A Day of My Life

Recently, C had the idea of writing journal / diary of her life. And I suddenly remember that I used to have a blog. And I can't even remember what's the blog name! LOLOL! The one that I remembered was the previous one: https://anotefromtoday.blogspot.com/, and I was amazed that apparently, I have another blog after that that's completely forgotten.

Amazingly, my blog is still active and I can still write on it, so YAY!

It's been MANY years since I wrote "A day in the life of..." series. And I hope to write one today! It'll be fun to reminisce these moments in the future, I'd imagine.

Note: today is the 1st day of school holiday, but both S and C have extra classes at school, as C is going for PSLE this year, and S is Sec 3. My alarm was set for 6:55 am, so that I can send C to school at 7am.

6:53am: Caitlyn suddenly barge in to the room and half shocked to see that I was still asleep. She had wanted to go to school (she likes to reach school early! Late is not in her dictionary, perfect Vice-Chairperson). I quickly brushed my teeth, get dressed and send C to school. We almost missed 59! Luckily we checked the bus timing, and 59 was arriving, so we run like mad to the bus stop and made it just in the nick of time. Along the way, as usual, C was checking Carousell on my phone (she loves to online shop for good deals for anime figures, she's crazy about them nowadays)

7:40am: I reached back home after sending C to school. S is already at school too (he always goes himself). Pi is taking a shower and after that we had breakfast together (my breakfast today is pandan bread with meises). After that, Pi went to office, and normally I would catch up on sleep until 9am. However, as today I woke up earlier, I didn't feel sleepy. So instead, I only lied around the bed and browsing Shein for the clothes to try.

How to Buy from Taobao in Singapore for Those Who Don't Know How to Read Chinese

Taobao is THE shopping heaven - for those who understands Chinese, that is.

Why is that so? Now let's see the example for one particular item - the instant memory board that's similar to the one used in Shichida class for right-brain training:

If you get this locally in Singapore, you'll need to fork out about S$60 - S$75 for this. But how if you get exactly the same thing from Taobao?

Do you see what I see? You can get it at 1/3 of the price! (excluding shipping, of course).

However, having been brought up in Indonesia, Chinese was not a commonly used language at that time. As such, I didn't know a single word of Chinese 'til I came to Singapore more than 15 years ago. Now, I can understand basic Chinese conversation, but unfortunately, my Chinese reading skill is still close to zero.

But yet, this does't stop me from enjoying bargains at Taobao, though almost all of Taobao's listing are in Chinese. How, you might ask? I have quite a few friends asking me this question, and some of them are also interested to buy things at Taobao.

So my ways have been tested (many times), it may not be the best (or most cost-effective way), but it works for me as it's so easy!

What you need:

1. Account with Taobao Agent in Singapore (I use 65Daigou)
2. Web browser that can do auto-translate (I use Google Chrome)

Steps:

1. Open Google Translate and make sure to choose translating from "English" to "Chinese (Simplified)". Type the item that you're looking for in English, and copy the Chinese translation (highlight and press Ctrl+C).
   
   
2. Paste the Chinese character translation to Taobao and press Enter.


3. You can see the search result in this page. Select one that you're looking for. If the search result is not as expected, change your search criteria and repeat from Step 1. Be creative with the keywords! Now Taobao has a quite useful feature to look for similar items when you hover over a certain item, as shown here:
   
4. Once you see a product that you like, click on it, and you can see the product page:
   
5. If you scroll down, you'll be able to see the product details (that's hopefully auto-translated by the browser). Don't forget to check the reviews to make sure that the product is good:
   
6. If you're satisfied with what you found, copy the URL, and go to 65Daigou and paste it in the "Buy For Me" text box, and click the button.
   
7. The form that looks very similar to the listing in Taobao will be shown. Fill up the form with your chosen options, and click "Add to Cart".
   Note: You may need to translate this page back to Chinese first if you can't successfully add the listing to cart.
8. Continue to add all your items, and check-out at 65Daigou. They will help you purchase the item, and inform you when your items have arrived in Singapore!

Some tips:

• Try to purchase more items from the same seller to save on shipping cost.
• For shipping via air, going to Shanghai warehouse will be faster, whereas for shipping via sea, going to Guangzhou warehouse will be faster.

Hope my short tutorial is helpful for those who really wants to buy from Taobao but doesn't understand a single word of Chinese, and Happy Shopping!!

Game Time: The Three Billy Goats

Sometimes, the simplest activity can bring such great joy to kids.

Vio & Cait enjoy this simple game for the last few months - and we call it "The Three Billy Goats".

So how do we play it?

One of us (normally Daddy) pretends to be the sleeping "Troll", while Vio, Cait & Mummy pretends to be the billy goats that wants to go to the other side.

Now when the "billy goats" try to cross over to the other side, the "troll" will sometimes awake from his "sleep" and try to catch the goats. And the kids will get hysterical when the troll tries to catch them while crossing the bridge!

Try it - it's sure to be a hit with your kids!

Project Life - Documenting Our Daily Lives

Let's face it.. People are forgetful (especially me!).

I can only remember vaguely what it feels like when Vio joined our family, and how were the days when we watched him grow up, though it happened only 6 years ago! So I can only imagine 10 years down the road, we would've forgotten most of the little precious details!

.. which is why I decided to create scrapbooks to capture all the little details that's happening in our daily life. Now of course we can't possibly capture everything. But well, at least we'll save some of the most precious little memories for us to reminisce few years down the road.

