Yesterday was the last day of Chinese Lunar New Year Celebration. My boys collected lots more Hong Paos this year, simply because I have ended my retail business, hence we have more time to visit more relatives’ and friends’ homes.

Last year, they had $200 each. This year they had a total of $500. Hey, its quite a good reward for just visiting 9 houses. Because of the big drop change in our income, (sorry boys, hope you won’t be angry with us when you learn about this in time to come) instead of depositing the $500 into their bank account, which is my usual practice every year, this $500 need to go into the CDA account to fund for their school expenses.

Its scary how fast money disappear when children start schooling! We had $2000 in the CDA in the beginning of last year, 2007 and it was the first year Keatkeat began his long years of schooling. Now, the amount has dropped to $800+.

The rate of decrease will be double next year when Binbin starts to go nursery and Keatkeat is in Kindergarten 2. What really pissed me off is to pay for the school fees in June and December when there ISN’T any classes at all! Its school holiday! Why do I still need to pay for school fees when the school is closed?!

The most I could do is complain here in my small little corner. The ‘standard’ reply from the school is, “I’m sorry, but there is nothing we could do. This is decided by the Ministry of Education. We just had to follow whatever instructions we received.”

So Allan, may all good luck be with you, ‘cos the family expenses is going to be super heavy starting next year…..by then, I would have finished clearing all my beads for my handmade accessories, whereby I can really say ‘good bye’ to this business once and for all…..so all burden will be on Allan’s small shoulders.

Wish us luck?