NUSS Guild House

08 Feb 2009

Went for lunch at the NUSS Bukit Timah Guild House nestled in the Botanic Gardens.

We dined in The Dunearn restaurant where they serve Western Fusion food.


With my mother-in-law.



With bro-in-law and hubby carrying baby E.



Starter : scallop and lemon-grass sorbet, very refreshing...





Some ordered the beef and it was absolutely tender and delicious








My sis-in-law and I had the seafood pasta dish which was fried with fish roe but it tasted like the hae-bee (dried shrimp) and it was very tasty!!




My in-laws.




Overall, the food was delicious. The portion was a bit small but after going through the set course - it was just nice - not too overly full.

Ambience is small and cosy.

Thumbs up.

Found out that you do not have to be a member to dine at the restaurant - it's open to the public as well.

Nail It !

Everyday is a learning experience with baby E.L.

Hubby : E's nails are long and sharp, should cut them.

Me : Ok, i will go to Kiddy Palace to get a baby nail-cutter (so far, the adoption agency's baby-sitter have been cutting them)

Hubby : Aiyah, can use our nail cutter, it's the same...

Me : Then you cut lah - your eyesight better than mine

Hubby : Wah, I don't dare. His nails are so small, I'm scared I might cut his fingers instead.
Ok, ok, buy the baby nail-cutter (after comparing baby's fingers to our adult sized nail-cutter)


So to Kiddy Palace I go.

Bought this baby nail-cutter and the best part is .........

it's got a magnifying glass! ha ha
so that you can see clearly baby's fingers!

but guess what, I was still scared to cut his nails. Even with the magnifying glass, it's hard to see if baby's flesh might be snip as well.

The baby-sitter told me to use scissors! It's much safer.

So off to Kiddy Palace again and got this ...

It has got a rounded tip so will not accidentally poke baby - the scissors are not totally straight and flat, it's a little curved and yes, it's definitely easier!!!

Visit from BW

Visit from BW and his wife P.

We had dinner and 'lo-hei' as it's still during the Chinese New Year period, at a local coffee-shop.

New addition to our family & Chinese New Year 2009

Hubby and I finally adopted a baby boy E.L.!

We were considering it since a year ago and have put it on hold for awhile as my father was not well.

The adoption agency called and said there're a couple of baby boys to view. So we went. When this baby boy turned around and smiled at us, we knew he is the one.

We had seen other babies before him but none gave us that kind of 'feel'. But with this little one, we just got the 'feel' for him.

E.L. at about 61/2 months old

Hanging around with 'Yee-Sok' (2nd uncle in cantonese)

Went for his first outing.

At an aunt's place for Chinese New Year lunch on 26 January 2009 / Year of the OX

With hubby's father. Hello 'Ah-Yeh'

Such big eyes!

With hubby's cousin's daughter, E.P. She's so pretty!

With hubby's aunt and cute E.P.

Hello, cutie boy.

E.L. : Hi, I can see you clearly ....

what big nose you have! (E.L. playing with E.P.'s father)

Aww...... this is just so sweet.........

What's with Kids nowadays?

What's up with kids nowadays?

I was grocery shopping at NTUC one day and this young school girl, maybe Primary 5/6? - asked me if I could give her 2 dollars.

What do you want the money for?

I need to buy batteries

and looking at what she was holding, it was those Tamagotchi game.

I told her straight off that I am not giving her money to play games and that she should go ask her parents. Guess what, she gave me the 'evil eye' (a 'heen' look) and with a puff, walked away.

Apparently, she had asked other shoppers too as a lady saw the episode and told me that she was being approached for money too.

Coincidentally, on the same day, while hubby was walking home, 2 primary school children approached him and asked him for money to buy sweets/drinks and alamak, hubby gave.

And today, this primary school boy saw me walking by and said "hello auntie". Wow, I taught, so well-mannered and polite. Then this school boy came running after me and asked me to give him a dollar.

Why?

I am thirsty and want to buy drink.

Don't your parents give you money?

My parents are working and I had just lost my one dollar.

I don't believe he has lost his dollar. The way he talk, he sounded very street-wise and he was a smooth talker. My feel is that he is trying to con some money to buy maybe sweets, drinks etc cos he had used up his allowance for the day. I wonder if this is the same boy who asked hubby.

I think this is absolutely terrible. These young kids have absolutely no qualms going up to strangers asking for money cos they had spent theirs.

During my time, if I spent my allowance for the day, then that's it - too bad, can't buy sweets etc. I'll have to save if I want some indulgence. And definitley, do not approach strangers for money.

I just wonder if these school children's parents know what they are up to.

Kuantan, Cherating - Drama, Drama!

