Allan's Thoughts

Other than having a fracture (small crack), Chloe has been learning and absorbing really quickly recently. Maybe at her age she should have been able to do much more, but just almost suddenly she is learning and absorbing at a faster rate than say 1 month ago.

One example - Every time Chloe wants to poo, we have to wait for her signs, her facial expressions and the sounds that she makes, and we need both to confirm that she needs to poo, and sometimes it will be too late and she will not really poo by the time we bring her to the potty. So Daisy taught her a sign language for poo-poo.. Anbd she basically drilled it into Chloe’s mind, everytime I go to toilet for poo, she will tell Chloe Daddy is going to poo-poo, and do the sign for it.

Yesterday, Chloe was sitting in her high chair whilst Daisy and I were having lunch. Suddenly she did a sound, and when we looked at her, she did the poo-poo sign, and when I asked her “Chloe, do you want to poo?” She nodded at the same time looked as though she was straining.

To me that meant that she has understand what Daisy has been teaching her.

Example 2 - A week ago, Chloe has probably no understanding of yes and no. Last week I told Daisy, its time for us to input the concept of yes and no into her. So we went to work with it.

Yesterday, throughout the day, we asked her questions that required a yes or no, she either nodded or shook her head according to her preference. i.e I asked if she wanted Daddy to hold her, she shook her head, and we both knew that she wanted Mummy to hold her, so we asked if Chloe wanted Mummy to hold her, she nodded.

Finally no more guessing, we can get more precise answers from her.

I just want to Thank my beloved wife, Daisy for sacrificing her time and effort on the upbringing of our daughter, Chloe. Daisy could have gone out to work and spend her time to do her own stuff, but she gave up everything for now, just so that Chloe can get the best from her, so Daisy has really done a great thing for Chloe, and the DnA family. I thank you my wife, my love, my kid’s mother, and my mum’s daughter-in-law. On behalf of Chloe too (and the next baby), “Thank you Mummy! We love you!”

Its been a while since I really blog about my/our lives. Going to do a summarised version today.

i) Chloe has turned one and we are pregnant with our 2nd baby and as of today its 14 weeks + old. Daisy is having a hard time with this pregnancy, and comparing it with Chloe’s, this one is making her think twice about the 3rd baby at this moment whilst with Chloe, she really enjoyed her pregnancy.

ii) we went away to Phuket with my mum’s siblings and family, 11 of us and the trip was fun yet hectic. Eat lots of nice food, but some of us got food poisoning on the last day. DnAnC + Mama is going back to Phuket again, (thanks to Marriot Vacation Club complimentary stay) and we hope that this coming trip will be a much more chilled holiday.

iii) I noticed that they are a lot of dangerous and rude drivers around and I seriously was considering if I should buy an in-car video cam to record the rude moves that some drivers do. Sometimes I get “cut” by “F1 racers” in Toyota and Hondas doing a speedy lane change, so dangerous that if the car previously in front of me brakes we would get into a collusion, me hitting his right rear bumper. One particular driver I remember, SCP1133A, Silver Honda Civic.

iv) Have been playing a bit of badminton, and decided that will pick up this sport back and play it a bit more seriously and long term.

v) Wanted to go to visit a nursing home back due to time clash, we could not go and went to attend a relative’s wedding instead. Almost gone to a CNY dinner for grassroot leaders with GOH, PM Lee, but had food poisoning so gave it a miss.

vi) Health has not been fantastic. Currently having a back pain that goes back since a while ago. Seeing a specialist to get a diagnosis. Hopefully will not miss the ICT in May.

vii) Potentially (80%) selling the car as it is nothing but a big liability to us right now. 80% of the time its just sitting in the carpark. It is more of a luxury item than a necessity, hence it should really go. Anyone wants to buy it? Or anyone wants to buy the registration plate? SGN126P.

viii) Want to try scenario paintball one day so if someone wants to join me pls pls pls let me know. Need to travel to Malaysia though. Maybe airsoft too.

I think that is about all. Updates again later..

Finally after waiting for almost 4 months. CNY finally arrive and its time for us go for a short break.

This time round on top of the original gang, we have little Chloe to add to the list. This time round I think she has got the centre of attention though.

Thanks to Marriot Vacation Club’s irresistable offer for a preview of their timeshare package, we booked 2 apartment villas at Mai Khao Vacation Club in Phuket. It can comfortably accomodation up to 8 people in each villa so for the 11 of us, it was rather spacious.

We went to Phuket Town, Patong Beach, and went to quite a few shopping places (driver-led) went to drink bird’s nest soup and ate seafood all lunch and dinner meals.

Did jet skis, para-sailing and go karts. I think all of us had great fun. Shame we did not make full use of the facilities in the resort. Will do that in March instead with Daisy’s family.

I know this is the weirdest thing you could possibly see on this blog, but do you know the answer to this question?

Ans: Because they want to have quality babies.

So how to make sure they have quality babies?

Ans: Make sure they stay at the high floors, so that they will have high quality babies. Even better if they stay at the penthouse, they will have the highest quality babies.

Ok.. This is not that funny, but this morning when I was still in bed and subconsciously I was thinking about this Quality Hotel thing…. Weird I know, but just blogging it so that I will have a record of this weird incident/dream.

“What country is Singapore in?” Very often I hear this question… from people living overseas. Some people might also attempt to answer their own question by continuing.. “is it somewhere in China?” or “Now which part is it in Japan, east or west?” or the ultimatum “Are you very controlled by Chinese (PRC) government?”

Sometimes I feel offended that they do not know where Singapore is, and Singapore is actually an independent nation. But after awhile, I thought, perhaps we (Singaporeans) have not done enough to get noticed. So maybe we should be more proactive in promoting our country.

