A new beginning

For those of you who have been following my blog, I appreciate your support, well wishes, and comments.

I have migrated my blog and would notify you accordingly. Please look out for my email, and if you don't, let me know.

Thank you for your support!

Thad and Ruby

Thaddeus recognises Ruby from the calendar that we have at my place and Grandma's place. If you ask him, "Where is Ruby?", he would point to the calendar.

I hope they recognise each other when they meet.

The New Mega-Shopping Mall - ION Orchard

This is what it looks like. Haven't roamed in it yet. It's right opposite Tangs Orchard/Marriott Hotel, and above Orchard MRT Station.

What Have We Been Up To?

Not in chronological order or frequency.

1. Going on aquarium escapades - our favourite!

- we have visited (repeatedly) for past 2 months - Qianhu Aquarium, Nanyang Sea View Aquarium, 328 (located at Clementi Ave 2)

2. Toured around Kranji area

- Bollywood Veggies - ate at Poison Ivy Bistro with Mum & Dad.

- Hausmann Marketing Aquarium - fed koi, saw the biggest Pacu fish, exotic fish like Arapaima I cannot remember which one was longer - the Pacu or the Arapaima, because it was certainly longer than me! Couldn't take photo cos the pond was too dark!

3. Visited nurseries

I have visited nurseries in the Thomson Road area, Far East Flora at Queenstown and Hort Park.

4. Hung around furniture places

- bought an Ikea 4-drawer cabinet at the "As-Is" bargain section for S$203!

- bought 3 full-back leather dining chairs (Effezeta) for S$69 each at a carpark sale at Castilla!

So many things going on, you can understand why I haven't blogged for a while.

Garden is Done!

The garden has been DONE! On the back near the wall, you have a mix of Gardenia and Jasmin sambac plants. Both are flowering plants with white petals that are fragrant if you can get a whiff of it. In the pots you have another plant, which also gives off a lovely fragrance, but I've forgotten the name! They were re-potted and have been in our garden for some time!

Against the other side of my wall, we put red Ixora plants, and Tibouchina which has purple flowers.

Overhauling the Garden

We recently went to the Plant Nursery in Thomson Rd area and bought a selection of Ixora (S$4 per pot), Gardenia, Tibouchina, and Jasmin Sambac plants so that our front garden does not look so disorganised. Hopefully, they all survive. Apparently, the Jasmin plant needs pesticide every week and within a day of coming back, its leaves were already being chewed by some insect.

Let's see how it goes......

And Zack said...

"I love you Mummy".

It happened when I tucked him in to sleep and whispered an "I love you" to his ears on Friday. He then replied the above spontaneously to me. I was so happy!

Motherhood is made of such moments!

What's around The Old School

Last month, I had some time to kill, and I had the chance to walk around "The Old School", where MGS used to be.

It is now home to a number of design houses. They also had 2 restaurants/bar, one called 'Timbre' and another called 'Chalk'. I also visited the 2902 Gallery where they were hosting a "The Dimension of the Plane - Communication Design in Germany". There were lots of information on the boards, but I learnt a few new things - there is such a thing as a font book, and the cover design of design books are really fantabulous.

I liked the fact that I was wandering around in a tranquil environment, at leisure and feeling refreshed along the way. This should be the way and I know why the companies decided to put up at this new location. It's very a calming and lovely place to be in. I felt inspired to do creative things.

What I Did on My Birthday

For those of you who don't know, yes, I look like I am 3o years' old, and I feel younger than that actually. This is the cake that SG bought to celebrate my birthday - a Strawberry ice-cream cake from Swensen's.

After breakfast at Chinatown, we headed straight for Pasir Ris Kid's Kampong, which Ethan & Sophie had gone before as a field trip when they were both in Eager Beaver. We found our way there, and here are some pics to go. They thoroughly enjoyed themselves, and we brought back at least 30 fishes (Ethan had 16, Sophie had 10, and Zack had >10).

