SHATEC Spark

It’s that time of the year for dumplings and I placed an order for nonya chang as per last year with Aunty Irene. She is still estranged from Ma, so had to go via Baba, But it’s worth it…I haven’t really tried outside ones but who needs to when hers is pretty high standard?

And the bonus is the blue bits of bunga telan-dyed glutinous rice. Ah, I recall a time when she would make me full blue chang…

This evening, I met some of my SHATEC classmates after a very long time, probably not seen some of them for over 10 years. It was quite an impromptu gathering. After meeting Calisa with JGR a few weeks back, we set up a Watsapp chat group and invited some of the people we used to hang with or were closer to.

Met Jane after work first, we shopped a bit at H&M then had dinner at Everything with Fries before heading to Tanuki at Orchard Central.

There we about 10 of us in total. Aside from JGR, there was Rebecca who runs operations at Haato the gelato store; Sophia who does payroll for MNCs, Calisa who works at Agoda, Brandon who does something comic book or AV-related, Josephine who lives in Everton and does audio and Douglas who does corporate sales at OCBC.

Everyone more or less looks the same and they are still as zany and full of nonsense as ever! We exchanged stories on kids, I think all the ladies who were present were mothers except for Germaine, we reminisced and joked and some of them were so surprised to even find out Jane was a mother of 2!

It was a good catch-up, I think another gathering is on the cards for 28 June but I doubt I will make it. There is a SHATEC 30th anniversary dinner coming up on 2 July as well which some of them are considering attending. Nick is supposed to attend as a committee member and he bought a table for his office too but it all depends on Koko Krunch!

Songbird Cheryl

Cousin Cheryl from KL had a performance this evening at the Sultan Jazz Club and so we popped by to support. Nick and I got there earlier and seated ourselves next to Lim Yu Beng and Glenda Chong only to realise the jazz bar wasn’t open yet and we were not in the performance venue. 

 

The Gomezs joined shortly and then the jazz club was opened. John made his way too and we ordered some bar food to nibble on. I must say the bacon-wrapped sausages were yum. 

Cheryl did her thing and she was good but I found the other musicians a bit self-indulgent as they rambled on with their guitar or drum for long spells.

Nick wasn’t too impressed though, maybe because the songs played were not all recognisable classics nor soothing but there were some good moments. She’s just starting out so she’s still finding her feet. She’ll be back at the Esplanade in July for some free concerts by the promenade, with a Disney theme but I think I will have to give the shows a miss…Junior will most definitely be out by then!

Mamma Mia!

Was a bit ambitious today, attempting to sell some dresses at Germaine’s flea market in the afternoon and also committing to cook dinner for the in-laws.

Nick and I went to market and ran errands in the morning to get some ingredients like vine-ripened tomatoes and basil, and I did show at the flea market for a couple of hours and managed to sell 3 dresses for $40. One of Germs’ friends then followed me home to take a look at some other dresses and she bought another one for $40. So I eventually made about $88 for just a couple of hours effort.

Once I settled the sale, I went about preparing dinner for the in-laws. I had promised an Italian dinner of caprese salad, hearty soup, pizza and tiramisu. I had made the tiramisu last night so at least one thing was settled.

Then I went about making the dough, but couldn’t find canned pizza sauce and had to improvise. In between I made the soup, then assembled the pizza and salad and there we have it, my Italian dinner!

Actually the real reason I proposed Italian was because I had a few ingredients that were about to expire like the mozzarella, mascarpone and tomato puree…ssshhh!

The Enormous Turnip

Sasha had a ballet trial at United Square today and I brought her on my own. Was apprehensive she would be clingy when I dropped her off, but thankfully she didn’t cry throughout the 45mins she was on her own.

When asked if she enjoyed it, it was a vehement ‘no!’ She claimed she had no space to dance and from what I gathered, she was more an observer than a participant. Am not sure I actually want to sign her up for ballet, she likes to dance freestyle at home but it’s a long term commitment to actually do this for a few years and I’m not sure she has that much of an interest…it’s more Mildred wanting her to join.

Nat hasn’t fully recovered but we took precautions bringing her out today. We had a date with ‘The Enormous Turnip’ in the afternoon together with Sasha and Gigi at the Alliance Francais and the girls enjoyed themselves immensely.

The play was funny and interactive, the story deviated a little from the original but there were some lessons and values to be learned. Sasha was laughing her head off, she found the play really funny.

It was a local cast and at the end, they invited some kids from the audience to help pull out the turnip but none of ours volunteered. What’s new?

 

 

Prego prego

Met Jane for lunch today, to catch up after her Japan trip and we wound up at Prego, utilizing my FAR card. We shared calamari, eggplant parmagiana and a spinach ricotta ravioli but we struggled to finish.

 

Prego’s calamari portion has got to be one of the most generous out there! And when it’s half price at $13 after the discount, it’s soooo worth it.

