Splendid Weekends @ Swissotel The Stamford

Saturday afternoon, parents in law came by and picked the children & myself up to go to the Swissotel for our weekends stay.

We arrived around noon time and Mother in law managed to get 2 rooms. One with the Harbour View that can see the NDP Fireworks and the other is city view for the Aces Family to spend a night. The 2 rooms were on the 54th Floor. This is another 1st time for the Aces Family - staying at Swissotel the Stamford and room on such high floor with PRIVATE Balcony.

We checked in to the city view room as the other room was not ready yet. I was impressed with the room size. It was BIG and i think it can put in another set of Queen sized bed. Good thing with big space, Anthea and Anders can run around the room and enjoy the room.

After lunch, i had wanted Ander to have a power nap but i think he was just too excited and happy with the hotel stay that he could not sleep. He kept going on the bed and off the bed.

At 5.15pm, Anders and myself got ready for the NDP Preview, we walked over from the hotel to the Marina Platform. Most of the people were dressed in RED, so were WE...hee : )

There were FUNPACKS given out and we had 2. The show started at 6pm, Anders was ever-ready to see the helicopters & F16 flypass. He enjoyed the show. I felt the the Preview audiences were not as spontaneous as the crowd we had during the Combined Full Dress Rehearsal. I didn't felt so warm like before. Anyway, after the 1st hour of the show, we returned back to the comfort of the hotel to watch the Fireworks.

Around 8.15pm, the fireworks started. It was nice but a little disappointed because at one point, it became too smoky and we can't see the fireworks as it was behind the smoke. Anyway, the important part is Anthea and Anders had a Great Time watching the Fireworks and enjoying the hotel stay.

On Sunday, we had a good buffet breakfast at the Kopi Tiam, then we returned to the room for Rest & relax before going for a dip at the pool.

After lunch we checked out around 2pm and headed for Home Sweet home. We had another relaxing weekends and we are now looking forward to our holidays in mid August. Also the very 1st time that Aces Family will be travelling on our very own.

Masseur’s In-Training

These few days, it had been raining and the weather had turned quite cool. So last evening after dinner, while I was resting and reading my papers. Adrian was reading his notes beside the sofa.
Then I heard Anthea asked: “Papa, I massage you, ok? “

“Ok.” Adrian replied her and father and daughter got the settings ready, as if like a real massage parlor. Daddy brought out his mattress and Anthea help to get his pillow.

Then the session started –

Step 1: stand on daddy’s buttock and do her balancing act

Step 2: used her hand and slap his legs muscles and pat it as it she is playing a drum

Step 3: stand on daddy’s back and walk up & down - massage his back up to his neck area

Meanwhile Anders was busied following what Anthea was doing.

Throughout the session, I keep hearing daddy saying: “harder a bit…yeah, correct.” “Wow…so shiok, later sure can sleep very well. “…ha-ha. He sound like he had a good massage session. Meanwhile I was busy clicking away and thinking to myself – next time I must also try a session.

Today is Siti’s wedding; we called her last night and had a quick chat with her. Happy to hear that things are fine with her & her family in Indonesia.

Both Anthea and Anders kept asking: “Siti jie jie, you married already? “ “When you coming back to Singapore? “ “Is your baby boy or girl, you pregnant already? “etcs.

Children are just so innocent.

Twist of Luck - We GOT IT...

On Friday evening, when the TV programme flashed some of this year NDP show, Anders was very interested in the helicopter displays and he said : "mommy, i want to see National Day Parade leh. "

I told him that he has to asked papa for the tickets. Anyway, we had seen the full dress rehearsal and to me, that is quite an achievement for a family who has no interest in NDP....hee

: P

This year i tried E-balloting for the Preview show but was unsuccessful. Anyway, as consolation, my In-Laws had booked Swissotel the Stamford for this Saturday to see the fireworks display on the NDP Preview. We are all ready for another fun weekends stay at the hotel.

