Thermos Sale & "Enchanted"

Today we are officially on 1/2 day work as the office renovation is in it's final stage - change of our work stations.


In the afternoon, Adrian met up with me as he was on his weekday off. We went to the Thermos Warehouse sale. All these while, i have been thinking of buying a Thermal cooker but it is a bit expensive in the departmental store. Now with the sale on, i have no reason not to grab one..hee.



Our dinner delivery is 3 dishes & a soup. As our order are for 2 pax, so the soup is good enough for 2 person. Both Anthea and Anders love soup, so at times they may not be able to have 2nd servings.


With this new pot, i can cook a pot of soup for the family and the children can drink as much as they like. Many suggested that i used a slow cooker, however, as during the day, there are no one at home, i don't feel safe leaving a pot of soup cooking, just in case.. : P


So with this new thermal cooker, i can boil the soup in the morning and leave it to cook in the thermal and when we are home, it should be ready for drinking. Now, i will need to find out more soup recipes.


In the evening, we had dinner at AMK HUB, as requested by Anthea. After dinner, we went to the Cathay Cineplex in the hub and see what's showing. To our delight - Enchanted was showing and we bought the 8.10pm show. This the our family 1st time to this cinema and the children were very excited. They had been seeing the trailer on the TV and they kept saying they want to watch the show.. : )


It was a very funny and Loving movie and we had fun time watching .


The show ended around 10 pm and the children kept saying, " i like the Enchanted" while we were walking home.

Anders 2007 Year End PTC

Anders year end PTC took place on Sat, 24 Nov 2007.

However we were away on cruise, so his teacher arranged for us to meet with them on Monday, 26 Nov, 1 - 2 pm. Adrian was on leave, so he went to meet with Anders English teacher - Ms Jessie and Chinese teacher - Zhang lao shi.

After the meeting, Adrian called me and mentioned that both the teachers had very positive feedbacks on his performance in school.

Zhang Lao Shi mentioned that he can do the Lego Bricks pretty well and he is very hands on. So for this Christmas, we know what to buy for Anders as X'mas present..haha.

I was happy to hear about his performance in school. So long as he does not "fight" and create a nuisance of himself, i am grateful. Comes December, Anders will be promoted to Nursery Class.

His English teacher, Ms Jessie Low, will be transferred to another NTUC Childcare centre. On Wednesday, it was her last day with this centre. Adrian and i decided that we should show our appreciation to all her good guidance towards Anders during this 1 year. So we ordered a small bouquet of flowers for her.

Dear Ms Jessie, All the Best to you.

Holiday Special - Superstar Virgo

We are back from a very wonderful 1st time cruise experience. Both Anthea and Anders Love the cruise and said they want to go for another cruise again.

Our Free & Easy cruise trip became a FUN PACKED schedule. Well, all because, Star Cruise had planned out so many events for the family.

23 Nov – Day 1:

5 pm: Check in at Harbour Front Cruise centre with my parent in laws. We booked a maxi cab since there were 6 of us.

Upon boarding, the children were excited to see such a big Ship and they were sleeping onboard.

Went to our cabin and it had whatever a normal hotel room had plus a Balcony. (This is my 1st time in a cabin so all these while, I had imagined otherwise. The children were happy with the cabin and they started playing their toys in the cabin.

6 pm – 8 pm: Met with my in-laws for dinner at the Pavilion – Chinese set dinner. Food was good.

9 pm – 9.15 pm: Meet and Greet with Mr. Bean.

9.15 pm – 9.45 pm: Family Funtime Welcome party

9.30 pm - 10.45 pm: Showtime : The Musicians of Bremen. It was a Live Musical and we were all impressed by the cast.

11.30 pm – Supper on board. The spread consisted of congee, fried noodles, pizzas, prata and desserts. After supper, we headed back to our cabin and the children slept almost near 1 am. (Record time)

24 Nov – Day 2:

Woke up a bit late, almost 9.30am and then realized that Breakfast serving ends at 10 am.
We quickly washed up and headed to Bella Vista for our continental set breakfast.

Both Anthea and Anders had their usual half boiled eggs with serving of sausages, baked beans and bread. There are side tables which had cornflakes, salads, fruits and bread. So we had quite a filling breakfast.