 

The funny thing about lunch is that a group of people of walked in shortly after we ordered and sat next to us, separated by the glass partition. I could have sworn Aunty Yvonne from London was in the group but I wasn’t so sure so I showed Jane a picture since she was facing her.

Jane confirmed it looked like the person in my picture and when our calamari arrived, I managed to catch her attention when she turned, and it was Aunty Yvonne with her kids Jessica and Joseph! Small world!

She usually only comes in August for her birthday so I wasn’t expecting to see her and what are the odds of us ending up in the same restaurant? She had come to holiday in Lombok with her siblings and was heading back in a few days. Showed her the bump and told her Swana was also preggers.

I bought a new toy last night at the PC Show….a Canon EOS 650D DLSR camera. I figured with No.3 on the way, it was time to invest in one, never mind that I am not trained in using a DSLR, I just want mainly portraits of the kids and the photo studios are getting really expensive…one shoot with photos returned is the equivalent cost of 1 camera, so I might as well start learning to take my own!

Oh, by the way, Nat’s fever came back and the latest update is that she has HFMD…but I think hers is mainly herpangina because she’s got not visible sores, only on her throat.

Butter crab, come to mama!

I had a crab craving to satisfy and since Nat seemed to have improved slightly, I went ahead with the dinner I had planned with colleagues Wai Leng and Cheryl.

We met at Mellben after work, there was a short queue despite being only 6.15pm but pregnancy has its privileges as a waitress let us sit immediately upon noticing my condition.

We shared a salted egg prawn, claypot crab beehoon, kailan and creamy butter crab with some mantou. It was a little too much for our party of 3 but we managed to polish off everything, save for 1 piece of crab and 3 mantous which I gladly tapaued home for Ma.

So glad to sate my butter crab craving….don’t know when the next chance will be!

Get well soon my bubba

Nat is down with a high fever, we spent several hours at KKH last night when she couldn’t hold down anything, even her paracetamol when the fever exceeded 39 deg celcius. 

Poor girl was slightly dehydrated according to the doc and instead of the electrolyte solution being given over 1 hr, we had to complete 2 hours before we could go home.

She had seemed fine during the day so the fever was quite sudden. We had taken a bus to town while Nick brought Sasha for a developmental check at the polyclinic. Lunch was at Wheelock’s NYDC and she even posed for photos near the fountain. 

After that she followed me to the Baby Fair at Expo, she was thrilled to take the train but in the late afternoon she felt tired and looked a little blah, and by the time we got home, she opted to nap instead of having her dinner and then she started puking.

Her fever has been pretty high throughout today but no other symptoms so far…Nick is paranoid about dengue and I had a slight scare just now when her fever spiked to 40 degs along with blotchy arms, racing heart, cold hands and feet etc making me a little paranoid about meningitis.

But the ibuprofen has finally kicked in and I can breathe easy for now because at one point she woke up, smiled at me and mouthed L-O-V-E. Aww, my sweet little munchkin.

So far Sasha hasn’t caught anything and I hope it stays that way. She’s so eager to learn this one! Mummy has been teaching them to count in Malay and she can go up to almost 20. She can spell a few words like cat, dog, pig, cow, egg and whatever Nat is learning, she wants in too, so in a way it’s good, I kill 2 birds with one stone.

She really likes to draw fairies and princesses, she holds the pen awkwardly but it gets done in the end. She can draw her shapes from circle, square, triangle and write some letters and draw a flower too, so I would say she’s got fine motor skills.

At her developmental check yesterday, she’s apparently tall for her age and her weight is about 15.5kg. She’s starting to go to the toilet on her own, as she can now hoist herself up on the toilet bowl but she still asks for help to fold/tuck her dress so she doesn’t soil it.

I still need to do something about her temper. Anytime she feels someone is laughing at her or just raises their voice a bit, she storms off. She’s aware of her colouring allergies and now sticks to chocolate on her own free will unless I tell her something is safe.

She’s very attached to her small koala stuffed toy when she sleeps for some reason, it’s a new development and she’ll even wake up in the middle of the night looking for Koala if she can’t feel it within reach!

As for Nat, school holidays have started and a few days ago we had a parent-teacher meeting at her school with her teachers Mrs Koh and Lu-laoshi. She's diligent and well-behaved but they also notice her shyness and self-consciousness and sensitiveness when told not to do something. She refrains from answering questions even if she might know the answer and never volunteers to present in front of her classmates. 

They said she didn't like PE for a spell, but now she enjoys it...she gets upset when coaches change. Her handwriting is neat and they say she is good in her drawing, which we concur. She and Gigi are separated in class otherwise they would be chatting away. 

A couple of weeks ago Nat asked me if boys could kiss girls, apparently she had a Filipino classmate named Gian who had a crush on her and was very affectionate. I asked the teachers about the situation and they say he has moved on, LOL. But they had told the boy not to disturb her. 

Her Chinese is slightly better than Gigi's so they think she is doing alright. They are not too concerned that she doesn't read proper sentences yet, as they have yet to introduce 'blending' so I don't need to be kiasu and push her just yet. My target is end of the year.