The Chronicles of TIM & JERRY

April 1, 2007

Quest for the "Sakura"

Attempt one: On the day we arrived, we went to a park near Lay See's place, hoping to see the cherry blossoms. But, the flowers has yet to bloom. Consolation: the kids were happy as we had a ride in a "Duck".

Attempt two: When we were at Asakusa (the place with the red giant lantern), we wanted to go to a park nearby to see if the flowers had bloomed. But we cannot locate any park. Consolation: there were a few trees along our way into the temple with 80% of the flowers already bloomed. Nice.

This picture on the left was taken by Jeremy.

Attempt Three: Thanks to Hiroshi, we managed to soak into the "real" sakura atmosphere! It was at this park in Ueno (actually, part of Ai Wah's recommendation prior to the trip was this place. my comment to her then was "why are we visiting the Zoo"!!) Beautiful!!

There were lots of people already there. Drinking, eating and merry making. We had our own little fun too.. Picnic

and enjoying this special Soda drink..

Tokyo DisneyLand

This was our 3rd day in Japan. Everyone was excited as we were going to Disneyland.. The boys were thrilled to see so many bullet trains along the way and the adults were busy planning which rides to take and which place to reserve for a good view of the parade at 3pm.

When we entered the park, to our "horror", there were people everywhere! The park was SO SO crowded! Queue for each ride was at least an hour!! Between the time we reached the park and the parade at 3pm, we had lunch and took the "Jungle Cruise". (Yes, only ONE ride) Even though the commentary was in Japanese, the boys enjoyed the ride as there were lots of animals to see and the commentator was quite expressive. Jeremy enjoyed it so much that he requested to go another time. Of course we did not agree as we were in the queue for an hour! We needed to queue for everything. From going to the toilet to buying popcorn! There were people everywhere.. lots of them.

About 2 hours before the parade, we saw people laying mats on the ground already. So, being typical Singaporeans, we decided to join in too, with no mats though.. We realised that it was an easy task to keep the boys occupied for more than an hour sitting down as long as you have ice cream, fries and drinks.. Junk Food, that is.

After the parade, we went for another ride. Peter Pan's Flight. We had to queue for about an hour and a half for this "less than 2 minutes flight"! And this wait was quite torturing for me as i had to carry Timothy. When we were close enough to see the "ship", Sadiq commented that he did not want to ride. We told him he has to get up there no matter what! Sorry, but this was our reaction after more than an hour wait!

After this SECOND ride, we had to go and reserve place for the night parade again! So, we bought out dinner and sit out in the cold for about an hour before the parade starts. Well, it all ended ok despite the "only 2-rides-trip" and Jeremy's disappointment that he did not get to ride the "Western River Railroad". The fireworks was nice and we managed to get some stuff.

For record purpose, we did walk round the entire park. And for those who intend to use the lockers, do not be fooled by the cheap rate. it cost you 400yen only. BUT, each time you open it, it will be another 400yen before you can lock it again!

Trip To Japan - Yuta and Miki and trains

Sometime ago, a few of us (me, Jeremy, Timothy, Ah-Ma, Aunt Ai Wah and Sadiq) decided to go and visit Aunt Lay See and Family in Tokyo. So, after tons of email exchange, we decided to make the trip on March 25 and we will visit for a week.

Highlights of the trip were Disneyland for the kids and for the adults, it was the hope to catch the Cherry Blossoms! Of course visiting Lay See and family was the main purpose... err..

Anyway, enjoy the photos below...

Miki. A big girl now. We could not recognise her when we first saw her.

Yuta. He can speak Japanese very fluently. He even translated an announcement in the train for me!

Our main mode of transport during our stay there was the train. The children loved it. The 2 pictures below was taken at one of the station where we can see "Shinkansen" aka "Bullet train". We did not ride on it as they are expensive and it is usually for long inter-state trips.

The boys had opportunities to be up close and personal with the trains too. Everyday, we needed to walk across the tracks to catch our train. And most of the time, the barrier will be activated for the trains to pass and this was when they had a close view of the train.

March 21, 2007

Jeremy's invention

Meet the GUN.

This was Jeremy's creation, couple of weeks ago, using his Junior Engineer set.

Timmy has one as well, and they loved playing with it. Daddy and Mummy get ambushed regularly, greeted with hails of bullets from the GUN as we walk unsuspectingly into the bedroom.

