My Job

in nomine patri, et filii, et spiritui sancto amen

i know this blog is about me kids and family but somehow my job has made me for better or worse a different person.

the wife says that my tolerance level is much higher nowadays but conversely my temper is getting shorter and shorter

also, it is a test to detach myself from work when i come home as i always believe that it is never fair to lash out or suffer the kids what transpired in the office for the day.

i must admit that the constant pressing by the ceo has made me more precise and analytical in my analysis of issues and problems that confront me. also, i believe my email writing skills have improved tremendously in the 10 months that i have been in my job.

of course you must improve as you are dealing with a ceo that loves/adores/worships emails! there is a joke that he shared with me that if he does not have access to his emails for more than 2 hours, he goes into a withdrawal symptom!... mama mia santa lucia!

so i have learnt, and i am still learning, about human beings and the wonder of human relationships and dynamics.

like i shared with the ceo over kopi, you can't fully put your faith in people; neither can you lose all hope in them - the secret is in having balance.

i have learnt that this balance is the key in making people continue to have faith or becoming cynical.

in nomine patri, et filii, et spiritui sancto amen

Hari Raya Puasa - Science Centre

in nomine patri, et filii, et spiritui sancto amen

its another holiday again and this time, lenus suggested we go to the singapore science centre.

so i woke up after a bad nite - cos man utd lost against lille, it was not that they lost but the manner by which the lost that really disappointed me... what i uttered during the match cannot be printed on this blog......sigh...that's another story - and again after a lack of sleep, got the elise and eliza with the wife into the car and we went to pick lenus and his family. it is always good to see my god-daughters larissa and latasha. lenus then told me that ariken is going too, except its the wife and ramsey only, as he is at work and elijah is too young to know what the fuss is about at the science centre.

so we went on our way....CTE; AYE; exit jurong town hall and lo and behold, from east to west of singapore, we were at the singapore science centre!

i was thinking we can cover the place in a couple of hours but man... the place has changed lots.... since my last visit in 1982!

we had breakfast at macdonalds and lenus being lenus, where a photo opportunity is never to be missed, had the kids take a photo with ronald macdonald!

as hong kong had no puasa, i thought i'd better check me emails in case there was a mail from the ceo! as the ceo is fond of saying....this is not a job you know...its a chance for us to create history and become rich! so stay awake and check your emails! i didnt know lenus took a pic of me huddling over me nokia9300.......WTF!there is an outdoor play area that has lots of apparatus and contraptions that we can play and try that also enable us to learn about everyday science... and i must say... it was cool!

there was this thing on lever and pulley; using the sun to determine our height; a see-saw that you can find out your weight plus others ... only downer was larissa scraping her leg when she accidently fell and a chunk of her skin came off ... shite.... after lots of TLC from me; the wife and mrs ariken plus mrs lenus, she was ok....

we went into the centre itself and it was very crowded...but somehow what amazed me was the simplicity of the kids at the science centre... where every little experiment or machine was a wonder and surprise....

maybe this was a lesson for me to step back and let God be the master again while i remain the "kid" and let Him move things....

also, did i mention that elise had david beckham by his bollocks?!?!

there was a whole exhibition dedicated to einstein but eliza was terrified of einstein and was screaming when he saw "him" - there as a mannequin of him - and it must be the fuzzy hair...hehe. told elise and eliza that always think simple and you may come up with an equation such as E=MCsquared.... it was interesting for me personally to read about einstein's life and what left a deep impression about me about him was that for all his brilliance and intellect, he was humble enough to acknowledge the presence of One that is far greater and more powerful than anything in the universe.

this confirms what my hero bishop fulton sheen said" only the truly wise and the truly simple will KNOW God.... while those who think they are wise or simple will NEVER know him" (ad verbatim)

we finished off with tea and let the kids play with each other - it is another amazing sight to see how kids can just form groups by themselves and sort out the rules to some imaginary games and they just PLAY!

we got into the act when we told the kids to hide and when they did....all of us the adults ran for cover.... it was absolutely hilarious seeing us scrambling to hide from the kids!

