mrbrown: L'infantile terrible of Singapore

Four-Oh

In the middle of the week, the wife suddenly said to me, "I want to eat at Fish & Co".

Why, I said.

"You haven't taken me out on a dinner date for a long time."

Can't argue with that, I suppose.

As the weekend approached, the wife asked again, "Are you free on Saturday?"

I told her I couldn't make it because I was out on a shoot till late. She had a worried look on her face when I told her that.

"Sunday, then. We have dinner on Sunday."

"How about the kids?" I asked. We usually go to my mother-in-law's on Sundays.

"Oh, my brother will pick them up on Sunday and take them to my mom's. We can go on our date then."

So Sunday came and it was a flurry of activity. I had a few hours of sleep the night before due to the Saturday shoot, and we were on duty in church on Sunday itself, so we had wake up at 6.30am. By the time we were done at church, it was 2pm.

We grabbed a quick lunch and I crashed for the afternoon, completely zonked out.

At 5pm, the wife woke me up. Time to go, says she.

Another 5 minutes of sleep please, I asked, thinking of how I could convince her to postpone our dinner date so I could sleep some more.

But it did not look like I was going to get out of this one. The wife even put on a fancy outfit, a brown dress.

I said goodbye to the kids and told them to enjoy their visit to grandma's. I wondered why the kids look particularly dressed up for their Sunday grandma visit but thought, maybe I was just imagining it.

As we drove to Novena, I told the wife I wanted to buy a Polly Pocket for Joy because I already bought a Bumblebee Transformer for Isaac and it would be World War 3 in the house if I just gave a present to one kid. She was totally fine with us going to Toys R Us.

"Why do you wanna go to Novena anyway?" I said. It was not a mall we usually go to. "Isn't there a Fish & Co somewhere nearer our place?"

"I heard the Fish & Co there is nicer," she replied, "And besides, I want to shop at the Espirit there."

I drove into the awful carpark at Novena Square, famous for its narrow Ramps of Destruction (you can see the many scratches on the pillars, remnants of vehicles that did not survive the ramp unscathed), and started looking for a parking lot. As I was about to reverse into a lot I found, my wife declared, "Hey, how about parking over there!"

I looked at the lot she pointed at and said, "Aiyah I already have this lot, why shift?" and proceeded to park.

When we got out of the car, my wife stopped me again, and said, "I need a pen! Help me find one in the glove compartment, ok?"

Muttering to myself, I dug a pen out for her, wondering why she would need a pen at a mall.

We made our way to Toys R Us and I picked up a Polly Pocket for Joy and the wife patiently listened to me while I extolled the virtues of the Transformers Animated series toys compared to the less-than-superior Transformers movie toys.

Then I followed her to Espirit and told her to shop for her thing first while I checked out the gaming shop in the basement.

She looked a little concerned and agreed reluctantly.

A few minutes later, as I took the escalator down, she called me and said, "I'm done."

"What? So fast?"

"Ya, they had no new season stuff, so I will come back another day," she explained.

That was a fast shopping trip for her. I shrugged my shoulders and we went to Fish & Co for our dinner date.

As we approached the restaurant, I spotted a close friend inside, and my sleep-deprived brain went, "What a coincidence, they are having dinner at the same place as my wife and me!"

Then I spotted another friend and another, and then I saw my kids, the maid, and a long table of people I know...

Then a cupcake with a candle on it was whipped out, and the whole lot of them starting singing, "Happy birthday to you..."

I was in shock for quite a few seconds. It still hadn't sunk in that I've been had.

And to top it off, the lot of them came something brown. Even my kids were in brown. I just did not notice it enough.

Apparently, they had been planning this for a week, plotting with my wife. Even my maid was in on it, because she knew the kids were going to the restaurant and not my mom-in-law's.

My friend Dave also got a mini-muffin cake because this was his birthday month too. He blew the candle with Isaac.

The plan was not without its share of hiccups. They had to do it a week early because they did not want to clash with any potential family celebrations planned.

They had planned to do it on Saturday until I told the wife I could not make it due to work. That meant a mad scramble to shift it to Sunday.

Then the wife had to distract me because one of the guys drove up to the same car park level as we did, hence her suggestion to change lots and the pen request.

