TKY Dec'16 - D2

Here's a short post on day 2.  

Tokyo itself was not that cold in mid December, or at least the few days that we were there.  We only managed 2 tourist locations that day, which was Sensoji Shrine and Tokyo Skytree.

Sensoji Shrine is not big at all.  For tourists like us, we probably spend more time browsing Nakamise-dori, which is a street leading to the main entrance of the temple.  On both sides of the street are souvenir shops and food stalls.  Inside the temple ground, there's are stalls too.  We ate a few yakitori kind of meat stuff.  Lynn was attracted to the novelty items, like very kawaii looking sugar coated pancakes.  Well, I wasn't too into food photography, so I got none of those stuff to show.    Below though, are pictures of us enjoying orange juice served out of a real orange (the orange flesh skilfully removed, so that the skin stays intact, which is then filled with orange juice).  
 


In the early afternoon, we went to Tokyo Skytower.  Well, I thought that this place will capture the attention of the kids better than a temple.  It did, but not for very long either.  Anyway, we hang around, enjoyed the view, took some photos, then hang around a bit more.  Soon, it was almost late afternoon, when we proceed to the Pokemon Centre located here.  Here we got souvenirs for the younger cousins and for Lynn herself.





Instead of looking at the real thing out of the window, the kids went for the "high tech" one.


Finally, it was already dark by the time we went back to the vicinity of our hotel for dinner.  This night, we had sashimi and BBQ shells.  Yummy again of course.  This pic reminded me that the kids took a lot of photos too.

TKY Dec'16 - D1 - Tokyo in Winter

Finally! I have uploaded all the photos that I wanted to post about our family Tokyo Dec'17 (Skiing) trip! When Lynnette saw the pictures, she commented that those were the "good old days", ha.

The cousin
Other than the 3 of us, we took Mabel on this trip.  I'm glad that May trusted and allowed us to bring Mabel.  May offered to bring Lynn on a shopping trip to Hong Kong this coming December, which after consideration I declined.  Not only because Lynn doesn't like shopping, also because I didn't want to burden her with my expectation of safety for Lynn.  Of course May didn't take offence.  That's the nature of our relationship, healthy and respectful.  To her, I will always be the too-uptight mum.  To me, she will always be the too-bochap mum.  But, we are good, because we believe in "to each her own".

Mabel took her PSLE last year, and was waiting for secondary school posting result when we were on the trip.  The independent middle child has grown up to a true "chilli padi", ha!  During the trip, it did not occured to me that she's actually quite well-behaved.  It was during a family weekend after the trip that someone mentioned bringing her out for movies, and she had put her legs up on the seat in front of her, which caused quite an embarrassment to the adults, that I thought to myself "heng ah..".

She took care of herself and her belongings.  She's strong and handled her own luggage.  The items in her luggage were all in a big mess. She's the kind that force shut her bursting-at-the-seams luggage.  But since she can find her stuff, and didn't strewn things all over the place, I gladly did not "mother" her.

The day at Disneyland, she was lost momentarily, for like 10 minutes.  We just finished our ride at one attraction, and had agreed to head for another specific attraction.  The 4 of us set out together, and as we proceeded, pulled apart at a slight distance from each other.  And then in a minute or so of not having visual/physical contact, she's nowhere in sight anymore.  I came to know how easy it is to get lose in a crowd.   WK went forward and backward searching.  Luckily Lynn spotted Mabel when she was back tracking to find us.

Our young lady is now a mobile-wielding teenager.  She is taller than her sister.

I really hope that we can have a extended family trip some day.

Why a ski trip
Well, more than 2 years back Lynn asked to go to a snowing country for our family vacation.  Wk told her to learn roller blading (actually he just wanted her to exercise more), so that we can go skiing.  Which she did.  But at the end of that year, the snow/ski trip didn't materialise.  Instead we went Taiwan.  So, in the first half of 2016, we made plans and arrangements for the ski trip.  Typically, I would not have gone for full blast winter and/or ski trip.  That's torture as far as I am concerned.  So for this trip, I figured that I shall grit my teeth and give it a try.


