What's A Good Name For My Girl?

Pokpok's surname is Bxx (masked for privacy). Yes ... Bxx. It's one of those rare and weird surname translated from the original Chinese one, X.

So now that we know it's a girl we can start to shortlist a beautiful name for her. One which we hope she would grow into and love. As I brainstormed, a few other funny ones popped up and tickled me to no end. She would hate me for life if we ever give her any of these. Others just don't sound right with the surname. I think its a big challenge to find any that goes well with Bxx. Hopefully our little girl will like the one we chose for her. There are so many to choose from ... Here is my top picks.

Agnes - This is a toss-up. Agnes is a nice name, think Agnes from the Despicable Me cartoon. I love the name, but ... Agnes B is the name of a fashion accessory brand. So ... KIV for now

Emma - Has a nice string to it, Emma Bxx. Great for a little girl but I wonder if it will suit when she gets older.

Emily - This is my top choice as of writing. Goes well with our surname. I think 3 syllabus names might work better.

Felicia - The few Felicia I've met are very pleasant people. A classy name.

Megan - I find it very lady and refined. Meimei thinks it reminds her of Megan Fox ... So I suppose it's never gonna be this.

Sarah - The name gives me a very homely, obedient girl vibe.

Now, for my top 'No way, please~' name, I present to you ...

Pika or Peeka - This would be just plain mean, straight up. You know how people like to go 'peekabxx!' at a baby to make them laugh? Yeah imagine the horror of being constantly taunted for life *shivers

I'm sure Meimei has a better idea of the right name. She came up with many of the good names here, the goofy ones are mine haha. So which would you pick for Pokpok's daughter?

No Eat, No Kiss, No Sleep

Classic quirky sign at Mandarin Gallery. The sofas look too comfortable to adhere to the sign.

Bombay Masala Appam

Pleasantly surprised with this Indian Appam stall at Changi Terminal 3 food court. Love the sweetness of the brown sugar and coconut mix.

Poulet

Have you tried Poulet before? I'm sure many have, it has outlets in many of the popular shopping mall. It's signature dish is the french roasted chicken in white sauce. Thing is ... I don't find the chicken any special. And having causally asked the people around me, I find everyone has the same opinion. The chicken is dry and bland. The sauce is sweet and a hit or miss depending on your preference for sweetness mixed with salty. I suppose westerners prefer sweetness in their food.

So why am I blogging about it now? Well because I've discovered the good stuff! Ok, the Tiramisu has always been a welcome dessert. Its soft and delicate, great for after meals and you don't get a rich punch of flavour after a full tummy.

So the dish that prompted this post is the .... duck puff pastry pizza. This is part of the new menu. They hit it right on the note on this. It's flaky, light and buttery and complements well with the duck.

I think I'll be back again to try the shredded chicken topping. :-)

Stella at Changi Coast Walk

It was a spur of the moment thing. The haze was gone today so I thought I'll treat Meimei to a nice dinner at Stella. My colleagues introduced me to the place. It's a tranquil restaurant right by the sea. They have an deck built right up to the waterfront so you can  enjoy the beating waves and constant breeze.

I was apprehensive to bring Meimei there at first because of the low ratings and mediocre reviews I've found online of the restaurant. But I thought why not, I'm sure Meimei would like the romantic setting, the quietness and coldness of an evening sea breeze.

As it turns out, the food was pretty alright. We ordered the Cajun Chicken and Fish and Chips. Fish turned out great, love the batter - had just the right amount of crisp. The chicken could use a little more marinating but was still tasty.

The overall experience was a pleasant one. We like the quietness of the place,  no lines to queue, free parking, etc etc. Surely one to patronise again.

Lovely Turkish Fare, Right in Singapore

It's rather odd that I've not blog about Sofra even though I've patronised it many times over the past couple of years. I supposed it's that we usually don't take pictures of the wonderful food we've enjoyed at the restaurant. I put it down to the dim lighting. And I think I like to keep it a 'secret' so we won't see the masses of people flooding the place.

