Our day out

We decided to go to the library after receiving a fine...of $0.30. It's been quite a while anyway. It turned out to be a nice, relaxing day although a little tiring.

We could take forever at lunch (but I still had to hurry Meredith or else she would take hours!). But she was really good taking care of Reegan while I tried not to wolf down my Vietnamese noodle, singing loudly at the food court entertaining him.

We could take forever looking at the interesting things in the mall. It's been a very very long time. But we were very disciplined. We did not buy anything, except the Pocky at the supermarket, our favourite snack, which was going at a very low price.

We also took forever at the library. And after so long, Meredith and Reegan finally got their membership cards...from the machine! We certainly had no problem choosing 12 books!

Meredith took forever at her Water Art. I had no more excuses this time. So she could finally sit there and very carefully finish her art.



There was no rush...no pressurizing "Are you done?", "How long will you take?" or "Hurry up."

What a day! We should do this more often.

Ten years...of many precious moments

I knew I had to get this when I saw it at the shop. It shows where we are now...ten years on...Meredith at 5 years old and Reegan at 6 months, still an infant-in-arms. And it came with a tag..."Thankful for my family"...indeed I am so very grateful for that. I just wanted to be happy on this day...and it was great! We had a full of fresh, juicy, sweet, refreshing oysters dinner at the Shangri-la. We had to cheers to Meredith's 5 years whenever we clanked the glasses to our ten years. Meredith just wanted to be fair.

Are you crawling?

We think Reegan is getting ready to crawl. He's in the crawling position a lot these days, and can nudge his way to the desired objects.
















And Meredith has been doing a great job taking care of him while Mummy cooks or clean up. Reegan certainly enjoys the silly acts Big Sister puts up for him. Meredith can always make her brother laugh out loud. I am so thankful Meredith loves her brother so much.

Today also, Meredith received an email from her best friend, someone she'd expected who would write to her. She promptly replied the email and sent her a photo they took together on Father's Day.

I am growing up!

Reegan is 28 weeks and yesterday, I spotted his 2 front teeth! Wow!

He is also beginning to be able to sit on his own for longer periods of time.

Snack time!

We've been making quite a few things these few days. But we have to be quick in all these or else Reegan will protest being left alone.

We visited a local baker's store and bought a few tools to make some local snacks. We were excited to try a few things.

I love pineapple tarts, but just the pastry and not so much the pineapple paste. So we only made the pastry part from the recipe. This one is of a better recipe which claimed to be melt-in-your-mouth pineapple tarts. I was glad I found this recipe. It's simpler and healthier and its got the right texture I like.

Here it is...unglazed, but yummelicious....!

We also tried Ang Ku Kueh. And I explained to Meredith how this kueh got its name. She thinks it's silly! Anyway, it was quite fun knocking out the kueh from the mould and then see one of my favourite snack there staring at me. Quite unbelievable at first. I used to drive all the way to Jalan Bukit Merah to buy it when I have the craving. But now I can make my own. Just that I need to find a more natural ingredient for the colouring, don't really feel good using the articficial colouring.


Inspired by a friend, I tried making mooncakes. I did quite a bit of researching before my attempt. I think the pastry part was ok but I did not like the ready-made filling I bought from the store. But anyway, I have got a few mooncakes from friends and relatives. So I think that's enough of the mooncakes for this year.

These are my mooncakes, from a traditional mould and a Hello Kitty mould...

Just a reminder...

Meredith has been patiently waiting for Daddy to bring back her printer from the office. She came up with the idea of putting a note in Daddy's bag. She drew up this picture as a note to remind Daddy.


Here, Daddy is wearing jeans. Yes, Daddy always wears his jeans to the office.
He is using the computer. Working for Daddy means using the computer.
The 'lips' on the top corner? That's the air-conditioner. Daddy always needs the air-con when he is working.

Someone is watching and observing you Daddy!

Are you guys going to the ZHOO?

We went to the zoo, the Singapore Zoo. The weather was too kind. It was cool and breezy in the morning and rained most of the afternoon. We had a leisurely breakfast at Casuarina before driving up further to the zoo, just me, my sister and the kids.

Meredith took notes of the names of the animals. It was helpful.



She was always confused between the panda, koala bear and polar bear. When I showed her pictures of the polar bear and she said koala bear, she could check at her notebook. Very good!

We took lotsa of pictures and here are some interesting ones...

This little fella had just pee-ed and poo-ed...ya, in mid-air, and now he is airing his armpits. Must have had the best release of the day!



These two rhino have been fighting and pushing each other since we arrived. Just don't bump into me...yucks!