The good thing about this place is that after you catch the fish in a 'longkang'-type stream and it is designed in such a way that young kids can simply move around the stream. It is a tedious task catching the smart fish! Once you are done, you can bag them and bring your catch home! So, we had 3 bags - 1 for each child! Next, you get to feed the fishes with the fish food provided (in a separate feeding area), and if daring enough, you can let the fishes kiss you. Zack even touched a number of them.....they were so excitable fish! There were also some geese and rabbits in some enclosures in the area for kids to see. It was like a mini-farm.

The fishes are now temporarily housed in a transparent plastic container we found at home. Daddy bought a pump so that they can survive at least a few more days. It hasn't been 2 hours, and I can already smell the water! Eeeks...have to think of a solution - the kids love it so much. We couldn't change the water, because we didn't buy the de-cholrinating drops, so we can't possibly put them in freshwater!

Anyway, I must say for $10 each kid, and $4 for the pail and net set, it was a worthwhile investment to see the kids enjoy themselves so much. Check out the pictures.

Thaddeus Sprouts Teeth!

No picture. I don't have a camera with me. Daddy has gone off with it.

I want to take Thaddeus 2 new teeth on his lower front gums. It sprouted a few days ago...you can hardly see the whites of the teeth, but if you open his mouth big enough, you can just barely see the edges.

The last week of February was a bad week for 3 of us. Thaddeus fell ill for the first time on 24 Feb - he had fever, followed by the flu and sore throat. I've been sick that same week as well with a bad sore throat, and to add on to that, Ethan had food poisoning (or salmonella, not proven, but suspected) on that same week! Ethan had eaten soft-boiled egg on Monday and Tuesday during recess in school, and had diarrhoea on Tuesday, followed by fever and vomiting on Thursday. He ate antibiotics and was much better the next day. I'm pretty sure he won't be eating soft-boiled eggs for quite a while!

School's out next week...wondering what to do with Ethan at home...

More Studio Pics of the Family

It was a rare occasion that the 'Ho' family is in the same place at the same time. So, we went about to get professional pictures taken of the 'HO' family on 21 Feb, and it turned out really well.

The family and kids pictures are the mostly challenging, needless to say. How do you 'control' the movements of 6 children under the age of 7, plus 8 adults?

The pictures were taken in the span of 2 hours, and I must say the photographer did a good job capturing the moments too.

The Finished Product

This is the framed picture of the having baby Thad's hands and feet scupltured sometime in November. It seems simple, but it holds a precious memory of what Thaddeus's hands and feet looked like when he was about 3 months' old at that time.

10 things that happen when you are left Internet-less at home

This is what happens when you do not have Internet access at home.

1. You cannot finish your work at home, and rush like crazy when you are at the office.
2. You get stressed and read the blackberry like drinking water. (I think I read more than I drink).
3. Your home PC collects dust.
4. You decide that you don't need the printer anymore.
5. You have many days of 'backlog' in reading emails sent to your 'personal' email accounts.
6. You are slow in responding to 'friend' requests in Facebook.
7. You decide that you really need a new internet service provider so that you can get the Cable TV that comes along with it. (Pssst.....actually, the internet subscription comes free when you subscribe to Cable TV).
8. You suddenly 'work' on the PC till 1.30am after 1 month of internet deprivation.
9. You finally have a chance to search for friends in Facebook.
10. You blog about things in the past.

Good night.

Our First Halloween Celebration

This is the first time we saw the inside of a Pumpkin. It didn't look like what I imagined it to be. It was quite hollow with lots of seeds. Ethan and Zack had some fun cleaning out the seeds from the inside, while I had a 'kick' from carving out the face and making the Jack-o-Lantern out of it.

Otherwise, it was quite an uneventful Halloween.

Nesting Instinct?

People say that pregnant women tend to have the 'nesting' instinct when they are about to give birth. I must have got my instincts wrongly wired somewhere. These few days, I'm having the motivation to housekeep my house and my mum's house.

