Finally..

It's been quite a while since I've last touched the home computer. There's lots of stuff I need to do; Tara's website, new template for my blog, upload images, download fonts etc. The past a week or two, I will be asleep by 11.30pm and I kind of felt pretty bad, for putting off all these stuff and succumb to the comfort of my pillows and duvet instead.

Anyway, in 3 hours and 30 minutes, I (only) managed to do the following:

1. Create a new banner for Tara's website (yet to launch), after making about 5230 amendments. I quite like it now.
2. Some little stuff for the sidebar, which I presume I will still make 10,000 changes.
3. Downloaded tons of fonts from Font Foundry

Talk about productive or what.

Karen Cheng

I spent the last few days reading Karen’s blog from the beginning. I’ve been following her blog everyday since June but only recently, I decided to go right to the start. She blogs about happenings on her daily life; shifting into a new house, attending parties and weddings, hubby surviving cancer, her obsession with earrings, taking care of Callum (first born) and giving birth to Sean. It’s very interesting.

Just like Karen, I love to cook too. And sometimes the things that happen to Callum happened to Tara too. I dreamt of growing herbs in my backyard if I have one, but staying in Singapore means it’s not that possible, unless I’m staying in a landed property. And reading about Karen’s nice little garden of rocket lettuce, tomatoes and herbs just makes me so, so envious.

I started to dream, of staying in Australia, where life is not as hectic, houses are bigger and during weekends, there are nice places to bring your kids to. Singapore is pretty boring, I would say. There are not many places to let your kids explore. I’m planning to bring Tara to Animal Farm, Zoo, Bird Park, Botanic Gardens and West Coast Park for picnics. And where else can I go? Shopping? Makan? Oh man!

I felt that life is boring here. Bob prefers to chill out at home every weekend, while I prefer to go somewhere, in fact, anywhere! Even Jurong Point seems like a better option than staying home.

Signs that tells me I've attained Auntie-hood

• Don't bother to visit the hair salon, although hair is in complete mess.
• Stepped out of the house without nail polish on toes, but wearing open-toes.
• Shaving legs became an annual event, unless there are other IMPORTANT occasions when I need to wear a skirt.
• Using my left foot to scratch my right leg, or vice versa. (Gawd, I can't believe it either, especially when I used to hate people doing that).
• Talking when my mouth is full of food.
• Talking way too much, and quite loudly.
• Gossiping alot.
• Wearing shoes and carrying bags that don't coordinate with the rest of my outfit one bit.
• Rummaging through mountains of on-sale items, with glee.

Get-together

Had a wonderful gathering with the old-timers yesterday. I had the chance to cook curry chicken since the gathering was held on a Sunday. The verdict on the dish was quite good, thanks to the killer curry powder which Mum swears by.

Angela prepared sumptuous but “evil” kong ba pau. Guess I gotta run at least 5km to lose all that calories! But it’s so delicious, I couldn’t resist. Jaime brought along more fattening food, durian cake and blueberry cake! Wow, we really know how to enjoy ourselves! Sis took over my “standard” item and bought topshell, but preparations by Jaime, shame shame on her. Haha. Cindy was the only health conscious one yesterday; she bought fruits, not-so-ripe papaya, watermelon and grapes.

We enjoyed a few hours of yak before sis’ “suppliers” came to intro and do some demo for a certain brand of skin care product. As an ex-beauty sales promoter, I’ve learnt to be skeptical whenever someone tried to sell me something and telling me how good it is. Hence, it’s usually someone else trying it for a certain period of time, and it shows obvious results, before I will “invest” in it. Anyway, had fun with the demo.

Cyrus was, as usual, going around and making other kiddos cry. Javier was hit with a phone by Cyrus twice; the 2nd time was more serious, blue-black marks on Javier’s temple. Looking at Cyrus made me think of how Tara will be at this age, and it made me cringe. Nothing can tame him, except the cane. To care for such a child, it will take lots of patience, and I think Cindy is losing hers soon. Or maybe she had lost it already. Just hope that Cyrus will grow out of it soon.

After the gals left, I spent the next 3 hours washing up, doing laundry and some house chores. Without Bob around, it’s pretty tough to care for Tara alone. But I’m coping, and thanks to high 5. I have no choice but to let High 5 “babysit” Tara. Yes, I’m another victim of the “TV nanny”.

Wow! I passed 8th Grade Math!

You Passed 8th Grade Math

Congratulations, you got 10/10 correct!

Being really bad in Math (and I mean really bad), I'm so surprised I got a 10/10 in one try! Try it here!

Emails from Bob

On Sunday, I was clearing out some stuff from the study and chanced upon some floppy disks. Who uses floppies nowadays? So I decided to retrieve the files and toast into CD-roms instead.

One of the floppies was some saved text copies of Bob’s email to me when he was going after me and when we first started dating. I almost forgot how lovely that feeling was. When you constantly received emails from someone who’s very interested in you and hoping you will consider him, and when he profess his undying love to you. It’s so sweet when you first fall in love.

