Saturday, 25 February 2012

Wedding Lunch

Was invited to a wedding lunch of Cobby's ex-colleagues. The banquet was held at the Crowne plaza at the Changi Airport. We've never been there before, and our first impression of the hotel was, BLACK. Literally, the lobby walls, floors and furnitures were all black or dark brown, so it's just very, dark. Urgh.

Anyway, like I said, it was one of Cobby's ex-colleague, so naturally most of the people on the guy side were military men. Our table consist of only 2 ladies, both of us spouse. She looked bored almost throughout the whole meal while I try to listen and engage in the light conversations going on. Interestingly, I was seated in between Cobby and his boss, so I managed to have a little chit chat with him. Honestly, he didn't seemed that bad, but then again, I don't work for him, so it would be unfair to judge. :) Though I find it most interesting to observe this man who drives my Cobby nuts.

It was a simple little banquet, with good food and interesting little stories of the army. I loved the bride's dresses, very unconventional, with some colours rather than the usual all white. Her photo album even have short dresses in them, which didn't look too terrible. But the groom... erm... I always feel that for men, less is more. If you try to be as extravagent as the bride, it would turn out a little "biang". :P

Oh, another thing that really got people talking were their wedding favours. On was quite straightforward, a luggage tag. The other was this.


It really got everybody discussing what on earth it's for. Some say it's like a tracing thing for kid's art and craft, some ask if it's a passport holder?! I opened it, saw the temperature limit warning on the inside, and immediately knew that it's an oven glove. Obviously these men don't cook. -_- But anyway, I thought it was really cute, different and of course, more practical than a stupid key chain. So I took 2.

Unfortunately, Jolie thinks differently. She says that it's a princess book and conveniently claimed that it's hers.

Jolie skipping

Since she was about a year old, Jolie has been wanting to skip. No thanks to her favourite cartoon series, Pocoyo. Here's the culprit. -_-


But how do you explain to a small child that she's too little to skip? So the best we could do was to place the skipping rope on the floor while she jumps over it. :) Lately, seeing that her hand eye coordination was getting better, I tried to skip together with her, but still, no success. Too early?

One evening, when I got out the shower, Cobby and Jolie were all excited as they exclaimed that Jolie could skip! Somehow, Cobby succeeded in skipping together with Jolie, he even claimed that they managed to skip about 3 or 4 times consecutively! I was jealous! So they showed me.


Honestly I was so happy for Jolie. How her face glowed with pride and happiness as she accomplished something she's been wanting to do for so long. Yes, she's far from skipping by herself, but it's an accomplishment no less. Everyday she's growing more and more! My baby!

Tuesday, 14 February 2012

Happy Valentine's Day 2012

Happy Valentine's Day! This year, the day is on a Tuesday, which is perfect as Jolie would be with my Mom and Cobby took a day off. Cobby made a lunch reservation at The Black Sheep Cafe, a French restaurant recommended by his friends.


I LOVE the place! Located near little India, the restaurant is formerly one of those old shop houses. And I love the fact that they didn't change much of the original design, just added new furniture and air-conditioning. So rustic and beautiful!


Interestingly, it's an Indian local chef, making French cuisine. (Is that why the name of the place...?) Anyway, it's supposed to be quite good, so let's eat! First dish is a recommended dish, Baked Brie Cheese. Pistachio crusted Brie served with Citrus Fruit Compote. S$12.50


Super awesome! I loved the crispy crust, the warm melty cheese inside with the nutty pistachio. And the fruit compote was a perfect contrast. Cold, sweet and tart. Super good. But must share with someone, or risk spoiling appetite for the main meal.

We also ordered the scallop with salad, but they didn't have scallop that day, so they used prawn instead. The prawn was so crunchy and sweet, but the portion was a little small.


For our main meal, I ordered the special of the day, which was rib eye steak with Foie Gras. I've had alot of steaks before, and this was good. But what made it so interesting was the use of local greens. It's not everyday that you see cai xin and peas on your steak, and I like it! Very delicious!


Cobby ordered their signature Duck Confit on Apple Roesti, served with salad and tangy mango relish.


