Posts Tagged ‘family’

Short note: The last three pictures were taken with my Berry phone for Tweeting. The picture quality is obviously not fantastic. The only gripe I have against my otherwise awesome phone now with super chio themes!

I didnt think I’d spend my birthday 2 weeks ago in any special way but it turned out to be an awesome and fun day.

I spent most of the morning wondering how best to conduct the birthday giveaway because I’ve never done it on such a large scale. Haha. I worried and fretted over whether there’d be a loophole in the system or whether anyone wanted the items, but eventually figured out the best way of doing so. Lo and behold, in the end, I got more commenters than I thought I would have for the giveaway! I’m still reeling from the success of it and hope to do more awesome giveaways with other sponsors in the future. Silkmineral.com has kindly sponsored a whole of items which I will be giving out this week and next! Wheeee! They even included a little set for my own personal use making me a very happy girl.

Anyway, the morning spent with Mum and Nicole on my birthday passed quickly and soon I headed out to meet Mich for Ice Age 3 in 3D! Awesome show with fantastic graphics. It’s a feel-good show meant for chilling out, laughing and simply enjoying yourself. No need to crack your brains over some weird and twisted plot. What came as a surprise was that not only was the show in 3D, the trailers were in 3D too! Super cool!

After the movie we went to take Neoprints! Hahahaha. I think Neoprints are some things that you should just definitely take on birthdays or special celebrations to commemorate them. What better way to mark the occasion by capturing the moment in a pseudo photo studio? Afterall, you ALWAYS come out looking fabulous in Neoprints. No harm done.

To maximise the money we paid for the photos, we decided to linger in the studio a leeeeetle longer and make use of their background and soft white lighting. Lol.

Doing the 1, 2, 3. I leeched the pictures from Mich’s blog. I love what she’s done with the colours!

Our attempts to copy the Japanese girls in the posters looking kawaii failed miserably. Let’s just stick to being us.

I have so much fun with Mich because she’s so easy to be with. Thanks babe for the birthday treat! Oh and did I mention that she inspired me so much with her outfit that day, especially the Zara blazer, that I went out and bought something to that effect within the next couple of days? She’s got a wicked sense of style.

After all that excitement, I met with nadnut and Belle for coffee and got a little cake courtesy of beautiful Belle.

That somehow progressed into a mini birthday celebration involving the several SPI-ders orchestrated by my mom.


Queen Sallee. Princess Taqinah.

They so cute. They brought me flowers and a crown to simulate the crowning of Miss Earth. Hahaha! Huiwen bought the lovelies and brightest bouquet of gerberras for me. Thank you loves.

So, I am officially almost a quarter century old.

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Father’s Day passed with little fanfare as with most of the festivals in my family. We adjourn for dinner at simple restaurants and well, hardly exchange gifts. I do feel guilty about not showering mum and dad with gifts on Mother’s or Father’s Day, but I do try to make it up to them on their birthdays with extra special and expensive dinners at posh places.

Plus this year, with my brother in the army we had an early celebration last week.

I think it’s seems to harder for us to express our affection for our Dads. Especially with stay-home moms, it’s obvious the things she does for the house to keep the house in tip-top living conditions.

But have we ever thought about what our dads go through at work to bring home the bacon? Some people take for granted their dads are personal money banks. Wtf.

I never truly understood what it was like having a full time job until I got into the workforce myself. My dad’s the strong silent type and he never talked about work; I just thought he wasnt the chatty type. However, being the same horoscope as him, I can now fully understand where he comes from when all he wants to do is sit in front of the TV after dinner and veg out.

When it comes to the big decisions about things/choices in life, ideas or growing up, my dad always gives me advice about making the right choices. Not that I ever reaalllly listened when I was younger, but now I know better. Haha. Plus, with the deep knowledge he has about Singapore’s roads, I know that if I ever got lost anywhere in Singapore via public or private transport, I’d be able to call Dad.

I heard about the idea of a date with dad during the Kieng’s hen party from Jeannie, but I never thought I’d be able to carry one out. The idea seemed scary too. What would we talk about!? Jeannie mentioned that lotsa children never took the time to understand their dads and y’know what, my date with dad out turned out pretty nice.

Mum was out for dinner with her friends and my brother had an appointment, so it was just us two. I had initially planned for us to eat at Marina Square, but dad decided that since the Botanic Gardens has a foodcourt at the basement, we should thus go there. Check! My dad’s great at planning a nice dinner date, he just never shows it regularly.

