Counting down to 2008

This week went by quite quickly with the Christmas holiday and also the leave that Dear and I took on Friday. At this time of the year, it feels as if there are so many people who are also on leave especially when we go out shopping on weekdays. With some post Christmas going on, I guess I could not resist shopping again! But most of the stuff we bought this time was more of Dear Dear's. Haha.. guess I will have to wait a while more before I start looking for new clothes again!!

Anyway, we managed to get a haircut this weekend too, so that's me with a shorter hairdo now. All in preparation for confinement time! Oh yeh, when we went to see my gynae on Saturday, our baby is still not engaged yet, though his head is lower down already. Guess it's still a waiting game now! Trying to prepare myself mentally too. In the meantime, while I still can, I'm trying to keep active and move about. That's where we also took time to catch a movie - National Treasure 2. Nowadays whenever I catch a movie in the cinema, I keep wondering if that will be the last cinema outing in a long while! Haha...

Finally, we also managed to meet up with my cousin Christina who came back from UK again to visit and attend her relative's wedding dinner in early Jan 08. Happy to see her again and we will be arranging to meet up again later this week.

Time flies ya...the next time I blog, it will be 2008 already! Happy New Year to all of you, from the Tan family!

Merry Christmas!

This year I feel rather blessed again during Christmas and would really like to Thank God for everything. On Christmas eve, it was a half day at work. Other than checking 1 report, the rest of the time was spent chatting and eating. Each section in my department brought a bit of food so that everyone can go round trying out each other's food. It was also a time of gift giving. The thing about my department is that people usually give presents to one another and it was not really an 'exchange' situation. It was really up to you who you wanted to give to. I must say that I felt really touched when I received many gifts from a group of colleagues from another section that I've only recently been getting a bit more close to. Thanks to the fact that many of them were already mummies, I've gotten to know them better by sharing and learning about pregnancy and motherhood from them. I guess I did not really think of getting them individual gifts, but bought them a group present and also just little packets of sweets. Yet I ended up receiving individual gifts from quite a few of them....felt quite 'paiseh' about it!! Nevertheless, I'm really thankful and touched by their gesture. Although they may not read this, but just want to say, THANK YOU friends! I really appreciate it!

Christmas eve before opening our presents

After opening presents which were mostly from my colleagues

We also went for the usual Christmas eve dinner/gathering at my grandma's place as organised by my uncle and aunt. This year was also a simple affair again with lots of food and family and relatives all gathered together having small chats and watching TV. Back at home, Dear and I opened our gift for one another once it was Midnight. Hehe. Thanks Dear for the lovely necklace that came on a little 'piggy' :)













And on Christmas day itself, we also spent some time with Dear's family with dinner at his mum's place followed by gift exchange too. Thanks for your gift Phyllis and Sudha!

Well, with that, Christmas is over already...back to work for a few days before we hit 2008! Merry Christmas to one and all again. Hope that my friends out there had a blessed time this Christmas :)

2 days to Christmas...

This week was a short but extremely busy week at work for me. Currently I'm busy with a research project that required going out to interview some of our respondents face to face to find out some information. As I was scheduled to go out more this week with my boss, I was practically in and out of office at least twice in a day. At the same time, there were also some other urgent stuff on hand to complete by Wednesday. How glad I was with the Hari Raya Haji public holiday that was on Thursday, as it meant a time to relax and chill out at home and do more personal stuff. So over this long weekend, Dear and I took time to catch the movie, Alvin & The Chipmunks (which was pretty cute la...but not that funny as I thought it would be). A little bit more of final Christmas shopping was done too in addition to a housewarming cum Christmas gathering we had at one of Dear's colleague's home, and a luncheon with my family.

Quite glad that this would be another fairly short week at work for me with Christmas just round the corner and the leave we are taking at the end of the week! Just hope that I will be able to cope well in the last few weeks of my pregnancy. Although I try my best to continue to stay active, but it can be tiring after a short while, along with slight breathlessness. Nevertheless, will continue to push on...it's the final weeks already!!

Anyway, I'm now looking forward to a nice and simple Christmas with Dear Dear and our family again. I've always liked the year end Nov- Dec period the best, but time seems to fly faster and faster each year! Soon we will be stepping ahead into 2008! Ha ha... Anyway, here's wishing all my friends and family a Merry Christmas!

It's another shopping week!

This week at work was another 'mini' shopping week for me. It started on Tue with my colleague informing me that they could get staff discount sale through someone they knew working at ESPIRIT, so off we went to the United Sq branch during lunch to shop. It turned out there were like more than 10 of us who went and we all ended up buying a lot of stuff like it was a super sale..lol...I bought stuff mainly for others as Christmas gifts, plus a bit of stuff for my big 'baby' and coming baby :P Then on Wednesday, it was another rushed shopping time again during lunch as I went with my colleagues to to Orchard to get some stuff and finally on Friday, we went nearby to J8 for lunch and shopping again. Think everyone is really in the Christmas mood to buy buy buy! Quite amazed that I still had the energy to keep up with all the walking and shopping. It was tiring no doubt, but I think it hit me the worse on Saturday when shopping with Dear that my back really ached!!! :( Anyway, as you can see, we have our little Christmas tree up and lots of presents for others around it :)

However, on a sad note, our third hamster died on Wednesday. She was taken ill quite suddenly on Monday. We noticed that she looked very weak and did not move much nor eat much. We thought she was getting better on Tuesday, but she was not able to defeat her sudden illness after all and Tiffy died on Wednesday. Felt quite sad as this meant that we only have one hamster left. It led us to think back on the time when we had the 4 of them running around in the cage, a truly entertaining sight... sigh. RIP Tiffy....

