preparing for school next year

fagan's preparation for prep school, which is a milestone here in australia's education, is going well. she has been attending her orientation/assimilation program into vermont primary school every fortnight for the past 6 weeks or so.

she is in kinder now.

the program's objective is to allow these young children to blend into primary school life. the slow but smooth transition from kinder to primary school here are done in a fun and participative environment. children are encourage to get to know each other even before school starts. each week, fagan will attend activities in the school; be it art lesson, story-telling session or some physical fun. parents are encouraged to mingle with fellow parents and there are also parent sessions where teachers are on hand to brief parents on school matters and clarify any concerns.

the entire transition last about 4 months and is well thought out. today, school uniform fitting day. we went to the school to get fagan her new school uniform. she's suitably excited.

by the way, her sister paisley will also attend the same school next year.

one year on...

today is just like any other monday for us; the homemaker in da house woke up early to get the kids ready for school, i was doing my routine for the day; work followed by a bit of cycling with a friend in the evening, kids have a bit of some outdoor time post-dinner and bed by 9pm.

however, it is actually a momentous day for us as it has been exactly 1 year since we lay our hats here in melbourne. on the balance of things, i am sure my better half would agree that there have been more positives and negatives, in fact very few of the latter. in many ways, we all still miss singapore. loved ones and food top the list. that said, i guess we need to be forward looking and make the best of what is our family lives now.

my personal observation of the changes that took place:
1. wife's a (way) better cook now
2. kids actually look forward to school
3. the sports side of paisley is blossoming
4. shankly is a more assertive boy (in a good way)
5. fagan is more independant; and more talkative
6. we have dinner together almost daily and that probably brings us closer
7. i (actually) take walks
8. kids enjoy the outdoor more

the major milestone here is we bought our own place (though we won't we living there for some time yet)

looking back, we reckon we made the right decision to come here to start afresh. we obviously still have a long way to go, but the last 12 months has been a blessed one for us.

looking forward, we hope to build on the positives and hopefully our kiddos will better shape themselves to be someone closer to what their heart dictates, inching closer to their own callings.

we must also extend our sincerest appreciations to all our relatives, neighbours, present and new friends made here who extend their help, support, prayers, friendship, advice and more that help us come through unscath in the first 12 months.

for the next 12 months, we look forward to:
1. moving into a place we will call home
2. shankly starting his secondary college, a new phase in his student life and,
3. all of us hopefully finding (more) time and space to pursue our personal interests.

thanks for sharing our journey with us so far....

11th aunt's visit (24 Oct 2009)

from left: shankly, paisley, cecilia, fagan, 11th aunt, nanyau and nanyi

something to remember

this week, the children came back with the stuff they made in school.

shankly came back with a `i-am-not-quite-sure-what-it-is' clay sculpture. it's good effort though; even leonardo starts from the bottom.

paisley's penguin and dove are probably the most recognisable of the lot and....

fagan's parachute is not something you would like to be in possession with if you are doing sky-diving.

in my eyes, all great stuff!

getting away being overweight

"mr chiew, the baggage allowance is 20kg and you are way over..." 3 minutes later, "we will allow excess baggage without charge for you just this time. please bear in mind in the future the luggage weight limit"

since i lost my frequent flyer status in may, i am been flirting with overweight baggage charge by packing to the brim; and testing both my and the ticketing officer's resolve to not charge me. basically, i am bringing remnants of stuff left over in singapore. one could argue that it's not worth risking the overcharge, as every kg over is $60/kg but. still, i get a kick out of seeing if i can get away with this everytime i travel back down under. so far, the score is 4-0 to my favor! my luggages (typically i check in 2 pieces of luggage) weigh anything from 29 to 35kg.

i kind of figure out the following to get the odds in my favor:

a. it helps if you travel with the airlines more than once. it gives you ground to tilt things to your favor.

b. altho' the weight limit is 20kg for economy (provided you do not have a frequent flyer status like pps or krisflyer gold), you can still get away with about 25kg, easy. every kg after that is a risk you take and you need to figure a way out the tangle.

c. it helps to check-in early. typically when the plane is `empty' earlier on, the ticketing officers are more lenient to a lesser extent. if you check-in late, you will not be able to leverage your position especially if that particular officer has checked-in previous passengers with loads of luggage.

d. `choose' your ticketing offer if you can. i once let a passenger behind me thru' because the ticketing officer who's supposed to serve me is rather `strict' looking. i will eye the 1 or 2 options i have where i think the officer is `friendlier'. it worked in that instance altho' i will never know if it was a good call on my part.

e. always smile and don't get defensive. you are basically at their mercy so you will never win if you `exchange words' with the officer. it will also help to casually ask if the plane is full prior. if the plane is half full, you can use this fact to your advantage if needed.

f. always feign ignorance and over-dramatize to look shock when they tell you the weight of your luggage. and then asked if they can waive it. looking distress can help sometimes; pleading works too...

