Lena’s Travels

And this wraps up our 1-1 mama daughter trip. 

Thankful to be able to spend this week with my young adult, before she starts her next chapter. 

I’m a proud mama, even though she always feels that I’m not supportive of career choices. 

I guess, it’s something I need to learn, learn to let go, learn to set her free, to fly like a bird. 

My heart is full. I’m grateful for this opportunity to hold her, to let her take care of me, before her heart has other “contestants”. Hahahahhaha! 

Where did my little bean go? We stayed in a tiny boutique hotel on our Tokyo extension and had to squeeze on a tiny bed. She was uncomfortable with sharing, but I was delighted. Hahahah.. I jokingly reminded her that she used to only be able sleep on my arm. There were many nights where sleeping meant carrying a 10 kg baby and singing “twinkle twinkle” til I see stars.. hahahha.. 

感恩你长大了，这么优秀，这么会照顾别人。 我希望你能记得要好好照顾自己，也希望在不久的将来你也会找到一个会照顾你一辈子的人。

妈妈永远爱你 ❤️

Couple trip 2025 part II

I honestly think, among all his kids, I’m the most difficult to manage and also the most challenging to travel with…

🤣🤣🤣

他真的对我很好。很感激有一个那么包容我的男人。

Told him that next year let’s just do a trip to Bali or Phuket and we can just laze at the beach or villa, so that he doesn’t need to plan til so hectic. 

Maybe it’s age, I can feel that planning even for him, has become more exhuasting. Esp when China is a very different setup compared to the rest of the world.. hahahaha..

Thankful that he helped tick my bucket list - 九寨沟 - 她真的好美。

Emo-ing

Couldn’t zz well the whole night. It’s the day before I fly with the twins. Contemplated going to the gym today but in the end I chose the easy way out. I went for a swim. Thought it will do me more good to have time to clear my thoughts and realign myself.

Told Angela yday that I was emo-ing. Kinda question myself why I decided to fly AGAIN. When I’m buried in my work and there seems tons of things to do. She reminded me that it’s to spend time with the twins who are often the neglected generation/ kids coz we were trying very much to stay afloat (financially/ mentally / physically) most of their toddler yrs and we hardly did anything special for them. That is a timely reminder. And that was why I signed up for this. They are at the stage where they are old enough to take care of themselves while overseas, and young enough to still follow instructions.. lol.. yes yes, I do wanna spend time with them, do girly things like shopping or cafe hopping or just bring them to their fav Running Man sites. 

Just praying that the directionless mama don’t get too loss everywhere. The map seems to show that all the places are quite within walking distance, and my strategy is to cab if possible. Coz I’m afraid I’ll drown in their metro. Hahahaha.. 

Praying that I’ll survive the red eye flight. Grace is still nursing a cough, praying that God heals her soon! May we find favour on this trip, that everyone will have mercy on us. In Jesus name I pray, amen!

P/S: I’m really scare to be honest. Afraid that I can’t zzz on the plane, or my room booking was rejected or we get really lost or the twins end up killing each other. But we will see. This is for them. This is to spend time with my neglected twins. 

.

I logged out of my social media accounts last night. Finally decided to take a break coz it’s eating me alive, constantly checking on everyone’s social feeds irregardless if they are people impt / irrelevant to me. 

And then I realize the amt of time I have becoz of the freedom.They say the truth will set you free. Indeed. And thus the time to blog again. 

Crawled to the gym this morning, even though I have many legit reasons why I should skip. Joash hasn’t been sleeping well since we got back; the first night I ended up sleeping in his room on the floor, just so that it’s easier for all of us. The second night he suddenly woke up at midnight and struggled sleep til 2am when William decided to sleep in with him. My brain became super awake by then so did some 10/10 shopping to restock the baby essentials. 

