Cheeky moments with my boy

 

He had food in his mouth and I mimicked his full cheeks

 

Happiness

Saying goodbye to Denmark

20 Jan, Wednesday: enroute to the office at 8.30am

 

Notice the amazing details - brick bushes!

The signature shot with very signature bricks

 

I thought I'd build a snowman and snap a pic for the kids...
that didn't happen because I nearly froze my fingers off just holding the snow!

 

Visited a quaint town for dinner, Vejle which is about 20minutes away

 

Snowy quaint

 

Hearty dinner

Cold. Very cold.

21 January, Thursday: my last breakfast in Billund

After half a day at the office, we were finished with the week at Billund. It'd been an interesting and fun week, truly. To play student again to absorb and learn information, to make new friends from different parts of the world, it felt refreshing. By the time the day ended, it was about 330pm.

Enroute to the airport at 4pm

Billund Airport

 

The short flight departed 10minutes late from Billund, to - thankfully - arrive punctually at Frankfurt. Here, I bade farewell to my fellow friend Jana from the Czech Republic. My transit window period was 1hour 20minutes and I quickly made my way to the connecting flight early, so that there would be no mishaps of any sort.

 

I had about half an hour, which I used to change into a more comfortable set of clothings. I also boarded the plane and held my breath... until the doors were announced shut. And tadah! I had the same seats free on the plane - all to myself again - hooray!

 

My last leg of travel, 3-seater bed all to me!

To have the same seats available was amazing, and it made the long travel a lot more comfortable. I was trying to adjust my body back to Asia time and I pretty much concussed the moment the plane took off. By then, it was midnight BLL time, which meant that I had been awake for 18 hours straight. I snoozed for about 1.5-2 hours, and awakened to feeling hungry. I had a small snack of bread and biscuits, then started to catch a movie... which didn't last long. I then laid down to sleep for about 4 hours. By the time I woke up again, it read 2.30pm on my watch (SG time). I decided to force myself to stay awake because I'd be home at night time and I should be sleeping then, instead of in the present, and so I did. By the time I set foot on ground, it was about 5pm and I felt so glad to be off the plane.

It's been a pretty back-to-back week of activities and it was quite an experience. Before the trip, I couldn't bring myself to feel excited; instead opting for stress and worry because of the unknown. Now that the trip was over, and it was truly quite an enjoyable time, I wonder why I hadn't been more upbeat about it. So a lesson to self : be more accepting of challenges and regard them (my husband's words) as an adventure! There are always different ways of interpreting things and perhaps, I should learn to lighten up and accept them than worry. It's quite a timely reminder to myself, especially being at the start of this new year.

I am now back and the weekend was pretty amazing. I slept, ate and spent time with family and it was very nice. I hope I will get the change to travel long-haul again, as it's really an amazing experience and I know that all the travel experience I gathered this week will stay with me, to equip me better for my next travels.

Visiting Billund, Denmark

Sunday, 17 Jan, 11.55pm: Thankful for the great start to
this red-eye flight. My very own 3-seater-bed!

 

Monday, 18 Jan, 6am local time (it was about 3pm SG time):
After 13 hours + 1 (custom clearance at transit), I seat myself to witness
the beautiful skies from the Frankfurt Airport and make a quick call home.

 

Boarding my small plane from Frankfurt to Billund

View from the tarmac

 

View from the skies

1pm: After freshening up, I headed to the office and have my first
sit-down meal in a very long time.

 

The small town centre of Billund

 

Tuesday, 19 Jan, 7am: View from my window - snow!

Weather

 

I'd love to cycle if I could! But probably unwise given my unfamiliarity
with the place and how wobbly I may be in the cold.

 

Amazing 3D models of FRIENDS

Whee! Spot the bball hoops in the background too... and further
down, there is a ping-pong table and dart board.

12.30pm (post lunch): as sunny as it gets

Lego House, work-in-progress. Will be amazing to visit
when it's completed!

 

Isn't the windowsill lovely in the white and red with snowy exterior?