Then the wife had to keep me occupied until everyone had arrived at the restaurant which explained her sudden change of mind at Espirit.

The only other time this many people showed up wearing brown was the City Hall Flash Mob incident when people gathered to protest the suspension of my newspaper column.

I jokingly told my friends, you all better be careful, wait kena plainclothes police take down your names.

In the 40 birthdays I've had, this is my first surprise party. And I was utterly and completely taken by surprise.

I should have suspected my wife was up to something when she let me browse in a toy store for so long. And even listened to my views on toys.

A man is blessed to have friends and family who care enough to go through all this trouble to celebrate his 40th birthday.

Thank you for this. You guys put the Care in the Care Cell.

I need to wipe this tear off my eye now.

Ben 10 marries Barbie

Isaac and Joy have a place where they are allowed to stick their stickers — a cupboard in their room. I don't know who gives them the sheets of stickers. Sometimes it is my mom, sometimes the maids. They have their own halves of the sticker wall; the left belongs to Isaac, and the right is for Joy. It is not a pretty sight, the sticker-infested cupboard doors.

A few mornings ago, Joy kept singing a silly song she made up, about Ben 10 marrying Barbie. This made Isaac upset and he kept saying, "No! Ben 10 cannot marry Barbie!"

This just egged Joy further. Making her 5-year-old older brother upset seemed to give her inspiration. The more Isaac objected, the more she would declare the union of Barbie and Ben 10.

To up the ante, she skipped over to the sticker wall and violated her brother's personal space by placing her giant Barbie sticker right next to his favourite giant Ben 10 sticker.

I think my 3-year-old crossed the line with this one. Isaac burst into tears at this travesty and reached out with his hand of righteous indignation, to try to peel the Barbie sticker off. I decided to intervene before this became an international incident.

"Isaac, first of all, stop crying. You are a big boy and shouldn't cry over something silly like this."

His crying became short sobs.

"And Joy," I said to the grinning rascal, "stop bugging your brother with your Barbie and put her back on your side of the door."

She did as I asked and then, curious, I turned to Isaac and asked, "Anyway, what's wrong with Barbie marrying Ben 10, Isaac? They look quite nice together what."

"No, cannot. Barbie is not a Ben 10. She has no powers."

So it was not because my son was against the institution of marriage per se. He was just against the union of human and superhuman.

That just opens a whole other can of worms about inter-... er, species discrimination but I decided that was a discussion for another day.

It is always important to respect a child's idea of what should be in his world and what is out of bounds. I totally understood his concerns.

I, for one, would never let Barbie marry one of my Clone Troopers. They are the elite soldiers of the Republic, after all, while she does not even have Jedi powers.

Doored

You'd think that riding along the road next to Paya Lebar MRT station, the most dangerous things a bicyclist will face are buses.

But the buses are actually quite careful around cyclists like me. And I don't squeeze between buses and their bus stops either.

No, the most dangerous kind of vehicle near Paya Lebar MRT station are cars pulling in near the bus stop and dropping off passengers.

In my case it was a mother driving a black MPV dropping off her kid.

Number 1: You are NOT supposed to drop people off so near a bus stop. Especially a bus stop without a bus bay.

Number 2: Teach your child to LOOK before opening the left door. Or any door of the car, for that matter.

Good thing I was alert, or I would have ridden into the opening door. But because I had to jam my brakes, I flew over my handlebars and onto the road.

The son apologised profusely and the lady did ask a few times if I was ok and even asked how I would like to settle this. I was in too much of a daze to say anything beyond "Be careful next time you open the door!"

I cleaned up with some wet tissue and rode back to the office.

After I got in to the office, the adrenaline that numbed a little of the pain was gone and I started to feel the full extent of the cuts and road rash. Surveying the damage, I found:

1. Road rash on my palms.

2. Scraped knee (saved by my denim bermudas but the shorts now has blood and holes Good thing it is thick and covers my knees).

3. Sprained right shoulder and sprained left knee.

4. Saddle burn on my right inner thigh (this happened when my right inner thigh hit against the bicycle saddle as I lurched forward from the emergency braking). This one REALLY hurt. I am walking funny now.

