Keelia's 2nd birthday

Today, I had to attend 2 kids party. The first one was my cell group leader's son, Matthew's one month party at his condo in Sengkang while the next one was my sister-in-law's daughter, Keelia's 2nd year birthday at my mum-in-law's place. Keelia was actually born on Teachers' Day. So we celebrated 2 days early as weekends are always the most convenient time to hold a gathering.


Caleb and Keelia had a great time playing together since they are of the same age. So here's the birthday gal and Caleb in their sunglasses!



Caleb took a while before he was willing to put on those sunglasses but once he was ready to wear them, he didnt want us to remove it from him anymore.


And as for Keelia, she was wearing it the whole time from the start of the party and posing at the cameras when we all wanted to take a shot of her. Ha.



Well, Danielle also didnt want to be left out. She allowed us to put on the glasses on her but because it was way too big for her, we just left her wear on her head.



It was a nice dinner as there was bee hoon, pizza, sausages



as well as this fried HUGE xiao long bao (which I do not understand why they still call it xiao = small).



Anyway if you are interested to get, I heard you can get it from Tampines 1, Basement 1. Its really nice!

What's a birthday party without birthday cake? (well, actually there are birthday parties without birthday cake! For e.g, my 21st birthday party..I actually got my friend to make me a huge apple pie instead)

Anyway, back to Keelia's birthday...

My other sister-in-law actually made a strawberry cum blueberry cake for Keelia! Its so yummy! Very impressed.



Keelia was of course intrigued by the candle..As for Caleb, we had to hold him back if not he would have kept blowing the candles even before we sang the song.


After eating the cake, Keelia opened her presents and finally, last but not least, she opened the present I got for her.


Ta da! What better present, but a present where all the children could play with it! (or rather, in it!)

Even Danielle had her share of fun!

Like brother, like sister

Since turning 8 months, Danielle has really grown exponential-physically and mentally.

Here she is standing tall with her red, tight gay pants, which I found it cute.


Like Caleb, she enjoys jumping up and down everywhere and anywhere.


And also like Caleb, Danielle has started pushing,at an earlier age, the same ol' red laundry basket which Caleb used to push as well when he was 10 months old(Click on the link to see).



Its amazing how at 8 months, she has already started balancing and 'walking'.


She is definitely developing much faster than Caleb. (What's wrong with the food nowadays? What kind of chemicals did they add to it? ;p)

Another thing she has picked up is to drink from a straw bottle as well. We tried it at my mum's place where she was drinking my dad's water bottle. We were all shocked that she could already drink from a straw.

Here is Danielle drinking and smiling heartily. Think she was also amused at herself for being able to drink water from the straw.



Do you know when I bring the kids out for a walk, people would comment that they look alike. Even one of my neighbours whom I met in the lift said, "Aiyoh, they look like twins."

To a certain extent I agree that they do look alike and guess more people would comment that they are twins if only they knew what similar behaviour they both have.

Power trip

Tonight, as Vicky was about to prepare dinner by turning on the switch to spark off the fire on the stove, the whole house electricity tripped. I reset all the switches on the powerbox and we tried it again and again. Each time, the power just tripped.

We depended on this stove for our daily meals as we have home cooked meals 90% of the time and moreover, Vicky had already cut and washed the food to be cooked. We cant just dump everything behind and go off for dinner outside. Well, we COULD..but I really didnt want Caleb to eat MSG laden food sold outside, if I had the choice.

So I quickly scurried off and walked hurriedly to the NTUC nearby my house and discovered they didnt have what I was looking for as I wanted a portable gas stove which was powerful. I didnt want those electrical hot plate ones. So I went to the electrical shop in the same shopping centre and paid almost $50 for the portable gas stove with 3 extra gas canisters as standby.

Anyway, this gas stove will be useful if I want to to have steamboat or in times like these...

So here's Vicky cooking with it in the kitchen!



That night when I thanked the Lord for the meal, it was more significant as I was just so glad and satisfied to have this hard-earned homecooked food right in front of me.

Fish frenzy

My parent's pond in the garden has numerous swordtail fish..I started it when I first bought for my dad about 4 fishes from the fish farm in Pasir Ris as his previous fish all died.

From then on, they have been reproducing and multiplying at such a rate that the Singapore would probably tell us to stop at 2 if it was the Singapore's birth rate we are talking about.



