My F1 Weekend

Formula One came to town last week and I had 3-day walkabout tickets.

On Friday, the practice session day, I met Jane for a Japanese curry rice lunch and slice of pie from Fruit Paradise, the expensive pie place I mentioned before. The food was okay, a tad on the oily side, and the pie was so-so, could have been a little sweeter but not fantastic lah.



In the evening I met Nicole to chaperon her first F1 experience. I gobbled 2 burgers in the space of an hour while we watched the first practice session from Turn 8.




Next we made our way to the Padang and caught bits of a concert by Ozomatli, a Latin band...they had catchy songs and I couldn't help bopping. But we had to tear ourselves away when Nick arrived in time for practice session 2.




After passing him his ticket, we parked ourselves at Anderson Bridge but noticed people on the rooftop of St Julien and discovered that for the small price of buying some drinks, we could have an aerial view of the session as the cars turn into Esplanade Drive, so we stayed there the rest of the evening. Went back to the Padang as the programme stated there was a Katy Perry concert, but she was a no-show.

We skipped Saturday's qualifying session so we could attend Nick's cousin Jason's wedding at Novotel Clarke Quay. Nat was terrified by the crowd for some reason, or one of his uncles spooked her and she kept wailing and refusing to enter the ballroom. It took some persuasion but eventually she settled down, after the couple had made their entrance.



Nat had two second-cousins there who are a couple of months older than her but so much bigger in terms of size. Naturally Mildred couldn't help comparing and questioning why her grand-daughter was so small.


On Sunday, I attended the wedding lunch of my ex-classmate Gabriel at Raffles Town Club. He was so sweet, he wrote a poem for his bride. Chatted with Rocky and Cindy who were at the same table. Don't know when someone will get down to organising a reunion!



In the evening, it was time to make our way to the Marina Bay street circuit. Nick wasn't keen on going so I gave his ticket to mummy instead. Met Nicole at Raffles Place and we plonked ourselves on the steps outside the Esplanade. We could see the cars clearly, but were far from the barrier and the road was wide. They went by so fast because it was the end of a long straight, thank goodness Lewis' yellow helmet is easy to spot.


After a while, we walked towards Raffles Avenue. Trampled on some plants to get to the barricade but got a close up of the cars as they accelerated after navigating Turn 14. Towards the last few laps, we just watched the big screen opposite the Esplanade Waterfront grandstand and cheered when Lewis Hamilton crossed the finish line as winner.




Nick came to pick us up after the race and we cut across the Padang to get to our pick-up point. The Backstreet Boys were on the Padang stage and we caught a glimpse of them. Would have liked to stay but Nick was already waiting...can't wait for next year's festivities, though I think I might just watch from the comfort of home!

Hari Raya weekend

Thanks to Hari Raya Puasa, we got to enjoy a long weekend. Unfortunately the boy was away in Tokyo but Alicia came to town with 2 of her Perthling girlfriends.

On Friday night, we met up with them at No.5 and were joined by some of the cousins, but they didn't stay long. In the end, Swana, Kevin, Alicia and Merianne decided to watch 'The Ugly Truth' at 1.25 am but I opted to go home to my bed, where Swana joined me after her movie because she wanted to wake up with Gigi.

On Saturday morning, Kevin picked us up and we headed to Harbourfront where Swana was supposed to collect a new Canon camera but the service centre was closed. We ended up having a Vietnamese lunch at Orange Lantern, where my craving for grilled pork chop vermicelli was satisfied, before heading back to Spottiswoode to nap. Caught some bits of a Hindi movie 'Singh is Kinng' in the evening before we headed to ABC market for dinner.

Whilst looking for parking in the multi-storey carpark, Kevin stubbornly refused to reverse when he got too close to a wall when making a turn and forced his rental car forward...resulting in a few large scratches and paint being peeled off. That was just Day 2 of his month-long rental! Ouch, it will cost him!