Day 1

Nowadays we, including the kids, are frequent travellers.  The flight to Tokyo and the train ride to our  hotel were uneventful.  We reached the vicinity of our hotel and went for dinner first.  Either we were very hungry, or the food in Japan is just great.  I mean, every meal in anywhere in Japan, on every Japan trip I did, were just so good.  Anyway we had rice sets, and the girls were very satisfied.

Then we checked in, at Centurion Hotel at Akasaka area.  And the girls were utterly impressed .. by the toilets.    Firstly, there's the toilet bowl that has many functions, most notedly the warm seat.  Then there was the spa-shower system, which on top of the rain shower head, had 6 more horizontal jets meant for the shoulders, mid back and lower back.  While Mabel concluded that the skiing (day 5/6) was the best part of the whole trip, Lynn awarded this honour to the toilet and the shower, ha!  Here are some pictures.

On our way, somewhere in the cloud.


Singapore Changi Airport

Train from Tokyo Haneda to midtown.

I didn't take any nice photo of our hotel, so here's funny one and one from the web:

4 single beds, a one-stove+one-sink kitchen (behind me), no wardrobe, a toilet, a shower, and a living area (on the left of this pic behind the TV).  That's pretty much the standard size for a family of 4 for a Tokyo hotel.  I wonder why the male took this super unglam photo, but it turned out to be the only I had to show!


(Pic from internet) The jets were really shiok.  Especially at the end of a tourist's winter day.  The shower "chamber" looked like some high tech research lab equipment, ha!


More interesting stuff coming up in follow up posts.

2 decades plus a year

March 2017

(I) A one night staycation at Fullerton Hotel

It had been 20 years since WK and I were together (and married for 18).  We went "steady" in Feb 1997.  Sometimes we do staycation without Lynn.   It was during the March school holidays that we did this staycation at Fullerton hotel.  Before our check-in in the afternoon, I drove Lynn and WK's mum to her cousins' house.  In the car, Lynn asked if WK and I were going to "ditch the 2 and do the mini-honeymoon thing".  Hahaha, I told her that she was correct on the "ditch the 2" part, but it's call "staycation" and not "mini honeymoon".

Here are some pictures


 

(II) A beautiful birthday party for 2 beautiful girls

In the last weekend of March, we attended the 21st birthday party of WK's cousins, Nicole and Natalie, who are twins.  When I got to know WK in 1997, almost all of his family members and relatives reside in Malaysia, except for his youngest aunt.  He was staying with his aunt back in 1997.  The first time I visited his aunt at her Yishun flat (where WK stayed at) was in 1997.  Back then, the twins were very young.  It was now (this year) that I realise that they were only 1+ year old then.  Oh, how these kids have grown!  I still remember the time when they were crying in the car trip from JB back to Singapore after May's wedding, and how I tried to coax them but failed.

There's a photo booth at the party, and here a few pictures.

Yap family siblings with aunt and the birthday babes.

A

Some other random pictures taken in March:

Chengdu Apr17

Went Chengdu for biz trip in April.  Went to it's famous food street in town for dinner one night, with colleague from Singapore and Huizhou (Guangzhou area).



On the last day, we went tracking at 龙泉山， with the local Chengdu colleague.












Free drink for all mountaineers.

You suddenly grew taller!

This is a Lynn catch up post.

For a few months in the first half of this year, she grew taller rapidly.  It was so obvious, almost everyone, including myself, made the remark "you grew taller!", one fine day or another.  And I have been watching like a hawk since; very soon, she will be going through puberty.  

In February, we attended TPY CDC Education Merit Award presentation ceremony.  This was the first year this award was given in a presentation ceremony.  In the past, we only receive the certificate in the mailbox.  And as an encouragement to the children for their hard work, there was a monetary award starting from this year too, which was a token sum of $80.



