Caryn the Adult

Yesterday was the 21st birthday party of Caryn, and me and Nick attended along with the Babes and Dopes. Caryn had 'chope-ed' us way in advance, several months ago in fact!

I haven't actually attended that many 21st birthday parties but whatever few I had attended were all either like BBQs at chalets or home parties. This one was a posh affair at Oosh at Dempsey Road, complete with free flow alcohol, backdrop, door gift, stage games and perfomances by EIC.

Caryn had a surprise in store for her guests - the door gift was a 4-track album with her on lead vocals and backed up and produced by Jack and Rai of EIC! Jack and Rai and their respective girlfriends were seated at our table, and Jack passed Nick a copy of their new album titled "In Stores Now" which I asked them to autograph. There's a Contiki contest that buyers of the CD are eligible for so Nick was showing off his tiny sticker on the album sleeve and the contest insert.

John and Kevin got called up on stage for one of the drinking games, sipping beer with a straw. Surprisingly the two mamas lost to Caryn's older uncles!

The birthday girl herself was a social butterfly, flitting from one table to another...if this was just the 21st birthday, I wonder what her wedding - whenever that happens - will be like. She's already reserved Nutty for a flowergirl, ha ha!

Mita Stewart strikes again

Ok, so I cheated and didn't bake my cake from scratch, but still it was the thought that counted.

Kevin and Swana came over for lunch and as we didn't get a cake for Kevin last Wednesday, Swana thought of getting him a cake for today. But when I woke up, I decided to bake one instead since I had the lemon cake mix lying around, plus wanted to use my poppy seeds before they expired.


Sham popped by for a bit too and she minded Nat while we had a late lunch. Natalie really enjoyed her company, Sham seriously needs to get out from her ministry and find a job with less taxing hours, and then she can babysit next time. Ha ha!


Anyways, here it is, my lemon poppy seed cake.

New toys for the munchkin

Nutty was scheduled to have a jab yesterday but when we got to the Outram Polyclinic, the nurse advised not to do it as it had been less than one month since her Rotavirus immunisation at a private clinic. Bugger.

Instead of trooping home, me and Ma decided to hit Centrepoint, dragging Nutty and Arlyn along in the process. I bought Nutty a number of toys and outfits, using up nearly all my John Little and Robinsons' vouchers. Luckily the peak period and city area surcharges were not in effect yet, so our cabfare home was relatively cheap.


At night we went out again, this time to Harbourfront for dinner and some groceries. Checked out the Mothercare flagship store, it was pretty big! However certain things at the Centrepoint outlet were on sale and I didn't see these at the Harbourfront store. For example, a changing table and high chair on sale at Centrepoint were not on sale at Harbourfront. Strange. Plus, I saw my B&W Oriental Hobo OiOi diaper bag at Centrepoint and the pink paisley print one I was originally eyeing. But there were no OiOi diaper bags at Harbourfront.

Anyway, back to the point about cabfares...after the last price increase at the end of last year, I had vowed to avoid taking cabs where possible...I just don't think all the surcharges and hikes are necessary to help the drivers out and improve availability. And yesterday they announced the implementation of a 30ct diesel surcharge, plus there are soooo many ERP gantries everywhere now. And there will be a public transport fare hike again around October.

A cab to Orchard from home during peak periods costs more than $10 now, when previously it was around $5. Everyone's feeling the pinch of inflation, rising food and oil prices but yet the powers that be keep raising prices! And as much as we complain, after a period of adjustment, everyone just accepts the changes. No strikes, no protests, no nothing.

The taxi companies should cut back on their rental fees as far as I am concerned if they want to lessen the burden of rising costs to their drivers. Can you imagine, one taxi paying an average of $90 daily for a year equates to over $30K. Multiply that by 7 years and taxi companies would have earned over $210K per car in a seven year period, way over what the actual cost of the car was and at the end of the day, the drivers don't own the taxi! The largest operator here has 15,000 taxis in its fleet...that's over a $1 million in rental income a day!

That's the problem when all these public service companies start listing themselves - profit and increasing revenue is all they care about and accountability to their shareholders. I have gripes about ERP too, not being ungrateful or sour grapes but I do personally feel it's a cash cow for the LTA.

Nick says he is starting to feel suffocated here, but the grass isn't always greener elsewhere. Hmmm, wonder if we will uproot at some point?

Spotlight on Kevin

Yesterday was Kevin's birthday and me, Ma, Arlyn and Nutty had dinner with him and Swana at Crystal Jade Kitchen at Plaza Singapura. Kavi and Siva joined us too, because the Babes and the Dopes were watching 'Get Smart' after dinner.

Me and Mummy had an ulterior motive in picking Plaza Sing, there was a one day 20% storewide Spotlight sale and we both wanted to buy more material...to add to the gazillion untailored pieces we already have!

