Sunday has always been our “wake up all naturale” day. However, yesterday was an entirely different Sunday.

Setting the alarm at 8.30am, and waking up a little groggy. We headed far out for our Sunday breakie…off to Riders Cafe! I have been looking forward to visiting that place for its ambience and food. On the way there, it started to rain. Somehow, I knew that it would not be raining when we reach there, and we’ll be able to see the beautiful horsies. Just got to have faith!

Faith never let me down. Saw one of the most beautiful horses there when we first got out of our car.The weather was great at the Saddles Club, and we managed to get great balcony seats! Food wasn’t that fantastic. But the ambience was wonderful.

Some time after we finished our breakfast, the sky looked as though it’s going to cry any time. We managed to get some more shots with our dslr, before heading off to Vivocity.

The drive turned out to be a drive down memory lane, and I felt a little sentimental. Firstly, it started to rain as we drove out to the main road. The rain got heavier, and we drove past NUS. As we approached Vivocity area, I suggested to go to visit our future house to check out on its progress. Just before we reached the area, the rain stopped and it got all sunny. Somehow, I just thought to myself…how this weather symbolises our relationship. We weathered through storm in our dating days in NUS…the future ahead looks bright for us as we reached our home-to-be. =)

When we got home in the afternoon, I was so tired that I fell asleep after doing some reading. We planned to go out for dinner. When I got up from my nap, I couldn’t find Mr Poto around.

Me: “Hey, where are you?”

Him: “Went out to da-bao. I know that you are tired and didn’t want to wake you up.”

*Beams* =)

All in all, a perfect Sunday!

On a side note: Happy 29 weeks old Baby Sean! Daddy and Mummy can’t wait to hold you in our arms!

For her:

Blue

“True feelings and real relationships”

I lead with my heart and dream of a better world. I feel things deeply, both joy and pain. I love to discover beauty in people and in nature. I love to nurture and care for people and things and watch them grow. I’m very romantic.

Personal relationships are important to me. Honest sharing and real communication are some of the highest things in life. Being with other people can be hard, especially when they are selfish and uncaring.

I always try to make peace, but I would rather be alone than be with people who can’t or won’t get along. I am sometimes moody, and old feelings and experiences from the past stay with me a long time.

I always want to find the best in people. I value cooperation and goodwill. I am interested in spiritual things. I wish for “the peace that passeth understanding.”

For him:

Gold

“Tradition, good order, and good work”

I am solid, traditional, hardworking, and productive. I use my skills and energy to help things work out and go well. I like things to run smoothly.

I respect the wisdom that has been handed down in customs and traditions. I need security in my work and in my relationships.

I know that love means loyalty and responsibility. It’s very easy for things to get muddled up and to fall apart, so I take good care to keep it all together.

I make plans and lists and I follow through on them. I am on time and cooperative in groups. I try to get other people to get with the program, but I often end up carrying most of the load. People depend on me.

I try to measure up to high standards, and I feel guilty when I don’t meet them. I’m pretty successful, and I do it the old-fashioned way: “I earn it!”

(Abstracted from “Living Your Colours. Practical Wisdom for LIFE, LOVE, WORK,  AND PLAY. Tom Maddron, M.S.)

After a long and unmotivating day at work, girl leaves work tired and unstimulated. Girl got into boy’s car, thinking that they were on their way home for dinner, just like the same o’ routine on Wednesdays.

She wanted to ’suan’ him and asked, “Let’s go out for dinner.”

He replied, “Merchant Court buffet or Italian restuarant at East Coast?”

He had it all planned out.

She smiled.

No extravagant flowers, no chocolates, no expensive presents….just a thoughtful gesture, a planned surprise….is enough to warm my heart…

I can still recall in fine details on our wedding preparations just last year. I do miss all the planning, especially the butterflies that I feel in my tummy as the BIG day drew nearer. I waited in anticipation…waiting to be Mrs Loh…waiting for my own little fairytale to come true.

Just wanted to recapture those wonderful memories of our BIG day, and went through our wedding ph0tos. I feel so blessed, to have so much joy on that day, surrounded with all the people that I love and care for, who wished the best for both of us. Looking back on those photos also made me saw how happy my parents were on our wedding day. I’m really blessed to be their daughter. I wish that I can be as good a parent to my little precious baby inside me, as my parents have been to me.