Very well made. Sometimes duck confit may get a little dry on the inside, but this one is still moist and the meat was so tender, it just falls off the bone. I love the mango relish! It's like a mango salsa, sweet with a little sour, really freshen up the whole dish. I think they can just serve the mango relish with some tortilla chips and beer. Yum! Haha...

For dessert, Cobby ordered banana crepe with toasted almonds and vanilla ice cream. Not bad, but it's not my style.


This is more like it, flourless chocolate fondant with vanilla ice cream. Unfortunately, it was a big "fail" as there was NO Oozing chocolate flowing out of the bloody cake. Very disappointing! Cobby asked if I wanna return it, but I didn't want to spoil the mood. Besides, it still tasted pretty good!


Overall, it was a pretty enjoyable meal, but it was a little slow even though we were one of the 1st 2 customers there for lunch. I think they only have one chef! We booked tickets for a movie (J. Edgar) and we were getting a nervous as we were getting late.


After the movies, we head back to my Mom's place and we had dinner with Jolie at the food court before heading home. There were no flowers, no presents and it was absolutely fine by me. I think that we have reached a stage in our relationship that we don't need this stuff anymore. To me, being a stay home mom, doing something different, trying something new has become even more valuable than a bunch of roses. So it may be a simple day, but I was really happy. Thank you Cobby, Happy Valentine's Day to you my LOVE! KISS!

Sunday, 12 February 2012

Shopping Weekend!

Ever since we've moved into our home in 2005, we've been planning to get office chairs for our study room. But somehow, it's been almost 7 years, and we're still sitting on the same foldable chairs. On Sunday, we chio parents to IKEA for lunch followed by a jalan jalan session there. I only wanted to go buy a new coffee cup as my old IKEA cup, which I love dearly, had chipped.

After a yummy lunch including some awesome IKEA chicken wings and chocolate mousse, we walked around and immediately saw that IKEA was selling the magic markers and chalk that I was looking for. YEAH! We walked a little more and passed by the office chairs section. I don't know why, but somehow, we just decided that we should finally decide to buy our chairs. So we did.


So now, after 7 years, we finally have our study room chairs!

The day before, I even managed to find a perfect bag for my daily use. So far the ones I have were either too small and dainty or too big and bulky. The one I bought was a perfect size to put in all of my stuff, plus Jolie's stuff. LOVE IT!

Also, I've picked up jogging. Yah, it's pretty big news for me as I'm not really enthusiastic about running. I'll blog about that some other time. Anyway, I've been jogging for about 2 weeks now. After being sure that I won't be giving up that soon, I decided to buy a NIKE+ SportsBand. Check it out.


So this is my new toy. It's not cheap, S$99.00. The price is good enough to keep me running.


Have to say it's a pretty cool thing. Definitely worth every penny.

Wednesday, 8 February 2012

Happy 3rd Birthday Jolie Part 3

On Sunday we celebrated Jo's birthday with the family. On Monday, she celebrated her birthday with her classmates. Cobby and I actually bought her present since Christmas, but we left it in the trunk of his car and didn't have the chance to give it to her until Wednesday. So Jolie got to celebrate once more with presents from Mommy and Daddy!

She loves to draw, so we bought her an easel. Also, she's quite into the Princess thing now, so I chose a purple (her favourite colour) tiara with matching earrings for her. She absolutely loved her presents!


So now she's got 2 tiaras, one was bought by my sis last month, and calls them her "pink crown" and her "purpur (purple) crown". Since she prefers her purple crown, she lets her teddy bear wear the pink one instead. Then she'll announce that she's Princess Jolie with Princess Teddy. Haha, poor teddy had become a princess. She loved the photo below, as she's wearing a purple shirt and crown with a purple balloon. She called herself a purple princess that day. :)


She loved the crown so much that she wears them even when painting. It's so funny to see her painting with her tiara and earrings.


The easle has a whiteboard on one side and chalk board on the other side. Finding those soluble magic markers and chalk was turning out to be more difficult than I expected. I can't find them anywhere! So meanwhile she just have to stick to painting on paper. But I don't think she's complaining. :)

How to make a SUPER imaginary cake


I find Cobby's imaginary lighter super funny loh...

