Our Saturday

is spent simply and the routine goes as per usual.
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We had Daddy with us thus woke up rather early this morning and made quick plans for a place to have our breakfast. We chose to dine near West Coast Plaza as there's a wet market located just opposite the plaza; so ANG Mistress can buy some fresh produce to cook a soup dish.
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It was decided to go for radish soup. Throw in some carrots, Endoki mushrooms, chicken thighs, some salt, thyme leafs and honey sugar for a more wholesome flavour; how about trying to 'imitate' the healthy and succulent Chicken stew served at The Soup Spoon.
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I prepared my radish soup in a BIG BLACK crockpot as any additional soup will be frozen to gear the family for our weekday madness. Working days are rush rush for any "FTWM" hence any home-cooked healthy soup will arrive handy and serve as time-savers for her.........heehee......
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Now, while waiting for the soup to simmer over medium fire, it's coffee-break time with some cookies as a handy snack......of course, it's wipe wipe the general surfaces after the snack.
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Hmmmmm........the life of a typical working housewife...........and just as per my New Year resolution, whip up more home-cooked meals for my lovely little family.
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GONG HEI GONG HEI

.............to everyone out there........May your lunar OX year be blessed, blissful, prosperous with lots of wealth, adventurous and healthy!

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This year, the family did not take many pictures partly due to being lazy......lugging our SLR going around New Year visiting along with a 4-year old is quite a chore. (sound like a lame excuse?......opppsss......imagine those mummies with more than 2 kiddos.......hahaha)

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Alright, it's really lazy then for not taking pictures this year during our visiting. Ok, a little recall of what our troupe did during the past few days:-

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On Lunar New Year Day (26 January 2009)

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We woke up quite late into the morning at around 10ish (very unusual for us to wake up late on the first day throughout these years), munched some raisin bread and washed it down with coffee, changed into our brand new wears before stepping off to Kiet's paternal grandparents home. Before leaving, we definitely did not forget our usual rituals that is, for little boy to 拜年 and receive his first 红包 from us.

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Next up, while at the paternal grandparents', little boy is reluctant to do his 拜年 stint nor recite his 恭喜发财 (don't know due to whatsoever reason). He appeared very shy and expressed his displeasure when we 'pushed' him too much. Not wanting to upset him, we left him alone and decided to leave for mummy's maternal grandmother's home in Aljunied. Little boy finally did manage to co-operate before we left his paternal grandparents'.

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At his maternal grandmother's place, he was elated to meet his Uncles (Mummy's cousins) who played and entertained him. The maternal family gathered around for steamboat lunch shortly (our usual lunch arrangement every year). After lunch, we received a few guest and chatted for a while before deciding to depart for Mr Chua's mum's located at Telok Blangah.

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The usual amount of relative Mr Chua have always amazes us. Crowded in a small 3-room flat, the big and small family members added together can easily fill up the entire unit! We had to squeeze ourselves to move about the house every year without fail.

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Finally, the last point of the lunar first day will be Philip's place. All of the gang-friends will assemble at Phil's place in the evening to 拜年 and have our dinner there. Card games is inevitable and it will be played late into the wee hours. Children will also fill the house, running about or nudging each other for a chance to play the computer games.

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On 2nd Lunar New Year Day (27 January 2009)

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We went to the temple in the morning to offer our prayers for a good and smooth-sailing lunar year. Little boy was as usual in his cheerful self and was well-behaved most of the time at the temple.

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After that, we dropped by Philip's place again and since stayed there until dinner time, we headed for home as Daddy needed to report for work in the night.

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On 3rd Lunar New Year Day (28 January 2009)

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Mummy sent little boy to school and headed for breakfast alone. It's a cool relaxed day as most Singaporean are still away from their workplace. The most part of the day is spent lazing around watching cable movies and house-keeping. Not long, it's time to pick the child from the daycare.

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We arranged for yet again all of the gang-friends to assemble at Phil's place for a good round of poker game. The children played computer games while the guys entertained Phil's mum (with the ladies on-looking) and Phil's mum won quite a fair bit by the time the gang called the game quit at past 4am.

