Singapore honeymoon

So the highlight of our stay in Singapore was undoubtedly the hotel. We stayed at Marina Bay Sands Hotel and it was excellent and by far the best hotel I have ever stayed in! The best part is, Hubby is a gold card member and gets a 50% discount, so a room which normally costs S$400 was only S$200! No, unfortunately it's non-transferable, Sis.no.2 already asked! :)

We even got a S$34 discount at the end of our stay, cause of the points collected while gambling. We only gambled for fun for around an hour and ended up with the same amount we began with. As far as casinos are concerned, that is already a 'win' in my books.

I'm loving the huge bathroom

So anyway, Sands has casinos in Las Vegas and Macau if I'm not mistaken. This particular hotel has been compared to the Burj al Arab in Dubai. Both have lobbies with high ceilings and their rooms lining both sides so you can look down from the corridors many floors up. The Marina Bay Sand is a concave structure while the Burj al Arab is convex.

Burj al Arab

Marina Bay Sands hotel lobby

Well, the main attraction of this hotel (besides the casino for those 'hardcore' gamblers) is the Skypark, on it's roof, on the 57th floor. It's uber cool and totally awesome, with a crazy infinity pool overlooking Singapore's skyline, jacuzzis overlooking the sea, and world-class restaurants and clubs.

They also have a super fast elevator which gets you to the top in 5 seconds, no kidding! I was gobsmacked at first, cause I'm so used to our slow-poke elevator at home! :)

Hubby and I tried to have dinner at Sky on 57, a restaurant by celebrity Singaporean chef, Justin Quek, serving South East Asian fare with European influences. It was fully booked, and we heard that you had to book weeks in advance to dine there! We had a look at the menu, and there was even a clause in fine print at the bottom which said that you had to spend at least S$80 per person!! Good eh? I wonder when I can paste a sign on my pharmacy saying that whoever comes in must buy at least  RM50 worth of goods per person!!! Surely get cursed at...

Anyway, Hubby and I enjoyed the jacuzzi and pool on the second day, cause the first day was overcast, plus with the winds at that height, it was way too cold for a dip. Only hotel guests are allowed to use the pool. Non-guests have to pay S$20 to go up for the restaurants or viewing decks. A taxi driver told us that it used to be S$70!

On the first night we went to a bar/ club by the pool, Ku De Ta, and there was only standing room. There was an area with comfy sofas which was cordoned off and reserved. Hubby asked the hostess at the entrance how one went about reserving that area, and she informed us that she could reserve it for us, "all we had to do was spend a minimum of S$2500"!

Okay.... we'll get back to you on that ya?... 

We made a reservation instead for the second night at the other Ku De Ta, a restaurant and bar place at the other end. It was a lovely place to sit and chill. Little Brother and Hubby's high school classmate came over for some dessert and after dinner drinks. I love that in Singapore, smoking is like, not cool at all! Hubby's friend had to go all the way down to the ground floor to have a cigarette!

Oh yes! I managed to find Kitchen Capers at Kallang Bahru, a well-stocked shop selling hard-to-find cake decorating tools. I was as happy as a kid in a candy store and bought lots and lotsa wonderful fondant gadgets!! *bliss*

We also got to meet up with Sis nos.1 & 4 and Little Brother. Big Sis bought us dinner at Italiannies. The Italian food was very good I must say. Even the focaccia bread they served before the meal was yummy, with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. We must have eaten three or four loaves of bread alone!! When the food came we were no longer hungry!

The three cheeky monkeys... The kids back home would have loved to come and play with their Singaporean counterparts!!

So anyway, that was about it. To cap it off, here are some photos of the food we ate... what holiday is complete without some face-stuffing eh?!

 Very good hae mee (prawn noodles) with roast duck, popiah and fruit juice at Food Republic, Wisma Atria or something like that...

Confucious say (read Hubby says) to find good food, just look for the stall that has a queue in front, and yes, the hae mee stall had a long queue!

