It's Almost Time Now...

I finally decided to update my pathetic blog. Sheesh… how long has it been? 5 months?

Anyway, for those who check in once in a while, I’m reaching my due date tomorrow. Yep, 18 August. The little bugger in me is refusing to budge. There’s no sign of labour yet….

Anyway, went to see the doc on Wednesday and she said my cervix has begun to thin. Yippee!! But no dilation yet…. Duh…….

In the end, she decided to induce me so as not to get me past my due date. When she said she’d induce me on Friday night, my mind just went blank. I just ok ok all the way. So sotong!!! I should have asked her more about the procedure and all…. Sigh….. anyway, I did ask her if I was ready and she said yes… so I trust her professional judgement… she’s like 60 years old anyway….

So, I’m checking in tonight at 8 pm at Gleneagles to get the pill. I’ll be monitored through the night to see if that brings on any contractions. If that’s not effective, I’ll be put on the drip (oxytocin) to kickstart the whole process. If everything goes smoothly, baby Jed should be out on Saturday evening, on his due date.

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I tried to do some research on inducing labour and I must admit I was quite discouraged with what I read. Many of the induced cases ended up in c-section as the baby was under distressed and suffering from lack of oxygen.

I’ve wanted to experience a natural birth all this while and have been praying that God will bless me with a smooth natural delivery. My desire is to rely on Him for His Strength through the entire process. Yeah, I’m a big mouth now to say that I do not want any painkillers (aka epidural) but I believe that God designed women so that they can bear the pain of childbirth. I also believe that when the time comes, He will show Himself to be faithful and guide us through the worst pain of our lives.

My mum told me that when she gave birth to me, she was just praising the Lord and saying Hallelujah through the entire labour process. She gave birth to me without any painkillers. Wow.

(Interesting Fact: I was also induced as my mum thought she had contractions. Turned out it was just food poisoning from eating too many kueh kueh! ;D Doctor told her to induce since she was in the hospital anyway… she was put on the drip at 1 pm and I was out by 6:30 pm)

I shall follow my mum’s good example and continue to trust in the Lord for a smooth labour and delivery. I trust that He has the best plan for me and my child.

This is my favourite verse and I have hung on to it many times in my life as I went through tough moments… I will continue to hang them…

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.

Jeremiah 29:11-13

Amen!

Last night, as I was reading the Bible, I chanced upon a Psalm which had a date next to it… I remember that was the date which I had a miscarriage (17 October 2005). During that time, I had sought the Lord with all my heart and trusted that all was in His plans. I believed that it was for the best and that the Lord has prepared a far greater gift for me, greater than I can ever imagine. I believe that Jed is that gift. :)

It was Psalm 34.

I sought the Lord, and He heard me,
And delivered me from all my fears. (verse 4)

Thank you Lord, for Your Word that gives me strength and hope for all times. I will trust in You and Your Faithfulness to all who loves You…

……

Gotta go clean up the house once more and get ready to head down to the hospital. Pray for me!

Yucky Food

There's a new Hong Kong style restaurant at Whitesands Shopping Centre... Hubs and I decided to try it out since the exterior looked quite posh.

There's a lot on the menu and we ordered: Roast Duck Noodles, Century Egg Porridge, Lotus Leaf Glutinous Rice and Siew Mai.
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Verdict: YUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Let me tell you why:

Duck Noodles: The noodles were too sweet (dessert-like sweet) while the roast duck was too salty (preserved duck during CNY kind of salty). What a conflicting combination! And to add on to the bad experience, the green vegetables were filled with sand. Angry!

Century Egg Porridge: It was lukewarm! And bland, and watery. Not like they had a ready set of condiments for you like soya sauce and pepper. What they had on the table was a bottle of chilli sauce! And the kind used for western food!!!!

Lotus Rice: One word. Bad. The rice does not even have the fragrance of the lotus leaf! It's just normal glutinous rice with chicken and mushroom. The chicken, not marinated properly, was tough and tasteless.

Siew Mai: It was our last hope.... dashed. It tasted just like the siew mais we get in school canteens. Full of fatty pieces and more fatty pieces.

