Site Start

After months of planning and hours spent pouring over our house plans again and again, we finally moved out of paperwork stage and officially went into "site start" on 17 May. This is the stage when construction of the house actually begins and all the plans on paper are put into action. And it started at an amazing speed.

Last Monday when Hubby went past the site, it was still mud with some pipes sticking out here and there. On Wednesday when I went over, I was surprised to see half a dozen people working on my land. The base of the house was already formed and being filled with waffle pods. On Thursday, the concrete was poured and the slab was officially completed. By the end of the work week, the timber frame of the house was constructed. I could now clearly make out all the rooms in the house and have an idea of the actual size of the spaces. Amazing!

It sure looked pretty easy to construct a house. The timber frames were all pre-fabricated and all the tradies have to do is to fix them together with a nail gun. It took 3 guys to put up the house frame (minus the roof) within a day. We were hoping they could put up the roof as well on the same day but given the size of our house and the number of guys allocated to the job, it didn't happen.

The reason why we wanted them to put up the frame faster was because we were paying for the generator hire. It was the result of an unfair clause in the contract which 90% of people are caught in. I hope people who are building their homes here will take note of this clause that stated "If there are any delays in Clients 'Connection and Supply of Power' to site by Local Power Authority, Simonds Homes may provide 'temporary power supply/generator hire' for construction purposes as required and charge the Client accordingly for any additional costs."

Simonds is supposed to pay for the electrical usage during the construction and they are supposed to set the electrical meter up for the house. The Local Power Authority need about 10 days to connect the power after the meter is ready. However, Simonds only set the meter up this week when the concrete slab is built, reason being they want to prevent its exposure to theft of its fuse and copper wires. Therefore when they need the power 3 days later to do the timber frame, 90% of the time the power supply is not connected yet. And clients now have to make a choice of paying for the generator hire or delay their project for up to 3 weeks. We didn't think there was much of a choice as we didn't want to delay the construction. Even though we felt it was unfair as Simonds should set up the meter box earlier so that power can be ready when they need it, we can't argue for Simonds to pay since it was explicitly stated in the contract. We really didn't expect to be caught by this 'Note Only' clause. We did not have the experience to realise that the connection of power would have a time lapse and it was not within our control when Simonds set up the meter. These are Simonds' responsibility but the clients have to pay the price for any delays. Does it make sense? Simonds should just be upfront to clients about this 'almost confirmed' out of pocket cost or make better processes to ensure that power will be available on site when needed. Until this is done, potential clients, if possible, negotiate for this clause to be removed during contract negotiation.

   

Testing 123

In Victoria, children in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 undertake the National Assessment Program - Literacy And Numeracy (NAPLAN) tests. KK is in Year 3 this year and underwent his first NAPLAN test last week.

Unlike his Primary 3 peers in Singapore, who are probably experienced exam warriors by now, KK is still an 'exam virgin'. And so are we as parents. We have never experienced the stress or anxiety of preparing our son for testing, except for that one time during his Tae Kwon Do yellow belt grading. Even though NAPLAN is the only national test conducted once a year across the state over 3 days, the entire event has little impact on daily lives.

We know that since the beginning of the year, the teacher started giving the children more homework. But it was only from the 2nd term on that they really started to prepare them for NAPLAN. All this while, the only advice given to parents was a memo on our role in our children's education in ensuring they do their home learning (home work). I thought that would have been a basic assumption but apparently here, the parents need reminding. Anyway, there was really not much that we could do to prepare for NAPLAN as there are no textbooks to revise or study. It is explicitly mentioned that "The use of services by coaching provders is not recommended".


Please don't get me wrong. I'm not complaining because I prefer it this way. I'm glad there is no pressure on us parents to ensure our children do well in the tests. The common understanding here is that the NAPLAN is to test how well the school has taught the children and whether they are meeting important educational outcomes in literacy and numeracy. There is no pass or fail and no ranking, the results simply shows the school's average score and your child's final result is reflected in terms of bands (1 - 6). In other words, there are no adverse consequences other than you and the school knowing where your child stands in terms of his literacy and numeracy ability. 

Despite this, we are not taking the NAPLAN lightly. On our own, we bought two NAPLAN assessment books for KK to practise and we made him work diligently on completing the mini and sample tests the weeks before his NAPLAN. These little exercises gave us an idea of his strengths and weaknesses and enabled us to coach him on areas that he's not good at. His biggest problems were carelessness, bad handwriting and not planning his points for essay writing.  

Our behaviour might sound kiasu by Australian standards but more important than getting good results, we really want to take this chance to instil in KK the mindset of giving his best performance in every test and the importance of pursuing excellence in everything he do. He is still young and may not understand the value of a good acadamic foundation but I believe he can sense the emphasis his parents place on education and how serious we are that he adopts a good attitude to learning. We also believed it's time for him to start to learn how to take a little pressure as all these while his school life has been pretty much carefree. Initially he was resentful he had to do extra homework and learn Chinese on Saturdays when other kids doesn't. But now, he's starting to accept homework and Chinese classes as part of his lifestyle and be responsible for completing his work before they are due. 

The nights before his tests, we ensured that we do not upset KK over school work and give him undue stress. He still went for his Tae Kwon Do lesson on Tuesday evening and had his standard dose of relaxation activities. We made sure he slept early and had enough time to take sufficient breakfast before school. Perhaps as parents, that's the best support we can give them as once inside the testing room, it's all up to them.