5. And most painful of all, my bicycle fork seems to be out of alignment.

I'm going to go out and see if Uncle can straighten my ride. Then it's off to the pharmacy to get a big bandage for that saddle burn in the thigh.

People, please please please, LOOK before you open the door. We cyclists are out there on the road with you too.

PES C2 not enough! Got PES V or not?

Image: My PES C platoon in the olde days

Mr Ong, a father, writes in complain his son kena PES C2/L2 even though his doctors recommended no jumping, running or sun for his boy.

I ever heard of "excuse grass" and even "excuse uniform". But this is the first time I heard of "EXCUSE SUN".

That may mean a new category, PES V (for Vampire).

While I appreciate the father's concern for his son's health, I think many NSF will give their right arm to be PES C2/L2. Oh wait, one less arm would mean at least a PES E.

There are many ways to avoid the heat, I feel.

How about full-time night training? And how does permanent overnight guard duty sound? Or he can be assigned to guard the underground ammo caves of SAF.

And maybe to make it even safer for his son, everyone else can book out during the day, he will book out at night.

Better make it 2350. That is when the weather is coolest. Then book in by 2359.

The ST letter:

"The number of deaths in the armed forces recently is a cause for worry. I am concerned how a full-time national serviceman (NSF) is medically graded fit for combat or other activities. My son has a long track record of medical problems, ranging from sports injuries to skin diseases and others. His medical specialists recommended no jumping, running or sun (to avoid the heat). However, he was graded under a physical employment status (PES) of C2/L2. The NS Portal website states that an individual with PES C2/L2 can bear arms and operate in the field. My son was called up for Basic Military Training (October intake). This clearly contradicts what his medical specialists recommended. I have sent my feedback on my son's case via the NS Portal website. The Ministry of Defence should look into the medical grading system before more incidents occur."

My Twitter highlights of the week

May 3
From my brother's Facebook status: "... thinks that utter humiliation is not being ousted but being put on New Paper front page."

May 4th
My mom: I only worry this AWARE thing will affect Faith's Special School.

Me: Mom, the school is run by AWWA.

May 4th
http://tinyurl.com/cxmfzc Cherian George writes "AWARE: Lessons from a fiasco"

May 6th
RT @head_space: Yawning Bread on Lessons for the PAP from AWARE EGM http://tinyurl.com/dgcpqj

May 6th
http://tinyurl.com/cs4ast Siew Kum Hong: What I took away from 2 May

May 6th
http://tinyurl.com/dctxqf Yeo Toon Joo thinks ST over-covered AWARE & laments the provincialism of Singapore’s press

May 6th
http://tinyurl.com/c7srxl Ex-news editor Peter Yeo Toon Joo: PAP: Is it the start of a decline?

Listening to the iPod via the Philips DCM230 dock

Finally got round to setting up this all-in-one player from Philips. The DCM230 charges and plays a docked iPod, and also has a cd player, radio with RDS, clock, and USB playback support.

Sound was okay-lah, with 2x15w RMS speakers, and Dynamic Bass Boost. It comes with a set of adaptors for different iPods too.

I found that while the remote control works with my wife's fat Nano, I could not change songs of my iPod Touch with the remote. I still had volume control though. The USB port only supports MP3 and WMV, not OGG or AAC. I doubt if that matters to most people though.

I like its looks but a little disappointed with the sound quality for its price. Oh, and why is the headphone jack all the way at the back of the unit ah?

Seven

My Faith turned eight last month. It was a sobering thought, my firstborn turning eight. Many thoughts run through your mind when you have a kid with autism.

Like, "If she didn't have autism, she'd be in Primary 2 by now."

You feel a mixed bag of sadness at her slow progress and pride that she has grown so big.

When I got home from my recent trip, she was the first to see me. She had just woken up from her nap and she jumped on me when she saw me, offering me her cheeks immediately when I said, "Give Papa a kiss?"

Today, she gave me something new to be proud about.

I noticed that she had three new favourite books. And she was flipping through them intently. Two were the My First Numbers kind of board books.

When she saw me, she grabbed my finger and made me read out the numbers on the board books. She seemed to know all the numbers from 1 to 10.

One of the three books was not really a numbers book but a book about the alphabet. At the page, N is for Numbers, there were the numbers 1 to 10. That was the only page she liked in that book.

