The last 12 months

Has it really been 12 months since I last posted a blog? Time and tide really waits for no man...or woman. How time flies... Time lost can never be regained...ALL these sayings... cliche-ick but so..ooo true.
One of the nice things about posting on a blog as compared to journalling in a diary is that there are pictures/photos one can look at and reminisce.
I think I'll take a few moments to record some events in the first half of 2012 so that I can revisit in 2013.

I managed to persuade hubby to take a non-working holiday. How can a holiday be a working one you may ask? JC, my hubby, has always blended a camp into his 'holidays' where he will be a camp-officer or a camp-participant. We may be going off somewhere but we will not be doing nothing 'worthwhile' so he says. To my way of thinking being a camp-officer or a camp-participant involves work of one sort or other. So those holidays are what I call 'working holidays'. This year I sort of gave him not much choice...signed up for a 10-day trip to Turkey...arranged everything and presented him with a fait accompli. So we enjoyed our non-working holiday...lodgings, food, transport- all taken care of by others...no talks to give, no talks to attend, no workshops,...no work period for 10 days.
This year also sees my son, JCTC, preparing for PMR. I know this exam is not a BIG deal considering that he will automatically proceed to Form 4 next year. However, I'm still making sure that he takes it seriously and so I make him sit with me 3 to 4 nights a week for reading-revising-and practice. I just think that this is necessary so that it will instill in him the habit of consistent studying in preparation for the number of major exams ahead of him in upper secondary school, pre-uni and university life. I try not to put too much pressure and stress on him but neither do I think he should adopt a too laid-back approach to PMR. I am not demanding straight As from him. However I impress on him that he must set targets and then do as well as he can. We'll wait and see how things turn out.
I had a couple of scares this year as well. My brother LCF and sister-in-law BR both discovered they had cancer within months of each other. After stringent chemo treatments resulting in loss of taste-senses and numbness of extremeties...both are now in remission. It has really been trying times but it has also drawn the different branches of our family closer together as we increased our smses, emails, phone calls and visits to stay in touch with progress reports.

On a final note, our mango tree is flourishing in blooms this year after the drastic pruning we gave it last year. Our hope is all these blooms will translate into sweet mangoes.