Last Day In Guangzhou

It’s really rare that we woke up happily this morning thinking that we will be taking the mid-night flight back to Singapore! Usually, we will feel sad or perhaps unbearable to leave the particular country when we are on holiday. Today, it’s different…. We can’t wait to see our kiddos back home… totally missing them dearly!

After our sumptuous breakfast, we returned to our room to rest and finished up some packing since we will be checking out later today. As there was no shopping mall near our hotel, we decided to explore the hotel instead. Though it was freezing cold outside, we took a stroll in their garden and walked around the pool side which was obviously closed due to weather. It was such a nice place actually and they even built a small ice-skating ring for the kids.

For lunch, we went back to the Chinese restaurant in the hotel for our dim sum lunch since dinner was pretty good last night. We ordered some of our favourite dishes like the chicken feet, carrot cake, prawn dumplings… we also tried out their steamed pig stomach which was SUPERB and the chicken fish mall porridge which was the star of the meal! It was so sweet and super YUMMY! If I return to Guangzhou next time and stayed in the same hotel, I will want that porridge again!

Looking at our watches and counting down the hours before seeing our kiddos, we decided to head out to town instead of wasting our time in the room. We went to their business district today and also one of the largest underground shopping mall in Guangzhou.

We also explored one of the most popular shopping mall in Guangzhou but shops mostly branded. We were amazed by how beautifully their toilets were designed. They actually had a different theme or colour for their toilets on every floors! Hubby was fascinated by how clean, gorgeous and huge the toilets were and yes… you might have guessed… we checked out all the toilets on every level and found that the winner was on the highest level where they housed all the luxury brands.

We walked till we lost track of time and it was almost dinner time. Since we are in the mall, we checked out some of the restaurants but none seemed to interest us. We popped into this ‘crystal jade’ looked alike restaurant and ordered our dinner. The noodles were great but the beancurd dessert wasn’t as good as it looked. I would very much prefer our very one Rochor Beancurd which is cheap and tasty!

Overall, the experience in Guangzhou was good and it was indeed a place where you have no worries when it comes to food. I guess we will be back to Guangzhou with the family in the near future. J

Exploring Guangzhou

Day 2 of our trip in Guangzhou seemed pretty exciting from the start of the morning. We had a SUPERUB breakfast at the hotel we were staying and man… the spread was like international buffet style back home!! I thought it was DINNER BUFFET when I walked through the food stations!

We were all stuffed and ready to check out the city of Guangzhou. Our first stop for the day was the visitation to the famous and popular Chen Clan Ancestral Hall. When we arrived at this super huge ‘house’ of the Chen, I thought I was one stepping into the olden days of our grandfathers’.

The house is pretty much well maintained and I can’t imagine myself living in such a huge house where you have to walk a distance to each room. I guess I would need to get an E-bike just to get food from the kitchen…

It was quite interesting seeing this piece of well-preserved house and there was a history in almost every room. This is similar to those palaces we saw in Beijing but a smaller version. Good choice to visit in my opinion.

For our lunch, we heard about the famous restaurants located at Shang Xia Jiu Street. We took a train to the area and it was very traditional – the buildings were kept as original but the shops were new and modern. There was lots of stuff to see especially the street food which attracted me the most!

We roamed the place and found that the famous dim sum restaurant was too crowded to wait for a seat and we decided to check out another popular noodle house which was just nearby. Somehow the food in Guangzhou never left disappointed but with all praise. The noodles we ordered were as delicious as those in HKG and my favourite steamed milk pudding was a BLAST!!!! SIMPLY loved it!

After our delicious lunch, we continue to explore the street and I managed to try a couple of street food which left me with super good impression. I can say that food is as good as HKG or some even tasted better.

We headed back to our hotel after a long day of walking and with the super cold weather, it wasn’t helping at all. We rested in our room and I started packing some of my ‘damages’ and headed down to the Chinese Restaurant in the hotel.

Since we had a great lunch, we decided to go slightly light on dinner. We ordered 3 dishes and they were all GREAT! Well, we were even more surprised by the bill as the amount came out to be cheaper than we expected.

