7:00am: Iron shirts
7:20am: Cook breakfast
7:30am: Wake (a.k.a fight) the kids up
7:40am: Feed them breakfast; entice them with Playhouse Disney channel
7:45am: Shower
8:00am: Put (a.k. fight) the kids thru shower
8:15am: Get the kids ready
8:20am: Starting the journey to school (a.k.a fighting). Standard interrogation questions I have to answer to get them to the front door, included:
"Why do we have to go to school?'
"Why do you have to work?"
"Why can't I stay home all by myself?"
"What time will you be picking us up later"
"You do know the fact that I hate that school, do you mummy?"
By this time, Alyssa is frustrated with the answers I gave during the interrogation, and expressed it in her normal crying (more of shrieking) and refusing to walk. So I have to carry her, while Amirul tagging behind with a trolley full of bags.
8:35am: Reached nursery, with me panting like a dog, and sweating like a pig, having to carry 14kg sweet, highly spirited daughter of mine. Not after an emotional, tugging at my wet from tears blouse, an even higher pitch of shrieking, I gave both of them a big kiss on each cheek and my usual "I love you, have fun sweetie. I will be back as soon as I can".
And that, my friend is my work-day routine.
See below a typical day of a typical Alyssa: EVRYTHING to her is a toy... even the MRT pole.
Alyssa and Amirul hate the nursery. After a week there, Alyssa asked "How does your boss speak to you, mummy?". I was quite unsure how to answer so I asked "What do you mean?" Alyssa explained "Is she angry or happy when she speaks to you?" I asked her why does she need to know. This is her answer "Everybody at school is so angry all the time. I didn't do any ting wrong, but they are still angry. Why is everybody here so angry, mummy?" For those of you who knows Alyssa, this kind of frankness is not a surprise. In fact it's her 2nd nature.
Angry, by her definition is unfriendly or stressed out. I think the local term is kanchong. People here (relative to Penangites) are more stressed out as a result of high pace city life, I suppose. People have low tolerance level and normally speak at a high pitch, though they mean no harm. No wonder majority of my colleagues have more grey hair than my mom even though they about my age. Of course there are other pre-school which are good and have less fierce teachers; but they are both far (unless we have our own car) and unaffordable (SGD 1000 per month at least). Alyssa will have to make do with what we can afford at this moment., I guess.
"Why people here are angry all the time?"
(p/s: shot taken by Amirul)
Last Saturday was Amirul's orientation day at North Vista Primary School. We finally managed to get him a place in public school after weeks of being on the waiting list. When we registered him in early November, we went to 3 public schools & 2 private schools but only managed to be on their waiting lists. Amirul is dragon boy, (born in yr 2000) hence the limited place in Primary 2. Because of this we have decided to repeat primary1 for him to ensure placement. Besides, Singapore curriculum is 'supposedly' more advance than Msian so chances are he won't get bored. We also foresee that socialization would be a big challenge for him, so don't want to pressure him to catch up with the primary 2 syllabus. Below are some shots taken on his orientation day.
Amirul staring into his future, infront of the school's hall
Below: Amirul with his new classmates
The view of new HDB Flats in front of Amirul's school: North Vista Primary
The most important issue to address when you visit any school for the 1st time: its TOILET!! We're happy to see how clean (of course, it's still new) the toilet is. Low sinks & bowl for the children. And the last cubicle even has a water tap! What a relief! Though we have been here for over a month, having our *&^%^% cleaned without water is still a major no-no. Call us 'toilet-paper-phobic' if you like, but Amirul is going to bring a 'cebuk/gayung' to school!
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