真诚..

We decided to temporary stop Anthea’s Chinese enrichment lesson for this term due to her Wednesday revision classes at her tuition centre. The other timings were not suitable for her.

After making the decision to stop her classes, I received a call from her 天 下 teacher-白老师. She was very concerned about me stopping Anthea lesson for a term. She said she was worried that Anthea may not be able to follow up when she rejoined the classes in term 3. She also gave me her observation on Anthea’s learning in her class. She said that Anthea is very serious in her learning process. She just needs a bit more encouragement as she is quiet in her class.

I was surprised but very happy to know that the teacher is genuinely concerned of her students. I had the opinion that since this is a private school; I would think that Teachers would not be as concerned since their priority may be different for commercial schools…hee. I was so glad that Anthea is in 白老师 class as I know she care for her student and their progress.

Last Saturday, I brought Anthea for her make-up lesson in白老师 Saturday class. After that lesson, Anthea decided that she wanted to continue her 2nd term with白老师 in that same class. I asked her if she really wants to do it as it was a Saturday morning lesson. She said YES. So now we are back on track for her Chinese lesson.

I am glad she made this decision because I know she has been enjoying her Chinese lessons with白老师 and it’s a pity to stop for the term. With so much talks about Mother tongue, I sincerely wish she will LOVE 华语 as much as I do…. : )

Too Good to RESIST!!

I am the official tour planner for the ACES Family, each time Adrian gave me his CONFIRMED Leaves dates and I will start to do the ground work. I will submit the PROPOSAL to him and if budget is approved, we will go ahead…haha.

After the Hong Kong trip, I am now doing research on Taiwan as recommended. So last evening, I was browsing through the Classified ad for tours packages.

THIS AD caught my attention: Qantas Holiday

Australia Family Packages

*1st child Travels FREE!*

*2nd child 30% off*

*4th Night FREE!*

*Fly to 2nd selected Australia city FREE!*

With so many FREEbies…how to resist.

There were 4 family packages to chose:

3N Perth Family Fun
3N Gold Coast Family fun
3N Sydney Family Fun
3N Melbourne Family Fun

I discussed with Adrian and told him that maybe we can consider Sydney for the June holiday. He was agreeable but was worried that there is not much things to do for the Anthea and Anders. I told him that I will find out more from the agent.

So today I called my regular agent – Angela from Jetabout holidays and made the enquiries with her. As usual I got immediate reply from her.

This deal is really a great saving for our family and if we chose Sydney, we will get the chance to experience the A380. Since I have never been to Sydney, so I am really thrilled about it…hee.

3N Sydney family fun includes:
- Return economy airfare
- 3 nights accommodation
- Full day Blue Mountains & Wildlife Encounter
- Choice of 1 optional tour: a) Port Stephens Adventure/b)Magnificent Hunter Valley Wine taster & c) Canberra Explorer

Now I have to find out more about Sydney before making the final decision as the deadline to book is this Friday, 27 March 2009.

Just sharing this, in case any mommies/daddies planning to bring their school-going children for holidays in Down Under…: )

难忘的五岁生日！！

Looking back in 2004, I still remembered Anders was born during the SARS period so visitors were restricted. At that time, I didn’t even allowed Adrian to bring Anthea to KKH to visit her little brother.

Today he is officially 5 years old and I am really happy that he’s growing healthily and happily, although he still give us the “sad face aka black face” whenever he does not get what he wants. I wish he will outgrow this habit SOON……!!!

As he had celebrated his birthday in the childcare, I told Adrian that we will not organize another family celebration with the extended families to spare all of them from overdose of cakes…haha.

My BIL celebrated his daughter 2nd year old birthday on Saturday evening with the family and relatives and they had ordered 2 tiers cakes from Pine Garden…haha.

So this year, we kept Anders birthday celebration within our Aces family.

In the afternoon, we went over to my cousin’s place for her son’s Baby shower. When I carried her baby in my arm, it sent a smile deep to my heart, yes, 5 years ago, Anders was just like him.

After the baby shower, we went home to rest. Our original plan was to bring the children to dinner at Swenson in United Square and then bring Anders to Toy R Us to let him chose his own present.

