Look Ma, my boy's on TV!

The boy was interviewed ‘live’ on Channel News Asia this morning ahead of the NATAS fair coming up, on the topic of trends in exotic destinations. He didn’t do too badly though I knew he was nervous, but the camera added some pounds and his pants were too short! LOL!



I had a pretty productive day in the kitchen yesterday, after doing the marketing in the morning. Swana came to pick me up from Tiong Bahru market when I was done and she and Gigi came over to meet Raybit.

I made cupcakes with Nat and Gigi, pasta for lunch and roasted a chicken for dinner. It was my first time roasting a whole chicken and I was pretty pleased with the result though the underside of my chicken didn’t get brown. Maybe I need to flip it over next time.


It was tasty though! All I did was rub with salt, black pepper, chopped rosemary, minced garlic and lemon juice. I put all of these into the cavity as well, together with chopped onions and the squeezed out lemon. Into the fridge it went for 2 hours, before rubbing down with butter and popping into the oven for 1hr 20 mins at 200°C.



The chicken was moist and juicy, and I could have gone on eating the skin. Nat wasn’t too impressed though, she likes deep fried battered meat! With a bit more practice, I think I might attempt a turkey come Christmas!

Bunnysitting

Nat requested to visit Underwater World when she woke up today and her wish was her daddy’s command!



Off we went to Sentosa with mummy in tow, taking in the turtles, jellyfish, stingrays and hundreds of fishies. I think this was only Sasha’s second visit but she didn’t seem so excited.




We made it just in time to catch the dolphin show but it turned out to be more a sea lion performance than the dolphins, who only made a few jumps here and there and waved with their flippers but 80% of the show was focused on the sea lions. Still, there’s just something about seeing dolphins that brings out the kid in me.



Just as we had finished our rounds and were pondering what to do for lunch, it started pouring cats and dogs. We decided to hop into a cab and head to Vivo but Nick got drenched while sheltering us into the cab with my puny umbrella - he had to buy a polo tee once at Vivo.

We tried the set lunches at White Dog Café, they were reasonably priced from $10.90. I got a soup, salad and grilled pork chop with a side of rice for that. Bumped into Jeannie who was out with her family, and unbeknownst to me at the time, Swana and Gigi were next door at the Soup Restaurant!

I had a Haagen Dazs voucher to use up and bought a scoop of Belgian Chocolate for us to share, plus a pint of Macadamia Nut for home…can’t wait to indulge with some late night TV!

Whilst we napped in the afternoon, Joanne’s brother Jason came to drop of Raybit, her pet Holland Lop rabbit. She’s off to Melbourne tonight with Ray and we are bunnysitting for a week.

The girls were pleasantly surprised to meet Raybit once they woke up from their naps and Nat was shy at first. But she soon warmed up and Sasha too, she keeps talking to the rabbit expecting a reply!



We popped out for mass followed by dinner at Raffles City food court. Sasha is getting demanding with her food, for the second time now she’s refused to eat her rice once she’s caught sight of Nat’s noodles so from here on, I am only bringing noodles in her thermos or we’ll just order her noodles when we eat out!

Windmills on my mind

The boy was away this whole week covering Mumbai, Bangalore and Manila in 5 days and even though they fed him on the return flight, he was hankering for some noodles. After Sasha slept, we walked to the corner coffeeshop and while he had some kway teow, I browsed through the Trafalgar brochure I had brought along.

Now that he had enough miles for me to redeem flights to Europe, we discussed travel dates and destination so that he can experience his own tours, and I think we have finally nailed it down. Whether there are still seats on the specific tour needs to be checked though, but if everything goes according to plan we should be seeing this in May!


There was a lovely sunset earlier today and I let Nat play with my camera, she took this nice one of Gigi...

A Valentine for Jane

A little cupid was born yesterday as Jane welcomed No.2 into the world. Rena, Germaine and I went to visit the yet unnamed baby at Thomson Medical during lunchtime and mother and baby are fine.

The little bugger had to come out via a scheduled C-sect as he was in a breech position, refused to turn all these weeks.



At first he was sleeping so we didn’t want to disturb him by carrying him, but then he fussed and had some spit up so I picked him up and burped him.

I can hardly remember what Nat and Sasha were like as newborns now and it was nice to have one in my arms once more, I miss the newborn phase! Don’t know if I will ever get the chance to do it all over again…sigh.

Weekend on the bay

Ended up going to the Marina Bay area twice this weekend, one of the nice things about living near the city is the proximity to places like this so even without the car, travel time is short.

Our original intention yesterday morning was to go Underwater World but Nick was starting to cough and he had a trip tonight so I decided I would bring Nat somewhere on my own. We thought of going to Orchard but ma called and since Gigi was bored while her parents gymmed, we decided to take the elder girls to MBS instead.