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On 4th Lunar New Year Day (29 January 2009)

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We slept over at Mr Chua's place until the late morning. Our children also skipped school today as they had a rather late night just like us. We left for lunch at home then continued to take a nap in the afternoon. By evening, we got changed and left for dinner at Vivocity.

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We brought a water-spray gadget for dear son from Toys-R-Us (upon his long delayed request) after our dinner as Daddy had promised to bring Kiet for a swim and water-play some time when he is free. Mummy also brought herself a pair of shoes since Charles and Keith is on sale and she needed to change her working pair soon.

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We headed home shortly as Philip rang up and informed that the gang is dropping by our place for lunar new year visit.

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The Moo Moo sound

gets closer and nearer as the clock ticks each second of the day away......

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After many rounds of packing, dumping, sweeping, vacuuming then cleaning and wiping, I can finally call our humble abode not anything but...............CLEAN.........

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The loss of 2 days earlier in order to battle my fever luckily did not deter me from completing my spring cleaning task by today. Hooray!!!......Just in time on the eve to complete all the outstanding including putting up the auspicious lunar goods.

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Fortunately for me, there's Master ANG who is the chef for our reunion dinner tonight. The in-laws are popping over for dinner and I guess we can't wait to lay our hands on the food!!

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Dear son has been "a lot of help" to us........the curious boy is always getting himself into little trouble for the past few days while trying to 'help' us with the decor and cleaning. Although he meant well and of course trying to have FUN, he will often find himself messing up our things in the end. Oh well, after all, he's only a mischievous 4 year old.

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Oh yes to mention, last night we wanted to absorb some lunar New Year ambient out there hence decided to check out the night market in Clementi. To our surprise, the area (usually quite crowded and happening during lunar season) is barely filled with people on the street. The wet market is also empty, people not aplenty and we cannot spot any lunar stalls - STRANGE. I guess Singapore's slowed economy has really eaten into people's pocket.

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Alright, shall get the corridor washed now before ushering in Mr Ox........later...........

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Finally, it's my last day

at work.......I mean today marks the end of the RAT work year while we usher in Mr Ox on Sunday night.....

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The past few days were bad for me, I'm down with high fever and bad throat hence was absent from the office for 2 days in order to sleep through and recuperate.

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I returned today mainly to pack up, tidy and wipe my desk so I can walk in on Lunar 5th Day with a big wide smile, looking down at my spick and span work desk, all ready to start work steadily for the OX year.

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In a short while, will be leaving the office to fetch dear son home. Hooray for the impending weekend and lunar new year!@@!

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Our new "L"

.............is collected yesterday as we bade farewell to our 4+ year old "M"; and we thanked "it" whole-heartily for serving the family soooooooooo...........well for the past few years. No breakdowns, no incidences (touch-wood) ecetera.

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More commonly, many people usually plays no attention to the key equipment or necessity that serves or assist them every day. It's most often taken as a GIVEN that our equipment MUST SERVE US EVERY DAY, RAIN OR SHINE.

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Rather, we beg to differ from the common. We would like to dedicate this blog entry in memory of our "M" and mark the beginning of our "L".

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Our brand new 1.5L Mitsubishi Lancer (that the ANG Mistress decided to call it "L") is of key importance in the ANG Mistress' daily life. "L" will now assist her in her daily routine starting from chauffeuring Kiet to his school, then to her workplace and/or around Singapore, and then finally at the end of the work day, pick Kiet from his school back home.

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Path forward, our "L" holds an important task (just like "M")........it's our family transport day-to-day. A great assistance who make sure we are on time and on schedule each day.

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That's how important our "L" is; so can one imagine the haywire in the ANG Mistress's daily schedule without "L" now?

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Woo hoo.........that Peranakan

themed drama is indeed creating such a stir in the Singapore media! Even to the extent that made me very tempted to visit Malacca and Penang for a taste of that nyonya!

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From the debut starting Nov 25, the craze grew more intense as the story unveals how the life of this deaf-mute beautiful nyonya lady's named Ju Xiang evolves, and later her daughter Yue Niang's life was somewhat as challenging as her mother's.