17 Dec'08 - 20/21 Dec'08


Hubby and I drove up to Kuantan for a short holiday.

After scouring the internet, we decided on Holiday Villa as it looked rustic and reasonable. We don't like those hotels where they all kind of looked the same.


The reception area



We stayed in a 'villa' - hmm.. more like a hut. It was rather quaint.


A cosy room with a small sitting area.




There are 2 swimming-pools.






The breakfast area by the beach.



We drove up to Trengganu to visit the classy Tanjong Jara Resort








Inside the spa's compound.





The sea were a bit rough as this was the monsoon season.





The beaches are rather disappointing. The sands are coarse, not soft and white like in Bintan.





After our lunch at Tanjong Jara Resort, we started to drive back to our hotel.


Drama no. 1
The traffic light was flashing orange and so hubby slowed down to stop.

I saw this public bus from my passenger side mirror. The bus got closer and closer, hmm... how come so close har? I thought to myself, maybe they're like those S'pore buses where they like to stop very close behind another vehicle? Hey, that's really, really close.

Before I can say anything - bam!

Both of us jerked forward. Luckily, we were wearing our seat-belts.

Guess what the bus-driver said to us in Malay? Aiyah! why you stop? Just go lah!
Huh? the light was turning red and also it was very dangerous to run the red-light as we were at a cross-junction where there are many cars coming from front, back and also the side-roads.

When we got bumped - hubby let out *&#@ softly - wah, in all the years we are married, he had never utter any bad words - he's really, really upset.

Here's hubby looking visibly upset.


It wasn't that hard a knock but as you can see, the car was already being pushed from the white line onto the yellow box.


Another close up look of the damage.


Hubby saw his baby bashed up, wah, so heart-pained leh.

But we are learning to look on the positive side of things - it could have been worse - at least we are not injured or caused anybody to be injured.

Thank you up-there for looking after us.



Went to one of the hotels (The Legend) along the beach for batik painting.


I chose to paint turtles. The turtles are already being outlined in wax.


Painting in the colours. Hubby helped a bit.


My finished turtles! Hubby said it looked like "Turtles in Outer-Space" instead of "Turtles Under The Sea".




Drama no.2
Had some emergency back home. I went to the Kuantan airpot the next morning to try to find a flight back to S'pore immediately.

Had to pay full fare on Malaysian Airlines. There were no direct flights and I had to connect via Kuala Lumpur. Unable to book the immediate connection flight from Kuala Lumpur to S'pore, so I had to try my luck at the transfer desk in KL. Luckily, managed to get a seat.

Thank you up-there again, for helping to get my flight to S'pore smoothly.

I felt rather bad to leave hubby behind to drive back alone to S'pore. We were unable to drive home on the day that I had to leave as hubby had to go to the police station the next day to collect his accident report.

Hubby said that we shouldn't drive up to east coast of Malaysia anymore cos always got something negative happen.

The last time we drove up to east coast, Mersing, the car that we drove (his fren's malaysian car) could not start after we want to drive back to S'pore. We ended up having to take a taxi from Mersing to Johore where his friend is staying. As for the car, his friend drove up to Mersing with a mechanic to fix it and get it back.

No more east coast Malaysia for us anytime soon.

All in, a very drama holiday.

Hamster Drama 2

How to tell your hamster is getting old? - by his ears. If his ears are getting dark, it means he's getting on in years.

Bob's ears was turning kind of blackish around the rim of his ears and it was expected as he has been with us for about 1 and half years and hamster's life expectancy is about 2-3 years.

So I was not surprised that his ear was turning dark. But after the falling into the drainage pipes episode - his ears turned even more black and was dry and crusty (i touched his ears) which I think was due to the soapy water he was soaked in.

So I was looking into his cage to see how his ears are and I saw only 1 black ear.

OMG!!!!! his the other ear dropped off??????????

I kept looking for the other ear and I saw a big hole at the side of his head - yeeeek! his ear really dropped off and left a big hole?????

I looked closer and there is a flap, not just a gaping hold. I think he's grown a new ear!!!!!!

But it looked kind of big compared to his original ear. Hubby said that it's most probably the same ear, just that the black crust had dropped off and that the ear is that size - just that his fur covered the ear before and so it looked small.

You be the judge of it........... I still think he grew a new ear........



see his normal left ear which is kind of tapered? It is still dry and crusty.




see his new right ear? - it looked much rounder and bigger like a funnel.



I wonder if his left ear is going to drop off too.

Bob is back to his normal self and wanting to run around.

I noticed that when I handle or touch him now, he is not so unwilling anymore - I guess he know that we 'sayang' him as we had saved him.