Piano

MLS piano experience starts from Yamaha's Little Notes class. Teacher Esther was pretty nice to her, considering she was a "dun-wan" kid. Every other kid was singing along and she sits firmly on the chair, all 6 mths of class till the graduation ceremony then she suddenly 開竅. Everyone was shocked as she was branded "shy", "slow", "clingy" ...

The graduation ceremony was a great improvement and I signed her for junior class next, which we didn't continue on after 3 mths (1 term), reason was that the class had ballooned to 10 students; there was barely enough time for Teacher Esther to pay attention to each student's development. It was a waste of time and $$.

So MLS switched to Christofori, which is slightly nearer to home. Teacher Victoria this time, a very cute and sweet girl. Well, when I was pregnant and took MLS there for class, she would always make special trip out to help me with the door.. not that I was so weak .. It was lucky MLS had her for 6 mths together with 2 other little girls. But then she's more of Manager of the branch and soon, she handed over to Teacher Jenny, who I believed is good, just that she wasn't that lively and soon all 3 girls were losing their attention. But then the reason we did not continue was not because of her, well .. 小臭 was out dec last year and in jan when the registration started, I was doing confinement and then there was the last maid who gave me much trouble.. pretty depressed to be bothered actually.

In july, things picked up and we found a private piano tutor for MLS. Every Sunday, we would go over to Teacher Jennifer's apartment and MLS will learn attentively. Her progress is much much much much much much X1000 better. Which is why we are getting the family's 1st piano!!

My heart is weeping actually.. both of joy and sorrow. Joy because MLS is so willing to learn. Sorrow as piano are very very expensive, they cost more than my MBP, maybe even that iMac I hope Rui and ABang will OK to!!!

AhDa and I went to view the new pianos first. Actually I took him to a used piano warehouse but strangely it was not there .. "#07-1515" so we tried "Cui" Piano at thomson next. The boss says resale piano is high risk and you won't know what u are getting, Yamaha and Kawai are too branded and the price is really for the brand; not value for $$; So he played on a few pianos and we were really impressed with this MI-Germany piano, without knowing the price or the brand. The sound was really rich.

My initial plan was to check out the new pianos, reccee the warehouse for good pianos and get XY to help me play the ones I singled out to make sure all the keys are good. When I checked with Jennifer, she painted me a different story. She suggested that "cui" is overpriced and that Yamaha has a very high resale price. So next time, if MLS is good, I can upgrade for her, else Yamaha is good enough. Unless I want to go long term for MLS .. then I should splurge now.. gee .. I want that :p Did I mention that the very good Germany piano has a 12.6K price tag?

雖然知道她心里只有錢，我還是為她煩。。。 能夠不理。。能夠放下。。 多好！

Life with 2

I have not had time to blog for soooo long. After the new baby arrived, she was always crying; diaper changed, refused milk, hugging her also did not help. It was after a while when I realized she was addicted to breastfeeding. Only that alone can soothe her. But my poor breasts were sooooooo sore then; I could only pat her and watch her cry on. Honestly, the skin were even peeling off my nips!

She still is addicted .. but if its not me, she can force herself to drink a bit from the bottle. Luck thing now that she's past 6 mths, she can eat some porridge too.

MLS is turning out to be a great sista. I cant praise her enough. She'll hug me when I'm stressed and help to look after baby when I'm away awhile. Luv her for being so sensible.

What I'm going to bring to the hospital

小臭 is coming into the world tmr morning at 9am +. I'm packed my hospital bag and here's what I'm bringing.

1) Marriage cert - to register BC
2) disposable undies
3) sanitary pads - normal kind.. will try breastfeeding so I doubt my menses will be strong
4) letters - blood tests and doctor's instructions + letter from my confinement food caterer so I can activate them
5) Baby accessories : bootiesX2sets, mittensX2sets and hat
6) Swaddle blanket
7) 1 set of clothes to bring baby back .. this set is sponsored by MG .. she bought from mothercare and its very comfy; Going to take care of it in case she decides to have another baby stone.
8) Postnatal binder - on promo in Guardian .. cheap! less than $30; I tink my previous one costed over $60 from the hospital
9) my own shawl to keep warm

10) DS Lite in case I'm really bored!
11) camera
12) wallet + NRIC
13) Gifts for MLS
14) A heavy heart .. I'm quite scared to be cut open and then there's the defenceless baby to nurture and MLS's reaction. She's been prep to be a sister but still the real thing is hard to
predict.

