欢乐一周

This week school break had been a pretty fun and enjoyable one for Anthea and myself. As usually my mom was around to help me “babysit” Anthea for 2 days – Tuesday & Wednesday while I was at work.

As my eldest brother is also now taking a break from his work, he was available in the afternoon and we had arranged to meet for lunch after my work.

So on Wednesday, together with my parents and the children, I met them at commonwealth MRT and we headed to commonwealth crescent for lunch. Yes, after watching the TV reality show “抢摊大行动“, I had been telling myself that I must go and try the dessert stall- Bee Garden that celebrity chef Eric Teo had gave a “makeover”. Read more of the stall 遭遇from this famous food blog I Eat I shoot.

After a simple lunch, we had our dessert – we ordered the bubor cha cha and durian penyet. As we were already quite full, we didn’t try the mango pamelo and cheng tng, so this mean we will surely go back for more…haha.

Then my brother brought us to Labrador Park for a quick walk and the whole place looked new to me compared more than 10 years back when we were there for our fishing trip with my MJ Kakis. This walk brought back a lot of fond memories:)

On Thursday & Friday, I decided to take 2 days of no pay leave to be home with Anthea. In the morning, we would go to the library and spend about 2 hours for her SA revisions. We would then go for lunch at the nearby food court. She would take her usual afternoon naps after lunch and then in the evening, we would play badminton.

It was a good decision to be home to do the revisions with her, otherwise, I know she may overplay and when Monday comes, she will suffer from it.

Last evening, we went to Rider’s café at fairway place for our dinner. It was another wonderful discovery and again, recommended by my 大哥…haha. When it comes to food, he has many lobangs. We enjoyed a very sumptuous and relaxing dinner at the café and we would be back for more, as usual.

This week has passed by so swiftly and in another 1 more day, we will be back to our normal routine and it’s the final countdown to Anthea’s SA : )

Wok Of Life...

Last Sunday on the Sunday Times – Lifestyle section, there was an article about stalls that are selling high class dishes at Zi Char prices and this caught my attention.

The article mentioned a total of 8 Zi Char stalls and to my greatest surprise – one of them – Golden Sands Seafood is in Ang Mo Kio and it is pretty near to my house.

Golden Sands Seafood

Block 215, Ang Mo Kio Street 22,

#01-877

Tel: 9029-9608

Open: 5pm to 12.30am daily

I told my 大哥about this Zi Char outlet during our Sunday lunch outing and he said we can go and try it out for dinner on this weekday. 说吃就去吃。。。So last evening I invited my Parent in Laws to join us for dinner at this stall and they readily agreed.

My PILs came by to fetch the children and myself as they were on their way back from work; we met up with my 大哥 at the coffee shop. When we arrived the place around 6.45pm, it was pretty quiet. Initially I was worried it may be crowded due to the write up.

We got our seats and started to order the food. The article had recommended 2 dishes – Kailan Leaves and Steam Fish with celery sauce, which we didn't order...haha.

We ordered the other chef recommendations:
- 南乳排骨
- 香酥鸭
- 带子西兰花
- 酸甜鱼片
- “老鼠粉” (claypot style)

The dishes were all very delicious and all of us enjoyed the dinner. I think the best dish was the Pork ribs. It was really fried to the taste and the meat was still very tender on the inside. This is the 1st time I enjoyed such a dish...even now as I typed, the taste still linger in my mouth...haha.

During dinner, we had a good chat. My brother was asking my PILs about their career path and asked if they had changed their jobs before. Both my In-laws had served their ministries since they started working. My MIL said she had been in the nursing industry for 44 years. That is a very long time and I know till now, she still has great passion for her job. That's why the company offered her the 2nd career opportunity.

Then my FIL asked me about Adrian situation and I mentioned to him about the stress on the upcoming interview. My FIl gave me his words of wisdom. He said: “tell Adrian don't be stressed, it is all fixed. The interview is just a formality.”

Honestly, after hearing what he said, I think it does make sense and I emailed Adrian of my FIL words. Of course, we won't know if the fixture is for better but we shall not take for granted.

