爸爸。。一路顺风 and My New “SM”

Finally Adrian left for his one month oversea work detachment today.

As his flight departing around 2pm and he would need to be at the airport around 11.30am for his check in. we decided that we will not go to the airport for his departure flight.

Not that we do not want to go but today being a working day and studying day, it is hard to arrange and also would not be good for Anthea to miss her lessons.

This morning Adrian bid Anthea good bye and said he will see her in a month time. He will be home during her 1 week school holiday.

Then I left for work and we said the same Good Bye and see you soon.

By now we are quite used to this yearly event and our routine still goes on as normal.

Wishing daddy a safe journey and a smooth working trip.

My New Sandwich Maker

Yes, this thing has been on my mind for the longest time. The reason why I had not bought it is because I had a toaster at home and it works almost the same. I thought.

Recently, Anthea has been asking me to prepare snack box for her recess as she said she was getting a bit sick of buying the canteen food. So I thought to myself – it’s time to get a sandwich maker. Anthea love sandwiches, especially Ham & Cheese.

So with this in mind, I contacted my ex-colleague to check if there is any special sale for a sandwich maker. She told me no and advised to wait till National Day, they may have a ND Sale.

Then on Tuesday, I received her email about some NTUC Card promotion and the discount was going at 30%. So immediately, I got her help and bought a sandwich maker. As Adrian was on leave for these few days, he collected the sandwich maker yesterday.

This morning, I had my 1st trial at doing a sandwich toast and they turned out very good. I made a few sets of sandwiches. We had ham & cheese, egg mayo and tune sandwiches. I packed a set for Anthea to bring for her snack.

With this new sandwich maker, I can try different sandwich recipes. : )

Friendly Game

Ever since we started on our daily exercise routine, Anthea is now quite hooked onto badminton. She will request to play the game everyday…: )

I am glad that she is enjoying the game so much. Badminton seems to be a family thing. I knew Adrian through the same game and in our wedding album; we even brought in our badminton gears for the wedding shoot. It brought back a lot of wonderful memories.

Every evening around 5pm, I would bring Anthea downstairs. Next to our block, there is an open space area with a few BBQ Pits. Usually in the evening, we will see children playing soccer and riding bicycles around the open space.

We would play our game at the open space too as there are some railings and we used them as our “NET”..haha.

The 1st week that we played, the other children whom were playing around the area also came and joined us. Most of them are seniors of Anthea, except for 1 or 2 whom are from other primary schools.

Anthea had enjoyed her sessions with her fellow school mates and I can see that her skill is improving as she plays and practice daily.

At times while she was playing her games with her new found friends, I would go to the childcare to fetch Anders. He would come in to join us for some fun too. As the normal badminton racket is a bit too long for him to handle. I bought him a junior racket and now he can serve quite well…haha.

It’s always good to see children enjoying themselves at games and it trains them to become better player and better loser too. We have been telling Anthea, in life you will not always win the match. Some time you win and some time you lose.

Through the game, I had also the chance to see Anthea mingle with children of different ages and races. She is interacting well with them and learning more about another life long skill – socializing.

My father always comment that Anthea take after my good genes of being friendly and sociable..hee : )

I hope she will find true friends out of the many aquaintances she has, just like me.

种族和谐日

On Tuesday, Anthea School celebrated the Racial Harmony day. Seem like schools these days had much more occasion to call for celebrations. During my days, we only had Children day and Teacher’s day…haha.

Last week, Anthea told me about the day and her Form Teacher has informed them that they can go to school in their Traditional Clothing. If the child does not own a set of such clothing, she/he will go to school in their school uniforms.

I was having headache as to what should I let her wear as she said she wanted to Dress for the occasion. I took a look at her closet and saw the few Chinese New Year dresses that she had and a few of them are in “Cheong Sam” style. So I thought it would fit the dress code.

So I told her to try the few set of clothing….衣服本来是刚刚好，么现在穿不上？？ Due to her recent "growth spur", most of the dresses “shrunk” and she can’t fit into any one of them... : P

There is another new set of CNY clothing and it was a top with a pant, which she could wear. But our little Miss Vanity insisted that she wants to wear a DRESS, because all her girls classmates will be in DRESS…aiyo…so young, already start comparing…伤脑筋！！

In order to fulfill her vanity quest, we went for advance CNY shopping spree on last Friday. We had dinner at Hog Breath in Toa Payoh. Then we went to Kiddy Palace to shop for a Cheong Sam Dress. To our disappointment, KP didn’t have any cheongsam dress because it’s not Chinese New Year Yet.

So we had no choice but to go around the shop area and see what can we find that’s suitable.

Finally, I saw a TOP which is similar to a cheongsam design. As it was an adult top, so it was long enough to be a dress for her. The sale girl recommended a short dress to match with the top and it fitted perfectly. Yes, she is wearing Adult TOP…haha. I was telling Adrian after she wore for the occasion; I can use it for CNY..So this top “kills 2 birds in a stone.” No a bad idea.

