4Days Hong Kong Magical Disney & Shopping Extravaganza, 15 – 18 March 2008

It had been another wonderful family vacation experienced. Time really flies when you are having good times.


Just a quick recapped of our 4 days tour:

Day 1: Sunday, 15 March

Singapore → Hong Kong (CX 736) Dep: 1010 / Arr 1410 hr

We were met up with our local agent – Win’s travel and they sent us to our hotel – Eaton Hotel.

I had a “SHOCK” upon checking into the room. The room was BIG!!! I had read previews of the hotel before and was mentally prepared for small room as their standard rooms are all very small. We had 2 Single beds and 1 Queen sized sofa bed in our room and the bathroom has both standing shower and bath tub...: P


Then I told Adrian that it seem like we had been given Executive room. He confirmed it as he was the one who did the check in. he said the receptionist told him we had an EXECUTIVE ROOM. I cannot believe our luck but I was very thankful. The main reason why I shortlisted this hotel was it has a swimming pool and a gym, which were requirement for the children and Adrian.

As usual after checking in, we went to explore the swimming pool and the gym. The children were so excited to see the pool and requested to go for a quick dip. The weather was pretty cool but the pool is heated so the water was quite warm. We had about 20 minutes of water play, then went back to the room to change and got ready for dinner.

We had made a dinner reservation at Yung Kee which was recommended by one of my ex-colleague. When we arrived at the restaurant, the restaurant was crowded, all 3 levels were crowded and there were people queuing for places.

The recommended dish – 烧鹅 was very delicious and yummy. Our whole family enjoyed the dish. Together with the Roast Goose, we ordered their special prawns, spinach in boiled soup, and porridge for the children. We had a very enjoyable meal and it was worth the trip to the restaurant.

After dinner, we took the MTR from Central Station (中环站) back to Jordon Station. This was the station nearest to Eaton Hotel. We took a stroll around the hotel and discovered that Temple Street (庙街) was just across the street from our hotel. We walked through the night market and I saw many vendors showing the LV Catalog. Out of curiosity, I asked how much was one of the LV bag and I was quoted HK$550 (about S$110). Not a bad price for LV Bags and they had so many models, I was so tempted…haha.

After the walk, we went back to the hotel to rest. The children even bought back Macdonald for supper and watched their favorite Cartoon network on TV.

Day 2: Monday, 16 March

We decided to forego our ½ day city tour as the tour guide told us the pickup time was 7.30am. I told Adrian since we are here for holiday, we should relax and enjoy at our own pace. We cancelled it the day before with the local agent. It was the right decision. We had a good night rest and woke up around 9.30am.

After changing, we headed to Macdonald (which was just across the street) to have our breakfast. The Macdonald in Hong Kong is non-halal as they served pork dishes. After breakfast, we headed to the nearby supermarket – Welcome to stock up some stuff for our Disney hotel stay.

Anthea and Anders wanted to go for their swim, so Adrian brought them back to the hotel after breakfast. I took the opportunity to explore the places around the hotel. I found the famous “天后宫“- Tian Hou Temple. I went in to give a simple prayer and did some donations.

Then I walked down Nathan road. As I walked, I saw many interesting food/dessert soups along the street. For me, I prefer to discover food than shopping…haha. I am not a shopaholic. Thanks God!!

Finally, I discovered the few famous streets – Fa Yuen Street (sports goods)/ Tung Choi Street (Ladies Market). As it was still day time, so most of the stalls were closed. I was happy to see so many nice food places around the location. Since it was noon time and almost lunch, I decided to pack food back to the room for Adrian and the children.

I bought the 双拼- 烧鹅和烧肉 rice for Adrian. The children had the 鲜虾云吞 面. I also bought some freshly baked 蛋塔and bread with a cup of 鸳鸯。We had a very nice and relaxing lunch in our hotel room. The children were enjoying the programs.

While the children took their nap, I went for a quick gym workout.

In the evening, we booked ourselves an optional tour with Win’s travel – open top bus Hong Kong by night. The tour started around 5.30pm with the guide picking us from the hotel. 1st stop was our dinner stop – we ate at a Hong Kong famous roasted goose restaurant. At the restaurant, we met up with another group of tourists and they are all Singaporean… : )

After dinner, the guide brought us to Victoria Peak to view the whole night scene of Hong Kong. We also had the chance to see Madam Tussauds wax museum on the Peak.

The scenery was very beautiful and we had a good tour of the wax museum, happily clicking away with all the famous people. We even saw our MM Lee, must take a photo because Singapore not chance..haha.


Then the guide brought us to Avenue of the Stars. We walked along the walkway and saw some famous people names and hand prints on the street.

Finally, the open top bus was there and the whole group went on it. Both Anthea and Anders were happy to get the chance to sit on top of the open bus.

The bus cruise along Nathan road and I saw some familiar places, like Miramar Hotel and TST where we stayed in 2007.

The ride was very enjoyable and the weather was very cool. It finally stops at the Ladies Market where the tour ended and we made our way back to the hotel.

