Nite at RaceCourse

Dear All

This evening (Thur, 26 Nov 09) Felicia, Tiffany and I went to the Turf Club for a night under the stars with the horses.

There's horse patting and trial rides. We didn't stay for the trial rides as we were pretty tired...it's from 5 - 9pm and the rides were like at the end of the program. Bert joined us directly after work. It was fun for Felicia...there's a clown bouncer and games stalls and some rides. Felicia was thrilled to be able to pat the horse, not to mention the momy too lah! Tiffany wasn't interested...she felt that man is too cruel to the horses, dragging them by the harness to get into the stall for the trial race. We saw 2 trial races. Those horses are very fast. They are so warm and muscular under our touch with very fine hair, and although they look so big, they have doe-like gentle eyes...so sweet like a rabbit. The lady in front of me in the queue suddenly turned round to ask me to take a pix of her with her daughter, so I told her "Sure," but if she could do the same for me. So I now have a rare pix of me with Felicia, that's not taken by Tiffany!! And where is Tiffany, you may ask? She's happily and very patiently waiting for us at the grandstand, listening to her ipod music. Later on, she asked me to buy a Moonlight (under Twilight) poster, NOT for herself, but for her senior, as a token of appreciation for all her help. So sweet huh? Of course she's paid me back, but it'll be in installments :(

Love Theresa

Finalisation of minor reno and moving date

Dear All

Tonight (25 Nov 09), Wed, our reno guys were able to give us the confirmed date for completion of reno. We had to change the kitchen laminate as our previous selection was out-of-stock. The polishing of the parquet floors were pretty good...no regrets now for deciding to go ahead with the job. Also finalised the colours for the entire house interior walls, ceiling and doors. Can't really imagine how the colours would work out but we trust the reno guys. We are pretty impress that they (2 coordinators) still attend to our requests patiently though we have halved the reno costs/works to minimise costs. We decided to leave the toilets as it is as budget is tight and anyway, we had already factored the condition of the apartment in our agreed purchase price so we might as well enjoy what we had already paid for!

Next week starting Monday is where all the action would start. Installation of kitchen cabinets, window grails for the 3 bedrooms, painting, fixture of lights (missing ones), changing of false ceilings where necessary and minor repair works. We like the original colours of the living and hall areas, so we are getting back similar colours.

Guess what? Lots of people are renovating and shifting house in Dec!! Must have been the superhot sales over the last quarter...it takes about 3 months for the sales transaction to be completed and the house to be handed over, so Dec is the busiest time! Just our luck! We don't have much dates now to move house as our reno guys could only confirm the date of completion to around 7 Dec and some movers are already fully booked in Dec. Hopefully we can confirm a mover for Thur, 10 Dec. 2 movers are coming down next Mon to see our barang and give us a quote. Wah, no fun to see our bank account go down :( nevertheless, we are all SOO looking forward to a bigger house. It's quite exciting actually. I do hope the kitchen would look beautiful especially when we are spending quite a bit in it. The downside is I am so afraid of the rubbish chute....so much croaches!! I tremble with fear and get goose pimples just thinking of opening it! That day when I first opened it, I saw about 3 croaches CRAWLING just under the lid!! Yuck!! I don't get this at MP so for me this is con of this place. Other than that, we think this house is
worth "fighting" for as we think it's a beautiful house. No wonder the previous owner feels so sad in parting with it. He had actually put in quite a bit of reno and we can see that he had really loved this house.

Our moving house is dicey and pretty close to our LC party! Not to mention, Fridays and Sats morning and evening would be busy for me....rehearsals for Felicia on Fri 10am for smalesland handover ceremony, Fri evening choir rehearsal for Christmas Children's Mass, Sat morning the actual handover ceremony cum party then off to LC party in the evening! Hopefully I can get the chicken roasted in time as I am now drawing down on the food in my fridge starting today, to get ready for the big shift. You should see our house now...like a war zone, no space to move, that even now the Chinese tuition teacher exclaimed when are we shifting? We look like a warehouse now!

Please help us pray that the reno and moving goes smoothly.

Love Theresa and Bert

Smaleland Exhibition at National Library - 19 Nov 09 (Thur)

Dear All

I brought the girls to the Smaleland Exhibition at the National Library. Since the new library was up, this is the 1st time we've been there. We were like mountain tortoises!! We thought the library being so big, only had a library at the basement level (which is the kids' section) until we

took the private access lift to the 16th (topmost) floor where the exhibition was held.

Tiffany sitting under Library notice "Please do not sit on the floor!"...

Felicia had fun playing and running around with the other smaleland ministers. Tiffan

y was so happy I had cancelled her math tuition that day and brought her along. She enjoyed the view from the top and the yummy swedish buffet spread. It had her current fav...potato salad with sour cream. Here are some pixs taken by her.

Felicia in front of her recorded interview..

Felicia and the ministers at the exhibition..

View from 16th floor..

Girls having fun at Swensons, Suntec City..

Bert & I at Swenson, SC after getting the massage seat..

