AFB 2007

Today is 31 December 2007, the best thing to blog is to "turn back the Blog" and reminisced the year.

2007 had been a good year for the Aces family and we are very happy and looking forward to 2008.

Aces Family Blog 2007 :

January - both anthea and anders started their childcare in a new childcare centre. The decision was right and both of them had good times in the centre.

February - Aces family celebrated CNY 2007.

March :

- Astee and Anthea had their 1st holiday in Hong Kong Disneyland, together with my MIL.

- Our little niece , Faith Tan, was borned in March 2007.

- Anders celebrated his 3th Birthday.

April :

- Siti , our domestic helper, returned home after 3 years of working with us.

- Aces family started Tingkat dinner delivery.

- Anthea celebrated her 5th birthday.

May:

- Anthea and Anders were confirmed with HFMD, luckily it was a mild one and both recovered well.

June:

- Daddy celebrated his birthday.

- Aces family attended NDP rehearsal

July :

- Aces famil weekends stay at swissotel the stamford.

- NDP Preview .

August:

- Aces family (1st trip) to KL/Sunway lagoons.

September:

- Celebrated mid autumn festival.

October:

- Island princess introduction.

November :

- Aces family 1st time on Starcruise Virgo.

December:

- watched LIVE Shows (Dora, Barbie as Island Princess, Thomas The train).

- Chee Kheong & Angelyn wedding.


Looking back brought me very fond memories of those family time we had. Now counting down to 2008 and hope that it will be a peaceful year for Aces Family.


Dear All,


May it be a prosperous year for everyone, Happy 2008 !!!

Gatherings weekends

This had been a busy weekends of gatherings for the aces family.

On Saturday, one of Adrian colleagues invited us to his house for a lunch gathering. His colleague stayed in one of the Condominum in Punggol and it faced the punggol park.

At the gathering, we had a sumptous lunch of friend bee hoon, chicken curry, fish fritters, prawn fritters and nice dessert of cakes and drinks. Adrian had requested that i baked a dozen of the chocolate chip muffins for the gathering. So we do not go empty handed..hee : )

Both Anthea and Anders had fun at the gathering, there were few other colleagues who brought along their children, so all the children had fun playing with the owner's dog. At the gathering, i also get to linked faces to names that Adrian had mentioned to me. These are all the people that worked hand in hand, sweat to sweat in Sudong Island.

We left the place in the late afternoon for the children to have their nap before joining the extended families for dinner.

My MIL used her hotel membership and booked a room for a weekend stay in Fairmont Singapore. During my last gathering with my Travel friends, i was told that Fairmont groups had bought over Raffles The Plaza hotel. This is the 1st Fairmont Hotel in Singapore. The Fairmont Hotel is nicely furbished compared to the old Raffles the Plaza, as i can remembered it.

Anthea room in with my parents in law on the weekends, she was so happy.

On Sunday morning, we brought Anders to the hotel to meet up with my MIL and Anthea. Adrian watched over Anders in the swimming pool when i had my 1 hour gym workout. The gym facilities was really good and the spa was equally top class. Too bad i didn't bring my costume to do the jacuzzi... : )

After our swim and gym, we packed up and checked out of the hotel and headed towards CPE to fetch my FIL.

We sent them back and then headed to Adrian's buddy place for a gathering. His buddy's - Ong celebrated his daughther 1st Year Old birthday. We brought along a present for Baby Cheryl. Ong didn't tell us about the celebration, he just mentioned that it was a gathering. Luckily, i still remember that Pauline delivered some time last year...hee. So looking at my blog entry, indeed, Cheryl was borned on 30 Dec 2006. Cheryl is a chubby little girl and so cute.

Ong stayed in one of the condominium in AMK, both Anthe and Anders had so much fun at the children playground.

Life in a condominium is good with so many facilities within reach... : )

Well, we can only dream of it and hopefully if one day, strike Toto or Big sweep....IF. haha : )

Christmas Day SPECIALS..