Adrian was very appreciative of all the encouragement that he is receiving from home and from his mentor. He said he felt better and will try his best for the interview this Friday.

In his own words:

“Nevertheless, it is also silly to go down without a fight. If I didn't make it after putting up a fight, at least I know I tried my very best. I don't know if I can withstand some more mental pressure but I will fight on.”

Well, if Zi Char stalls can offer high class dishes at Zi Char prices, I believe Adrian can do the same for his interview. ..haha.

Life is like a wok...you will use your best ingredients (knowledge) to cook up a good meal for your love ones... (achieving a higher altitute in your work life)..福满人间!!

"Losing Out "

Today I had lunch with a few colleagues at the Original Sin. This is a mediterranean vegetarian restaurant and the food was quite impressive. On top of it, the restaurant has a very good promotion for American Express card holder: 1 for 1 set meal. For Citibank cardholder, there is also a promotion on the main course – 1 for 1 as well.

I had a set meal and it’s served with a soup of the day, main course (tofu burger / tortilla wrap with some special vegetables), dessert and coffee/tea. The set meal cost $24++.

My colleague chose a set meal and so we order one main course each and shared the portion. I like the tofu burger and it was very delicious.

During lunch, we had small talks on works and families. One of them, who are in the legal industry, had twins whom will be starting Primary School next year. This means that they are of the same age group as Anthea.

We were chatting about short listing primary school and he voiced his opinion on the MOE system of selections. As his twins is a boy and a girl, he is in a dilemma as to which house address he should use to register for his girl (aiming at MGS) & his boy (aiming at ACS).

Then also he commented that his children week days and week ends are packed – Mondays to Sundays.

Both his children attended K2 classes at Cambridge. Then following by Mathematics Tuition, English Classes, swimming, ballet, piano, squash, golf and his daughter is even in some modeling classes.

When I heard of his children curriculum, I felt so “lose out” for Anthea. So far, she is not taking any enrichment classes and for swimming, she is doing on her own leisure. I can’t help but felt a sense of guilt toward Anthea. The reason why she is not taking all these lessons is also mainly because we can’t afford all these extra $$.

I do hope that we can start her on some enrichment classes to better prepare her for Primary school. In NTUC childcare, they don’t do Spellings and Hanyu Pinying. So I think this we will need to train her little to get her gear up a notch.

There is a Chinese saying: “人比人，氣死人“! Well, I guess I just need to console myself by thinking positively – 知足常樂.

Let’s hope when she starts Primary school, she will be able to progress well.

大舅六十 大壽

On Saturday, my eldest uncle had his 6oth birthday dinner celebration at Li Bai, Sheraton Tower. His son-in-law hosted this dinner for him. There were 2 tables being reserved for the dinner.

One table was for my uncle and all his siblings. As my parents could not make it for the dinner, naturally my eldest brother and I were asked to be the representatives.

Honestly speaking, I have never been to Li Bai for meals and having read so many accolades of the restaurant, I was simply thrilled to be invited for the dinner.

In the evening, my dage fetched me and we headed to the restaurant for the sumptuous dinner.

Dishes include:

- suckling pig
- double boiled soup with shark fins
- steam fish
- king prawn with spicy sauce
- scallop & prawn with asparagus
- abalone
- dumpling soup with noodle
- papaya boiled with fungus and chuan pei (川貝)

I enjoyed all the dishes very much and each dish is special on it own way. I also had a good chance to chat with all my uncles and aunties. I picked up a lot of tips on TCM since my aunt’s family is in the TCM business.

At dessert time, the waitress brought out the birthday cake and everyone started to sing the birthday song for my uncle. His 3 grandchildren surrounded him and were very eager to blow out the candle on the cake.

It was a very memorable dinner for me and I always look forward to such family gatherings, somehow as age mature, I am starting to appreciate my family and relatives more & more. Not forgetting friends too!!