When we started dating, he had already contemplated about getting married with me! Talk about fast or what. And he was saying if we have kid, the kid will look like him or me? And also how nice it is to have a place of our own, blah blah blah. It’s so nice when you thought of it in the past, when you are in it, well, it’s totally different.

Anyway, it’s good to reminisce once in a while. It kind of rekindles the almost diminishing passion. Of course I love my Bob, very much in fact, but the passionate feelings you felt when you first dated is almost no longer there. What a pity.

Wow! I’m tagged!

I got tagged for the first time, thanks to Eileen *wink*.

10s that will bring me moments of joy:
1) Bob bringing me and Tara out for our family day, just the 3 of us.
2) Booked a hotel room for a relaxing overnight stay.
3) Tara kissing me when I ask her to.
4) My mum cooking my favorite dishes.
5) After cleaning up the house (happy at the achievement and enjoy the tidiness)
6) Being busy at work.
7) Receiving my commission on the 15th every month.
8) Listening to super romantic songs when driving at night.
9) Going to my favorite restaurants for meals.
10) When both Bob and Tara smiling and hugging me when I reach home from a stressful and tired day at work.

I’m supposed to tag another 5 to complete this, but how? I do not have many friends with blogs. So I’ll just tag 2:
- Cindy
- Janice

Bloody Infection

Saw my company doctor yesterday afternoon. Actually, I hate going to company doctors because I always thought they are trying to “entertain” us only, and always thinking that we are there for one reason, MC (Medical certificate).

Just as I expected, the doctor gave me a couldn’t-be-bothered look when I’m trying to tell him the symptoms. I had a hard time describing. I felt giddiness but I don’t feel the whole place spinning.

Anyway, the doctor did some random checks; checked my throat which was okay, took my temperature, and I’m running a slight temperature 37.8. I was surprised as I don’t feel unwell at all, as in the kind of weak feeling I would usually get when I have a fever. I told the doctor and he said “Weell.. the machine don’t lieeee.” Arggh!

After which, he took my blood pressure and check both my ears, and everything was fine. Until he told me to stand up, with my arms up (like Chinese zombie type) and close my eyes. Immediately, I feel giddiness and feel myself swaying.

Doctor asked me a few other questions and decided that it might be some infection which is don’t know inside which part of my body now, hence causing the fever and the giddiness. I was prescribed antibiotics for the infection and medicine for the giddiness. Doctor also told me he had a friend, who was affected by some virus and suffered from imbalance (drowsiness) for 2 years, and couldn’t drive or even walk straight without support. Even though he recovered from the infection, he suffered the after effects for 2 years!

He also advised me to drive carefully, as I’m often behind the wheels. Till now, as I write this, I’m still running a temperature, but feeling perfectly alright, except for a few occasions of giddiness. I’m supposed to go back either on Thursday or Friday for further checks if the giddiness is still there.

New dish - Pork Ribs with Bitter Gourd

I always cook on Sundays, when my in-laws not staying over my place. Yesterday, I decided to try my mum’s yet another yummy dish. Pork Ribs with Bitter gourd.

Yesterday morning, we went to Tiong Bahru Market for brunch, as well as to get the ingredients for last night’s dinner. While Bob was queuing for the infamous Lor Mee, I called Mum for some quick instructions on how to cook the dish; in fact, I only learnt it in 5 mins! Smart can?

It’s pretty easy to cook but as usual, my mum always say “agar lah” when I ask her how much ingredients I should use. So it’s also “agar-agar”, trial and error, when I cook. The amount of ingredients I use are usually based on the amount of the main ingredient, in this case the pork ribs. But I never cooked with ‘tau see’ (salted black bean) before, hence I really don’t know how to gauge. I’m supposed to fry the tau see with the garlic and small onions before I fry the ribs and bitter gourd. Then I’m supposed to simmer the stuff for an hour or so. During the simmering part, I realized that the tau see was not enough, I had to keep adding and eventually, I added one whole packet!

Fortunately, the taste was pretty good. Almost mum’s taste. I’m very happy! I love to eat this dish and now I can cook it myself whenever I have cravings. Bob was very happy too. He loves to eat, and he loves it that I love cooking as well, and he’s extremely happy to see me learning new dishes (sad for him, I refused to learn those Kelantan dishes). While I was cooking yesterday, he walked into the kitchen, with a wide grin on his face and commented on the nice aroma. His verdict on the dish? Good! And my verdict on the dish? Good! (I’m trying to be humble here).

I think something’s wrong with me

I don’t know why, I’ve been feeling giddiness every night, even when I’ve already lie down on the bed. I don’t know what causes it but I hope it’s not something serious. Sometimes when I wake up in the morning, the giddiness is still there. Sometimes there will be a bit of nausea feeling.

It’s time I see the doctor.

It’s Christmas already?!

EBIL (elder Brother-in-law) came back from US a couple of nights ago. Last night, he came to our house to see Tara, his favorite niece.