It's Christmas DAY...

It's a relaxing day to wake up to. The children had a late night, so they both woke up around 9.30am.

After a simple breakfast of home baked muffins and good cup of brewed coffee. We decided to go to town for a walk. Well, rather it was "I" who decided to go Marina Loft to try the 车仔面 by Old Hong Kong. I read on Sunday Times about this place and thought of trying it. Now i am into 茶餐厅 craze and love to try all the different kind of Hong Kong food.


Both Anthea and Anders enjoyed the noodles and i love the ingredients. It's a bit like our local mixture of "kauy chap" and "yong tau fu". No bad.


After lunch, we walked around the Marina Square and ended up in JL. I had the chance to shop around for clothings while Adrian brought the children to the Toys Department. I was pleasantly surprised that i managed to fit into a M size denin skirt when i tried it. I was looking for either the L or XL but there were only M left. So i though...what the heck..just try for fun.


It FITTED me...OMG!! This made my day...haha. Actually i would think that it is the cutting of the skirt, rather than the size. Anyway, i am really glad that the Personal Training is doing me good, specially now that my backache had subsided to a great extend.

Needless to say, i bought the skirt... : P

Happily, we went for tea break at Killiney Cafe, Anthea and Anders enjoyed the kaya toast, eggs and teh-C. Then we left home for the children's nap.

This Christmas - 25 Dec 2007 is SPECIAL because all members of the Tan Family are in SG, compared to 2006 when Louis & Eve were in US/UK for work and pleasure.

Since the Master Chefs are back in town, the chefs KITCHEN opens on Christmas Day. Beside being X'mas day, it is also Louis's Birthday. So we must celebrate it in style..haha. Dinner was a special treat at Louis & Eve's place.

Aunty SK and family, together with Aunty SG came over to join us for dinner.

The menu included - Home roasted Turkey and stuffings (prepared by the birthday boy), Quiche and a special mexican wrap ( prepared by Eve), Special beef rolled with golden mushrooms (prepared by Terence & Cherry), combinations of sausages and mashed potatoes ( contributed by the Aces family), Special baked rice ( prepared by aunty SK). There were fruits and desserts and a Durian Birthday Cake from Jane's Cake Station. ( Contributed by mom & dad). Last but not least , a bottle of nice champagne and white wine for the occassions.

This is the 1st time we had a home roasted Turkey and i must compliment the Chef/s for a job well done. The meat was still tender and juicy when we ate it, it was roast to PERFECTION.

Both Anthea and Anders had so much fun playing with Wen D's girlfriend, Sharon jie jie. The whole house was full of laughters by the 3 of them. We left the place around 10 pm, feeling so happy and truely the spirit of Christmas.


This Christmas, Anthea and Anders received so many Christmas Presents from all the love ones.

Anthea :
1. Ponyville ( Yeye & Nai Nai)
2. Princess Swim robe towel ( Uncle Louis & Aunty Eve)
3. Barbie as Island Princess Doll ( Uncle Terence & Cherry Jie Jie)
4. Dress - Barbie as island Princess ( Daddy & Mommy)
5. Playdough ( Childcare gift exchange)
6. Scrabble - children version ( Aunty SK)
7. Monopoly for both of them ( Uncle Louis & Aunty Eve)

Anders:
1. Thomas the Train set ( Yeye & Nai Nai)
2. Spiderman robe towel ( Uncle Louis & aunty Eve)
3. Transformers Truck ( Uncle Terence & Cherry Jie Jie)
4. Lego sets ( Daddy & mommy)
5. Fraction Learning Set ( Childcare gift exchange)
6. Ultraman Agul / Justic ( Aunty SK)
7. Ultraman Cosmo VCD ( Sharon Jie Jie)

Also 2 of them received a color pencil sets from the childcare. Abundance of gifts.

They are really very lucky to have so many people who thought of them during this festive season. I always remind them that they have to appreciate all these presents and especially the people who bought them the presents.

