Chinese New Year Visitations

Every Chinese New Year (CNY) is almost the same. During the eve of CNY, I would go back to my in-laws place for lunch while its dinner at my parent's place. On the actual day itself, I start off the day by cooking rice and a chup chye (mixed vegetable with mock abalone, mushrooms, bean curd skin etc etc) for breakfast. Then off to my mum's place to wish them happy new year by offering tea and collecting our ang baos(red packets). My children would also offer me tea as a sign of respect. It is a good tradition that I would like to keep.

Wonderful to see how much Caleb loves Baby Jadon



My family and my parents

My family with my parents, brother and sis-in-law

After that, I would visit my in-law's place, then to my grandma-in-law's place for lunch where I would indulge in my favourite fried prawn roll and pig stomach soup. After that, I would go back to my mum-in-law's place to wait for relatives to visit.

Throughout the whole day, the relatives would all hop from house to house to visit, starting with my mum-in-law's place. It's interesting..Then we would end the night by having dinner at the last house where we would get to eat the all popular pig stomach soup with extra punch from the peppercorns! Its the best pig stomach soup I have tried so far.

So the first day of CNY is always a challenge both mentally and physically. But once the day ends, I feel very accomplished that I survived after visiting about 5-6 houses till night.

On the 2nd day of CNY, it would be my side of relatives where we would gather at this house where we would indulge in carrot cake and yam cake. So that's why I named her "carrot cake aunt". That would be my lunch there. As for the children, they would eat a little to fill their stomachs but throughout our time at 'carrot cake aunty's' place, they would be out in the corridor running about.

Even though every year- the adults would be in the house eating and talking over their food while the children would be outside playing in the corridor, it is also always different as every year, we get to see how the children behave with one another as they grow older and by God's grace, there are new additions to the family as well that makes the visiting so much more interesting.

My mum with her grandson, Jadon

My aunt (father's sister) who seem to get younger and slimmer each year

All our children should call him," Uncle"!

David trying to carry his uncle

Aw..how sweet



Rare shot with most of the cousins

Anyway, though festivities tire me out because of whole day visitations and late night sleeps,it also energises me through the New year goodies (All-time favourites would be the bak kwa and pineapple tarts) and food!

In a nutshell, CNY is always good for family to get together and bond. Without a festival like this, people may just give excuses that they are too busy to meet up or just lazy.

Now, probably looking forward to the next year as baby Jadon will then be running about and playing with the rest of the children!

Wishing everyone a great year ahead!

Goodyear Seafood Village

This place has not yet been fully discovered by many as it rests in the outskirts of Old Tampines Road, where not many travel along.

One of my ex-colleagues, Sarah, chanced upon this restaurant when she and her hubby accidentally made a wrong turn and it turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

Went to the place last Friday with my ex-colleagues Sarah, Julie and Thoh Papa for my god pa's belated birthday celebration. When turning into the lane near the restaurant, you would think you are in Malaysia.

This place is good for its curry fish head and Pontian JB Bak Ku Teh.

4 of us, we ordered curry fish head, seafood beancurd, bak ku teh as well as sambal sweet potato leaves.

Every dish was good and tasty. The service was also very prompt.

Especially like the array of condiments to go with the food- raw garlic, sambal chilli, big cut chilli, chilli padi, dark soya sauce, light soya sauce. I went straight for the raw garlic as I have always loved eating my rice and dishes with raw garlic soaked in soya sauce.

Total bill amounted to only $68 for 4 adults which was only about $17 per person. Very reasonable for so many dishes especially the huge pot of curry fish head!

That's me and Thoh Papa who is exactly 40 years older than me! Happy belated 73rd birthday Thoh Papa!

You can check out the address from the receipt above!

Opening hours (Mon-Sun):
Lunch: 11am - 2pm
Dinner: 5pm - 11pm

Father's Day

I have always felt being a father is a very special and important role...In fact, I feel it's more important than a mum in certain sense. Of course both play different roles but there's just something about Dad that somehow has greater influence on their children than mum.