We spent the morning "reading" the three books she took out, until my finger got a little cramped. I found out she really likes the numbers 7 and 3.

I think her Special School teachers have been working on numbers with her recently. I have to thank them when I see them.

Maybe she isn't ready for Primary 2 yet. Maybe she may never be. But she now knows 1 to 10 and loves 7 and 3.

I count these as blessings.

A picnic at Botanic Gardens and a little birthday celebration

We had a lovely little picnic at the Botanic Gardens with our friends on Sunday.

Being the ignoramus that I am, I circled the Botanic Gardens trying to find the right entrance to the place. In the end, I parked at Cluny Park Road carpark and the whole family walked towards the Shaw Foundation Symphony Stage area where the gang had gathered.

Well, to be accurate, the wife and the kids walked. Isaac and I scootered ahead on a Xootr kickscooter. It was fun getting lost with my son. We rode through the park, partly to backtrack and look for Mommy and Co (who had taken a slightly different route to the stage) and partly to just get lost and stumble into things, like the Evolution Garden (Creationists would flip out here).

When the road got bumpy, I carried the scooter and we walked. When the slopes were too much, we walked again.

Isaac got a little worried when we couldn't see Mommy's entourage. "Call Mommy on the phone, Papa," he kept saying.

"It's okay," I told him, "we'll get there. Just enjoy the ride with me, ok?"

This reassurance helped him to enjoy the rest of the journey and our fellowship.

By the time we reached the group, they were already playing some group games, very sportingly. I turned on my camera and did my unofficial photographer job.

Towards the end of the picnic, the Friends sprang a little surprise for the wife because it was her birthday. She was very touched by the gesture and we all devoured the green tea cake despite being already full with hotdogs and beehoon.

The Friends asked me how many candles to put on the cake, before they took it out. Being a clueless husband, I said, "All of it lor." Fortunately, they were wiser and put in a symbolic number of candles instead. Not that my does-not-look-her-age-at-all wife had anything to hide anyways.

Faith had fun lazing in the park grounds and running here and there. Joy tried to blow bubbles but failed by no fault of her own (the solution was too soapy). Watching her "pfffft" as hard as she could, only to have a tiny bubble appear, cracked me up.

I think I shall try getting lost in the gardens with my son again. It was a great little adventure to share with him.

Mom and Dad's wedding photos

Mom dug these up recently. They used to hang in our 3-room flat in Upper Aljunied Lane and somehow got lost in the move to a bigger place. I think Mom looked really gorgeous and Dad a handsome dude.

I wonder if my kids will look at our wedding photos with the same sense of awe and fascination when we reach our later years.

Which reminds me, a few more days and it will be 12 years for the wife and me. Not counting the years we were courting.

Courting, that is such an archaic word these days, isn't it? Do people even court anymore?

Actually, the courtship never stops. It shouldn't. In fact, I reckon courtship matters even more when you've been married for a long time. That is the reason the wife and I still go on dates, still go to the movies without the kids, still travel with just each other.

My dad recently bought my mom a gem when they were in Thailand. I thought it was very sweet of him. Mom showed it off to me, proud of his little gesture from a man not known for his romantic gestures.

Bangkok Day 1: Getting on the plane

On my way to Bangkok for an ASEAN Media conference. The Flamingo folding bicycle is checked in, and I have all my audio video gear with me, and the Macbook.

I will be blogging, sending video back (live and HD) and twittering (follow me @mrbrown), so stay tuned here.

I met some friends at Terminal 2 who were on their way to Langkawi for the Iron Man race. They too brought their bikes but theirs are not folding like mine.

The wife is joining me in Bangkok on Friday but for now, it's just me and a Last Call announcement. Catch up with you all from Bangkok.

25 Things

Rules: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you.

(To do this, go to “notes” under tabs on your profile page, paste these instructions in the body of the note, type your 25 random things, tag 25 people (in the right hand corner of the app) then click publish.)

**Adrianna tagged me, so what the hey, here we go.**

1. I ride to work daily and rotate between four bicycles, a very fast hybrid, a modified mountain bike and two folding bikes. And their names are Alexia, Tank, Sasha and Natascha. Sasha and Natascha are named after two miniguns used by favourite character in my favourite computer game.