All in all, we had a great mother and daughters bonding time as we travelled from Bugis Junction to Suntec City, then we called Bert down to join us for dinner at Swensons as we had bought him a massage seat for his Christmas present. I could see his face as he thought I was getting him a massage CHAIR (which is way way beyond my meager budget!), then he realised the cost was like in the $100+ range that it was only the SEAT!! Not bad, they now have portable massager to place it on any seat with a back lean which suits our budget and needs very well!

Love Theresa

KittyLab @ Expo

Dear All

On Wed (18 Nov) my neighbour invited Felicia to join her daughter for the KittyLab. It is VERY expensive...$17 per kid on weekday and $20 per kid for weekend. Adults were $35 for weekday and $38 for weekend. She doesn't want to go in and just want the kids to go in...cheaper that way. So we +Tiffany waited for the 2 girls. The HelloKitty people are real smart....they reward the kids with a badge if they complete the whole tour within 35min! That means $1 for 2min! No prizes for knowing what the kids did..they called us via hp after just 32min! They happily showed off their badge to us. But I must say it's not entirely a rip-off. They got a pretty hellokitty landyard with cardholder (cost I guess about $6+) and those who completed before 35 min, the quality of the badge is pretty good. On top of that, they took a shot of the kids and gave them an account with password to download the pix and to play some on-line games.

Felicia then went with my neighbour to play whilst Tiffany and I went to T3 to shop for a birthday present for Felicia's friend for this Sunday. We ended up from T3 to Century Square to finally TM!! Not bad yah...we visited all 3 places within 3 hours and still got home by 7:30pm (we left Expo at 4:30)...amazing if you are a shopoholic....however, unfortunately, this "shopholic" is mostly a window shopper, as you know, my supply of vit M is pretty low..:)

Love Theresa

P1 Orientation in SACPS

Dear All

I recently joined the Praying Parents in Felicia's school. We had a retreat last week, Thur. It was a long time since I had a retreat so it was a treat :P

Anyway, payback time...I spent whole 3 solid hours trying to recruit catholic parents of P1 girls to join us. We are only a miserable small group of 8 mums. These group of mums are powerpack full of holiness, that I feel like a little devil amongst them :(

No one came to our booth (yes, we have a booth...1st time I heard, so was the retreat, so I guess I am richly blessed by God, came in at the right time) so I suggested to another mum (the nicest one) why don't we go jalan-jalan and kay-po a bit and recruit people. Luckily, she was super-experience in talking and persuading people (she reveals, comes from years of recruiting for the church activities) so we managed to get a handful. It was great fun at the orientation. Although it rained, the mothers were wonderful people who give without reserve. One bought drinks, another bought pastries for tea-time. 1st time had to go on stage to be introduced too! Really scary, having hundred of eyes looking at your every move! I try not to stumble and walk and stand calmly. It was a great experience. I hope this is the right area to get involved in.

Love Theresa

Is there a day that passes you by without you thinking of God?

Dear all,

This question surface to my mind this morning as I was leaving for work...Like a I mentioned in my earlier entry... towards the year end I slowed down momentarily and contemplative questions...like this one in the caption comes to mind.

To know who God in our lives is to keep thinking and praying to Him so that you will know Him better as time passes...God is a mystery, it is the unseen quiet force behind our lives.

To me, God has to be on my mind constantly so that I get to know Him a little better though I am not holy - to know Him entirely will not be possible, but at least to some level and to some degree - each day.

I cannot imagine what life will be for me without God and without knowing Him. I guess it will be just full of emptiness - nothing else.

Just yesterday, 19 Nov I was going thru my old e-mails and came across an old e-mail which is from my boss announcing the sad news of the passing away of my colleague James, last year 19 Dec. I was saddened and at the same time also wondering where is my friend now? Heaven? Purgatory?...where are these places? A different dimension I suppose in which all of us will go there 1 day. but to go there, one must 1st know who God is and be in communion with Him. So we need to be purged of our sins and to be like Him....in Holiness. Coz God is Holy, we are not. It is SIN that separates us from God since the beginning of time......it is like fire and water, these 2 elements cannot exist together in the same place..it is either we have fire or we have water. So God is like that. God is Holy and to be with God in heaven, we must be as pure and holy as God. Coz in heaven there is no more sin and misery.

We are called to holiness - everyone of us are, indeed. Hopefully, as we strive for holiness we can be counted to be among His chosen one - one day.

For many are called, but few are chosen.

You have a nice and blessed weekend.

AlbertY

Felicia's City 2050 Group idea (Monster Team) exhibit

Dear All

Felicia had the opportunity to brainstorm with her group named "Monster" (I think, as there were 3 groups and we parents were only allowed in to see their presentation). The result of their half day session with the architectural group named RE-ACT will be as follows (e-mail extract from Smalesland, Ikea) -

> 1. Cities 2050 Exhibition at the National Library
>
> We hope you had a great time at the Cities 2050 workshop last Saturday! Your creative ideas, which you shared with your Temasek Polytechnic facilitators, have been made into an exhibition for display at the National Library during the Singapore Design Festival 2009.
>
> The Embassy of Sweden and the Eurpoean Union Council would like to invite you and the other ministers to join them at the National Library on the 19 November ( Thursday) to see your ideal City of 2050 come to live. Please reach the National Library by 11.15am to get ready for the tour.