Christmas Shopping Bug

I guess I'm in the mood to shop again with Christmas drawing near and the fact that some of the sales that are currently on-going seem so tempting! :) Of course, it's the season of giving too, so you kind of feel happy to buy things for family and friends. So despite my big belly, here I was, shopping and buying stuff over the weekend!

It started out on Friday when a colleague of mine told us of a 'special sale' at Great World City. We went down during lunch to check it out and I ended up buying a couple of good quality clothing for my boy boy to wear in future as they were sellling at a very very good price. Though some of the clothes were really for much older toddlers, I just could not resist! My colleagues ended up buying a lot more for their children, nieces and nephews! I particularly liked this green and white jacket that was really very 'boyish' in nature :)

On Saturday, Dear and I also took the opportunity to sort of celebrate our wedding anniversary in advance, just in case by the time of our actual anniversary next month, I might be in hospital?! We had dinner at Bugis Junction then took time to buy some Christmas presents for our family. After quite a while of shopping around and buying some stuff, I was tired out already so we headed home. We continued our Christmas shopping again on Sunday though. This afternoon, we bought a couple more items and again after some time, the weight of my body was taking a toll on my legs and back. Had to head home to rest. But I certainly enjoyed wrapping up the presents and putting them by our little Christmas tree in the living room :) So on the whole, kind of felt like the whole weekend was really tiring too. I still have not completed my Christmas shopping though. Ha Ha...hopefully I can still last another week or two!

Christmas at Orchard

We went with our yearly tradition of going for a stroll down Orchard Road to view the Christmas light-up again this year. Also, since Dear Dear bought a new 'toy', all the more it was the time to take some photos! After a simple dinner at NYDC at Wheelock Place, we started our stroll down towards Ngee Ann City. That was about all that I could walk this year actually. Haha. In fact, I suddenly started to feel really 'heavy' today and my walking pace had to be much slower. Plus some backaches that I was getting again, I was quite amazed I could sustain that long actually.

Anyway, it was quite a breezy evening fortunately and the crowd was not as bad as it would be nearer Christmas. So we took some photos here and there but I must say, the light-up and festive atmosphere this year does not look and feel as great as last year. Seems like getting worse each year. We then stopped by at Takashimaya for a bit of shopping. Yeh, I was starting to look around at what I could buy for my colleagues for Christmas gift giving this year, just in case I get too tired in the next few weeks. The shopping stop took quite a while and by the time we were done, the stores were closing. With that, we decided it was time to head home. By now, I was really freaking tired!! Haha. Thank goodness still managed to walk back to the carpark. Though really tired out with all the walking, still felt happy that it was a nice time spent together :)

*Enchanted*

It was an "Enchanted" weekend for us as we went to catch the latest Disney movie. The last 6 weeks had been antenatal classes for us so it's been quite a long while since we went to watch a movie together. Felt quite happy to be able to chill out together :) Not sure if I will still be watching any movie in the cinema in a long while!

Anyway, the movie Enchanted is worth a watch, especially if you don't mind something light-hearted and feel good. It's quite a typical 'fairytale' story, where they incorporated cartoon animation into real-life acting. The show also had typical singing by the lead characters as if it was in those typical Disney cartoons. Ha Ha... On the whole, I was pretty amused by it and of course, the lovely fairy-tale ending.

We then had dinner at Kenny Rogers...somehow I had a slight craving for the macaroni and cheese side dish, so I felt pretty satisfied after my meal. Hehe... Then on Sunday, we got down to cooking our lunch in. Again, something which we have not done in a long while... so though it was only a simple pasta meal, it was still delicious coz' we both were cooking together.

Here's the lyrics of a song from "Enchanted"...

Carrie Underwood - Ever Ever After Lyrics

Weimin & Shihui's Wedding

It was our friend's wedding on Saturday and Dear went to help out Weimin in the morning as one of his 'brothers'. Theirs was quite a different wedding, as they booked a chalet at Aloha Loyang and Shihui was actually picked up from there in the morning. This was followed by a church in the late morning and for the evening, a very informal gathering was organised at the chalet itself! So it was quite a busy day in the end, as Dear and I also attended our last antenatal class before heading to the bbq in the evening. Anyway, congrats Weimin and Shihui!

Good long weekend

This week at work was a short one for me with the Deepavali holiday on Thursday. Wednesday was basically the last working day of the week for me and it felt good to be able to wake up the next morning not having to get ready for work! Anyhow, I went with my parents for dim sum on the public holiday. Suggested to them to try out Yum Cha at Chinatown since we've not been there before. Pretty crowded when we went, but luckily, the queue moved quite fast and we got our table in about 15-20 min. Not too bad place to try out dim sum if you've not been there before :) The food was quite nice and price, well, quite similar to Crystal Jade Kitchen type. That was followed by some shopping around Chinatown area before heading home to rest.

On Friday, I had already planned a leave in advance, so once again, happy that I can sleep in a bit more. Met up with an ex-colleague for a late lunch as she had agreed to lend me her breast pump to try using after I give birth. I'm not ready to buy one yet, so was quite glad I could manage to borrow one to try out before deciding whether when I should invest in a set. Had a good time catching up with her and also getting tips on pregnancy and after birth stuff Thanks Linda! ;)

With that came Saturday and the return of Dear Dear! Woke up quite early in the morning to drive to the airport to pick him up. So happy to see him after 2 long weeks! Good timing that he returned this morning too, as we subsequently proceeded for our monthly gynae checkup after having breakfast together. All is fine with baby as the doc checked through the ultrasound scan. My baby was also seen to be facing down already, so that's good news!