We just fell short of flipping the table over in our angst. Throughout the meal, Hubs and I were daydreaming about how we'd come back in the middle of the night to vandalize the place. Haha! Anyway, we decided that without us doing anything, this place should fold soon. It's not even an authentic Hong Kong restaurant! We tried speaking cantonese to the staff and all turned out to speak either mainland mandarin or english. Cheh! At least the Hong Kong Tea Place on the 2nd level have managers from Hong Kong. We paid $27+ for the miserable meal and decided we could have eaten to our fill with much better food at a kopitiam stall with that money!

And to make sure we were not the only ones grousing, we scanned the restaurant and saw many furrowed brows. In fact, we couldn't even see a smiling face! Aiyo!

Just call it a lesson learnt for us. Since then, I've been telling all my family members and friends not to patronize the place unless they are really desperate. It's just not worth it to have them spoil your day....

I'll leave you with a picture of our almost-eaten yucky meal. Jaa!















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Where have I been???

Oh my oh my... it's March!!!!! What have I been doing with my life for the past 2 months????

Arrrrrrgghhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *runs around screaming*

*Takes a deep breath*

I have not been doing ANY crafts since I started the new term in January. The work at the new school is simply horrendous. Hours are long, the food is beyond gross, and it's not like the pupils are angels as well....

Anyway, I will stay till the end of the semester at least... it's just not responsible to leave mid-term. What will happen to the pupils?
...

Well, it's not exactly right to say that I have not been doing ANYTHING this 2-3 month..............................................................................

I have been trying to grow a baby!!! ;D ;D Yes yes, the baby is now 4 months old in my tummy. I went to check on it (don't know boy or girl yet) last wednesday and the little bugger was moving around so much! We saw it kicking my guts, and sucking his little fingers. It was also doing little twists and turns in my tummy. So exciting! I really thank God for watching over this little bugger and me... Amen!

Baby is currently 146 grams with a heartrate of 153. Length is about 13 cm. Heh heh....
Because it's an ultrasound scan, we could see the spine, the heart, brain and eye sockets. Everything seems alright... we will be going for a detailed scan next months... most likely can tell the gender if little bugger cooperates. We'll see!

Oh! Like I said, an email from a friend jolted me into action... So, I set on carving rubber stamps again! Did a few random minis to see if my skills are still there... turned out that I got rusty after all... but still managed to carve lah... Here they are...















Hope to be able to do more... am dreaming of making little baby shoes now. ;D

Remember to tune in! (once in a while!)
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Here I am, caught up in the rat race all over again....

only that, I am not actually qualified for the race! Arrghh!!!!!

For the clueless you, it means that I am now back at work. Teaching hundreds of kids a day, selling half my life to MOE (I think 12 hours a day warrants that!). Mind you, I'm supposed to be on a part time, part pay scheme (no career advancements), but noooooo, my over zealous new school lined up a whole lot of activities for me such that I am now working a full time, part pay scheme. Accckkk!!!!

Not that I have much to complain about the pupils, which are heavenly compared to my previous school. I am a stricter teacher now as well. Pupils who needs to be disciplined cannot be given too many chances. It's not unusual to hear me bark at students or glare at them now. Heh heh... I guess I have finally matured as a teacher huh! Still, there are monkey classes that I have yet to tame. Let's wait and see....

Can you believe it? I have not sat at my desk since 3rd Jan! After work and dinner, Hubs and I would just slack on the couch and watch TV. And I'll promptly go to bed by 10 pm.

This is how my desk looks like now.... urrgh!















And naturally... my crafting frenzy came to an abrupt end... much to my frustration.

Hmmpph! I should really monitor my work and see if I am being underpaid. If so, I don't think I want to sign the contract. Even though it gives me medical benefits, paid holidays and maternity leave....

Tomorrow's the start of another long week... and I have badminton duties till 6 pm. Darn.

...

熱がある

I was running a fever last night.... No wonder I was shivering and feeling so weak... Hubs came in and promptly took the steps to make me better. Cold compresses, force-feeding of water ;P, and warm gentle company... I was feeling a little lightheaded but very very consoled...

The Liverpool vs Tottenham Spurs came on and not being able to sleep, I wrapped myself in my blanket and went out to watch the match with him. Yep, the cold compress was tied around my head unglamorously.