Tuesday, 7 February 2012

Jolie reads her 1st book

A few months ago we went to the PAGE ONE warehouse sale and bought a couple of children's book. One of them became Jolie's favourite. She loved it so much, she made me read it to her every night! So after listening for several nights, she learnt to read it all by herself! OK lah, I think she just memorised the book by looking at the pictures, but still, I think it's pretty awesome for a 2 year old plus toddler!

Her pronunciation still needs work, so I've added subtitles.

Monday, 6 February 2012

Happy 3rd Birthday Jolie Part 2

It was Jolie's birthday yesterday, so I thought it would be nice to let Jo celebrate her birthday with her classmates. Cobby and I were supposed to go shopping for the cake and party favours during the weekend. But he was caught up with work, so on Sunday, I had to sneak out while she napped to do it. I headed down to woodlands to get the cake before going back to sembawang to get the party favours. Then I headed back home, drop off the stuff before taking a cab back to toa payoh, just in time as Jolie wakes up from her nap. Shaq man...

Anyway, that morning I dropped Jolie off at school before going for my workout session. The teacher asked me to come in for the celebration at 9.45am, so I had to quickly exercise, take a quick shower and immediately head back to school. Phew!

When I got there, I thought it was so cute that they have arranged Jolie to sit by herself on a special table. So we started blowing balloons for every child. After 5mins, we realised that it's going to take awhile to blow up 12 balloons, so it's better to go ahead with the cake 1st and we'll continue to blow balloons while they eat.

Check out the Angry Bird cake! So cute right?!




The teachers insisted to play the music video of "Happy Birthday", which was fine, except that it took forever to find the song and the song played for so long!



Well, it was a pretty challenging party. Kids fighting for balloons, messy chocolate cream everywhere, time running out... But at the end of class, we finished the whole cake, everybody was happy with gifts and balloons. Jolie was such a great helper, distributing the cake, giving out the gift packs and balloons to her friends. Good girl!

So the total damage for this little party was:

snacks $11.40
party sets $18.20
balloons $7.20
candle $1.30
party bags $2.50
birthday cake $17.80

Total $58.40

Happy!

Sunday, 5 February 2012

Happy 3rd Birthday Jolie Part 1

It's Jolie's 3rd birthday today! We always planned a party for Jolie's birthday. This year Miss CoCo was feeling rather lazy, given that Chinese New Year had just passed. So, I've decided to give the big birthday party a miss and instead, go for a family-only celebration.


We booked a table for lunch at New Ubin Seafood Restaurant, one of our favourite places! As usual, Bro was late driving my parents there, so we took some photos to entertain ourselves while we waited.


Finally they arrived after 20mins. And Bro gave Jolie her birthday present. He gave her a book, Oliver Twist. O_o


I think it would take another 3 years before she can read that book. Besides, it's so boring, I don't think that she'll be interested to read it even if she can. Anyway, he said that it's better than buying another toy, which I agree. So, thanks Bro!

I was so hungry! Thankfully the food came quickly and we all dug in. I think everyone agreed that the highlight was the crabs, and the best tasting one was the butter cream one.


It sounds oily and heavy, so MIL didn't even take a bite. But it was actually super duper nice. It's got a buttery fragrance together with curry leaves, and they added chilli padi to give it kick as well as balance, so that the dish wouldn't taste too heavy or oily. Geninus. When the fried mantou came, everyone was mopping up the butter cream crab sauce rather than the chilli crab sauce! YUMS!

I think we ordered too much food, but even so, we finished everything! It was a great feast. For dessert, we brought out the cake Cobby bought for Jolie!




Jolie looking very pleased with herself after she cut the cake. Can you see the anticipation on her face?


Yummy yummy black forest cake!


Jolie was enjoying her whipped cream when her naughty Kaufu tried to steal her cream! But Jojo was fast enough!


Ang paos from Jolie's grandma and aunt. I thought their well wishes were very sweet!


The meal was very enjoyable, unfortunately Cobby had to go to work after lunch. Sucks man, but what to do? So we headed to my MIL's place and let Jo take her nap there. I think we ate too much, cause Jo, me and even my sister-in-law fell asleep pretty quickly. Haha...

For dinner MIL, SIL, Jo and I went to the central to have a simple dinner and went back with a new toy.


Well, it is her birthday. :) Happy Birthday Jolie!