Yesterday, to my surprised, i received an sms from Adrian "I have 2 tickets for the Preview". My first thought was : Wow...Anders wishes has come TRUE. I am very happy but in a bit of dilemma. 2 ticke mean only admit 2 person and ticket stated clearly that :

- CHILDREN, Including infants, require separate tickets.

So this mean that i can only bring either Anthea or Anders. So after some discussion with Anthea, she seem ok not to go to the NDP, instead she will stay with my in-laws at the hotel and enjoy the facilities. Hopefully she will not change her mind on this Saturday.

Now, I am looking forward to another fun filled weekends ahead. I know this working week will pass really fast....hee.

I had collected my Dinner & Dance Lucky Draw prize - a Mini Blender. ( Sure hope that i had won shopping vouchers instead)

Haircut - DIY

Currently Adrian is involves in the NDP 2007, so keeping short hair is a must for the army personnel. His sideburns tend to grow very fast, so in order to solve the problem or rather save monies in long term, we bought a Hair Clipper. This will allow Adrian to trim his sideburns.

Anders hair is also now quite long and he tends to sweat a lot. When he sweats, he will scratch himself. (We are always amazed at the way he scratch himself, his action is just like a monkey which coincidentally is the year that he was born in 2004.. : P )

So on Sunday, we decided to give Anders a quick haircut using the new toy. It was very effective. All these while, I will bring Anders to the Barber for his cut, and each cut is $6.00.

The overall cut is ok except for the back left side corner – Adrian cut a small “LOBANG” there. It looks funny but since he is a small boy and we are amateur “hairstylist”, we left it as it is…probably people may take it as a new fashion cut. (Self-consolation)

After we finished cutting his hair, Anders said “mommy, I wanna go uncle and cut hair. Don’t want mommy & papa to cut. OK?”

He must have been “terrified” by us. Hopefully next time we can do a better job, if Anders still permits us to touch his hair.

Anthea’s Green Bean Plant

Anthea did her 1st Science project in April 2007. Very proud to announce that her little green bean grows very well and it is now a big Plant. The one person who has diligently watering the plant is Daddy, so biggest credit goes to him. I am hoping that the plant will grow more green beans so next time I can cook green beans soup.

Missing My TV Programme
After reading Eve’s blog on real life or reel life, I realized that I misses TV Programme a lot, be it Korea Drama or Local Drama or Varities shows.

Now that I no longer has a domestic helper, my evenings hours from 6 – 9 pm are occupied with chores like warming up the tingkat- dinner,hand washing children’s uniform, ironing their uniforms, washing the dishes after dinner, packing their school bags for the next day. By the time I finished all the chores and sit down to rest, it is almost 9 – 9.30 pm. I can only watch a bit of the 9 pm local drama.

When I had my helper with me, my rest & relax hours starts from 7pm after dinner. Now i don't have such luxury.

Well, since I chose this path myself, I should not be complaining, just pity myself sometimes.

Gone are those good old days.

Family Events - Happy Birthday Andrew & Off to Shanghai

This weekends is a weekends of Family Events.

On Saturday, it was the birthday celebration of Andrew (he is one of Adrian cousins from my mother-in-law side of the family). The celebration was held at one of his friend's house - Mandarin Gardens's Clubhouse. I was really impressed with the sized of the clubhouse and it's swimming pool. Very spacious clubhouse with Alfresco Dining area as well. Swimming pool with LAPS pool. I can only DREAM to stay in a Condominium... : P

All the families were there at the function. Both Anthea and Anders had a great time running around the open area with their uncle Kiat. They even had chance to play with the kind of balloon where you blow from a small stick. These were my childhood "toys"...haha.

The buffet dinner spread were sumptous with add on like Soon Kuehs, Home made Sushi and Lemonade.

Our Family contributed 3 cakes from choc a bloc , they were Durian, Banana and a Classic choc cakes. I think the cakes were well liked by the guests as they were almost all gone at the end of the party.

Nice Birthday celebration and important thing is always - a good time to catch up with all the uncles, aunties and cousins.