Think they have about 20-30 fishes now in the pond with lots of baby ones.

So, I decided to take some home to keep my cardinal tetra fish company.

These are what I got. Didnt get the baby ones as I thought the bigger ones would be more resilient to the change.



As you can see, there were 5 fishes. But shortly later as I was looking at them, 2 fish actually jumped out and hit me! I screamed because, unlike dogs, I hate slippery, 'slimy' stuff touching me! They eventually dropped on the floor and Vicky quickly came and grabbed the fish back into the plastic container. However, we lost the biggest one as we couldnt find it. Then, I was left with 4 fish.

After bringing them back and putting them in my aquarium, 2 of the fish immediately died. Then, I was left with 2.

After spending one night, lying at the bottom of my tank, they all died, leaving me with back to my cardinal tetra fish. Sigh...

Back to square one...

I love food

Ok, the subject title of this blog is an understatement. If I will not grow fat and unhealthy by eating and eating non-stop, I would. But please do not imagine me as a fat slob just stuffing food continuously as I do selective eating. I have been well-trained by my mum to eat all kinds of food but eversince I have been quite conscious of my weight (even more so, after giving birth to 2 kids), I have learnt to be strict and disciplined when it comes to eating.

Foods that I TRY to avoid: Ice cream (but if there is a free Ben & Jerry's Ice cream dangling in front of me, I would grab it), rice (unless there is a super famous HK styled fried rice which has the wok hei smell and taste), chocs (cant help it if students give me for Teachers Day right?)

Tonight, I felt like cooking glutinuous rice. Concidentally, my mum-in-law also cooked it a few days back. Guess we all had the same glutinuous rice mood.

I do enjoy eating this but only once in a blue moon since its quite filling...

Cooked for about 11 persons, my family as well as my colleagues


Then I packed them up in plastic containers, using chill (mouth), spring onions(eyes) and fried onions (hair) to create a happy face to brighten their day.



A couple of days later, my mum once again prepared sukiyaki steamboat. One of my favourite as its healthy, light and delicious.


It has my favourite meat- beef and lots of it!!

And of course, the ever-guilty fatty pork!


Another favourite part of this meal is the raw egg dip which goes so well with the beef and pork. Too bad, I have 'abstained' from rice. If not, it will go so well with the beef, stained with sukiyaki sauce and raw egg!



My mum's Indonesian helper, Wati, also prepared cereal prawns! Yummy! (Have a soft spot for seafood!)


There was once Wati also prepared sweet and sour fish by deep frying the grouper fish first!! So yummy!!


And my mum's soup is to-die-for! She is so generous on the amount of ingredients that it amazes me! Here's her snakehead fish soup with some special dried veggies...


Sigh, I better start thinking of doing some exercise. If not, my guilt will just increase and increase...:(

Sibling Fun!

Its very heartwarming each time whenever I see Caleb and Danielle play and laugh together. Caleb enjoys playing with Danielle and whenever I carry her, he would say to me, "Put down, put down", which means that I should put her down on the floor so that they can play together.



They would play catching as well as hide and seek cum peek-a-boo, under the dining table. Both of them would be crawling all over the house as Danielle tries to catch up with Caleb.

Another 'game' which they like to do together is to jump on the sofa. They can get really 'high' doing that at times. However, each time when I take a video of them playing, they would somehow know and sense the presence of the camera and not laugh as heartily as they would.



Another thing they like doing together is to watch Hi-5! Yes, Danielle loves it too (only the singing and dancing part which is in the beginning and the end). Here are both of them dancing to it!



I hope they will remain close and enjoy each other's company even when they grow up!

Simple Western Meal

In the mood to cook Western tonight as I bought one whole golden snapper from Giant yesterday and told the fish counter guy to fillet it for me. Since Caleb now eats the same food as us and since he is a typical Chinese guy, we had to cook rice for him. So here’s his dinner- rice with steam corn and pan fried snapper, as well as clam chowder soup.





It was also my first time preparing mussels with creamy butter herb sauce. I usually grill mussels with white wine, garlic and mozzarella cheese but decided to try a new version which I quite like as well.


I also did a tuna salad. The ingredients I have in my fridge decide for me what kind of salad I would make. I actually had left over tuna mayo in my fridge for my regular breakfast sandwich, left over lettuce, celery and tomatoes. So I just threw everything in and mix them together.