11.30 – 12 noon: Mr. Bean show. Anthea had the chance to take photo with Mr. Bean, Mrs. Wicket & Erma, Mr. Bean’s girlfriend.

12.30 pm – 1.30 pm: Fun at the Wet & Wild pool.

2 pm – 3pm: Tea break at the Taverna. We had club sandwiches, pizzas and burgers. As we had credits, thus we can use it on dinning.

3.30 pm – 5.30 pm: power nap

While the children and Adrian had their power nap, I went to the gym and did some workouts. After so much of food, I need a jog badly…hee : P

7 pm – 8.30 pm : Dinner at Bella Vista ( Had Western set meals – Prawn cocktail, soup, Snapper Fillet and crepe with Ice-cream)

9 pm – 10.30 pm: Watched movie at the picture house “Jump In”. Anthea requested that she wanted to watch the movie.

Then after the movie, we went back to our cabin to change and the children had their milk. Then Anthea went to my In-laws cabin to room in with them. The reason is on the 1st night when she slept with Adrian, he could hardly sleep as she tends to move around quite a fair bit.

So my in-laws were very nice to offer to let Anthea sleep with them. So Adrian can have a good night of rest. After we brought Anthea to my In Laws cabin, 3 of us went to the lounge for congee buffet as Adrian need to take some food before his medication. I bought some fed tablets from the Duty Free shop.

25 Nov – Day 3:

8 am – 9.30 am: Breakfast at Bella Vista

10 am – 11 am: Prepare for disembarkation

11.30 am: Home sweet home

It was another fruitful and eventful trip / cruise for the Aces family. We had loads of fun and most important, we spend quality time as a family. And for the children, having their ye ye and nai nai with them were additional bonus.

NOTE: one of my colleague is quite a regular at Star cruise. When she knew that i got my cabin card, she told me to go & buy 4D. She said so far Cruise numbers are quite LUCKY. So upon hearing her GOLDEN ADVICE, we bought the cabin number & we hit the "Starters Prize"..hmm, no bad for a 1st time cruisers.

AHOY !! All on Board.

Aces family are checked in for our 1st Superstar Cruise and we are sailing on Superstar Virgo for a 3D2N cruise.

On Wednesday, i went to the Starcruise city office and did the city check in. We got our 4 boarding passes and they are in the form of a mag card. During our cruise, these cards will be our "life-line". As food are included (6 meals a day...hmm...how to eat 6 meals a day..hee )

and these cards will allow us access to those non-chargeable inclusive restaurants (Bella Vista, The Pavilion Room and Mediterranean Buffet/Terrace).

As we are booked in the Balcony Class, we have $100 credits for the room, which we can used on those chargeable restaurants. Had recommendation to try the Western and Japanese restuarants.

Guess what?? We have 2 special guests joining us for this cruise....they are none other than...- my In Laws..haha.

On Tuesday, my FIL smsed me this message : " see you on board." Immediately, i called him and asked him about the sms. He confirmed that my MIL & himself will be joining us on the same cruise as he had some good "lobangs" from his friend.

What a sweet surprise for the Aces family and till now, we have yet to tell Anthea and Anders that their yeye & nai nai will be cruising with us. I want them to have a nice surprise too !!

I am looking forward to a nice & relaxing cruising time with the families.

When will it happen to me - Long Service Award?

On Monday, our department went for buffet lunch at Oscar in Conrad Hotel. The Lunch spread was very good and all of us enjoyed the lunch. Yes, Oscar again...haha. See like my “business renewal” with Conrad Hotel will be on-going affairs from now onwards.

There are 2 reasons for our special lunch treat:

One of our colleague recently closed a fairly “BIG AMOUNT” contract, so it’s additional windfall for the department.

My direct supervisor is in her 10th Year with the company, so our GM thought it was also good to celebrate it. She received a Certificate and some monetary reward.

10th years of service are a long time, by my standard. Most of the people who work in this company that I know of are LONG SERVICE. One of my colleagues has been here since 1974…hee.

Well, positive way of looking at this kind of Long Service is the company is treating them well that they do not want to change employer.

