PMP-certified.

After all the on and off revision and 2.5days of intensive revision, I have finally took the PMP exam and got myself PMP-certified. :)

Honestly, I thought I am quite well-prepared until my colleague Kevin scared me off, as he sees that I'm in my relaxed state in office...

Thank the hubby for encouraging me to study and supporting me by the little little acts.
Also to baby E for his encourage yesterday evening when we Face-Time-d.

Getting PMP-certified would also mean that my new iNO One non-camera smart phone comes free, as a reward for myself.

Honestly, I have been contemplating on the decision of getting this phone because my Nokia phone is still working perfectly fine and I have just bought a new battery. But I guess the added functionality of having watsapp to this non-camera phone is really a huge drawing factor. But seriously, I'm still not used to the idea of new phone.. cos I am not the least bit excited... haven't even on-ed the new phone... :p

Also, I thought, if I were to pass this exam, I would be able to pay for the phone using the incentive from my company, so there I made the decision. :)

I'm terribly sorry for making the hubby lubby wait for me this evening after the exams...

Actually I sensed the quietness and moodiness in the car just now... just trying to 找话题but... I guess I was too noisy and talkative... :(

姑娘结婚了。我的心情写照。

就这样，在这一年之内，我的两位好姐妹结婚了。
不知道为什么，对于我好姐妹们的婚礼筹备，我总觉得自己做得不够多、不够好，有点愧疚。
就拿我的婚礼筹备来说吧。姑娘总是能抽出时间来陪我做DIY而Joy在gatecrashing ceremony时，也意想不到地帮我准备了可爱的道具。而我呢，什么也没做。
庆幸的是，我当了Joy的姐妹团，也在她的婚礼当天出了一点小小的力。但是姑娘的婚礼，却是让我意想不到的。
原先以为我能为她的wedding prep帮上什么忙，但一方面有family commitment，一方面也在姐妹团出了一点小状况，所以到最后什么都没帮到。反而还另她有稍许的失望。别说她，连我自己都觉得失望。我竟然把wedding date搞错了。 :x

But what matters most is, 我心中对她是有满满的祝福,而她也幸福的嫁给Adrian.

老公也很给力，放心的让我一个人开车去。你知道的，他平时还蛮担心我开他的车，but who knows, 他竟然主动把钥匙交给我。 Thanks Hubby Lubby, for the trust in me. *muacks*

昨晚在姑娘的宣誓仪式前看到她身边没人帮她打点，有一股冲动想告诉她，不如让我来帮你吧。但是我始终没有说出口，because I thought I didn't know what's her plan for the night and perhaps she might already have someone waiting on her. But in the end, what I think only her sisters and Adrian is helping her with her gown. None of her bridesmaids are tending to her. Well, perhaps, she didn't want to trouble them either.

There's so much I wanted to tell her, so in the end, I texted her, though knowing she will probably see it only after the wedding banquet. Her gowns are really pretty and nice. Their story too... :)

After attending so many weddings this year, particularly the 4th quarter, I sort of developed some phobia towards it. I have no idea why. I am probably going to 'filter' the weddings when invited to attend.

Looking forward, I am really hoping to catch up with this lady soon. :)

great world city and amazonia.

I love weekends because we will always wake up to Ethan.
Since there's nothing planned for the day as yet, I decided to sleep in a little longer and let him be the one waking us up at 9plus.

Ordered McBreakie and as usual, Ethan has his share of hotcakes.
Then an impromptu plan by hubby to go for lunch at the famous 99弯 duck rice/porridge.

He brought MIL along with us, so after lunch, we went to Great World City. It's my first time to the shopping mall. I guess, the reason why it's situated in the 'out-skirt' of Orchard Road is because it's too atas for us.

So we decided to bring Ethan to the play pad Amazonia. Being the first time, the staff's reply wasn't really helpful in my query on how's the play pad like. She only replied that there's a corner for kids under 3 years but she didn't elaborate further. I wanted to judge if it's really worth the money for the facilities, crowd and hygiene because we couldn't see a thing from the counters.

In the end, we still paid for the entry.
The first time that bothers me are the charges for the socks since everyone must have socks on. It's freaking SGD3-4plus per pair. We bought 2 for myself and hubby as MIL wanted to go shopping.
SGD22 for 2 hours entry. Of course we didn't stay that long.

