DXB’s Chrysler Building

SW took these photos yesterday.  He calls it his “masterpiece”.  This building which looks like NY’s Chrysler building is a good landmark to where apartment is.  They are called Al Kazim Towers. 

He took these photos from the car while I was driving.  These buildings are on Sheikh Zayed Road.  The line running across the picture is the Dubai Metro line. 

School Sports Day

Today Jia Wen experienced her first ever school sports.  It was a fun fun and it was more of a telematch rather than real sports.  It was fun but I think I had more fun than Jia Wen did.  The weather was hot and by the end of the event, the kids were exhausted, drained and dehydrated.

I had a good time taking photos today because I didn’t have Jia Xiang with me.  Jia Xiang stayed home with daddy today so I was free to run about taking photos without worrying about JX running about.  I am sure if JX was there, he would be part of the sports too!!

Anyway, there were a lot of parents there too and like me, everyone was geared with the camera, video cams taking photos and cheering the children on!! 

Jia Wen is in the Red Falcons house

 
So were Ana & Tara

It was a hot and sunny day!

 
Eager parents!! 

Parents had a turn at “sports” too!

 
Red Falcons won Sports Day for Year 1 & 2.  Hip hip hooray Red Falcons!!! 

Thats the end of this year’s School Sports!! 

More pictures on facebook.  I took so many pictures that I can’t fit into this entry.  

JX’s Fall

Jia Xiang slipped and fell this morning. He hit the coffee table and got a 1 inch cut right above his right eye.

SW was at work. It is a Friday so the Emirates Airlines Medical Centre is closed so we had to bring him to the nearest affiliated hospital. Rushed to the Med Care Hospital by taxi and SW met us here.

His cut didn't cause much bleeding and I am not sure if he was crying because of the pain or because of the commotion. While waiting for his turn at the Emergency Ward, he was running, playing around like normal but when it came to his turn to see the doctor, he started screaming and struggling.

3 people had to hold him down while the doctor dressed up the wound. The nurse held his head, I held his body and hands and JW held his legs down. He cries, screamed, struggled. He sweat so much during the struggle. The doc had a hard time dressing his wound up because he was moving so much. Doctor used "superglue" to close his wound up. Nurse asked what we fed JX as he was very strong and solid!!

He fell asleep in the car on the way home, exhausted from the struggle and cries. By the time he went home, he had forgotten about the fall and what happened to his head and he was running about like before!!

Doc gave antibiotics in case of any inflammation and told us not to shower his head for 1 week.

I guess every kid has to have a scar at least once in their life yeah? 

 
On the way to the hospital in the taxi.  He bled very slowly. 

Taking his pulse. They took his weight too and he is 18.15 kgs!

 
He was running around the hospital waiting for his turn.  But…

 
when it came his turn, he struggled, screamed, cried, kicked, punched, pinched!  He kept on crying and saying “home, home home”.

Look at his face.  All sweat and red.  At this point, he was saying “no” to the doctor!  Pic on the right – all done, going home now. 

RIS Parent Teacher Day

Jia Wen’s school had their interim Parent Teacher Day last week where parents got to meet the teacher one-to-one to discuss the child’s progress in school.  Parents also got to go into the class and to check out their child’s work and of course I did it!!

The school encourages free writing and these are some of the things that she wrote that I found interesting.  Some has topic to their composition and sometimes they are asked to write rhymes too. 

Jia Wen’s handwriting has improved a lot from the one in the above picture.  Her handwriting is smaller and much neater now. 

In their school, the teach students phonics and that is how they teach the students to spell and write.  They do not emphasize or really care (for now) whether they spell the word correctly, as long as they know how to make the sounds to the word and spell it roughly, it is acceptable. 

Ok, I have to admit that I did snoop around other students’ work too. 

In this interim, we also received a progress report on Jia Wen and here’s what she got:

Ratings:

W = Your child is working towards the level appropriate for their age
M = Your child is meeting the level appropriate for their age
E = Your child is exceeding the level appropriate for their age

Jia Wen’s Academic Report:

English – M
Maths – M
Science – M
ICT – M
Geography – M
French – M
Arabic – M
Art & Design – M
Physical Education – M
Music – E

Jia Wen’s Pastoral Report:

Settled in School – Always
Happy in School – Always
Participate in lessons – Always
Produces appropriate work in lessons – Always
Produces appropriate work at home – Always

When I met the teacher, I told her that we weren’t too concerned about her academic progress but we are more concerned about her social skills and how she is mixing with other children.  According to Miss McLaren, she is a delight, helpful and friendly.  She mixes well with everyone.  Jia Wen can be a bit authoratative sometimes which gets her into trouble but she apologizes for it.  The teacher said that this is a very normal “girl’s behaviour” and I have nothing to worry about her social skills.  Miss McLaren also said that she works hard in class. 