OMG! My  kind of heaven.... Now I can say I've had genuine, decadent, macarons, not the sweet sticky sub-standard kind. These were oh-so-delicate and bursting with sublime yet subtle flavours. *sigh*

This was at TWG Tea, I asked the guy if he would mind if I took some photos. He said, "No", as in I could not, but I thought he meant no, he wouldn't mind!!

*double sigh*

 Here we joined another queue, this time by the roadside! It was Founder Bak Kut Teh at Balestier Rd. Hubby was here before and wanted me to try the Singaporean bak kut teh (herbal pork rib soup) which is totally different from the Malaysian version.

  Singaporean bak kut teh is clear and spiked with plenty of pepper! It was quite good, though a little too peppery for my taste, but worth the wait by the roadside, I think. Their wall was also plastered with photographs of Singaporean and Hong Kong film stars who patronized the restaurant.

Pistachio something cake with home-made wild berry jam and something, something... at Ku De Ta. Very sophisticated and delicious. We also had a chocolate cake with coconut cream and orange marshmallows which wasn't as nice.

Not-that-great pan mee at the market at Kallang Bahru where I went looking for my cake decorating stuff. (there unfortunately were no queues to be found!) :)

Yummy clams doused with lotsa white wine and white truffle ravioli in a cheese sauce at Italiannies....

Honeymoon complete...

Hubby's eyes...

Hubby went for his eye check-up in Singapore on Thursday. He had his eye operation in Singapore 8 years ago and I never went with him, so I thought I should go with him this time around. Now that the kids are older, we can afford to travel, as they are easier to handle and it's no problem leaving them with Sidekick, under Kung Kung and Po Po's supervision.

Hubby has this uncommon condition called keratoconus, where his cornea (the thin outer layer of the eye) becomes more and more cone shaped. It progresses rapidly during puberty and the medical community is still unsure of the cause, though some suggest vigorous rubbing, allergies or genetics. This can worsen and lead to blindness, so Hubby had a cornea transplant done at the Singapore National Eye Centre in 2003. Yup, he has some dead guy's cornea in his eye! :)

So anyway, after consulting his doctor, Prof. Donald Tan, he has decided to go ahead and operate on his other eye as well. Technology has advanced now, so this second eye will undergo a newer procedure, Deep Anterior Lamellar Keratoplasty.

For his first eye, which was much worse then, the professor did a Penetrating Keratoplasty, where a circle of Hubby's cornea was totally removed and replaced with the donor's. The newer procedure, DALK however, leaves a layer of Hubby's epithelium intact and tucks the donor's cornea under it. This procedure does not require stitches, and more importantly has no risk of rejection whatsoever!

Since the procedure promises such good results, Hubby is wasting no time and has scheduled the operation for next month! Hopefully everything will go well!

So anyway, after the appointment on Thursday, Hubby and I had another two, free and easy nights in Singapore, so it was basically a honeymoon! ;) Will write more in the next post...

127 hours

A couple of nights ago, Hubby and I went for a movie at Spring's MBO Cineplex. The kids had a packed day which ended with swimming at the condo, so they all fell asleep pretty early, which meant Hubby and I could catch an earlier show.

There were a few good movies showing at the time. I recognized three of them as Oscar nominees for Best Picture.

And the nominees are.... *drumroll*

Black Swan...

The King's Speech... and

127 Hours.

I read the synopsis for all three movies and Black Swan and 127 Hours sounded inviting. I know The King's Speech won the Oscar for Best Picture, but I cannot imagine how a movie about a British King and his stutter could be interesting!! :)

Hubby would most probably fall asleep anyway....

So I chose 127 Hours. It's a movie based on a book, which in turn is based on a true story of a guy who gets his arm trapped between a boulder and a canyon wall! I remember reading an excerpt of this book in the Reader's Digest I think.

Anyway, after being stranded there for 5 days, or 127 hours, he finally breaks his arm and saws it off with a blunt knife to escape death!!! Gah!!! I won't reveal much as it's a pretty good movie and you should go see it yourself.

