Bishan Park! Under lots of construction and wind-less, but we still had a great time there.

* * *

After our little stroll in Bishan Park, we headed off to Calvin's mom's for dinner. We haven't spent Sundays there for quite a few weeks now. We love having Nigel and Gabby spend time together. Just yesterday, Gabby got so excited and literally pounced on her Gor Gor when they were put together. The handsome little boy cried and refused to be near Gabby... haha... he kept patting his chest to show that he's scared when he sees her. It was damn funny.

Just now, he did that chest patting again when he came into the house seeing Gabby having dinner on his high chair. hahahaha... But it didn't take long for them to warm up to each other again.

That was the cue to separate them again! hahaha... Gabby has this habit of showing love by "stroking" people's face. And of course she has yet to understand the concept of stroking, so all she did was use her mighty strength to show her love! We separated them before Gabby scares her Gor Gor again. :p

The Yeo's are back for holidays! Got in touch with Nicole this morning and we decided to try and arrange for a quick catch up in the evening. It's really great that we managed to find time to meet up. They came by to our place and we had a simple zichar dinner together.

This is the first time we met Cheyenne. Seen so many of her pictures and read so much about her on Nicole's blog but nothing beats meeting this sweet little girl in person! She's so smiley!!! I was worried that she'd take a while to warm up, but no... she started smiling at us even at the door! So sweeeeeet.....

Cutey Cheyenne has this amazingly cute ability to pose, smile and wait for the camera to click for a snap. It was so cute! She would look at the camera, wait for the clicking sound and for the adults next to her to start moving before she moves too. So well-trained! Well done, Nicole. hahaha... model in the making!

Now that we've met Cheyenne in person, looking at her photos on Nicole's blog feels a lot more "qing qie"... hehe... Hopefully, we'd get to introduce 小B and Cheyenne before the Yeo's head back to NJ. (^.*)

Noi and Randy are back for Christmas and so it's time for a get-together. I wish I was able to whip up a feast for them, but really didn't have the ability to do that. After standing for 3hours yesterday baking the cookies, my feet swelled so bad they looked horrible. I knew I couldn't manage standing for long hours again today. Thank God Winnie ordered Roast Chicken, Honey Baked Ham and Cheesy Sausages. So my job was only to prepare a soup, a vege dish and desserts.

I made a pot of Crab, Clam and Corn Chowder from scratch and by the time I'm done with it, my feet puffed up again. All thanks to Jasmine who came early to help me out. She then took over and prepare the vege for me. She was my "maid" for the day... wahaha... Thanks tons pal!

Entertainment for the evening = Wii!!! and the little princesses, Tricia and Reeann...

I attended 4 weddings this weekend!

1. Dec 5, Fri night: Yew Leong & Mavis @ Mandai Orchid Garden
It was a simple and yet beautifully sweet wedding. They wrote their own vows and both of them delivered their vows in the most beautiful and touching way. The picture on the left shows the wedding favours they prepared... how apt for the theme and venue of the celebration.

2. Dec 7, Sun afternoon: Adrian & Kaylene @ Grand Corpthorne Waterfront
Adrian is Calvin's army friend. When we got to the hotel, we saw 4 bridal cars parked outside the hotel lobby. This is really an auspicious day for weddings! Kaylene played a tune on the piano dedicated to her parents as a gesture to thank them for bringing her up.

3. Dec 7, Sun night: Mei'er & Weiwen @ Pin Si Restaurant
Soon after we got home from the wedding luncheon, we had to get ready for the 2nd wedding event for the day. It felt like we were rushing for our own wedding.. haha... This is one of the "biggest" wedding I went to. They had close to 70 tables I think. The food at this restaurant is really good! Calvin ordered rice because he has had enough of "wedding dishes"... and he had THREE bowls! hahaha.. true blue "fan tong" husband I have...

4. Dec 8, Mon night: Joan & Sebastian @ Swissotel Merchant Court
This day is indeed very very special for the couple. It's both Joan & Seb's birthday. They ROM'd on this day last year. And today is their customary wedding. Imagine... one year one mega celebration - both their birthdays, ROM anniversary, customary anniversary... all rolled into 1 day.

