Lifelong Customer

Our Volvo is 3+ yo. It is a 2 litres, turbo-charged car that keeps Daddy Lim happy most of the time. To me, it is just a car that gets us from point A to B. I do recognise that it is important that the man is happy, then he wouldn't come bug me about upgrading the car parts, like what happened with our 1st car - the Honda Jazz.

I do agree that our car is super spacious and it is a comfortable ride. I was also won over by the fact that it is a super safe car. One of my complaints though is the complicated electronic systems, which leads to regular prompts on some malfunction parts. The prompts cannot be switched off and it gets me panicky. Imagining driving smoothly on the expressway and suddenly a flashing warning about some engine whatever. The best part? There is no telling if the warning is real since the ride feels the same. Sometimes and for no reason, the warning goes off after a while. The car is too "clever" for our good.

The car comes with a 3-year warranty and the servicing had been satisfactory. Well, it better be given how expensive our car was. The warranty expired late last year and we were left with the decision on whether we should continue to send the car back to Volvo for servicing or use some private workshops. Daddy Lim then told me that it is notorious for Volvo to charge an arm for after-warranty servicing. Then again, it is not like we have many choices bcos servicing and repairing for continental cars are expensive generally, private workshops or not. Zzzzz.

We eventually decided to head back to the Volvo workshop. Meanwhile, we had been tolerating for months a malfunctioning headlight plus an irritating cannot-turn-off warning from the "clever" system. There was also this annoying creaking sound, which Daddy Lim suspected was a loose panel somewhere and finally some weird braking sound that only Daddy Lim can hear.

The car had to be left in the workshop the entire day for servicing. On the same day morning, Daddy Lim texted to say that he was quoted 1.2k for a normal servicing, without considering the cost of replacing the headlight, which is an addition $350. My heart dropped. What kind of expensive servicing is that?! Maybe the car would come back glittered in gold dust and the headlight cab shine rainbow?

The eventual bill turned out to be $600. The headlight wasn't changed bcos there was no spare part and had to be ordered in. The creaking and braking noise continued bcos the mechanics couldn't locate the problem. Hmmmmm... how interesting. Given the expensive experience, we started worrying about the expensive maintenance henceforth. Daddy Lim checked a private workshop to change the headlight and was quoted $1k. Zzzzzzzz. We even considering exploring the option to change to a cheaper and simpler Japanese car.

Of course the headlight had to be fixed regardless of the cost. Not only were the warnings irritating, it was not safe. Accrodingly to Daddy Lim's research, there aren't many private workshops that do continental cars. Daddy Lim eventually found one that quoted us a decent price for replacing the headlight. The workshop is located in the Sin Min area.

The replacement was done quickly and it cost us $235. Daddy Lim had wanted the workshop to fix the noises too but the workshop was crowded with other expensive continental cars like the BMs and alike. He was asked to come back with an appointment another day and be prepared to leave the car in the workshop for the day for indepth investigation.

Daddy Lim did so and headed back on Tuesday morning. I had hoping that it wouldn't hurt our pocket too much. By late morning, Daddy Lim texted that the car was almost done. I was surprised. Apparently, the experienced mechanic easily identified the source of the noises and speedily fixed them. Our car was given some oiling and a much needed wash too. The best news? The workshop said that it is FOC bcos those were small issues, easily fixed without any parts change. Woohoo! How cool is that?

Daddy Lim was definitely very pleased with the service. The Family Financial Controller, aka me, was pleased that my wallet is intact. Daddy Lim said that the workshop just scored a lifelong customer. Hohoho.

Our ride feels good once again. It is amazing how comfortable it si now that it is quiet again. I am also suspecting and hoping that the car can go on for a few more years, much to Daddy Lim's disappointment (probably). You should have seen the sparkle in his eyes when he was researching for a possible new buy even if it would be a downgrade. Sorry! Muahahaha.

Mummy Lim

Class Representative x 2

Lil Shauna was again appointed as the class representative this year. I wasn't surprise; she is afterall THE model student who gets the model student award every other few terms. Teachers all like this kind, don't they? I was proud though, especially when she is usually so shy and normally the follower, not leader.

One day, she came home with her new class representative badge. This time, it is in the form of a collar badge.

