I am having a bout of post-lunch, pre-holiday blues and looking for some brief distraction at work.

Here is, a meme about 23 questions.

1. Grab a book nearest to you, turn to page 18 and find line 4.

..recover tax charged to it on the transfer of assets.. (CCH Quick Reads – Goods and Services Tax Singapore)

2. Stretch your arm out as far as you can and catch _____.

a calculator

3. What is the last thing you watch on tv?

some random 10 minutes of a HK series which I cannot make the head/tail of.

4. Without looking, guess what time is it?

3.30pm

5. Now look at the clock, what is the actual time?

3.41pm.

6. With the exception of the computer, what can you hear?

Distant sounds of Gold 90 FM from the building’s piped in speakers.

7. When did you last step outside?

6 hours ago.

8. Before you start this Q&A, what did you look at?

A mind boggling spreadsheet.

9. What are you wearing?

White Giordano Ladies blouse and G2000 casual pants in olive green.

10. When did you last laugh?

Last night when my daughter hugged my legs.

11. What is the walls of the room you are in?

White washed walls with an assortment of AXN/Animax posters.

12. Seen anything weird lately?

Months ago I saw a lady wearing green from top to toe. Bags, shoes, earrings and glasses. I kid you not.

13. What do you think of this quiz?

Going nowhere? But good to pass time with.

14. What is the last film that you saw?

The Proposal.

15. If you became a millionaire overnight, what is the first thing you will do?

Take a long break from work.

16. Tell me something about you that I dunno

I was absolutely infatuated with Leon Lai in my teens.

17. If you could change one thing about the world, regardless of guilt or politics, what would you do?

Reverse global warming?

18. Do you like to dance?

With my daughter yes. We do a Ray Charles-style sway.

19. Imagine your first child is a girl, what do you call her?

My first child’s already a girl so no need to imagine.

20. Imagine your first child is a boy, what do you call him?

Blake

21. Would you ever consider living abroad?

Yes, if my family comes with me.

22. What do you want GOD to say to you when you reach the pearly gates?

Ah, your name’s on the list. Come in!

23. What time is it now?

3.49pm

The estate that I live in houses quite a number of American families. This is mainly because the SAS is just a short 5 minutes walk away.

Every Halloween, someone (either the school or a group of enthusiastic American parents) organises an evening Halloween parade in my estate. Over the years, it has grown from a small community get-together to a huge event. By huge, I mean road-blocks-and-guards-to-direct-traffic-huge. People actually come from other places to join the festivities in our otherwise sleepy estate.

The participating residences gamely decorate their houses and welcome strangely costumed people through their open gates. Xy loves the decoration. It’s been one of the highlights of her daily walks and thanks to these highly creative home owners, she’s seen enough pumpkins, spiders and witches to last her till the next year.  

We took a walk this morning around the estate and I thought I’d share some pictures of the Halloween-ready houses.

Expect to see lots of skulls, skeletons, webs, blood and of course pumpkins.

More skulls and a blood-sucking rodent. I like the odd assortment of pumpkins.

This house pulled out all the stops.

Mr Frankenstein here freaked me out. I actually thought someone was peeping over the fence the other night when I passed by.

But this has got to be my favourite.

Look a little closer..

Simply hilarious! Bravo!

When my brother was a young child, my grandmother had a routine of plonking him in front of the TV at meal times. He’d stare at the flickering screen, mouth agape into which my grandma will quickly scoop spoonfuls of rice.

Years later, I remember thinking that this is such parenting faux pas. No way I’d let my kids eat while they watch TV!

They say never say never, and They are right.

We had such a tough time feeding Xy recently that I got off my high horse and reluctantly employed the same distraction technique that my grandma (and I’m sure many other grandmas and mummies) used.

Most of the time, we try to keep her occupied with a book or some toys. It gets trickier when we’re outside so KJ keeps a stash of video clips handy in his phone as mealtime entertainment.

Let’s just say that I’ve never been more grateful for YouTube.

Xy fell down today on a concrete pavement.

