Father's Day

Yet another sign! Nick was just channel-surfing when he came across a programme on Greek food hosted by Joan Cusack. She was in Greece experiencing local flavours... coincidence?

Last night I watched 2 Globetrekker DVDs on Greece that Ma had bought for my birthday a couple of years ago. I completely forgot I had them, but they sure came in handy!

Before that we had dinner at Mellben in AMK as a belated gathering for Baba's birthday. Aunty Irene was keen to go there even though we had no reservations and ended up queuing over 90 mins for a table. The babies got a tad restless but I still managed to whack some crab, including my favourite butter one...mmmm.




Today was Father's Day and in the morning Nat presented her Daddy with a card and pressie. She 'bought' him helicopter cufflinks to add to his collection of planes and after mass we ended up at Din Tai Fung Raffles City for an early lunch and walkabout.



I managed to pack a little in the afternoon, I have like 20 outfits in my trusty orange suitcase, I just can't decide what to wear when we're there and am planning to take lots and lots of pictures. And I don't like to be seen wearing the same outfit on a different day! Vain or what? Heh heh. I can just picture Swana's exasperated expression as she reads this - I will streamline before I leave OK?

Mildred, Ma, Pa, the Dopes and Gigi came over for a simple dinner of hor fun, fried rice and satay but there was Bakerzin cheesecake for dessert. Gigi and Nat did their secret baby greeting, it's just too cute.

Everytime we ask Nat what colour is an object, she replies with 'purple'. She knows what 'turn' is, and circles daintily with one hand up as she does a 360 turn. She's a bit more 'manja' with me these days, I think the few days at home last week helped and just when she's getting a little closer, I have to abandon her for 10 days! Will make it up to her when we get back...

Packing a Punch!

There are signs around me that this trip is really going to happen, but I won't believe it until I actually board the plane and land on Greek soil. Was at the Substation last night to watch a play and before it started, Yanni was playing in the background, in particular, one of his pieces called Santorini. Coincidence?

And then this morning, as I was flipping through the papers, there was an article in Life! about a new Acropolis Museum opening in Athens...another coincidence?

Anyway, back to the play. I had no expectations about the story and was just going to support my cousins. It was Siva and Kavi's first foray into theatre (he directed, she produced) with their company Punch! Theatre and I was pleasantly surprised at how professional everything was.


Based on a true story about a local Indian dancer who overcame a lot of obstacles to achieve his dream of hitting the big screens, the play called 'Mani' was well-written, funny and moving at times. I even teared at a couple of scenes, some of the supporting actors were really good. There was even a guy who reminded so many of Kumar, a drag queen in the making. Congrats to Kavi and Siva on a job well done!

There were 11 of us watching the play and after that we all adjourned to New Asia for drinks, but not before stopping at McDonald's for a late dinner. New Asia was surprisingly empty, I thought the crowd would swell during happy hour at midnight, but that didn't happen. There was room to walk about and we even got seats. Jamie and Vel joined us not long after and at midnight she ushered in her birthday. Managed to boogie a bit, and we only left at 3am when the place closed.







Some of us went for bak kut teh after, I had been suggesting it all night having had an unsatisfied craving for the River Valley one for a few weeks now. But I resolved to have it last night whilst getting my hair done, the coffeeshop was beckoning across the road from my hairdresser as Selina trimmed and layered my unruly mane.




Yes, I decided to chop off the hair...did a poll on Facebook and the votes were unanimous. You like?

Thud

Was working at 1.30 this morning in the dining room when I was jolted by the sound of a dull thud followed by Nick's, loud, helpless cry, going, "Nooooo...Nat!". Heart stopped beating as a I feared the worst, I knew it could only be Nat falling off the bed in her sleep andI could feel the anguish in Nick as he bolted drowsily to her rescue. I went to check on them and the poor bubba was obviously shocked and cried a bit but soon went back to sleep. Me and Nick however were ridden with guilt.

Him because it could have been prevented, he's normally more alert when she's lying next to him and me because I should have moved her to the playpen as soon as she had fallen asleep, like I normally do, but instead was burning the midnight oil.

Sigh...and this is the second time she has fallen this week, the other time onTuesday while she was at Membina. Arlyn had just turned around to hang a towel and in that split-second Nat managed to trip and fall on her back, biting her lip in the process.

