迎新春

“财神到 。。。财神到 。。。财神到我的大门口。。。“

Everyday when I send Anthea and Anders to childcare, I will have the pleasure of listening to the children singing this Chinese New Year song. They are practicing for this Friday celebration. I always feel the joy, especially when it comes from the children. There are other songs that they sang and each day, when Anthea and Anders walk home with me, they will sing the songs over & over… : )

We are exactly 1 week away for the 1st day of Chinese New Year. So far, the Ace family are pretty updated with our spring cleaning tasks despite Anders Fever saga. I am keeping my fingers all crossed that the viral will be gone by this weekends, so he can has a good Chinese New Year celebrations.

So far, tasks accomplished:

- washing of curtains
- washing of blankets
- decoration of the home
- change of NEW notes for Ang pows
- bought mine & children new year clothing
- change of sofa covers

Things to do:

- change bed sheets
- clean the kitchen cabinets
- clean the windows
- sweeps and mops the floor
- buy mandarin oranges

Now I am looking forward to our reunion dinners next week. My parents have been very kind to accommodate my request and have our reunion dinner on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, we will be eating with my In Laws – I will keep my stomach for the special dish – Braised Abalone (recipe by celebrity chef Sam Leong). Yummy ...!!

Then it will be time for 拜年and having feasts after feasts. . : )

“每条大街小巷，每个人的嘴里，见面第一 句话 ， 就是 “恭喜恭喜“。。。。"

Viral Infection

Last Friday, i received a call from the childcare teacher informing me that Anders was having fever. So i took half day off from work and brought him home for medication and rest. His temperature was about 38 degrees celsius. I fed him paracetemol and he slept. The temperature went down to around 37.5 after medication. I assumed that it was just a normal fever and we did not bring him to the clinic.

During the night, his temperature rose to around 38.5 degrees, so immediately i gave him a dose of Nurofen and started to cold pressed him. Then his temperature started to go down a little. I stayed awake almost the whole night, sponging him.

1st thing on Saturday morning, i brought him to the doctor. He was dignosed to have tonsil and that caused the fever. The doctor prescribe some medication for the illness. I bought extra Voren Suppository to standby, in case of high fever.

In the afternoon, his temperature rosed to 39 Degrees, i was a bit worried that his fever was still high after the medication and after some consideration, i inserted 1 voren. This helps to bring his temperature down to almost normal. I knew this may be temporary as his fever may still returns.

In the evening, his temperature was still ok. Then it started to rose back to 38.5 - 39.5 degrees. It was really demoralising to keep seeing his temperature so high but i just need to keep agilent in sponging him.

In the middle of the night around 1 am, the temperature was at highest of 40 degrees. I was really worried that he may get fits if his temperature keep going up. So i inserted another voren, just to keep his temperature down.

On Sunday, we decided to bring him to KKH A&E for a check up. After the blood test was out, it was confirmed that he had Viral Infection. According to the doctor, the fever will last for about 5 days. Important thing is to ensure that medication was fed and to sponge him when body gets too hot. Overall we paid $75.00 for this visit.

The doctor prescrition was - 7.5ml paracetemol / 6ml of nurofen (times frame advised very carefully by the doctor), chlorimine (1.5ml).

After hearing the doctor explanation, i was quite relieved as i was worried it could be other causes to the high fever. With the medication, Anders fever subsided quite substantianly.

Since birth, Anders has had fever when he falls sick but never had it hit such a record. From his sickness, i learnt a new lesson about fever and will definitely benefit from this episode.

Inspiration..瘦得了

Yesterday was my last session with my Personal Trainer. After the session, she did another overall assessment for me. The result was very positive and inspiring. After 8 weeks of training, my Fat Loss analysis was 2.5%. She said it is a very good overall result.

Weight wise, I lost about 4kgs. I am very happy with the result. Besides feeling healthier, I can also feel that my stamina is getting better. Also I am more familiar with the usage of gym equipments and not be intimidated by those heavy weights zone…hee : P

All these are very inspirational to me and I will encourage myself to continue with the effort and trainings. Hopefully, in another 8 weeks time, I can be closer to my ideal Fat percentage.

Currently at home, Adrian is also very into weight management and he does regular exercises. We kept each other motivated.

Food intake wise, we also cut down on fried items and carbohydrates. Previously our tingkat delivery includes 2 packet of white rice, since mid January 2008, I have reduced it a one packet.

