Message from Ryan

I was going through my old photos when I chanced upon this. I remember being amused by it and decided to snap a photo as a rememberance. This was back in 2008 and today is 2011. No much changes. Ryan was crazy about Pokemon then and he is still crazy about Pokemon now.

Photo of me and the kids

I seldom take photos with my kids. Most of their pictures are individual shots and there are also very few pictures of them together. Will remember and make it a point to take more group photos. As you can see, Caitlin is growing up fast. She's no longer baby faced and Ryan....he's still 21 kg and slightly taller.

Mother and Daughter Bonding

These photos were taken last year, right after Caitlin's first hair cut. Notice how short her hair. Well, it has not grown much since then. We were out running errands while Caitlin managed to convince me to let her play for a while in the playground. She loves playground.

Hoppy New Year

Wishing everyone a happy new year and may the year of the Rabbit bring us abundance of happiness, health and wealth.

The kids are enjoying themselves silly. I have been enjoying the food and cookies. Yummy, yummy.........

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Uninvited Guests

I did not intend to blog about this awful experience but on the hindsight, life is made up of not only good experiences but bad ones as well. We just need to learn from the bad experiences (what's the takeaway? and what I would do the next time etc) and move on from there.

So here goes.....Sometime in December 2010, a snake decided to pay us a visit. Hubby saw it in the early morning when he was getting his breakfast ready. It was on the kitchen top, behind the dish drainer and was trying to move upward. Hubby decided to look for something to help him to remove it from the house and viola the snake disappeared from his sight. He could not find it thereafter. He then decided to wake me up. And how did I take the news? BADLY.

It took me sometime to realise what he was trying to tell me.... a snake in the house?? where did it come from?? a snake in the house but had gone to hiding??? What???. I immediately think of the kids. I also did not want to go downstairs and it took hubby sometime to coax me to go down. I remember feeling scared, helpless and angry. I am terrified of snakes irregardless of the size.

After searching for 5 minutes, we still cannot find it and I had hubby called the security guard in as he wanted to leave for work. Me and the security guard continued with the search but proved to be fruitless. After 15 minutes, the guard wanted to go back and asked me to call him once I manage to find it. I was scared stiff but I had no choice but to let him go. I finally spotted it, coiling up neatly against the wall, when I removed one of the items for cleaning. And boy did I screamed!!!

I called the security guard in again and then ran upstairs and observed everything from there. I needed to be as far away as possible. The guard killed and took it away. All this while, the kids were with my aunt in the room amidst Caitlin's protest as she wanted to be part of the hunt. And as a result, we got in people to clear our garden as well as the slope behind our house. Now, you would think that's the end of the story right? Well, not quite.

A few days ago, Uma, my neighbour informed me that her neighbour next door spotted another baby snake in the garden. I later found out that her neighbour had actually killed that baby snake as it went into the house, right to the stairway. Not wanting a repeat of the bad incident, we immediately closed the gap to the kitchen as we figured that was how the snake manage to get into the house. I must say that we did a good job as shown in the picture. We also bought extra sulphur to sprinkle around the house . That was on Sunday (30 Jan 2011).

The next night, hubby came home late and had dinner alone. Feeling cold, as it had been raining non-stop the previous day, he closed the glass sliding door, leaving only a small gap of about 6 inches for ventilation. Around 10.30pm, I was getting ready for bed and I closed the sliding door. Somehow, it cannot close properly. We have been talking about snakes and yes, snakes has been at the back of my mind all this while. I had even contacted the security representative earlier that day to lodge an official complaint. So when the sliding door could not close, my first thought was "could it be because a snake is stuck there?" I immediately dismissed that thought because it would be absurd!! What's the chance of it happening? Anyway, I pushed the sliding doors back slightly before trying to shut it again and yet, it could not close properly. I then glazed downward, trying to look for the source of my problem and that is when I saw the snake moving its head upwards. I did not expect that though I did thought of it in the first place. I screamed and jumped up the table. I was not sure whether the snake was stuck or free to move. Hubby came to the rescue and I also called in the security guards (again!) to help.

I was in tears because I was scared, though not as frightened as the first time. Then, I became angry. Angry because this is not the first time I had to endure this snake episode. How many more? and why my house for the second time? In the midst of this, I also felt grateful for doing something about the gap to the kitchen a day earlier. Who knows the snake might have gone into the house again and that would be terrible. I went through different emotions. Whatever it is, everyone I talked to arrive at the same conclusion....there's a nest somewhere and it's near my backyard!!

As I said before, there are lessons to be learned from this experience and this are what I have come up:

1. If you are frightened, think of ways which can help you to minimise your fear.
   By gap-proofing the house, I feel safer when I need to be in the kitchen. Therefore, doing something is always, always better than just talking and doing nothing.
   
2. I have to acknowledge my fear and then move on. I was surprised that I "recover" from the second incident much faster than the first. Don't want to think if there's ever a third? Pray not. Fear, if not properly managed can stunt a person's growth and potential. The phrase paralysed by fear has a new meaning for me.
   
3. Bad experiences are part and parcel of life and we just have to accept, learn and move on.

And I will move on.

The Verdict: All Went Well

Bosses were in a good mood and that's a plus :)
I was not too bad ...... but there's definitely room for improvement. Something which I can work on. I also notice that I don't stick to my script/lines and there's no such thing as overly prepared!!
Guess those are my takeaways :)
Am just glad that it's ALL OVER..

The One Thing I Hate

I hate public speaking.

I can be loud and I'm loud, most of the time...... but deep down, I am really an introvert and extremely shy. Honest. But whenever I reveal this to any of my friends, none of them believe me!!!. They do not see it as a problem as they know I can pull it off. But how I loath doing it as well as the risk of looking stupid for saying the wrong things ..... Am I making sense here?? !!!!

So I usually go to the extreme to avoid public speaking. However, for the past few years, I have been forced to do public speaking on a few occasions. While I may look alright, I was melting and dying inside of me. I am fine to conduct meeting though but no public speaking.

However, tomorrow, I will need to do a 5-minute presentation to my bosses. All I have to do is to explain that 1 slide......1 miserable slide which I have staring for the past 2 days making corrections after corrections, adjusting the fonts size and God knows what else. Most people will find this a breeze but why am I so nervous?

Since the presentation is 18.5 hours away and I have a co-presenter, there's nothing to worry about and it's also way too early to panic. But I am starting to feel butterflies in my tummy.

I read somewhere that it's a good sign. Hm....I think I better go and work on that 1 slide again.....I think it need a teeny weeny adjustment somewhere. Once done, I will stare at it again and when the presentation is over, I can even reproduce that 1 slide in my sleep.

I will definitely post the outcome of the presentation tomorrow and fingers-crossed. All will be well.