The rates of the taxi fares have risen tremendously especially since 17 December last year. Rates have been adjusted mainly because of the complaints from the taxi drivers, ever since more companies were allowed to share the pie. As usual there are still some black sheep among the flock. Last Saturday, my in-laws took a cab from Clementi to Hougang. The taxi driver went by a longer route, to earn more, obviously. Even when my MIL told him that he should have made a turn so that the journey is shorter, he refused and continued to drive the longer way. Both my in-laws were very angry and kept reprimanding him for (purposely) missing a few turns, then he vent his anger by driving recklessly.

The 2 old folks were with my niece, 7, and nephew, 1. When they finally reached Hougang, the meter read $22.40!!! My MIL continued to lecture him even after the taxi has arrived at the destination, for cheating on them and driving dangerously when there were 2 young kids in his cab. Humph! He deserved the lecture. 3 years ago, I used to sling Binbin over my shoulder and held the tiny hand of my 2 year old Keatkeat to my in-law house, back then it only cost $9-$10!

The rates are really getting way too high. Ever since the increase, I have completely stopped taking cabs, COMPLETELY STOPPED! Even though it takes 1 hour now for the three of us to take a bus, then a MRT, then a bus before we reach my in-laws’ house, I would rather spend this time then to pay that much! Today, my husband’s friend took a cab from Telok Blangah to Toa Payoh during peak hours, $18!!! Ridiculous! That’s the cost of a decent meal for 5 people and it’s gone in less than 20mins!

If you are a reader from another country, you made be interested to know more about this country from my previous 2 posts ‘Tough Questions’ and ‘Singapore’.

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A friend of mine, Aric, who used to sell hair accessories, has decided to stop his retail business totally and give me ALL his stocks for FREE! He knows that I have stopped my handmade accessories retail business too, but is still consigning my leftovers to others, so he thought it would be better to give his remaining stocks to me than throw them into the dustbin.

The rich man son need not worry about survivor because he is the operating manager of his father’s metal manufacturing company and he is only 25 years old. Thank you Aric!

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If you read My Profile, you know I love to sing. Every now and then, my kids and I will have a theme song, not that we do it on purpose, but a certain song would just keep singing in our head so much, we can’t help but sing or hum that particular tune for a couple of days or even weeks.

These days, this Cadbury Dairy Milk Chocolate commercial has been our song. It’s funny, especially the last verse.

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Many of you know that Binbin is a vegetable lover. Recently he added a new vegetable to his long list – ONION!!!

It was so amazing and funny to watch him eat slice after slice of onion that were fried together with the main dish for presentation purposes, not so much for taste. So the slices of onions were big and hardly-cooked.

He would squint his eyes as he chew it in his mouth with a big frown on his face after he swallowed it, and you think that he regretted his decision; but no, he asked for another piece! This continues till there aren’t any onions left on that plate. *jaw-dropped*

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Keatkeat’s memory power is getting more and more incredible. We could drive him to a place only ONCE and he could direct us to that place! At a cross road junction, he could tell us where it would lead us, if we turned left, turned right or went straight.

I play all sorts of memory games with him. One of my favourite game was to show him 8 cards first, then put them face down, asked him to find the 4 matching pairs and he could do it in one go. Seriously, is that amazing? I’m not sure, because I have taught many kids of this age before and I can’t remember anyone as good as this, especially the way he recognizes the direction to different places. Anyone have kids like these when they were 4 years old?

If yes, tell me, and then I will know it’s just a norm for kids of this age.

If not, could you suggest what kind of lesson should I send him to, to let this talent of him soar? If a child is musically inclined, you send him to music schools to learn singing and play musical instruments. So what about mega-memory power packed kids? Any idea?