Weekend Staycation

We treated ourselves to a staycation holiday at Ritz-Carlton Singapore with their overnight package, 12 Joys of Christmas. We checked in just before 4pm. We were wowed by the view from our window. Our room (upgraded) is facing the Marina Bay. :) The view from the bathroom/tub is even better (same Marina Bay view) lol. :P Often wondered how it would be like taking a bath with a huge window like that. I will know soon enough haha. :)



The Marina Bay view from the window





The walk-in wardrobe

The reflection of the famous bathroom/ tub window in the mirror

The famous bathroom/tub window


The Marina Bay views from our window






Welcome gift from the hotel

We lazed around in our room. The kids were playing on their father's notebook, I was updating my blog and their father was napping. We left for dinner just after 6.30pm. We walked to the nearby shopping mall, Millenia Walk and had dinner at Saboten Japanese Restaurant. Will say/ show more about dinner in another post.
After dinner, we walked around the mall for a while before returning to our room. The night view of Marina Bay is really beautiful.

At the Ritz Carlton retail shop

The Christmas tree at the lobby

Weekend Break

Looking forward to our break this weekend. :)

Surprises

Surprise 1:
The girls' father said that he would go on the trip to the Canadian Rockies too in June 2012. In addition, we would be going to San Francisco to visit his aunt and family.
Surprise 2:
The girls' father said he would drive while at the Canadian Rockies! This is a shocker, coming from a guy who has never driven in foreign land and much less left-hand drive and long distance driving. But it would definitely save a bundle when self-driving as compared to taking a tour, a saving of more than $1000 Canadian dollars.

Coloured Xiao Long Bao

We had lunch at Paradise Dynasty on Sunday. We got in just before the crowd lol. Lucky. :) We ordered the Coloured Xiao Long Baos ($13.80) sampler set - original pork dumpling (white), cheese pork dumpling (yellow), foie gras pork dumpling (brown), crab roe pork dumpling (orange), ginseng pork dumpling (green), szechuan pork dumpling (pink), garlic pork dumpling (grey), and black truffle pork dumpling (black). The xiao long baos were delicious. :) We also ordered other dishes such as original Shanghai Xiao Long Bao, Chilled Assorted Egg Loaf in Yang Zhou style, Duck slices, Double-boiled chicken soup, wanton la mian, etc. Desserts were Souffle Egg White Balls stuffed with red bean and banana, Chilled Aloe Vera with osmanthus jelly in honey lemon juice and longan almond jelly. It was a very satisfying lunch. :)

Soup Craze

Marieann is suddenly obsessed with cooking soup. She has been experimenting with various ingredients and cooking the soup with the help of the domestic helper. Guess who is the guinea pig? Poor me! Lol. :P

Christmas at the Gardens

Here are some photos of the Christmas decor at the Botanic Garden.

Happy Birthday, YM

Happy Birthday, YM.
Hope it is a great day for you,
fill with lots of love and great memories.

Love,
HM and family :)

Last Lunar Eclipse of 2011

Tonight Marieann, my neighbour and I witnessed the last lunar eclipse of 2011. I am really glad that I managed to see it because the next one won't happen until 2014. And knowing life, who knows what can happen in the next minute. :P
We didn't travel all the way to Labrador Park. Instead we camped at our "front yard" - The Botanic Gardens lol. There are plenty of wide open spaces at the garden and with zero cloud cover tonight, it was perfect for viewing the moon. Best of all, there was no crowd! We could watch the lunar eclipse in peace while enjoying the cool evening weather. :)





Maximum eclipse - the moon in darkness

End of total eclipse - the moon reappearing

Overdue Team Lunch

My team and I had our team lunch. Finally! :) It is long overdue because it has been so hard to find the time for our team lunch.
I would usually treat my RAs to lunch after a period of hard work in our project as way of thank you and also to build camaraderie. But for this lunch, besides the usual, it is also to celebrate my handing in of my revised thesis. :) We went to Swensen's for lunch. As usual, the highlight of the lunch was our huge Earthquake sundae! :)

My wonderful team!

Our Earthquake sundae with eight scoops of ice cream :)

Handed In!

I handed in my revised thesis today at 11.15am. Finally!! :)
Now it is a waiting game. I wait for news of when my oral defence will be.