memories are made of this...

in nomine patri, et filii, et spiritui sancto amen

Deepavali - Pasir Ris

in nomine patri, et filii, et spiritui sancto amen

one thing i learnt is that kids remember what you tell them! so don't anyhow promise them anything ....

i was driving back home after dinner at the in-laws last night when i asked elise and eliza

me: hey, tomorrow's deepavali and its a holiday ... you guys wanna go out?
elise & eliza: yeah!
me: how about pasir ris park tomorrow morning? we can go cycling there?
elise 7 eliza: YEAH!

so that was it... except i was doing some work late into the nite that i hit the sack at 3am...

in what i felt was a nap instead of sleep, elise and eliza suddenly jumped on me and said "daddy, pasir ris park!" and i was like "OH NO!....can we not go? daddy's tired" and you know the answer right? elise & eliza: "NOOOOOO!... WE WANT TO GO PASIR RIS PARK!"

mama mia santa lucia ....

so i dragged meself up from bed and looked the clock .... and it was freaking 8.30am! so we changed and grabbed the bicycle and loaded it up onto the car and headed towards Pasir Ris Park.

we rode/walked towards the playground and elise and eliza started running towards the slides. after climbing and and sliding around, there was this other kid - around eliza's age - that had shovels; pails and rakes with him and he started digging on the sand at the playground and immediately elise and eliza started joining him.

the mother of the boy was quite nice when she said to me to let elise and eliza join in ... hey, you never know man... some parents are bloody ngeow ok?! so elise and eliza promptly too a shovel and rake and started topping a pail with sand and then pouring it out.... before long, more kids joined in and there were kids with trucks and lorries that were quickly filled with sand....

i was observing that they were filling and pouring the sand out ... and i was like "isn't this madness and a waste of time?" ... then it struck me that that though i thought it was silly, there was a geniuine sense of joy pervading EVERY kid that was playing at that playground.... and what hit me most was the simplicity and contentment that each and every kid felt.... that the world was such a beautiful place to them.... they with sand all over themselves and their toys and their parents watching over them intently....

hhmmm... must be what God is doing watching over the PARENTS...watching over their kids.... time sort of just stood still and life at that point was at its majestic best! amen

we hung around till 12+ and then we went to a foodcourt at White Sands to have lunch.... and there the wife and i observed this scene:

at the next table was a family of 4 and the father had just finished his lunch and simply stood up and told the wife to hurry up ... the wife stood up and their daughter did so as well and they started making their way towards the exit..... all this when the son was still eating, guess he must be a slow eater or really enjoyed his mee pok and it was just surreal to see the parents just walking off and leaving the son behind to quickly swallow his food and gulped down his drink ... and then run after his parents and sister!

the wife and i looked at each other and then shook our heads as we thought about the same thing .... can't they just wait for the boy?! ... is it so hard to just be there for him to finish?! jia lat man!

so anyway, we finished lunch and walked around what is a mini mall that's White Sands and then we headed home

then i promised to fixed up the computer so that there is wireless internet access for elise and eliza and yeah! i did it ... not before asking elise and eliza to "stop!", "don't touch this!"; "don't touch that" .... sigh ... maybe i better read bishop fulton sheen's book on children again.

bishop sheen said one way of parenting is instead of saying "no" all the time, we should instead ask the child whether he/she should be doing what he/she is doing......as this will encourage and train the child to make choices and decisions.... instead of us enforcing our will on them by saying "no" to them all the time.... we as parents often underestimate the power of reasoning and thinking skills in a child ..... and asking good and prompting questions will help the child understand his/her action more.

a child that makes understands the choice on what to do is more likely to remember it than one that is told to do it by the parent ... that is the gist of bishop sheen's teaching.

got the wireless up and elise and eliza left me and mommy with some peace as they started their fun with the gang from Sesame Street; Dora the Explorer and Bob the Builder!

and that passes another day with my loved ones.

in nomine patri, et filii, et spiritui sancto amen