Unwrapping The Gifts

Our kids are truly blessed with so much love from all the aunties and uncles out there. They have been receiving many X’mas pressies from our friends and family members. Though they had opened their 1st round of pressies on Boxing Day, this is the 2^nd round with more pressies from my lovely pals whom I just met them for lunch couple of days ago. 😊

They are filled with excitement when they opened each present and letting them who the pressies are from. They were so happy with their gifts and they went asking… ‘’mummy, will there be another round of gifts waiting for us somewhere in the house?’’

Brunch With Our Favourite Peeps

We became closer with this beautiful family when we first visited Perth 2 years ago and now we are keeping close contact. We always try to meet up with them whenever they are in town.

This time, we were excited to meet them for Sunday brunch at Whisk & Paddle, a hip joint located in Punggol. It was our first time visiting but it was kind of love at first sight though we did not like their pricing… oh well, there is always a first time for everything and we love the environment. 

There was a cool child play area and love the greenery around the alfresco dining. We chose to sit outdoor as it was nearer to nature and the indoor was too cold for us. The menu was normal and we chose to have 2 different types of pizza, 2 pastas and an egg benedict with smoked salmon. It was sort of like a feast for brunch but the food was so good that we cleared all the plates.

The girls were so happy playing together and at the same time watching over the younger Emi. Truly blessed to have reunite with Mike after a long silence and we are happy to allow this friendship to grow with our kids too.

My Faithful Side Table

This piece of solid looking side table has become my faithful buddy since the day after we had our office renovation back in 2014. Today, we had to part forever because of an idiot’s great idea to renovate our office once again!

I would say that this side table is so useful that we can actually store so many files inside so that we can keep our desk clean for work but now, it will be gone forever and all our files has to find another place for storage.

You might wonder why we are having the office renovation again since it was done only 3 years ago and I tell you… YES… there is one IDIOT came onboard and he felt that the office environment is old fashioned compared to other companies. We are not AH GOGG or YAHOO company right… no need to be so high fashion, what the staff needs is comfort place to work in with space. Not only our side tables will be removed, they will be adding more desks to each island.

Sighz… by having additional desk, our office will need to squeeze a little here and there to accommodate more islands and with that, they will be able to house more subs in our office. The one issue that almost ALL are unhappy with the idea of having a huge dining area which we felt pretty much unnecessary. They could have utilize the space to house subs instead of having a huge dining area which staff will only use it perhaps during lunch time.  

Anyway, this will be the future and I am glad that I will not be going through this and see the outcome. Whatever it is, decision is final and my colleagues will have to face it and mmmh… perhaps they might like it.

Overall, we feel that money should be spent wisely and not with impulse or just for personal liking. Anyway, goodbye my faithful side table, you have served me WELL!

Our Annual Year End Gathering

It has become a tradition that we will meet for hi-tea or lunch after the busy Christmas week. We will combine both Christmas and year end gathering before the start of a new year.

Theresa kindly booked the Marriott Café for luncheon which comes with a good promotion for post-Christmas. It was usually crowded and the spread was perfect for us though there is no longer roasted turkey meat but a different spread was welcomed too.

While we were waiting for the rest of the gang to arrive, our dear pal Theresa was feeling unwell and had to leave us early. We continued to feast out without her though we missed her presence. As usual, we were chased out as we stayed too long…

As it was pouring outside, Bird succeeded to get Kenneth to pick up the huge bags we had with us as he was around the area and we were given the luxury to shop around handsfree. We failed to catch a movie which we wanted so, we went shopping. Not long after, we ended up in another café in Ngee Ann City and YES… we ate again! 

The café was cozy but was really crowded. The cakes and coffee were pretty good and we sat to chat the afternoon away. It may seemed bored to some just to sit and chat but we always create some fun time every time or everywhere we go. 😊

Thank you pals for the Christmas pressies and I had a wonderful time!

Thank You Minowa-san

I was really lucky to have worked with such a great boss like Minowa-san and we were still in touch even after he retired from MC. Though we do not meet very often like before, there are always topics to talk about during our catch up.

When he received the news that I will be leaving MC very soon, he invited me for lunch despite his super busy schedule. He also kindly invited both Linda (who was his direct secretary then) and Rie who used to be in MC too. Unfortunately, Linda injured her feet and was unable to join us.

We had lunch at Summer Pavilion which was suggested by Minowa-san and we always trust his recommendation for he is consider a pretty good gourmet. 😊 He never fails to check out new places and will bring us the next time we meet.

