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! :)

surviving motherhood with heaven sent help

The confinement nanny fell sick after two weeks on the job and went away leaving us without any help. Exasperating it may be, we came to terms that eventually she will leave and we will still have to face taking care of Ean all on our own, just that now our escapism is cut short. Unknowingly, we have already survived parenthood all on our own for more than a week, 9 days to be exact. Ean will be turning one month old very soon! :)

I remembered at some point when I was feeling miserable being cooped up at home, someone dropped me an sms saying,"The fulfillment of being a mum comes from total responsibility of taking care of him with experiences of joy and tears. Press on!" How apt and wise was that! At that point in time, I was sleep deprived and my day was basically governed by feeding, nappies changing, pumping milk, not to mention having to cope with a colicky baby who was constantly crying. Besides these, in the week that the nanny left, I was down with high fever the second time in one month alone.

Nevertheless, the difficult period having to adjust our sleep patterns to that of baby's is over and we are both now more confident parents! For more than a week this is how a typical day for me is like and probably will stay so till I return to work?

The day begins at 4am or earlier depending on baby's feeding. Thereafter it will be to pump milk for feeding in the later part of the day. If it is extremely early, I will catch a short nap before I start the chores going at 6 or 7am. Laundry; boiling water; preparing water for bath; heating up milk for feed; thawing ingredients for making double boiled soup all concurrently till baby's prompt crying to trigger off the events to fall in place - feeding, bathing and then playtime till 10.30am.

10.30am - nap time for baby, pumping time for mommy
12noon - feeding, changing nappy
2pm - nap time for baby, pumping time for mommy
4pm - feeding, changing nappy

The periodic feeding, changing nappies, pumping milk repeats itself throughout the day and if I'm fortunate enough, I might be able to catch an hour of luxurious nap.

The miserable period would have been worse if not for the heaven sent angels! Thank God for mom, Ade, Pris and of course, my amazing hubby!

On weekday afternoons, mom would pop by to make dinner and a double boiled soup for me.

Ade, upon knowing how I'm left hanging without any help, immediately turned up at my place a couple of days later with a whole bag of individually packed herbs for me to brew soup. How thoughtful! Fearing that I would be bored, she got me books to read too. She visited whenever she could despite being 6 months pregnant herself.

Pris kept my sanity by visiting twice, once alone after her exam and the second time with Josh.

Hubby has been helping out a great deal especially for the 10pm and 1am feed when i would have knocked out by then. He's really good at disturbing baby to keep him awake and to amuse him when I'm too tired to do anything.

Although we do not have the help of the nanny for 2 weeks, I have found help which is even more precious and heartwarming! :)

Melaka 9-10aug

Given the long weekend, and Tue being a school holiday, what better reason is there not to go out to explore?

This time round, it was a short road trip to Melaka, and papa xun's second attempt at driving long distance. We had the great company of in-laws, sis-in-law, uncle morris, auntie and cousin sonia. Packed into 2 cars, we departed from S'pore at wee hours of 6am from tiong bahru.

Here's one of the few snapshots that I took. We stayed at holiday inn. Rooms are bright, clean and neat, not forgetting to mention that it's affordable as well.

We had a great time shopping and the greatest gainer is none other than baby! Although we had lots of hand-me down as well as some previous purchases, we couldn't resist these little cute outfits! Moreover, they are from gap, h&m and polo ralph. Prices are sooo attractive.

Adding onto the collection...

Another interesting place that we visit where kuais were sold in a kumpung area. This shop distributes to hotels and shops. We bought some really authentic nyonya kuais and dumplings. Don't think we get to see these blue coloured kuais around.

The room full of kuais!

a date at Trung Nguyen

I totally lost track of when we had our last date of sitting in cafe to talk. Although it was a short 30min only, the feeling was awesome.


We shared a traditional vietnamese coffee mainly because I can't take too much caffine and papa xun ain't much of a coffee drinker. We had the Creative 4 which had strong aroma and lasting favour. Indeed the taste lived up to its acclamation!

dino wants to blog!

The IT dinosaur at home wants to blog!!! For someone who hates to read and barely touch facebook, I almost mistook his intention for a joke. Ok, on the serious note, he said he wanted a space for both of us to pen our journey. Will surf around for some options first before I vacate from here.