Well, it has certainly been nice to do things with dear dear again....thanks for your gifts from Geneva too Dar... ;) Appreciate it. Now back to another full work week again....

Another weekend without hubby

The week at work went by pretty fast after all with the various tasks on hand to complete. In the mean time, whenever there was opportunity, Dear and I would catch up on the phone and sms each other. With him being 6 hours behind us in Singapore, it was a slight challenge in terms of timing. When it was time for me to sleep, he would still be at his meeting. Nevertheless, absence makes the heart grow fonder! Dar Dar...looking forward to seeing you by end of the week.....

Spent the weekend with my own parents mainly. My dear Mum again came by to help me with some household chores and also joined me in for the antenatal class. The session this week focused on the labour process and pain relief options, plus a walk around the delivery suite. I think it certainly brought back memories for my Mum as I was delivered at Mt. A as well! Hehe...and soon my own child too :)

Back to work tomorrow, but I'm quite happy....because it will be a long weekend for me with a public holiday on Thu and my leave on Friday! Yippee! :P

Mummy & Ivy's birthday....and I miss my hubby

We had a simple celebration of Mummy and Ivy's birthday on Saturday. Actually it's quite in advance as Dear was going away on business trip. We all had lunch out, but dinner was at home followed by a simple cake cutting session. Then after that, it was back home to finish packing up luggage for Dear. As his flight was a late night one, I did not send him to the airport. But gosh, once it was time for bed, I could feel the rush of sadness overcome me!! Boo hoo...I miss my hubby.....:(

Anyway, maybe it's more because this time he has to travel much further and there would be a more significant time difference, hence communication opportunities would not be as easy as when he was in KL. Trying not to countdown too much, just want to get through this week at work first, which will be pretty busy again!

Miss you dar!

Another busy weekend

Seem to find the week passing by faster and faster. This weekend Dear and I went to have a haircut and we also attended our second antenatal class at Mt. A hospital. This session focused on sitting and standing postures, as well as some simple exercises that I could do to improve abdominal, pelvic and calf strength. Then at night, we attended our friend's wedding dinner. Another good time to catch up with our old friends again. They were kidding that at the next person's wedding, they will have to cater a child seat for me and Dear and who knows who else? Ha ha....

Then while shopping today, Dear and I spotted this baby romper which he could not resist buying! Yeh, Dear likes Pikachu and so we thought this romper would just look so cute on our baby next time. So even though the tag says it's for a 1 year old, we still bought it first. As you can see, the top is a hat which is Pikachu's face and actually behind, there's even a tail. He He... Could not help laughing to myself when trying to imagine how baby will look like wearing it :)

In loving memory of Toffy

Well, my second hamster, Toffy died this week on Monday. It did not really come as a surprise to us as she was already looking very old and thin. Despite her old age, she was still a rather active hamster, always eating and also running in the wheel. I was just telling my sis-in-law on Sunday that Toffy's days should be numbered. And then the next day, Toffy died. Dear was the one that discovered her not moving when he came home early from work that day. He realised that she seemed stiff and suspected she was dead and indeed she was. In a way, glad I was not at home at that time it was discovered, as I might feel a bit 'eeky'. Anyway, that leaves us with 2 more hamsters left. Hope they continue to live well like Toffy did.

On another note, the chest of drawers we ordered to put in our baby room was delivered some time this week too. On the weekend, we packed some of the stuff that we have bought so far into the drawers and took the chance to verify what we have against our checklist of baby items needed. Guess we still have quite a bit more on our list to buy!

My Flower Day

Dear Dear sent flowers to my work place this week on the actual day of our 6 year anniversary. Though I ever mentioned about flowers to him some time back, but it already slipped my mind and this took me by surprise! Thanks Dar...for everything! This flower day certainly brightened up my day at work when things have not been going that great at times.

At the end of the week, we also attended our first antenatal class that we signed up at MAH. It's a 6 lesson course on childbirth and the first session was combined session for all the 3 classes held on weekdays and weekends. So there we were, in a seminar room full of expectant mothers and fathers to be. The first session was on nutrition, so quite a useful information session. Though some things I have already read before in books, it still helps to hear tips directly from a nutritionist. After the session, suddenly became more cautious of the food I'm eating. Haha...but sometimes still can't resist temptation to eat a bit more 'unhealthy food'. Anyway, hope the to pick up more tips and antenatal knowledge in the next few sessions.

Fragility of Life

Some other news that I received this weekend also reminded me how life can be fragile sometimes as anything can happen to anyone of us. I think the one thing that always frightens me is the fact that some bad thing may happen to people that we care for and love. As such, I always believed the being blessed with good health is the most important of all. Right now, I can only pray that this relative of mine will be fine and that the operation that she will go through will be smooth without complications. Cherish your loved ones always....

Hubby's back this weekend

This week at work passed quite quickly as it was fairly busy with the usual month end presentations. In the nights, Dear and I would do video-conference chatting over MSN so it was nice to still be able to communicate with him each day and chat about stuff. Then had a long weekend as I took leave on Friday to pick Dear from the airport. Glad to have him home again! Hehe... and thanks to dear dear who bought me a few gifts from KL.... :P

We had a simple celebration meal that evening for his return and also to celebrate our 'dating anniversary' in advance. Yup, 6 years ago we decided to 'try it out' and start dating. And now, here we are, growing and enjoying the friendship and love that we have. Looking forward to more years ahead!

