Swissotel Staycation

It’s been awhile since we visited the Studio Loft so I made it a point to schedule a shoot yesterday. Sasha has grown so much since the last session we had, I just had to capture her toddler face.

Prices have gone up, can’t do too many sessions as I please, probably once every 2 years just to capture their growth.

I brought a few matching outfits for the girls, the dopes are in Bandung so Gigi tagged along too. They didn’t really cooperate, it was so hard to get them to smile, especially Sasha.






In the end, there weren’t as many shots taken as I would have liked, and the kids have their mouths open too wide in many of them, because they kept shouting ‘Koh Samui’!






I bought a Groupon voucher for an outdoor session with a different company, planning to go end of next month. If their pictures turn out nice, I’ll consider using them more next time. Fingers crossed.

After the shoot, it started raining so to pass the time, we had lunch at a restaurant serving Chengdu cuisine. Then it was on to Swissotel the Stamford, I had booked a room with Albert’s help - mainly to see the NDP preview fireworks with the kids.


The kids ran riot in the room, jumping on the bed and ooh-ing and ah-ing at the view. They were so psyched to be in a hotel, but soon enough Nat and Gigi had to leave for Chinese class.



While they were away, Sasha and I napped and when Gigi and Nat returned, we ventured to the Raffles City food court for dinner before returning to the room with a cake purchased from Epidor.

Did the requisite cake-cutting and candle blowing before the girls had a quick bubble bath. And then we waited for the fireworks! A bit of a disappointment actually, the wind blew the smoke in our direction and the smoke also muted the display. But still, the kids had fun and that’s all that matters.





I was left with my 2 cranky bubs when Nick left to send the rest home. Took a while to calm Sasha down, she wanted Wendy and Lita. Finally managed only for her to start crying again when she fell and hit her head on a side table…,my fault for not keeping an eye on her, I had only left her momentarily to make Nat’s milk. I shudder to think how close her eye was to the table’s sharp corner…

Eventually managed to put both to sleep, Sasha roused again when she heard Nick come back. So different she is from Nat. On one hand, Nat loves the hotel and doesn’t want to go home while Sasha keeps saying “ I want to go home!”

They both woke up super early this morning, by 7.20am and we caught the sun rising above Suntec.




Originally the room didn’t come with breakfast, but thanks to Albert’s connections they had included breakfast for us.


Ate at Café Swiss, there was a large spread but the girls chose to eat chocolate muffins. I didn’t do the buffet justice, we were too busy making sure the girls ate. We went to check out the pool after, but the water was chilly so we discouraged them from swimming.

Instead. Nick went to Suntec to check on his travel fair set-ups while I entertained the kids in the room. Rather they entertained themselves spinning on the office chair.


We checked out as soon as Nick came back, Nat was so reluctant to leave and her Daddy has promised her another stay. He’s so soft with her! I shall ask her to request for the Ritz, ha ha.

P is for...

...Pollen.


Owned by ‘celebrity chef’, 1-Michelin starred Jason Atherton, I had made the reservation just before they opened and earmarked it for our P date. We took the buggy from the entrance all the way into the restaurant and had a table in a corner. Nothing fancy about the interior, has a slight Mediterranean vibe to it but not much of a view.

He ordered the crispy baby squid, with piperade puree and roasted lime to start with, and I had the salad of buttered lobster with pasta and maple dressing, sans seaweed. The dip for the squid was richly flavoured, the calamari itself had a churros-y taste to it, definitely some cinnamon sugar there.


I enjoyed my lobster salad, the dressing was quite umami-tasting, sweet and savoury at the same time. I had ordered a glass of Moscato Asti, so the two went very nicely together. I could just guzzle a whole bottle!


For the mains, I had the roasted cod with creamed olive oil potatoes, lemon conserve, and orange grenobloise. The fish was nicely cooked but after a while I was jelak of the taste, the lemon conserve was cloyingly sweet.


He had the roasted pork belly with broad beans, slow-cooked squid and chorizo. The first few mouthfuls were fine but after eating half, he was full already because it was very rich.



We took a break before dessert to wander around the flower dome. I was disappointed with what I saw. Not only was the lighting dim, there was only one main flowerbed and the colour combination and types of flowers left much to be desired.



Maybe after Keukenhof, no other garden can compare but still, since the conservatory is climate-controlled, they could have done much more. There was a display of bottle trees though, those were quite cute but other than that, I don’t think the admission is worth it.

Once back in the restaurant, we were seated at the dessert counter to order and watch our desserts being prepared. They served a complimentary apple and caramel dessert, it was quite nice with a burst of sea salt flavour in the ball garnish.



I ordered a crema de chocolate with banana ice cream and frozen caramel water, expecting some chocolate mousse thing but it looked like chocolate dry ice and had that effect too. After a while, the novelty wears off.

Nick asked for a coffee, but because before that he was asking the pastry chef what went into the coffee and cognac dessert, she mistakenly thought he was ordering the coffee dessert.