And we heard the lion's roar. Wow, how majestic! The King of the jungle indeed!




The elephants sure work hard for their food. They are trying to get the bananas in the pail to fall out. We saw this when we stayed on after they told us the show was cancelled. We think this was already good enough to watch!



It rained most of the afternoon...boo boo...and all the scheduled animal shows were cancelled.



They said come October, this amphitheater is going to be torn down to make way for a weather-proof dome. What a good idea!

Last day of school

Today is Meredith's last day at school. We made the decision about a month ago thinking that things has firmed up, but obviously there are now changes...again. I do not know when things can be finalized. It is really difficult living in this uncertainty. We do not know when nor how to get ready. It is very difficult...and somewhat frustrating!

Meredith started full-day childcare when she was 18 months. She still wears the same uniform and we only need to upgrade her t-shirt up a size once. Here's some pictures of her when she was younger...



She made some keep-in-touch cards for her friends. We printed them from the computer but she painstakingly cut and personally autographed every one of them with her drawing.


Meanwhile I have to plan how to occupy her days at home. I have some ideas, but we'll see how it works out...

Pearly shells...by the ocean...

Meredith loves this song. And for those of you who have heard it, its set as the ringtone of my mobile, with Meredith singing it.


These shells are another of those things that brings a big smile to my face.

We were at Bintan, for a rather desperate Chinese New Year getaway. Those days when I was still at school, I just couldn't wait to go away for a quick break.

So we were by the beach and Meredith was just about 2 or 3 years old. She picked up these shells and said the biggest one is Daddy, the medium one Mummy and the tiniest is her.

How sweet.

I promised to frame them up. I will, one day and soon.

This is NOT a mushroom

We were doing a little packing and a few things brought back fond memories.

One of them is this little cutesy. Do you remember this Aunty Wendy?

We must be at Coffee Bean with a few friends lamenting about the realities of life...We were then having some coffee and cakes. This little mushroom came with the cake I ordered and we had a good time figuring out if this was edible.

We examined it, smelled it, hit it, even attempted to bite it, thinking that it could be a candy since it came with the cake... all this, to the bewilderment of the waiter, who must be shocked when he saw what we were trying to do. He promptly warned us that it's NOT edible and is just for decorative purpose.

We all had a good laugh after that. Ha ha ha!...and yes, how embarrassing...

It's time for a good dinner

It's been quite a while since we have a satisfying eat-out dinner. Yesterday, we were to meet Daddy at City Hall but the horrible traffic jam and long queue to the car park simply put us off.

We heard about the revamped Dempsey Hill and decided to head there. Parking was equally competitive, and the place was indeed transformed. The time we were there buying furnitures just about under a year ago, we could still see some roosters and hens and their little chicks roaming about. Today its just house and house of upbeat and posh restaurants.

We were at CA California for a sandwich dinner. Its in the same house as Ben n Jerry's. Are we lucky or what...last night was the first night they serve dinner. Otherwise, they are open only for lunch, till 3:30pm. The high ceiling, fans and simple decor make the already air-conditioned place airy and very pleasant.

We ordered a burger set and Meredith had her own miniature kid's Hamburger Hamburger. We had to place our order at the counter although there were abundant waiters. They say its Californian style.

We love restaurants that serve bread before the main course. And this one does. And the warm bread was very good.

Everything we ordered was good ...unpretentiously good! The beef patty was 'homemade'. It wasn't the MacDonald's full-of-fats patty. And we love the soup. It's called the Ferry Plaza Garden Soup, which, in simpler terms, is called pumpkin soup.

The service was also superb. The waiting staff were friendly and were eager to tell us more about their food and store.

Meredith dropped her burger and got it replaced ...no questions asked...and not that we asked for it. The waiter took his own initiative to give us a new set. Bravo on that! And to make Meredith happier, there was also a play room for kids...with the big slide as the main attraction.

All in all, I would give the place and food 5 big stars! On the receipt, it says The Ranch Home, The Happy People Co. Pte Ltd. All of us came out happy and very satisfied indeed. We will go back there again for sure. What a HAPPY dinner!

Send in the Clown

This is what Reegan wore to sleep tonight. Meredith thinks he looks like a clown because the pants is too high. That's very true! Clowns always wear their pants high to look silly. So why does Mummy wear Reegan's pants so high??

And here...after storing it for three days! I was getting a little worried. And then it finally came. Good that it came while he was standing up. It was so overwhelming the diaper could not take in all. Phew! What a GREAT relief!

Warm, rich and creamy! Bubbles included...Anyone??

