Progress of Xiao Xiao 4

It was another trip to Thomson's Medical Centre, but it was another type of scan this time round - the Second Trimester Fetal Anomaly (FA) Scan. It was also the scan which will inform us the gender of the baby, though there were stories that undermined the accuracy of the scan. As Wendy had earlier told us that the baby was most likely to be a girl, we were rather nonchalant when the nurse confirmed it for us.

The pictures turned out to be quite clear and had the frontal picture of our baby's face, though our first impression was that she really looked like an alien, much to our amusement and creepiness. I guess we had been watching too many movies.

Top left: her alien face, the two grey circles are the eye sockets
Top right: her left and right feet
Bottom left: her side view, her eye can be clearly seen
Bottom right: her alien face again =)

It was good to see Xiao Xiao growing well. Till our next visit to Wendy's.

ParaNorman

We decided to see this movie after reading quite a number of good reviews about it.

The show started off with a boy, named Norman sitting in the living room watching tv with his grandmother, only to be revealed later that the grandmother was actually not alive. It then progressed to highlight how Norman was able to see other deceased lifeforms and how the townpeople and his peers viewed and treated him in a negative way. I guess young kids were cruel in that way and it was easy to identify with that. Yet the innocence and acceptance of differences in young kids was also protrayed in that Norman managed to find a friend in another boy who was deemed weird and bullied by the schoolmates, namely because he was plump.

The story then developed with Norman's uncle, also able to see dead people, informing Norman of the witch's curse and that Norman will be required to take up the duty of ensuring that the witch does not revive the dead by reading a story at the witch's grave. The dead were actually people in the past who had prosecuted and resulted in her execution. It was also revealed that the ghosts were around because they had wishes that were unfulfiled. Comically, the uncle passed away soon after, leaving the reluctant Norman on his quest to stop the witch's curse.

Unfortunately, Norman did not manage to read the story in time and the seven zombies were revived. He was to find out later that he read the story at the wrong place. As such, due to the fear the people had of the zombies, the town people were mobilised to "destroy" the zombies, creating mayhem and humourous scenes of limbs flying around, those of the zombies, thus illustrating the ugliness of humans and creating the image that humans were actually more evil than the zombies.

At the same time, Norman was trying to find a solution to reverse the curse and slowly, together with his sister, his friend and his friend's brother, he unravelled the details about the witch's death, only to find out that the witch was actually just a small girl just like himself. He first chastised the seven zombies then the town people for their present actions and seeked to do something different to remove the witch's curse. Risking his life, he related his similar personal experiences with the small girl and invoked her positive memories as well. He managed to convince her to give up her revenge as vengeance was no solution and that it only seeked to make a person more bitter and more miserable, a subtle moral cleverly infused into the story. As such, the witch's curse was lifted and Norman was seen as the town's hero.

Though it was a kid's movie, it had scary parts as befitting of the title and it also had life's lessons weaved into the story plot, which hopefully appealled to the more mature audience and it was something that I liked very much. Thus, this was one of those few movies which I felt lived up to the reviews and I was not disappointed though I had higher expectations of it. My dear liked it as well and it satisfied her appetite for a movie and a break in her hectic mundane work life.

Progress of Xiao Xiao 3

This was our third visit to see Wendy and my dear was highly anticipating the progress and the movements of Xiao Xiao. She was previously disappointed in the OSCAR scan, in that Xiao Xiao was sleeping rather than making movements. Anyway, the OSCAR results are alright and Xiao Xiao appeared to be normal and not very likely to be having any genetic deformities that were tested in the scan.

Well, Xiao Xiao did grow as per normal and Wendy informed us that Xiao Xiao might be a girl, though that was inconclusive at that point in time. That struck a chord with my dear's slight preference for a girl as a first born, but that was not enough to remove her disappointment as Xiao Xiao was not really making any movements. Perhaps Xiao Xiao is noctural just like her mum.

Another picture of Xiao Xiao below, though this time the image was not as sharp as the previous visit.