Anthea was very happy with the red top and black mini skirt and tried them in the shop. She looks good and would be better without the 小肚腩。。。嘻嘻 !!

Anyway, that was the best match that we can find with such limited time. Since she was happy, we are happy.

On Tuesday morning, she was very excited and changed into the new clothing immediately after her wash up.

I even put a flower pin on the top to make it look even nicer. She loves the flower pin.

The morning when we reached the school gate, I saw many children dressed in their ethnic costume and the sight was very colorful. There were Chinese, India, Malays, Korean, Philippines and others.

This is indeed what we called a Racial Harmony Day!

Tourist @ Orchard

On Saturday evening, my In-laws had arranged dinner at Teochew City @ Centrepoint. After consulting with the children, we decided to travel by MRT.

Usually when we had the opportunity to travel by Public transports, I would encourage them to do so. Reason being-we would not own a family car for long and when the time come, they will suffer if they are pampered too much now..hee : P

The other reason is I want them to learn to be more streetwise about going around on public transports and learnt more about public transports. Then only they can relate it to the classroom teachings. For Anders, he is now learning about 地铁，巴士 and红绿灯 in his Chinese lessons.

Orchard road is undergoing a major facelift and we could see construction works along the whole stretched from Somerset to Orchard road.

We hardly or seldom go to Orchard road, simply because, I don’t like crowded area and we are a non-shopping family. So unless we have an agenda, if not, we will avoid it as much as we can.

So last Saturday was our once a “Blue Moon” visit to orchard road, with an agenda…hee.

We were so surprised to see so many new shopping malls along Somerset. Directly opposite Centrepoint was a new mall – orchard central shopping and from the outside, it looks HUGE. Just next to this mall, there is another mall still under construction – 313 @ Somerset and it also looks promising.

Adrian passed a quick comment: “I feel like a tourist now in Orchard Road.” I agreed. With all the new building upcoming, I think soon we will be like the tourists, asking for direction to this mall or that malls…haha. : P

So after dinner, we decided to take a slow stroll down to Orchard road. Along the way, we saw our Courtesy Mascot – Singa and he (she) was wearing a mask. Both Anthea and Anders were so exciting that there wanted to take a photo with it. I told them: “now both of you are real tourists, taking photos in orchard road.”

We enjoyed our after dinner walk along Orchard road and we can feel the energy level up, especially outside of Takashimaya where all the streets buskers were performing. of course we caught a glimpse of ION – the mall that house all the branded goods. Saw LV store and all the “security guards cum sales person” standing outside of the store waiting for customers… : P

Finally we ended up at Macdonald @ Shaw Centre for an Ice cream & Sundae treat for the children. Then we took a bus from Orchard road back to home. Anthea said that “it was a fun ride on the bus.”

I am glad that they are enjoying all the simple things in life.

钱不够用!!

I gave Anthea $5 for her weekly allowance. This means that each day for recess, she has a $1 to use. so far she has been a thrifty spender and by the end of the week, I can see balance coins in her wallet.

This week on Monday morning, I did the same and put $5 into her wallet. Yesterday, I did a random check with her wallet and I saw there was a balance of 30¢. I was shocked and questioned her about her spending this week. After some prompting, she told me that she bought a pencil and an eraser for $1 on Wednesday. So that was why she was only left with 30¢ on Thursday.

I was very angry and told her that I had been telling her that she SHOULD not buy stationery without my permission. At home, we had so many pencils & erasers from all her previous gift, so there is no reason for her to buy more. I told her she was wasting her own monies and also this would mean that she has no pocket monies on Friday.
If I had not checked her wallet, she would have to go without food at recess.

She asked me to packed ham & cheese bread for her this morning. I did it for her and asked her : “did you count how much monies you have before buying the pencil & eraser?” she said : “No.”

I told her that next time before she buys anything, she must learn to count how much she has balance in her wallet and to plan her spending wisely.

I know the temptation to buy from the school bookshop is great but I want to make sure she does not make it a habit and find the easy way out when she misuse her dollar & cents.

I want her to learn the value of money from young and this is a good chance and I hope she will keep this lesson in life for a long, long time.

Stocking UP

In exactly 2 weeks time, Adrian will be leaving for his 1 month plus oversea detachment.

We are not new to him working oversea for 1 – 3 months as we had the experienced of it last year. However, this year, things will be a little different as compared to last year.

Anthea has started Primary school and I had also embarked on a ½ working routine. So far, things are working fine and we are functioning normally.

Before Adrian departs for his work, I decided that we needed to Stock up a few main HEAVY items for the household…hee : P

We bought a packet of 10 KG rice. Yup, now that I am officially a cooking mama, I need to cook rice from Monday to Thursday, so this is a must for the 1 month survival.