This weekend, we also awaited the delivery of some baby items that we bought recently...so here's the baby cot, baby stroller and baby car seat! With a bit more shopping, we will also likely settle on a particular chest of drawers to add on to the room for keeping baby stuff. We should be getting that pretty soon too.

Weekend without hubby

Spent this weekend without Dear Dear. Feels strange to be away from him after so long as his last business trip was almost a year ago. But going forward, I might just have to get used to a bit more of his business travelling. Anyway, my mum helped me out at my home this weekend. She stayed over with me on Friday night so that on Saturday, she could help me with some of my housework. Really thankful for that, though there were also moments of irritation and disagreements in how we do things!!

So my weekend was spent mostly with my family, going shopping with them and hanging out at my old home, having meals at my granny's place and also celebrating my cousin's birthday. At nights, I look forward to chatting with Dear over MSN. Thanks to technology, we're able to have free conversation via MSN's video conferencing since I have a headphone with a mic. Hehe...every night I look like some customer service operator talking to the pc... :P

Well, just look forward to end of week where Dear and I can be together again!

Xiaoling's Birthday

Dear and I both had a busy week at work and it was great to have the weekend come by. But even with the weekends, we seem to be in and out of our home many times!! Anyway, I had my monthly checkup at my gynae this Saturday and we were given our report from the detailed scan that we did at Mt. A hospital about 2 weeks back. My doctor went through the report with us and I'm glad to say that all's fine in my baby's development. Then he did the usual ultrasound scan for me and again, another chance to look at baby!! Too bad we can't get to take an ultrasound picture anymore already, as baby is growing bigger and it can't be captured in 1 full shot. At least we have the films from the detailed scan to keep.

Dear's cousin also celebrated her 21st birthday this weekend, so we went with the family to the rented bungalow at NSRCC, which is all the way at Changi Coast Road. All the uncles, aunts and cousins of Dear Dear's were there but we entertained ourselves by going to the clubhouse area to play pool. Hehe, yup, I can still manage to play some pool with my bump at this stage ;P

Changes in Life

This week marks another set of change in our lives. Dear has been posted out to work in another Ministry for the next 2 years and he started work at the new place on Monday. The first week was not much of a 'honeymoon' as it required Dear to quickly settle in and get up to speed. As a result, he will probably end up a lot more busy than me! But no matter what, I will support him in his new role and hopefully it will turn out fruitful for him. It just means quite a bit of changes in our working lives I guess. I also had a new colleague join my team on Monday. She turned out to be quite a pleasant and cheerful gal who is much easier to chat with. However, it's still too early to tell if she can perform in terms of work yet. Have to guide her along the way and hope that she too picks up speed!

Over the weekend, we went to my ex-colleague's housewarming party as well and it was yet another good time to catch up with some old friends to see how's everyone doing. For most of them, it was the first time too that they have seen me since knowing that I'm preggie. The most common comments I have heard at the moment is that my tummy is still not that big. Well, I guess it's fairly proportionate to my frame at the moment. Can't imagine having such a big tummy at this stage, as it will only get bigger later and more tiring! Already once in a while now it can get quite uncomfortable!

Dear and I also did a bit of scouting around for our chest of drawers to be put in our spare room, in preparation for our baby's arrival. We have not really decided on which to get yet, but we have eyed some possible models from IKEA or VHive or even those HDB furniture shop. Anyway, the shopping around this afternoon certainly tired me out as I feel super zonked out even right now and I'm going right to bed after this! Ok...it will be another busy week ahead, so got to rest well and charge on!

Long weekend

Had a slightly longer weekend this week as I took leave on Friday. Part of the reason was to go for my detailed ultrasound scan at Mt. A hospital, and also to go 'par tor' with Dear Dear :P For our detailed scan, it was an interesting experience to be able to see baby in more details. The radiographer pointed out to us the bladder, kidneys, spine, limbs, nose, mouth, brain, etc as part of the checks to ensure that the baby is developing well. Glad that all is fine and yes, confirm it's boy boy indeed - pretty obvious from the detailed scan as baby was not shy at all! Anyway, now we are starting to think of names already...think that will take us a while to decide.

Dear then checked out COMEX to get us some stuff, after which we watched the movie Ratatouille. Well, it's a nice and feel good Disney movie, so quite worth it. It was also the first time that we went to CENTRAL shopping centre at Clarke Quay. I think the whole day of shopping around led me to spend quite a bit of money on getting some big tops! :P

Also celebrated my mum's birthday in advance this weekend by having lunch with my parents. It was Jap food this time, but too bad I could not really enjoy eating sashimi :( WIll have to wait long long before I can dig into my salmon sashimi again! Happy Birthday to my Mummy!

Baby stuff

Just as I mentioned about my boss having found a replacement for my team, another colleague just tendered her resignation this week. So guess what, it's back to square one again! Gosh, now really hope that another replacement can be found soon.