So for any dads reading this..I really feel that your influence is very great on your children and your children is watching you and imitating you slowly but surely. The reason why I say this is from my observation. Most children take after their dad's temperament and actions as like it or not, a dad is supposed to be the head and leader. Mum just plays a supportive role and guides the child. I have seen cases where the mum can say a thousand times to the child to stop doing something and when the dad comes home and just stares and say it once, the child would stop immediately.

Well, in any case, I appreciate good fathers and fathers who makes a concerted effort to be with their children and be hands on with them. Have a soft spot for them actually..

So to appreciate them, I got the children to make cards for daddy.

Here's Danielle's card on the left and Caleb's on the right..

I, too, decided to write my dad a card to show my appreciation!

We also brought my dad out for dinner outside their house at Lai Huat Sambal Fish Restaurant. Love that place!!

While waiting for the food, my bro, sis-in-law and myself played a game by reading this whole story on how this restaurant came about..it's not that easy especially as we were reading the words from the back.

We ordered lots of food like oyster omelette, ngor hiang, fried sambal pomfret, steamed pomfret, bean curd, veggies, emperor chicken..

The food was delicious and reasonably priced! Would definitely recommend to anyone who likes a decent chi char place at Siglap.

Lai Huat Sambel Fish Restaurant 17 Upper East Coast Road (junction of Upp East Coast Road and Jalan Tua Kong) 64489077 (for reservation)

Combined Birthday Celebrations

My brother has been away to US for 6 months, studying at Yale University. Time passes quickly and he came back recently on 27 May. So today, we decided to celebrate my birthday as well as the past birthdays that we missed when they were away- Janine's, Joyanne's, Pamela's and my brother's.

We had lunch at Changi Airport Terminal 1, Paradise Inn to celebrate.

The food was very good and we all enjoyed it very much!

The children had fun running around given the huge space they had just outside the restaurant!

After that, we took Caleb and Danielle to see the aeroplanes. Might as well since we are at the airport.

Danielle was slightly hesitant to step on the floor as you can see through..rather cool!

But with Korkor Caleb with her, she trusts him..and follows him

Lai Huat Sambal Fish Restaurant

The famous Lai Huat Sambal Balacan Fish Restaurant just opened another branch in Siglap , just outside my mum's place. So, went there to check it out with my parents. Moreover, the chef/owner belongs to their friend.

Its our 2nd time visiting the place and so far, we have enjoyed the food!

We ordered Emporer's chicken which the kids love (must order), deep fried sambal balacan white pomfret (must order- but ordered the sole fish this time round to try the difference. Still prefer the white pomfret one), fried toufu with chai poh, fried mee sua which looked plain but it was very tasty and light, nai bai veggies (Must order- love the crispy fish bits on top), ordered clams too.

Be sure to visit the place if you stay in the East or happen to be nearby the area!

Lai Huat Sambal Fish Restaurant 17 Upper East Coast Road S(455208) (Opposite Shell Station, next to Royal's Cafe, at junction of Jalan Tua Kong and Upp East Coast Road)

Lovely dinner...

Have been looking forward to tonight's dinner as it's my first time being invited to an ex-student's parent's house for a meal. I taught Hilary back in 2007 and 2008 when she was Sec 3 and Sec 4. This was the batch that I was quite close to as I took them for 2 years and moreover, they also saw me getting pregnant twice!

After Hilary graduated, I got in touch with her mum, Jane through Facebook. I have to admit that I was initially uneasy to add parents to my Facebook but then again, I have nothing to hide and my life is meant to be shared with others as I want to be as transparent as I can be just so that maybe somewhere down the road, people can be inspired by my life as that's how I want it to be- to be an inspiration to the people around me. So I added her and since then, Jane has been a source of inspiration to me instead as I saw how she have dates with her children one on one and how they all seem so close to her, including her hubby. When I saw all that updated pictures of her and the family and her status updates on her praise and love for God, I was amazed and inspired by the kind of life she is living and has as that was exactly how I envisioned my role as a wife and mummy when I got married and I first had Caleb. My aim was to have a family that is God-centered, to love and respect my husband, to be best friends with my children and to be a blessing to my friends as I open my house and invite them over for meals.

