TT's Birthday

29 Nov 09 - We celebrated TT's birthday on Saturday.

The kids woke up early. They knew it was their mother's birthday and were well behaved throughout the day. For Daddy, it was the usual case of spending the day without any plans. The ultimate element of surprise is to have no plans and no expectations.

The first surprise of the day came right after the adults woke up. We discovered that the "Jungle Book" show was to start in 1 hours time. Everyone was on their toes and left the house with only 15mins to spare.

The second surprise was that we did not miss the show nor were we denied entry despite being late. The show was OK for me but i felt that the performance was rather commercialized. The actors were trying too hard to interact with and please their audience. I like plays (especially those from fairy tales & books) to be outright raw and innocent.

After the show, we had lunch at a Japanese restaurant nearby and we went to buy a birthday cake right off the shelf in a cake shop across the road.

The third surprise of the day was that TT had wanted a strawberry short cake but i thought it would be more exciting to let fate decide and TT always ask for the same type of cake every year. But to my disappointment, fate was meant to be, there was only one cake available on the shelf and it was a strawberry short cake. TT got to try macaroons for the first time in her life too!

Right after, we went home to put the kids to sleep. The adults went out again to shop for a birthday present. We bought a portrait lens at Cathay Camera shop near Peninsula Plaza and TT simply love the effect of the lens. As usual, practicality was the way to go for almost every birthday for TT and i felt bad about it.

We went home, picked up the kids + Gigi and headed for a nearby seafood restaurant beside Labrador nature reserve. The food, i thought, was disappointing and we did not celebrate the cake cutting ceremony at the restaurant (there were too many people around)... TT had fun snapping away with her camera using the new lens. (The photos were all taken using the new lens)

We held the cake cutting ceremony after reaching home and took lots of photos....It was an eventual day, though short of anything special for TT, i hope the kids & TT had fun.

Father Figure?!?

6 Dec 2009 - Kayden was fiddling with the Corinthian figure of Roy Keane when his Daddy popped by beside him....

Kayden: "It's Papa" (referring to the Roy Keane Corinthian figure and looking at his Daddy at the same time)

Me: "No.. it's not" (refusing to acknowledge the "compliment" but at the same time, feeling gleefully satisfied with my son's good observation skills... thought he must have identified the same "macho"ness traits)

Kayden: "Yes!! It is!!" (Kayden giving a determined look with a smile)

Me: "Why do you say that?" (me getting curious..)

Kayden: "Because it has SMALL body and a BIG head...." (big wide grin from my dear son)

Music

Music.

Such a normal part of life, I do not realise its importance until I got a Shuffle from Hubs (a gift from his company) and I took it running. The right type of songs was the right ingredient to get my lazy bones moving, that once (also, I admit, I thought it looks uber cool to be running with music - thats what ppl do nowadays right?)

Anyway, as stated, it was that only once as after Hubs came back and lectured me on the danger of running with earphones through the neighbourhood at night, I obediently stopped (or perhaps the lazy bones got an excuse to stop, haha).

Whatever it is, I wanna say, music just gives the right vibes to everything. Especially when one is just hanging out at home. Its great company, like a good book.

I am playing SH's track (in her latest post), and it feels sooooo good! Its the type of music that makes me wanna groove along with it, the happy kind :)

There were so many new songs I heard on the road trip in SF, I couldnt just pinpoint to one particular track as I am no longer in touch with whats tops of charts. So its great to be able to just click play on her blog.... Don't Leave Me by Pink.



Just so we dont forget, we were just glued to our car seats as Ryan Seacrest counted down America Top 40. The last 10 songs, the tourist part of us vanished and we both simply refuse to leave the car. I stopped by the Legion of Honors and made her snap a photo through our wind-down window. You know, kinda like, been there, seen that :)

Music, friends, road trip... A worthy and precious keepsake through another chapter of my life.

Guess I can say, music, one is not complete without it.

Crazy Sentences Overhead - 2009

"It is OK to wave at the strangers, they are far far away" - Kayden telling his sister while observing the bumboats along Singapore River

"But Mama always say LADIES first" Sophie exclaimed when her Daddy tried to lie down on her bed first..

"I'll push, punch, knock & ELBOW the bad man!" Kayden replied when asked what he will do if kidnapped by a bad man. Sophie & Kayden both burst into laughters when their Daddy looked stun by the violence described, especially with terms like elbow

Food it shall be..

16 Nov 09 - Food it shall be....

TT & I have always been lovers of quality food. We used to keep a copy of the Makan Sutra book in our Toyota vios for referencing (& our own grading) when undecided of where to head for our next meal. Of course, this stopped when our first child came along. And for me, I'm rather particular when it comes to food tasting... not choosy but critical in terms of how consistent (to its name) a dish should taste like. Its really not difficult to stop me from complaining.... for instance, chicken rice should taste of fresh juicy chicken + rice with pandan leave fragrance. Not difficult right?