So here's our nice, simple dinner!

Yet another great swim!

Since getting my new club membership, I told CT that we would try to make it a point to go to the club for swimming once a week.

So today after the children woke up from their afternoon nap, we made our way to Changi Village for a swim. Caleb was already in his new costume the whole time we made our way there. He looked like a diver with his new costume!


Each session, I would try to teach Caleb a new swimming skill so that he would learn and yet enjoy himself. So today, I got him to hold the side of the pool and kick. First, I would hold his legs and teach him how to kick the proper freestyle kick and then I allow him to show me how to do it properly.


He does it quite well and enjoys kicking as well!


I have yet to teach him to pull as training his legs and teaching him how to kick properly is more important as it’s the legs that will help to keep him afloat and buoyant.

Caleb has learnt to be more bold and confident in water that I fear for his safety. He would now get out of the pool and run at the side of it. And because the weather was quite cloudy, I didn’t want him to catch a cold. But he wouldn’t listen as he was intrigued by the water spout! He pushes the water down and tries to stop it from spraying.


Then when he sees CT swimming in the deep adult pool, he actually ran to the pool. Sigh. My heart was racing as I had to run after him. Grrrr…..Naughty little boy.

Caleb stayed in the adult pool as he likes CT’s company.

So we stayed in there.

Today, I also let him try my goggles just for fun and I was surprised he didn’t resist.


Once he wore it, I wanted him to explore and see what’s under the water.

So, I actually dipped his head in for the very first time. I was once again surprised that he actually liked it!


I think credit goes to CT as Caleb was probably comfortable wearing the goggles and going under water because he sees daddy doing it as well.

After a good swim, we went to eat Zhi Char at the “Airfield” Coffeeshop beside Changi Village Hotel.




We wanted to eat its famous XO Crab Bee Hoon. It was very yummy! I enjoyed it a lot! We also ordered a beancurd dish and fried rice! All very good! It amounted to only about $40 plus for 4 of us, including Caleb since he now eats the same food as us.


Poor Meimei as she could only look at us eat and whine because she cant get a bite of what we are having!

Kids' 1st time to Sentosa

Since Caleb was born, I had not been to Sentosa. So, it has been 2 years already.

As for Underwater World, it has been eons...I think the last time I was there was probably when I was quite young? (ya,I'm old now)

So finally, making use of the long weekend holiday, CT and I brought the family out to Sentosa, mainly to visit the Underwater World.


It was raining in the morning, but cleared when we arrived. It was free for the kids. So, we just paid for 3 adults (including Vicky). There was discount for UOB cards. So we made use of that!

Here's Danielle who just woke up while we were walking towards the attraction.


When we reached, Danielle looked pretty excited as she smiled at the fishes.

There were quite a lot of interesting exhibits, including the sea and leafy dragon (which I saw before in Australia).


I also like to look at the jellyfish(note: only LOOK, not get stung by it as I remember having gotten stung by the tentacles before and left lines on my body which stings so bad when I went diving)



Love looking at the huge spider crabs as well as entering the tunnel to view the fishes and sharks as we stood on the travelator.



It reminds me of the time in Sydney, Australia where me and my brother actually swam with the sharks. It was a cool and scary experience. Would love to do that again- in the open sea this time!

Anyway, back to the Underwater World....

We managed to feed the sting rays. It was quite fun as they sucked the food from our hands like vacuum cleaners.


Caleb also had his go at touching the sting ray.


We also went to the Dolphin Lagoon to see the pink dolphin show. Nothing spectacular. Even felt that the whole thing seemed so low budget and run down. Think Singapore can definitely do more to improve.


Even Sentosa still felt to be quite a run down and messy place. The island does have a lot of potential but right now, looking at the shuttle bus situation where the bus is always fully packed and the construction still going on in a lot of places, I would not recommend anyone to go there yet.

However, it was nice to see the construction of the Integrated Resort and Casino as well as the Universal Studio Theme Park -rollercoasters. Quite awesome.




I do hope the bus situation and the rest of the attractions can be more organised and interesting if they really want to attract more people.

Waffles making

For my birthday, CT bought a waffles maker for the most obvious reason of wanting me to make for him. I didnt mind because I felt Caleb would be able to eat it as well. So its worth it.

