Vitor and Christine DIY Wedding Blog

Financial Perks and Assistance for having Babies in Singapore

2011-01-02T21:06:00.000-08:00

As a newfound mummy, I cant helped but worry about the various expenses from Antenatal Package to Delivery Package to future 101 costs, it's really much of a headache. Thank goodness, with the National Library just next to my house, I dropped in occasionally to borrow all the local motherhood magazines for reference on the types of products available and a tip or two from the stories found in the magazines which is relevant and local to Singapore context.

So I came upon ths particular post about the various incentives of having babies in Singapore and I went on to do a little research around online and pick out those more relevant for me and decided to record it down for most of the mummies out there like me as I know we are suffering from those pregnancy brain (forgetfulness) during this particular time.

1) Medisave Maternity Package
The Medisave Maternity Package enables you to use your Medisave, for the delivery and pre-delivery medical expenses of your first four children.

Medisave Withdrawal Limit under the Medisave Maternity Package


Delivery Procedure	No. of days of Hospitalisation	Medisave Withdrawal Limit under the Medisave Maternity Package (including pre-delivery expenses)	Medisave Withdrawal Limit for Delivery Procedure (Non-Medisave Maternity Package)
Vaginal delivery (normal)	3	Up to $2,550 Which comprises of: - $1,350 ($450 x 3 days) for daily hospital charges; and - $1,200 for Medisave Maternity Package	Up to $2,100 Which comprises of: - $1,350 ($450 x 3 days) for daily hospital charges; and - $750 for Delivery Procedure
Caesarean delivery (normal)	4	Up to $4,400 Which comprises of: - $1,800 ($450 x 4 days) for daily hospital charges; and - $2,600 for Medisave Maternity Package	Up to $3,950 Which comprises of: - $1,800 ($450 x 4 days) for daily hospital charges; and - $2,150 for Delivery Procedure

MOH has put in place the Medisave Maternity Package to further help couples with delivery expenses as well as pre-delivery medical expenses (such as consultations, ultrasound).
To claims pre-delivery charges from Medisave, parents need just to present the bills incurred for your pre-delivery medical care to the hospital where you will be having your baby. The hospital will submit these bills, together with the delivery expenses, for Medisave claims under the Medisave Maternity Package.

You will be able to claim up to a maximum of $450 from Medisave for these charges.

Source: http://www.moh.gov.sg/mohcorp/hcfinancing.aspx?id=19744

Princess Christine:

So far I have been seeing Dr Lawrence Ang from TMC (Sembawang Branch) as he is one of the few rare experience gynae that charges at a very low rate. However, being experience and affordable comes at a price for Dr Lawrence Ang is sooooo popular, his queue is always an hour long despite it being an appointment base consultation. He also speaks at a fast speed which might irritate preggy mummies who are looking for a gynae who sayang and pampers them with attention. Even said that, Dr Ang is still very responsible and caring and he calls back personally even after consultation time if you are looking for him with regards to any worries you have which i find it dear to my heart.

Dr Lawrence Ang's Antenatal and Delivery packages with Medisave deduction (As dated in Oct 2010) :
	Normal Delivery ***	Forceps/Vacuum	Caesarean
Antenatal Package	S$550	S$550	S$550
Delivery Package(nincluding hospitalization)	S$300	S$300	S$600
Total S$850* S$850* S$1150** Bill portion can be deducted from Medisave * includes 2 night's stay in hospital (with medisave) ** includes 3 night's stay in hospital (with medisave)

To claims pre-delivery charges from Medisave, parents need just to present the bills incurred for your pre-delivery medical care to the hospital where you will be having your baby. The hospital will submit these bills, together with the delivery expenses, for Medisave claims under the Medisave Maternity Package.

1. Package includes
a. Consultation for all visits (70 max. => no idea what this means)
b. All ultrasound scans in clinic
c. Routine blood tests , multivitamins and urine tests
d. Liquor Assessments at term
e. Postnatal Consultations

2. Packages includes: Nuchal scan for down's syndrome, 4D/3D scan.

3. Package does not include optional tests: Blood test for Down's Syndrome, Detailed Anomaly Scan (in hospital), Amniocentesis

2. Working Mother's Child Relief (WMCR)

From Year of Assessment 2009, working mothers can enjoy higher amount of WMCR, up to 100% of their earned income for all their qualifying Singaporean children. The amount of WMCR claimable for each child is based on a specified percentage of the working mother’s earned income corresponding to the child order.

Child Order Year of Assessment 2009

1st 15% of mother’s earned income

2nd 20% of mother’s earned income

3rd 25% of mother’s earned income

4th 25% of mother’s earned income

5th & beyond 25% of mother’s earned income

Where the working mother is claiming both QCR/ HCR and WMCR, QCR/HCR will be allowed first and WMCR will be limited to the remaining balance. The amount of relief claimable for both QCR/HCR and WMCR is capped at $50,000 per child.

3. Parenthood Tax Rebate

From the Year of Assessment 2009, parents can claim PTR for their first child, fifth child and each subsequent child that are born or legally adopted on or after 1 Jan 2008. The amount of PTR claimable for each qualifying Singaporean child is based on the child order.

Child Order Year of Assessment 2009
1st $5,000
2nd $10,000
3rd $20,000
4th $20,000
5th & beyond $20,000 per child

PTR can be used to offset your income tax payable and may be shared with your spouse, based on the apportionment agreed by both parties. Any unutilised rebate will be carried forward to subsequent years until it is fully utilised.

4. Baby Bonus

The Baby Bonus comprises a cash gift and a co-savings component.
Click here for more details on the Baby Bonus.

From 17 Aug 2008, the Baby Bonus cash gift and matching Government contribution through the CDA will be enhanced.

Baby Bonus cash gift

Child order Enhanced for each child
1st & 2nd $4,000
3rd & 4th $6,000

Baby Bonus CDA

Child order Enhanced

1st $6,000
2nd $6,000
3rd & 4th $12,000
5th & beyond $18,000 for each child

The cash gift is given out in four equal instalments over 18 months. The Government will match dollar-for-dollar the amount of savings the parents contribute to the child’s CDA up to the specified ceiling.

A child is eligible for the enhanced Baby Bonus if

The child is a Singaporean born on or after 17 Aug 2008; and
The child’s parents are lawfully married.

Source:

http://fcd.ecitizen.gov.sg/FCD/Templates/FCD-GenericContentTemplate.aspx?NRMODE=Published&NRORIGINALURL=%2fMarriageNParenthoodPackage%2fRaisingNCaringforChildren%2f&NRNODEGUID=%7b1816B434-A9D2-44B4-AF59-7BCCC24A4F70%7d&NRCACHEHINT=Guest#Parenthood

https://www.babybonus.gov.sg/bbss/html/index.html

5. Centre-Based Infant Care and Childcare Subsidy

From 17 Aug 2008, the infant care subsidy will be increased from $400 to a maximum of $600 per month to help parents offset the cost of centre-based care. The subsidy applies to all Singaporean children regardless of child order.

The childcare subsidy will be increased from $150 to a maximum of $300 per month. The subsidy applies to all Singaporean children regardless of child order.

Details of subsidy:
http://www.childcarelink.gov.sg/ccls/uploads/Subsidy_Brochure_Orange_12Oct09.pdf

Source:
http://www.childcarelink.gov.sg/ccls/home/publications.jsp

6. Grandparent Caregiver Relief
Only working mums are eligible for this =) if a grandparent is caring full time for the child below 12 yrs old.

7. Childcare Leave
We get 6 days of childcare leave/yr if our child is below 7 yrs old. (the no. of childcare leaves does not increase with subsequent kids )

8. Infantcare Leave
6 days of unpaid infantcare leave for parents with a child under 2 yrs old

9. Maternity Leave
4 months of paid Maternity Leave ! (My hot fav)

Princess Christine's Maternity Fashion Runway

2010-12-31T07:44:00.001-08:00

I am happy to say that I have finally compiled sufficient maternity clothings to tide me through the pregnancy as my tummy grow in size every day. As I am a no frill person, it isnt a surprise that when i do my compilation, I include dresses of size variation up to the the full trimester and even the nursing tops!

Now in order to make the clothes representation as truthful as possible on how it will appear on a pregnant mummy, I asked Ah li (my wonderful sis in law) to help me out with the mini photoshoot taking for all these maternity clothes with no make up and editing and of course we took the picture during the time when my tummy is already up and showing, with me fattening up by a great lot. Of course I will look not as fabulous as when I was slim but heck with it as I am here to capture my pregnancy journal with accuracy to show it to my little one in future when he/she grows up. To date I am heavier by 3.9 kg and now at a weight of 53.9kg. Quite in tune with the weight chart I have computed with the pregnancy weight calculator sometime ago.

We used 2 cameras to capture all the details of the dresses since no editing (which makes me look kind of pale but i like the natural look of it too) is to be done (ok i admit i have no idea how to edit accept for cropping and adjusting brightness and contrast like a junior). All pictures are taken at home with no frills.

So here's the Royal Maternity Runway Parade brought to you by
Princess Christine!

Princess Closet 1 : Sweet Navy Casual (Spring Maternity) . (Black ribbon brooch own)
A dress that makes a mummy feel slim, royal and lady like with the simple but yet elegant cut.

Princess Closet 2: Eco Chic (Grey Satin sash own) (My Little Angels Maternity)
Love the refreshing green colour which brightens up a mummy's day out!! Can be worn for my third trimester as it can be a big size dress without the sash on.

Princess Closet 3: Hip Hop Yoyo (9mos) (Grey spagetti own)
Suitable for my third trimester as this is a L size piece. I love the creativity of the design of the dress as it looks so hip hop on a mummy to be.

Princess Closet 4: Pastel Pink Rainbow (Spring Maternity) (Pink tank top own)
The sweet pink pastel stripes won my hearts down =)

Princess Closet 5: Oriental Elegance (Spring Maternity)
Gorgeous mandarin collar meets summer garden green. A fusion fashion statement with a East meets West.

Princess Closet 6: Nerd Me Not (Nursing top from spring maternity)(Nerd specs own)
A bright pastel purple stripes brightens up even the day of a super nerd, making it a fun filled day!

Princess Closet 7: The FantaEeeeeeeeeelastic Pants (3/4 pants from Spring Maternity)
The navy blue stripe details on the pocket is something i love very much and the pants easily goes well with all the various maternity tops that i bought.

Princess Closet 8: Princess Juliet (Nursing top from Moms in mind)(Necklace and pink tank top own)
A classic juliet cream top which brings out the romantic poet in a mummy.

Princess Closet 9: Purple Butterfly Dream (Nursing top from Moms in mind)(Brooch and pink tank top own)
The front twist highlights the sexy curves of a mummy from bust to baby tummy.

Princess Closet 10: Macha Delight (Scarlet) (Hairband own)
A very comfortable top suitable to be worn esp in my third trimester. The tradition macha feel of the top makes me wanna go KONICHIWA!
Princess Closet 11: Hawaii Shopaholic (Nursing top from Spring Maternity) (Grey spaggetti own)
Going on a "beachy", wild and notty shopping spree? Here's the perfect mummy nursing top which makes the mummy shine with a vibrance which glares into the eye of every onlookers.
Princess Closet 12: Passionate Spring (Spring Maternity)
Great for the coming chinese new year!

Princess Closet 13: Sweet Spring (Spring Maternity)
A refreshing floral garden dress that doesnt need much accessories to flatter the mummy itself. One of my hot favourites too.

Princess Closet 14: Glamour (Marc Jacob) (Acessories own)
One of my great favourites! Uptown taitai in an instant! Suitable for parties and attending banquets =)

Princess Closet 15: Runway Wave (Marc Jacob)
I was taken aback by this dress as it didnt really feel flattering until i personally put it on. The many details from sequins to to cross ties on the side of the dress gives me lots of surprise on how much a fashion runway piece this dress is!

Princess Closet 16: Sweet Blush (Necklace own)
Going for a casual marketing trip to the nearest supermarket? Fashion up with this cute purple print dress that makes your marketing trip a whole lot KAWAII!

Princess Closet 17: I Mean Bizness (Maternity Skirt)
The 2 sexy slits in front makes a mean biz woman a sassy woman!

Princess Closet 18: Split Tease (Maternity Skirt)
No worries about the split in front as it is actually all covered but definitely a tease to those around you.

Princess Closet 19: She isnt Preg at All? (Maternity Skirt)
Love this skirt to the core for the very fact that it has a visual slimming effect! I almost look non preggy at all lol!

Princess Closet 20: Vintage Princess (Mother World) (Necklace own)
A sweet vintage dress that reminds me of a similar dress i worn when i was young. So sweet that it will melt your hubby's heart!

Wah so many pieces of maternity clothings and I have yet include a pair of maternity jeans which i plan to wear it during my third trimester with its plus size.
Total Damage for all 21 pieces?

KACHING of $136! (Avg of $6.50 per piece!!! WAHHhhhhhh)

How can this be when so many of the pieces are branded???? These are actually the hardwork i have put in for the past 2 months in collating and sourcing the various affordable 2nd hand maternity dresses from the various mummies on the forum. I guess as long as they look fabulous on me, who cares about it being a used piece right?

Another truimph victory by Princess Christine!! WOOHOOoo!!!

How Baby Prince Looks Like!

2010-12-15T02:42:00.000-08:00

Well I havent been updating much while being coop up at home most of the time due to my severe back pain, I did enjoy a trip down to the library occasionally browsing through motherhood magazines and cant help but express how fabulous it was for reading to help me prepped bit by bit and to update more on my knowledge bank.

I have also been keeping myself busy with online trading for 2nd hand maternity clothes which is a real GEM as I no longer have to find myself running out often as when I was preparing for my DIY wedding all the stuff I need. Plus if you ever visit a maternity boutique store, you will be shocked by the crazy prices they are selling the clothes *shocked*. The expensive cost of this and that really kills parents and I will soon have an entry about all my nice exclusive 2nd hand buys as soon as i think i stocked up sufficient. Then I will asked Sir woodblock to help me snap my 1st Maternity Fashion Parade lol!!!

I am glad I am finally getting happier now as the past few weeks was a killer and I cant help but admit that I might be suffering a mild pre natal blue. Not only did I suffer early from a lower back pain, I also suffered from many other symtoms like UTI (urinary tract infection) and a rash which i think is similar to this PUPP rash (Pruritic Urticarial Papules or Plaques of Pregnancy).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pruritic_urticarial_papules_and_plaques_of_pregnancy

This rash is so terrible that it started appearing all over my tummy area and spread even to my butt and neck area. It felt terrible to be itching all over and I have to apply lots of diaper rash cream over my body to help overcome the itch.

I guess all these 101 symptoms add up to a lot of depression and hormonal imbalance and eventually I started to have pimple outbreaks!! The most frustrating thing of all is that I realise I wont be able to use any pimple related products or those retinoid products to help with the pimples and they are harmful to the baby. Thank goodness I have 2 saviour products that eventually help me out => Aloe Vera Gel (Jorubi) and Hiruscar. These 2 are WONDERS! Esp HIRUSCAR!!! I started using this after I know that that Hiruroid is a gel that doctor often prescribed in the hospital for healing surgery scar. However, back then, I only use it for body scar and not the face as it was not meant for it. However, a year back ago, the company started to release the Scar healing gel for the face too !!!! It's a super yay as this works so much better then the condolisa scar heal which is not only more expensive and comes in very minute quantity. Of course when I say it works wonder I dont mean it in a day but it does show real significant results in a quite a few days!!

See review by another preggy mummy:
http://mybeautyreviews.wordpress.com/2010/02/05/hiruscar-scar-remover-gel/

Even if you are not pregnant but if you have trouble dealing with pimple scar, I cant tell you how much you should just have one and start using it.

I wish I started using that earlier as all these pimples and etc makes me feel a little angry with my baby because I just felt someone must be blame for all these terrible ordeal I am in. For many days, I refuse to talk to my baby (as in to my tummy) nor even stroke baby (my tummy). Thanks to Sir woodblock, he took time off and started to bond baby Hui and me which was not easy as I have quite a temper during the depressed period. So now Baby Hui and me are best friends again =) Yay!

Since now me and Baby Hui are best friends, I felt that I really need to take a peep at how my new best friend will look like:

DRUMROLLLLLLZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz:

HARLOW BABY HUI!!!

Ancient Calendar for Baby Gender Prediction

2010-11-30T18:16:00.000-08:00

After all the excitement of the pregnancy news in the early weeks of pregnancy and the reassurance of the baby's survival stability in week 12, the next wave of excitement which is plunge into all mummies and daddies' mind will be about the baby's gender.

Now I discovered that it seems of be a fashion but both the ang mos and the chinese mummies are all turning to this Ancient chinese gender chart for the fun of predicting of their baby's gender. My cousin Pearlyn shared with me that she did refer to the chart and it was really accurate for her case.

Of course for those who may be thinking of having your first or second baby, this is probably a chart you may want to refer to if you have a specific gender in mind. But if you ask me, this can only be refer for reference to predict baby gender and not really to prepare a baby with a specific gender as concieving is not as easy as it seem to be like those tv drama.

OK here's some historical information of the origin of the calender:

History of ancient chinese gender chart
Ancient chinese gender chart calculator is the oldest method of baby gender prediction. It was discovered over 700 years ago in Beijing. Many people ask how accurate is the chinese pregnancy gender predictor. Chinese gender prediction charts claim to be accurate, however were not proven to be accurate, and are used mainly for entertainment purposes.

Ancient China came up with the ancient chinese gender predictor calculator because throughout history the chinese preferred boys over girls. In China, they always needed more farmers and soldiers. Boys would bring more money into the family by working in fields, while girls stayed home until they got married. China has also been through many wars, and they needed more soldiers. By creating lunar chinese pregnancy calendar boy or girl gender prediction chart and calculator, they were able to come up with the pregnancy chinese gender prediction chart that predicts the gender of the unborn baby. However, the free chinese baby gender chart predictors have never been scientifically proven. So when you wonder how accurate is the chinese calendar boy or girl predictor and calculator, keep in mind that they might not be accurate.

It is said that the ancient pregnancy chinese gender prediction chart was found in a royal tomb by a chinese scientist. Chinese gender calculator test was recently discovered, and now chinese table quiz predictions are used to predict the gender of the baby during pregnancy. Chinese gender calendar boy or girl chart is based on lunar calendar which shows dates according to the phases of the moon. Chinese lunar calendar baby predictor uses mother's chinese age at the time of conception and the month of conception. This baby gender prediction is based on the belief that women of the same age are more likely to conceive babies of the same gender.
Source: http://www.fortunebaby.com/chinesegenderpredictionchart.html

So now we get to know about this calendar better, it is good to warn the users that this calender must be use in the correct way!

Many of the ang mos webbies failed to address the right usage of this calendar as they were not familiar with the concept of the chinese lunar age and chinese lunar month which is the actual numbers that we have to input for reading the chart. So for those of you who are lost in calculating the lunar age and lunar month of conception, here's 2 websites I found who can do the conputation for you.

The longitude for Singapore is 55E. So here's my lunar age computation:

Calculate your chinese lunar age
Source: http://www.chinesefortunecalendar.com/TDB/Cage1.asp

My lunar age is 27!

The lunar age will definitely be accurately but it is the lunar month of conception that is the tricky part. No one knows for sure when is the conception date as it depends on the rate at which the sperm travels. It will be a gullible statement if you assume that the dates that you have sex is the same day as the conception which is not absolutely true. So my advice is to input a range of dates in which you might think you have concieve. So it's really like give and take.

Calculate your conception lunar month
http://www.chinesefortunecalendar.com/CLunarCal1.htm
So after the computation: My lunar month of conception was the earliest at July and the latest possible month will be in September.

Looks like Baby Hui have a high chance to be a boy boy!

What do me and daddy woodblock yearns for? All I can say is opposite sex attracts. So while I want a baby boy, daddy woodblock and Ah ma (my mother in law) prefers a baby girl. However, if you asked me, I have a hunch my wonderful hubby and MIL is really thoughtful as I understand that they must have thought a few steps ahead about the quota problem as sir woodblock is the only son. Definitely, due to this, both of them refuse to let me get stressed out over this nitty gritty problem of gender issues =)

I love both my family and in laws family! I feel bless and happy=)

Source: http://www.babygenderprediction.com/chinese-gender-chart.html

Pregnancy Weight Gain Calculator

2010-11-30T00:32:00.000-08:00

I always have a habit of weighing myself on a daily basis especially now that I am pregnant. This is the beginning of week 14 of my pregnancy and I cant help worry if the weight gain is appropriate and normal. A mummy is always selfless and prior to that, in order to make myself concieve better and I try all sort of ways from taking wu ji bai feng wan
http://www.euyansang.com/index.php/product/flagship-products/gold-label-bak-foong-pill
to getting some weight gain from 48kg to 50kg (I heard from my colleagues it is not wise to continue slimming while trying to concieve). I hope my baby will appreciate all the lengths i have to concieve her/him.