It happened during her daily evening walk with her grandaunt and cousin. She ran, tripped and fell.

The good news is, other than a bit of an abrasion on her chin and a very tiny scratch on her knee, she is thankfully okay. It certainly hasn’t stopped her from running.

Xy has this habit of grabbing my arm and using it as her bolster. She’d stir in our bed in the middle of the night, sometimes calling me in her sleep (mah-mee… mah-mee..!). She’d grope around for my arm and once she found it, she snuggles in the nook of my elbow and eventually goes back to sleep.

It is tough sharing our bed with a sleep acrobat. Sometimes, we suffer kicks in our sleep and usually in the morning, you find KJ and me squashed up in our respective corners while our 18 month old lies in a huge space cleared out for her. Most days we both sport sore backs and shoulders from our odd sleeping positions.

But that arm-grabbing thing is rather sweet. I don’t know when she is going to grow out of this, but for now, I am a happy albeit very tired mummy.

Our weekends usually start with breakfast with the gramps at a nearby coffee shop.

Here is Xy playing with our food money.

Then we return home, cook the little ones’ meals, catch a brief breather. After Xy wakes up from her nap, we feed and change her and head out.

Ms Poh likes to have some juice for the ride. And because it was a very sunny day, she had her shades on too. For about 2 minutes.

Last weekend we were out shopping for presents for our niece (Xy’s cousin)’s birthday. Here, KJ was giving Xy a ride to keep her amused while we waited for our gift to be wrapped.

We don’t do much on weekends besides visiting my mum and running errands. And tiring as it may be, chasing after an active toddler 24/7 on weekends, I would not trade it for the world.

I like it when a public holiday falls on a Saturday because our office is usually closed on the following Monday.

Since it was a non-working day for me, I went about my off-day routine – I had breakfast with KJ near his office and worked a couple of hours there. Then I ran a few errands (actually joined a physical queue at the bank today), went shopping and because it has been a while since my last pedicure, I booked myself an appointment.

After 4 hours at a neighbourhood mall and a huge hole in my pocket, I went back to KJ’s new office to hang out. It is new, quiet and very nicely decorated. I had a very late lunch in their uber-cool white-tiled pantry and caught up with Gossip Girl.

It was a great day.

So I took the plunge and bought a new digital camera, the Sony TX-1.

Image borrowed from Sony

Truth be told, my old camera (also a Sony, a T-100) was severely under-utilized. We already carry around KJ’s DSLR (again a Sony, A100 – this is what you would expect when one works for the company) on weekends so we just snap pictures of Xy using that.

But since we are going away for a vacation and I thought it might be a good time to trade-up for a new camera myself. You can’t beat the images from a DSLR but a DSLR has no room in a mother’s already bursting-at-the-seams bag (unless it is this). So the TX-1 appeals to me because it is much lighter and sleeker than my old camera and it looks so cool. Of course there is also a whole host of new features including the Sweep Panaroma and it takes video in HD. I am happy.

Because there is a sale (till 25 November), they also threw in a free battery pack (very useful for trips) and an extra memory stick.

Some test shots I took :

Refuge in the company shuttle on a rainy morning

Xy and her latest prized possessions – her masak-masak jug and cup

Part of KJ’s office on the Sweep Panorama

It was as if my head was in the clouds recently. I kept making blunders that it is not funny!

Just today, I discovered that I deleted my plane tickets confirmation for my vacation. There was a brief panic (did I even book the tickets?) until I realised I could call the airline and ask for the reference numbers.

Then last night I checked out my cart at Gap.com and subsequently realised that I forgot to key in my promotion code! I could have saved U$10! My heart still aches.

And over the course of the last 2 weeks, I have bought shoes of an incorrect size for myself, the wrong type of toothbrush for Xy and a book that I never really wanted.

It is so frustrating!

I think I must have been too impatient when I shop that I buy everything in a rush. I have a cart of purchases for Amazon that’s still not checked out yet.

Let me sit on it for a few more days and make sure I don’t miss anything.

Meet the latest drummer of our Rock Band, sans pants.