Thursday, June 23, 2011

Fast working hands

My youngest went for her 6 monthly dental appointment, and I was told she had an extra tooth that was growing upside down, and it was obstructing the growth of her other permanent teeth. The dentist recommended surgery immediately, since it was the school vacation, with school due to reopen next week.

7am on Wednesday morning saw us at the medical centre all ready for her to have her extra tooth extracted, together with the removal of 3 shaky milk teeth, plus 4 others that were causing her mouth to over crowd!

I carried her into the operating theatre. With her on my lap, she was told to breathe into a mask which inflated like a balloon. After 3 puffs, she was "out" and I was promptly told to leave. I was thinking of going for breakfast but was told by the dental surgeon to just hang on for awhile. Before twenty minutes was up, she came out and said the job was done, and they were wheeling my daughter out to me!

8 teeth plus 3 stitches in a tiny mouth in under 20 minutes! Wow!! And it was job well done!

And when she found out that she had 8 teeth extracted she said: I am going to be rich!!

The best part was that, after everything, the little one is still in high spirits, even with only one front tooth.

Monday, June 20, 2011

Burnt toes

Yup, my husband has sun burnt toes. This was the result of too much sun when we were at Bintan.

I mentioned to him that it was very unusual for toes to get sun burnt, coz most of the time, our toes are in the water. And from all these years that I have known him, and the amount of time we had spent in the sun previously, he NEVER had sun burnt toes before. Other body parts yes, but toes - NEVER! So weird!!

Well, he replied: Previously my toes were always shaded by my tummy, now with my tummy gone, my toes get burnt!

Saturday, June 18, 2011

Happy Fathers Day!

My kids told my husband this morning: We like you fat!!

Funny isnt it? I thought they would want their Dad to be leaner and healthier.

But no, they prefer him heavier, and not on a diet. Fat and jolly?

Well, what triggered it was when we walked by a chocolate shop, and the kids wanted to buy candy. I always say no to candy coz the dentist advised me to limit their candy intake to "only on party days, and for no more than 10 minutes in the mouth!". But to the kids, everyday is party day, and anytime is party time!! So naturally I said "no".

Just the other day, one of the kids commented - "Mum, we are running low on ice cream". But there were 4 half eaten tubs when I checked the freezer, so I told them that I wasnt buying any until they finished up all that was left. They are just too used to having 6 to 8 flavours to choose from at any one time, and seeing only 4 meant - "we dont have enough"!

Normally, my husband is the one that buys all the junk food in the house. Chocolates, chips, ice cream, juice. BUT since he has started on this weight loss program (he has lost a total of 10kg already in 10 weeks), he has been controlling his intake of unnecessary calories. Hence the drought at home!!

So, sorry kids, time to cut down on your junk food and candies. Papa's staying slim.

Happy Father's day to all Dads!!

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

June Vacation

We just came back from vacation.

We chose a nice resort just 50 minutes away from Singapore by ferry. It was a pleasant boat ride away.

We were considering the land transfers to the hotel, and noted that they only limit 3 to a car. Not wanting to split the family up, we opted for the bus transfer. We ended up waiting for a long time for "non-existent guests" to take the bus with us!!

It was a beautiful resort. We had opted for one that cost a bit more, for a bit of exclusivity and privacy.

On the first two days, we almost had the pool and the beach exclusively to ourselves!! Of course the children had a good time, without having to worry about being a nuisance to other guests.

Food at the hotel was so-so. On the pricey side considering it is in a country where the standard of living is much cheaper. What I found funny was, they had the same kids menu for all their restaurants, but the prices were different! Why? I really dont understand. It cost more to eat at their "coffee house" then at their restaurant! And another peeve of mine was that they didnt offer the kids menu at the pool side!

Hubby and I tried out the spa. The prices we paid were similar to what we would pay at a top spa in Singapore. There goes the advantage of cheap labour in their country which I thought they should pass on to their guests. In addition a 90 minute treatment turned out to be less than 60 minutes as the first 15 minutes was spent explaining the treatment, and the last 15 minutes was spent drinking tea! In addition, there was a lot of time wasted by the therapist in between the treatments walking in and out of the room getting things that she needed - hot towels, oils, pillows, etc. You would have thought that they should have that all ready in the room. In that sense, it turned out to cost more than what we would have paid in Singapore!

Another thing that I wasnt happy about was that everything in the hotel was priced in US dollars! And upon checkout, when we were paying the bill, the bill was in their home currency. That means that everything was converted to their home currency at their "cut-throat" exchange rate, which we settled by credit card coz who carries 30 million of a currency when travelling! That means we have to bear yet another exchange loss when the credit card company bills us in Singapore dollars!!

For our return transfer, we decided to opt for the car transfer this time as we didnt fancy waiting for non-existent guests again. This time they agreed to let all 5 of us into one car, and it turned out to be cheaper than had we decided to take the bus transfer - and no waiting to boot!

Cant help but feel we were kind of ripped off during the vacation!