A Happy Saturday..

What a Relief it was to received the sms from eve with positive news.

On Thursday morning, i found out from adrian that there was a little 'scare' from Eve's gynae.

Luckily, all ends well and little Junior LT is doing just fine. Well, road to motherhood is never easy and only when the little baby is delivered, then can the mother be relief. That's is why people always said "Mothers are the Greatest".. : )

Saturday morning, brought anthea and anders to the playground to get some morning sun, this is also to allow anders to sweat a bit, so he can 'de-tox'. His temperature is back to normal and he is active as ever.

I received a call from the new childcare centre to inform me to pick up their enrolment forms as they are now cleared of waiting list. So comes 02 January 2007, the 2 A's junior will be in new school.

We went over to lao ma's place for a nice meal of hainanese chicken rice...yummy !!

After that, anthea went to 716 and anders went back to home for his usual after nap.

Eve has craving for western food, so we went to Vines for dinner. Vines has pretty good steaks with baked potatoes. (ps: when i was expecting anthea, i also had strong cravings for western food, esp baked potatoes..; P )

Well, dinner was quiet affairs but still enjoyable with all our loves ones. Terence and Cherry is in Hong Kong doing their leisure cum works, so hopefully, we will get some nice goodies from them next week...hee.

Sunday, 29 October :

Usual Sunday routine. In the afternoon, decided to bake a Marbled Chocolate-Peanut Butte cake. It turned out average. I will bring it to the office tomorrow to get feedbacks.

In the evening, we went by to Golden Mile complex to stock up instant noodles for Adrian's upcoming oversea attachment. We bought about 10 packets of tomyam noodles. (These noodles are recommended by our aunty Soon Pit,who is a Thai).

After that, dinner was at Liang Kee, one of Dad's favourite dinner outlet. As usual, we were not disappointed with the food. After dinner, the 2 A's had nice ice cream by the river.

A Beautiful Sunday night.

Movie Nite, 27 October 2006

Thanks God It's Friday...


Today took 1/2 day off because it is the company 1st time ever movie night. So i had to arranged logistic of the children.


Anders had been running slight fever for these 2 days..oops...hopefully not the result of zoo waterplay.. ; P think he might had got the chilled.


So after work, came back home around 12.30pm and brought him to the clinic. Well, doctor prescribed the usual paracetemol and leftose (anti-inflammation medicine).I will need to monitor his temperature for another 2 days before starting him on anti-biotics, if necessary.


After that, went home for an hour of power nap, to geared myself for the BIG event "Movie Nite".


This is the 1st time the company is having such an event for the staff, as an Employee Engagement Programme. The movie nite includes tickets for 2 persons, a popcorn and 2 drinks, so quite a treat for us.





The movie that we watched was titled " The Guardian" starring Kevin Costner and Ashton Kutcher. The storyline is about a USA coast guard rescuer (KC) who on one mission lost a good team of people, became a instructor in the school and trained a group of new recruits to become very good coast guard rescuers. (AK) Ending part was a bit sad but i guess it is quite the norm.


"When lives are on the Line, sacrifice Everything".




After the movie, went to fetch anthea from mom's place. Reached home around 10.30pm.
(I believed this will be adrian and mine final movie for the year 2006. Daddy will be going oversea for his work attachment next week and will be back only near X'mas time.)


Another eventful day of the week.

Family Outing to the Zoo, 24 Oct 2006

Today is Hari Raya Puasa holiday, the Aces Family decided to go on a Zoo outing. (Mom managed to apply her corporate zoo pass, so we got free entry to the zoo - what a saving $$ ..thanks mom !! )

As this may be Siti final Hari Raya in Singapore, so i decided to give her a day OFF, she went out with her friend, Tuti.

In the morning , I went to the market and bought breakfast and also prepared lunch boxes for the 2A's junior outing.

We arrived at the zoo about 10 am and started the tour. Anders was very excited when he saw so many animals as this is his 1st trip to the zoo.

He was especially happy when he saw the Crocodiles and Snakes. This is because he has been seeing these animals on Animal Planets on cable vision. This is the 1st time he saw the real animals. (ps: for the sake of few people that i know who has phobia against seeing snakes, i have not put in photos of them..hee ;P )

We saw many animals and these animals were active today, compared to the few visits before, so i am really happy for anders that he managed to capture these animals today. Anders was so cute, he kept saying he want to go into the enclosed area to see the animals. Anthea has no such requests before.