 

Imagine dinning in a hotel Chinese restaurant, ordering 3 dishes with rice, tea and appetizer and the total cost was less than S$50!!!! If we dine at any of the Chinese Restaurant in Singapore, you won’t even get that price! Thumps Up!

Lover’s Trip To Guangzhou

We have not been on a trip on our own since the birth of our first-born child Faith. This year, we are lucky to given the opportunity to go on a short trip to a place where both of us are virgin trippers.

Initially we were really excited about our trip but we left home for airport with a heavy heart early this morning instead. It will be our first overseas trip without our kiddos and we felt that a part of us are missing.

When we arrived at a foreign land, we were surprised that the airport and surroundings are pretty much modern. I too happened to bump into my friend Jonathan whom I have not met for ages. He is a regular visitor to Guangzhou for both business and leisure and gave us some tips on where to go and dine.

We set off straight to our hotel from airport and hoping that we will be able to check in but we had to wait for the room to be cleaned up. We did not want to move out too far and decided to hang around the lounge for some coffee since it was freezing cold outside.

Our room had a gorgeous view overlooking the famous Pearl River and we did not waste time resting but rushed out to check out the city. We headed down to town to visit the oldest Catholic Church – Cathedral of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

We did quite a bit of walking around the busy streets checking out loads of wholesale stuff and finally headed down to Beijing Lu for our dinner. The whole street showcased all the restaurants serving different kinds of food and it was rather difficult to choose actually. We walked around and finally decided to have simple comfort food at a small restaurant which served good & cheap set meals.

We were taken by surprise that our set meal cost only S$4.50 and it was a good portion for that price… It tasted delicious too! We are those who love street food and will hope to try out more of their local food in the next 2 days. J

We combed the whole Beijing Lu and I did not waste time to get their local goodies for our family back home. We bought the HK brand goodies instead as we did not trust China brands! So far it was good for the first day!  

Wall Rope Yoga

I have heard so much about this wall rope yoga through my close pal Linda who has been attending the class for some time. She recommended this to us and managed to get us some free passes to try it out.

I do enjoy yoga but this is something new and we signed up for the trial. When arrived at the yoga class, we almost took up half of the class as the studio was pretty small which able to take up to 10-12 students at one go.

We started the session with warm up and then the sun salutation. I was almost breathless!!! The yoga lesson I went in the past only did 3 sets of sun salutation but this one… is a killer… a WHOLE NINE SETS!! Yes… the number NINE! My hands and legs went jelly and I felt that my whole body was feeling the stretch but it was quite hard to contain!

After the killer warm up, we began stretching with the ropes which was very interesting and indeed, it STRETCH every bit of your body! There were a few moves I couldn’t do at first but I managed achieved after getting into the right position.

Before ending the session, we did an inversion which was quite cool but I couldn’t bring myself to stay any longer due to motion sickness… when I got down from the wall, I felt dizzy! It was a pretty good workout and I actually thought I left my arms and legs at the studio!!!

It was a cool experience and I will be back for more… J

The Pony Magical City

Both our two precious are great fans of ‘My Little Pony’ and I learnt that the ponies will be appearing at Suntec City today and here we are.

We headed down to the atrium early after our luncheon and bought some merchandise which I can’t really avoid. They were placed just behind the stage and our two lovely kids were blessed with supersonic eyes and that’s where my wallet got burnt!

We managed to get a place on the mat in-front of the stage which was already pretty crowded. It was actually quite a challenge to sit on the ground waiting for the show to start with two very impatience kids who were really excited to see the ponies.

I had to entertain them with the stuff I bought at the stall just to keep them busy playing so that they can somehow not think about the clock… mmmh… but that works only for about a good half an hour.

When the show finally began, all the kids started to stand up and dance (that includes our two kids). Seeing them enjoying themselves dancing along with the ponies on stage was PRICELESS! Kids these days are deprived of a childhood without books and guess this is the least we can do to make them happy!

