Last week of NPL (21-27 Mar)

Alas, the last full week as a stay-home mummy before I go back to work. To maximize the time, I planned in advanced what to do for the week. Mon to Tue was spent fully at home doing chores, packing baby's stuff, allowing Ean to catch up on his nap and simply bonding with him. Just when I thought Wednesday would be a short shopping trip for us two, I had to fall prey to gastrointestinal infection! It was horrid! I was feverish and terribly weak! There was a moment which I almost drop Ean. Thankfully, hubby came back in the late afternoon to babysit so that I could make a trip to doc.

By Thurs, I was much better so I continued with the plan - to Ade's place! Her place is so far away, tucked in Mandai area. And so, Ean took his longest train ride ever to Khabit. From there, we took a cab into her house. Just when I thought we were reaching, the cab had to break down at the main road junction! Good grief, I had to trod into the small alleys from the main road carrying Ean under the sun. The contrast between the 2 babies at one month and four months old!

We managed to do a little long run (14km) on Fri evening. Slight relief for the guilt of exercising so little these days.

On Sat, it was shopping at Marina square. Our trip there was mainly to get items to prepare Ean for weaning.

A frivolous shot of the little mafia trying on shades. The tag was in the way!

We then had the highly recommended Thai food at Shaw building!

Then it was off to grandpapa and grandmama's place for Ean to play with them.

Sunday after service was extremely eventful. We first bought items from Ikea before joining a huge group of >15pax for lunch at Alexandra food village.

Then it was off to swimming! Big pool swim for Ean while his good friend, Kait decided to nap instead.

Then we were stuck in Starbucks for quite some time playing monopoly deal with Gladys, Mao, Josh, Janice, Jonathan, VK, Tina & Kait. We had a hilarious time laughing and snatching properties!
We parted with the group and headed for family dinner thereafter. What a week! :)

liwen's birthday

A little surprise meant for a dear friend cum colleague which didn't really turn out so due to the delays brought about by our students (again).

Apprarently, swenson's having a 1-for-1 lunch treat on weekday. surely a good place for lunch and catching up when ideas run out.

catching up with the girls

it's been a while that we caught up with each other and it's such an enjoyable dinner i must say! :) the food at NYNY was so-so but certainly great company!

Ade's baptism

Today's a joyous day for Ade & family as she took the step of faith and was baptized. I was almost close to tears after she reemerged from the waters. Well, certainly tears of joy, if there was any. The equipments in the church are certainly state of the art. With a baptism pool in the middle of the stage coupled with live video projection to the 2 LCD TV at the back, this gave the audience at the back a much better view.

As there was already such a crowd in front at the stage, I merely took a "lazy" shot from where I was sitting. Obviously, little effort and therefore, lousy output- what else but a blurry photo.

Her cell group prepared a cake for her to symbolize her first spiritual birthday. How sweet. It was even more heartening to see her parents and in-law there celebrating her baptism.

The last bit of the programme was tagging along with her family to dinner at a country club near Ang Mo Kio. The Peking duck was excellent.

in memory of peiyi

Logged into facebook and there was an icon suggesting that I send a message to Peiyi. If only i was around earlier to visit her in the hospital. Life's always full of regrets and unexpecteds like these. When will I ever learn?

Maybe that's how "let the dead teach the living" came about.

departmental lunch cum weizhen's farewell

a lunch treat from boss today at paragon suhi tei. we bidded farewell to WZ and said hello to a year of slogging ahead. heh.

random potluck

The post is named as such because I suddenly remembered during LG's absence that there's group of nicccceee gals from church who haven't been to our place yet. And so, that was how this rather abrupt idea came about.

We were all famished by the time we started dinner and hence were only concerned with the food in front of us, not realising we forgot to take photos of the spread. Oh well. Realising later is better than none, at least we "photo-documented" the dessert, that is, the ice cream.

Although taking pictures of these little things in life may seem far too trival and sometimes, frivolous as regarded by some, lately, I felt that there was a need to do so. While our memories fade and time passes by so quickly, these photos serve as a reminder of what we have been doing with our limited lifespan here. Besides, it's nice to flip albums from time to time to see the changes.

Ms Loh's farewell gathering

Yet another departure of someone who's been contributing to the responsive and helpful culture of the department. Another guru who's been our pillar all these whiles. I wonder coupled with the bigger changes next year, what will 2010 look like? I've been pondering over the decisions I've made at work reviews lately and I hope it's not a sucidal one.

Anyway, it was a great turnout on Saturday afternoon. We were at Pine court, Meritus Mandarin for the lunch time tim sum buffet. There was quite a big spread to choose from and it cost $38nett per pax. As usual at buffet, over-ordering seems to be the norm when we tend to overestimate our gastronomical capacity.

On a side note, I just wonder why human relations can be so strange. Things can just turn sour overnight, even for people whom you thought was friend. What made things even harder to swallow was that I don't even know the underlying reasons. Anyway, I've tried to ressolve but in vain, it's not within my control then. Goodbye and i figured u ain't deserving of my time thinking of how to restore our friendship anymore.