Top: her organs on the left, head on right and facing up
Bottom: same as top except got fingers

Movie Marathon - Dark Knight Rises and Brave

As a result of work, we had been rather deprived of a movie since end June. We were looking forward to watching two movies: The Amazing Spiderman and Dark Knight Rises. However, by the time we managed to squeeze some time to watch a movie, the former had already stopped showing on the screens. Luckily for us, the latter was still on the big screens.

There had been much hype about the Dark Knight as it was the last of the much anticipated trilogy. The movie started off with the protagonist idling away, wallowing in self pity, as Gotham was free of organised crime ever since the last episode a few years back and there was no need for Batman. However, no city was ever crime-free and the cops were soon chasing some bad guys which eventually led to the apperance of the main bad guy, Bane. The story soon developed into Bane trying to take the city hostage by setting up a nuclear bomb, cutting off the escape routes for the citzens and trapping the cops underground after bombing several key installations.

At the same time, the movie also presented the life of a thief, the female protagonist, who apparently was also in good distant working relationship with Bane as she was the one who caused Batman's back to be broken by Bane. However, Bane kept him alive in a prison to torture him mentally by making him feel that he was helpless in trying to save Gotham. Luckily, the prisoners helped Batman to heal his back by using some godlike skills of pushing the dislocated / broken bones back into his spine and to give him hints as to how to escape for the prison.

Once back in Gotham, Batman embarked on his mission to save the city and managed to enlist the help of the thief as she felt disgusted with the progress of Bane's plan. Batman soon got into a fight with Bane and almost defeated him. However, the twist came when the girl whom Batman was saving turned out to be the ultimate bad guy, the only one who managed to escape from the prison that Batman was in, and stabbed Batman. The thief came in to save the day by blasting Bane away.

However, time was not in the good guys' favour and Batman ultimately sacrificed himself by bringing the nuclear reactor to a faraway place for it to detonate. Meanwhile, the policeman who kept helping Batman throughout the movie was disheartened with the legal system, decided to quit his job and ventured into the bat cave, hinting that he would later become the famous Robin. It was also subtlely indicated that Batman did not really die with the discovery of the fixing of the automated flight program and the sighting of him with a girl by his butler, just like how the butler had wanted him to live, a life of happiness instead of revenge and misery. Never mind how he managed to escape in 10 seconds, but I guess being Batman allowed him to have godlike travelling speed too.

Being the last of the trilogy, the story wrapped up very well with a cliffhanger, but I still felt that it was not as impressive as I expected it to be. Perhaps the depth and awesomeness of the second installation set the bar too high and thus I was slightly disappointed. Nonetheless, it was still enjoyable and soon we got ourselves ready for the next movie.

Brave was a children's movie which depicted the story of a viking lord's daughter who has an unique wild personality. However, she constantly felt restrained by her mother who expected her to be trim and proper and follow the decorum of the clan. The daughter was also expected to marry another viking prince from another clan, who had to defeat all the other viking princes in competitions. The last straw came when the daughter won the arrow shooting competition herself and declared that she would marry herself, much to the disappointment and disgust of the other clans. The mother thought that this was an embarrassment and disgrace to the family and an argument broke out.

The daughter thus resolved to change her mum via a witch's spell but she did not realise that the potion would change her mum into a bear, who was seen as an aggressor to the vikings. It was comical to see later that her triplet brothers would also transformed into bears. Thus, the daughter undertook the task to restore her mum and her brothers. It was only at the last minute, before the father struck with his sword, that the daughter managed to seal the deal by mending the tapestry that was torn during the earlier argument.

This movie was much better in contrast, probably due to the lack of expectations, and it was one of those few movies that illustrates the love and tension between a mother and her daughter. Usually it would be between the father and his daughter instead. I thought the movie was heart-warming and had some values imbued in the story plot, which was brought out quite strongly. As a result, we enjoyed this movie very much.

Progress of Xiao Xiao 2

My dear had been anticipating the arrival of the checkup just to see how Xiao Xiao had progressed. This time, we can actually see the general makeup of a baby: the head, the body and the limbs. In fact, my gynae actually said that the baby was sucking his/her thumb, which was much to my dear's delight, though I am more skeptical and would just take it with a pinch of salt. I was more amazed with the capability of the ultrasound machine as we could even see the size of the baby's brain, which at this moment in time was not occupying the entire skull. For beginners, the head is located at the bottom right, while the legs are at the top left.