MC Annual Dinner & Dance 2016

Our yearly annual dinner & dance is here again and this event is to reward staff for their whole year of hard-work and contribution to the company.

Being one of the organizing committee for this event, we put up a great program lined up for the night. Our theme this year being the ‘Movie Mania’ allowed staff to dress up as super stars or perhaps their superheroes!

Indeed, it was quite a scene when we saw many superheroes and super stars at the reception area waiting for the ballroom to be ready to host. Committee members were running around to make sure everything was in good order and double check the program with our master of ceremony.

We are happy to have ‘Dim Sum’ to be our MC for this year and I would say it somehow made history too. This would be the first time we are hiring a female MC for our event and with that; we too also had a ‘runway’ stage set up instead of the usual boring rectangular stage. This would allow the MC to move closer to the crowd for better interaction.

Being the first program lined up was the committee cat-walk done on stage showcasing their outfits for the theme followed by our GM who came in as our director which was pretty much welcomed by the crowd. After the speech from GM, the party began.

There were lots of games, prizes and lucky draws waiting for winners and we were happy that everything went smoothly. It was a successful event as everyone had a great time not only snapping picture throughout the night, but also with the short disco segment arranged before the grand draw.

Thank you Committee for putting up such a wonderful job and making this a super successful event! Thumps UP!

Our Yearly Christmas Dinner Gathering

It’s a yearly affair that we will meet up for dinner to have our gifts exchanged for Christmas and this time, we went to the restaurant highly recommended by Theresa.

We met up at Bishan Junction 8 so that we can share the cab to the restaurant venue which was located at Sembawang! The restaurant Famous Kitchen is pretty much popular by many celebrities in Singapore and I heard many good reviews of this restaurant too.

We left the food orders to Theresa who is somehow a regular patron of the restaurant. She ordered most of their signature dishes which was really good especially the braised pig intestines! I couldn’t forget the taste and I can see a few plates…

The cold crabs were out of this world too…. it was so fresh, sweet and fleshy! Then came the steam fish Teo Chew style was fantastic as well but the chili crabs were kind of disappointed. The gravy was not thick enough and it wasn’t spicy in my opinion. I would prefer chili crab to be spicy with thick sauce which will blend very well with the fried man-tou.

Overall, the food at this restaurant wasn’t too bad but it wasn’t cheap too. To me, it’s alright to spend to pamper ourselves once in a while but guess I can’t dine at this restaurant as often I would like to. L

Emma Officially Turns TWO

I remembered that I was holding her in my arms for the 1^st time in the delivery suite and today, she turns TWO!!!

She went to school as usual and we surprised her with our visit in the mid-morning to celebrate her birthday with her school friends. She cried the moment she saw us at her classroom and wanted me to carry her. We tried to calm her down and began the celebration almost immediately.

She wasn’t comfortable at first during the singing of the birthday song but when she was alone with the cake, her face lighted up. She did not really care about her friends and teachers as she wanted to be with us instead.

We brought her home to change and went out for a family lunch at Seletar Mall. It was more like a normal luncheon for us as we had too many parties for her before her actual date. We gave her treat to Hockey Pokey for about 2 hours where she had so much fun with the slides, the dolls and enjoying time with her sister.

After dinner, we brought out the pressies she received from her birthday parties and she was really happy to have them all opened. She was excited at each gifts she took and told me how much she liked them.

Happy blessed 2^nd birthday our precious added joy!!! May you be blessed with happiness and good health always. We love you sooooooo much!

Lady Faith Graduated!

Lady Faith was unable to join the school leavers’ concert in December due to our family holidays to Australia. I was actually pretty much upset by the school as they printed out a different date on the full year schedule where the concert was supposed to be held one week after our return from Australia but we were informed a changed of date due to venue was unavailable on that suggested date 2 months before our holidays.

With such unfortunate arrangements by the school, I requested the graduation gown to be borrowed for our own photo taking at school instead.

After a short birthday celebration for Emma, we had our pictures taken with Faith in her graduation gown which was kindly prepared by her Chinese teacher. I truly appreciate their effort in bringing the gown to school for us.