As usual with 2 children in tow, it’s never easy to shop. So we decided to buy supper back to the room to enjoy. On the way back, we managed to buy a packet of the famous “炖蛋奶“and in another dessert soup, we bought a very delicious dessert – quite similar to our bo bo char char.

We had a good supper in our room and finally slept around 12 midnight.


Day 3: Tuesday, 17 March

This morning we woke up around 7.30am as our pick up time was 9am. I went to the 茶餐厅 across the hotel to buy breakfast. The breakfast set was delicious and each set come with a cup of coffee/tea/oval tine.

We checked out of the hotel after our breakfast. Then we were transferred to Hollywood hotel in Disney.

When we arrived, Adrian did the check in and the receptionist mentioned that we can only get our room after 2pm. So we decided to go ahead to visit the Theme Park via the shuttle service by the hotel.

When we reached the Theme park, the entrance Q was quite long as they were checking the bags. People who planned to picnic in the Theme Park had to forego the plan as all the food/canned drinks were confiscated. Luckily for us, I only packed some small packs of biscuits and bread. The person who checked my bag was kind enough to let me through.

Once we were in the theme park, our Dreams came through…haha. We went around taking photos with all the Disney characters. Anders was excited to see them for the 1st time.

We went around for the rides, 3D shows and we also managed to catch the High School Musical Live Show.

The Disney Street parade was on at 3.30pm and after seeing the parade, we went back to the hotel to check in the room. It was a very Disney room – the amenities inside the room were all Disney. The children had another treat – Disney channel / Playhouse Disney was shown on TV.

They took a power nap and we return to the park around 7.30pm for the Fireworks show.

Then we were recommended by the Park GR to go to Tsing Yi Station (青衣站) to have our dinner. They had a big mall there. Indeed, we found the place – Maritime Square. It was like our local shopping mall and it had many eateries, supermarket and shops. We had dinner at Pizza Hut. Then we bought some bread for our breakfast tomorrow.

We went back to the hotel and rested for the night after the eventful day.

Day 4: Wednesday, 18 March

In the morning, we woke up around 9 am and had simple breakfast in the room. As the hotel swimming pool was closed for maintenance, we had no chance to go for swim.

So we decided to go back to the Theme park to take the Train ride and also had lunch before our departure. As our theme park tickets allowed us to play for 2 days, we were making full use of the privileges.

Then the agent picks us up around 1.40 pm to go to the airport for our departure flight.

It was Home Sweet Home.

Hong Kong → Singapore (CX 711) Dep: 1600 / Arr 1945

The 4 days 3 night trip had been a memorable one for the family. This was Anders 1st time visiting Disneyland and his 1st trip to Hong Kong.

Our family had enjoyed great bonding time during the trip. Judging by the response, I believe this will not be the last time we visit Hong Kong..再见。。。香港！！

放假了！！

Finally the “long awaited” school term break is here….I has never looked forward to a holiday so much in my life. Probably I am getting more stress with the school/work routine, so I really needed this break badly…hee.

This will be our ACES Family 1st school holiday vacation and many more to come; I am now starting to plan for the June holiday as Adrian has confirmed his leaves… : P (where to go???)

Anyway, we are all set for our 4D3N Hong Kong Magical Disney trip starting tomorrow till Wednesday. I know it’s short but we can’t ask for more…haha.

- Luagge about 90% packed

- Airline check in with seats selected

- Have made dinner reservation for tomorrow night at Yung Kee. Honestly, I am not a food connoisseur, so I never pre-booked for any meals during any vacations. However, this restaurant was highly recommended by my ex-colleague and both Adrain /Anders are Duck Lovers, so we must TRY the goose.

We will be staying one night in Disneyland hotel and both Anthea/Anders are looking forward to it.

Okie, with this, I wish all the school going children/mommies & daddies: A Happy School Holiday.

我们放假了！！！

Parent Teacher Conference

This is Anthea 1st PTC for her primary education and I was looking forward to the session. The PTC was held on Friday, 13 March and we were given the timeslot of 12 noon to 1pm. The timing suits my working schedule…hee : )

After work, I met up with Adrian, Anthea and Anders at her primary school. Adrian was on his guard off and Anders just recovered from a gastric flu, so we decided to keep him at home.

When I reached the school around 12.50pm, her form teacher – Mrs. Anna Koh was engaged with another parent. Anders was getting a bit listless from the wait and asked to go home 1st. So Adrian brought him home while I waited with Anthea.

Finally it was our turn. The very 1st comment that Mrs. Anna Koh said was – “you need not worry about Anthea, she is a very independent girl and she is doing well in her studies.”

Then Mrs. Koh went through with me her academic:
1. English – confidence and did very well in her topical tests. She scored full marks for the recent test. Mrs. Koh encouraged me to start her on her writing skills as the school will be doing more of this in the next term.

2. Math – equally good – only thing: a little careless. During the recent 1 hour Math topical test, she completed in 10 minutes!!! Mrs. Koh asked her to check her work which she did but had a careless mistake.

