The past haunts..

Sometimes the past comes back and haunt you..lol.. I'm not talking abt some horror story.. but yes.. the past came and indeed haunt me.. the ex-bf msg me few days ago asking abt details of his policies. I arranged to meet him today bcoz it's easier to explain technical stuff face to face. I haven't seen him for ages.. he stopped doing any reviews after we splitted.. the wife was not comfortable abt it even though I suggested transferring to a colleague..she wanted to transfer to her agent, who turns out to be from a tied agency and unable to represent him.. so he ended up in no man land, with no adviser in my previous company.

So I met him today. I told mr choo prior that, bcoz I had nothing to hide.

And we did discuss work stuff and also stuff about how our lives have been since we parted.. and through the conversations, it just reminded and reaffirmed that we are not suited for each other..lol...he's starting his own biz selling some industrial goods after being retrenched 1 yr ago... but he says it's tough..bcoz of various reasons.. I think that was the start of how differing our views can be.. to him, obstacles are everywhere and it's not possible to succeed.. but for me, I view all these as challenges.. he asked "how can?" But I viewed as "why not ?" Being a self employed myself, much as everyone sees how successful I am, it is not without sweat / hard work / grit / perseverance. It is a thin line in mindset between  "I'm not good at it" vs "I need to overcome this".

In a certain extent I do pity the wife.. bcoz of his everything-not-gd attitude, I doubt he's contributing much to the household (be it in terms of $ or services).
If we had been together then, I would sing the tune of many wives that I know personally, who complain how their spouses are not bringing much to the table etc.. 难道今世的男人还以为带一点💰回家就很了不起了吗? 现代的女人不至需要赚钱,还要做妈妈,做maid 还有很多很多。

I wished I had more good things to say about him.. Coz this post wasn't intend to talk bad abt him.. 😒

It was intended to say how thankful I am that the man I see every night before I sleep is Mr choo..  that every time I go out to work, 我都可以很放心因为我知道他会好好的照顾孩子。。Much as how people say surely he should go out and get a job since the girls are older now, no one knows how much he has contributed to the household that money alone can't be measured. 我很感恩以为我有他。我是幸福的。我也希望我的朋友们能找到最适合他们的另一半, someone who can make the best of each other..

Counting down...

The massive 11.11 shoppaholic event just passed and I too, took the chance to grab some bargains. Out of those that I've bought, the one purchase that caught me by surprise was air tickets! Yes, the choos are travelling.. although there was no plans to initially. Wow! Hahahah... surprise surprise..

During our recent melaka trip, I told William that if we were to travel again, I hope that it would be something meaningful. That the girls would learn something out of it..either humility or be able to see snow coz the twins hadn't experience snow before.. we considered bringing them to HKK but it was simply too expensive for the village to go.. air tickets on scoot alone would easily b $5k, not mentioning all the accoms and transpt etc..  I did considering doing farm stays in Aust/ TW but even that too would cost quite a bit.. the most affordable option we had was to bring them to a farm stay in JB but some of the reviews said that the mosquitoes there are commando grade and I wasn't comfortable risking Vera on another mozzie attack. I suggested legoland also bcoz it was a place that the girls havent been before but Mr Choo wasn't keen.. when it seems like all options weren't possible, I suggested Khao Yai - a place 3 hrs away from Bangkok. We had all watched a travel show before on it a few mths ago and really like what we saw. But even tickets to Bangkok wasn't cheap considering the school hols (aka super peak). Budget airlines were going for ~$300/pax, only slightly cheaper than full carrier fares. One might think $300 sounds reasonable but when I have to budget for the whole village it would easily cost abt $5k for the entire trip and that wasn't something I was comfortable to spend on a whim. I would rather spend the $5k on groceries and let the girls bring it to the children home we adopted last yr. 11.11 came and I was still sitting on the fence. I'm not sure if it was 11.11 or what, (I was sure that the lowest fare we saw on SQ was $1600++ for the whole village the day before) but somehow by God's grace, the SQ tickets became $217/pax! Which would mean that we would only spend abt $1k on air fare. N it was the dates that we could go in order to stay at the cheap accommodations at khao yai.. hahah..(~$400 for 3 nights with 5 beds is a steal)
And so , we booked the air tickets and accoms on 11.11! And getting ready to leave on sat ! Really excited to see the place! The scenery is nice and we would be going to a few farms so that the city kids could appreciate nature..hahaha

A casual chat with my buddy and he referred me his driver contact which would bring us there too ! And at a discount ! Yeah! Praise the Lord ! Mr choo had checked out the car/driver rental rates and it were all much more exp such that we concluded that we.probably just rent a car and he will have to drive. But God is good.. for He has given us a driver who will fetch us around and we didn't have to worry abt getting lost or finding a petrol kiosk etc..

Feeling pretty excited abt the upcoming trip. We have decided that there won't be any T.v. on the trip so that the girls could spend time with each other and with us. Praying that God grant us mercy on the trip and protect us throughout it.. and I hope the girls will know how fortunate they are when they see kids living in poverty in other parts of the world. Moving forward I do want to be deliberate in my travel plans such that they do learn something out of it. But this is the first one and hopefully it pans out well..