We had our lunch stop around 12 noon, the 2A's junior ate their lunch boxes prepared by me. Daddy and mommy had KFC...hee : ) Well, it was like a pinic session, so we enjoyed all the food.

After lunch, the 2A's junior had a chance to get some waterplay as mommy brought along their swimsuit. The weather was very nice today, NO HAZE...Thanks Goodness. So both of them enjoyed themselves very much at the water area. We gave them about 1/2 hour play, then had a quick shower and continued with the zoo tour.

The few animals that we saw after the waterplay were Polar Bears, Camels, and white Rhinos. So that ended our zoo outing and both the children said. " Bye Bye Zoo...see you again". (which i believe we will be there again)

Finally, Anthea requested that we had ice cream before leaving. So we had Ben & Jerry's Mix and Match - 3 flavors. (chunky monkey, brownie and cherry garcia) Yummy... : 0

After the ice-cream, we left the zoo. I felt very happy as this is a very eventful day for the Aces Family. Looking forward to more outings.

Get Your Own! View Slideshow

Happy Weekends, 21 - 22 Oct 2006

DEEPAVALI Holiday, 21 October 2006


On Saturday morning, the children woke up pretty early and watched children cartoon on Kids Central. As it was a holiday, so the programme started early.


We had Lao pa famous chicken pie for breakfast and a nice cuppa. After breakfast, brought anthea and anders to the hawker centre and met up with mom / dad who were having breakfast there, after their morning visit to Waterloo Temple.

Then we went over to 716, anders started to play with those toys in the house. Mom commented that he can played toys on his own and will not disturbed others. So i hope that this will be a good sign that when he starts playgroup, he will adjust fine.


After the morning play, i brought anders home and anthea stayed on at 716, her favourite weekends home. Siti fed anders his lunch and then he went for his afternoon nap.

Adrian and myself went for lunch with lao pa, lao ma and da ge. Courtesy of lao pa small 'windfall' from 4D.. ; P We went to one of the Japanese restaurant at Robertson Quay. The food was nice and we enjoyed the meal very much.

After lunch, adrian and myself decided to watch a movie, after some shortlisting, we decided on "The Departed" because of its strong casts. Hmm...as we watched the movie, the storyline seemed to get more and more familiar...OMG!! It's the ENGLISH version of the Chinese Movie "WU JIAN DAO" starting Anday Lau and Leong Chau Wei. What a DRAMA...haha. But we enjoyed it, as well.



After the movie, we met up with mom/dad for dinner at one of our usual dinning outlet - coffee shop at AMK Ave 10, Blk 421. It served nice crab dishes and zi-char. After dinner, as usual, anthea told ye-ye that we must go 'ENJOY LIFE', so ended up at Thomson Plaza - Swenson for dessert.

We finally reached home around 10 pm. Anther busy Saturday.

Sunday, 22 Oct 2006


The usual morning marketing routine and then washed the car. After a simple lunch, i did some 'homework' on toto.. ; P


On Saturday evening, dad had given me his analysis and whole stack of toto tickets, so i need to shade all of them. Well, praying hard that 'Lady Luck' will smile upon us. As long as there is a DREAM, there is a HOPE.


In the evening, went to J8 for dinner as Eve planned to collect "Bob The Builders" tickets which i booked via her because of the HSBC Discount. Well, the 2 A's junior are looking forward to the show on 19 November 2006.


We ate at 'Din Tai Fung' and i noticed this time round, Eve's appetite is better, good for her and their Junior. Yippy!!! Now she is in her 2nd trimester, according to the book, this is the HONEYMOON Stage...hee.


After dinner, we went shopping and anthea, as usual, went for her painting session. She simply enjoyed painting.



After that, we had cakes and tea/coffee at Secret Recipe,mom requested for a cup of warm water, the waitress said they charged 50 cents for a cup. Seemed like restaurants are starting to make monies out of water...so next time, must bring our own water flask. This outlet has comfortable sofas, so we just enjoyed ourselves relaxing and catching up on some latest events happening.


After that, it was Home Sweet Home..looking forward to the week as there is another holiday..... ; 0

Midweek Thoughts - 19 October 2006

Haze...Haze and more Haze...so gloomy. Everyday see news, report PSI is above 100, so scary. But what to do...we are surrounded by GOOD NEIGHBOURS.. : P

Tuesday, 17 Oct :

Anthea was having a very bad cough, so left her at Lao Ma's house to rest. She is so happy and kept telling me that "ah po house is so nice, always have aircon". When i fetched her home, she asked me : 'mommy, did you asked ah po if i slept in the afternoon? '. My answer to her : 'Anthea, mommy did not asked ah po dat question because YOU told me you sleep in the afternoon, mommy trust YOU and YOU did not lie to mommy'. She seemed quite pleased with this...haha. She is growing to be a matured little girl,so must always give her TRUST.