KL

And so, we managed to have a short get-away with the May Day long weekend.

We bought a package online which only cost SGD120++ each for flight, hotel and airport transfer. It was a rather boring trip, not much shopping nor good food to rave about. It was so uninteresting to the extent which I didn't want to take any photos. The consolation is that old town is really cheap (like as if we can't get it from JB) and we managed to try some of Malaysia's famous food which were all gathered in isetan's food mall.

I guess having Xun by my side 24-7 for the last 2 days is the best perk of this trip :)

wagyu quest

Just yesterday, we were at fairprice finest doing a bit of groccery shopping and we stumbled upon Wagyu Ribeye MBS8 which was on sale. It was going at $21/100g even though it was already on sale.It was still a heafty sum I thought to pay for a slab of meat. Xun had a hard time deliberating whether to get it or not. It had always been his craving/dream to be able to taste wagyu. He was pacing in front of the meat counter for quite some time before he decided to just hack and go along with his gut's craving. Anyway, I would have gone back and got it should he decide not to.

In the end, we ended up paying 52 bucks for a mere 248g thin slab of meat.

Why on earth is this wagyu so expensive? I did a little search and realised they are no ordinary bunch of cattles. Wagyu refers to all Japanese beef cattle, whereby ‘Wa’ means Japanese style and ‘gyu’ means cattle. It is a highly regulated breed where progeny testing in Japan is mandatory. The orignial version is from Japan but much of wagyu beef is now now grown outside Japan as clever breeders from US and Australia have also bought these breeds to cross in their own countries. Those from Australia have made wagyu more affordable.

Although wagyu is high in fat content (as seen in its extensive marbling), the contents of the fats differ from traditional cattle. In fact, it is celebrated for its high level of monosaturated fat. It is also a great source of essential vitamins, nutrients and higher concentrations of unsaturated (healthy) fats including Omega 6 and Omega 3 oils. Wagyu is higher in fatty acid called conjugated linoleic acid (CLA). CLA has potent anti-carcinogenic properties, as well as being an anti-inflammatory agent.

Marbling is the fine textured fat contained within the muscle. It enhances flavour, juiciness and tenderness and makes for a melt in the mouth experience. Marbling is graded on a scale of 0-9 with 9 being the highest in the Ausmeat grading system. In Japan, the highest grade is 12.

And so, yay! We got ourselves a MBS8 which ain't too bad afterall!


Cooking the meat
1) Searing for 1-1.5min per side

2) Remove meat from heat and sprinkle salt on the pan. The salt caramalised and formed a crust on the meat.

3) Lower heat to cook the meat. Cook the meat for 2-3 minutes per side depending on one's preferance. Medium well for us please!

4) Ta-da! The cooked wagyu served with mashed potato and steak sauce :)

The verdict. The fragrance and tenderness of this meat certainly beats tenderloin or sirloin flat. Other than the tedious rearing method of wagyu; the way the taste lingers around your tastebuds after you have taken a bite and the way it makes you want to go back for more; are probably reasons why wagyu comes along with such costly price tag.

Anniversary

Well, it's really embarrassing for me to say this but I actually forgot the date 15 April! When Xun asked me, what the occasion was, I thought very hard and came up with 1 year 7 months and 9 days as an answer to our wedding anniversary. Thanks to the forgetfulness trait in preggies (sounds like an excuse but I think my memory is really suffering a take on this). Anyway, 15th marked our 4th year anniversary as a couple together.

As a reward for tolerating each other for the past 1460 days and more ahead, we treated ourselves to holland v for drunch at Everything with Fries! All the main dish come with fries and there's all sorts of flavour to choose from- be it original, salt & vinegar, curry, garlic & herb or onion & sour cream.

Hamburger with garlic & herb fries

Pork chop with onion & sour cream fries

Milles crepes- a sweet and vanilla-full way to end the meal

Just when I thought that we were going home, Xun suggesting catching a show. As such, we caught Clash of the Titans in 3D at vivo :) what a rare weekday treat!

Snapshots from the land of the rising sun

For your viewing pleasure: Part 1, Part 2.

As for entries, I guess I'll be doing it at a snail pace as I had my bit of fun, and it's back to work now.

