Floor Sweeper

30 June 2013



 He wanted to sweep and I ain't complaining :) Did quite a decent job.

Smiths Fish & Chips

30 June 2013


Father-in-law introduced this eatery to us.

There're different kind of fish to choose from instead of the usual dory fish.

I had the haddock which I find a tad dry, but that's me. I prefer the cod as it's more moist.

So if you're tired of the same old dory fish at your local fish n chips, try here. 

A hit with the kid - the can crusher !

Another can that I crushed.

Yes, his mouth is always covered with ice-cream when he eats it.

Smiths @ Balmoral
271 Bukit Timah Road
#01-02 Balmoral Plaza
Singapore 259708
tel : 6737 9313
http://www.smithsfishandchips.com/

Walk The Dog

28 June 2013


We drove to Bishan Park to have dinner at one of the restaurants there and bumped into hubby's friend with his dog Brownie.




The kid's not scared of dogs. We told him that not all dogs are friendly and he should approach the dog cautiously and let the dog sniff one of his hand first so that the dog will know his scent and I guess get to know him too. 
But I do always ask the owner if the dog's friendly or not first.

Running all over the place.

Don't know if he's leading the dog or the dog leading him, ha ha.

The kid fell asleep immediately when his head touched his pillow.

Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum

26 June 2013




The kid said he wanted to see a temple and we decided to bring him to this temple as we have not visited it before.

No pic of the Buddha Tooth as photography not allowed.

 Very nice roof garden.

There's a giant Tibetan prayer wheel.

Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum
288, South Bridge Road. Singapore 058840
Tel: +65 6220 0220
Fax: +65 6220 1261
Email : services@btrts.org.sg
Website: www.btrts.org.sg
Operating Hours : 7.00am to 7.00pm (Monday to Sunday), including public holidays. - See more at: http://www.btrts.org.sg/contact-us#sthash.W8mgTLnx.dpuf

Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum
288, South Bridge Road. Singapore 058840
Tel: +65 6220 0220
Fax: +65 6220 1261
Email : services@btrts.org.sg
Website: www.btrts.org.sg
Operating Hours : 7.00am to 7.00pm (Monday to Sunday), including public holidays. - See more at: http://www.btrts.org.sg/contact-us#sthash.W8mgTLnx.dpuf

Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum
288, South Bridge Road. Singapore 058840
Tel: +65 6220 0220 - See more at: http://www.btrts.org.sg/contact-us#sthash.W8mgTLnx.dpuf

Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum
288, South Bridge Road
Singapore 058840
Operating hours : 7am-7pm (Monday to Sunday, including public holidays)
http://www.btrts.org.sg/

Cousin CT's Wedding

22 June 2013




My cousin CT's (the groom) wedding a M Hotel.

I must say that the food served was very, very tasty and delicious. The usual 8 course wedding dinner but really good food.

My aunt (in kebaya), her husband and my mom

 My cousin LC and his wife.

The groom and bride.

A surprise! It was also the groom's parents' wedding anniversary.
Their children each gave a speech and presented to their parents a present and flowers.
My uncle and aunt also each gave a speech. It was so touching that it brought tears to my eyes.

Happy Wedding Anniversay Uncle J and Aunt D

and

Congrats CT and your lovely wife.

MegaBugs Return @ Science Centre

12 June 2013

Of cos he must take a pic with his favourite dinosaur!

 You walk thru this 'turning-tunnel' - but it felt like the walkway was actually swaying instead - giddy lah!

 Ants on a doughnut.

Hey kid, you looking at me?

See how a fly feels like walking on his legs (like velcro)

This are real bugs! And they were eating worms. Reminds me of those killer bugs in a scene from 'The Mummy'.

 3D screening

 

The Megabugs exhibitions was a disappointment to us ( I said to us, in our opinion, as other families might like it though)

Nothing exciting. You could finish it really fast.

Except for one or two bugs, I guess it wasn't that intriguing to see everyday insects being exhibited just in mega sizes.

Instead we enjoyed the 3D movie 'A Rainforest Adventure' much more.

Please bring back 'Dinosaurs-Live!' - it was so much more fascinating!

Ninjago

The kid's crazy about Ninjago.

His drawing of Ninjago.... hee hee.....not bad for a coming-to-5year old boy.
He wasn't looking at a Ninjago figurine(he does not have one) or at a pic - it was drawn from memory.