3. Mother-tongue: she is well versed in her Hanyu pin yin and her words. Only setback is her conversational part. So we need to brush up on this area.

Her overall assessment by the form teacher was very good and she even commented that she plans to make Anthea the class monitress for the next term… : P

Mrs. Koh mentioned that Anthea happened to be seat in a row of 3 and these 3 pupils are the better of the class. So among the 3 of them (Anthea, Sean and Xin Yi), there seem to be “internal competition” as to who is the top scorer. So far, Mrs. Koh said she sees this as a positive peer competition and they will motivate each other to do well…: )

I am really happy to hear of all the positive feedback from Mrs. Koh and for the part that she is weaker on, we will definitely try to improve on it. Mrs. Koh did mention that the school does stream the better children at the end of Primary 1. If Anthea maintains her results as it is, she will have no problem to get to the better class.

So far, Anthea has been pretty diligent in her school work and tuition classes. Of course, we would definitely want her to be in the better class but we know as long as put in her BEST, we will be very happy with whatever her results are.

Dilemma

Anthea has completed her 1st school term in Tien Hsia and I had signed her up for the 2nd term as she requested to continue the lessons. She truly enjoys her Chinese lessons.

On Monday, her tuition centre teacher gave me the revision time table for next term. I got a SHOCK as there will be 6 revision classes conducted between March to April. The revision classes are conducted on the same day/time as her Tien Hsia Class.

Last term, we missed a few revision lessons but I still pay for the test papers and Anthea brought home the test papers to do. The teacher marked her papers. This term, thinking that there would be only 3 revision classes, so I thought I will do the made up classes for Tien Hsia.

Now with 6 revision classes, I don’t think it’s possible to do the make-up lessons. I looked at the time table for Tien Hsian Primary 1 enrichment classes, it seem like we are left with a Tuesday afternoon class.

I spoke to Anthea of the change and she felt disappointed about it as she really likes her current teacher and classmates. I told her the change is just for this term, we can change back to the same class again next term. Hopefully her next term revision classes are lesser.

After a few rounds of discussion, last evening at the school, we decided to temporary “HOLD” her Tien Hsia classes and resume it in term 3. I find that it’s a pity because the classes were really helpful and she had maintained a perfect score in all her chinese spellings and readings. However, this is her decision and I will respect it. Like what Adrian said, don’t force her otherwise she may turn her interest against the subject, this is the last thing I want her to feel, especially for CHINESE.

Sigh…the 2nd term is a critical term as her school test marks will make up 30% of her final result. Term 4 will make up 70% of the results for CA & SA.As the tuition classes are more helpful in her school curriculum, we think it would be better to focus it this term, as for her Chinese lessons, I will put in more revisions at home with her. .. : )

Like what the chinese say : 鱼与熊掌， 难以兼得.

A Restful weekend

I was down with flu on Friday and took a day of medical leave to rest at home. Adrian was covering his colleague’s guard duty on Friday, so he was on guard off on Saturday.

Basically, this weekend is a resting weekend for us before we go for our short break next weekend.

On Saturday, after lunch, we had a good nap and I woke up around 5.45pm, the medicine was making me very drowsy. Then Adrian suggested that I should go for my walk/jog to purge out the “poison” and I heeded his advice. Anthea and Anders tagged along for the walk/jog.

I took a slow jog and it felt very good. While I jogged, Adrian went to the playground near the track with the children. After I completed my rounds, then he did his run.

We bought back dinner and had a simple meal at home, then rested early for the night.

On Sunday, I felt better but still bit lethargy from the medication. In the morning I went marketing and bought some food to cook for dinner.

In the afternoon, I went to visit my cousin Jun Ru; she had given birth to a healthy Baby boy named Ying Teng (蔡胤腾). It was such a nice experienced to carry a newborn in my arm. Those were the days…haha.

I also had a good time catching up with my other cousin Ying Herng, who is home for a while before she goes back to UK for her work.

In the evening, I went home to prepare dinner. Adrian helped me to cook chicken rice. Thanks to May's recommendation – I managed to prepare a dish of Steam Codfish with Wolfberry. Both Adrian and Anthea love the dish. Anders does not really like it... :Ｐ

After dinner, I watched the movie – Lara Craft on TV5 and enjoyed it so much. Then after the show, we had an early rest.

Looking forward to next weekend break...买东西，吃东西。。。

三十八咯

时间过得好快， 好像昨天才过了生日，今天又是我的生日。。哈哈哈！

没错，三十八岁咯，就快踏入四字头了。岁月不饶人。

今天的生日我想我会永远记住：

- 没有生日蛋糕
- 没有家庭晚餐
- 没有天伦之乐
- 没有生日歌

其实我的要求不高也不多，只希望一家人开心的共享晚餐。

幸亏还有几位好朋友和家人的生日祝福， 让我有温馨的感觉。

现在只希望孩子们快点长大。我能够过会我自己的生活。就如张惠美的歌曲 - 解脱 ， 这就是我向往得到的。

“你有自由走我有自由好好过 ，
解脱是懂擦干泪看以后
找个新方向往前走，
这世界辽阔
我总会实现一个梦 “

Easy Bake Recipe

Now that Anthea is in morning school, I have to plan her breakfast. To me, breakfast is a very important meal for the day, especially for school going children and working adults too.