The food wasnt spectacular at the foodcourt (I had some overpriced avocado milkshake and undercooked grilled chicken), but it was fun hiking/walking around the area with dad looking at the various plants as he retold the story of him and mum 25 years ago in that very same Gardens in their wedding gear.

I remember clearly the picture of them posing at the Swan Lake. The lake which, according to dad, used to have black swans currently only has two white swans.

After his story, I told dad about how I remember coming here to release my terrapins into the ponds. Coincidentally, one swam up to us at that moment.

We then roamed about the Gardens looking for the tree that mum and dad took their wedding pictures at; the famous one that all couples HAVE to have a picture at. But dad couldnt remember where it was and we ended up walking around exploring the different attractions with narration about how horrid the weather is by my personal tourguide. Haha.

My dad, my superhero. :)

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For someone who stands tall (literally) and looks as though he can squash anyone by sitting on them, my baby brother is more like the Big Friendly Giant than the deadly Flesh Lump Eater.

He’s a big softie who cries at simple things, like when his bros bought him a bass guitar for his 21st birthday.

He’s a big romantic too and if I dare say so, a gentleman. He insists on sending his friends home all the time using our family car, but that sometimes leaves ME without the opportunity to use the car.

*glares*

Being the super nice friendly giant, he invites friends over to our house to play too. IN THE WEE HOURS OF THE MORNING, they’re jamming away on Guitar Hero on the Wii.

Not forgetting all the times he’s up in the middle of the night as the rest of the world is trying to get a decent sleep while he’s jamming, in his boxers, on his guitar plugged solidly into his amps. Lol.

I remember fighting with him and punching each other as we were younger. Both eventually running to mum yelling at the same time, “Miiiiiii…. Jeremy/Jiejie hit me!” I remember wondering how come he always got the chicken drumstick while I had to be content with eating the chicken wings. I also remember him scrawny and spiky hair-ed, looking a lot like Fido Dido when he was in lower primary.

Then there are the times when we would hide under the blankets in our parents’ room and pretend we were in the Antartica. We’d have hot chocolate and sit by our pretend fireplace and warm ourselves. Or maybe we’d build a blanket tent in the corner and hide inside pretending we were spies. Peeking out, our imaginations took us to war zones with approaching enemies and we were guards with a whole array of weaponry defending our fort. One thing I’ll always remember for sure, is how I used to always ask him to kiss me on the cheek because I liked how being kissed on the cheek felt, and he would oblige. HAHAHA.

We were such kids then.

My, how we’ve grown.

Through heart-breaks, growing pains and creeping into each other’s rooms with tears streaming down our faces, our displays of affection, at present, have progressed to making monkey faces at each other and nose-kissing. Sometimes even poking each other in the ribs. Still these dont the discount the love we have for one another.

The house will certainly be quieter without him around and I know my parents are nervous/scared/worried and excited about him going in the army. Feelings I share, but try not to think about because I trust and have faith in my brother.

I will miss my closet ah beng of a baby brother.


AH what! You call me ah!

I will miss my photography/cam-whoring partner in crime.
Pssst! My brother takes some really cool photos!

Take care Jemmie! We love you! See you in 2 weeks time.
We’re behind you 100% of the way!

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The family has not been on a holiday getaway together in a very loooooooong time. We had initially planned to go away for the weekend to KL, but in the end decided to stay in Singapore and check ourselves into a tiny little Sanctuary tucked in a quiet little corner of Sentosa island.

I cannot help but rave about the Amara Sanctuary. I had wanted to book us into another resort on the island but owing to some technicalities, eventually decided on Amara. And it was fantastic! No regrets. Even though I was just there a couple of weeks ago in March, I’ll be there again very soon this time to celebrate a girlfriend’s hen night! Wo0o0o00ot. Super happy to be unwinding there once again!

Our room package came with buffet breakfast for 2 and I LOVE buffet breakfasts at hotels because they have everything that I would love to have for breakfast on a daily basis: cereals, juices, yogurt, bacon (!!!), scrambled eggs, eggs done sunny side up, toast, croissants, fruits, salads, waffles (!!!), porridge and whatever you usually get at hotel breakfasts. But this breakfast blew me away!

Here’s what I had for Day 1.

Which was just the appetiser.

I loved the water biscuits and the cheese and the smoked salmon! Atas food to savour at an atas hotel. Then I had stuff which was pretty much made up of all things greasy. Muahahaha!

Of course, that wasnt just it. I had a tonne of food which I didnt bother taking pictures of because I was more concerned with filling my tummy till it exploded. But there was super duper delish muesli yogurt which was not to be missed, the freshly cooked eggs any way you wanted, even into an omelette with all sorts of filling and the porridge with GINSENG. There was even a sort of Chinese food section!