However, around 5pm, Adrian received a call from my Father-in-law and he said he wanted to buy a present for Anders. He said he was going to buy the DS that Anders wanted. The evening before at my BIL house, my FIL asked Anders what he wants for his birthday and Anders said he wanted a DS.

Adrian told my FIL that he need not get such an expensive present and also we were worried that Anthea and Anders will “fight” over the game, like they did with the Game Boy. My FIL was very kind to "insist" in getting Anders the present, so Adrian went to meet him at AMK HUB to get the DS. My FIL doted on all his grandchildren and will showered them with his love in his own way.

When Anders and Anthea woke up from their nap around 6.30pm, they were surprised to see the birthday present from Ye Ye. We told Anders that Ye ye had instructed him to share the DS with Anthea jie jie and if they “fight” over the game, Ye ye will TAKE BACK the DS. …: P

Both of them were so excited and wanted to play with the DS immediately. So I told Adrian that we should go nearby for our dinner. Finally we decided to try Miss Clarity (which was recommended by the IT Family..). The place had a nice setting and ambience was relaxing. Food was nice but some dishes came out spicy and Anthea could not eat them.

We wanted to order a slice of cake for Anders to celebrate his actual day but when I asked him to chose a cake from the counter, he said “I celebrated my birthday already, now celebrate again….2 birthdays? “ haha…I told him we would like to sing him a birthday song but he said he don’t want as the cake does not look nice...: P

Finally we didn’t have the cake but the children had ice-cream and we had a great meal together. After that, we left for home and they started playing with the DS… : )

This had been a “Dream” comes true for Anders and I know he will remember his 5th birthday for a long time…

Anders 5th Year Old Birthday Celebration in School

Before we left for our Hong Kong tour, I asked Anders if he would like to celebrate his 5th birthday in childcare with his K1 friends. He said Yes as he had enjoyed few of his friends birthdays and he hopes to do the same.

Coincidentally, E Creative mailed me a catalog which has different cakes designs. I saw a Ben 10 cake and asked Anders if he would like to have that. He said no and chose another cake which has a Dinosaur and cars. So last Friday, I placed an order for the cake via E Creative online store. I had ordered few cakes from E Creative previously and I find their cakes nice and delicious. Their customer service is also good. After I placed my online order, I received a call from the company and they reconfirmed my order details.

The birthday celebration was arranged for Friday, 20 March during the K1 tea break. I made arrangement with his class teacher – Miss Valentine before we left for our trip. His class has a total of 18 children.

This morning, I went to work as usual. Adrian was still on leaves, so he brought Anders to school and Anthea was with them.

The cake was delivered to our home around 9am while Adrian was out having breakfast with Anthea at the HUB. So I told the deliveryman to leave the cake outside the door. When Adrian and Anthea came home, they said the cake was on top of the shoe rack cabinet…hee : P

After work, I met up with Adrian and Anthea for a Dim Sum lunch at Crystal Jade Toa Payoh. We miss Dim Sum during our Hong Kong trip, so this lunch was to compensate Adrian’s craving..haha.

Then we shopped around Kiddy Palace for a while as I needed to get a gift for my cousin’s son. She will be celebrating his full month on Sunday.

We went home after that and got ready to go to the childcare for Anders birthday celebration. We reached the childcare around 3.30pm as this was the time that the K1 children wake up. Anders was very excited when he saw all of us there for the celebration. His friends were all equally excited and keep calling me “anders mommy, today’s anders birthday”, “anders mommy…..”

Around 4pm, the birthday celebration started. His friends sang for him the birthday song in English and Chinese. Then Ms Valentine helped me to organize the children in their group to take photo. She even helped us to take our family photo, really sweet of her. Thank You, Ms Valentine. (Ps: I know she reads our family blog…very touch!!!)

After the song, the centre aunty Catherine also helped us by cutting the cake for the children. Looking at the way that Anders was happily giving out the cakes to his friends and teachers, I know he was having a great time. I had ordered a 1.7kg cake and I told Adrian that I thought it was big but to my surprise – it was just nice as most of the children asked for 2nd helping and they really love the cake. (I ordered the Blueberry filling chocolate sponge cake).

