Water play

We brought Baby Braedon swimming at a babyspa outlet sometime back. He took time to adjust to the warm water and seem to enjoy himself after a while. My baby looked uber cute (hee.. all babies are cutesy to their mummies) when he swam in the tub. We have not made up our minds whether to sign up for the package as Baby Brae was grumpy after his swim. Hmm.. we may bring him back in a few months time..

My baby swims

Who placed the rubber duckie on me, mummy?

A long long weekend

Took 2 days of annual leave to rest for 5 days this week ( Thursday to Monday.. hee). Its a welcomed rest. Gotta clear my leave before baby comes.

Feels good to sleep till the sun shines brightly outside the homeland. To pop some movies and soapy korean dramas into the disc player. To just walk about in the shopping malls. To forget the stressfulness of work. A short respite before the demands of motherhood sets in full time. Even had time to cook pancakes for brekkie today. Life's good.

Turning 30

Gosh, I'm turning thirty in a few days. The past decade has flew by so very fast. Graduated from Uni, got my first job, first boyfriend (the dearie) whom i married, got our own place, travelled to Europe and Japan, started my second job and now expecting my little one.

Time flies and it takes great effort to maintain ties with the friends i so cherish. I so hope the next ten years will be wonderful as well. Had high tea today at Fullerton Hotel's The Courtyard with Fen. Hee.. scones with cream and jam makes moi a happy babe. So good to catch up with friends.. Birthday celebrations these days are subtle and without fanfare. Feels good to catch up with the good friends.. The countdown to the big 3 zero has began.

He's Five

The nephew turns 5 this week and his parents had a mini celebration of sorts for him at their place. A simple gathering with close family and friends.

The baby has grown into a fine little boy, still so very cute and so very lovable. My little one will have ready playmates.. i sure hope i have the energy to organise such celebrations for our baby.

Brunch Weekend

Its Brunch galore this weekend as me and dearie had brekkie at Swensons before heading for my medical appointment on Saturday. Value for monies brekkie..

This was followed by brekkie at Boomarang with the babes on Sunday. Buttermilk pancakes.. yums. Yup, I've been into having late breakfast recently.. Hee.

Day out with Fen

Celebrated Fen's birthday with an outing to Vivo City on Sat. Mango Cake at Secret Recipe (They were out of White Choco Macadamia.. sobs) followed by some shopping. We din manage to catch SATC 2.. the tixs were sold out for the 3 shows! We ended the day with Dinner at.. *Drum roll*.. ha ha.. JPot lor.. Moi and not very creative with food choices.. ;p

Pork Ribs Soup and Laksa Soup Base

Tea time- Mango Cake

A Wedding and Brekkie

Was busy last Sat with the Sec Galfriend's wedding. Woke up bright and early and travelled all the way to the West to her place. She only had 2 jiemeis. Both of which are married.. coz she's the last in the group to get married..Hee.

The groom only had one xiongdi. Wha, so its a rather easy affair. She had her tea ceremony at her place before the whole entourage moved to her new place in the East for the second round of tea ceremony. Wha..the bride had 3 outfit changes during the ceremony.

It was the church wedding thereafter. A very fast event, i must say. A simple ceremony attended only by immediate family and a few friends. This was followed by dinner. Hee.. tits a long day.

Had brekkie @ Graze with the babes on Sunday. It meant more travelling to the West! Brekkie was great manz.. although i din really like my dish which had quite abit of avocado mixed with feta cheese. We ended the meal with the dessert platter. It feels good, meeting up with the galfriends, especially for brunch. Gotta meet up with the fres more often =)

Dessert Platter

Jinny's Hash Brown

Han's Eggs Ben

Hui's order -Omelette

My Brekkie

Weekend of Cakes

Its the dearie's 32nd birthday last Saturday. We had Thai food with the family and spend Sat shopping. The little nephew decorated a cake just for his dear uncle. Wee! We even had rather good mango dessert at the bugis area. We enjoy simple things in life, especially my heartlander hubby!

Dearie's Birthday cake decorated by little Javen

Sunday was little Aloysius and Charlotte's 1st year celebration. More cake! Check out the pretty Noah's Ark themed cake that Qian got for the little babes. So pretty! So many cakes this weekend of mine..

Its Noah's Ark (Cake) ..

This weekend

Most weekends are spent sleeping these days ( more updates on the reason why soon). But I managed to meet Fen, Wen and Cecilia after work on Friday nite for dinner at the Bugis area (Liang Seah St). We had steamboat at Xian De Lai and dessert at a dessert place a few doors down. ( I still like ah chew desserts which is opposite Xian De Lai). These days, i dun eat much for mains, but i sure luv my desserts..Hee!

