Dinner at istana

Had the privilege to step into Istana because of sats contribhttps://www.facebook.com/comchest/videos/1877363035612320/ution to corporate social responsibility. It was an amazing journey! Even the drive was impressive the lush lawns and spacious vicinitynews an eye opener! Istana itself looks like a mini bungalow sitting right in the middle of a wide plain. Not as majestic as I would compared with the palaces around the world, but compact to serve its function I suppose. Regardless, that evening was a great night of reflection and I had the privilege of having a proto moment with the president Mdm Halimah Yacoob. 

Nathan’s 6th Birthday

Baby video!

Nathanael at 2

• Scene: mimi was washing the veg and scaling the fish when Nathanael pulled his little stool to the kitchen sink and stood next to her.
• Nathanael at 2 yrs: "Mimi, why the fish has no legs?"
• Mimi : (shocked to hear this question) stared at him and tried hard to figure answer. "That's how they are made. God gave them a tail to swim in water." 

M: Do you know what is the answer for 10+1?

N: don't know

M: imagine your 10 fingers if you add one to it how many fingers do you have? 

N: I cannot

M: why not?

N: I only have 10 fingers .. I don't have an extra one to add!! 

M: 😂

Guangzhou

https://goo.gl/photos/1K97aUcwBBA5UcHU7

Took Nathan on our shopping trip in view that he would be attending primary school next year and that this may be his final year to tag along as and when we feel like making a quick road trip! 

Poor little Supeebb had to stay home for fear of him being kidnapped! Way too cute and an easy target for baddie people darling.. next round ok?

Read this when you feel dejected

My colleague Kwong sent this to me when I felt so disconcerted  about my achievements and how I was made to feel small by someone who is highly judgmental and non-appreciative.

My children, if anyone were to make you think that you do not possess the ability to achieve and make you think that you are the lowest of all living organisms and not Recognising your true talent... read on.. for your awakening and discovery is judged based on the calibre of that individual. Be true to yourself and you will realise your own Teh potential. 

Superb Story*

A little boy went to his old grandpa and asked, "What's the value of life?"

The grandpa gave him one stone and said, "Find out the value of this stone, but don't sell it."

The boy took the stone to an Orange Seller and asked him what its cost would be.

The Orange Seller saw the shiny stone and said, "You can take 12 oranges and give me the stone."

The boy apologized and said that the grandpa has asked him not to sell it.

He went ahead and found a vegetable seller.

"What could be the value of this stone?" he asked the vegetable seller.

The seller saw the shiny stone and said, "Take one sack of potatoes and give me the stone."

The boy again apologized and said he can't sell it.

Further ahead, he went into a jewellery shop and asked the value of the stone.

The jeweler saw the stone under a lens and said, "I'll give you 1 million for this stone." 

When the boy shook his head, the jeweler said, "Alright, alright, take 2 24karat gold necklaces, but give me the stone."

The boy explained that he can't sell the stone.

Further ahead, the boy saw a precious stone's shop and asked the seller the value of this stone.

When the precious stone's seller saw the big ruby, he lay down a red cloth and put the ruby on it.

Then he walked in circles around the ruby and bent down and touched his head in front of the ruby. "From where did you bring this priceless ruby from?" he asked.

"Even if I sell the whole world, and my life, I won't

be able to purchase this priceless stone."

Stunned and confused, the boy returned to the grandpa and told him what had happened. 

"Now tell me what is the value of life, grandpa?"

Grandpa said, 

"The answers you got from the Orange Seller, the Vegetable Seller, the Jeweler & the Precious Stone's Seller explain the value of our life...

You may be a precious stone, even priceless, but, people will value you based on their intellectual status, their level of information, their belief in you, their motive behind entertaining you, their ambition, their risk taking ability & ultimately their calibre. 

So don't fear, you will surely find someone who will discern your true value."

*Respect yourself.*

*Don't sell yourself cheap.*

*You are rare, Unique, Original and the only one of ur kind.*

*Your are a masterpiece because u r  the MASTER'S PIECE.*

*No one can Replace you.*

*Have a Great Life*👍👍

PCeo Awards at SATS

Organised a great 

Nathanael at 2

Looking at cuties photo. ..He has this irresistible grin that makes heart melt. 

Today we met a police in the lift and Guess what he did? Police said hello little boy and his reply was "I don't want to say hello to police"! My little 2 year old can verbalise himself so well, and the police were shocked lol! Try not to get into trouble with law enforcers at such a tender age k?     

Nathans K1 artwork

Amazing product from a 5 year old. Such lifelike animals! Little artist in the making!

