For the past 2 years since Chingay Parade moved from Orchard Road to Marina Bay, I’ve always been part of the workforce, helping to ensure that the Parade will run smoothly. This year, it is something special, I was part of the audience, taking part in the parade and enjoying every bits of it. My cousin was back from Australia for CNY holidays and I thought that this was the best time for us to meet and enjoy the parade with her and Ethan.
This is the first time that the parade is held at the F1 Pit Building and its interesting to see how the organizers mark out the F1 tracks into 4 lanes. The parade started with the the firecrackers dragon and it was amazing that Ethan was able to bear with the noise level made by the firecrackers. Being seated on the first row, we were able to see first hand, the lighting up of the firecrackers and getting near to the firecrackers.
Subsequent performances were engaging and the floats were really nice. We even got 2 packets of New Moon Rice as free gifts, given out by the performers. Personally, I thought that a parade needs to have an impactful music with dancers etc and not slow moving performances like the one titled Yellow River. It was too slow and boring and everyone didn’t really appreciate it.
Near the finale, it was the appearance of the Universal Studios float from Resorts World @ Sentosa and Ethan was really excited seeing Kungfu Panda and some of the other cartoon characters.
The fireworks were fantastic too. At least, all of us enjoy the show and the verdict for Chingay Parade 2011, WE WILL BE THERE! I hope the organizers managed to read this post and hopefully, give me free tickets next year.
Both Part 1 and Part 2 of the photos are available at my facebook account.
Ezanne started blabbering weeks ago and now, she has started to say something clearly. For a start, she called papa and mama. As of today, she can say neng neng (which means milk), Ah Ma (Grandmother), Deh Deh (short form for daddy), Mama (Mummy) and like what Ethan used to call his grandfather, Na Na… Sometimes I just think that its like brother like sister, there are too much similarity between the both of them.
Ezanne has also found started a new way of drinking milk, which is sitting upright and drink.
We realised that Ezanne is still alittle shy and this is something that she will need more time to be more friendly. So the next time if you see Ezanne and if she gives you the bo chap look, please forgive her as she is simply shy…
Finally it was here, Ezanne’s 1st Birthday on 15 February. It was a meaningful day as it was Chinese New Year and it was the exact day when Ezanne was born. Ezanne is the 8th family member of our family and the very first girl to the family as well.
Just when everyone was preparing, I decided to take a picture with wifey for a couple shot. Oh and I thought this is one of the best pictures that I’ve ever taken. At least, wifey commented that I don’t even look this good when I took my wedding photo.
So the guests started arriving and we oversee the setup of the buffet stuff.
I’ve always sourced for unique birthday cakes and on top of that try to have something special for the party. For Ezanne, I’ve gotten my neighbour and internet friend, Huda, to help us to prepare 50 cow themed cupcakes. Unfortunately, the cows melted when I was about to collect it and Huda was not able to get it down on time and replaced it with muffins instead. Nevertheless, my relatives enjoyed the cupcakes and had given positive reviews of it.
When the night falls, it was time to cut the birthday cake. Ezanne appeared in an almost similar outfit with the character in the cake!
And finally, it was time for a family photo which is always my favourite.
The day ended with a lo hei and I assume everyone enjoyed themselves. For me, it was a tiring day but a memorable one too.
Its Chinese New Year eve and its a day which I’ve been looking forward to. After a busy and hectic year, finally its time to take a break and do a stock take of what had happened over the past year and how to move things on for the following. Chinese New Year is a time to gather and bond with family and that’s the reason why I make it a point every year, we will have a set of family outfit. Regardless how difficult it is, I’ll make sure that we will find a set of family outfit, well, this could be something that the Pang family is doing…
Reunion dinner is also a must have during Chinese New Year eve. Our reunion dinner is made up of a combination of home cooked food and food bought by my aunties. Its definitely a sumptuous one but I thought, it was really early that we had it, it was 5pm when we had our dinner.
After getting back home, surprisingly, there was lion dance. Quickly took Ethan out to take alook at it, since it is his favourite. While they were preparing, Ethan literally had a hands on experience on the drum!
Its about 8 minutes more to the first day of Chinese New Year, 恭喜发财.
This was the first time all of us attended the Singapore Airshow 2010. While I’m in the midst of shifting office, I still managed to find some time to bring Ethan to the airshow to look at big jumbo jets and helicopters.
I read in the papers that travelling to Changi Exhibition Centre (CEC) was a big problem in 2008 but for Singapore Airshow 2010, it was definitely not a problem. We arrived at Changi Airport Terminal 3, took the shuttle service, which we didn’t have to wait at all and arrived at CEC within 15 minutes. At the CEC itself, there were at least 20 walk-thru metal detectors.