I finally tasted a decent bowl of prawn mee with soup (not the fried one) few weeks ago. Prawn mee, to me, is a simple dish but surprisingly, i have not been able to find a stall that meets this supposedly low standard of mine prior to my latest discovery. Prawn Mee should taste of prawns! How simple can that be?!?! and there are 3 basic components as far as I'm concerned.

1) Prawns (& Pork Ribs) - One of the key ingredients. The prawns have to be fresh and tender regardless of its size. I hate it when the prawns are cold and clammy or when the pork ribs are tough as leather. Pork ribs should also be in bite size and i dislike prawns that are either fully deshelled or totally not deshelled. (I'm lazy to use my hands)

2) Mee - Yellow mee, Bee hoon or any other mees should be cooked to perfection cause it is not difficult to do so. Most hawkers tend to overcook the Mees and that makes it too soft and less springy and that doesn't go with the taste of prawn soup. Prawn mees are best eaten separately from the soup and the sauce is very important. Most hawkers do well in this area. Slightly spicy and powdery in taste should do.

3) Prawn Soup - 98% of hawkers fail in this area. The soup is crucial and most important criteria to me. Most prawn soup taste like pork rib soup + MSG & very little taste of prawn. My desired standard requires the soup to tend towards thick prawn-ny & little bit sandy with a strong smell of the prawn head. And because prawns are more expensive, most hawkers tend to use too little proportion of prawns in their soup preparation.



And so, i tumbled across this "Blanco Court Prawn mee" shop along beach road one day and i ordered a 3-in-1 (Prawn + Ribs + Pig tail) "Tah" with mix of bee hoon & yellow mee. It was the best prawn mee i had tasted for a long long while. The yellow mee and bee hoon was cooked well and went well with the sauce, which tasted a little bit spicy and i suspect that some ketchup were added as well. The prawns were ok by itself (not fantastic & not deshelled) but the pig tail was soft & succulent & surprisingly good, together with bite size pork ribs. What finally earned the thumbs up from me was the prawn soup. The serving was not generous but the soup was authentic in prawn taste and you cannot help but ask for more. The service was good and there were no attitudes from the hawkers. Overall, i rank this prawn mee at the top of my list and certainly worth many visits.

Power Rangers show

Ever since the boy started play-fighting, especially at the receiving end, his poor sister, I have banned Ben 10 from his TV watchlist for months. Needless to say, any fighting shows are now off limits, we've only stayed on Diego, Dora, and then the rest, Playhouse Disney channels :) Though he did sneakily tell me that he did get to watch at GPs house when he was King of Household :P

Anyway, was at Taka (yes again, dunno why my past 3 posts keeps on mentioning this shopping centre, gosh), and there was this Power Rangers (PR) Meet and Greet session. I ushered the kids into the barricaded area and sat down, thought there might be a show but alas, it was all just a prize-giving-session where the kids (ie "fans") are invited to answer PR related questions and not to mention play games relating to the 3 characters on stage.

So anyway, I was bored and was just so happy when the session ended and they could photo with the 3 characters!

Verdict

1. The kids are still clueless on who PR are but they still enjoyed the "show". I did explain to Kayden who they are (basically superheroes who fight with bad guys to save the world) and because there is fighting, he is not allowed to watch the show.
2. Its no good now that I can remember PR is shown on Okto every Saturday at 10.30am (yikes! too many Q&As!)
3. The photos turned out great, for PR has very nice colored costumes
4. I see myself and the kids attending more "shows" at malls as there are more to offer this school holiday season. But I do wonder, are all Taka sessions so "boring" ie with no shows? There's upcoming Mr Men and Little Miss that the kids will enjoy I think, and perhaps also the Hi-5 one!

Sleepwalking?

Hubs at the computer, me wrapping presents in the dining area.

At nearly 11pm tonight, Hubs heard the sound of pee in the toilet and got up to check.

Was super surprised to find that its the boy.

In his state of sleepiness, could climb down the ladder from his upper bunk, make his way to the toilet, and pee without any mess properly, walk back to his bed and climb back up before settling himself back to sleep without a word.

Both of us? Amazed. And definitely pleased :)

Will it recur again, so the poor parents wont have to do the back-breaking task of carry-and-hoist-back-on-to-upper-bunk-bed at 11pm every night?

99% of me's pretty sure its a one off occurrence. However, there is still hope, a lot of hope, that he is indeed physically and emotionally ready to be fully toilet-ing independent.

Btw, after my post last night about his rotten behaviour, he was today, more an angel. Think like adults, kids do too, have their off (ie cranky) days. He helped his sis wear her shoes, didnt whine much at lunch with his GPs and generally was pretty good throughout. I even survived bringing them both on my own to attend Sophie's last Playclub class with an end-of-term party.

Well, let's see, what's it going to be like tomorrow!