First Flight

We have been waiting and waiting all holiday and the day was finally here.  For the children, it was the first time they were traveling in airplane.  For me, it would be the first time in ... 10 years?

SW could not fall asleep the night before, and complained why we could not go earlier, why the sky was not bright yet, and at the airport, about why we had to wait more than an hour after check-in and why the plane took so long to take flight.

Do not be mistaken, there was hardly any queue at check-in.  I suppose that was because we reached the airport early.  Firefly is considered expensive compared to other budget airline. So there were fewer passengers while the rest of the queues were from Tiger Airways.  It is priced so most likely because it is the only airline that flies to Ipoh directly from Singapore.  Per ticket costed around S$138 per one-way ticket, RM232.  You can fly to Kuala Lumpur at half that rate by Tiger Airways or AirAsia, depending on the period you are flying, and whether there were promotions.

We took Firefly from Singapore to Ipoh in order to avoid the long hours of traveling by coach to Cameron Highlands (9 - 10 hours).  I had booked my flight tickets via the Fireflyz website about 3 weeks ago, and was also able to reserve my own seats.  I chosed seats away from the wings, not realizing I ended up right next to the propeller instead (sweat and pray).

The children were not that inquisitive about what there was on the plane until I showed them how to pull down the window shield.  Instinctively, they started playing and trying to figure out what other 'gadgets' there were, rather to my regret.  It was a small airplane, pretty full, and the last thing I wanted to was to draw attention to ourselves turning ourselves into pests.

I sat with CH, and behind us were Mom and SW while HM sat across the aisle beside Mom.  I had planned to sit where SW and Mom were sitting but I got up the plane first and there was hardly any space on the aisle for me and my luggage to move back, so we stayed put.  Good thing we are small-framed...there was little leg room for the bigger Europeans.  Beware of carrying bulky hand-carry too, as the cabin space above our heads is limited.  Mom had to shove hers under my seat, thus limiting her own leg-room.

CH and SW each had a window seat, to their delight.  When I took my own first flight at 12 years old, I fought with sis and bro over one window seat and I won, with Sis sitting next to me, and Bro, then 5, stuck in between both our parents, sulking.  Poor Bro.  He refused to take any photos and covered his teary face with the flight cushion.

CH was beaming all the way, sitting next to me.  She loved looking down at the clouds and the land below.  She asked Mom for paper and pen to record her experience.

I was surprised they served inflight refreshments on an one-hour flight.  Choice of peanuts or muffin, juice, coffee or tea. There were 2 stewardesses on board (SW asked me who they were), and I have no complains over their services.  The toilet - it's clean, but I cannot imagine how the bigger Europeans can use it without closing the door - oh I forget...men stand.

We rushed to get up the plane, but on getting off, I remembered to snap a picture of the Firefly.

In this picture, you can see the hills of Ipoh in the background.

Learning Music

Music lessons can be costly.  It is a long-term commitment, and I hesitate for the longest time to enroll my children in any of them.  

SW, seven, has picked up the violin when he entered Primary school this year.  They are weekly lessons conducted in groups, taught by an outsourced music teacher.  SW is fond of the teacher, Mr. Quek. The course fees at SGD105 per 10 lessons works well on my purse string.

We had never planned for SW to learn the violin.  SW wanted to learn to play the trumpet but his school only offered brass band as CCA for Primary 3s onwards.  For him to have a head start in music, I suggested the violin and he was keen.  Since then, he had been learning nearly a new song each week.  Here is a recording that I made of his playing recently.

Audio recording of SW playing violin: Go Tell Aunt Rhody

The greatest challenge in learning music - or every other thing, I suppose - is regularity of practice.  For a young child learning music, parental involvement is crucial.  Over the last few months, I have been diligent, negligent, encouraging, demoralizing, patient, touchy, in short, not exactly proud of myself.  But from these experiences, I have learnt that I have to sit with him and give him 100% of my attention when he practices.  It makes a whole world of difference whether he has an attentive audience.   For instance, it is different when I just yell out to him to 'get to practice' when I am still doing my laundry or trying to round up an email.  The attitude I received in return was sluggishness. 

My husband is a believer of Nature.  "If you need to push him to practice all the time, you might as well give it up!"  There is much truth in this because after a while, you realize you spend more effort trying to get your child to practice.  You start taking on the role of an authoritative and pushy parent and it makes you feel absolutely lousy, and you feel like giving up.

But of course, we must identify the cause of the sluggishness.  That was when I realized it was I who has forgotten the importance of being focused.  Once I got my child to focus on the instrument, and encouraging playing his best, then I spend less time trying to 'push' him to practice.   At this stage, I really have no idea how long it will take for him to cultivate the internal drive to pick up the instrument to practice everyday.  I could only take one step at a time.

