon fell sick. After she recovered, I sprained my neck and took about few days to recover. When I thought everything is over, I overstrained my left calf which caused me to limp badly on some days. It took about another 2 weeks to get better and insomnia set in due to the work stress last week and caused me to have throat ulcer. Just when the sore throat was getting better, the pain on my left calf came back again. You say sway or not?

However, despite my health issues, I made a point to bring Shannon out during weekends to meet my friends up and sometimes to J's family's gathering. I have been bringing her to the swimming pool (which she loves) with my friends' kids for the past 3 Saturdays. I am still looking for the perfect timing and the perfect company to bring her to the Zoo, Bird Park, and Science Center etc.

As usual, family members had been a great help during these tough periods especially during the pain on my right calf. Well, you have to admit that mother's love is the greatest love of all. Nobody can love you like they do. She helped me to feed Shannon and bathed her when I needed to work late despite the fact that she had been taking care of my niece and cooking for the whole family. She helped me to bring Shannon to childcare even though she had to bring my niece along and my sis helped me to bring her back home to minimize my walking when my calf is painful. I took cab almost everyday for the past 2 weeks as I really do not want to strain it further due to walking. My father had been nagging at me about going out on weekends which he felt I should have rest at home instead.

I dare not visit the Chinese Sinseh for my painful calf as other people, even the doctors said that they might use acupuncture on my calf or poke a needle into some veins and let some blood out. It's a joke right. After going thru 3 full cycles of Fresh IVF which added up about 6 months of self injections and countless of blood drawings and I am still afraid of needles! Sometimes I wonder how did I go thru the past few IVF? However, I seriously need to consider going to Chinese sinseh if my calf doesn't get any better.

Sounds unbelievable on how "sway" I am right. Well, I don't blame you cos you are not the only one who is doubtful about it. One of the reasons for not updating my blog so often for the past few weeks is "there are way too much of grumbling and complaints". In fact, I cried a few times over it because I just felt so helpless about being so "sway". I even got my mum to cook mee sua with 2 hard boil eggs which believed that it will change one's luck. It's just that I haven got time to go down to pray at the GuanYin temples.

Anyway, it's the beginning of 2009, I really hope everything will go smoothly from now onwards. I really want my life to be back to normal asap.

Busy ME

Yup... I am very busy, busy till I have no time or rather no mood to update my blog. I am still helping my MIL with some company dispute issue. Although we had settled the most important part but the ongoing ones are a headache and needs much more time to finish. The whole office was in a mess, all the documents were not properly filed. In other words, we had to re-set up the office again which is much more tedious than setting up a new company. pffffff

I am not sure when I will be back blogging. I have to take a break.. I am really too stressed and too tired to do anything after work. I am even too lazy to bring Shannon out on weekends... Poor baby has to attend childcare everyday from 9am - 7pm and stay at home on weekends. Once awhile, she will still cry to go back "home"which she will describe as "only france", "home where daddy is"... I will just ask her to tell her daddy because I am not in position to say anything or do anything except "work" and "work"... Of cos, I learned alot of things during this period but I still miss the life in France. I am supposed to be enjoying my life now...hahaha

One of My Days

On normal days, I wake up between 730-745am in the morning, take a light breakfast before making milk for Shannon. At about 8am, I will wake Shannon up, getting her to drink the bottle of milk. After her milk, she will pee and I will help her to clean her face, brush her teeth, change her clothes and tie her hair. This will usually take up about half an hour depending on how co-operative she is. After which, I will change my clothes and do a quick make up before leaving the house.

Then, we will slowly stroll to her childcare centre. Sometimes it takes up to 20 minutes to reach her childcare centre as she walks very slowly. Luckily, I
do not have to reach the office at specific timing. When we almost reach the childcare centre, she will start telling me that she doesn't want to go to school. Today she told me she wants to go to another school. It's only her third day there! She reluctantly followed me to the door and cried for me after I left today.

I will walk for another 5 minutes to the bus-stop to wait for a bus to take me to the MRT station which costs me $0.71. Then I will take a MRT and alight at the 12th station which costs me $1.29. I will THEN need to take another bus and alight at the 8th stop for $0.31 and walk another 15 minutes to the building I am working. Most of the time, I will reach the office around 1030am which means half my morning is gone. :(

Anyway, you see the difference on the transport fees? It is $2.31 for 1.5hr ride on public transport vs $15 for 0.5hr ride taxi fares (off peak)!!!

I will usually ask the office colleague to buy lunch for me and I will just take 15 minutes to eat and start working again. Then I will leave the office at 5pm-520pm in order to pick Shannon up before 7pm. The childcare centres in Singapore will charge $1.00 per minute for being late when picking kids up. Then we will stroll back and reach home about 7pm-720pm.