That was why a few months back, I actually approached Jane through Facebook to be my spiritual and prayer mentor. Anyway, I was so happy that Jane invited my family over to her place for dinner tonight. I have also always wanted to try her cooking as she keeps posting up pictures of her food she cooked in Facebook that I had to try it for myself! Here's what she prepared!

The whole table was practically filled with food! There was braised chicken wings, emporer's chicken, steamed fish, fish ball vegetable soup, braised broccoli with dried mushrooms, egg fu yong. Loved all of it!

Besides Hilary, I was happy to also see Wei Jun (who is dating Hilary) and Josha who were all from the same class. The thing about Jane is that she would always open her house for meals by inviting her children's friends over..so her children's friends automatically becomes her friends and they drop by her place all the time.

Anyway, during dinner, we talked about the past and we all had a great time reminiscing about it and joking around as well. After dinner, Jane still kept feeding us by giving us cakes, tea, ice cream, fruits etc etc..She is so hospitable. Reminds me of my mum. I also had the opportunity to play guitar with Jane's husband, Matthew who used to be a bassist in Riverlife church as well! Jane told me to bring my new Gibson guitar so that Matthew can play with it and so we played together and exchanged pointers. Very fun!

As for my children, they were entertained by the television as Caleb was watching Madagascar. Danielle has yet to enjoy watching TV..so she simply walks around and entertain herself.

It was a very lovely dinner and meaningful time spent with my friends. I feel so blessed to have friends like them who simply lifts your soul!

Day off

I do look forward now to my helper getting off on Sundays as I get to spend quality time with my children and cook for them. Yes, I know I can also do this when she is around, but its kind of different...

I remember the times when taking care of them on my helper's day off was trying and a test of my patience and endurance. But I am glad it gets better as they grow older and mature. It's definitely much easier now that they can entertain themselves by playing together.

Anyway, since it has been a while since I cooked, I prepared dinner for my family tonight. Simple food, straight from my heart..

Cooked black bean pork rib rice as well as fish soup with spinach and fish balls.

Glad everyone enjoyed the food. My little satisfaction I get from watching them finishing up all the food on their plates and bowls. ;)

Lunch at Peach Garden

Today, went out for lunch with CT's colleagues. I have gotten to know his colleagues since we were together in US for one year in 2005 when CT went there for work. Ever since that trip, CT has changed job a couple of times before returning back to this company, Tate & Lyle. This lunch was arranged so as to meet up with Bill and Cathy Skelding. Both of them have been very dear to us as they invited us to their house in Alabama and when they stayed in Singapore for a while, they also invited us over to their place for a meal. They also came over to my place for dinner before and to attend Caleb's one year old party.

Anyway, lunch was at Peach Garden, OCBC Centre.

We ordered a lot to eat..

The restaurant was located on the 33rd storey. So the view was good.

Definitely a place worth coming back again because of the great food!

Mum's new dish

Today as usual, went to my parent's place for dinner. Mum cooked up a lot of wonderful dishes today, one of which is the pork bibimbap, a Korean dish. A very nice dish with pork and onions, raw cucumber and carrots, topped with fried egg and bibimbap spicy sauce. Very refreshing and healthy.



Here are the rest of our dinner dishes..


Usually weeks after Chinese New Year, my mum would cook pomelo skin as pomelo is a popular fruit during the CNY season..This dish is not for the faint-hearted. Its bitter but when the skin (the white part) is chosen properly, it would not be THAT bitter and in fact, when braised with pork, dried shrimps and mushrooms, its a very nice dish



And here are the rest of the dishes prepared by my mum and her helper.