I’ve never felt so helpless in quite awhile. Her front gate was unlocked and she beckoned me to come in. I thought it strange not to lock one’s front door but after I entered, what greeted me caught me by surprise. The old lady who warmly welcomed me in earlier was sitting on her hospital bed with both her legs amputated. Placed at a corner of her bed is her prosthetic leg. Her husband soon appeared from the next room in a wheelchair, himself with one leg amputated and the other badly … [Read more...]
I hate Pink Polka Dots – how I survived HFMD
Yes….you read it right – it was me. Me, the big fellow, felled by the unseen enemy and had pink little dots covering my hands and feet one fine October month last year. I was reminded of my experience when I heard fellow Daddies catching the dreaded children's disease too. Needless to say, I’m sure it caught them by surprise as much as it did me. Here’s how it started and how I survived it – without infecting my family. Pink Polka Dots all over me I had been feeling lethargic for about … [Read more...]
Dial ‘M’ for ‘Monsters Under The Bed’ – An Inquiry-based Writing Approach with InvestigatINK
It is a proven fact that curiosity is a key element that helps for effective learning. So, what better way to instill that sense of curiosity in a child than a murder mystery, filled with suspicious characters and an intriguing plot ! Best of all, she gets to be RIGHT in the midst of it all! – as a young investigator-reporter, hungry for that scoop to make tomorrow’s headlines. With that, the stage is literally set for the children to learn the right interview techniques, taking notes of … [Read more...]
Scariest Moments…from our Travels
It’s Halloween. While we don’t celebrate Halloween, I thought it’d be ‘in season’ to share three of the scariest moments which happened to us during our trips. While there are always some sense of adventure and apprehension associated with travel (especially with child in tow no less) our experiences are not the supernatural type, but rather scarily real. For most, there are some important travel lessons to learn from them. In order of the ‘least’ scary of the three: No. 3. The … [Read more...]
Banana returns to…Taiwan: First Stop, Leofoo Resort (Guanshi, Taiwan)
Smitten by my first trip to Taiwan in June 2012 (and also losing my gamble to the wife), I’ve been pestering her (yes she handles all our trip itineraries and bookings) to plan a trip back to ‘Formosa’ – the Portugese name for Taiwan, which means ‘Beautiful Island’ – a name that doesn’t even do justice to the region and her people. Our maxim when we travel is the ‘3Es’ – Experience, Exposure and Education. We travel so that we open the pages of what our world has to offer in terms of culture, … [Read more...]
Of Ghosts, Ghouls and Little Green Things: How the ‘other world’ changed my world…
Dedicated to the Blogfather, a friend and fellow Daddy whom I've the privilege of knowing through the realms of the ‘unseen’ world…in cyberspace. Source I never thought I would write about this. Until I was inspired by the Blogfather’s recent post where he recalled a hair-raising experience as part of the October ‘Season’s Greetings’. My father died when he was 44 and I was 13 (since we are on the topic, notice the ‘auspicious’ numbers – ‘4’ is never a good number for the Chinese and we all … [Read more...]
From Policies to Busy Bodies: When an Adopted Child is NOT a ‘Normal’ Child
Before we embarked on this adoption journey, we thought that the greatest hurdle was to convince ourselves that the child is ours. After all, there is no biological connection. But, you know what? That’s just hogwash – the moment we carried him in our arms, he is ours. In fact, in the short time span of 4 months, we have almost forgotten that he was adopted. Amazing isn’t it? All these worries about whether we can love the child as our own just dissipate into thin air. In every sense of the … [Read more...]
What’s in a name?
Recently, Angie and I had to look through the tons of books on our bookshelf to search for a rather important book that we have not seen (or used) for awhile (6 years to be precise). For the simple reason that we have just welcomed our baby boy and needed to look for a name for him. Initially, we couldn’t find the book. To make matters worse, we were given three days to decide on a name. Eventually we found it…but that was only the easy part. It’s common to read in magazines and tabloids … [Read more...]
Standing The Test of Time – My Queenstown Heritage Trail
I've always just driven by the town....until now.As a history buff, I have a penchant for old buildings and structures. From Borobudur to Stonehenge, I’ve been there, hugged that. Whenever I 'disappear' when we were on holiday, my wife would know where to find me – just look for an old church, an art gallery or a museum. Strange then that I should end up in Singapore – a young progressive nation that seems to be tearing down old structures faster than we can reproduce. Even a grand dame … [Read more...]
Cold Storage Kids Run 2014 – Reflection from a Pseudo-Coach
There are many things I take for granted. One of them is the fact that, as a lively, energetic 6 year-old, my daughter would have no problem running (since that seems to be her default mode from getting to one place to another, like many preschoolers); that she would have a stamina that would outlast mine and that all I needed to do was run a few laps around the stadium with her to prepare her for our first ever Cold Storage Kids Run. I couldn’t be more wrong.Standing with the early blazing … [Read more...]
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