After the brainstorming session, the children had to be interviewed on 3 cameras by an adult...seems it's for the records of the Swedish Embassy as I think they are sponsoring this brainstorming program. It's in line with Ikea's aim to nurture youth to be inspired to be architects in the future.

Love Theresa

Its the end of another year again...

Dear all,

This coming weekend marks the Feast of Christ the King. It marks the end of the current liturgical year. And following which marks the Season of Advent which also the start of another new liturgical year.

For me it is always the best the time of the year...it is a time that we should slow down in our lives and to take stock of our lives...to ponder..to reflect..how the good Lord was with us thru and thur this year...it is a time to reflect on where we are, how do we want to move forward from here..what do we really want to do for the remaining time of our lives...

Over the past Sunday, the church readings talks about the end of the world as reminder that all things in this world is passing and there is always a end to all things in this world...when? no one knows except God the Father.

Lately I have slowed down considerably as we moved into less than 2 months for 2009...reflecting on what I want to achieve..not materially but spiritually..

I have been thinking on getting myself more involve in church of holy trinity since I conclude that we will be around in Tampines/Changi area for the long haul..( I have been in this area for the past 13 years and Theresa was raised in this area)
I too guess that with the church of Divine Mercy coming up in Pasir Ris, there might be some manpower shortage in Holy Trinity church (after all it is the largest parish in Singapore with 13000 parishoners to serve)

Warden? Helping hands?Lector?well perhaps cathechist...still thinking seriously over this idea...canteen helpers? too bad they don't have permanent canteen helpers for the sunday canteen...as the canteen is operated on a rotation basis by various church organisations. Well, what about the care taker of the church? I still don't know...perhaps being hold back by fear of not able to commit my time.. I guess that is the reason..

Whatever I may end up doing in the church i think i may have to prepare myself a little sacrifice to walk a little way off the comfort zone a bit to fulfil God's will for me.

I take comfort in Fr Aloysius Ong blog in which one need at time to walk a bit off one's comfort zone to discover God's wish for him.

http://alongcorner.blogspot.com/

I completed my usual run at the stadium in the afternoon today. The sky was dark and looks like a heavy down pour is anytime soon.
It was pretty much very quiet at the NYP stadium (as usual coz normally people do not exercise at high noon)..I was thinking about God, thanking Him for the gift of life and then this question came thru my mind...here it is:

1. Why did God create us here on earth? If the intention was really to ultimately know HIM and hence to LOVE HIM with all our strength, all our soul, all the days, then why can't He just make us angels and place us in heaven? After all, that is the final destiny whether one is created an angel or as a human who loves and abide God's Law. So why did God chose to create us as human here on earth, to know Him and ultimately to meet Him and hopefully be with HIM in heaven one day. For me, never mind if you take away my freedom of choice in life..and never mind if angels are of lower life form than we humans...

I do not know the answer and I don't think I will ever know the answer...


I want to be an angel

You have a nice day!

AlbertY

LC300 5th Anniversary

Dear All

It had been quite some time since we met up with you lovely LC couples. We almost couldn't make it today, as we were busy with activities since 10+am this morning. Luckily the Opennet guy called to come earlier at around 1pm instead of between 2 - 4pm to install the free

broadband point. At least we could catch an afternoon nap before Bert fetched Tiffany to church for bible sharing whilst I fried the springrolls, samosa and hashbrowns. Never fried so many things before and realised how much oil fried food contain!!! Gosh, I had used up half bottle of my oil over 2h which normally would last me 2 months!

Anyway, as things turned out, Bert got his much needed rest so that he can fetch us safely across the island and back :)

Err, next time, it'll really be further across the island as we'll be moving to Loyang :(

It's with God's grace and blessings that we managed to go to LC tonight. We only have a couple of weekends more to pack our stuff for the big shift and we have only packed bearly HALF the house. Bert is getting frentic and the rest of us, being proscastinators, are beginning to feel the panick too as the deadline draws near.

We must firstly thank Lenz and his better half, Josephine, for taking the initiative and time to organise all the LC meetings and social gatherings. I think those extra gathering really help mesh us closer together. It really helps that for most of us, our children are of around the same age group, so as couples, we can relate our situation more with each other and give other emotional and spiritual support.

Tonight's sharing, especially from Desmond and Jenny, really touched our hearts. Our personal problem and crisis cannot compare to theirs as ours are only financial hiccups whereas theirs are about people.

Here's some shots taken by our lovely host leaders, Lenz and Josephine, who show us today, that to lead is to be a servant to all. We received not only lon-tong and si-you bak, but only a specially made CD and newsletter celebrating the 5th Anniversary of our LC300 circle.

The LC300 5th Anniversary Cake..yummy chocolate ;P

LC300 Couples (absent but sorely missed..Jean&Chris and Chloe&Colman)

We couples and our children, the fruits of the vine :)

HAPPY 5TH ANNIVERSARY TO ALL YOU LOVELY COUPLES! Thanks for being always there for us and with us!

Love Theresa&Albert