Catching up

Have been looking forward to this dinner where I could catch up with 2 of my ex-colleagues- one has left the service while the other has gone onto another school. Its not only the catching up, but I also looking forward to the food and the thought of just having a girls' night out thrills me!

This is probably one aspect what I like about being a woman..that we hang out together to talk, eat nice food and shop.

Anyway, we met up with Clarke Quay MRT station where we walked to Robertson Quay for dinner at "The Hannibals".

We all shared the food. Had pizza

Had Grissini Al Proscuitto which is basically hand rolled bread sticks wrapped in Parma ham.

Then a Spring Chicken, beef burger and finally Osaado, Chardonnay White wine from San Juan, Argentina

There's the 4 of us (clockwise direction from me: Wendy, Sham and Elene)

Coincidentally, during dinner, met my ex-NIE friend, Seow Cheong and CT's colleague, Anthony and Salynn. What a small world.

After dinner, we shared a cab home..had a wonderful time!

Enjoyable times

When my helper,Vicky went back to Philippines to attend her father's funeral and to settle her passport, it was an anxious time for both me and Vicky as we communicated with each other quite often as she first told me that the waiting list for the renewal of passport was very long and the earliest she could get her passport was mid-September.

Then a few days later, she told me she could only get it in October. I was so helpless as my no pay leave only ends on 21 Aug and its not very nice to extend as I am teaching 3 graduating classes. I was even prepared to hire a new helper and to send back all Vicky's things at my place to her house in Philippines.

Anyway, with much prayers from my church friends and family, Vicky could finally get an air ticket back to Singapore without renewing her passport! It was a miracle because immediately after the day she came back, there was a newspaper article that wrote about how the Philippines is now very strict with their helpers leaving the country.

Anyway, to be frank, the children did learn more things when Vicky was not around. They have learnt to be independent as I taught Caleb to wear his own clothes, wash his own dishes all within the first week.


Putting them to sleep, which I first thought would be challenging, wasnt so. I really do believe strongly in the power of prayers and I truly enjoyed my time spent with them, despite feeling so drained physically.



Taking care of them felt so natural. When they were tired, they just knew how to fall asleep on their own. It's not the same when Vicky is around as she would spoil them and because of that, they would depend on her and stick to her when she is around. But thank God, the kids didnt miss her at all. In fact when I asked them if they miss Vicky, they just looked at me with a blank look.

Here were some interesting things that made me enjoy spending time with them.

When Danielle does silly and funny things like this!





We also made our own pizza with the kids. It was fun as we sat down getting Caleb to decorate his own pizza with the available ingredients in front of him.

Here's his masterpiece!


The floor was of course very messy. But that's all part of learning.

As we were waiting for the pizza to cook, Caleb was stealing pineapples! He kept popping them into his mouth non-stop!




We were all sitting on the floor, picnic-style as we waited for the finished product to attack! And once each pizza came out of the oven, we grab a slice and ate it straight from the plate- nice and hot!


We all had so much fun!

Here's one of our finished product! Would love to do this again with them! (shall wait for Danielle to grow up first so that they both can decorate together)

Gathering...

Since the last time we met up a few months ago, we 'arrowed' our friend, Yung to organise this time round and so, he arranged for us to meet at Brewerkz in Indoor Stadium tonight.



As usual, I was the earliest and so, I had the time to walk around before my friends arrived. It was a nice walk as the weather was cooling and the the scenery was captivating.


As I was walking along the bridge, my "grass-is-greener-on-the-other-side" syndrome kicked in and thoughts like, "hmm..how I wish I could stay here as the view is so nice". But on the other hand, most know that when you are in the situation, you may not appreciate the scenery as much since you see it every day.



Brewerkz is a pub restaurant which serves handcrafted beer. So most would go there for their beers. But none of us ordered that! In fact, we all had plain water! ;p

The food is quite good! We ordered a large plate of buffalo chicken wings, potato skins, fried calamari, cool mix salad (fruit salad with nuts, feta cheese, vinaigrette,baby spinach etc) and 3 handmade, wood-burning large pizzas!! We were all stuffed!