Another wonderful day of precious moment with the families. It is a Merry, Merry Christmas for the Aces Family.

Thankful Christmas Eve

Today is the Eve of Christmas.

Aces family has many things to be thankful on this special day.

Today morning, Adrian checked his examination result and he was told that he passed the exam. It was the Best Christmas Gift for him.

The children childcare was supposed to have a X'mas celebration but because of some cases of chicken pox going around, the Principal decided to cancel it. I was actually prepared to attend the party. Since it was cancelled, i went home while the children had their mini class celebrations.

Both Adrian and myself went to the temple to offer our thanks to grandma/grandad who had been watching over us. We are thankful that Anders is ok and the little incident that happened was a reminder for us to be more careful.

After offering our prayers, we went to the gym for our workout before heading to the childcare to fetch the children.

Both Anthea and Anders came home, very happy and with their X'mas exchange presents. I am thankful that both of them are enjoying every day of their school.

In the evening, dinner was at lao ma's place. As usual, we are thankful to my parents and my brothers for always looking after us in their special own way. Especially to lao pa for always cooking our favorite dishes.

Tonight dinner - Leg of lamp, slice roast beef, honey baked ham, baked potatoes, salad, baked bean, soup and a great bottle of white wine. What more can we asked for...as we are in the company of our love ones.

All these while, we are also very thankful for our extended families for sharing all our happiness and joy.

It's now 11.30pm and anothe 1/2 hour to Christmas Day. Aces family would like to wish our families, relatives and friends :

"A Merry Christmas and may your Dream comes True."

Nearly CRUSHED...

This little incident happened on Saturday after the wedding dinner.

We were walking down the escalator and heading towards the carpark. Halfway down the escalator, Anders started crying...i looked at him and he was pointing to his left leg.

His crocs shoe got caught in between the escalator gap...i panicked and got frightened. Adrian saw it and quickly ran infront of us. In the nick of time, he pulled the shoe out from the gap. The shoe tored into 2 pieces. At this point, we were all off the escalator.

Anders was crying and Anthea also started crying and she asked : "didi's legs broken already?" She was very frightened and upset by the incident.

When the whole commotion cooled down a little and the children stop crying. I checked on Anders feet. Very luckily that his feet was not caught inside of the gap otherwise, i really dread to imagine what will happened.

We asked him to walk a little and he was ok. Then Adrian carried him to the car and then we drove home.

I was very shaken by this little incident. All these while, i have been very cautious when the children are on the escalator, i always make sure that they are on the safe side of the escalator. However, on that night, it happened so quickly..sighed !!

This is an important lesson for the Aces family and i know from now on, i will be super alert.

Beautiful Wedding & Happy 冬至

22 Dec 2007 is a beautiful day of Happy occassions.

Today is a BIG DAY for chinese as we celebrated the 冬至 (Winter Solstic). At lunch time, we went to my lao ma place for a good meal of home cooked hainanese chicken rice with other dishes. The main important dish for the day is none other than - 汤圆. My mum bought the red/white mixture from the market and rolled it into small balls and cooked them in ginger soup. It is a very refreshing drink and both Adrian and myself Love it.

Today is also a BIG DAY for our extended family - it is the customery wedding cum dinner for Chee Kheong & Angelyn. (chee kheong is the eldest son of my MIL's 2nd sister). It was definitely a family affair. In the morning, my MIL brought Anthea along to my aunty's house for the tea ceremony. In the evening, the Tan family attended their wedding dinner at Swissotel The Stamford Hotel.

This is our first timei attended a wedding dinner in this hotel and i must say - the food quality was good and all commented that it was delicious as well.. : )

The most important is the gathering of the relatives whome we only met during such occassion.

The dinner ended around 11 pm and we stayed around to chat with the aunties and we had so much laughter. Anthea and Anders enjoyed the wedding, they especially had fun playing with Uncle MK.

May the new couples lead a Blissful life ahead and start their own family soon...