However, since buying in June, CT has been asking me, "So when will I get to eat the waffles ah?" And I will always reply," Aiya, must go find the ingredients which we dont have. Find first then say la." Then I will forget all about it until the next time CT reminds me again.

Anyway, FINALLY, I got down to making it. Reason is because I actually found a waffles mix in Giant hypermart. It was just one packet which was all mixed together. I didnt have to go find individual ingredients.



So I threw in the mix, added egg and milk and voila! Here's Caleb's breakfast- waffles with margarine and strawberry jam which he actually finished all! Phew!

If I am feeling adventurous, I may just buy the separate ingredients to try! But for now, I like the convenience and ease of making this.

Pledge taking

I really enjoyed this year's National Day Parade. It was simple and meaningful, unlike other years where there were just too much acting, songs and dances. This year's was straightforward, to the point and reflective of the past.

It was made even more meaningful when they prepared all Singaporeans (including those living abroad) to say the pledge at 822pm on 9 Aug 2009. So there were shoppers who just stopped all that they are doing at that time to say the pledge together! We could actually feel a sense of pride and unity.

As for my family, we did that too!

I have to compliment Caleb for actually imitating us. I feel he is quite NE (National Education)-trained at his age because just these few days with all the advertisements on National Day and with all the Singapore flags being put up, Caleb has since learnt the word, "Singapore" and even said it many times throughout the day. He also loves to hold the flag.



And here's Danielle waving the flag as well...

Happy 44th birthday Singapore

Today marks the 44th National Day of Singapore since 1965 after Singapore gained independence from Malaysia.

Recently, I was scolding my co-form class about not showing due respect during the pledge taking. As you all know, due to the H1N1 situation, schools have not had morning assemblies at the parade ground. So, students go straight to their classroom and say the pledge in class.

So during pledge taking, I actually scolded them as some of them were giggling away or talking. I told them about how much they should appreciate the country for having such a good and non-corrupt goverment, a country for not having any natural disaster, a country that has given us stability and security. I told them not to take things for granted as there are many people from other parts of the world suffering because of disaster or because of the government. Also shared about how I personally felt when I was oversees for a year, away from home.

Then after that, I recited the pledge together with the class.

I am proud to be a Singaporean and I do hope students will not be so apathetic towards this country.



Whenever I touch down at Changi Airport after a holiday, I would especially be proud of Singapore because of how wonderful our airports are...I am proud of all the accomplishments that Singapore has made over only a span of 44 years! I would then also look forward to indulging myself by driving to a hawker centre and start stuffing my stomach with local food! One of my top favourite hawker food which I will miss when I am overseas will be Hokkien Mee! It's one of the things I will instantly get when I come back!

There was quite a lot of debate to this year's National Day Song. Some felt it was difficult to follow, while others felt it was a nice change from the usual songs that we had in the past. For me, I didnt use to like it because the melody was hard to catch..but I grew to love it and I think the words are very meaningful! Here's the lyrics.

What Do You See lyrics

There’s a jewel on the ocean,
a gem upon the sea
Where the future is an open book
A land of destiny
We could set our sights into the wind and sail the seven seas
or climb the highest mountain top as long as we believe
What do you see? What do you see?

See the moon and the stars, look how far we have come
Look around at our faces, they shine brightly in the sun
With our hopes and dreams, imagine what tomorrow it may bring
What do you see? What do you see?

Now the time has come to reach out,
To open up to see
That we stand together in this land
Cos we are family
As thoughts of reaching to the sky are carried on a dream
With hearts and minds united, our dreams we will achieve
What do you see? What do you see?

See the moon and the stars, look how far we have come
Look around at our faces, they shine brightly in the sun
With our hopes and dreams, imagine what tomorrow it may bring
What do you see

What do you see when life makes you take on a mountain
Youll see that nothings gonna stand in your way
Together we can share
The strength of a million
and the courage of a million more

See the moon and the stars, look how far we have come
Look around at our faces, they shine brightly in the sun
With our hopes and dreams, imagine what tomorrow it may bring
Cos the skys the only limit when youre not afraid to dream
What do you see? What do you see…

I want to wish Singapore a Happy 44th Birthday and I do wish that Singapore will continue to prosper (so that I can get more bonuses.Ha!) and the citizens will come together, stand together and continue to live harmoniously with one another.

I shall leave you with a video on our National Day Parade 2009, with this year's National Day Song as the background music.

Enjoy!