Then we also bought the 5 KG Persil washing powder. Yes, I hand washes Anthea and Anders clothing daily, so I need to have the washing powder ever ready.

Then also we bought 2 tins of 1.8 KG milk powder for Anders as there was a promotion at NTUC.

The rest of the small items, I will buy them as and when we need them since NTUC Xtra is just walking distance from our home.

Logistic wise, we will still work the same, the only difference is I will need to bring Anthea for her tuition classes on Monday & Thursday. Usually Anders will stay home with Adrian while I fetched Anthea, so next time he may need to tag along. I will adjust along the way.

I am going to miss my weekends jogging when Adrian is away, guess I will have to be hardworking during weekdays: P

Another challenge ahead of being home alone with the children. I know it’s not going to be easy but I know I will manage it.

我们做运动 ！

Last week, Anthea brought back her health book from school. She just got her immunization for Measles / mumps/rubella 1st booster.

I took a browse through her health assessment summary record. All is well until I read her weight comment – “BORDERLINE OVERWEIGHT.”

All her 6 growing years, she was skinny and at times – underweight. Little did I expect to see such remark..haha. : P

I looked through the health book for her idea height / weight. She is about 4 – 5 kg above the guideline.

For the past 6 months, people who had known her before had been saying that she had put on weight and when I saw her photo on day 1 of school, compared to now, I know “she had put on some good weight”.

I told her in a serious tone that from now onwards, she will need to lose some of the weight.

Since last week, we started on a daily exercise routine. She is into badminton and knowing she has keen interest in it. I brought her downstairs in the evening for a game. Usually before we played, we would jog around the court for a few rounds as a warm up sessions.

On weekends, she also asked me to bring her down for badminton, which I did, amid my busy household chores routine. I wanted to keep her momentum and ensure she does as much running as possible.

As for her diet, I am also cutting down on certain of her intakes. She used to have her milk serving in the afternoon before her nap, now I told her she should not drink it anymore in the afternoon. Also for her lunches, I would buy lesser of those hi-carbo meals for her… : P

Hopefully, with all these small “hard” work, she can lose some weights and reach her idea weight. Otherwise she may be asked to join the “胖胖俱乐部“ soon…haha.

Now we should start shopping for a new weighing machine…: P

Our NEW Tingkat Dinner

Since Jiale decided to stop their dinner delivery to my area, I went on a search mode to gather some information on the current tingkat dinner companies.

Based on a very informative Tingkat Dinner Delivery review website, I decided to do a 5 days trial dinner with Kim’s Kitchen last week. As usual I ordered the 3 dishes + 1 soup menu. On Monday, the food was delivered around 4.30pm, about the same timing as Jia Le.

The dishes and soup were sufficient for our family of 2 adults and 2 children.

The main “JUDGES” – Anthea and Anders seem to be fine with the new caterer food and finished up their dinner. No complaint on any of the dishes.

Personally, I like their dishes and it’s even closer to home cooked. Their vegetables are very green and cut to the finest. Meats are usually boneless and fishes are fresh. Soups varieties are good and healthy.

Last week we had this dish – chestnut chicken chop special (栗子鸡扒). It is so unique and tasty that we finished up the whole dish till the last drop of 汁 . Slurp!!

This week, they served a Fragrant Fish Delight 干香鱼 块and Anthea ate the whole lot of it and said – “mommy, next time you asked uncle to give us this fish everyday”…haha.

Anders enjoyed the Rendang Chicken that was served this week and he finished his bowl of rice in record time.

So with all these positive “Feedbacks”, we decided to continue our dinner order with Kim’s and I requested for the Tiffin containers. On Monday, Kim’s delivered our dinner but was in those microwavable containers. When I checked with them, they told me that they were out of stock for the Tiffin containers and waiting for the new stock to arrive.

The only “issue” that I have is – Kim’s does not provide rice, so this means that I have to cook our own rice for dinner. I am perfectly fine with cooking rice and as of this month – I am officially promoted to a “煮饭婆“。。嘻嘻！

I am glad that our dinner routine is back to the same and I must say – it just get better !!!

“Seeds not Ripe”

Last week because of Anthea, I had the chance to meet up with my 2nd SIL’s mother when I picked Anthea up from her home after work.

My SIL’s mother is a devoted Buddhist and she is also a vegetarian. Last week, I had the chance to enjoy her home cooked vegetarian dishes – mince “meat” noodle and vegetarian pizza. The dishes were delicious and she even gave me some vegetarian minced meat and sambal chilli to bring home.

While at my SIL’s home, I will have the chance to listen to her mother perspective on the religion. I am a Free-thinker in term of religion, so I enjoy listening to her teaching. Adrian always comments that Aunty (My SIL’s mother) is a very positive person. No matter is too difficult for her. I agree and when I am with her, I feel a natural calmness and positive energy surrounding me…hee : P

The other day while chatting, she was telling me about her temple’s event and I told her I would love to explore more, if not because of the family and time is so limited.