I will then let Shannon take her dinner with the help of my mum while I go for my shower. After my dinner, I will bring Shannon for a shower although the childcare centre bathed her once in the early afternoon. I realised that the childcare centre did not do a good job showering her. I still can feel dirt at her pee area when I shower her in the evening. Yesterday, I saw red patches which looked like rashes on her body and arm areas as well. Poor girl have to go through all these because I have no time to take care of her in the day.

The rest of the night will be watching tv programmes or reading newspaper or entertaining her. I did try to go to bed at 10pm but she will refuse to be in the room as long as someone is in the living room and we always end up sleeping around 12am.

Sigh, I am missing my life in France again....

About Work

This was what Shannon was doing when I brought her to work with me on one of the days. Well.. the above activity lasted for about half an hour. She was quite difficult to handle when I am working. I couldn't concentrate at all as she needed quite some attention.

I am not sure how long I am needed in Singapore. Shannon started to miss her Daddy last week and was crying to go back home in France quite a few times. Although I don't go to work daily but sometimes I have to work at home as well. Thus, I do not have much time to entertain her and I think she feels lonely.

Shannon used to have the sole attention from all the Aunties (my sisters) but now with Elyse around (who's having the most attention) she tries to get attention from them by being naughtier. Sometimes, she even tries to behave like Elyse to get attention as well. Think: Wahhh WAHHHHH *sniff Sniff *point even when she knows how to talk.

I have enrolled her into a full day childcare starting from November. Hopefully, she will feel happier in Singapore while I can concentrate to work for my MIL and get the work done asap.

Frankly, I really HATE the journey to the office from my mum's place. It's either I have to spend $15 on taxi fare (off peak) to reach the office in 20 minutes or spend 2 hours to take bus -> MRT -> bus to get to my workplace.

I really miss my carefree life back in France ...

Tick Tock Tick Tock....

2 more days and we will be flying back home. Luggage were 80% packed!

I start having insomnia 2 days ago. In fact, I am really tired but I just could not sleep . The moment I closed my eyes, everything comes into my mind.

Due to the previous HFMD episode, we are still under quarantine and will only be "freed" this weekend. Thus, I couldn't find any time to do some shopping at all.

Boring Boring Boring

Life for Shannon and myself or rather all the wifey with kids are boring now and we will be bored for another 1 week or more.

Due to the HFMD outbreak recently, we are confined at home to stop the HFMD from spreading. Although our kids had recovered from the HFMD but we are still not allowed to go out. It's getting really boring staying at home 7 days a week.

Due to boredom, Shannon cannot stop EATING!!! She will come to me several times a day and said:-

Shannon: Mummy , I want to eat something
Me: What do you want to eat?
Shannon: You talk tell me o.O
Me: Porridge or Noodles or Honey Pops?
Shannon: No, I want Chocolate!!

I am getting really pissed off about the constant asking of food from her. There are limited tibits/food for her as she was down with slight cough after HFMD recovery. I do not want to worsen her cough as we are going back to Singapore next week.

Sometimes we were wondering can we mixed with those who recovered from HFMD??? At least our kids can play together and wifey can have some chit-chat sessions. ;p

Finger Pointing

Shannon is "finger pointing" all day long. She refuses to open her mouth to talk due to pain in her mouth. She just goes "errrrr errrr errrr *point point point" and we have to go around guessing what she wants and give it to her. She even tries not to swallow her saliva due to the pain. Her mouth smells like a "long gao" due to the ulcers as she refused to brush neither her teeth nor rinsing her mouth. Everyday, I have to go around to catch her and force the ulcer cream in her mouth to numb the area before feeding her.

Luckily, she is getting better each day. The first day, she survived with few bottles of water/barley water. She ate Alphabet Macaroni for lunch and dinner on the second day. And today, she ate some noodles, macaroni and 100ML of milk. As for the rashes, there are just a few on her foot and hands. Tonight I heard some coughing going on and I hope the cold barley water she drink daily doesn't contribute to another illness. :(

Baby Ethan who caught this HFMD is going thru a bad time too. I heard he is having rashes over the body and ulcers in his mouth. He required mummy Kym to carry him all day long. Poor Boy T.T I believe his parent must be real heart pain over this. I really hope all infected kids will recover as soon as possible and never get it again.

Ignorance & Awareness

Till date, there are 7-8 kids including a few months old baby confirmed to have contracted HFMD over here. Many questions like why and how did the HFMD happened here? It's simply because of the ignorance of the spreading party and GP here.