g. if all things fail, asked to see the duty manager. they have the power to over-ride the officer. you need a bit luck though at this stage.

h. a good ruse is to mention that it was your brother/sister/mother-in-law/any close relative that pass you the items to bring over to your brother/sister/wife/any close relative, hence you have little control over the weight of your luggage. sometimes they sympathize with your plight and you get away with it. i did this once when i told the duty manager that it was my my mother-in-law who packed `the other bag' full of foodstuff to her daughter/my wife and that if i can't bring it with me, i will have to discard them in a rubbish bin, rather than to pay the exhorbitant fee. i got away that time too.

i. last but not least, if you were ever once a pps, star alliance (gold) member or any of the frequent flyer privilege card holder, mentioned that you were once their preferred customer. it was the financial crisis that resulted you not traveling so frequently and you ramained a loyal customer to the carrier regardless. sometimes, it can worked as well. unashamedly, i use this trick too once when i was going nowhere; and it worked too.

admittedly, one needs a lot of luck in such instance. but as they say, the more prepared you are, the better your luck will be.

good luck!

disclaimer: i think all of the above will certainly not work if one travels on a budget airline. so, don't even comptemplate it. and of course, i tested the above only on a couple of carriers. i have not tried the others, so don't send me with a lawyer's letter if you got hit with a hefty surcharge if you attempted any of the above.

orange alert, sydney!

i was awakened early this morning with a truly unusual sight of sydney. i looked out the window from the 42nd floor of the hotel (see picture) i was staying in the heart of the city; what i saw the entire city was blanketed with a glowing orange tint. initially, i weren't sure if it was the window tinting on the hotel building playing tricks on me, or that the sun's glow at dawn is overwhelming or that i am simply still sleepy.
as i continued to be awed by the sight, i realized it was dust when i switched on the tv and the local headline news explained the phenomenon. it was a surreal sight, and for a moment, i weren't sure if i should just stay in or if it's safe to go outside.
from then on, it wrecked havoc to what would have been another typical busy working wednesday in sydney. health alert went out to those with respiratory problems to stay indoor. those driving took extra precaution as visibility on the road plummeted. it didn't dawn on me that flight will also be impacted. i have a scheduled 2pm flight back to melbourne the same afternoon.
after my work in the morning, i decided to leave slightly earlier to the airport after a colleague wagered that i will not be able to make the flight. a chaotic scene greeted me at the airport. since i was early, i was able to check in an `earlier' flight even though it is delayed. information from the airport on flights schedule was few and far between. many flights were either delayed or cancelled. as only one runway was used at the domestic terminal for safety reason, flights that are scheduled to take-off have to endure a long queue. my flight finally got the green light to take off at about 4.45pm. as i was waiting at my gate to board the flight, i overheard the announcement that my flight that i was originally scheduled to fly out to melbourne was cancelled. i thanked my lucky stars that i was allocated a seat on an earlier flight.
the flight was bumpy through-out due to the strong winds but when dj842 landed in melbourne at 6.10pm today, i was a tired but happy man. i made it to melbourne by the skin of my teeth.

p.s. i read in reports later that the dust storm is the worst ever pollution that hit sydney. it was 1500 times the normal pollution level in sydney. the dust storm travelled 1500km to hit new south wales and covered almost 600km across the coast of the state. it dumped about 75000 tonnes of dust every hour! it dust storm eventually hit brisbane.

chesterfield farm

school holidays' here again. it is the spring break and the kids have 2 weeks away from school to chill out. we decided to do something fun for them on saturday since weekdays are bad for me. we shortlisted a few places where we can take the kids out for a bit of fun; and after speaking with them, we narrow it down to the melbourne zoo or a farm visit. we decided on the latter since they enjoyed their last farm visit in adelaide.

chesterfield farm is actually not too far away from where we lived. it is located in scoresby and is about 15mins drive from where we live. it sits on an expansive 58 hectares of land. there are many facilities there including picnic areas where visitors can bring their picnic basket and spend a leisurely late morning or early afternoon just soaking in the wonderful spring sunshine. of course, things wouldn't be complete without bbq pits. you can find that too at chesterfield farm!

we arrived at 10am and being the first day of school holiday, there are a decent numbers of visitors already. the demographics are all too similar, young families with young kids in tow.

the animal playpen is the favourite place for all as they get to play & cuddle with lambs, rabbits and goats. in fact, that's where she spent most of her time. we stayed for the animal show too where fagan bravely milked a cow. there was also an interesting demonstration showing how a sheep dog herd and guard sheeps from the vast enclosed field.

we stayed till the weather turned gloomy in the early afternoon and decided to called it a day and return to our familiar urban domain.
we rounded up our trip with a `yum cha' session at knox city. (interestingly, it is my first `yum cha' since i got here)