There are simple options like – bread, cereal and cornflakes. To add varieties to her choices, I would add waffles, steamed buns and muffins for her breakfast. In the morning, before Adrian leaves for work, he would have breakfast too. So I am actually preparing for 2 of them.

Gone were those good old days of Childcare centre breakfast. Now it’s my own preparation.

My fridge is stocked up with lots of eggs/ham/bacons/tuna and cheese because these are essential items for simple sandwiches and eggs dishes.

Last week while shopping for grocery at NTUC, I came across a Wing’s Chocolate Moist cake pre-mix recipe package. I read through the instruction and found that it was quite easy. All I need to add to the premix are eggs, butter and water. I bought a packet to try.

Yesterday afternoon as I had some extra time on hand, I decided to bake the cake.

After mixing the premix in a bowl with the ingredients, I used the electric mixer to give it a better mix, as stated on the instruction. Then I put it in the oven and baked it for about 30 minutes. The cake turned out very, very nice. This is the first time I am very satisfied with the baking. I think the new over is justifying it’s value too... : )

Anthea had a slice of the cake for her tea break after her afternoon nap and she said it was delicious.

Our breakfast was the Chocolate moist cake which I warmed up while preparing Pizza for Anthea’s snack box.

As the cake was quite big, I shared ½ of it with my parents. This morning I received a compliment SMS from my 大哥 and he said “the cake is getting better. Can open bakery in 2 years”….haha. I confessed to him that I used a premix recipe, so it’s really not my credit…. : P

Now that I get positive feedbacks on the cake, I think next time I will try their other flavor. Or I should start looking at my cake recipes again…hee : P


Just read that one of my blogging friend - Clement was warded in TTSH and went through a minor op. Hereby wishing Clement a Speedy Recovery !!!

Happy Birthday 奶奶 / Show & Tell Pre-works

This has been another busy and very fulfilling weekends for the family.

On Saturday morning, I went to Chan Brothers travel to pick up our E-tickets and confirmation vouchers. We are all ready for our 4D3N Hong Kong Disney Magical and Shopping Extravaganza tour.

I discovered a new way to travel from Ang Mo Kio to Chinatown by a special bus service – CT8. The ride was smooth and fast. Now that I discovered this new service, going to Chinatown will be much easier.

In the evening, we celebrated my MIL’s birthday at Sze Chuan Court restaurant at the Fairmont Hotel. My MIL had bought the Raffles membership and she had some 50% meal discount vouchers, so we had a very sumptuous dinner with red wine. Her birthday cake was a Black Forest cake from Pine Garden. As usual, we had a great time with the extended families. Like mommy Vivien said – it’s the companionship that really matter.

On Sunday, we went around with our Sunday routine. Anthea will be having her 1st Show & Tell presentation on next Wednesday, 04 March 09. She is supposed to talk about her Superhero and she decided to talk about Bloom from Winx Club.

Adrian helped her in her prep works and made her practice her “speech” after her lunch. Initially she was very soft and unsure in her presentation, but after a few rounds of practicing, she got better with her show and tell. We just hope she will do well in the actual presentation.

This week will be another week of tests for her, she will be having her topical Chinese test on Wednesday and English test on Friday. Then she will has her Math test on 11 March, just before the 1 week school break. I will be busy supervising her revisions for the tests.

Wow…it’s just so amazing the amount of school works that the Primary school are doing nowadays. I don’t remember doing all these during my time... : P

In the evening, Adrian cooked his famous “pineapple rice” and I prepared a pot of soup and a baked fish. We had a simple and nice home cooked meal. Anders does not like pineapple rice, so after my evening jog; I packed a packet of duck rice for him… : P

After dinner, we watched Casino Royale on TV5. I told Adrian that this is the 1st time I watched a James Bond Movie, well, it was not as bad as I expected. I told him it felt a bit like watching Jackie Chan Action packed movie…haha.

Next Sunday, TV5 will be showing Lara Craft in the Tombstone, so I guess we are in for another movie treat since we hardly had the chance to go to cinema for action movies anymore. These Sunday stay-at-home movies are a better deal for Adrian and me…haha.

FREE Water PURIFIER - on Friday evening, after buying a birthday present at Tangs for my MIL (we bought her Jurlique products), we were entitled to this free gift. Now I am wondering to use or not to use… : P Must find out more about the product.

Character First Programme

Anthea School has introduced the Character First programme to the Primary 1 & 2 children. I signed her up for the programme and also signed myself up as a PV for the same program.

The program takes place on every Friday after school for an hour. There will be a total of 12 lessons. (February – August). So far I had attended 2 sessions. The 1st session was more of an orientation session for the parent’s volunteer group.

