Best time of the year..

Have been super lagging with this blog. Here I am again... back from beijing holiday, had a fantastic time and am so glad my girl experienced a variety of things - sight-seeing(the great wall), history(Forbidden City), culture (Beijing opera), food, activities (indoor playground, aquarium, Skiing).
Ate too much last week (3 barbecues sessions and 2 parties), so have to really start winding down and go on a rigorous exercise schedule soon. The holiday weeks passed by so quickly, I am already feeling a bit depressed thinking that this merry period will be over soon. We are approaching a new year, and soon we will have to face a whole new year of challenges! My new year resolution ? Save more money (no more designer bags! -- but will accept them as gifts.. heee), and be more focused and patient with Yinghong since she will be starting primary school - a whole new milestone in her life! To my beloved family and friends out there : A super-duper 2008 filled with Joy & Happiness & Luck!!
Let's hope more people will be more conscious about saving our environment (drive smaller cars pls!) and save our mother earth from more disasters!

Another happy week...

My brother, yongman, came back last friday to spend the weekend with mum & dad before flying back this Monday. Had a quick dinner gathering at our favourite "Shan Ding Cha Can Ting" in the C.C. near mum's place. Spent Sunday afternoon at our old neighbour's (Florence) place, poh piahs, curry, beehoon, birthday cakes.. hmmm. and the great company! Missed the group! Ying Hong had a great time catching up with Ratchel and Natasha too. Heading to Beijing this afternoon, so gotta rush off this post and leave for airport soon.

Kindergarten graduation is a big deal!

Have been very slack on updating this blog since I signed on a facebook account and been struggling to learn a little more about that.
YingHong's primary school orientation and Kindergarten graduation (her 2nd time) is on the same day - 16 Nov. Their little concert at Post Office centre Auditorium in Paya Lebar was quite a delightful one. Was hilarious watching the little ones mess up a little here and there. Most funny of all was one of Yinghong's friend who danced fervantly, twisting her body and butt, but her face was all the way expressionless...just her mouth in an "O" shape. Pictures to follow later.
Eeling's wedding dinner last night was fun! The pretty bride was enjoying herself, and our table was the most photo-crazy(with Ali-baba around, of course!) one!
Photos to follow....

Hurray High Tea!

The long awaited high tea afternoon with BeeYean, Jennifer and the girls is here. The girls had lots of fun, but the adults were kept busy making sure no one breaks any crockery...the pictures tell the story...

Opinions....

Everyone is entitled to their opinions, but people with authority or in position of leadership should know better to shut up when they do not have wise things to say.
A "someone" in some political party just trumpeted today that sexy women are a distraction and are making men losing sleep. Blaming others for his own weaknesses. Human beings are born with many weaknesses...we are selfish, we are easily tempted, we are greedy. What makes us different from animals is our sense of moral and our ability to educate and restrain ourselves. This is the foundation of the human society. It is good to dress and behave decently in public and observe moral standards, but it's a bigger crime to blame other people for your inability to do the right thing. Imagine a place where everyone is free to do anything he/she desires???? Imagine the law punishing the victim of a burglary for being wealthy and tempting the burglar???
My opinion, and my advise to that "someone": Learn to restrain and do not excuse yourself by blaming others.... in another words, do not seek the easy way out!

