Back to the Music

It was a jam-packed day yesterday, I ambitiously booked 2 plays in one day. In the morning I brought Sasha to the National Library to catch ‘The Little Red Hen”.

It was her first official time watching a play and thankfully she behaved and didn’t give me any problems. We were in the circle section right in front of the railing though so she needed two booster seats but her view would have still been a little obscured.

The props were nice but I was personally disappointed a little by the production, especially because the accents were a bit local and the characters differentiated a little from the book i.e. a goose instead of a pig. But Sasha enjoyed it and that’s all that matters.

We were car-less this weekend because Paris was in the workshop with an air con issue so after the play we cabbed it to UE Square to meet Nick, Nat and Sasha for lunch. After lunch I had another play to catch with Nat, this time SRT’s ‘Goldilocks’.

This production was much more professional, the props were impressive for a children’s play, the songs catchy and the costumes were eye-catching. Nat thoroughly enjoyed the show and so did I!

In the evening I popped out to visit a wake…Phyllis’ dad succumbed to his cancer and I went to pay my respects, together with Serene and Basil. Took a long bus ride to Bukit Batok and going home I took the train.

Though I never expect people to give up their seats for me on public transport when pregnant, it’s still nice to be offered but the surprising thing about today was that both to/from Bukit Batok, no one offered me any.

In the bus on the way over, I did have a seat but gave it up to an old man and went to stand in the middle of the bus. Stood for a few bus stops before a priority seat became available and managed to sit all the way till my destination.

For the train ride home, all the priority seats were taken by able-bodied people and I stood near the middle pole throughout the journey. We have a long way to go before becoming more civic-minded!

At night, we made it to Noelle’s Back to the Music party at Gem Bar, Ann Siang Hill. This is the 3rd one she’s organised and the music was the kind that I can boogie to, but I didn’t boogie because I couldn’t drink and let go of my inhibitions!

She helped to reserve a table for our gang and there was Kaelash, Jeanette, Vinoth, Sophie, John, Flea and Kenny. Everyone loved the music and John was even high enough to do a MJ Billie Jean impersonation, lol! 

Bumped into Adrienne and Adrian, practically their whole family was there to support Noelle, along with a lot of Mischa’s friends I recognised.

It was a fun night, would love to go again the next time she organises it and hopefully I can drink by then!

Italian craving

One of my colleagues who is leaving treated some of the ladies to lunch yesterday. Tim is quitting his job to travel around the world for a year with his girlfriend…ain’t that grand? He’s not doing much of Europe since he hails from France, but he is planning to go Iran and Antartica!

We ended up at Spizza at Club Street, sharing some calamari, gnocchi, caprese salad and pizzas. I had my own panna cotta dessert but the chocolate mousse another colleague ordered looked and tasted really good!

They have kids meals available so since the girls love carbonara, will bring them one day.

The office is undergoing renovation and today was the last day to pack up everything. We took some shots at the reception before it undergoes a makeover.

 

 

This evening, or rather yesterday, I met Joanne, Adri and Susan for dinner….more Italian, this time at Peperoni Pizzeria at Frankel. Adri picked me up from home and we had to park quite far at Siglap Centre.

Joanne has been on crutches since before CNY after removing a benign tumour on her foot and I was finally just seeing her in her paralysed state.

Dinner was good, we shared risotto, pasta, meatballs and Ray was on hand to entertain, though he was mainly entertaining himself by colouring.

It was good to catch up with them, we keep saying we’ll do it more often but somehow with kids and work, the best laid plans always fall through.

We did end up adjourning to Joanne’s house for drinks and dessert, Adri and I tapaued some McDonalds and we chatted past midnight. Simple pleasures. I was glad for a girls’ night out, don’t think I’ve been out for a social dinner all of this year!

Jr at 21 weeks

We had a gynae visit this morning and the boy parked at Botanics. Exited at some unfamiliar part of the garden after he made me climb lots of stairs! But it did give me an idea to explore the surrounding area on our way back.

Dr Siow confirmed everything was going well, the detailed scan was normal, it’s all progressing on track. Doesn't it look like Jr is giving us the finger here?

