A Rare Meet Up

When I received the news from Alex that he will be visiting SIN on a business trip, I was really happy and immediately tried to set a date to meet up at least for dinner. I remembered the last time he visited SIN with his dad and brother Otto was about 4 years ago.

This time, he visited SIN for work and we are happy that he managed to squeeze time out to meet us for dinner. Susan & I met up with him earlier for kopi session near his hotel and had a quick catch up while waiting for the restaurant to open.

He chose Japanese over Western food…. Hahahaahahah… obviously right! We found out that there is a Japanese restaurant just around the corner of his hotel and decided to give it a shot. Akashi used to be housed in Tanglin Shopping Centre but now they are at Orchard Rendezvous Hotel which is formerly known as Orchard Parade Hotel. 

When we entered the restaurant, it looked pretty expensive but to our relief, the price was quite reasonable like other family restaurant. We browsed through the menu and ordered couple of dishes to share. Their food wasn’t too bad and I like their yakitori and the grilled squid. It was really tasty! For the tempura, not too oily but I am no fan of Tempura so… I didn’t really score it. 😊

We had so much catching up to do and we were happy to be informed that Otto will be getting hitched next January and wedding will be held in Perth. Till then, the whole family will be transiting in Singapore and we hope that it will be another opportunity for us to catch up again.

Mid-Autumn Festival At In-Laws

It is a yearly affair that we will gather at my in-laws’ place to celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival over dinner. We are always happy with occasions like this so that we can have the kids to meet their cousins and it is a great opportunity for them to bond.

As usual, dinner was simple but it was always precious time spent together with the family. We took the opportunity to catch up with each other and talked about our travel plans for the year end. Unfortunately, this year our family are unable to travel together as a family due to many different commitments and we hope to plan one next year.

After dinner, we brought the kids down to play their lanterns and Maggie never fails the kids with additional activities like the fire crackers stuff which the kids loves to play and it was such a feeling seeing them having fun together.

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival everyone!

Luncheon @ Hello Kitty Café

Emma was really liked this café after her first visit. I brought her to have lunch at this café after her school outing at the airport T3 since no lunch will be provided for N2 kids as they will return to school for lunch.

Today, we are back again for lunch but with the family. Lady Faith was thrilled to be in the café and couldn’t contain her excitement. She was so excited that she wants to take picture with everything in the café! Obviously, it was not approved. Hahahahahaah

They were having a great promotion where kids will eat free with every adult main ordered. We were happy to order 2 adult mains and our kids had theirs. Hubby ordered the beef rendang and it was pretty tasty. Lady Faith tried and loved it as it was not spicy but really tasty in her opinion.

Though this café was opened perhaps 2 years ago and it created headlines for long queues but today, it was really quiet and the flow of patrons were slow. I am sure we will return to the café again someday.

Mid-Autumn Festival

This would be the first time celebrating Mid-Autumn Festival at our new place after moving in for 1 year. The kids were really happy to know that we are allowing them to play their lanterns in the house though not a huge space to walk about.

We tried to enjoy the evening outdoor as we are usually indoor in the night. Somehow, it was quite a great feeling spending time outdoor enjoying the cool night with kids playing with their lanterns around the same area.

It was a simple celebration but it was really nice to have the whole family sitting around the small table chatting and enjoying the mooncakes.

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival everyone!

My Take On The Tiramisu

I have done Tiramisu in 2 different versions and this time, I want to make it smaller so that more people can try it and I find it easier to eat.

I made my 1^st Tiramisu cupcakes and it was easy than anything. For me, I prefer this Tiramisu cupcakes than to any other of my other cupcakes coz’ the cream is lighter and no wonder my Lady Faith and Little Pumpkin can have 2 cupcakes each and come back for more.

Brought them to my wonderful people at work and hope that I can spread some joy to them out of the stressful hours in the office.

A Visit To The Trick Eye Museum

Heard about the Trick Eye Museum but I have never been there myself. Lucky Lady Faith was given this opportunity to follow her dad to this museum as the ministry of St. Vincent de Paul organized this for the less fortunate people.

Lady Faith don’t know what to expect from the museum as she went along with her dad. I was told that she was not only enjoying herself at the museum taking all the funny pictures but also tried to assist her dad when help was needed.

Daddy was happy and busy at the same time juggling both Lady Faith and their FINS but thank God for this beautiful and interesting museum that kept the elders entertained.

She came home with a huge smile on her face and sat down to tell little pumpkin and myself how interesting and fun that museum was. She too suggested that we should go as a family again as there were so many interesting sets for photos that will make the picture effect unbelievably funny.

My Avocado Ice-Cream

I have always wanted to try to make homemade ice-cream and I finally made my first move with our all-time favourite avocado. I do not have an ice-cream maker and I was happy to chance upon this simple recipe online.

Since Lady Faith is out to the Trick Eye Museum with her dad and little pumpkin is well entertained with her favourite TV show, I managed to have my ‘ME’ time to make this beautiful ice-cream. The recipe said to use the condensed milk, whipping cream and the avocado which is so easy. I was really concerned about putting the whole tin of condensed milk to the ice-cream but I have no other alternative ingredients but that coz’ it definitely needs sugar and fat to set the ice-cream.