The trip has been great to be honest. It has gotten been our easiest baby long haul trip. On this trip, I made a deliberate effort to prepare Joash before it. Weeks before we started to talk about planes and the safety procedures. Days before I borrowed a baby airport book from a friend, that states the things to expect; from arrival at the airport, checking in the big luggage and going thru the x ray scanners and ultimately belting on the plane. Coz these used to be his meltdown stages. Yes, all of them. And I’m so glad we did all this prep work. It helped a lot. He didn’t meltdown when the check in counter took our luggages, or why we have to put his small luggage thru the scanners etc and why he has to be belted on the plane. In fact, he knows the drills so well by the end of the trip that when he saw the x ray scanners, he says he wanna take the plane. 🤣🤣🤣

The exhuasting part on this trip is the extensive walking/carrying (coz we didn’t bring a pram on this trip. Figured that the roads wouldn’t b easy for prams and we have a luggage limit crunch on certain legs of the trip) . The thing about traveling is that the boy gets to have mama all by himself and he sticks to me like a magnet. No one could help carry him besides me. No one, not even William. So he took the battlepack while I took the human pack.. hahahaha.. of coz little human walked too, a lot considering his age. 

Thankful that we went on this trip. Took a gamble despite how tough the previous ones were. And glad to see his transformation. 

Missed my travel kakis. Hopefully we could all go together next yr. 

In the air

1.5hrs before we finally land in Istanbul. I think it’s most likely that we are going to miss the connections. 

Nonetheless I’m thankful that this flight went passed pretty smoothly. Joash behaved a lot better on this long haul, thank God! 

For someone who doesn’t really enjoy traveling, I certainly have a lot of trips coming up. Pre Covid, my goals have been to always bring my loved ones on the trips that I qualify. That’s why I brought Dowager to Iceland in Feb and the two men for Istanbul. 

Istanbul and the hot air balloon are something that I’ve been wanting to do for a long time. Missed out on a trip to Istanbul when I was studying in the Netherlands and when the chance came up again this yr, I just wanted to come visit this place rich of Islamic + European culture. 

Praying for journey mercy for the rest of the journey. Not sure how our luggages and flights would end up to be, but God is in control. Taking my time to enjoy the peace and serenity of this trip. It’s only that many years where Joash can still travel with us without skipping MOE curriculum. 

Not sure why breakfast is served at this timing when it’s 3pm Turkish timing and 8pm sg timing. But since boy is eating well, so be it.

I’m thankful that the job allows me to bring my family along for the trips. That I don’t need to plan much for the trips and we are always well taken care of.

Update: and we did missed our connecting flight. We made a run for it upon landing but The terminal was too big. We tried our best but by the time we reached the gate, the gate was for another flight. Had to walk all the way back to the transfer desk to repurchase our plane tickets. 

Went to Burger King for our dinner before going to the gates for boarding. 

I guess sometimes things don’t happen the way we want all the time. It’s how we react to such situations that make it an enriching journey. I’m thankful that I’m together with these two men. 

Waiting for the plane to start it’s magic. Last min booking means sitting all the way back and window seats. But it’s okie. I’m w my most favourite men. I screwed up and they continued this with me. I’m thankful. 

Night before flight

The night before flight and my anxiety levels hit the roof. Going to take a long flight to Istanbul with the 2 men followed by a domestic flight to Cappadocia with a very tight interval - less than 90 mins separating the two flights. And if we miss that flight, we will miss the pre arranged cab to the hotel. 

Praying that God gives us favour tomorrow; that He will make things right for us on the trip. That even if we really miss everything, the most we just stay 1 night in Istanbul and be late for the convention. Yes, worst case scenario. That didn’t seem so bad, if we put all things into perspective. What’s impt is to enjoy the trip; enjoy the fellowship and companionship ya.. 

trying not to let another morbid thought enter my tiny brain. But this always happens whenever we didn’t travel as a whole family. What if the plane crash? What if blah blah blah.. tuck my girls to bed this evening coz I was so guilty if the plane crash. Call me silly but today is one of those days where I regretted saying yes to this trip. Even though Istanbul and hot air balloon are one of the things that I really hope to tick on my list. 

Praying that we all survive the long flight. That we survive the connections. Tom wouldn’t be as bad as how I planned for the UK flights, but the connection Tom is tight. Praying for God’s safe covering on this trip. 

Random rant / update

 I finally completed my PT sessions yesterday! 🎉🎊🥳 Took almost 6mths to finish 20 sessions; a bit too long but   I had a bit of traveling and a lot of procrastination to blame.. hahaha.. did the PT result in weight loss? Not really. Less than 1kg nia.. lol.. did the PT result in me being fitter? Definitely. I can do my squats and exercises much better compared to 6mths ago. Would I continue another round? Probably not.. coz as much as I see the physical benefits of the sessions, it gave me so much emotional baggage that I either end up emo baking the night before or crazy eat the next day or both. 🤣🤣🤣 but I’ve tried and I should give myself a pat for that. 