We felt so bad. He bought so many things for us! A Hard Rock café t-shirt each for me and Bob; Another T-shirt for Bob, as he’s worried Bob might not fit into the hard rock one, hahaha. And some golfing stuff which I don’t know what it’s called.

Tara has the most gifts. She got something like a rattle made from some animal skin. EBIL said it’s a mini version of some kind of drum used for bi(4) xie(2). Cute. EBIL also bought her a jumper dress and a sleeping suit from Osh Kosh. The size indicates 18mths, but they look like they will only fit Tara when she’s 5 years old! It’s so BIG! Anyway, it’s so nice of him.

EBIL also bought us one box of super yummy chocolates! My favorite! It comes in a nice tin box with assortment of flavours. I gobbled 2 immediately. And he helped us to get Desitin Creamy – the 4 oz packing ones – 6 tubes! I remembered a few days before he’s back, he said he only managed to get 3 tubes. It seems that this diaper cream is also very popular in US, and it’s always out of stock. EBIL had to go around a number of pharmacies to get it. And it seems that the prices weren’t standardized. Some pharmacies are selling at $3.99, and some at $5.99. Strange.

Oh yah, he also bought us (YES! There’s still more!) shooters glasses from Hard Rock – which we are collecting - and also a small whiskey glass from don’t know where.

Aww… so sweet of him. I felt like it was Christmas already!

Breakfast cum Lunch = Brunch, Lunch cum Dinner?

2 Saturdays ago, we visited June, Guowei and their lovely first born, Aloysius at Gleneagles. Aloysius was big, 3.6kg or 3.8kg at birth. Congrats to June and Guowei!

After the visiting, we decided to go Tanglin mall for lunch / dinner. I wonder how to call that. Breakfast cum lunch is called a brunch, how about lunch and dinner? Do we call it a lun-ner? Or a dinch?

Anyway, we decided to go Spageddies. I wanted so much to eat the Aglio Olio but Bob wanted to eat too and told me to get something else (funny him, we can order the same thing what!). I ordered a Vongole Spaghetti. The garlic bread was super yummy! But my spaghetti was not as fantastic. I should have stuck to the Aglio.

After the “dinch”, we went to the supermarket down the basement for our groceries. Wow, it’s pricey!

Another short family day….

2nd Wedding Anniversary

It’s our 2nd wedding anniversary. 2 years ago, we held our wedding dinner at M Hotel and had our wedding photo shoot at Raffles Marina. It was a very memorable day for us, despite some minor hitches we had. I still reminisce fondly even till now. I would flip through our wedding albums and watch our video montage once in a while.

Bob asked me yesterday where I wish to have our dinner. I told him Lawry’s. I’ve only been there once but I can’t forget the infamous Spinning Bowl Salad.

We decided to bring Tara along. I thought it will make this day even special and meaningful as it’s her 1st year celebrating with us. Once we stepped into the restaurant, Tara received celebrity attention! Tara enjoyed the attention as well, and was smiling, laughing and clapping her hands when the waiters and waitresses played with her.

They served us the Spinning Bowl Salad first. I remember that it used to taste even better, especially with their seasoning pepper.

After the salad, the Chef pushed the cart over and served us our Roast Beef. We ordered a California Cut each with additional cream corn for me and spinach for Bob. At the same time, the waitress served us the Yorkshire pudding which she said, goes well with the beef. The beef was yummy-licious, especially with the added topping of horseradish cream. It tasted so heavenly; I thought I’m in heaven!

On the menu, the California Cut was described as “smaller serving for light appetite”. I wonder why because the portion was so big, I had difficulty trying to finish!

They happen to know that it’s our wedding anniversary and served us a truffle (I think so) with a lighted candle. It’s so sweet of them.

Before the dinner started, I gave Bob his gift. It’s a voucher from St Gregory’s. Over the years, he received almost all the kind of gifts a man will get; wallet, belt, tie, shirt, socks etc. I’ve even bought him a Chinese teapot (which he has a collection) last Christmas. I thought to myself, there’s nothing more he needs, except to relax, that’s why I decided on St Gregory’s. I just hope that I (or he) will be able to top up additional $192 for a Spa Escape for Two Sampler. Anyway, he will be so lonely if he goes alone.

* Photos will be uploaded later*

Tara almost ate a bug!

Babies are known to pick stuff on the floor and shove it into their mouth. I saw her picking hair, bits of paper etc. But that day, she decided she want to taste something different.

I was watching TV on the floor, with her beside me. She was playing with her toys. Seconds after I shift my attention back to her from the TV, I saw her trying to put something into her mouth. And that something have wings attached and was flapping in a desperate attempt to free itself fm Tara's grasp. Fortunately the bug was in between Tara's fingers while she was licking her palm. I can't imagine if the bug should end up in Tara's little tummy.

I watched a classic movie years ago, it's about this man, who swallowed a fly and in the end, he metamorphose into one. It's so gross and so real, that even till now, I still believe that such thing will happen. Eeks. Hope Tara don't swallow any bugs while we not looking.