I hope nothing eventful happens when we're in Greece and helpless to come to her rescue. Nick would jump on a plane in a heartbeat with any sign of her missing us, but unless the situation was really critical (touchwood!), I intend to see through the whole trip. Hope she will be having too much fun to realise we're away, I know Nick is heavy-hearted to go and though I will miss her too, I don't think I will be as affected as him.

5 days left!!!

Countdown to Hellas

Somebody pinch me, my lifelong dream looks set to be realised in just over a week.

The hotels have been booked, domestic flights and ferry booked, some transfers confirmed, an outline of an itinerary prepared and this weekend I will pack.

I can't believe this is actually happening, I hope it doesn't end up anti-climatic when we actually arrive. The best is to have no expectations, am just looking forward to the sunsets on Santorini, chilling in Mykonos and immersing myself in history in Athens.

Our flight departs on Wed at 1 am and we arrive Athens at 7.30 am local time. Thereafter it's a domestic flight to Santorini and we should arrive in time for lunch. I booked 3 nights at a little property called Hotel Galini, the reviews weren't great so I don't have high hopes but it was reasonably priced considering the peak season and looks stylish enough, with views of the caldera...websites can be so deceptive. I plan to take lots of pictures of blue-domed churches!

A 3 hour ferry ride away is Mykonos where we will spend the next 3 nights at the Apanema Resort. You have no idea how long I deliberated on my hotel choices before deciding to splurge on this one. Chic yet close to town and rated very highly on Trip Advisor! I hope it's worth it! The plan is to take things slow, some trips to town to see the famous windmills and dining stretch called Little Venice, a day trip to the historical island of Delos and maybe explore one beach.

Last stop is Athens for another 3 nights, we are taking a domestic flight from Mykonos...worked out to be cheaper and faster than ferry if you take the odd timings...we depart at 6.55 am! Will be staying at the Athens Intercontinental where my friend Dimitris works as a chef, he got us a really good rate, but the rooms are old though, so am not optimistic. On the agenda is the Acropolis and all the other touristy sites, lots of shopping at H&M, Mango and Zara and perhaps off the beaten track with Dimitris.

The countdown begins!

Working late

It's 2.30am and I am still awake, was catching up on some work. This is precisely why I wanted to be a PA, just do my job from 9 - 5 without having to think about work when I got home or on the weekends but this new role is a lot more demanding. I reckon it will be busy for the next 4-5 months until I am familiar with the products and how we do things but if it doesn't improve by December, I need to start thinking of plan B.

Spent all of Friday in Bintan, conducting a site inspection on 2 resorts for an upcoming event. Dragged my colleague Phyllis with me and we had fun touring Bintan Lagoon and Nirwana Gardens and all their facilities. Was telling Nick we should plan a family holiday at Nirwana, they have a mini-zoo on their grounds, pony rides and even an elephant park!




Finally managed to sort the rest of my wardrobe on Saturday morning, have been doing it in phases - first the black/white/brown tops and pants. Then the skirts. Then the purple/pink/red tops and blue/green/orange/yellow tops. On Saturday, I did the dresses, and boy do I have a lot of dresses! I have lost about 3 kgs since February so I didn't get rid of much items, seeing as to how I can fit into most of my pre-pregnancy clothes...woohoo!

I was so pleased that I could fit into a particular blue and white floral dress that's been in my cupboard for over 3 years (with tags still on), that I wore it that evening itself. Couldn't resist dressing Nat in matching colours, she wore a new romper from Gap with blue butterflies.



We fetched Swana, Kevin and Gigi and it was so heartwarming to see Nat and Gigi get excited at seeing each other. Babies at their age apparently don't know how to play with other babies, but conduct in parallel play. These two are non-conformists! Gigi was grinning at Nat, who affectionately touched heads with her and then both of them kept nodding and putting their heads together and holding hands, like some secret baby greeting!

Dinner was with the St Mary's gang at Serenity Cafe, Vivocity, kids in tow. It was nice to see everyone after so long...Swana's like the glue that holds us together, if she doesn't organise something, no one will bother!



Shared a paella with her, it was too fishy for my liking but overall, wouldn't mind going Serenity again. It always looks so empty from the outside, but it has a very big space and live music at night, so quite nice to chill.




