36 lions eye-dotting ceremony

Some weeks ago, a party of 36-lions mass eye-dotting ceremony was held and we were there to witness the event. The new lions were sponsored by some generous people living in Jurong for the CNY and this year's Chingay parade. Eye-dotting ritual is held to give the new lion its "spirit".

A paint brush dipped with red ink is used to dot the eye, ears ,nose, horn, feet, and the body.

MP Tharman dotting one of the feet, for 'world peace'.

If you notice, the shoes are sprayed red or yellow depending on the color of the lion.

Even girls are strong enough to dance the lion! POwer girls!

Rey enjoying the lion dancing in the heat.

36 new lions altogether, danced performed by secondary school students.

A final photo of the VIPs holding mandarin oranges, CNY approaching...

Uncle Vincent grabbed Rey in the photo taking whenever possible.

I'm glad that non-Chinese participates in our Chinese events.

The silver lion climbed up to the top in matter of seconds!

I liked the eye-dotting ritual speech best.

参花挂红 (狮头) Putting Red Flower Ribbon On Lion's Head
参花挂红拜师公 Putting Red Flower Ribbon and Bow to Our Predecessor
戴起响铃显灵通 Wearing the Chimes that will awakens its spirit
兄弟平安添义气 May Our Brothers Have Peace and More Chivalry
吉昌兴旺永流芳 So We May have Luck and Prosperity for All Eternity
醒狮点睛开光曲 Awakening Lion Eye Dotting Verse
(灵光) 罡气天地人，狮中之瑞 (Heavenly Spirit) In The Midst of Heaven, Earth and Men, The Lion Represents Luck (Dot The Forehead)
(双眼) 千里眼，左青龙，右白虎 (Both Eyes) With Eyes That Can See Ten Thousand Miles, The Green Dragon On The Left And The White Tiger On The Right (Dot Both Eyes)
(双耳) 顺风耳， 左通天, 右达地(Both Ears) A Pair of Smoothly Winded Ears, For The Left Penetrates The Heaven, While The Right Reaches The Earth (Dot Both Ears)
(鼻) 万里鼻，能办妖淫邪恶(Nose) A Ten Thousand Miles Sensing Nose That Can handle ALL Evil Spirits (Dot The Nose)
(嘴) 牙尖嘴利，吼声吭宇宙 (Mouth) Pointed Teeth and Sharp Mouth, with growling Roars that is heard throughout in this universe (Dot The Mouth)
(角) 独角震乾坤，万丈毫光 (Horn) A Single Horn That Rocks The Heaven And Earth, unleashes ten thousand miles of light (Dot The Horn)
(被) 威猛雄狮，长寿永无疆 (Skin) Giving This Ferocious and Brave Lion, A Long Life of No Boundaries (Dot The Body Skin) (左脚) 左脚踏七星，天下太平 (Left Foot)
Left Foot Stands On Seven Stars, For The World to have Peace (Dot The Left Foot)
(右脚) 右脚踏风云，降龙伏虎 (Right Foot) Right Foot Stands On Windy Clouds, to yield the Dragon and Suppress the Tiger (Dot The Right Foot)
顺风顺水顺顺利利，大吉大利起鼓
With Favorable Winds And rolling Water That Smoothly flow, May We All Have good Luck And Good Fortune. Begin The Drum

a day trip to Malaysia

All 23 of us, friends, families, and neighbours went for a trip to JB today.


We visited a temple and also Jusco (above)




Ate my favourite whole coconut, shell skillfully chopped off, with meat intact and juice in it.

Rey monkeyed around in the coach as usual.

I don't know why but a few of us stared at this rambutan tree for a looooong time, wishing the rambutans will just fall off ...maybe we haven't seen a rambutan tree for ages.

with 2 kids in tow...


kids amusing themselves with mimosa plants.


And I got my well-deserved Thai foot massage.


Came back early enough to cut cake for Misa's birthday.

And can you believe it? Rey, Nana and all are downstairs at the park having their impromptu BBQ with the same group of people who travelled with us. Guess I'm the only one chilling out at home, missing out the fun. Hmm...ok, joining them after this, and it's already 11:40pm! Rey is still at the BBQ!

Nana's going for camp!