She informed him he had to order that with the wait staff and because the dessert was already made, he ate it anyway and decided to forego his coffee, only for a waitress to bring one around a few minutes later! They should have clarified first...he sent it back!


I showed him the supertree grove just before we left, and then we headed to Tampines to collect Aunty Sarda’s mail. A rather low-key birthday it’s been, but 34 is nothing special. Maybe will do something major for 35.

Happy birthday to me!

Happy birthday to me! I now consider myself to be in my mid-thirties, man I’m old! The kids woke me up with a card they had signed off and offered me a Lego cake, so sweet.


Finally I could carry my pressie, the Mulberry mini Bayswater in hot fuchsia. It’s hard to match, so I paired it with the B&W DVF Greer dress, which I have been saving for a special occasion.


The boy also surprised me with some purple roses yesterday, he gets an A for effort even though they were the wrong kind! I like the natural lilac-coloured ones, but he bought bright dyed ones. At least he didn’t pay a bomb, drove to Far East Flora to select from the cold room and all.


For once I actually worked on my birthday instead of taking leave. But my boss was kind enough to let me work from home in the afternoon when he found out what day it was so I took up his offer.

Stopped by at the hospital on the way home though, Aunty Sarda was admitted last night after appearing very weak and unresponsive yesterday. She’s much improved today so I think she should be discharged soon. The docs know about her reluctance to go through the radiotherapy so will see what they say after they review her latest scans.


Before I reached home, I had to make a pit-stop at Raeburn Park to collect Sasha’s bumblebee neck pillow. Nick had flung it onto the roof of their utility room last night to teach the kids a lesson…they were fighting and crying over it on the way home from Membina. I called the building management and asked for help to retrieve it for me and they kindly obliged.


While I was there, I decided to tapau lunch from Parco Caffe. Ordered a prawn and zucchini pasta, it was nicely al dente and buttery but could have done with more prawns instead of just 3.


I fell asleep while waiting for ma to come over with the kids, waking just in time to get ready for my dinner with Nick. It started raining just as I left the house, dinner was at Pollen, Gardens by the Bay.

O is for...

...Olympics.


The London 2012 Olympics opened last week and we’ve been catching some of the action on and off on TV.



Singapore’s women’s table tennis team scored a silver in the last games and are targeting 2 medals this time round. And 1 is in the bag now, we just watched Feng Tianwei beat her Japanese opponent to win a singles bronze medal. So exciting! And nice to see the Singapore flag being raised.



I think the majority of the country were rooting for her, despite the debate on whether we should be relying on foreign talent to help us excel in sports. I feel that whenever Singapore is represented, no matter whether a local or instant citizen, we should get behind the individual or team.

Singapore wouldn’t be where it is today without our immigrant forefathers, people always forget that.

The recent influx has caused some discord and should have been better managed by the government in terms of numbers, infrastructure and assimilation but at the end of the day, many of them are here to do the work Singaporeans shun and forge a better life for themselves.

I’ll admit I have my grouses too, mainly when it comes to language and cleanliness. If everyone would just learn some basic English, pick up after themselves and respect personal and public spaces, things would be so much better!

Sasha at 28 months

The tantrums that Sasha used to throw the previous month seem to have died down, thank goodness! She’s much better behaved, but can still cry for no reason. She’s adapted to all the visitors Aunty Sarda has and no longer cries when she sees new faces…at least for now. She even proclaims, “I see all the uncle and aunties, I don’t cry anymore. I’m a brave girl.”


I wake her up to pee about twice a night, there were a couple of accidents so I resorted to putting the diapers on for the night, but they usually stay dry till morning.

She can sorta sooth herself to sleep, I don’t need to pat her. I’ve folded up her playpen so she now sleeps on a mattress on the floor, which she is relishing. She will rub her bolster and fall asleep by herself. She’ll even chase me away if I lie next to her, “Not here Mummy, your place is over there,” pointing to the bed.



She’s at the parrot phase, repeating everything we say, down to Nick’s ‘wah lau eh’ that he said once in the car. She talks like a mak nenek, never fails to crack me up. She loves to make funny faces and roll her eyes, and amuses herself by poking her nose and doing a wiggle.

She’s sometimes curious about babies in stomachs, she saw my maternity shots and knows she was in there. She’s taken to putting her dolls under her t-shirts pretending to be pregnant.



For some strange reason, she loves vegetables, the crunchier the better. She can eat raw celery and cucumber sticks, last month she tried bitter gourd and loved it. Sometimes she spits out her meat, but veggies she never refuses!

Nat is still in a bridal phase. She wants us to call her Aunty Melissa, especially when we need to summon her. She’ll pretend her blankets are wedding gowns and Gigi her groom. She and the rest are hooked on a show called Zoom, Zim, Zam which teaches them phonics. Kavi produced the show so we’re all proud of her!




Nat is still reading by memorising, she can recognise words like ‘mouse’, ‘house’, ‘ball’ and read short sentences like ‘we all play ball’ and ‘mouse on house’, thanks to Dr Seuss. She loves to help me when I bake, I think we’ll make some cookies soon. Nick wants to cultivate that interest in cooking in her.