Friday, February 17, 2023

New Wedding Bands

Woohoo! Finally collected our new wedding bands. Cost close to $3K but so worth it. The old ones had turned yellow and were too tight. We went for the platinum ones since they are touted to not discolour. We'll see. More importantly, Meimei is now able to put the band on together with her diamond ring.


Wednesday, February 8, 2023

Happy 5th Birthday 阳阳!!

Meimei bought ordered cupcakes for 阳阳's birthday celebration at school. Glad we were able to do this since he already missed 2 years of school celebration due to Covid. 

As usual we did another round of it at home but he was cranky by the time we got to it. Everyone else were all smiles except for the birthday boy haha.


Tuesday, February 7, 2023

Rubber Slap On Face

萱萱 and 阳阳 will tugging at the squeezy rubbery band we bought from marina square. I didn't see it happen but Meimei narrated the aftermath in chat.

"姐弟俩玩巨型橡皮圈,姐姐放手弹到弟弟的脸"

"眼睛没事,可能有一点红也可能是哭红。右边鼻子一点点鼻血"

Yeeyee: "Confiscate all"

Meimei: "Already did"

Yeeyee: "Already told them not to do that"

Meimei: "Really stupid" 

Yeeyee: "Even confiscating doesn't feel like enough punishment"

Meimei: "I know but Didi got punishment enough I think"

Meimei: "He went mirror then cried harder: now I am not as cute anymore…. I like how I look last time…. Waaaaaaaaaaillllll"

Yeeyee: "Haha, gosh, I can feel him"

Nyama: "真是又好笑 又好气又可怜…"

Thankfully the red patches subsided the next morning and he was chirpy as a bird again. Let's hope they learned their lesson and not do this silly tug of war game again ... well kids be kids right? Hahah they are going to do it again no matter what we say.



Monday, February 6, 2023

Gift Of Hilton Diamond

A colleague of mine is a Hilton Diamond and one of the perks is the ability to gift Diamond status to another account. He generously gifted me Diamond for the year so now I can enjoy the perks of being a Hilton Diamond member. That includes breakfast, free room upgrades, free drinks at the lounge etc. Perfect for business travel.


 

Friday, February 3, 2023

Mouldy Bamboo Shelf

I thought bamboo are water resistant and generally least susceptible to mould and fungi. So I didn't put a coat of  lacquer when we bought this shelving from Ikea. Unfortunately it seems the bamboo wasn't treated so mould started growing on it. We have to clear out the stuff on the shelf, give it a good wash before bringing it out for a good coating. If that doesn't work we'll have to discard it.



Tuesday, January 31, 2023

Kiddo Talk & Pic Jan 2023

Many Pattern - narrated by Meimei

“Why so many tobots beside my bed?”

阳阳: “They wanna sleep with me!”

“Why you so many pattern pattern one”

阳阳: “Not me! It’s the tobots so many pattern”


Sharing Pillow ... Kinda - narrated by Meimei

why is leon rover on the bed??

萱萱: because yy wants him to sleep on my bed

no leon rover goes on the table

阳阳: (protests) but he is not comfortable! 

then give him your pillow. Not huggy buddy. 

阳阳: ....... ok but I keep ah choo onto my pillow

leon rover is fine he is safe from your virus

阳阳: ........ ok fine //mama is surprised he say ok

(a few moments later)

阳阳: I think leon rover sleep already. he is ok if i take the pillow from him if he sleep already //mama nearly internal injury trying not to laugh


Fever no video - narrated by PokPok

萱萱" “Papa I cannot sleep cos I sleep a lot in the afternoon”

“Haiz ok then give you one more episode”

萱萱: “Eh I don’t want, later watch video my fever will go up”

“Ok then how about you read a book”

萱萱: “Ok!” Runs off to find book to read



Game more important - narrated by Meimei 

At 5+am

阳阳 got up to pee and ask me to accompany him because he is scared to be alone.

