Soaking in Christmas spirit at Orchard

For the first day of my leave today, we headed down to Ion thinking we would get some Xmas shopping done, but we didn’t buy anything!

Instead, we admired the decorations with the kids, there was a fountain set up outside along with a giant tree, which we could go in and ring the bell.

 

  

We decided to lunch at Hard Rock Café and mummy and Gigi met us there. Their set lunch is really worth it, at $15 nett, you get a soup or salad, main course, soft drink and scoop of ice cream. And their fish and chips is the good stuff, they use sea bass and not frozen ‘dory’ which is actually some catfish fillet lots of other places use.

Popped by Far East Shopping Centre to pick up the Feed at Raffles membership we purchased and Gigi came over after lunch. Then we went to Membina after Sasha woke up from her nap as Gigi and Nat had a make-up Chinese class to attend. It started to pour as we dropped them off, so Nick, Wendy, Sasha and I had tea, wedges and chicken wings at Poteato. 

Desmond's new digs

Woo hoo, my leave has started and I don’t have to go back to work till 3 Jan.

Met some of the SingTel folks this evening, I think it’s been about a year since I saw some of them.

 

Hong Wei, Desmond, Michael, Crispian and I had dinner at Fatboys Thomson (note to self: don’t order the fish and chips in future), where the hot topic was the sex scandals that dominated Singapore news this year.

Hong Wei left for a conference call and the rest of us went to Desmond’s new digs in Soo Chow Gardens, where Richard popped in.

The house is nicely done, I think I insulted Desmond when I said it had a Scandinavian feel, when he was going for the Hamptons look! Ha ha.

Chen Tze and the kids came home after a while and Tristan and Cameron entertained with their antics playing on the carpet.

Over the past week, there’s not been much going on. A couple of days ago, I saw some of the Singapore Lions having lunch at Amara and secretly wished them luck for yesterday’s game which they won.

On Sunday, after mass, we went to Raffles City and had lunch at Coffee Club before catching the live jazz performance of classic Christmas songs, that Nick/Trafalgar had sponsored. Sasha got carried away with the music and started twirling around, attracting amused smiles from onlookers.

On Saturday, we just chilled at home. Nick had time to paint a model plane I bought him in London, and Nat and I spotted a funnel cloud forming, then disappearing. Cool!

 

 

On Thursday the 13th, I was peckish at suppertime and I wanted carrot cake from Serangoon Gardens but there was a jam on the CTE so we diverted to Newton and ordered from a stall I’ve not tried before but he seemed to have several awards and it turned out to be pretty good. 

A Misys Christmas

My kind boss allowed me to come in late today which is coincidentally 12.12.12. We had an office Xmas party at Beer Market in Clarke Quay last night and at 2am we were both still there!

It was a fun evening, this is the first time in my 5 years at Misys that we had an external Xmas party which proved to be a boon for bonding with newer colleagues, after we were acquired and merged in June.

I received my long service award for 5 years, now I have $500 to spend. I also won a lucky draw prize of $100 shopping voucher, woo hoo.

Tried at my hand at darts, pairing with a couple of different colleagues and even won a round, must be beginners luck. Not complaining, got to hug a hot Frenchman in the process, LOL! 

Being pregnant seems to bring a little luck round, I got one of the best gifts from the Secret Santa office exchange earlier in the afternoon. My boss splurged on a 1hr massage voucher and he drew my name, funny thing is, I actually helped him wrap the gift!

After work today I headed to United Square where the kids were gathered to catch a show featuring Barney and Angelina Ballerina. Sasha kept her ears covered but Gigi and Nat were dancing away. 

Toilet fiasco

Made some chocolate chip and pecan cookies yesterday after preparing the batter the day before but because I cut down on the sugar, I think it affected the consistency as the cookies didn’t spread on the tray and retained their scoop shape…or maybe it was just too cold!

We went to Membina for lunch and dinner was at Amah’s house. Daniel is in town and came over for dinner, along with his friend. When he said he was bringing a friend, I thought it was a new girlfriend, turns out it was Amy, his ex-girlfriend whom we met a few years ago and now they are back together.

There was a pasar malam downstairs and Nick got conned out of I think $46 on games for the kids, where they try and win cheapo toys. Sucker!