Some commented that once you are in a company for over 4 – 5 years, you will be “too lazy” to move.

For my personal working record, I have not hit any 10th Years mark with my previous employers. I think it is the nature of the industry that I worked in before joining the current company. I thought I could have reached my 10th years with my last employer but my dream did not come true when I received the Retrenchment Notice.

At present, I am comfortable with my working hours, which is most important and if I do make it to 10th year with this company, I will throw a “BIG BANG” party.

“Thunderous Weekends”

On Saturday morning, Anthea requested to go CSC for swimming but I rejected her request. Mainly both of them are recovering from flu, so I would prefer them to stay warm than to catch more chills. Also, we are going for our cruise this coming weekend. So Adrian brought them to the playground at Bishan Park.

While they were at the park, I run some errands and bought some food to cook for lunch.

Both of them came home, sweaty with sands all over. After a thorough bath, we had lunch. Anthea had her favorite mashed potatoes and Anders had spaghettis with cheese chicken sausages. I bought a pack of sushi for Adrian and he liked them very much.

After lunch the children had their power nap. While we were all sleeping, it started to rain very heavy and with few loud thunders. The weather was so cooled after the rain. I am so glad that we didn’t go swimming.

Dinner was at a Cantonese restaurant – Mitzi Cantonese Restaurant
24/26 Murray Street MURRAY TERRACE Singapore 079530.Tel: 6222-0929.

This place was recommended by my FIL who ate there earlier in the week with his colleagues and the food was good. Very home cooked style; I especially love the 豆汁鱼片 bitter gourd with slice fish）.

After dinner, we adjourned to Oscar at Conrad hotel for dessert. Oscar used to be one of our family regular hangouts because it served very good ice-cream and desserts. While it underwent some renovations, we missed the place.

Now that my MIL just bought another hotel membership which tied up with Conrad Hotel, I guess we will be there more often, again.

On Sunday morning, I did my usual housework while Anthea went for her swim with my MIL. Adrian and Anders were home with me, each busied with their own work.

In the afternoon, it started raining again with loud thunders. I am wondering why there are so many thunders over this weekend. Anthea covered her ears each time she saw the lightings. It was really quite scary.

For dinner, Adrian brought Anthea & Anders to meet with the extended families and ate with them. I had dinner on my own as I went to the HUB to get some groceries and developed photos.

I had a nice and relaxed dinner while watching Charlie Angels. It was so good to have the few hours of quiet time to myself.

Sunday Services

This has been a busy week for me at work.

On Wednesday, after consulting the company doctor, I went to the SATA centre at Woodland Civil Centre to have an X-ray done.

The reason for me doing the X-ray :

- I would like to find out the cause of my backache. I am very conscious of my own health as I know it is very important for me, especially when I have a family to take care of

- As I am still working and covered under company’s medical insurance, it’s good to go through whatever comes along

Now, I am waiting for my X-ray result and it should be out next week… : )

Yesterday, our company had an event day, so the whole day was focused on team discussion. It was a quite a major event as it involved worldwide offices.

Today, finally I have some time to clear my work and catch up with some readings on blogs.

Recently, my brother in law has been going for Sunday services with his fiancée, Cherry. Anthea mentioned to me that she wanted to follow them to church. Well, I am a bit hesitant to let her follow them to church. The main reason is she wanted to go to a real Church (as in the building as she has seen them while we drove passed). For Terence and Cherry, they attend services in an auditorium, so I am worried that Anthea may not know what she is there for.

Now I am trying to find something that is suitable for her. Honestly we have no objection of whatever religion she chose, since we are free thinker

Personal Trainer & Munchy Donut

Lately, my lower back has been aching and i feel a strain whenever i sit for long in the same position. I went to consult my 姨丈, he is a TCM Chinese Physician. I told him about my problem and he managed to give me a very good back massage (推拿) and "push" my back to the correct position. He said it could be due to my sitting posture.

Then i asked him about weight management and i told him that i go to the gym 3x a week. He asked me : "有人教你吗？". I told him : "No, 我自己做我的 routine."