But then again a lady is always vain and it dreads me to step on the weighing machine to worry about both sides of the coin.

Scenario 1: Gaining weight fast
Worries: Am I eating too much and getting fat on my own instead of due to my babies growth??? Princess Mummy Christine: this is something mummy need to look out for as we often keep thinking we are eating for 2. The truth is we should be eating at the same volume as we were eating but we should be taking in nutrition for 2. Therefore, the mummy should be taking related pregnancy nutrition and supplements by changing the type of food we are eating and not the amount.

Scenario 2: Losing weight
Worries: Oh my god is my baby still there?
Princess Mummy Christine: Actually it is normal for mummy to lose weight or gain little weight after 1st trimester due to vomiting(morning sickness) etc

Scenario 3: Gaining weight hardly
Worries: Is my baby not getting enough nutrition? Why is it not growing fast?

Anyway my worries are not unfounded for. Here's what I found out:

Women who do not gain enough weight have an increased risk of delivering small babies (low birth weight of less than 2.5 kg). In Singapore, Indians tend to deliver smaller babies than other races. Small babies can die in early childhood and have many health problems. They are more prone to asthma, and respiratory tract infections (cough and cold). Small babies are at greater risk of having cerebral palsy (a nervous system disorder causing difficulty in talking and walking). Their Intelligent Quotient (IQ) is lower and they may have delayed development.

Gaining too much weight can also be a problem. It may increase the risk of developing hypertension and diabetes in pregnancy. The pregnancy becomes an unpleasant experience, causing backache, leg cramps and varicose veins. Besides it is also difficult to lose weight after delivery. The baby tends to be big. Large babies make vaginal deliveries difficult, increasing the risk for cesarean section. Overweight babies may become obese and diabetic in later part of their lives.

I am glad in the end I found this pregancy calculator online instead of the general pregnancy weight gain chart that customise the estimated weight gain according to the mummy's orginal BMI before pregnancy.

So here's the customise one for Princess Mummy Christine:

I am not sure whether if it is a coincidence, but I am now into the week 14 of my pregnancy and my weight is now 52.5 kg. Just nice =) Puts me at ease.... WHEW!

It is recommended that women should aim for a weight gain related to their pre-pregnancy BMI:
•If BMI was above 26, you should aim for a weight gain of between 7 and 11.5kg.
•If BMI was between 20 and 26, you should aim for a weight gain of 11.5 to 16kg.
•If BMI was less than 20, you should aim for a weight gain of 12.5 to 18kg.

On a Trimester Basis:
•First trimester: Most women put on around 1.6kg in the first three months.
•Second trimester: around 0.5kg a week for the next three months (5.5 - 6.4kg) in total.
•Third trimester: and only around 5kg over the last three months.

If you are wondering how much goes to the baby exactly? Only 3-4 kg out of the total 11-16kg gain by the mummy!!!!

Source: http://www.baby2see.com/pregnancy_weight_calculator.html

I guess it's good for mummies to get a digital weighing machine to monitor our weight closely =) I cant wait to find out the gender of Baby Hui soon!

How to fold a traditional cloth diaper - Origami Style!

2010-11-24T00:47:00.001-08:00

Now I realise my mum-in-law had secretly bought a packet of cloth diapers and hid in some dark corner of the house and I didnt realise about it until last Friday when she finally couldn't hide her excitement and took it out of the hiding place and show it to me and my aunt!

She bought the smallest size 28" for the newborn Baby Hui. I think she is pretty accurate even though I know there's giant size baby like my cousin Calvin's one. Looking at the growth of Baby Hui with the standard chart, I roughly guess Baby Hui is going to be a petite size like me and Daddy Woodblock.

It wasn't soon she started demonstrating and teaching me the daugther-in-law on a trick or 2 in folding a cloth diaper. I was pretty excited of course and it makes it even more(in fact it was an element of surprise) when I realise that the style of diaper folding she taught me was pretty the Origami style => not as boring or as simple or straight forth as I assume it would be.

Initially I wasn't very keen about using cloth diaper as WASHING DIAPER?!?!?! EEWWWW, IS A SMELLY AND DIRTY JOB that I cant imagine!

But then after much discussion and checking things out, I realise that it may not be such a bad idea for the following reasons:

1) The baby actually feels more comfortable wearing cloth diaper =)

2) The chances of nappy rash is now much reduced and saves the cost of expensive nappy rash cream (if you buy those cheapo nappy rash cream, it doesnt work and your baby continues to cry so what's the point?)

3) It is cheaper and economical then to use the disposable diaper full time (I am planning to use a mix of disposable(outdoor use) and cloth diaper(home use)).

4) To minimise the risk of dirt and mess on the mattress, there are a few strategies that are available =>
(a) Lay a layer of waterproof rubber protection mattress at waist line down so that any leakage could be prevented.
(b) Wear a waterproof diaper pants outside the cloth diapers. I went to look around and it cost about $6 bucks/piece and it comes with different cloth designs. So I will only start my purchase after I know the gender of Baby Hui.
(c) Put in a diaper liner within the cloth diaper which we can throw it away as faeces are sometimes a killer for washing.

5) It is a fact that baby urine and faeces are nicer smelling to deal with then adult ones as they only drink milk and have not much of other excretory products add on to make it smelly.

6) I am a sucker for anything that's OLD SCHOOL. LOL (ok I know that's an absolute stupid reason)

I have been surfing online on cloth diaper folding and I was amaze that there were so many different ways of doing it. I guess it is a free style world even in diaper folding! For a moment, I thought the one taught by my mum in law was the Asian style and couldn't be found in the youtube but I guess I am pretty lucky that in the end I found a video which feature the Origami style that my mum in law taught me!

Presenting a step by step guide on an ORIGAMI diaper folding style by
PRINCESS MUMMY CHRISTINE!

1) Spread and lay the diaper flat on the bed.

2) Fold the cloth into half.

3) Fold in the midpoint in order fold one side of the cloth into a triangular shape.

3) Turn the cloth onto the other side.

4) Fold the other side of the cloth into 1/3 length into the center.

5) Fold in the last 1/3 again.

6) Fold the extra cloth at the top edge down.

6) Place the baby in and then fold the bottom up.

7) Finally fold the 2 sides in to cover the baby and you may use a clip to clip the cloth in place. It is a trend for mummies not to use pin these days as there is a risk of accidentally pinning the baby's skin and hurting the baby.

For those who are not the pictorate people, here's a video to show how to do it from Purechristianity in youtube( I am not a Christian in case you have any misunderstanding)

Enjoy!

My Room's Baby Wall of Cuteness

2010-11-24T00:46:00.001-08:00

Initially I was all up and excited to decorate and put up a baby corner for Baby Hui like the many pretty nursery rooms that I see online etc. However, this will involve a lot of paintwork and honestly as a nervous mummy, I wasn't keen on risking Baby Hui's well-being for my aesthetic vainity. So I decided to abort the plan and perhaps design and decorate a corner for Baby Hui after he/she is born instead.

However, it can be pretty frustrating sitting around all day doing nothing despite there is a fire of excitment in me and Daddy woodblock. Yet on the other hand, I wasn't read to commit my emotional attachment for the great fear of any disapointment as I mentioned that the first 3 months involve a lot of risk of miscarriage. How high is the risk exactly? Here's what I found online:

Re: Why do miscarriages happen? Is there anything I can do to avoid it? How do I know if I'm at risk?

Unfortunately, there really is no way to prevent a first trimester miscarriage, and it is the most frustrating thing about obstetrics. But, after ultrasound confirms your baby’s heartbeat at eight weeks, the risk of miscarriage is only about 3%. The risk falls even lower (1%) after a normal ultrasound at 16 weeks. (Overall, from conception, about 10 to 15% of pregnancies end in miscarriage.) Most pregnancy losses are diagnosed in the first trimester when a patient experiences bleeding or cramping. Many women may have no symptoms that the pregnancy has stopped progressing until a routine ultrasound examination indicates no heartbeat.

Source: http://pregnant.thebump.com/pregnancy/first-trimester/qa/miscarriage-risks.aspx?MsdVisit=1

In the end I couldn't help it but I decided that since I cant decorate a baby corner at all or get any baby items at the moment, why not put up baby posters? The cost of baby posters in the market is about $2.80 which is still pretty affordable. The only thing that I didn't like was the lack of variety of Asian babies =( Hence I have no choice but to DIY my own baby posters instead. Here's the stash of cute baby photos I found online:

I love chubby baby so this is one of my favourite.

I went down to Sunshine Plaza and printed all of these photos out and pasted it onto a black coloured paper for a nice contrasting frame. Instead of laminating (which is expensive), I opted to put them into plastic folders(50 cents each) for protection before pasting them onto the wall.
Total $$$: $8.00 + $4 = $12.00 (approximately)

So here I have in front of my bed a Baby Wall of Cuteness to inspire me to give birth to a kawaii and chubby baby! On the extreme left is a poster given to me by my Cousin Mummy Pearlyn. Isn't it inspiring? Every morning when I wake up, these babies will always be the first to greet me a sweet morning!

Tmr, Daddy woodblock will be bringing me and Baby Hui on a cruise ride on the Royal Carribean! I am so thrilled that I bought a simple 2 piece swim wear ($10) to go for Baby Hui and my first swim after I am pregnant. I guess it will be a great bonding time together for the family! Will be back next week to continue with my blogging! See ya=)

The 3 month Rollercoaster

2010-11-23T23:07:00.000-08:00

I know everyone including myself expected myself to be writing something on my beloved blog ever since my pregnancy thrill but I must say that everything just wasnt what I expected!

From the constant sickness and nauseousness feeling, I cant tell you how much I feel like giving birth immediately in the past few weeks and there was no excitement because I just felt terrible. It didnt help when I suffer an acute lower back pain so bad that I cried last Tues night and only to be accompanied to see the doctor at the KK hospital the next day. Even though the doctors have not been able to tell what's really wrong with me, it is a relief that the pain is slowly going away =)

So with all these physical conditions, I have problem even with sleeping, let alone much about blogging happily at my laptop.

But to say that as I am at the end of my 1st trimester - week 12 of pregnancy, it is happy to know that my baby is kept safe and sound and it suddenly makes all the hell suffering worth it! So now here I am back on my hobby of blogging again!!! YAY isnt it?

Ok here's to share with you, my friends, some of the excitement you have miss while I am always on my MS (morning sickness) all this while.

Hmm let me recall and let's start off with our excitement of the royal pregnancy with Sir woodblock!

Week 7 of Pregnancy: Our Very first Baby Scan

The father to be looks compose but he was so excited that he almost tear like me when we found out about the new joy! He immediately went scouting around the clinic looking for relevant information booklet about the week by week development of the foetus in Princess Mummy's tummy =)

Daddy woodblock comparing the information in the booklet and our baby's growth development.

As for me I couldnt help posing with the first photo of my little baby even though it is so small that it is still in the yolk and sac form. However, during the beginning of the pregnancy, I must warn all the vain ladies that due to hormonal imbalance, it is easy to suffer from pimple outbreaks =( I felt ugly for about 2 weeks until the pimples finally subsided after I used my fav Clinque Lotion for Blemish=> works wonder. So for those BTBs, you may want to consider getting this as I find it value for money for it's fast effects over a few days.

Now at this stage of pregnancy, it's good to start looking for a private gynae as you will want proper and private attention. Other then a good reputation, you should be looking at the cost and the hospital which your gynae is attached when you make your selection.

For me, being lucky that I have an experience cousin mummy, Pearlyn, it didnt even take me any effort to do any research at all and I was recommended a gynae who delivered all my 4 nephews and nieces and even my colleague's baby! However, this gynae is pretty popular and his appointment is packed but his fee are pretty reasonable. I wanted to be thrifty as I know having kids are expensive so why not start now?

So here I am, seeing Dr Lawrence Ang, a gynae whose clinic is located at Sun Plaza.

During our first visit, to our delight, we have a little nice booklet to house the picture scans of our little baby.

Yes, I guess being a first time parents-to-be, we cant help about being so excited about it!

Now to share the thrill part- the baby scans!
Here's how to read the abbreviation and what it means:
CRL: Crown Rump Length
Meaning: A pregnancy ultrasound measurement that measures the length in centimeters from the top of the baby's head to the bottom of the buttocks. A crown rump length can be measured by around seven weeks of pregnancy and may be useful in calculating a gestational age.
EDD: Expected Date of Delivery
Meaning: The estimated average date when a woman will give birth

Week 7 - 1st detection of life! The nurse shows us how the fast flickering on the center of the yolk was the foetus heartbeat!
CRL: 9mm , EDD: 1st June 2011

Week 8: It was the first time we hear the heartbeat sound of our baby when we see Dr Ang for the first time at his clinic. Feeling emotional, I almost want to tear again! The heartbeat sounds strong and rapid =)
CRL: 1.38cm EDD: 5th June 2011 (notice the EDD changes here and there? but this is normal and varies with each scan)

week 12: It is like seeing magic when I saw the scan pic because the yolk and sac(which is actually the mini waterbag in its initial stage), has now evolved so fast within the 4 weeks that I have not being seeing Baby Hui! It looks so much human like with the head, eyes, nose, mouth and hands clearly formed! Dr Ang magnified the head to check out the nose and told us that the chances of Down Syndrome is low (whew) so he didnt push for us to do the test unless we want to.
CRL: 5.28cm
EDD: 3rd June 2011

This is the first milestone for any preggy mummies to know that the chances of carrying out this pregnancy to full term is now highly elevated. It is also the time whereby most mummies will start annoucing the pregnancy to their friends and family. To be honest it is really not wise to buy anything for the baby during the 1st 12 weeks as it will often lead to emotional attachment between the mummy and the baby. As miscarriage is likely during this period, if the mummy suffers from miscarriage, it can be a big grief and hence depression. Hence to avoid all these worse case scenarios, I avoided buying anything for my baby at all.

BUT for Sir woodblock, now with the new title of Daddy Woodblock, is so kiasu and look at all these that he made me eat and drink on daily basis =( every since the start of the 2nd trimester!

From the left:
New Obimin - Multi-vitamins for mummy and includes the essential Folic Acid
Use of Folic Acid:
Folic acid, also known as folate or folacin, is one of the B group of vitamins, also known as B9. Your body needs it to produce red blood cells, as well as norepinephrine and seratonin (chemical components of the nervous system. It helps make DNA (the body's genetic material), which normalises the brain's functions, and is a critical component of spinal fluid. Folic acid is also one of the few nutrients known to prevent neural tube birth defects, such as spina bifida, which, according to The Association for Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus (ASBAH), affects one in every 1,500 babies born in the United Kingdom.

The Ministry of Health recommends that every woman who is thinking about pregnancy or is in the first third (trimester) of pregnancy to take a daily supplement of 400 micrograms (mcg) of folic acid and eat a folate rich diet to reduce her baby's risk of getting some types of birth defects. Women who don't get enough may also increase their chance of miscarriage. Once you are into your second trimester (from week 13), you may wish to stop taking the supplements, although continuing to take them throughout pregnancy won't harm you or your baby either.
Source: http://www.babycenter.com.sg/pregnancy/nutrition/whyneedfolicacid/

Princess Christine: In fact for ladies who are TTC (trying to concieve), they will start taking folic acid even before conception.

EnfaMama A+ Maternal and lactating Formula: Contains mainly DHA and choline which is vital for babies brain development and growth which will start to become rapid once the pregnancy is into the 2nd trimester.

Choline: Choline is an important nutrient that helps brain cells develop properly. Animal studies suggest that adequate choline during pregnancy has long-lasting effects on a baby's ability to learn and remember – and may even provide some resistance to mental illness.
Other studies suggest that choline can boost your brainpower during pregnancy, too – if your levels have been depleted. (Your need for choline increases during pregnancy as your baby draws on your supply.)

Princess Christine: I guess, it means it prevents mental illness in kids and also to prevent the mummy from growing stupid in the meanwhil during the pregnancy. Maybe I should have started taken it earlier because I started to feel stupid sometime ago.

Natal Care Triplus: Concentrated Fish Oil which is rich in Omega 3 Acids and provide DHA and EPA. Fish oil and walnuts provide an essential fatty acid that can help boost your baby's brain and visual development.

Use of DHA: There's nothing fishy about it: DHA (or docosahexaenoic acid), an omega-3 fatty acid found in fish oil, is an essential nutrient for women — especially during pregnancy. DHA helps build your baby's brain, nervous system, and eyes. "Omega-3s are a specific type of fat that our body needs but cannot make,"
Source: http://www.everydayhealth.com/pregnancy/101/dha-in-pregnancy.aspx

EPA: It is noteworthy that all fish contain DHA as well as EPA (in general, most fish contain DHA:EPA ratios of approximately 2:1 or somewhat higher). It has been suggested that some of the benefits from consuming fish (containing DHA+EPA) may also be due to the complimentary effect of EPA with respect to various parameters including the risk of postpartum depression, etc. as well as potential benefits on the growth and development of the infant and young over the early months/years of life.
Source: http://www.dhaomega3.org/FAQ/Why-consume-both-DHA-and-EPA-during-pregnancy

So how do I look now? A guess a radiant mummy would be a good word even though the word fat comes along with it. Here's the latest photo on Monday where woodblock took me down to take Xmas decoration pics at Changi Airport. It was really nice of him to take a day's off to celeb our 2nd year wedding anniversary (counting from date of rom).

My first maternity like dress I bought for myself => 30 bucks! I guess it looks so gorgeous to the point that my youngest sis in law, Ah li actually borrowed it and wore this dress to a wedding dinner. I was really amuse knowing that she is like XS in size and yet she is still insistent of wearing it. Whatever!

Daddy woodblock, ask me to put my hands down to see the tummy bulge. Still very small for the moment!

Love this lively green pasture wall! It makes people wonder why we are not doing other interesting activities for our anniversary and the reason being that I feel unwell most of the time and I couldn't do anything strenous at all. On top of that it doesnt help having a higher body temperature throughout the pregnancy and always CRAVE for cold drinks(cant drink too much) and air conditioned places!

Don't I look like the blue puffer fishes (as I am now bloated during pregnancy)?

A sweet kiss between the pregnant Seahorse Daddy and the pregnant Princess Mummy Christine for both their hard work at concieving!

Our first Christmas with a special gift in my Tummy! I love you BABY HUI!!! Cant wait to see you soon!

A new "B"eginning

2010-09-30T23:06:00.001-07:00

I have been through a lot of emotional train since Monday to Wednesday with so much ups and downs that I cant help having insomnia and lots of weeping.

To date everything still feels kind of dreamy to me. Ever since August, I have spotted like twice in 2 months with no period and I ended up a little skeptical knowing that I have a history of serious gastrointestinal problem ever since I started my career. However, being worried about the cost, I deliberately visited the polyclinic on 16/9/2010 to get referred to the KK hospital. There it seems that as long you are married and no period, it's an SOP (standard operating procedure) to take an urine test before you get referred for other scans. So as usual like my umpteen times of preg test kit which I did at home (yes you can imagine how crazy i was back then in trying to concieve), it was proven negative.

So on this Monday (27/9/2010), woodblock was very sweet to take a half day leave to company me to KK hospital to do my ultrasound scan. However, the doctor after questioning me, says that I would need to queue up for another day for the scan and ask me to take urine test again as I have a history of long menstrual cycle. Of course, I fet extremely grumpy as it can be irritating to a person who i trying so hard to convince herself to shelf the concieving plan to next year to take another urine test for another false hope.

Therefore, it isnt a surprise that I was pretty sure I am definitely not pregnant as I take the urine test again. To my greatest and unexpected shock, for the crazily number of times i tested for pregnancy, this time round it was positive. I was so unwilling to accept this news that I keep thinking that either that is a wrong urine sample or I must be so stress that I actually have hormonal imbalance.

So there for some moment, woodlock and me were lost for words and almost in tears for the unexpected news. The doctor soon sent me to do ultrasound scan as she wants to see an update of the foetus progress.

To my horror, when I do the ultrasound scan, the nurse couldnt find anything, no matter how hard she tries and she even switch to V-scan (vaginal scan) which involves the insertion of a sensor into the vagina for a closer inspection but to no avail at all.

