Bisdak Babbles

We were supposed to leave early in the morning but Shaynna couldn’t contain her excitement the night before our planned visit, so she stayed up late and woke up at about 10AM. Brunch took about 2 hours (yes, that’s how slow she eats despite all my efforts to speed it up). It was almost 2PM when we arrived at the zoo.

The tree mascots greeted us at the entrance that scared Shaynna so much I had to carry her for a while.  Our first stop were the birds, then we stopped by for a moment to see some crocodiles.  We then headed to Shaynna’s favorite part of the visit: boat ride!

We were not able to see all animals and we missed all of the shows but at least we caught the feeding of the baboons.

They also have this area with fountains where children and adults could have some water fun but the zoo closes at 6PM and we still yet had to see most of the animals. Shaynna was just contented to pose before the sign:

Shaynna was so delighted to see the animals, and the giraffe became her instant favorite:

Before we headed out to the exit, Shaynna seemed to be looking for something. When I asked her, she answered: ducks! I didn’t prioritize ducks because when I was still a child, some neighbours raised ducks. I didn’t know they no longer are common in our neighbourhood.

I wasn’t able to take Shaynna to see ducks but she had a blast.

It’s still August and yet my mind is full with Christmas thoughts. It’s too soon to think about Christmas but not for me, and I guess for many OFWs like me. I have already booked my tickets two months ago. How I wish I could start my Christmas shopping soon but that would be impossible. Well, the most important thing is, I’ll be spending it again with my family in the Philippines. I’m looking forward to a three-week vacation, this means no more leaves for me before December.

With that, I already have one major project in mind: turning one of the spaces at home into a playroom/study room for the two cute little angels (my daughter and my niece). I just hope I could find discount laminate flooring in our small city. Children’s table and chairs would be hard to find, too. There are lots of good ones here in Singapore but the shipment would cost more. Back to the real world, I seriously need to keep my excitement down because now, the days seem to pass soooo slow.

  Far Far Away Castle @ the Universal Studios Sentosa in SingaporeIt’s been more than a year since I’ve last had my photohunt entry! Since I’ve moved to Singapore, I’ve never been as active in blogging as before. But it sure is nice to be back photohunting again.Thanks for dropping by!

One of the things Dora instilled in my little angel’s mind is that trees have faces! When she came to visit me here in Singapore, she asked me why the trees around us don’t have faces when in Dora, they smile, they talk, and they walk! Before I confuse her further with facts, I just told her that the trees don’t want people to see their faces because they fear that the bad ones would hurt them. All of us go through childhood only once and it’s just too short, so I’d rather let her enjoy this phase of her life.

That answer gave way to more questions. She kept asking me when do trees smile. Is there a place where we can find trees that move. Before I ran out of answers, I was really glad I took her to the Singapore Zoo. We were rushing to the ticketing booth when Shaynna suddenly froze, fear was etched all over her face. She then asked me to carry her. I picked her up then looked at the direction she was staring at. They were tree mascots! I headed to the trees’ direction but she got more scared. So I just went to the ticketing booth to pay for the entrance fees. After we got our tickets, I took her to the trees’ direction. She was hesitant at first but finally gathered all the courage to pose near the tree mascots with my younger sister.

Up to now, she still thinks that those were real trees. Do you think all the tree-related questions ended there? Nope. Each time we pass by a tree, she would ask me how old that tree is, or which one is older, why a tree is so thin.  The list of questions never ends but I love answering each one of them.

Just one of my countless delayed posts. Just like every visitor here in Singapore, I took Shaynna, my mother and my sister to the Merlion. As expected, it was hard finding and grabbing a spot where one could take an exclusive photo with both the huge and the little Merlion.

The bridge to the Merlion park is as crowded as ever that it was so hard to take a photo with the Marina Bay Sands as a background…

Shaynna had a blast and could not stop talking about the “lion na nagbugwak bugwak ug tubig” (not really sure how to put it in English, but literally, it means “the lion with water gushing forth from its mouth”).

These hawker centers (food courts) here in Singapore is flooded with Chinese cuisines. I terribly miss Japanese food and all those restaurants that serve pasta! Despite its close resemblance to Chinese food, I also terribly miss Filipino dishes. Yet, in our company’s big events like the last one we had last May, these dishes were served:

Yes, there’s dimsum and chicken.  Last year we had Chinese food. This year, the same. We had the annual dinner and dance at the Resorts World Sentosa, yet the organizers told us we can either have Chinese food or vegetarian! And as usual, I only got to appreciate those spicy baby squid and the shrimp.I hope they would seriously take our food suggestions.  Else, I’d rather have McDonald’s.

So far, I had done 5 workouts in two weeks. So far, so good. Then I got so busy, my monthly period came, and I missed a week of my new exercise regime. I was so excited to get back, did stretching and all, yet 15 minutes into the routine, I got so dizzy. Good thing I was close to a wall and leaned on it while I still had 50% of my consciousness. I completely lost my vision for a while and only about 10% of my hearing was left. I felt myself giving in to darkness. Thank God, I did not collapse. I’m really scared of going to the hospital. It took m 15 minutes to get better.

I have no idea what caused it because I made sure I have enough sleep and was not hungry. I was a little bit thirsty, but I experienced being more thirsty before and something like that did not happen. Perhaps I’m not really meant to do something rigid? Would trying out supplements like irvingia weight loss save me the trouble?

I really want to get fit but I don’t want something like that to happen again. It was really scary.

I received a flyer months ago about ITalkBB. It caught my attention because it was stated there that I only have to pay 14.99SGD a month for unlimited calls to the Philippines! I do admit I spend a lot for my long distance calls and I desperately wanted to cut it down. We do have internet connection at home but then it’s quite inconvenient for my family to use that overly slow Pentium III computer. Shaynna talks to me longer when on the phone. If we were to chat, she has to stay right in front of computer and she doesn’t like that.

Two weeks ago, I have finally decided to sign up. I was really lucky to do it recently because they are having a promo: no sign-up fee, free BB Box leasing, and free delivery of the BB Box to the Philippines! Without the promo, I would have paid 20SGD for signing up and 15SGD for delivery.

Last Saturday, my family received the BB Box, I played the role of a CSR guiding them how to set it up, and now, I no longer make long distance calls home! VoIP makes it possible for my home in the Philippines to have a Singapore number. Only S$0.019 is charged for calls from that phone to any number here in Singapore.

Because it is so convenient, Shaynna is the one making the calls now. Thank you, VoIP!