Also, met up with the babes for dinner on Sat at Orchard Central. The mall's pretty quiet for a sat nite.. i feel its probably due to complex layout of the place. We had dinner at Heaven's Loft. Great place for chilling out..since the restaurant has a outdoor section which over looks Somerset. We ended the meal with dessert at fruit paradise. The fruit tarts are good manz. Will definitely try the tarts at the other outlets. Slurp. Feels good, meeting up with the babes.

Its been a good weekend. Its challenging times ahead .. ;p

3 Days Already??

Gosh! You mean 3 days have passed already?! The long weekend came and is gonna be over soon. We've been sleeping late and waking late. Relishing the moments of simply doing nothing. The days passed in a blur.. We celebrated the MIL's birthday at a Zhi Cha restaurant nearby on Friday, plus trips to both the parents' place. The mommie was doing this qingming ceremony thingy today and we popped by. I really need to spend more time with the mommie. I so wish that she would move nearer to us. *Signz*

I think I'm having long weekend withdrawal symptoms and dreading work tomorrow. Pondering the meaning of a purposeful existence. Is work the end all and be all? Perhaps I'm simply overwhelmed having to cope with 2 portfolios in this transitional period at the workplace. *Aiz* I sure hope things pend out well...

Making Tiramisu

I was at Vivo City some time back and got some lady fingers biscuits ( Savoiardi biscuits) at Candy Empire. So, moi decided to try making Tiramisu. Managed to get the requisite Mascarpone at NTUC Finest, plus some brandy and cocoa powder. So, I followed a rather simple recipe. The dessert was yummy, although the lady fingers could be more well-soaked in the coffee mixture. I used very little of the lady fingers biscuits and the cheese mixture was spread rather thickly too. Will try to improve with a more complex recipe the next round. Buts..Hee, the dearie likes it!!

This Sat

We managed to check out the Playground at Big Splash with the mommie. We had claypot cuisine at Claypot Fun. The food was alrights, but it din quite meet our expectations , although it could be that we had set our standards high as its a restaurant managed by Jumbo.

After lunch, we popped over to the neighbouring Old Town Cafe for drinks and some snacks. Mommie liked the "Ipoh" styled food served at the Cafe, so I gathered that we will be back to the area for more food. The place was not as crowded as I thought it'll be, and we strolled along, checking out the many stalls selling a great variety of items, new and old.

Went home to catch some movies, catch a few episodes of my current fav Korea drama and ended the day with a short trip to Ion with the sis-in-law and the 2 cute babies.

Its been a nice day, not having to worry about work. Or work at the new place. A rightful decision which was made 1 year ago to take the plunge, I'm certain. If not, I'll prob be struck at work (old workplace), managing the anticipated yet unavoidable surge in demand for our services, for this entire weekend. The perils of customer service. Plus, the crazy 8am to 9pm work weeks. Eeeps.. Now that's a rather scary thought. (Although I still miss the old pay.. ;p)

Packed Weekend

We had a fun-filled learning journey at work on friday. The theme was "Style & Glamour" and moi was roped in for the bags portion despite the fact that I'm no bag expert. Phewz, managed to hoodwink my way thru. We went to Vivo City for lunch and the practical part of the learning journey! It was kinda fun lunching out with the chaps at work. We had great fun walking round the place.

Met up with the sec school fres thereafter. We had seafood dinner at Marina Square followed by drinks at the lounge of Marina Mandarin. I so luv the place and ambiance, despite the pricey drinks. Eeeps..we even had 2 rounds of drinks. The company was great as well. We had interesting conversation, despite not meeting up often. This is representative of friendship through the years. Got home around 12.30 am. Glurp, so unused to late nites out..... :)

Had the last steamboat dinner of this CNY with the babes at the homeland on Saturday. Of course, cute Baby Kayson was present! The Mother-In-Law was wonderful. She helped moi prepare the items for the dinner, so it was a breeze. There was even yums lychee martini cake from Pine Garden which Jinny brought and a Cienna 2008 ,which was a gift from Hui for Christmas. I enjoy the sparking sweetness of the wine, although it was too sweet for Jinny and Noven. Its been a great weekend thus far. Meeting up with the fres. Something that should be done more often.

Lychee Martini Cake

Bright Red Hair

Took half a day off to visit the hair stylist. Had no inspiration, so left my hair in the hands of my stylist. Andrew was clearly more inspired than moi. He gave moi flaming red hair with slight curls for volume. Can't say whether I liked or disliked the hair. Its clearly loud.. literally Ronald McDonald's kind of red ( which the dearie teases me about) but different. Andrew says the colour will fade to a copper red. I sure hope so.

Well.. hair styles are quite cyclic in nature.. I get flat straight hair, colour >> change a colour (red) and get some curls >> goes for flat hair and change another colour again >> decides to get some changes>> so the cycle goes on. Yupz, so its now the red hair (uncle Mc style), slight curls for the new year lah.