Day 2 I had countless servings of the water biscuits, cheese and salmon combination.


Trying to make it look more like fine dining.

Then round 2.

Pastry section was chock full of muffins, croissants, toast, apple pies and what nots. And they had dim sum on Sunday! Obviously Sunday morning breakfast would never be complete without dim sum such as prawn dumplings and paper-wrapped chicken (yummy!). Do you see the omelette and the porridge in the top corners of the picture? Looking at them makes my mouth water all over again.

Then then, came my ABSOLUTE FAVOURITE part.

THE WAFFLES!

There was a woman who happened to order waffles while we were in line getting our dim sum and we overheard her order much to our delight. Of course, after that we went straight to the waffle counter and ordered 2 sets of the yummylicious, fluffy, warm and delish waffles for ourselves. They came with maple syrup and butter on the sides, giving you the option of enjoying the waffles first in their original state before enhancing their flavour with toppings.

Look how thick the waffle is! And a healthy breakfast is never complete without the free flow of juices, coffee and tea!

Other than the satiating breakfast they offered, did I mention the big white comfy beds? *bounces*


My brother showing off his sexy leg.

And the bathroom had both a shower stall WITH a rain shower head AND a bathtub.


Cam whoring in front of the huge ass mirror strategically placed beside the bath tub.

We didnt use the bathtub cause the rain shower head was absolutely heavenly. The water pelts at your skin and massages your tight muscles. The only other time I experienced a rain showerhead was in KL Tunes hotel. I sooo need to get one of those in my house next time!

Okay, I have to admit we spent a pretty much a great deal of time in the hotel room watching movies and soccer on cable teevee. It was no surprise we would because the room itself was super enjoyable. When we were out, we hung out by the sky pool and baked ourselves till we became brown.

It was hard to resist spending lots of time there because the sky pool overlooked the sea on the 4th floor.

Though there was some construction on-going in the background dotting the scenic view with tall and mighty cranes, it didnt stop us from going for a drip in the comparatively chilly pool.

Helllllllooo sun!

And then, it was time to eat. AGAIN. Lol.

We made our way down to Marina at Keppel Bay where all the atas people who own boats park them when they aren’t out on the open shores. This is my current new fav place to hang out because of the relaxing ambiance.

The restaurant Prive overlooks the bay where all the boats are parked.

I love the food and the coffee there (Illy’s!) which go for affordable prices. No pictures again because I’m such a pig for food. I gobble everything immediately when it’s placed in front of me. Haha. Things like the Mushroom pasta which I had, freshly made sandwiches and burgers with Wagyu beef are FANTASTIC. My favourite drink is the Affogato – espresso coffee with one scoop of Vanilla ice-cream. YUMMMM! The only drawback of the place is its hard to reach location. You more than likely have to drive your way in cause the journey by foot from the Harbourfront MRT would take you about 25 minutes.

After lunch, we went back to the hotel to cam-whore in the beautiful surroundings and make like a photoshoot.

And then we went around Sentosa and went to the famous wedding tree where all the couples take their wedding pictures! This time I was the photographer for my parents and I forced cajoled them into posing in front of it for some lovely pictures and make like they were newly weds!

My parents were pretty sporting (one of the many things I love about them) and I managed to get some really nice shots. I particularly like these two. So cute!

And to end our holiday off, we took the beach tram to around Sentosa. Though it was a Sunday and quite crowded with ardent beach go-ers and we didnt get to play beach volleyball, you never quite feel you’re on a break until you do touristy stuff and go round the Sentosa beach on the beach tram.

The weekend is coming and Im going back there again! This time with a bunch of girlies and I cant wait for all the fun stuff to happen!

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And it’s over! After 4 years of stressing over deadlines, exams and goodness-knows-what, WE HAVE GRADUATED! Donning the blue gown with GOLD sash, the ceremony was quite a quick one although we thought it would be a long and draggy one.

For the ceremony, they printed this Commencement Gazette, the book I call “THE BOOK THAT KNOWS IT ALL” and Bel calls “Kaypoh Book” because you can basically find out who’s graduating with what Degree and which Honours. Everyone who’s graduating this semester has their name printed in there! It’s like an oracle! So you cant hide or lie about WHAT you are graduating with! Bwahahaha.

The ceremony for our class began at 8pm and it was a good thing too because a lot of us had already started work! Which, however, also meant that we couldnt take half day off.