Anyway, the weekend went by quickly especially when we are busy doing this and that. I guess the main thing we did was to start buying some baby stuff this weekend. Quite exciting and happy to go about it. So far, I've got some feedback from other mothers on what are the basic necessities to buy and this weekend, we ended up ordering a baby cot, baby car seat and baby stroller!! I guess after much deliberation and asking around if there could be people to hand us down stuff, we decided to invest in getting new items for our first child and hopefully continue to use it for future children. We also started buying a few pieces of clothing, mittens & booties...hehe...so small and cute! :)

Quite a happy weekend

This week at work went by fairly well. A small piece of good news is that my boss has found a replacement for my team, so my new staff will be coming in pretty soon. Anyway, with the weekend, I felt really happy after seeing my gynae on Saturday. Besides knowing that everything with baby seems to be going well, we also found out the gender of our baby! Well, based on what the gynae showed us on the ultrasound scan, we could see the "little birdie" and was told that it's a baby boy! Dear and I felt a little unconvinced but the gynae seemed pretty sure. Anyway, we will be going for a detailed scan in 2 weeks time to further confirm this and other features. Besides knowing this, I also started to feel some slight movements from baby in the last few days. This interesting feeling made me really happy and excited :) It's especially interesting to put your hand on the area where baby is kicking and feel it so real :)

Dear and I also attended the Ruan Ensemble in Concert 2007 on Sunday where Ivy was part of the performance. Here's a shot of us with the performer herself...

National Day Weekend

Well, it's the nation's 42nd birthday this year and how nice it was to have a public holiday last Thursday. As the thousands of Singaporeans flocked to the Marina Bay, Esplanade and Padang area to get into the celebratory mood and watch fireworks, Dear and I spent some time shopping during the day. And again, we watched the telecast of the parade on TV that evening while having dinner. We actually spotted a minor mistake made during the actual day's performance and we were telling our family about it. Hehe. Anyway, in the papers the next day were some photos of the NDP show and this picture really caught my eye.....what a strong (but also stunned) looking MM Lee catching his view without any binoculars on...tsk tsk on the younger ministers :P

Source: TODAY newspapers

On Saturday, some of Dear's ex-colleagues organised a chalet at Downtown East Costa Sands Resort, so we went there for dinner. Have not been there for some time and was surprised to see that a multi-storey carpark had sprung up right in front of the Downtown East entrance. That certainly makes parking a lot better, but I find it strange that it's so high that it practically covers the whole front look of the resort. Perhaps there would be more changes that would take place in time to come, as I saw the on-going construction of another structure in front as well. Anyway, I had the opportunity to chat with 2 wives of 2 other officers at the bbq and found it pretty interesting. One lady was also expecting and due around Nov, while the other already has 2 kids. The lady with the 2 kids shared a lot of experiences with us about her pregnancy and the bringing up of her kids. One thing she said struck me - that is giving birth is not the hardest thing of it all, it's the bringing up of your children that's a challenge and also an interesting journey. At one point, you wish they would grow up faster, but before u know it, you wish they were little cute babies again. Haha...I'm sure our parents would have that same thoughts and experience before. Will only know for myself in future :)

Countdown to NDP

This week passed with some changes happening in my office. Another colleague resigned and my boss spoke to me of moving one of my staff over to another section as it is more short of manpower. The move would also be permanent as my staff was keen on taking it on the other role permanently. That meant my own team would be 1 person short for a couple of months before any replacement comes. Hope for the best, but prepared for some bz days ahead!

Anyway, for the time being, it's countdown to NDP 2007. 4 more days to go at this point. My home area constituency organised a mini NDP celebration with a fun fair event nearby and also a mini parade on Sunday afternoon. With nothing much to do this afternoon, Dear and I went to check out the mini parade, in which they closed a small street for it. Well, what can I say, quite pathetic! But it is a community event after all, so bravo to those who took time to perform for PM Lee (the GOH), some MPs and the residents. So, see if you can spot our dear PM Lee below....

NDP Preview 2007

We went to the NDP Preview at Marina Bay on Saturday evening, thanks to my Uncle who was able to garner tickets for us. Although I mentioned earlier in my blog that we did watch a session of the rehearsal, this was much better as it's as good as the real thing, plus we get the goodie bags! Anyway, the weather was very good on Saturday. Although it rained a bit earlier in the day, it was cooling by the time we went for the parade.

As usual, throngs of Singaporeans came dressed in red. Once you were at Cityhall area, you could see practically who was heading towards the Marina Bay area for the event! Well, the bad thing about the parade this year was the terrible queue at the Security Check point. Because of that, we were like stuck for about half and hour or so. Luckily by the time we got inside to this new stadium, we were still able to get pretty good seats. As I mentioned, because the weather was much nicer this day, the whole waiting for the show to start was so much more bearable! Think baby was also rather guai, as I felt pretty ok throughout the whole show :)

The preview turned out so much better than the 2nd rehearsal we saw. They had all the fireworks and pyrotechnics going throughout the show where it should be. Fireworks were also seen going off 3 skyscrapers in the Shenton Way region. Very nice :) And of coz, the parade culminated with the medley of old-time favourite NDP songs and a nice array of fireworks. So overall, felt quite happy that we were once again able to join in the celebrations of Singapore's 42nd Birthday! Hmm...sounds so patriotic...lol...

Oh yeh, and this entry officially marks a 1 year anniversary of the time we started our offline photo album on the Dayz of our Lives. If you look back in my blog's history, it's also the first entry that we had. Time flies indeed! Once NDP is over...I can feel Christmas creeping in round the corner..hahaha...sounds a bit exaggerating, but it's true! Well, ok la, don't think too far first. Maybe think about Mid-Autumn Festival first :)

Our baby

Just wanted to mention here for the record that we are having a baby :) Yup, it's been about 3 months plus already and our little one is due in Jan 2008. Anyway, we went to the gynae on Saturday for the usual check-up and this week, we were able to see more shape and form of our baby. The doc showed us the spine, the head, the hands and the leg. Baby was in a sitting position, so we still could not identify the gender. Hehe...Will have to wait some time more. Anyway, since the last check up at 13 weeks, I did not seem to put on much weight..though the doc did not highlight it as a problem. I think the most important thing for now is that baby is growing and this time, he/she measures about 9.13cm.