A week of dinners and conference calls

My recap of the week is conference calls and dinners... Yinghong picked on her dinner on Monday night and kept nagging about going to Coffee Club. Finally made a deal with her to have her finish dinner within 15 mins, and brought her and Kholifah there for tea and hot chocolate. The girl was sooo thrill lor. Tuesday we had a dinner party at New Asia Bar with our chairman, but half way through still dialed in for our weekly team call. Wednesday was conference calls and dinner at home at the same time..Thursday... quick dinner with Mike and Rickson, then drinks at Scarlet Hotel (thank you Rickson!) before we headed back to office for conference call. Last night's dinner with clients was at Mortons Steakhouse...ambience and service is ok,but waiter has typical american showmanship lor.. can't leave you alone to read menu, must push out so many things to "show-and-tell"..my goodness! Food was quite good but not the type I will miss and return for, at that kind of price lor. My favourite was the Jumbo lump Crab Cake... marvelous! Steak was good, but by the time I am half way through, it got harder and dryer (cos I got asked for an "almost done"). Funniest is the steam broccoli, two quarters of broccoli, I felt like I was in a market! Got the waiter to bring them in to cut them into smaller bite-sizes for us. Another best is the chocolate lava cake!!hmmmmm.....heavenly! Today, after Yinghong's art class, we explored "Botak Jones" american fare in a food court in Depot road. It's definitely yummy food at good prices! The Chicken Gumbo and Stuffed Jalapeno (see picture) are very good! Ying Hong enjoyed her fish n chips too!
Last night when I mentioned to a dinner guest that I have a blog, she asked me "oh.. you have a FOOD blog?". I explained it's not a food blog, but a blog to share what's going on in my life with my friends.. but maybe this edition is really qualifying as a "food blog" ...heeee
Finally, thank you so much for the thoughtful gift from Ali-baba!! So sweet of you... With the whole week of eating, tomorrow better do lots of exercises....

A dynamic week...

Thanks to Alicia, else I would have postponed my long over-due hair-cut appointment indefinitely. She also gave me the perfect reason to "chim" in Starbucks for a while before the hair-cut, have not done such things for a long time.
With the new hair trim and colour, last week seems more colourful too! Despite the annoyingly frequent conference calls, managed to squeeze in a drink and dinner with Mike and Rickson at Prego's! How I miss that bread they serve there! So much so I had to take a picture.... Bumped into Owen - my ex-colleague at Tokai Bank many years back- at "His Grace" cafe.. and this was right after Vincent told me Owen came to our office the previous day to attend seminar and missed meeting me as I was out at that time!!! What a coincidence. Then on Saturday, when my Aunt Annie came by my place to collect her Tupperware, I sent my maid down to meet her as I just reached home after an afternoon of shopping with Ying Hong and was too tired to step out. Guess what? Today as we were cycling in Pasir Ris beach park, we saw her there!! Quickly got Yinghong to pose for a picture with Aunt Annie...As always, thanks for all those wonderful kueys you make for us!!!!!
And one other thing I have not done for a long time.. I did it this week , i.e. reading a Novel!! Boon Chong passed me this book he bought from Chennai airport - "for one more day" by Mitch Albom. Not a bad read at all, a little sad as the story telling involves the character losing his mum. Mainly, how you wish you can have one more day, or one more conversation with the loved one you have lost. When she/he was around, you always thought you have plenty of time.... sound familiar?
Oh, and today I went to the new Coffee Club in White Sands to have a nice glass of iced latte and read the book there, while Ying Hong was at her friend's birthday party. This place is cool!!! Nice green retro swivel chair (actually very comfortable!) and a row of red sofas with the table in a dug-in hole! Like a tatami style! I am sure Ying Hong will love it! True enough,when I told her about it just now, she said "Let's go now!"... will wait till next weekend anyhow.
Hmmmmm.. back to real life.. Jasmine and Alicia have been talking about their FACEBOOK experience, Urai has succumbed to their persuasion and opened an account... don't think I could do that.. far too much time needed to maintain another on-line psuedo social circle..
my real-life circle of friends are the best!

Ready to be active again!