Mum and Dad attended the ceremony in the Hall because each graduate only had 2 tickets. Unless your Valedictorian that is. Then you get 4 more tickets on top of the stipulated 2.

With proud Mummy and Daddy! They bought a bouquet of sunflowers for me! SO SWEEEEETTT! My favourite flower!

And the customary photo-taking after receiving our scrolls follows suit.


With classmates Xiang Long, Gabriel, Raymond, Estee and me!


Leanne and Jeremy.


Pretty Daphne.


Super smart Alethia and me with a balloon. We love NUS. MUUUUAAAHHHH! HAHA!


With pretty Estee! YAY! We did it babe!


Boss Ming was there too!


With the two famous ETs. Estee Teo and Eddie Tong – our favourite lecturer!
We’re trying to read his mind!

And here are the goofy shots!


Doing the Sister Act.


Hollaring!


Goofing around with my baby brother! Haha! He wants to eat my scroll.

Finally, a family portrait!

CONGRATULATIONS CLASS OF 2008!

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After submitting my Favourite Family Routine post to Nuffnang in hopes of winning the Singapore Flyer tickets that were to be given out in conjunction with the National Family Celebrations day, I received an email shortly after announcing my win!

YAYYYYY! 7 tickets to the Singapore Flyer!

There was a stipulated time and date for our tickets. I didnt understand it at first, but then realised that May 24th was National Family Celebrations day! ALLLLL the families were coming out to play. Haha.

When I told Mum and Dad about winning the tickets, they were pretty excited about it! My parents are adventurous that way. So cute! The problem was having to find 3 other relatives who’d be willing to scale great heights with us. We first approached my maternal grandparents (as in Favourite Family Routine post), but they were rather apprehensive about the whole thing. And it didnt help that grandma wasnt in the greatest of shapes. Eventually, we managed to get my aunts, mum’s jie meis, who were rather interested in the whole affair. They readily agreed and we met at 3.30pm on the 24th of May.

I didnt expect there was a bus that would be charted for the Family Celebrations! How cooool and thoughtful of the organisers.

It was a quick bus ride from Coleman Street to the Singapore Flyer. And it was obvious when we’d arrived.


A large spaceship-like thing looms overhead.

I made a beeline to collect our tickets. And soon, we were on our exciting journey to Flying with the Singapore Flyer.

The boarding areas reminded me a little of our distinguished airport. And we even had to pass through metal detectors! But everyone cleared it without hassel and soon, we were that much closer to Flying.

But not before they try and pull some tourist-y stunts on us. We were all ushered into this large room covered with green walls. No photography was allowed in this room, but I didnt know that and happened to snap a shot of the room before the person stopped me. In your individual groups, we were all made to huddle close before a bright flashbulb went off capturing our priceless expressions.

Finally, we were walking among giants. And I mean giant capsules at that. As we ventured through the many walkways and bridges, we eventually made it to the one that would lead us to our capsule. As we stood waiting for an empty capsule to arrive, you’d see people empty out of the futuristic looking structure and walk along the bridge across from where you were.

The capsule never stops. And that’s the cool part about it. You’d expect the thing to halt for a couple of minutes to allow passengers to board and alight, but it doesnt. It just keeps moving and is completely seamless. And it’s really easy to step into the capsule. You dont have to worry about not being able to catch up with its speed or missing your step. Very quickly, we’re all on board. And our ascent in the futuristic capsule begins.

It being our first time in the Singapore Flyer, I couldnt help but admire it’s beautiful architectural design. Honestly, it’s clean lines both on the inside AND outside of the capsule amazed me.

When I wasnt gawking at this architectural splendour, I took some time to admire our city skyline.

From the top, we had a bird’s eye view of the Esplanade, the make-shift Marina Promenade “stadium”, and the expressway that runs an incredible length. The cars all seemed so tiny, like miniatures in a scaled model.

When we were at the peak of the circle, we also had some fun with the capsules “trailing” us.

The Flyer’s ascent is smooth, seamless and steady. You cant even compare it to an elevator since most elevators as we know it, usually growl with the sounds of its underlying engines. The Flyer, on the other hand, at times feels like it’s not moving! The only indicator of its constant climb, is the emerging horizon on your window. The journey downwards is equally deceiving. And soon enough, it’s time for you to disembark, but not before you take a family picture together inside.


I love the roundness inside! So perfect.

Before we say goodbye to the Singapore Flyer, here are some last few shots of it’s spectacular architectural glory.

Last but not least, a few picturesque post-card-ish ones. They look so fake (like superimposed or computer generated), but we took them ourselves! Olympus E410 DSLR.

And my favourite among them all.

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