While I was attending the dinner, Adrian brought the children out for dinner with the extended families. By the time I reached home around 11pm, they were home and both of them were full of sweat. It seem like they had a good time at the McDonald’s children playground.

和气生财

It has been a practice with my own parents that we eat Reunion dinners before the 1st day of Lunar New Year. Also a reunion dinner on the 15th day of the Lunar New Year (元宵).

With this in mind, I would also like to extend this practice to my extended families as this symbolized a good start to the New Year (团团圆圆) 。

My MIL is going to Beijing with my 2nd BIL & family on Saturday and will return to Singapore on the next Friday, which means the 15th day is already over.

So I managed to arrange for a reunion lunch on this Saturday with my In Laws and my 3rd BIL with his fiancée. My 2nd BIL and family can't make it for the lunch as their baby girl is down with fever and also my SIL need to prepare the baby meals for their trip to Beijing.

I booked a table at Gim Tim restaurant at AMK Ave 4. We ordered the Lunar New Year Set menu for 6 people. This is also a Thank You lunch from the Aces Family to our parents for all the care and concerns that they had given to us for the past year.

The menu was very good and auspicious:

1. Prosperity Raw Salmon Fish ( 鸿运发财鱼生)
2. Braised Superior Shark’s Fin with Brown Sauce (宏图大展翅)
3. Deep Fried Soon Hock Fish with Thai Sauce (年年有余)
4. Fried Prawn with Green (嘻哈丰收年)
5. Boneless Duck with Sea cucumber (福气满满)
6. Fried Thread Noodle (富贵连绵)
7. Double Boiled Hashima with Red Dates (雪湖奇珍)

It was a very prosperous lunch and everyone enjoyed the food very much. When we were paying the bill, there was a Lucky Draw Box and my MIL picked the lucky draw. We WON a bottle of Red Wine and can consume it for our next visit. So we have good excuse to go back to the restaurant for a meal.

After lunch, we headed to my 2nd BIL house to help him to off load his luggage and then we left for Changi Airport Terminal 3 for their SQ flight to Beijing.

This is the 1st time we went to Terminal 3 for departure. Well, it was BIG and spacious but not as busy as Terminal 2. Seem like the Check in counters are all very empty and the staffs are all pretty free...hee : P

After saying good bye to my MIL, Bil and his family, we had tea break at Wang café at the terminal. Anthea and Anders had the set meal – 2 eggs, kaya toast and a cup of tea. Both of them enjoyed the tea so much. Then we went home for their power naps.

In the evening, we had dinner with my FIL. We tried a new café – 上海人家, 906B Upper Thomson Road. We managed to try 2 dishes – the pan fried shanghai buns and the noodles. The shop was very short handed as 2 of their chefs went back to China for holiday. The kitchen could not cook up to the diners requests. So in the end, we went to Hans Café, which was just next to this restaurant. We had Sirloin steaks and my FIL had lamp chops. All ends well.

After dinner, we brought Anthea and Anders to the AMK Mac Cafe to have desserts. The children had good fun at the children play area while the adults were relaxing and having a good chat. At the same time, since we were so free, we decided to check on the 4D via SMS. To our sweetest surprise – my FIL strike 4D, the number he bought on Friday came out on Saturday. Even though it was a consolation prize, I am still very happy because to strike during Lunar New Year means it is good fortune – 开年生财！！

Probably our Lo Hei today had helps too…hee : )

After sharing his joy, we headed home for the children to change and rest. It has been a long day for us but it was a beautiful day.

Now i am looking forward to 元宵 to have a nice reunion dinner with my family and hopefully we have a bit of luck on the TOTO ANG POWS Draws on this SPECIAL DAY!!

"发 ！发！发！"

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 !!

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.

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.

Cheesetarts & Meeting Tom

In the morning, after settling lunch for the children, i went to NTUC Extra to get some ingredients for my 1st attempt to bake Blueberry Cheesetarts.

Since the last time i baked muffins, i have been thinking to do cheese tarts. Reason being Anthea love the Blueberry cheesetarts that we bought from SL II from Golden Mile Hawker.