In the end, the doctor, after reviewing all the scan pics, told me that either it is early pregnancy or a possibility of ectopic pregnancy. I was horrified and I thought it was simply ironic. I was teaching this topic weeks ago and I knew clearly what it meant. Ectopic pregnancy means that the embryo did not attached itself to uterus and instead stayed in the fallopian tube(mostly) or even in the ovary. There is almost no way that an ectopic pregnancy can be carry out to full term as the faollopian tube neither have the capacity not nutrients to house the embryo. In early discovery, you can do an injection to flush out the embryo (as good as abortion). However, once the embryo is of considerable size, it means a surgery to remove the fallopian tube and the woman now has more difficulty to concieve in future(partially infertile). The chances of concieving nows becomes once in every 2 months.

So I was to do 2 blood tests for verifying whether it is ectopic or early preg. So on wednesday morning (29/09/2010) I went for the 2nd blood test in the morning. After 3 hours of wait, the blood results shows a positive sign but the doc wasnt able to tell for sure it's not ectopic yet. So we continued to worried as we wait for another detail V-scan conducted by another department and finally after 7 hours of wait in the hospital, they finaly found the embryo! The water bag is 5mm wide and the yolk is 2mm wide.

I just wish to share my joy with all my friends and btbs.....

I am finally PREGNANT!!! After so much trying etc, I have already given up hope of all the 'B"s I have been wishing for all these while especially my work is very stress these days. Now I feel energise with this piece of good news and I will be keeping a detail log of my progress as a first timer expecting mummy =) Hopefully this will then become some useful info that you will need in near future soon after your wedding*winkz*

Tmr I am celebrating woodblock's bdae and I cant helped but think that this is the best bdae gift I have for him this year!

I will share the bdae celeb details next week and my blog will be coming alive again as happiness is meant to be shared!

Sushi Making Fun with Cheng Cheng

2010-08-21T17:42:00.000-07:00

Every Sunday is usually a fun day as we get to play with my cousins' kids, cheng cheng and Siyu. So on one particular Sunday, I decided to let them have fun with sushi making!

Here are some of the ingredients. I cooked the tamago on my own as I learnt how to cook it some years ago while other ingredients were mainly prepared by my aunt, Alice.

I cant rem whether this is Aunt Alice or Cousin Pearlyn work but it sure looks appetising!

As for me and cheng cheng, we were both busily playing with the sushi rice stencil which I have bought from Diaso!

Cheng cheng trying to add in some ingredients to the stencil.

Then he tops it up with more sushi rice to cover it.

His masterpiece - the Ikan Bilis Smiley Boy

Mine was the Prawny Smile Bear

A better view of my masterpiece from top view.

Princess Christine asked Cheng Cheng : Guess what happens when they(Ikan Bilis Smiley Boy and Prawny Smile Bear) grow odd?

The aged Ikan Bilis Smiley Grandpa and Prawny Smile Bear
(Cheng Cheng laughs)

Princess Christine's Sunset Porridge by the Sea

2010-08-20T21:09:00.000-07:00

Poor Sir woodblock has been sick for since Thurs night with a cold. So on Friday late noon I decided to cook some nutritious porridge for him as I headed home from work. With some inspiration as I make a detour to the supermarket, I thought why not a beautiful sunset porridge to cheer him up?

Here's the ingredients I bought:
- 1 pumpkin (Steam and cut into tiny pieces before adding into porridge)
- 1 can of chicken soup with no msg and artificial flavouring
- 1 can of straw mushroon
- 1 cuttlefish
- 1 packet of fish slices
- 1 packet of mince pork (to make meatballs- one of my specialty which woodblock likes to eat. He always says that the meatballs has a taste of laopo's cooking.)
Total damage: S$13.15

Porridge is perhaps one of the easiest thing to cook with as all you need to do is prepped all the ingredients and add them into the porridge at suitable timings. Within an hour's time......

Princess Christine's Sunset porridge by the sea is ready!!!

This sunset porridge by the sea look so appetising that my sick sir woodblock manage to eat 2 bowls of it (despite of poor appetite). Plus there were loads of his fav meatballs in it!

Of cos I did a little presentation and arrange the fish slices on top to make it look even yummy =) Woodblock was pretty surprise when he woke up for dinner and saw the porridge as he neither expect it to be so pretty in colour (ok the truth was porridge wasnt his cup of tea as he often find it too blend for his taste) nor know that I can cook up a sunset porridge (actually me too, it was a dish out of impulse inspiration.)

The Sunset porridge tastes great with the sweetness of the pumpkin that is infuse in the porridge. The fact that the porridge is filled with loads of seafood like cuttlefish and fish slices, it makes you feel like you are dining by the sea.
A cosy and heart warming dish for my sick woodblock.

Nutrition facts of pumpkin:

Pumpkin contains vitamins C, B1, B2, B6, E, niacin, such elements as magnesium, potassium, calcium, phosphorus, iron, silicon and copper. The great number of pectins, contained in the pumpkin, helps to remove the excess of harmful cholesterol from the body. Pumpkin seeds are useful for male potency -lol. Also they can be eaten on an empty stomach to expel helminths.Pumpkin fiber is soft, so it is a valuable dietary product. Pumpkin has a positive effect on people suffering from gastroenteric diseases. Stewed, boiled pumpkin and pumpkin porridge are particularly useful for people with high acidity of gastric juice. Doctors and nutritionists include mashed pumpkin in nutrition of patients with gastric ulcer and duodenal ulcer. Pumpkin helps to form ulcers’ scars quicker.
Source: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/pumpkin-nutrition-facts-and-tasty-recipes.html

For my busy job, I always end up with skipping lunch and loads of gastric problem since the start of my career and it is a relief to know that pumpkin happens to be able to help me in terms of gastric problems =) Dont worry I did not make woodblock at any of the pumpkin seeds at all =P

BUT perhaps I should add it in next time and pretend that it was a careless mistake of a housewife who forgot to remove the pumpkin seeds.

Posing with my masterpiece =) Ok I looked a little oily after the cooking as I did not have time to wash up after cooking.

BUT this is the true beauty of a glowing housewife in the heart of a husband!!!

Location of Amk Craft Store

2010-08-17T16:20:00.001-07:00

For those who are interested in the location of the craft shop in Amk, here's the address:

Elsie Departmental Store
Blk 709 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 8
#01-2607
Singapore 560709
p: 64515519

Be a Wedding Glogger!

2010-08-17T07:37:00.000-07:00

Now I realise these days there are many people who are into scrapbook album making. Despite there are many scrapbook making materials available these days, it usually intimates me that the costs of some of the simple scrapbook accessories are pretty exorbitant and expensive =( definitely not friendly for the DIY brides who are looking into afforable DIYs.

Here's the good news! With a recent introduction from my colleague due to work related stuff, I discover this NEW IN THING which allows btbs to do something similar to scrapbook making - "GLOGS". GLOGS are basically electronic poster which allows you to embed 101 things inside and many animations and ready graphics are provided that are ready for you to add it in. For those wedding bloggers btb, this is so cool that you can even embed in your own wedding videos etc.

Cant wait to catch a glimpse of a GLOG? Here's a sample I have conjure up to display my upcoming excitement holiday!!!

Golden Palm Tree Resort!!! (http://sepang.swiss-belhotel.com/)

It is simply a much cheaper alternative then to go to the Maldives to us and allow us to get a short getaway to somewhere new and not always just the usual Batam. We have opted to stay in the Premier Traveller Villa

Here's the drooling description of it!:
Our spacious 52 square-metre one bedroom villas elegantly stands on stilts with high ceiling covered with Alang-Alang roofing that offers a warm ambience of the nature. The villa comes with a romantic four-poster king size bed. An outdoor private terrace with deck chairs offers a view of the Straits of Malacca.Our spacious 52 square-metre one bedroom villas elegantly stands on stilts with high ceiling covered with Alang-Alang roofing that offers a warm ambience of the nature. The villa comes with a romantic four-poster king size bed. An outdoor private terrace with deck chairs offers a view of the Straits of Malacca.

Presenting my 1st GLOG ..........................

You can simply click on any of the pics to enlarge it! Yes it is just simply SUPER COOL to the BITS!!!! Luv it to the max.! However, do give it some patience to wait for it to load as the file size is pretty huge. I just hope that glogster will be even further improved next time just like picassa over the years. Making it even more user friendly =)

Ops I forgot to mention, the best thing about glog is that it is a free platform!!!
WOOHOO!!!Hurray to GLOGSTER!!!
So once you complete your glog you can print it out into a hardcopy and display it at your wedding reception.... Your guest will probably think that you hire some professional graphic designer to do the scrapbook for you *winkz*

Be a glogster and start glogging today!!!

Our new bag organiser

2010-08-15T05:58:00.000-07:00

Do you have the same kind of mess as we have?

Especially after your work or a day out shopping, we always seem to find ourselves placing our bags on the floor as we lack chair spaces to place our bags. If you are ever staying with your in laws, you prolly understand that your world of storage is pretty kept and packed away in a single room and you will really need to crack your head on how to pack your stuff unless you wanna end up being a messy couple with bags all over the floor like what we had for months that we have been married.

Here's the proof:

Crime Scene 1: Mess made by Princess Christine.

Crime Scene 2: Mess made by Sir Woodblock.

It was great that in the end we found the perfect stoage at IKEA again and this time round, I requested woodblock to try installing the cupboards himself!

It was pretty interesting to see my father in law(FIL) teaching woodblock how to drill the walls etc. For years, my FIL wanted woodblock to take over his biz on metal works but to no avail. I bet he must have felt happy when woodblock volunteer to try himself out this time round. I am very happy that my hubby always listen and fulfil all my little requests. Woodblock pampers me just too much at times.

Woodblock starting to drill the wall on his own! I am so proud of Sir woodblock.

My FIL teaching woodblock on how to install the damper and nails.

The final product!!!

Yay now I have a proper storage for all my bags and a cleaner floor space!!

Did I mentioned that this is actually a shoe organiser??? Who says it must be for shoes *shake headz* .

Next project work I am looking for will be the magazine rack for putting my comic books as I luv to read a bit here and there but my study desk is so filled up that it can hold no more books =(

Any ideas?

Dine like an Imperial Princess

2010-08-12T05:07:00.000-07:00

This may seem like a much overdue post on my july bdae, but still I wanna record the beautiful memories and yummy treats from woodblock on my bdae =)

When I open my eyes on the bdae morning, woodblock was no where in sight beside me. Instead, he woke up early in the wee hours(despite being a Sat morn) and bury himself in the kitchen whipping up an imperial cuisine for me - " 一品锅！！！！ " (Imperial Treasure Pot or The First Class Pot)

A short intro on what's the "The first class pot" is about:

孔府一品锅，由皇帝赐名。据说，清朝历代皇帝常到孔府，而孔府也常遣厨师进宫制作孔府佳肴，敬请皇太后、皇帝和后妃品尝。清朝承袭明朝品官等级制，官衔为一至九品，一品为最高，九品为最低，清朝将孔府列为当朝一品官的官府。因而，皇帝对孔府用鸡、猪蹄、鸭、海参、鱼肚等各种珍贵原料烹制成的汤菜，赐名为“当朝一品锅”，成为孔府及所有一品官府名菜，历代相传。

Princess Christine's Translation:
The confucius's first class pot was a name bestowed by the emperor of china during the qing dynasty. During then, there were nine classes of officers with the First class officials as the highest ranking officers while the Nine class officials as the lowest class. Being highly regarded, the confucius's family is treated and known as the first class official's family. Therefore, the emperor calls the dish which make up of all the expensive and rare ingredients created by the confucius family as the "First Class Pot".

WAH SEY

Basically it is a dish which compose of all the superior ingredients like prawns, abalone, sea cucumber, scallop, mushroon, fish maw etc.... Limpets is one of my fav choice of a cheaper alternative for abalone =)

In order to ensure the essence of the various ingredients of the Imperial Treasure Pot is being brought out, woodblock opted for a slow cooker instead.

By the time he was done and serve up the imperial treasure pot in front of Princess Christine, his highness was already drooling from her crazily luxurious brunch!!!

OMG, I can still rem the crazily yummy taste of this dish!

All the ingredients used were my fav and I wish to bestow sir woodblock as my royal chef instead.

After the hearty breakfast, woodblock brought me down to Sentosa to take a stroll while waiting for the circus show to start.

I am a pretty good amateur PG at times.

As we were there pretty early, we went down to hard rock cafe to catch some quick bites instead.

Much to my dismay, I find the furnishing of the cafe at RWS still pretty blend and lack the ambience I was looking for in terms of the rock and roll style.

However, the generous serving of yummy hickory chicken wings redeemed everything else at one go.

The best part was the celery with blue cheese dip!!!

After an hour of wait, we were pretty upset that the circus show was canceled. In the end we have to postpone it and catch it on woodblock's bdae celeb instead. Good news was, RWS decided to give us complimentary upgraded ticket(2 levels of upgrade, from $68=>$108) seats to catch the show this time round. Yes I am a sucker for FOC deal. Furthermore, they will be providing us complimentary programme booklet.

After all the disappointment, we decided to head down to the singapore river area for a nice stroll.

Usually I prefer to take the natural shot of woodblock as he always becomes too tense when he is aware of me shooting at him. See isnt the smile so fake?

Next stop, fullerton hotel! Nope we arent spending our bucks on a hotel stay at fullerton. We were there to catch the largest Kueh Lapis cake on display!

As usual, when it comes to food, woodblock wants to have his fair share of the pie. So I was force to help him take a pic of "his blissful moment" to add on to his life journey accomplishments.

The Kueh Lapis Fullerton is simply gorgeous!!! After a fulfiling moment of admiring at the fullerton's chef great masterpiece, we headed to the food fair at clark quay river.

The fair was swarm with both locals and tourists! It was so difficult to find a table to dine at.

Woodblock enjoying some of the traditional foodfare.

After fillinf up our partially hungry tummies, we headed back to the merlion area to await for our ting kat cruise.

Guess what? There was a traditional puppet show held at the merlion!

It's been ages I have seen one since my kindergarden school days!

A pose with the MBS. My face looks kind of plump weeks ago after my disaster short haircut. I am so glad that my hair is now much longer and my face looks so much slimmer now.

While we were at the dock, I almost drool at the pretty tingkat which was suppose to be distributed to us to bring home as souvenir later!!! I have yet gotten a chance to bring my vintage chio ting kat out for a picnic session yet and I plan have one soon during school holidays.

Here's our cruise ride!

It was exciting to be seated at all the elaborately decorated tables. This candle is actually an electric candle but it looks so much like a real candle!! Very romantic. If only if I know where to get a candle like this, I will place it around my bedroom if I ever have a house next time.

Even the seats are adorned with comfy pretty pillows!

The whole boat felt like a mini banquet area as even the 2 corners of the board was decorated with centerpieces.

Princess Christine with the fabulous ting kat!

As for woodblock, he just cant wait to dig in!

The sumptous spread of traditional food fare from the 5 dialects!

The hearty couple!

Cute mini chicken rice balls!

It was great savouring the yummy traditional food fare while enjoying the scenery ride along the singapore river. There was even a tour guide on the boat who will introduce to you about the various history of the singapore river.

The organiser was very thoughtful to prepare the recycle bags for us to do takeaway for our ting kats!

Princess Christine hopes to have such a vintage romantic dining again!

Fantastic National Day @ Marina Barrage

2010-08-09T07:27:00.000-07:00

We were pretty disappointed this year when we realise that neither we did not manage to get any tickets to watch the NDP live nor did we get the bid to catch the fireworks at Duxton.

So while we were pondering on what to do after lunch, especially after halfway through my work, woodblock had a brilliant idea! Soon we got ourselves packing and arrived at Marina Barrage for a kite-flying cum picnic cum firework-watching session!

Despite the hot weather, there were loads of crowd at the marina barrage when we arrived there. However, it was good that we eventually manage to gotten ourselves a good spot!

We picked out a place where we can have a good view of the marina bay sand and the singapore flyer. I must say the view is gorgeous. However, the only setback was that despite being windy, the sun was pretty glaring and I wished I had rem to bring along my sunglasses =(

I was so glad when I realised my royal prince has brought along an umbrella for me to use =)

Boy, it felt really great to be out in the sun. Felt way much lively than to always stay indoors.

Being excited, I grabbed Mr. Octopus and started flying!!!

Let my kite soar!!!!!!! I simply fell in love in flying a kite with a gorgeous backdrop behind.

My Mr Octopus swimming happily in the sky!

Soon sir woodblock took over Mr Octopus while I laze around on the picnic mat.

It just feels so different kite flying here at marina barrage. I think we are so gonna come back again for special occasions but of cos it will be more romantic with a lesser crowd.

I tried playing around with the camera to take more stylo pics of my hero sir woodblock.

There were some interesting kite's accessories we saw over here at marina barrage eg. this spiral turning kite was attached midway on the string of the main kite! I must say it was really beautiful and when I finally become a professional kite flyer one day, I want something like this too but I wonder where did they get this from?

While I was lazing around, there was this little cute dog which waited so patiently beside its owner!!! Super cute. It is a pity I am afraid of animals in general, if not I would be playing with it =)

A happy and festive picnic! I love woodblock for this great idea!

Soon at 5:30pm, everyone stopped kite flying as we need to clear the sky for the NDP fighter planes to fly through!

We didnt realise that why everyone chose Marina Barrage to congregate during NDP, until many helicopters and planes started to fly over our heads!

It was exciting to hear everyone cheer at the same time whenever the Singapore Air Force planes flew past us above our heads! We felt so ever patriotic and proud to cheer along side with so many Singaporeans!!!!

Excited Princess Christine waiting for more planes to fly past!!!

One of the highlights! The 5 F16 zooming past us at high speed heading before they spread out like a fan, leaving a trail of smoke behind them!

WOOOHOOO!!! GO SINGAPORE!!!!
Princess Christine was so happy to see awesomeness of The Singapore Air Force!

At 7:30pm, the public was once again allowed to continue to fly their kites. As we were a little tired so we decided to just sit around and admire the kites around us. Soon we realise it was a good choice as it felt really joyous to see a sky full of kites of different shapes, colours and sizes!

I couldnt help but pose with this hard to come by opportunity => a sky full of kites. Being a little naughty, it was also fun for the majority of us to watch kites tangling around one another and fall to hit the crowd... lol and then everyone will go "WHOOOOOA", "OH NOOOOO", etc

As the night sky falls, some kite flyers even attached many little led lights to their kites and it seems suddenly like star gazing instead!

Finally after the long wait, "BANG", the sky was suddenly filled with fireworks!!!

There were even fireworks from the tall buildings too!!!

HAPPY 45th BIRTHDAY SINGAPORE!!!!
I love SINGAPORE and my sir woodblock too!

Sweet Dreams Sleeping Beauty

2010-08-08T21:59:00.000-07:00

It's been ages since I gotten any chance to blog and I have loads of photos in my camera crying to have their story spoken....

Sometimes I wish the time will be up soon for me to take a break especially from my work, which has been suffocating me for the past few weeks. I am so glad that my ice cream workshop is finally over and it was definitely a tremendous stress for me to conduct one while a number of cases for me to handle seem to be on the rise.

Whenever I am immerse in all these hectic work, the only solace I seeked will be home and of course spending quality time in my slumberland. Therefore, I have been splurging on my sleep wear !!!!

I am so into young hearts pyjamas these days and I cant help but start off my collection by purchasing 2 of them to switch my pyjamas from those pants to finally the girly skirts.

So presenting my secret sleepwear stash....................

Sleeping Beauty Collection #1 The ice cream princess!

JINGLE JINGLE JINGLE! Oh my it's the ice cream man, Mr Jones!
Give yourself a sweet treat with the ice cream and doze off into a yummy candyland!

Sleeping Beauty Collection #2 The Paris Princess in love!
Take a romantic break and indulge in the mood of paris. Great to have a cuppa of coffee to go especially for afternoon naps.

It is fun for me and woodblock and I always enjoy him calling me by the different themes of pyjamas I am in eg. "Ice Cream Princess" or "Paris Princess". I hope young hearts will continue to come up with interesting dreamy pyjamas themes like this (but taking care of the comfort level as I realise a few pyjamas theme like the sailor one didnt look that comfortable) as it allows me to have the excuse of playing dressing up with cute and girly dresses in my own world which probably only little girls of age 6 and below gets to wear.

The soft toys are my recent bdae gift from my dozens of little bosses from 2 different sub-companies! It's pretty adorable and I thank them so much for giving me so many bdae surprises in one day!

Anyway my wish is to have at least a different pyjamas theme for each day of the week..... so you know what I wish for Christmas this year....
*winkz* and *YYYYYYYYYYYYYYawnzzzzz*

Sweet Dreamz from the Sleeping Princess Christine

DIY Jewellery Organiser

2010-07-19T04:22:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday was another happy fruitful day especially when my mum in law decided to get my father in law to fixed us a new shoe storage cupboard and discard the old one again. This now means I have proper storage place for my shoes finally and it feels happy to be allocated 2 rows of drawers in the cupboard. However, what really makes me excited was the old cupboard she was going to discard away!!!