Ivy league university application

Nohttp://afterschool.my/news/72793-2/

Read the Essay that got a Malaysian-Born Girl Accepted Into All 8 Ivy League Universities
April 7, 2017

A 17-year-old girl by the name of Cassandra Hsiao, achieved the incredible feat of being accepted into all eight Ivy League schools.

Hsiao, who resides in Walnut, South California, has offers from Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Dartmouth, Brown, Columbia, Cornell and Penn, leaving her with arguably the most pleasant headache of her life, as she decides which world-class institution she wants to join as part of the class of 2021.
Hsiao immigrated from Malaysia at just 5 years old. She’s a first-generation immigrant, and while her resume was impressive beyond all measure, it was her essay about learning English that impressed the universities.

Speaking of her impressive resume, her GPA stands at 4.67, while she scored 1540 on her SATs. But her impressive resume somehow gets even better the longer you go on. She’s one of two student body presidents, an editor-in-chief of the school’s magazine and active in her community.

Not satisfied being just good with the books, Hsiao has conducted on-camera interviews on red carpets at film festivals, media screenings and press conferences. She’s even interviewed Captain America himself, Chris Evans!

In addition to being accepted to all Ivy League schools, she was also accepted to Stanford University, John Hopkins University, University of Southern California, Northwestern University, New York University, Amherst College and many others in the UC system.

As promised, here is the much talked about essay that helped Cassandra Hsiao pull of this truly incredible feat.

In our house, English is not English. Not in the phonetic sense, like short a is for apple, but rather in the pronunciation – in our house, snake is snack. Words do not roll off our tongues correctly – yet I, who was pulled out of class to meet with language specialists, and my mother from Malaysia, who pronounces film as flim, understand each other perfectly.

In our house, there is no difference between cast and cash, which was why at a church retreat, people made fun of me for “cashing out demons.” I did not realize the glaring difference between the two Englishes until my teacher corrected my pronunciations of hammock, ladle, and siphon. Classmates laughed because I pronounce accept as except, success as sussess. I was in the Creative Writing conservatory, and yet words failed me when I needed them most.

Suddenly, understanding flower is flour wasn’t enough. I rejected the English that had never seemed broken before, a language that had raised me and taught me everything I knew. Everybody else’s parents spoke with accents smarting of Ph.D.s and university teaching positions. So why couldn’t mine?

My mother spread her sunbaked hands and said, “This is where I came from,” spinning a tale with the English she had taught herself.

When my mother moved from her village to a town in Malaysia, she had to learn a brand new language in middle school: English. In a time when humiliation was encouraged, my mother was defenseless against the cruel words spewing from the teacher, who criticized her paper in front of the class. When she began to cry, the class president stood up and said, “That’s enough.”

“Be like that class president,” my mother said with tears in her eyes. The class president took her under her wing and patiently mended my mother’s strands of language. “She stood up for the weak and used her words to fight back.”

We were both crying now. My mother asked me to teach her proper English so old white ladies at Target wouldn’t laugh at her pronunciation. It has not been easy. There is a measure of guilt when I sew her letters together. Long vowels, double consonants — I am still learning myself. Sometimes I let the brokenness slide to spare her pride but perhaps I have hurt her more to spare mine.

As my mother’s vocabulary began to grow, I mended my own English. Through performing poetry in front of 3000 at my school’s Season Finale event, interviewing people from all walks of life, and writing stories for the stage, I stand against ignorance and become a voice for the homeless, the refugees, the ignored. With my words I fight against jeers pelted at an old Asian street performer on a New York subway. My mother’s eyes are reflected in underprivileged ESL children who have so many stories to tell but do not know how. I fill them with words as they take needle and thread to make a tapestry.

In our house, there is beauty in the way we speak to each other. In our house, language is not broken but rather bursting with emotion. We have built a house out of words. There are friendly snakes in the cupboard and snacks in the tank. It is a crooked house. It is a little messy. But this is where we have made our home.

Supee bb

The wonderful things about little 2s are starting to sprout now that he had officially turned 2. It started off with his wardrobe. The littlest one is so close

Time at the beach

Never been a beach fan but since we are all having cough, I thought it's most appropriate if we were to make our way to East Coast to end of the school holidays on the high. Had a whale of a TimE with them. Nathan the curious beaver has been trying to dig into breathing holes left by crabs and brought an entire bucket of rocks home! Jie Jie who is a mermaid fan brought home a full collection of seashells! Everyone enjoyed the beach except for supee bb who disliked the waves and feel of the sand. Fortunately he wore boots.. else I had to keep carrying him as he refused to step on the sand!

Piano lessons

From Ms Yoan

"Nat's mummy, look at this picture.. I manage to take during Jie Jie last part of piano lesson, she was playing the Sakura's song as performance n the boys became the audiences.. so cute 😄😄"

The kids were amazing! Learning at their own pace and enjoying the session!

