Mid Autumn celebrations cum BBQ

Sis was in town again and she organised a BBQ at Downtown East Resort. We haven't had a BBQ for ages! So when we reached there we were quite shocked to find out that the amusement park had closed down.(When did that happen?) Also, I thought that the water theme park was closed too, but it was just closed for renovations.

So nostalgic to have BBQ there! We used to have BBQ parties for every special occasion. But it seems like as we grow older, the chances for having a BBQ gathering gets rarer. Everybody's so busy living their own lives, so this party was a great idea to get everybody together again.

I was surprised how crowded it was, almost every BBQ pit was occupied. But everybody had a great time that night. We were more fancy with our food now, we got white wine with clams and Cognac with prawns. We even grilled a fish whole and it was delicious! But I actually missed my BBQ chicken wings as due to some miscommunication, nobody brought any chicken wings! Boo!

老了! We could hardly finish the little food we bought. Meanwhile, at the opposite pit, there was a group of topless teenage boys. They grilled a full pit of meat, devoured it, and covered the whole pit with meat again while they eat and drink. We studied them with awe and amusement, with the top of their underwear showing from their pants, munching and drinking. We even teased that maybe my bro or Dad could take off their tops too, show them a thing or two. Bro said he didn't want to make the boys feel inferior. Haha...

It was a great night, hope that no matter how busy, we make an effort to do this again.

Mr Sun

Jolie was playing with her umbrella the other day and was inspired to sing her "Mr Sun" song.

Mid Autumn Festival 2012

Read in the news somewhere that there's going to be a Mid Autumn Festival celebrations at the Singapore River. So I thought it would be nice to bring our little family out for the evening.

We ate dinner at Waraku @ The Central and it was quite awesome as we were given window seats facing the Singapore River. Interestingly, sitting in a booth behind us were Mediacorp artist Patricia Mok and some guy with old man's colonge.

After dinner the skies started to darken and we started strolling along the river. We started the stroll with a little after dinner dessert, Hokkaido ice cream! It wasn't as rich and creamy as I would liked it, but Jolie liked it. Well, I don't know any chocolate ice cream that she didn't like.

I don't know if it's because I was pregnant, or was it freaking HOT and HUMID!? I was feeling quite uncomfortable and sticky all over and the lame lanterns weren't exactly impressive. Then we walked across the bridge and saw this old-school carnival horse game. You roll wooden balls into holes in order to get your horse to move. When your horse crosses the line, you win! Haha... I can't believe that Cobby never played this game before, it's quite common in old fashion pasar-malam and carnivals! So nostalgic.

By the time our turn came, there's no one else to play with, so we bought two tickets. Me VS Cobby and Jolie. Jolie won the first round because my horse wasn't working! So the guy gave us another chance to play and I won the second round. Heehee... Sorry, my competitive streak showed no mercy, even for my daughter and husband. Whahaha!

Really regretted walking so far! We had to walk all the way back, which was quite a feat for the poor pregnant lady. By the time we got back to the car, we were all sweaty and tired. When we got home, Jolie put her Care Bear on her shoulder, just like how her Dad carried her earlier. So cute...

Birthday lunch and gathering

Sis asked us out for "lunch" which turned out to be a mini-belated-lunch-gathering among our family and friends. We met up at this little restaurant called 5 Drunken Rabbits which my Sis said was located at Elias Road. Sounds familiar, but I just thought its another restaurant. Apparently it was a sea-side bistro and it was such a hot and sunny day! But I was dressed in long thick pants and I was sweating away like mad!

Other than the blur waitress which irritates the hell out of me, the food was pretty good and it was an enjoyable meal. Mom even bought a chocolate cake for me! We polished the whole thing off naturally. Our family never say no to dessert. :)

After the meal we strolled to the beach and took some photos. Being a little overdressed, we only hung around for awhile as it was getting a little too hot!

So we bade each other goodbyes and went our separate ways again. Until we meet again!

Happy 32rd Birthday to me!

On the early morning of my birthday, while we were still sleeping, Cobby suddenly received a sms. "Must be one of them slave drivers... crazy leh, sms people so early in the morning." I thought, as people from Cobby's work usually have zero EQ and love to call or sms people even when they are on leave or during after work hours. I thought nothing of it as I laze in bed and Cobby stumbled out of the room. But got a really pleasant surprise when he came back into the room and magically presented me with the most gorgeous bouquet of red roses!