Finally the flu virus is gone and cough is subsiding. This week seemed so long. Work was frustrating, with many unproductive and interruptive conference calls(3 in this week!) in the evening, and having a wrecked body didn't help. Was so lethargic. But was glad to be able to squeeze in a quick dinner with Suresh on Monday, my favourit "kei tak sek" dessert in liang seah st with Urai, and a dinner with my ex-colleagues from Tokai. We had a good time sharing what had happened in our lives these years. The restaurant - HojJin (Japanese), was weird though. Service was bad - they didn't bother to even bring us more menu at first, then kept serving the neighbouring table's food to us. Just not a place I would recommend my friends to go to.
This morning we went to the new Children Garden at the Botanic Gardens, and bumped into Joseph Tan and his family! Not a bad place but less exciting then I expected.
Pampered myself with a pedicure while Yinghong was attending her art class. The Barbie face towels Joyce bought from Tokyo for Yinghong are so cute and came with a nice packaging! Took a picture so Beeyean can have a look... (marketing idea). Thank you ah nia! Can really trust you to buy the right thing! The are exactly the ones I have in mind, and YingHong loves them too!
Made Cha-wan Mushi again for dinner, varied the proportion of Dashi and eggs, didn't taste a lot different from last Sunday's. Still feel it's lacking something, but can't tell what it is, may be should add more shoyu the next time. Will continue to experiment...
Tomorrow is hair-cut day with Ali-baba.... looking forward to trim away all the dry ends and tidy up the mess a bit, maybe some new colours too...long overdue...
Lastly, loaded up a video that YingHong choreographed and voiced over. She directed and recorded this "advertisement" with her daddy's phone last Sunday night. When I refused to do all that acting and singing (due to the bad throat), she changed tactics and persuaded/forced me to act and do lip-sing while she lent the voice) Quite hilarious... well, have a good laugh my friends, and have a happy Sunday and good week ahead!

I am Back!!

Firstly, thank you so much you pals for all your birthday wishes. I stole private time to walk around in Taipei a little with my best friend, BeeYean. Trip was great.. eat a lot of local snacks, and tried out the yummy chinchow dessert at "Dong Qu Fen Yuan" once more. Also checked out the 24-hour pay lounge "My Fun", where we used the internet, drink tea and slouched in sofas reading comics.
Taipei city may not be as immaculately pruned and kept tidy like ours, but the people are definitely more disciplined and genuinely more friendly, and social conscious.
Before last week, we drove up to Genting Highlands for Ying Hong's talent competition.
She had a lot of fun, and lived her dream once of singing on a proper stage.
Her principal brought some sparkling eye shadow and mascara to touch up for her, she was sooooo excited. Here's some pictures to share...
Then today we went to the Barbie Movie (The Island Princess) premiere at Picture House, which was followed by a meet & greet session with the main character "Princess Rosella". Again, thanks to Bee Yean for reserving tickets for us.
That's all for now.. it's back to work again tomorrow...... s..i..a..n......

We celebrate life by eating..... more on weekends!

A socially busy week... met my "sister" Bee Yean after work on friday for dinner; had lunch on Saturday at "Nihon Mura" at Tampines swimming complex for the very reasonable $0.99 per plate sushis with family, a potluck dinner at our Condo function room with neighbours, then joined the "crazy" gang at Pepporoni Pizza and Chocolate Factory to celebrate Jasmine's birthday... Sunday was more sane, with Joyce & family coming over for a quick cup cake baking session. Forgotten to take some pictures of the girls playing together as I was busy in the kitchen the whole time...

One thing I read in the Saturday's paper shocked me though.. about a chap who went to the Primary dispute Resolution Centre (PDRC) in 2004 for his motorcycle accident case. Poor guy got awarded for $188 as the district Judge ruled in his favour and costs the plaintiff (woman) $1200 in terms of legal cost. HER appeal case in High court won (that PDRC was not a court and the order was invalid) and poor chap was ordered to pay $63000 for appeal costs, which was subsequently brought down to $45000, but his previous lawyer also claiming a separate $80000 legal fees against him???? Think most people who read this would be like..."what the ?????"
Firstly the fact that the Subordinate Courts issuing a directive that all settlements reached through the former PDRC (now e@dr Centre) would require an endorsement by the courts to give them the weight of legal judgements...indicates there was imperfection of PDRC? Funny right? We allow a judge to make judgement there but high court agreed the order was not valid, and because of this the guy who won the first case have to bear the cost of appeal???? dont quite make sense (common sense, not legal sense).
If someone chooses to appeal, it can only be to his/her benefit.. cos he/she is buying a second chance , so why don't he/she just pay for this second chance?????
The other person didn't AGREE to have a second judgement leh.. So shouldn't the person appealing be committed to pay the cost? Else, then anybody will suka suka appeal right.. nothing to lose mah (except for the case where you lose and the judge mete out a heavier sentence, meant to discourage frivilious appeals).
Well.. just thinking aloud here.. better not complain too much in case someone come after me and sue me...