Anyway, I had me some real Penang asam laksa instead of the maggi mee version I've been binging on once or twice a week. The laksa was soooo good, the Penang stall at ABC market is known for their authenticity and it was so shiok to slurp up the flavourful gravy.

On Sunday, I got my wish to go Raffles City for the Loreal Beauty Warehouse sale. Was anticipating more stuff, but it turned out to be a tad disappointing. Nat and Gigi entertained themselves by wandering around the convention centre, Nat even took Gigi by the hand to lead her astray! And when Gigi lost her balance and fell, Nat hit the floor on her behalf, as she does everytime.






Spent the rest of the afternoon and evening at home, and yesterday woke up early to catch the Emmys 'live' on TV. Had to leave halfway through for breakfast at Alicia's parents house. She was heading back to Perth in the afternoon so we brought the babies over to see her.

Before I left the house though, Nat managed to eat a bit of cockroach casing when left alone in her room for a minute. I thought she was quietly playing with her toys but when I found her, she was spitting something out. I cleared her tongue of a brownish purplish substance wondering where she found raisins or dried cranberries from but it smelled musty to me.

And when I questioned her on where she took the 'food' from, she didn't want to say at first. I asked her sternly again and then she pointed at a small cabinet, where I found some cockroach casings attached, and another couple on the floor, which she had pried off the cabinet. I freaked out and grabbed a towel to wipe her mouth!


In the afternoon, I prepared some jelly for a work event today and in the evening, Nick came home. Nat was glad to see her daddy, I had told her the past few days he was in Japan, and she would repeat, 'A-pan'.

Dinner was at Cz'zar at Great World City, with Baba and Aunty Irene. Today is their 25th wedding anniversary and they bought dinner last night to celebrate. We managed to tie Nat's hair into 2 ponytails...I love this look on her!

Nat and Jorgo

Nat has made friends with Jorgo the Monster, I told her his name and she started calling him "Go-go". I think she likes the bright colours and was kissing and hugging him yesterday.



She thinks Rosie the mouse is cute too, but Gigi murdered Josie yesterday - Rosie's sister. Whilst alone in the room with no one looking, she threw Josie out the window, Aunty Sarda just happened to see it in time, but couldn't stop her.


I was convinced I had lost Josie forever, I was like, "My mouse, my mouse, my $20 mouse!" (I exaggerate, it wasn't $20 since Josie was a freebie but at the time I thought it was Rosie!). Being light, it could have landed on any of the 19 ledges below us, but thankfully Swana spotted her when we went downstairs, swept away in a corner by the wind. That was a close call, the two babies are not going near my mice again! They're like my new pets!

Bottomless pit

Of late I feel like my stomach is a black hole, food gravitates towards it and a mass accumulates. I just finished a Lime Chicken quiche from Cedele barely 5 minutes ago and am still hungry.

Lunch was Din Tai Fung with Jane and Rena, we shared xiao long bao, szechuan soup, rice and noodles. Before lunch I had some biscuits to curb my hunger pangs, and for breakfast I had Nutella sandwiches. I eat about every 2 hours because I am constantly hungry till about 6pm, after that I have no appetite when it comes to dinner but still force myself to eat something. But by 9pm, I need to snack again. Usually on murukku and milo.

Why are pregnant women hungry all the time? Blame the hormones!

Apparently, the reason for the increased hunger is due to changes in hormonal levels and production which affect the hypothalamus, a complex region in the brain that is involved in many different functions.

The hypothalamus is responsible for certain metabolic processes and one of its functions is control of hunger. Hormones released as a response to pregnancy cause the hypothalamus to issue increased hunger behavior causing the pregnant woman to consume food in greater quantities to support growth of the foetus.

I was hungry with Nat too, but even more with Nike. I snack like there's no tomorrow, my office space is littered with biscuits, sembueh, nuts, sweets, crackers etc. Even my cleaning lady has noticed I snack a lot these days! I didn't tell her the reason yet, she's quite a gossip.