Anyways, a better understanding on What country is Singapore in, read this article.

Just to show everyone what my christmas present for this year from my wife and daughter looks like..

Daisy told me to wear this over-sized t-shirt as sleeping gear.

For those who play L4D, you probably know that it is the game that hit the entire nation like a shockwave… Anyone from age 16-30s (gamers) would probably played it once since Nov 2008. It is a game which attracts even the female counterparts unlike Counterstrike.

Me and the boys (SRT) have been playing quite a bit the previous months’ weekends. And we got a bit serious, we even bought headphones with mic, so that we can play this game with full communication capabilities (a big advantage).

Daisy knows that I enjoyed this game a lot and when the weekend comes, she knows that I would like to join the boys and being the nicest wife, she always encouraged me to go join them.

Yesterday, she surprised me by saying that maybe we could go play L4D in the evening. Of cos I was ecstatic!

So we went to the local LAN shop and got ourselves 2 coms, and loaded the older version of L4D. We played the easy mode Blood Harvest map. Gave her a crash course on zombie killing and orientated her on the keyboards and off we went…

We did quite well or rather she did very well for a beginner. Other than shooting the petrol can while I was within the vicinity of it, and startling the witch, she also got slapped by THE TANK a couple of times. She played pretty good for a 1st timer. So I say if she practised a bit more, she will be able to join us in L4D2 soon!!!

No doubt she can be on my team anytime!! Dun mess with my wife, zombies!!

Hi all, just to inform that we are not selling hearing aid batteries and cochlear implants batteries online, particularly in the US. If anyone requires either types of batteries please let us know. We will ship to Singapore, Hong Kong or UK if needed.

Merry Christmas and a happy new year!

I just woke up from a very different dream. You know sometimes you have repeated dreams, this one is new.

The beginning of the dream, a group of friends and I were on top of a narrow and small tower/platform standing at 10 ft high. Looking over the sea, and the sea is within 5 metres from the tower. We were dressed in black camo utility wear, and lightly armed. I saw my medic course’s garang instructor, giving some garang speech. He then introduced his assistants and called them the PA-s.

All of the sudden, I just fell down. And I actually landed in water instead of the sand that was beneath us just then. I looked up and saw 3 options to get myself up to the tower again.

i) climb up a rope all the way up to another tower adjacent to where I fell.

ii) climb up halfway up a rope to a pillar and go horizontally across the beam to the place where I fell from.

iii) swim underwater in icy cold water and locate an underwater opening leading to shore that will lead me to the tower.

Make a guess which option did I choose in my dream? (Or did my dream choosen it for me)

I went for the swim. Had to do it 2 times before I got it right. I went ashore and all my friends were gone. They had went for lunch without me. So I went to the changing room and change my gear, and surprisingly I find that place very familar. It is a squarish compact room, I have been there before. But hey, it is a ladies changing room now in my dream.. And I saw one of the male PA-s, whom I have seen in real life before. He spoke to me, but i do not remember what was said.

I then went to the cookhouse (familar and looks like a school’s canteen) to eat my lunch, and as all CDOs will know that SOF have special meal arrangements during their selection test period. A table specially setup for them, their lunch is already on the table, with drinks, fruits etc.. In my dream, the table setup was exactly the same, and as I walked towards the table, I saw no one on that table. I saw 8-9 plates half eaten lunch and 1 full-to-the-max plate waiting for me, and next to the plate was a note, from our chief instructor, saying: “We will gather everyone for a briefing after lunch.”

Then I woke up.. Man… What was that supposed to mean?

Before this dream, I actually dreamt of another 2 dreams which are totally random but interesting.

Dream 1 - I dreamt that I still live in one of the flat that I used to live in 10 years ago. I dreamt that I went to bed at 9pm (which I did in real life yesterday) and woke up at 2am but my parents were not at home. (I know it becos their bedroom door was open) Then I went to hang my laundry becos I realised that my clothes were in the washing machine. It was then when I saw them opening the gate with groceries, and they both looked happy and cheerful. Now that is a rare sight, as I have not seen it before when they come home together both with smiley faces. That was quite nice a feeling in my dream.

I asked them where they have been, and they said, they just went to Geylang to do some groceries shopping. They bought quite a lot of things and my mum was so happy that she got XXXXXXX (i do no remember that part) That dream ended just like that.

Dream 2 - I was working with my gf (Daisy my wife in real life) in a warehouse that deals with some futuristic stuff/gadgets. And my boss specifically told me to come to work tomorrow. So the next day when I woke up, Daisy said, “come on let’s go or we will be late for work.” Then suddenly my parents pulled me aside and told me to work for my grandmother (this dream grandmother who is a celebrity in real life, isn’t my real GM). My grandmother wants to grind rock hard malt sugar blocks (look alike) into powder. So there it was this pallet full of malt sugar blocks, a grinder machine and a large stainless steel tray to collect the powder.

We were doing this in the front porch of our house (and it looks like 70s style bungalow and looks like a kampong in Malaysia) and the front porch was quite huge, so the machine was like 5 metres away from the pallet, so Daisy was telling me off becos she needed some help with the tray at the same time, she needed more blocks to put into the grinder.

She also reminded me that we were so late for work.. Then I woke up.

Man… what does all these dreams mean? Its 4.35am when I woke up and now its 6.21am supposedly waking up at 7am.. I ain’t sleeping at 9pm again!!!

Merry Christmas in advance friends and relatives. It is only 10 days away!! For those who has not send out your christmas cards, I have some tips for writing a christmas card for your beloved ones, if you are wondering what to write in a christmas card.

You better hurry though, as the postal services are possibly very busy now sending lots of season greetings from one merry guy to another…

Have a merry merry christmas guys!