In addition, I also had to draw blood for the antenatal blood test and triple test in this appointment. A little painful and guess the doc didn't do a great job poking...haha..my arm is slightly blue-black with the blood clot : Anyway, do hope that the blood test results will turn out well and that my pregnancy will continue on smoothly... Must continue to have the faith...

Slow week

This week went by quite slowly, especially with a less hectic week at work. Earlier in the week, we had tickets to the gala premiere of the latest Harry Potter movie. Was looking forward to it, but found the movie to be boring. Still watchable, but not as interesting as some of the earlier stories. Dear and I also caught some other movies in the comfort of our home this weekend...Transformers and Deja Vu. The latter is quite an old show, but having watched it only now, I found it to be quite good. Denzel Washington's shows generally don't really disappoint.

We also had a simple dinner to celebrate Dear's father's birthday today, along with Phyllis and Ah Da. Here's wishing Papa a Happy Birthday and another year blessed with good health and wealth!

PS - for the record, Roger Federer won his 5th consecutive Wimbledon title last weekend :)

Wimbledon 2007

The Wimbledon Championships started since 25 June and we've been following some of the better matches quite closely. Of all the four Grand Slams in a year, Wimbledon is my favourite. Maybe it's the way the grass court looks, so lovely and tempting, so elegant and 'British'. It being held in London makes the game feel even more traditional and classic.

The ladies matches were quite interesting to watch, but nothing beats the men's tennis. In particular, watching our favourite Roger Federer, the World No. 1.

I really like and admire the way Roger plays tennis. His every move really seems so elegant and suave, and his skills are amazing. The way his balls curl with top spin and trickery, makes it so enjoyable to watch. Which is why I'm really looking forward to watch the Finals between him and Rafael Nadal. At this point that I'm typing this, the match is still on-going, so I can only hope that Federer prevails for another 5th year!

NDP Combined Rehearsal

This weekend, I managed to catch up on some shopping (bought quite a few items needed) and we also went to the NDP combined rehearsal show on Saturday at Marina Bay. Dear's colleague passed him a pair of tickets and there we were at the new venue for the first time. It was quite a hot afternoon but we were well prepared with umbrella, hats and fan. Ha ha... Anyway, this show being the second combined rehearsal to date, did not turn out that great. I felt that that some parts of the program have more room for improvement in terms of the timing and coordination of the performers. Only a few items helped to make the show better - the para-troopers descent, the chinooks, apaches and F16s that flew past, and this time round, a little bit more 'excitement' in the waters surrounding the floating platform. The mass performance, unfortunately was boring, and there were no fireworks to end of the event! Guess this wasn't such a good preview after all. Still look forward for the possibility of catching the official preview before the actual NDP.

Well, time flies, half the year has gone and now's the start of the second half of 2007. Soon our photo album which we first started to capture weekly updates of what we did, will be a year old! Looking forward to year end already....

Feeling lazy

Been feeling quite lazy on Sundays nowadays. After our weekly grocery shopping, I'm actually pretty happy to just take an afternoon snooze or read a book in bed. Somehow have not really got into the shopping mood though it's the GSS period. Anywayz, despite this lazy feeling, we had a rather good Saturday too. Besides 'checking out some important stuff', we also managed to catch a movie in the evening - Fantastic Four. Well, what can I say, this show is pretty much a typical super hero type of show. Not that great, not that bad. I think the main thing was us checking out the newest Cathay Cineplex to open at AMK Hub. Quite a nice cinema and seats were comfortable and spacious. It even had this 'new smell' about it. Haha...

We also took the time to celebrate a belated Father's Day dinner with Dear's side of the family today, since his mum and sister only came back from a Taiwan holiday this week. Then it's back to couch potato time at home, watching Initial D again. Hehe. So much for the weekend, it's back to work again!

A busy weekend

This week had been pretty suffering for me...mainly coz I fell sick since last weekend and practically took the whole week to recover. In fact, I'm still not fully well yet, but at least I feel much better already. Nevertheless, we had a weekend quite filled with some stuff going on. First it was Jiancong & Kimberly's wedding on Friday. Dear was one of JC's 'brothers' so he was busy helping him out. Dinner was at a Chinese restaurant in Corpthorne King's Hotel, again another week to catch up with the rest of the gang again! Anyway, congrats JC & Kim!

On Saturday, we bought tickets to a performance at the Singapore Arts Festival 2007 - Play! A Videogame Symphony (Asian Premiere). The symphonic extravaganza featured award-winning music from popular blockbuster video games. Basically, video game music written for a full orchestra, choir and pipe organ was accompanied by outstanding game images played on large screens above the Orchestra. The music from titles such as Final Fantasy, World of Warcraft, The Elder Scrolls, Sonic The Hedgehog and Super Mario Bros, etc. were just some of the highlights. Well, it's quite obvious who's the interested party here (lol), but anyway, to me it was still an interesting event to experience. Some of the music I definitely recognised, while I was clueless on some others...which was a bit of a nap time for me..hehee...

Finally, with Father's Day today on Sunday, we spent some time with our family over a nice meal. Here's to my own Dad - thanks for all that you've done for me Daddy!