New Windows Phone: Nokia Lumia 800

A new Windows mobile phone is out in Singapore today. It is Lumia 800 by Nokia. It looks really beautiful and sexy lol.
I am not someone who is into mobile phones but Lumia 800 is grabbing my attention because it is a Windows phone! I am currently using another Windows phone, HTC HD Mini. If I have to change my mobile phone, I would much prefer to change to another Windows phone as I am familiar with the functions.

Here's a Nokia Lumia 800 Overview and Hands On (uploaded by NokiaMobileBlog). I realised the video was recorded on my birthday. I think it is a sign lol. :P

Ariana Grande

The girls have been listening to Ariana Grande and the songs that she covered on YouTube. I am really impressed with her voice! Powerful vocals! Here are two of the songs she covered, Grenade by Bruno Mars and Love the Way You Lie by Rihanna. (uploaded by osnapitzari)

Hiccup

Met with a hiccup in the process of my dissertation revision. :( Hope the difficulty would be resolved soon!

Sarang Again

We went back to Sarang Korean Restaurant again, this time for dinner. We pretty much ordered the same dishes as before. In addition, we ordered Bingsu, Korean style ice kachang (red bean, orange slices, pineapple cubes, mango ice cream, etc). :)

Wild Game at Brotzeit

It has been a while since we last went to Vivocity. We decided to have lunch at Brotzeit, German Bier Bar & Restaurant. The current promotion is Wild Game Season. The parents tried the Wildragout ($38.50), game stew from deer and wild boar served with buttered spatzle, red cabbage and bacon wrapped fine beans. Marieann had the Pork Cheese Sausages ($18.50) served with potato salad and mashed potato and Juliane had the mini Pork Cheese Sausages. I really liked the wildragout. The meat was tender and the gravy went really well with the red cabbage and spatzle. :) Yum yum!

The Noose Christmas 2011

When I first saw this on tv, I was tickled pink by it lol. For those who are not Singaporean, The Noose is a Singaporean comedy series. It is a parody of local news programmes with fictional news reports and a presentation mimicking that of the real news.

(uploaded by mediacorpch5)

Tap Reef 2

OMG. There is Tap Reef 2! Juliane has asked me to kill off my Tap Reef and install the new Tap Reef 2. I am most reluctant to do so. I have spent too much time on my Tap Reef to suddenly give it up. Actually I have accumulated too much wealth (736,880,863 sand dollars to be exact) to let it go hahaha :P
So Tap Reef 2? No, thank you. I will stick with my Tap Reef.

The One That Got Away by Katy Perry

This song is beautiful, The One That Got Away by Katy Perry. Guess everyone has "the one that got away"...

"In another life I would be your girl
We keep all our promises, be us against the world.
In another life I would make you stay
so I don't have to say you are the one that got away..."

(uploaded by KatyPerry VEVO)

Consider Me Gone by Reba McEntire

The girls are currently listening to this song, Consider Me Gone by Reba McEntire. I am surprised that they are listening to country music lol.

(uploaded by RebaMcEntireVEVO)

Night Safari

On Saturday 26 November, my girls and I went with my good friend and his wife to the Night Safari. It is our first time visiting the Night Safari. Thank goodness, the rain stopped by the time we arrived at the Night Safari around 7.30pm.
It was really fun and exciting seeing the animals in the dark. Somehow the darkness, the night, the stars twinkling in the sky just seem to bring about mystery and excitement. It was like going for an adventure lol. We went on a few of the walking trails, took the tram as well as watched the animal show. It was almost 11.15pm when we left. The girls fell asleep in the car ride home lol.
The girls enjoyed themselves tremendously at the Night Safari. They said that they like Night Safari better than the Zoo and would like to come back again lol.

Happy Birthday, Dinh

Here's wishing my lovely sister-in-law, Dinh a most WONDERFUL and LOVELY birthday today! Hope the boys will pamper you with lots of surprises and presents! Mostly importantly, may you have a good rest today. NO housework! Haha :P

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Lots of LOVE
from all of us in Singapore.

Farewell, Seunghee

Another colleague is leaving. She will be returning to New Zealand with her husband and her young daughter, Molly. Although I haven't had the chance to work with her, I have had the opportunity to interact with her especially about things Korea and Korean. :) Seunghee is Korean. :) She helped to get my girls their lovely hanbok from Korea.

There was a farewell gathering at her place today for our workplace colleagues. My family came along with me. The girls played with Molly who is under 2 years old. They were having a great time! Lol.