Has been so busy this whole week that I didn’t have time to be emo baking. But the date is coming. Flying off on Sunday. Finally packed most of my stuff into the luggages. Uncle pig did most of the work. I was the sulking kid who wanted to put more clothes in but there really isn’t much space.

I’m trying my best to do well emotionally, but some days are especially hard. 

My favourite therapist would often ask us the following questions whenever we have our fears / anxieties.

1. What is the worst that might happen?
2. What is the best that could happen?
3. Given yr wisdom and logical mind, what do u think is the most reasonable outcome out of it?

1. The worst that could happen is I end up snapping at my mom for everything that she does, and complaining to uncle pig while on the trip. The 3d2n alone time in Paris with her is causing me a lot of anxieties as well. Would I end up killing her or perhaps by the first few days, I just wanna be alone and away from her.

2. The best that could happen is both of us enjoy this trip entirely; a solid mother daughter bonding time, where I appreciate her for who and what she has done and vice versa. 

3. Honestly I don’t know. I do hope that traveling w a bunch of fun colleagues mean that it’s not just me and my mom 24/7. I want to honor her, for the sacrifices she’s made for us, the things she’s done so that we could have a better life. I probably should rem this and look at it whenever I feel like snapping. 

Still waiting for my client to arrive. She’s late and it’s pouring outside.Let’s look forward to seeing the beautiful sights in Iceland and happy shopping in Paris. Hopefully I don’t get too lost in Paris and may God protect us on this trip. Journey mercies ❤️

“But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.”

‭‭Jude‬ ‭1‬:‭20‬-‭21‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Emo blues

I’m so exhuasted from winter shopping. Went shopping for a pair of waterproof pants for Iceland. And either the pants are tight or not flattering. 

Was just ranting to my BFFs abt it. Then one of them went to dig out her winter clothes and bringing over this weekend just so that I could borrow if the size fits . So grateful for friends like them. 

Had a cake and some coffee but the calories were totally not worth it. Should have just gotten llao llao.. hahaha

Traveling anxiety

I’m officially in the emo + sleepless state. Started to have flashbacks of eventful crying many yrs ago, when I cried uncontrollably on the way to pick my parents to the airport. I was bringing them on a holiday but without the kids or uncle pig. I cried so hard that my eyes were still swollen when we reached. The twins were less than 2yrs old and grace was still latching to sleep that time. After that incident, it got much easier and I had clearly forgotten how hard it is to leave a baby at home. 

Fast forward and now I’m bringing my mom to Iceland in less than 2 weeks. This time without the baby boy. I know he is in good hands with uncle pig and the girls helping around. But the mums guilt is intense. The anxiety was killing me alive. I know the trip would b nice for my mom, coz it’s our first trip since Covid closed all incentive trips. She’s been looking forward to it. And I know that I should bring her around while she is still healthy and mobile. But post retirement, she has turned to be rather critical of me especially, and I’m not even sure if I can handle her for the entire 9days. I’m hoping the colleagues would provide some form of distraction and I’ll bring a book along to distract myself from her criticisms. 

Work is still pretty quiet but I’m at peace. I know that He is in control. 

Praying that I’ll be able to spend quality time with her on this trip, and maybe share the gospel with her too. Praying for journey mercies and that I’ll be able to sleep well on the trip. 

“I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.”

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭40‬:‭1‬-‭2‬ ‭NIV‬‬

https://bible.com/bible/111/psa.40.1-2.NIV

The twins and I

On the 2 hr bus ride back to the port. We are into the 4th day of the cruise. Decided to do a 6D5N cruise with the twins and my mama since william will b going Osaka with Joy and I can't work much since J is on leave too..

My sleeping beauty who zzz 10 mins into the bus ride, on both ways of the trip. Thank God! Hahaha...

Thankfully we manage to do some shopping with the twins buying quite some stuff too. Hahaha..

Checklist: After you - simply loving their desserts.. 

Sugar treats motivation

Thankful that these few days on the cruise have been awesome. Stopover at redang on the 2nd day and even though the twins didnt want to disembark initially, I just wanted them to see the beautiful beach. And I'm glad that we all enjoyed ourselves that day too..