Lastly, a line from "High School Musical 2" -- Once upon a lifetime .. means no second chance...
Think thrice before we act.. every thing we do has consequences... some mistakes we can afford to make, some... rather not or else you will spend your whole life regretting or paying for it..
Same goes for things you NEED to do.. like telling your loved ones you love them, before they are gone... remind yourself to be kind to your parents no matter how irritating they may seem, cos a parent's love is the only true form of unconditional love and its ever-lasting (whether you like it or not, be grateful..)!
This last paragraph is hasty.. cos feeling sleep now, need to go. Adious!

The Dirty side of Charity?

While it's good to contribute to charitable causes in terms of donations or social good deeds, I find some events are going too far to promote themselves. In the name of creating awareness or education, they implement creative marketing strategies to win more attendance at their events. Many of these do not yield effective results to the actual cause, instead they generate other damages. Sounds familiar? Sounds like the previous NKF saga, and also the recent Korean Missionary group that was kidnapped in Afghanistan?
Close to home in Singapore, we are not short of examples. The Yellow Ribbon Walk held yesterday was one that I witnessed with much regrets and ANGER!!!
* The organizers did not cordon off the walking path from the newly paved cycling path, the huge crowd was walking at snail pace, blocking the entire Pasir Ris Drive 3 (both sides of the road!) while they do their 3.5km walk. I could imagine their thoughts : Sorry lor... this is for Charity leh, so all other pavement users please do not come this way ok!!! ??? (errr.. what CHARITY had been done through walking huh?)
* The Organizers gave out mineral water sealed plastic cups (disposable ones of course.. we are a "developed" nation mah) without setting up proper disposal points One of the ushers explained that they reminded people to dispose of cups into dustbins at bus stops...(err.. thank you for being so THOUGHTFUL hor.. those few miserable dustbins at those few bus stops can hold SOOOOOOO many cups meh? Your organizers don't know how to do simple CALCULATIONS hor? ) We therefore had the OPPORTUNITY to see piles of plastic cups thrown along the entire drive 3!!! Horrendous heaps of rubbish in our beautiful town.. what a sight to greet the residents on a Sunday morning! What happens to all those talk about being environmental friendly? We have campaigns to EDUCATE/ENCOURAGE people to use fewer plastic shopping bags, but don't care about using KILOS of plastic cups which eventually get blown into the canal that's along the path and get sweep into our sea? Wow liao.. really TEKONG man..
* The worst thing is, the majority of those participants are students from various schools..soooo ORGANIZED... which makes me wonder.. if these obviously EDUCATED people still throw plastic cups anywhere they like when they have been taught since kindergarten it's wrong to do so, why bother to ENTICE them to the ending point of the walk --- "Prison Link Centre Changi" to view an EDUCATIONAL exhibition??????Too difficult lah.. they sure cannot UNDERSTAND!
Plus I am sure a bulk of the participants have no idea/interest whatsoever about this Project. They joined the walk because of the FREE yellow caps given at registration, plus the chance to win LUCKY DRAW, plus GOODIE BAGS at the ending point lor... (how many people agree with me on this???)
* Wanna do REAL charity? My suggestions -> Spend those budget, sponsor's money on the actual cause (do whatever you need to do).... don't always look to create publicity (education?) and create more mess. Want the public to work out & sweat out? Get them to volunteer to clean up the trash in Pasir Ris beach and East Coast Beach lah! Throw in lucky draws.. .I am sure there will be quite a lot of sign ups.. maybe queue to register somemore! Hey, why not get some celebrity to grace the event lah... lagi more people will show up for FREE!
Ok.. enough of gripes... but one last thing... my husband just drove past Pasir Ris Drive 3 this afternoon and saw half the rubbish (plastic cups.. remembers?) still lying around!!! Congratulations to the Yellow Ribbon Walk organizers..you have created 2 days (or more) worth of trash lor!! SHAME ON YOU!