He said I looked good and I suppose I feel good too. Despite it being a boy, I haven’t had any adverse symptoms so far, at least not in the second trimester.

My appetite has returned to normal, I don’t binge every 2 hours, I am ok with chicken and pork again and my nose is not swollen! People say I’m glowing and carry well etc but to me it’s just the same as when I had Nat and Sasha.

I do get cramps occasionally, I think they are just Braxton Hicks. The baby is starting to move and kick, sometimes I’ll have a sore spot. I look about 7 months instead of 5 and I’m feeling the weight more acutely. Doc says I only gained 4kgs but to me it’s more like 7, because I wasn’t at an ideal weight when the pregnancy was discovered.

Am super active, can’t sit still! I asked about travel and Nick instructed him to certify me fit to travel only until 30 March because he didn’t want me to go to Chengdu for a work event. Hmmpf.

After breakfast we went to the nearby Nassim Café for brunch. I had an eggs Benedict, found the Hollandaise sauce too sour and it was noisy and crowded…not likely to be back anytime soon, these kinds of places are deemed pretentious to the boy. But they did have good bread!

Once we walked back to Botanics, I made him walk around with me for a bit to search for the flowering Talipot palm that only flowers once towards the end of its lifespan and the tree we have is about 80 years old.

Also saw this other tree which had huge roots, I’m tiny standing in front of it!

A decade of marriage

Finally we have reached a decade of marriage and what a way to usher it in! Sasha started vomiting last night and as usual Nick didn’t hesitate to bring her to KKH. We were at the hospital till 4am plus, going through the usual drill of stomach flu monitoring i.e. anti-vomiting medicines, liquids at 15min intervals till she stops puking.

There were plans to have dinner at Mikuni and a brief staycation at Swissotel but all that got cancelled because we wanted to make sure Sasha was alright. She started having diarrhoea so everything is on hold.

I posted a picture of our wedding invite on FB, along with the following words:

10 years ago, this Hot Pink Chick walked down the aisle with her Mee Pok Man and they are still living happily ever after…well, most of the time anyway! Marriage is not without its challenges, especially when kids come along but as long 2 people remain committed and faithful to the vows they took, then the rest will work itself out.

To my Mee Pok Man, thank you for a decade of bliss, two beautiful girls and for providing for us. I know I drive you up the wall sometimes, as you do to me but I will always love you, come what may. Thank you for the new bling, you rock! Some of you might ask what I got him in return…nothing much actually. A son is his present! :-)

The Pumpkin just has a month to go before she turns 3 and for a 2 year old, I am impressed with her drawing. I can actually make out the shapes she draws, she favours a princess with a long gown and she can draw a smiley face. 

 

Just a couple of nights ago, Nat helped to set the dinner table, after being encouraged by Geraldine…I should make her do it everyday!

The kids are so into Disney princesses now, I don’t know when the phase will end! But at least Nat has forgotten about her bridal stuff.

They are always fighting, I have to constantly nag for them to clean up their room…they like to colour and draw while sitting on the floor and will leave scraps of paper everywhere! Nat is so into her scooter and she’s good at it too, she’ll zoom up and down the hallways throughout the day.

I try to make sure Nat has at least 10-11hrs of sleep a day. The ideal would be for her to sleep by 9.30pm and wake up 8.30am but it’s usually 10pm – 8am for her and Sasha, but at least Sasha gets to nap in the afternoons.

We’ve pinned down a bedtime routine i.e milk, story, brush teeth then sleep. They take turns choosing their bedtime story, sometimes when they don’t clean their mess, I withhold the story.

But they are good girls generally, very different personalities and it will be interesting to watch as they grow up. Not that I’m in a hurry for them to grow!

Be our guest

Hosted some of Nick’s colleagues for an impromptu dinner this evening, call it their very own ‘Be My Guest’ experience!

He had a travel director named Brandon in town to help with NATAS and to thank the team they were supposed to go out for dinner but he decided to invite them over and tapau food because he felt guilty about not seeing the girls all weekend and for the next few days too.