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The setting of peranakan culture and traditions back in the 1930s impressed many viewers - I would be glad to lift up my hands in agreement too!! Good job indeed to the producers and team for gathering the props, set and the firming location together to make the drama a huge success.

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Now, I'm dead certain the drama will generate a lot of interest for Singaporeans (like me) to stream into the Malacca and Penang town.
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Brand new week awaits

Our precious weekend flashes through us again.

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Our family has never been adventurous during the weekend partially due to Daddy's work schedule and our life-style........We belong to the laid back type. Actually, after being "conked out" by hectic work schedules on weekdays, it's wiser to lay back and slow down our momentum on weekends right?

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Another reason of ours; being deprived of proper nutrition. With the focus on eating better and quality nutritious food, home-cooking on weekends will be compromised should we plan many out of home activities hence we'll rather choose to whip up a healthy meal back in our kitchen.

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Just last weekend besides cooking, we made full use of the time at home to achieve another key objective - Start Our Spring Cleaning.

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Daddy helped to take down the curtains for a spin.......the windows were thoroughly cleaned since they were badly dirtied by the recent wall-washing exercise (we're having a new colour on our block).

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The cupboard interiors were wiped and aired, loose items slowly tidied and packed.

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The spring cleaning exercise will likely last us another couple of weeks before we can call our humble abode anything but - CLEAN......heh heh.........

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A Big Hello to 1st January 2009

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Yes, our family woke up early this morning and welcomed 1st Jan 2009 with not much plans but to take the day easy. Without an idea in mind, we set off to find a place for breakfast.

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Coincidentally, we met our close neighbour at the lobby and all of us decided to have a hearty porridge breakfast in the West Coast area.

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The age gap of the kid in both family are quite close. Kiet aged 4 years while little Chloe is 2 and 1/2. They enjoyed each other's company very well and were following each other closely.

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After our breakfast, we strolled around West Coast Plaza to see if there's any more new attraction - but we found quite nothing much.
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We spent over an hour in the mall, satisfying our caffeine urge over a bun and head home for the children's afternoon nap.

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The rest of 1st Jan is idle and laze around the house. Simple & relaxed. With 2009 anticipated to be challenging, it's wiser to stay relaxed and charged up to face those unforeseable situations. Not to mention, a new school term awaits our child tomorrow!

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Farewell Forever

..........to the Year of 2008.

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You'll go down in history as a year full of natural disaster (Cyclone Nargis hits Myanmar & Worst earthquake hits Sichuan provine in China) that eventually followed by illness that plagued mankind.

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We next saw Energy and Commodities prices peaked for the first time while watching in awe at the 1st XXIX Beijing Olympics Opening 'Live' on the television.

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In a short span of time, we watched Thailand changing her Prime Minister as if she's changing her clothes while financial tsnami flushed everyone's savings away. Then, those damned Chinese milk were found to contain melamine causing children to develop kidney damage......

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Also there were nitty gritty news happening and happening.............Gosh!!!

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SO Goodbye Year 2008!!!!

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.............as our family looked forth to a brand new start ahead....

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Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas (Part Two)

.........yes, we're spending it in a very different way indeed!

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Along with grandpa and grandma, we crossed the checkpoints and joined our dear friends in Johor for a warm BBQ & steamboat feast at their humble abode!

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The traffic on Christmas Day was uncongested hence we arrived just in time to help in setting up and getting the food ready. Everyone feasted themselves silly and dear son for once, spent his first Christmas Day overseas and it's along with his grandparents!

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On Boxing Day, we brought grandpa and grandma to the Jusco shopping centre as it's their first time there. Needless to say, we brought quite a bagful of things though.

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While dear son as usual, was up to lots of mischief and definitely enjoyed himself throughout.......(that's of course since there's no need to attend school on Boxing Day)

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By Saturday afternoon, we returned to Singapore also without much traffic fuss. Lucky us!!.........Let's hope we'll get a chance to visit to our friend's place again before the Lunar New Year.
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There........a jolly short break and an unusual Christmas for our family.
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On a side note, it's most regrettable to hear from the media that the "most exciting woman in the world" best known for her 1953 Christmas song "Santa Baby" died on Christmas Day at age 81.
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Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas (Part One)

..........and our family did, starting right from yesterday, on the eve of Christmas.