It's nice to meet you!

We were all at Jessie's wedding last weekend. Was a good excuse to dress up a little...do up my hair, put on nice clothes etc...It was nice meeting up and catching up with my college friends. Some of them I have not met for 14 years! Wow! Everyone's doing really well. We observed that its one of those rare wedding dinners where guests actually stay on to chat after the last dish instead of rushing off like so many other dinners we've been to.

Here's a picture of the kids: At the forefront, Lynette's new baby boy, born a month earlier than Reegan, Oliver.

Welcome to our home

We were wondering why people were all taking photographs of the wall. When we decided to check it out, we were pleasantly surprised to find ourselves in the Simpsons' living room.


Looks like only Lisa is interested in having a picture with Meredith. She is the only one sitting nicely and looking at the camera.

Look at Bart! Aint behaving!

And nice hair there Marge! Unbelievable!

Clipetty Clop

We went to see the horses. Some kids were having their lessons when we were there. They looked really graceful riding the horses.
















Can you spot which is a female and which a male horse?

The one on the left is the female one. See how feminine this gentle mare looks as compared to her male counterpart.

Check out the way she stands...dainty!

















Didn't manage to get their names but we know Meredith was riding on Ninja... What a name!







We had a lovely time together... sigh, cept for the hot and humid weather of course...

We know its NDP

The TV's been trying to tell us how best ever the NDP this year is going to be. I've always enjoyed going to the stadium with the boys and watch the show LIVE! Have been doing it the past 3 years! This year how ever best it would be, I get to watch the flying pass of the national flag...LIVE too! ...at the comfort of my own home! And its been for the past few weeks! Ha ha ha!



I usually can see it big but this one is taken after taking a while hunting down the camera...

He's got the whole world in his hands!

We have a very upbeat version of this song in our system and everyone loves listening to it. But this is now also apt to describe what Reegan's been up to.

He's discovered that his tiny thumb tastes really good!

And sometimes he has a feast...

Sometimes he would observe and see what the toy can offer...

before venturing into it...

He multitasks sometimes...

And this is what happens when Mummy leaves the room for a second....

he'd lost his hand!

A holiday by the beach...

We needed a holiday, a time away together. We decided to book ourselves into a beach resort at Penang. Our stay there coincided with the Middle East holiday season, so there were lotsa of them, even some of the signs in the hotel were in Arabic. The ladies were very fond of Reegan and would just pick him up to kiss and play.

The resort was nice, the staff were very helpful and friendly. We like the hotel although it’s a bit pricey. Sunset just by your balcony…isn’t it beautiful…











We were also impressed with the breakfast…freshly baked warm croissant, my favourite!

And freshly squeezed juices!

The first day was exploration out of what I read from the internet. We went to Gurney Drive and enjoyed the local food and did a little shopping.

Second day, we had fun with the water. Meredith enjoyed the slide. I had my go. And hey, it was really scary the first few tries because you literally just slip down really fast, like those roller coaster ride that stops you from breathing. But Meredith was not even afraid even the first time. I think she is all grown up, and I am getting old...

Meredith and Daddy also went jetskiing. Lucky them!

After a disastrous dinner, we asked the staff to recommend some places the locals go, no tourist trap. We were recommended Jalan Selamat for lunch but the place would be too hot for the kids. By chance, we spotted a crowded coffee shop selling chicken rice. We were lucky cos we found out later we were indeed at the best chicken rice stall in town! It’s the Goh Thiew Chik Hainan Chicken Rice at Chulia Street, founded by Mr Goh himself and now run by his three sons. It was very good!

Not forgetting also the famous Penang Tau Sar Piah which I have been dreaming about. We were told to go to Him Heang at Jalan Burma. Lotsa of Penang aunties were buying by the dozens. It was really good though. The store did not even have a chance to put the baked piah on the shelf! It was straight from the oven to the customers. We had to queue for a while to get ours. And when we have it, it was freshly baked, still warm from the oven!

Dinner was just as herbalicious. We went to a seafood place at Jalan Tokong near Gurney. The best dish has got to be the drunken prawns. Think there were about 20 fresh juicy prawns well soaked in XO and herbs…all for RM30!

We stopped by Malacca for a night before heading back home. All the hotels were fully booked so we paid a bit more for a club room. It was luxurious! We loved the room! And the view was awesome!

It was five days of listening to the Malaysian accent and almost getting a hang of it, and trying to comprehend their bizarre dress sense...but more importantly, it was a relaxing time together with the kids.

Here, the kids... and Reegan with his newest toy - his feet!