Finally able to get some time to blog again, still here in Manila for those of you wondering. 3rd week of May had us finally moving out of our rented condo in Singapore. The day before we moved out we had arranged to have the movers come to pack the stuff that we were shipping to Australia. What stressed us out was the organizing of all our stuff, deciding also which ones to send, to donate or to throw away. But on packing day it was all a breeze, it was the first time that we were using movers and we marveled at how efficient they were with packing all the stuff, aside from their experience I guess it also helps that they’re not concerned with how many boxes they fill up, haha. Even E was okay with his toys being packed, the uncle (a title of respect for elders even strangers in Singapore) who was packing his toys was really friendly and was also patient in answering some of E’s questions. After the movers left we still had some work to do as we had to clean the unit up for handover to the landlord the following day. We had also scheduled a pickup of a balikbayan box we were sending back to Manila filled mostly with E’s old toys that we were giving to his cousin Mika.

We finished late into the night cleaning (uhm, remind me next time to just hire cleaners ok!) what we anticipated to be a smooth handover to the landlord didn’t happen. Pagkatapos magikot-ikot sa unit ng ilang beses para siguraduhin na maayos lahat, umupo na kami kasama ng kasero para pagusapan na ang pagalis at pagsoli ng deposito. Akala namin ay wala ng magiging problema dahil simula’t sapol ay maayos namang kausap ang aming kasero, walang palya naman ang aming pagbayad ng buwanang renta pero syempre sa huli din nakikita ang tunay na kulay. Naghanap talaga siya ng paraan para hindi maibalik ang deposit namin dahil hindi namin tinapos ang kontrata kahit na dalawang buwan na lang yun at aalis pa kami ng di pa tapos ang buwan ng mayo na bayad na ang renta. Iginiit niya na ayon sa kasulatan ay kailangan daw na pinadalhan namin siya ng sulat para abisuhan siya na aalis na kami hindi daw pwede na sinabi lang namin sa kanya at dahil wala nga daw kaming pinadalang sulat ay ang gagamitin niyang basehan para sa dalawang buwang pasabi para sa diplomatic clause (kung saan maari naming makuha ang aming deposito kahit na hindi tinapos ang kontrata, kailangan lang ay dalawang buwang pasabi at kailangan din ay aalis ng bansa) ay ang text ni Ichi sa kanya (mga isang linggo pagkatapos namin siyang makausap) upang ipaalala nga na aalis kami. Sana naman ay binanggit yung pagpapadala ng sulat at hindi puro oo lang ang sagot, eh kahit na yung deposito na yung paksa oo pa din yung sagot. Ang nakakainis talaga sobra ay kung paano ginawa yung hindi pagbalik ng deposito sobrang underhanded, eh wala namang hindi nadadaan sa maayos na paguusap. Hindi na nga niya naisip na pasalamat nga siya na aalis kami at maari na niyang paupa yung unit sa mas mataas na renta. Nanghihinayang kasi siya sa kung magkanong halaga at hindi na tiningnan yung bigger picture. Laking pasalamat na lang namin at nandun yung aming ahente para tumulong sa handover. Siya yung nakipagusap sa kasero para maibalik naman ang karamihan sa aming deposito at para na din hindi umabot sa away ang usapan. In the end, we just decided not to let that incident overshadow the good memories of the place that we called home for almost two years. It is what E knows as his first home. We feel blessed with how everything unfolded and how everything was taken cared of.  

*zài jiàn = goodbye

E likes to help us “clean” around the house. These pics were taken during a break from sorting our things for packing. Some times it’s funny to see him do these things but other times it’s a test of your patience especially when you’re trying to finish all the chores and he ends up making you do more cleaning. I just hope that when it’s time for him to do chores around the house he would be just as eager.

Disclaimer: No child was harmed in the making of this blog entry.

Yesterday while browsing through the latest issue of the local tv guide, 8 days, I came across their horoscope page and as I often do when I come across these pages, I read them. Here were mine and Ichi’s horoscopes.

Capricorn : You will be extremely busy, and probably twice as nervous. There is so much to do and so little time to do it, although you may try to evade your responsibilities. Perhaps you can try to put off some of your more burdensome commitments until next month.

Virgo : Woe betide the foolish person who takes you for a ride or gets in your way this week. Yet, with such power comes the need for wisdom and compassion.

Now, although I read them I’ve never put too much into what they say but yesterday it was like a soft nudge for me. You see, we are moving again. The reason why I had to immediately renew my passport a month ago was because we were processing for our visas then. I’m happy to say that we got them after a little more than 2 weeks from submission and now we are in the midst of preparing for our move. Where are we moving to? To the land down under - Sydney, Australia.

So why the soft nudge? because I think I’m starting to get overwhelmed and my reaction to it is to delay doing stuff even though I know that I would end up getting harassed or panicking to do things at the last minute.  And in Ichi’s case, they’ve been pretty stressed at work with the short time frame for the project so when some people point fingers it’s either you just take it or in Ichi’s case give them a reality check. hehe. (dito na din nakikita na tumatanda na talaga at kun dati daw nangyari yun sa kanya eh malamang na di siya kikibo)

Ooohh, on another topic remember my wicked post? I wasn’t optimistic in getting the chance to watch that before because initially we were going to be based in Perth but now that we are going to be based in Sydney, there’s a glimmer of hope!