It serves the most delightful chicken and beef/lamb mix. We usually start with a salad plate and sesame bread. The aroma of the bread together with the salad will whet your appetite and draw you into the main course. That is mostly the Doner Kebab rice, which is priced very reasonably at $10 for what is a very lavish plate of meats, cold salad and Turkish fragrant rice. And you will kick yourself if you do not have Kenefe for dessert.

Whenever we are near Suntec, this place always pops up as one of the go-to spots for lunch or dinner. We have yet to be disappointed by the place and we liked it so much we've brought both our set of parents here on separate occasions. Yes, it's a great place for a quiet family gathering. I'm adding this to my recommended YumYum place. :-)

Gynae Visit - September 2014

Since the good news that our baby was a-ok, we have been looking forward to seeing her again at the gynaecologist. I can't express the excitement I have to see our baby. To see her grow takes away all the sacrifices that we have made.

It was nice to see that Dr Loh was relaxed and joking with us. It's a positive sign that our baby is now safe. We can now make out her head, spine, hands and legs. It's truly remarkable and moving to see our baby moving as if she was posing for the ultrasound. She's gonna be a star!

Up, Up & Away!

Meimei had fun drawing balloons today as part of the Sister's entourage activity before the wedding of one of the Nua gang. Meimei has artistic talents.

Paper Flowers

Meimei had friends over for dinner. Pre dinner activity was origami flowers. Very fun and pretty!

Non-Kitty Kitty?

Oh my. What the ... wait ... no it can't be. No ... but they did say it, officially nonetheless. How is Kitty not a Cat??!!! That's like saying Snoopy is not a dog! Oh wait, Peanuts has confirmed Snoopy is a dog.

Ok jokes over, now take it back and let the world go back to normal. Say Kitty is a Cat. And you can go back to earning millions in merchandising. I will continue to queue for McDonalds Kitties. Really ... I'm not buying a little girl dress like a cat. I will buy a cat, not a girl.

*blows mind ... Kitty is a cat, I don't believe this official crap.

Our Baby Girl

We were at the doctors again for the regular monthly checkup a fortnight ago. There was a lining during the scan and doc was not comfortable with it. He recommended that we take the Harmony test. In all that visit costed $1,600. Ouch, expensive but makes more sense for a peace of mind.

So for the next 2 weeks after the appointment we waited anxiously for the test results. The wait and concern was a tiring and taxing time. It didn't help that Meimei was still tired and having her regular 2 hourly meals. Adding on this pressure didn't help her at all.

So it came as an immense relief when the nurse called her to announce the good news. Every results on the test shows 'Low-risk'. Phew!! Also as part of the test, they did some blood work and were able to tell the sex of the baby. It's a girl! YES!! I always wanted a baby girl for my firstborn.

I was secretly guessing that it was a girl. I noticed that Meimei's features are becoming more refined and delicate. Positive signs that the baby's female genes are helping Mummy become even prettier than she already is! Woot! Hahha.

They say daughters tend to stick to Dads. A little sai-nine here and there and any daddy will melt. I really wonder if I can stick to my agreed role as the disciplinarian of the family. A lovely 'problem' to have for any dad. Heh!

Vase 303 - 3 Aug 2014

Orchids are the flavour of the house now that a baby is coming. Nothing too fragrant for Meimei.

Our Baby Likes ...

You know how pregnant ladies have cravings. Preferences on foods take a wild turn and sense of smell become ultra sensitive, all of which may create a highly irritable mother-to-be.

Meimei's taste preference started to change about 6 weeks into the pregnancy. The most distinct change was a dislike for the taste of pork. This caught everyone around her by surprise. She loves pork, her favourite meat. Every meal had to have a pork dish.

It seems though our baby has a different taste palate. Meimei is now having foods you would rarely see her eating before.

Chicken - Meimei is a pork lover. Chicken is like a 3rd option meat, behind beef. She finds chicken a boring meat, bland with no flavour profile of its own. But  with the baby she starts to ask for chicken rice when I buy her lunch. We could have it for 3-4 days straight and it got to the point that Meimei was feeling bloated. It doesn't help that chicken rice are hard to digest so we try to cut down on the frequency to maybe 1-2 times a week. I also try to mix it up with other chicken dish like Ayam Penyet. Her friends and colleague are totally astounded at this change. The girl that has to have pork at every meal is now rejecting it?!