She said: “not to worry, your seed is not ripe yet. The time will come and when you will plant the seed.”

I understood a little of her words but put her teaching in my mind.

This week my closed friend, Linda, was on MSN and chatted a little with me. She knew that I am PT contract and wanted to find out a bit more on such contract. She mentioned that her temple is planning to get a PT person to do so simple tasks. While chatting, she mentioned to me about another close friend of mine going to the same temple as she does. Such a small world.

Then Linda mentioned something which was quite new to me: “all your friends are mostly Tibetan Buddhist, wonder if you are a Tibetan Buddhist in your previous life?”

I told her I am keen to find out too…hee. Then she also mentioned to me some very interesting parents workshop organized by the temple. I lamented and told her that if not because of my family commitment, I would surely make time to go to the temple to discover more.

Then she said: “Your seed is not ripe yet. Don’t worry, when the time comes, you will find your way to it.”

I was speechless.

After 2 encounters with the people of the same belief and both said the same to me. I know it’s a sign.

Time is not on my side yet but when it comes true, I want to find enlightenment in Life.

One day, I know I will find my WAY ….and grow this SEED!

看戏。吃饭。相聚

We had a very fun and fulfilling weekends and our weekends started from Friday evening. : P

Friday – ICE AGE 3

Anthea and Anders had seen the thriller on Cartoon Networks and had mentioned their interest to watch the movie. However, we had a main headache – this movie is shown in 2 versions – 2D and 3D. Anthea wanted very much to watch the 3D movie but Anders is not so used to 3D, so we had to get both consensuses. Luckily Anthea was agreeable to watch the normal 2D movie, so we booked a 10.15pm show at cineleisure @ AMK Hub.

As our home is walking distance to the cinema, so I told the children – they should change into the pyjamas, so that after the movie, they could go home and head straight to bed…since it would be near mid-nite by the time the movie ended.

The 1 ½ hour movie was very entertaining and we had good laughs throughout the movie. As usual the children enjoyed their Jumbo popcorn.

We are planning for our next movie – Transformer as Anders had requested for it. But I heard some negative feedbacks so now I am still hesitating if we should watch it or just wait for the DVD…: P

Saturday – Home cooked Chicken Rice

Last week at dinner, Anthea mentioned that she discovered a “new” way to eat chicken rice. She said “mommy, you must put dark sauce over the chicken rice and it becomes very yummy.”
I asked her how did she discover this way – she said she had it when my FIL ate it at TMFT on the day they departed for Club Med Bintan.

So with this in mind, Anthea told Adrian to cook his “signature dish” – home cook chicken rice on Saturday for lunch. This was also a refresher course for Adrian as he will be travelling soon for his one month plus work detachment.

Recently, I bought a new soup recipe book by the title “阿婆靓汤“and decided to try on one of them – Lean pork soup with Pear & dates (蜜枣雪梨瘦肉汤)

The soup tasted very nice and sweet and all of them loved it. I had tried 2 recipes and so far the responses were good. Next week, I am going to try another recipe.

Sunday – Catching Up

A few weeks back we borrowed some winter clothing from our Aunty SP. After collecting the clothing back from the laundry shop. We made a trip to her house on Sunday to return the basket of clothing.

As usual, Anthea and Anders had a great time playing around with Uncle Kiat. He has so many toys in the house.

At the same time, Aunty SP shared with me her concerns over Kiat’s school work. He’s in Primary 2 now and like any child. He is also careless in his studies and needed my aunty guidance in his school work.

She is working Full time and indicated that she will likely quit her job next year because Primary 3 is crucial and she wants Kiat to maintain his results in order to pass. She is also concerned about his Mother Tongue as there is no one at home that can guide him. My Uncle usually works long hours, so it’s hard for him to teach Kiat Mandarin.

Looking at her situation, I can empathize with her. I told I would encourage her to stop work, if my uncle can support the family financially. I believe the first few years are critical years for the child to build up their foundation. If they don’t get it right from the start, the child may eventually lose his/her confidence in the studies and that may lead to other set of problems.

Hopes that she can works up something that best fit her family. That’s why the Chinese say: “家家有本难念的经“

Serving LOA

Last Tuesday Adrian made a remark to me: “So far, Indonesia has no report of the H1N1 cases.” “Yeah.” I replied. It was with this in mind, my in-laws decided to go Bintan for a short break and also Anthea joined them.

On Wednesday, I received a call from Anthea’s form teacher checking on our travel history as we declared that we were travelling to Sydney, 8 – 12 June 2009. She asked about Anthea’s well-being and said she was ok to return to school on Monday.

On the same day, the ministries decided to issue LOA (Leave of Absence) to school going children who returned from holiday from the list of affected countries. Adrian told me that Indonesia was added to the list, together with Hong Kong.