I had an apple to bring down the temperature and also to replenish the fluids. I was feeling better by half-time.

Liverpool did not play well... but they won in the end... 1-0. Yay!

....

It was Saturday and Hubs wanted to go down to Funan to buy some stuff. I went with him though I was already feeling quite unwell and cold. It was alright. I planted myself at this huge stationary store on the 2nd floor. Most of the stuff there comes from Japan... It feels like I was in a ultra-mini Tokyu Hands. I walked around slowly, examining every shelf so I could last one hour there...

.....

Made Hubs bring me to Tampopo for dinner. This was what we had.















White Fish Tempura with Nori flakes ($4.80) - very yummy. The fish is tasteless though, as with all whitefish... but the little sprinkling of salt brings out the taste of the tempura and the nori... yum.















Hubs wanted the Shabu Ramen but it was out. So I made him order this Unagi Claypot Rice ($14.80). It comes with miso soup and a very very generous serving of sweet unagi! Apart from the piece you see covering the rice, there were chunks hidden within the rice too. The rice was also pearly and sweet... Ichiban!! Our only question is.... why isn't it a clay bowl? ;)















I had the Deluxe Miso Ramen ($13.80) - I ordered it mainly for the veges. It was really good!!!! It tasted more like tonkotsu to us then miso. The pork was heavenly, melting with every bite. There were huge servings of sweet crunchy corn, spring onions, bamboo shoots, nori, wakame, beansprouts, and of course, the slab of butter you see there... It was very filling for sure but we slurped up every single drop of the soup.

Ahhhhh...........

Note: The service is not very good though... when we called for the bill, the waiter simply slapped the bill on the desk and walked off. We had no idea whether to go to the counter or to wait for further instructions. Turned out that he came back a while later to 'collect' that slip of paper and our credit card. Weird... I don't remember it being like this the last time.

.....

Anyway, if you're interested, Tampopo is located at Liang Court Basement, within Meidi-ya.

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I went to Kino as usual but only had 10 mins. So I skipped towards the bargain alley and found this beautiful embroidery book (Wild Flowers Embroidery by Ondori). It was going at close to $40 originally and guess how much I got it for? $8!!!! It's rare to find craft books in the bargain alley though... so I got lucky. Inuyasha book 47 was also out. So I got to enjoy the 20% off before the deadline! Yippee!

Leaving you with two pictures from the book...




















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I am not ready for school.

Urghhh~!! It just won't stop raining! And I hate the cold! Plus it doesn't help that I am feeling like crap these days....

Haven't had the energy to do anything at all... Sleeping most of the time now... I made these stamps a while back. I mounted them on some wooden blocks using mounting foam tape, both bought from Daiso. I think it looks alright! One is for sis while the other is for mum.















This is a really great idea for personalized stamps! I made one for Alicia as well, carving her a cute moo cow. Too bad I gave it to her without first taking a pic... Oh well, there'll be more to come...

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Went to Jeannette's new place for a mini housewarming on the 26th. It was very nicely done up! Macam showflat lor. They spent 60k in total for the reno and furnishings... Yikes! I think I only spent about 20k on mine...

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Hmm.... I'm glad I have MC for one whole week.... else I would be at the school staff seminar now... I'm not in the right condition anyway.... sigh....

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School's starting soon and I've yet to prepare anything for the new term.... siao liao...

Oh well, fatigue is kicking in full force again... gonna lie down for a while....

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26 Degrees Celcius

I'm always in long pants and wraps at home these days.....

I can't stand the cold... Cool to Hubs = shivering for me. I need to get some warm homey slippers soon.

Went to register for my Advanced I Japanese class yesterday... $200 for the first term...

Wanted to stock up on my flag erasers at Bras Basah but they were out of the yellow-backed ones. They only had the blue and green which were way too dark. Decided on these instead...















They are also at 10 cents each but are 1 mm shorter than the flag ones... But I find it real funny how each piece is named... I think little boys can play war games with them. :D

I bought 19 pieces from them... less than $2!

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Had to wait for Hubs to get off work... so I went to Macau Crystal Jade to have a snack. I never knew that Hong Kong French Toast was so yummy!!!!! Loved every bite of the thick soft bread that was dripping with sinful butter and honey.... The egg coating was done to perfection too, giving a slightly crispy bite to the bread.... *Drooooooooool* $3 for one.




















