Halloween Animals

Here I have a cat, pig and lamb. I know, not quite Halloweenesque but at least they are costumed up! These animal hairbands have proven to be useful! I was dressed as a mummy cow. Mooooo!

I love my little farm...

Labour of Love

This was the outcome of what started out as an innocent call from Emma's form teacher asking for a favour to put together a keepsake CD of the girls' photos taken throughout the year.

I kindly volunteered Paul being much more skilled than I am in this area. (fact)

Initially, Paul did not appreciate having to come home late from work with homework sorting through literally 700 photos,.... complaining about how obsolete his computer is and how much it was slowing him down. But as the montage started taking shape, we were happy to be creating this for Emma's class. Capturing their childhood memories together.

As I watched Paul hard at work, I started thinking about how to "package" it so that it was atactive to the girls. Also decided to make a little booklet within each of the DVDs so that their friends could write little farewell messages to each other in the last week of their school year together. They have been together since P1, and next year they would be reshuffled into different classes for the first time. :(

A weekend of pretty intensive last minute shopping for supplies and manual labour,...we have:

1. Completed the montage (I use the term "we" loosely but it was really Paul)

1. 2. Burned 30 DVDs

3. Printed on 30 DVDs

1. 4. Created 30 DVD sleeves (packaging)
3. 5. Created 30 Message Booklet inserts


4. 6. Assembled!!! (30!)

Does Emma care? Probably not. She just liked bopping to her favourite tunes when we played through the DVD. Complained a lot that we couldn't take her cycling like we usually do on Sundays.... But I reckon in 5, maybe 10 years, she will really like watching this little production of 8-year-old her with her teachers and friends....

Farewell and God Bless to P2.4 - 2010!!!!

Dozen Years

Today, we've been married a dozen years.... Paul surprised me with the most beautiful bouquet of flowers ever followed by gifts and dinner at Santi.



Unfortunately I didn't get Paul anything! Oops! I didn't realize we were exchanging gifts! Is my gift of love enough? Surely priceless? :D

Thanks baby for taking the effort. xxxx
Err...Keep it up.... Ahem! :P

OMG - How to not adore them!!!

Found this pic of my lovelies. This was taken back in June at some airport in Japan I think.

Am so lucky that the three of them really love each other to bits. No matter what happens to us, they will always have each other.

Mum's 63rd Birthday

This year, mum had several birthday celebrations. This one was on the eve of her birthday. Us kids decided to take her some place she hadn't been - Shinji @ Raffles Hotel. Food wise was just ok for the price, but what was important was the company. I think I speak for all of us when I say we all had a great time chatting, just us, no kids.






In my personal opinion, I have the best mother in the whole wide world.

Happy Birthday Mum!!! Xxxxx

Scoot, Scootier, Scootiest

Bought the 3 girls their first scooters. Emma and Cate got the cheaper 2 wheelers. Had to get Sophie the slightly pricier 3 wheeler since she won't be able to balance so well yet.

They are all thrilled with their scooters. Sophie less so when she realised hers was different to her 姐姐's!

Also got little bicycle bells for each of their scooters from DAISO. Fab.

They are so much easier and more portable than bikes! Perfect for quick trips to the park.

Pleased....

Sidney Kong (1921-2010) - The Gentleman with an Iron Fist

15 September 2010 was a sad day in my life. My dear 公公passed away at 1025am. It was not a bad thing as he was feeling very poorly in the last few weeks and it was very painful to watch him suffering....

公公was quite the character. He was very strong, and opinionated, and he didn't care to sugar-coat his words. He just told everything like it was. Nobody would dispute that. Some may not have liked him for that, but to me it was 公公 and I loved every single bit of it. I wouldn't dream to trade that for the more conventional cuddly grandpa.

We had our usual banters - 公公would say something politically incorrect, I would tell him off, he would smack my head (really hard) followed by a smackeroo (that's what he called a kiss). I will forever miss those moments.

Dinners at 公公's were frequent where he would cook my favourite foods and we would talk for several hours late into the night. Again, more smacks and smackaroos....

公公, I will miss you dearly and you will always be in my heart.

From your loving granddaughter, Peng xxxxx

Singapore Biathlon 2010

Last weekend I did my 2nd biathlon. Last year's biathlon was supposed to prep me up for a full tri but I just got lazy and just never got round to one.