We were doing our usual weekly grocery last Sunday. Normally we go to Fairprice since we get rebates and rewards via linkpoints but we were late in going out that we ended up doing the grocery at Cold Storage instead (they close later than Fairprice). I bought just some essentials and food that we were going to eat for the next 3-4 days, so I paid at the counter and left with the bags. It wasn’t until we reached home and I was storing the groceries that I noticed that a bag was missing and that bag contained all the food. We tried calling the store to check for the bag but it was already closed, we did shop near closing time. So I was really pissed that I left the bag and had no choice but to try and go back the next day to see if the items were still there.

I was only able to go back to the grocery after E’s playgym class in the afternoon and really I wasn’t expecting that the bag would still be there. I think I was more or less resigned that I wasted about $20 worth of food by forgetting that bag. So when I got to the grocery I approached this guy to ask about the bag and he went to a couple of the cashiers to ask and he was told to check the logbook (it was a logbook of things that got left behind, it would seem that it is a common occurrence :p) and he got back to me to check with me if the items listed on the book were the items that I left. After confirming the items, he went to get similar items off the shelves to give to me, it turns out the actual items that I left were put back on the shelf so whatever is of the equivalent price would be the ones given back, most of the items that he did give me were priced higher than the items I bought. He asked to see my receipt just to note on it that I had already taken the items and that was it. Now I don’t know if this is the way that supermarkets handle things like this, this was the first time that it happened to me but I was pleasantly surprised at the procedure they had. It was simple and easy for both parties. And is it bad for me to think that if that were to happen to me in Manila that I would never have been able to retrieve the left items?

Panalo ang passport pic ni little boy. Whenever someone sees it, they always comment on how cute he is. They can’t help it! hahahaha!! di naman obvious na proud ano?!!

Last month we went to the inaugural Singapore Airshow at the Changi Exhibition Centre. The first four days were for trade visitors only which left the public just the weekend to see the exhibits. All the tickets were presold online and as expected a lot of people came. We chose to go on a Saturday and when we arrived at pasir ris mrt to get on the free shuttle to the event site we were told by the people manning the area that we came at the right time because earlier in the day people had to wait in line for two hours just for the shuttle. It was also a long wait from the entrance to the changi exhibition centre up to the actual entrance for the airshow, I think we waited on the bus for more than 30mins. As we were entering the area we saw tons of people who were leaving the area queuing either for the taxi (even for the premium taxis there was a looooong line) or for the shuttle buses. There was also an aerobatic flying displays by the Black Knights of the Republic of Singapore Air Force and the Roulettes of the Royal Australian Air Force which we didn’t get to see since we went in the afternoon. E enjoyed looking at all the displays and had a fun time collecting pins from some of the exhibits. By the time we were leaving the venue there was still a queue (although shorter) so we decided to hop on the paid shuttle to changi expo instead.

Last Saturday, we brought E to a trial class at My Gym. I was a little concerned with how he’ll do as this is the first class he’ll be attending but as it turns out he had fun. He did look a little confused at the start, trying to take everything in but he slowly loosened up and you can tell that he really liked his teachers. But the most fun he had was with the puppet fishes the teachers were using to signal the end of the class. He was really laughing out loud. Hopefully with this he can get used to attending a class for a specified time and learning to get along with other kids too. We did enroll him and next week he’s already looking forward to the stamps (on his hands) he’ll get after class.

Help vote Manila into the wildcard cities for the Monopoly Here & Now: The World Edition. Just go to the monopoly website and vote your favorite 10 cities from a pre-selected list and then vote Manila or any other city not in the list for the wildcard cities. Who knows we may just end up seeing Manila as one of the cities in the world’s first global Monopoly.

Voting for the top 10 cities ends on February 29, 2008 and March 9, 2008 for the wildcard cities.

I last posted about this a couple months ago and I was really hoping then that by now we would be done with the diapers even if only for daytime. Unfortunately at the time we weren’t able to continue with the training, i think we stuck with it for about 2 days only. Stuff came up along with our preps for our Manila vacation that we postponed training, excuses excuses I know!!!

Anyways, since we got back from Manila, we started trying to train E. So it’s now been 10 days of bringing him to the potty every hour or so to try to get him to pee and poo in the potty. And yesterday was the first time that I got him to pee in the potty with the whole day “accident”-free. You should’ve seen me with the praises that I heaped on him, grabe after all the recent days’ frustrations about it. But you still have to anticipate when he’s going to go or you’ll end up wiping the floor. Still it is a step towards being diaper free. Hopefully, tuloy-tuloy na ito kasi pag hindi maloloka na ako! hahaha!

I accidentally cut myself while preparing dinner. After we had dinner I was on the computer watching some videos when E came up to me and asked “mommy, you have sugat?” and then puts his toy medical kit on the bed. He opens the toy kit and proceeds to check my finger, bringing out the stethoscope (he says he’ll use it to check on the finger), syringe, alcohol swabs, medicine dropper and bandages. After he uses everything on my finger and puts on the imaginary bandages, he then tells me ” mommy, there you’re all better.”

Sana hanggang paglaki niya ganun pa din no?!!