In sickness and in health

I fell sick over the weekend and it sure sucks :( The symptoms started since Thu or Fri with a very painful throat, but I chose to believe that drinking more water would help. Well, it only did so much. Still ended up with a cough and cold. Saw the doctor and got some medicine, but as in all healing process, there will be this phase where it really gets to you! That was yesterday for me. My nose was all blocked, my throat was itchy and dry, coughed till my head hurt, and eventually my whole head was in throbbing pain. Had to sleep early and could not fully enjoy my French Open final on TV!?! :( Felt really suffering. Which explains why I'm on MC today..haha...just needed 1 more day of rest to be totally charged up again.

Well, besides the falling sick part, it was also our friend's wedding on Saturday. KF requested to borrow our car as his wedding car that day, so Dear ended up really busy that whole day helping them out. By evening, we all attended the dinner together at Sheraton Hotel. Food turned out quite nice, although I wish I had better health to enjoy it more... : | Nevertheless, congrats KF and Daphne...hope you guys enjoyed your honeymoon :)

Wedding Season

This week went by quite well and not too bad, especially with the Vesak Day public holiday on Thursday. That afternoon was also my ex-colleague's wedding. He held a 'church wedding' in a hotel followed by a buffet reception. Nice to see an old friend getting married and also be there to witness his touching speech and for the first time, hear him sing to his wife :) Dear also had a wedding dinner to attend that evening....which leads me to this topic on wedding season...

Since the start of the year to date, I've attended around 3 weddings. There are a couple more to come for the rest of the year too. In fact, in the next 2 weekends, Dear and I both will be attending our NUS friends' wedding. Always glad to see people around you that you know getting hitched and settled down. You feel happy for them and sometimes you think back how people have grown and matured through the years that you have known them. A flashback reminds me of how we were all young and went on a holiday together about 5 years ago. At that time, Dear and I were still quite 'young' in our relationship. And our friends were still single! How time flies :)

Anywayz, so that works out to about 4 more weddings to attend for the rest of the year (for now at least). Ha ha..so many 'red bombs' to hurt the pocket ;) But nevertheless, it's a wonderful thing and here's wishing all those getting married, a blessed and wonderful lifetime ahead together :)

Movies and more movies

This weekend in particular had been quite an exciting one for us.... will reveal why this is so in due course :) In any case, there are many summer blockbuster movies that have opened so far and there's still more to come! This week we caught 2 new movies - Shrek 3 and Pirates of the Caribbean 3. I won tickets to the gala premiere for Shrek 3 (courtesy of my boss) so Dear and I went down to GV Grand for it. To be honest, much as Shrek was still entertaining, I still prefer Shrek 2. Somehow, I did not find the development of the plot in Shrek 3 that good.

The other movie that we watched, Pirates of the Caribbean - At World's End was a really quite a long show...2 hrs 40min plus I think. I'm quite amazed by the effects they have for this show, but again, somehow I did not really enjoy the whole plot. It's getting more and more like some Indiana Jones movie.....the worse thing was...in the cinema that we were watching the show, there were 3 very inconsiderate young men that talked loudly, laughed loudly and were extremely fidgety. So much so that a guy sitting in front of them turned around and warned them fiercely to keep quiet and behave themselves. I thought a fight was going to break out! Ha ha....Anyway, they were really quite irritating and distracting throughout the movie. Can't believe some people can be like that.

Well, lots more movies that I'm looking forward to watch...Fantastic 4, Transformer, Ocean's 13, Harry Potter, etc. Hopefully have the time to catch some of them at least :)

Family Day Carnival

This weekend has certainly been a really eventful one. Part of the reason was because it was my company's family day carnival on Saturday and my department also set up an ice-cream stall to do our bid for charity. All proceeds that day went to 2 adopted charity organisations. Anyway, my dept split up to mend the stall at different times of the day and my shift was in the afternoon.

It was fairly crowded when I arrived, but most importantly, there was a steady queue at our ice-cream stall. We basically rented a traditional motorbike ice-cream stall, selling ice cream in cones, bread or cup. When I eventually took over for my shift, I was really glad that Dear (who also came along) was around to help me scoop the ice-cream. Quite a tiring task actually! Anyway, we really had quite good business that day and we ran out of cones and bread quite early on. I guess my dept kind of under-catered. Nevertheless, it was pretty fun trying to get people to buy ice-cream :) When the event finally ended, felt quite tired by standing the whole time. Still, I'm glad that we did quite well :) On Sunday, we went to Dear's uncle's housewarming party. Nice condo place with good amenities too. The swimming pool was especially huge and inviting :) Well, that about wraps up our weekend...back to work again.... : |

Happy Mother's Day to all Mothers!

It's Mother's Day again and here's wishing all Mums or Mum-to-be a Happy Mother's Day! Actually last weekend, we already had our 'celebratory meals' with our mums. We figured out this weekend would be really crowded at many eating places, so we decided to go out and makan earlier. For my own family side, we had another gathering last Friday evening too, partially to celebrate one of my Uncle's birthday and also a dinner for my Grandmother...

Anyway, as I read in the papers today about how and what mums have done for their children, I also reflect back upon all that my mum has done for me. No doubt I find that she nags too much at me, but of course I know that she means well at the end of the day. Sometimes I feel that perhaps I have not done enough for her... I admit that many times, we tend to take the people around us for granted. That also sets me thinking that if some day I become a mum, what kind of mum will I be? How would I want the relationship between me and my children to turn out? I have many ideal thoughts, but how will it unfold? I think it only takes true experience to find out the answers.