There was Brandon, Choy and Daniel and they kept the kids entertained. Food was from Sin Hoi Sai and we had 3 types of crabs – salted egg yolk, chilli and black pepper…yum. They proceeded to Alexandra for drinks while I stayed to put the girls to sleep.

Yesterday we had another feast as Aunty Lee Eng ushered in her 55th birthday at Yan Palace. Nya Nya booked a private karaoke room and Gigi surprised us all by singing Katy Perry’s Firework, too cute! 

Hard Rock staycation

Thanks to Baba, we got a brief staycation at the Hard Rock Hotel this weekend. He had a 2 night stay so between me and Swana we took one night each.

We met for dinner at Din Tai Fung and then he helped us to check in. Nick had NATAS so he was unable to join us but me and Ma stayed over with the girls last night.

We had a simple breakfast of Breadtalk buns which I brought along and after breakfast, Swana, Gigi and Kevin joined us for a swim. The pool was nice and empty but the water was a little cold.

My girls stayed in their floats and didn’t want to try the slide at the kids pool. Nat did it once only, with me but couldn’t be persuaded to go again because she felt the floor leading up to the stairs was too dirty for her bare feet…so kuniang!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sasha slipped at one point, dunking her face in the baby pool though she had a float on, but that traumatized her and she didn’t really want to get wet after that. Such unadventurous girls I have!!!

After showering we had lunch at the Hard Rock Café, and celebrated Lita’s birthday at the same time. The crew presented her with a sundae and sang her a song and she was so embarrassed because all eyes in the restaurant were on her.

The girls all napped in the afternoon, so did all the adults except me and I was treated to a chorus of snores!

For dinner, we headed to Melissa and Derong’s new house in Punggol. Nicely done and there was a steamboat dinner prepared for us. 

Nat was too shy to play with the other children and clung to me all evening probably because she had been reprimanded on the way over. She said some bad words unknowingly in the car ride over which shocked us all.

In essence, she just went, “Mummy, mummy, cheelaka bitch” thinking it was some new cool words but she didn’t expect my stern reaction. I ddin’t scold her but wanted to find out where she learnt the words from and unsurprisingly she heard it from Mama Kim! Tsk tsk.  

Poor Sasha puked on Aunty Geraldine just as we reached home. Milk and long car rides just don’t mix for her!

Happy belated birthday Jane!

Met JGR for Jane’s birthday lunch today at Prego and it was a good catch up session. We used my FAR card so there was a saving of 25% off the menu, including their sets.

Shared a calamari, 2 soups, pizza, pasta and fish main and even then we struggled to finish. The calamari was a generous portion, at $26 it better be!

 

 

 

The pizza, pasta and fish were on the average side, nothing to rave about but nothing to complain either.

Dessert was a fruity mousse with chocolate sponge but we were all too full to appreciate it!

Last night we held a small farewell party and lo hei at Membina for Wendy. She departs on Thursday after working for us for 3 years. She initially had an offer from Canada but it seems to have fallen through so in the meantime she’s heading back since we’ve already found a replacement but I daresay she’ll be back within a couple of months.

Bought food from Tiong Bahru market including tom yam soup which she said she would miss.

This evening I gave her a small angpow and parting gift of SK Jewellery gold chain and pendant. Nat was super clingy as she knows about the impending departure but Sasha doesn’t seem too bothered.

I hope the kids don’t have withdrawal symptoms for long and adjust to Geraldine soon. She’s been here almost two weeks, during the handover I noticed the senior one bossing her around and deliberately try to make her look incompetent but I’m not stupid!

I’m glad to start fresh, while Wendy was a big help, she did get complacent, bossy and defiant. I wish her luck in whatever comes her way, I don’t think she appreciated how well she was treated.

She made some recent comments on FB in Tagalog which were not complimentary to us, something along the lines of us not showing any gratitude after 3 years and being made to do extra work despite the fact that she was leaving but the first part was premature because it was before her farewell and the second part is just not true because we didn’t assign anything extra and in any case she had Geraldine on board to share the load. Harumpff!