Then after eating the cakes, we returned to his class and he started giving out the goodies bags to his friends. I managed to pack the 18 goodies bags on Thursday. In the goody bag, I packed – a packet of Junior Milk, Oreo biscuit, cheese crackers and a few gummies. Anders helped me to them too as he was at home to rest on Thursday…:)

He was a very Happy Birthday boy as he was all smiled throughout the celebration and after the event ended, he told me he wanted to stay in class to listen to Ms Valentine storytelling and play toys with his friends. So we left him in school while we went home.

Around 6pm, we fetched him from childcare and met up with my parents and da-ge for dinner at Yishun Bottle Tree Park.

We had a very sumptuous dinner and good time sharing our Hong Kong trip with my family. I also bought some 老婆饼for them. This time I didn’t search for 恒香 as before. So I just bought the other famous brand – 荣华 which shop was near Eaton hotel.

We chatted about holidays and my brother recommended that we should try 台湾 as there is also a nice theme park near 台中. I shall start doing my research for our next family vacation…haha.

This Sunday we will have a simple birthday celebration for Anders as his actual birth day falls on 22 March 2004.

我的宝贝就快五岁了。。。看着他的成长。。心里很感恩！！

4Days Hong Kong Magical Disney & Shopping Extravaganza, 15 – 18 March 2008

It had been another wonderful family vacation experienced. Time really flies when you are having good times.


Just a quick recapped of our 4 days tour:

Day 1: Sunday, 15 March

Singapore → Hong Kong (CX 736) Dep: 1010 / Arr 1410 hr

We were met up with our local agent – Win’s travel and they sent us to our hotel – Eaton Hotel.

I had a “SHOCK” upon checking into the room. The room was BIG!!! I had read previews of the hotel before and was mentally prepared for small room as their standard rooms are all very small. We had 2 Single beds and 1 Queen sized sofa bed in our room and the bathroom has both standing shower and bath tub...: P


Then I told Adrian that it seem like we had been given Executive room. He confirmed it as he was the one who did the check in. he said the receptionist told him we had an EXECUTIVE ROOM. I cannot believe our luck but I was very thankful. The main reason why I shortlisted this hotel was it has a swimming pool and a gym, which were requirement for the children and Adrian.

As usual after checking in, we went to explore the swimming pool and the gym. The children were so excited to see the pool and requested to go for a quick dip. The weather was pretty cool but the pool is heated so the water was quite warm. We had about 20 minutes of water play, then went back to the room to change and got ready for dinner.

We had made a dinner reservation at Yung Kee which was recommended by one of my ex-colleague. When we arrived at the restaurant, the restaurant was crowded, all 3 levels were crowded and there were people queuing for places.

The recommended dish – 烧鹅 was very delicious and yummy. Our whole family enjoyed the dish. Together with the Roast Goose, we ordered their special prawns, spinach in boiled soup, and porridge for the children. We had a very enjoyable meal and it was worth the trip to the restaurant.

After dinner, we took the MTR from Central Station (中环站) back to Jordon Station. This was the station nearest to Eaton Hotel. We took a stroll around the hotel and discovered that Temple Street (庙街) was just across the street from our hotel. We walked through the night market and I saw many vendors showing the LV Catalog. Out of curiosity, I asked how much was one of the LV bag and I was quoted HK$550 (about S$110). Not a bad price for LV Bags and they had so many models, I was so tempted…haha.

After the walk, we went back to the hotel to rest. The children even bought back Macdonald for supper and watched their favorite Cartoon network on TV.

Day 2: Monday, 16 March

We decided to forego our ½ day city tour as the tour guide told us the pickup time was 7.30am. I told Adrian since we are here for holiday, we should relax and enjoy at our own pace. We cancelled it the day before with the local agent. It was the right decision. We had a good night rest and woke up around 9.30am.

After changing, we headed to Macdonald (which was just across the street) to have our breakfast. The Macdonald in Hong Kong is non-halal as they served pork dishes. After breakfast, we headed to the nearby supermarket – Welcome to stock up some stuff for our Disney hotel stay.

Anthea and Anders wanted to go for their swim, so Adrian brought them back to the hotel after breakfast. I took the opportunity to explore the places around the hotel. I found the famous “天后宫“- Tian Hou Temple. I went in to give a simple prayer and did some donations.