Visit to the staff store

 

My fellow trainees, all happy with our loot!

This is what -7 looks like at 930pm

Leading to my room

I was so cold I stayed bundled up in the room for 10minutes. BBrrrrrr.

 

Wed, 20 Jan: 835am: enroute to the office

I am so happy to have this opportunity to visit the LEGO Mothership and the whole week has been pretty amazing. I am trying my best to take in everything best I can - from meeting different people, to listening to different subject matters and living in the snowy cold temporarily... and as much as I miss the family, the experience is amazing.

Rushing off to the next thing right now!

Pocket money

Monday to Friday + 1 box for Savings. Such a great system!
(copied from a fellow Mommy with a new primary school child)

Random

 

This little girl has discovered dressing up. She thinks it's cute.

PS: I suspect it may have something to do with the fact that in her new primary school class, there is a girl of a similar name Katelyn. This girl wears glasses.

Last Sunday afternoon. (You can't really see from the picture but I was
hanging on my own accord! Not leaning against the wall!)

 

This boy's other obsesssion, playing pool

I hadn't run much in December last year, but as you can tell, after
coming home from Korea, I basically started to run yesterday. What's not seen
in this record is that I started running at 5.45am.

PS: This is a new trial I am testing to see if I may use my time in the morning more efficiently. In between sending the girl and boy, I go for a run. In other news, I went to bed last night at 9.30pm not caring if the kids went to bed too cos I was dog tired (they did, for the record). 

11 Jan 2016 - happy birthday my love!

Today is the husband's birthday. He is right now on the plane on business travels, and so we did a small birthday gathering (more than a celebration) yesterday. It was indeed a simple affair, where he opted for home-cooked food and we finished off with his usual preferred choco-banana cake...

 

Our family, 2016

 

Happiness

 

 

It was a reminder from FB on what happened 4 years ago (see pic below) that prompted me to dig through my archives to check out what we did do the past many years.

2012

And the results were astonishing! In 2014, we managed a family holiday to Krabi. In 2011, we went for a decadent meal at Morten's. In 2010... I couldn't find a record of what we did - oops. For the rest of the years in 2015, 2013 and 2012, we pretty much had home-cooked meals and funnily too, the picture that we took were pretty much in the same angle at the same place, i.e. my mother's kitchen. It's rather amusing.

This, also brings to mind, some thoughts about my husband. While he can be pretty picky with his food preference, he is also, a big fan of family. He's said before that he loves the way my #foofub family interacts and makes merry with one another and he hopes that our little family unit is fun-loving and loving too. It's been 8 years since we've been married and 2 kids later, I do believe that we are on track to building our own crazy little loving family. It also brings to mind how he can be quite a simple man, sometimes.

Reading through the past birthday posts also bring to mind something that is consistent of this man - he is one man who loves all of us, and in turn we love him to the moon and back.

I wrote a short-ish (ok, it's quite long) post on FB today to wish him well. The response has been phenomenal. Within an hour, I received more than 50 likes, and right now, it's 5pm and we're at 256likes. While I am not seeking for media fame nor am trying to gather a million likes to prove anything at all, I must admit that this to me must demonstrate that this man whose birthday we celebrate today is a special man, special enough for people to bother to like and/or wish him well.

Dear husband, you know you mean the world to us and we wouldn't change anything of you (yes, even the farting and sleeping all the time) - because that would not be you anymore, and we only want you.

Happy 36th birthday, my love.

From Mars and back, Kate, Jake and me.

First trip out of Singapore - Korea

On the 5th day of January 2016, I flew out of Singapore. It was a very busy morning, that started dark and early at 5.15am. I rolled out of bed grudgingly, to see my daughter already dressed in her adorable school uniform and eating her breakfast quietly. Over the next half hour, she got ready and we headed down to the pick-up point at 5.40am to wait for her school bus; turned out to be the bus waiting for us! On the dot at 5.45am, she was off to school. I felt really heavy-headed and waded my way back home. I sat the alarm for 20minutes later, and laid down to rest. This is the morning life of my daughter going to Primary 1.