I googled and managed to find this recipe which was quite easy for a beginnner like me. So with this recipe, i bought the ingredients. I was not able to get the Blueberry fillings from NTUC, so i went to Phoon Huat and luckily there was 2 can left on the shelf. I bought one of them and also at the same time, i bought a muffins tray.

When i reached home, i started preparing the pastry and both Anthea and Anders busied themselves as my "sou chefs".

After preparing the pastry, they had their lunch. I started preparing the fillings while they were having their lunch.

Then i started baking the tarts. The final results came out like these :


I am quite happy with my 1st attempt on Blueberry cheesetarts and now i have some Blueberry fillings leftover, i am considering to bake some blueberry muffins.. : )

We had dinner with my in laws at Tim's Restaurant & Cafe. It was recommended by one of my MIL's colleague and i had also read from some blogs about this cafe.

When we reached the cafe, we had a sweet surprised. The owner Tom Shretha, is none other then the restaurant Manager of a restaurant that our family always frequent at Novena Villa. It was meeting a good old friend... : )

Of course, we were served by Tom and his friendly staff. His recommendation of his food was excellent and we truely enjoyed our meal.

I know i will be back for more goodies since this place is near to my workplace..haha.

After dinner, my in laws went for their two-some time. MIL said it was a rare opportunity..hee : )

( always envy my in laws for being so loving and romantic, after all the years that they are married)

Happy Birthday to Terence !

My youngest brother in law , Terence, birthday falls on 24 Oct. The family decided to have an early birthday celebration for him.

Terence had preference for Spanish food, so the restaurant that was shortlisted - Streeters on 35 Keong Saik Rd. This restaurant was recommended to us by my Dage, a few years back. We were there before i had any kid, so can imagine how long it was since we last visited the restaurant.

We ordered a few starters and paellas, according to Louis & Eve, they said that the paella are closed to what they had eaten while holidaying in Spain. This means the food is good. They order a Spanish drink - Sangria which tasted a bit like fruit punch with a real PUNCH..hee : P

Dessert was the birthday cake - Lychee Martini cake from Pine Garden's cake. True to it's recommendation, the cake was soft and tasted good with Lychee Martini. Eveyone love the cake.

During dinner, yeye brought the children to the car to pick up some toys that he had bought for them and Anders was so happy to receive his favorite toys.

Finally at dinner, i had the chance to take a photo with my 6 months old niece, Faith. Usually at dinner, i hardly had the chance to carry her because i had to keep my focus on Anders, just in case, he create any troubles.

My niece is so cute and i must say, she has the potential to become a model..because she looks at the camera when we are taking the shots...so CUTE & LOVEABLE...can't have enough of her.

Happy Boss Day

On Tuesday, 16 Oct, while driving to work, I overheard on radio that it’s Boss's Day on this day.
Upon reaching the office, I spoke to a few of my department colleagues and we decided to bring our Boss out for a lunch.

After doing some research, we got this recommendation from a colleague from another department – PS Café.

Her recommendation was good. When we reached the place, all of us were like “mountain tortoise”…because everyone was saying – they don’t know there is such a café hidden in the woods.

We ordered 2 salads as starters – Beef & Tuna salad and both the salads were really good.

For our main course, we ordered our own portion and I think it was a mistake. The portions that they served were BIG.

Main courses that we had – club sandwiches, steak sandwich, Fish & chips & an Udon broth.

All the food was very well done and tasteful and because the serving was big, we had no more space in our stomach to try the desserts, which looks really good. We had made plan to return for desserts….heehee.


Happy Bosses Day to my GM.

Our Hari Raya Weekends

For the last 3 years when Siti, our helper, was with us, Hari Raya is a BIG Affair for the family. We will usually bring her out for a good lunch during this special day and she will dressed up pretty in the Baju Kurung that we bought for her...sweet memory.