2. When I play computer games, I am not called mrbrown. I am named after a Battlestar Galactica character.

3. One of my email addresses is a very very bad word.

4. I was 91kg at my peak, in 2006. I lost 15kg in 3 months and have maintained it since with a sensible diet and daily riding. I never want to be that tub of lard ever again.

5. My wife and I are teenhood sweethearts. We've been together for almost 20 years.

6. When we named our firstborn Faith, we did not expect her to test ours.

7. Faith is autistic and is currently seven years old. She is the sweetest child in the world. Her first word was "Elmo". We await her other words with great expectations.

8. I wore glasses since I was 5 years old. This was before myopia became the norm in Singapore school kids. Without my glasses or contacts, I am almost blind.

9. I have traveled since I was 5 years old. My first country was Taiwan. We could travel every year only because my dad worked in Singapore Airlines as a ground engineer. He is very famous there, having worked there for more than 40 years. He never took a single day of Sick Leave. Except for the time he had to have a part of his lung removed, in the last year of his employment there. He is now retired. He is one tough guy.

10. All my kids have middle English names, including me. Their middle names are variants of my wife's and my English names.

11. My English first name and English middle name both have the same meaning but one is Greek and the other is Hebrew. I did not know it at the time I chose those names.

12. I served National Service as a mechanic and I was assigned to a Combat Engineer unit, fixing outboard motors (OBMs) for Boat Company. At the peak of my military career, I could rebuild a Suzuki 40HP OBM from just an engine block. The most enjoyable days of my NS were spent at sea, on 5-day round-island exercises as the resident mech. 2009 is my last year of reservist, as I hit 40.

13. I have an NTC-3 certificate from VITB, now called ITE.

14. One of my fingers has a hard fleshy area where I lost a chunk of flesh from a freak outboard motor accident in the army. The flywheel of the engine I was testing shredded the flesh of my finger when I instinctively tried to push down the OBM that threatened to fly out of the testing tank. No bones were broken but the grease-covered shredded skin looked damn cool. Yes, it was extremely painful.

15. I started playing trading card games in my thirties. I was playing against, trading and buying Lord of the Rings cards with Primary Two kids. My merry lot of boardgame and card game geek friends even traveled to Malaysia to play in regional competitions. Twice.

16. I cannot walk into a hardware store and not buy something. My wife has the same problem with stationery shops.

17. I actually hate pork liver. Tur Kwa makes me gag.

18. I am incapable of eating Quaker oats without throwing up. The texture irritates my throat. I am fond of unsweetened cornflakes and granola though.

19. I cannot eat an egg sunny side up, or any egg done with the yolk intact. The texture also makes me hurl. I am fine with an omelette and scrambled eggs though.

20. I used to part-time DJ in a radio station that broadcast from an Indonesian island. I still have some DAT tapes of my two-hour programs from those days.

21. I was an LDDS nerd. in the Literary Debating and Drama Society for six years, from Secondary 1 to Junior College. I did all of it — won poetry prizes, debated on tv, and acted in plays. My last stage performance was in George Bernard Shaw's play, "Arms and the Man" as Bluntschli, the Swiss voluntary soldier. I was 18.

22. I took public transport to school when I was Primary 5, and my brother who is 3 years my junior, did it when he was Primary 2, because my mother felt it was silly to pay so much for a private school bus.

23. I am currently using two phones N95 and N96, an iPod Touch and a Nokia N810 internet tablet on a daily basis. Yes, I am a gadget freak.

24. I collect Star Wars Clone Troopers.

25. I was fan of Chin Han and Lin Hsing-hsia Taiwanese romance movies which I watched at 3pm every day, at my aunt's house, after coming home from primary school.

Singapore Govt says: Internet very unruly and unkind, not self-regulated enough

Oh no, Senior Minister of State for Information, Communications and the Arts, Lui Tuck Yew has declared the internet not sufficiently self-regulated enough for the gahmen's taste.

CNA: Internet not an effective self-regulated regime, says MICA

Mr Lui's example of this is how awful the internet response was when MP Seng Hang Thong was set on fire by a disgruntled ex-cabbie. This must be one of those interwebs cyber-superhighway flame wars I have heard so much about.