I had a real shock and on Thursday, I called Anthea’s school to check if BINTAN is considered as affected countries. The administrator confirmed my worst fear – she said Bintan is in Indonesia and it’s considered affected country. I declared Anthea’s travel to Indonesia and the administrator said she would mail the LOA to our home.

With this LOA, Anthea would need to stay away from school for 7 days and by the calculation, she can only step into the school on Friday, 3 July. This meant she had another 4 days of extended “off days”.

On Thursday, after fetching my in-laws and Anthea from the ferry, I shared with them the “BAD News” and my in-laws was equally surprised about the new addition of Indonesia and Hong Kong to the list. Also Bintan is so near to Singapore and they didn’t even go on a flight…haha.

So we had to make new logistic arrangement for the extended leave for Anthea’s home care. To make it more challenging, my parents had left for their one month China holiday on Sunday, 28 June. So this means I cannot care her off to my mom.

After discussion with my in-laws, my FIL volunteered to take care of her for the morning half from Monday to Thursday. Also my 2nd SIL had kindly offered to prepare her lunches for Monday & Tuesday.

In the meantime, I had been in contact with Anthea’s form teacher to check with her the home-based learning material as I could not find them on the school portal. She called me on Tuesday and mentioned that she would mail them to me as well. I told her I could pick them up from the school, which is just a street away.

During the day while Anthea is with my FIL, he would guide her to do her home based studies and also other learning things. My FIL was a teacher before he retired.

Situations like these make me feel very Thankful to have supporting family’s members and all these extra hands really make it possible for me to cont’d working.

Today is the last day of her LOA and she will be back to school tomorrow. I am really glad that we will be going back to our old routine.

Let's hope this H1N1 virus will blow over soon and life can be back to normal again !!!

Happy Birthday to Daddy!!

Today is Adrian’s 37th birthday. We had a simple birthday celebration for him on last Saturday.

We had dinner at Bottle Tree Park @ Yishun as Adrian had craving for its 炸猪手 (Chinese style Pork Knuckle). We arrived at the place around 7pm and the place was crowded with families. Compared to our few previous visits on weekdays, it was a vast difference. We booked a table of 10 for the air-conditioning dinning area.

Dinner was great and as usual, we brought our bottle of Red Wine for the occasion. My 2nd BIL’s family bought a Durian cake (猫山王榴莲蛋糕) from Pine Garden for him.

After dinner, we decided to adjourn to my youngest BIL’s home for the cake cutting ceremony and enjoy the cake in comfort.

I had originally plan to buy Adrian a birthday present but was too busy and occupied with so many things that I overlook on ordering his present…hee. Anyway, I had paid for his new mini laptop and will take that as his present, unless he decided to pay me back the monies… : P

Wishing daddy A Very Happy 37th Birthday and May his wish be fulfilled.

亲子团 三天两夜游

Anthea and my In-laws came back from another fantastic Club Med holiday. I went to the Ferry Terminal with my youngest brother in law to welcome them home.

Anthea was very happy and said that she had very good times in Club Med and wished that it could have been a longer holiday…haha.

This was her 1st solo trip without us and I am proud that she did well and my in-laws were able to enjoy their short break too.

They managed to take some photos and from the look of the photos, I knew the trip had been a good one for all of them.

My in-laws told me that upon checked in; they were told that their room has been upgraded. I think my contact person in Club Med may have put in some good words for us…hee. The room was so big and nice. The balcony overlook the seafront. Anthea even had a cozy corner bed to herself…: )

This trip Anthea also picked up the game of badminton from my father in-law and she said she enjoyed the game.

She also had her usual good fun at the swimming pool and by the beach. I am glad she is just like me – active going and enjoys all type of sports.

Of course not forgetting to mention FOOD Glorious food…haha. As usual, they had BIG feasts with all the buffet serving and drinks whole day.

Glad that she had this travel opportunity with her grandparents and I know she had a good bonding time with them, simply by ENJOYING LiFE!!

晚餐服务

Yesterday afternoon I received a call from my tingkat dinner caterer – Jia Le Buffet.

“Mrs. Tan, 我们将停止晚餐服务到你那一区。你的最后一天是星期四.”

I was a little caught off guard when I heard the news that they will be stopping dinner delivery service to my area. After asking the WHY question, the lady mentioned that it wasn’t profitable anymore for the company to deliver to my area.

Sigh….I had such good impression of Jia Le dinner and so far their service is excellent and food are good. No complaint.

Well, same as previous caterer, it’s always the cost issue and I can understand it from the company standpoint.

We started our tingkat dinner with Jia Le since July 2008 and it would be 1 year in about another month but this 1st year anniversary did not come true. Sad but this is reality about such relationship.

Now I am on my “Search Mode” for a new caterer and had booked Kim’s Kitchen for a 5 days trial starting next Monday.

Many times, I would ask myself – “should I start cooking on my own?” But I am still convinced that tingkat dinner served us better.