HFMD is really rare in Europe so most of them don't really know what Hand Food Mouth Diseases is. A few kids who kenna HFMD earlier were diagnosed like gum inflammation, or insect bites on foot/hand instead of HFMD!! And the PD was wondering why we, Singaporeans, were so paranoid about this HFMD thing.

So we told him about HFMD, that the virus remaining in the body would take several weeks to go away but to him, it’s just another contagious childhood virus which we shouldn't be too concerned about it. He was so surprised that someone told him that there are kids who were killed by HFMD. Maybe it’s really the climate difference and the population in Singapore which made the virus so fierce.
As for the spreading party, of course they have no such intention to spread the virus here. I believe they are now going thru "finger pointing" process now.

You can't blame us (the affected party) for doing so. We were really caught off-guard and now our kids suffer and all our plans need to be adjourned.

-3 of the kids' mummy are currently pregnant now and are worrying about the risk of getting it from the infected child.

-1 of the family has to separate the 2 kids as much as possible to prevent the elder one spreading to the younger one.

-1 family has 2 infected kids to take care of.

-1 baby who is only few months got it - imagine the pain they will be going thru at such a young age.. You can't possibly force a baby to drink water/milk???

As for me, my plans of going back Singapore this weekend had to be postponed due to this HFMD. Although, the GP here and the family doctor in Singapore did certify us to go back this weekend, I am not giving any chance for my girl to bring back the disease and spread to her niece and others back home.

We had to incur the charges for changing flight and canceling of flight which cost us a few hundred Euros. Even after 3 weeks, I still have to be very careful with my girl mixing around with others kids. All the above really imposed lots of stress and inconveniences to me and other infected families.

For those whose kids are not affected, even they have to be quarantined at home as well. Their daily lives have been affected such as their their school, extra curriculum activities ALL has be halted without any compensation, thus created some grumbling as well.

Comparing with the above, being finger pointed is just a minor issue. You guys just have to bear with it although there is no evidence which showed that you are the one who spread it but just shut your ears right now and let those who are affected have some ways of venting and grumbling. It will be gone with wind in a month or 2 and life will be back to normal.

However, this really taught us an important lesson of HFMD. Those are:

- Even the doctor certified that your kids are well; we still have to be responsible and take some precautions.

- A person with HFMD is most contagious during the first week of illness, but may continue to be contagious for several weeks after their symptoms are gone. HFMD will remain slightly contagious even though the ulcer has gone or the blisters/rashes had subsided. So personal hygiene like washing of hands have to be taken seriously.

- A person with HFMD may have only the rash or the mouth ulcers as there are strain of virus belonging to the enterovirus family.

Now, we pray for the speedy recovery for those who caught the HFMD.


The following websites is for your awareness and my reference on HFMD.

*Information on HFMD, please see the FAQs on MOH website
*Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases in Child Care Centres / Kindergartens / Pre-School Centres
*Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease (Children) (KKH website)

What A Day...

First thing in the morning, I realized my left hand was painful when used at a certain angle. Then, I kind of sprained my neck when I was bending down picking some paper up. I took some bread and painkiller in the car while we were on the way to the fertility clinic. And when it was my turn for blood test, I kenna poked 2 times! They tried to draw blood from my right hand since my left hand still looked bruised after the last blood drawn. They failed and look at vein my right wrist; I shook my head and asked them to take it from my left hand instead. Oh well, it’s much painful than last week but I think it should be better than taking it from my right wrist???

Then I went to see my gynea and after examination, he told me that the follicles are growing well. There are about 6-7 follicles growing on each side of my ovaries, the follicles on the right side is bigger. Our next appointment will be on Saturday, another blood test and most probably Egg Retrieval will be between Wed to Friday. Egg Transfer will probably be the week after. Finally, we are at the middle of the IVF.

I pray miracle happen to ME again after going thru so much pain. Ohya.. my mood swings badly these few days and guessed it will going to be like tat till the end of IVF due to the 2 hormone injections I am going thru now. Poor Shannon and J having to endure my mood swing.

Arrgghh... Unbelievable

I was really happy that my throat was almost PAINLESS after visiting the doctor yesterday. However, the PAIN came back this afternoon!!! It was really a BAD one... For the last 2 weeks, the pain was on the right side near my throat and it was still bearable (except on some nights). But the pain today was terrible!! The pain shifted to the center of my throat and swallowing my saliva become a tough job. I don't feel like talking at all due to the pain.

I boiled some chinese herb (for throat) to drink, gurgled salt water hourly, drank a cup of honey, took a spoonful of Pi Pa Gao, took a few Strepsils and finally a panadol. Well.. nothing actually worked. T.T'

I called J about 9pm and asked him to come back right after work. Luckily, he is back around 10plus and I just left Shannon to him.