My 5 year-old daughter, CH, is interested to play the keyboard.  Like in the case of my son, I did not jump straight into giving her formal piano lessons.  I have a Kurtzweil keyboard which I bought about 20 years ago with the first 3 months of salary from my first permanent job.  CH likes to play around with it, so I decided to try teaching her on my own.  

I recall attempting to teach her when she was 3 and 4, but they were flops.  She had refused to watch me demonstrate to her and insisted on playing in a haphazard way.  It was taking me too much efforts to coach her, so I let it go.  Now that she is 5, she seems more ready to listen and learn.  Perhaps she has realized she wasn't going anywhere on her own!

From the internet, I found PIANO BY NUMBERS.  I was tempted to take up the program, but decided to try using my own number notations to teach her instead.  In my younger days,  I used numbered scores to play some Chinese pop music.  Chinese instruments like the Er Hu also uses similar key notations, which is using numbers 1 to 7 to represent the notes C to B.  It was with this method of numbered key notations that I kicked start CH's home music lessons.

From there, CH learned to play some familiar nursery songs using her right hand: 

After about a month or two, CH was able to play Twinkle Twinkle Little Stars, Jingle Bells and 2 other Chinese folk songs (客人来，火车快飞) with her right hand.   Thereof, we moved on to these books which I bought from Yamaha Music School:

I picked this series upon my sister's recommendation as they are suitable for young beginners.  There are colorful pictures and child-friendly layouts with fun-filled activities.  With basic background in music, I was able to set her off in picking up the keyboard.  As to how far we will go with this, and for how long, again, we will take one step at a time!  

Kids!!

I try to keep a record of the funny things SW tells me.

"Jonathan cried in school twice today," said SW. Jonathan is the most popular boy in his class.

"What happened?"

"It's YH's birthday today, and teacher said he is the king today."

"Oh, I see. Jonathan enjoys being king, eh? So why did he cry the second time?"

"Teacher said that a second time!"

__________

"I told teacher that last time Victoria said she wanted to marry me, now she doesn't want to marry me."

"Ah-huh, so what did your teacher say?"

"She said, "Why you bother?"!"

From around 5 to 6 years old, SW blushes when he sees girls showing flesh.

"Yeee, look at this girl," SW commented, pointing to an animated cartoon character in bustier.

"Do you think girls look nice wearing that?" I asked out of curiosity.

"No." He shook his head.

"Why do you think they wear them?"

He thought for a while and replied, "Because there is a hole in their shirt?"

__________

"Look at this girl, she's botak(bald)", SW commented, pointing to Ventress in his Star Wars The Clone Wars book.

"Why is she botak?"

"She has given her hair to Count Dooku! Hahaha!"

"????"

__________

I wish I had taken more notes of what the kids say.

Little Notes of Memory

My little notes of memory - they're pathetic!

About a year after SW was born, I started taking little notes to remind myself of his special moments. They are quick notes that I can make any day and any time on any piece of paper, and just pop it into any containers.

5 years later, the glass that I had used to contain the notes are less than half-filled. It had been a mistake on my part to collect them in a fragile container (as I had to keep it away) and in a closed bookshelf. It was a sheer out-of-sight, out-of mind!

I've decided to discard the notes and jot them in my blog since now that I have transfered my little notes of memory here.

Here are the notes in non-chronological order:

6-Sep-2005:

SW pretended the remote control was the phone.

23-Jun-2005:

SW spoke his first sentence in English today,"Ma ma, I see a truck!"

26-Jun-2005:

Last week, SW pointed to the crab in his colouring book and said "Crab". He paused for a moment and continued, "mum-mum" (as in yum yum!) Then, he pointed to an umbrella in the same book and started singing, "雨伞， 雨伞， 亮晶晶”！

02-Dec-2005

SW said a complete sentence in Chinese today, pointing to his tricycle, "妈妈， 你陪我踏”！

22-Aug-2005

SW loves to cuddle his Charity Bear to sleep and carries it with him around the house too. It's his favourite friend!

(And to know he's still so fond of it now at age 6!)

28-Sep-2005:

SW said, “妹妹” for the first time today upon seeing the new born Lee Ang (cousin).

06-Sep-2005:

SW laughs every time I say the word "Avocado". I'd exaggerate it sometimes and he loves it. Didn't want me to stop. He tried to utter the word, but came nothing close!

09-09-2005:

Dad said SW showed signs of jealousy when he carried Lee Jiah (cousin). SW scrambled into Dad's arms to be carried too!

On hindsight, if I had kept up with the habit of popping in bits of notes more regularly, it might have turned into a priceless gift to my child one day. It's those little things you'd miss in videos and pictures, yet similarly meaningful to both mother and child...