Previously, Summer Pavilion was going through a terrible service and not too tasty food but I got to say that this visit was superb! The food was really tasty and it came with class. For that, I learnt from Minowa-san that this restaurant was recently award the Michelin star. No wonder the food tasted so good and the whole environment was revamped.

Rie & me was really amazed by the taste and their service too. We really love their lobster porridge which was very much unusual from the normal congee we ate. It was served with crispy rice and hot soup separately. We were then pour the soup into the crispy rice and man…. It tasted heavenly!

It was indeed a fantastic farewell lunch for me but it felt more like a gathering with old friends rather. Thank you Minowa-san for the wonderful lunch!

Happy Boxing Day

This would be the happiest day for the kiddos as they are finally able to open all their X’mas pressies. I made it a tradition that they can only open all their gifts on this day as that is exactly what is meant.

Christmas is the time to spend with family and thanking God for all his blessings. We should keep the day just for our Lord and remembering the birth of our Lord Jesus too. Opening of pressies is just a gift exchange from friends and family members and it definitely can be done after Christmas Day.

Till date, I am very happy that both kiddos are observing this tradition and they did not ask me for permission to open the pressies and they patiently waited till Boxing Day and just gently reminded me that there are couple of bags of gifts in the study room which needed to be opened. Hahahahahaha…

Since it’s boxing day and the day of revealing their pressies, I took the opportunity to make them wait a little longer… hahahahaah…. Well, they finally got to open their gifts after dinner and man… they really ate so quickly like they had not had their meals for a long time! They were very patience and waited for us till we are done with ours and we sat in the living room as a family when we placed all the gifts on the floor and opened them. 

I too made them remember who gave them the pressie and make sure they will treasure them though I am not in favour of toys as gifts…

Thank you everyone for the pressies and hope you had fun on boxing day!

Happy Christmas

Christmas has been one of my favourite seasons as this is the seasons for joy, giving and thankful for what we have and we are blessed with.  

Today, we came together as a family to celebrate this beautiful festival at my cousin Ka Yun’s place and as it’s a happy occasion, we did it the potluck way. Let’s see, the host prepared sushi platter, stew beef, bread, drinks, grilled chicken wings, omelet & salad. BG made porridge for the elderly and kiddos in case they are not interested in those western food and brought us goat cheese from Norway. Cool stuff.  

As for me, I brought a good selections for ham to compliment the goat cheese and salad. As for desserts, I made them oreo cupcakes. We had a great spread of food and I was loving the time spent chatting with my cousins and aunty while the kids played games. 

While we were still trying to finish up the food as much as we can, we sent the kids to the pool to have a dip since the weather was good. We headed up to the pool the check them out after packing up and found them playing in the pool happily with hub who took care of them. 

It was a great afternoon with the family on such a beautiful season and I do hope you guys who are reading this had a wonderful time with your family too.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Zumba

We have been missing the Zumba workout organized by the RC and we were glad that the RC allowed us to have a paid Zumba session during this Christmas season.

I was filled with excitement this morning as I can’t wait to see my Zumba friends and have fun with them during the workout. When I arrived at the venue for the workout, honestly, I was kind of disappointed to see such a low turn-out. We expected to have more but guess it’s holiday seasons and majority were on holiday.

I also noticed that some of the regulars were not there too and we talked among ourselves that if this session is said to be FREE, we believed that more people will turn up. Sighz… anyway, the fee for this special session was only $5! It’s not too expensive to pay for a one and the half hour workout right! Many paid $15 for an hour of yoga and this is $5 for 90 minutes workout. How cool is that!

Anyway, we had a great time working out though the crowed is small. We enjoyed ourselves very much and we even had a small celebration after the session. KP kindly bought us a log cake to share and it was delicious! 

Thank you pals for the workout and log cake…. Blessed Christmas to all!

Farewell Tsuboi-san

Many of us are happy to hear the news of some rotating staff leaving our office but this is one Japanese guy that we will miss.

Though I did not work closely with him or in his department, but he is certainly a good boss to my colleagues who worked under him. He is young and pretty polite for the current new generation Japanese. 

We only talked, chatted or even drank together during our company events and he is the few good Japanese bosses we didn’t mind hanging out with. He is a gentlemen who respects ladies and fun to party with.

Today will be his last working day in our office and I wish him all the very best in his new assignment back in Japan.

A Fun Filled Birthday Party

Birthday parties are kids’ favrourite events all time and they are extremely excited about attending Shevaun’s party today.