Eve msn me and mentioned that went for her pregnancy Blood test, she said she nearly fainted, luckily Louis was there with her...phew!!Thank Goodness, that Louis managed to changed his departure flight to Wednesday. (ps : Eve, must eat more tonics, built up your system...remember to "jing bu"... : )

Wednesday, 18 Oct :

Louis departed Singapore in the afternoon. As we were all at work, so we did not see him off at the airport. Louis smsed us from the airport - "harlo..Going to leave..Keep in touch using skype video conference on weekends.." Well, i know for sure his presence will be missed by the Aces Family.

Till we meet again, Louis, Take Care.

Thursday, 19 Oct :

This morning, i brought Anthea to her childcare, saw a scenario and was a bit concerned. It was breakfast time. One of the teacher asked Anthea's classmate if she want to have breakfast and the girl said Yes. So the teacher asked the girl to sit at the breakfast table, then the teacher walked away to attend to another child in the class. I believed she assumed the other teacher serving the breakfast tables will give this girl her breakfast. To my rude shock, this other teacher shouted at the girl, saying : 'mary, what are you doing here, go back to your class!'
The poor girl looked so confused and walked back to the class. This is not the 1st time i witnessed this kind of happenings in this school. So i do hope that my decision to change school for anthea is right.
Just hope that the new school's teachers will be a bit more caring and loving.

Today, Adrian is on Guard Duty, so we will be home alone without daddy.
"Dear, hope you will have a peaceful night, see you home tomorrow".

Just received an email from Terence who departed for Hong Kong last night, wow, 2 uncles departed Singapore on the same day. So this weekends is really going to be quiet for us.

Busy weekends...14 & 15 October

Saturday, 14 Oct

Saturday morning hours - The Aces family and siti went to the hawker centre for breakfast , after which Siti went for her 6 months routine checkup required by MOM..soon she will be going back...how time flies. I am thankful to have engaged her as our domestic helper and i know when she returned to Indonesia, i am IN for a real testing time.

Late morning - Our new Samsung J1255 AV washing machine which we ordered from Courts last Sunday was delivered. Well, started using it on Sunday morning and so far i am happy with the funtionality.

Late afternoon, we brought Anthea to Fort Canning Park for the 12 Dancing Princess event. This is a Barbie story and it is a very beautiful story of 12 Princesses. And i simply Love their names : Ashley , Blair, Courtney, Delia, Edeline, Fallon,GEnevieve, Haley, Isle, Janessa, Kathleen and Lancy.


Anthea was very happy as there was a goodies bag and also games for the children.

At around 7pm, we joined dad,mom, Louis and Eve for dinner at the Legends, so we missed the Ballet part of the show. Well, the dinner was good but service was not up to the standard. The manager said it was becaused there are too many walkins...so caused the food delayed...hmm...i wonder if this is really the reason. After dinner, we went Plaza Singapura for dessert and shopping. Finally went home around 10.30pm.

It was a very eventful Saturday

SUNDAY, 15 October 2006

Morning - did my usual sunday marketing. Comes May 2007, i guessed this routine will change. After marketing, i went to Poon Huat at Blk 422, Ang Mo Kio. This evening we are celebrating Terence's 28th years old birthday. So i thought of baking a birthday cake for him. And i bought the ingredients for the Hazelnut cake.

Afternoon - usual routine of washing the car. After washing the car, i came back and started baking the cake. The final presentation of the cake turned out to be satisfactory and overall feedbacks were positive...hee. Thank you to all for the kind compliments.



Our dinner was at Valentino, very nice and cosy place. Staff were friendly and service was excellent. They even sang the birthday song for Terence, so the whole atmosphere was very warm. Also this family dinner will most likely be our FINAL gathering till 2007. On Tuesday,17 Oct,Louis will be travelling back to Houston for his work. The rest of the family members will also be doing a fair bit of travelling in November and December.

When Terence was making his birthday wish, i noticed that he looked very serious. I hope that whatever it may be, it will comes true soon. (hopefully, a new addition to our TAN Family Tree, as well) Terence, jia you !!!



