Steamboat @ Valerie's House

Be it chinese new year gathering or steamboat gathering... you named it, it shall be it! We have been talking about it, and the day (27Feb) finally comes. A list of food items was collected by Val earlier and I am sure all will have their food wish layed on the table...haha! As usual, I am the last to arrive. Not too late, merely about 5mins past 6.30pm. Immediately I set off to prepare the yu sheng I brought over. When it was ready, the mummies decided that the children should eat 1st before we messed up the table, so I left it aside and placed the salmon in the fridge for later use. Val's fridge was a 'classic'! She had so many magnets displayed all over on the exterior, and guess what? She had lots inside the interior as well! haha..!!! Nonetheless, there is a spot for salmon. The ladies are kinda-of busy inside the kitchen, while the 2 men (Laurence and Jeremy) and the children are all at the living 'entertaining' themselves. Well, the kids have the TV, toys... while the 2 daddies helped to keep an eye on them. Oh, there's Geneve's helper as well. After cooking and settling the kids, the adults gathered once again by the table for Yu Sheng. Ashton and Janelle joined us in the 'lao'! Geneve commented that this is the 1st time she tasted pear in the yu sheng, which was nice. Yes, the pear makes the Yu Sheng not so dry, and add natural sweetness to it. ;-) Thanks to Mum's recipe. After the Yu Sheng, mummies finally settled down and enjoy the steamboat. A causal and homely dinner together.... really an enjoyable evening affair. I love the cocktail that Brandon mixed specially for his guests (though he is physically not able to join us...) The kids love the corns in the soup. Laurence captured a funny video. I titled it -'The Kid's Corn Battle' (Joey and Janelle stealing corn pulps from Kai Teng's bowl) It was extremely interesting to see how the kids interact with one another. Guess who won the battle of the last corn-between Joey and Kai Teng?? The answer will be at the bottom of this page. Haha! After the hearty steamboat dinner, Val presented her desert for the evening... Whoooo... home-made carrot cake! She baked it on her own. We are all very full, but each took a small slice to try. I have to admit that I am not a carrot cake fan, I mean those western carrot cake... but this one was rather good. Just 1 short fall on my opinion, the icing is a little too sweet for me. it will be better w/o the icing sugar I think. But the rest of the gals enjoyed... so, it was my personal preference. Hehe! The night end with a performance by the children. It was a band concerto with 3 little dancers! Well, Kai Teng took a fancy on the trumpet and flute and he went marching in circles with the instruments. Ashton was dancing away with the music from the organ, while Janelle following his dancing steps. Joey on the other hand, also stood up and in her own dancing moves. It was really entertaining. What happened to my kids?? Ashley was the little devil that keeps the organ on/off with music while Cieran just sat on the little stool as if he is enjoying a band performance! How entertaining right? Oh! Cant missed out the youngest kid, Chloe. She is busying crawling and picking up the loose puzzles on the floor! Each child had 'something' to keep them busy, while the adults enjoy watching them.

It was a night full of laugther for the adults, and full of fun for the children. Thanks to Val... for her steamboat invitation!