Top: baby sucking thumb
Bottom: baby's small brain

My dear then proceeded to Thomson's Medical Centre the next day for the OSCAR scan. My dear was rather upset that I could not be there because of my involvement in my school's National Day celebrations. The name OSCAR actually stands for "One-stop Clinic for Assessment of Risk for Fetal Anomalies" which is something which I cannot really remember. It was mainly done to check for the likelihood of Down's syndrome in the baby, which has a higher probability in older mummies, usually above the age of 35.

The nurse commented that the baby was sleeping and thus not easy to get him/her to move and shift location in order for the nurse to take critical measurements. I guess Xiao Xiao will be another night owl like the mum. Below are some of the scans:

Left: baby small brain again
Right: baby lying on his/her back

Guess it will be till the next visit then we will know the results of the scan. Hope everything will be alright.

Receipt of Wedding Videos and Photos

The delivery of the videos and photos came on time as promised. The cd for the videos were especially well decorated in a nice black casing, nothing less of a professional standard. The cd with the photos came with less grandeur but I was surprised by the canvas frame and its quality as I did not realise that it was in our contract as well. However, my dear was less impressed as a result of the photos chosen for the canvas frame. It would have been perfect if our photographer had asked us for our choice of the photos.

Though that left us some more hundreds poorer, I guess, all in all, it was worth it =) Hmm, I wonder how many times those videos and photos can be recycled for our housewarming before they got stale.

Progress of Xiao Xiao 1

We went back to the gynae for another scan in order to check on the foetus' status. This time round, the thin white line had grown into a bigger ball of cells, which was more visible. The gyane assured us that everything was normal and alright and thus scheduled us to see her again next month.

More updates then.

Xiao Xiao's second scan

Magadascar 3 and Zhizhong's House-warming

My dear had been explicitly expressing her interest in watching this movie over the past few weeks and I had decided to give her a surprise by feigning ignorance about the show. Well, as bright as my dear was and still is, she soon knew prior to the trip that we were going to watch the movie. It was however by chance that the my colleague sold me the tickets for the Youth-phoria held at the Singapore Discovery Centre back in May, in a bid to support my school team in this event. It was a great deal as, in addition to Magadascar 3, we were entitled to watch another show, all for $10. The only drawback was that it was located in the far western part of Singapore.

The show was continued on from the previous instalment where Alex and his friends were stranded in Africa while the penguins had selfishly took the plane to Monte Carlo and enjoying themselves in the riches and glamour. Alex, after having a nightmare of growing old in Africa, decided that he wanted his original life in New York City back and requested the gang to seek the penguins for help to return home. How they managed to reach Monte Carlo on their own was a mind-boggling mystery but that trip resulted in everyone being targeted by a self-egoistic animal control officer, whose mission was to collect animals' head trophies.

While fleeing, Alex and his friends met up with a circus group and after realising that the circus train was the only way back home, Alex lied to them that they were circus animals as well. As such, the penguins expended their resources and bought over the circus from the humans. It was only after a show that Alex's gang realised that the circus was a flop and it was mainly due to the lost confidence of its main star. With that in mind, Alex decided to rejuvenate the circus by convincing them that they themselves can put up a good show. The main star also regained his confidence by using hair conditioner in his hoop squeezing act instead of extra virgin olive oil.

Meanwhile, the animal control officer found out the true identity of Alex, which led to the confession that Alex's gang were not circus animals at all and the temporary splitting of the new circus group. After returning to the zoo, Alex's gang realised that the circus was their new home and they wanted to go back, only to be captured by the animal control officer. However, she did not manage to kill Alex as the zoo thought that she was returning the animals to them, thus she postponed her murder to the day of the thank-you ceremony. By then, the circus animals returned to rescue Alex's gang and the animal control officer and her accomplices were instead captured and placed in wooden crates, similar to how Alex's gang were in the first episode.

