Changes

Following with our move to Perth, and not having been updating this blog (blame it on not having good IT infrastructure here and there is always not enough time), we have started a new blog for what's going on in Perth for us. Please visit http://kohtanginaus.blogspot.com/

GUILTY

OK, OK, accept charges against us for not posting regularly! Verdict: GUILTY in the 1st degree!

Somehow it is just so difficult to sit down to blog these days. Guess it is because we have 2 young kids. All our time revolves around them.

Sorry to those who has been faithfully visiting our blog and hoping to read some updates about us. We will try to update sooooooooooooon...

Long time no post

Geez... how time flies... as we get older each day, there is just not enough time to accomplish what we want to do every single day. Is it because we become slow and therefore take longer time to do things?

Ok, ok, what a lame excuse to start to a post that is long overdue...

For the past months, we have been busy settling into the life here in Perth.

First, update on Kyrene. She is causing some worry to us. She is not finishing her tea break or lunch in school. Seems that she spends those times to try to make friends and play. She is still trying to make new friends in her school, which she is facing some difficulties. Not because of language or race, as she is trying to be friends with 2 Asian girls. She is learning that its hard to join an existing group when she is new. Other than that, she is doing ok here. She sometimes doesn't understand what her teachers are saying but yet too shy to ask or speak up. The teachers have no complains about her, in fact, she was given a honour certificate during one of her school assembly for her enthusiasm in learning, caring for others, etc. She has her 1st show and tell (public speaking session) in early March. She slso had her 1st school excursion to AQWA earlier this week. Oh, she also started private piano lessons since Feb and going to have her 1st performance end of this year.

Next is Kaylen, the naughty one. Not much about her except she is still not sleeping through the night and cries very loudly (sometimes her cries are very sharp) whenever she can't get what she wants. She doesn't seem to have grown much in size, sometimes she eats and drinks a lot, sometime very little. We tried cutting her hair, didn't turn out very well, a bit look like we put a bowl over her hair and cut. She can't really speak, only manage "pa pa, ma ma". Once in a while, she would impress us with one or two words (like that day I thought I heard her said "apple") but it is often an one-off thing. She does seems to understand us though cos we are able to tell her to do something like go take shower (she'll go to the bathroom to wait for us), throw in the dustbin (she'll throw the things into the dustbin), put in the basket (she'll bring the hangers to put in the laundry basket), so on and so forth...

Helena started on a full time job since early Mar. It is quite a change for her after staying home with the kids for the past 2 years or more. She is working in a small software reseller firm doing customer support. A bit tough at first but slowly getting better.

With Helena going back into the workforce, now it is Johnny's turn to stay home to take care of the kids. Not easy for him I would say. But he is doing a good job so far. He is getting used to it now but eventually, he will still go back to work when we can work out for someone to help take care of the kids. So right now, his daily routine is really to send Kyrene to school, Helena to work, do some shopping, take care of Kaylen at home, do housework, fetch Kyrene back from school and pick Helena back from work.

Shall post pictures rather than write so much in the next blog.

Chinese New Year and Kyrene's Birthday

Ok, got over another wave of celebrations...

We had a sumptious reunion dinner with Helena's parents, sis and family. We had super expensive yu sheng! We ordered a $40 salmon yu sheng from a chinese restuarant, added our own lobster meat (we bought 2 live lobster from Canning Vale Market). We also ordered roast duck and roast meat from the restaurant. Helena also prepared some char siew. For dessert, we had Kyrene's birthday cake.

Auntie Daphne and Auntie Christine sent Kyrene a birthday present all the way from Singapore. Kyrene was very happy. She brought her present along with her on the trip. The other present she got was her favourite. Nintendo DS game - Cooking Mama. Throughout the trip, her Nintendo DS keep her, Justina and Jesmond occupied during the long drive.

We drove down south to Albany on 1st day of CNY, which happens to coincide with Australian Day (so it is a public holiday here). We stayed in Albany for 1 night in Albany Gardens Holiday Park. The next day, after some sight seeing in Albany, we proceeded to Pemberton. We stayed at our favourite place - Lavender and Berry Farm, for 2 nights. It was a chance for the urban kids to experience farmstay. They tried their hands at chopping wood and using a fire place in the house. After Pemberton, we went to Margaret River to stay for 1 night. There, we stayed at Sunflower Animal Farm at the recommendation of Helena's friend. The kids again had lots of fun here and wished we had stayed there for 2 nights instead of 1.