There are a few reasons to the dinner delivery service:

1. At times, when I have pressing projects, I will bring work home and spend the afternoon at home finishing my project. If I cook, this will mean that I would not have enough time to complete my work.

2. Usually on weekdays, I will hand wash Anthea’s school uniform and on alternate days, I will mop the house. On these days, I would finish the household chores almost near to 4pm. This means I would have to prepare dinner from 4pm onwards and I would not have time to revise Anthea’s homework with her.

3. On weekdays, I still do my regular jogs. So if I cook, I will not be able to jog. I need to exercise to de-stress…hehe.

4. The amount of time spent on planning, preparing, cooking and washing for a meal is just too challenging for me and the dinner catering is more cost effective for us.

So far, dinner catering has work well with our family lifestyle and as long as the children are happily eating their dinner, I am happy to continue with the same routine.

Let’s hope that our new caterer will be just as good as our current one. Like I said before:

天下没有不散之宴席。。。

Club Med Bintan Again !!!

On Friday morning, I received a sms from my father-in-law indicating his keen interest to bring Anthea and Anders to Club Med Bintan for a short break. My mother in law had applied leaves this week to look after Anthea.

After getting my FIL’s message, Adrian checked with him the dates that they preferred to travel but it seem like they are flexible. Immediately I emailed to Elaine - my contact for Club Med and checked with her the availability for room on this week from Tuesday to Thursday and her replied was also immediate.

With the correspondences to and back, we confirmed a room for 3 of them for 3 days 2 night stay at Club Med Bintan. I decided against Anders going with them as I am worried he may still look for me in the middle of the trip and also it would not be easy for my in-laws to take care of 2 of them. Anders was agreeable to stay home with me and Adrian. I know he would love to go with Anthea jie jie, so I told him we will go back again next chance. I Love Club Med holiday too…hee!!

Anthea is very excited about the short trip and is looking forward to a good time in Club Med. She said it’s going to be buffet, buffet and buffet…ha-ha. I told her this time round she can join in the older group for kid’s club event and she will sure to enjoy them.

This school holiday has been lots of fun and entertainment for Anthea. She had travelled a week to Sydney, Australia and now she is going for another short break in Club Med Bintan. No wonder she said “it’s the best school holiday!!”

Of course, amid all the enjoyment, we had not forgotten about school works. She had completed her school holiday assignments. Now she is back to her tuition class, preparing for her academic when school starts in about a week time, if no further extension from Ministry of Education. *finger crossed*

This one month school holiday seem to has passes by so quickly too. In about another week, it’ll be back to school again. It’s our 1st one month school holiday break and I know there will be more to come. It has been a very fulfilling month for the family. We had our holiday and I had the chance to catch up with friends and ex-colleagues for lunches and meet up.

Next week, we will be going back to our NORMAL routine of waking up early again…haha : P

新迷你电脑 & Happy Birthday to 爷爷！

On Saturday morning, we went to Funan Digital mall to collect our Free 20 inch luggage bag from the Travel Store. This was our free gift from our Hong Kong trip booked with Chan Brothers. I told Adrian this luggage is just nice for Anthea’s Club Med trip. We even bought her a luggage tag to write her own name on it.

After collecting our free gift, we shopped around the IT Mall for a new net book aka mini laptop. Adrian is scheduled for another oversea work detachment in mid July to end August. He would like to get a laptop with a built in camera for his travel use. This will allow him to “talk” to us when he’s oversea. Having his own laptop will be easier for him, rather than to always borrowing it from his friends or room mate.

So after walking a few shops, we narrowed to 2 brands – Acers & Lenovo. After further discussion, we bought a Lenovo S 10 mini laptop @ $649. There were some freebies that came along with the laptop and he also bought an external portable DVD for the laptop.

We had tested the video chat function of the laptop and all the software are set up and operational ready.

In the evening, we celebrated my Father In-Law 63rd birthday at Sze Chuan Court @ Fairmont Hotel. As usual, we had a very enjoyable feast and a delicious Black Forest Cake from Pine Garden.

Anthea and Anders had a fun time with their little cousin, Faith, who just came back from a one week vacation from Hong Kong. We were treated to the traditional famous 恒香老婆饼..Yummy!

On Sunday, we had lunch with my Parents and 大哥 at 天津阁 at the Bras Basah complex. It was our 1st visit to the restaurant and we had some nice treats - 锅贴，葱油饼， 小笼包，拉面 和 豆沙烧饼。After lunch, we went to TCC at Bugis Junction for coffee and tea.

Dinner was home cooked meal at my In-laws place and after dinner, we adjourned to the newly opened MOF @ AMK HUB for their desserts. Finally we had some good places for after meals desserts in AMK HUB, otherwise, we are stucked with the Macdonald’s Drive Thru…hee : P

Anthea spent the night at my In-law place. It’s has been a long time since she slept over in my in-law place. Anders kept telling me that he misses Anthea when we were in bed. When they are together, they are always “fighting/quarrelling” with each other. When one is away from home, the other one is missing her…glad to see that Absence makes the heart fonder…: )

Anthea will be away for a short trip from Tuesday to Thursday and I know we will all miss her presence.