If I was to attend Singapore Airshow 2012, one thing that I will definitely bring is mineral water. Each bottle of mineral water sold at the airshow was $2, its like daylight robbery. There were long queues everywhere whenever there was a photo opportunity with the jets. Well, Ethan had the opportunity to take pictures with the pilot too!
The aerial display was rather disappointing. I thought I could see more than 1 fighter jet at least flying pass each other and doing some stunts, but sadly, it was only 1 fighter jet and 1 helicopter, simply not interesting at all. It was literally planes flying around.
Though it was slightly boring for me, but I’m glad Ethan enjoyed himself as he managed to see the big jets (that’s what Ethan says usually when he sees aeroplane.
Yes, I’ve been there during the opening, but on Saturday, I was back at Chinatown with my family. Its an annual thingy that we visit Chinatown before CNY, its just to get the festive feel that Chinese New Year is just round the corner. This year is special cause its Ezanne’s first visit with us. Ethan was getting really excited about this trip cause he was told by his grandfather that there would be lion dance. We had early dinner and started walking down the streets.
There seems to be less variety of CNY stuff this year and I’m not too sure why they are selling mushrooms in almost every streets? In terms of the decoration, its really simple or maybe should I just say, its a sloppy job. The decorations were actually put up just days before the official lightup, so that’s how last minute it was.
I am now wondering if I should go again on CNY Eve, which I’ve been doing for the past 2 years. You can view the full set of pictures on my Facebook.
These will be the 2 places that we will be bringing Ethan to.
The Safari Zoo Run is on 6 February a run organized to remember Singapore Zoo’s icon, Ah Meng. The route is 6.2km long and covers Singapore Zoo and the night Safari. I thought it will be pretty interesting to visit the night Safari in the day and it wil be Ethan and mine first visit. It will also be our family’s first run together and I’m really looking forward to it.
Then on 7 February, we are going to bring Ethan to Singapore Airshow. I believe it will be an eye opener for him since he is quite fascinated by aeroplanes. This will be the first time all of us are going to the air show and I’ve told Ethan about it and he is getting excited about it.
Didn’t really know where to bring the kids to yesterday and we ended up at Marina Barrage. I’ve been there before and thought that its a fantastic place to bring them to, its windy, spacious and excellent view. Basically, the carpark was super small and could not accommodate to the large number of cars so we ended up parking our car illegally, just like what other cars did.
When we reached, we were so surprised to see so many people flying kites. There were people having their picnic, people trying to take photos and families just going round exploring the place. Ethan enjoyed himself, especially when he got the chance to play with the water.
As there are so many flying their kites, you just got to be careful when you are walking around, you will need to look out for those thin, almost invincible kite strings to prevent yourself from getting hurt. I just thought that we didn’t spend enough time there and hope that we can stay alittle longer the next time and perhaps, fly the kites with the kids.
You can view the full set of photos at Facebook.
This will be my last post in 2009 and in less than 7 hours, we will be welcoming 2010, the first decade of millennium. What a year it has been and I shall conclude everything in this post.
Work
2009 will probably be my worst year, being task with 5 mega events this year, I simply didn’t know what’s the meaning of sleep. Waking up at 5.30am, reach office at about 6.30am and reaching home at 10pm, it has became a routine for most parts of 2009. It has been a year of ups and downs, received several awards and down when things doesn’t goes as planned. But we learn from mistakes, we learn from problem and I’m glad I’ve became a stronger person, looking at things from a different perspective. I’m grateful for my bosses who have helped me along, my colleagues who have supported me and of course my understanding wife, who didn’t event complain at all. This is a special year as this is the year where I left the department which I’ve spent half of my career at to somewhere so different, so new and so challenging. I just hope that 2010 will be better and looking forward for more opportunities.
Family
We welcome a brand new family member in February, Ezanne. She was born nearly 3 weeks earlier and coincidentally, my cousin got married on the same day itself. She has brought us joy and new challenges, having to manage both Ethan and herself and understanding Ethan better. I’ve actually spent less time at home this year but luckily, my new supervisor (Boss, if you are reading it, thank you) actually allowed me to clear all my leave and I’m able to bring Jingyi and Ethan for our 12 days Sydney tour.
Myself
Work, study, work, study. With 2009 coming an end, my studies will end in about another 3 months time before I start praying again for a sponsorship for my degree programme. In terms of my grassroots involvement, I was more involved this year as I was given the opportunity to design several banners and tickets for various events.
Well, I’m still blogging after more than a year into it and is pretty much involve with it, not forgetting tweeting and Facebooking as well.
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