It was quite a warm-heartening and hilarious movie, as well as some intellect stimulus from the tactical wits by the penguins. After the two shows and a walk around Singapore Discovery Centre, we later proceeded to Jurong Point for a short walk before going to Zhizhong's housewarming near Jurong East for some more walking.

His EM was spacious and nicely decorated but I guess the stairs lost its appeal on us, thus an EM was never in our consideration during our lookout. Strangely, we were the first group to reach, despite us mentioning that we will be late due to our movie outing. Well, that means no queue for the food for us =) The rest soon came and we were toured around the place. Soon, everyone was enjoying each other's company, time flew like nobody's business, and it was about time to leave for our dinner at home, which ended the short house-warming party.

What a long and eventful day to spend the weekend =)

38... Harry Potter Exhibition and Singapore Flyer

My dear had been a great fan of Harry Potter and hence the trip to the Art Science Museum for this exhibition. My dear had also been pestering me to visit the Singapore Flyer ever since she knew that I went before and she had not. So what better way to celebrate this 38th month anniversary is it than to visit these two places at the same time. That's killing multiple birds with one stone and I shall be a great sniper then =)

It was our second visit to the Museum and the crowd was overwhelming despite it being a weekday, no thanks to the large number of Potter fans in Singapore. I guess all of us have the mentality that weekdays are less crowded and thus everyone decided to avoid the weekends and go on a weekday.

We reached at around 4+ pm and we were informed that no photos can be taken inside the exhibition which I believed should be the same policy for the Titanic exhibition. The first checkpoint was the wearing of the scarfs belonging to the different houses and some photos were snapped there. Proceeding into the gallery, we were presented with the various clothes and artefacts used in the Harry Potter movies, complemented by the bits and pieces of trivia associated with them, and most of which were very familiar to my dear.

Upon reaching the end, which was the souvenir shop, we were greeted with the scene of greed and exorbitant prices. We were disgusted at the organisers' exploitation of the fans' strong sense of belonging to the Harry Potter name, to the point that we left the place without a token of some sort, and yet surprised that so many people were so willing to be fleeced. No wonder prices of things had gone up pretty fast these days.

After the exhibition, we had a small meal before proceeding to the Singapore Flyer. I initially wanted to be on the flyer to experience the transition of the sunset but I forgot that there was an exhibition prior to the ride and we spent quite some time having fun and taking some photos there. The view on the flyer was great, now that Marina Bays Sands was constructed and though the Gardens by the Bay was still in its works, the night view of the city landscape was spectacular. Though it was tiring, I believed my dear enjoyed it very much.

Now, the only problem is the location of those photos. Hmm, I will post them if I find them as they might be lost with the repair of my phone.

The existence of Xiao Xiao

My dear roused me from my slumber very excitedly one morning and in my half consciousness, I thought something was wrong. I quickly ditched my dream, if I can ever remember it, and rushed out with my dear. Then at the kitchen, I saw the object of concern. There it was, lying on the table, was the positive result of the pregnancy kit. I was quite surprised as the test kit showed a negative result previously and I wasn't harbouring any hopes after that.

The double lines within 5 mins for a positive result

As such, the original plans for the day was happily dumped and we quickly booked an appointment with a gynecologist, whose contacts was found hastily from the internet, based primarily on the fact that she was female as my dear felt strongly against male doctors. Guess the only peeve was that the receptionist actually asked my dear whether she wanted to keep the baby. Not very PR indeed. Maybe the doctor had too many clients and wanted to lower the possibility of getting another one.

Anyway, as newbies to this, we totally had no idea what to expect during our first visit, and so we just followed the instructions of the receptionist (not sure if it was the same one) and waited for our turn. Once inside, we (or rather I was) were surprised to see that doctor was pregnant as well. But she was not in any way lesser of doing her job well. Some time later, we saw our xiao xiao in a pictoral form.

Xiao Xiao's first scan

Not an easy picture to decipher but the small white line (you probably need to enlarge the picture to see it) in the middle of the black space (the water bag) on the left photo was all that xiao xiao was. Guess we need to wait for a while before we can actually see more of xiao xiao.