By the way, we are now down to 1 fish. 2 of them died in consecutive days while we were out. Don't know if the lone survivor killed them or what. We've been following the instructions of the shop owner but obviously something is wrong, am so not a fish person!

The munchkin can almost say 'thank you' now, as well as 'A-B', trying to get her to say 'ABC'. Wendy has this thing with her, teasing her about stealing and eating her cherries, so in honour of her godma, Nat wore cherry jeans today!

Little Drummer Girl

Nat is 16 months and she is making attempts to sing! Recently she went, "Pum pum pum pum," it sounded like part of 'Little Drummer Boy,' so I hummed the tune to her and she tried to repeat the 'Ra pum pum pum' bit.






She's saying new words everyday, right now she can do 'up', 'down', 'bike', 'blue', 'purple', 'book', 'truck', 'playpen' etc. She tries to say 'butterfly' in full, but it comes out slowly as 'buh-ter-vai'. Whenever someone says 'no' to her, she goes, 'No no no no no!". She can also point to most of her body parts now, including elbow and cheek.

Her walking is much improved, although she walks like a drunkard sometimes - one shoulder higher than the other and not looking where she's going, which has resulted in some trips.

Seems to be teething of late, I expect new teeth to erupt within this month.

Nick bought her three guppies yesterday thinking it would amuse her...and now he's trying not to let his mum find out because he adamantly told her that he did not want any fish when she offered to buy a couple of weeks ago! Twit! I need to think of names for them, don't even know if they are male or female.


Her hair is getting long, we can tie mini ponytails now. And in the past couple of weeks I have splurged on a number of Gap items...can't resist their extra 20% when you buy 5 or more items, and the additional 10% if you pay with UOB...they work out to be cheaper than if I had bought in the States.



Gigi is a proficient crawler already, and a speedy one to boot! Something about her position and technique brings Komodo dragons to my mind though. Like Nat, she cannot sit still these days and much prefers to be let loose on the floor than cuddling up. She can get into a standing position with support and she and Nat do interact with each other. She can say 'hi' and stunned some people in a lift last week, they thought she was sooo clever!


She seems to be going through a phase of separation anxiety with Mummy though, who is not allowed to leave her sight when people other than Swana are minding her. All hell breaks loose whenever Ma goes to the shower or another room and nobody else can calm her down except Ma.

She has a cute chuckle and likes to shake her head for fun. They are growing so fast, time to start thinking about No.2, although with the new job (which is going to be extremely busy for the next few months), I am not sure if it's such a good idea at this point. But I definitely want another by next year so see how...

I attempted to make a quiche from scratch today, my crust was a disaster though it tasted good...just too thin and shrank further in the pan...need to perfect that but the filling of zucchini, mushrooms, chicken and tomato was quite yum though could have used more cheese. Oh well, next time!

She just can't accept "No!"

All's been quiet on the Mildred front and I thought she was finally letting us do things our way.

Yes, there have been little gripes here and there like when she wanted to feed Nat the chocolate Amer cake from Bakerzin or when she kept insisting on buying age-unappropriate toys for her granddaughter that contain small parts a toddler could choke on...so I just insisted 'No' on the cake, and let Nat thrash the toys under supervision.

But yesterday, she called twice in quick succession (while we were trying to speed up Nat's sleep by driving around in the dark and quiet of Mount Faber) to highlight that she thinks Nat's discoloured skin from the inflammed cyst was getting darker and bigger, even though to me it's been fading and shrinking. But she insists we should get it out sooner, because according to her, there is mass of black hair under the skin and it's mutating! I assured her it wasn't but she wasn't placated.

When we got home, she called again and was about to raise the issue again but decided against it when she heard Nick's impatient tone. However, he did detect she had more to say and called her back.

She then asked about our address...because she had bought a ceiling fan for her precious granddaughter. She's paranoid Nat will get her fingers stuck in the standing fan, even though I said we will endeavour to buy more net covers. We had been through this conversation last week and thought the matter was dropped when Nick and I both said we didn't want a ceiling fan in the house. But she didn't take no for an answer and went ahead and placed an order for one, confessing last night! Nick flipped obviously, because she didn't listen!!! Aaaarrrghhh!