Its a subdued weekend.. went for a baby shower..the dearie colleague's on Sat evening with shopping after. Stayed home on sunday, with throbbing headache and tried accessing the work email without success. Still can't figure out why the vpn failed. Aiz.. sure hope the connection problem can be resolved soon, so that I can do a day of working from home next month.. :)

Porridge Goodness

He rustle up some porridge for dinner tonight. He throwed in some dried scallops to broil the rice with. And added some prawns and fish cakes with minced meat. Flavoured with fish sauce and a bit of pepper. And its our dinner tonight. Just simple boiled rice, dearie-styled. With the both of us being still sickly with sore throat. We've been slurping up on soupy food the whole weekend.. and I luv this simple meal the most.

Also, feels accomplished today..because I managed to iron the whole couch full of clothes which has been seating there for some time. Happie housewifey kinda day.. :)

Sore Throat

Been nursing a sore throat since Friday. Plus a runny nose. The phlegm is reddish yellowish the first day. So moi has been drinking loads of herbal tea, chrysanthemum tea, and honey suckle tea. Plus the occasional coca cola with salt and manuka honey. Yah, I know.. i still prefer folk remedies than knocking on the doc's door.

Sure hope this blot of illness with pass soon. Been staying home this weekend.. no Chinese New Year shopping for moi. The next workday starts tomorrow..and moi have not recovered yet. Gulp.. more herbal tea and honey,please.

Steam-Boaty Goodness

We went in Vivo City for shopping on Saturday and decided to check out the JPot Outlet there. Been wanting to try the food there, since I'm a Jumbo Card holder and they have been sending fliers on the new food concepts. JPot serves hotpots, with various soup bases that is quite unique.

We had the dinner set menu C with the Bak Kut Teh and Superior Broth soup bases. A rather yums meal which moi rather enjoyed. Definitely a place I would bring the family. Although the bill can be quite heffy if you choose the choicer "hot pot" items and the quantity is not alot.

Its also quite a shiok to be able to concoct your own dipping sauce to accompany the cooked food. Plus, with a serene view of the harbour and the Sentosa Resort, whats there not to like. Already salivating and looking forward to the next hotpot meal. Slurp!

First Baking Attempt for the Year

Saw a recipe for cupcakes from a blog which i read. A friend's friend's blog. The recipe looked quite simple, so i decided to give it a try tonight. The good thing about having the necessary ingredients is that I do not have to pick up loads of stuff whenever I feel like baking.

Its a recipe which used a lot more eggs and butter, giving the finished product a more cakey consistency. The dearie liked the cupcakes. The best of the lot so far, he says. He also tried twigging the receipe abit, by adding some coffee granules into one of the cupcakes. The finished product tasted quite mocca like, and surprising good as well.

I tried one piece and kept remembering the amount of sugar and butter which went into the mixture. Urrgghh.. I guess I'm one who rather cook den eat. At least till I've lost the extra weight I've piled on in the past year. Its a good start, I wanna do some cookies for the upcoming lunar new year. And maybe make some chocolate truffles as well. Let's see how it goes. Quite an accomplished day, this Sunday of mine.

Extra Shelves

We went to Ikea for lunch with the mommie. With the new year coming, we also picked up new items for the homeland. Extra storage space in the study room, where we can keep our bits and pieces and wat nots.

This time round, we did the assembling of the shelves ourselves. Am impressed by the dearie. He managed to do up the item, despite not being a 'handyman' type of guy and the lack of professional tools. Although he made a major mistake in the process ( he's still kinda devastated by the flaw), the final product fits in with the deco of our studyroom and now holds our files, boxes etc. The saving grace? the flaw can be concealed most of the time.

So happy, as the extra storage space means more shelves for moi books!! Try and spot the imperfection in our new shelves.. ;p

Chinese Meals

Been having quite a bit of Chinese meals recently. From traditional teochew food at Swa Garden with its yummy cold crabs to tonight's dinner. Yup, met up with the babes tonight for dinner. At an air-conditioned 'Zhi Char' place at Bukit Timah. We had curry fish head, black pepper crabs, fried prawns with oats, fish slices with ginger, vegs etc. A simple zhi char meal that's rather yums.

Curry fish head

Black Pepper Crabs

It was a long overdue meet up with the gal pals complete with the husbands, boyfriend and little one (baby Kayson). I even managed to drag the dear hubby along. We dun meet up often, with our busy schedules. But it feels good when we do. Oh, we really should meet up more often. Otherwise I'll feel like a fuddy duddy soon to be middle-aged donkey.

New Year resolution, to meet up with family and friends more. Learn cooking. Travel more. Exercise more. Carpe Diem.