It's the final week...

... before I go back to work.

I have enjoyed this short break. It was rather short, compared to what I used to get. But, in these tough times, I should not complain.

Talking about tough times, it is a wee it depressing reading/listening to the news these days. Everything is about yet another financial institution collapsing, how bad the situation will be, how we must all tighten our belts and on and on and on...

Sigh.

I suppose, in the next one to two years when I won't be drawing a salary, I should really, really cut down on my expenses - the biggest of which goes to transportation (which sounds really legitimate when I put it that way but not so when I spell it out as t-a-x-i).

Other than that, I don't think I am inclined towards big expenses. I have somewhat lost interest in bags (momentarily, perhaps?) and I am not really inclined towards the high life (other than good food but halal good food is, thankfully, not as easily accessible here as it is in KL so that doesn't really count). In other words, we should be pretty sheltered against this recession? God knows. Still, it's wise to cut down on unnecessary expenditure.

What a dreary topic that was.

Now, moving on to more exciting stuff. The Baby has a name! Heh heh heh. Must seek clearance from the higher authority (ie, The Husband) to announce the name to all. But, it will be revealed soon, if I have not already told you la.

And more about Huda's school - She's adjusting extremely well to school. Even the principal commented that the 2006 babies are adjusting well to school. Occasionally, she will protest about going to school in the morning but once in school, she'll be okay. She is eating well in school. She even takes her naps without complaining. This, after I regaled her teacher with all sorts of horrifying things that Huda would do to avoid naps. When I picked her up on the first day she stayed in school past naptime, the teacher told me that when Huda finished drinking her milk, she rolled over and fell asleep. No fuss. Saboteur or what?

And today, after her evening bath, I decided to give toilet-training another shot. And, oh my oh my.. She peed in the toilet three times!! Weeeeeeeeeeeeee!!! (Yes. Wee, indeed.) No accidents! (I was also inspired to do it thanks to that nasty nappy rash she had on our return from a trip up north.) The only problem is, she insists on pee-ing standing up. No squatting or sitting positions for my little miss.

That trip up north (where else but to KL) - I think there must have been about a million Singaporeans there last weekend. We kept on bumping into familiar faces. There were familiar faces that we planned to bump into but there were also a good number of familiar faces that we have not seen for years in Singapore.

We went to this swanky new shopping centre and they had clowns and other costumed characters. Huda was extremely scared of the clown. There is a word for people with a clown phobia but I'm just too darn lazy to click the next tab and do a search so I'll just call it clownophobia. Long ago, The Husband and I have decided not to invoke the bogeyman when it comes to disciplining our children. We have been successful - until three days ago. Our little clownophobic was behaving in the most unbecoming way and her uncle invoked The Clown. Immediately, she behaved and the time spent at the restaurant was most civil and pleasant, all thanks to The Clown. Will we use The Clown again? In most desperate of situations, if ever. But, we will use it very, very, very sparingly, I hope. 

I suddenly have lots to write about but gotta stop now cos I need to pee (the 745th time today).

(Psssst.. The date is wrong, okay? I wrote this last night, 16 December, but I wrote it over a draft I had written earlier. That's why the date for this entry does not quite correspond with the sequence of events. I know people will most probably not notice this but I am ngeow like that.)