We had an enjoyable time catching up and its funny how when we met up tonight, we kept repeating the same stuff (about the good old days) which we said before during our last dinner session. So one of us joked and suggested appointing someone to take minutes next time round! ha.

Ended dinner quite late. By the time I reached home, it was 11 plus pm. CT stayed up to wait for me, while the kids were fast asleep already!

Cant wait for the next gathering some time in September as we once again 'arrowed' another person to organise.

Ocean adventure

This morning, I woke up earlier at about 6am to cook porridge for Caleb as we will be heading back to Perth. Since I had onions, beef slices and carrots left, that was what I added to Caleb's porridge.

Then made breakfast when the boys woke up. Heated up the rest of the 2 pies that I bought - chicken, vegetable pie and a simple beef pie. Also had fresh half-boiled eggs which was just laid yesterday by the hen. So so yummy!!

I felt like I was drinking water as the eggs were so smooth. The texture was so nice. It couldnt get any fresher.



After breakfast, it was time to say bye bye to our farm cottage.




And bye bye to the animals and wonderful scenery which I love every time we are in the cottage.



We were heading to Greens Pool at Williams Bay, just before Denmark Town. I research in the internet about this place and the waters look so nice. So since I was on the way to Albany, I thought it would be good to drop by.



If you like nice, clear waters, this is one place you can visit.





The waters are really crystal clear.




There's Caleb playing with the sand.


I really wonder if Caleb can appreciate how beautiful the water is.



Then as usual, CT would start adventuring upwards by climbing rocks and here are his pictures from on top.







As Caleb was starting to play with the sand and dirty his clothes, I decided to change him into his swimming shorts.



We had a really great time except that the sun was shining too much on us.


After that, we made our way to Torndirrup National Park, Albany to see the natural bridge.





Here's my little prince posing for a shot when we reached.


It was scary as we stood near the cliff, watching the waves hit the rocks.


But it was even more scarier watching CT carry Caleb right at the edge of it!! Arghhhh


During this trip, I definitely realised a different and better side of CT- his adventurous side.



Here is what I meant by that.


Yep, he was actually standing right in the middle of the natural bridge, where most people would just watch it at a far distant. I was actually thinking to myself that CT is nuts! But on the other hand, I feel so proud of him when bystanders see the natural bridge at a distant and then a small figure pops up and goes right in the centre of it and it made me want to shout to everyone that THAT is my husband right there! Ha.



The view is nice and breathtaking.


From here, we made our way back to Perth via the Albany Highway. We left the place at 1:30pm. On the way, Caleb had his bread as a snack. He loved bread, biscuits and fruits.



While I was blogging on my netbook. Ha.



We stopped by for short breaks to the supermarket as well as to petrol station. CT also decided to clean his car. Oh well..no comments



On the way back, the sun was setting.


It was a 4 hours plus drive back and I was glad to reach back at Cherie's house before 6pm.

After bathing Caleb, we went out together for our last dinner in Perth. Cherie meant to bring us to Oyster Bar Restaurant for their 1/2 priced raw oysters (which we all were craving for) and then to Spaghi Italian Restaurant for the main course. However, we went there and found out that Oyster Bar had closed down. IT was taken over by another restaurant. So sad but what to do? haha. So we went straight to have our Italian dinner.

The food was fabulous. I have been thinking of it since then. Eating at Spaghi made me fall in love with Italian food!

We ordered Chilli Mussels which was finger and bowl licking good as we slurped up the chilli gravy (which we treated as soup)!


Also had a prosciutto pizza. I love pizzas that are not too complicated with many ingredients. So I really enjoyed this pizza! Drool.



The place is quite crowded. So do go there early or go there on a weekday.

We also had squid ink pasta. The noodles was very al dente which I loved. However taste-wise, to be honest, it tasted like fried mee goreng.



After that, we had a nice stroll at the harbour to view the night lights of Perth City.



Cherie and I also took a ride on the playground swing like young children!

Had a really satisfying dinner!