Its been quite a tough 38 weeks. The first week I know, the gynea was saying there's a 50% MC chance and I had a strong flu for 3 weeks, coupled with the 4 mths of vomitting. Life sucks as the vomitting came 6x a day, on my trips to and fro office and after every meal or snacks.

Then there was the giddiness everyday. When Ahda doesnt work, I'll drive slowly to work. Albeit the slowness, my car was knocked 2 times. Once, from the back by a bike and I was stationary waiting for the traffic light. The 2nd time on the driver door .. that once was milder and only the mirror was hurt.

There's also the on-going house renov. To save ard $6K, we are getting another contractor instead of the one Laksa recommended. He's ok but very very blur; and forget quite a number of things, so we cant move in time for the new baby.

And my maid had to go back Indonesia 2 times; effectively drying up all my official leaves. Each time she goes back, she doesnt come back home straight when the plane touch down. The 1st time she came back at 1pm and went out with her friends till 4pm the next day. The 2nd time she came back at 1am and slept in the airport before coming back at 8am the next day. Having a maid is troublesome; if not for the lazy men in the house who cant do their share of housework, I would love to go maid-free! Then the kids will go to childcare.

Finally, Ahda hates the gynea I went to at Mt A. I hate him too.. so mercenary. He knew from the start that I was hoping for a no pain op and my old scar is on the pelvic bone which makes it impossible to be no-pain but he waited till I pay up everything before he told me! The nurses at his clinic are gossipy and rude too. Plus if we want to choose a date for the op, its an extra 2K on top of the 3K for his choice of date! The final straw was that he arranged to go holiday on my baby's 38wk and wanted to do the op on the 37 weeks. So I sacked him; took back my deposit and went to another gynea.

I hope things will go slowly back to equilibrium after tmr. One thing good is that Ahda is more "man" during this period. Before that, I was quite pissed off with his bo-chapness abt MLS stuffs and always playing pc games. Now he will take initiative to do more things for the kids; e.g. he changed the switches and gangs for the new place; even though it was quite a scare initially. He blowed up a socket and short-circuited the neighbour's house! At the end, he got a few cuts but more man lar!

Preparation for the new baby.

there are a few things to get prepared

1) book hospital room - mt A

2) book confinement food - natal essentials

3) order confinement herbs - Aider

4) get mattress for baby

5) breastpump

6) Yaolan - gotten!

7) transfer MLS to a nearer school

8) Present from baby to MLS

9) Get sanitary pads, dun think hubby will get that for me over my dead body.

10) Organise MLS baby clothes for the new addition

I seems to be ill-prepared for the new baby and thats making me grouchy.

My first new home

First floor

View from the living room

Utility room

Master bedroom toilet

Master bedroom

The common toilet

Study Room

MLS and LMLS room

Living Room

Staircase

I'm so excited to have my new home! Yeah, no more sudden visits from people who don't flush the toilet, shit on the floor, urine on the seat, dont close the door when they are in the toilet, handle food without washing hands after toilet, finish half of my carton of soft-drinks that I need to suppress my nausea, talk loudly, visit without invitation, expect my maid to loan them charger, etc blab blab blab..

I need a place to express all these bad feelings and I cant wait to move to a place I can finally call my own. A lot of things went wrong with this flat purchase.

1) The agents got the Option to Purchase form wrong (both of them!) and we didnt find out till 2 weeks later when the lawyer told us.

2) We wanted to get the more conservative DBS house loan but the DBS officer servicing us took mc for 2 days and 3 days before the OTP deadline, we called her and she was in shock and said "u better go to another bank just in case."

3) We finally signed up with UOB's best loan rates they can offer and one of the form was lost a week later, had to re-sign it.

4) Called the law firm 4-5 times to find out the status and they didnt get back to us. When I finally the clerk in charge, she told me I had to go down to pay 23K by 2 days!

5) The seller's lawyer forgot to supply the original OTP and my law firm called us to ask for it.

6) Penalty for service and conservancy charges when I didnt get the bill to pay for it last month.

We have finally gotten our keys and renovation will begin 1 week later. Pray pray renovation will go smoothly and I can have my confinement in peace and cleanliness.

A short trip to bangkok

MLS cheeky look while waiting for Grand Oishi at Siam Discovery Centre to open. Grand Oishi is about 600baht per pax but has wide wide assortment of premium japanese and chinese food.
The poor Koala Bear sweating under the hot sun. He ran to the shade shakily after we took this pic.

Who do u ask when u cant find the way?? Map!! (Dora's Adventure)

Its the last trip for only child MLS; I hope it makes her happy. With an addition to the family and the age catching up, I doubt I can handle going overseas with 2 clinging kids.