PHEW! I've never attended so many weddings in such a short time frame. Of course, I had to go back to Maternity Exchange to see what they have for this growing tummy to look good at all these weddings. I rented 2 cocktail dresses - the black low-back halter one that I rented for Audrey's wedding and another black & white satin floral tube dress. I also bought a pair of low black heels so I don't have to spoil the look of these pretty dresses by wearing flats... :p

At Adrian's wedding, one of Calvin's army friend sitting across the table was asking me when we're planning to have kids... I leaned back on my seat and showed him the tummy that's hidden by the table... haha.. he was shocked and I could tell from his facial expression that he's counting back and thinking how long has it been since our wedding. wahahaha!! Hey friend... it's been more than a year. For the record, we got pregnant about 8 months after our wedding. And now, we're 8 weeks from receiving God's beautiful gift into our arms. (^_^)

Part 2 of Calvin's birthday celebration... this time celebrating with Eunice. We decided to bring her and Dennis off the city for a brunch amidst nature and horses. Riders Cafe ~ a nice little restaurant next to the stable. We first came to this part of the island when Calvin brought me to Mimolette for my birthday. We had wanted to try the brunch at Mimolette but it's been booked for a private function today. So we tried Riders Cafe instead. Not bad a choice at all.

We had a very nice lazy Sunday morning at Riders Cafe. It didn't feel like we were in Singapore at all. I wanna do this more often, shall we?

We found some secondary school classmates through Facebook and decided that it's high time to meet up and see how one another has changed. One third of the class turned up - Mustafa, Suyanto, Limei, Hamiza, Hanwei, Jasmine, Winnie, Zhenhao, Yongxiang, Ferris and me. And out of these 11, I keep in touch with half pretty often.

It's really nice to catch up and talk about the silly things we used to do in school. That was like more than 16 years ago! How time flies... We had great fun catching up and we even did a round of "self-intro"... very funny! We were so engrossed in catching up that we didn't take a group photo before some of them left.

As if we're addicted to catching up, we're organising another gathering within the next month and we're hoping to gather more people to join in. Quite excited about it... let's see how it goes. :)

Time flies... one year ago, we visited Winnie and her baby Reeann in TMC. Today, this little girl turns one!

She's one cool kid, I tell you... very "got character"! haha... she plays with toy cars and if you were to give her soft toys, she will take it from you to "patronise" you. But within seconds, the soft toy leaves her hands and her sight and she goes back to her toy cars.

She takes a while to warm up to people she doesn't meet often. You can't even look at her... you have to let her scrutinise you, analyse you and then after a while, you're "allowed" to look at her and play with her... and when you get to play with her, you get to hear her contagious laughter!! hahahaha VERY cute!!!

Happy birthday Reeann!! May you grow up to be healthy, happy and blessed!

WOW! I've been "missing" for almost a month now! Gosh! Time flies... I've been slogging my ass off so I can go for our much awaited trip with a peace of mind. Imagine working every day from 8am to 11pm, having all 3 meals in front of the laptop. I was really really drained... every ounce of energy is drained out of my body. But I tell myself, hang in there... we're gonna have a real good break!

Calvin had been really busy and stressed out at work as well. He had to take a series of tests in preparation for the course that he's attending right after our trip. The passing grade for each test is 80% and from the way he's mugging, I can tell it's much more difficult than the tests he had to take in his PTI course months back.

Today, 21 Sep 2008, we're back in Singapore after 8 days in Melbourne, and the hectic work schedule is about to start again! Calvin has gone back to base to start packing up for his course that starts tomorrow, and as for me, I need to start cheong-ing again tomorrow and get ready for my mega presentation in KL on Tuesday!

Here's some flash back on what's been happening over the last couple of weeks:

August 25, Monday

At 18 weeks, I think I look more like fat than pregnant... Would you give up your seat for me if you see me in the MRT? Surprisingly, this is the week that I start getting seats from nice commuters. Well, there are still a lot of people who couldn't care less.

I think nowadays, these people don't even bother pretending to be asleep... They can look you in the eye, look at your bulging tummy and not give a heck. They probably think that it's their right to remain in their seat. No obligations at all to offer seats to people who needs it more. Well, if you look at it this way, it make sense too right? But then... whatever happened to our "gracious society"??