According to him, "netizens should do more to establish and enforce the norms of acceptable online behaviour".

So how? You netizens all better buck up your self-regulatorying then, or else who knows, the gahmen might not want to engage you netizens or worse, decide that you need gahmen-quality regulatorying.

I recommend the Singapore government set up talks with the President of the Internet, to formally complain about the behaviour of its netizens. Some high level talks are in order, I think. Maybe even send a senior diplomat to the Internet High Commission, and express very strong feelings of disappointment.

Netizens can help by taking courses on acceptable online behaviour so that we can cybertalk in a way that the gahmen finds responsible.

You know, I also think that those outspoken uncles and Ah Peks at coffee shops should be the next target for MICA. They talk very loudly and say unkind things all the time about MPs and the gahmen. They can be downright outrageous and no one from other coffee shops rebuts them. It is not healthy for some of their responses to remain in the coffee shop network unchallenged, unquestioned, and unanswered.

In fact, sometimes these Ah Peks totally ignore topics which are of great national importance and discuss topics which are sensitive and offensive to our leaders and national well-being. Others at the coffee shop do not rebut them, thereby squandering an opportunity for a higher degree of self-regulation.

Coffee shop uncles and netizens should all take a leaf from our responsible and balanced press and assorted local mainstream media. That is where true self-regulation and nation-building takes place.

Now go forth and regulate thineself, netizen. Make your gahmen proud.

(Above: The Internet, as envisioned by the elderly, a cartoon by Farley Katz at The New Yorker)

Why I don't need to buy that many toys for the kids

The kids were at it again. This time Joy wanted to show me the
"playground" she made. That Ikea chair certainly looked like one.

The last time, her brother Isaac made a train.

It is a refreshing reminder to look outside the box and see mundane things anew.

(I also happen to think they both look adorable in their matching uniforms. Joy is now in the same kindergarten as her brother and it's another shared experience for them.)

Stuff you hear your kids say

In the morning, before the kids go to kindergarten:

Joy (age 3, singing): "Oh have you seen the muffin..."

Isaac (age 5): "Man!"

Joy: "The muffin..."

Isaac: "Man!"

Joy: "The muffin..."

Isaac: "Man!"

Joy: "Papa! Make him stop!"

Out like teens on a midnight date to nowhere

"So this guy was waiting for a bus late at night, and he was getting worried because he wanted to go home, and he thought he missed the last bus, when suddenly, he saw his bus coming towards his bus stop," said the wife, telling me a story as we wait for the second-last feeder bus of the night.

"And then?" I ask.

"It had NO driver!" she says.

"Woah."

"When the bus finally pulled up, he looked behind the bus, and it was the driver and the conductor pushing it!" she laughs.

"Was that a for-real story or was it some joke?"

"I don't know but you can tell it is an old story, right? Got conductor in it. When was the last time you sat in a bus with a conductor?" she says.

The wife and I are chatting at the bus stop, it's close to midnight. At home, she had mentioned ice cream and not having to work tomorrow, and I decided we should just live dangerously and go to the 24-hour MacDs at the interchange for dessert. And we would go by bus.

"We're not driving there?" she asked, when I suggested we bus there and walk home after our midnight date (since we would miss the last bus by then).

"Take bus lah. We used to take bus when we were dating as teens what," I said.

So we took the bus.

It's not like we drive everywhere. The wife takes public transport to work and I ride a bicycle to work daily. But on weekends, we usually drive the family around. Yet it seemed strange that we would go a midnight date, to the interchange, on a weeknight, and NOT drive.

We enjoy the cool night air and talk about everything. I tell her about Ryan sharing some of his army photos with me after he saw my BMT photos on Facebook and Flickr. It was a quiet day in the office with everyone out on Chinese New Year leave.

She, in turn, shares the antics of our kids when she reads to them every night. Isaac would interrupt the wife in the middle of their bedtime story time ritual, and he would nudge Joy with a grin, saying, "Eh, eh, Joy, do your Does Anybody Need Help."

Joy would then make a funny face and use a funny voice to say, "Does anybody need help?"

And the two kids would crack up, disrupting Mommy's story telling.

"What does that phrase mean? Where is it from?" I ask the wife.