We were happy to be invited to this super fun place to celebrate her 8^th birthday at Spur Box. I heard about this cool place but this is my virgin visit with the family. When we arrived, I couldn’t resist the super pretty dessert table decorated by Maggie with the help of the friendly staff there. It was so pretty and the kids loved it too. 

We started off the party with baking and the kids were so happy and excited when they put on their chef hats and aprons. They were all set to bake. The staff gathered them at the table and each had their own baking ingredients and materials. They followed the chef and started mixing the ingredients and wala… it’s done and we parents helped them to scoop them into the baking cups. 

While their cupcakes were in the oven, they washed up and went to the next room for story telling session while the adults started our dinner. We were able to finish up our meal and fed the kiddos after their story-telling session. It was very well-organized indeed.

Soon after, their cupcakes were ready for frosting and the chef taught the kids how to frost & decorate their own cakes with icing and fondants. Our kiddos were really happy playing with the dough but they did managed to knit something out. 😊 

We gathered the all the kids to the dessert table for the cake cutting ceremony. They were all excited to have a piece of the Shimmer & Shine cake as it was too colourful and pretty to resist. 

This party is really one of a kind and I might consider having our kiddos’ party here someday.

Happy blessed birthday Shevaun and may the good Lord bless you with wisdom and good health always!

MC D&D 2017

After attending the dinner and dance organized by the good people in MC, this would be my last one as a staff. I attended many D&Ds and honestly, I do have my own favourites but most of it are the same old thing.

This year, I attended this event for the last time as a staff and at the same time, I would like to congratulate my bestie Linda who received the 30 years Long Service Award. It is indeed OUTSTANDING in my opinion for an individual to stay put in one company for 3 decades. I was already struggling to hit 20 years and 30 years is a great achievement! Congrats Leng!

Well, the programs were almost the same old thing such as staff performance where companies will send some newbies to perform… or some would say they made a full of themselves on stage. Whichever you believe, I think it’s the same thing… hahahahaah

The whole evening was fun especially when you have a great company at your table. We had loads of fun with ourselves omitting people from other worlds… hahahahaah… many came over to our table and it seemed like we became the central for all who wants to get drunk… we had so many wines on our table and we happily welcomed our colleagues from other tables or in fact, to those seated on the far side of the ballroom. 

It was really fun when we enjoyed the night with the ‘’kakis’ and I will definitely keep this piece of memory in my heart. Though I may not be joining this event as a staff from next year, I do hope that some of my friends who are still in the company will invite me as a guest or their partner… mmmh… I will keep my fingers crossed.

WHAT?? You are THREE???

I seriously cannot believe that you are THREE!!!! OMG!!! What have the clock been doing?? Ticking so fast and with no mercy on all parents!!

Well, you are certainly a great JOY to have in our life and we are truly blessed indeed. Mummy is so glad and relieved to see you growing up healthily compared to those moments when you were born. You had suffered so much during those times and I am thankful that our good Lord has been watching over you all these while.

Sweetheart, we hope you have enjoyed yourself in Japan and the advance birthday celebration that your aunties & uncles had prepared for you while we were in Japan. We would like to wish you a blessed and wonderful birthday and may the good Lord continue to watch and protect you always.

We love you truly with all our hearts!

Goodbye Tokyo!

First of all, I would like to wish my baby girl Emma a very happy blessed birthday! She turns the BIG THREE today and I can’t believe that you are THREE!!! Arrrrggghhhh…..

Yes, after a week spent in Tokyo, its time to head home. We arrived at Haneda Airport this morning and without any time wasted, we headed to do our shopping immediately and after a 20 minutes of souvenirs shopping, we went to check out if there is any good to grab before boarding.

As the family were enjoying their meals, I continued to check out the shops for more souvenirs and without a doubt, I added more to my earlier damages. I guess many of you knows that I am quite a sucker for souvenirs and I always feel that you should be something back to your loved ones or friends whenever you travel. It’s more like a simple gesture to show your love and care to people you treasure.

When we boarded the plane, Lady Faith informed the stewardess that it was her sister’s birthday today and they were filled with surprised and told me that they will try to arrange something. During the flight, both girls were happy to have their own TV and shows to watch since it is gonna be a seven hours flight back to home. Lady Faith was enjoying her show while snacking on her peanuts and Little Em was enjoying her chocolates and playing with the inflight toys they gave them earlier. 

Though I told her it’s not necessary but guess what, they actually came to our seat with a cake and a card which was signed by all the crew on board. Unfortunately, our dear young Emma was sleeping when they came twice and I told them I will keep the card instead of the cake.