What does surprise me is that Zaky is also selected as the class representative. So we have 2 in the family. I was doubtful when he 1st told us. I found it unbelievable. I even teased him that the teacher must have selected him bcos he is the naughtiest in class. By selecting him, his teacher thereby hopes that he would then better behave and save her the trouble. Hahaha. Jokes aside, he probably has some leadership qualities that the teacher sees. Zaky also relates how he carried out his duties and he sounded fairly responsible. Thumbs up.

A few weeks ago, on a bad evening, Zaky was very whiney and Daddy Lim ended up yelling at him. Of course he cried and was very upset. It turned out that he was feeling depressed for not receiving his class representative badge while jiejie had hers. Daddy Lim related it to working and not receiving salary. Now, that feels bad. Lol.

Last week, he finally received his badge! He was very proud of it. Finally being paid.

Mummy Lim

Cute Things in Life

Our opposite neighbour is a Taiwanese-Korean couple and they have a little girl - S. Like us, they sometimes leave the frony door open and the kids always call out for each other. Super cute.

We literally watch S learns how to walk. She could now walk steadily. Recently, I saw her sneakers and couldn't help myself.

So small and cute! I was reminded of all of Lil Shauna's pretty (but very smelly) and pink shoes too.

This other pair is just as photo worthy - shiny gold. I can conclude that S and Lil Shauna have the same taste; anything pink or shiny = good. Lol.

It is such a pity that they are shifting away in June. We will definitely miss her sweet little voice as she calls out for gorgor and jiejie.

Separately, I captured this picture a few days back.

Zaky usually walks with me (when I am around), which make this picture so precious. The father and son were in some cute conversation. For some reason, their back view looks somewhat similar.

Courtesy of Auntie S, we have a front view picture too. Definitely father and son; pattern same, same. Haha.

Mummy Lim

Treetop Walk

It all started with a poster in the lift advertising the Treetop Walk organized for the residents. I got excited when the wonderful memories of the Dragonback hike were evoked. I know it is different but we had conquered the Treetop Walk 2 years back and am quite sure that it would be a lot easier this time given that the kids have longer legs now. Right?

It was decided and we hit the Treetop Walk yday. We threw out the invitation and only Auntie S was available and crazy enough to accept our invite.

Whenever we have a special event, it is easy to wake the kids. Soon they were bouncing around the house and all ready to move off. We drove and picked Auntie S from the Marymount MRT. We spotted a big playground next to the station and the kids couldn't resist. Workout started early for them.

While driving to the carpark, Daddy Lim spotted this hawker center and was already thinking about breakfast. Haha. Auntie S soon arrived and we packed off to the carpark along Venus Drive to start our adventure. It was about 5 mins drive away and we found a lot easily.

We have to take a wefie before the journey while still looking fresh.

It shouldn't be too bad. On the website, it says that the trail to the Treetop walk was only 2.5km, which will take about 1 hr.

The trail started with easy walking on nicely structured platform. Auntie S was full of energy and walking really quickly.

She must be annoyed when the kids constantly stopped to look at spiders and beautifully crafted webs; there were so many of them. Lol.

Or sun tanning skinks.

Or the chicken family. Muahahahaha.

Like Daddy Lim, she was already thinking about the bfast and wondering how long it would take us to complete the trail with all the pausing every few minute. Lol. The kids didn't quite care and was totally in awe with nature’s beauty.

We spotted monkeys too. Auntie S and Zaky made good friends bcos they were both jumpy in the presence of monkeys. Not the “happy” jumpy but the “nervous” jumpy. Haha.

She was probably more at ease with the stopping when the actual climb started bcos it was really hard work. When the hike started, she trailed back and joined me as the last women. We were both panting when trying to speak. Lol. When the kids stopped, it is not opportunity to rest. We were so amazed at people who were running the trail. Good ah!

After probably a good hour of walking, we arrived at the Rangers’ station and took a break. I remembered that we took a break at the same spot 2 years back. The kids were hungry with all the walking and it was finally time for the snacks to make their grand entrance; we refrained from taking snacks earlier for fear of hungry monkeys.
Zaky was happily eating his snacks and Lil Shauna’s mamee was waiting for her while I brought her to the toilet to have her hands clean. The moment we were out, there was a commotion and this monkey.

My lousy camera couldn't tell much but it was happily snacking on Lil Shauna’s mamee.