Kudos to the actor and directors, cause there's nothing much to the storyline, so it takes good acting and directing to make it work so well!

This reminds me of Tom Hank's movie, Cast Away, where he is stranded on an island alone for years. Remember 'Wilson', his ball/ friend?! :)  Well, the success of movies like these basically just hangs on that one actor's performance! It helps if the actors are cute too... ;)

I guess this movie does deserve the Oscar nomination. It is directed by the same guy who did Slumdog Millionaire by the way.

Next up,  I'm curious to see what the fuss over a stuttering king is all about...

Extra-curricular activities

So a couple of weeks ago, Hubby and I went to Annie's Kumon award giving ceremony. ASHR stands for Advanced Students Honour Roll. She received a silver medal, which means she is two years ahead of her age group.

We went to show our support, especially since she put in so many hours of effort, not to mention the tears involved as well! :)

Now she is motivated and wants to stay on until she achieves the three-year mark and gets her gold medal. Even Claire was inspired when she saw Jie Jie's shiny medal and told me to remind her about the medal whenever she doesn't feel like doing her Kumon daily worksheets!

Cousin Allyson also received her silver medal for maths. This is for 2010, and Allyson has stopped Kumon since last month. It is good to see the girls so proud of their achievement. This event shows them that their effort is recognized and celebrated, so it boosts their confidence and self-esteem.

Speaking of extra-curricular activities, Eva and Claire have also begun ballet lessons. I enrolled them in Jie Jie's dance school and they're both in the pre-ballet class now. So far they seem to be enjoying their classes, and especially love their new ballet costumes!

I am prepared for complaints in the future, as Annie has also been through the phases. They'll love the classes, then when it gets harder, they'll want to quit. Then when they're having fun again, they'll be enjoying themselves again... thus is the cycle.

Right now, Annie is in the, "I hate ballet" stage, cause they have a new teacher who is more strict, as they are getting more advanced. We'll see how long I can make her stay on... :)

Solomon wants in on the action... but I think Hubby will kill me if I sign his only son up for ballet lessons!!

Hahahahaha....

What's in a name...

Hubby calls me "darling", family and close friends call me by my nick name, "Ah Pau", and the kids of course call me "mummy", and to the cousins I'm "Ah Pau e e".

Thus, I think the smaller ones rarely hear my Christian name being used.

So, the other day, in the car, Eva asked me:


Eva: Mummy, what is your name? Is it pharmacy?

Claire: No, it's pharmacist...

Mummy: No, my name is Priscilla Chuo Poh Poh.

Eva: What?! You are whose po po???!

Hahahaha...

Po po means grandma in Chinese. My Chinese name Poh Poh sounds the same and believe you me, I've had my share of teasing in primary school!! :)

Actually, Poh Poh is meant to be Bao Bao, from the word Bao Bei which means 'precious'. Unfortunately, in the Foochow dialect, it's pronunciation and spelling is Poh Poh! *sigh*

Well, at least it's not as bad as 'Priscilla, gorilla'!! :)

So, the lesson of the story is, think hard before you choose your child's name!!

A stroll in the park

It was last week I think, or rather two weeks ago, that we decided to bring the kids for a stroll in the park. Hubby and I sometimes go to the Stutong park for a jog and the kids have been pestering us to bring them there ever since I mentioned we saw monkeys a couple of times!

We went in the late afternoon. It wasn't hot because there are plenty of trees which provide ample shade. It's a great park, since it's so close to town and yet has that 'real jungle' feel! Except, of course, for the fact that it comes equipped with cement paved paths! :) But still, it's a step closer to nature, and great for our 'city kids'!

  Well, we unfortunately did not spy any monkeys (macaques) or squirrels, but we did see huge ants...

a great variety of interesting flora...

ants moving house *creepy*...

and also this pheasant fowl / chicken-y fellow! :)

The kids enjoyed the outing and it was good exercise to boot. Only Solomon the king was pushed around in his stroller and towards the end of the trail, when Eva refused to budge anymore, Solomon surrendered his stroller for jie jie to sit.