A pity that holidays always so short...

Life without computers

For those who reads this blog regularly, must be wondering how come there is no updates for so long. Are we ok in Perth? The answer is: we are fine, just that our dear laptop decided to take a break on Boxing Day. The screen just went blank. We have been relying on the laptop even though we have a desktop PC, so when the laptop died, its not just data files (for those waiting to see photos, you have to wait longer now, got to try to recover all our digital photos) lost but in a way, communication too has been disrupted.

Just some quick updates:

• We ended 2008 with quite a busy schedule. Helena's mum was here to visit us. She went back just before Christmas. Helena's ex colleague and his family came for a short holiday and we managed to arrange to meet for dinner with them. Our dear friends from Hong Kong arrived on Christmas eve and we spent the next 10 days with them, all the way till 1st week of Jan 2009.
• On Christmas Day, it was literally feasting day. We had so much to eat at 2 different house visits. As usual, kids love it on Christmas as they got lots of presents. It was so sweet of our dear friend from Singapore who sent us our Christmas presents via post. And Santa grant Kyrene her Christmas wish - now she got a pink colour Nintendo DS Lite!
• After Christmas, we went to stay at a penthouse in Mullaloo Beach Suites with Keith, Priscilla and their daughter, Karis and some other friends. It is a beautiful place, we get to watch beautiful sunrise and sunset over the ocean. We had our New Year countday there. It was more feasting and drinking over that few days. We went to the beach to build sandcastle and swim. The only down side is Kyrene came down with fever on New Year Day itself. But she recovered 2 days later.

These 2 weeks we are taking it easy. Chinese New Year coming and we are going to be busy again. Helena's parents, sister and her family will be here to visit us and spend CNY with us. And of course, not to forget, Kyrene's birthday is on CNY eve. We will be going down south for a short trip during that time.

So, stay tune for more updates after CNY and hopefully, you'll get to see photos updates as well.

Kaylen 1st Birthday

5 December - Kaylen's 1st birthday, celebrated in our humble new home in Perth.

Time flies, Kaylen turned 1! We have been busy with our relocation to Perth that we have not plan for anything big. We took the kids out to The Beach House, an indoor playground, something like Fidgets in Singapore. We then went to Ikea to have late lunch and shop for stuff for the house. After that, we went to the city, Hay Street, to have dinner and some more shopping. We bought a tiny weeny little cake from Miss Maud's (Kyrene insisted on this cake because its the only cake with Happy Birthday wording, it is chocolate flavour and its small enough for our little family) and 4 cupcakes from the bakery in David Jones. Then, we went home to sing birthday song to Kaylen, cut and ate the cake.

Kaylen started to walk just a few days before she turned 1. Just last month, she was walking but with some support. She would hold on to the wall or chair or cupboard and walk a few steps. Few days ago, she bravely move away from the support and took one step at a time. She is still wobbly, when she looses her balance, she would sit down. We are trying to train her to walk with shoes. The other small achievement is get her to sit on the car seat and stroller. Still not 100% successful because she would not sit on it for too long.

Speech wise, Kaylen is not there yet. She has yet to speak one word. If she wants anything, she would point and scream for attention. She can only makes sounds like "ah, ah, ah" or "er, er, er" or "oh, oh, oh". On her birthday that day, she keeps going "woo-ahhh, woo-ahh", sounds pretty much like she is imitating the crows here. Its very funny actually.

Probably Kaylen is "growing" up. Lately, she just not interested in porridge anymore. She would prefer to eat what we are eating, like rice, noodles, burgers, fries, pizza, etc. She has been eating a lot of potato. Looks like she is literally "eat potato grow up". Haahaahaa...

Here we are in Perth

Finally we are here in Perth, actually we have been here for 2 weeks now.

We have been real busy for the past 2 weeks, since the day we touched down on 15Nov early in the morning. That day itself, we went to so many places. Helena's friend fetched us from the airport, went to our rent place in Willetton, went to test drive and took the 2nd hand car that we are buying from friend's brother, went to shop for fridge, washing machine, bought vacuum cleaner, rice cooker, dinnerset, cutlery, pillows, etc. At the end of the day, we were so tired that we only managed to clean one of the rooms so that we can sleep in that room.