I was having a headache on getting a proper jewellery oganiser to organise my accessories. I was searching high and low and the closest I can find to what that will occupies little space was this:

However, it seem that this will cost be about $16 plus but I didnt really had a place to hang this organiser bag up as the only hook I have will be behind the door which is always full of hanging pyjamas etc and other clothings.

So in the end I took the liberty to extract the shoe cupboard's door and convert it to a jewellery hanging organiser!

As I also have prob storing all the little photos and magnetic pic of woodblock and me, I thought why not add it to the jewellery organiser to personalise it. Simply love the details of our pics on it!

The magnetic photo was made during one of woodblock's company family day.
I bought curtain hooks at 10 for $1 from the neighbourhood store to hang the bracelets/rings.
My lovely earring collections........... my mum in law even tease that I am like setting a jewellery store in my room and asked whether Ah li (my sis in law) is interested in going to my room to shop for accessories.

Woodblock suggested that I hang the jewellery organiser by the side of the cupboard which makes it easier for me to choose my accessories when i get dress up.

For me, I love the idea of displaying all the accessories and our pics like a photo frame on the wall =)

Salivating Bdae Plans by Woodblock

2010-07-13T04:01:00.000-07:00

I am so looking forward to my Bdae now that woodblock has told me that he is planning to bring me to watch the Voyage de la Vie at the Festive Grand Theatre in Resort World Sentosa. I have never watch a circus show before and I am so THRILLED to the bits! Despite he bought the cheaper tickets available, I was ecstatic to know that he managed to get the front row center seats!!!! WOHOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here's a look at some of the characters, and a brief introduction to the story of the Journey of Life from http://resortsworldsentosablogs.blogspot.com/.

Jonathan Leong(I hope you can recall him from Singapore Idol) plays the Boy. Voyage de la Vie is really the Journey of Life of our key character, simply named The Boy. Bored of his mundane existence in the doldrums of the corporate world, he was inexplicably teleported to an imaginary world. There, he meets various unusual characters, representing the various phases in life to realise in the end that more than the destination, the journey is truly the important part.

Alexey Goloborodko plays The Game Master.The Game Master is a friendly and mischievous sprite, and a contortionist extraordinaire. We've watched the Game Master at play many, many times. And we are spellbound by his moves. Every time.

Viktor Kee plays The Lantern Keeper.The Lantern Keeper is a guide; he leads the Boy around the strange and wondrous imaginary world, and plays teacher as well. He imparts the all- important lesson that life is about balance. Both dramatic and graceful; it's hard not to be mesmerized by his ultimate balancing act- Juggling. He may make it looks like a breeze, but we assure you it's not.

Princess: Christine: This guy is so good at his juggling act that here's one of his video

Jarrett & Raja plays The Magician & The Maestro.Masters of Illusion, The Magician and The Maestro will teach the Boy to seperate the line between illusion and reality, for not everything is what it seems to be. And there will be plenty of laughs in between.

Melanie Chy plays The Diva.The mysterious Diva teases the Boy with her enthralling ways and sultry moves. With her sensuous hand balancing display of strength and agility, she draws him into an inner struggle of Love and Temptation.

Aurelia Cats plays The Crystal Cat.Under the light of the silvery moon and a blanket of stars , the Boy falls into a deep sleep. And emerging from the crescent moon is the Crystal Cat. She beckons to the sleeping Boy to join her in the solitude of the moonlight, but never quite comes near his reach. She elegantly twirls and twists high in the air on her crystal trapeze, before disappearing back into the sky.

Liina Aunola plays Life

Martti Peltonen plays Death. The Balance of Life and Death. Poles apart but yet inseparable, Life teaches the Boy the freedom of one's life journey, while Death is always tempting and manipulating life. Together, they represent that life is nothing without risk and danger.

After the show, there will be a Singapore Chinese Dialect Tingkat Cruise which is a cruise along the Singapore River whilst sampling cuisine from different Chinese dialects served in a tingkat (food carrier=> the vintage bento box our ancestors use!).

The Tingkat Menu includes:
Teo Chew Carrot Cake, Hainanese Chicken Rice Balls, Cantonese Fu Chok Tong Shui, Fried Hokkien Mee, Hakka Soon Kueh & Pokka Green Tea Drink

The route of the Tingkat Cruise:
Embark at Merlion Park
Cruise into Singapore River, bypassing Boat Quay, Central River Promenade, Clarke Quay
Turning point at Clarke Read Bridge
Cruise along Singapore River, bypassing Clark Quay, Central River Promenade and Boat Quay
Cruise around Marina Bay and return to Merlion Park
Duration: 45 minutes per cruise
Pricing: $35
(inclusive of a free tingkat(i like this!!) and meal)

Promotion: Standard Chartered
Card members enjoy 20% off*

I cant wait to reminiscence in the deep cultural heritage cuisine on board of a traditional bum boat =)

Thanks woodblock, for the wonderful surprise bdae plans!

Worldcup Mania!

2010-07-11T06:30:00.000-07:00

Tonight I am planning to stay up to catch the Finals of the World Cup 2010 with woodblock!!!

To add to the excitement, I have kindly allow him to bet on this final match ........

We always love underdogs and ........
Yeshhhhh, we are supporting Holland!!!!

Go Holland and Eat the Octopus =P

Watch out for my Watch!

2010-07-10T21:05:00.000-07:00

Months ago, I accidentally wave my hand and hit my precious swatch watch onto the laboratory table and resulted in a crack on the glass face of the watch. I was pretty upset about this and the worse thing was one of the gem on the watch was also missing, making the whole watch lose its original shine and once before glory.

However, I wasnt able to muster myself to get another watch as this watch was my very first watch that woodblock bought for me when we just started out working. Back then, to me this was an already very expensive watch as we didnt have much savings and that makes it even more precious in it's significance.

Much to my delight, woodblock decided to get me a new watch for my bdae!What really touchd me most was that he bought me a watch that i luv very much despite it is very expensive watch without any qualms or hesitation. In act he was all smile when i finally agree to let him purchase the watch that i fell in love with(but was unwilling to spend the bucks on it) as he felt that after so much saving and scrimping, he really wants to have a chance to dote on me and spoil me by buying me something i love.

So here's presenting my new watch which will be given to me on my upcoming bdae celeb on the 24th july(my bdae is on the 22nd but we are postponing the celebration to the nearest sat) =)

A familiar brand we always see on the MRT train advert. Something i never thought i would have as I almost faint whenever I see the hefty pricetag of Solvil Titus watches. Let's open to take a peek...............

All BLINGS!!!!!!!!!!! Totally my cuppa tea!

A close up view and you will realise it is totally gems everywhere! I am so glad that watch was adjusted in length by the sales person to fit my wrist well. For a thin wrist like mine, I realise I am not suited to wear slim watches and a chunky watch is definitely a must.

Even the inner face of the watch has a rim of gems!!!!

Not to mention that even the 1 and 2 o'clock postions are indicated by a column of gems.... heart meltz. The best thing is I think it is easy for me to read the watch rather than to have a hard time trying to guess the timing.
The strap of the watch.

As the watch is practically gem encrusted, I realise that it looks real sparkly even under little sources of light. I tried wearing it out last night for a banquet and all I can say, I cant help looking at the gorgeous watch!!! (ok i told woodblock it was only for a preview and I will put it back until my bdae.)

I am pretty boliao and told woodblock to hide the gift somewhere and hold on to it first but all i can say is that i will probably be still sneaking a few peeks here and there when he isnt around. Yes, there isnt much hiding place in a bedroombut i just love the excitement of receiving the gift during the bdae celeb which I know that woodblock has already plan it out in advance(finally this yr).

Oh yes, the damage? The orginal cost of this watch is S$315.00, after a 20% discount and another $20.00 rebate due to another offer, it costs woodblock S$232.00.

Thank you lao gong!

Bliss Bridal Package

2010-07-09T17:12:00.000-07:00

Dear btbs esp those from bliss,

here's a reference of the package that I have sign up for if you need some comparison:
- 1 MTM WG (I took an OTR instead as i fell in love with the full french lace vintage dress and i got 2 photos for free instead)
- 1 MTM EG (the black gown)
- 1 OTR teadress
- 1 ROM mtm gown (i bargained that it can also be like a full length gown and hence the pink gown for the rom)
- ROM suit (we didnt use this)
- 2 Gent's suits
- 1 MTM pants
- 1 hand bouquet
- Car decoration
- Usage of Mercedes for Wedding day (we didnt use this)
- 6 corsages (parents)
- Bridal makeupand hairdo for day and night + 1 trial (use for ROM +$30)
- Suits for 2 FIL
- Suits 2 brothers + gowns for 3 bridesmaid (we didnt use any of this in the end so i bargain for 1 more WG rental on the AD)

Studio Photography
- Indoor and outdoor photography with transport provided
- 1 Album(12x15) of 26 pages with 30 poses (this was top up to 32 pics as i didnt use MTM WG in the end)
- 1 20x 30 digital design canvas portrait with frame
- Use of traditional costume for photo taking (i didnt use this)
- 1 CD with the softcopies of the selected 32 pics
- 1 4x5 photos - 6 poses (this one is totally redundant)
- 1 mini 5R album (this is mini version of your big album which allows you to take it out to show your friends easily)

What I spent on bliss bridal : $3388.00 - $200.00(cos i didnt take the car) = $3188.00.

Do try to bargain for useful things and scrap away with the redundent ones. However, no matter whether if you need it a not for the mtm gowns, try to bargain for ALL gowns to be mtm as you will need to pay a lot more to upgrade your gown to mtm if you chance your mind later. Ok i need to go and prep for my prawning trip now, wishing you pals a great weekend!

Gotten your BTO? = You won TOTO!

2010-07-05T01:41:00.000-07:00

With the crazy low number of HDB BTOs being offered each month by HDB, it seems pretty bleak for anyone to get their BTOS anytime soon. The over-subscribed cases is like almost 10 times for every BTO exercise and this makes me wonder in horror that it is a no wonder that these days many young couples are unwilling to get wed as many of them felt insecure to get tied down without a home. So dont blame it on the people when pple are getting wed later and of cos giving birth.

For me, I am starting to shelf the baby plans even though i felt pressured these days especially when my cousin in law who got married at the same time as us is having his first baby soon. What makes me upset most is that when I wrote in to HDB, they just replied by telling me to keep applying. Hello, if I can I WILL! But this is OUR last chance to be ELIGIBLE for the bid and this is the only last and nearest one I could get to. Even if we are diligent enough to continue bidding, we will no longer be approved for registration as we hit the salary ceiling.

I really felt that if the new implementation made by HDB were really that effective the ideal number of oversubscribed ratio should have been push down to 4-5 times at most *shake head*.

Now I am starting to ponder what to do when this, our one and only last chance of getting a BTO is going to be like another TOTO attempt.

Yes to get a BTO in Singapore is like winning some lottery like TOTO.
Never win a lottery before? Trying bidding for BTO!!!
At least it has a slightly higher chance to win compared to the TOTO.

Here are some pics for us to drool on before we get this message again:

"Your queue position is beyond 300% of the flat supply. Hence, you are deemed as unsuccessful in your flat application. You will not be invited to select a flat and your flat application has been cancelled accordingly. For first-timer applicants, this unsuccessful application will be counted towards the accumulation of additional chances for their future application for a flat in non-mature estates under the BTO exercises. => (which we are no longer applicable)

Façade - Designed to minimise heat gain for greater comfort
Solar Power - Use of clean and renewable energy to supplement the lighting needs at the common areas
Convenience of Recycling - Provision of separate recyclable refuse chute for easy recycling
On-site Compost Bin - For deposition of garden waste for decomposition
Bioretention Swales/ Rain Gardens - Clears pollutants and silt from rain and runoff water before they enter the waterway

Princess Christine's homemade Baileys Ice Cream

2010-07-04T18:53:00.000-07:00

Due to recent work requirements, I was entasked to investigate the making of ice cream without an ice cream maker but just SALT and ICE.

Despite understanding the theory, I am totally clueless on cooking up an ice cream and decided to do some research online and decided to extract the recipe from this webby:
http://sci-toys.com/scitoys/scitoys/thermo/ice_cream/ice_cream.html

What you need
½ cup sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
3 beaten egg yolks
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 cups chilled whipping cream
Optional: I change the flavouring to Baileys as I have plenty of this liquor at home =)

1) Pour 1/2 cup of sugar into bowl.

2) Add in a 1/4 teaspoon of salt

3) Add in a cup of milk. Stir the mixture a little. At this point of time, it is not possible for all the sugar to dissolve. So dont bother.

4) Separate the egg yolks and egg white. We will only need the egg yolks for the ice cream. Whip the egg yolks after separation from egg whites.

5) Boil some water in a pot or pan and one the water is boiling, place your bowl of mixture in (3) in. (Do remember to use a low heat). Ensure there is no direct contact between the bowl of mixture and pan/pot. We only need gentle heating.
6) Add in the egg yolk slowly and stir it in well.

7) Finally once bubbles are formed at the edge of yor mixture, it means the eggs are more or less quite cooked and you may remove the mixture out from the pot. Do not wait till the whole mixture is boiling!

8) Add in a tablespoon of vanilla essence.

9) I was a little adventurous and wanted to fast forward to try making a liquor flavoured ice cream, so I added Baileys. YOu may add any amount of Baileys according to your own liking. Well we(Ah li was awake at the point of time and she helped me with the ice cream making experiment and documention) added lots!

10) Finally, add in the 2 cups of whipped cream. Your ice cream mixture is now ready for the freezing process.

11) Now to prepare the "ice-cream maker". Pour about 1 cup of salt on top of a big bowl of ice cubes. You may also opt for crushed ice for better surface contact and results.

12) In order to make the process faster, we did the ice-ream in batches. So we pour the ice cream mix into a smaller bowl (about 1/4 volume of the total ice cream mix). For us we did it the wrong way so we initially use the original big bowl instead of a smaller ones.

13) Place the bowl in for better contact. Start stirring. You may also keep turn the bowl and let it revolve in the ice bath.

14) Here is the actual picture of the right bowl that we use in the end. Much smaller then the one used previously.

15) Our ice cream is forming!!! At this point of time, there isnt a need for your ice cream to be completely frozen like the one we have in the tub. But it is ready to be place in the fridge for the final freezing stage.

16) The salt plus ice mixture makes the temperature drops lower than 0 degree celsius and even the water vapour in the surrounding air is being frozen up!

Not clear about why is that so??

"Salty water freezes at a lower temperature than plain water. But the ice is made of plain water, so it melts at 0 degrees Celsius. Since the ice keeps melting, but the water no longer freezes (because there is only salt water, which doesn't freeze at 0 degrees), the temperature goes down.

The heat gained by the ice as it melts is no longer offset by the heat given up by freezing water (since the water is no longer freezing back onto the ice). The heat gain has to come from somewhere else. It comes from the ice cream and your hands.

The sodium and chlorine in the salt split apart into charged ions, and these ions attract water molecules to form weak chemical bonds.
The resulting compound has a freezing point of -21.1 degrees Celsius (-5.98 degrees Fahrenheit). This is 21.1 degrees colder than ice (37.98 degrees Fahrenheit colder than ice).

When people put salt on the ice on a sidewalk or a road, the ice mixes with the salt, and the mixture of the two solids (ice and salt) produces a liquid, but the sidewalk actually gets colder than it was before.

If we add a different chemical to the ice, such as calcium chloride, we can get an even lower temperature (-29 degrees Celsius, or -20 degrees Fahrenheit).
"

The final Baileys Ice Cream!!!

Yep this is not our typical 1 solid piece of ice but the creamy frozen texture.

The verdict?

Let me just SAY.........................................,

We are on the road to getting customised home made ice cream for Christmas *victory grinz* this year!!!!

Fantastic Prawnatic Experience!

2010-06-29T07:12:00.000-07:00

I was getting a little blue on Sunday and knight woodblock tried to cheer me up by bringing me on a little tiny adventure trip so that I will release all the bottled up silly frustrations in me and yet not too tire out from any long journeys.

He really hit the jackpot and Princess Christine found herself getting very excited esp when I stepped foot into the prawning site at Bishan which was just a few bus stops away from home.

There were loOOOOOts of pple at the prawning site when we arrived. Being the thrifty wife, I told woodblock that we will look and admire pple catching prawns so we need not waste money spending crazy dollars and numerous hours just catching 2-3 prawns or worse even none. Plus I was very sure that with so MANY pple, the chances of catching any prawn is like going to be minimal.

BOY I WAS SO WRONG!

However, just into like 10 minutes of observation, we realise that the frequency of catching a prawn was like pretty high and we couldnt resist the temptation to try it out for ourselves in the end. Again being the kind of cautious pple, we try not to let this temptation overrun our head and decide to rent the prawning rod for 1 hour.

The rate goes:
1 hour/$15
2 hour/$25
3 hour/$30

knight woodblock was wondering where the hook was...
The bait is provided free... but i m thinking of preparing my own one for the next trip.
Woodblock still finding the hook...... ??!?!?!?!?
Thank goodness in the end the lady boss was so nice to come and teach us how to use the rod and she even went to the extent to demostrate for us on catching the prawn even though we did not asked her.
She showed us that when we cast the line, we need to ensure the float is upright and floating. This allows us to know that when the prawns are "hooked up" with our line if the float sinks into the water.

Woodblock felt contented to finally cast the prawning line.
We started to wait......
It felt good leaning on his shoulder while waiting. I realise we havent been really spending such quality "quiet" time together in a long while. It felt like going back to the courtship days again!

Yay woodblock's 1st catch of the day!!!
We were pretty panicking on how to "unhooked" the prawn and then put it away in the prawn net which comes with the rod for the rental.

Soon within moments I caught my 1st catch too!!!
We realise why everyone seemed so joyful at the prawning side!!! The vendors try to maintain and keep everyone happy by replenishing the prawns once in a while to make it easier for the "fishermen" to catch!!
The excitement grew as our catch grows in number.
In the end we caught 9 prawns in 2 hours. Yes we were enjoying ourselves so much that we extended the rental to 3 hours on impulse BUT due to the late hours we decided to call it a day after 2 hours.... and WE WERE SO HAPPY to find out that we are allowed to use our last hour on another day!!!!

YIPPEE I always like flexible arrangements etc!

After calling off for the day, we went to the counter to get satay sticks and a small packet of salt to start bbqing our precious treasures.....

Oh Yah, GUESS WHAT????
I
I caught a HUGE prawn!!! I am so PROUD OF MY TALENT!!! Not only I am a talented housewife, I am also a talented prawnshermen!!

It wasnt easy for us to pierce the satay sticks through our life catch. Kind of cruel but we were REALLY HUNGRY!!!
The AROMA of bbqing prawns season with a pinch of salt is SIMPLY HEAVENLY.................... *I still drool upon the thought of it now*
Woodblock was very thoughtful and wanted to bbq the prawns for me as he felt that it was very hot and didnt want me to hurt my hand.
But as a KAYPO I cant resist poking my hands around the bbq grill.
WAhhhhhh almost done. I can see the golden shimmery armour! (when you are hungry, you will also hallucinate like me too)

During the slow bbq, I cant helped but notice that it feels really blissful to do something with woodblock even without any exchange of words. You just simply enjoy the peace together feeling each other's presence and love.
Ermm we couldnt resist ordering satays...

and chicken wings too. THUMBS up to both items!

Not to forget the male and female lead roles....... drum rolllzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
The Prawns in the Golden Armour!

After the superlicious yummy dinner, we went for walk and realise there was a restaurant and a fish spa too at this prawning site.

I think guys will really enjoy this place where you can catch the soccer fever while indulging in a seafood dinner esp a happy and victorious prawning experience!!!

I am already looking forward to my next Fantastic Prawnatic Adventure Trip!

Yummy Slim Steamy Treats

2010-06-25T00:14:00.000-07:00

As I have been piling up on pounds recently, I decided to try to whip up something light. I came upon this cookbook sold at the NTUC with many yummy recipes for steaming.

so i pick out 2 randomly and gave it a try....
The orginal pics:

The king oyster mushroom looks like this orginally

It is really difficult for me to try slicing out the criss cross designs with all the blunt kitchen knives in the house on the king oyster mushrooms. I think I will probably invest in a sharp and proper knife some day when i have my very own kitchen or something.

My version with slight improvisation.

Asparagus Fish Rolls
There was too many spring onions left and I decided to use it to secure the fish and the asparagus roll and at the same time allows the fish to soak up some aroma from the spring onion.