Now our family of 4 is surviving on 1 packet of rice. The children still eat their normal portion of the rice. I will share my portion with Adrian... : P

So far, we are doing quite well with the new rationing…ha-ha.

With Chinese New Year just round the corner and all the feastings coming up, must really be very discipline.

Chinese New Year Kueh

Chinese New Year is exactly 2 weeks from today. Usually at home, we don’t buy New Year goodies because we have no visitors. Also I do not want the children to eat too much of these stuff as most the food are quite heaty. We will, however, do a bit of decoration this weekends as both of them kept asking to buy New Year decoration items.

The children childcare will be having a celebration on 1 February 2008. Parents are requested to bring CNY goodies for the celebration.

For Anthea Class – it is Kueh Bolu and for Anders class – 5 mandarin oranges.

It’s quite a task to buy the kueh bolu as it needs to be Halal as there are Muslim teachers in the school.

I was chatting with a colleague about buying this kueh bolu and she mentioned that there is this Malay store that sells this particular kueh and she shows me the name card.

Warisan Recipe Pte Ltd – Bendemeer (Boon Keng MRT Station), Blk 25, #01-591, Bendemeer Road, Singapore 330025. And on the name card, there is a MUIS certification.

I was so happy and with this in mind, I went on island chase for this Kueh Bolu.

It was quite easy to get to from my workplace and I managed to find the shop quite easily. I bought 1 big container for the home and I small container for Anthea’s class.

At the same time, I found an interesting stall that sell 莆田 炒 面线 and bought it back as my lunch. It was a HUGE serving and I make it into 2 portions.

I know I will sure go back for lunch or dinners as there seem to be so many nice stalls around.

This remind me that I will need to do my Spring Cleaning this weekends…little by little... : )

GAP Girl and Moo Moo

Last Saturday Anthea had the chance to shop at GAP and my MIL bought her some clothings - a blouse, a pant and a sweater. This Saturday, my MIL passed me the loot. I was shocked when i read the price tag, luckily i heard my SIL mentioned that the shop was having some discounts, i hope at 50% and above. I know for the kind of salary i am drawing, i cannot afford to get her all these.. : P


So needless to say, i must get Anthea to model her new clothes since it is branded and so expensive.. : P


This Saturday, i had the chance to babysit my little niece for about 2 hours at my BIL's house. My SIL attended a cooking class conducted by celebrity chef - Sam Leong @ Tung Lok groups. He is my idol...i always like to see his cooking shows, always so entertaining. Now back to my babysitting experienced.


Well, i reckoned that each infant is different and each has their own style and characteristic. I discovered that my little niece like to "bully" her daddy/mommy when it's feeding times. I saw my BIL tried to bottle feed her and it was quite a task for him. I tried to help him but i failed too..sigh. Think only the 2 grandmothers can feed her with ease... : )


After the 2 hours, i went home as my MIL was with my BIL. Having been through this experience, i told Adrian that i was glad that both Anthea and Anders were easy babies during their times. Their feeding and sleeping routines were easy to manage.. : )

Dinner was at Tai Seng restaurant, a yearly treat hosted by my FIL's 3rd sister. As the resturant was in Chinatown, both Anthea and Anders had the chance to see mini fireworks from the restaurant. It was the Light-up ceremony for CNY in Chinatown.


On Sunday, we rested at home as Adrian was down with some stomach flu. For dinner, we met with the extended families. My MIL recommended us to a new place and i must say - it was a GOOD discovery. The name of the restaurant is called Vittles and it serves western cuisine. There were a few recommended dishes - Pistachios Herb Crusted Lamb, Baby Back ribs and Burgers and many more. I had the ribs and Adrian had the lamb. I actually preferred the lamb more to the ribs..hee : )


The portions served were generous and the highlight of the restaurant is - it has a POPCORN Machine. If you are a diner, you can get FREE Servings of the popcorns...how to resist !!

We had a nice and satisfying dinner and i told Adrian that we must go back and try their steaks and fish dishes...yummy !!

新朋友

After my meet up with Idy, we have been keeping in touch via sms/msn and emails. It was very kind of her to initiate another lunch meet up and this time, she introduced 2 blogging mommy/daddy to me.

The 2 bloggers cum forumers are – Clement of Kinigu and Stardust of All that Glitters about Vincent.