Then I walked down Nathan road. As I walked, I saw many interesting food/dessert soups along the street. For me, I prefer to discover food than shopping…haha. I am not a shopaholic. Thanks God!!

Finally, I discovered the few famous streets – Fa Yuen Street (sports goods)/ Tung Choi Street (Ladies Market). As it was still day time, so most of the stalls were closed. I was happy to see so many nice food places around the location. Since it was noon time and almost lunch, I decided to pack food back to the room for Adrian and the children.

I bought the 双拼- 烧鹅和烧肉 rice for Adrian. The children had the 鲜虾云吞 面. I also bought some freshly baked 蛋塔and bread with a cup of 鸳鸯。We had a very nice and relaxing lunch in our hotel room. The children were enjoying the programs.

While the children took their nap, I went for a quick gym workout.

In the evening, we booked ourselves an optional tour with Win’s travel – open top bus Hong Kong by night. The tour started around 5.30pm with the guide picking us from the hotel. 1st stop was our dinner stop – we ate at a Hong Kong famous roasted goose restaurant. At the restaurant, we met up with another group of tourists and they are all Singaporean… : )

After dinner, the guide brought us to Victoria Peak to view the whole night scene of Hong Kong. We also had the chance to see Madam Tussauds wax museum on the Peak.

The scenery was very beautiful and we had a good tour of the wax museum, happily clicking away with all the famous people. We even saw our MM Lee, must take a photo because Singapore not chance..haha.


Then the guide brought us to Avenue of the Stars. We walked along the walkway and saw some famous people names and hand prints on the street.

Finally, the open top bus was there and the whole group went on it. Both Anthea and Anders were happy to get the chance to sit on top of the open bus.

The bus cruise along Nathan road and I saw some familiar places, like Miramar Hotel and TST where we stayed in 2007.

The ride was very enjoyable and the weather was very cool. It finally stops at the Ladies Market where the tour ended and we made our way back to the hotel.

As usual with 2 children in tow, it’s never easy to shop. So we decided to buy supper back to the room to enjoy. On the way back, we managed to buy a packet of the famous “炖蛋奶“and in another dessert soup, we bought a very delicious dessert – quite similar to our bo bo char char.

We had a good supper in our room and finally slept around 12 midnight.


Day 3: Tuesday, 17 March

This morning we woke up around 7.30am as our pick up time was 9am. I went to the 茶餐厅 across the hotel to buy breakfast. The breakfast set was delicious and each set come with a cup of coffee/tea/oval tine.

We checked out of the hotel after our breakfast. Then we were transferred to Hollywood hotel in Disney.

When we arrived, Adrian did the check in and the receptionist mentioned that we can only get our room after 2pm. So we decided to go ahead to visit the Theme Park via the shuttle service by the hotel.

When we reached the Theme park, the entrance Q was quite long as they were checking the bags. People who planned to picnic in the Theme Park had to forego the plan as all the food/canned drinks were confiscated. Luckily for us, I only packed some small packs of biscuits and bread. The person who checked my bag was kind enough to let me through.

Once we were in the theme park, our Dreams came through…haha. We went around taking photos with all the Disney characters. Anders was excited to see them for the 1st time.

We went around for the rides, 3D shows and we also managed to catch the High School Musical Live Show.

The Disney Street parade was on at 3.30pm and after seeing the parade, we went back to the hotel to check in the room. It was a very Disney room – the amenities inside the room were all Disney. The children had another treat – Disney channel / Playhouse Disney was shown on TV.

They took a power nap and we return to the park around 7.30pm for the Fireworks show.

Then we were recommended by the Park GR to go to Tsing Yi Station (青衣站) to have our dinner. They had a big mall there. Indeed, we found the place – Maritime Square. It was like our local shopping mall and it had many eateries, supermarket and shops. We had dinner at Pizza Hut. Then we bought some bread for our breakfast tomorrow.

We went back to the hotel and rested for the night after the eventful day.

Day 4: Wednesday, 18 March

In the morning, we woke up around 9 am and had simple breakfast in the room. As the hotel swimming pool was closed for maintenance, we had no chance to go for swim.