I hope we'll have time to do this more often...

Newspaper article

My cakes and I were featured in a local Chinese newspaper, The International Times, earlier this month. It's a lesser-known paper, but still, a whole page was dedicated to me! *shy* hehehe...

It just so happened that a friend's friend works for this paper and proposed to interview me. I of course agreed and this was what came out of the interview. I can't read Chinese, so I have no idea what was written of me, but the pictures are nice!! :)

If you look closely, you'll notice that it's actually a screen shot taken on my iPhone! Well, it was a pdf file, and I had no idea how to post it on my blog! I couldn't re-type it, cause it's in Chinese! I couldn't post a link to it, cause it wasn't available online. So I opened it on my phone and took a screen shot and it became a png file which I could upload here! I have no clue as to how else it could've been done!

So here is a picture of the article.. the best I could do! :)

Chap Goh Meh 2011

Here's a delayed entry! 

Chap Goh Meh, literally the '15th night', is the last day of the Chinese lunar new year celebrations. It was last week and we marked it with a family dinner as usual. This time we had it at the Chinese restaurant near my shop, Pai Jia Le.

It was packed, as it always is for such occasions and it was a lucky thing that I had pre-ordered the food. SIL in Miri was very clever, she chose to go to a Western restaurant to beat the crowd!

Well, frankly, I'm glad Chinese New Year is over, cause this is how Solomon slept for most of the 15 nights!!

Unbelievable

I have been deeply disturbed since yesterday, after I heard some news which would make those 6pm serial dramas seem as boring as documentaries on astrophysics!

Huh?

Okay, be prepared for a long story... It's rather sensitive material so there will be no names.

So X has a neighbour, this weird guy who lives with this lady (don't think she's the wife) and his son, aged around 10. I call him weird cos he rents a room at a terrace house, but has a truck, a pick-up, a boat, a car or two, parked all over, inside and out. Then he owns a gun and hunts. One night, he even hauled back a huge crocodile and was skinning it on his car porch! Then another time, he shot a big huge bird which X couldn't identify and figured was most probably some endangered species!

More importantly, this man and his 'wife' frequently abused the boy! The woman especially would beat the boy and shout at him abusively and call him names right on the front porch for everyone to see! All the neighbours knew about this and it was a frequent occurrence too! Once, they even saw, I forgot the man or woman, kicking the boy who was doubled up, lying on the floor. X's family tried everything, they befriended the boy, talked to the parents, and even offered to bring them for counselling. Anything before having to resort to the police.

Once, they were causing such a racket on their front porch that X shouted for hubby to go have a look. The man was beating his son with a plastic pipe until it shattered into pieces!

Finally, one of the neighbours reported it to the police, the police said that this was already the second report and they came and took the boy and the lady away. The man wasn't around, and when he found out, the coward stayed away from his house for a couple of days. The lady apparently spent a night in jail and the boy was put at the General Hospital until Social Welfare could make arrangements for him.

X visited him in hospital and he was scared, being suddenly left alone, but was still a very cheerful child! The Social Welfare people interviewed him to find out more. Apparently he used to stay with his Grandma at another town and only recently moved in with his dad and 'step mum'. He insisted that he loved being with his dad despite what he had to endure! It also seemed that he wasn't doing very well in school. He said that he could not concentrate, because he knew that when school was over and when he got home, he would be hit again.

The man had the nerve to plead to X and family to give him another chance and give a good testimonial to the authorities! It didn't happen of course, and after that, the court decided to put the boy in a facility for abused children for a few months. No one was allowed contact with him, so even X didn't know how the boy was doing.

Since then, the boy has come home to his 'parents', and no one knows what lies the parents have told him, cause when X's hubby saw him one day, the boy just stuck his tongue out at him!

Well, at least the boy is not being abused any longer (or so we hope). There's definitely no more public abusing that's for sure.

So anyway, is this the end of the story? Oh no....

