Monthly Archives: September 2012

Do You See What I See?

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We brought Adam to a paediatric opthamologist at Gleneagles last Tuesday because he tends to look a little bit squinty sometimes and we wanted to see if there was anything serious that we had to worry about.

Shortly after we got to the clinic at our appointed time, an optometrist carried out some tests on Adam. The colourful, noisy toys behind the glass display at one end of the room really got his attention and the tests were conducted quite smoothly.

She also asked some questions to see if there was any family history of vision problems. Well, all I can say is I have perfect eyesight so if there’s any problem, it comes from Adrian!

what do you see?

After a short wait, we saw the opthamologist in her consultation room and she conducted some similar tests on Adam as well. She then gave an initial diagnosis and explained to us what it meant but added that some further tests had to be carried out before she could confirm the results.

We went out to the waiting room and Adam was given eye drops in both eyes. This was repeated another two times over 15 mins then we had to wait half an hour for his pupils to dilate before seeing the doctor again. He was very cool about getting the eye drops and didn’t fuss. There were two older girls there and they were both screaming like banshees!

my good little boy

The opthamologist did a few more tests when we went in for the second time and confirmed that Adam has pseudostrabismus which basically means that his eyes look crossed because of an extra skin fold in the inner corners of the eye but are actually straight. As he grows and his face changes and his nose bridge becomes less wide and flat, the eyes will straighten out too.

We were very happy with the diagnosis and relieved that he doesn’t have to wear glasses or an eye patch. The entire process took us less than 2 hours (and half an hour of that was waiting for the eye drops to take effect) which is pretty good considering our experience with other specialists. The cost of the consultation was also very reasonable and the peace of mind that we got was priceless.

Crayon Rolls from The Lil’ Roar Store

18 Grams of Love

U Family Blog Champion

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We are now a U Family Blog Champion!

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Mama Looking For Her Cat by Paper Monkey Theatre

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Went to watch Kuo Pao Kun’s Mama Looking For Her Cat performed by Paper Monkey Theatre at the National Museum Gallery Theatre yesterday afternoon.

The programme came with instructions on how to fold it into an origami cat and that was quite useful when I was feeling fidgety before the show which started about 15 minutes late.

There were a few young kids in the audience and I thought that was rather strange because some parts of the performance were definitely not kid-friendly. But to their credit, the kids were very well-behaved and I was mainly distracted by one of the mothers seated next to me who was translating the Hokkien dialogue and whispering it to her daughter.

Even though it’s been 24 years since the play was written, the issues are still extremely relevant today and the performance was emotionally intense. I was particularly drawn in by the scenes of mother-child relationships that were performed as a game by Mama’s children. I could definitely relate to the scene where one of the children tried to sneak off for church on a Sunday morning and ended up in a religious debate with her Buddhist mother.

Some other scenes made me feel guilty about how I’ve been getting irritated with my grandmother very easily these days. Mama’s isolation was very real and her despair in the closing scene was discomfiting indeed. I haven’t had the chance to watch any other productions of Mama Looking For Her Cat but I have to say that Paper Monkey Theatre’s version was pretty good.

Mid-Autumn Festival by the River

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We went down to Singapore River last Sunday to look at lanterns and soak in the atmosphere. There were lanterns in the shape of the 12 Zodiac animals and floats depicting the various Chinese festivals.

We walked down by the river and across the bridge and back again. My folks continued on to Hong Lim Park where there were more performances and entries from a creative lantern-making competition.

ready with her Mr Bean lantern

lantern float of Lunar New Year

the first Zodiac animal: the Rat

Anya the Ox

Dumpling Festival

Qi Xi Festival or Chinese Valentine’s Day

three Goats

food stalls

old-fashioned Bird’s Nest drink

retro horse-racing game stall

Simon waiting to see how strong he is

Mid-Autumn lantern display across the bridge

Hungry Ghost Festival

Winter Solstice

why does that snake have hands??

strange-looking Dragon

the rabbits

Mid-Autumn Festival by the River is on until 30 September.

DUCKtours

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Anya had been trying to get us to bring her on a DUCKtour for the longest time so we finally pretended to be tourists and went on a little excursion on Sunday.

We sat right at the back of the remodeled WWII amphibious Vietnamese war craft and made a 1-hour trip around various landmarks and the civic district.

It was great to see the way Anya’s face lit up when our DUCK went into the water. It was a slightly hazy day but we had a good time and it was interesting to see the familiar landmarks from a different perspective.