There was apparently a sign warning about food snatching monkeys, which I only saw after our food was snatched. I am quite sure the sign wasn't around 2 years back. The monkeys must have gotten clever and knew where the food would appear.

According to the eye witness – Auntie S, the monkey tiptoed to the bench where Zaky was sitting and snatched the snacks away. The boy was totally unaware of the monkey or would have freaked out. Brave Auntie S also rescued our bag and almost had to wrestle with the monkey. OK, I exaggerated. It was funny nevertheless. I do feel really bad for feeding the monkey though with no intention. Lil Shauna didn't want any snacks anymore and Zaky quickly gobbled his before we started our walk again.

There was a last bit of a steep climb before we finally reached. Hooray! Pictures time.

Zaky was visibly tired and didn't quite enjoy the Treetop walk. Still, we had to take pictures in celebration.

Auntie S also whipped out Korean strawberries from her bag; she figured out that we were too high up for monkeys to come after us. When Lil Shauna asked how to dispose the remaining strawberry stem, Auntie S replied, "discreetly". Then, she very NOT discreetly threw hers over the bridge. Faint.

The real pain comes after that. There were stairs to climb and a lot of them, right after the Treetop walk. It wasn't helping the boy.

What goes up must come down. Though monkeys on the handrail did make things a little more interesting.

After exiting the Treetop walk, it was basically back almost the way we came from. It was a bigger loop though, at 2.6km.
We spotted more interesting stuff, like this huge and fat millipede or whatever. It was right on the path and Daddy Lim kindly moved it with his bare hands. None of the kids wanted to try holding the fat worm in their hand. Lol.

Midway back, we heard something dropped from the tree. Lil Shauna went to inspect and was then yelling that it was a snake! Sorry, my handphone again didn't do any justice to it, it was really bright and colorful.

It just us all jumpy though and we became all very weary of whatever that would drop from the trees. Seriously, snakes?

Finally, after 3.5 hrs, we made it back to the car and everybody was rushing for aircon. Nobody cared about any wefie. Lol. We survived, it wasn't really that bad.

We did head for bfast after the workout. The kids didn't have much of an appetite  but the adults totally enjoyed themselves. It was really a hard workout. Daddy Lim took a long nap, I stole cat naps and had a dull headache the whole day. Only the kids were still bouncing around but bedtime was so easy.

We have decided that we would bring C when he is in town with ah yee. He likes nature. I hope he still likes it after 3.5 hrs of walk in the hot sun. Hahaha.

Mummy Lim

Ice Skating 79

I remembered that Lil Shauna's lesson was earlier this week. I thought it was 11.30am and had a shock when we arrived at 10.45am to realise that lesson was in 15 mins' time.

It was the Singapore National Ice Skating competition this weekend and there is no group classes in the morning, which explains the earlier lesson. Lil Shauna had originally wanted to join the competition but Teacher Raymond had advised against it bcos she is soooooo slow and it would be difficult to skate the entire rink. She's fine; she is keeping her eyes on the next competiton in Jakarta in August. I was upset initially though but it is important for her to compete within her means then overstretched her and made her hate the sports.

She barely had time to warm up before class. After her foot work, Teacher Raymond made her spins and spins and spins; from scratch spin to chain spin to sit spin. Her spinning sux....

She negotiated to stop practicing after lesson; she had been lazy recently. Of course she didn't have her way and wasn't allowed out of the rink. Muahahaha.

It was difficult initially and she looked half dead even before she started any decent training. However, the momentum caught on shortly and she had a great practice. Her waltz jumps are always wonderful when she has enough speed. Her spins still needed a lot of practice though. She worked hard on her sit spin and she was a little lower than usual. Not bad already.

There was no off ice today bcos of the competition. It had been more than a month and I can see her secretly smiling away. Haha.

Mummy Lim

Anniversary Gift

Fortunately, Daddy Lim and I are at the stage where we could buy things that we really want anytime and not have to save up and wait for special occasions. Well, this is exceptional of super luxurious items (think: car) of course. Special occasions or not, those just required long term financial planning.

Bcos we didn't have to wait until special occasions, it also gets so difficult to buy gifts when these special occasions come.  After a while, we sort of conveniently forgot.

I had wanted a fitness tracker watch for a long time; since Daddy Lim's expensive hand-me-down Seiko died. However, I kept putting it off; it is a want, not a need. I got by for a while and even inherited Daddy Lim's even more expensive watch and I was happy for a while until I had to travel for business and realised that I am not going to wear that expensive watch to go on business trips.