Our Lady Faith is really grown up now and she is all prepared to go Primary One next year… sighz…

Emma’s Celebrating Birthday With God-Ma

We have returned to Singapore after a week’s holiday in Perth and we are happy to meet up with the kiddos’ god-ma Susan for a simple birthday celebration for Emma.

Dinner at Pietro was the best venue for our family dinner simply because it’s near where we lived and they served good quality food.

Kiddo’s god-ma arrived earlier than expected and was given a seat near the pizza making counter which Lady Faith was happy about. She was somehow fascinated on how to make a pizza the day she was able to go near the counter.

We ordered our favourite dishes and of course, we enjoyed the food very much! Susan bought a cute little cake for Emma and it certainly lighted up her eyes when she saw the cake. It was so cute that it was almost unbearable to eat.

 

The restaurant staff also joining us in singing the birthday song for little Emma which made her happy and in all smiles!

Thank you, Sue for taking out your precious time to celebrate Emma’s birthday with us. God bless!

Goodbye Perth, Hello Home

Our family holidays in Australia officially ended today as we board the plane back to Singapore.

I would say that this is one of the most adventure trips we had! It was all about going around on your own exploring the places and preparing the food as a family. It was truly something that we can relate to for a long long time.

In addition, we could see everyone with all smiles on their faces and even the kids mentioned that they wished the holidays in Australia can be longer.

Thank you Australia for your beautiful nature and truly, it’s a breeze to drive on your roads!

Our Last Day Of Adventure In Australia

Time flies and our family holidays are coming to an end. Being the last day of outing today, we decided to visit Fremantle for both lunch and shopping.

We headed down to Fremantle after our breakfast and also some packing up since we have time. When we arrived at Fremantle Market, it wasn’t as crowded as we expected on a Friday late morning. The weather was very hot but was complimented by the cool wind.

We spent an hour or so at Fremantle Market looking around and trying out their desserts, puffs and even the Penang Laska… hahahahaah… The elderly enjoyed walking around the market and ended up buying fruits from the stalls.

Slightly before lunch time, we walked over to have lunch at Kailis Fish Market and of course, we had some opportunities to snap some picture along the way while waiting for the elderly for their toilet breaks.

To our surprise, it was pretty crowded when we entered the Kailis Fish Market but the queue for the food was quick. We managed to get some seats though separated but were happy that our food was served shortly.

While waiting for all the drivers to collect their car from the car parks, the kids were happy to roam around and had so much fun! It was really great to see them enjoying themselves and looking how care-free they were made me wanna be back to their age almost instantly…

We spent our late afternoon at the mall for some last minute shopping and as well as grocery shopping for our dinner tonight. We would love to shop longer but the shops did not allow us as they closed pretty early on Fridays. *darn*

After our simple dinner, we did some quick laundry and had our luggage packed as we will be heading back to Singapore tomorrow.

Back To Nature

It has been a dream to have a picnic in a park but somehow it’s too hot to have one in Singapore. We are happy we will be able to fulfill this dream of ours today.

We arrived at Kings Park this beautiful sunny morning and it was really nice to walk around the park with a lovely view. Both elderly and kids were happy to be back to nature where they can feel the grass and check out the different types of plants in the park.

We sort of had short lessons on the surroundings as we walked through the park. We showed them different plants and many are those which you can only find in Australia. It was pretty much interesting for the kids and I do hope they learn something today.

We prepared food such as bee hoon, sandwiches and snacks for our picnic at the park. It was a sunny day indeed and as we were entering the park, I was amazed that I bumped into my ex-colleague Gerald & his family who were there on holidays too. We managed to catch up a little and I had to help prepare for our family picnic.

The park was really beautiful and quiet except for some very disturbing crows that were eyeing on our food. We tried to chase them away but they were kind of persistent. Overall, it was manageable and we had our food cleared up within half an hour. The kids were off to play at the swing, the sand and the slides after their lunch while the elderly were resting under the shade with a cup of hot coffee. It was such a beautiful bonding session with the family and I think it’s great to have this experience together.