Recently, the man left a huge, truck/ trailer parked on the road next to X's house. It basically takes up half of the road and also happened to snag one of the telephone wires, disconnecting the lines in X's house. After a few days, it was apparent that he had no intent to move the truck. X's hubby approached him and requested him to move it but he refused.

After that came some heated exchanges, lawyer letters, and police reports... something to that extent...

So then, X's hubby decided to find out more about this man. What he found was beyond awful.

It would seem, this man and woman were the prime suspects of a murder case which happened 6 years ago. A man who went to his house, to collect payment for furniture after the first cheque bounced, inexplicably disappeared!

I do not know the exact details, as X told me the story in a rush, but it went more or less something like this;

The dumped body was found, with bullets matching this man's gun. (for more accurate info read comments below) Despite this glaringly obvious evidence, the judge found them innocent because, all the evidence was 'circumstantial', as no one witnessed the act!!???

.....

Have you picked your jaw off the table yet?

Unbelievable right? The next time you plan to murder someone, just remember to make sure you don't do it in front of anyone else mmmkay??!!!

 It just so happens that X knows the murder victim's cousin and they informed them that they were appealing to the courts for a retrial or something. If he is found guilty, the penalty will be death by hanging. They told X and family to keep away from this cold-blooded man. I wouldn't need to be told twice!

So, in the mean time, this mad man is allowed to live freely, with this very same gun, among innocent, unknowing families!! This is so atrocious and absurd! I find it so disturbing because in this country which we live in, there seems to be no justice. Murderers can roam free and innocent people can mysteriously 'jump out the window'! How can we live in a country where we cannot feel safe? Where innocent people like you and me could one fine day find themselves in jail or worse, and people who murder your loved ones not only do not have to pay for their sin, but might instead get rewarded!

It is obvious that there is something very wrong with our country. It is undoubtedly a beautiful country with beautiful people, but is unfortunately rotting from the core. I think that when my kids grow up, they should consider living elsewhere. I dread to imagine the fate of my children, or grandchildren or great-grandchildren, for that matter, should they continue to live in this country and there were no changes in the governance.

I read an article once about the mass migration of Malaysians. Karpal Singh was quoted saying, "Malaysia is such a beautiful place. Why should we leave? Stay and fight!" or something to that extent. That is indeed a noble notion, and I applaud those who 'stay and fight'! But in the interest of my family, I think I would tell my kids to, "Go! Go far, far away!"

The further the better...

Car wash

I'm at the car wash now. I usually detest wasting a good whole hour at a car wash, but my car is seriously dirty. So, so dirty. So dirty that it's getting embarrassing! And I usually don't really care when my car is covered with a layer of grey, I figure as long as my kids are clean, it doesn't matter if my car is off colour!! :) So, you can imagine how filthy it has to be before I surrender and go to the car wash!!

Since we live in a condo, it's a bit harder to clean your own car. You have to drive it to the car wash bay, then haul all your buckets and stuff down. Then there's no electrical socket to plug in a vacuum cleaner anyway, so we just bring the cars to the commercial car wash.

As you can see, I am not one of those car fanatics. My requirements for a car is that it is big enough for the 4 monkeys, is not too beat up and basically can get me from A to B! I don't know nuts about cars. I can only tell you  if a car is a sedan, a sports car, a lorry, a van or an SUV, but beyond that, I just differentiate by colour! Don't even bother asking me about brand and model! I don't waste brain space on car details. I do, however, have an impressive knowledge of infant milk formula brands and prices as well as the different 'models' of disposable diapers available in the market! :)

So anyway, I'm here at the car wash, and at least I brought my netbook so it's not a total waste of time. Every time I come here the guy asks me if I need air freshener (hint hint?) and tells me not to let my car get so dusty as it's not good for the kids!! hahahaha...

He's a hard-working, straight-forward boy (a little slow mentally I think. Not joking.) and I like to come here because he is very thorough and gets the car really clean inside and out! But he's not here today. I wonder if he's stopped working and whether the other guys will be as thorough as he was...

Oh well, we'll know soon enough.

Have a great day ahead everyone! :)