Steamed King Oyster Mushrooms => woodblock actually thought it was real squid. This king oyster mushroom on its own actually taste kind of bitter in the raw stage(ewww) when i first steam it (hey dont look at me this way. I am definitely not the kind of person who will sneak a bite due to gluttony =P . It is a VERY NOBLE ACT for housewife to taste the food during the cooking process on the behalf of the family. Sigh such sacrifice is really hard to come by these days and so am I, the wonderful wife). However, I must say that the texture of the mushroom was really really chewy like my fav seafood, squid and abalone. There, I realise the importance of the proper processing and addition of appropriate sauce to complement the flaw of this ingredient.

This first attempt was pretty successful and it was thrilling to hear all the compliments from woodblock especially the sauce for the king oyster mushroom.

WOOOHOOO! I am such a talented housewife and cook!!!

I probably be trying out more recipes in the book!

Life with a Pinch of Salt

2010-06-22T18:54:00.000-07:00

These days, it can be a little boring during meal times and I realise we have always been frequenting the same restaurants every other day... OH GOSH!

Therefore, I been trying to locate the more interesting areas to dine out at but of course like you know me, save up on the $$$ especially if I ever get a HDB in future.

Last Friday, I bought woodblock down to this restaurant which I came across Ah li's webby. It is call "With a pinch of Salt". Now if you have been watching the 7 pm drama serial, this restaurant will appear familiar to you......

Nice pastel colours awaits you while you stepped into the restuarant. The girl on the wall is the mascot for this restaurant and if you carefully check out the walls, you will find many frames pic of her in different outfits and in front of different place of interest like paris etc

This really inspire me that perhaps one of the rooms i have in future one day, I can also do up similar wall concepts for the baby room?

The menu.

The only section that I probably dislike will be the open kitchen as I felt that it did not fall into the design theme somehow and they could also use a much gentler colour chairs too. Else despite so much effort, it makes us feel like it's prolly just another Miss Clarity cafe!

Well I think the special of the day is pretty impossible.

The water in the restaurant is self served. If I didnt remember wrongly, it seemed that there is no customer service being charged.

The tables in "With a pinch of salt" were customised in stripes and cartoons can be found on every dining table.

This is so suitable for a valentine's day dinner! Totally sweet and kawaii!
There's a piano in the restaurant but no one playing it so i wonder what was it for? For the customers to play music on their own for special occasions???

There were so many interesting details in the restaurant and it really felt dreamy just even dazing out the window... why?

There were many cute prints on the glass window!!! Totally luv it! It felt like winter all of a sudden. For couples, I suggest you might want to reserve the tables earlier for the window seats! It's FABULOUS.

I ordered the mango and peach tea which I must say was pretty good. Cost about $2.90.

Finally our mains!

Squid ink seafood risotto! - $12.90.
Love the colour and contrast!

Pan seared dory - $8.90
=> one of the most delicious dish on the menu as Ah li and her friends had tried out a lot of the dishes on the menu and it seems that this turns out to be the best among their many orders.

However, woodblock and me felt that woodblock's risotto was still much more delicious somehow despite not as attractive. Perhaps of the addition of wine?

IN conclusion, the cost of the dining were very affordable and cost us about $23.70.

Since we were at Katong area, we thought why not pop into my fav ATAS cheesecake cafe at siglap road. So here we go....

Unfortunately, I forgotten that NO PHOTOGRAPHY of the cafe is allowed.
So here is just one quuuuuuuuuuick snapshot. The furnishing of the restaurant is very pretty and of a very rich and luxurious grand victorian style. The main colour scheme here is mainly dark maroon, ebony brown and gold and makes you feel like you are dining in a musuem in France as there were countless of oil paintings on the wall. There is even a fountain right in the middle of the restaurant making it even more gorgeous!
I wonder why they were so particular about the snap-shots, http://www.thecheesecakecafe.sg/ even the webby doesnt have a single pic of it!!

As I mentioned this is an ATAS cheesecake restaurant, therefore for every diner, you need to at least order an item.

My strawberry oreo cheesecake - $6.90

Woodblock's Jamaican rum and raisin cheesecake - $7.20

However, I found the rum and raisin cheesecake better, so woodblock was kind enough to switch it with me *to be honest guys dont have much a choice esp when you are married*

Damage of a near $16.50 bucks!

I must say it's a sweet day for me though!

Happy-Li Bdae!

2010-06-22T06:13:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Ah Li, finally you are here to join the 20s club and adulthood to working life.

Life is never easy and we thought as the elder siblings, we OUGHT to induct you to the cruel world *EVIL GRINZ*

For your birthday ~~torture~~ surprise, we have prepare a fabulous $$$$ of up to $100 BUCKS *KACHING* !!!! WAH SEH, SIAO BO?!?!?!

And yes of cos it is in SINGAPORE DOLLARS.

However, we are not we are not sure whether you have read the fine prints. Its says "up to" and therefore you will need to earn your treasure.

Around the house, there are a total number of TEN GOLDEN ANG PAOS being hidden! You will be given a series of photos in the following and the total time given for you to finish finding all the treasure is " A CANDLE'S TIME" (suggested by your genius Ah KOR so dont blame me).

Of cos we are not so cruel, when you are REALLLLLLLLYYYYYYYYYYYYY SUPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPER STUCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCK, we have the

Bdae KAWAII ANGEL's HELPline

However, you are only allowed to use this helpline ONLY ONCE as the angel is busy watching TV to update her TV drama knowledge and does not work OT.

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IF you are ready get set GO

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Location 1:

Ans Reveal: Painting opposite main entrance door
Location 2:

Ans Reveal: Ah-li's shoe
Location 3:

Ans Reveal: Milo container in the kitchen cabinet
Location 4:

Ans Reveal: Kitchen Oven
Location 5:

Ans Reveal (hardest location according to Ah li): Washing Machine
Location 6:

Ans Reveal: Mahjong table
Location 7:

Ans Reveal: Shi Yun's mattress
Location 8:

Ans Reveal: Ah li's Poster in the room
Location 9:

Ans Reveal(mobile station): Shiyun's Shorts
Location 10.

Ans Reveal: 1 of the VCD casing in the VCDs rack.

GOOD LUCK!!!!

With Love,
Your BOLIAO elder siblings!

Bdae Celeb update of Ah Li:

Her grapefruit cake from Breadtalk.

Love the soothing pastel yam colour.

Ah li was laughing becos all of us were like watching TV(behind her) and we sang like only a line from the all-ready very short bdae song (of cos we were just teasing her only).

After the cake feast, here's Ah li starting her adventure quest for her golden ang pows!

Ah-li: What the heck is this? A bdae e-card??

Ah li the slow reader who is still posing while reading and have no idea about her upcoming quest yet.

Ah li: OH SHIT ................. what is thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiissssssssssssss!!!!!!!!

There she go scrambling like nuts around the house. I wasnt able to capture any clear pics becos she was like way too fast.

She is like totally dismantling Shiyun's bed.

OMG the hiding place is actually a mobile short?

Mahjong table?

Milo container?

Where is the timer? Radio?
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RESULTS:

Ah Li: I am a Powzilla *chomp*. Let me use my teeth to authenticate whether if it is the real GOLDEN POW!

Ah Li: Yes, it is authentic ones!!!

A very happy bdae and RICH girl now!

Amazing Race and Universal Studio

2010-06-18T19:14:00.000-07:00

Last, last Saturday was really fun and it's been ages I had any fun joining orientation like games like back in the old uni days. It was wonderful that my sis in law's company had organise this amazing race for their family day and the morning started chirpy with all the young members of the family marching off together from home all the way to Sentosa!

I was pretty amused that when we arrived, the YOG mascots were already there waiting to welcome us.

Members of team 9 - Shiyun, Min Yu, Shili, Woodblock and Christine

The early morning wee hours make us still very fresh and excited!

It is consider a fierce competition with like 50 teams!!!!

Other members in our group. A sweet bubbly family!

All the team leaders were suppose to run up to snatch the envelopes for the first clue for individual teams. Sad to say that as we did not arrive early enough, we did not get the privilege of a "FAST FORWARD" which the first 12 teams do. So we have to complete like 5 stations while the fast forward team have only 2 stations.

Shiyun, our team 9 leader is right smack in the middle.

Ready, get set, chiiiiiiiiiiiiionnnnnnnnng AR!!!

A confusing mass of envelopes lying on the table.

First stop, SILOSO beach. It was kinda crazy that we run like mad from 1 beach to another. I didnt expect the kids were so excited and kept running, so in the end the whole team 9 run like crazy.

OPs i forgot to mention that since there were too many pple in the team, I decided to become the photographer and help take some pics as keepsake.

The meimei was very cute and dig pretty gently on the ground for the ping pong balls.

As the station ICs understand it could be pretty difficult, they decided to allow the jie jie to go down and start digging too.

Next up was a rush to the butterfly farm and followed by a nice luge ride

Here we go!

I am so glad I brought my sunglasses along!

Helmets all checked!

It was the kids first ride attempt so it was really thrilling for them!

I was the third to finish the luge ride so I only manage to capture some of the team members while they pull into the finishing line.

Winnie, another member of our amazing race. She was on her own with us the whole morning and I am so glad she felt comfortable with us as i always dislike pple being left out of the fun.

Our team leader shiyun touching the finishing line too.

Next on the list, Universal Studio entrance. We were suppose to take a group photo with the globe!

I wonder what's the purpose of the LUGE chop when we are only allow to ride once =(

The "Hui" family! Ops counting the number of fingers we have, it doesnt really tally with our team number........

OK TAKE 2 - Smile, Team NINE!

The finale pic!
Soon we ran alllllllllllll the way back but sad to say we came in only 5th. The prizes was only given up to the 3rd position. But still, without the fast forward, I thought we were really WELL DONE!

Thank goodness there were some balloon sculpturing and caricarture booth to keep us entertained!

My bouquet of balloon flowers!

I must say this guy is good!

He can actually draw with both hands!!!! Freakingly cool to the bits.

Can you guess who is this?

The artist loves Ah li's features so much that after drawing, he suddenly stood up and asked me to take a pic of him and Ah li together with the drawing.

Ah li's cartoon

Woodblock and me.

TADA, the "Hui" Family AKA Team 9

Soon after prize preseantion, we proceeded down to USS for our lunch. Boy I can tell you after much running the whole morning, we WERE AS HUNGRY AS AN OGRE!

The street totall felt something similar to that of Hongkong disneyland! I wish we have a few more streets like this on mainland Singapore.

Guess what I spotted?

A vintage popcorn van! So adorable!

Shiyun who had been to USS, was leading the way like a tour guide.

So here's sharing the secret with you, if you have been to USS, here's Louis Pizza which have a raving review from the "Hui" family.

It felt SHIOK stepping into a strong air conditioned restaurant. The interior deco was pretty simple and you probably will be drawn to the burgers place to dine instead BUT there is something that really have drawn us in.

Hungry Ah li with a grouchy face.

The boys queuing for the food.

Louis chicken wings - Totally delicious! I think it is a MUST TRY item!

This salad came with the family set meal we ordered. Quite normal in taste.
OH wait here comes the attraction of the restaurant
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What the hell is that?!?!?!?! UFO?

Our gigantic pizza!!! OMG compare that with the large plate of chicken wings. It mades it felt like mini drumlets already =)

It is so oversize that even a slice of it is bigger than my LARGE plate.

BEST LUNCH ever this holiday!

Betty booper was just outside the restaurant!

We soon went to catch the 4 D Shrek show!

I kept thinking that I have already arrived at the show area as even the "introduction" room (a stopover for the crew to induct us with the stories and giving us instructions on the DOs and DONTs) was already very well furnished!

See the "introduction" room was even comes with a screen for a short story screening before we enter the 4D theatre.

Next we went down to the Hook's Knight Club to watch Donkey singing.

Same thing this is only the "introduction" room with the host inducting us with some stories etc.

The donkey show is more of an interactive media between the audience and the digital donkey on screen. Woodblock and me have seen similar concept like in Hongkong Disneyland which was under the Lilo and Stitch Theme. Theirs was definitely more interectly fun and entertaining and our donkey fella here pales in comparison.

Much later on, woodblock and the rest decided it as time to take on some thrill rides. As I have a very faint heart, I will usually stand outside waiting for them. This mummy ride is probably the second scariest ride at USS. When Ah li came out, she told me it was really dizzy. I even overheard other visitors that they feel like puking. For woodblock, he gave the ride a thumbs up with the popping up of mummies and fire effects inside the pyramid!!

The boobs of the mummy princess were really distracting me all the time lol.

I like this Shop's name! Anyway care for some FROZEN FUEL?

There were many cars to pose with along the streets of USS.

The supposedly scariest ride is still not open yet. I wonder why USS was open when many of the rides etc was not open yet. Kind of felt that they are cheating tourist's money!

I decided to join the last ride of the day - the Jurassic Park ride.

WE WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAITED for like 1.5 hours!!!!!

All the grumpy faces started emerging from the pple in the queue.

Poor control man needs to look at 7 CCTV at one go.

The ride allows 9 pax at one go.

Thank goodness raincoats were provided to prevent ourselves from getting wet.

Hmm it is not a wise idea to go to the loo at the Mummies place.

Which is which?
Unkucky or hilarious it may seem, after everyone decided which is which, we change our decision last minute because a stupid butch was standing right at the entrance of the female toilet. I want to say butch and sissy should be banned from standing at the entrance for these toilets.

After all the rides and walk, it was a good time to laze around at the new york street. Shiyun and minyu went on for other rides at the jurassic park.

There, hop hop dancers were performing and I must say they were REALLY good at strutting all their stuff.

The Steven's Spielberg's 'Lights! Camera! Action!

This is a new special effects show taking place in a stunning hurricane-over-New York setting: the water-, fire- and destruction-effects.

Everything was peaceful before the storm.

OMG the storm is attacking us! Where's our window?

It felt like Ah li was going to be run down by the ship.
After the show, woodblock left us to check into the hotel which he has meant to book it to surprise me.

So Ah li and me were left to wander around the streets on our own. BUT we spotted a funny hat house and we soon have our own funny hat moments!

Here's the end of our USS adventure =) A tiring but fun filled day!

Crime Scene Investigations with Princess Christine

2010-06-16T04:25:00.000-07:00

It was an exciting Friday that I managed to sign up and got enrolled in Forensic Sci course (as part of enrichment for my job) at Science Centre. As a CSI fan, it was like a dream come true to finally gets some hands-on experience rather then to sit around watching the show on tv alone.

Other then me, I have got my buddy, huiping and her bf, Mr Tan attending this CSI course!

Once we entered the laboratory, we found many packets of evidence that awaits us on the our table! It felt cool but I find it inappropriate for them to be playing some X-files music in the background for the ambience (HELLO, you should be playing CSI music. THIS is Science NOT fiction=> $$^$%^$%^$% from the CSI fan!)

After some short introduction, we were being brought out of the lab to see the crime scene with a fake "corpse" lying on the floor for the story plot. There when we were back at the laboratory, we are all ready to start our very first Crime scence investigation work by processing the items collected from the scene.
The chirpy ladies were all and ready to process our crime scene items!!!

First stop, we were asked to identify which item has traces of blood on it with the Kastle-Meyer test.
Huiping adding the ethanol to the test sample. After adding the Kastle Meyer solution and hydrogen peroxide solution.....
OMG, there's traces of blood on the pen foudn at the crime scene!

Next up, we are suppose to do DNA fingerprinting. However, due to limitations of the chemicals, we were given some other replacement "samples" instead.
So here I am extracting the "DNA sample" to be inserted into the wells in agarose gel (some jelly like substance).

As the gel is being covered with a layer of TBE buffer solution. It makes it very challenging to insert the "DNA sample" into the wells. The top well was being filled by Mr Tan (our guinea pig), followed by Huiping and the bottom 2 was done by me.
After running the electricity through, similar to chromatography, the different components in the "DNA sample" was clearly shown. This process is known as Gel Electrophoresis.

We were thrilled by our first gel electrophoresis that we started posing with it!
Sigh our failed chromatography of the ink sample found from a cheque found at the crime scene. I guess it was my fault to add too little ink. Mr Tan's ink sample spread out very nicely!
Shoe print of the suspect.
The cheque found at the scene was tobe process for fingerprints (which are not visible) with iodine fuming.

We inserted the cheque into glass bottle and added a tiny iodine crystal in.
After placing it into a warm bath, the iodine crystal will sublime.....

rendering the prints visible!!! Exciting isnt it?

We also tried to extract fingerprints by dusting!
After adding of powder, we will use a blower to remove excess powder.
This reveals the fingerprint!

Then we will extract it with some tape and paster it over a dark surface to make the print even more visible.

The print can then be used for comparison with the prints pic from our suspect which was provided to us.

I love this pic! I totally look like a real CSI!!! So shuai and cool!

Finally for the gross part. We also have to examine the maggots from dead body =(
The maggots was pre-prepared some time ago and it is pretty stinky =(

Let me see our maggot is about 10 mm which makes the body dead for about 2.5 days.

Mr Tan playing with the maggot. Ewww!
The different stages of maggot.

I totally wanna puke when I see this super size maggot.....

I wonder which genius put all the leftover noodles in the cup (which was suppose to be our tea break some moments ago).

Anyway thumbs up to the CSI course!!! I cant wait for the CSI exhibition in year end!!!

Dos and Don'ts for engaging a Trishaw

2010-06-11T08:18:00.001-07:00

Dear btbs,

Good news despite my phone was damaged some time ago with all the contacts being lost inside, I realise today that woodblock actually has a copy of the contact of the Trishaw. So please so refer to the right navigation bar under vendors for the Trishaw's uncle contact.

Just a piece of advice, do engage a trishaw uncle with these in mind:

1) Location of your wedding.
If your wedding is further away from clarke quay area, you might find yourself getting a more expensive quotation. Hence it is good to engage trishaws which are located nearer to your wedding venue. Therefore you might also want to go down personally to check out the rates provided by the trishaw uncles in Chinatown too if necessary. Calling in through contacts found online (those middlemen) will cost you way much more and is totally not worth it.

2) The default theme of the Trishaw.
Trishaws are usually catered for tourism and many trishaw riders may start to accessorize their trishaws with little gadgets and LEDs to give their rides that extra boost for attraction. If you are going for a vintage theme, SUCH AN "APPEALING" RIDE will be a super big heart attack on the spot especially for the bride (unless the bride is going for those ah beng and ah lian theme). This reinforce my first recommendation of going down to see the trishaw(vehicle not uncle) personally first before engaging the trishaw uncle.

3) The decoration for Trishaw
Save cost and just get those red ribbon(personally i think organza ones are nicer) you can get at the customary wedding store or Far East flora (i saw those on sale over there too surprisingly)=> cheap and a quick fix to trishaw. At such a cheap rental rate, i dont think it is wise to get the uncle to decorate for you. Make things simple for the simple folk you are engaging =) Dont frighten them off.

3) The Dresscode of the Trishaw Uncle
If you feel that there is a certain dress code which you prefer the trishaw uncle to be dressed in => do specify in advance (in case they are unable to meet your expectations, you can still have time to come up with a contingency plan). But my suggestion here is still the same => make things simple for the simple folk. Just get another of the bridesgroom to ride in instead! I am sure it is more memorable for the 2 of you too =) A short distance wont kill your bridesgroom. I am very sure he will be honoured to be the chaffeur for your march in or otherwise he wont be your bridesgroom in the first place right?

Hope the above information helps =)

Chiiiiiiiiiiiiioooong Ar!

2010-06-11T08:04:00.000-07:00

Today had been quite a great day with great fun spent with huiping and her beau at Science Centre whereby we attended some forensic science course (I am a total CSI fan!!!!). Unfortunately I forgot to bring my camera along. So i guess I will wait for huiping to upload my 1st CSI hands on experience pics soon!

AND......

Yay I am so freakingly excited tonight! Tmr is shiyun(my sis in law)'s family day and we are invited to Sentosa for amazing race! It's been ages since my uni days that I be playing with so much young adrenaline activities! What's MORE, we have gotten subsidise tickets(from sis in law's company) for Universal studio and it's going to be great hanging out with my siblings and hubby together!

CHIONG AR!

p.S. : Good news for all CSI fans, the Sci centre will be holding a CSI Las Vegas exhibition at the end of this year. I am so gonna get my butt down there!!!

Another BTO let down

2010-06-09T23:34:00.000-07:00

Now I am seriously kinda getting fed up with HDB. If you have asked around probably you will realise that many pple are only getting their BTOs from HDB only like in their 5th or 6th tries or even more. For couple like us who are hitting the $8 k ceiling, we are feeling the heat and it makes things worse that relatives around us thought we are laid back in our quest for a house.

