Education + Charity

This is a back dated post but it is so memorable that I want to make sure that it is recorded.

I had a lunch invitation by Charlotte's school on the 18th Sept (all parents were invited). It was not a free meal but the money earned was donated to help the victims from the recent typhoon disaster in Taiwan. The response is always good anything for charity purpose, more so when we were told that we will be served by our kid.

I had no idea what that was about until we reached the school. I went with Ann and we were greeted by warm welcoming song from the 4yr old and our child welcomed us and lead us to the hall where the transformation was miracle!

Immediately, I was presented with a menu and Charlotte asked politely "妈妈，我可以帮你点餐吗?" (mama, may I take your order?) and she took out the order sheet and started to mark my order. She even helped to explain what's on the menu. I could tell that they had been through a very good training and were so ready to play the role.

The menu prepared was very professional (and the actual serving looked as presented on the menu picture!)

Then she left to the kitchen and prepare the food. I cannot imagine how the teachers managed to plan, organize, train, and execute all the details with young children like them. There must be a lot of patience and love throughout the whole preparation period.

Shortly after, I saw Charlotte came out from the kitchen, holding a tray full of food and she was very careful when bringing me my order. (By the way, she never bring me even a cup of water at home and I was definitely impressed seeing her delivery with a full tray of food).

But we (Ann and I) presented with different delivery from what we ordered, and we were served more than what we ordered! (Ha!) But we happily accepted everything placed on our table. We had Italian (spaghetti), Japanese (sushi set), scramble egg and mushroom soup, rojak!

This was the Japanese set I got, with tempura, miso soup, and sushi rolls. Prety impressive huh?

Then I was sharing this special moment with almost everyone in the family, MIL was practically amazed and regretted the she wasn't there.

I really can't imagine the amount of preparation, training, explanation, love and passion from the teachers to pull off this event and I honestly very thankful and appreciate all those effort.

Recently, I received an email in my mailbox with hyperlinks to some of those videos that they took, during the preparation, and during the event. That answered all the question marks I had on how they managed to get 4-6 yr old children to do all that. Hope you'll find it interesting too...

Video clip #1:

http://www.daai.com.my/movie/player.php?movie=mnews/up_20090918_BL_AiXinCanTing&news=mnews

Video clip #2

http://www.daai.com.my/movie/player.php?movie=mnews/up_20090918_BL_HeartyRestaurant2&news=mnews

Lantern Festival

Just a day after the Singapore trip, we were invited to attend the Lantern Festival, organized by the Sri Tanjung Pinang, just like previous year.

We were quite prepared this round and we know there isn't much to expect as we are not interested with the stage performance, and I don't expect Charlotte to have dinner there even though there will be food served. So we were just prepared to see what's new this year.

It was pretty true that nothing much to "wow" about this year, and most of the activities were for bigger kids (like make your own mini moon cake, Chinese chest game, paper lantern making and etc) except a free lantern for every kid and a rabbit petting corner. We went around, had some snacks and the rest of the time we were at the petting corner. Charlotte enjoyed this the most this year...

We only spent less than an hour there and we headed somewhere else for dinner. So much for Mid Autumn Celebration? Maybe there is something more later...

Unexpected, but Wonderful Week!

I had a planned business trip to Singapore last week but it wasn't as lonely as my usual business trips because I had a bundle with me this time. Just a few days before my departure I decided to bring Charlotte and my parents along. It was a last minute decision but I managed to get flight and accommodation arranged just before the departure.

Since I was flying SQ, I thought I can only afford budget airlines for them but I was very lucky that Singapore Airlines offers great fares for online purchases and we were all on the same flight, same schedule!

The moment we stepped into the Executive Suites, Charlotte noticed a box of surprise addressed just to her on the living room desk. She was the only one being greeted with special welcome! It contains a cookies, a box of juice and a big red apple. I didn't have a chance to take picture of the content as Charlotte immediate opened and ate the cute little happy face cookies.

I needed to get ready for work almost immediately, so I proceeded to the washroom for a quick wash up and the second surprise I saw was the toiletries offered by the hotel...it was L'Occitane! Yup, call me "sua koo" but I was definitely giving this hotel a 2 thumbs up even just after the initial 20min there.

I was glad that my parents agreed to come along, they sure enjoyed their stay and more so that they get to share undivided attention with Charlotte when I was at work during the day. They went everywhere (the city, China Town, Sentosa Island, Underwater World, and etc) and I get to hear the exciting update from Charlotte every evening.

Charlotte greeted me at the door when I came back on the 2nd day and looking like this...

All I can say is she enjoyed the most this trip all she got was present, present, and more present...

I only get to spend short evening with them as I came back from work pretty late everyday. But I sure had the most carefree weekdays, knowing Charlotte was under good care and enjoying herself every moment. Didn't have many pictures to share since my parents aren't any blogger (he!)

I spent my birthday in Hong Kong last year, and I was in Singapore, a paid trip this year. Am I lucky or what? It was unplanned, unexpected but a wonderful week!

What Is Going On?

I couldn't believe that my last post was on Aug 25th. I have no update for more than 3 weeks now! I have so much to share and so much to put down just as a note to myself, a reminder, a record...everyday passes by so quickly and I have no chance to waste a single minute.

I have been pretty occupied since I started this new job. Yeah, when they pay you more than what you asked for they expect you to contribute more in return. It has been a challenge to send Charlotte to school on time in the morning, to be at her school on time in the evening for pick up, I forgot about extra classes that we signed up for her when I was still trying to finish up what I left of after I left office, I forgot about her homework that I need to guide her before her next lesson...Oops! Bad mommy, I know :(

I wanted to post about how lucky I was to have my mom to help out during the school holiday. I wanted to record the wonderful time Charlotte spent with her grandma, how she enjoyed grandma's company, how she enjoyed grandma's cooking, how many new dresses, new shoes, new accessories she got from grandma for no reason, how blessed we all to have my mom to take care of thing at home while we were tied up at work, how sorry I was for my dad that I had to keep my mom with me for a week.

I also wanted to share about Charlotte's new discovery, took picture of herself with our digital camera. I only found out about it when I was downloading some of the old pictures from the camera. I also wanted to put up photos of Charlotte in those new dresses that grandma bought her (I'll try to take better picture when Charlotte put up those dresses again)

I wanted to record about Charlotte told me "mommy I missed you!" when I came home late. I also wanted to record about Charlotte told me "mommy I love you!" and came running and gave me a big warm hug. That was the best and made everything worth!

I wanted blog about my upcoming business trips, I am making plans and arrangements ahead for Charlotte, and I am worried about her.

I only think of those in my head, hoping to have time to blog about it tomorrow. They were all too back dated now and I don't want to do that many back dated post. I'll just let it go and hopefully I will have better discipline to do that for my next post.