Went to Kinokuniya to stock up on some books today. Ngee Ann City was so crowded!! Actually wanted to save money but couldn't find a decent place to sit at the fast food restaurants and food court... so I went to the 4th floor... Guess what... Crystal Jade again! But this time it's a Korean restaurant. Had this huge huge craving for vegetables.... so I ordered the Spicy Korean Beef Soup and Ginger tea. The soup comes with an assortment of veges and side dishes.















It was yummy! The soup was not too spicy and it came bubbling in a stone pot. The veges inside satisfied whatever craving I had.... A truly comforting meal for a cold day! If you want to know, the side dishes are sugared peanuts, french beans with squid, tofu, kimchi and spinach with beansprouts. They are all cold dishes. The beef soup is $14.90 while the tea is $4.

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I am so going to live on bread for the rest of the year. ;P

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Ok... I have one final cross to make for Jeannette. Her housewarming gift... this is the thickest so far at 0.8 cm. I figured it has to be thick in order to stand out on the front door... Hope it turns out fine.

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The sky looks perfect for a before-dinner nap..... the soup is still swishing in my stomach though...

zzzzz
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I'm sooo bloated...!

Managed to wake up for church today! Yay! ;P

After church, we went to Curry Favor at Stamford House for lunch. It was simply divine!!! The curry was really very good and the rice was cooked to perfection.















The menu is very extensive but being our first time there, we stuck with katsu curry, which can't really go wrong. I ordered the Hire Katsu Curry ($19.90) while he ordered the Ebi Fry and Rosu Katsu Curry ($18.50). We had a choice of mild or spicy with our curry. I went with the mild while he took the spicy (uncommon).

We were pleasantly surprised that our orders came with different curries. Mine was sweeter and smoother while his was thick and had a nice tang of seafood flavour. The spiciness in his curry came from the 7 spices powder that the Japanese love to use and was actually quite hot! And I liked how the curry came in aladdin-lamp-like holders.

We totally enjoyed our meal though about three quarter way through, we were stuffed and had to struggle with the last few pieces of meat... I'd rather eat the curry and rice than meat! That was how good the curry was... Yum!

We'll definitely go back to try the other items and maybe the appetizers as well.

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As usual, after lunch on Sundays, the two of us came back and snooooozed................ Plus it was raining heavily too... ah.... happiness.....

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Ending note: I did not get to cut the paper strips last night... procrastination at its finest.... ;)

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Tada ima! (I'm Back!)

A reminder from Evon brought me back to the world of blogging. Thanks Evon! ;)

Hmm... to start off, I went for my first COSPLAY event ever at the Singapore Expo today! Some of my students dressed up in their fav anime characters and I went down to support. Some of the cosplayers went through great lengths to dress up and they were really good! The most impressive was Orochimaru...

darn... should have taken a picture... but Hubs and I were feeling so out of place and a little embarassed! We could be the oldest folks there, apart from the tikopek photographers who were snapping away at the skimpily dressed girl cosplayers.

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Carved another stamp today... a little piggy. :)















Better start on my order from Jeannette soon... 2 Hannah crosses, 1 Susannah cross. And my housewarming gift to her, a Sophia cross.

Busy busy

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Oh ya, must remember to call Hai Sing and ask if they already have a desk for me... I need to move 7 years of teaching materials from Ngee Ann Sec to the new school. And my boxes of stuff are currently dumped at the staff lounge (much to my horror when i went back to school one day)... what a realistic world...

Oh well, it's 10 pm now... going to cut the paper strips for quilling before i go to sleep. We MUST wake up on time for church tomorrow!!!!


..... Nitez


Oh yeah.... I scored 337/350 marks for my JCS Intermediate Japanese Exam... that put me at the top of the class and the 6th position in the cohort of 400 students. *brag brag* ;D Mighty happy.















over and out

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Unproductive Day...

There are so many things that I should be doing or should have done today!!! But what have I done???

The laundry.

I think I have abnormal levels of inertia (if they can be measured in that...). My mind is saying "do this!" but my body doesn't move. And it stays unmoved...

Arrrghhh!

I gotta snap out of it.