After spending almost half the day at the park, we set off for some shopping since we are back in Perth. We headed to the shopping mall near our house and spent about 2 hours shopping while hubby went grocery shopping with the elderly instead.

We headed home after quite a long day out and we prepared the dishes for our steamboat dinner tonight. We were really happy that the family had such a great time doing things together which is a rare occasion back home.

 

Back To Perth

After a few exciting days down South, we are heading back to Perth today. On our way back to Perth, we stopped over at the Busselton Jetty for a short while and we managed to get on the train ride to explore the longest jetty.

Though we did not managed to catch dolphins but the train ride was a great freezing experience. It may be sunny but the wind was somehow killing us softly…

Half way through our drive, we stopped by at the Farmer’s Market again to stock up our grocery shopping before heading back to Perth. We simply love this market as you are able to get anything and everything you need to whip up a good meal at a super reasonable price.

Our time today spent mostly on driving back from Dunsborough to Perth and to grocery shopping. When we arrived home, our elderly chefs wasted no time and started preparing dinner while hubby & I went out to the nearby shopping mall to get a cake for celebration.

We had home-cooked chicken rice today and it was simply fantastic! Everyone had a great dinner and everything was wiped out… even Lady Faith had 3 bowls of chicken rice!

We had a surprise birthday celebrations for our two cutie December babies. They were thrilled and happy to see a birthday cake on the living room table though with no pressies prepared. The cake was surprisingly delicious and though the cake wasn’t as cheap as those back home.

Everyone had an early night after some laundry done and prepare for another exciting day tomorrow.

Another Day Of Adventure

Weather was pretty hot today as we headed back to Margaret River region once again since it’s about 45 minutes’ drive from we were. There is quite an exciting plan ahead of us today as we will be visiting some places which are not for usual tourist… that’s what I called an ADVENTURE.

Our first stop this morning was visitation to the Sunflower Farm which is one of the most popular farms in Perth and Margaret River region. It was pretty much like a mini children zoo where kids were able to buy animal food for feeding. We bought them in buckets and the excited kiddos started to feed the hungry goats, birds, ponies and even the wild pigs! Honestly, we are not sure if the animals were overfed… hahaahahahah

As our plan for the day was pretty tied, we headed down to have early lunch or brunch before our long drive to the forest. J Prevelly is such a lovely place! While waiting for the café to be ready for lunch, we headed to the nearby beach for a stroll while the kids & elderly had fun on the swings which reminded them of their younger days.

We stopped by for our brunch at Sea Garden and we simply love this café which served up fantastic food with a breath-taking view! Lady Faith enjoyed her fish & chips which she managed to clear the plates on her own! We gave the food two thumps up and the price was much cheaper compared to the luncheon we had at Margaret River yesterday.

It was such an exciting drive through the Karri Forest where you get to see many different types of trees. It felt like a fairy-tale as you drive deeper into the forest. It somehow gave us a scare as we can’t seem to find our way out from the ‘highest viewpoint’. At the viewing point, the view was breath-taking indeed and you will not get to see anything like this back home. I am truly glad that we made it to this place though it was not easy to track. We tried to remember the route but somehow it took us about 20 minutes before we managed to get out of the forest.

Before heading back for dinner, we stopped by at The Margaret River Dairy Company where we bought some cheese, yoghurt and ice-cream as our dessert later tonight. It was amazingly cheap and I wished I could have them aired back to Singapore.

We found a visitor at our garden area when we arrived home. The cutie kangaroo was chilling out on its own and when we approached it, it stood up and looked like it was greeting us and slowly it hoped away! This would be the closest encounter with a wild kangaroo so far.

Tonight’s dinner was prepared by the ladies! We joined hands to whip up a good Italian feast with pasta, pizza and roast chicken (bought from the supermarket). We also had the stir-fried mushroom and vegetables as our sides and it was a total sell-out! Woohoo!!!

We ended the day with our desserts bought from the diary company and the yoghurt was so delicious and smooth! THUMPS UP!!!!