He said : "很危险!!". I sensed his tone was serious and he explained that i could be using the wrong weights or doing wrong exercises. After hearing his explanation, i did some careful consideration and made up my mind - signed up for a Personal Trainer at the gym.

Today is my 1st session with my Personal Trainer - Mavis. She went through with me the routine of measuring height,weight, fats analysis and posture analysis. It was very useful and from here i learnt about my own body and also she will know which area i should work on to improve my back strenght. Hopefully with her guidance, i will be able to manage my backache and weight management.

Today after the training session, i went by to Munchy Donuts to buy home 1/2 dozen of yummy donuts. This is the 1st time we are trying Munchy, think it will be as delicious as donut factory since they look as good..hehe.

The “FLU” GOT Her

On Saturday, we had planned to bring Anthea and Anders to the Zoo. One of Anthea’s classmate’s mom got 2 Zoo Corporate cards and she passed them to me. They planned to visit the Zoo on Sunday.

Both Anthea & Anders were excited about the Zoo outing.

However, in the morning, Anthea had quite a bad cough and vomited some phlegm. Seeing her coughing so bad, I told Adrian that we should cancelled the Zoo excursion and let her rest at home.

The decision was right. After drinking the cough and fever medicine, she rested the whole morning. The weather was also very cooling with slight drizzle in-between.

Anders was quite sad that we could not visit the Zoo; however, I told him that we can go next time when jie jie is well. He seems to understand and agreed quite readily.

We had dinner at my parents place. Simple home cooked hainanese chicken rice with few nice dishes. I had a good time catching up with my 2 brothers and parents. The children also enjoyed the company of 大舅& 二舅。

After dinner, we went home and the children rested early.

On Sunday, we had a full day of rest at home since Adrian was at work. Anthea recovered well. So in the evening, we managed to have a nice dinner with the extended families at Tung Lok Signatures restaurant @ The Central.

Fun @ East Coast Park

It is Deepavali holiday today. Yesterday evening we told Anthea & Anders that we will go to the beach for cycling, subject to weather condition.

Early morning, it was raining quite heavily and I thought that the trip will need to be cancelled. However around 9.30 am the sky started to clear a little and I told Adrian : “let’s go ahead, if it rains, we will have lunch there. At least we make the effort.”

After breakfast, we changed the children and started our journey to the East Coast Park. Adrian noted that KPE (kallang – paya leba expressway) is operational and he tried using the new expressway. It was a good & smooth ride since traffic was smooth and few cars on the KPE.


We reached the East Coast Park in a record time..haha. Most of th carparks were full, this include the Mcdonald's CP. Luckily the carpark near Burger King was still quite empty.



We rented a bicycle for 4 person and to be honest - it was not an easy task to balance such a bicycle. Thru this somehow, i related it to our family - Balancing our LifeStyle as a family unit. IT is not easy, there are many obstacles ahead ( pedestrains crossing, roller bladers and other cyclist.) We need to balance well to get through all these.. hehe. We managed well for almost 1 hour. Many passer-by was looking at us and amazed that we were 4 on the bicycle.



After cycling, i brought Anthea and Anders to BK for their lunch while Adrian jogged around the park.


Anthea and Anders were very keen to go and played by the beach, so after lunch, we had about 30 minutes of fun playing by the beach. Both of them were really happy.


After a quick shower, we headed home via ECP - KPE - PIE - CTE...haha. What a way to go ...: P


The children had their afternoon nap while i baked my muffins. Dinner was at my In-laws house. Simple meal and nice dessert.


It has been a wonderful outing and we are really thankful for such nice weather.

1st Meet Up

I have been following a Baby Forum for quite a while now. It is the BayB Supplies site. I have enjoyed the topics been discussed on this forum and most of them are closely related to our Aces Family daily lifestyle.

Through this forum, I have benefited much namely:

1. I engaged our dinner tingkat through recommendation of this forum.

2. I learnt about the behavior of children of different ages – these are real children and not just reading through books.

3. Find good lobangs - nice and affordable purchases

4. Hands down some of my children stuff to mommies/daddies

5. Last but not the least, got to know a lot of bloggers mommies & daddies.

I find that mommies/daddies who write in this forum are very since and friendly. Of course, sometime, they may be critical in certain topics/issues but from their words, they meant well for the other parties.