The 2nd session, we were with the children while the Teachers volunteer did the lesson.

The program is conducted by a group of volunteers from a church organization near the school. The parents were assured that the content taught are non-religion related… : P

I had seen the material and I found it to be quite impressive. I believe this material may be used by some home-schooled mommies. The child will be taught the following values:

- Attentiveness
- Obedience

- Truthfulness
- Gratefulness

These are very basic values in life that I hope both Anthea and Anders will be able to develop. At home, we try our best to teach and guide them with the right values. However, at times, we are so busy with the life routine, we overlook on certain values. This program acts as a good reminder to myself too. . : )

Ever since I left school, I hardly do craft works and I don’t really like to do art & crafts. However, as a parent volunteer, we were given homework as well. We need to bring home some craft work to draw and cut. These will be used during the lessons for the children to do the crafts according to the story that was told.

So these days, my afternoon are busied with all kind of homeworks… : P After cleaning the house, washing the children clothes and a simple lunch. I will be glued to the chair with all the handicraft thing. I am amazed at the rate that I can complete the tasks…haha.

都是新发现

发现（一） : CICADA

My youngest SIL has recently got a job promotion and she decided to give the family a dinner treat.

The dinner was confirmed on Saturday and the venue was at The Cicada @ Ports down Road. Our families seldom ventured to this part of the island for dinner and I was really glad we had the chance to discover this new venue.

The restaurant has a very big outdoor seating area and the indoor setting is also very comfortable and cozy.

We ordered varieties of dishes from the menu – pizzas, pasta, Cicada Burgers and some main course. My youngest BIL even ordered a bottle of Red Chilean Wine. Food was good and we shared so much laughter at the dinner table.

My FIL even commented that he enjoyed our weekly weekend get-together dinners as it’s the only chance we updated one another of the latest happenings.

After dinner, we had desserts and the restaurant gave us 2 complimentary scoops chocolate ice-cream for Anthea and Anders, this is what I called customer service. I know we’ll be back for more…haha.

Aces family presented Aunty Cherry with a small gift for her promotion and thanks her for the sumptuous dinner treat. Hope that she likes our gift.

发现（二）: Pumpkin Rice
Thanks to LZmommy recommendation, I decided to prepare Pumpkin rice for our dinner on Sunday evening. However, as I can’t print out her menu from her blog, I managed to goggle and found a similar recipe. While Anthea was having her lesson, I did my marketing for the ingredients.

Adrian also brought Anders to the swimming pool for some water play while waiting for Anthea.

In the evening, I cooked the pumpkin rice and a pot of cabbage with spare ribs soup. The rice was nice and Adrian liked it. The children, as usual, have different opinions. Anders managed to finish his bowl while Anthea had about 2/3 of her serving.

We had a relaxed evening after dinner and watched Shark Tale on TV.

We had another wonderful weekend and spending quality family time. Looking forward to our next Saturday dinner celebration.

Her 1st Learning Journey - Harbourfront

Anthea is currently learning about different types of Transport vehicles in her lesson.

In order to make learning more real and interesting, the school organized a Learning Journey (we used to call them excursions) to the Harbour Front on Thursday, 19 Feb 2009.

The children are learning about – Ferry, Cable Car, Lorry, Motorcycle, Fire-engine and Taxi, just to name a few. So at Harbour Front, the children would have a chance to see all these different types of transport vehicles.

I believe MOE curriculum is trying to allow the children to learn more and seeing the real thing would give the children a better impression of what they learnt in the classroom.

For the day outing, parents were advised to pack a small bag with the following items:

- color pencils
- pencil case
- A cap
- raincoat or umbrella
- Water bottle
- Snack box ( I prepared a home baked pizza/ cheese cocktail sausages/ apple with a packet of chocolate milk for her)
- Tissue/wet tissue
- One small plastic bag

The evening before the excursion, Anthea was so excited and kept doing her checklist with me to make sure I had all the items in her bag.

I had signed up as PVG but as I didn’t hear from the group, I thought that they had enough of PVs to go along with children. However, in the evening, I heard from a mommy that they actually needed more volunteers. Next time I will write to the class teacher to check with her directly. .. : )

Anthea came back and told me that she had a fun day at the outing and she get to see all the different type of vehicles. She even told me that she had taken the cable car with me and my MIL before. I know for sure I had never taken the cable car in Singapore, so the ride could be in Hong Kong. . : P

It has been a good learning journey for her and I am glad that she had the chance to experience out of class room learning.

My New Turbo Incanto Oven

My current Turbo Oven had been giving me signal that it’s prepared to “RETIRE” by "short circuit" the whole house each time I turned it on... : P

I told Adrian about the oven and he said it’s about time to give it a rest and replaced a new one. Yes, the oven had served us well for almost 10 years and we should change it.

Based on my previous experienced on changing my Turbo Hob, I contacted Happiness and asked the agent for assistance. She arranged for a technician to come to the house to access the oven. He brought with him a catalogue too. After accessing the situation, he advised me to change a new one too and he mentioned the few suitable replacement models.