As for Mr Poto, it’s been over 9 months since I’ve become your wife. You fill each passing day with such love and wonderful memories for me. Whenever I look down at our wedding band, I wish to get married to you all over again. You truly are the key to my heart. I love watching how you doze off to sleep on bed, coming home from work and calling out my name, being such a caring and loving husband, a most wonderful daddy to Sean, taking time and effort to teach him and read to him…thank you dear hubby.

Just as the above photo depicts, may we be there to feed each other through our old age…80…90…100…

I’ve always loved the number 23. Hence, here I am, blogging on my 23rd week of pregnancy.

Time really flies. My second trimester is finishing soon. Oh my….It has been a most joyous second trimester for me. Sean is a really good boy, and I know that he is growing healthily and happily inside. Whenever I can feel his movements and kicks, it feels almost surreal. It’s amazing how much I have grown to love this little cutie inside me before I’ve even met him.

There are the down sides too to my pregnancy journey. I’m starting to feel really really hot, sweating like a pig easily. I am so thankful for the invention of air-conditioners!!! It must have been invented by a pregnant woman or a husband of a pregnant wife. I’ve also been feeling really itchy at times, as though the ants are biting hard inside my body. One more downie is the lack of sleep. Somehow, I’ve been having sleepless night as Sean has been moving quite often during the night. The vivid dreams/nightmares must be an effect of the pregnancy as well.

But no matter what, I’m happily being preggie right now! I don’t know what the third trimester have in stall for me. Just got to keep my bump out and march confidently into it!!! =)

Today is a very special day. It is a day to celebrate all our wonderful teachers in our lives, be it the classroom teachers, the pre-school teachers, the cca teachers, the driving instructors, the music teachers, the swimming instructors etc…

It is also a rare occassion that both Mr Poto and I can have our day of rest on a weekday as we are both teachers. Can’t wait to go shopping together later to buy stuff for our precious one.

On this special day, I would just like to write a post to commemorate all teachers of all kinds. Without whom, we wouldn’t be who we are today. We wouldn’t be able to write well, read well, argue well, sing well, dance well, play sports well, swim well… We all have some special teachers deep in our hearts that we will eternally remember and be grateful to. 

As for me, I believe these heroes mainly came from my Primary school, St. Anthony’s Convent. I still remember our kind Pri. 1 form teacher – Miss Key a.k.a. Mrs Lye. She was a warm, gentle and patient teacher. She always have a smile on her face. The best kind of teacher to inspire a child to learn well at the start of his or her primary school years.

Then, there is Mr Syed, my percussion band teacher. He was the total opposite of Mrs Lye. He was strict, cool and set high standards on our band. It was really quite stressed being the first lady of the band, with such a demanding instructor. I can still remember vividly in my head how he flung the music stand away when we did not meet his demands. He just stormed out of the music room and went back to his office to have a smoke. I still had to represent the band to find him and apologize. But his tough character has brought out another side of me, and made me into a stronger person. I really admired him.

I also really miss my primary 5 form teacher, Sister Louise. She was fun-loving and motivated us well towards our PSLE. In addition, I am thankful to have such a wonder principal there too, Sister Angela. She was warm towards all the students. In fact, she is such a rare principal as she knew most of her students in the school by name.

There are too many great teachers who have made an impact in my life, be it big or small. And for that, I am most thankful to them.

Now, I am a teacher too. Teaching the young little ones, hoping to ignite in them their passion and joy towards learning at a tender young age. No doubt most will not remember me when they grow up, as our paths are crossed at such an early stage of their lives, but I believe that I have made a little difference in their lives to give them a good headstart.

With that, here’s a meaningful poem and video to end this heartfelt entry. Do watch the video till the end, and enjoy a laugh!

Happy Teacher’s Day to all!

If I Could Teach You, Teacher

If I could teach you, teacher,
I’d teach you how much more
you have accomplished
than you think you have.
I’d show you the seeds
you planted years ago
that are now coming into bloom.
I’d reveal to you the young minds
that have expanded under your care,
the hearts that are serving others
because they had you as a role model.
If I could teach you, teacher,
I’d show you the positive effect
you have had on me and my life.
Your homework is
to know your value to the world,
to acknowledge it, to believe it.
Thank you, teacher.

By Joanna Fuchs

Yes, I know that she is 4 years old.

Yes, I know that she is still a child.

Yes, I know that she is just a girl.

But to deliberately run towards me after I walked past after greeting her, and push me from the back using 2 hands, it is simply …. UNFORGIVABLE in my opinion. The kind of look in her eyes when asked to apologize is simply insincere. She even lied to the auntie that she pushed me and spat into the ball pool.