So we decided to go back to the Theme park to take the Train ride and also had lunch before our departure. As our theme park tickets allowed us to play for 2 days, we were making full use of the privileges.

Then the agent picks us up around 1.40 pm to go to the airport for our departure flight.

It was Home Sweet Home.

Hong Kong → Singapore (CX 711) Dep: 1600 / Arr 1945

The 4 days 3 night trip had been a memorable one for the family. This was Anders 1st time visiting Disneyland and his 1st trip to Hong Kong.

Our family had enjoyed great bonding time during the trip. Judging by the response, I believe this will not be the last time we visit Hong Kong..再见。。。香港！！

放假了！！

Finally the “long awaited” school term break is here….I has never looked forward to a holiday so much in my life. Probably I am getting more stress with the school/work routine, so I really needed this break badly…hee.

This will be our ACES Family 1st school holiday vacation and many more to come; I am now starting to plan for the June holiday as Adrian has confirmed his leaves… : P (where to go???)

Anyway, we are all set for our 4D3N Hong Kong Magical Disney trip starting tomorrow till Wednesday. I know it’s short but we can’t ask for more…haha.

- Luagge about 90% packed

- Airline check in with seats selected

- Have made dinner reservation for tomorrow night at Yung Kee. Honestly, I am not a food connoisseur, so I never pre-booked for any meals during any vacations. However, this restaurant was highly recommended by my ex-colleague and both Adrain /Anders are Duck Lovers, so we must TRY the goose.

We will be staying one night in Disneyland hotel and both Anthea/Anders are looking forward to it.

Okie, with this, I wish all the school going children/mommies & daddies: A Happy School Holiday.

我们放假了！！！

Parent Teacher Conference

This is Anthea 1st PTC for her primary education and I was looking forward to the session. The PTC was held on Friday, 13 March and we were given the timeslot of 12 noon to 1pm. The timing suits my working schedule…hee : )

After work, I met up with Adrian, Anthea and Anders at her primary school. Adrian was on his guard off and Anders just recovered from a gastric flu, so we decided to keep him at home.

When I reached the school around 12.50pm, her form teacher – Mrs. Anna Koh was engaged with another parent. Anders was getting a bit listless from the wait and asked to go home 1st. So Adrian brought him home while I waited with Anthea.

Finally it was our turn. The very 1st comment that Mrs. Anna Koh said was – “you need not worry about Anthea, she is a very independent girl and she is doing well in her studies.”

Then Mrs. Koh went through with me her academic:
1. English – confidence and did very well in her topical tests. She scored full marks for the recent test. Mrs. Koh encouraged me to start her on her writing skills as the school will be doing more of this in the next term.

2. Math – equally good – only thing: a little careless. During the recent 1 hour Math topical test, she completed in 10 minutes!!! Mrs. Koh asked her to check her work which she did but had a careless mistake.

3. Mother-tongue: she is well versed in her Hanyu pin yin and her words. Only setback is her conversational part. So we need to brush up on this area.

Her overall assessment by the form teacher was very good and she even commented that she plans to make Anthea the class monitress for the next term… : P

Mrs. Koh mentioned that Anthea happened to be seat in a row of 3 and these 3 pupils are the better of the class. So among the 3 of them (Anthea, Sean and Xin Yi), there seem to be “internal competition” as to who is the top scorer. So far, Mrs. Koh said she sees this as a positive peer competition and they will motivate each other to do well…: )

I am really happy to hear of all the positive feedback from Mrs. Koh and for the part that she is weaker on, we will definitely try to improve on it. Mrs. Koh did mention that the school does stream the better children at the end of Primary 1. If Anthea maintains her results as it is, she will have no problem to get to the better class.

So far, Anthea has been pretty diligent in her school work and tuition classes. Of course, we would definitely want her to be in the better class but we know as long as put in her BEST, we will be very happy with whatever her results are.

Dilemma

Anthea has completed her 1st school term in Tien Hsia and I had signed her up for the 2nd term as she requested to continue the lessons. She truly enjoys her Chinese lessons.

On Monday, her tuition centre teacher gave me the revision time table for next term. I got a SHOCK as there will be 6 revision classes conducted between March to April. The revision classes are conducted on the same day/time as her Tien Hsia Class.