The Hard Truth About Scones

There are many things that I learnt from books, amongst them baking and quilting. I made my first attempt at quilting after just reading a few quilting books & magazines from the library. Very often, I bravely tried baking cakes and bread just by following the instructions from recipes. Most times I succeeded but sometimes I failed.

The fact is, there are many things in life that are not taught in the books. We have to learn them through experience, gained either from our own mistakes or through someone else's experience. Here's the lesson I learnt from scones.

I loved scones with whipped cream and strawberry jam. One night, XX's kindergarten organised a Mother's Night and at the end of the session, the teachers brought out some scones (supposedly made by the children earlier in the day) as a treat. They were scrummy! I chanced upon the recipe and it was amazingly simple (or so I thought). There were only 3 ingredients: Flour, lemonade and cream. I decided to make some scones of my own and invited some friends and their kids/mums over for high tea. 

I spent the whole morning but the first batch of scones failed miserably. They were hard as stones. What went wrong? I measured the ingredients accurately and added the lemonade and cream to the flour accordingly but the dough was so sticky. How do I roll it out and cut out a round shape if it keeps sticking to my fingers? I started to add more and more flour to the mixture thinking perhaps I didn't use enough. Big mistake. It does not get less sticky at all. I then recalled that many years ago, I spent a long time trying to make scones too and I had the same problem - sticky dough that clings to your fingers as you tried to knead it. Something was wrong and after all these years, I still didn't know what. 

Luckily, thanks to the World Wide Web, I don't need to go very far or wait very long to get help. Thanks to Youtube, I need not pay for a crash course on how to make fluffy lemonade scones. Watching this video helped me so much. I finally knew where my mistake was.

   

See, recipes don't tell you to use a knife instead of a spoon to mix the dough. They don't mention that you can pour the dough out when it looks like a batter. They don't describe how you simply sift lots of flour over the whole lump and then pat pat pat press press press turn it over shape shape shape into a slab. Press your cookie cutter in and voila, here comes one scone. If a picture speaks a thousand words, a video speaks millons.

After watching the video, I was encouraged to make a second attempt. It only took me a few minutes to combine the three ingredients and cut out 13 scones. How easy it was and I would have never known!  

The end result. Fluffy and soft scones. Thank you unknown Cantonese lady from Hong Kong:)



Devonshire Tea for breakfast


Hmm, wonder if there are any videos on Youtube on how to bring up good children?

Mother's Election Hangover Day

It's Mother's Day and I'm having a hangover from too much partying during the last nine days. 

 

Not the normal partying but from an over consumption of political parties and rallies during Singapore's General Election. Even though we are miles away from our home country and two hours ahead, the election fever is burning hot here despite the cooling Melbourne temperatures. At our Mother's Day dinner, currently into its 2nd year, for the Singapore Mothers in Melbourne group, names like Chiam See Tong, Nicole Seah and Wong Kan Seng peppered our conversations as we dipped sashimi in soya sauce and munched Peking Duck. Pity there weren't any Bak Chor Mee or Teo Chew Porridge at the China Bar Signature Asian Buffet restaurant.



A Party of Mothers



Not that we can do anything to make a difference, as making a trip to Canberra to fulfil our national duty at our own expense is too costly, however many of us still felt a close connection to what is going to happen back home. It's ironical but I've never felt so close and interested in Singapore's political scene before I left. Maybe it was because we didn't have such good opposition candidates before. And now, thanks to the internet and social media, we watch rally speeches on Youtube every night and read news reports about the candidates from different parties on different websites, mainstream or otherwise. All of us knew this election was going to be different from the previous and were eagerly waiting for the results to filter in.



XX's Gift



Unfortunately, by the time the first results got announced, it was already 2am Melbourne time. My eyelids started to feel the pull of gravity as I tried to focus them on the tiny square box live streaming the election news on www.ge.sg. By then, there were a few unconfirmed reports that Hougang and Aljunied GRC has been won by WP. I tried to share the news with Hubby when he moved from his slumber but I'm not sure he heard me. I decided not to resist the z-monster anymore.

By the time I woke up at 9.30am the next morning, everything was over. PAP had formed the government and Lee Hsien Loong had held his press conference while I was in slumberland. It appeared that I did not miss much.I wondered if life will be the same again for people back in Singapore. Here, our Sunday progressed quietly. After checking up on the counts and margin, I went back to bed again after breakfast for a nap. And that's how half of Mother's Day was spent, tucked under the quilt, drowsily, feeling like age has definitely caught up on me. I can't even stay up late without feeling the after effects.

The sweetest thing for this year's Mother's Day came on Friday when XX brought home a handmade gift from kinder. The teacher had organised for them to decorate a glass bottle with colourful paper and glitter glue and turned it into a beautiful candle holder. There was also a small pouch of pot purri packed in a nice purple gift bag. I'll never forget XX's sweet face when he presented it to me. My first Mother's Day present from XX. Not to be outdone, KK immediately drew a drawing of 4 stickman (our family) with the words "Happy Mother's Day" on a piece of paper and presented it to me. I guess that counts as a Mother's Day card from him?



KK's card



I had originally planned to take my mom out for dinner to celebrate but due to the upcoming NAPLAN tests for KK next week, we felt it was better to postpone the dinner to the end of the week, after his tests. Instead, after sleeping off the 'politcal parties' hangover, I regained enough energy to make my mom's favourite cream puffs as dessert.