I have believed in the innocence of children, until I met her. Call me overly sensitive, or overly protective. I just don’t care. If someone tries to hurt me now in any physical way, it is simply UNACCEPTABLE!

Heard this song from “Xing Guang Bang 5″ last night…at the end of the song, I was in tears.

This is a song about Ah ma. It’s a really good song, one that evokes deep emotions in me. I have no idea that my ah ma will still have such deep impact in me till now. I really miss her so so so much.

She was the one who brought me up, and saw me through my primary school days. She was the one who brought me to her friend’s house during the weekdays to watch her play ‘4 colour cards’, instead of just leaving me home alone. My parents were both working parents since I was young. My ah ma was my closest companion, in fact my only companion through my childhood days as I am an only child.

I can still remember her soft eyes and wrinkled hands. As I listen to this song and typing this blog entry, tears roll down my cheeks again. My greatest regret is that I was not by my ah ma’s side when she passed away. I was in school, until I received a call in the afternoon during my ECA.

I wish that my ah ma was there when I graduated from university. I wish that my ah ma was there when I first fell in love. I wish that my ah ma was there on the day I got married. I wish that my ah ma was there on the day I found out that I was pregnant. I wish that my ah ma will be there on the day I give birth to her great grandson. I wish that my ah ma will be there to see my child grow up into a good man. I wish…. I wish….

Ah ma, no matter where you are now. You will always be in my heart, deep in my heart. I miss you so much.

Ah ma…

On a side note, I noticed that there will always be a moth at my house during the 7th lunar month all these years. Perhaps you have always been around, watching over us… …

What do you think of when you see the word – BOND.

Being a teacher cum mum-to-be, I will think about parental-child bonding, and bonding with MY child. Having to teach at my company  for these few years, I believe I have done my part in promoting parent-child bonding, and helping children fulfil their inner potentials.

Now, I’m faced with another type of bond. Training bond. (Why not James Bond?? hehe)

Entering into another phase of my life, starting my own family soon. Which is more important bond to me? Family bond, bonding with my loved ones and my own child. Why would anyone of a sane mind choose a bond to your company over your family? Moreover, going back to work as a bond-free instructor after my maternity will definitely be easier on me in terms of coping with work-family balance.

It does seems like an easy choice.

Isn’t it?

A new species detected at work – “The nodding figurine”.

You know the previous craze sold islandwide at mini toon, the one where there is this nodding cartoon who kept on nodding when exposed to the solar energy.

Well, I’m not sure whether other jobs have such ‘nodding figurines’, but at my workplace, I think I have at least 2.

Boss = Solar energy

Before the upcoming meetings or trainings, XX will grumble this and grumble that…

Here comes the meetings or trainings, BOOM! The “nodding figurines” get right into action. Nod, Nod harder, Laugh, Nod furiously….to each single sentence that the boss says. My goodness. I am simply amazed.

Once, boss leaves. Bam! No more solar energy, and “nodding figurine” becomes the “grumbling figurine”…complain…whine…grumble….

Don’t know whether to classify such species as fake or work-smart. Well, I guess to me it’s FAKE, but to the boss, it’s WORK-SMART. Sometimes, I really can’t stand it.

Plus recently, people have been asking me whether I’ll be signing the upcoming 3 days course which comes with a one year bond. Even Mr Poto finds it amusing, how a 3-day course is equivalent to signing a one year bond. I have never taught of it that way.

I really don’t think that I wish to take up this bond, as much as I wish to learn new knowledge. There is always room for improvement to be a better teacher. But just thinking of how much ‘respect’ she gives to her workers, a meeting supposedly at 4pm can turn out to be at 6.40pm..making them wait for her after working hours just to talk to her. I don’t know how they can take it, and I really take my hats off to them.

It takes a WHOLE LOT of patience and tolerance to work for her, in fact, it would be best if you have no temper at all. But, I am simply not one of those extraordinary people.

Just because you are the boss, does it justify you for making others wait for you ALL the time??

Well, I don’t think so.

Just because you are the boss, does it justify you to order people around, to the extent of bringing you food to your doorstep TWICE? (And even complaining about the food having not enough gravy..blah blah blah..)

Well, I don’t think so.

Sometimes, I feel that it takes a saddist, or a super naive person to work here for so long. And I wonder, why am I still here?? Am I becoming a saddist too?

I really miss my ex-colleagues, especially my batch mates, and our big group of lunch kakis. Times were simpler then. We could really talk heart to heart.

I can’t wait to join them next year. *Prays hard*