Nat and Gigi were thrilled to take the bus and insisted on sitting on the top deck. We took 196 to Lau Pa Sat before changing to 97. At MBS, we walked along the promenade and admired the water lilies below the Art & Science Museum before stopping for lunch at the expensive food court.





The girls shared a chicken rice, Gigi was motivated to feed herself with the promise of prata but unfortunately, the prata man was MIA so I rewarded her with cheng tng instead!

Swana came to pick us up but towards the end Nat was getting emo and refusing to walk. Mummy carried her and as usual dawdled along, making us late to meet Swana.

Attended sunset mass at St Joseph's before a harried meal at the Bugis Junction food court. Sasha was sleepy and restless, she hardly ate and almost fell asleep in the cab.

This morning I went to the market like a real housewife, even buying a black chicken for Mummy to make soup for Nick. He had to work all day at a travel fair plus a red-eye flight tonight so I think the black chicken soup will do him some good. Will start making it once a month.

I had time on my hands and made a green bean soup, and for dinner we ate the yong tau fu I bought from the market. Can you imagine how much the food court stalls are profiting? For $5.4o, I fed 3 people vs the minimum $4.20 for a bowl these days.

After dinner, the dopes came to pick us up for a walkabout at the Esplanade. While they ate at Thai Express, Nick, Nat, Sasha and I enjoyed a free outdoor concert by Indonesian band 29:11. They sang jazzy Indonesian love songs and the girls bopped along despite not understanding the language.




It was a really pleasant evening topped off with some mango sticky rice, I'm kind of enjoying not having the car!

Oh, and today the world found out Whitney Houston had passed away, cause of death not known yet but it might be drug-related or accidental drowning. The Grammys are just tomorrow so the music world is in shock. I was shocked myself when I found out the news after my afternoon nap. I was such a fan in primary school, had memorised 'Saving all my love' and used to listen to it over and over again along with her other songs. RIP Whitney.

Roadhouse chicks

So much for trying to lose weight after CNY, just binged at Roadhouse!

Met Susan, Joanne and Adri for dinner at Dempsey and we took ages deliberating on where to eat before settling on Roadhouse. Just as well, it was somewhere I've been meaning to try.

Took the bus down after walk and got down one stop too early and had to trudge my way up Dempsey Hill. Got there on time and snapped some pics on the swing at the neighbouring Hacienda.



We decided to share a few dishes, all were things I was eyeing i.e. chicken and sweetcorn quesadillas, bolognaise mac and cheese, ribs, crab cake, salted nut tart. Everything was pretty good, the crab cake a little disappointing...it was huge but still a bit fishy. The ribs were good, I would order that again. The nut tart was divine!



It was great catching up but because I had to rush home to the kids as Nick had to entertain, the girls followed me home for part 2. However Nick's dinner ended early and he was home when we got there, so he entertained the ladies while I put Sasha to sleep.

We were saying we'll do this on a regular basis, maybe bimonthly and try new places and cuisines. Can't wait for the next one!

Aquarian times

I thought August was a busy month for birthdays, but so is Feb!

Pops turned 69 yesterday and we had a low-key celebration at home, just immediate family and some satay, mee goreng and cake.


Jane’s birthday is tomorrow and we had an advance lunch celebration today at Lei Garden, Chijmes. Never been there before, it was alright but we all thought the dim sum at Royal China was much better.




She’s just about ready to pop, a little Cupid will arrive by next week. After lunch as I was walking through Raffles City, I heard a loud ‘Dear’…turns out I had walked past Nickypoo without even knowing it, but he recognised my dress from the back!

Nat has been pretty whiny all week, crying every morning when we leave for work. Mostly for her daddy but if he’s not around, she’ll cry for me. He doesn’t help the situation when he prolongs his goodbyes but from what I hear, she stops crying after we leave and she’s fine the rest of the day as she gets ready for school etc.


It’s mostly the mornings but she’s been rather quick to burst into tears at every little ‘no’ when she doesn’t get her way or has to give in to Sasha. I think some jealousy also at play...need to have a word with her and get to the root of it.

We’re trying to ascertain if anything happened in school lately but doesn’t seem to be the case, she missed all of last week.

Anyway, this morning we promised to bring her to Vivocity by bus to have some one on one time and she was all excited when I met her at the bus stop after work. Before Nick arrived, we shared a hor fun which she fed herself half before I had to intervene.



Then we walked on the skypark, and saw the sunset. She was her usual bubbly self but the moment we mentioned taking a cab home, she started whinging to take the bus so we caved. We did see the huge moon out tonight though, so big and round but it’s not obvious on my photo.


Methinks it’s just another phase of separation anxiety and she probably just misses us on weekdays but it’s something she’ll have to get used to. Mildred thinks she can’t cope at school and wants to hire a personal tutor! For nursery? No freaking way!