I have personally been in contact with Idy from IT Family, via sms & msn since we hooked up. She is now on leaves before she starts her new job mid November. We arranged to meet for lunch today. We met at the MRT and headed to Novena Square for Lunch.

I must say, although this is the 1st time we met but we were able to chat quite easily and happily, it’s like we were friends for a long time. We had a nice Japanese Lunch at Ichiban and at lunch we share so much information on child caring. Idy asked me to join them for the next gathering and I know it will be fun to meet all the wonderful people.

After lunch, Idy went off to run her errands as her IT family is going on a KL/Genting drive tomorrow.

As for me.. knowing that there is a new Donut Factory outlet, how can I resist NOT Buying. The counter was big and no Q, so I bought ½ dozen of them. This outlet even has a café for people to order in to eat & drink coffee, good concept. Then I proceeded to Cold Storage to buy some baking stuff, hoping to bake some muffins on Deepavali.

Waving Good Times & Yum CHA

On Saturday morning, it was very bright & sunny, thus i told Adrian that we should bring the children to the Civil Service Club for a swim. He agreed and off we we went to Bukit Batok CSC. Anthea and Anders were all excited when i told them to change into their swimming costumes.


We reached the pool around 10 plus and we were in time - the wave pool started almost immediately when we went in the water. Anthea was so happy and we rented a rubber tube to sit on while the waves was on. Anders was still a bit frightened of the waves so he was on safe side of the pool all the while..hehe.


The wave lasted almost a good half and hour, during this time, father & daughter had so much fun playing with the waves. Seeing them enjoyed so much reminded me of the Sunway trip. This is a mini version of "sunway lagoon"...haha.


After the wave stopped, Anthea and Anders went to the playgroud pool which had slides and waterguns. They had so much fun there as well, shooting the water at adrian.


We played for a good 1 hour before we stopped to shower and headed home for lunch. On our way home, Anthea told Adrian that she wants to go Goat Farm next week and Adrian agreed readily. He then told me that we should plan more Saturdays outings like this for the children.


Secretly i told myself : yeah, all these while,i wanted to do all these Family Outings but most of them time it was because of him that we can't make it. Since now that i have his blessings, i will put on 5th gear for the weekends... : P


Dinner was at Swissotel Merchant Court with the extended families. My MIL invited her brother and sister's families to join us for the buffet dinner. As usual, Anthea and Anders were looking forward to meet their Uncle MK and they had a good time playing Hide & seek, catching etcs by the river. The families had a good time sharing all their travelling updates, especially for Hokkaido.


There was a wedding banquet at the hotel Ballroom and Anthea saw 3 pretty flower girls and she told Cherry that she wanted to be her flower girl at their wedding. Terence and Cherry will be getting married next May 2008 and their wedding banquet will be held in the same hotel.


Today Adrian is on his Sunday work duty and i am home with Anthea & Anders. My eldest brother called and asked us to join for lunch together with him and my parents. He brought us to http://www.xinwang.com.sg/ @ Marina Square. It was a good choice.


We ordered few dishes to try and the noodles dishes were very good. I had a cup of "yuan-yang" and it was as good as the one that i drank in Hong Kong cafe. For dessert, we had the "ah-ballings" with ginger drink and seasame paste. I Loved the one with ginger because it has the taste of my mom's "tang yuan" ginger drink. The seasame paste is a bit too diluted.


After lunch, we walked around Marina Square and i discovered that there are now so many new eateries and shops there. I told myself that i must take a day off and slowly explored the place, without children in tow..hee.


We left for home after a quick purchased of a notebook bag at JL sale. On the way home, dage even went by to the famous Rochor Beancurd to packed the beancurd and he bought 2 boxes for us. We reached home about 3.30 pm.


We had dinner with our parents in law and Louis family at Akira Japanese Restaurant which is now located at the Link Hotel, 50 Tiong Bahru Road, Link Hotel #01-01 Singapore 168733Tel : 6738-6221 ). This restaurant was one of our family usual hangout when it was located near Orchard road.

Another relaxing weekends with the families.