Similar to last year, there wasn't much training. I swam once a week for the month leading up to the race (i.e. 4 times). Each of the swims was about 1.6km followed by a 10km run. Before that, the last time I swam any distance was probably last year's biathlon. I have somehow developed a dislike for swimming in general. It is just painfully boring. Nothing about it appeals to me. There is nothing to see or listen to throughout each long swim. ZZZzzzz.....



I was the 1st wave at 8:30am. This was about an hour later than last year. Not sure of the reason for this but it could be the tide. What this means to me is that it is going to be HOT! I was just worried about getting yet another shade darker. Sigh!



Swim seemed much easier than last year. Throughout the entire swim, I was just really worried that my Garmin watch was going to fall off just like it did in the GE Womens' Run. Luckily not. Finished the swim feeling quite fine, not too tired at all. I was > 10 min faster finishing my swim in about 39min. (Last year it was ~52min. Eek. Backstroke is definitely not the winning formula for me.)



Ran through to transition where I had a Chocolate Gu Gel. Was hoping to feel a serious "hit" like I did during SCM, but somehow that never happened. I felt fine anyway. Somehow my swimming and running stamina are just separate. Sprayed myself with SPF 50 (again) and off I went.... The run was a weird route where there was 2 loops round the lagoon. I hate loops in general but somehow cos each loop was reasonably short (~4km), it didn't feel that bad. I completed the run under the hour in about 59min.



Total time = 1:41:00hr so my guess on the breakdown would be:

• Swim - 39 min


• Transition - 3 min


• Run - 59 min

Paul participated too with a bunch of his army buddies as they do every year. He did great finishing at 1:33:41hr. Woohoo! (S 39:16; T+R 54:25)

All in all, I would say I am pleased with my much improved time (compared to last year's 1:57). After all, I don't have the "I just gave birth" excuse. Next time I will break 1:40. :)

My Lil' Champion Swimmer

Last weekend Emma participated in a beginner swim meet. She went home with 3 golds and 1 bronze. Yay! Before you all get too impressed, it was a bit of a baby swim meet. The serious swimmers didn't really participate. But what the hell, I am damn proud of her anyway! I don't really have plans for Emma to become a serious swimmer anyway cos who wants a girl to have a swimmer's body.

Below are the events that Emma chose to participate in:
25m freestyle kick (bronze) 3/3
25m backstroke (gold) 1/1
25m breaststroke kick (gold) 1/3
25m breaststroke (gold) 1/3

As you can see from the results above, the only event she truly won was the breaststroke kick since she actually beat other people that were in her event. She beat them by quite a large margin too. To give Emma due credit for the breaststroke and backstroke events - because she was the only person in her event, she got lumped in with the boys and she did beat them too. It was especially a relief for backstroke since earlier that afternoon she couldn't really even do backstroke! I guess it is all relative. :P

Well done Emsky!!!!

Gong Xi Fa Cai from the Chews!!!

Chews had a fantastic Chinese New Year visiting relatives and catching up with friends. Happy Lunar New Year to you all!!!!

And another New Year wish from the little Kum Kuats....

SSSSSSSSSSssssssssssentosa!

Took a nice picture with a white python when we went to Sentosa recently. Sophie was asleep in her pram so too bad this isn't a complete family picture.

Check out the girls' faces.... Emma was absolutely thrilled while Cate was so not keen.

I ought to be ashamed of myself but all I could think about was how it would make a lovely wallet! Ack!

Lil' Munja Munchkin...

Little girls really know how to work their magic on their fathers. Check out Lil' Munja Munchkin face. Can you tell that she is trying not to make eye contact with me. She's normally very sticky to me but sometimes she likes a good old snuggle up to Papa... and as you can see from Papa's smug face, he's loving it. xxxxx.....

Decommissioned....

There. It is final.

The Chew Cot has been decommissioned and disposed of. It has lasted 7 years through Emma, Cate & Sophie.

The Chew Baby Factory is officially - CLOSED.

* Or I could just buy another cot when the need arises... shhhhh....

Wowzer!!!

Check out Cate's bangs!!!



I took years to grow out the girls' fringes so that they can pull all their hair back easily and neatly. Just like Emma, I decided to cut a fringe for Cate cos while tying her hair today, I felt like it was receding! I wasn't sure if it was just that she has lots of baby hair or cos she was really balding in front.

Anyway, me thinks it looks rather nice! I can also tell that Cate is liking the new look. :D