2 weeks ago, the school annouced that Nana will be attending P.5 Camp at Lim Chu Kang, setting alarms ringing for her nervous-wrecked parents.
3 more days to her 2 nights camping adventure and Misa is already packing half the house into Nana's camping bag!
OK, I'm exaggarating but it's really interesting (sometimes too naggy) watching how Nana-the-princess is being lectured (you have to listen to instructions yada yada..), pampered (never mind if the teacher said no handphones, just bring this cheap one, call me at night...), questioned (is your teacher going to "do this/ do that?!?") all this while. New things have been bought to accomodate the necessities to bring, a more cushioned sleeping bag is borrowed from Cheltton even though she already has one, and i think they're going to squeeze in a soft pillow too. Insect repellent stickers, sprays, facial wash, 1 week supply of undies, the list can go on.
I even suggested adult diapers in case Nana is scared of going to the toilet. She has been reading alot of Mr. Midnight's not-very-scary stories but I think this will add more horrific imagination in the night.
sigh, CAMP only mah, I went for band training camp since P2 and I don't think much fuss has been made for my 1 or 2 weeks camp.
Now I think the main problem for Nana is that no one is going to fold the sleeping bag for her, pick up the dirty clothes and make sure her hair is thoroughly washed. Nana, prepare yourself for a trip to the salon when you return.

32 candles

Rey wanted to draw me a birthday cake for me. So he drew me a cake on a paper.
R: How many candles should I draw?
I: 32 candles.
R: How many is 32?
(so I showed him by drawing 32 strokes for myself and 4 for Rey.)
I: See, you have only 4 candles.
R: .... (immediately erased the 1st small cake and draw an enormous one instead.
---------
I: Oh,...I don't want to grow old, how?
R: Just put more lotion on your face!

spring cleaning

It's time for spring cleaning again. For me, tidying up things only takes a short time because I enjoy throwing away old things. The only problem is that I'd always be stuck in memory lane for 1 hour whenever I come across valuable photos of my ex-schoolmates back in primary school. Perhaps it's not even a problem at all, but you start recalling the days of how young, fun, carefree, how energized you could still be even after long hours of ECAs, the nights spent at my 2 best friends' house before we skipped off to school for band practices on Sat mornings, cheering on friends downing concoctions of melted icekachang with whatever leftovers were available at the table....all these precious memories up to my very happening university days in Tokyo. There I met friends from different countries, organized our own international potluck every week at the dorm. All are doing so well now, 1 of them Helen is now a host for her own HK show 'tokyo walker'. This is not a surprise for me as she had always roamed Tokyo more faithfully than coming to school. She's just so cute and cool. To my friends out there, I know I should have given you a call or so, just to say hello and that I'm back. But if I hadn't call, you're dearly missed and not forgotten at all, it is just that I'm always finding the perfect time for a proper chit-chat, Rey is too noisy....ok, I admit that I'm just plain lazy.

water ballet 2

Rey showing everyone he can split too.

observing water flowing through the 'filter'

preparing for a performance, Nana is at the top.

The coach was in China's national team. See how they train. 2 more swimmers were absent so the pattern looks a bit unbalanced. This is just their one of their earlier training and they can do this. I wonder how the end product will look like.

water ballet

The pool is on top of Osim building where we can see the sunset.

Rey is doing his warm-up.

He sinks into the water.... (baby pool, don't worry!)

He imitates Nana and the mermaids, tries to lift up his legs too.

... now is 2 legs up in the air while his body is submerged in the water.

Jae's birthday party

Meredith didn't like to be in my blog, so she remains a headless figure above.

Rey went to Baby Jae's 1 year old birthday celebration. You must be wondering why there are 2 cakes here. One was for Jae's cousin, also 1 year old. the smaller cake is from Swenson. I love ice cream cakes, can never have enough of them.

Having his trial lesson with the coach.


Rey will be individually trained twice a week from now to swim breaststroke. I hope he can before he goes back to Japan.

at Jurong Point


Fish & Co.


forgot to take picture before eating. this is half-eaten.

oh no, my blog is slowly turning into just an internet album because I have to show Rey's grandparents in Japan his photos. anyway, Rey is attending school here for just a few weeks. The Singapore kids are progressing so fast it really confirmed the failing Japan education system. sad...

Children playing their DS.







He is happy to see the ball coming out.


Rey choses his ball...


... and carried it! Be careful Rey! It's 7 kg!





yes, just 'pushing' the ball. Most of the time gutter but occasionally hitting 1 or 2 pins.

Nana's turn.


caught Darren's pose.