Pretty!

The weather was pretty and so were their moods.. thankful that they have been pretty cooperative all these while.

The tattoo they made at redang..

Bento for lunch on board! 

Ice cream again! Becoz it's only $1.50 per scoop, so we had to have it everyday. Hahahah.. we later realise that we could have it for free at the palace lounge..🤣

While on this cruise, there were many times when the twins only wanted to stay at the kids club 0r in the room bcoz the last few times when they were here with their grandparents, they literally had TV / sweets buffet.. but bcoz I'm here this time round, I wanted them to try out more things. Thus we went to the beach and shopping at BKK today..

Lovey dovey.. may they continue to be close buddies even when they grow up 

I also managed to have many one to one occasions with vera. Usually when Joy / papa choo is around, they are her default choices to go to. But this past few days, we probably hang out tog more often than for the whole of this yr. I now know that she doesnt like prawns or soya milk, but she loves beef and lobster. Shes more of a meat person and her love language is quality time now instead of touch previously.

Thankful for the opportunities to create memories with my family. Looking forward to tomorrow's activities on the cruise.

*******

*waiting at the lounge for the twins to finish their "kidzania" activities*

Hello captains!

Them as butlers..

Seriously, I'm dead tired by late afternoon and there are probably a few more activities before this end.. its their 3rd time doing it but its still pretty fascinating for them, which is good enough for me.

Thru the activities, Grace is always the vocal one, willing to say her thoughts and views to the trainers while Vera is the reserved one. She is able to vocalise, but given a choice she would stand behind her sister and wait. It's something that we already knew, and slowly but surely, given the right opportunities, she would be able to grow her confidence.

*Pizza making*

*cheers to fruit punch*

We did 1 last swim; had dinner and packed our bags. It was time to go home tomorrow. The kids are at the kids club for one last time while the dowager is doing her final sprint at her casino, trying to recover her losses. I finally have some me time alone in the room. Yeah!

Overall this trip has been fun, they have been amazingly cooperative; and even though there were little spats, they always managed to patch up without much interference. I'm glad that we came for this trip. It was good bonding for the girls and me; n for my mom with me/them too.

Parenting 101

Attended parents briefing at Joy school yday and thought I write down some thoughts before i forget. The parents briefing is held every yr in Jan to give the parents an overview of the curriculum and the exams structure. William used to be the one attending it when we still had the helper but since last yr, I had been the one in charge.

Bcoz Joy is now in P5, there was a short talk at the hall before parents move to the respective classes. The principal started the opening speech. She has lost so much weight (due to cancer) 😔 and I didn't see much of her last yr. I heard William say that she has lost weight bcoz he still sees her in some of the school events but seeing it myself for the first time breaks my heart. She could just tender or continue her sick leave but big events, you will still see her making an effort to come, to talk to us. I really like her and joy is so blessed to have her as a principal. One of the things she said yday was time with the (our) girls is most impt..she remembered that when she first joined the school, this level was just p1 and now they are p5 already..she misses the out of action phrase and hope she could come back asap to watch the girls grow..awww...brings a tear to me..

Joy on her first day in school - 2013

Indeed, time passes so fast and we must cherish time with the girls,hold and hug them, to love them abundantly. That's our task as parents isn't it? Sometimes we forget that what the kids need is love and time for them. Not another gadget, or trip, or another toy.

Coincidentally, Joy is in 5Love this year and her form teacher told us that their class motto is this :
" Everyday may not be a good day,
But there is something good out of every day."

To remind the kids to give thanks everyday no matter how challenging it seems.

Communication with the girls is very impt too.. the principal asked " what is the first qn you ask yr child when she comes home?" " Have any homework today?"
I saw some nods and laughter.. I'm glad I'm not guilty of this..hahahaha.. be interested in the child's life in school ; e.g. her friends , the trends they talking abt now, not always abt homework and homework.

"No one cares how much you know,
Unless they know how much you care. "

This applies to our kids too.. n i just can't emphasis how important it is.

"Be there, support and encourage"

Support our kids as they try to manage their primary yrs. Use words of encouragement and not words to kill. Coming back after a long day from school, hug the child, spend time to take a breather and not breathe down their necks to do homework.