On Sunday, my side of the family - Dage,Lao pa & Lao ma left for Shanghai for their 1 week holiday. Dage actually invited the Aces family to go along but i have so many considerations for travelling to China, so i kindly rejected his invitation. Now we are looking forward to our own Family trip in August to Kuala Lumpur & Sunway Lagoon.

At breakfast, i was telling adrian that Uncle Han Thong and families are always travelling, they just came back from Perth. It is always fun to travel in big group with families. Adrain said "don't worry, our time will come soon, when the children are independent". I asked "huh?? Independent means 20 years times?"...hee

Dinner was at Tony Romas and food was Great. After dinner, we brought Anthea and Anders to Toy R Us at Forum. They just enjoyed walking around the toy shop and emerged in their world of imaginations. We left the place about 10 minutes before the closing time of 9pm, all happy & satisfied.

Masquerade Ball

The most anticipated Friday, the 13th finally arrived.

We were all very excited and looked forward to the Dinner & Dance. We went off early, mainly to get ourselves "DOLLED UP" for the party.

I went to my usual salon and the stylist did my hair and makeup. When Anthea came home from school and saw me all dressed up, she said "mommy, you looked like Queen Rowena."..hee : P

Queen Rowena is the "BAD" Queen in the story of Barbie in the 12th Dancing Princesses. Actually i was happy to hear her comment because that was what i planned to be in my costumes. As i had Princesses with me as well.

Adrain fetched me and the children to the hotel. While i attended the dinner, he brought the children for dinner and walk around Toy R Us.

The event started at 6pm, when i arrived at the hotel, i was so happy to see so many people dressed up in their costumes. Needless to say, there were so much fun & laughter outside the Ballroom waiting area. Cameras were flashing all over the place.

At 8 pm, the dinner started officially with all the VIPS arriving in GRAND STYLE. The entertainment show went along when dinner was served. There were 3 segments of show -

1. The Disguise of Suzie Wong - a lady singer who is very versatile entertained the audiences with her 4 different languages songs.

2. Serenade of the Grand Harpist - this segment is a bit slow & boring.

3. Kumar - Lady in Waiting - the famous Drag-Queen Kumar performed his usual talk show, with a lot of X-rated jokes and also very obvious that he is not a PxP supporters...hee : )

Then there were games and Best Costumes / Masks competition. It was really fun to watch our colleagues going on stage and put up their best performance.

The final part that eveyone was waiting for the night was the top 20th Lucky Draws...sad to say, my numbers were not in there. Anyway, i saw my number being flashed on the screen for some prize, will go back office on Monday to check again.

Overall, it was a very fun night and all of us have a Great Time and most important, the bond between colleagues get better.

"Word-less"

Today after work, i went to fetch Anthea and Anders from school.

As we were walking back home, we met one of Anthea's old childcare friend's grandmother. We chatted a bit on the children & the old childcare.

When i asked her how was S progressing, she gave me a very sad & disappointing look. She told me on one little incident that happened recently during a Father's Day Celebration. S is a single-mother child, i understand that his dad passed aways in an accident or some illness when he was a baby. Very sad case, lucky his grandmother is very doting on him. His mum suffered from depression in the early stage.

Back to the schoool celebration, the teacher said to S : "You cannot celebrate Father's Day. YOU HAVE NO FATHER."

The grandma told me : how can a teacher said such a thing to a child of 4 years old. All these while, the mother & grandma has been telling S that he has a Father and he is now in Heaven.
By saying this, she put all of them in a spot.

I was totally speechless....and really LOST IN MY THOUGHTS.

A childcare teacher making such a statement....what is becoming of our Education System, i wonder?

S grandma said she had waitlisted S for a place in Anthea's current childcare centre and i hope that S will be able to join them soon.

I am glad that i made the decision to change childcare for Anthea, otherwise, i am not sure what will comes up next.