This is the 1st year we DID NOT celebrated Hari Raya. On Saturday, i cooked a simple meal of prawn noodle soup for lunch. While the children were napping, i took a nice & relaxed swim by the pool nearby. I like Public pool on a public holiday - no crowd and plus it was drizzling.. : P

Dinner was with our extended family at a new discovered Teochew restaurant - Mong Hin Teochew Restaurant. Nice home cooked spread with a bottle o good white wine. I told adrian that ever since i married his family, i have been eating a lot of TEOCHEW cuisines..hehe. One fine day must learn to cook some speciality.


Aunty SK recently tour Hokkaido and she shared with us some goodies from Hokkaido. I brought some for my extended families to sample. My parents in law will be going for their Hokkaido tour in December. They can help to buy back nice goodies stuff.



Today Adrian is back to work, so i am home alone with the 2 children. In the morning, we had breakfast at the market place and then brought them to the playground for them to sweat it out. The children had a good nap in the afternoon.In the evening, we had Macdonald's for dinner.


Today i missed the opportunity to do an assignment for an event company because of Adrian's work. What a pity. I have always enjoyed doing this kind of major event during my days in the Travel Industry. Even after i left the industry, my closed friend will still invite me to join her on ad hoc basic.

Farewell Lunch @ Man Fu Yuan - Intercontinental Hotel

One of our colleague from another department will be leaving the company and her last day of work is this Friday.

Together 5 of us went for a lunch in "celebration" of her farewell.

Thanks to my MIL once again, we managed to have a good dim sum lunch at Man Fu Yuan at Intercontinental Hotel. My MIL bought the hotel membership with the Priority group and she named me as a supplementary holder. So for this lunch, i am entitled to a 20% discount + using the $40 vouchers + a Complimentary Chocolate cake + an In-house White wine...so we had quite a feast.

The dim sum here is very good. The ingredients are all freshly prepared and all done to the best taste. We had a wonderful time with the food and the chat.

As we were too full after the dim-sum, we brought the cake back to the office and also the white wine (which i will share with my extended families during our next makansutra).

We had coffee at Starbuck cafe after our lunch and it was my 1st time trying a Green Tea Latte - Verdict is not too bad.

On our way back from the hotel to office, one of my colleague recommended that we go by a muffins shop in Sunshine Plaza to try the muffins, she said they are really good. When we went to the shop, i can smell the strong aroma of chicken pie and true enough, the shop sells chicken pies too. I overheard a customer talking to the shop owners and realised that they are "suki" too - means they are Hainanese. I started to conversed with the owners in our language and they were pleasantly surprised. I bought a chicken pie (left 1 only) and 6 muffins to try. (hmm..soon, i will become a muffins expert at the rate that i am discovering muffins over Singapore..haha.)

Along the way back, we made another stop at the famour Curry puff shop -SELERA FAMOUS CHICKEN CURRY PUFF. My colleague bought some snacks and our car was load with smell of pies / puffs & goreng pisang.

We had tea break in the late afternoon but i didn't managed to sample anything as i was still full from the lunch. Will try the muffins for tomorrow breakfast and chicken pie will be my lunch after my workout..hehe : P

In the evening, i passed some chocolate cakes to my parents in law, hopefull they will like it, which i think they will.

Another nice makan outing with my colleagues and also getting to know new foodies place.

Newbies Day...

In the morning after cooking the fish porridge for lunch, we went to NTUC to stock up some of our groceries.

Also at the same time i was planning to change my current Nokia 6020 to a new mobile. Both my Sil's are now using the Nokia E65 model with comes with the WLAN function, this is useful when you have wireless at home. I was contemplating to get one too. After much consultation with the Hello Shop assistant, i finally bought a Nokia 6120 Classic. The main reason is budget..hee : P



With my discount voucher and trade in, i only need to pay a balance of $38 compared to $208 if i were to buy the E65. Now i am a happy owner of a new mobile. This new mobile has many functions and i am slowly learning all the new gadgets. The shop assistant was of good humour, when he took over my old mobile, he asked me to bid my phone GOODBYE : P

In the evening, Aces family had dinner with Ye ye and Nai nai. MIL had been following the HDB Tai Tai variety show and the latest show, the hosts (Chen Liping & Kym Ng )recommend a chinese restaurant Tian Jing Restaurant @ 80 Pagoda Street (天津楼). MIL suggested that we tried this place.