Fun Day at The Zoo

The childcare centre is closed on 19 Dec and 21 Dec, so i took 2 days of my childcare leaves to be with them.

Earlier on i applied for my company Zoo corporate card and this time i was lucky. I got it for the 19 Dec and the card to be returned on 21 Dec since 20 Dec is a Hari Raya holiday.

We decided to go on 19 December becaused from previous experience Hari Raya is always a rainy day..hee : P

In the morning, Adrain drove us all to my office to pick up the Zoo card and then we made our way to the Singapore Zoo.

When we arrived, Adrian went for his jog around the Mandai reservoir while the 3 of us went for our zoo visit. We made arrangement for Adrian to meet us after his jog.

Our 1st stop was the Pony ride as Anthea wanted to do that. So i bought a ticket for Anthea's ride. Anders was a bit hesitant when i asked him if he wanted to take the ride. When we were at the Pony ride area, there were no one else, except us. So the Zoo keeper was very kind, he allowed Anders to go on the ride, eventhough he does not had a ticket. Both of then enjoyed the Pony's ride.

After the ride, we went for The Elephant show. It was an enjoyable show and i was truely impressed with the work that our Asia Elephants displayed.

Adrian met us at the restaurant for lunch. At the lunch place, there were some displays of snakes and both Anthea and Anders had a good chance to go up closed and personal with the snakes.

Then we went to the children play area. As the weather was bright and sunny, the children had about 20 minutes of waterplay.

Thereafter, we went on to see Hippo and Kangeroo before calling it a day. As usual, our last stop is Ben & Jerry's ice cream.

We headed home after a good, fun day at the Zoo. We were blessed with a day of very good & sunny weather.

Thomas & Friend Live Show & My Gathering.

This has been a super busy weekends for Aces Family.

On Sat afternoon, we were target to watch another Live show, it's none other than Thomas, the train show. The show took place on our own turf - AMK HUB, so there is no excuse to miss it.

So after a light lunch of porridge, we walked over to the hub to Q for the show. We reached there around 12.15pm and there was almost 50 people infront of us. So we joined in the Q.

As usual, the show started at 1 pm, with the introduction of the show by the Fat Controller. It was an entertaining 30 minutes after and after the show, Anthea and Anders had the chance to take a photo on the stage with the character. They were so happy.

After taking photo, we went to the 3rd storey for the Train ride. Purchase above $50 at any shop in the HUB, the children had a chance to take a ride round the shops.

Due to the Christmas festive, there are many events happening in the Hub and Friday night, it was a late night shopping event. Also Santa Claus was going around distributing goodies with Miss Santa.. : )

Saturday dinner was with the families at California Pizza Kitchen, after a nice meal of Pizzas and salad, Terence & Cherry brought the children to Toy R Us to shop for their X'mas presents. Terence laid down a condition for them - They can only open their presents on X'mas day.

Now both of them are waiting patiently for the 25 Dec..hee : )

On Sunday, a group of my ex-colleagues from my travel industry days came to my place for a small gathering. We had such a wonderful catching up with one another. There were altogether 7 of us so it is equivalent to 2 markets (三个女人，一个巴刹).

We chatted non-stop about our current affairs and reminisced about those good old days. We have been friends for almost 15 years.

Time passed so fast and now we are all doing different jobs with a few still in the same industry.

Our 1st Visit to Ikea Tampines

On Sunday morning, it was raining quite heavily, so Anthea did not go for her usual swim with my MIL.

Since we are home and Adrian is also not working. We decided to visit the IKEA Mega mall in Tampines. When we reached the place, our 1st stop was lunch. The food mall was big and very crowded. Luckily we found a table for 4 of us. We had their famous spaghettis with meatball, kid's meal - spaghettis and chicken nuggets. The children enjoyed the food.

After we finished our lunch, it was shopping time. While shopping, we met Uncle HT and he was there with his family. Both Anthea and Anders were so happy to see their uncle MK; they wanted to play with him. We told them after buying the stuff, we will meet with them again, then only they were willing to move on.