The days that followed, it was more cleaning and shopping. Our shipment from Singapore got held up at the port, and that kind of upset our schedule. As a result, we are still in the midst of unpacking.

Helena's aunt and cousins came over for holiday during the 2nd week, so we spent some time with them, bringing them around Perth.

It was good thing that we have friends here, and cousin's friends, and friend introduced friends to us, and cousin's friend who introduced friends to us. Its really a bunch of friendly and helpful people over here.

Well, once we are more settled in, will take pictures and post more updates over here.

Kyrene's Graduation Night 2008

Blame it on the lousy camera that we own... did not managed to take many good pictures of Kyrene's performance during the Glory Kindergarten 33rd Graduation Ceremony. Only the shots taken of her and her good friends looks good. Luckily, some nice parents of her schoolmates took pictures of her during the performance and said will pass us those. In the meantime, here are picture of Kyrene taken together with Hwee Teng and Su Anne.

We are moving...

Guess its time to make the announcement...

We are moving to Perth, Western Australia end of this year. Some of you would be surprised but some would have guessed that this will happen anyway. Yes, we finally decided to move to Perth. We are leaving mid Nov.

We have been busy preparing for the move. Just finished packing up the stuff for shipping and the mover has just got those out of the way yesterday. Now, we got to start packing and cleaning the house before we leave. Seems like we have accumulated quite a lot of stuff over the years.

We probably won't have enough time to meet up all our relatives and friends over here before we leave. Hope to keep in contact either via email, online chat, forum discussions, or even phone calls. If anyone going to Perth, remember to pay us a visit.

We will miss Singapore... families, relatives, friends, food, shopping, etc etc etc

Pick Pocketed

Auntie got pick-pocketed at the market!!! Who, who, who, har?

We have been hearing so many stories about aunties get pick-pocketed but never thought it would happen to ourselves, right?

Wrong! Because the auntie that we are talking here is none other than auntie Helena. Ok, ok, laugh all you want, auntie Helena got pick pocketed in the morning when she went to the wet market in Bukit Batok.

Here's her story:
It happened real quick. I was browsing some children stuff, I took out my wallet to show my friend, and then put it back into my bag. Then a lady next to me asked her daughter where she got the wallet. I saw its my wallet. The little girl gave the wallet back but did not say when or how she picked up the wallet. Then, the lady told me to be careful as it has been known that there are a lot of pick-pocketers in the market. It was only when I wanted to pay for some stuff that I realised my money is all gone! That is all my hard-earned marketing money. Really feel so sad.

Times are bad (stock market so bad) and economy is expected to turn for the worse. Crime rate sure to go up. So, everybody reading this, be careful, don't think it won't happen to you, it can happen to anybody.

3 Weeks in Perth

For those who keep in touch with us often, you probably would say "Oh, Perth again?"

Yes, we just went to Perth for 3 weeks in end Aug, early Sep. This time round, we did not drive to the North, nor the South. We just hang out in the metro.

Couple of highlights:


- Met up with Helena's uni friend who is expecting her number 2 in Oct.

- Met up with friend's friends who have migrated to Perth


- Met up with group that is going to Singapore for rugby games to discuss about what they need in Singapore


- Met Johnny's old neighbour there, we played host to show them around in Perth and invited them to taste Helena's cooking



- Met up with group of friends that Helena made in online forum for mothers



- Went to Cohunu Wildlife Park, Yanchep National Park, and the zoo (Singapore Zoo is better)

- Celebrated Mid Autumn Festival there


- Went to South Perth for tea


Did not take many pictures, our camera refused to work in the cold weather.

Change person...

Today, was catching up on friends' blogs and I happened to read LH's where she commented about how I (referring to Helena) have changed from a career-minded person to a domesticated person who's priority is family and kids. Frankly, I never expected the change myself. Till today, even my own mum asked me when am I going to return to the working society. I am not sure if I can fit back into the working society actually. Will I be able to take the stress? Will I be able to work late? Will I be able to concentrate on work and not think about my kids?

These days, my small talk with parents, grandparents of kids in Kyrene's school, my friends, my relatives are always about kids. I share with them about how I fear if my kids can make it in school, how I don't wish for riches but wish for my kids to be healthy, how I fear if my kids misbehaves, etc etc etc. I got no more aim for myself in life, only aim to bring up the kids well. Is this the real me???