ND celebration

what a celebration today, not elaborate yet enjoyable!

this yr's celebration captured the essence of national day and an unprecedented frisbee challenge. during the course of celebration, we also discovered a new talent amongst our trs again, and this time, a professional commentor!

there, the four of us caught yakking away.

the whole ra-ra ended by 10am and a group of us decided spontaneously to go for da vinci exhibition.

we managed to grab a camera fr liwen's house and visited her doggies. cartier, the pug has puffed up since the last time i saw him! i'm starting to like him more!


The exhibition showcased comprehensive exploration of this Renaissance man and his many fields of study, inventions and commissioned projects. Exhibits include life-size re-creations of his mechanical ideas, each constructed meticulously by artisans according to da Vinci’s drawings and notes. the 25 secrets behind the most famous creation, the ‘Mona Lisa’ were also revealed and the true colours of the painting was revealed by a new technology called "multi-spectrum imaging camera".

then was to in-law's before meeting ade for a short catch-up in town. uni qlo at ion turned out to be the place for us to chat and catch up as the queue for the fitting room was ridicuolously long. i guess it certainly live up to the name of jap no. 1 brand. i was amazed at how petite japanese girls can be because the waistline of jeans start at the dimensions 22 inches. with the opening special, i indulged in shopping. again. and this time i got a pair of jeans with instant alteration too. nice!

Bali 13-19 Jun

We had the wonderful company of Tina and VK whom definately kept us yakking throughout those long car journeys as we travelled from one point to another during the trip. We are generally all quite easy going, so the trip was fun! :)

This trip was unusually interesting. One of the most interesting part is that we had to get up at unearthly hours for a few occasions. To begin with we had to be in the airport on Sat morning before 5am to check in. Having to pick up Tina and VK from clementi, it meant that we had to wake up at 4am! Good grief. Other than the annual marathon, I don't remember waking up at such hours ever!

We made it in time to T1, checked in our lugguage before settling down for an extremely early breakfast at killiney. Then it was off to Bali (Denpasar) on lionair.

After flying for 2hrs 45min, we finally reached our destination. We passed by the stretch of endless money changer before we came to the exit of the airport. We tried looking for the blue bird taxi mentioned in forum and only to find ourselves at the taxi booking counter to get a cab to Candidasa, which happened to be the most expensive on the list which is also correlated to the distance away from the airport. Although we anticipated that the resort is quite far from the airport, it shocked us when the driver told us it'll take 2hrs to reach where we wanted to go. I think I forgot to mention that the second interesting part of this trip was that our resort is on some ulu corner of the Bali map.

Finally, after a long journey of flight and cab, we reached the resort!

While Tina and VK were dealing with the reception, both of us lingered around snapping away. And yes, the four of us shared a suite.

Our lunch at the hotel after many many hours. The view from the resturaunt.

dear's balinese sauce chicken



my portion of nasi goreng which turned out to be the best nasi goreng throughout the whole trip. real savoury! apparently, rice and noodles are staples for the balinese and variations ain't much among different eateries. so, yea, i was really bored of rice after the trip.

We rested a while, planned our day trips for the next few days and decided to walk around the 'town' of Candidasa. The 'town' certainly didn't live up to our expectations. It was merely a clutter of few seafood resturaunts and a provision shop where VK and Tina got their medication, and we grabbed a few packs of junk food.

We headed for an hour massage at Andrea Salon and Massage which cost us RPD140,000 each, which is approximately SGD$20- a real steal.

Then it was back to resort, dinner and we retired early in anticipation for the tour next day. Just when we thought we could recuperate from the lack of sleep, the programme next day required us to wake up at 2.30am. Read on.

Day 2 (Sunday)
This day we woke up at 2.30am because dearest Tina wanted to watch dolphines. Of course, we lovingly agreed to that. And so, another unearthly hour for the 4 of us. We booked the day tour from Mr PT who was our service provider the next few days. He offered us quite a good rate. The day's dolphine package with sightseeing and breakfast cost us each RPD300,000, ~SGD$45.

We set off at 3am and headed for Lovina Beach, the northern part of Bali. Throughout the trip, we were all sleeping except for the times when I bumped my head against the window so hard that woke dear up.

I couldn't believe that our trip 1km offshore would be on such a dingy little boat, called jugong. A small boat that locals use to fish.


A little treat on the way to meet dolphines- sunrise

look how clear the water is!

We caught glimpse of dolphines but they ain't like those in NZ which jumps out of water so spotting them required some effort. Tina was satisfied and happy, so at least that was worth us waking up so early.

Next up was Gigit Waterfall before ending the tour at the Three Lakes and Floating Temple. The latter didn't interest us and were merely "mandantory stops".

Day 3 (Monday)
This day we ensured we caught at least 10hrs of sleep, and proudly, we all accomplished that. And while Tina and VK were still sleeping, dear and I got out of the room to enjoy the sea breeze and my daily cuppa.

We had the entertainment of surfers who were really skilled.

This day, we chartered the car for 12hrs at USD45. It was meant to be a shopping day at Kuta and spa spa spa!

On the way to check out the various spa, the tyre punctured which resulted in a bump.

