Love picnics

As a kid growing up, I always enjoy picnics at the park or beach. My ideal picnic food would actually be bee hoon with chicken curry but of course, my kids do not like eating that for now since its spicy.

Anyway, it was the enjoyment of food and fun at the same time. So with that in mind, picnics has been a regular activity in our family.


Today, we brought the family to a nearby park for a picnic. I prepared homemade beef and chicken burger. Had to make chicken as my helper doesnt really eat beef.

I marinated the beef with Worcestershire sauce, salt, herbs, egg and biscuit crumbs (crushed cream crackers) to bind it all together and make it slightly crispy.


Also prepared fried bacon strips, grilled portabello mushroom to add it into the burger.

Initially, I was afraid the kids would not eat it as that was my only food! But I needed to try and I just knew I couldnt always give in to what they want. My kids need to learn to adapt and be flexible.




Glad they ate and seemed to enjoy it. Phew!

However, it started to drizzle. So we moved to the shelter to carry on our picnic.


Despite the light rain, we still had a great time bonding together as a family!



Looking forward to my next picnic with the family!

Just waiting..

Think most of my friends or family would expect my children to know how to swim (since at the age of 3, I started swimming). But to their surprise, I hardly bring my children swimming..maybe once every 2-3 months if I remember correctly.

The reason is probably I want them to enjoy what they are doing, and I am afraid for them to go down the road where I ended up hating swimming. The other reason is that they do not like the water when its cold. So, bringing them for a swim depends on the weather and the time.

When I used to swim at 530am in the morning for trainings, the weather was so cold that I kept sneezing and catching a cold. That probably led to my permanent nose block now which caused me to breathe through my mouth. So, I am really afraid of my kids catching a cold from their swim.

But nevertheless, I do bring them for a swim when I see the opportunity to just play and have confidence in it.


Danielle seemed to enjoy swimming and when the time comes, I will surely teach them or put them into swimming classes.





But for now, I will just wait...

Great malay food in Ang Mo Kio

One day,my colleague excitedly recommended me to try Mee Soto at Ang Mo Kio. She swears its the best she has tried so far. So I decided to go with my family to try since AMK is not that far from my place.

Its in a newly renovated food centre right at the first row of stalls. I ordered gado gado, mee soto drumstick as well as mee rubus.

The gado gado is so-so. Not something I would order again. The Mee Rebus is quite nice and the gravy is thick and tasty!




But the best is the Mee Soto. It must be the specialty of the shop since they sell so many versions of mee soto which was set to confuse a non-Malay like me...They also have Mee Soto Dinosaur which simply means mee soto with chicken carcass...

Initially when I tasted the mee soto, I didnt find it special. But it kinds of grow on you and the more mouth you take, especially with the special chilli provided, it taste more rich...and best of all, the soup is not oily!

I will definitely be back for more mee soto. Next time round, I will try their satay especially beef tribe satay!

Here's info of the shop! Do drop by if you are around that area.
YUNUS & Family
Block 724, #01-54
Ang Mo Kio Avenue 6
Opening hours 11am - 10pm, closed on Sundays

Free preview to the ArtScience Museum

Managed to register for the free educators preview to the newly opened ArtScience Museum at the Marina Bay Sands. Its exciting since you know you will be one of the first ones there.





I went with my colleague and we were given free tour of the place. There was a choice between Salvador Dali or Van gogh. I let my friend choose since she was the Art Teacher. She chose Dali...which ended up a great choice as there were so many more exhibits in Dali's exhibition than Van Gogh's.


It was quite interesting as I learnt something from Dali's Artwork. There was this sculpture called Space Venus - a melted clock on the neck which tells us that beauty is finite, the body split at the midriff representing death and the egg, the symbol of life representing renewal in death.


And then, there was also this..

Anthropomorphic Cabinet with drawers again ... this time on a female form that perhaps deceives us into seeing a masculine one who appears almost as if she is writhing in pain


The above sculpture has some sexual connotations. Possibly influenced by Sigmund Freud's interpretation of images in dreams and their hidden sexual meanings. Woman losing her virginity



Here's more information about the pricing


All in all, I had a great time but for me to pay for this, I don't think I will..