So we made a reservation for dinner at this restaurant. It was a 2-storey shophouse amid chinatown shopping area.

We ordered the set menu for 4 persons. It included their specialities :
- Seafood soup in coconut
- special spareribs
- scallops with brocoli
- fried rice with crab meat
- Hashima with red dates
(there was also a special stuffed chicken wings but was sold out)

The food was really good - the spare ribs was done until so tender that one bite will bring the meat out, both anthea and anders had a good times with the ribs.

Seafood soup in coconut was also a hit with the children. They were very generous with the seafood and Anders was happily eating all the prawns while anthea was busy scrapping the coconut meat. One soup is enough to make a full meal..hehe.

Then the fried rice with crabmeat was not a "crab". The fried rice was really FULL of real crab meats. We managed to finished the 2 plates of friend rice. It was really amazing as everyone was already quite filled up after the soup. My MIL was commenting we were like doing the show when we kept saying: "wow...so much crab meats"..haha. Just like what Aiyo-yo said in the show. The dessert was hashima cook with red dates.

During dinner, parents in law also shared more insights of their current properties market situation with us. My parents in law are very shrewd investors and i looked upon them. Hopefully one day, i can be like them, then i can really become a FT homemaker. Another of my many daydream...: )

We finished our dinner almost near to 9pm. We took a stroll along Pagoda Street and turn around at Temple Street. My main purpose is to buy the famous 味香园 desserts. I bought 1 almond paste and 1 walnut paste back home. MIL also bought 1 yam paste.



While walking back to the car at Chinatown point, we saw some "cycle-packers" and we were pretty amazed at their super high bicycles with all their travel staff.


We reached home about 10 pm. After changing the children, i tried the Almond Paste. It was really very good. So far, it's the best that i had eaten. Adrain ate the walnut and he said it was very smooth. Hmm...i will definitely go back for more.

It was a wonderful day of New Mobile/ New Discovery / New taste and i know we are on the road to more NEW discoveries.

She has a Biometric Passport

Somewhere in June 2007, we received a notice from the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) informing us about cessation of Photo Update Service for Non-Biometric passports, this is in relation to Anthea's Passport.




We have been given the option to change her current passport to a new biometric passport. Considering that we will be travelling soon in August, we thought it was good to change Anthea's passport as the photo of her current passport was taken when she was about 2 years old. Also if we are travelling to Australia in 2008, it is better to change her passport as the Australian Immigration may be quite strict . With all these in mind, we submitted the new application in July 2007.

Yesterday, the notice of collection came via the mailbox. As Adrain is off today, so i took 1/2 day off and we brought Anthea to ICA to collect her new passsport. We reached ICA around 1pm and our Q number was 2736, there was about 91 people infront of us. We waited for about an hour and our Q number was called. We are lucky that we only need to wait an hour. Anthea was happy to see her new passport and we are now ready for our family vacations.

After collecting the passport, we went to Army Market aka Golden Mile Food Centre for lunch and also Adrain needed to buy some stuff.


Well, based on some good recommendation from Ieat.ishoot.ipost , we managed to try a few good dishes. Adrian ordered a plate of carbonara from Pasta Planet and i had the famous Prawn Noodle. We had the Sweet Stone Parad Ice Waffle with Belgian Chocolate and a single scoop of Ice cream. Anthea truely enjoyed this dessert.


Finally, we bought home some Muffins and cheese tarts from this shop SLII muffins. They looks very delicious and i tried the cheese tarts - I love it very much... : )

After a nice Makansutra, we headed home. AS we were leaving, Anthea said : "mummy, this is a nice place to eat, we must come again..ok ? " I was taken by surprised as she is quite a choosy person and usually she likes to eat at aircon places, so to comes out from her...it is quite an achievement and Yes, we will be back for more...hee : P