Fortunately, the meachanic was nearby and we had the problem fixed. After we toured the spas at sanur, kuta and nusa dua, it was lunch at this little nasi padang shop.

We were charged with an exorbitant price of RPD480,000 for this meal, which means we definately have been cheated. That works out to be ~SGD75.

Next was walking around at Discovery Mall in Kuta. A shopping mall, facing a beach directly.

Finally, the highlight. Spa session at Sanur.

A good 2 hours of massage, body scrub and flower bath. Dinner was also part of the package. The whole session cost us RPD225,000 each, which works out to be SGD34.

As dinner was unfulfiling for the 3 of them, we had the driver to bring us to buy macdonald's, MacD, was what the locals call them. Then Mr & Mrs Kan decided to get some dvds to watch, and they swiftly bought 2 discs. In the comfort of our hotel room, we watched "Don't mess with Zohan".

Day 4 (Tuesday)
This day was a long day. Tina and VK were due to go back S'pore, while dear and I transferred to another hotel for our extended stay.

We planned it such that the tour will eventually reach Tanah Lot where our hotel is and it'll only be a 30min drive to the airport. This cut down our expenses on additional transport.

To beigin the day, it was the Barong Kris dance, a local folk tale about good triumphs over evil.

Then was to the silver smith at Celuk.

To the art gallery so that Tina could get a painting of cat.

Next stop was at the coffee plantations at Sribatu Village. Here was where the major shopping was accomplished. VK and Tina bought loads of coffee powder as gifts for parents and relatives while we bought relatively less. I also got 2 bottles of aromatherapy oil which were geninue stuff, not like those diluted versions sold in the sovenior shops around. Besides aromatherapy oil and coffee, we also got this really unique coffee powder.

Here's the beginning to the unique coffee powder- the mongoose and coffee beans.

The mongoose eats the coffee seeds and due to the inability to digest these seeds, they are then passed out. Apparently, this partially digested stuff upon roasting and processed into powder before turning it into coffee drink gives the coffee a syrupy and creamy taste.

We bargained hard for a free cup to try or else a little cup like this cost USD10!

And because we got the drink free, we were obliged to buy the powder from them. We eventually got a 300g bottle which cost USD30. Think mom will laugh off her head if she ever knows about this. Check out that grin of Tina's.

After the coffee place, which I tremedously enjoy, we had buffet lunch at a resturaunt where we could see Kitamani Volcano.

After the volcano, as part of the itinary, we popped by a rice terrace and then to Ubud for some shopping at the local market for handicrafts.

Finally, we reached Tanah Lot, only to miss the sunset.We had quite a decent seafood dinner by the sea included in our package. So this day's tour cost us RPD300,000 which is about SGD$45.

After dinner, dear and I checked into Le Meridian. Surely, it wasn't 5 star hotel for nothing. I was impressed with their service tremendously. They even have chartered bus service to Kuta, Seminyak and Ubud. If we had stayed here earlier, we could have do away with some of the transport cost. As for Tina and VK, they headed for the airport to fly home that night.

Day 5 (Wednesday)

This was our last full day in Bali, and we decided to go water rafting. Before that, it was a sumptuous breakfast at the hotel resturaunt. Breakfast was included in our room booking, on top of all the good services that they provide. That was why I felt that paying SGD$200 a night for 2 persons was reasonable.

Mr PT fetched us to Ayung River for watch rafting. Inclusive of lunch, this day's programme cost us RPD300,000 (SGD$45). The whole course was 10km long which took us approximately 1.5hrs.

We had to climb endless flight of steps before reaching the start point downhill.

The water rafting was quite an experience. Throughout the course, we had 2 drops, where the raft fell through a vertical height of 2m and 1m. It was quite different from that we experienced in Phuket. The river course here is less rocky and was quite fast moving. Because the river is in the middle of a rain forest, it was cooling and shady due to the canopy. Along the way, we also saw intrincal stone sculpting like these.

We shared a raft with the Kim family (dad, mom and daughter) from Korea. Our guide was probably one of the most fun-loving and entertaining one around.

About 80% through with our journey, we stopped by a waterfall.

The only complaint I have is that we had to climb the endless flight of steps back again. The path was narrow and may I stress, extremely steep. I didn't count the number of steps but it won't surprise me if it came up to 500. We were both panting by the time we reached uphill.

Lunch was served and this time I had some evidence of organic food. See the worm in my veg?

In the evening, we strolled along the beach near the Tanah Lot temple area to catch the sunset which we missed the day before.

After which, we checked the lagoon pool in our hotel. It was huge!

We called the room service for dinner that evening. The nasi goreng (again) was a monsterous big portion enough for two.

Day 6 (Thursday)

Our last day in Bali. We spent the morning in the gym and slacking by the pool side before checking out at 2pm.

We then went to Ubud to get do some last minute shopping and headed for discovery mall in kuta. We intended to go for another session of spa but there was barely enough time so we cancelled it at the last minute.

We whacked our dinner the moment we stepped in the mall. Starving, obviously! Not in the picture was the fried chicken, which was still being cooked in the kitchen while we chomped down all of these.

Hang around black canyon coffee till 10pm, time to head for the airport. And yes, another unearthly hour for flight.