Stories of KK

Nothing much fazes me. But my eyebrows involuntarily shot to my hairline when I saw Day’s Chinese spelling list. (Yes it has to be Chinese)    I mean. Come on. The boy is 6. He has not officially started school and I, who have undergone 12 years of Chinese education, cannot read some of the words in his spelling list . (Admittedly I am crap but still.) I would have let him sink or swim.  I saw it as the teacher trying to give the kids some exposure, and while I might have spent some time going through the words, I thought it was more important to get him to speak and like the language.  However, KK rose to the challenge. In true problem-fixing man style, he strode into Popular and purchased a Besta electronic dictionary. The sort with a stylus which allows you to trace the correct order of strokes, and which very helpfully vocalizes words you write in in case you don’t know how to read it.  “It’s more for us lah,” he intoned, when I protested the $400 transactio...

KK walked out of his examination hall at the SMU this evening at 5pm, lugging three heavy bags bulging with textbooks, face downcast. “I think I may have to try again next year,” he said. Then he brightened: “But when I see the kids, I forget all of that.”    * Just out of the exam hall   Good thing, then, that me and the kids were there to form the Finish-Exam party. For a man who is so un-diligent and so un-academic and who flunked all his uni papers, KK seems to have done hell of a lot of studying in the last 15 years. The Masters was over.  Now it’s the Professional Engineering certification.  A badge of honour bestowed only on a select few in Singapore - particularly in the wake of the Nicoll Highway collapse when the Government made it really hard for anyone to get that certificate - this is KK’s second attempt.  Exams are offered only once a year. It costs $450. He took a week off work to study. He said it felt like the result would be exactly the sa...

Driving over the Benjamin Sheare’s bridge towards the city, the Singapore Flyer looms up on the left. Far in the distance beyond the sea is what looks like a dam under construction – the Marina Barrage – and that’s just about where we tucked ourselves to enjoy the National Day fireworks.  That’s where KK works, day after day, stomping all over the reclaimed land and inspecting the soil to make sure it can hold up the spectacular Gardens By The Bay. Highlights of NDP 2008:     Trekking across slippery hoarding boards, drains filled with muddy brown water and climbing up huge gunny-sack covered earth mounds (technically called “surcharge fills” and how I know is because I vetted his report) to get a better view.    With both of us carrying one child and one umbrella each (plus I had a camera and a bag of Ruffles chips) I am seized with joy at our foolhardiness. Day scampers happily alongside, digging in for handfuls of Ruffles every few metres. Dee hates roughing-...

By God, he’s done it. KK’s gone and got his first golf hole-in-one.  For a golf idiot like me, I figure it’s sort of like the holy grail of golf: The player hits the ball from far far away, the ball lands, it magically rolls into the tiny hole and everyone rubs their eyes wondering if it had happened at all before raising a cheer.  It takes some skill and a helluva lot of luck, which led me to wonder if my husband (and us by association) is finally getting lucky.  For the record, the ace took place at the NSRCC golf course at Changi, on the Army Course hole 7, which is par 3 meaning (I think) that it takes a professional three strokes for the ball to get in. His name, apparently, might be inscribed on the club’s board for posterity, something I laugh at since his golf handicap is 19.  If this were a charity tournament, he might have won a car.  But since it’s the Tunneling and Underground Construction Society of Singapore, he won a Mitsubishi inverter air-con: W...

"Interviews" with the kids What Day would say abo ut his pa   Papa always lets me know I am special because he says we are the only two men in the family plus we share the same birthday.  He tells me he likes me a lot.  I can’t wait for him to come home every day because he always laughs until we cannot see his eyes, and sweeps me up for big hugs.  He is my rough-and-tumble man. He also always does fun things with me. Bringing me to Esso to buy sour bear sweets or cold drinks. Mummy is always scolding us.  What Dee would say about her pa   I don’t like papa. He never lets me have my way. I cannot bully him.  Every time I scream, he walks away and leaves me alone and ignores me. Sometimes he smacks me on my hand.  He always tries to hug me and play rough but I don't like it. I scream at him to “Go away! Go away!” and I always call him “Naughty papa”.  He thinks I am very funny. Sometimes he thinks I am mad.  What Lu would say about her pa...

These days, 630pm, as the kids play outside in the cooler evening on their buggies, what they await is not papa driving up in the black car but papa cycling up the road.  Yes, Commando Kheng has decided to try and shed off the belly flab which has afflicted him and so many of his former commando mates (and save some petrol money in the process. And be environmentally friendly) by cycling to and from work.    615am, he sets off from Upper East Coast and can get to Marina Bay in under an hour. Why so early? Fewer cars. Cleaner air. He has time for a long coffee and breakfast.  The ride back is a bit hairier, what with the going-home traffic, but if his colleague can drop him off at the Fort Road end of the East Coast Park, he enjoys a beach ride home. Fantastic. 

By the light of the moon, her papa pats her to sleep. Why the moon? Because KK has had to move out of our room where the cot is placed, into the balcony and the balcony is where he’s at most times.  Well not exactly move out, but he’s had to move his activity centre – consisting of noisy TV and “working” area (meaning any available surface) – outdoors, where he gets balmy breezes, moonshine and drizzle if it rains. Give the man his comfy chair, remote controls and TV and he’s a happy camper.   We always used to just let the babies sleep in the same room, with the noise and lights, but this time I insisted on letting Lulu have a dark quiet room so she can sleep properly – as per Gina Ford.  She ends up sleeping in her papa’s arms anyway, in front of the noisy TV and beneath the balcony light, so I don’t know why I bother.  Anyway, once again, the arrival of the new child makes me want to congratulate myself for marrying the man. For the hugs, for holding my hand,...