Happy Children's Day

 Happy Children's Day!

Mid-Autumn Festival

I remembered celebrating Mid-Autumn Festival was one of the best moments during my childhood, especially when I was staying in a shophouse where I used to hang out with my neighbours. During this season, parents will buy mooncakes for the family and lanterns for the kids.

 

On the day of the festival, we will have early dinner and when the night came, the family will gather at the living or dining room to cut the mooncake and enjoyed the moonlight with a warm cup of Chinese tea. As the adults were enjoying their mooncakes and tea, the kids lit up their lanterns with candles and started to walk around the neighbourhood.

 

Some kids will show off a few of their handheld lanterns and others were limited to one lantern per child. Kids will gather around when a lantern candle burns out and start helping each other to light it up again. It was such an amazing activity to participate in during that time. That would be one of the few nights that the kids were allowed to sleep later than their usual bedtime. 😊

 

In the modern world now, we do not really see kids walking with their lanterns around the neighborhood. Most of the kids are either at home or skipped the practice. This year, being the COVID year, the streets became a dead town when it comes to night. You could not find a soul outside your house even during this festival.

 

I did not buy mooncakes this year but decided to make my own. I made the Ondeh-Ondeh and the dark chocolate snow skin. It was delicious and it was quickly snapped out by the kids. Since there was no one out on the streets, I lit up my kid’s lantern and let them have a fair share of lantern walk just outside our gate. Though they were the only kids with lanterns, they enjoyed walking just outside our gate and the strolling down the single lane passing my neighour’s house. 

This is indeed a quiet Mid-Autumn Festival and I do hope that we can celebrate this festival with more crowds next year.

What A Rare Visit

I was totally taken by surprise when I found this little cute Ladybird Beetle on my pillar wall. Initially I thought it was a stain but when I looked closer, it was such a beautiful sight to see this little cutie. It wasn’t moving but stayed put on the wall allowing me to take some pictures of it.

This is such a rare sight indeed and I am so stoked that this cute little Ladybird Beetle paid us a visit. 😊My kids were super excited and took a closer look at how beautiful it was. 😊 Honestly, we don’t spot Ladybird Beetles anywhere in Singapore, not even the gardens but am super stoked that they came pay us a visit. 😊Let’s hope to see more of these species around more often. 😊

Punggol Settlement

September has arrived and the kids began their one-week school break. We as parents ran out of ideas how to spend time with them especially during this Covid restriction period. There are limited things we can do as we are not allowed to travel. We are stuck!

 

The kids became restless as they were bored. Finally, we decided to bring them to cycle at Punggol Settlement. When we arrived in the morning, we were happy that it was not crowded, and many cyclists were masked off as the government allowed masked off when you are exercising. The kids, however, were worried so they put on their masks as they rode on their bikes. 

As it was breezy to cycle as it was not crowded, we managed to ride further this time. It took us about 2 hours to cycle and back with some resting time in between. The kids were happy, and they enjoyed themselves very much. Well, I am happy that we can do some outdoor activities with the kids despite the covid situation.

After burning some calories, we headed to have our hearty brunch at Wild Seeds located at Seletar Aerospace. We were happy to be seated almost immediately as it was not fully filled when we arrived. We noticed the crowd starting to flow in after we placed our orders. Thank GOD!

We love their pasta and sandwiches there and the kids enjoyed their kids meal as usual. It was quite a good brunch with the kids, especially after 2 hours of cycling. 

Ban Mian Style

I remembered that I used to patronize this stall at Marina Square Food Court or Suntec City Food Court when I was working at MC and they served very delicious Ban Mian. I used to dash to queue during the busy lunch hours as this is one of my favourite soup noodles. Though I am not a fan of Ban Mian but were able to choose the types of noodles available.

 

I enjoy this dish especially when it is on rainy days. I usually take my time to finish this as it is so comforting to tummy and it is absolutely delicious. I have not eaten this for a long time, but I do miss the taste of it. I took up the courage to try cooking this dish to satisfy my own cravings and at the same time introducing this comforting food to my kids.

 

Well, this is something that is not that hard to prepare. We only make the soup with anchovies and the rest are ingredients like noodles, eggs, minced pork, and vegetables. You can also add mushrooms or other ingredients like salmon, white fish or you can have it just with vegetables. 

I would say that I did quite a decent job with this dish and now it has become a family’s favourite too. 😊 Woohoo!!! 

Visit To MC

During Covid, my previous office went through a major renovation, and they revamped the whole concept. It is now on hot desk system as most people began to work from home instead spending their 8 hours in the office.

I was informed by ex-colleagues that the office is ready and invited me to visit them.

I had lunch with some of my close friends and visited the new office thereafter. I noticed the difference instantly as the reception has changed into a place with which I am no longer familiar. As I entered the office by the side entrance, I noticed that there were many plants around and empty tables that are placed in a more relax position. There are many dividers in between tables and there were lounge chairs or a super private meeting room for one person. Strange but cool if you want to get away from the rest.

 

The whole office has become modern and super spacious which I am not sure if that is good or bad. There was also a ‘dance floor’ in the middle of nowhere and was told that they left it empty for other reasons. Hahaahahah… I can do yoga on that floor man!!!

 

As I strolled through the whole office, I realized that they have loads of plants in some corners to beautify the area and some plants works as dividers between departments. I thought they had gone too far as it looked more like a garden and looked out of place. 

I enjoyed the office tour as well as catching up with some colleagues whom I have not met for a long time. It’s good to be back but not to work… haahahahahaah

Super Delayed Birthday Celebration

I am truly blessed with many good friends and buddies in my life and these two ladies are one of those exceptional people in my life. We became friends when we were 7yrs and till date, we are still as close as ever. Though we have different commitments with family, work, and kids, we took time out to meet as much as we can.

 

Today, we celebrated Edelyn’s birthday though we are 2 months late. Yes, her birthday was in June, but we only managed to meet today due to Covid restrictions and other matters. We had a great lunch at Beauty In A Pot located at NEX and man, it was really delicious. This is the first time I am dining here, and I gave it a thumps up for its soup base – collagen soup. It was so yummy that I think I can drink up the whole pot!

 

As this is a steamboat joint, we ordered some dishes like vegetables, meat and seafood to compliment the soup. I really enjoyed having the soup with the noodles and it was just so comforting to the stomach. After our sumptuous lunch, we were greeted by the staff with a cute rainbow birthday cake for Ed.

 

She was so shy and wanted to hide away but we told her that we should celebrate as the restaurant was not too crowded and we should feel free to sing!! Ahahahahahaah… it is always nice to celebrate birthdays with friends for you are always allow to do silly things with them without being judged. 

Happy belated birthday Ed and may you continued to be bless with happiness and good health.