In other news, I chopped off my hair a few days ago.. currently loving the new haircut. Hahaha

At the salon when it was done.. of coz it no longer look so styled liaoz..but i was pretty for that day..hahaha

My pre trip thoughts.. and day 1...

 Today is the day when the village goes for their holidays. I had an early morning appt and headed to office to finish up the rest of the paperwork. The plan was to meet back at home and we will go to the airport together. I came home and saw Mr choo still folding the clothes that has just came out from the dryer. The plan was to clear all the outstanding housework before we fly so that when we come back, we only had to clear the 1 week of chores. Seeing him still busy bustling here and there made me wonder if it was really worth to go on a trip. Yes, the kids are ecstatic about it, especially the twins. The thought about going a plane just makes the 5 yr olds on their best behaviour for this whole week. Lol.. excellent I would say..

This is our luggages..all of it.. a lot right.. for 5 of us on a 6 days trip. Majority of it were clothes , toiletries, diapers, medicine pouch, our air bed, blankets and toys. We brought some card games and some board games too. We did bring more toys than usual bcoz the aim of this trip is to focus on the 5 of us. No tv, no iPad and no hp..lets just gel together for the next 1 week.. focusing on bonding. Each kid also had a backpack of their own where they could bring whatever they wanted but they had to carry themselves. Vera had the lightest backpack among them as she had managed to scam/coax/persuade her sisters into sharing their soft toys with her..😅

This is our first long trip since we shifted to the new place. N i think the biggest struggle is having not enough clothes to pack (for the trip) n still have enough panties to wear while in sg.. Lol.. I guess this is the flip side of leading a minimalist lifestyle..

I do hope that the girls learn more abt how blessed they are in this trip, when we go visit the farms etc and interact with the kids there. If successful we probably can go to such places on a regular basis..  shall see how it pans out.. 😊

The objective of the trip is also to spend frugally. It's not because we can't afford but bcoz we have all we already need. Thus there is no need to splurge or spend excessively. Otherwise we would have a problem with storage when we go back.

While waiting for boarding..

And we are in the plane now.. having successfully checked in and positioned ourselves in our seats..

The girls are so excited, especially Grace. She's so loud while watching her emoji movie. Every time I take the plane, I say a silent prayer that we will reach the place safely. I think as one ages, the fear of mishap is real. I pray that God grant us journey mercy on the trip and may it be a fruitful one.

 This is the seating configuration for the leg to bkk.. 

To be honest I haven't sat next to mr choo alone for a long time for family trips. Kinda enjoy the space and freedom.. Lol..  love my man..

Upon arrival..
And here we are, at Bangkok airport.. the plan is to take their airport link (aka express train ) bcoz we would arrive at 5pm and it would probably have bad jam if we took the car. And so we did, like the locals.

It only took half an hour from the airport to the station near our hotel. And we walked for abt ~15mins with our kids and luggage in tow before arriving to our hotel. 

William, joy and I each took 1 luggage while the twins held each other and we began our long walk. Of coz I was hoping to get a taxi or something. But I thought it would be good for the girls to "work" a bit for their trip. Really thankful that we all survive the walk. Lol.. thank God for the beautiful weather too.. 

Met a good friend and his wife for dinner (A pity we didn't take any pics) before heading to the supermarket to get some tibits.. tomorrow should b  more relaxed .. told the girls that all should zzz til 10am at least.  (I wish)

Family time

We went to Gardens by the Bay two nights ago..had wanted to bring the girls to the skywalk coz Joy has been asking for it for some time. And the last time we came over, it was closed for maintainence. 

It was beautiful, the lights and mid autumn decorations. We had to queue for about half an hr before it was our time to go up. 

We took many many selfies while waiting in the queue, and this is one of them.. Vera and her 鬼脸😜 

The twins sitting at the entrance of the queue, while waiting for us to reach. 看着她们的背影, 这是的我感觉到欣慰。我们终于熬过来了。虽然小时候的她们终是打个你死我活,现在的她们已经变成了好姐妹, at least for this moment in time. 😊

至少我还可以跟老公一起拍个照。。看他一头的白发。。他说不要染以为这样会看起来比较老, 我看起来比较年轻。。🤣🤣

The scenery while we were on the sky bridge.. it's beautiful isn't it? Thankful that we are living in this beautiful country, with good governance and stability. Thankful that we have the chance to appreciate what's around us, and spend time with the kids, not busying with whatsnot.. time to love the kids and not breathing down their necks to do homework etc...