Last term, we missed a few revision lessons but I still pay for the test papers and Anthea brought home the test papers to do. The teacher marked her papers. This term, thinking that there would be only 3 revision classes, so I thought I will do the made up classes for Tien Hsia.

Now with 6 revision classes, I don’t think it’s possible to do the make-up lessons. I looked at the time table for Tien Hsian Primary 1 enrichment classes, it seem like we are left with a Tuesday afternoon class.

I spoke to Anthea of the change and she felt disappointed about it as she really likes her current teacher and classmates. I told her the change is just for this term, we can change back to the same class again next term. Hopefully her next term revision classes are lesser.

After a few rounds of discussion, last evening at the school, we decided to temporary “HOLD” her Tien Hsia classes and resume it in term 3. I find that it’s a pity because the classes were really helpful and she had maintained a perfect score in all her chinese spellings and readings. However, this is her decision and I will respect it. Like what Adrian said, don’t force her otherwise she may turn her interest against the subject, this is the last thing I want her to feel, especially for CHINESE.

Sigh…the 2nd term is a critical term as her school test marks will make up 30% of her final result. Term 4 will make up 70% of the results for CA & SA.As the tuition classes are more helpful in her school curriculum, we think it would be better to focus it this term, as for her Chinese lessons, I will put in more revisions at home with her. .. : )

Like what the chinese say : 鱼与熊掌， 难以兼得.

A Restful weekend

I was down with flu on Friday and took a day of medical leave to rest at home. Adrian was covering his colleague’s guard duty on Friday, so he was on guard off on Saturday.

Basically, this weekend is a resting weekend for us before we go for our short break next weekend.

On Saturday, after lunch, we had a good nap and I woke up around 5.45pm, the medicine was making me very drowsy. Then Adrian suggested that I should go for my walk/jog to purge out the “poison” and I heeded his advice. Anthea and Anders tagged along for the walk/jog.

I took a slow jog and it felt very good. While I jogged, Adrian went to the playground near the track with the children. After I completed my rounds, then he did his run.

We bought back dinner and had a simple meal at home, then rested early for the night.

On Sunday, I felt better but still bit lethargy from the medication. In the morning I went marketing and bought some food to cook for dinner.

In the afternoon, I went to visit my cousin Jun Ru; she had given birth to a healthy Baby boy named Ying Teng (蔡胤腾). It was such a nice experienced to carry a newborn in my arm. Those were the days…haha.

I also had a good time catching up with my other cousin Ying Herng, who is home for a while before she goes back to UK for her work.

In the evening, I went home to prepare dinner. Adrian helped me to cook chicken rice. Thanks to May's recommendation – I managed to prepare a dish of Steam Codfish with Wolfberry. Both Adrian and Anthea love the dish. Anders does not really like it... :Ｐ

After dinner, I watched the movie – Lara Craft on TV5 and enjoyed it so much. Then after the show, we had an early rest.

Looking forward to next weekend break...买东西，吃东西。。。

三十八咯

时间过得好快， 好像昨天才过了生日，今天又是我的生日。。哈哈哈！

没错，三十八岁咯，就快踏入四字头了。岁月不饶人。

今天的生日我想我会永远记住：

- 没有生日蛋糕
- 没有家庭晚餐
- 没有天伦之乐
- 没有生日歌

其实我的要求不高也不多，只希望一家人开心的共享晚餐。

幸亏还有几位好朋友和家人的生日祝福， 让我有温馨的感觉。

现在只希望孩子们快点长大。我能够过会我自己的生活。就如张惠美的歌曲 - 解脱 ， 这就是我向往得到的。

“你有自由走我有自由好好过 ，
解脱是懂擦干泪看以后
找个新方向往前走，
这世界辽阔
我总会实现一个梦 “

Easy Bake Recipe

Now that Anthea is in morning school, I have to plan her breakfast. To me, breakfast is a very important meal for the day, especially for school going children and working adults too.

There are simple options like – bread, cereal and cornflakes. To add varieties to her choices, I would add waffles, steamed buns and muffins for her breakfast. In the morning, before Adrian leaves for work, he would have breakfast too. So I am actually preparing for 2 of them.