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Daddy was still on his long leave and due to the morning rain, dear son skipped his half day at the daycare. Not to be left out of the Christmasy eve, Mummy also left her work place early and the threesome had lunch before going home.

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After an afternoon nap, Mummy started preparing some simple fare for our X'mas eve dinner.

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We feast ourselves silly during dinnertime with pasta, cheese sausages, sprouts, fishballs and some beer!.....oppsss, I mean our child is given water and orange juice......hahaha

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Although not an elaborated party of sort, we enjoyed our dinner very much in our peaceful and cosy home. After dinner, we washed up our dishes and settled for the night with some story-time and TV programme.
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This Christmas Day, we would welcomed it in a different way this year!.......
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(to be continued)
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Another week had passed

woooooo............the Christmasy season is nearing.......especially now while enjoying this song in the office......
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Time really ticks away and we've done quite a fair bit of things last week. Hmmm.....we shopped and dine at Bugis Junction on 16 Dec evening.
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Bugis had changed a fair bit and it's been a while since our family went there. Before the year closes, we thought it's a good idea to spend our evening there that day......
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On 19 Dec, Mummy and her colleague planned time away from work and went chilling out! The girls had their korean lunch at KU SHIN JUNG (East) followed by leisure cycling (been a while since we last cycled) around East Coast Park.
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After the cycling exercise, the girls hopped over to Jones the Grocer at Dempsey Road for Tapas and coffee. It was really leisure and some rain made our stay at Jones even more cosy and comfortable that late afternoon.

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Later the same day, Master and Mistress ANG arranged to have dinner followed by a movie at Orchard Cineleisure. We brought tickets to watch the latest mandarin movie IP MAN starring Donnie Yen. (It's Mistress ANG's favourite martial arts actor)
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On 20 Dec (Saturday), we joined Kiet's paternal grandpa and grandma for dinner followed by a snowy evening at The Jewel Box. Master ANG remembered that it was more than 30 years ago since the last time his parents brought him to Mount Faber for his 1st cable car ride. Hence this trip to Mount Faber, he wanted to rekindle that cable car memory, but this time, it's their son who brought them back for the ride instead! - Yup, I know, that's how lovely my Master ANG is.
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Not long, Sunday arrives before us. We spent most of our time at home lazing, recuperating and sorting out the last few Christmas presents. We also tidied the house and cooked simple fare before a brand new week awaits us.
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Setting goals

Sipping my cup of coffee away after putting dear son to sleep.

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The night breeze gets more chilly these days as year end sets in, a hot and now turning cold coffee is absolutely necessary to keep me warm and awake while browsing the net.

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The thought about setting goals come into my mind. Just last year also around the December month, I was trying to set new goals for the new year 2008 with Daddy over our retreat. Somehow, I do realise that most of the goals were not fulfilled and I'm still dangling feeling nothing much achieved - probably we did stike it right in some other areas I hope.

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So, just what would I like to expect of myself? I'm really keen to find it out as I don't want to have the idea of where the year went and blink, you missed it all over feeling again year after year.

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Having settled down for so many years, one do gets weary but it's not a good excuse to run away from the commitment and obligations of course. So, instead of running and hiding when the feeling of weariness and tiredness sets in, why not convert it to turbo-powered goal? haha.....sounds so funny....but I think it's all in one's mind. It's YOUR CHOICE how you want the story to start and ends.

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So don't keep telling your mind that you cannot achieve your goals. Start to tell yourself that when you don't do anything at all, it is as good as not achieving your goals.....to start with.

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Now get your buttocks working!

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Happy Hatch Day Uncle HOW

Today's public holiday made it possible for the gang to gather for lunch this afternoon to celebrate Mr HOW's birthday.

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We had a simple vegetarian lunch followed by cake cutting over coffee session at Uncle Philip's place.

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The cake was yummy........Aunty Allison brought it from Bengawan Solo.

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The children had it better - they watched Madagascar 2! In no time, everyone left Uncle Philip's place for home.........the children need to nap you see.....hahaha...

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Oh, not forgetting to wish Mr HOW - Happy Hatch Day!