Laksa - For as long as I've known Meimei, I've never seen her have Laksa. Never. So it came as a shock when she started digging into my Laksa one fine Sunday morning at Qiji. Now she has it regularly whenever we are at Qiji. She even tried the Ya Kun version, which she didn't really like. I think its the strong aroma and taste that attracts her.

Ikea Hot Dog - This ranks up there as one of the weirdest too. This is pure junk food in Meimei's book. Yet she actively ask for it when we were at the checkout counter at Ikea. She would never ask for this before, but it seems our baby is drawn to the smell of hotdogs.

I'm expecting that Meimei's taste will change again as we move into the next Trimesters. We kept a box of durians in the freezer for any chance that she might crave for it in the middle of the night. Our pantry is also stocked with a couple of cup noodles for when she gets hungry at mid-night.

Thankfully she has not bugged me in the wee hours of the night for a particular food. I know she has her urges but she tries hard to sleep them off. *kiss thank you dear. Meimei is also trying to down pork in hopes that our baby will start to take to the meat. Can you imagine how restrictive it would be if both mum and dad likes pork but our little one can only take chicken? So ... Meimei 加油!

Gynae Visit - August 14

Today's appointment was both fun and worrying. Fun because we get to see our baby again. Worrying because Doc noticed something during the scan and recommended that we opt for the more expensive Harmony test.

We can start to make out our baby's shape from the picture. Very excited yet apprehensive about the doctor's comments. We will have to wait for the test result - in 2 weeks. All we can do at the moment is cross our fingers and hope for the best.

My First Rotten Apple

The wifi on my iPhone 5 died. It happen late June but only have time to blog about it now. That and the irritation of the laggy-ness of the old iPhone 4 prompted me to rant about it haha.

It took awhile before I noticed that the wifi on my 5 was dead. My first clue came when the telco sent an alert for hitting 80% of 4G data bandwidth. I was utterly confused why it was happened but checked anyways to see if I had inadvertently turned off the wifi. You know how sometimes it accidentally scrolls up the command centre and the wifi or bluetooth button gets on/off while in your pants. But no, that wasn't it, the wifi icon was still on. 

The next clue came when I tried to google to see if others were getting the same 'error' message by the Telco company. The wifi icon will start to spin but the web pages will not load. I thought it was the problem with the ISP connection again, which sadly breaks pretty often too, and reseted the modem. Nope that didn't help, pages are still not loading. And thats when I realised ... oh crap. It's like going back to my old Nokia. It's frustrating that the 5 died after only a little more than a year. I know things don't last forever, like how one of the USB ports on my Macbook no longer works. But without wifi the 5 is practically useless! 

So for the next week I didn't dare to update any of my apps and limited myself to only using Whatsapp on the phone. No safari, none of the news bulletin and definitely no gaming. Only on the day before the monthly billing period was gonna restart did I initiate the app updates. And that was done with care, checking the remaining data quota and matching the update size to make sure I didn't exceed.

Meimei brought us to Sim Lim to try to resuscitate the wifi by changing the antenna. Sadly it didn't work and the technician could only offer that we call up Apple to ask for a replacement unit. "Tell them you are a loyal Apple product user, best yet, if you have a few Apple gadgets, take a picture and show it to the customer service." "Oh and call the US hotline" Well that was an idea. We were after all loyal Apple fan ... we have 2 iPhone 4, 2 iPhone 5, Ipad, Ipad Mini Retina, Macbook Pro and an iMac. But well, in the end we didn't call. I didn't want to deal with another hassle with customer service.

Thankfully Meimei was here to the rescue again. She could sense my immense irritation and dug out her old iPhone 4 for me. It was a temporary measure, we are likely to get a iPhone 6 when it comes out later this year and I could then takeover her 5.

I'm disappointed that my 5 died. I've always thought Apple products were sturdily built. While it's not going to stop me from getting Apple products in the future, I'm starting to expand my selection to other brands. Those galaxy phones do look attractive.