I wonder why our queue number is getting worse with each trial while some of my friends who arent even married yet got their HDB in the 1st or 2nd tries. I really hope I be getting my flat in the next bid for punggol waterway. I am glad I have been smart enough to invest on my platform bed so that I can save space for a baby cot for future family planning.

This e-service allows you to find out the results of your sales application if you have participated in April 2010 Build-To-Order Exercise (Punggol Emerald and Punggol Waves).
April 2010 Build-To-Order Exercise (Punggol Emerald and Punggol Waves)

Sales Registration Number : 2319893B
NRIC Number: SXXXXXXXD
Estate: Punggol
Flat-Type: 4-Room
No. of Flats: 609

Your queue position is beyond 300% of the flat supply. (super pathetic) Hence, you are deemed as unsuccessful in your flat application. You will not be invited to select a flat and your flat application has been cancelled accordingly. For first-timer applicants, this unsuccessful application will be counted towards the accumulation of additional chances for their future application for a flat in non-mature estates under the BTO exercises.

HDB will be launching more BTO exercises in the coming months. The details of the locations and flats offered for sale will be publicized in the mass media at its launch. You may then submit an application if you are able to meet the prevailing eligibility conditions to buy a flat from HDB.

Please view the Frequently Asked Questions on Build-To-Order (BTO) Exercise (After Release of Ballot Results). If you have further queries, you may email us at hdbsales@hdb.gov.sg or call our Sales/Resale Customer Service Line at 1800-8663066 during office hours, Monday to Friday, 8 am to 5 pm.

Christine and Woodblock's Courtship WOO or WOES?

2010-06-09T17:23:00.000-07:00

Many were wondering what was the video that I have screened during the banquet, I actually took up a video package which includes 3 videos - MTV, Tea Ceremony, Banquet

As I have already done a memory lane photo boards for my ROM. Therefore I requested for the MTV to cover some of the important events that happened during our courtship days! From Psar malam to punggol lake, i am so glad we really went down to al the actual venues for the eventful happenings in our courtship days.

The MTV start out with me bloggin on the night before the wedding - as i downsize the video (resolution is blur so u might not be able to make out the date) and dozing off in slumber land recalling my memories of woodblock and how i felt about him. So the story unfolds mainly from my perspective =)

I wonder if it was out of being nervous or what, but i find myself always stranded waiting outside the loos for woodblock while he kept having stomache and breaking out in perspiration.

Courtship woo or woes? I leave it for you to decide.

I guess I was really tired when i watched the mtv earlier on, but when i review it now, I actually tear and was so glad that I stepped out from my thrift zone and invested on the videos. I really want to thank Clarissa(iStyle wedding planner) for suggesting and picking the song for me as the lyrics totally portray how i felt for woodblock when he was still wooing me with his poor dating skills and moves. Alas the wonderful Linda for the nice video hue, tone and feel for the mtv video. Luv it!

For those who need a reference or comparison here's the details of the package I took:

Cost of package from iStyle Wedding : $3.3 K (cant negotiate much when we hire last minute but i guess since it is for 3 sets of video+ makeup for mtv, I dont mind spending the $$$)

1) Makeup for Music Video on 8 November
- makeup and hairdo for bride and groom
- 1 set fake eyelash- Ampule for bride
2) Videography for Music Video + Editing by Linda
- 1 day filming (morning till we're DONE hours)
- Panasonic DVX DV Camera x 1- DV tape x 1 (60mins)
- Art-direction
- Video-editing of MV (3-5mins - depending on duration of Song selected)
- DVD format
- Previews and 2 rounds of changes
- Location Shoot (up to 5 locations)
- Raw Video (unedited) provided in DVD format as well
- Transport
3) Dinner Videography + Editing by Linda- Night filming (4 hours)
- from makeup onwards- Panasonic DVX DV Camera- DV tape x1 (60mins)
- Video-editing and Raw video in DVD format
- Delivery is one week after Dinner.
- 2 rounds of changes only
4) Tea Videography + Editing by Mr Yong
- Day filming from 7am to 1pm
- Video highlight includes gate crashing + tea ceremony in DVD played during dinner (suggestion: you can play this video before your 2nd march-in)
- 1 complete edited DVD for the day shoot
- Return of original DV tape
- Over-runs are charged at $50/hr

Come Ride in to my Shanghai Photobooth

2010-06-07T17:53:00.000-07:00

Isnt it boring especially for the younger guests while they awaits for the banquet to start?

On the wedding day, thanks to woodblock, we managed to secure a super duper cheap lobang of a trishaw @ 60/hour. In total, with the advice from Snow Xuan and Mei-de-beauty, my time keepers and managers, I was advice to hire the trishaw for about 1.5 hours instead so that the additional 1 hour (1/2 hour for the walk in is way more than sufficient) can be use as a photobooth for my guests for play with for phototaking purposes.

Here's some of the snap shots we had we our guests:

We only thought about this booth idea quite last minute, I wish I have more time spent on the signboard =) But well I still love it!

Linda and Alvin. Should be hearing their wedding bells next year I heard.

Hongxian my photobooth manage tried to edit some of the shots to fit the vintage feel.

Me and my 2nd eldest brother, Raymond => he is still a swinging bachelor!

Of cos I also prepped in a little props for the ladies to play with like the oriental organza umbrella and a shanghai style fan.

Mei-de-beauty and hx

Baolai and Snow Xuan. I am so glad he came dressed in theme too!

My Aunt having her fair share of fun!

This is my fav aunt! She is almost like my own mum =)

Not to forget my eldest brother and sis in law (i always thought she looks like jolin tsai esp before jolin tsai went for the plastic surgery)

My wonderful and professional Emcees whom my guests all sang praises for!!

My wonderful jiemei buddy at work!

Not for forget, the sweetheart colleague too.

Yoke Wah,

My chioest ex-colleague, Yizhen. She looks mind blowing in her sexy black cheong sum.

Thanks for Pei Hoon for giving me the inspiration of a trishaw. She actually also recommended a bumboat but I felt it wasnt value for money when I called in to liasie with the bumboat companies. Definitely not at a price friendly for a DIY bride.

Qiwei, my fabulous Sunday friend!

Did I mentioned, my friends wedding bells are ringing at the end of this yr? I feel so happy for xinwei and weixuan!

The shanghai Mafia, HX .

He even brought his own smoking pipe - see how professional he is as the booth manager!

Me and my aunt.

My secondary school kakis

My wonderful wedding planners for the Shanghai night!

Me and my cousins +uncle.

I really luuuuuuv my booth a lot.

I look like a vintage shanghai bride!

Even the older folks are here to play with the booth- My matchmaker and MIL.

Not forgetting my siblings-in-law.

Presenting Sir woodblock.................

My personal Chauffeur for a LIFETIME.

Does it feel like the "Four Great Beauties"

The happy Shanghai Couple! Love my DIY composite stocking bouquet!

Here's us coming through for our first march in. Felt that my $90 was value for money for using the trishaw for 2 purposes.

Do you feel like you have just time travel to the Vintage Shanghai?
Well woodblock and me did have our magical night!

Good bye and Hello!

2010-06-05T19:17:00.001-07:00

I love photos and I simply got tired of image size limitation =(

SO oooooooo............................................

Good bye to my old template and welcome to a new template!

First Photo Selection for AD Album from Coffeestain Photography

2010-06-04T17:07:00.000-07:00

Think it might come as a surprise, but we actually sign up the most comphrehensive package we can find from Chris Lim on the AD photos. I am not sure about his rates now but back then we actually sign up at some promotional price so it cost us about ~~$2700~~ $2160 (20 % discount).

The package includes:
- for 10 hours over split days (2 days)
- 12"x12" 40 pages magazine style
- 80 highly advance edited photos

Now the woes set in when I see the number 80! There are just way too much photos for selection and thank goodness, Chris Lim made the first photo selection on our behalf instead: So here's round 1 of pic selection w/o editing etc still in a raw stage.

Budget Dinner for my Banquet dinner

2010-06-03T04:28:00.001-07:00

While btbs are fretting about the cost of their banquet, it is good to keep in mind that during the preparation period, your hubby to be will be fretting and getting frustrated with the astronomical bills building up and to be a smart wife, I will always display about how thrifty i am during those difficult times. Here's my sharing for the ladies who have no time to cook several hours on a Friday evening esp after work.

The best solution? =>KOREAN CUISINE!!! As we know that a korean meal usually consist of many cold side dishes, it allows us to exploit one additional day for cooking!

PRESENTING:

Princess Christine and Sir Woodblock's

Sa ran hae yo Dinner Menu

- Ginseng Chicken Soup
- Chicken Bulgogi
- Black Sesame Spinach Side Dish (this is adopted actually from a Japanese Restaurant)
- Soya Bean Sprout Side Dish

(Bear in mind this is just a dinner for 2 not a family so it is not recommended to add in too many dishes)

I will usually get the China spinach type but do keep in mind that you can be adventurous and try out the different types of spinach too. I have so far tried the Malaysia and Singapore ones but since the Japanese restaurant that I have dine at in Somerset 313 uses this particular type of spinach so I also choose to use it too.

Cut, rinse and wash the spinach well. Do pick out any rotten spinach.

Next boil a pot of hot water and cook the spinach for a minute.

During the cooking of the spinach, prepare a big bowl of ice water at the side to get ready for the cold bath.

Immerse the cooked spinach into ice water.

While the spinach is taking its nice and cool bath, open up the packet of bean sprout and wash it. I need to remind u pals that this is SOYA bean sprout not the usual green bean sprout =)

Since we are career woman cooking, there isnt much need to remove the tail of the bean sprout. I like this particular brand of soya bean sprout as you notice it doesnt have those black bean skin! Saves us lots time and effort to remove it from the stack!!!

It is a good tip to use a basket with a basin for washing the vegetables as it makes it easier to dry it.

Cooked the beansprout in the hot boiling water use for the spinach earlier on (save water lah). Leave it to cooked/boil for 30 minutes as you will need to cooked the bean part of the soya bean sprout.

Once the soya bean sprout is left cooking in the pot, use both palms to squeeze try the spinach and remove as much water as possible.

You probably end up with stacks of dry spinach like this.

Ensure that you have try to remove all moisture as you find that it is too wet you will make it difficult for the seasonings to adhere to it later and it wont taste nice.

Oh yes introducing the seasonings. I bet most of you have sesame oil and light soya sauce at home. The only additional seasoning you will need to purchase it the black sesame powder => 3 sachets for $2 plus.

Chopped garlic finely. I am quite good at mincing garlic. My hands is as good as a grinder machine!

Use your knife, scoop and add the garlic to the spinach. Please dont use a bowl or a spoon as you will end up doing more dishes. Remember you are a career woman NOT a dish washer.

Add a table spoon of soya sauce.

Add 2 tables spoon of sesame oil.

Add about 1/2-2/3 a packet of sesame powder as you deemed fit according to your sweetness tolerance. I have a sweet tooth and I will add like almost 2/3 of a packet.

Finally sprinkle sesame seeds (this bottle of sesame seeds has been pan fried before and put aside in a bottle so that whenever any dishes requires sesame seeds, it is already ready for use)

Place spinach into lunch box and put in fridge.

Now the SOYA bean sprout should be almost ready. Same thing put it through a cold bath.

Same procedure as the spinach, dry it and add in 1 tablespoon of soya suace and 2 tables spoon of sesame oil. You may add some rice wine vinegar if you happen to have it at home. For me i dont and i cant be bothered to purchase it as i dont use it often for my cooking.

Finally moving on to the bulgogi. Purchase the ready marinade.

Some chicken fillet and PLEASE remember to keep the plastic carrier bag!!

Process the chicken and remove the tendons etc and cut into smaller pieces(but not too small as it will no longer feel shiok in chewing tiny pieces of chicken)

Career woman short-cut tip: When you marinate meat, pour the marinade and put the meat into the NTUC carrier bag and mixed it well. Then tie it up and leave it in the fridge. So when you are cooking on the next day => you have 1 LESS dish to wash => YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

Put everything into the fridge and wait for Friday to come.

BUT WAIT HOW ABOUT THE KOREAN GINSENG CHICKEN?????
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OPS i forgot to mention that, it is ready cooked ones? The cost? Let me see..... in the restaurants outside, a large bowl of korean ginseng chicken like this cost about $20 plus minimally . If you purchase this from Giant, it costs about $14 (wah so cheap?!?!?!)
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But WAIT AGAIN
This is bought from NTUC and the price? $6.80 (inclusive of real 1/2 chicken inside)
I have tasted this brand many times and it taste really superb even though it doesnt contains any MSG at all. I cant believe my fav KOREAN GINSENG CHICKEN has now been slashed in price by more than half!!!! This is a rare item that woodblock and me will always be looking out for as NTUC doesnt sell this previously.

The price of the whole meal??? LESS than $20 for a full and delicious and LUXURIOUS KOREAN SET DINNER for 2. This is better then dining out isnt it?

So get your hands into the kitchen and whip up this oishhi Korean Set dinner! I am very sure your partner will feel touched by your effort to save up for the wedding (it is always good to put out some bait to hooked a bigger fish isnt it?) and it will soften any tension build up during the planning of the wedding.

3 Cheers for CAREER WOMEN!!!! woohoo!!

p.S.: I will post the final pic of the dinner soon.

A Typical Nonsensical Sunday

2010-05-17T23:25:00.000-07:00

Sundays are a great time especially woodblock and me always make a trip back to Sengkang(where i used to stay in) to visit my granny.

But the bonus deals are the company of all my visiting relatives especially when they bring along all my cute little nieces and nephews!

Therefore it is no wonder my royal kite flying club has grown in troop numbers.

My cousin Calvin is very good at kite flying! It took a very short time to get the kite up on the sky (despite it was semi damage during several previous trips when i bought my little nephew, Cheng Cheng, along. it almost drove woodblock nuts as cheng cheng and him will always be vying for the kite => hence a damage kite)

My cousin calvin also brought along his daughter, Xuan Xuan, for the trip. It was the first kite flying trip of her life and she was really happy when she sees the kite taking off into the sky.

Soon all of us got bored and decided that instead of having so many pple to fly one tiny damage kite, w can go to the 7-11 opposite the buangkok station to purchase more kites!

Cheng Cheng (my cousin, Pearlyn's kid aka my flowerboy if you can recall) has become less shy over the years towards strangers and relatives. These days, he love to play the brotherly role in front of his little sis and his cousin, Xuan Xuan.

Immediately, when they heard about the kite-shopping trip. Cheng cheng quickly went to hold xuan xuan's hand to cross the underpass. Adorable isnt it?

BUT wait did I hear the word "$HOPPING$"???
GUESS WHAT?

Xuan xuan is a true WOMAN in the making => when she heard the word shopping, she walked so much faster than Cheng Cheng and he ended up trying to pace himself up to follow her pace lol.

Woodblock trying his luck with the butterfly kite we have. Again, it is no wonder that Cheng Cheng soon join in a battle with woodblock to vy for the butterfly kite. To be honest, it is totally unavoidable because I realise that cheng cheng always ONLY chooses the kite in WOODBLOCK's hand may it be a fabulous one or a lousy one. Yes he has a strong affinity with kids without realising it. In fact, woodblock often gets tease (due to his gentle nature) by the children.

Xuan xuan was engrossed in looking at how Cheng Cheng's dad was trying to untangle the kite strings while her dad is kite flying at the back.

It wasnt really a good idea after she decided to lend a helping hand.

On the other side of the field, my aunt grace and cousin, Mike (did mentioned that I was the one who gave him the name when he was young? I am superb duper sure he cant rem and hope he doesnt ever recall because the name was to be made meaningful with his surname => Mike Neo (Mai Neow). This was suppose to mean "dont be a stinge" in hokkien. It really make me wonder how i have impact all my cousins(esp the guys cos i only have 1 younger female cousin) when we were all young as I am not a particularly constructive person and always asked them to do nonsense.

Recollection down the memory lane with my cousins:
Nonsense 1) I have this craze for princesses and I am a fan of barbie doll when I was young. Therefore whenever all my younger male cousins were back, we will all be playing barbie doll together (ok i sort of force them since they were still in the baby-kid age=> so it was easier for me to "control" their activities.

Nonsense 2) After a while, I soon got a little bored with my barbie doll and wanted "live ones" instead. There I took my male cousins (2-3 yrs old) to the hairdressing table to doll them up with floral head bands etc (i din shouldnt elaborate too much in case they come and read my blog and then konk my head. Hello they are now like 19-20 yrs old and are freakingly much bigger in size in height and width then me and my sir woodblock. I wont be that stupid to step on their tails now.

Nonsense 3) It can be tiring to always herd the rest of the crowd(all my cousins) at once being the eldest available cousin to look after them (my bros are usually out). It can be a nightmare whenever my followers mess up the whole room with playing cards trying to use it as a ninja flying dagger (ok i also started the nonsense by teaching them that but i regretted immediately when i saw the mess everyway). To redeem myself I invented series of minis games to see who can collect the most cards in the shortest time and who can rearrange the cards in numerical order the fastest too. It was a real rocket to a quick pack away.

Nonsense 4) I can still remember about how i made them lie down on the floor to pretend to be corpse once as I felt tired and sleepy. It took them quite a while to realise that the game was pretty boring

Our Guan Gong kite!! It is pretty funny with his beard fluttering in the sky.

I like this angle, both the kite flyer and the kite was in clear view.

Xuan xuan was wondering why i am snapping so many pics of her!

In order to help woodblock out, I quickly got the kids attention to play with some plastic strips (which had fell out from the damaged kite=> making it even more damaged =( )

Soon it was self entertainment. I guess they are practicising to become prisoners of war?

Cheng Cheng to Xuan Xuan: To be a succuessful prisoner of war, we must tie the blind fold tighter!
Xuan Xuan: ~Oblivious~

Cheng Cheng to Xuan Xuan: Please blind fold leh!!!
Xuan Xuan: ~????~

Cheng Cheng to Xuan Xuan: Since we are not prisoner of war pals, let us engage into a war.
Xuan Xuan: ~playing by herself~

That's the main reason why cheng cheng prefers me, woodblock and my other male cousins as playmate, because half the time, his own younger cousins refuse to listen to his instructions!

Xuan xuan giggling and trying to chase after me!

Time to head off home. It was a horror to see the 2 kids running on their own to the traffic light. In the end i still have to invent some nonsense to slow their speed.

The Tu -Tu -Train contingent! Ok I just recycle the 2 plastic strips they were playing with some time ago, but it works well for them.

After dinner, we got bored playing catching with the cheng cheng and it soon caught my attention that cheng cheng said that his little sis , Si yu, is good at clamping things!

HERE GOES THE
CLAMPING COMPETITION!!!

Cheng Cheng soon got Siyu to demostrate for us. You can see how serious she tries to pause and demostrates to let us see.

BUT ALAS I HAVE AN EVEN FORMIDABLE HIDDEN TALENT!!!!
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I can clamp slim items between my nose and mouth!! See how impressed and excited the kids were when they saw my special talent!!!

Woodblock didnt want to loose out so he gave his hand at balancing the ping pong balls.

It seems strange me and woodblock are pretty competitive in nature for petty things and I soon got work up and started to balance ping pong balls too.

Not bad bah!

Cheng Cheng insisted a solo handsome pic of his. Si Yu in the meanwhile was stilling trying to clamp things with her chin.

A finale photo! If you think that this pic was capturing a moment of action, you are WROOOOOOOOOOOng! We posted in this position for at least 30 seconds and you can see how all the kids were a little shaking here and there especially Siyu with a high difficulty posture!

I love my nephews and nieces! I wish I have a little kid of my own soon! I should be quite a fun mum to hang out with.

Our royal visit to ACM

2010-05-17T23:22:00.000-07:00

During Saturdays, woodblock and me will usually try to occupy ourselves with a little special trip here and there like some excursion days! I was almost jumping from joy when woodblock announce to bring me to the Asian Civilisation Museum (ACM). Now I had been to ACM in the past before but that was pretty much alone as woodblock never really appreciate trips to musuems like i do.

Before we drop by to ACM which opens at 5 pm, we decided to indulge ourselves in a nice hi-tea session! (after a much tiring session shopping at far east)

The first place that came into my mind was the hi-tea special set by TCC recently. So we dropped in to the TCC branch beside the Thai embassy.

Woodblock always have a grounchy OLD man facial expression when his coffee addiction sets in.

For me, I was busily trying to fixed the new clip on ribbon i bought from Far East to match my new dress from Bugis Village.

The settings of this TCC was really victorian and I cant help but admire for a long time.

I notice a deer head being hung on the wall and was so glad it is a faux one. It will be gruesome to have a genuine one here. I bet it is going to affect the appetite of the diners.

If dont believe that woodblock is a coffee addict here's the proof!!!

