The boys protested :"Huh.... why you don't want to eat with me?" and "Unfair! Where are you going without us?" Usually I will soften my heart and feel guilty but this time we have decided to take a short break to celebrate this special day of our lives -- Our Wedding Anniversary.

Sunset view at the East Coast Beach

I feel satisfied dining at the seafood restaurants here and is definitely recharged just smelling the fresh air surrounding the sea especially after the rain. Of course, I have not forgotten to capture some pictures to share with the boys:)

My family loves close encounter with the sea. One favourite activity we share is to enjoy the scenery and sea breeze while we laze and relax ourselves in water tour - be it in the boats, ferries or ships.

1) Star Cruises, 2) Royal Carribean Asia Cruises, 3) Duck Tour, 4) Singapore River Cruise and 5) Singapore Zoo Boat Ride. Our latest try out was on board the Imperial Cheng Ho Cruise. We experienced both the Morning Glory (morning tour) and Imperial Dinner (night tour) by Water Tours Pte Ltd. Each trip is unique on its own.

The morning tour brought us to Kusu Island, an eye opener for my kids, where they learn a little more about Singapore's history and had a good time roaming and running around the sacred Island.

View of Sentosa, Singapore

The evening cruise offers a spectacular view of the firework display at Sentosa (Songs of the Sea) and yum yum...buffet dinner.

The boys at the dining area of the vessel. They definitely have a good time.

There is transportation pick-up from Hotels to Marina Pier. More information can be obtained at http://www.watertours.com.sg.

"Brendan, do you need help to cross the water?"

"Hey! See who has the slimmest waist!"

"Go! Darren Go! You have our greatest support."

"Can you see the banana trees, pandan plants and guava trees?"

"Mummy, it is so interesting that tyres can be used as pots."

"Excuse me...give way please. Here I come!"

The boys at the Water Play area...."Cheer up boys. We will bring your swimming costumes the next time we are here."

Darren on his first pony ride

The boys have an enjoyable afternoon at the Rainforest Kidzworld. Still lazy to walk, we took a tram ride back to the main entrance.

Darren seems to be uninterested in food recently. His eyes light up only when he sees potato chips, french fries, biscuits and of course his favourite apples.

While sourcing for interesting food recipes, hopefully to find something to improve his appetite, I visited http://www.thefoodcoach.com.au.

Must say that it is a very informative site and found many interesting recipes, and tips and tricks of food selection there. It features videos on how to choose a fresh apple, avacado and many others. This knowledge is definitely very useful to me especially when I have to do my weekly marketing.

Will remember the tips learned and try some of the recipes there.

This poster, publicising a "Food and Science Fair " at the Singapore Science Centre, caught my attention while dining near the Kallang Old Stadium. I went through the website for further details and extracted this information.


Date: 28 Feb to 1 Mar 2009
Time: 11.30am to 7pm
Public Rate: $16 per adult, $10 per child (3-12 years old)

This is a 2-in-1 event where food and science are happening together. To make your money and trip more worthwhile, there will be an all day unlimited buffet spread of over 60 dishes prepared by Sakura International Buffet Restaurant. The event offers cooking demonstrations, healthy recipes, interactive food exhibits and candy-making for children. Check it out! Why not? if parents and children can walk away from the event feeling fulfilled...you eat and get educated at the same time.

I had a nightmare early this morning and woke up crying. The feelings were so unpleasant that it left me feeling upset for the whole morning and affected my mood badly. I must be feeling stressful again....

There will be moments when our children cry badly during their sleep, struggling with the fear, unhappy moments and loneliness that they feel in their nightmares. I extracted tips on methods to comfort a child after a nightmare from eHow.com:

Step 1:Comfort the child by holding him. Reassure him that it is okay to feel scared and everyone has dreams and nightmares that are upsetting. Your calm presence will help strengthen the child's sense of security.
Step 2:Ensure that nightmares are not real. Soothe him by saying that it is over and the nightmares cannot hurt him. Children can pick up stress from parents' voices. Use a calm tone to console the child.
Step 3:Familiarize him with his favorite objects in his room. This will help him differentiate between reality and dreams.
Step 4:Offer the child a security object to hold which will help a smooth transition back to sleep. It could be a blanket, pillow, a stuffed toy or soft music.
Step 5:Turn on a dim light and leave the door open for him to overcome his fear.

Brendan spent his free time in the holidays and at night piecing jigsaws. His "master pieces" are displayed in all the rooms of the house and he parted with some of them as gifts for friends.

Brendan has started the interest of reading James Lee's Mr Midnight and Mr Mystery since he was 7 years old. He will always be on the lookout for the launch of the new series and never fail to remind me to purchase the books as soon as possible.

Till date, 2 years later, he has collected a total of 48 books. Today, a delighted Brendan bought his latest collections namely:

1) Mr Midnight #52

My Cupboard's Full of Cobras

The Girl Next To Me Is A Witch

2) Mr Midnight #53

Terril Tan's Terrible Tongue

Do Not Call This Number

3) Mr Midnight #54

Cross-Country Creeps

The Dead Are Watching

4)Mr Mystery #12

The Mystery of The Body In The Bath

I support Brendan in reading as long as the contents are healthy because it will help him in improving his English and writing skill.

