The Pink Tulips

For Anita's birthday, I had a couple of main things planned up. One materialised, but another came earlier than expected.

A couple of pink things. One of them were the tulips, specially ordered for the day. I got it on the day. And Anita loved it. As for the other plan, Anita got it about 2 weeks earlier .... I'll show you the picture.

The whole bunchHer other pink presentI gave this to her 2 weeks earlierAnd yes .... it was pink as well ....

Start of a Long Weekend

It was rare for me to not be on call during a long holiday weekend and I was looking forward to some time spent at home doing basically not much ...

But I had to start on a post-call day though, with the boys dragging me out for groceries - read junk food - shopping. I decided to let Anita take care of that while I took some time at a cafe having a quiet cup of coffee. It went smoothly and I managed to have a quiet night after that followed by a leisurely breakfast on Sunday morning.

The weather wasn't exactly inspiringI couldn't really remember what I did on the Sunday but it mainly involved taking a rest followed by watching football later that evening. Come Monday, we decided to spend some time at Jump Street - a trampoline park in PJ - followed by a nice lunch.

All in all, I managed to spend some time at home with the boys followed by some rest.

Of course we had a swim regardless of the weatherI will be working through Xmas and the New Year I was afraid, only taking a few day break on the second week of January. Best to enjoy the time off while I can.

School Closing

Xmas was coming. Irfan's school had closed a week ago, and it would be another week to go before Idlan enjoy his Xmas break. The end of the year included the obligatory prize-giving - cue Irfan and his scrolls. Irfan changed school but his name was called up for UPSR award. He was not there however to pick up his prize. Anita went up instead.

So, while Idlan had to get up early to catch his morning bus ride, Irfan was still fast asleep ....

Another week and both could have a lie-in in the morning ....

Workshop at School

Idlan's school was the type which approach children education holistically and there were plenty of investment into the pupils home environment and getting the parents to be involved with the school activities and mantra. Anita went to a few courses - mainly how to use the Google Suite as well as utilising the school library. Last Monday, I went to a workshop on bilingualism.

The school wanted us to us Bahasa Malaysia - or our mother tongue - as much as possible as the children's command of English would be upgraded in school anyway. Both Idlan and Irfan could converse in English without any issues and the feeling was that the children would be missing out if their mother tongue was left behind.

The workshop explored our concerns and the advantages of speaking in our mother tongue at home environment, how it actually enriches their command of English rather than curtailing them. Something which I find quite interesting on the whole.

So, cue a few awkward conversation on the dinner table in the coming weeks ...

Reindeer Aplenty

For this year, the theme at BSC was reindeer. But this wasn't any ordinary reindeer. These were girl reindeers. With heels!

I thought those creatures looked too tall when I first theme, and hen looking back from a distance it struck me, they were all females. One of them wearing a tutu. Not sure what that meant! Female power maybe.

But as usual, their Xmas decorations here were pretty creative and amazing. Shame that space was at a premium, hence it wasn't easy to manoeuvre around the lobby where the decorations were. They also spilt over to the sides, making the already narrow walkway even smaller.

Like last year, the view was much better from the upper floor, and certainly there were plenty of details to be spotted. Kudos for the effort ....