MSO Division's Lo-Hei on Feb 26

This is the 1st time the division have a lo-hei. Camy has been surveying which restaurant's yu sheng is good.. there has been several suggestions. Eventually it was arranged at Grand Palace Chinese restaurant at Grand Park Cityhall Hotel. A reminder email was sent out on Feb 25, and requesting all to dress up in traditional costume for the event. It was a sporting affair that majority did dressed up for the lunch, even the non-chinese. Mike had volunteered to be the camera man for the event and he happily offer to take photos for us, early in the morning when the few are in the office. Mike looks good in his brown traditional costume, do does Alan who purposely went Chinatown to get one. Though Chinese would avoid black colour due to auspicious reason, but Alan does look good with the China collar cut. The few of us (ladies of course) took one with the pantry auntie who looks after our floor. Before we left for lunch at 11.50am, we cant helped to take again another photo flashing our different colours of costume. Majority of the employees walk over to Grand Park... the 3 'lazy' ones (Joan, Benny & I) are the only ones taking a bus there. Haha! Well, it was actually Joan who is terribly afraid of the sun, and I am merely accompanying her... and Benny joins us. as we took the bus, we are the no. 1 to arrive at Grand Palace, meeting Mike & Alan at the lobby. They are the 1st group who walked over. The lunch started of with Yu Sheng. We are amazed by the large red bowl of Yu Sheng when the waiter brings into the room. The bowl was with a nice, bright colour... with a subtiantial height! Definitely to match the long chopsticks displayed on the table for the 'lao'! The group was in great spirits as we all raised and did the 'lao yu sheng' together. Mentioning auspicious greetings was a must and we have that 'documented' with video and photos. A 9-course lunch awaits us after the yu sheng. First, the shark fins pumpkin soup... a rather unique combination. We all enjoyed this soup, except for Joan. Well, she tried the 'vegetarian' version and commented it tasted blend... she was not convinced that the soup was not tasty is because of the 'version' she had....nonetheless, we all agreed totally that the soup was delicious. I had the pleasure that I have 2 small bowls of the soup. Hehe! Followed by are wasabi prawn, fish, spring chicken, vegetables, noodles and 2 deserts. I like to specially mention about the deserts. We have 1 cold desert and 1 hot desert. The cold one was interesting as it gave a refreshing taste. It was apricot in sweet syrupp with sago, a combination of sweet and soury taste. This is the first time I try such desert. As for the hot desert, it's 'zing doi' known as sesame ball. I like this desert as the filing is not too sweet (coz it's not red bean filing). The biting sensation is good. The restaurant supervisor came to our table and specially highlighted that the sesame ball goes well after we tasted the apricot. This is the arrangements so that the cold desert will brings out the flavour of the sesame ball-not too sweet and will not provides a 'full' feeling after having it. I totally agree with her. The lunch does end very well with the sesame ball. We all have a hearty meal! Before a walk back to the office, we took our last pic by the restaurant entrance...as the girls cant get over with the beautiful decorations. Haha! Cheeze!!!

Ashley's 6 Birthday Celebration

It was not my intention to have a big celebration. But since Jeremy is keen to held a buffet and celebrate at home, I'll let him be. It was a harsh harsh arrangements. Not a big group of guests, just the family members and Jeremy's buddies (with kids). We clebrated the birthday on 5 Dec (Sat) instead of actual day, thinking that if it's on a Sunday, we will be tired after the cleaning job when the event ends. Sat, the kids can also stay a bit longer. Ashley is in happy mood knowing it's her birthday celebration. The children helped me to 'doll up' the house. The theme is "Little Miss". I have earlier printed some Little Miss characters for the decorations. Ashley's favourite is Little Miss Sunshine, so her cake is with this character. Cieran gets excited too.. and he too, wants to help out in the decorations. But instead of a help...haha! He made a mess. Crumpled the papers instead. Good that I have spares...haha. I have also arrange a small pinatas for the children to play. It is by concident that I saw this pinata (that suits the theme) from ebay and bought it at a rather cheap price. Ashley came with me to pick it up from the seller. The cost of this pinata comes includes goodies inside... allows me to save some $! If I buy from the party shop, easily it cost me $28 and above. Yet, I wont have a character that suits the theme. It was a worthy buy, I personally feel... coz I bought it at only $18. Find a place to hook this pinata was a challenge. Ideally, having it at the car pouch area is best position with the space for children to take turns hitting the pinata. Unfortunately it rained and it becomes unsafe for the children. In the end, I hook the pinata inside the house...The children had great fun on the pinata...even little Cieran laughs and laughs. A pity I dont have a pinata bat...haha! I use the kid's badminton racket. Opps! Nonetheless, I dont think the children will be bothered by the packets...they have lots of fun, especially when the goodies pops out! Next, will be cake cutting. The children quickly crowd around the cake without me having to ask them come over. I suppose it's the picture on the cake that immediately draws their attention. Ashley got the privilege to place the candles herself. She has been waiting patiently to blow her candles. Little Cieran helped too.. besides daddy! Ashley also enjoys distributing the cake to her guests. She seems to know that this is her 'task' being the host, and she is the last to have a bite on her piece of cake. Haha! Ashley had enjoyed herself very much, as well as Cieran. It's a wonderful day for me, when I see that my children enjoyed themselves. Their smiles warm my heart. :-)

Ashley's Birthday Presents!

