Caleb singing

Caleb can be very chatty. Not sure if that is a good thing or a bad one but I look to the positive side of things and think its good that he can speak up.

Caleb has been picking up a lot of things lately and one of which, is singing. He likes to imagine and pretend a lot of things. So here's one of which I found amusing.



He not only pretended that the high chair was a ship which he could rock or he would use the legs as a mike for him to sing.

Check it out!

June Holidays at Escape

June holidays will be over soon. Decided to bring the family to Escape Theme Park at Pasir ris as they have free entry during this holidays and its pay as you ride. So its worth it.

This was their children's first experience at a themepark and we wanted to see how they fair before we bring them to bigger scale ones.

First, I took the children to the ferris wheel. Since they are less then 3 years old, its free for them. So I just paid for my share which was $2. The kids enjoyed the ride and didnt want to come out of it.




Then Caleb had fun riding the cars and scooter. It was free for him so he spent a while there. He even took Danielle for a ride too!




The interesting thing during our time there was that I saw many of my students there working part time! They were in charge of the game stalls and ticket counter. I also met one student whom I taught 6 years ago in my first school and I can still remember her name! She also recognised me and we talked for a while. She happened to be at the ticket counter working with another girl behind the counter who is my present student. So it was strange but interesting.

CT then took the kids for a joy ride in the train.



And as usual, they also didnt want to get out.

Lastly, CT played at the daytona go-kart. He didnt start first but he overtook everyone to come in first! I knew he would do good since he loves speed.


After all that, we went over to e-hub for dinner at the Chicken Rice Shop, owned by a chef who used to work in Chatterbox, Mandarin Hotel. Heard the chicken rice is quite good so I went to try since the kids and Vicky love chicken rice.

The service was very fast and the food was quite good! We all enjoyed ourselves.





After that, we went to see Astroboy live! We even managed to take photos with it as we are NTUC card member.Caleb enjoyed himself even though it didnt show in the photo but he kept wanting to see Astroboy as we took him to the Astroboy movies before, so he knew the character.


They even gave us free photo after the phototaking. So enjoyable and memorable.

I cant wait for the next school holidays!

Local TV Dinners

Having spent a year in the States 5 years ago, I kind of miss eating TV dinners. Its convenient and surprisingly, it tasted quite nice as well! Its like having cravings for instant noodles at times- you know its unhealthy but still, you just have sudden urges to eat them.

I managed to catch a new product of local 'TV dinners' in Giant hypermart when I was doing my supermarketing. It looked so good. So I bought it out of curiosity.

Here are the flavours.


All of them tasted good actually! Would recommend you to go try it. Its good to keep it in your freezer as you never know when you just feel lazy.

However, if you dont take spice well, dont get the thai minced chicken basil one as its quite spicy. I loved it actually because it was tasty and spicy! Great to eat with the rice!



I cant really remember how much it was as I took it out of impulse . Well, all I know is that its not that cheap nor too expensive. Worth the try!

High up in the sky

These few days, the weather has been good. I do feel at times like I am in New Zealand, with nice breezy weather. How I wish Singapore can be like this forever.

Anyway, taking opportunity of the nice wind, CT took the family out to fly our kite. CT has been very enthusiastic about flying kites as he succeeded in flying so high the last time that he maxed out all the string we had. So he decided to combine two reels of string in one. So if we succeed this time, it will be twice as high and boy, if I were an aircraft pilot, I would fear flying near our area!

Where we stay is great for flying kites as there are so many open fields! There seemed to be kites flying almost every day in our area, that I feel maybe the kites have been left there permanent!



Big open fields are also a great place for my kids to just run and have fun!



Danielle was only interested in pulling the kite. As for Caleb, we let him try it out only after the kite has flown quite high up.



We were glad that we succeeded in bringing up the kite up to a new level! Here's the final height of our kite after maxing out two reels of string! Its twice as tall as the HDB flats!




I think taking into consideration how popular kite flying is in Singapore, they should consider it as a national sport or maybe include it in the Youth Olympics!

Girl Guides June Camp 2010

I have not attended an outdoor camp for quite a while already. Was slightly apprehensive about what will happen and whether I can cope being away from my family and sleeping in school for 3 days, 2 nights.

This is a training camp where the girls learn outdoor skills like tent pitching, tying of knots, and outdoor cooking.

For all their lunches, they did outdoor cooking. They first cooked their pot of chicken soup with cabbage and fishballs.



Then they threw in the corns in the fire to cook.


And the alumni helped to cook for them sardines.

So that was basically what they had for lunch. Rice was cooked in the rice cooker. Kind of playing cheat since where on earth can we get a rice cooker in the outdoors.




The alumni stir fried their cabbage and fishballs. And even added garlic too! Think we should have a cooking competition the next time round!


Here was where the guides slept...under the coconut trees.


Then they learn to do knots and lashes.


The Guides were also taught how to do solar cooking, using the alumnium foil to reflect the sunlight.


The Alumni also taught the girls how to cook a whole chicken using a hangar.

But before that, they were busy marinating the chicken and massaging (or should I say, molesting) it.


When the chicken was cooking, it smelled really nice! Could smell it from afar.





The seniors also helped to prepare banana chocolate for the girls to cook.


During our last night in school, we had campfire. And because my principal, vp as well as CCA head could not make it to attend, I was the VIP and made to light the campfire. Actually, I was thankful they didnt come because the fire was lighting up the stick real fast. So dangerous. Some students even thought my hand was on fire!



The campfire programme was very good. There were performances by the various patrols as well as songs and games. However, it started to drizzle and lightning.


So we had no choice but to adjourn to the hall.