There once the coffee is serve, woodblock kept SNIFFING it like some sort of drug abuse =(

PROVEN GUILTY!

After the coffee sniffing nonsense, he became energetic and started reading his latest comics craze : Prince of Tennis.

I ordered my fav coffee :Juliet =) (This is actually the cold version of Perfect Match)

A romantic drink in a Victorian setting.... I wish time could freeze for a little moment there!

Princess Christine busily slurping Juliet! (sidenote: I totally adore my ribbon that I warned woodblock that my ribbon must be in full view when i am taking this pic)

The royal hi tea set! The taste was not bad and it was pretty filling for a hi tea session for the 2 of us.

Finally after a slow and lazy noon of hi tea, we started to stretch and warm up for our adventures to ACM!!!

On our way to ACM, guess what I saw? The famous vintage gate that many brides will take with as the background! Ok since I didnt have my bridal photo being taken here, I am DEFITNITELY not missing out on this chance!

Urgh cant see the ribbon anymore =(

Anyway in the end I realise that there are just so many pretty sceneries along the way that I kept forcing sir woodblock to help me snap more pics!!!

Love my Sky blue polka dot dress with full victorian lace at the top.
Sweet isnt it?
(Shopping tip: For those who are into Korean Lace dresses etc, it is much cheaper to buy it at Bugis village than at Bugis Junction or far east. I saw this dress selling at $59.90 while I bought this at $37.00. What impresses me was that the shop has a proper nets machine which they dont in the past. Therefore to save $$ means i have to walk a freakingly far distance to withdraw cash for payment.)

Outside the ACM, I notice they have huge vibrant coloured windows!

How I wish I have a vintage bag too => maybe I shall add that in my coming Friday shopping list.

What are the odds that the flowers outside ACM matches my dress too!!!
I feel like I am modeling the dress on those Gmarket website I always shop for clothes.

Ok if you are the frequent visitor of ACM, you will being pondering why did i waited for 5 pm plus to reach the musuem instead of just going in the noon???
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That's because IT IS FREE ENTRANCE from 5pm to 11pm!!!
http://www.acm.org.sg/exhibitions/eventdetail.asp?eventID=621

I cant help but notice that an art installation was being setup just outside the musuem. I later found out that this event is call :
Invitation to Dream - A Fire Garden Installation
By Compagnie Carabosse (France)

Before we stepped foot into ACM we decided to explore this Fire Garden installation before something caught our eye and we ended up beside the river!

It happens that there was a dragon boat race at that moment! You can hear cheers of excitement while the dragonboats race in close proximity with one another.

It is a werid coincidence that the boats came in in the same numerical order of their boat numbers.

Surrounded by so much river water and hi tea session, it is a no wonder that it is soon our HIGH TIDE season => meaning we were in a rush for the loo.

We headed to ACM's toilet and while waiting for woodblock, I cant helped but be amuse that the toilet labels!

Maybe when I have a home one day, I shall label my royal loo with some special pic too.

At the reception area of ACM, there was an exhibit by GOOGLES on the winning entries of the SINGAPORE GOOGLE logo compeition held some time back ago.

I am a fanatic for arty crafty design stuff, therefore I took the pics of all the winning entries as a sharing here:

I am astonish by the simple and "clean" logo drawing skill by the little boy.

The national winning entry was really an amazing beautiful piece of water paint drawing but I just feel that it should be a winning entry as it is suppose to be the url LOGO on the search engine site and this is a little complicated, messy and distracting whenever I open up the google search engine.

Did I mention that woodblock's company had a small noon excursion for their employees(yes i do think they have a wonderful wellfare) and woodblock had promise to be my tour guide for this evening!

Tour guide woodblock: LAI LAI LAI("come, come, come" in chinese), follow me ....

There was this huge picture book like story book which introduces the stories and legends of singapore. Whoever, the author is, to be honest, it is a big thumbs down =( The story was written in a slip shod and dull manner that I dont think the tourists can remember a single story once they close the book.

A miniature display of the coolies quarters.

I was pretty absorbed in this mini OFFICE table accompanied by a mini stool. I realise they belong to the money lenders in the past who wants to save $$$ on rental space. Therefore there can be many money lenders who shared 1 office space in a room, occupying only a super small fraction of the room.

We soon entered a dark room and it was quite an aesthetic idea to have the videos being screen directly on the floor.

Another huge video screen.

Can you guess whose foot print is this?
Tour guide woodblock: It's the buddha foot print!
Did the word "BIG FOOT" came across your mind instead?

Tour Guide Woodblock : The monsoon wind is important for sailing and ships will stay docked in 1 area for at least six months before the monsoon wind changes direction to bring them back to the place they came from.

Woodblock listening to some audio about a monk's life. Anyway I think the musuem should make the audio volume louder as the sound was pretty faint and it was a strain to listen to every single words in the video.

Tour guide woodblock: In the olden days in India, the richer you are, the heavy the jewelleries the ladies have and hence a pair of very elongated and droopy ears =(

Tour guide woodblock: China was the first country which invented the introduction of colour paints on ceramics. The above shows the art in its experimental stage. The parts which is not painted will be covered by a layer of wax. While the paints(i am not in what form) was actually place over areas to be coloured and place in the furnace. The high heat melts the paint and causes it to fuse with the ceramic. Therefore, you can see lots of traces of dripping paint on the statue.

After many years of refining and improvement ......

ALAS the fine piece of gorgeous classic painting technique was born!

Tour Guide Woodblock: In the olden days, people in China, will paint fans and write a short poet as a gift to their friends. After receiving the fan, the friend may at times add on more details onto the painting on the fan and write down another related poet to the new addition in the painting. This explains the many different chinese name chops that you see on the above fans representing the many artists/owner at one point or another of the fan.

I seriously thought that this is such a cool and interesting idea. It will be fun reading the poems and guessing which part of the painting belongs to who.

The ACM was actually planning a more interactive theme to attract the crowd this time as there were many installations specially for the tourists to take photos.

There was even several turbans meant specially for the phototaking. Do i look like ~~Ali~~ Christine BABA?

It felt like an Indian wedding! Love it! I wish I can get marry again. I must thank the security guard who helped us take a photo.

Tour Guide Woodblock:
Now the Islam (if I am not wong) has this rule that forbids drawing of animate beings. Therefore, some artists which tries to find a way out, decided to use words and characters to do the trick (indirect drawing of animals).
http://www.islam-qa.com/en/ref/39806/drawing%20pictures

After a loooooooooooooong walk and comphrehensive guided tour by tour guide woodblock, it is HAPPY to say that we can receive FREE ICE CREAM AND COKE on the house from ACM!!!!! Talk about a cheap date lobang!

While indulging in the ice cream, the green pasture in front of ACM was converted into a Fire Garden with a wonderful musician who was playing a flute like instrument. It is difficult to describe how the music was like but it felt like being in the storybook of :"One Thousand and One Nights ", simply mystical and dreamy tune.

There was interesting sperical cages of burning charcoals, ablaze in flames.

Even the bridge was so romantically litted up! I wish my tummy wasnt growling in hunger then (meaning we were rushing to somehwere else for dinner)and I could have brought a nice picnic mat along to enjoy the mystical night outside ACM.....

I am the Little Hokkien Princess Christine!

2010-05-17T22:41:00.001-07:00

Now as a working wife, I really hardly have much of a time to cook for Sir woodblock. Therefore for the past few Friday noon, I been trying to rush off quickly from work to hide in my kitchen whipping out side nice dishes for Sir woodblock (this also helps to save a lot of $$$ for us).

For the past weeks, i have been into cooking korean dishes and i soon got bored of it and decided that I will cook up something else => Yam rice and Ba Ku Teh plus Fried portobello mushroom.

Of cos by the time i got back home from work, there isnt much time to spare so i turn to some "external" help. But this Yamie Yam rice is really not bad! Well at least woodblock had sang praises for it during dinner time=)

Something you dont know about woodblock 1:
Now the nickname for woodblock is really no exaggeration well at least to pple who knows him. If you ever asked him for any review/opinion for food.....

Scenario 1: If the food is not nice or yucky....
Woodblock says: Not nice but I will still eat.
Scenario 2: If the food is so so, neither here nor there or with nothing special in particular....
Woodblock says: The food can still be eaten.
Scenario 3: If the food is fabulous and wonderful....
Woodblock says: The food is not bad.

Princess Christine: NOT BAD ONLY?!?
The best thing about woodblock is that his answer is universal for all sorts of items eg. clothes, furnishing etc even the opinion of his wife =(

I almost gone NUTS when I heard his famous "NOT BAD" opinion about his crazily wonderful, adorable and OUT OF this world WIFE(in the good sense of course)!

Ok let's not digress from my cooking journey....

My favourite brand of Ba Ku Teh but not many pple like this due to its spiciness. For me I have been drinking the Ba Ku Teh from this Pearl brand since I was young so it taste nostalgic to me =)

Not to forget the 8 cloves of garlic to make the soup even more aromatic.

While snapping evidence of me being the wonderful wife (through the pics of the food preparation), I realise I miss out one important thing which is the essence of the whole cooking journey to show to Sir woodblock
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Hello!!!!! I am not a little penarakan!

I am the Little Hokkien Princess =)

The orginal pic =)

Harris Resort Getaway

2010-05-10T20:09:00.000-07:00

Hi dears,
Sorry for the recent blank of posts. I've been meaning to blog about the honeymoon trip but its really a long process and there are just too many photos. Instead, this is a followup post on Princess Christine's previous Honeymoon trip at Harris Resort Batam.

Its the perfect short getaway cos

its only an hour's ferry ride away
they transact in SGD so you dun have to worry about changing money
they hold quite a lot of activities within the resort, so that you don't really have to travel out
the staff and GM are really on the ground all the time, making sure that all guests have a really good time over there

We decided to go with the Honeymoon package, think its the same one that Christine took.

- 2 Days 1 Night accommodation including breakfast for 2 people
- Free land transfer from/to Waterfront City ferry terminal,
- Free CANDLE LIGHT dinner for 2 people,
- Free 2 hour Indonesian Massage at H Spa (1 hour 30 minutes Indonesian Massage and 30 Minutes Herbal/Milk bath) for 2 people
- Free WI-FI internet access within hotel area
- Inclusive of 21% government tax and service charge
- 1 free bowling session
- 1 free trip to Nagoya Hills Shopping District
- Complimentary welcome box of chocolates and fruits

However, we paid for the upgrade to Carbana Rooms which were really great.
Usually Harris will give a free upgrade for couples, however it was the easter wkend and we really wanted to secure the carbana room so we paid an additional SGD 50. We also extended one night at another 80 plus or so.

The Carbana Room was really worth the upgrade!
They were stand-alones, sort of like semi-detached chalets along the beach. There was abit of a mosquito issue, but Harris has white mesh veils installed over the bed which actually made the the whole place looked more romantic. =)

Cute orange feetcutouts slippers for use by Harris.

follow the trail to the open concept bathroom~

Just right outside the Carbana Room is our own sort-of balcony. With a day bed right at the edge, with a beach view.

After chucking in the luggage, we headed straight for H Spa! (I'm very much a spa-junkie heh)

We didn't manage to get many photos, but here are some gathered from the internet to show everyone how it is like.

H Spa at the top of the stairs. No lifts unfortunately.

Separate Rooms for spas at rooftop!

Inside each room are 2 massage tables, a shower area, and of course the bath.

After the refreshing massage, we dropped by the Korean Restaurant for a light meal.

After that, we went on to check out the whole resort.

The new Harris Funky Wing.

The pooldeck was all wooden and there were so many poolside rattan tables and chairs for the guests to rest on, while soaking in the sun.

M tapping onto the Hotel's Wifi to check his emails.

While i just lazed around thinking of what to eat later.

His legs.

Mine.

Our bands!
The whole black rattan concept was really really nice. I just had to take more photos!

M, not before long.

A totally applicable shirt. "Coma" with an upside down puma logo. HAH.

Not before long, it was dinner time.
We had a choice of our package candlelight dinner, or to have the Easter BBQ Feast.
It was a clear choice of BBQ seafood!

All the glorious food with liveband performance~
Since it was Easter, the hotel specially made arrangements for a local orphanage to come by to perform. All of the kids there lost their parents and family during the horrible Tsunami in Aceh. The hotel even arranged for a donation box to be set up at the hotel lobby for all guests to drop any amount of donations that will help see these kids through their daily expenses and hopefully provide education for some of them.

The kids sang a total of 3 songs, their voices so pure and touching that even God must have been touched by them. He sent a small drizzle, just minutes after their last song. =)

The light drizzle did not dampen the Harris spirit, which saw the whole staff, from the GM to the security guard at the gate coming in to help shift the whole dinner setup indoors, under the Funky Wing.
Their team spirit was indeed impressive.
Not only that, they even had the whole team dance and sing to songs while the dinner progressed. The GM was also seen bouncing along to the beat in the crowd.
The whole feeling was really gd!
The whole night ended off with HUGE fireworks as the drizzle died down, to celebrate the Easter weekend!

It was such an enjoyable dinner, that left a huge impression on M and I. We were enjoying ourselves so much that we stayed till the end, until the liveband finished their last song.

We were in such a happy mood still, so we headed to the H lounge, where we found a live singer that was there till after midnight!

We ordered a couple of drinks, and just lounged around to the melodious voice of the female singer as she belted out familiar english romantic tunes.

We finally returned to our Room and watched HBO till we fell aslp.

The second day, we went off for breakfast at the H restaurant and then took a bus ride provided by the package to the Nagoya Shopping District. It turned out to be a rainy day, so it was perfect for spending time indoors in the shopping centre.

Not much photos here as we didn't spend much time shopping. Instead, we walked around just window shopping and ended up in another massage place just right behind the A&W.

After that we went on for food at BFC, Best Fried Chicken which was just right opposite KFC.

It was a wet day so we had to cancel our poolplans back in Harris.

Instead, we headed to the bowling alley.

After that, we went back to the lounge and ordered some drinks and pizza while the live singer performed.

The pizza was really gd! Even though a bit heavily prized, but we felt that it was worth every cent.

Half rainbow and half pepperoni.
The rainbow pizza is really interesting. It has orange and and some other fruit in it, tasted really refreshing with the mayo topping.
Pepperoni was gd as usual. with egg and cheese. yummy.

M is of course, nth short to being satisfied.

After the whole lounging, we ended up back in the bowling alley. But this time round to play pool!
It was a good experience trashing M, wahhaah.
No lah, he taught me all the tricks and techniques.

So off we went back to bed, happy and satisfied.

The last day was a sunny day again.
We headed down to the pool after breakfast, just to thaw ourselves after the rainy day.

After that, we couldn't resist but ordered for room service.

Food was yummy, never fail to disappoint us.

After that, we just spent some time at the pool table again. Before tking the transport back to the ferry terminal and heading back to Sillypore.

Harris is definitely a gd stay for people who just want to have a gd holiday to rest and relax.
M and I enjoyed ourselves totally.

A definite good retreat away from the city life!

A Berry-li-cious Slim Tummy Treat

2010-05-08T18:54:00.000-07:00

For the ladies esp those who are getting wed, i understand that to stay slim can be such a torturement especially with waves of craving for desserts.......

Therefore I cant resist but to share one BAGUS (WONDERFUL) alternative deal (that i accidentally came across while exploring Kallang leisure park recently) for the usual ice cream dessert that we "SLIM" ladies crave for

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introducing the berri-li-cious Ice Cream-like yogurt!!!

The first thing that attracts me to this yogurt store was the special deal of free toppings on every Saturday regardless of the size of yogurt cup that you order from them.

I found the following nutrition facts from their website after i get home with cravings for more of their yogurt

HEALTH BENEFITS FROZEN YOGURT
Yogurt is an amazing SUPER FOOD and many of the tremendous benefits have been well established for some time.
PROBIOTICS – Literally meaning "for life", these are active cultures in our frozen yogurt that work with our body to:
Aid METABOLISM. Acidophilus probiotic naturally fortifies the body's microbial balance, helping to relieve chronic constipation.
Improve IMMUNE functions. Helps promote immune cells.
Manage LACTOSE INTOLERANCE. Helps individuals tolerate more lactose so they can get the benefits of dairy without the digestive irritation.
Helps LOWER CHOLESTEROL levels. The acidophilus probiotic has been shown to interfere with cholesterol re-absorption.
Helps LOWER BLOOD PRESSURE.
Still even MORE BENEFITS...
Yogurt also contains seven essential nutrients: calcium, potassium, magnesium, fiber, and Vitamins A, C, and E.
Yogurt is also an excellent source of protein.
Helps PROMOTE WEIGHT LOSS.(<= Princess Christine likes this part especially) Studies have shown that high calcium diets favor bodies.
Aids in BURNING FAT (Princess Christine is laughing triumphantly from the thrill of discovering that her body fats are burning after eating) rather than storing fat

The young sales girl at the counter was really nice. Instead of asking us what we would like to purchase, she asked if it was our first time visiting yoguru as she sense that we were like scrutinising the menu board with great intense curiosity(ok mainly the lost look on our face gave us away). Immediately she offered us sample tasting of the 2 types of yogurt they have. The plain yogurt and the berry yogurt(yoguberry). Not that I would like to steroeotype, but I expected her to hand us just a small scoop of sample on those tiny spoon each but unexpectedly the sample was in a tiny mini cup which i thought was pretty decent and generous.

The yogurt came in a very attractive and sweet pastel colour of purple and it looks really sweet with the white yogurt in between. It was pretty hard to decide which yogurt to choose from and just when i thought we should just order the Yoguberry (berry yogurt) as the costing is like about $4 plus for a small cup and $ 5 plus for a large cup for yoguberry and about a dollar cheaper for the plain flavour. As a pretty thrifty housewife, I often find such pricing a little hefty for my pocket but this was different because of the size of the large cup!!!

The most fabulous part was I can have the best of both worlds by ordering a mixed flavour of the 2 yogurt types(most importantly it meant that i can have the taste of yoguberry at a cheaper cost since the normal yogurt flavour is mixed in) and the free toppings were a wide selection between different types of fruit and nut. Woodblock and me selected mango as it was the topping on the poster advertisement.

I was so glad that the free topping was not like a miserable scam of a small amount(i can imagine some pple will just give like a countable number probably just 6-7 cubes). The topping will cost you $1.20 on normal days.

The purple pastel reminds me of yam.

I wanted to give credit to Yoguru for such lobang and pray hard that the price of the yogurt will not rise and the sat free topping will go on FOREVER.

Woodblock is never a supporter of health food. Look at how he cringed in horror from the sight of healthy yogurt..... SIGH

Cant help but realise the yoguberry was pretty light on our tummy in terms of taste and we soon finished up most of the yogurt without getting tired of it.

CAUGHT IN THE ACT 1!

It was so delicious that I found woodblock starting to creep into MY bowl of Yoguberry.

I love the fact that the yoguberry is frozen! I told woodblock it felt absolutely like eating ice cream without feeling fat!

CAUGHT IN THE ACT 2!

In the end, $#^%$&%&$ woodblock start to take away my bowl of yoguberry and gobble up himself %$#%$#%#$% (yes that was how mad i felt when he stole my berri-li-cious precious yoguberry away)

The sample cup and the large cup of yogurt was finished to bits by the hungry royal family. I am so glad that i manage to maintain my royal image by not licking the cups clean.

After our nice tea break session and a short walk around the mall, we settle into this japanese restaurant which specialise in shabu shabu called Akashabu.

It was pretty a surprise that many people started queuing up as soon as the restaurant opens its door at 6pm. The reason why we were attracted to this restaurant was the super duper low costing of the meat offered for the shabu shabu => $6.50 for beef, $6.00 for pork , $4.50 for mince chicken, $6.00 for smoke duck meat.

Despite that, we thought that seriously for such low costing it definitely meant a relatively small plate but we were gambling and hoping that it will at least turn up to be medium size.

Therefore we place our order for :
- 2 bowls of rice(to ensure we are full so we need not waste too much money ordering more plates of meat)
- 1 grilled saba fish ($7.00)
- 1 sotong($5.00)
- 1 serving of pork($6.00)
- 1 serving of beef ($6.50)
- 1 serving of mince chicken ($4.50)
- 1 serving of cabbage ($2.00 or $2.50 cant rem clearly => but a must for health) (i read up somewhere that cabbage is a negative calorie food. It means that the energy that the body use to digest the cabbage is more than the energy the cabbage provides for our body, ending up with net loss of energy from our body).

As I say woodblock was never a vegetarian and you can see it clearly from his carnivore instinct when he stare at the meat salivating and controling himself from attacking the food.

I like the presentation of the mince chicken even though such presentation is getting common these days. But it always makes the food more interesting for the cooking for the customers and adds a tinge of favour(ok i acknowledge that is it mainly hallucination) for our food.