Cieran's 1st trip to the Zoo

I have always been wanting to bring the children to the zoo, especially now that Cieran takes more interest on animals. He especially adores elephant and monkey...thanks to the picture on his pull ups. Haha! After much 'convincing' made to Jeremy, we decided to make a trip on Dec 31. It was a wonderful weather that day! We arrived at the zoo entrance at around 10am, and the process of making the zoo pass was fast and efficient. Instantly we got the annual pass and proceed with the exploration in the park. With the map, we headed towards our first animal show-Sea lion performance. Along the way to the theatre, we passed by parrots, otters, flamingos, orangutan etc. Cieran gets excited over the monkeys on the tree tops. The theatre was crowded with tourists and unfortunately, we did not manage to find any vacant seats. We parked the stroller on one side and have to carry the children to let them have a good look. The performance was entertaining with sea lions amusing the audience. Cieran enjoys the performance as much as Ashley. Next, we move on to watch Elephants at Work show. Cieran gets excited when I mention 'elephants'. We are lucky to have found a front seat for the show. The 2 kids walked all the way to the front, standing, to have a better glimpse on the elephants of Asia. It was a marvellous performance, showing all the elephants' talents-such as using their truck to hold huge logs, piling the logs, splashing of water..etc. After the show, we went to the Australia outback for children to get in touched with Emu and Kangaroos. We went to visit hippos, white tiger, and watched the 'all animals play back time' performance before we hop on to the tram ride. We cant be missing the white tiger... Ashley's favourite animal... moreover it's tiger year next year...haha! (what a reason!) Cieran was tired and he slept during the performance. Our last stop is KFC! We are all hungry from the walking, and also coz it was rather late for lunch (around 3pm). We had hearty meals and the family members had really enjoyed a fun trip at the zoo. On our way home, the children smile happily without any sign of tiredness... (Coz Cieran had taken his nap earlier)

Cieran's Xmas Party @ GUG

Cieran has been attending classes at GUG since he is about 10months plus. Through the many lessons, I witness his learning progress. He took longer time to 'warm up' compared to his sister, but I understand that every child learns differenttly. I have nothing to complain when I see that he has benefited from the numerous lessons and it's money well paid for. ( I feel). From a little shy boy who always 'stick's to me, now he learns to be more independent. He is able to walk up to the front of his class on his own to satisfy his curiously, than having this mummy to keep encouraging him and pushes him forward. I am relief and happy to see such progress. This day, Dec 19, Cieran will be having a Xmas party in his class. He happily knots his head when I ask if he wants to dressed as Santa. This little boy, not sure of he knows what is Santa... haha! Nonetheless, he knows he is having some fun in class. The craft lesson was in the theme of Christmas. The children are to make their own Xmas card. Cieran watched attentively at teacher doing a demonstration. Cieran enjoys gluing and didn't want to stop. Mummy has no choice but to hide the glue away from him. After the usual lesson, the party starts. Cieran has been waiting..... when the teacher is trying to lay the table with food, this little boy was already standing, eyeing on the food. He doesn't care less about the gift exchange that is on going at the other side of the class room. When finally the party starts, the children happily found a seat, enjoying the food that parents bought. There are too much food for all of us... chicken nuggets, cakes, fish balls, biscuits, crackers etc. The prawn crackers seems to most popular among the children. Cieran took a fancy on chocolate wafers. He keeps asking for more.