TAG: My 7 Vanity Sense Facts

You Are 27% Vain

Okay, so you're slightly vain from time to time, but you're not superficial at all.
You are realistic. You know that looks matter. You just try to make them matter less.

How Vain Are You?

I was tagged by LZmommy and i find this to be an interesting tag. Well, did my result surprises me...hmm...not at all.

Since having children, i find myself becoming more & more "ah-soh". If not because of my beautiful Sister In-law aka Eve and Sensual future Sister In-law aka Cherry, i think i would have scored a clean 0%.

Well, when we go out on our usual weekends dinners, i would try my best to keep up with the family image. Even my Mother in Law dresses better and uses more expensive cosemetic than me ...... : P

Okay, here goes 7 facts on me:

1. I used make-up everyday as i goes to work. Basic powder with SPF, lipstick and a bit of blusher.

2. I love to shop for clothings, however, my clothings are those cheap stuff from HDB market or shops, no big names or branded stuff. Like what people says: You are what you wear. (Chinese says: "吃不到葡萄说葡萄酸"...hee)

3. I used to do facial every 2 - 3 months, sad to say, the last time i visited my beautician was "i can't even remember"...geez...my face must be full of God knows what...).

4. I would like to use skin care products but till today i am just using Hazelin snow cream. 哪个女人不爱美 but 1 small bottle of those good skin care product cost almost $100. I know i can put this $100 to better uses...hee : ) I will stick to my affordable skincare product.

5. I have been going to the same hair salon for almost a decade. I try to make it an effort to visit the salon every 3 months because my hair is really thick and it grow really fast. Now my salon even provide 2 way transfers, so if i am at work and need a quick fix, i can just give them a call. There is no excuse of not going to the hair salon.

6. I have gained some GOOD weights since childbirth. After exercising for a year, i mananged to return to some GOOD shapes, not ideal yet. Now that the gym near my workplace is closed, i am doing swimming once a week. I really hope to strike a BIG lottery ticket/toto/4D whatever and the 1st thing on my list is - LIPOSUCTION. I want to wear M or L size clothings again. Now i am always looking at XL/XXL...which is so depressing.

7. I love swimming but being conservative or rather "oversized/overweight", my swimming costume is one of those old-fashioned swimsuit. If point 6 comes true, then i will be able to shop for Bikinis...haha. Who am i kidding, "ah-soh" wears bi-ki-nis. For my next "bonus", i want to invest in a nice swim wear but NOT bikinis lah.

Who should i tag...another BIG challenge:

1. Idy

2. Eve

3. Happypig

Aces Arcade

Another wonderful & funfilled weekends.


On Saturday, we had dinner at Crystal Jade Palace in Paragon. It was our first time to the resturant and i simply love the ambience and of course, FOOD. As we were being seated in a private room area, service was Excellent. We had about 3 - 4 waitresses waiting around our table. It was a very relaxing and enjoyable dinner as both Anthea & Anders behaved well during dinner.

After dinner, we brought the children to TOY R US...but it was closed. It was 9pm ans the shop closed at 9 PM. Anders was very disappointed. The main reason for his good behaviour is because we promised to bring him to see toys after dinner. Luckily for us, Metro Paragon is still opened, so we headed to the toy area to satisfied his needs.

We were walking and looking at all the toys. Then there was a TV Arcade game. Anthea tried the game and she loves it. It had many different kind of games. So we bought the game for the children. It was late when we reached home so they did not played with it.

On Sunday morning, the first thing they asked for is the arcade game. So adrian plugged it on for them, the 2 of them had a good time.

Mother-in-law left for Kuala Lumpur for her 3 days conference in KLCC. My brother and parents will be leaving for a week of holiday in China next Sunday.

Dinner was da-bao food and we ate at Louis & Eve's place- Louis bought Uncle Leong's crab, Terence and Cherry bought Pork ribs and vegetables for Hong Kong Man from Casurina Road, Aces Family bought satays and Ice Cream chef Nutella Delight.

Another nice spread of food and good time of chilling out.

After dinner, the children were anxious to go home to play with their new toy.