Coffee session

Dear God, there were so many prayers/ requests I have before I pen this. But once I started writing, I really should thank you for all the blessings I have. Thank you Lord, for all you have given to me: the man, the kids and the career. Was just chatting with a friend over lunch today and it's amazing that despite my childhood, my upbringing, I'm blessed that I don't have marital woes; that You have given me the most suitable man for me. Thank you Lord. Recalling back , there are so many marriages that I thought would last but didn't.  There were so many reasons that mine won't last but it did. And the reason is bcoz of you, my Lord.

Thank you Lord for all that you've done, in protecting me and my household.  Thank you for giving me everything I need. Lord, You know our situation. I pray that You be with me. All the days seem empty and today has been 2-0  so far. Lord, I know the purpose for placing me here. Lord, I pray that You strengthen My Faith, use me to help others , be it in advisory/ relationship/ religion. Use me so that I can be a blessing to others, to guide and help others.

I pray that all will come to know You. In Jesus name I pray, amen!

1 Timothy 4:12New Living Translation (NLT)

12 Don’t let anyone think less of you because you are young. Be an example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity

Me

While waiting for my appt today, I went back to the initial beginnings of my blog..why I started this blog and how I had hoped thru my blog, others would be blessed and hopefully eventually I would be able to remember about God's blessings upon me..

It was refreshing to re-read some of the posts. And I definitely blogged more in 2011 when I was struggling with IF compared to any other years of my life..lol..

I always remember this stage of Joy, where she would always always pray together with me and for me, that I would conceive. Such was the (strong) faith of a 3 yr old. Even though there are times that she wished she was an only child, I know that she loves her sisters v much. And today is an example of it. It is "chek-chek" season now..  everything the twins want, they want to do it with their big chek chek. And today Vera actually accidentally fell off my bed and Joy managed to coax her to stop crying within minutes. Lol..

Thankful for God's wonderful blessings to me.. thankful that for every obstacle/challenge that happened, He is always with us, to guide us and to teach us. Thank God for everything

Happy moments

When you need an assurance before you go out on ur own party..hahaha.. 

So thankful for him..its bcoz of him, I get to go out on my own dates..love him to the max.. 😙😙😙

#energybooster #ilovemy老公 

This is the state of my legs now, in real time. 一点都不夸张. This is the result of walking > 12500 steps in a single day...lol.. it's my personal "Olympic " record given the fact that I don't really like to walk. Hahaha..

I wished I could say that the aching legs were because of my deliberate efforts to exercise n be healthy.. hahahah... well, let's just say that there was some irresistible  sale going on such that my kakis and I just simply had to "cheong" for it.. hahahaha.. it was targeted shopping and we all had lotsa fun, helping one another pick out what's suitable and nots. 

This was taken at our final stop..  all super tired but 满载而归的样子。。。I always treasured the times we spend together, bcoz with them, I'm always very comfortable. 不需多说什么就可以了解彼此。很她们在一起是我的荣幸。开心😄😄😄

Happy children's Day!

We celebrated children's day on Friday.
 Joy had a school "event" at NUS, College of Alice & Peter Tan (CAPT), and parents are to attend the event with the child. So I kinda kena "volunteered". The plan was this.. me to go with joy for this event while Mr choo brought the twins for a movie and we would meet again for lunch.

To be honest, I wasn't very keen to go to the school event coz it meant seeing a lot of parents and having to small talk with them. It is a dread to talk/social/fit in etc.. so for most of Joy's school activities, William had always been the one volunteering/participating. But Joy had "pre-booked" me weeks earlier and I didn't want to disappoint her. The parents are genuinely nice people, but I just don't seem to be able to last an entire conversation with them.. I also felt that it was kinda too early for her to do a school visit to a university since she still need a couple of years before embarking onto the uni at stage.. certainly it's too early for P4s to go on an open house to a university right? But anyway we went.

The crazy hot weather 

And I was glad we did. Although the struggle of trying to talk / fit in is still real, the objective of the tour was rewarding. It was organized by Prof Tan Lai Yong who wanted to let the students understand the benefits of studying. Not just to get good results for PSLE, but why do we study? It is so that we can improve the lives of others thru our knowledge, to be able to create better ways at enriching the lives of the less privilege ones. Also for the kids to have an outdoor work out , instead of always buried in revisions and homework etc.

The kids had some team building exercises where they were supposed to do task 1 & 2. The instructions were simple: the team wins if the time taken for task 2 was 80% of the time taken for task 1. But as usual, the kids were more concerned about finishing it fast. No one really read/understood that by doing task 1 fast, it meant that completing task 2 within the 80% time would b even more challenging. Prof Tan took the time to explain to the kids (& us) that it's not who finish first that matters but who finish most accurately that matters. And most importantly, PSLE is not the final stop in the kid's lives. It is only one of the many milestones in life.

The kids plus some of the volunteers who took time off to bring us around. 

Such words of wisdom, and timely as well.. it's another affirmation that what we have been guiding our kids about exams , life , responsibilities are on the same direction. It's assuring to hear it from someone who have mentored so many kids and also someone who despite not being a high PSLE achiever, have done so much more over the years. Resilient and grit are the things that we should plant in our kids. Not just achieving well for the national exams. Enpathy and kindness are virtues that I really hope Joy could have(more) of. Allowing the kids to try various skills like baking, gardening, pottery or many others, in their early years, so that they can have fun in their childhood.

The tour ended just before lunch with the kids learning the various plants etc. Overall, I'm glad that we went. 😊

Met the girls and uncle choo at Marche at vivo. It's one of the places where it's price friendly for families and comes with a small playground where the girls could play after their meals.

And they loved taking pictures with the cow each time we are here..