A weekend of activities!

Wished I could use a different title, but this is still the most apt. Will post a separate one to discuss some more serious issue so its easier for my pals to choose to read either...
For fun, we went for Boon Chong's company outing to visit a Soon Kuey "factory" and Otah "factory" (Lee Wee Brothers). Not really factory, just shop houses in Hougang that handles production, with retail counters. The following visit to "Animal Resort" in Jalan Kayu was more fun. The children had lots of fun running around in the Kampong area, feeding rabbits, guinea pigs, goats, geese, fishes, cranes and pigeons. The buses made a final stop at Jalan Kayu Roti Prata shop for prata before calling it a day.
In the evening, we watched the movie "Ratatouille" and enjoyed it thoroughly!
Sunday was unusual too, cycled all the way to Changi Village in the morning, then we waited for the rain to stop in the afternoon, and went over to William's workshop/office to finish up my long planned project. Wanted to do this painting myself, but end up only painted the base coat of white paint a few months ago, then painted a few final brushes.. William did everything else, and gave me tips on what "accidentals","textures" are all about. Ying Hong also did a small project of her own oil painting... quite fun. Now all that's left is to find time to hang that big painting in our living room...

Fun week!

Took the afternoon off on Wednesday to bring YingHong to Sentosa Palawan beach for the Hi-5 Meet&Greet session. Turned out to be 2-hour of dance along (the Palawan Boogie dance) and animal& bird show before Hi-5 showed up for 10 minutes of interview, and Hi&Bi, quite disappointing, but still managed to take pictures.

Friday night turned out to be great fun! Started out with only Rickson, Michael and myself going on a very casual and loosely-organized "team" outing. But the guys picked a good location -- "Wala" at Holland V (where Michael, the "di tou she" is known by his clubbing nickname "Retro Mike"), and I thoroughly enjoyed the live band music! Such a coooool place to hang out and relax, unpretentious and a welcoming atmosphere, plus.. the food was pretty good! Alicia and Yvonne joined us later, and we had so much fun dancing (very reservedly for the girls, and more stage-show style for the guys)to the music. Left only past 1 am.... What a shame that Urai, Linda, Joe, Jasmine could not join us, I am sure they will like it there.... should really make a trip there again.

Busy week..

Had a busy week, but yet I can't remember exactly what I did on each day.. familiar feeling to everyone I guess? I do remember the Fried Carrot Cake breakfast (hmmm yummy yet sinful) I had on Friday with Urai and Haresh, what a way to start Friday with!
Did our usual family cycling to Pasir Ris beach on saturday morning. The weather was so good, the sky so blue, it didn't look like Singapore! Sometimes we just need to pause and appreciate the surroundings of our homeland...
Mum finally discharged from CGH in the afternoon. Dropped by to visit her, and went over again on Sunday to help out with some housework. Also.. I finally did one session of hot yoga on Sunday morning, after such a long time..needless to say, suffered some body ache on Monday.. looking forward to the next weekend....

Ying Hong's moment of stardom

Another weekend has passed...

The much awaited annual family event -- Summer Party-- finally arrives on Saturday, in the Japanese Garden. It's a pity it rained heavily before,dampened the mood and grounds were really muddy. Still, we had fun! This is the first time that we left early though, skipped dinner and the evening concert. Sunday was another exciting day. Ying Hong was voted the winner in the K2 category in her kindergarten, and will represent the school to participate in the regional contest in Genting Highlands in September.

Bad luck strikes faster than 4D!

Twice Un-lucky? Both rounds of Mattel world wide toy recall .. we "qualified"! We have toys that are in the lists. Also, when dad is supposed to go for his heart ballooning procedure, mum suddenly suffered from drastic pain in her Colon area and got admitted to the hospital early morning yesterday, right before my dad's admission...Dad's out now, Mum still in. Visited her after work, then headed to Tampines Century Square to have a quick dinner at my favourite "Organi Cafe Xperience" before going home together with Boon Chong and Ying Hong, who attended her Yamaha Class in Tampines Mall. Weekend's has started... hope mum gets better...