2 weeks back, we did some furniture changes to our current beds arrangement. All these while, Anders had been sleeping on the mattress on the floor. Having read from the Baby Forum that it was no advisable for children to sleep on the floor for prolonged time, so he now sleep on the Queen size bed with me.

So this mean that one of our rooms is now empty and Adrian decided to used it as his reading room. So we shifted our study desk to the empty room.

With the study desk gone, we need another simple table to put our laptop and printer, so our main intention to Ikea was to get it.

We found the exact table that we wanted – Vika Amon / Vika curry table. The price is at $39.00.

Then we saw this very nice chest of 6 drawers include a built in mirror – MALM series that cost $249.00. I love it because it was slim and small, save space. We bought it as well.

My current dressing table is one of those OLD-fashioned and bulky type.. : P

The 2 items that we bought are under self- serve, so we have to navigate ourselves to the different racks / sections to pick up the items. I must say, the warehouse area is HUGE and very spacious.

After paying for our 2 items, we headed for home, it was quite a challenge to pack the carton of drawers into our car and we managed.

Adrian had set up the table which was a simple task. As for the drawers, it was not easy but I am proud to say: He DID it. Adrian is quite a DIY person, anything that breaks down at home or whatever needed to be fixed, he will try to put them back.

We had a fun time at IKEA and i told Adrian that we must come again - visit the Giant Megamart that is just across the road.

Dora the Explorer "Live" Show

December is always a busy month of chasing Live Shows for the children.

On Saturday morning, after a nice breakfast, we started getting ourselves ready to go for the Dora Live Show at the United Square.

As usual we took the MRT since it is just 4 stations aways from our place. We reached United Square around 11.45am and we saw that people are que-ing up. So we quickly joined in the Q. Luckily we were early and the Q got longer and longer, compared to our Q for Island Princess show last weekend.

The show started on time at 1 pm. Both Anthe and Anders were very happy to see Dora and her friends. The 1/2 hour show was very entertaining.

The only "complaint" that i have is - many parents started to shove their children to the front of the stage and resulted to the children standing and blocking our view. Anthea kept saying : "mommy, i can't see, they are blocking me." Imagine we were at the front row..sigh. In the end, i had no choice but to ask her to stand up and watch. This meant that she will be blocking the others behind but what to do... : P

After the show, we had lunch at Bakerzin with the extended families. The children had pizzas and spagetties. My In Laws returned from their enjoyable Hokkaido trip on Friday evening.

My father in law brought the children to Toy R Us after lunch and he bought each of them an early christmas present. Anthea choosed for herself a Ponyville House and Anders choosed a Thomas the Train Lego set.

Both of them went home, happy & tired. They had their usual power nap.

Dinner was at my in laws house with Uncle Leong's crabs and other Tze char dishes. It was a nice and simple meal. After dinner, we even had a rare chance of playing a game of MAHJONG..hee.

What a Treat & exciting day for the Aces family.

Passion & Friendship.

This morning when i was reading the Mind Your Body section of The Straits Times, December 5, 2007. I was pleasantly surprised when i read this article by David Hume - Let Passion Give Way to Friendship.

After my previous blog on my 8th Years, reading this article made me understand that we are on the right track.. : )

The author mentioned that the essence of romantic love (eros) is want. In other words to be in love is to be consumed by passionate longing for someone.

Extracts from the article :

*************************

Love & liberty - "love is restless and impatient passion, full of caprices and variations: arising in a moment and suddenly extinguishing after the same manner. Such love requires liberty above all things."

But once two people commit to being "a couple" (by marriage), they are no longer free to live and love as they please. Their actions and affections become bound by constraints.

Marital Friendship - Although eros cannot survive without liberty, friendship can. Unlike eros, friendship thrives under constraint. The stuff that chokes the life out of passion (duty, responsibility and routine) causes friendship to flourish and bloom.

This is why successful marriages are not characterised by swoons, sighs and palpitations of the heart, though they will have had their share of these things at the beginning. They are characterised by care, consideration and tenderness.