I always love seafood and woodblock ordered this specially for me!

LET"S NOT BLINK...................................
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why?
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Wahhhhhh the serving of the shabu shabu meat was really generous for the crazily low price!!!!!!!!!!

Such serving of meat is probably way much more compared to me visiting those ATAS restaurant charging like probably 2.5 - 3 times the price this restaurant is charging!!!

Now if you think that probably quantity is ALL this AKASHABU has to offer..................=> Princess Christine SHAKE HEAD AND FINGER IN YOUR FACE... NOooooooooooo!!!!!!!!! (in a high and slow shrilly thrilling voice).

Introducing the DRIVE-YOU-NUTS sauce!! The sauce on the left was really super thumbs up and it was so freaking good that it made me ate up many slices of pork meat as well as the beef meat. People who knows me probably will know that I dislike the taste of pork but this sauce is JUST SO MARVELLOUS that it must have been invented by some GENIUS CHEF!!!

I swear that both woodblock and me were praising the sauce for probably 1/2 the total time of our meal and the last worry i can have on my mind was for the sauce to run out. Amazingly the sauce never seem to run out and was pretty plenty in quantity for our 2 generous serving plates of red meat.

Chef woodblock in action.

Total cost? $40.00 bucks $KACHING$!!!! The saba fish was in the end very redundant as the shabu shabu itself was very FILLING AND FULFILLING. For those who are planning to dine over there, my advice is that probably a bowl of rice is sufficient as i didnt expect a bowl of rice (costing $1.00) is so huge. so if you minus out the saba fish and bowl of rice, it should cost you about $30 or so.

Sir Woodblock: We are definitely coming back for more!!!

Princess Christine and the High Flyer Club

2010-05-03T02:28:00.000-07:00

Now as royalties, it is a must to indulge ourselves in high flying activities.

It was really irritating to see the horrors on the other 3 princesses' face when i suggested my idea of a noon of indulgence in high flying activity together when they preferred to sit down in a more air conditioned place to chill out.

Therefore to prove my point about the royal indulgence of my high flying club is I deliberately recorded down details of my another yet royal adventures!

Of cos how can it be a club without a member in?
My first and only VIP member for the moment - Sir Woodblock(he looks like a knight with his sword).
Me?
I am of course, the president of the club(duh). My duties were to give light and directions on what to do for my member ~~s .~~ (at least for now)

It was great to find a wonderful green pasture at anchorvale! The sky was incredibly beautiful with colourful kites soaring in the blue sky.

Step 1: Unwrapped the kite from the wrapper.

Step 2: Insert the skeleton stick into kite.

Step 3: Ensure that the club president has plenty of refreshment while she continues to work hard to give instructions to sir woodblock and educate him on how to fly a royal kite.

Step 4: Tie the string onto kite. If you forget the string => you can go "fly kite" on your own. (meaning you can go home and turn in early for bed)

Step 5: Hand the ready kite to the president for poster pics etc for marketing purposes of the club in future.

Just simply luv my kite!! it's so colourful and huge!!!

Step 6: Just start runnning around like crazy and miracle will answer our call with the kite flying(somehow).

Yay see how high our royal kite soar!!!

Other assorted kites...

If you think this chain of kites is far far away... then you are WRONG! it's a chain of mini doraemon kites. Seriously I thought it was really cute!

This kite is super cool - almost felt like it was remote control as the owner is able to fly the kite in a figure of 8 through proper control.

Here's the expert kite flyer

I think this activity is really fun and $$$$ value for money.

For that few hours the expense is almost non except for the cost of the huge kite which cost us about $10 +$3 (for the reel and strings)

CHAAAAAARGE!!!!

Here goes my kite soaring! Hmpf!

The gorgeous high flyer president!

The ATAS electronic mahjong table

2010-05-03T02:18:00.000-07:00

Just an interesting sharing with my friends. During the new year I have my hands-on with the ATAS IR first hand.........

Electronic Dice Rolling machine????

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NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

It's an electronic mahjong machine!!! It was really fun to play mahjong without having to reshuffle the tiles and restack them manually. My second brother raymond bought this ift for my eldest brother francis for his bdae!

I cant help but comment that I felt like a true blue tai tai when i was playing mahjong on it. CRAZILY SHIOK TO THE CORE.

With such TOTAL luxury..... now where's my bowl of bird nest while i play my tai tai mahjong???

Reminiscence Romance @ Scarlet with Princess Christine

2010-04-17T18:22:00.000-07:00

Now that Sir woodblock and me are officially married and with valentine's day falling upon chinese new year, I we decided that we will make full good use of the holidays and hold a pre-vdae celebration @ Scarlet hotel.

The very reason why we were going back to Scarlet to hold our celebration is not just only about their wonderful service but most importantly, it is located just a road away from Chinatown to allow us to go last min shopping and immerse ourselves in the hearty new year mood! Perhaps we will be trying out more other hotels in the coming years to share with you pals so that you can have more ideas on what to plan with your partner with regards to special date plans =)

When we first arrived at Scarlet Hotel, as usual we were being specially attended to and the manager brought us up to our room. I was so crazily happy to know that the executive room that I have booked has been upgraded to an executive room with balcony! Dont get me wrong I am never into balcony so what was it that was making me go GAGA about the upgrade??? Well you will know it in a short while =P

Once we arrive at our room, I was drawn this message and the attached CD.... This wasnt present in the normal standard room that I have booked previously so it makes me even curious....

A sexy cover

Very interesting list of songs but i dun really have a proper music player in our room, so I wasnt too entice to get one.

Cant tell you how much Princess Christine is always inspire to do up her room almost exactly like the rooms in Scarlet hotel!!! So grand, royal and tastefully decorated.

After admiring at our room, we realise that we were running out of time.... and we quickly took a cab down to Aranda Club for our French Cuisine Dinner. It didnt really look like a good day for quite a number of pple as we prolly saw there were 3 car accidents along the way on the expressway.

Wooah my vdae flower in a glass?

Care for a drink sir woodblock? Rose tea???

Nah that's just the centerpiece on the table!! I thought it was quite a simple, elegant setup and definitely cost saving!!! So I took the pic to share with BTBs who wans to DIY their centerpieces too.

I was really in a great and dreamy mood with the nice romantic love melodies and music playing in the restaurant. It felt even better when we were the first too arrive to enjoy the serenity together and immerse in the romancing mood.

Of course, as usual restaurant always provide a stalk of rose for the ladies =) It might seem kinda pointless to many but it felt always funny whenever I see the waitress/waiter trying their best to pass the stalk of rose to the gentlemen and hinting them to present it to their date in full view. For a few moments, these waitress/waiter seriously looks like those matchmakers trying to take care of the lost and blur guys for a blind date.

Hmm my fav, champagne!!! I wish they gave us a bottle instead of just a glass. It was yummy!

Sir Woodblock saying cheers to Princess Christine. However I wasnt really returning his cheers as I was already.....

busy chomping my appetiser and food away! The appetiser was really fabulous and I love how it wasnt presented lol

The prawns are really in a very "sexy" position!

Next comes my apparagus soup with coconut cream.

Love the colour but I didnt like it as I prefer sweet cream soup like pumpkin soup etc. The soup was too salty for our likings and we didnt finish it up in the end.

Our mains! Cod fish!

I have no idea what was on top of the cod fish.... mushroom? escargots? whatever it is, it was delicious and I wish they have put more too. The problem with fine dining is that it is very limited in QUANTITY (sob =()

Sir woodblock's fav type of fish happens to be codfish, so to him this main dish was really thumbs up!

Finally the choc mousse dessert. Surprisingly, the mousse wasnt heavy and Princess Christine really savour very single cream of it =)

Cheers to a wonderful French dinner @ Le Aranda!

After dinner, we got back to our room.... finally I shall solve the mystery of why I am so happy about the upgrade. The real meaning of the upgrade it that now our room is directly in front of the SODA!!!
What's the SODA? It's definitely not a bar but rather.....

Our room number => so that now you know which is the BEST GENUINE upgraded executive room....

The LEGENDARY SODA!!! An almost private jacuzzi for us as nobody actually step in once you are inside as it can be a little paiseh to share "romantic moments" with other couples in a jacuzzi.

The water was warm and woodblock and me had a great time dipping and enjoying the massage from the water jets.

Nothing felt even more romantic as I laid there in the jacuzzi looking up at the sky with little stars and more importantly a balcony-like stairway at the side makes me feel like Romeo, looking and waiting for Juliet to come to the balcony to express his love for her.

All I can say the setting was really PERFECT and exceeded my expectations! So after all the intimate moments alone, we decided to exercise our muscle and go down to the chinatown street to JALAN JALAN (walking and shopping).

True enough the streets was overcrowded but we really had a great time in the crowd and tasting food samples goodies here and there.... (erm just let us call it a supper walk)....

It wasnt before long we felt really tired and retire back to bed but the very first thing when we woke up the next morning was.....

Woodblock lazing on the sunbed reading papers provided Scarlet hotel

As for me, I am not into reading papers early in the morning... but a soaked in the jacuzzi was puuuurfect for a princess like me!

Again when I looked up the sky, it is gorgeous! I wonder why the sky over the jacuzzi just looks so fabulous?? Fengshui?? The night before felt like some dreamy purplish midsummer nightsky. Now in the daytime, the sky is of a very clean and deep blue.....

Cant helped to show how much I love jacuzzi... Sir woodblock can I have one like this at home???

After we check out, we headed very HUNGRILY to our FAVOURITE dim sum hangout restaurant, Tak po, in Chinatown. (the so many benefits of staying near chinatown)

The restaurant is popular with the residents staying @ chinatown and it is no surprise that it is always so crowded in the morning!

Sir woodblock picking out the dim sums! For me I was drooling at the side cos I am super hungry.

Tak Po is fabulous not because of the super duper friendly $$$ pricing of the food but most importantly I prefer to dine in air conditioned(and the air con must be strong enough, not those kind of dying air con) environment, making dining not just so satisfying for your stomach but also very satisfying for your whole physical body and even your pockets!

For those who love to watch chefs in action, you can see in full view in nice airconditioned environment of how your food is prepped.

The SuPER WOW breakfast spread!!!

My Fav mei chai pork steam rice!! MUST TRY!

Finally we got back home to prep for the reunion dinner at my granny's place....

Bought all these cutie tiger ang pows at chinatown....

I was really excited that it as My first time giving away ang pows!

Some momento to commerate this "special event".

However, after wrapping, woodblock didnt felt so excited about the "special event" anymore lol

PS: We just went to watch liao zhai rocks yesterday and it was fabulous. Today is the last day of screening, so do catch it before it's gone! Shall post on this experience in next blog entries.

Down pit Bottom =(

2010-03-22T03:04:00.000-07:00

Recently, I have been really down on my luck and it really hit my boiling point when I open my medical report to find my cancer marker to be higher than the normal range.

It suddenly reminds me of the time when i see my uni friend, Kaiyan, at his funeral who had a fierce fight with the cancer demon for a year plus before he finally lost the battle. I really cried badly when I listen to his Aunt on how he spent his last few days on earth crying and suddenly weak from all the fight he had been putting up with for the past year. He had always been so brave when it comes to his fight with the illness and he wasnt afriad to tell the world as you see his countdown with his chemotheraphy sessions. I really thank him for always dropping words of encouragement online even when he was ill.

suddenly i realiase i have many things i have yet done. I wan to set up a home with woodblock, see my little bosses grow up to be fine and happy, spend quality time with my family, travel round the world and dedicate time to art which i indulge the most.

it didnt really helped much when my phone got spoilt in the same week, my home phone plus internet connection was also down and dead and most importantly woodblock just wasnt here to tell me it's going to be alright.

For now, the only assurance i can get from the doctor and even my brother's online "research" that the indicator i get is not too high which is already the luckiest thing i encountered for the whole week. Therefore, for now the chances of a affirmative cancer is pretty low but the doc says i better get a detail check up just in case =( sigh

sometimes i get pretty paranoid whenever it comes to health and death is definitely something i fear more than anything else. I have been to too many funerals in recent times and it was a nightmare when i dreamt about my own funeral last night after seeing the report. i couldnt sleep a wink after waking up from the nightmare. I guess i value life so much more ever since the death encounter last yr with the car accident and a free fall from the high elements in jc. so many close brushes with death and makes me wonder so much more on what i really wan to do in my life to make it truly meaningful and satisfying.

For now, I have been referred to see a specialist next wed to check out my pancreas. I am also looking forward to the return of woodblock who has disappear from my life for 32 days. Finally he will be back next monday!

i guess nothing can get worst then it could get now. well at least hopefully even next wed when i see the specialist.

Grand Shanghai Raw Pics IV

2010-03-17T02:35:00.000-07:00

heyo btbs, I am really sorry for not updating for a crazily long time!!! Ever since woodblock has flown over to US, I have been flooded with lots of work and I fell ill soon with a fever hounding me for a full week before I am now finally up and well to continue with my beloved blogging!!

I need to apologise to some readers who have wrote in for queries on wedding related stuff. I did tried my best to return replies to all of them but somehow being a little absent minded at times, I might have miss replying to some of them. So please do resent your email if I have yet reply them because I might have accidentally filed it under my "replied" folder.

Before I go on to write about my vdae account with woodblock, I realise i have yet finished up the last bit of my update on my banquet, so here today am going to finish up on the last bit =) I must also admit that I have been running into trouble trying to charge the battery for my beloved Camera and hence I am badly trying to wait for the return of Sir woodblock to help me with these nitty gritty technical prob so that I can continue to capture my wonderful daily adventures to share it here with all my friends =)

Ok let's not wander off from the banquet adventure.....

As Sir woodblock gets blind folded and get ready for the game.....

My MC is all prepped with the torture that he has prepped under my "secret arrangements" with him. Up till now woodblock prolly din know I am the one who has requested for the set up lol

A compose woodblock?

Let the game BEGIN!!!!

Ever wonder if woodblock was ever PAYING any attention from my multiple kisses on his face on DAILY BASIS????

well here's the good time to test and find out for ourselves!!!

First Mystery Kisser: Woodblock's elder little Sister
(if you dont know the family, you prolly think this is woodblock's elder sister as the whole family has a habit of calling her AH JIE so to do her justice, nope she is way younger than both of us)

woodblock is a VERY SENSITIVE boy, just by talking beside his ear, he is ITCHING all over like NUTS?!?! All the contestant had difficulty trying to give him a kiss..... SIGH

The next Mystery Kisser is already eager to pounce on her prey.

Woodblock: I am itching all over =( HELP!!!!
Anyway before Ah li manage to kiss woodblock, she got so irritated by woodblock that she smacked his head into position before kissing him.

I cant help but try to hide my evil laughter stemming from the succuess of my evil scheme on woodblock.....

NOW for the final mystery kisser.
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AIYAH MUST BE THE BELOVED PRINCESS CHRISTINE!!!!! How can a fairytale wedding end without a princess kissing the prince???
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BOY you RRRRR so wrong. How can it ever be a surprise when it is going to be the USUAL HAPPY ENDING???? Let me reveal the last contestant.....

He is non other than.... DRUM ROOLLLLLLLLLZ.........

MUAAUAUAUAUAAUAUAUAUCK (On the mouth somemore..........)
(that's Ah jie's BF by the way)

I seriously didnt like the mesmorise look on woodblock's face after the crazy mouth to mouth kiss..... *sends a shudder down the spine*

Was that a "good" sign becos of the JUICY kiss? Oh no, I must keep them away from one another from now on!

I am truly entertained!

Guess what after so much kisses, woodblock insisted that the third MYster Kisser must be his wonderful Princess Christine (!^.^)

There were roaring laughter from all the guests and even my MC got kinda worried and decided to give woodblock a second chance.......

So all the mystery Kissers gave woodblock a kiss again!

It felt like woodblock's bachelor night somehow.....

See how kind I am to woodblock, I am not even jealous while so many other ladies and man are busy kissing him. I am such a benevolent wife that I was happy for him from deep within and this photo is such a good proof.

The lucky man finally unveiled his eye mask.

Woodblock: So shiok ar.... so many kisses and all the guests are so happy for me!!!! I never once had so many pple cheer and laugh for my answer before!

Finally woodblock became very smart and realise all the guests were not geniunely cheering and laughing becos he HAD MADE A WISE CHOICE and started to break out in COLD SWEAT!!!!!!

Dont worry woodblock, I will give you a deadly kiss here first and later settle the scores of making the WISE CHOICE back in the hotel room!

My family!

Woodblock's family

Our mahjong KAKIS and their partner!

Our uni friends! Simply love the couch seats!

Not to forget my wonderful AH MA!!!

Woodblock's Sec and closest friends!

A mix of my friends from Sec, Uni and colleagues!

My colleagues!

My pretty jiemei colleagues and the hao nan ren colleagues lol

Unknow to many, I am actually a pretty good drinker. The only bad thing about me is that i just simply dislike the super strong taste of beer and red wines so I always prefer to mix with other fruit juice of soft drinks.

ON the banquet night, woodblock's friend and my 2 brothers concocted some deadly drink for woodblock respectively, but in the end I helped him block everyone away and drank on his behalf. Prolly pple who doesnt know I have a secret habit on drinking bits of red wine on an almost daily basis, the alcohol din really have much of any effect on me...... In fact woodblock will go red whenever he drinks......

My brother with a sneering and doubtful look.....

Realising how much of a good drinker I am, he suddenly felt sad for woodblock for having an alcoholic wife!!!

Finally after an evening and night of merriment, it was time to say good bye to my wonderful and hearty guests!

You can tell how much the old folks love the banquet esp with the oldies songs. This auntie here was almost singing along through the night! I am so glad it was really fun a night for everyone even the old folks!

A hi-five to my little FAN (yes all the little girls will dream to become a Princess bride one day)!

To end the night, it was definitely a night of romance of a true Shanghai Night for the both of us!

Romancing Getaway on an Early Valentine Celebration

2010-02-02T01:45:00.000-08:00

Recently, my heart dropped when woodblock told me he was going US for a month(32 days in exact if i count in the time on the plane) on work trip. Perhaps it seems like a pretty short time to everyone else but for woodblock n me, the feeling really felt terrible to the core. It reminds me of the time when woodblock went to San Franciso for just a mere 2 weeks, I already missed him to bits. The same thing happen when I was away in Taiwan on a holiday for 7 days. Yes, we are like usually glue together and we just love each other's company so much!

The only perk i can think of is the crazy sum of allowance woodblock gets from just a month overseas. How crazy? It's more than 3 months of my pay and that excludes his monthly pay. But still, nothings beats my heartache of missing my teddy woodblock for that crazy mind drilling 32 days.

Sigh work is work, cant be helped i know..... but i am so glad that we make a pact that if he ever go overseas to work for a yr or to study for yrs, I will definitely be flying off with my beloved teddy woodblock.

But it's ok cos in order to pamper and compensate ourselves for the lost time, we are going to have a very wonderful vdae celeb together! CNY is just round the corner, so i thought why not check into Scarlet Hotel again so that we can go and immerse ourselves in the vibrant street of Chinatown too.

A gorgeous rich Victorian Building of Scarlet Hotel

Every detail including the lobby excites me and woodblock during our last visit. It just felt so romantic from the very first moment we stepped into the hotel lobby.

We decided to upgrade to executive room instead of the deluxe room we stayed in previously.

I am really excited becos woodblock has also booked seats at Le Aranda for dinner on 12th Feb on the same day as our Scarlet Hotel stay. Here's a peep at the menu:

Appetiser

Seafood Cocktail Calypso, Smoke Salmon Rose & Melee salad

Soup

Fresh Roasted Asparagus Soup Velvet with Pine Nuts

Main Course

Oven-Seared Herb Rib-Eye Steak OR Pan-fried Cod Mignon “Bahama”Enhanced with Chateaubriand Sauce & Ragout Escargot served with Sautéed Spring Garden Vegetables and Tomato Clamart Bigarade Mashed Potatoes

Dessert

Chocolate Bavaroise with Balsamic Strawberry Compote & Mango Coulis

BeverageFreshly Brewed Coffee or selection of Herbal Teas

*Include 1 glass of sparkling wine & a stalk of rose for the lady.

YES!!!! It's french cuisine! I never tried proper romantic french food before and it's so exciting just thinking about it. The best thing is that it is not costing us a 100 plus per pax but rather .......

Union Member: $45+ per person or $80+ per couple

Guest: $45++ per person or $80++per couple

Sounds like a considerable good deal isnt it? And the best thing is that, it only offers this package on 12th Feb 2010 which happens to be the day we plan to celeb vdae together! Just looking at the dessert alone is enough to make me drooolll..... happy advance vdae to everyone!!!