A week ago Jeremy revealed to me the secret of the GUN. It actually has a mounted camera, and it can turn around corners so that you can shoot at enemies around the corner without exposing yourself!

Technical specifications:

(inquiries welcome, please email for free brochure on full features and specs)

Side and plan views of the GUN peeping around corners

Providing safe harbour from enemy fire

Enemies staring down the barrel

We think it's an absolutely brilliant idea! So brilliant, in fact, that we considered applying for US patents for this invention! I asked him to name it and he said, simply, the GUN.

Just one little hitch though. I recalled reading about a similiar invention by the Chartered Industries some months ago. So I did some research - true enough, there was something SIMILIAR, but NOT quite the same:

Yes it's Singapore's very own SAR21 RCF (Round Corner Firing) module, with a mounted camera allowing soldiers to peep and fire around corners. There is however a significant difference between both designs - the SAR21 cannot bend! As the picture shows, the soldier still needs to expose his fingers around the corner, and this will no doubt invite enemy fire. And we think that a soldier with some bullet holes in his palm certainly wouldn't hold the gun very well...

This is where Jeremy's design is superior, and holds the crucial advantage. So... US Patents Office, here we come!

Seriously, we wondered how Jeremy came up with such an idea, considering that both of them never had guns amongst their vast array of toys at home. Must have been during one of those ambush sessions, for fear of Daddy or Mummy returning fire...

Timmy demonstrating the proper firing stance

February 24, 2007

Chinese New Year

The boys had a ball of a time during the 3 CNY days. Lots of sweets, goodies, soft drinks, and playing with cousins at ah-ma's house.

Also enjoyed themselves at grandaunt Cecilia's house, playing with uncle Cher Wee who came back from HK and uncle Matthew.

February 11, 2007

Jeremy is 6!

Happy Birthday Jeremy.... you are 6 years old!

As this will be Jeremy's last year in the child care centre that he has been attending since he was 3, we decided to have a "BIG" party for him in school.. As most of you are aware, Jeremy does not like to be the "center of attention" (if you may call it). So, before I decided on this, I kept asking him if he wanted to have a party in school, with his friends and teachers singing him a birthday song, taking pictures with his friends, etc. He told me ok. So, the planning begun... A magic show was booked, complete with goodies bag and a balloon sculpture for each of his 70 friends in the center... Plus a 4kg "fighter jet" cake (i mean, a cake with a few fighter jets on top).

On that big day, i rushed to pick up 2 of his cousins (by the way, poor Timothy was too sick to attend his party) and delivered the cake to school... then, my nightmare began.... Jeremy became a "leech" once he saw me... refused to stand in front of his cake to take pictures and even cried when his friends sung him the birthday song!! Sigh! i should not have been too hopeful right?

It was a miracle that I could get this picture!

Then, the magic show. I told Captain Dazzle (the magician) not to "focus" his attention on Jeremy.. for the obvious reason... He tried to lure him to help him with some of his magic, but to no avail... so, in the end, Jeremy's friends got those opportunities... by the way... NONE of his 3 cousins who were there had the COURAGE to go up!! And the 3 older ones, including Jeremy, was watching from a corner right at the back of the pack...(hmm.. does this run in the family? I wonder.)

Captain Dazzle with Joanne (Jeremy's classmate)

But whatever it is, the most important thing is that Jeremy enjoyed the show very much!!! and so does all his cousins and friends in school. Some even cried and refused to go home when their parents came to fetch them before the show has ended!

Maybe it was too much of me to ask for a 6 year old shy boy to perform miracle overnight. But i was very happy that he enjoyed it. and he even thanked his daddy for the magic show and he kissed me many times before he slept... best part of the day for me!

Last but not least... To Jeremy.... Happy Birthday and May God bless you always... and daddy and mummy love you!

January 26, 2007

Birthdays, and some fond memories...

Timmy's bithday has just passed, now Jerry's is around the corner. How time flies indeed - one is 4, the other 5 going on 6.

Was going through some videos of these 2 rascals in their babyhoods, interesting to see how Jeremy has changed but not so for Timothy. Here are some for memory's sake:

Jeremy at 6 months

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Jeremy the destroyer, at 15 months

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Jeremy the performer, at 2 years

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