I was bloody freaking pissed during lunch today, and I don't get pissed easily. We were at Vivo and ended up at the White Dog Café. Midway through, Nat said she needed to pee so Wendy brought her out.

Then Sasha said she needed to go, so I took her in search of the nearest loo only to bump into Wendy and Nat who said they had encountered 2 closed ones already. So we went up to level 3 and crossed over to Marche only for the loo next to it to be closed too. Then we went down another escalator to Toys R Us, and the loo next to it was closed also, and so was the one below it. So that was at least 5 different toilets closed in the same vicinity, leading me and my 2 toddlers with full bladders on a wild goose chase over 3 floors.

By the time we found a working one all the way at the Bakerzin, and headed back to continue our lunch, a good 20 mins had passed and our food was cold. Aaaarrrrhggggh.

This evening after dinner, we took the kids to MBS for a walkabout to see some Xmas trees along the waterfront and we walked all the way to the other end to the Art Science Museum, where Nick left us to get the car while we continued on the Helix Bridge then to the Float.

Finally I see the logo I helped create while at SSC! They sure took their time to announce the official name and put up the logo!

W is for...

...Wanton Mee.

We had an appointment with the good doctor today and after confirming everything is on track, we dropped the kids at Membina and continued on to Katong to do W.

Eng’s Wanton Mee has been on my list of places to try since Adrienne has been raving about them, and they won the hawker masters for wanton mee. They used to be located within a hawker centre but have since moved out to a standalone shop.

I had high hopes for the noodles but it was anti-climatic. Maybe now’s not a good time to be trying them with me being queasy occasionally and being off meats like pork and chicken but truly I was not impressed…I prefer finer noodles and more sauce, I found the dish to be dry and wantons so-so.

Even with the addition of ketchup, it didn’t perk up for me. I think the Hong Kong style wanton mee near my office is much tastier and sometime ago I tried really good noodles opposite the OG at Rochor, so I don’t think I’ll be back at Eng’s anytime soon.

We took a walk around the neighbouring shops and stopped for ice cream at Ice Cream Gallery before heading to the maid employment agency to start the search for Wendy’s replacement. She’s indicated she has an offer from Canada and plans to move there in a few months once her visa is approved.

There was grand fireworks tonight, for the official opening of RWS on Sentosa. Yesterday there was a spectacular display as well, for Vivo’s anniversary. I love my balcony!

Oh, and then we found this bottle of water that had frozen in our fridge…am curious how it managed to not spill its contents, after all it was the fridge and not freezer. 

Welcome back Vig!

Vig’s in town and we managed to meet up for a late supper last night together with Puni and Chris. She came over to the house first to meet the kiddos, the girls were shy at first but warmed up soon enough. Nat went to bed first so Sasha chatted with Vig for a bit, and then I sprang my news on her and she was so excited.

She drove us to town to meet Puni and Chris at Coffee Club at Wheelock and I let the other two in on the news and their eyes grew as large as golf balls, LOL! Ha ha.

Vig’s gone totally vegan, so it was hard for her to order something from the menu, even diary is out so that rules out creamy soups, ice cream, things with cheese. It has to be soy-based…I don’t think I could survive!

Midway through supper, Swana messaged to say Kate Middleton was also preggers, so looks like we’ll have kids the same age!

It was lovely to see everyone, I had work the next day and couldn’t keep my eyes open for long, so I left earlier and they continued part 2 somewhere else.

Jersey Boys

Caught the Broadway musical Jersey Boys at MBS earlier this evening or rather yesterday evening and it was good! 

We went in a large group with Jeanette, Kaelash, Swana, Sham, John, Nick and me. Swana’s colleague Kavitah was super late and missed half the show due to a jam at Orchard. MBS was also crowded today because of the whole Gangnam Style phenomenon…Korean popstar Psy was performing a free showcase.

The show started out a little slow but towards the end of the first half it picked up and all the familiar songs came on and it was almost like watching a concert.

There were some sad moments which made me tear but overall I thoroughly enjoyed the performance and was singing along to ‘Sherry’, “Big Girls Don’t Cry’, ‘Walk Like A Man’ and ‘Can’t Take My Eyes Off You’.

Anyone who loves oldies should go catch it, there were a number of empty seats despite being a Saturday night so I think the ticket prices may be a deterrent or the younger generation aren’t familiar with their music. Am gonna send the mums there, they would so love it.