Way to go Jia Wen!!!! 

Happy Birthday Daddy

As you all may already know, SW had one of the most memorable birthdays ever which I shall not go into right now.  Tired of explaining to everyone already but just to cut long story short, he spent his birthday in the air flying from KL-DXB-KL all in less than 24 hours. 

SW arrived back from KL on 1 Nov (his birthday) so Jia Wen wanted to make a surprise for him.  So she and I worked on something to put at the door for when daddy returns home.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY!!!  We love you very much!!!!

And because he flew back to KL again just 4 hours reaching Dubai, we couldn’t really celebrate with him so no cake! 

Birthday Boy

HAPPY

BIRTHDAY

SIDNEY!!! 

We love you!!!

Love from Jia Wen, Jia Xiang, Aunty Szue Fei and Uncle Ooi!!!

Halloween Night @ Tecom

The Tecom Families organised a Halloween Night at our 1st floor terrace.  It was another chance to get together and to meet people who live in our building.  Kids got to dress up and go trick or treating.

Jia Wen went as a Batgirl and JX went as “BONE”, well at least that’s what he calls himself.  Most of the kids dressed up for the occasion but adults didn’t make any effort at all, shame on us. 

Since it was a pot luck party, I had decided that I’d make kebab sticks, hotdogs and nuggets for the kids.  I prepared the hotdogs with onion and dill pickle relishes.  Sadly, it didn’t get finished.  However, my kebabs finished and I was happy that it did.

 
I made to 2 types of chicken kebabs.  The one on the left is marinated with tumeric lemon grass sauce (from the bottle) and the one on the right was marinated with yogurt. 

Right after finishing in the kitchen, I got the kids ready and put on their costumes.  Before we left, I squeezed in a few photoshooting.

Chinese Batgirl

Raunchy!!

 

 

This was JW & JX’s first time trick or treating.  JW enjoyed herself but JX did get a little scared.  (psst, it was my first time too!)

 

This was the coolest apartment.  The kids were greeted by a few cabin crew guys who dressed up, gave them sweets and they were also playing haunted music in their apartment.  It was very cool and they were such great sports! 

 

HAPPY

HALLOWEEN!!!

Fancy Dress Parade

Jia Wen’s school had a Fancy Dress Parade this morning.  All the students were asked to come to school dressed up and since Jia Wen had chosen to be a Batgirl for the Halloween party tomorrow, she went to school as a Batgirl!!

I was such a fun day in school.  All the students were so happy and they were all filled with excitement.  The parents were there to take pictures and pictures!  It was a casual and fun day.  It was exciting to see the kids parading their costumes at the field.  Some were literally melting in their costumes.  I am glad JW chose a cool one.

The school gave one price to each class for best dressed student. 

This first batch of photos were taken in the morning with my Ixus. 


Batgirl Jia Wen and Cleopatra Louisa Schneider

Pumpkin Fairy, JW and Sexy Pumpkin Princess Hazuki

Scream-ing Benjamin, Batgirl Jia Wen & Pirate (another class)

 
Princess Anna Schneider, Batgirl Jia Wen, Cleopatra Louisa Schneider & Sexy Pumpkin Princess Hazuki

Everyone were so well dressed. 

Batgirl Jia Wen & Sheikh Hamed Khezri of Iran.  Bumblebee boy. 

Angelique, Louisa, Anna, Rosalie & Jia Wen

Jia Wen’s Pirate Umar.  Future F1 Driver

Iseg the Skeleton and Cowboy.  

Marching for the parade.  This first batch of parade did not involve Jia Wen so I had time to snap pics of other children in other costumes. 

 
The parents of this boy used a bolster cover, cut out some holes and he became a ghost. 

Look at the parents!  But it was fun!

 

 
Some teachers dressed up too which I thought all teachers should have made the effort to. 

This lion must have been burning inside his costume. 

This dragon was the most elaborate home-made costume I saw. 

Pirate of the Carribean with Little Red Indian.  A Chinese Concubine.

JX as JX. 