Last but no least, 3 CHEERS to our TAN Family -

1. To GOOD Health,

2. A Wonderful NEW Year,

3. BEst Of Lucks to all.. : 0

Get Your Own! | View Slideshow

Thoughts for the week....

Wow...It's Friday, 13th. Lucky or unlucky day...i wonder.

Tuesday, 10 Oct 2006, Anthea took her annual class photo. I believed this will be the last time she will be taking photo in this childcare. Come 2007, she will be in K1 and i plan to change her to a new childcare and i will enrol anders in the same childcare with anthea. Anthea has been in this current childcare for almost 2 years. So the decision to change is not an easy one to make.




Main reasons for the change:

a. the current teacher taking care of toddle class is not as professional as the others. i have observed and realised that she is not really able to take care of the toddle class. A few times, i have seen her talking on her mobile while the children are running in and out of the class. Anders is quite an active boy and i have doubts that the current childcare is able to cultivate him well.

b. For me, to bring 2 of them to the same childcare centre, would be easier than to go to 2 places. Next year, when Siti returns to Indonesia, i have decided not to employ another maid as we need to save monies for the car and dinner catering etcs. Also if both of them go to the same childcare, they will have companionship.

Hopefully this decision is the right one to make.

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On Wednesday, 11 Oct 2006. Dad returned from Haikou on Tiger Airways. He arrived at Budget Terminal, i went to fetch him from airport as his arrival flight is around 2.10 pm. It was my 1st visit to the Budget Terminal and i was really caught by surprised. I can't believe how simple and bared it is...i think to myself, tis is really BUDGET.
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Last evening, Thursday, 12 Oct 2006. The Aces Family went out for dinner with Laopa, Laoma and Dage at the East Coast Seafood. We ate a very nice and sumptous dinner at the RED House.







Last night, it wasn't hazy and the wind was strong, i thought it was going to rain. Luckily for us, it didn't rain and we had a good time by sea, especially Anthea and anders.


Anders was so curious about fish head, he even tried to eat one by himself...

It is always nice to spend quality time with the family, especially when everyone is so busy with their own work and family commitment. I am glad that our family also enjoyed good outings with the extended family.

Here, i would like to do simple introduction on our extended family.

1. Adrian side - Parents in laws (Ye ye and nai nai) , 2nd brother in law and his wife (uncle louis and aunty Evelyn), 3rd brother in law and his girlfriend (uncle terence and cherry jie jie).

2. Astee side - Parents (ah gong/ ah po), da-jiu and er-jiu.

So all adds up it is quite a BIG and Happy Family.

Happy Mid Autumn Festival, 06 Oct 2006

As usual we have mooncakes for mid autumn festival. This year, mom got a very special mooncake from one of her good friend and this comes from Hong Kong. Honestly, this packaging is so beautiful and so grand that it's deemed for the Emperor.


On Friday evening, we had a sumptous dinner at Peach Garden at Thomson Plaza. The food quality is very good. We had a steamed fish, Wasabi Prawns, Tender Western Beef..all the dishes were very well presented and services was good. We had dinner with Lao Ma, Dage, Eve and our Aces Family.

After dinner, brought anthea and anders to Bishan Park for some enjoyment on carry lanterns, ended up they were more interested in playing the candles than holding the lanterns. Both Anthea and Anders had a wonderful time and hopefully next year, we can invites all our extended family members to join us.

On Saturday morning, Louis returned from Houston, Texas (via SQ 1 from San Francisco). The Aces Family went to the aiport, together with Terence, Cherry and Mom to welcome him home. He will be in town for 1 1/2 week before he departs for Houston again, then we will only see him after chinese new year 2007. ANders had a great time at the CHangi airport, looking at his favourite aeroplanes and MacDonalds

By then, hopefully, Louis will get more regional projects as his 1st Baby is due in April 2007. Looking forward to the new addition of the Tan Family Tree.

Time Management

Recently took a course on Time Management.

Found it to be a very interesting course. Sometime, you would think time management is so easy, why do people bother to attend course.
Well, after attending the course, then i realised the importance of managing your own time.

Following are some of the course main contends :

- The BIG Picture (Goals check-up)
- Managing your tasks ( Planning, To Do List, Prioritise your tasks)
- Time management (self and others)
- Being Assertive (how would your attitude change your style of time management)

After the course, i find that i am using it well in my work area.

Honestly, when asked the Question : What is your BIG GOAL ? I am stumbled, being a working mother (flexi hour) of 2 children, i guess my main goal is to provide for the children, in terms of Financial and Moral support.

Hopefully, they will turn out to be fine citizen.