We arranged to meet in Toa Payoh for lunch as both their offices are nearby.

It was a choice between Botak Jones & Tim’s café. As I had been to both places, I would think Tim’s café is a better place for meet up. Botak Jones is set up in a factory canteen, so may not be easy to get seats.

So with this in mind, I made a table reservation at Tim’s for 4 of us.

This is the 2nd time I am meeting Idy and 1st time for Clement and Stardust.

As usual, it was of no surprised to me that we chatted as if we knew each others before. The main reason is because we have been following each other blogs quite closely.

It was childcare information exchange session and there were so many tips that we shared during the one hour lunch.

For lunch, I had the house special – Nepalese special oven roasted chicken, food was nice but due to shortage of time, we can’t really order more.

I had a very good time and glad to know new friends and i look forward to the next lunch or forums gathering.

真开心能够 认识 新朋友！！

(ps: hi guys, you can now LINK it up...hee : )

Farewell lunch @ Hanabi Restaurant

Our Business HR is leaving the company for her own fulfillment. She said she needs to spend some times with her mom whom she neglected for a while because of her job.

Also her hubby commented that her dress sense is getting bad – like HDB Tai Tai. So she may decide to join a company in the CBD area to regain her glam.

Honestly speaking, she is always well groomed and dressed whenever we see her. However her hubby is more critical...haha.

Well, after 5 years with the company, she said she is leaving the company with a mixed feeling.

On Monday, we had a farewell lunch for her at Hanabi Japanese restaurant @ Odeon Tower. We had the Ala Carte Buffet lunch - $29.00 ++ per person. The 100 plus dishes menu was a “killer”. We ordered the usual sashimi, tempura, grill items and some teppanyaki dishes. The food was good value for the monies. Only complaint is the place is a bit too open and quite noisy, so it was hard to have a decent conversation.

Comes next year, it may be my turn for farewell…if …: )

Craving Saturday & Extra$ $unday..

On Saturday, we were planning to go by to the Travel Agent to pay the deposit but as Anders was suffering from food indigestion which resulted to vomitting, we stayed home. Luckily for Anthea, my MIL came by early in the morning to bring her to her place and they went shopping in the afternoon. Heard from SIL that MIL bought her some really good stuff from GAPS.



Dinner was at Craving Thoughts located at the Imperial Court, 200 Thomson road. We discovered this place by virtue of the new FOOD street directory that i bought from my colleague. She managed to do a Bulk Order for this 2008/2009 Street Directory called Venues and i bought a copy from her. No REGRETS because there are so many discount lobangs in this new street directory.. : )



The food at Craving Thoughts are nice but not that fantastic. I like the interior decor and its ambience and most importantly - NO CROWDs. Basically we had a nice, simple dinner and chilled out slowly at the restaurant. The price of the food was very reasonable - a set meal cost only $15.90 include a soup, main course, coffee/tea or soft drink and brownie with New Zealand Ice cream. Also, i must comment that the service at the restaurant was good.



This morning, i went for a 30 minutes survey session, organised by a survey company. For this effort, i earned some extras $$..hee, how nice if every Sunday i get to make EXTRAs monies.



In the evening, i went for my weekends jog. Since i started with my gym, i "missed" my weekends joggings because i kept my One and only pair of jogging shoes in the rental locker, for convenience sake. This week, Adrian was back in the office and he managed to used his entitlement to change another pair of Brookes running shoes for me..yippy. So now i can resume my weekend exercise routines.

While i did my jog, Adrian brought Anthea and Anders to the park for their much requested cycling session. They had an hour of fun before the heavy thunderstorm started around 6pm. Luckily they reached home before it poured.

Dinner was at 皇廷 located at the Central shopping mall. They have a special promo - Peking Duck @ $8.00. How can we missed such a SPECIAL offer ..haha. The restaurant even gave diners free appetizers and a welcome cocktail...sound like some kind of resorts. The interior decor is very grand and Cherry even commented that some of us may be under dressed for the restaurant. Ther service staff was well groomed and professionally dressed..hehe.

After dinner, we went to coffee club for dessert. Another weekends of good food and companionship.

“You scold me every time…”

Anders is growing and becoming more vocal and expressive. Sometimes I really wonder how such a small boy can show so much expression and emotions.