May we always have time to appreciate the things in life, to teach the girls the purpose of life.. 

P/s: by the time we came down the sky bridge, it was too crowded and the kids started to fuss abt everything.. abt the hot weather, that they are hungry etc.. 🤣🤣🤣

Guess we still need some fine-tuning.. hahahaha...

Holiday..yes? No?

Mr choo texted me this afternoon telling me that it's Deepawali on 18th, and asked if I knew about it, to which I said yes.

Only after coming home did i finally pierce the jigsaw together. I told him, Omg! So it means joy has no school from 18th all the way to 24th!?? He gave me a puzzled-i thought u know look.. haha... I told him tt yes i knew 18th was a ph, and the kids are don't have school from 19-24th (psle marking day), but I just didn't connect them together..  🤣🤣🤣

That means it's a long week of break ! And since it's the off peak, a holiday would be kinda discounted yeah.. checked out the SQ  tickets to HK and it's like $250/pax!! So cheap! My mind was like already calculating the estimated cost for this and that etc.. I know right.. for someone just declare that she doesn't like travelling.. what am i doing!?? Well, exactly bcoz I don't like travelling, so doing it at a discount off peak season sounds more sensible than doing it smack in the super peak Dec hols..

But joy isn't keen at all..hahaha.. Coz she would have her major exams right after the extended hols and she wants to revise... argh.. I even thought of the different permutations like she could bring her textbooks along, or we could go without her, or William could juz bring twins etc..coz twins nv went on a holiday without joy while joy has been to countless trips without them..lol.. but won't that be too evil ?! And too discouraging? Like nv support her for her exams revisions like that.. I was more keen on papa bring twins while I stay behind with joy .. haha..though the main reason why we always like going to HK is bcoz some of our closest friends are there and we haven't met for several yrs.. 

So yes the struggle / temptation is real..  but I guess no, we are not going.. not bcoz I believe in the whole - muz focus on revision story; (im sure thr kid needs a break in thr midst of thr revision right..)

but simply bcoz we should stay tog as a family la and I need to save up .. hahahah..

Why don't I like travelling?

Why don't I like travelling? I think I must be the weird person coz it seems that I'm the only one who doesn't enjoy travelling. The only person that I know who has the same sentiments as me is the spouse of one of my friends. But that's about it.

不知道从何时开始就不爱旅行也对出国一点兴趣也没有。身旁的朋友都觉得我很奇怪. The thing is as much as I don't enjoy it, I find it more of a chore to explain/reason/whatever why I don't like. Was just telling mr choo last night that some people like fried rice and others might like char siew rice, then since all could hv their preferences in their food then why can't I not like traveling? Anyway I've decided to list down the reasons why so many of my friends say they enjoy traveling and provide an insight of why I don't. 

Reasons why people travel

1) Experience and see the diff places of attraction ; experience the diff cultures etc 

• Me: I probably have "visited" so many places via my social media and live feeds over the past few yrs coz so many of my friends are posting it on their social media. (I'm not complaining) And bcoz of this, I get to see all the sites of attractions even without going to the destinations. To get those postcard perfect pictures, I think downloading on the web is a lot easier. Coz more often than not, when u reach the place, it's so crowded with tourists that it's challenging to get a picture without having someone photobombing it. 

• As for experiencing cultures, I seriously feel that we can only experience the true culture if we are going to stay there for a longer period of time, e.g. 1 mth. Anything shorter, u probably juz capture the touristic places and the people u encounter are probably people working in those places too. Hardly a true reflection. 

2) Eat the diff cuisines that are avail etc

• I happen to stay in sg and most of the typical cuisines are avail in sg, pretty authentic ones too. Like the Japanese, Korean, western, French etc.. especially with globalization, a lot of big food chains can be found here too. Yes, it might be more expensive but if one factor the cost of flying + accommodation + transport , it probably is a lot cheaper here. 