Gone were those good old days of Childcare centre breakfast. Now it’s my own preparation.

My fridge is stocked up with lots of eggs/ham/bacons/tuna and cheese because these are essential items for simple sandwiches and eggs dishes.

Last week while shopping for grocery at NTUC, I came across a Wing’s Chocolate Moist cake pre-mix recipe package. I read through the instruction and found that it was quite easy. All I need to add to the premix are eggs, butter and water. I bought a packet to try.

Yesterday afternoon as I had some extra time on hand, I decided to bake the cake.

After mixing the premix in a bowl with the ingredients, I used the electric mixer to give it a better mix, as stated on the instruction. Then I put it in the oven and baked it for about 30 minutes. The cake turned out very, very nice. This is the first time I am very satisfied with the baking. I think the new over is justifying it’s value too... : )

Anthea had a slice of the cake for her tea break after her afternoon nap and she said it was delicious.

Our breakfast was the Chocolate moist cake which I warmed up while preparing Pizza for Anthea’s snack box.

As the cake was quite big, I shared ½ of it with my parents. This morning I received a compliment SMS from my 大哥 and he said “the cake is getting better. Can open bakery in 2 years”….haha. I confessed to him that I used a premix recipe, so it’s really not my credit…. : P

Now that I get positive feedbacks on the cake, I think next time I will try their other flavor. Or I should start looking at my cake recipes again…hee : P


Just read that one of my blogging friend - Clement was warded in TTSH and went through a minor op. Hereby wishing Clement a Speedy Recovery !!!

Happy Birthday 奶奶 / Show & Tell Pre-works

This has been another busy and very fulfilling weekends for the family.

On Saturday morning, I went to Chan Brothers travel to pick up our E-tickets and confirmation vouchers. We are all ready for our 4D3N Hong Kong Disney Magical and Shopping Extravaganza tour.

I discovered a new way to travel from Ang Mo Kio to Chinatown by a special bus service – CT8. The ride was smooth and fast. Now that I discovered this new service, going to Chinatown will be much easier.

In the evening, we celebrated my MIL’s birthday at Sze Chuan Court restaurant at the Fairmont Hotel. My MIL had bought the Raffles membership and she had some 50% meal discount vouchers, so we had a very sumptuous dinner with red wine. Her birthday cake was a Black Forest cake from Pine Garden. As usual, we had a great time with the extended families. Like mommy Vivien said – it’s the companionship that really matter.

On Sunday, we went around with our Sunday routine. Anthea will be having her 1st Show & Tell presentation on next Wednesday, 04 March 09. She is supposed to talk about her Superhero and she decided to talk about Bloom from Winx Club.

Adrian helped her in her prep works and made her practice her “speech” after her lunch. Initially she was very soft and unsure in her presentation, but after a few rounds of practicing, she got better with her show and tell. We just hope she will do well in the actual presentation.

This week will be another week of tests for her, she will be having her topical Chinese test on Wednesday and English test on Friday. Then she will has her Math test on 11 March, just before the 1 week school break. I will be busy supervising her revisions for the tests.

Wow…it’s just so amazing the amount of school works that the Primary school are doing nowadays. I don’t remember doing all these during my time... : P

In the evening, Adrian cooked his famous “pineapple rice” and I prepared a pot of soup and a baked fish. We had a simple and nice home cooked meal. Anders does not like pineapple rice, so after my evening jog; I packed a packet of duck rice for him… : P

After dinner, we watched Casino Royale on TV5. I told Adrian that this is the 1st time I watched a James Bond Movie, well, it was not as bad as I expected. I told him it felt a bit like watching Jackie Chan Action packed movie…haha.

Next Sunday, TV5 will be showing Lara Craft in the Tombstone, so I guess we are in for another movie treat since we hardly had the chance to go to cinema for action movies anymore. These Sunday stay-at-home movies are a better deal for Adrian and me…haha.

FREE Water PURIFIER - on Friday evening, after buying a birthday present at Tangs for my MIL (we bought her Jurlique products), we were entitled to this free gift. Now I am wondering to use or not to use… : P Must find out more about the product.