5D4N Sydney Family Experience, 8 – 12 June 2009

欢乐时光终是过的那么快。。嘻嘻！！

We are back from another amazing holiday experienced from Sydney, Australia. Both Anthea and Anders had truly enjoyed themselves and brought back fond memories of the vacation. I know this experienced will stay with them for a long time.

Day 1: Monday, 08 June

Singapore → Sydney (QF 32) Dep 0940 / Arr 1905

This was our 1st time on the new Airbus A380. We were all excited and looking forward to some new experienced. This was the 1st time we can literally viewed the Take off of the plane via the Sky cam that was fitted to the plane. Also the screen was interactive, so there was no need to use the remote control at all unless playing the games.

Service on Qantas was very good & professional. We were being served throughout the 7 hours flight. In-flight entertainment was on demand, so we can watch the movies on our own schedule. The children were kept occupied watching Ben 10, Dora the explorer and all the different online games. They were also served children meals onboard. Anders didn’t even complained a bit about the 7 hours flight compared to the Hong Kong flight..haha.

We arrived on schedule and immigration clearance was a brisk. As we had some instant cup noodles and milk powder for the children, we declared our luggage and clearance was equally fast. After clearance, we approached the Sun Bus counter for our transfer to the city hotel. It took about 20 minutes to reach our hotel – Mercure Sydney.

We checked in the room and went to survey the facilities – gym & swimming pool. Then after that, we went across the street to Macdonald for our dinner. Yes, it’s Macdonald again…haha. It was windy and cold while we took a quick walk along the street.

Then we went back to the room to change and rest for the night. There was a little incident that happened in the middle of the night. Anthea vomited a few times in the middle of the night and I brought her to the A&E of the local hospital. After 2 hours at the hospital, we were told by the doctor to let her rest and drink enough fluid. No medication was prescribed and doctor said I could get the medication from the pharmacy next day morning. I was told by Adrian that unlike SG, oversea hospital does not prescribe medication. Luckily after that, Anthea was better and had a good sleep. Now I am waiting for my bill from the hospital. Likewise, they didn’t ask me to pay and said would send the bill to our SG address.

Day 2: Tuesday, 9 June

We woke up late after an eventful night and had cup noodles as our breakfast. I told Adrian we would monitor Anthea’s situation before confirming on the next day tour.
After breakfast, we went on our shopping assignment for Jurlique products as requested by families.

My youngest SIL had bought Jurlique products from this duty free shop - Sun Song and recommended it to us as it gave good discount. We managed to get all the products from the shop at a very good rate.

When we were done with the shopping assignment, we went to the food court, opposite the shop and had our lunch. This is the 1st time I see Food Court concept in Australia. The food court was very similar to our local food court. They had different stalls selling different cuisine – Vietnamese, Thai, Korea, Western and Chinese food. So we had no lack of choice. I ordered a wanton noodle for the children, the dish was priced at A$6.80 and the serving was big. Adrian ordered the Korea seafood hotplate and the portion was HUGE. The dish cost him A$10. Overall, the food price in Sydney is pretty reasonable and the servings are big.

Adrian had been to Sydney in 2003 and so he was our Tour guide for this trip.

After lunch, we went on the Tram ride as the children kept asking to go on it. Then we took the monorail to the Darling Harbor area. He brought us to the Sydney Aquarium. It was really an eye-opening experienced for the children and they had great fun touring the Aquarium and seeing all the different species of fishes.

We completed our tour in about an hour time, and then we headed back to Chinatown to pack our dinner.

As the weather turned cold in the night, I would prefer to eat in the comfort of the hotel room than to fight the coldness while walking on the street. So we packed back some noodles and porridge dishes back to the hotel. We had a nice, hot meal in the room while watching their local news.

We had an early rest after dinner as we prepared ourselves for a full day fun tomorrow. I was glad that Anthea had recovered well from her stomach virus.

Day 3: Wednesday, 10 June

*Warning: DO NOT CONT”D READING IF YOU HAVE PHOBIA OF REPTILES*

Port Stephen Tour - We woke up around 6.30am as we were scheduled on a Full Day tour to the famous Port Stephen to see Dolphins. After breakfast of breads and cup noodles, we got ready for our pick up at 7.35am @ the hotel lobby.

We were brought to the coach meeting points to board our tour bus for the day trip. In Australia, the coach driver up doubled up as local guide too. While driving, he would also do introduction of the places to the tourists.

For the day trip, our 1st stop was a Reptile Park and both Anthea and Anders were in for a good treat. We had been reading a lot on reptiles, especially snakes and both of them were so excited to know we were going to see them for real.

