Happy Birthday to Terence !

On Sunday, 24 October, we celebrated my 3rd brother in law birthday. As my MIL is an Ala Carte Member, she has meals vouchers which we could use at the Millennium Group. As usual, one of our favorite dinner place is Café Brio’s @ Grand Copthrone Waterfront and yes, its buffet spread is something that the families simply adore…: )

Usually for special occassion, we would dined at this cafe and like what my FIL comment :"it's an annual affair to eat here". Anthea & Anders were very excited about the Buffet dinner.

The spread was as usually good – the cold dishes even had Japanese Abalone with the usual fresh serving of sashimi, fresh oysters, cold crabs. The hot counters have mixture of western cuisine and some of our local favorites – hokkien noodle, chilli crab and seasonal vegetables dishes.

The favorite counter is none other than the Grilled counter – they have grills beef/mutton/prawns/cuttlefish ring and otah. Most of them were grilled to perfection by the chef in charge except for a few odd ones...: )

The children enjoy the food from all the different counters and the adults were also much busied going in and out of the main café to the grills.

We had an enjoyable dinner and when it was so called cake cutting time, I realized that there was no cake for the birthday boy…hehe.

Adrian said probably it was a buffet so no one thought of getting a cake…haha..: P

Anyway, both Anthea and Anders bought a birthday card for him and Adrian also gave him a birthday ang pow.

We wished Terence a very Happy Birthday and a good year ahead…!!

Discovering Melbourne, 9 - 13 Oct 2010

The company had scheduled a Roundtable meeting in Melbourne on 11 – 12 October. Originally it was planned that my Manager would be travelling to Singapore for local meetings and then to Melbourne for the Roundtable meeting. However, due to some medical reason, she had to change her travel plan. As such, the company had requested for me to travel for the meeting.

I was delighted and definitely happy to accept the task as every travel is a great learning opportunity for me and also a good chance to meet the clients.

So I booked myself on Qantas flights from Singapore to Melbourne.

Day 1: 9 October, Sat – QF 9 Singapore – Melbourne.

Qantas fly the Airbus A380 on weekend and thus I was lucky to get my 2nd visit on the A380. Flight was smooth and service was great.

Day 2: 10 October, Sunday

Arrival in Melbourne at 6am in the morning. I took the Sky bus from the airport to the city station (Southern Cross Station) and then got a taxi from there to my hotel. I was booked into the Amora Melbourne located at 649 Bridge Road, Richmond, Vic 2131. It was located outside of CDB but very near to the factory outlets.

As it was still too early for me to check into the hotel room, so I decided to do my shopping first. Yes, I had a short list of shopping items to get from Melbourne. My family’s members are great supporter of Jurlique products. It is very costly to buy them in Singapore but in Australia, they cost ½ the price of Singapore. Each time when we visit Australia, we are surely to stock them up.

So my 1st stop was the Chinatown Duty Free shop which is located in Little Bourke Street.

I took the Tram services from the hotel to Swanton Street. It was very fast and easily accessible. I took the opportunity to explore all the shops along Swanston Street. They have everything and anything – from souvenirs, branded goods and essential needs.

At the Duty Free shop, I bought the Jurlique Essential oils and also some nougat for the families.

After a fulfilling trip, I went back to the hotel for the check in and prepared the meeting items.

In the evening, I had dinner with my Australia colleague and the 2 facilitators for the meeting. It was a good introductory dinner.

Day 3: 11 October, Monday

The meeting was scheduled to start at 9am and there was coffee and tea at 8.45am for the delegates. I had the chance to meet up with all my Australia’s clients and greeting them in person made the difference than on the phone. Some of them even mistaken that I was based in Sydney…: )

The meeting went very well throughout the day and lunch was a good time for networking too.

In the evening, we hosted a dinner at Boheme café which was about 10minutes walk from the hotel. Dinner was delicious and the atmosphere was relaxing. We talked and chatted about different topics and it ended on a happy note.

Day 4: 12 October, Tuesday

2nd day of the meeting also went smoothly, no major hiccups. The meeting was closed around 3pm and we bade goodbyes to each other and promised to keep in contact via emails/phones.

In the evening, it started raining, so I packed back dinner and ate in the hotel room.

Day 5: 13 October, Wednesday

Had a morning meeting with one of my new subscribers. It was my 1st solo meeting and I was glad that it went well and took note of area to improve for my next meeting.

After the meeting, I went back to the hotel to pack and got ready to leave for the airport. At the city station, I was hoping to visit the Queen Victoria Market in Melbourne. Sadly, it was closed on a Wednesday, so I missed the opportunity to see it.

Thus, I went straight to the airport, did my check in for the flight. As I was still early, I had a quick lunch and did some duty free shopping before boarding the flight for home sweet home.

Melbourne – a place I last visited 10 years ago and re-visiting it give me a sense of belonging and I had really enjoyed this work trip.

I was telling Adrian that maybe Melbourne can be our next family vacation destination….till we meet again,

G’ Day Mate!!

New Shoes/ Swimsuits

It had been a very busy working week cum sport week for me.

I am having quite a few upcoming web conferences and I am busied preparing for them. Also I have an upcoming RoundTable meeting in Melbourne, thus I will be travelling again soon.

With Adrian’s blessing, I am truly enjoying my new home based job which allows me the time to be with the children, especially comes 2011, Anders will be in Primary 1 and I will be taking care of his after school needs as well.

Besides being occupied with work and housework, we are also kept busied with our Saturdays badminton session at the sport hall. I had been booking the badminton hall on all the Saturdays to give Anthea the chance to practice her badminton skill and I know it’s getting better each time. : ) also Anders is enjoying the sport too and hope that he will be able to join the school team too when he starts Primary 1.

Anders will be graduating from the childcare in another 1 month time. I am looking forward to his graduation ceremony in mid November. They had their graduation photo taken on last Thursday, 30 September 2010. Because of the photo, he was required to wear a pair of covered black shoes, so on Wednesday, I went to Marina Square and bought a pair of Reebok for him. Now he is wearing them for his badminton game.

The children celebrated Children Day on 1 October 2010 and thus there was no school on that day for Anthea. We decided on a morning swim at my 3rd BIL and both Anthea and Anders had a great time playing with their cousins – Faith, Saige and Taeia

I noticed that Anders had “bubbles” from his swimsuit and knew it’s time for him to get a new one. Since he is now progressing well in his swimming lesson, it was time to invest in a good swimwear for him. On Saturday, after dinner with the families, we went to Velocity @ Novena Square and bought him an Arena Swimsuit. He is now all ready for his new challenge. Let’s hope he will be able to do his bronze test soon.