Taiwan Day 6

Our last day can be considered to be relaxed and true to the name of being free and easy. After watching some documentaries on Discovery Channel, we decided to explore the vicinity of the hotel since we did not really got a chance to do so in our stay there.

We first replenished our morning energy at one of the old coffee shops, which did not turn out to be very nice as its stuffs were very oily. Nonetheless, we had refueled (literally) and we took quite a few photos of the unique surroundings. We were actually very impressed that their construction sites actually took the effort to print the original facade on the debris net while works were in the progress. Our next surprise acquisition was a cherry coke, which we finally found in a small 7-11 store.

Several hours later, our bile seemed rather efficient in disposing the earlier oil intake and we soon settled into a hotpot restaurant for our lunch. Good ambiance, good food and my dear loved it.

The oily breakfast

The colourful sundial at the corner of the street

The symmetrical street from the overhead bridge

The decorated debris sheet

The remains of the west gate of Old Taipei City

The lucky dip at the hotpot restaurant

Her pot

His pot

After checking out of the hotel and reaching Taipei Railway Station, we then realised that our bus depot was not there. Panic set in as it was nearing our bus departure time which we had checked out earlier and by missing that bus, we could potentially miss our plane as well. The matter was compounded by the fact that my dear was feeling unwell. It felt like some sort of a deja vu of our Hong Kong trip.

Luckily the situation was quickly resolved, after a long walk to the nearby building and the purchase of the bus tickets, while my dear was painfully nursing her headache. Upon reaching the airport, we decided to stop somewhere for a quick rest and we completed the last leg of the overseas fast food adventure with Burger King.

After which, it was mainly photo taking and a few hours of rest / movie watching while en route home sweet home.

Our savior tickets to the airport

The BK meal

The sophisticated writings on the wall

The mascot of I-do-not-know-what

Our tickets back home

We at our departure gate

The colourful wall at our departure gate

His meal

Her meal

Taiwan Day 5

Day 5 started with a simple breakfast of 葱油饼, 油条 and 豆浆, before we proceeded to another museum in our itinerary - Miniatures Museum of Taiwan (袖珍博物馆). As the name implied, the place contained a lots of miniatures, many of which exquisitely done. It was, however, baffling that such an interesting museum was located at the basement of an office building, which happened to be not in very close proximity to any MTR station.

The hearty breakfast

The underground entrance

The chop for re-entry

My dear loved the place very much and we were utterly impressed that they actually had a miniature working tv in one of their model homes. The tv was broadcasting some unknown show that was on a loop, but we were already awed off our feet. We took many photos there but it was a pity that the lighting was bad and a lot of the photos had reflections off the glass covering the artifacts. Below are some of the better ones:

We then had our lunch at the reputable Ding Tai Feng and naturally we ordered its specialty dish - xiao long bao. We also ate some noodles to fill our stomachs.

The original xiao long bao

Her noodles

His noodles

She with the cute mascot

He with the same bun

The rest of the day saw us walking around several iconic places in Taipei. Let's see if you can identify them.

The same person sitting and standing

Spot me!

A different view to the place

The replica of Taipei 101

We then rested our feet at Taipei 101 where we continued our quest for the overseas fast food experience in KFC.

The next overseas fast food experience - KFC

En route to the night market, the facade at one of the MTR stations there caught our eyes. Its artworks actually got lights embedded in them, definitely one level higher than our local walls, though some of our art pieces at the newer mrt stations were good. Nevertheless, our focus was on walking the night market, though my dear was put off by the large number of stalls selling seafood. After eating some snacks and even more walking, we went back to the hotel, ending our last night at Taiwan.

Artwork 1: A cute lighted display

Artwork 2: Pretty lights

Artwork 3: Another Taipei 101 fascination

Artwork 4: Me stopping the train

Artwork 5: My dear enjoying the rain

Artwork 6: Fireworks galore 

At the streets of Hua Xi

The hello kitty pancake

The fish balls and the ai yu bing

The fried chicken, though not the original big one

Some Japanese touch to our supper