"I don't know, but Isaac really laughs out loud when Joy does it," she says,"and it's like an inside joke for the two of them. May be from a tv show. Joy is such an clown."

A 5-year-old and his 3-year-old sibling sharing a private joke only the two of them get. Nice to know they entertain each other.

We get on the bus, reach the Macs, buy our ice creams, and chat like this some more. Then we finished my Oreo ice cream together and we begin our 20-minute walk home, taking a shortcut through the housing estate.

It is almost 1am. There is a cool night wind blowing and I start telling her about the time I rode my bike in Washington DC at 6am in the morning in windy 10°C conditions, wearing only a windbreaker. My nipples shivered, I tell her, it was that cold.

She laughs.

Best date we've had all month.

It's Reunion Dinner time to usher in the Niu Year!

The whole gang is in mom's place for Reunion Dinner and it's a loud and rowdy affair.

This year the abalone was a gift from fourth aunt. So we didn't have to use our petrol station points to redeem a can of abalone. Never mind, we can save the points for next year's meal.

We also welcomed a new member to the family, my sister-in-law, Tricia, who has been promoted to the rank of Ah Sahm (what the kids will call her from now on, instead of Tricia chie-chie).

The newly-weds were thoroughly briefed about their ang pow duties, and how in this family, we don't practise the First Year Exemption custom here.

My second brother and I also loudly and jokingly declared there is going rate for the red packets for our kids, a "guideline" which we made up on the spot.

Above the din and laughter, Joy could be heard singing "Sing tooganna, sing tooganna, sing tooganna, to King of Kings!"

We were a little busy stopping Faith from yanking down the hanging Chinese New Year decorations, to teach Joy how to pronounce "Hosanna".

May you all have a noisy, merry, properous and, joyful Year of the Ox!

An early New Year's Day Eve "company" lunch of Teochew porridge

It is a quiet day at the office. Most of the guys have gone home, as it's a half day for the Eve of Eve of Eve of Chinese New Year.

There is only Ryan, Bobbin and me around so we pop over to Geylang Lorong 37 for some Teochew porridge lunch.

That is probably as close to a company New Year lunch we small business owners will have this year. It's a nice and quiet way to spend the Friday before the CNY long weekend.

Telling my silly stories to some cool SIM/RMIT mass comms students

It's my third time guest lecturing at this course and it's always a blast. This time I was invited by lecturers Lisa French and Mark Poole. The last time I was here, it was in 2006 and in a few years, you can see the difference in the web-savviness of this new batch.

Not to say the previous batches were any less fun and or less intelligent an audience lah.

I found myself having to update many of my stories and slides (Apple's Keynote 09 rules, by the way) because time flies in the internet world. New technologies and new forms of social media has impacted even my little corner of the web. So I added my stories of Twitter and Qik.

But one thing doesn't change. It's still about communicating and about connecting people.

I rode home from SIM and rewarded myself to some nice Punggol Nasi Lemak at Upper Serangoon Road. And didn't even have to move my bicycle when they shouted that the Parking Auntie Stormtroopers have arrived.

It was fun to see people rushing to move their illegally-parked cars from the double-yellow-zigzag-lined road, while I enjoyed my dinner.

In case you're wondering, Lisa, yes this was blogged from my mobile phone, haha.

Tai Keng Gardens has such a nice park

On Saturday, we took the kids to Tai Keng Gardens, a quiet private housing estate at the back of our flat because in my bicycle rides through the estate (a short cut for me), I realised they had this lovely park there.

There was a playground, an exercise area, and lots of grassy space for the kids to run freely.

I took Joy and Isaac on short rides on my Xootr kick scooter too, since you could fit an adult and a child on its huge platform.

Funny how you miss these little discoveries when you drive. Take a walk or a bike ride around your home, you may discover places you never knew were there.

Blessings and good wishes for 2009 from the browns

This is the scene that greets the wife and me most mornings. All three kids inevitably find their way into our bed, to giggle and play with us. (Faith is underneath the blanket in this photo but trust me, she's in there too).

For all the turmoil and uncertainty this year has brought, we've also experienced laughter and joy like this. And this is what we choose to remember most... our kids jumping on our bed in the morning.

May you be as blessed as we are in the coming year.