SSCM 2009

SSCM has been a good one for me this year :) Clocked a personal best 04:38:54 and am glad with the consistent improvement. I'm particularly satisfied with the pacing this year. The tempo of 8.2, 8.8, 9.2, 9.7km/hr at each 10km interval was evident of a good attempt in conserving energy at the start. The constant time checking helped a lot too. In addition, the joint pain deep heat rub was also a savior at the 23, 27 and 30km mark to prevent the fatal cramp from acting up. The last reason why it has been a good race this year is because i finally have a decent finishing photo taking.

Dear on the other hand wasn't able to readjust back as he only came back last night and I kinda lost him after the 27km mark.

This yearly affair is certainly a love-hate event. Hate because I couldn't even climb up and down the stairs after the run. I had to limp and use the side handle to lift myself up.

extremely worn out after the run.

LG's home!

LG's finally back from his 10 days school trip to Korea and Taiwan. Here are my pressies :)

Note the many boxes of eyelashes. I kinda regretted not buying the last time when we were in taipei, so this time round, LG did a great job in grabbing the right one! Besides the eyelashes there was this super adhesive glue too. Faceshop products were generally much cheaper over in Korea, so he got some masks and creams for me too.

Plum grape wine. No idea why he got this for me.

this crunch punch is real crunchy and crisp which apparently can only be found in the airport only. more of his property than mine. heh.

surprise lunch treat

On a weekday afternoon, bee fetched me from school and brought me to a mystery place. Halfway through the journey, it started pouring. Nevertheless, that didn't dampen our high spirit.

We finally reached this big chapel looking buiding which was tucked somewhere in Dempsey.

We finally reached The White Rabbit which was rated to be one of the best dining experience place on hgw website. Well, it certainly is so without the typical stuffiness of fine dining establishment.

Our food at long last!

Caser salad which was real yummy.

veg and beef broth

white wine and calms linguine

my favourite of all, the dessert- creme brulee

an impeccable dining experience i would say!

The guru says:A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single click.

(a pity that my clicking lacks patience) =/

it was great to know that dear's school trip to china is called off this sept. at least this would mean that we would have a tiny weeny bit of time for us to spend our first year wedding anniversary together. dear has already booked 2 nights stay in intercon before the intended trip. so now with the trip being called off, we are stranded with the hotel stay. thanks fickle minded management.

the temptation of travelling was certainly great with the sept hols now in hand! however, the time for some solitude rest and the impending trip in dec were deterring factors. dearie had been so generous and sweet enough to sponsor this sept trip and he gave me the go ahead sign to start booking online last night. however, to our horror, we found out today that the fickle minded management has yet to reveal its tremendous unpredictability and has decided to throw in a compulsory course. due to that, we've to fork out charges for ammending the bookings. thanks once again very fickle minded management.

***

cook log:

the past week's cooking experiments have been fruitful-

• watercrest soup simmered for less than 2 hrs and oven baked char siew;
• experimented with a one-dish meal in the rice cooker - simple stir frying ingredients and rice for a while before throwing them all into the cooker. the result? veg is astonishing well cooked and soft, meat is tender and rice smells good. guess it's almost the parallel of claypot rice, given that it's cooked in a different vessel.
• dessert- water chestnut and ginko nuts
• garlic lemon butter prawns, sambal sotong

a new hangout

we went ion today!
that is, after trip to GB HQ. we went to canton for late lunch. yummy!!!

check out the little piglets bursting with red bean paste. so cute!

other than these, we had wanton noodles (his favourite), char siew noodles (my favourite), a huge plate worth of more char siew, glutonous rice durian moose, ginger milk pudding and a slurping creamy milk tea. along with the food, they served this really crunchy and savory walnut instead of the usual peanuts. the bill came up to a grand sum of $55++

the conclusion? though slightly pricey, the food is much better than those eateries we had in HK, and the local crystal jade and ding tai feng. definately will go back again :)

thereafter we shopped around a bit, incurred more damage to my pocket, in addition to my tremendously aching muscle. bought 4 pairs of shoes which almost got bee's eyes popping out of his eye socket.

mugging to continue... marking here i comes and time to fry my brain for more prelim questions.

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.