I basically do not enjoy reading books and can hardly spare time to read one. However, there are moments in my life when I feel that I need inspirational booster and self-motivation. Reading has healing and inspiring effects....

I have always preferred not having a domestic helper/maid. I am in the 9th year of my parenthood and I have already had 9 domestic helpers and not to mention I was without a domestic helper for a while during this period. Besides 2, who were with me throughout the whole contract, the rest had only short stints ranging from 1 month to 1 year.

The domestic helpers were supposed to relieve this busy mummy of her load but somehow they never make it. Perhaps, I have high expectations, am petty, busybody or simply not having any luck with reliable domestic helper. One thing I know is that many of them did not persevere to have a good relationship with my elderly one at home...

I was conducting my random check of my fridge last night after 2 months and to my horror, I discovered these inside:
1) Liquid of prawns and squids were spilled all over my tray in the fridge
2) Lots of food with overdue expiry dates stocked up
3) Similar food eg. many packets of buns stocked up
4) Chestnut skin flakes spread across the vegetable compartment
5) Rotten vegetables
6) Stench
7) Blood from the raw meat on side handles and on tray
8) Fresh meat bought for almost 2 months and not cooked

I could not help but housekeep my fridge at 1am in the morning! My heart aches as I have to discard so much wasted food and think of how much expired food my kids have consumed without my knowledge and under the "Good Hands" of my domestic helper.

This morning, I gave my domestic helper a session of "enlightenment". Surprisingly, despite my great displeasure last night, I did not raise my voice. She was told:
1) Never to include in the grocery shopping list, items that we have already had plenty
2) Include in the shopping list, food items that are necessary for cooking the following week since I usually plan a detailed menu list for her before the following starts
3) Good Hygiene IN and OUTSIDE the fridge
4) Never waste money or food
5) Check expiry dates of food and never feed us rotten food or food that has expired
6) Cook food items that have earlier expiry dates/purchased earlier first
7) Clean the fridge IMMEDIATELY
8) Always cook leafy vegetables first instead of vegetables that are less perishable
9) Caution us to consume food if the expiry date is near

Although we have to trust our domestic helper in these health, hygiene and wastage issues, this is one instance to show me that it is often better to be safe than sorry. That is never relax but to check. Imagine I have shared with her these rules the first day she joined but still....

My heart still aches to think of how much food I have discarded and what my kids have consumed and no wonder she always complains of insufficient space in the fridge...

It is Valentine's Day again. Any special celebration for me and my loved ones? No, we have stopped celebrating Valentine's Day for a while. Reasons are many.....my "He" has been outstationed, the Occasion is simply too commercialised, our wedding anniversary is just round the corner and 4's a crowd to celebrate (with my two boys who always want to tag along)...

I happened to come upon 2 plush bears and I decided to present them to my boys to let them know that it is Valentine's Day today.

Here's wishing my friends out there "A Happy Valentine's Day".

I support environmental protection and believe we can all do our parts by practising "Green" actions at home and at workplace. Build the environmental awareness in our kids and lead them to follow the good examples and the effort can go a long way.

Something meaningful by David Haahr (extracted from www.aforestry.com):
"We have borrowed this planet and the RIGHT TO LIVE HERE from our children and we owe it to them to take care of their planet and give it back to them better then we found it."

Would like to share some recycling and reusing efforts that are worth practising at home in this Go Green Episode 1. Thanks to my mum as some practices are passed down from her. The benefits are many like environmental protection, cost savings, setting good examples to the kids, promoting some creative ideas along the way and...... So why not?

1) Paper boxes (eg. tissue boxes, game boxes, electronic product boxes)
exercise art and craft skill here to create i) handy boxes for storage of jewelleries, stationery items, toys etc. ii) "piggy" banks iii) magazine holders iv) friendly signages at home v) bookmarks vi) cards vii) compartments in drawers and others

2) Used plastic/glass containers
i) contain salt, sugar, flour, sweets, cookies, sauces, liquid toiletry items and others ii) paint on glass containers and create self-designed vases and others

3) Old clothes
used as rag and colourful old pieces can be cut as materials for artwork

4) Tin containers (eg. mooncake boxes)
used to contain sewing kits, cards, small items like toy figurines etc. and as compartments in drawers and others.

5) Old torned blankets
cut out the beautiful cartoons and pictures on the blanket to create beautiful artwork

6) Ice cream sticks
painted and used for kids' art and craft and as base of reused boxes

7) Traditional calendars, old diaries and one-sided used copy papers
for the kids to take down notes, draw etc and to jot down my daily instructions for my domestic helper, always practise printing on both sides of paper (wherever possible)

8) Water for rinsing handwashed clothes
wash balcony and compound outside the house

The examples can go on and on and so just let your imagination go creative! Will continue in Episode 2...

So next time before you discard these items, think twice on how you could recycle and reuse them. Before you depart for your next shopping trip, you might want to bring along your reusable bags:)

Most importantly, REMEMBER, our children, their children and grandchildren and so forth will benefit from our thoughtful practices.