Last week, I (and maid) managed to clean and re-organise the shelves in my room, and when Zack was back home, and he noticed the change (his DVDs were all neatly standing in 1 shelf instead of the usual disorganised stacking), he said, "Wow"! For Zack of few words, that surprising and exclamatory 'Wow' can still be remembered today.

From my room, I moved on to mum's house. Today, we cleaned all the tables and shelves in the room where Thaddeus would be sleeping most of the days when I'm working. The room is quite dusty, and we gave it a good mopping. I cannot imagine Thaddeus 'living' in a room full of dust and old stuff....so we did it.

Besides this, I would also be clearing quite a bit of the old shelves at home in the other rooms, so that they can be mopped clean for other purposes. I think that after so many years of keeping stuff in the shelves, if they have not been touched in the past 1 year, you don't need them anymore, and so, they should be discarded. That, is my philosophy, and that, would be my objective in the next few days.

I guess I owe the new 'nesting instinct' to the fact that I would be starting work next Thursday. I don't say I am looking forward to it. I seem to have so many other errands and stuff I want to do before that...

Mooncake Festival

Recently, I received a box of mooncakes from Tung Lok group. This is what it looks like - 16 bite-size pieces in different flavours, all packed in one. Looks really sumptuous. Haven't had the heart to open it yet. Maybe next week. Cannot resist. Not that I love mooncakes, but when it looks as small and harmless as this, I think it's OK to take a few.

Imagine - strawberry mooncakes - cannot fathom what it would taste like. I much prefer the snow skin mooncakes.

Confinement Food

Grandma has been busy cooking home-cooked confinement food for mummy.

This is what the food looks like - simple and yummy! I don't eat the pork knuckles and stuff with vinegar or ginger...tastes too extreme for me. I'd much prefer anything Canotonese style with lots of sesame oil. No fried food, or fast food for now. So, it also helps with losing the pounds - I have lost 7kg so far, and about 7kg to go....that's not bad considering it's only been 2 weeks. Heh heh.

A Reunion after 20 Years

Last Saturday, Alex, Vivien and I organised a Sec 4A Class reunion, after 20 years of graduation from school. The task of calling people was not so difficult, but I think making 16 people (out of 39) turn up at 1 place at the same time was more challenging, and I'm proud to say we did it!

A total of 12 guys (out of 20), and 4 gals (out of 19) came to the gathering held at Alex's place. Of the 19 gals, we had about 3 who were overseas, and 4 who were uncontactable, so it wasn't really easy to get the gals actually.

Some look exactly as we remembered them to be, 20 years ago. Some were thinner, some were 'chubbier', but mostly, we all retained the characters and the personality that we remembered each other to be.

It was heartwarming to see everyone together, and chatting. Spouse and kids also came along for the gathering. Thank you for making it a success!

I'm thinking of organising another one in 5 or 10 years' time! Well, at least, with an updated class list, we can have smaller group gatherings in between, and not wait 20 years for one! Heh heh.

The Ice-Cream Man

Nowadays, the kids recognise the sound of the Ice-Cream Man's tinkling bell, as he rings it around our estate.

It was just before dinner around 5.30pm on Saturday, when he pushed his cart hoping to get eager children to buy the ice-cream. With a mummy (me!) who loves ice-cream, who could resist?

They waited patiently as the uncle chopped up the ice-cream in slices and put it into a bag for the kids. You know, we buy them in slices which can be put between wafers, or between pieces of bread. He doesn't sell the "Potong" type, which means, the type that you scoop and put in a cup. He only sells the 'sliced' type.

We purchased about $8 worth of ice-cream from him, and the kids ate their share before dinner. Needless to say, they took less food for dinner.

Well, as long as they love it, and enjoyed the whole experience, it is something I want them to take away as part of their childhood memories.

A Family Dinner at Yunnan

Dot and the family had a dinner at Yunnan Restaurant at NTU Alumni Club.

It was difficult to get everyone together, but the candid shots were really good.