Note: On Friday, the D&D Commitee brought in some costumes for the HODs to try out and my GM gamely tried one of them. (btw, this is my inspiration for going to work...hee : P )

我的感激

This week Adrian has been spending time with Anders. After dinner, he will bring him to the park and let him play sand. His real intention is to spend time to “talk” to Anders. Adrian knows that I am under tremendous stress from handling Anders, so he is now trying to help me see the “LIGHT” of the problem.

Last night during dinner, we had a short discussion and he acknowledged that Anders is not the norm and he is hoping to find the root to the problems. Is it hyperactive or Terrible 3, this we are still learning as we go along.

For the last few evenings, I have more time to myself when they are out. I did my routine house chores and after that, I simply rested. It was a very good feeling to NOT to have to run / shout after Anders.

After the few night outings, has Anders change? I don’t think so but I am keeping my hopes open. I need to be POSITIVE. Now that Adrian is still around to help me with discipline him but come year end or earlier 2008, he may be send for another oversea attachment, I will need to face Anders alone. So it is time to build up my confidence level with him and learn to LOVE him again.

Read from the website on these 2 sentences and I find them very useful:

＊父亲看问题的角度与母亲不同。母亲有时整天缠身于孩子之中，常常被弄得晕头转向；而父亲从单位回 到家，却能看出问题的关键所在，并找到解决问题的方法。

＊爸爸有时善于管教孩子。父亲得学会坚决有力，既不严厉也不放纵。只要他们相信自己能掌握好火候， 管教起孩子来就十分自然和容易。这就使妈妈感到放松，因为她们知道丈夫会支持自己，不需要与难以管教的 孩子孤军奋战。如果父亲逃避管教，甚至站在孩子一边，就会对妻子有所损害，使她感到孤立无援。做父亲的 应该支持自己的妻子，并且应该去做对孩子要求更严格的人。

I know Adrian’s works are also very demanding of him, physically and mentally. Thus I am really grateful of him to have taken his time to share this difficult moment with me.

I really pray hard that Anders can comes out of this stage fast and happily.

Anthea 1st Swimming Lesson

This week since Anthea and Anders had been grounded for some wrongdoings for last week. Something came out positive of this grounding – since we are home for most of the evenings, I had more chances to encourage Anthea to go for her swimming lesson. Somehow, she is now more open to the idea.

“Mommy, I only go this Sunday? If I don’t like it, next week I go with Nai nai to Safra or CPE?”

“Yes, if you don’t like the lesson, next week you can just follow nai nai for your swim.” I assured her.

In the morning, Anthea woke up around 9.30am as she slept late last night. So after her milk, we left for the swimming pool. Adrian brought Anders for water play.

When we reached the pool, the instructor - Edwin Yap was there already. There were only 2 children in her slot which I thought was good because she will get more attention….hee : )

For the ½ hour, he asked her to swim on her own in the children pool, and then he started to teach her a bit of the strokes. Hmm…I thought it was quite fast because I always think the instructor will start will breathing technique first.

Anyway, 2nd half hour was spending at the adult pool and I saw him leading her while she swam. When she was resting by the side, I signaled to her if she was ok, she signaled back to me with her THUMP UP!!! I was so happy.

After the lesson ended, I asked her: “so how was the lesson? Do you like it? “

“Mommy, I want to learn with the teacher, you pay money. Ok? “

This sentence made my day and I was on cloud nine for the whole day… hee : P

After her lesson, we went to Junction 8 for lunch, the children enjoyed their lunch and we went to BHG to shop for the children. Anthea chose for herself a dress which has Ariel – the Mermaid. I bought for Ander a new swimsuit.

After lunch, Anthea went to my MIL house for her usual weekend session and Anders went home for his power nap.

In the evening, we had dinner at Bliss Restaurant with the extended families for Adrian belated Birthday celebration. Food was ok and ambience is nice. After dinner, we took a stroll in the Park and we had a nice time catching up with the family.