A Blessed Christmas

to everyone!

Consuelo has gone home and will only come back to us mid-Jan. We're surviving alright, mostly on Burger King chicken tenders, french fries, and a variety of party foods.

Sophie is "talking" a lot now, and utters some truly intelligible words like jie-jie, kor-kor, Daddee, ma-ma (grandma), por-por (my mom), mee-mee (milk, water, 7-up), I wan(t), and the loudest and clearest of them all, "NO!"

Her "please" is "nair-see". Sarah's used to be "ah-bair". Don't ask me why. They apply it consistently and insistently and you just KNOW that's what they mean.

Sarah will be going to a new kindy. We're still waiting to hear from the school and bus service. No biggie, I'm not fanatical about her starting on the dot on 2 Jan. She'll only be in K1. The important thing is she's registered. They can take their time to let us have the details.

Matthew starts Primary One in just a little over a week! We'll take it in turns to drive him to Barker Road every morning. He has to leave the house by six-thirty. Grandma will take him home by bus and train. We've got all his things, after sitting through a really long orientation in September (that gave me a headache by the end of it), and blowing a Saturday morning on another admin session to pick up books, passes and what-not. I've yet to sew name tags to his shorts. His uniform is so oversized and obviously unweathered on him - haha!

I'm very thankful for everything that's happened this year. The family has grown closer (and upper), we're more empowered as parents, Sean's finally got the subwoofer he's been waiting almost 10 years for, and I have a sea-view room at work. I couldn't ask for more.

New face, same ring to it

Got myself a 'smart phone' without realising it. My contract had come to the point where I could get an upgrade, so I thought, why not? Actually all I was looking for was a Nokia I could use in the US (going for a conference there in Jan). Found two models at the Handphone Shop that looked nice: the 6300 and 6120 Classic. What's the difference between the two, I asked.

"Oh, the 6120 is quadband, while the 6300 is triband," answered the salesman.

"And triband doesn't cover which areas?"

"Japan, Korea and Mexico." Right, so no practical difference for me so far.

"And what else?"

"The 6120 is a smartphone. Which means better web browsing, advanced sms and customizable interface. Oh, and it comes with a free 256MB micro SDcard vs 128MB for the 6300."

"Um, so you're telling me the 6120 is more advanced all-round, AND I don't pay a cent for it, while the 6300 costs $48?"

"Yes, but the 6300 is slimmer."

"Okaaayyy... I'll take the 6120."

I later found out that the 6120 - the 'Classic' designation differentiates itself from an older model of the same name - has an excellent 2MP camera, plus a secondary one for self portraits and video calls. I can also upload my songs onto the memory card for use when I don't have my iPod around. It even displays MS Office and Acrobat documents.

But it's also quite complicated. Smses now look like emails, and you choose your recipient before drafting the message. Even checking for the time of a received sms requires more steps than previously. Oh, and those buttons sure are small!

All in all though, I can't complain. This thing does all that I need it to (and lots more that I don't), while interfaces can always be relearnt., Plus hey, it's free!

Now my mum's up for an upgrade and is thinking of getting the 6120 as well. Why? So she can come to me when it has a problem, of course...