 

At 6.20am, I got up with a throbbing headache and went to get a glass of water. The husband's alarm went off too and together, we woke up a cranky son and got him ready for school. We made a decision to change him to the morning session class and this means that he has to get on the bus at 7am; and this is sthe morning life of my son going to N2.

 

Heaps of change this first week in 2016... and one of that is me going off on my first trip out of the country.

I'm right now in South Korea, Seoul on a work trip. It's been a fruitful trip on the work front, and the weather is terribly, terribly cold. It ranges from 10 degrees to -5 and it has been quite an experience gettting all bundled up in layers of warm clothing. It's also nice to be on the trip with 2 other colleagues, so I don't feel all lost and lonely.

 

In between work and meetings at the office, we have managed to do some bits of shopping and eating Korean food. Besides the extremely dry weather that is causing my skin to feel stretched and my nose to nearly bleed, it's been pretty cool (hur hur, bad pun). So here are some pics for me to remember this coupla days.

 

 

Day 1 - my travel companions

 

Day 2 - Myeongdong

 

Day 3 - Team Korea

 

It is very cold in Korea!

I head home tomorrow, and am totally looking forward to hugging my lovelies!
What a start to 2016!

First day of school 2016

It didn't seem too long ago that we were at the Primary One orientation; yet here we are waking up in the dead of the night (ok, I exaggerate. It's 630am on this first day of school as school started at 8am. Only the first day!) After breakfast and all the usual to-dos, the husband and I drove her to school together. Traffic was smooth and we managed to make it to school on time (phew).  

My little kimgek and I in the school courtyard

We led her to class together, and sat her down in a random seat.

Paying attention already - great sign!

 

We had to leave the classroom so that the teacher can get on with what she needed to do (she politely invited us to leave if we had no questions to ask) and like the obedient co-operative parents that we are, we did.

Not before we took a family pic together!

While I sat through a session with information on parent volunteers, the husband headed to work. I was thankful that I had girlfriends to sit with and chat. Before long, it was recess time at 9.40am. The school had cordoned off an area at the perimeter of the canteen so that parents may see their child, without interrupting with the child's routine at school. It felt rather barbaric that we had to peer from the sides and it was a madhouse! It took me more than 20minutes to locate K and when I finally did, it was pure happiness!

Spotted!

It was very endearing that she was craning her neck to look at me too and I felt very loved, and I hoped she felt too. Being the independent girl that she is, I'm sure that she would be fine. Yet seeing her like a little-big girl does pull at my heartstrings and I feel as if she is, afterall, little. I also knew she was anxious because she had expressed her anxiety while on the way to school and we assured her that it's normal to feel excited and nervous all at once, because this was a new adventure. I felt very proud of her though, and while she was looking out for me, she still seemed fine and I remind myself that she is in a great environment which will train her to be a fine young lady.

Yay I got to see her upclose!

 

After recess at 10.15am, I made my way out from primary school and headed towards kindergarten to see my little boy. When I arrived, it was assembly and I stood by the sidelines watching this little boy who was standing so confidently, singing along. It took him a while to notice me and when he did, his smile was amazing.

My little big boy

I stayed only for a while, as there was little for me to check on - I managed to kiss him and say goodbye before the husband came to brighten his day too by checking in on him - and sent me home.

 

Being on leave, I was able to pick both children up.

 

Love this pic of us!

Mommy will always be behind you both, supporting and guiding you
whereever you go, my babies.

 

I felt a bunch of emotions as I spent this first day of school with these babies. I know that they are growing up and I know that I need to adjust my own expectations of them and myself too. It is amazing how quickly they become independent and I know that they will be fine.

 

I asked K, especially how school was, because the change is so much greater for her with changes in everything from school bus, to school, to environtment and routine; being the champion she is, she responded with a smile and thumbs up! As for J, he's always been a confident little chap and as expected, he rose to the occasion like the strong little soldier he is.

 

So proud of them for being so brave in embracing their new school life in 2016!