Well, the process of the making this amazing ice-cream was pretty quick and easy. It took me less than 45 minutes to complete it and put it in the freezer to freeze. The tiring part of this process would be the folding in of the cream which takes a while and my arms were quite sore after that.

The result of how the ice-cream turned out was amazing good. It tasted just great, not too sweet coz’ I put more avocado than needed from the recipe. I roasted some pistachio nuts and salted caramel sauce to serve with it. Verdict… Super yummy! 

I think I will try to make cookies and cream ice-cream next. 😊

See You Later, Alligator…

Farewells are not only the worst thing for adults but for kids too. We received news from Emma’s school that Haruki & Diego will be leaving SIN for Malaysia soon as their dad is transferred over for work. Lady Faith was really upset about it as Haruki used to be one of her close friends during their youngest days…

Their principal and teacher Jolin organized a farewell party for them but some of the mummies couldn’t make it. We managed to put up another farewell gathering for Haruki & family at Nom La La located at Safra Punggol.

The kids were excited whenever there is a party but Lady Faith had mixed feelings as she knows she will be missing her friend after she leaves SIN. She treasured every minute with her friends at the gathering and they had a great time playing at the public area outside the restaurant. They were having fun playing the scooter, cycling and some were roller blading too. We as adults were happy to see the kids enjoying themselves … just like back in those school days.

I am really fortunate to be close to some of her friends’ mummies and honestly, they were such a nice bunch of people. They are people who are really warm, friendly and very funny too. While the kids were having a ball of a time with their friends, we, mummies were enjoying our chats too over coffee and cakes.

It was really hard to say ‘goodbye’ to Haruki & family though we do not meet so often but it’s the like the missing piece on the puzzle. We told Lady Faith that we will try to visit Malaysia and hope to catch up with them when we are visiting.

Wishing Haruki & family all the best in Malaysia and hope to see you guys back to SIN soon.

Staycation Fun

The kids got up early for their breakfast this morning as they were excited to attend the cake decorating class later. We signed them up for the class yesterday during their session and they had so much fun decorating their cupcakes.

After breakfast, we registered the kids at the baking studio and their chef in charged started the class without any delay. It was really fun seeing them following instructions and patiently decorating their cream puff.

They were then given a paper bag to design their names and made the bag their very own at the end of the session which lasted for half an hour. We returned to our room and got them changed as they wanted to spend the rest of the morning at the pool. 

Half way through their fun time at the pool, the sky turned dark and started to pour. They were pretty much disappointed but was quite contended that they managed to swim for at least for an hour plus before the rain came.

Having a staycation is the best time to bond with the kids as we were able to spend every moment of our time having fun together. We are loving this hotel and we will definitely be back again!

Staycation At Shangri-La Hotel Singapore

It’s the September school holidays and we would like to take this opportunity to spend some time with the kiddos but not planning to travel out of the country since it’s only one week of holiday.

I was happy to have ‘sista’ to book the stay for us. She was so kind to get us such a good rate for this family bonding time and I am truly thankful to her.

We arrived early to have high-tea with mum and it was such an enjoyable time having tea with the family. It was mum and hubby first time having hi-tea at Rose Veranda and I am happy that they enjoyed the spread.

Since our room is not ready, we brought the kids down to Buds where they can enjoy themselves at this indoor playground for at least a couple of hours. When I registered them, the staff told me that there will be a cake decorating lesson later and I was more than happy to sign them up for that since both are very interested in decorating cakes especially those that I baked!

I felt really safe to leave the kids at Buds while the adults continued with the spread. I was happy that we had our quiet time enjoying tea without the kids for a little before mummy decided to go watch the kids while hubby and I enjoyed our time together.

I went to Buds to check out the kids while they had their cake decorating session and I could see them enjoying themselves to every bit of their time spent there. They were pretty much lucky that they had the whole baking studio to themselves as they were the only ones who signed up.

It was indeed a joy to see them decorating the cakes with love and seriousness. At the end of the session, they were allowed to bring the cakes home and I would say they tasted extremely delicious coz’ they were done by our kiddos. 😊 

Lady Faith’s First Swim Test

Lady Faith has been taking up swimming lessons 2 years ago and since then, we could see how much she has improved on her swimming skills. She used to be quite afraid of jumping into the water without any floats and came home crying.

Her school organized the swimming lessons for 10 weeks and ended off with the swim safe test but almost all of her classmates or schoolmates failed (I wondered why!). Some of her schoolmates’ mum even talked about how shocked they were to receive the results of their child’s failure. For me, I was not panicked coz’ I am not pinning the hopes of Lady Faith to become the next Tao Li!

Her coach informed me that she will be signing Lady Faith up for the Swim Safe 2 and I did not put high expectation on it as it should be a simple test and I have full confidence that she will be able to pass.

Sent her to the test this morning and she requested me to be around instead of chilling at the café… well, I did hang around and I witnessed the whole test procedure and I was really pleased with what I saw. She was swimming like a fish and managed to pass through all the obstacles that the tester gave them. It was not too difficult in my opinion and it should be a breeze.

After her test, I brought her to the café for our brunch. She was really relieved that her test is over and I rewarded her with her favourite cookies & cream milkshake. Well, she definitely deserved the reward as she put on effort to swim well today.

Congratulations darling!