A fellow Malaysian friend from the same school.  Justine and her son Iseg. 

It was a fun day.  The atmosphere was good, the kids had fun and the parents definitely had the most fun! 

Johan from South Africa & Sexy Pumpkin Princess Hazuki from Japan

Marching out for the parade.


There was music being played and the boys were having fun dancing to the music. 
 
My Batgirl

 
Spider Queen Miriam
 
Princess Tara from UK
 



Hover over the above pic and see whats the digital number for this pic and see the connection between the number and whats on this picture.  Get it?
 
Pirate Umar from UK, Sheikh Hamed from Iran & Princess Rosalie from Quebec. 

Anna from Brazil, JW, Miriam from Norway, Lisa from India, Sophia from Germany, Isabella from Australia and Tara from UK. 

 
Anna & Jia Wen with Miss McLaren.  Rosalie and Tara

One of the teacher dressed up as Darth Vader
 
Sophia & Isabella.  Isabella, Tara & Rosalie

 
 
Pirate Umar (A boy who Jia Wen cares about)

Singaporean Samurai.  I love that Pirate costume that comes with tattoo sleeves!

A very unhappy Bumblebee. 

Unhappy Fairy



More pictures to come.  Do come back later.

Bitches

Today I sent Jia Wen to school and stayed on until she went into class.  I saw something very sad and hurting.  Am not sure whether it hurt me more or it hurt Jia Wen more. 

Girl A and Girl B were sitting on a bench talking when Jia Wen went over to say hello to them.  Girl B quickly moved closer to Girl A and pushed Jia Wen away.  Jia Wen sat next to Girl B and started talking.  Girl B again pushed Jia Wen away and then took Girl A’s hands and quickly walked away.  Jia Wen stood there for a while, looked at me with sadness in her eyes and walked away.  I called her over and gave her a hug.  I didn’t want to address the situation right there and then as I know she will be emotional and start to cry.  In Girl A’s defence, she did want to talk to Jia Wen.

Why?  Why do people (girls in particular) do this?  Perhaps Jia Wen does this too, perhaps not.  Perhaps I myself have had a fair share of “attitude” when I was in school but I certainly know how it feels to be an “outcast” and to be treated that way.  And I certainly do not want my daughter to ever feel that pain. 

I have observed Jia Wen with her friends many times before and I know that my daughter is friendly, generous, kind and talks to everyone without prejudice.  Children have characters and children have different sorts of behaviour and I understand that but to see what happened this morning really hurts.  Jia Wen comes home telling about these sort of things happening to her and I always tell her to not care about what other people thinks, says or do.  I always tell her “as long as you do not do what you don’t like other people to do to you, then it is up to them how they want to be”.  I always tell her “it is alright if she doesn’t talk to you today, go talk to another friend”.  I’ve always told her not to feel bad about such situations but I really really know how she feels.  But is this the correct way?  Is it right to tell her to ignore such emotions, and feelings?  Is this the right way to build confidence in her? 

Jia Wen is usually the first to arrive in school and she puts her bag in front so that she can be first in line to walk into the classroom.  She likes being the first and she purposely get school early so that she can be the first in line.  Today, she got there before anyone else in her class and she put her school bag right in front.  And when it was time to go into the class, her bag was pushed away almost to the end.  Her bag was moved away from first place.  When she found her bag at the back of the line, she went to her teacher and told her about it.  There wasn’t anything the teacher could do and I told Jia Wen “it is ok”.  But should Jia Wen have stood up for her rights?  Should she have just brought her bag right to the front again and pushed the rest of the bag to the back?  Please tell me what was the right thing for her to do!!!  I even saw a father bringing his daughter’s bag and putting it right in front of the line and said “Hey look, your bag is first!”  I thought that was rude but I didn’t think anything of it at that time.  Ok, don’t ask me why is it so important to be first in line but hey, these are little thrills for kids. 

I feel so bad for Jia Wen.  I feel so sad and I feel like crying for her.  I wish Girl B’s mother was there to see it happen.  Perhaps then she can see what a B*&^$ her daughter was this morning!  I really hope it isn’t racial!! 

Argh!!!!! 

Oh yes, yesterday Jia Wen came home and told me that one boy in her class was caught paying another boy to be his friend.  The class teacher caught it and addressed the situation to the class.  She told the students that it was wrong.  Can you imagine??!!?!?  Can you imagine such things happening in schools today. 

Sighs.