2010 so far

Not meaning to sound like a broken record, time REALLY flies. It’s been over three months since my last post and since then many events have transpired. Christmas came and went, the Lunar New Year came and went.

Vel finally went to P1 in January. She was probably more excited about it than we were, polishing her shoes the weekend before and waking up in time to gulp down some soft boiled eggs and her mandatory glass of warm milk. Being the typical kiasu parents, we tailed the school bus in our car to make sure she got to school just fine.

Career wise, my job still wasn’t getting anywhere. So in January, I decided to go back to what I loved doing best – teaching (albeit privately). The Lord has been good and opened many doors for me; I am now a Speech and Drama trainer by day and a full time tutor by night (or more specifically late afternoon). On hindsight, I should have thought of this sooner rather than hopping from one dead end job to another for the past year or so. I now have more free time on my hands that allows me to dabble in other endeavours, less sleepless nights and about the same amount of money (without the fringe benefits like annual leave of course).

Penny and I have also embarked on a new business venture that is somewhat related to the previous post about the prophecy that was given to me. We didn’t really plan for it, but one thing led to another and before we knew it we were opening a bank account for our business. Things are still a little misty now while we work on a few prospects, but so far the Lord has been good and blessed us with many open doors to ‘test water’. Nothing concrete thus far, but I believe that God has something in store for us when the timing is right.

It has been a rocky first quarter of 2010. We’ve had ups and downs but we will persevere. I believe that this year will be a year of breakthrough for us.

Vel's P1 orientation at St Margaret's

There are several monumental moments in a parent's life with the Primary 1 orientation being one of them. It marks a new chapter of your child's life journey as she leaves the laidback kindergarten life behind and heralds the begnning of what I term as the 'stressful years' - homework, tests, assesment papers, exams, more homework, more tests, more assesment papers, more exams and, of course, CCAs.

Fearful of the parking, we arrived at the school quite early, only to find that parking was STILL a problem. Tired of driving in circles around Mt. Sophia, I finally decided to leave the car just a few metres from the main gate (blatantly ignoring the double yellow lines since there were already cars parked there). Penny and Velouria were nowhere to be found and I realised that they were with the uniform vendor. It was a quite a hilarious exercise just watching Vel try on her soon-to-be school uniform and PT attires. Despite putting on the smallest size available, it still looked too big for her. I'm sure I will look back on this day with fond memories when she finally outgrows her current uniform.

On the way to the school hall, we even bought a teddy bear in St. Margaret's garb to support some parent volunteers who were raising funds for needy students. As we were ushered into our seats, the girls were all seated in the front on the hall seperated from their parents. Velouria, as usual, was more than enthusiastic to mingle with her new friends. The girls were later ushered out of the hall to be taken care of by 'big sisters' while the parents remained to sit through the orientation programme with usual - speech from the principal, familiarisation with the school's facilities and various programmes, etc.

When it ended an hour later, all the parents burst out of the hall and began to visit the various vendors to do the necessary. Me, I took a stroll in the rain to Parklane to withdraw cash to pay for the schoool bus, books, etc after the uniforms burned away most of the money I had on me (who knew that the vendors only took cash, whatever happened to those mobile NETS machines?? Sheesh!!).

We ended our afternoon with a little snack at the canteen and chatting with a parent of one of Vel's future classmate. Only one thing to say - so exciting!

Balloting @ St. Margaret's

Ten harrowing days. That’s how long it was from the time we registered to the day of balloting at St. Margaret’s. We trusted that the Lord would place Velouria there but the thought of 78 people vying for 73 places was still enough to place a fragment of doubt in your heart (having two sets of twins in the list of names didn’t help ease matters much either).

So there we were at 7.45 a.m. (Penny was sure that the balloting started at 8 a.m.) thinking we could chill out somewhere and have a coffee. The canteen was out of bounds so we headed straight to the school hall and counted every single minute to 8.30 a.m., when the balloting would begin.

As the seconds ticked on, more parents started streaming in. We were quite pleased with the fact the chaplain of the school opened the session in prayer at 8.30 a.m. on the dot, then off we went as the principal presented the ballot slips to the audience (via those old school projectors – they still have some use after all!) one by one before placing them into the box.

When the balloting began, the atmosphere was so tense that you would imagine someone getting thrown out if he so much as let out a fart. God spared us further torment as Velouria’s name was called out quite soon (didn’t keep count but reckoned it was within the first twenty). We were so relieved, but yet at the same time still felt quite tense for those parents whose daughters’ names had not been called yet.

But in the end, we all knew there had to be five who were not able to get in. Again, the chaplain closed the session in prayer and asked for God to guide those five girls and their respective parents. Praise the Lord! This is exactly the kind of environment we wanted for Velouria.