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...

An eventful weekend...

Last weekend was good... went to places I have not been for a long time. Went to the Botanic Gardens in the late afternoon on Saturday for an evening stroll.. fed bread to fishes and swans..
and it was a breezy evening, quite magical! Sunday was the free concert day at the Esplanade, Boon Chong is always very keen to have the little girl watch him perform, but Yinghong fell asleep after the 2nd piece (which is very unusual, she could sit through a whole classical Piano concert), woke up once in the middle to clap and back to sleep, till I woke her up for the last piece. The concert theme was to celebrate our National Day, so there were many light hearted local tunes with Symphonic band arrangements... familiar tunes like "Di Tanjong Katong", "Geylang", "Singapura","Stand Up for Singapore" etc..the crowd loved it, so did Clarice who's at a Band concert for the first time. After that we took a stroll to the Merlion park before heading home...Enjoy the pictures!

A wonderful Friday night out ..

Finally had a chance to join the girls & gal for a friday night out -- celebrate Joe's birthday in advance! It's cool that Yinghong's Yamaha class just happen to have a rest day and will only resume next friday. The dinner at Lingzhi was good, the one that surprises and impressed me most is the "golden spinach" soup that comes in a bamboo cylindrical bowl and has a hint of seaweed and slight mint cool (not sure if this comes from the "zhusheng" or mint were added).
We also took lots of picture, not a surprise at all with this lot of picture crazy young ladies. Joe and Yvonne were hilarious doing the "Twin Star" pose, but these two were instantly quiet right after the dinner when they got tooooo full.. so funny. We then headed to say hello to Eepin and his friend, Liang, at Mama Africa, and looked for a place to settle down for a round of drinks. It was fabulous sitting by the river at Penny Black bar at boat quay. Joe bought us drinks and night was so beautiful we took more pictures. I really have not appreciated my phone till last night, this Cybershot can really take good pictures! BUT ... I don't have the "Photofix" feature that Yvonne has in her phone which is the exact same photo.. hmm.. have to go upgrade the software. I can see Joe was very happy and touched, and I truly wish all her birthday wishes come true!

We got the school !

There was one big thing last week that I forgot update in my blog, that is we successfully enrolled Ying Hong into Elias Park Primary School! 108 application for 117 vacancies, no balloting needed. Can't imagine my baby is growing up so quickly, primary one next year!
Saturday was the last day of my diet! And the verdict of my 7-day diet? Shaved off 3 kg! I actually cheated a bit on this last day -- my neighbour invited us to attend their barbecue dinner downstairs, so we went. I actually broke the diet a bit and had a few chicken satays! The kids all love the barbecue satays and sausages.. took a picture of Ying Hong and Clarice.. with the sausages. Saturday was fun, I also brought Ying Hong to Takashimaya in the afternoon to buy a party dress that looks like a princess gown for her performance on 19th August, it was on 50% discount! On Sunday, my newly found lightness of being was challenged again... my mum threw a buffet lunch party to welcome some relatives from China; my brother who's working in Guangzhou is also back here for a short vacation since last friday. I happily indulged in all the tasty local food at the buffet (with guilt, of course).... errh, but I did cycled in the morning and did some brisk walking..?...
Promise ....this week, I will eat very sensibly during weekday so that my dieting efforts won't go wasted.

A Marvellous Friday....

Last night Ying Hong was very upset after the news reported that some Fisher Price's toys need to be recalled. She was afraid she will have to return her "Dora Talking House" toy. So after reading the details in the Chinese "Wo Bao" this morning, I called her quickly to let her know it's only the toys produced after April 19th that needs to be recalled and since her toy was gotten before that she will get to keep it. Of course the little girl was overjoyed!
Lunch with colleagues at the Marmalade Pantry in Chevron House (I didn't even know Caltex House has become Chevron House) was fun, and the food good too! I adhere to my diet -- grilled chicken and salad... yummy! . The cup cakes seem popular, Grace and Eric even reserved an "Elvis" before they started their meal. "Elvis" is a chocolate flavoured cake with peanut butter cream topping ... will try it next time... I am sure I will return to this bistro again. Arriving at Tampines MRT station after work reminded me of how much I hate some Singaporeans (individuals and organizations). Why? Some people are always pushing and rustling, while others so oblivious and always seem to take their own sweet time. Can't they ever learn to stand on the left hand side of the escalator and leave the RHS for people overtaking? I think the MRT corp needs to install blinking billboard spelling out those instructions "Keep Left! Right hand side for overtaking only!" above the escalators! These sluggish and selfish people cause such a congestion on the platform... it would take you 3 minutes just to get from the platform down to the gantry on the ground floor ! I guess the only way to make sure people obey such simple rule would be to plant a microchip into every Singaporean at birth, then set up ERP-like gantry point everywhere to detect a breach of law. Like when they stand stationery on the right hand side of escalator, the gantry will beep to record the details, or when someone litters or spit or jay-cross etc... then the government may deduct the cumulative sum of fine directly from each person's bank or CPF account at the end of each month!!! Hahaha .. this definitely sounds like a good suggestion!
well... if I choose to ignore these people and not let them affect me, life is still not too bad..especially when it's a friday. Weekend is here!!!!

My 7-day Diet plan

Thanks to Angela, the 7-day diet plan she recommended to me seems to be working...I have lost 2 kg since Sunday! Can't remember exactly where she got this from but it was supposedly a plan developed by a big corporation for the benefit of its employees. From the types of food, I presume its a combination of detox and low-carbohydrates diet. Thought I will be very miserable in the first 2 days, but I got by quite alright. It's the 4th day --- today--- that I dread, 'cos it's Bananas all day!!! I don't even normally take more than 2 bananas in a year! Anyway, attached the diet plan here in case some of my friends are keen to try.
Day1 : All fruits except bananas. Strongly recommended to consume lots of melons, esp. watermelons
Day2: All vegetables. Encouraged to eat until you are stuffed with all the raw or boiled vegetables of your choice. No limit on the amt or type. You can start Day 2 with a large potato for breakfast & top it with one pat of butter
Day3: Mixture of fruits & vegetables of your choice. Any amt any qty. NO bananas & potato.
Day4: Bananas & milk. Eat as many as 8 bananas & drink 3 glasses of milk
Day5: Eat 500g portion of lean beef & combine with 8 whole tomatoes. You must increase your water intake by 1 litre.
Day6: Unlimited amt of beef and vegetables
Day7: Brown rice, fruit juices & all the vegetables you can consume
You may repeat the program as often as you like however it is suggested that you rest for 3 days between each repetition. You may substitute fish or fowl for beef. You must drink at least 10 glasses of water per day. You must abstain from alcohol.
***** Happy Dieting!*******