Kids' first visit to SPCA

It was my first time bringing my kids to SPCA and all along, I wanted to take them there to teach them how to care for the animals.

Caleb's personality shone through as he enjoyed himself tremendously and tried making friends with the dogs, while Danielle found the barking too loud for her that she preferred to stay outside.

Here's Caleb taking pictures with some of his favourite dogs.


Glad Caleb enjoyed himself!

Tomato Bruschetta

My favourite frozen pizza brand is Dr Oetker and a couple of weeks back, I ate the pizza mozzarella flavour and I was very surprised by the simplicity of the ingredients and yet, it tasted so good!



There was just basil pesto, tomato, tomato paste and mozarella cheese on top.

So with that in mind, I have all along wanted to make that for breakfast for my family by adding the same exact ingredients on a baguette.

And I did that today, given the opportunity...since it was a holiday (right after the general election on Sat).


Also cooked cream of mushroom soup to go along with it for breakfast!


Having bread with creamed soup was actually an idea given to me by my church. Every week, free breakfast is served to all those who serves on that particular Sunday and at times, we have wholemeal bread with fried luncheon meat and sausage as well as cream of mushroom soup! So yummy! Bread with soup simply warms me up and starts my day right somehow! ;p

Sunset at the park

Went to a nearby park at our place. There's a fruit island that links the park and the sports complex.



The view was very nice..



The kids had fun running around and taking pictures with the 'fruits'.





The sun set was very beautiful as it was especially orange tonight.




At the park, we had a good view of the sunset and the colours were just amazing!



If only Singapore had less high rise buildings and construction around..

The bubble tea battle

For quite a while, I have been quite curious as to why they have been a revival of bubble tea shops. Many many years back, there was a bubble tea craze all over Singapore and now, though it is not as crazy as before, it still baffles me as to why the craze is back and why people are buying them at 3 times the selling price as the earliest ones. People are also prepared to wait for almost 30 mins for their bubble tea even though there are cheaper options nearby.

So instead of asking all those 'why' questions, I might as well be more proactive and discover it myself!



As I was waiting for my bubble tea patiently, CT decided to go to a nearby expensive bubble tea shop with no queue to see the difference.

Initially, I was rather skeptical as to whether I can tell the difference between the normal bubble tea ones that cost about $1.20 and the expensive ones that I am getting for the price of $3 bucks.

Here's what I got with 50% sweetness (by the way, you can choose the level of sugar for the expensive ones)


I got the Alisan Milk Tea with pearls and the verdict was: There's actually a difference! The tea is so much more fragrant and I love the milky taste! It feels so much healthier drinking this as compared to the artificial taste that you get from the $1.20 ones you get.

As for CT, he paid more than $3 for his bubble tea and it tasted also very nice.

So, I have to admit that it is worth the queue and the price...once in a while!

Tampines Eco Green Park

Today, CT suggested bringing us to the fairly new park in Tampines. It is a great place for bird watchers and nature lovers. A notable feature of Tampines Eco Green is that it is eco-friendly in design. All park furniture such as the signage, benches, bird hides, earth mound, and hedges, were made using recycled materials and environmentally-friendly labelled products were used in the development of the park.



From the signage, there was actually a dinosaur picture just in front of the "Eco" word and because of that, Caleb was pretty excited. Maybe he was thinking there would be dinosaurs in the park.


It was a nice cool morning..


Lots of space for the kids to roam.


Lots of nice, interesting plants and flowers.







As you can see, the kids were still wearing their pyjamas as we were there at about 7 plus am.


Quite an enjoyable morning except that it was a long walk back to the entrance. The weather also didnt do much justice was it started drizzling as we were walking back.




As we were walking out, Caleb commented, "Where are the dinosaurs?" Think he was rather disappointed.

Anyway, when we reached home, the kids bathed and straight after that, Danielle fell asleep!


Cute!