Another disappointment. The play pad was playing host to a birthday party and you can imagine kids running around everywhere. Not only that, the area for kids below 3 is really a little section with about 6 playing corners. But what makes up for the playtime is that we could see Ethan enjoying himself, especially at the slides. It delights me to see that he climbs to get up to the slides himself and wants to slide down on his own. Due to safety reasons, I insist he must slide down with an adult carrying him.

Then I brought him to the section for kids above 3 years old for the long slide. I got Ethan to climb up on his own and slide down with him. Because hubby told me the staff is watching us, so I only did it once, otherwise I would have brought him up another time.

We left after an hour plus and home sweet home. :)

my big plus deals.

Was checking through my credit card bills and I cannot believe it. I spent on average, about SGD200 on online purchases, mainly from qoo10.sg.

Just a day back from Phuket, I already got something for the kitchen!

As titled, I bought a full set of 100-piece Betty Crocker cake decorating kit from Plus!BigDeal at SGD9.90 (excluding compulsory postage charges).

I am thrilled by this buy and hoping to receive it soon.

I keep wanting to do some simple cake baking... but I guess I have to put off till after my exams 2 weeks later!

Oh, earlier I also bought a 2-in-1 multifunctional jewellery + cosmetics pouch from the some site. Now pending the delivery via normal sing-post.

Centre tour.

Finally arranged for the centre tour and registered Ethan for a place in the child care next year. :)

Can't believe it, Ethan is going to school next year! Oh my, he's a big boy now. :)

gone and back! :)

Yes, we are back from Phuket! :)

It was a nice, fun and refreshing 4D3N stay at The Shore.

I think I mentioned before, it was a decision between Phuket and Bali.
In the end, a friend told me Phuket is less 'tourist-y' than Bali so we chose the former.

Then went online to ask around for Pool villa recommendations. Got this one and went to google for reviews. Not much reviews online except at the Tripadvisor site. I pretty much trust this site's reviews and boy, all except a handful of average to dissatisfied reviews...

So we pretty much decided on this cool private pool villa despite the daily room charges.

When we touched down Phuket Airport, we spent some time finding the airport transfer representative and after locating them, we were all impressed with the vehicles they used to transport us. It's a mini bus for two with cold towels and drinks.

Then at the hotel. Because much was read online with regards to the check-in service, I wasn't too surprise. But when we stepped into our room, we were "wow-ed" by it!

No doubts on the reviews. I was sold.

Spent some time in the room, checking things around, a swim then to Jungceylon, upon the hotel recep's recommendation.

At Jungceylon, we did a little shopping and had 2 games of bowling. We had fun much.

Back at the hotel, it's massage and swimming and room service. The food's nice too~! :)

Second day, we had arranged for a trip to the Big Buddha, Chalong Temple and Pier 42 (if I'm not wrong) for cheap sumptuous seafood lunch! (Only SGD62 for 2pax, with mussels, crabmeat tofu, grilled pork, 2 tomyum gong and tiger/kind prawns.) After lunch, we treated ourselves to foot massage.

Then back to hotel to relax. Our plan for the evening is to visit the weekend night market. God knows, 30mins into our arrival at the market, it rained cats and dogs. :(
Being a poorly-sheltered place, we had no choice but to leave the market. When we reached the entrance, the taxi driver actually said he couldn't drive in and left us there. To walk in the hotel under the drizzling rain. :(

Drenched but sweet.

Back for dinner again. Thought of having it some where but due to the rain. :(


The next morning was to Robinsons and Expo for some shopping. Nothing much but all expensive stuff. Then we had foot scrub and massage. Ate KFC. (first time in Thailand eating KFC).

After that was to Central Festival Phuket. Nothing much apart from the big names like Zara, etc... not interested. Went to the supermart to get some drinks and chips. Back to hotel for a swim!

Then nua-ed all the way till dinner and we packed our stuff.

Didn't managed to get a late check-out because of the full occupancy they had.

So in the morning we went to the beach, surf the waves and had fun soaking in the water. Back to the room, cleaned after ourselves. Had breakie and slacked around.

Time to check-out.