Thank you all the SQ crews for the wonderful and warm gesture that you have shown towards our little Emma though she did not have the cake but she definitely received the love you guys gave her. Cheers!

Disneyland Here We Come

We are all excited about visiting the Disneyland today and we were all ready to set off after our breakfast. It was another cold morning and we prayed that the wind will be more merciful today.

When we arrived at the entrance of this huge and beautiful theme park, I hurried joined the queue for the photo taking with Minnie as she is our kids’ favorite character. Well, how can you NOT have picture taken with the main mascot when you visit Disneyland right! 

After queuing for almost 45 minutes for the photo session, we wasted no time and dashed into the main park. It was filled with people and we headed for the ride after decided the direction we should start from. The Jungle Cruise was our first ride as a family and the waiting time was very short. We were able to get onto the boat as a family after queuing for less than 10 minutes. Thumps up! The ride was fun though the guide spoke in Japanese but we could figure out what she was talking about by looking at the surroundings. 

We continued our adventure in the park and managed to take more rides while we explore the park. We were lucky that we were just in time for the first parade and had a great view of it too. The parade was so nice and I really felt so emotional. It felt as though I am young once again after seeing all the characters parading around the songs that they danced along with was so nice.  

The parade lasted about 30-40 minutes I think, I couldn’t recall the duration anymore as I was too engrossed to it. Everyone was so touched by the parade and even hubby was enjoying it too though he is never the ‘Disney’ type of guy.  

It was almost lunch and we tried to find a place but most of the restaurants were already filled up with hundreds of people. We chanced upon the outdoor seats that was available and decided to have simple meals. We then realized that they were only selling pizza and some nuggets so, we had that for lunch.  

After our luncheon, we continued our adventure and we went to queue for the Haunted House which I once went when I visited Disneyland in L.A. Lady Faith was excited to go but afraid at the same time. We took along the teens with us and Maggie’s family to join us. After queueing for an hour for this ride, it was all worth it as it was so cool and relaxing. Nothing scary for this is DISNEYLAND remember! 

After a three-quarter day of fun in this beautiful theme park, we decided to call it a day. We headed back to the nearby shopping mall for dinner and went back to the hotel for another surprise. 

We gathered at our parent’s room for the birthday celebration of our little Emma. She will be turning THREE tomorrow and being the last night for us in Tokyo, her aunties & uncles shared to get her a birthday cake which was so tasty! 

She was filled with excitement and we saw the glowing smile on her small face with lightened up the room too. She was so happy that she even sang along the birthday song and clapping with rhythm. After the cake cutting ceremony, everyone went back to their room for the last minute packing as we will be going home tomorrow. 

Disney Sea Tokyo

I have heard so much about Disney Sea Tokyo compared to Disneyland from many friends who had been there. They mentioned that Disney Sea is so much better than Disneyland and many thumps up for the rides and the park.

We are finally here and yes, I have wanted to visit both Disney Sea and Disneyland for the longest time and today, I finally set foot on its ground. We headed to the park after our breakfast and took a monorail to the park which is about 3 stops from where we are.

We could see thousands of people at the entrance when we arrived on this beautiful sunny but yet cold morning. We rented both prams and wheelchairs for the young and the old as the park is too big and tiring to cover by walk for the ages stated. 

At the entrance, we were lucky to have photos taken with their mascots and the kids were thrilled to see the characters. They took pictures with the characters quickly and hurried to queue for another character nearby… they just do not want to miss a single opportunity to take pictures with the characters that were walking around the entrance of the park. 

We finally are able to move around after a taking photos with the characters and indeed, the park was so huge that we will be lost somewhere. We stopped over at one area to get the elderly comfortable and we set off to queue for the rides. The longest queue was the Sea Marine Ride, we queued for at least about 45 minutes before entering the theatre. It was a cool and fun ride that brought us down to the sea with Nemo. Pretty cool actually though I felt dizzy after that.

We continued our adventure in the park and found other rides but the queue was too painful to wait so, we decided to search for shorter queues while the elderly enjoyed their hot cup of coffee in the cold. The weather was not helping at all as it was freezing cold with the wind blowing fiercely at us while we were queuing outdoor. At one moment, I could not feel my face anymore for it was so frozen!  

As daylight fell short, we headed back to our hotel for a good rest before dinner. We checked out the surroundings around our hotel but the best choice was to dine at their restaurant instead. They served buffet dinner but the spread was not as happening as those we have back home.  

The kids enjoyed themselves very much at the Disney Sea though we did not manage to take many rides and they can’t wait for tomorrow’s day out at the Disneyland. Good night!