3) Shopping

• I used to get this as a main reason all the time. But now, with globalization, one can find uniqlo/ sephora and some of the big brands that weren't here 10 yrs ago. Every country that I've visited in recent yrs hv such places la..not forgetting websites like Amazon, taobao, qoo10 and even a website where u can get people to help u buy and bring back (can't rem what it's call), I can't think of anything that is not available here. 

4)Getaway to relax

• I find it most relaxing at home where u don't need to fret over which places to go or how to get to the hotel/tour place. 

5) Don't need to think about work

• I believe when it's time to switch off, its time to switch off la. I don't need to escape to overseas to switch off la. I take "leave " off my work all the time and I don't need to be overseas to do that. 

6) Don't need to take care of kids

• Honestly , between traveling with or without kids, I prefer the former. The only reason why I'm still traveling with kids is bcoz even though I don't enjoy it, the girls love it and it brings joy to me when I do something they enjoy. 

7) Other reasons

• Then i also have reasons why i don't like traveling. Etc flying on long distance is a pain , I can't zz well on flights, the jet lag. I also can't zz well when the beds/pillows are too soft. It annoys me to buy those touristic souvenirs/排色品. I've bought my fair share of them in my younger days and over the years, they all land into the trash. Having studied in Europe for some time also means that I've visited many of the Eu countries when i was young. 

Mr choo also reminded me that it's also bcoz we travelled a lot before the kids came, which is also true. We travelled like almost every mth or other mth. But then again,10 yrs ago, globalization wasn't everywhere. Lol.. so ya.. I probably hit my travelling quota during that time. I'm glad I realize my dislike now even though I wished I knew it earlier.

#Notetoself #muzrem #saynototraveling

Church camp 2017: Be embolden, be empowered

We juz came back about a week ago from Malaysia. Attended our church camp in K'L before heading down to melaka to spend some time with my family.

My thoughts about the camp

It was our 3rd camp as a family although the first since we joined this church. I remember we attended our first church camp in 2009, when joy was less than 2 yrs old. It also meant that she wasn't old enough to attend the kids ministry. Thus, for most of the sessions we had to bring her along. And most of the time, halfway thru, we would end up sitting at the sides on the floor, so that she could walk ard or play with other toddlers. And being first time parents, it was overwhelming, trying to contain her in the hall while paying attention to what the pastor was preaching. I was thankful that during that time, there were a few nice mummies who brought extra colouring materials so that joy could be entertained.

Fast forward 8 yrs, as I was seeing other mummies busy handling their infants/toddlers, it reminded me of that phrase of us. Looking back, I remember feeling incompetent as a parent. I wasn't confident of bringing her out by myself, until much later. I felt inadequate. There were many struggles, some forgotten, while some remained encrypted in my heart. Looking back, these memories have turned sweet with time. What seems like impossible then, has been overcome.

When we went for our 2nd camp, the twins were older and we also brought along our helper. Everything was easy easy. And maybe becoz of this, I have very little collection of it. Sometimes, it's the challenging moments that always remained encrypted in our hearts.

Besides the camp, we also took the girls to kidzania at kl which was having a super huge discounts.  For the 5 of us, it only cost about S$70! And the girls had a lot of fun there.

Each of them did about 5-6 occupations coz it was pretty crowded. I saw a few kids crying, coz they didn't want to play the occupation that their parents wanted them to. Sad. Told William that we will juz chill and let the kids decide what they wanna choose and it didn't matter even when the twins did twice of thr same occupation coz they simply loved it. Lol. It's their fun day, juz like them decide. And if they too tired, we can always juz chill at the Cafe and drink hot chocolate! Zen now..lol... 

Even when we ended the church camp and headed to melaka, it was most of the time a really chill relaxing nuan in the room kinda of thing.. most likely thr most nuan kind that we've done so far. There wasn't shopping or a food list to tick. Most of the time after bf, we will juz drop by my grandma place to chat with her before heading for lunch and back to the hotel. We did catch a couple of nice movies while in the room, afternoon swims and bath tubs ! 

That kinda wrapped up the whole trip. 

P/s: unlike the previous osaka trip, I did sleep very well during this trip. Probably bcoz I'm with the people that matter most. 

P/s: it's 530am now, I didn't manage to zz the whole night! Omg.. coz I'm supposed to go dating with uncle.choo today and maybe too excited, so can't zzz at all..omg! I hope I don't wake up at 2pm later ! Need wake the twins up for school soon!