Soooo.. at the moment I'm using the all-famous Project Life.. The idea first came from Becky Higgins though I notice that it's been copied by other major scrapbook brands due to its popularity.

I must say that it's very effective way of documenting our lives, though I'm not exactly following the Project Life way - one week one spread.

I'm currently using this layout to document all family-related photos ever taken. Yes it's very ambitious I know, but it's been great so far! And I totally love the idea of jotting down some notes for the photos - totally useful! Sometimes we may forget what happened that time (and maybe, why we take that photo in the first place), so having a short journal really help us to remember the tiny details of the everyday life ;)

If you haven't tried it yet, do try it now. It's addictive! ;)

Game Time: Guess The Song!

Children love to play, that's no doubt. But one thing we (the parents) sometimes forget is that playing is not always equal to toys or gadgets.

Sometimes simple games are equally interesting for them. A good thing about this is that it's free! And the best part? You get to play with them too! (read: spend quality time)

One game that's currently popular at our home is:

Guess The Song

So this is how we play it. It's very simple, really.

1. I play the keyboard with tune of the songs they know (example: Five Little Monkeys, Wheels on The Bus, Twinkle Twinkle, etc. You get the idea!)
2. S & C will guess what song I was playing
3. The one who can guess first win the round!

Now if you don't have keyboard/piano at home, you can simply hum it. The children would love it anyway!

And some variations: have your child hum the song and you get to guess what song he's humming.

See? Simple, fun, and no fuss. And the kids love it!

Inline Skating for Kids

Vio had been telling us (read: pestering) that he wants to learn inline skating for weeks now.

The first time he mentioned it was when he was still taking swimming lesson. That time, we told him that once he can swim, we will enroll him to a inline skating course.

But since then, he has stopped taking swimming lessons as he said "it's too tiring" as he always swim and swim and swim..

So one day, we decided to buy him a new pair of inline skates (using JEM vouchers that we need to finish soon!). So you can imagine how excited he was that time! And just so happen that in the CC (Community Center) nearby, there's a holiday programme for Basic Beginner Inline Skating (only for a few days). So we decided to enroll him.

The first lesson was about how to stand up, how to sit down, and how to fall. At first it was rather tricky to learn standing up, and I was really worried that Vio would be injured or something, as he's only 5 years old! But well, children are actually more robust than we think. That's one thing I need to imprint in my mind (though it's proven to be difficult at times).

The second lesson? Vio suddenly said that he didn't want to go... Grrrrr... I must admit that I was rather upset at that time as he was the one that kept asking for the lesson, and he gave up so easily. However he promised that he would go for the next lessons.

Luckily he kept his promise, and by the end of the four lesson, he can go forward with his skate (more or less)..

Not surprisingly, he wanted to continue the lesson! So we sign him up for another 4 lesson of Advanced Basic Inline Skating..

The first lesson... we missed it... LOL... Apparently there was some kind of miscommunications... The lesson timing was changed to 2 pm, but somehow we were not aware, so we came at the previous timing which was 4 pm. So by the time we reached there, the lesson was over...

Vio quite enjoyed the next 3 lessons.. He learned how to turn left & right, and how to swizzle. All in all, he can do basic inline skating, though at times he likes to move by "walking" instead of sliding. This may be because we miss the first lesson of the Advanced Basic. But he know (more or less) how to turn, stop, and move forward. So well, not too bad.

Here is a video of him in action on the last lesson..

Hello Kitty Meet & Greet @ Westgate

Yet another new mall has opened in Jurong East early this month: Westgate! Now Jurong East really feels like city centre with it's many malls. We have IMM, JCube, JEM, and now Westgate. (and BigBox will join the party quite soon, I suppose).

Oh well of course, we are one of the first patrons to visit Westgate (since we're staying quite close to the area). The first week, they had Hello Kitty Meet & Greet! Vio and Cait were very excited to see Hello Kitty up close (though Vio was secretly wishing that the boy version Hello Kitty would also be there).

But before we can meet Hello Kitty, we must purchase something from Sanrio fair at Westgate B1. Fair enough, I think. They have so many cute items to choose! Initially we wanted to buy cute Hello Kitty bolster for Cait, as she didn't have any bolster and she has been asking for one. However, she didn't seem awfully interested in the bolster, and set her eye on a Hello Kitty water bottle instead (that apparently has awful quality as water often leaks from the bottle. Yikes!)

So, while waiting for the Meet & Greet session, we saw this real cute Tea Party with Hello Kitty..

The kids excitedly started sitting down and had a Tea Party with plenty of Hello Kitty (awwww... it's real cute, I must say!) and we were happily snapping photos away, when we realized that on the sofa, there was a notice: "Please do not sit". Ooopsie!

Then it was finally time for the Meet & Greet. The kids waited patiently in line (which luckily is not too long). And Cait was so happy to see Hello Kitty! Hello Kitty "played" with her for a while before finally saying bye-bye.

As far as I know, this is the first Hello Kitty Meet & Greet session available in Singapore. Hope Westgate will bring in Hello Kitty again next year! (and for a longer period please.. 2 days are totally too short!)

And continuing the story about Hello Kitty bolster that we didn't buy... Last night, Cait suddenly asked for the Hello Kitty bolster before she went to sleep, and was really sad that she didn't have it. Oh well, she didn't mention it at all for the last 3 weeks, and suddenly she remembered it last night! Maybe 2+ years old have a good memory after all :)