The happy couples have managed to transform the passion and ardour they had in the beginning into Joy, Gentlenss, Gratitude and Trust, into happiness in being together."

In other words, into FRIENDSHIP.

***********************************************

This is a meaningful article to me and i hope to put it to good practice in our marriage and one day, we will be just like the cartoon.

Happy 8th Years

4th December is the day we took our vows - 8 years ago.

8 Years of marriage is still consider as very "young" couples. But we already felt like "old husband old wife"..haha. Probably as we matured, we looked at anniversary differently. Most important to us is our Mutual Trust & LOVE.

It's a normal day with no dinner celebration or flowers but we know the significance of the day, deep in our hearts.

The other day i was talking to Adrian on my mobile, after i ended the call, my colleague who was with me asked : "were you talking to you hubby ? how come you and him talk like friends?"

I was puzzled by her question because that is how we always conversed, ending our conversation with a "thanks or see you."

Indeed her question had left me to think about relationship / marriage. Didn't a relationship started as friends before we proceeded to become man & wife. After marriage, does it meant the Friendship also ended?

Nope, to me, the Friendships extended further to becoming mutual understandings friends.

Now our friends group extended to include our children. So definitely there is no endings to it.

Then next time he will be my soulmate and listening ears, as we aged together.

Dear, Happy 8th Anniversary !!

Thanks for everything.

Barbie as The Island Princess Live Show & Sayonara.

Anthea has been a BIG Fan of Barbie's shows and this resulted to me being a mommy's fan. We have been to a few of Barbie Live Shows - Pegasus (Year 2005) & 12 Dancing Princesses (Year 2006).

This year, without fail, Barbie is coming as the Island Pricess. We have watched the VCD many times and again i must say, this musical was another hit with the Aces Family.

When i saw the promotion mailer from Robinson indicating on the Live Show, i told myself - we must go & watch..haha.

On Sat, 1 Dec, the Live Show starts and it is at the Raffles City Shopping Mall. Since it's a Saturday, how can we not go for it. So after breakfast, around 11 am, we (anthea, anders & myself) took the MRT to City. Adrian was helping me with the housework and decided to join us after. We decided to take the MRT because i wanted to let the children go on MRT, as they always request to take MRT.

We reached Raffles City Shopping Mall around 11.30 am and went to the Atrium to check out on the Q status. From Experienced, i know to get a good view, normally will need to Q an hour before the show. Luckily, there were no one Q-ing yet, so we walk around the Atrium. Anthea and Anders were very excited when they see all the Island Princess toys and dresses, espcially Anthea.

At 12 noon, we saw the Barbie crew start putting up notices on the Live Show and Anthea said : "mommy, let's go & Q". Wow..she is even more "kan-cheong" than anyone else. So we went to Q and got Q No. 8 - 10...hee. This show how "ks" we are..haha.

The show started on time at 1pm and the children enjoyed the 1/2 hour magical live show. I was impressed by the whole setup and also the crew. The singers are really very good. Only thing, there was a slight hiccups, some of the mikes were not working at the start, so we could not hear the first few songs clearly. Regardless of the small hiccups, the crew still put up their best performances. Well DONE !

In the evening, we went to the airport for dinner. My parents in laws are going for a 7 Days Hokkaido Tour with Tradewinds.


After dinner, we took the skytrain to Terminal 3 to take a new look at the home to A380. Wow...our Terminal 3 is really big. As it was not fully opened yet, so we only took a quick peek at the departure hall.


Then we went back to Terminal 2 to do the check in for my in law's departure flights on SQ. The group counter was crowded with school holiday tourist. Many are in family with children. Looking at them, i told adrian, in 2 years time, we will also need to follow school holiday crowd when anthea starts her primary school..hee.


Around 10 pm, my in laws went in to the boarding gates to wait for their departure flight. Aces family wishes them a Happy vacation in Japan and till we see them next Friday, it is now "Sayonara..."

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