The day after the technician came, the agent – Miss Kee called me and advised me on the price of the few models. Finally I shortlisted – TFP1603CXT the model that met my budget and my needs…haha. Immediately she placed my order and arranged for the delivery and installation on Tuesday, 17 February.

The delivery and installation took only about ½ hour and now my new oven is ready to serve me. And together with the instruction manual, there is a recipe book….not bad. I can use some good baking idea.

“快乐情人节“ - Valentine Weekend @ Shangri La Hotel

We had a very enjoyable weekend stay at the Shangri La hotel. On Saturday, my BIL joined us to the hotel and checked in the 2 adjoining rooms for us. Yes, he booked 2 rooms for our family.

We had room 293 & 294 at the Garden Wing of the hotel. Anthea and Anders were so happy to see the adjoining rooms and started checking out the rooms amenities.

We had a room with a King Sized bed and a room with Double Queen Sized beds. Anthea allotted the 2 rooms accordingly and she said that I should sleep with Anders in the room with King Sized bed while she took the twin room with daddy…haha.

After checked in, the children had requested to take a swim, so I brought them to the pool while Adrian went for his gym workout. We had about an hour of water fun. Anthea challenged me to race and I was very happy to see her swam on her own.

When we finished our swim, we went back to the hotel to change. The children had a simple tea break and took their power nap. I went for my gym workout while Adrian stayed with them in the room.

Around evening, my parent in laws came over with my niece to use the pool. Anthea and Anders joined them for another round of water fun at the pool. They were running all around the pool while my little niece was busy chasing after them. Luckily my In-laws had standby because my little niece was jumping in and out of the 2 children pools.

(Faith - my little niece)

When we were all done with swimming, we went back to the room to shower and changed for dinner. We took the hotel shuttle bus to Takashimaya shopping centre and had dinner at the Imperial Treasure. The meal was sumptuous with a nice pot of double boiled winter melon soup.

We went to Borders after dinner and Anthea bought a few stories books and Ander bought a Ben - 10 DVD.

Then we took a slow walk back to Shangri La hotel from Borders. Upon reaching the hotel, my little niece had some fun in the room with the Light control and she was also running in & out of the 2 rooms, looking for her 2 cousins…so busy…haha. Around 10pm, my In-laws left for home with my little niece.

Then it was our turn to chill out. Anthea and Anders had fun with the computer game on Adrian’s laptop. (Internet was FREE!!). Adrian had his bottle of Bacardi Breezer while I had my bottle of Hooch with our packet of healthy cocktail nuts. He was watching Football channel and I was enjoying the movie on HBO. This was ENJOY Life to me….simply relaxing. We knocked out around mid night.

The next day we woke up around 9 am and went to The Line restaurant for the buffet breakfast. The spread was sumptuous and we had a great meal.

After a hearty breakfast, we went back to the room to rest while before going to the pool for a morning dip.

At round noon time, we prepared for checked out, actually we had late checkout till 3pm but we had planned to go to Chan Brother’s Travel Fair at Suntec City, so we checked out earlier.

Luckily I had already made “appointment” to see my tour consultant prior to going to the fair, otherwise, the waiting time would be terribly long, judging at the Q Numbers…phew.

While I was settling the details with the consultant, Adrian brought the children to Food Republic for lunch.

At the fair, I was entitled for some goodies bag/lucky draws and a trolley bag. After claiming all these, I was walking towards the escalator an d I saw one of my IDOLS - Violet粉樱.

I approached her and asked for a photograph to be taken with her and she readily agreed. She also used her camera and took 1 photo of us together…oops, does this mean I may have the chance to appear on her diary…樱儿日记。

I met up with Adrian and the children at the Food Republic and then we went home. The children had their power nap before meeting up with the extended families for dinner.

We had a wonderful and memorable Valentine weekend and the children even said they want to stay at Shangri La again…haha.

Till our next weekend getaway….祝天下有情人总成眷属！！

First Topical Tests

Anthea had her 1st topical test for English & Chinese last week and she had her topical test on Math this week.

I was a little stressed over her topical tests. Reason being if she does not do well, she may need to go back for remedial classes. I have nothing against remedial classes; it’s just that I don’t want her nap routine to be disrupted. Nap is especially important as she had tuition classes in the evening on alternate days.

Last Friday, she brought back her English and Chinese test papers and I was very happy with her attempts. She had FULL marks for both papers. She scored 25/25 for English and she had 50/50 for Chinese. I went through both set of test papers. For English paper, I would say its set quite easily but of course, it follows what the teacher had taught in class. As for Chinese paper, most of it was in 汉语拼音, so to be able to score well; she must be familiar with the 拼音。

This week Wednesday, she had her Math test. I knew that she had some problem in her Math and on Tuesday evening, I had asked Adrian to give her a bit of coaching in the subject matter. After the coaching, she seems to understand the concept better. On Thursday she brought back the Math test paper and I was happy with her result - 24/25. Her mistake was on spelling error of the word “EIGHT”. She spelled “eighth”; I think she got a little confused with tuition class spelling…hee.