Eventually, my eyes still fell on the fitbit. Muahahahaha. My gift to myself for my bday - fitbit charge 2.

At the same time, I had wanted to find one for Daddy Lim. He was tempted too when I was window shopping for mine but I couldn't find one that is reasonably priced and yet catches my eye. The really nice ones are crazily expensive for the purpose of tracking fitness! Moreover, not like Daddy Lim is a crazy fitness frenetic and has so much fitness to track. Haha.

Eventually, this is what I decided. A Samsung Gear S3 - a smartwatch. It wasnt much more expensive that a decent looking fitness tracker watch..Hohoho. I do feel like a Santa Clause, well, until the credit card bill comes and knocks me dizzy. Lol. It had been a very long while since I had an anniversary gift for him.

He better likes it; I will force him to like it anyway. Hahaha.

For the huge amount of money that I spent at Harvey on the watches, I was given a plastic bag; must be an expensive one.

I ended up happily meddling with my fitbit while waiting for Zaky to finish his chinese class. Daddy Lim was out with his friends.

He came home at almost midnight. Does he like his S3? He doesn't have a choice.

My fitbit was put to good use this morning. It works!

Happy us.

Mummy Lim

Progressing well Academically

Lil Shauna sets a very high benchmark when it comes to academic work.  Not only that, we also realised a long time ago that Zaky paled in comparison. We ended up subconsciously setting a high standard for Lil Shauna and gave more leeway to Zaky.

I always have the impression that Zaky isn't that academically inclined. Recently, I realised that I could be wrong. He was taught multiplication in his maths enrichment class and is progressing to division. This is an amazing feat for a 7 YO. Lil Shauna struggled for a long time when she 1st started.

We recently started reading the bible to do the kids' Sunday school homework. I was again pleasantly surprised at how well Zaky can now read. Lil Shauna is definitely better at 7 but Zaky isn't too bad for his age too.

The SAs are coming. I never have to worry about the kids' revision except for Chinese bcos I have jiat kang tang kids. Recently, I have started going through the 生字 with the kids and was surprised that Zaky did his revision so much easily than jiejie. Mentioning which, I almost vomited blood when helping jiejie with her chinese compo just now.

Zaky is definitely progressing well academically. Then again, he just brought home his Chinese listening comprehension mock test. He has 6 out of 10. I looked at his paper and was reminded how Lil Shauna always come back with full marks for listening comprehension. It is so hard not to compare. Zaky is having his graded chinese listening comprehension test this Wednesday. I reminded him to listen carefully. He said that he always do, just that he cannot remember. Zzzzz. Win already.

Mummy Lim

The Newest Addition

We were invited to Baby Elizabeth's full month bash on Sunday. Who is Baby Elizabeth? She is the newest addition to the Lim family - Auntie E's baby.

We skipped off ice to attend the event and it was all worth it bcos it was great to be able to catch up with Daddy Lim's family. The last time we met was during CNY and we missed some of them. On the other hand, Lil Shauna would love to have any reasons to skip off ice.

There was plenty of good food and a mini playroom was right beside the function room. The kids had a great time playing with Z. Fortunately, Z didn't learn from gorgor, who was soon jumping off the mini hut. The playroom though small, provided a lot of entertainment to the kids, which also mean that I had plenty of time to sit around, catch up, relaxed and eat the buffet. Hohoho.

I always loved meeting up with Daddy Lim's extended family. Lao chek and laogu always took extra efforts to chat up with the kids and engaged them.

The hours passed so quickly and soon it was time to go to rush for TKD. It was great catching up and the kids can't wait for baby Elizabeth to grow up; they need more playmates. Hehe.

Mummy Lim

Ice Skating 78

Daddy Lim decided that he wanted to start exercising. He woke up early on Saturday morning and would have joined me on the treadmill but Lil Shauna woke up and wanted to tag along. They ended up going to the Jurong Park and Daddy Lim said that they completed 4 rounds, half jogging and walking. I dont think the park was that big but they took a long time bcos the girl was also distracted by the playground. They came back and did some more stretching and monkeying around at the fitness corner.

We also ran some errands before sending Lil Shauna to the rink. It was almost 11.30am and she didn't have much time to warm up before class. 