Anders is quite a mischievous boy and he tends to be more “rebellious”. Each time we give him an instruction, it must be repeated for at least 3 times before he act accordingly to the instructions.

At times, I will raise my voice to make sure he listens to me. He will become angry and turned away from me. Then he will say: Every time scold me, you don’t Love me.

I find it hard to control my laughter sometimes, because of the way he said it and reacted to the “scolding”.

Every time, I will explain to him that I am not scolding him, I am just asking him to do something. If he listens and follows the instructions, I will not need to repeat and raised my voice.

From observation, Anders is a sensitive boy and also quite a “crying boy”, he tears easily. I hope that as he grows older, he will outgrow all these and becomes a more understanding boy... : )

Anthea is very into her new game – Junior Monopoly. Everyday she will ask Adrian to play the game with her. It is a very good game for children of her age. It teaches her to count, especially the dollars value. I am happy that she is learning her Math’s while enjoying the game.

The next game that she will play is Junior Scrabbles; hopefully it will help her to learn more new words.

Now that she is in K2, it’s crucial that she start to learn all the basic. I am busy looking for more courses for her to attend as recommended by her teachers.

Eventful Start

Our 1st week of Year 2008 went passed so fast...partly because we're still in holiday mood.

On Wednesday, after school, i brought Anthea to the TCM near our place. Her throat has been causing us some concerns and Adrian thought that we should do something about it. I had read from BB forumn that there is a good TCM nearby but so far i have not taken any action to make appointment.

Anyway, near our own house, there is a medical hall which has its own physician, so i thought it would be easier for us to access for 1st time. Now Anthea is on chinese medicine and hopefully it will cure her throat.

On Thursday evening, Adrian went to the airport to fetch my brother and parents who came back from a 8 Days tour of Taiwan.

On Saturday evening, Adrian attended one of his colleague's wedding. The remaining 3 A's had dinner with the extended families at Zhou's Kitchen @ Far East Square. The dinner was good - we had Peking Duck, Glutinous Rice with Crab, Double Boiled soup, dumplings and meat roll.

After dinner, as usual, we adjourned for dessert - Swensen restaurant @ Marina Square. Both Anthea and Anders shared a mini volcano and after finishing their ice-cream, they started digging into the adults ice cream as well. What a Treat for them. We reached home around 10.30pm and the children waited for Adrian. He came home around 11.30pm.

On Sunday morning, Adrian brought the children to Bishan Park and they did cycling. Adrian said that both of them know how to control the children bicycle. I was quite pleased, next time, i will go along and see how they progress. They had 2 hours of fun time at the park. Then came home for lunch.

Dinner time, Adrian brought the children out with my In-Laws. I took the opportunity to do some shopping on my own. The precious 3 hours went by so fast and i had a "fruitful" time and some good catch. This is my 1st shopping in 2008.

The day ended with everyone feeling happy and satisfied.

美丽的开始。。

Today is 1st January 2008 and the very 1st blog for the year.

We woke up to a lovely morning and the weather was super beautiful.

Adrian woke up early to go to the temple with my sister in law mother. We met her last evening and she invited us to join her for this morning prayers. As it was too early for the children and me, so Adrian represented us.

Adrian packed breakfast for us after his morning session at the temple. Anthea and Anders requested to go to Bishan Park playground and Adrian brought them there. While they were out, I did my routine housework. Understood from Adrian that my PILs and BILs families joined them at the park. The children had good fun with their little cousins. Eve shared with me some of the photo that they took at the park. They were Lovely.

The children came home, sweaty and sandy, so they took a bath. We had pizzas for lunch. Anthea had 3 pieces and Anders had 2 pieces. At lunch time, Adrian and I also had the time to sit down and discussed our holiday plan for 2008. We may be doing our Australia trip in March rather than May as original planned.

The children had their usual nap after a good lunch. While they were napping, I went for my swim by the public pool nearby. On Public holiday, the pool is always pretty empty and I can swim my laps without any interferences.

Dinner was at Thai Village @ Kallang Leisure Park with the extended families. We had a GLORIOUS food to start up the year – Shark fin’s soup, Fried tang hoon with crab, claypot chicken & Dou fu and vegetables. Dessert was Yoguru – yogurt outlet that serve very nice, fruity yogurt. Both Anthea and Anders enjoyed it so much.

It is a beautiful First DAY for the Aces Family.

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.