I am not the only one that has changed. Those who knows Johnny for a long long long long time ago, would have noticed the change in him as well. I shan't elaborate more. Johnny is also more domesticated now, putting family first as well. In fact, I think he is more worried about his kids than me.

Both of us are busy planning the future right now. It is going to be yet another big change for us. Will keep our friends post once our plans are finalised. Stay tune...

Updates updates updates

Terrible, terrible, terrible... fighting against time again. No time to blog here.

Ok, shall keep it short and sweet. Here are some photos of our Bintan trip on 27-29Jul.

Mid Year

How time flies... Its half a year gone. What have we achieved?

Kyrene brought back her kindergarten graduation photo the other day. So fast, she has been in Glory Kindergarten for 3 years - from N2 to K2. In another half a year, she would have completed her kindergarten. Next year, she will be going to Primary 1. The registration is end of this month. Still a big headache which school to apply for. Default is Pei Hwa but guess we want to try for a girls' school. MGS got limited seats and more than 1km, RGS more than 2km. These days, enrolling kids into school is soooooooooo stressful and worrying for the parents. During our times, our parents just simply enrolled us in school that is nearest. Where got consider whether that school produced scholars. Or least my parents did not think of that. Life is so competitive, even at such young age.

Kaylen is 7 months old now. She is able to sit up, crawl backwards, and now struggling to crawl forward. She loves to reach out for things now, and would happily put everything she can grab hold of into her mouth. 2 of bottom teeth has sprout out. So started giving her baby biscuits, baby bites and bread to snack. She is still eating mainly cereal, though slowly starting on porridge too. With Kyrene, she started on porridge much earlier, whereas Kaylen still eating puree at thsi stage.

July is birthdays month. Justina, Brother-in-law Joven, Elliot, Fanny, Angela, Kathryn, Keith, Priscilla, ...

Kuala Lumpur and Malacca Trip

Really difficult to find time to update blog these days...

Here's some pictures taken during our trip to KL and Malacca during the school holidays. We stayed in The Westin in KL and Hotel Equatorial in Malacca. Did a bit of sight seeing this time round. But no much to see.

Whole lot of December babies

Online forum thread discussions are so common these days, so I got to know a whole bunch of mummies who gave birth in late Nov n in Dec 2007. We would discuss anything under the sky, from pregnancy to delivery, to post delivery to baby care, and lots of shopping sprees. Once in a while, the group would meet face-to-face too.

We missed the earlier gatherings. We turned up at the recent one, 7Jun at Hard Rock Cafe. Here's a pic of all those who turned up. Look at how many Dec babies there were. It was quite fun.

We are already planning the next gathering. Hopefully, more mummies and babies can come.

Kaylen starts on solids

Been busy lately thus no time to update again...

Sigh, planning the future is tough. Been procrastinating for the longest time ever. Time is running out, got to get something going. So many things to think about. Got to weigh the pros n cons for everything. In such dilemma right now on...

Started Kaylen on solids last week. She is sooooooo happy. A tablespoonful of cereal was not enough, she cried for more. Now, she is feeding almost half a small bowl.

Back at Port Dickson for Johnny's Bday

Same time last year, we were at The Legends Water Chalets in Port Dickson to celebrate Johnny's birthday. This year, we decided to go back there for his birthday again. This time, we stayed in the Premium chalet as it comes with a king size bed and a queen size bed, which then 4 of us can sleep comfortably in.

Last year, we managed to catch some small fish, this year, nothing at all. Johnny was very disappointed. But he managed to sight a turtle. Its very rare to see sea turtle in this part of Malaysia, so he is very lucky. Told him that its a good luck sign, probably means long life for him (especially since he was there to celebrate his birthday).

After 2 nights in Port Dickson, we decided last minute to go Malacca to stay for 1 night. We stayed at Renaissance Hotel. We did not do much in Malacca, just laze around in the hotel, went swimming in the hotel pool and went to Carrefour at Dataran Pahlawan Melaka Megamall. The Dataran Pahlawan Melaka Megamall is quite new, not all the shops are open. Quite a happening place.

Overall, the trip is good except the part when Kaylen would cry very badly in the car. Sigh... she really does not like car rides.

Justina, Jesmond, Kyrene, Kaylen

This pic was taken during 2008 Chinese New Year

Before and After

Here are the before and after pics of Kaylen (refer to the hair) :)

Before

After