August 26, Tuesday

Calvin was on leave and decided to give all our soft toys a bath! And he even took pictures to show me... haha... So, Hammie, Tammie, Terror, Nuah-nuah, Hoops & Yoyo and the other little soft toys all went for a wet spin in the washing machine, coming out of it clean and smelling good. (^__^)

August 30, Saturday

This is the last day of Esther and Joeel's exhibition and we had to go there. We've been wanting to go but had been too strapped for time. So, we decided to get out of the house early and beat the crowd in town. We're so proud of them! They are really talented and I really admire them for their pursuit of their dreams. Way to go pals!

September 4, Thursday

As I was chatting to Calvin in bed, ready to sleep, I felt 小B move for the first time! It was amazing!!! Initially I wasn't sure... it felt like a little bubble "blurping" in my tummy... so cute... so amazing... too bad, 小B didn't move again and Calvin didn't get to feel it.

September 6, Saturday

Some weeks ago, my colleagues came back from a client briefing and started raving about this coffee machine. The client's even ready to give us some good discounts. It's really cool and I've always wanted to have a coffee machine at home. So I went home and told Calvin about it. He was totally not keen at all, he thinks the maintenance will be too much of a hassle. So, the conversation stopped there.

And then, some time later, I showed him the George Clooney Nespresso TVC and immediately he fell in love with the machine and asked me to go find out more about it and to check if we're able to get any discounts for it. Every other day since then, he'd ask me about the status of our Nespresso. hahaha... what kind of charm did George Clooney have on my husband??!!

Finally, all's been arranged and here's our Nespresso at work on the first day.

On Sunday, Calvin's sisters and cousins came over for lunch. Charlene (his cousin who works in Melbourne) was back for holidays and so we arranged for a gathering. We whipped up a few home cooked dishes especially for her. Calvin boiled lotus root with pork ribs soup and steamed fish. I stirfried some kailan and tried my hands at a new dish. Something that my parents and granny cooked on regular basis long time ago. It's basically stirfried sliced potatoes with sliced pork. I'm glad it turned out pretty ok.. :) I'd probably cook this dish again. Yum yum... (no pictures cos we're all famished).

Oh, and of course we served our guests Nespresso that day! (^__^)

September 10, Wednesday

Selina (Calvin's eldest sister) sms'd me on Tuesday and asked for my office address. She wanted to send me something. She's so sweet and thoughtful. I received this beautiful, sweet, romantic flower arrangement late this afternoon and my heart melted. So sweeeet..... Thank you Da Jie! Love the flowers, love the thoughts and love you!

Receiving the flowers that Da Jie sent was like marking the end of my busy stressful period and the start of the trip that we yearned for for so long.

September 11, Thursday

It's confirmed! 小B is a girl... our precious little girl... our darling princess... It's so funny. Most of our friends have guessed that we're having a boy. Even Dr Ho said during the last scan that there seemed to be some indication that it's a boy. So from then till now, we've kind of been in tuned with the idea of having a boy. Then today, during the detailed scan, Dr Ho said "guess the gender has changed... it's a girl..." hahaha.... it took us a bit of "adjustments" but we're very HAPPY!!! Now, we've gotta start deciding on a beautiful, meaningful name for our baby girl... (^__^)

September 12, Friday

We're off to Melbourne!!! Long awaited holiday... YEAH!!

Introducing Seth Tan... son of Renee and Allan Tan, brother of Tyler Tan. What a boyish baby.. just like his handsome brother.

Both Tyler and Seth were delivered in Raffles Hospital. Allan and Renee were both very satisfied with the gynae and the service of the hospital. Now, we're thinking if we should change a gynae. Dr Ho's really good and I'm comfortable with him too. But he's quite expensive compared to the other gynaes that my friends go to. Plus, Mt Alvernia is errm... a little not very appealing. Anyway, we still have time to decide.

Seth loves to be carried... he'll cry whenever he's being put back into the craddle and he'll stop the minute he's being carried. His eyes are different from his brother's.. big with single eyelids. But his hair is just like his brother's.. dark, bountiful and soft. And I think his lips are absolutely signature of the Tan's. Cute!