A Trip to Cameron, Nov 13-16 2009

This trip had been planned long ago...sometime in June. It was initiated from an article in My Paper on Cameron. I was attracted by the nature and the description in the papers that I started to 'influence' Jeremy and my sisters if they will be keen. Glad that Jeremy is OK with my proposal and Grace decided to join as well. A pity mum and dad didn't want to join eventhough my intention is to give them a free trip on my expense. After much research and calculations, I have decided to fly to Ipoh via firefly, then booked a transport to bring all of us (7pax) up to Cameron. Hotel had also been set to stay in a 3-rooms apartment at Hotel Equatorial. The day finally comes.. and the kids are excited over the trip. It's the 1st trip for little Cieran and 1st time on a airplane. He is a cutie... he insisted to be carry a bag over his shoulder, just like his sister. Looking at their happy smiles, I am happy too! Cieran is extremely happy when he sees an airplane. This is our 1st time to visit the budget airport and 1st time on board Firefly Air. It was better than I imagine. The budget air provides quite good service on board. Unlike jetstar who doesn't serve any food items unless you purchase them, firefly aire does provides light snacks and juice FOC. We arrived to Ipoh at 4.30pm. Smoothly met the driver and on the drive to Cameron. The children gets so excited that they refused to nap on the 1.5hrs journey. The children choose to sit together by the last row. The route up the highland has been easy, it was unlike what I have been told that the roads are rough and curvy. It was a comfortable ride, not as bad as I projected. I love the natural air-con from the cooling weather. Our apartment turn out to be a pleasant one, bigger than expected. The children have fun walking around exploring. After settling down the luggage, we went out for a sumptuous meal. Thanks to the hotel shutter service that gave us a free ride to Strawberry View restaurant for yummy steamboat. It's a pleasure to have something soupy and warm in such a cool weather (esp after rain!) Our 1st experience to enjoy steamboat on such cool weather. I love it! Back to hotel, we walked around the lobby and ended up having ice cream for desserts. Sitting at the fireplace, it's so relaxing. The children amuses themselves with balloons picking from an event held at the ballroom. Little Cieran is sure happy! He loves balloons. The next day filled the day up with educational tours! We have hired a coach for 6 hours, bringing us around to several farms. The 1st stop is Rose Garden. An eye opener for all of us to see such many rose varieties. Beside roses, the 3 old cactus caught our attention. The cactus was older than any one of us. Haha! They are 39, 40 and 41 years old! Natural, the ladies are admiring and enjoying the flowers while the men gets kinda bored...haha! Jeremy and Cieran rather wait for us at the souvenir shop. Next, we stopover at the honeybee farm. The children gets the opportunity to see the different types of bees and wasps. Little Cieran is very curious...at least, he gets to see up close how a bee looks like. ;-p A good educational tour for kids indeed! As we drive along the route, we stopped by a small watercress farm. They served steamboat as well, and we have decided to try that for dinner. Again, another eyeopenerr for us. 1st time we saw how watercress was grown. You'll be amazed how the folks here can drain the water through piping for the growth and watercress was grown in a pool of 'drainwater'.... how unhygienic...haha! But then, from the landscaping point of view, it does look beautiful. Just don't look down! Next stop is Boh Tea Plantation, a must to visit! Along the journey, you can already see how big the tea plantation is.... which means, how rich the own is! The factory is open free for visitors. We get to see how the tea leaves was processed. There's a simple introduction given by the driver, which was good information about the grade of tea leaves. I've bought 2 packs of Boh tea. 3-in-1 tea packs and ice tea with fruits for home consumption. We took a break at the Boh Tea Cafe. The children enjoys their cake...esp Little Cieran. He loves the cake, and I went off to buy another one for the children to share. After lunch, the driver brought us to the farm that the children had been waiting for. It's the highlight of the whole tour-Strawberry farm! The children has been asking since morning when they can picked the strawberries...! Look at the 3 strawberries? Which is juicer? The picking wasn't cheap, actually. It was half a kg at RM 20, but it comes with the fun of choosing own fruit and cut it with the scissors provided. The next hour was spent of busy walking around, in search of big, red strawberries. Ashley was really busy in picking her fruit, while Cieran was her assistant, carrying a basket following her. The kids look so cute with their baskets. This is all our 1st time (sounds so familiar) to see a strawberry pot. The flower is beautiful, white petals with yellow pulps. The farm are grown from hydroponics. Organic with no fertilisers used. The children gets to eat freshly picked strawberries after the weighing, paying and washing. The most happy one again is little Cieran. He loves strawberries! Ashley on the other hand, doesn't like strawberries, but she enjoys too... with her strawberry smoothies. Besides strawberries, there's also a varieties of vegetables grown in the farm. Fresh lettuce best for salads. A pity we are not able to buy any of them... wont be fresh by the time we bring back to SIN. But the look of it, you will know that they will taste very yummy. The whole tour has been an enjoyable one. I believed all the children has a fruitful day. Back to the apartment, the children are still very energetic. They started to play the few toys that I brought. Snap, fishing game..and Uno. The guys, on the other hand, were so tired and took a nap in the rooms until dinner time. The dinner at watercress was an interesting one. Not the usual steamboat that we had, the soup base was kinda 'herbal'. Nonetheless, it was healthy. As the kids have a long tour in the day without nap, they are all tired over dinner. On our last day, we decided to walk out to the market on our own instead of hopping on to the hotel shuttle. It was a relaxing and cool walk. The Kea Farm-day market was not far from our hotel. We have some fruitful buys, such as a strawberry umbrella that I have been eyeing for, a couple of key chains for Ashley to give to her friends in carpe diem, a strawberry shortcake bag for Ashley etc... Yes, strawberry... Cameron's token is strawberries! Good for the girls...haha... but nothing much to buy for the boys. Vernon felt so left out... I believed Cieran will too, if he is older. (Phew! He doesn't understands yet) Our 4 days 3 nights had been well spent in Cameron. Though short, but we all have a FUN time!