I just want to keep my mouth shut for now... -_-

Throat Inflamation

My sore throat was recovering well 2 days ago but the pain came back last night. I used a torch light and saw one yellow patch somewhere near the throat. Then I started to search the WWW for more info on sore throat and saw lots of scary and yucky pictures on throat ulcer and strep throat.

Thus, I decided to drag myself to the clinic after 2 weeks of sore throat. YaYaYa... I know I know... I should have seen a doctor 2 weeks ago but I thought it will get better tomorrow and tomorrow never come. :P Anyway, I went and the doctor told me it was Throat Inflammation. He gave me some solution to numb my throat, some Advil (usually used as parmacetamol for fever) to be taken twice daily, some cough medicine and nasal spray for my blocked nose. But NO ANTIBIOTICS !!! This is the purpose I wanted to see a doctor.. *roll eyes* Anyway, by just looking at the doctor, my throat feels less painful this afternoon.. Unbelievable ya??? LOLOLOL

Mood Swing and J

Recently, I am easily irritated and angry, sometimes unreasonable and get really impatience. I know my mood swing had been terrible BAD this few weeks but I just couldn't help it.

But Hey!! I am taking hormones drugs recently! It's like women having going thru menopause and I couldn't control myself at all..

Thus, I remind J to

GIVE IN to ME regardless of anything

LOVE ME more than other days

TAKE CARE of Shannon more as my anger tolerance level is really low

DO NOT irritate me more when my mood is "swinging"

BLAME IT on the hormone drugs I am taking

What Happen to my Computer?

Damn it.. either the internet connection or my pc have been sort of hay-wired recently. It took so long to load one page! After installing IE7 and reformating the harddisk, I am having this stupid problem. My outlook also giving me problem as well.

"Sigh" I hope J will solve this problem asap. I am fed up seating in front of the pc waiting for the page to load!! Arrggghhh...

PMS...

More Free Graphics at pYzam.com

I think PMS crept in secretly today... :(

I've been feeling so irritated and moody since morning. I just can't control my temper and mood today. I don't feel like doing anything but my dear girl kept bugging me. I can't even sit still in front of my computer... I just feel really blue for no reason. Well, I don't know what to do when I walked around the house just now. I just feel that the house is so messy The clothes were lying all over the place, and in the study room waiting to be packed. I planned to do my housework today but I really don't have the mood... :/ :/ :/

Sigh... Maybe I should stuff myself with chocolates to see if it can work wonders on me.

Lantern Festival

Yesterday, we spent a lonely Lantern Festival as Daddy was working on afternoon shift this week and will only reach homeback after midnight.

Initially, I planned to "chio" some friends for a small gathering but idea was put off since Shannon is still not feeling well. I have to thanks May for sparing us some home made delicious 汤圆! She said 月圆人团圆，must eat 汤圆 on Lantern Festivals. ^_^ Frankly speaking, this is the first time I ate 汤圆 for Lantern Festival.

Serene's father got Shannon a small battery-operated lantern too. I off the lights in the living room to create some atmosphere but Shannon would prefer the lights to be ON. After the lights was switched on, she started enjoying herself by dancing to the rythem of the musical lantern.

After a while, I am still not contented with just holding the battery-operated lantern in the house. I searched high and low for the candles and managed to find some birthday candles instead. I took some traditional lanterns given by Uncle James Chong and light it up with birthday candles, dressed Shannon with more layers of clothing and brought her to the garden to carry the lanterns. hahaha...

Hopefully, we will not be so pathetic next year... ^_^

The real meaning of "Crèche"

After sending Shannon to the "playgroup" for months, I only realised recently that she was not attending playgroup but actually a "CHILDCARE CENTER". *_*

After knowing it, I felt somehow guilty to continue sending Shannon to the "childcare center" as I am a FULL TIME HOUSEWIFE here. Thus, looking after Shannon for the whole day should be my full time job. T.T

However, I decided to continue for some reasons and "excuses" as per follows;

First of all, I need some time for myself to do whatever thing I want, be it housework or surfing net.

Secondly, I think it is good for her to mingles around with French kids and get familiarize with their language since she will be starting Nursery next year.

Thirdly, I want her to learn to socialise and play with kids at all age which she will meet in the center.

Something interesting about "Crèche" in France is that they don't really accept daily attendance. "Crèche" is catered for French mummies to leave the kids there when they need to run errand on some days. No wonder, the person in-charged said that we are only allowed to plan 2 mornings weekly for our kids from next week onwards.

"Sigh"

There goes my perfect routine I had trained earlier for Shannon on waking up at 9am, nap at 1:30pm and sleep 1030pm at night. -_-