The queue to cut cloth and pay was horrendous though! Even though Arlyn helped me queue the moment we got there while I started browsing, it still took over 90 minutes to get my materials cut. And after that, we still had to join another queue to pay! It was 2 hours later that we finally left and it was way past the store's closing time and Nutty's bedtime.

On top of things, I had to navigate Nutty's stroller with one hand and lug rolls of cloth to the counter one by one. I couldn't leave her with Arlyn because she was squealing and talking to herself and the aisle where the queue started was just too cramped and Nutty's stroller would be in everyone's way.

I don't know why they only allow one counter to cut dress fabrics! It was the same queue to cut and pay and it took at least 5 mins to process each customer because they only had one cash register. Later on, they directed people to other counters to get cloth cut, but after cutting, still had to join the cashier queue all over again. Bad system!

Nevertheless, I am still quite happy with my purchases...

Nuts at T3

Ben and Wendy left for an ultra-long holiday to Melbourne last night, only returning on my birthday next month. They couldn't confirm seats direct to Melbourne on Ben's mileage so they went via Adelaide instead.

Sigh, I wanna go on a holiday too! We went to the airport to have dinner and see them off, it was Nutty's first time at the airport and she was super excited! Maybe she thought she was going on a trip too! I must say T3 looks pretty nice, very spacious and the best part was that it was not too crowded.

We settled at the Lerk Thai restaurant since there was no queue, and during dinner presented Ben with his advance birthday present, since he was not going to be in town.

This year, it's a pair of walkabout tickets to the Singapore F1 qualifying session. I made a voucher for him since the tickets will only be ready in August. Before you ask why the tickets aren't to the actual race, it's because we all have a wedding dinner to attend that evening. Xinyi - can you put up some large screen TVs at your dinner?

After dinner we went up to the Harry's thinking that we could have coffee and catch the F1 British Grand Prix. But, the coffee machine was down and the coffee junkies decided they would rather drink coffee elsewhere than catch the race. So off we went to TCC, where I had a rather yummy tiramisu.

Earlier in the day, me, Nick and Swana went to browse cars at Leng Kee, popping into the Citroen, Opel, Subaru and Honda showrooms. Nick liked the Citroen C4 Picasso and Opel Astra, but I preferred the Opel Zafira, am such a soccer mom, I like MPVs! At Subaru, we checked out the Forrester and Legacy wagon, the wagon was nicer than the Forrester.

Last stop was Honda where Nick bumped into his friend who is a salesman there. I finally got to inspect the Stream up close plus the Odyssey and CRV. The 7-seater Stream is surprising spacious, despite its compact nature, The back 2 seats have ample leg room just like the Opel Zafira.

In comparison, the C4 Grand Picasso is so tall and bulky yet the back two passengers almost have to sit with their legs up. Bad space planning Citroen!

Spot the difference!

Today is Nutty's 5th month on earth, and coincidentally America's birthday too. The jury is still out on who she looks like more - me or Nick, but I still contend she looks more like me, only bearing a similarity to him when grumpy or sleeping. But actually, she looks most like my sister, check out our baby pictures below and compare for yourself.

Me at a few months

Me at 1 year plus, my passport picture!

Swana at 7 months

Swana at 7 months

Anyways, the munchkin is starting to assert herself more and registers her displeasure whenever something doesn't go her way.

For example, when she wants to be upright she will wriggle and protest while on her back, and if she's not picked up in 10 seconds, she'll wail like there's no tomorrow and as if the whole world is against her! And once you pick her up and walk a bit, she'll go, "Hmpfff" and give you a look saying, "Didn't you get the memo that I like to be upright these days?"

But she has the cutest giggle, and it's easy to make her laugh. Just act like a total idiot and throw all caution to the wind! Funny faces and sounds repeated over and over again do the trick. She also drools like nobody's business, sucks incessantly on her mittens and puts everything into her mouth, especially the furry parts of toys!

I miss her blobby newborn days when she would just sleep all day and stay still!

The Natalie Balloon

Munchkin had some surprise visitors yesterday...Nya-nya, Nicole and Nicholas popped in on their way to the Starhub shop at OUB Centre. Natalie took a while to warm up but was smiling away in no time.


They had a special delivery for her, a customised balloon courtesy of Aunty Joyce! She downloaded Nutty's pictures from my blog and printed them onto a balloon...so cool!


Nicole, I know you are reading this, don't be so scared to carry Natalie next time you see her, am sure she will enjoy being carried by 'Aunty' Nicole!

Earlier in the day, Nutty showed off her new skill - reading! Ok, ok, we all know she can't read yet, but she does make a pretty good attempt at pretending. Moments after these shots were taken, she stuffed the book into her mouth! She much prefers to eat it than read it!