Both Adrian and me gave her praises for her effort. We told her it’s perfectly ok to make mistakes in test as we learn from mistake.

So far, I am very happy with her performance in both her school work & tuition work, though some time I do worried if she may be too “pressurized” with all the homework. I have been giving her my assurance that if she felt that there is too much work, then we can stop either the tuition classes or Chinese enrichment class.

Nowadays coaching a child in his/her study is no longer so simple. Many times, I tried coaching Anthea in her studies and ended up getting angry with her. I think my way of coaching is not right.

As for Adrian ways of coaching, she enjoyed it and can absorb the concept better. Think I must learn from Adrian about his coaching or go and find out more about correct ways of coaching. Adrian will be going on oversea detachment in the 2nd half year of 2009, so I better trained myself well as the 2nd half year is more crucial for Anthea.

Both Adrian and me are non-graduates and our wish for our children is to 青出于蓝; so far we are very happy with her performance and will give her our greatest encouragement through her school years.

美丽的“香格里拉”

Yes, thanks to my youngest BIL, we will be going to 香格里拉酒店 for a weekend stay on this coming weekend. And this Saturday happens to be Valentine Day…haha.

This will be our Aces Family 1st Valentine Weekend getaway. Reading from the Straits Times on Tuesday, Shangri La hotel has the most expensive Valentine Package deal @ $99, 998 for a night stay. Wow…cannot imagine if anyone will buy it. Lucky for us, we get the night stay for complimentary.

I am really grateful to my Terence, my youngest BIL, because he had extended this invitation to our family not once, not twice but 3 times. So how can we reject his invitation? His complimentary hotel stay expire end of February, so this is the best time to utilize them.

Well, my previous consideration was Anthea’s swimming lesson on Sunday, however, considering that hotel buffet breakfast are included at The Line, I think sacrificing 1 swimming lesson is worth it for the family treat (馋嘴妈妈)… : P

Of course, not forgetting the hotel facilities – swimming pool, gym and the spacious room.

I know for sure, both Anthea and Anders will enjoy the hotel stay. As for Adrian & me, we will pamper ourselves by chilling out with a bottle of Bacardi freeze and some cocktail nuts and enjoying a movies or 2 on HBO/Star movies etcs.

喔……
香格里拉~
这美丽的香格里拉
这可爱的香格里拉
我深深的爱上了她我爱上了她。。

Lo Hei Weekends – “大团圆“

Our Lo Hei started since Friday evening. We invited my Parents in law for a Lo Hei dinner at Zhou’s Kitchen @ Novena Square. Since Chinese New Year till Friday, our extended families have not done any Lo Hei, which is very unusual from previous years practice. : P

This was also an appreciation dinner towards my In Laws for giving our family moral & physical support during Adrian oversea detachment. We ordered a Chinese New Year Set menu which bound auspicious names:

- 丰收鱼生(Bountiful Harvest Salmon “Yu Sheng)
- 廷年益寿 （Double boiled chicken soup）
- 喜哈大笑 (Crisp fried Prawns with Butter and Wheat)
- 高瞻远瞻 (Braised spinach bean curd with Mushrooms and vegetables)
- 风气呈祥 ( Stew Chicken with fermented wine)
- 金银满屋 （Fried glutinous rice with Chinese sausages）
- 鸿运团圆 （Sweetened red bean cream with glutinous dumpling）

We had a very nice and relaxed dinner. My father in law even went to invest in the Toto Ang Bao draw after dinner… : )

Hopefully the Lo Hei would bring lucks and good health to the families for the 牛年。

On Saturday morning, I prepared my traditional 年糕 for the family. This is another tradition I will upkeep.

Wishing Adrian 步步高升in his career; Anthea 学业进步；Anders 快高长大!

We had New Year lunch at Imperial Treasure restaurant with Adrian’s group of buddies. I had known them since our dating times and it’s a yearly affair to meet up during Chinese New Year. We had a very sumptuous dim sum lunch with a very Auspicious Abalone cum Yu Sheng Lo hei.

At lunch we had a good time with new updates on one another families. After lunch, we headed home for the children nap.

In the evening, I had a gathering with a group of my Ex- colleagues from IATA. One of the colleagues will be migrating to Australia, so this gathering was mainly for her farewell.

When I reached her home, I was so happy to see so many good, OLD friends. I had left the company since 2003 and to see all of them after 5 – 6 years really brought back good memories.

Hugs were all around and some shed tears of joys. We were busy chatting and the house was filled with laughter at all corners. I met my ex-Boss (Kelly) and we had a good time reminiscing those good old working days. She is still with the company and I think she is reaching her 24 years of work with the company.

The organizers – Vivien, Alice and SL had ordered buffet and also arranged for a special farewell gift for Maggie.