I baked again! This time with Jasmine... and we baked rum & raisin cupcakes! It's a very easy recipe from the 500 cupcakes & muffins recipe book. Esther, I'm putting your wonderful gift to good use, huh? hehe...

I've tagged this page since day 1 cos I know rum & raisin is one of Calvin's favourite flavours. So, as Jas and I were deciding on what to bake, Calvin suggested this.

We made 2 batches and we ended up with 48 mini cupcakes. Each batch that went into the oven, we modified some parts of the recipe. We both preferred the last batch where we stirred in the rum syrup into the batter before baking. That gave a bit more rum taste to the cupcakes and also gave them a bit more moisture. We love our products!! (^__*)

It's my dad's Chinese birthday today and our family met up for a simple dinner - birthday dinner for my dad and me. In fact, we're probably gonna do this again next Mon, cos that's gonna be my dad's ang mo birthday and my deng nang birthday - on the same day!

It's been quite a while since the whole family had a chance to sit down together at the same table to enjoy a meal and one another's company. We met up at AMK S11 for frog legs porridge, BBQ stingray & sotong, satay and BBQ chicken wings. We had a great time chatting about current affairs, MSK, my granny, my relatives, Bro's business, etc etc.

Simple and short, but nothing less than a great family bonding time! (^__^)

Yes. There again! Haha... This time with Noi, Randy and Jasmine. We were supposed to have nasi padang at Hotel Rendezvous but changed plans cos Calvin needed more time to study and didn't want to travel. Thank God for understanding friends. So Randy suggested eating crabs ! They can't get yummy crabs over in Manila. Over there, chilli crabs are sweet, not spicy... eeeww..

~ Crab Bee Hoon Soup ~

~ Chilli Crab ~

I like his look in caps! (^__^)

I think Noi likes his look while slurping the yummy soup! :p

When we were leaving after our crab feast, we were stunned to see how long the queue was... it stretched across at least 3 shop fronts! And the entire coffeeshop was PACKED! *keching!*

Xifen came to pick me up after work to go for dinner. We haven't gone out on our own to catch up with each other's life in detail for a long time. She brought me to Tapas Tree in Clarke Quay and we had a fantastic time catching up.

I love old friends... with old friends, you know you'd pick up from wherever you left off easily, comfortably and heart-warmingly. Thanks pal!

[BD = Birthday Dinner]
Celebrations of me turning 32 started today... with Dennis and Eunice. I suggested eating chilli crab at Mellben (AMK Blk 232) as I've been craving for it. So Eunice obliged, but I think she's excited about it too. Cos it's one of her favourites! haha..

We decided to meet at 5pm just so we that can get a seat and not have to wait too long for our food. Mellben is quite irritatingly "organised". You have to queue up and take your order and then wait for them to assign a table for you... depending on what you order. They claim that it's because they need to assign you to a table that is "big enough" to lay out all the food that you order. In other words, you have to be "profitable" enough to get a bigger table. *roll eyes*

We ordered Chilli Crab (with man tou of course) and Crab Bee Hoon Soup. It was soooooo yummy!!! This is the first time I tried their crab bee hoon soup. It's really marvelicious.. I just kept drinking the soup.. *slurp slurp*

~ Chilli Crab ~
[didn't get to take a snap of the crab bee hoon soup as we've already dug into the chilli crab when the bee hoon soup arrived]

~ Chilling out at McD's @ AMK Garden ~
[we really needed to chill out after the meal in such hot weather]

~ Pressie 1 ~
[a stylo black vase - flowers included (*__^)]

~ Pressie 2 ~
[my 4th red crumpler]

Tricia's ONE!! She had a little party single-handedly organised by her mommy. Noi came back to Singapore weeks ahead to make preparations for her little girl's FIRST birthday. And my dear friend fell ill days before the party.

Look at Noi in this picture, she doesn't look ill at all, does she? She was resting at home the whole time and only managed to walk (with a slight struggle) into the function room when it's her daughter's cake-cutting time. The power of a mommy's love.