In April and May, we attended 3 secondary schools' open house. Ha! Yes we were quite KS; instead of doing this at P6, we started in P5.  I wanted to know more about these schools, to make informed decision about her P5 and first half of P6 studies.  We visited some of the top girls' schools, which are probably out of league for Lynn.  Nevertheless, we encouraged her to do her best.

It bothers me that all schools nowadays talked about was "leadership".  It used to be "creativity" and "entrepreneurship" that were the in-thing.  Our meritocratic society doesn't know how to appreciate and celebrate individuality and diversity.   Every cloud has a silver lining; every child is unique.  I hope my sweetie will be able to find her place in a nurturing environment during the emotional teenage years.  

At NYGH




The seeds she took back from NYGH grew beautifully.

At RGS




During June holidays, I brought her shopping, to a movie, and for baking class.

Here, we forgot to bring a skirt for change after swim, so I "made" one on the spot for her with my extra set of blouse :)

At the beginning of June, she performed a piece at her music school student recital.  I cajoled her to choose the pop song piece "Faded", which I had earlier bought (scores) for her online upon her request. I am very happy with her progress, as I have reached my aim of equipping her with a solid foundation in the instrument. As to how far she wants to go eventually, I promised her that it will be up to her.





Her Rocker outfit we bought specially for this performance.  The boots are mine!


Ms Qi Ke, our piano teacher.

Finally in July, she watched  the NDP rehearsal as part of P5 curriculum. I call it the highlight of primary school education. Having watched it live only once, I always remember the fantastically impactful atmosphere of that night.  I was glad that Lynn loved it too. She kept saying how hyper she was still feeling at 10pm, when I fetched her at the school canteen. She described the experience as "going deaf repeatedly during the whole performance".  

Her school (the 4 storey high building) at 10pm on a Sat night.


Airplane trail decorating our blueish skies during rehearsal months.  

And now (before start of T3 holiday), it's CA2.  Mugging time..

At the interchange

Work in progress; excited

https://millidream3.blogspot.sg

My first (group) date with a 6-year-old :)

(Testing out "Blog Touch", for it's mobile photo update; looks like it's going to work )

This national day holiday, we did a one night stay at Sentosa.  We didn't realise that 10th Aug is school holidays, so we booked the 8th-9th instead.  Over the past few years, we tried many different hotels.  As I remembered one of the most spacious one was Festive hotel at RWS.  The last time we were there was for Lynn's 5th BD (I think).  This time round, we managed to quite comfortably squeeze 6 pax.  Brayden took the upper bunk bed; the 3 girls took the queen size bed; WK and myself took the sofa bed (it's the size of in-between super single and queen).  We brought along a sleeping bag, which complimented the sofa bed.  My assessment is that this was the most comfortable one-room-fit-many hotel room.  

This was the first time that I brought Brayden out.  It had always been the girls.  Brayden is now 6++, going to be 7 in a few months' time.  Being old enough, he didn't give any trouble at all.  It was really fun for the cousins; that night, in the room, they played hide and seek.  I'm glad to have this opportunity to interact with Brayden.

The kids and the teens clambered for the bunk bed.


The teens claimed to have missed lunch, took off for food.  So I took the kids for a swim.


WK and MIL arrived at 3+.   After we washed up, the whole gang head out for beach station.  WK and the 5 cousins tried the skyline and luge.
 




The skyline ride does not stop at all; passengers have to disembark while it is moving.  WK took this nice pic of the girls in motion (jumping off and away from the skyline carriage).


MIL and I waited for them at the bottom.  One by one, they come down by the luge.

Dinner for 8


Here's one pic for remembrance.  Say cheese...


The next morning, we brought them to do the indoor sky diving.  Brayden was underaged; Lynn did it before and didn't want to try again.

These 2 had a blasting good time.


After this, 3 of them did a 5 minutes Segway, while Lynn and myself hang out at the beach.    

Heading back to the hotel via the Casino entrance, for check out at 12pm.


Me at Siloso beach..




Happy Birthday Singapore!