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!