There were so many people in the ice skating rink, including the 1/3 ice. The people who are taking Figure group classes can also practice in the 1/3 ice after class. As a result, the 1/3 ice is busy with amateur figure skaters, who posed a risk to themselves and more so, to other skaters who are practicing their jumps and spins. Some daring skaters just dont care while Lil Shauna spent a lot of her time trying to avoid these skaters.

The more irritating part is the young group lesson figure skaters who spent more time playing in the 1/3 ice than skating. They are double the danger bcos they are often engrossed in their play and not aware of the other jumping/ spinning skaters. Sometimes, I want to pull hair, also theirs if I had the option. Aaaarrgghhhh. 

The busy rink plus the morning exercise was a bad, deadly combination. Lil Shauna didn't warm up for long before complaining that she was tired. Win already. She didn't have much time anyway.

Teacher Raymond did the usual 3-turn footwork with her, then worked on her toe loop jump. She learnt the toe loop jump a long time back but something is probably wrong with her technic and her toe loop looks funny.  She also practiced on her loop jumps and flip jumps. Her loop jumps are definitely improving but she has to land at the right part of her skate; now she sounded like an elephant. 

She was beat at the end of the lesson. She refused to stay on to practice, not even for another minute. I told Daddy Lim that she would have no more morning exercise before ice skating lesson the next time. Zzzzz.

Hopefully it would be better next week.

Mummy Lim

Dates!

After Zaky's outburst, we thought he probably needed more attention and assurance. Not just any attention but attention from the almighty MUMMY. I spent a lot of time with Lil Shauna bcos of her ice skating while Daddy Lim took on the role of ferrying him to TKD recently.

It was fixed. On Saturday, I would go on a date with my little bf while Daddy Lim would bring his princess out. We were talking so much about the dates to the kids beforehand and they were so excited about it. Ok, maybe Lil Shauna wasn't that excited about it. She needed some coaxing before she agreed to go with Daddy Lim bcos she predicted that he would bring her ONLY to Adidas or Nike shop for window shopping. Lol.

On D day, the kids went about their usual lessons and the date started right after their Maths class. Like a real date, we presented the kids with a gift at the beginning. Zaky got a new watch and Lil Shauna received a Smiggle multiple colour pen. Actually, these are what they needed for school; Mummy is an opportunist.

The kids have the choice to decide on the activities and dinner. Zaky said that he wanted to go to the new cafe at Jcube. He been there 2x with Daddy Lim. It is an expensive cafe at $8 per person per hour. There is free flow of hot and cold drinks and some snacks. For the fee, we can choose to play pool, use the computers, play xbox, boardgames or simply lazed around if we feel rich.

Zaky hit the xbox immediately. He was only allowed 1 hour in the cafe and he spent the entire hour playing xbox. What did I do? My job was to watch him play xbox and he was craving all the attention that I was giving him. An hour passed so quickly.

Daddy Lim watsapp that they were in Vivo. He had wanted to bring Lil Shauna for prawning only to find that it was closed. Fortunately, they passed by the fish spa in the shopping mall and Lil Shauna had been bugging for fish spa for a long time.

The little girl looked absolutely thrilled!

After our hour at the cafe, Zaky opted for Swensen for dinner and his wish was obviously granted. My guess is that he wanted ice cream more than anything else. I feel like I was Fairy Godmother for a day.

Daddy Lim and Lil Shauna had Korean food. They both have expensive taste when it comes to food and they looked so happy to be spending in the restaurant without me reining them in.

The last activity of the day was a movie - Boss Baby in JP.

While on the way back, we happened to walk past Samsung and they were having some free promotion activities. More things to fill in our date!

We were actually all watching the same movie in JP but we intentionally bought tickets at 2 different ends of the cinema.

Just my little bf and I.

Zaky definitely enjoyed all the attention that I showered on him the entire afternoon. Lil Shauna had a good time too. She related excitedly about her fish spa experience. Well, I guess anything would be better than Adidas and Nike shops. Lol.

I think we could do this again in the future with the other kid; I am already thinking about all the girly stuff that I could do with Lil Shauna.

Thinking back, I am so glad that I am married bcos dating bf is so tiring and very costly. Lol. By the way, Daddy Lim and I did had our own little mini date one of the previous nights too. Our cheap, easy and relaxing date.

Mummy Lim