Tricia's so cute and smart... Her mommy has taught her how to clap when the birthday song is being sang, and look at how well she's clapping and enjoying the birthday song, her 1st birthday song... sweet.

I had to attend a client's event at Botanic Gardens today and since it's Ying's birthday soon, I asked Teri what she thinks if we were to have a picnic celebration for her today. She's all for the idea and she went ahead to organise a potluck picnic! Thanks boli for organising it despite your busy schedule.. :)

I offered to buy the birthday cake, but as it got closer to the date, I suddenly decided to bake it myself! I surfed the Martha Stewart site for an easy cupcake and a cheesy icing recipe. I wanted a cheese-based icing so that I'd eat my own cupcake too! haha... I really dislike cream or whipped cream to be specific. So I figured if it's cream cheese, maybe I'd be ok with it. So, here's what I found and used...

The above recipe (I skipped the sour cream, cos I didn't manage to buy any :p) made me 28 mini cupcakes, out of which 12 went straight into the bin!... (~_~) I halved the quantity for the icing and I still had left over... Oh, and I added a bit of violet food colouring into the icing. Why purple? Miss birthday girl randomly picked this colour.. thank God there is purple food colouring!

So, what happened to those 12 little cupcakes? I baked them late Friday night after work and I totally forgot that I should be reading the temperature in °F and not °C! DUH!!! *faint* How stoooopid!!! So the first tray came out BLACK! I was laughing at myself!! hahaha...

As I was spreading the purple icing on the cupcakes, I found it a little difficult to smear it on smoothly. Although I think the end result didn't look that bad, I had wanted them to turn out really smooth like Yuxiang's. Well, I clearly wasn't successful. :( How did you do that, Yuxiang? Is there a technique?? Or is it pure skill? :p

All in all, I had great fun baking (even though I was a little stressed at some point..) and Calvin rated my cupcakes 8/10!! happiness!

It was an impromptu lunch gathering with our folks. As we were preparing to cook lunch for my parents, Calvin suggested getting his parents & sister over as well. Which is a great idea! His dad has been asking us to organise a get-together with my parents ever since CNY. So we got them over and I got a bit stressed!

It's the first time I cook for my parents and his parents! I know my parents would eat whatever I cook and however it tastes. But I can't cook crap for his parents!! OMG! Thank God the dishes I planned to cook were the simple ones that I've cooked before. So it can't go that wrong... haha..

It turned out to be a seafood themed lunch. We had prawns, fish and scallops. It was a late lunch and since everyone was famished, I didn't manage to take any photos... Here's the simple mini menu:

Steamed Salmon | Spicy Shrimps | Stirfried Kailan with Scallops | Chai Poh Omelette

* * *

After Calvin's parents left, I brought out my handsome new gadget to show my dad. And I realised he owns a Nikon DSLR (can't remember which model)! hmmm... I should have gotten a Nikon huh.. we would have been able to share lenses! But then again, think I might still have preferred a Canon, because I used to work on this account... it's called brand loyalty. ha!

Thank God for technology! Just got off a video call on MSN with Randy and Noi. Tricia has grown!! Her hair too... Now her hair doesn't defy gravity anymore.. haha! Her looks has changed a little too.. is that good news? Looking less like Daddy? haha... no no no.. She still looks a lot like her daddy. Just that from the video, she looks a little like her cousin Valerie.

It's great to hear from them! But I was shocked to hear that Noi was hospitalised last Wed for a gastric problem! God! She has already lost a lot of weight since she became a full-time mom in Manila. Please take great care my dear friend! Thank God you're ok now.

Kids are so amazing. They take up your time and attention. They stress you out but at the same, make you smile and think that everything is worth it and nothing else matters.

While we were chatting, Tricia was crawling all around the living room - underneath the dining table, towards the main door, onto the laptop... and Noi had to keep turning the webcam to follow her. She wasn't bothered that there were 4 adults (Randy, Noi, Randy's mom and me) calling out to her. Her mind was focused on one thing: crawl as much mileage as possible. haha... Then Randy "trapped" her with toys in front of the laptop on the floor. But, it wasn't long before she got bored and wanted to climb over her daddy to get out of the "trap". So cute...