As I type I am thinking about the luscious fruit tarts me and Jane spotted at a new stall at Raffles City. Pretty pretty pies, all dressed with cream and fruit, but at $7.80 a slice, they're a tad ex, a whole pie is about S$80.

Would you spend $80 on a pie? I just might, if they turn out to be really good. Shall have to try, me and Jane are going back next week!

European goodies

Swana and Kevin arrived back on Monday and I couldn't wait to go over to Membina after work. Mummy asked, "You coming to see your sister or your stuff?", and I was like, "Of course my stuff lah!"

Nat benefited the most, Aunty Nana having bought her 6 tops and a Little Mermaid star-shaped bowl. She gave us a couple of magnets, Nick got a cap, and I got 2 tops in addition to a Fendi chef bag I requested her to buy.





Since they were going to be in Amsterdam, I ordered some stuff from my friend Shef's online shop called Swiedebie to be mailed locally, as Shef is based in Holland. She makes really cute sock monsters and other handmade gifts, and I bought a one-of-a-kind ski sock monster named Jorgo, that came with a drawing and description of his personality. And there was this tiny mouse-shaped pin cushion named Rosie that I couldn't resist because it was in a pink floral rose print, and Shef threw in a matching keychain named Josie...cool!



Nat decided she wanted to feed herself her dinner last night, Indian style with her hands. While she can feed herself biscuits and cereal and small-sized chunks of food, we've continued to spoon-feed her her proper meals because it was just to messy on her own but yesterday I allowed her to make a complete mess, because she was actually hungry and stuffing her face with gusto.



It was nice to see her relishing her food, instead of the constant struggle everyday trying to coax her to have one more spoonful. Mildred who had been staying with us the past couple of days seemed appalled with the mess, but maybe subconsciously I allowed it, to spite her since she let Nat watch Hi-Five on TV despite knowing we don't let her watch TV? Hmmm...

There was a really bad haze yesterday, the smell of burnt wood in the air was strong and visibility was poor. Hazy days are back!

A touch of nostalgia

Went to Mildred's for breakfast on Saturday, she had a lantern waiting for Nat. The cellophane paper kind, reminds me of my childhood when my Amah would buy me and Swana those kinds of lanterns...those were the days.


Speaking of nostalgia, the other day I watched the Snorkels cartoon on TV, I miss all the programmes we used to watch. I remember the Wuzzles and this raccoon cartoon, and My Little Pony. Care Bears and Strawberry Shortcake were among my favourites and I get to relive everything through Nat and Gigi. They still sell Care Bears at Tangs and Gap has a range of t-shirts bearing old cartoons.



Saturday evening was spent visiting Puni's new home. She moved in a couple of months ago and invited us over for dinner, along with Kannaki and Chris. Nat took a while to warm up but pretty soon was tearing books off Nikesh's shelves and playing with all his toys!

The house itself was nicely done, pretty spacious and I think they got a good deal considering what condos and houses cost nowadays. However, I don't know why my friends like to live in Woodlands...so bloody far. Always joke with Jane that must bring passport!





Brought Nat shoe-shopping on Sunday afternoon at ViVo, managed to 'ketuk' her father for 2 pairs...ha ha. Whilst having tea at Cedele, we heard the infectious beat of drums and I brought Nat to see where the sound was coming from. Turned out to be a mini-band of drummer boys marching through the mall, so me and Nat followed. She loved it, was bopping in my arms.


I couldn't resist buying this romper last Friday from Raffles Place, it was like a sign to me! Even if Nike turns out to be a girl, she can still wear blue.


BTW, I think Bath and Body Works do too good a job in replicating floral smells. Everytime I wear a certain moisturiser, I get 'bugged' by these little yellow flies called hover flies, or flower flies. This morning, I had to keep swatting them away while sitting at the bus-stop, the guy next to me must have been thinking I didn't shower. LOL!