In the reptile park, we had the chance to see Koala Bears, Kangaroos, Emu, Lizards and of course Australia famous types of snakes. Anthea and Anders even had the chance to feed the Kangaroos and Emu.

After the 1 hour visit of the reptile park, we proceeded to our next stop – Port Stephen. We were scheduled on the 1.30pm ferry and we arrived at the wharf around 12.20pm. We had an hour time for a quick lunch.

There were many eateries around the wharf area. Adrian and the children had Subway sandwiches for their lunch and I ordered a Fish & Chips meal for myself.

We had a nice and lovely lunch by the wharf and the children kept feeding those seagulls that were waiting for food outside the restaurant.

We boarded the ferry around 1.25pm and set off for our experienced with Dolphins. The ferry took us out to the middle of the ocean and then suddenly, we saw a few dolphins swimming along the side of the ferry. Everyone onboard was very excited and they even had a monitor for those who preferred to stay inside the ferry to see the dolphins.

It was another 1st time experienced for the family and we had a fun time. The only thing was the sea was a bit choppy and the wind was very cold. Anthea got a little dizzy from the bumpy ride. We quickly let her sit down and rest. Luckily I brought along my thermal flask of hot water and I gave the children warm water to drink to keep them warm.

The Dolphins tour lasted for 1 ½ hours and we returned to the wharf around 3pm. Then the coach driver drove us to our next destination – 4WD tour on sand dunes. Both Anthea and Anders had the chance to try sand-boarding and they enjoyed the thrill of it so much. : )

Upon disembarking from the 4WD tour, we boarded the coach for our return to Sydney.

As there was a major traffic jam on the main highway, the coach driver brought us on the suburb routes and we get to see the small towns. Also we did a dinner stop at a local Macdonald as we were running quite late and the driver also needed a rest before he drove on.

We arrived at our hotel almost near 8pm and rested for the evening. It had been a very memorable day trip for the family and especially the sand boarding experienced for the children.
Day 4: Thursday, 11 June

Taronga Zoo – originally we were booked for a Blue Mountain & Wildlife Park tour with the local agent. However after some careful consideration and discussion with Adrian, we decided to forego the tour and to bring Anthea & Anders to the Sydney Tarongo Zoo instead.

We set off for our Zoo trip from the hotel around 10am. We took the bus to Circular Quay and then bought our Zoo package from the wharf counter. The package included Ferry tickets + zoo admission tickets + cable car ride. Yes, Sydney Zoo has a cable car within the Zoo compound.

To get to the zoo, we need to 1st take the Sydney ferry from the wharf, the ride took about 15 minutes. Along the way, we got view of the Sydney Harbor Bridge and Opera House. We arrived at the Zoo around 11am and took the cable car to the entrance area.

Anthea and Anders enjoyed the cable car ride up the hill and we get a very panoramic view of Sydney city from the island. It was really magnificent and breathtaking. Too bad I don’t have a professional camera to capture all these…hee.

The tour of zoo started upon our arrival. As usual, the children were excited to see all the different animals. I must say this – the energy level in the Zoo was much higher than our local zoo. All the animals in the Zoo were up & walking around.

There were Zoo keeper talks at the different animals holding. The Zoo keeper would bring out the animal and explain the nature of the animal and its behavior.

We also managed to watch the Bird Show and it was really impressive and world class performance.

We had a quick lunch and then proceeded to the children Zoo area where Anthea & Anders had the opportunity to feed the farm animals – pigs, sheep, turkeys and chickens.

Then we continued to tour the Zoo and see more animals up close and personal. We ended our tour around 3pm. It was a very educational 4 hours tour of the Taronga Zoo.

We took the ferry back to mainland Sydney and Adrian brought Anthea & Anders to IMAX Theatre while I took a walk along George Street. This is the main shopping street and along the way, I can see many different shopping buildings.
Adrian and the children came back to the hotel around 6.30pm and Anthea decided to go for a quick swim. The hotel has an indoor swimming pool.

We had packed dinner back in the hotel room; I think we enjoyed eating in than dinning out..haha.

Day 5: Friday, 12 June

We decided to have hotel buffet breakfast since there was a promotion. (Children eat FREE with every paying adult.) After a good hearty breakfast, we checked out of our hotel room around 12 noon. The airport pickup was scheduled at 1.10 pm, so we decided to take a walk to Paddy’s market. The market opens on Thursday to Sunday.

There are many stalls in the market place and they sell different products ranging from clothing, bags, and souvenirs and there was a wet market area too. We bought some tee-shirts and also a bag for Anthea.

Then we headed back to our hotel for the airport pickup and it was Home-Sweet-home all the way.

We took the A380 from Sydney back to Singapore too and needless to say – its top class service and flying experienced again.

Sydney → Singapore (QF 32) dep: 1625 hr / Arr: 2230 hr

This has truly been an amazing Sydney experienced for Aces family and if there is another promotion for Sydney again, I will not hesitate to go for it again…haha.