Molly posing prettily for Marieann who took this photo



Seunghee, Molly and Francis, take care of yourselves in NZ. Sad to see you leave but who knows, we will meet in the near future, either in NZ or in Korea lol. :P Take care!!

Italian Lunch

It was by chance that we went to Covelli for lunch when we were at Orchard Central because the girls suddenly craved for Italian food.
Juliane and I shared a lobster bisque while Marieann and her father both ordered onion soup. Juliane ordered a Hawaiian pizza, Marieann a Seafood spaghetti, their father Prawn risotto and I had Duck confit. The girls really enjoyed their lunch.

Good News

My counselling school has 100% passes for their PSLE results! That is good news indeed. :) I am really happy to know that all my counsellees will be moving on to secondary schools. I hope they can get into the secondary school of their choice. :)

PSLE 2011 Results

The results of PSLE 2011 are out today. I wondered how my counsellees fared. I sincerely hope that they can get into their choice of secondary schools.

Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure

The girls' father bought them a new toy. Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure. It was a promise by their father to the girls. He promised that he would buy it if the girls passed their exams but he didn't specify the range of marks they had to get! Sigh. He also bought a PS3 station so that they can play Skylanders. Well I am sure he has bought for himself some PS3 games too.

New Korean Addiction

My girls and I are now hooked on another Korean historical drama that is currently showing on Channel U lol. It is really a torture just waiting to know what happens one episode at a time. We managed to rent all 5 volumes of the Korean drama, The Great Queen Seondeok. :) That's a total of 25 dvds (3 episodes in each dvd) to watch lol. :P

20:11, 20.11.2011

Another unique time and date. :)

Sarang Korean Restaurant

We had lunch at Sarang, Orchard Central because the girls wanted to buy the Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure Starter Pack from a games shop at OC. However the stock was not in yet.

It was fairly late, close to 2.30pm when we had lunch. Not a lot of people having lunch then so the food was served pretty fast. We ordered Drunken Pork, Ginseng Chicken Soup, and Dolsot Bibimbap and for dessert, cinnamon pancakes. The food were delicious and the pancakes were yummy. We would be coming back here again for meals. :)

My Chinese Name

This results of this Blogthings quiz is so eerily accurate! My Chinese name does have the Hui character in it!! :)

Your Chinese Name is Hui

This name, meaning intelligent and wise, fits you completely. You are very bright. Enthusiastic and optimistic, you get a kick out of stimulating, intellectual discussions. You could spend a whole weekend studying philosophy or interesting religions. You crave enlightenment. (NB: Actually, I prefer studying Wicca than philosophy! Haha :P) You love that there is always more to see or do. The world is big, and life is long.

What's Your Chinese Name?

MIA Cooks

My father left for Xiamen yesterday and my mother would be flying over from Taiwan to join him. My girls are already missing him because after my mother left for Taiwan, he would always cook what they wanted to eat, such as chicken rice, pineapple fried rice, laksa, and cuttlefish.
They hope both their grandparents will come back before the new year to enjoy yummy home-cooked food again.

Last Session of 2011

This is the last week of school. Since last week, I have started wrapping up my cases. Most of the counsellees were sweet and told me that they will miss me. I will miss the counsellees too, especially the P6 counsellees as they will move on to secondary schools in 2012. I wish them all the best for their PSLE results.

Revised

I am done with my revision. It is now over to my supervisors. My colleagues/ friends are really sweet and gave me a cupcake as a reward for my hard work. :)

The End is Near

The end is near, very near...

Wish You Were Here - Avril Lavigne

Wish you were here...

Holiday

The holiday has started for my girls. Their school closed one week earlier than the other primary schools because it is a full school (both primary and secondary schools are on the same premise) and the Secondary 4 students are having their O level examinations. They are happy that they don't have wake up early in the morning. Me too as I don't have get up at 6am to wake them up! Lol. :)

11.11, 11.11.11

You only see this once in a hundred years. I was updating the weather on my phone when it was the above time. It is pretty amazing to see it as it happened. :)

My Kind of Toast

I usually have Ah Kun's toast without the kaya, just with butter. Always love the the taste of butter melting in my mouth. :) This what having butter with my toast says about me lol.

You Are Content

You aren't afraid to take responsibility for your actions - or place the blame on whoever deserves it. People see you as both genuine and spontaneous. You are the real deal. You want to experience the world without judgment. You are totally open to experiences. You have a deep desire to play by your own rules and do things on your own terms. You can't be fenced in.

What Does Your Toast Say About You?