East Ocean Teochew Restaurant

08 June 2013


Went to Takashimaya to buy something and decided to have dinner there too.

Sorry no pics. By the time I realised to take some pics, food was half gone.

Yes, the food's good ! Every dish that we ordered.

The venison in black pepper sauce was excellent - it had that wok-hei. Prices is very reasonable too(I was surprised, I thought it would be higher)

When I was looking for a place to eat, when I saw this restaurant, I had a feeling that the food's gonna be good.

The restaurant's decor reminds me of those olden days. Most of the waiters and waitresses are old uncles and aunties and looks like they've been with the restaurant a long time. Most of them speaks Cantonese. And you can tell that they take pride in their job and also very knowledgeable.
It's like those restaurant from yesteryears and of cos, the food's good.


East Ocean Teochew Restaurant Pte Ltd
391 Orchard Road
#05-08/09 Ngee Ann City, Podium Block
Singapore 238872
Tel : 62359088
www.eastocean.com.sg

GRUB

07 June 2013


Truffle Egg Cotte
Don't know how it taste like as the kid ate it all up fast as lightning.

Caramelized Onion Gratin
I love the caramelized onion !

Pan-Seared King Salmon with Risotto
I was thinking of ordering just the risotto. Luckily the server recommended this dish as the risotto got kind of heavy after a few mouthful.

Slow Roasted Pork Belly
Hubby said this dish looked small when it came and wonder if it will be enough to fill him up.
Well, it definitely was filling - think it was becos of the mash potatoes.
Pork Belly was good - crispy on the outside, soft on the inside.

Churros
Again, the server's recommendation. Eugene loved it especially dipping into the dark chocolate sauce but I prefer the other lighter tangy sauce.
The kid just couldn't get his fingers off it.

The interior's not that big. We sat outside as the kid can then run around and also to enjoy the greenery.

Think prices are reasonable considering that the food's good and tasty and of restaurant standard.

1st come 1st serve, no reservation allowed. Think you better go either earlier or later than normal for lunch and dinner as it fills up fast.

Apparently, for breakfast time - the crowd will even be queuing before opening time.




GRUB
510, Ang Mo Kio Ave 1 (Bishan Park 1)
Singapore 569983
Tel : 64595743
www.grub.com.sg

The Mani Man

"There was once an old man in far eastern Kham known as the Mani Man because day and night he could always be found devotedly spinning his small homemade prayer wheel. The wheel was filled with the mantra of Great Compassion, Om Mani Padme Hung. 
The Mani Man lived with his son and their one fine horse. The son was the joy of the man’s life; the boy’s pride and joy was the horse.

The man’s wife, after a long life of virtue and service, had long since departed for more fortunate rebirths.
Father and son lived, free from excessive wants or needs, in one of several rough stone houses near a river on the edge of the flat plains.

One day their steed disappeared. The neighbors bewailed the loss of the old man’s sole material asset, but the stoic old man just kept turning his prayer wheel, reciting “Om Mani Padme Hung,” Tibet’s national mantra. 
To whoever inquired or expressed condolences, he simply said, “Give thanks for everything. Who can say what is good or bad? We’ll see.”

 After several days the splendid creature returned, followed by a pair of wild mustangs. These the old man and his son swiftly trained. 
Then everyone sang songs of celebration and congratulated the old man on his unexpected good fortune. 
The man simply smiled over his prayer wheel and said, “I am grateful…but who knows? We shall see.”

Then, while racing one of the mustangs, the boy fell and shattered his leg. 
Some neighbors carried him home, cursing the wild horse and bemoaning the boy’s fate. 
But the old man, sitting at his beloved son’s bedside just kept turning his prayer wheel around and around while softly muttering gentle Lord Chenrezig’s mantra of Great Compassion. 
He neither complained nor answered their protestations to fate, but simply nodded his head affably, reiterating what he had said before. “The Buddha is beneficent; I am grateful for my son’s life. We shall see.”

The next week military officers appeared, seeking young conscripts for an ongoing border war. 
All the local boys were immediately taken away, except for the bedridden son of the Mani Man. 
Then the neighbors congratulated the old man on his great good fortune, attributing such luck to the good karma accumulated by the old man’s incessantly spinning prayer wheel and the constant mantras on his cracked lips. 
He smiled and said nothing."