Shopping Spree

Today, we are on our own and we have decided to go shopping while our parents stayed at the hotel taking care of the kiddos. Shevaun was having high fever and was taken to the local hospital by her parents accompanied by our wonderful tour guide. 

We headed down to Shibuya after breakfast and we took it easy. We took a slow walk to the train station and managed to board the train to Shibuya with no complications. It was easy breezy and it only took us less than half an hour to reach our destination.  

It was a total different sight of Tokyo when we were on the streets of Shibuya. The iconic crossed junction filled with people crossing was really an interesting sight. We crossed like the Japanese does and it was cool… it felt like crossing the cross junction at causeway bay in Hong Kong.

We combed the streets and bought some of our stuff. It was a huge place and I guess we only managed less than a quarter of it. We chanced upon a ramen shop and we decided to have our early lunch since it wasn’t crowded yet. It was an authentic set up ramen shop whereby you ordered at self-serviced operated machine and they will assign the seats for you thereafter. 

There were only counter seats for this small cozy ramen shop and you are able to see how to prepare the ramen and gyoza and served to you directly from the kitchen. Very interesting and though we smelled like chef after the meal! Hahhahahaah the ramen was pretty nice but the portion was too big for me to swallow. Love the soup base and the ramen was really ‘bouncy’… hahahahaah

While we were lunching at Shibuya, our young & old back at the hotel were having the Chinese food once again. Maggie & Amos returned from the hospital and brought them for lunch and our kiddos were enjoying the soup noodles from that restaurant. 

We continued our shopping after lunch and decided to call it a day as Shibuya was too big to complete. We headed back to the hotel and took over the childcare while the parents took their rest before our dinner later.

After checking out the restaurants around our hotel area, we decided to have western food tonight. It was a family dining restaurant serving western food and the teens were happy to have steak for dinner after a few days of Japanese food and Chinese food. I too was happy to order my rib eye for the best price for dinner. Thumps up for the food too.

It’s time to take a good rest as it will be a super tiring day tomorrow… till then… good night!

Great Outdoor Day

We began the sightseeing right after our breakfast and heading down to Koshikawa Korakuen. One of Tokyo’s most beautiful garden according to our tour guide. When we arrived at the entrance, we could see the red leaves all over the garden and it was really beautiful as claimed.  

We took a nice stroll around the beautiful garden on a cold, windy but sunny morning. Simply great to take a walk with your loved ones after a hearty breakfast and taking a stroll in a lovely and naturally beautified garden… thumps up!  

The leaves were beautiful and man… the scenic was amazingly gorgeous! I couldn’t stop snapping my phone for pictures as it was too lovely NOT to snap. We walked through the garden like those old couples did and it was really nice to see them around.

It was indeed tiring to walk the garden as some steps were not too comfortable for walking and we headed down to the well-know Tsukiji Fish Market. We heard so much about this market and we are finally here before they moved out next year. At the entrance, we were welcomed by the smell of BBQ food and we found many BBQ food like oysters, clams, scallops and even squids. We did not waste any time and we started ordering the food to try as there were queues everywhere.  

As we made our way down the market, we saw many other foods like fresh sashimi, sushi restaurants and other fruits stalls. It was simply amazing and I couldn’t keep my eyes still. There were foods everywhere and they were nicely placed and organized. We tried out different types of food and they were reasonable and tasty. Thumps up indeed. 

We saw many other fresh seafood as we walked the market and we couldn’t help but compared their prices with ours back home and they were much cheaper!!! I seriously wished I could buy that whole salmon fish, Alaska crab and the scallops back to SIN… it’s unbelievably cheap!!!

Okay… after the fish market, we are back to the modern city… Ginza. This is one place which I came previously and bought nothing as this is a street filled with all the branded stuff… we went shopping but I only managed to get only my humble branded stuff… Fancl!!! I am happy to get my stuff as it was cheaper to buy in Japan than in Singapore.  

For the night before dinner, we headed to Akihabara to check out the streets that is famous for their gaming and electronics. All the shops on that streets sells anime which interests most of the teens or even young adults. We who not into anime, went combing the street snacks instead… hahahahaah… not into anime, we turned to food. 😊 We were enjoying the beef cube, cheese tart and the pancakes. They were super yummy especially on a cold evening. 

As dinner is not included for the tour tonight, we brought the family to the Chinese restaurant next to our hotel for dinner. We ordered some of the comfort food for the kids as they had been eating Japanese food for the past few days. They were happy to have their fried rice and soup in a foreign land and everyone enjoyed dinner though it wasn’t the best. 😊