Friday, January 02, 2009

レナの赤ちゃんパーティー!

We organised a baby shower for Rena's first month, and it was a huge event! I believe we had over 100 guests, and thankfully the food was just enough. The work began weeks ago, and one of the projects Mabel initiated was to take daily pictures of Rena and to compile them onto a single board as shown here.
You would have already seen all 30 pictures from the last blog entry, so nothing much to shout about here. We created the board and pasted the photos, complete with captions and labels. It's now still part of our living room wall, and we can't bear to take it off for the time being.
Another side project was the preparation of door gifts for our guests. We designed and printed our very own thank you cards, featuring Rena as the poster girl. Also included are 2 cookies and a small message expressing our gratitute and thanks for all the gifts and presents.My colleagues turned up earliest (army guys are usually quite punctual). It was great having them for the first time, so Mabel can relate all her renovation tips all over again.
Although still in the lull period of my Japanese class, several of my closer classmates were here too. Hopefully class will start soon and I can also meet up with the rest (finally we've reached the advanced levels!)
Coincidentally, quite a few of our neighbouring friends also gave birth in 2008, and we have at least 3 more "Minnie Mice" khakis in our block alone. That's great for sharing news and information, since Mabel obviously already has some kind of Mummy network established.
We actually tried to take pictures with every single guest. It was ok in the beginning, but by the start of the second session the crowd got so big we didn't manage to get all the guests. I've still got a lot of pictures, but I'm only posting a few here.
The rest of the pictures will most likely be posted on Facebook instead, so you can either go check it out there or email me if you would like to obtain the high res version of the photographs.
Haven't seen many of my OCS friends lately, but thanks to those who showed up! I will try to organise another one, but you guys gotta give support leh.
Many thanks to my old friends from school, of whom turned up although they were tired from a wedding dinner the previous night. Sadly Betty and Kiat were busy, but hopefully we'll get to meet up again soon, perhaps to celebrate the birth of Tiang Ping's daughter :)
Kelly and Wee Lee gave us a lot of advice and tips on parenting, and provided insights on tackling some of the most difficult to handle situations with regards to newborns. :)
Family members and close friends such as Huiming and William were really great help prior and on the actual day. They helped with both the administration of guests, and also with the stores and the preparation of the door gifts and the food. We would like to once again give our sincerest thank yous to all who have helped in the event. Thanks!
I could't resist the temptation and just got myself a copy of LittleBigPlanet for the PS3, after seeing what some of the players could create in the game from various Youtube videos. Some were just fabulous, with parodies, homages, and self made robots part of the formula which goes with the tag line of "Play. Create. Share." I'm impressed with how much room the game gives you, and even allows you to customise your own outfits. It's not really that straightfoward, but you can work around it with tools and create many many amazing outfits for your sackboy. I've seen Venom, Spawn, Captain America, Batman, and even characters from Naruto and Bleach which were really innovatively done up and cool to use. For me, I made my own outfit immediately after learning how through a tutorial. I took out my Go-On Red figurine and made the outfit you see on the left. Took me around 2 hours, which included lots of trial and error. Still, I like it a lot and use it most of the time. I'm pretty sure I'm the only Go-On Sackboy in the whole world right now :)
Here's a picture of Go-On Red, from the cover of their latest OST album. I don't think I'll start doing any of the other ranger costumes, but I'm really tempted to do up a level based on Super Sentai, or maybe just the Go-Ongers. I'll start to work around with all the creative tools and see what I can come up with.
More news of the upcoming 2009 Super Sentai series have been revealed, including the cast members. I can't say I've fully gotten used to the kanji on the helmet, but it looks really original. Hopefully the rest of the show proves to be as innovative. With less than 10 episodes of Go-Onger left, I can safely say that I've fully enjoyed the show and it's charm as a action oriented comedy that's suitable for all ages.
20 years ago, when I was still in Primary School, I was crazy about these cards. It was near the peak of the Dragonball manga, and I remember converting my limited pocket money into 20 cent coins, which were readily deposited into those automated vending machines. Those machines were stocked with random cards, in which the "crown jewels" were hidden in the form of the "shining/dazzling" cards. Obtaining them, during that time, meant more than striking Toto or 4D. Those were the days, when things were much simpler, and happiness meant having a thick stack of rare cards. After 20 years, now Bandai is releasing all these classic cards in the form of collectable sets. My question is, can they refund all the 20 cent coins they sucked me dry back then? It might just pay for a few loan installments.Granted, I'm still a big kid these days with my figures and such, but it's a hobby. The Dragonball cards were a fad that time, like Tamiya cars or fake Ghostbusters slime. Hey, it could be worse. I could have spent that money on Idol cards instead.
歩こう 歩こう 私は元気
歩くの大好き どんどん行こう
Let's walk, let's walk, I feel fine.
I love to walk, let's go quickly.
坂道 トンネル 草っ原
一本橋に でこぼこ砂利道
くもの巣くぐって 下り道
An uphill road, a tunnel, a meadow
At a log bridge, a bumpy gravel path.
Passing under a spiderweb, a downhill path.

歩こう 歩こう 私は元気
歩くの大好き どんどん行こう
Let's walk, let's walk, I feel fine.
I love to walk, let's go quickly.
蜜蜂ブンブン 花畑
ひなたにトカゲ 蛇は昼寝
バッタが跳んで 曲がり道
A honeybee buzzes in a field of flowers
A lizard in the sunshine, a snake takes a midday nap
A grasshopper leaps, along the curving path.

歩こう 歩こう 私は元気
歩くの大好き どんどん行こう
Let's walk, let's walk, I feel fine.
I love to walk, let's go quickly.
狐も狸も 出ておいで
探検しよう 林の奥まで
友達たくさん 嬉しいな
友達たくさん 嬉しいな
Foxes and badgers too, come out!
Let's go exploring deep into the woods.
I have lots of friends, I'm so happy.
I have lots of friends, I'm so happy.
I was at a lost when told to sing to Rena, so in the end I chose this song to sing to her. It's one of my favourite children songs, from the opening theme of My Neighbour Totoro. You can hear the song from one of my favourite Jpop singers Matsuura Aya here, whom sings both the opening and ending theme of the movie here. Yes, Rena doesn't understand what I'm saying so it's fine singing a Japanese song to her mah. With that, it's the end of my first post of 2009, and I will all of you the best for 2009! Happy new year!
Lilypie 1st Birthday Ticker

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

now I stay in touch..