But still the spirits were high and we still had as much fun! I told the alumni that it felt as if the camp just started!

At night, the patrol leaders actually requested the alumni to teach them the knots again as they would be having a test tomorrow. I was quite impressed by all their dedication as it was close to 2 am!!



So I would really like to thank the leaders, seniors and alumni members who helped and made this camp possible!


I actually cant wait for the next camp even though I slept only a couple of hours a night on hard ground!

Father's Day Dinner...

Celebrated Father's Day dinner at Claypot Fun which is at Big Splash. My dad loves claypot rice so since he heard his friend recommending this place, we wanted to give it a try. This restaurant is run by Jumbo, so I could make use of my membership card for discount!

We ordered two huge claypot rice - the mixed chinese sausages one with salted fish and beef with egg (we ordered this because I had special discount for this item)




We also ordered lettuce with fermented beancurd (looks kind of pathetic since lettuce is so cheap but it tastes good. To me, thats all it matters), liver in clpypot (not too bad) as well as watercress soup.



Everything is quite good. I dont mind coming back again. Moreover, its right at East Coast Park. So we had a good stroll after dinner! The bill amounted to only about $10 per person. So reasonable! Do give it a try! However, dont compare it with Chinatown standard. I still prefer that but eating here is good enough since I consider the location as well!

Last day in Malaysia

Before heading back to Singapore, we had breakfast buffet in the hotel before heading out to Jusco Bandaraya which is a fairly new shopping centre in Malacca.



Went to Jusco Departmental Store where Caleb had fun at the indoor playground cum arcade centre.



Its strange how the playground has so many fun things but Caleb just sticks to this car the whole time!! He wasnt interested in anything else. Sigh..On a positive note, I can only say that Caleb is a faithful guy. Oww...*heart melt*

In the shopping centre, there was also another huge indoor playground for kids. They also had a corner area where kids can play computer. How cool..



The whole shopping centre was also decorated with cool balloon sculptures of fish! I have never seen such an amazing piece made up with only balloons!





Check out the fish eye ball! There's a balloon inside it!

After shopping for about 3 hours, we stopped by A & W for lunch. Will definitely miss eating this when I go back home..so better eat as much as I can!

I had coney dog with curly fries and root beer!


We had a wonderful time. Bought some groceries before heading back to Singapore. Left Malacca at 3pm and we reached back home to Singapore at about 7pm. So tiring but enjoyable. Bought the famous Eunos Hokkien Mee back home for our dinner. Dropped my mum at her place before heading to my in-law's place to pick Danielle and Vicky up! Missed Danielle soooo much!

So, in a way, I am glad to be home!

Last night in Malaysia

Watching sunrise is something I try whenever I go on holidays. I know its sounds crazy as holidays are supposed to recharge you and let you have lots of sleep. Who would forgo that to wake up early to catch the sunrise?

I guess my name has been given to me rightly or either that, I live up to my name very well as I do wake up early. Even during holidays, I would wake up at about 630am or latest maybe 730am.

Here's the view from our room.


We had our last service, where there was holy communion served before the camp ended. Right after service, we checked out and made our way to Malacca. We left the hotel at about 11am and reached Malacca only at about 1:30pm as there was a jam along the highway. We were starving. However, my dad and his convoy did not meet us for lunch as arranged because they left late and were still stuck faraway. So we arranged to meet straight at the hotel.

I brought my mum and CT to Restoran Peranakan-a lunch place which I loved from the last time I came with my colleagues.



Loved the ambience of this place as it looked like a museum.

Here's Caleb waiting for his food! He loves making monkey faces at this age now..cheeky boy!


There were only 3 adults. So we couldnt order much food.We had beef rendang($MYR 9), sambal sotong($10), lady's fingers($6), otah, soup ($5) and chap chye (mixed vegetable $7). My mum and CT enjoyed it very much. The otah was unique as it came with lime. Not too bad. Total bill was only less than $60 RINGGIT! That means less than $10 sing dollars per person for Peranakan food!




After lunch, we walked over to Jonker Walk for Chendol as well as freshly baked pineapple tarts.





After a satisfied lunch, we went to Hotel Equatorial to check into our room. We stayed on the 18th floor and it was newly renovated. The rooms were so nice, clean and modern! Loved it! The view was also spectacular!





The best part of the room was the day bed overlooking the view of Malacca. Great place to read my book and do my quiet time.


My bro and family arrived just when we checked in. We placed our luggage in our rooms before heading to Pahlawan shopping centre next door.

We went to A&W for a root beer float and curly fries while my bro's family went there for lunch.


Then its shopping time! There was a Padini Sale going on from 50% to 70% at the atrium! Bought two shirts for myself and one shirt for CT.


At night, I brought my whole family to Bei Zhan for dinner. I would always research on good places to visit or eat before my trips so that I can make the best use of it by enjoying the best food and visiting the best sites. So this place had great reviews and its near our place. Probably about 10 mins drive without traffic.


Thank God that there was space for us to dine in, despite not making any bookings.

Its a huge restaurant with two storeys, high ceiling and very colonial looking.



We ordered lots of food! There was a huge steam fish, homemade beancurd, mongolian fried lamb knuckle, roast suckling pig, veggies. All the portions were huge. Think it ended up only less than $20 Sing per person.






I also ordered potato apple juice which tasted just like apple juice.


Had a very enjoyable dinner. My brother had fun chowing down all the strange parts of the piggie, like the ears and the tail.


The only thing that wasn't too pleasant that night was the ride back. The road back home was so jammed that it probably took us about 30 mins to an hour just to get home. It was so near yet so far feeling.

Went back to our hotel at 10pm to catch the World Cup!