Arranged to go to Jungceylon and get the hotel airport transfer guy to pick us up from there. Wanted to catch a movie during our 4hours leisure time but too bad, the timing wasn't right. So again, we had arcade games, a game of snooker and bowling.
Lunch at McD (first time too), and then shopping before we left for airport.

Spent some time at the airport and since everyone was early and boarding was smooth, we landed earlier than expected too!

Yup, so home sweet home.

missed the enrolment again.

We have to reschedule the registration for Ethan's childcare again. This time, he came down with high fever, for no reasons though we all suspect it's due to him teething.

Almost scared the hell outta me when he regurgitated some milk after his feed. I almost teared but when I know he started crying when he could sense my fear, I immediately stopped and comfort him. It was then he got calmer.

How intelligent this boy is, to be so sensitive.

Due to the lack of sleep and running fever, he got really cranky. He was crying throughout when we brought him to the doctor. Cried even more when he had to be pricked by needle by blood test. Only managed to quieten down after 5-7mins into our taxi ride. Even the taxi uncle needs to help to calm him.

Poor boy.

So in the evening, I got his dad to come over to visit him. My MIL and SIL came too. Ethan was happy to see them, especially his dad.

The doctor called about 2-3 hours, informing that it might be a viral infection causing the fever. As for the viral infection cause, it could be any one he came in touch with. Hard to prevent and it probably would take about 3-4days before the fever fully subside.

Sigh. I hope he gets well soon. :)

the weekend in summary.

we started off the weekend pretty well.
Brought Ethan to the Rider's Cafe with my sister. Together, the 2 of us brought him there to see the horses and ponies. It was both Ethan's and my first visit; I think he had a good time there as well.

I would definitely bring him back again, when he's older, for the pony rides.

Had a gathering at Changi celebrating hubby lubby's 二舅's engagement + 60th birthday.

Then on Sunday, we woke up pretty early to assemble Ethan's table and chairs. It was all hard work for the husband. I really appreciate the help (minus all the 坏脾气) from the hubby.
Initially we were all seated around hubby, with him telling him about the assembly, then Ethan was making this noise "er, er". When I turned to look at him, his index finger got stuck in the wooden assemblies. Just can't forget how cute Ethan's expression was when he signaled/called for help.

Managed to go through a little bit of the class with him. Sent him home earlier cos we needed to do our weekly restock before me heading to my colleague's wedding dinner.

coordinating the time.

I finally received the email from Ethan's prospective childcare this morning and later a call from the principal of the centre we are enrolling into. She called to informed that she will be on leave tomorrow and will need to reschedule the meetup.

From her voice, I can sense she's quite a friendly lady.

At work, my project is having some schedule changes, which makes my Monday and Tuesday unpredictable. :(
Trying to settle the schedule so I can arrange for a better timing with the principal. I guess I will be calling her again on Mon to reschedule the meetup.

sidetrack.
Ethan ran out of his diapers and the stores nearby were out of stock. So I got hubby to buy and deliver to my mom's after I knocked off yesterday. Ethan was very happy to receive us at the void deck. But the moment we said we are leaving (cos hubby needs to rush home to go settle his iphone5 thingy), he pouted and teardrops starting forming.

Oh my.. melts my heart. Gave him a hug and hubby decided to carry him out of his pram for a while. This little man... he's sucha sweet little man.

Ethan's going to school!

Received a call earlier, slightly after lunch.

As usual I thought it's some banks trying to promote their credit cards, little did I thought was the child care centre (which I have pre-registered Ethan months before) calling to inform they have a vacancy for me Ethan!

Thrilled and delighted.

We quickly arranged for a meet-up session for enrolling Ethan and she also shared some information and the fees required for enrolment.
They lady took my email as well, saying she will email me some forms, but yet, til now, I haven't receive anything.

I am contemplating if I should call her back or not... hm...I shall wait for another day, if I still don't hear from her tomorrow afternoon, I shall call her..

Still very excited but now I start to think about the extra expenses, like the school fees... sigh~ raising a kid really isn't cheap. No wonder most will stop at 1. Imagine whatever you are paying now, must multiply by 2 or 3, depending on how many kids you have, just to be fair... :x

Anyway, our plan is we may move him to a centre nearer to my mom's or our own place when he turns older. :)