Apparently it was the flower delivery guy who sms-ed him, telling him that they had arrived early, that's why he had to get out of bed and go to the door to get the flowers. Haha... So sweet!!! By then Jolie had joined us in bed and was quite upset when she found out that it was my birthday. She was sad that it WASN'T her birthday and SHE didn't get any presents! Haha, oops, this silly girl!

Cobby had arranged a nice lunch for us at Pizzeria Mozza, a pizzeria opened by celebrity chef Mario Batali at Marina Bay Sands. But before that, we had an appointment with our gyne, Dr Judy Wong. So we dropped Jolie off at mother-in-law's place and headed out. I love my monthly appointments as I get to see my baby! So I really didn't mind going to the clinic on my birthday as I thought it was the perfect birthday gift to see my baby boy and know that he's growing healthy and strong. KISS!!

After the doctor's appointment we headed to lunch. The place was surprisingly nice and cosy, filled with noisy weekday lunch crowd. Even before our food arrived we greedily gobbled down their complimentary appetisers, these delicious parmesan crisps!

We ordered to our heart's desire, from:
Bone marrow al forno $18
Prosciutto di Parma & Bufala mozzarella $32
Their famous wood fire oven pizza with fennel sausage, panna, red onion & scallions $28
Butterscotch budino, Maldon sea salt & rosemary pine nut cookies $16
Caramel copetta with marshmallow sauce & salted Spanish peanuts $16

Overall the food was quite good, the pizza dough was delicious, but I didn't really like the fennel flavour on the sausages. Their desserts wasn't very impressive either, but overall it was an enjoyable experience. If we go back, I think I would just stick to just pizza. :)

After our delicious lunch, I wanted to go hunt for some art materials as I wanted to make a name plate for my baby boy's bedroom, so we headed down to Bras Basah Complex, where we found this place called Art Friend. The place was amazing! You can find almost anything you need for an art project. We got the plate and stickers there, but the glittery alphabets I got from Popular Bookstore.

This is the completed look, nice? :)

Well that's about that. Apart from being hit on by an uncle at a foodcourt after shopping for arts supplies. Urgh... Cobby was buying drinks for me and this uncle sitting at the opposite table suddenly just smiled at me and asked me if "I'm from Singapore?" Erm...
1) do I look foreign?
2) even if I'm not, why do you ask? Do I look like a foreign woman you can hit on?
3) if you are hitting on me, that's super inappropriate! Can't you see that I'm pregnant? Or you didn't see my giant tummy beneath the table?

I gave him a disgusted-WTF-DUH look and ignored his question. When Cobby came back, I think he realised that I was not alone and took his food and moved to another seat. Eww... Cobby wasn't very pleased when I told him what happened but it's alright, no harm done. Haha... You know, as you grow older, I feel that you appreciate the thought more than the material stuff like presents and parties. It was a simple birthday celebration, which I totally enjoyed. After spending a peaceful afternoon with my hubby, I went home and hugged my baby girl, all the while having a baby boy inside me. What more can I ask?? :)

Brand New Old Stuff

Dad doesn't have much of a hobby, but one of his favourite hangout place was Sungei Road Thieves Market. Many times, he would find some really interesting items at a really good bargain. You'll be surprised at the things that you can find there. Which makes you wonder, did people really throw such good stuff away? Or did the people get the stuff through less than honest means? (Like the name of the place suggest)

But I can understand the appeal of the place. It's like an adventure, a treasure hunt! You dig around for valuable stuff and you bargain with questionable characters. Sometimes you even have to 'fight' for the good stuff with other uncles. Haha... I love listening to Dad's stories from his trips there.

One of the most impressive buy was this Japanese game. It really looked brand new! Everything was in Japanese, so it could be bought from overseas or from some departmental store. Even the box looked nice and clean, like the owner hardly touched it after buying it.

We set it up and had lots of fun with it.

The evil aeroplane pilot would go round and round in attempt to "kidnap" your pigs, which are your coins. You have to smack the plane as it comes so that it wouldn't hit your coins. The last person with his/her coins remaining wins! Haha, difficult to explain but it super cute.

It's super fun. The only challenge was to keep Jolie from switching off the game each time she's losing! Haha... but we would give in to her lah...



Best thing was that it cost only S$6 plus!! Haha... crazy right? When Dad's in Hong Kong, he would also hang around places that sell 2nd hand stuff. Once, he managed to find 2nd hand TOY STORY characters, Pull String Woody and Buzz Lightyear at less than S$20 each. So I guess the saying is true, "One man's trash is another man's treasure!"