Coincidentally Alice birthday also fall on this day and Maggie’s daughter baked a Bailey’s cheesecake for Alice birthday. We sang her a birthday song, double happiness…oops..Nope, another friend’s Su also celebrated her birthday on 3rd February, so we sang another birthday song….joy after joy.

Good time passed fast, at around 9.30pm Adrian came over with the children to pick me up. I was scheduled for another round of Mahjong session at my youngest BIL home… : P

My youngest SIL, Cherry, is still a ‘PPP’ (P-Plate Player) in mahjong but judging at her game, she will be PRO very soon…haha.

Today is the eve of 15th day of Chinese New Year (元宵) ，we will be doing another round of “reunion dinner” at my parent’s house. This is to celebrate a 圆满Chinese new year and may the year ahead be 一帆风顺， 大家生活都美满。

1st School Holiday Family Vacation – “东方之珠“

In last than a month, it will be Aces Family 1st school holiday... : P

Yes it is the March 1 week school holiday. 14 - 22 March 2009...

I had requested for Adrian to apply for a week of leaves to look after Anthea. He did and it had been approved.

We discussed a little if we should plan for a short vacations. I told him I prefer to do it during the June school holiday. However, he mentioned that he may be doing his course during that time and leaves may be difficult to approve. Since his March leaves had been approved, we should just go ahead for a short trip.

With the “Finance Minister” approval, I started the family vacation research. There were 3 countries for consideration:

Australia – Melbourne or Perth
Hong Kong
Thailand – Chiangmai/chiangrai

After some budgeting and planning, we (or rather the planner – that’s me!!) narrowed down to Hong Kong…hee : )

I contacted Chan Brothers and will be booking their 5D4N Hong Kong Magical Discovery. This is a package tour and it includes a 1 night stay in Disneyland hotel. The reasons why we(I) shortlisted Hong Kong is:

1. Package price is within our Q1 2009 travel budget;

2. Hong Kong is a easy place to go around, even on our own and it’s good for SHOPPING…hee : ) （买东西，吃东西)

3. Anders has not been to Hong Kong, so it’ll be a good chance for him to explore, plus he is going to Disneyland for the 1st time. It will be a great birthday present for him.

According to the agency, they need 10 travelers to materialize the group, so in the event, if the group is not confirmed, we will go on their Free & Easy deal which is still fine with us. Important thing is we are enjoying it as a family this time.

下一个(journey)旅行地点是香港，期待能够好好的共享家庭之乐。

甜甜蜜蜜的周末

Saturday

Aunty SK organized a get-together for the families as her youngest son, Wen da, will be going back to Sydney for his study. So she had requested that my youngest BIL booked a room at Shangri La hotel for Wen Da to stay and for us to rest and relax at the hotel. Adrian was commenting we are really going HIGH CLASS, going to Shangri La hotel 2 weekends in a row…haha.

The children took an early afternoon nap as they knew that we were going to the hotel for a swim with their 2 favorite uncles (Uncle Wenyi & Uncle Kiat).

While the children were napping, I took the opportunity to prepare some dessert to bring along to the hotel. From last Monday experienced, I knew the aunties were going to bring lots of food to the room. I decided to prepare the 龙眼白果清汤，I also added a bit of 百合, wishing all 百年好和.

Anthea and Anders woke up around 4.30pm and we left for the hotel. The room was as usual very big and spacious. Yes, plenty of makan stuff was in the room, as expected...haha. Uncle Kiat was in the room waiting for Anthea and Anders. We quickly changed and went to the pool.

While Adrian was looking after the children by the pool, I went to the gym and I was really amazed at the service level. When I went on the treadmill machine, the gym staff gave me a towel. Then he switched on the small monitor in front of the treadmill machine and gave me a headset. I was so impressed!! No wonder Shangri la is so HIGH CLASS…haha.

When I was done with my routine, I went to the pool and brought the children back to the room to shower and changed. Adrian went for his gym workout.

Around 7.15pm, we left the hotel for our dinner at La Forketta restaurant hosted by Uncle HT. All the children had at great time at dinner with the spaghettis, pizza and the dessert – Chocolate cake.

When it was time to go home, the children were quite reluctant to part but I told them we will sure have chance to meet again… : )

SUNDAY

Adrian was on guard duty so he reported back to work in the morning. Anthea had her swimming lesson and Anders had to tag along with me to the pool to wait for anthea.

In the evening, we went over to my Parents in law house as my FIL’s youngest brother was visiting him for CNY. I brought the children over to greet Uncle Philip and Aunty Winnie. We had dinner with them at the seafood restaurant by the coffee shop. Then we headed to my youngest BIL’s place for a game of Mahjong.

FINALLY, I had the CHANCE to play 麻将...hee. It was so much fun and I really enjoyed playing with them. There were so many jokes on the MJ table. Uncle Philips and his wife are very humorous people.

The game ended around 10.20pm and we went home for our rest.

又是一个快乐和甜蜜的周末。希望大家再来临的一年里事事都顺利，每天都甜甜蜜蜜