Back to Bugis

Since there's no gathering at my mom's today, I made hubby take us to Bugis Junction again, hahaha. Why? 'Cos he's interrupted my shopping on Thursday and I just have to go back there, :D. Though we didn't get to browse the whole mall but it's been another fruitful trip, heee. We even tried a new restaurant(new, as in we hvn't dined there before), MOF, mmm not bad, :).

For Wear or For Play?

Renee has always liked to 'take over' my shawl when we're out and so I passed her both of the 2 shawls hubby's got during his earlier trip to Vietnam. She's been playing with them since and once she even wanted to wear 1 out but they're too long for her. Recently, it suddenly dawned onto me that I've actually forgotten about this little pink checked scarf I've got for her during 1 of our biz trips but when I took it out, though happy, she had not wanted to wear it out and instead, she played with it....

A Little X'mas Decorator II

We've put up our X'mas decor today!

Have actually planned to do it tomorrow when daddy's also home but Renee simply couldn't wait and when I've finally convinced her, I decided otherwise, hahahahaha.

A Little X'mas Decorator

I have a facial appointment today and when I received hubby's call just before I got to the salon, I thought, "oh no". True enough, he has to meet his client last minute, haiz... He asked if he could send Renee to Li's and looking at the time, I supposed it might be ok and that he could check with her. Good thing Li wasn't going out and he brought her over. This girl was sooo happy and as usual, when she's excited about an outing/meet-up, she kept asking him if he was ready to go, hahaha.

This evening, she excitedly told me(actually Li has alr told me when I went to pick her up) that she's helped aunty Lili on the X'mas decoration of her home and she again, asked to put up ours NOW! Hubby is not into the idea of having them put up so early but I guess my argument of 'put up earlier, we don't have to take them down after a short period' won over and we finally agreed to have ours put up this Friday, :D.

Getting Used To II

Ms Mok was expecting Renee to be still struggling with the new violin but it seems that after a week's practices, she is finally getting used to it... So, again, she asked if I'd made her spent alot of time on her practices. Haiz, I really wished I could do that! 'Cos though she's more or less adapted to all the new positions, she still will slack off a couple as she plays along as her hand is still short for the bigger violin. More time spent would be better, but I never am able to get her do that, especially with this new instrument, to play more than 35-40mins(incl breaks in-between to rest her aching arm....). In any case, I guess I should be comforted since the teacher had told us that there're students who took more than 1 month to get used to a new violin. Hope she could do better still...

Another Outing

Supposed to meet up with Vicky for lunch today but due to late night yesterday, we decided to meet around 3-4pm instead. However, just as I was getting ready, Vic phoned to change the time to 5pm as her parents needed to do some shopping. And then, I had to rush when she told me shortly that they'd be done very soon, haiya... :P

Since they're early in this instance, Vicky decided to go wif her parents to Sembawang S.C. and I'm to meet her/them(she had gone thr with her parents 1st) there. Good thing it's a simple route there, :D.

I had suggested going there as she mentioned yesterday about getting something from Daiso and I had remembered wrongly that the western food stall we'd both enjoyed was there too. But actually, that stall's at North Point... She then suggested the "Aston's' and we had a pretty nice meal there, under the rain(sheltered, of cos, :D) too, with Renee enjoying hers, :).

There was a water-play just outside the restaurant and it's a good thing I've not told Renee earlier that I had actually thought of letting her have a little fun at the pool at Vick'ys place(but changed my mind when the meet up time was delayed), else she'd have fussed more about wanting to play there...

Since we were nearby, I brought the CD Ms Mok had lent us and went over to Vicky's to burn it since our new cpu, with the new vista programme doesn't seem to be able to do that(according to Ms Mok, Vista prog seems to hv such probs...). Renee had drawn Vicky a card and the latter was soo touched(she text me later and told me so), hahaha. She had a little chat with Vic's parents whilst we were busy with the cd burning, and now she said she wanted to draw for them as well, hahaha.

A Un-Fulfilled Quest

When my gf, Vicky told me she'd be free on her off days(Thurs & Fri) this week, I suddenly had a thought to go look for our long MIA friend. So, I asked and arranged with hubby to stay home to look after Renee but once again, this special quest had to be postponed when his client's here on Wednesday...

It's usually quite hard for me to meet up with Vicky and thus, our meet up plan remains and after driving hubby to his client's hotel(I didn't want to but he said he didn't want to drive as he'd drinking), I took Renee to meet her at Paragon.

We had a nice dinner at the 'Big O' and when done, we proceeded for a little shopping at Takashimaya Dept. Store where I bought a couple of gifts, standby for X'mas pressies, :).

We didn't really 'shop', and were at the toys dept. most of the time, so Renee was happily occupying herself whilst we both chatted. We had finished our dinner at around 7pm and time really flies 'cos by the time we decided to move on for coffee, it was already past 9:30pm! The cafe(with expensive but very yummy cakes but I can't rem its name) Vicky wanted to bring me to was already closing(last order at 9:30pm) and we have to head down to 'Starbucks', which luckily only closes at 11pm. We shared a piece of cholatety cake and at about 10:45pm, we decided to head home as Vicky needed to send her uncle to the airport the next morning.

Renee was good to stay awake til we got home and fell asleep instantly whilst I was having my shower.

I've since switched to de-caffed coffee and thus, any coffee would keep me awake and last night, I was held wide awake by the latte even after hubby came back at 2:30am. He was abit tipsy, naturally and we both watched the shows I've recorded on the Mio Tv and I only went to bed at around 4am! Zombie today...

Getting Used To

Finally, after 2 days of practices, Renee is finally able to start her practices on the songs though I must say that she still needs more hours getting used to the stretched position of the fingers.

It had appeared as though it might rain anytime and thus, I've been procrastinating if to go meet up with my sisters, PC and Li at Hougang mall. Finally, at around 1:30pm, I decided to take the risk and hurriedly got ready. So, a nice simple outing for the day.... :).

Reliving The Earlier Violin Days

We're back to reliving those days when she's first started her violin lessons.

This new violin seemed to be even 'longer' compared to the 1st one she has, so she had to reeaaaaally stretch her arm which caused her aches. Then, the fingering problem, though anticipated, I've not expected the violin to be any much bigger than before, so now it's harder for her to stretch her tiny fingers. No choice anyway, 'cos by the time she goes for her exam, she'd need to play with the bigger one as well.

She was impatient, not heeding my advice/suggestion, had wanted to play songs with it straight away. However, after a few pieces and hearing for herself the tuning problem due to her fingering position, she relented and allowed me to guide her back to the basics. Well, not entirely the minimum basics but more to let her get used to the new positions. I feel that this violin is also more sensitive, if she'd miss the position by even 2-3mm, the tune will not be too far out, but now with this, a tiny shift away will give a really different tune and I'm finding it irritating and she, frustrated....