Central Japan Trip (25 Apr'07 - 2 May'07)

We're back from our Japan trip, refreshed and happy with what we saw and experienced! Yes, Japan is a very nice country to visit and I enjoyed every moment of our 7D6N trip. As always, holidays are never enough :) Anyway, just like to share a bit of what we saw/experienced in the land of all things kawaii and lovely...

Day 1: Depart from SG to Osaka via SQ morning flight. We arrived in the late afternoon and our tour group (consisting of 13 of us) were scooted off to Shinsabashi, a well-known shopping district. It's a long promenade of shops selling clothes, shoes, etc. Daimaru, Takashimaya, Sogo were all located there as well. Hello Kitty shop spotted along the way too :) After some shopping, we had our first Japanese dinner at a restaurant in Shinsaibashi. Very good first meal, given we were pretty hungry! Finally after that, we checked into Osaka Plaza hotel for a good night's rest. Check out the toilet seat..so cool! It has a seat warmer control and butt washer where you can adjust the water pressure..haha..very cool :)

Day 2: Universal Studios Japan in the morning, Kobe City in the evening. Yup, in the morning we headed to the theme park for all the rides and fun. In Japan, they are more crazy about Hello Kitty and even Snoopy, so these merchandise were quite present everywhere. Some of the rides we took included Spiderman, Jurassic Park, Terminator 2, Back to the Future, Backdraft, etc. The performance show WaterWorld and the parade of stars on the floats were all quite entertaining as well.

After shopping around, we were taken to Kobe City for a walk around, dinner and a view of the night scene before heading back to the hotel.

Day 3: Osaka Castle, then headed to Kyoto using the Shinkansen (Bullet Train). We started off the morning with a visit to Osaka Castle, though we did not actually enter the castle. After that, our tour group took the bullet train to Kyoto train station (the ride was only 20mins) and had some free time shopping at their underground shopping area + lunch. After that, our sightseeing began and we visited 2 well-known shrines. The first was Heian Shrine and the second was Kiyomizu Temple.

The day ended when we checked in to our first onsen (hot spring) resort for the night and also dinner. Here's where we had to sleep on the tatami flooring and had very Japanese style dinner sitting on tatami as well. Quite a cultural experience indeed. What's more, we both tried out using the hot spring (seperate for males & females) where you had to be totally naked! Quite nervous...hehe...Lucky when I went, no one else was around :P

Day 4: Checked out of onsen resort, headed towards Mt. Fuji. This morning, spotted a sakura tree outside the hotel area. It was a lovely sight to see the flowers drifting in the wind. The rest of the day was spent travelling towards the 5th base station at Mt Fuji, with toilet stops and lunch breaks in between. The rest stops in Japan are really so clean and they've got shops selling lots of stuff too. Interesting :) We tried some grilled unagi in teriyaki sauce and also bought some nice, big, sweet strawberries which were in season. Nice! Well, unfortunately we could not go up to the Mt Fuji 5th station due to the snow up there. It was also cloudy and rainy where we were. We had no choice but to head back to our second onsen resort to retire for the day. Another night of tatami and Japanese style dinner.

Day 5: View of Mt. Fuji, then Yokohama and Tokyo. This morning, we were really blessed with terrific weather after the rain and cloudiness the previous day. Clear blue skies meant we could see Mt. Fuji. The tour guide thus took us to a picturesque spot at Lake Kawaguchi to get a view of the volcanic mountain... That really made our day :) Here's our favourite photo of the trip.

The rest of the day seemed to have passed by quite quickly. In the morning we saw Mt. Fuji and before we know it, we were in Yokohama (which is very near Tokyo) shopping, eating and looking around. The main thing we saw there was this Cosmos World which was some outdoor theme park with a huge ferris wheel. Other than that, nothing much. We then ended up in Tokyo in the late afternoon where we had time to catch sight of Tokyo Tower (to me, can't compare to Paris Eiffel Tower) before shopping around in Shinjuku. After a group dinner there, we headed back to the hotel to rest for the night.

Day 6: Tokyo Disneyland + Free & Ez shopping time. We went to Disneyland in the morning and already the renowned theme park was packed with lots and lots of tourists, including Japanese! Not the best day to go to Disneyland indeed. We were partially affected by Japan's Golden Week holiday I guess. Anyway, we tried to play some of the rides but some queues were way too long that we gave up. Even with Fast Pass, some adventures had to keep you waiting 4 hours plus! It was crazy. Well, we enjoyed what we could, queued to have a photo with Mickey Mouse, and left the place some time after lunch for shopping in Tokyo city - Shibuya. Lots of fashionable (but also expensive) clothes, shoes and bags. I wonder where the Jap teens get all the money! Food is quite affordable though. So that was good :) That's it for the day.

Day 7: Asakusa Temple + Ginza shopping. This marks the last day of our trip. In the morning after checking out, we were brought to another of Japan's famous temple, Asakusa Temple. Here's where we had a group shot taken (1 of the families is not in. They were pretty weird and aloof so did not even bother to join us in the photo-taking). There's also a street with 2 sides sold many lovely souvenirs and gifts. Some last minute shopping here! After which, we were taken to Ginza area for some final shopping (more of all the branded stuff) and lunch. With a bit more shopping after lunch, it was time to say Sayonara.... Off to the airport to wait for our flight back to Singapore....

Well, that about wraps up our Japan trip. I really liked the place for its cleanliness, orderliness, very good service culture and great food. Looking forward to another Japan trip perhaps next year? Hokkaido maybe...Haha..anyway, that's for us to dream for now.... Back to Singapore, back to reality!