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SUN DAY

was sunny and humid for us to bear.

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Hence we decided to drop by the library after our morning prayer at the temple.

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It was exciting for Kiet as this marked his first official library visit where we observed that he picks out books to read on his own - quietly.

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We remember during his earlier years, he'll be running around the library premises with Mummy or Daddy chasing after him. To him at that time, it was pure fun.

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This time to the library, we can tell that he's enjoying the books much more.

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It's time - to nurture our young reader. He is obviously ready.

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Bolt

Mummy's company arranged for its' staff movie screening - BOLT on Thursday evening at Lido 2.

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After work, Mummy picked the 2 children (Kiet and Poh Ong) from their school and daddy from home to meet up with Aunty Allison in town.

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All of us had dinner before the movie adventures of the cute white dog starts.
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Kiet enjoyed the movie very much. After the screening, he even wanted Daddy to buy him a white puppy.....haa.....our silly boy! Before we headed home, we had a cuppa coffee at the Mcdonald's joint near Shaw Tower to end our day. The long weekend is due to start shortly!! Yipee............!!

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On this last day of November

.........dear son woke up slightly past 9am this Sunday morning and requested to have his breakfast.

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Mummy hence got his bluey IKEA table setup and he was enjoying a chocolate donut shortly. (His gu gu had brought the donut for him yesterday).

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Seeing that dear son had well settled himself to the breakfast, Mummy then left the table to prepare a coffee and snack for herself in the kitchen. When she returned to the table shortly, she found her boy indulging and looking like this!!!

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It was absolutely hilarious and Mummy quickly brought him to a mirror. Mummy's laughter must have tickled him so much that he also started laughing at himself.

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It's really how much he enjoys the chocolate eh? Ha ha..........

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We got him cleaned up after breakfast and the entertainment kicks in. Mummy loaded the Madagascar 2 website on her lappy and the trailers kept dear son well entertained. He was enjoying the Move it Move it MTV and even particularly liked the scene of Moto-Moto walking up to hitch with Gloria - opppssss.......that's quite a mature 4 year old here......

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Home-cooked lunch was served at half-past noon - upon dear son's request again. We ate rice mixed with carrot/pork stew and japanese nato beans! It was so yummy.........both of us finished our lunch.

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After washing up and a bottle of milk-milk, dear son is now well settled down having his regular nap time while it's Mummy's very own opportunity for her reading and leisure......kekeke.......Mummies do deserve a break isn't it?

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What is the office coming to?

The media always reminds bloggers to avoid mentioning issues, affairs and names of your bosses, office politics and where you work for.

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I jolly well know it.

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However, I'll still like to 'vent' my frustrations and announce that it's a XXXX stressful day at work today.

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Why??!!??

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Due to the in-efficiency of others - Of Course. Ewwwwwrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!

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Eric Carle's favourites

This is it.

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The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Little Cloud and The Mixed-up Chameleon by award-winning children's book illustrator and writer, Eric Carle, retold on stage in the dark.

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It's the very reason why we're on our way to the Victoria Theatre this morning. Yippee!!

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There were a lot of children with their parents at the theatre entrance when we arrived. To avoid being squeezed among the crowd, both of us headed straight into the theatre for our seats since the performance is due to start in about 5-10 minutes time.

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We got settled down, geared the dear son on a booster seat and the show started quite shortly. All the young audience were mesmerised. Their eyes were glued to the stage while they name out the animals, objects and colours!

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Dear son enjoyed himself for the whole 45 minutes. He was rather reluctant at first (perhaps being afraid of very loud and dark environment) but was engaged quite immediately like the other children after the show started. On the whole, it was a great and engaging performance by the Canadian puppeteers from Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia!

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For those who had missed the performance, Mummy had managed to take a little sneak from her mobile.......hehehe. A better video (promotional) may be found here: http://www.mermaidtheatre.ns.ca/repertory/vhc_video_med.shtml

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I Like to Move it Move it

Yeah.......the Madagascar sequel returns to town!

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Children, mum and dad's all time favourite and now this adorable animation is back in town........opens in all theatres on 13 November 2008.

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Before we sneak on the real thing, say how about a preview of the Music Video?

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