The above story came just in time for me. I was worried about something but as what the old man had said, “Give thanks for everything. Who can say what is good or bad? We’ll see.”

Tuition To Revise Tuition ?

 

We had enrolled the kid in a Chinese class as our grasp of the Mandarin language is really pathetic.

We had enrolled the kid before but the kid could not catch up as every week is a different lesson and new words to learn by heart. 

So we enrolled the kid in another Chinese  language centre for kids. Read glowing reviews that this is more playcentric and kids will learn the language easier.

Well, it seemed that the system is like the previous centre.

You learn a new lesson every week and you need to do short homework after every lesson at home.

When you return to class the next week, the teacher will go through the previous week's lesson before doing the current week's lesson.

Whether you know your lessons / words or not, new lessons will have to carry on as the teachers have to follow the syllabus. If you don't know, too bad for you.

I've been told by the teacher twice that we, the parents, need to revise/go thru the lessons with the kid as he didn't know how to read the Chinese words when the teacher asked him to read. 

The class also had a kind of test recently - a test to read the different Chinese words and my kid only recognised one word.

HELLO! I don't understand something. 

The reason why I enrolled my child in your Chinese centre is so that your teachers can teach him Mandarin.

Your class size is small not like in mainstream school where there are so many students that the teacher could not help everyone and thus most students have tuitions on their weak subjects.

Why do I still have to teach him at home? Then what is the purpose of sending the kid there ? I might as well buy some Chinese books, flash cards n teach him myself. 

Why do I want to pay hundreds of dollars to you and I still have to go through the lessons/words with him. 

We send him to you is becos our Mandarin sucks and we are unable to read the words - yes, can't even read pre-primary Chinese (only some). 

So how? It is really tedious to look up every word in the dictionary.

It's like you have tuitions for your kids in maths/science etc and you still have to tuition what the tuition teachers had taught the kid. 

So do I need to get a tuition teacher to teach/revise with the kid what the current teacher is teaching?

Are all Chinese centres using this kind of methods - that is new lessons/words every week. Go through previous week's lesson before starting new lessons regardless whether the children know the words or not. 

Really makes no sense to me.

The kids who are able to cope, from what I can see is becos they have a Mandarin speaking home environment. How I know? Sometimes met the grandparents of my kid's classmates and they were speaking Mandarin.


Whenever Eugene spoke a word or two of Mandarin, I will ask him where he learnt the words from, and he always said from his kindy class (his kindy class have Chinese lessons everyday for about 45 mins, but I enrolled him in the current Chinese centre as I thought he could do with more immersion in a Chinese speaking environment) and not from this Chinese centre.


We will be taking Eugene out of the Chinese centre after the term is over.

Art Garden 2013 for children @ SAM 8Q

04 June 2013



THE ENCHANGED GARDEN CITY
Fairytales with an Asian twist.
Can you recognise it?

I like this little red riding hood in the kebaya.

Where's the 3rd bear?

Can you see the cow jumping over the moon?

Eugene drawing something .........................

which will be displayed temporarily on the magic mirror........he drew a dinosaur and a ninjago figure.

AROUND THE DAY IN EIGHTY WORLDS

The kids had fun throwing the hoops.

GLOSSY DREAMS IN DEPTHS

We sat on this bed and were rotated to ...............

this room ..................... can see 3D drawings and holograms.
It was dark and eerie and the kid wanted to get out.

An eerie looking elephant.

The kids were colouring masks and also did some stamping

Mommy here have to cut out the mask and tie the strings.

Tadaa........ it was a mask of that eerie elephant..... yiks!

STELLAR CAVE
Made entirely of screws and thread. Inspired by prehistoric paintings in France's Lascaux Caves.

My favourite.

LOVE. REVOLVE THE WORLD

THE INCREDIBLY MAGICAL EXPANDING ROOM
Talk into the microphone and watch the walls respond to your voice!
Eugene had fun.

FILM SCREENINGS
I must say the films and animations by locals this year were very good.
It was humorous. Adults and kids enjoyed it tremendously, even laughing and applauding.

ART GARDEN
Contemporary art fun for children 
17 May to 1 September 2013
SAM at 8Q