A fun Saturday for Jolie

Technically, it's the school holiday, but The Little Gym was having special holiday Safari Camp, which was a 2 hour special and existing students get to attend for free. So, why not? Jolie was always more than happy to attend her gym classes, and Cobby and I get to have an additional hour to ourselves! When we got back early, Jo and her classmates were doing art and craft, something they don't usually do in gym class. Jolie was so engrossed with her work that she didn't even notice me standing next to her taking photos! And since I was there, I helped Jo a little with her mask. Cute?

We usually would send Jolie to my parent's place after Gym class, but that day we met up with them at Suntec City for lunch instead. Jolie's 公公 wanted to buy his precious granddaughter some new toy, so after lunch at MOF, we headed to Toys 'R' Us.

We didn't know what to get, so we took quite awhile browsing in the huge store. Halfway through we found the mask section, so we adults had a little fun too! Heehee...

It's strange, seemed like as Jolie grows older, it gets harder to find her a new toy. Girl's toys can be so boring, mostly are either kitchen stuff or dolls, most of them don't do anything. So Jolie would probably get bored of them after a short while. Educational toys are good but also kind of boring, besides, most of them were either too advanced or too basic. So we ended up looking at the boys section. Definitely more exciting, but they can be pretty violent too, so we got her an emergency centre. Stimulating and yet full of harmless fun!

Just as expected, Jo had loads of fun with it. Check out how it works!



I just love watching her play with it. It may seemed like a very boyish game, but Jolie would put her own spin into it by playing "house" with her ambulance, police car and helicopter. She would make the vehicles "talk" to each other, for example:
Ambulance: "let's go down the slide!"
Police car: "Hey wait for me ambulance! Weee..."

Then after much fun and games, she would put the vehicles in their respective parking lots and pretend it's night time and they were asleep. Of course, she would demand that I keep quiet as her vehicles are asleep. -_-

Interesting how she can make a boy's toy into a girl's game. Oh well, don't care how she played it, important thing is that she likes it.

Balcony Revamp!

Well, it's not strictly a long weekend, but Cobby had taken 2 days off because we have finally decided to officially give up our balcony garden! I think the last time I blogged about my balcony garden was 2011 new year's day. Since then, some of my plants flourish, most of them have died. Seriously, the garden is growing more and more like a burden. The floor is always dirty, filled with leaves and dirt, which I have to sweep because no one else would do it. -_- And now with another baby coming, it would be great to have one less place to clean up.

Besides, the baby's room, which have been labeled as "the other room" until recently, has become our 2nd storeroom. And it has been filling up with Jolie's infant toys, car seat, stroller and her FIVE different types of her "cars". From push cars, to scooter and bicycle. In order to house the new baby, we have to find a new space in our home for her vehicles, and the balcony seemed like the perfect place, the only place actually.

I didn't want to propose the idea actually. With the new baby coming, we are already spending alot of money, and more to come! But I really can't see what other options do we have, so we decided to get rid of the garden, install some windows and convert the balcony into additional living space.

We shopped around the weekend before and found some window contractors. We ended up with a contractor all the way in an industrial park in Bedok! So they came over on Thursday to install. (06-09-2012)

The contractors was scheduled to come around 2pm, but they called in the morning and asked if they could come in the morning. Cobby didn't want to spoil our schedule, but I thought it would be great if we can settle everything early. So they came early and installed everything up in only 2+ hours! Efficient!

My initial reaction was, waoh! Suddenly the whole living room seemed so much more brighter and spacious! Whoo hoo! The next morning, we ate some yummy breakfast at chong pang followed by a trip to the paint shop.

Cobby estimated that he would be done by lunchtime, but as usual, his time estimation sucks and he's only halfway done by lunch. -_- So we ate lunch at home while cobby paint the balcony into a nice shade baby blue. Yes, it took longer than expected, but the end result was lovely! Good job Cobby!

We still kept some of the plants (those that needed direct sunlight) in the balcony while the rest were either thrown away or placed outside the house instead. Since there was a Far East Floral sale, we couldn't resist going down and buy a few more plants! Haha, but this time we got smaller plants that don't need direct sunlight.

So here is the new family garden!

Bubble time with Papa

Was a typical weekend at mother-in-law's place when Jolie pulled her Dad out to play bubbles with her. I loved these simple, innocent moments where you can see the pure joy in a child's eye when bubbles appear. Sometimes you can even see that in adults! Haha, amazing what bubbles can do.