I recalled when teacher Yoan first came to our place. The little ones were rather territorial! Supee baby didn't allow her to touch the piano and has been observing her like a little hawk. Whereas now, he would run to the kitchen, help himself to a packet drink to pass to Ms Yoan without consulting mimi or gongong. This cutie will take the drink and pass it to ms Yoan telling her "teacher, give. Drink!".. then he would run to the kitchen again and help himself to a packet lol! Such a smart bb. When kor kor started his individual lesson, he would pushow his little chair next to the teacher and said "Learn piano".. soon he realised that his seat is way too low and can't see anything. He would Stand on the chair.. climb up to teacher's lap and instruct her "play". Teacher was shocked but amazed at his zeal to learn! From hitting the teacher to sitting on her lap, this constituted a huge transformation! You never know what your babies are thinking and making sure they develop self confidence is key!  All this happened when he was 1 plus.. amazing little boy!!

Supee baby

Gong gong made a special cake for super baby! Guess what are the ingredients? Bread and Nutella! It's so beautifully made that we can't tell it's bread in it!!

Super baby has been allergic to eggs and it's difficult to source for egg-less cakes... so gong gong decided to take it upon himself to make a super special cake for this super special baby! The taste was very good  and super baby kept asking for more, saying "yummy yummy! More please."

He is good with speech under the tutelage  of his siblings! Amazing how much he can absorb at such a tender age! He could say  so many words on his own and use them with the right expression! This amazing baby never fails to amaze me I am so privileged to have all my babies with me! And having such a strongly knitted family! Love you guys so much!!

If You Think You Are Going Nowhere In Life, Take A Deep Breath And Read This

"In today’s fast-paced world, we are all in a hurry. In a hurry to get to where we are going, in a hurry to get successful, in a hurry to get things done. We get dejected when things don’t happen our way, when results are not achieved instantly. It’s a race and we are scared of being left behind. The age of  achievement has decreased. Fifteen-year-olds are developing codes and selling websites. By the time you are 25, you have a company of your own. Or you are an accomplished musician who has travelled the world. People are doing too much in too little time. Only some people.

And that is scaring the hell out of us. If at 25, you are still slogging it out in a 9-to-6 job, you feel worthless. All your friends are getting married and posting pictures of their honeymoon to New Zealand or some exotic destination you can’t even afford to think of in the next 2 years. Time is running out; the world is running past you and you…you find yourself struggling to even get up from bed. 

Relax. Take a deep breath. Don’t compare yourself with others. The world is full of all kinds of people – those who get successful early in life and those who do later. There are those who get married at 25 but divorced at 30, and there are also those who find love at 40, never to part with them again. Henry Ford was 45 when he designed his revolutionary Model T car. A simple WhatsApp forward message makes so much sense here:

“You are unique, don't compare yourself to others.

Someone graduated at the age of 22, yet waited 5 years before securing a good job; and there is another who graduated at 27 and secured employment immediately!

Someone became CEO at 25 and died at 50 while another became a CEO at 50 and lived to 90 years.

Everyone works based on their 'Time Zone'. People can have things worked out only according to their pace.

Work in your “time zone”. Your Colleagues, friends, younger ones might "seem" to go ahead of you. May be some might "seem" behind you. Everyone is in this world running their own race on their own lane in their own time. God has a different plan for everybody. Time is the difference.

Obama retires at 55, Trump resumes at 70. Don't envy them or mock them, it's their 'Time Zone.' You are in yours!” 

Early success doesn’t mean a happy life. You could open a company at 25, you could also go bankrupt at 30 if the company dissolves. You could find success at 40, and perhaps you’d be more well-equipped to handle it then. Whatever happens, happens for a reason. 

Maybe that lost job was not right for you. Maybe you are meant to hone your skills for something great later. There is no right time. We get things when we are ready for them. When it doesn’t happen for you, it means it’s not supposed to happen right now. No point worrying yourself sick and envying another.  

Spend your time polishing your personality, acquiring new skills, learning a new language – create the person you want to be in future. Create the personality that will match your success. Work towards your goal at your own pace. Everybody has their own timeline. What if you are meant to do something worthwhile in some years when you are older and wiser, but you were too busy feeling bad about yourself and drowning your woes in alcohol. Imagine the regret. 

Opportunities never cease to come. If today is not your day, it could be tomorrow. Don’t stop living your life just because it isn’t happening.

The chamber of secrets

Guess who are the locks for? Is it meant to keep baby away? Nah.. is it meant for Nathan? Or Natalie?  Nah.. it's setup by the kids to keep papa away from their goodies! The mystery of the missing sweets and chocolate bars are solved!