I accompany but ignoring 阳阳 .. trying to let him sleep on his own (I just sit beside playing tsum - this information is useful later) 

After 40 mins he got up and whine “bad dream…” I didn’t respond 

(by then 6+)

Oo sat up “he wants you to sayang”

Me: maybe later 

Oo: tsk.. game more important 😡

Me: aiyo no… (went to kiss her) 

Then I go and kiss 阳阳


Dealing with emotions - narrated by Meimei

No aircon last night then didi angry with me blame me for not giving aircon then he is so hot he got fever

After I explain it’s not related and ask him to eat medicine he sulk and hissed “let me calm down first!”







Monday, January 30, 2023

Elixir Haul #11 - New Brands

Still the staple Hardy VSOP but trying out other brands just to see if something else surprises us in a good way.


Sunday, January 22, 2023

CNY 2023

Happy CNY everyone! 

As with yesteryear we were only going to visit our parents. Even though Covid restrictions are lifted, no one really feels like visiting others. Well at least not in my family. I mean there are 1st cousins whom I don't know the name, never seen them in years and wouldn't recognise even if I come face to face with them on the street. Such is the conduct of my parent's generation - they get at each other's throat in the name of $$$ - that is filtered down to my generation and we lose that touch of family. I try to keep my kids away from all the drama and hope we correct that for their generation. There are already so few kids that its sad if we continue in that awful trend.

Anyways happy holidays! 


Saturday, January 21, 2023

Children's Art: 2023 Bunnies

Bunnies to mark the year of the rabbit. Love the festive decoration.



Friday, January 20, 2023

Allergy Test For 萱萱

Made it back in time to bring 萱萱 to the scheduled allergen test at KKH. There was apparently some miscommunication and we only did the environmental allergen test for things like dust mites, bed bugs etc. Everything was a straight negative ... I thought we were concerned over honey allergy ... so this trip was simply a "pay for good-to-know" test. Haiz ... anyways we scheduled another session for food allergies in a fortnight.




Thursday, January 19, 2023

Food On Jan '23 Cincinnati Trip

Traveling alone in winter months makes it harder to eat out. All of my meals were alone except for a team gathering on Wednesday. I'm fine to dine alone but it gets difficult during the weekends when restaurants are packed. I still had a few good meals at some nice restaurants and mixed it in with simple fare like subway for lunch. It's expensive to eat out in US ... I probably spent more for meals than my hotel room and car rental combined.

Southwestern breakfast omelette at Chilli's Minneapolis Airport

Prawn and lobster combo mix at Red Lobster

Fish sandwich at Cock & Bull Public House
Pizza at Mellow Mushroom

Chicken and Beef Wrap from Aladdin's

Vietnamese noodles from Saigon Noodle Bar

Brunch at Matt the Miller's Tavern

Breakfast at First Watch


Saturday, January 14, 2023

Snow Flurries

I learned this term when I saw it on the weather channel. Wasn't sure what it was till I saw it today. It's just small falls of snow but not enough to cover the ground in white. They would melt on the pavements and road and only sign that they fell was the bits of snow on the car this morning.

They are hard to get off the windscreen though. The snow had harden and swiping the wipers just makes it worst. I had to peek through the windscreen to drive to breakfast.



Tuesday, January 10, 2023

Stopping For The Train

This is probably something very mundane to most but we don't have a lot of train crossings in Singapore. So having to stop for one for a good 10-15 minutes and watching it go by is an experience. Not sure if I want to experience it again though ... I can see the hassle of waiting for it and the frustration if you are in a hurry.




Saturday, January 7, 2023

First Touch Of Snow

That's right, I've never touch snow before. The closest I've gotten to it was at the glacier on a section of the Rocky mountains some 30 years ago when I went to Canada with my parents. It was more ice than snow so I don't think that counts.

Since I am stuck in Minneapolis for the night and there is snow everywhere I took the chance to walk right outside the lobby of the hotel to get my first touch of snow. And of course I took a video of it.


Kids were very excited when Meimei showed them the video. Ok so at least there is a 'bright' side to missing the connection flight. 


Missed My Flight

Traveling for work again and this time I was the only one asked to be there in Cincinnati ... in the cold of winter. I missed my transit at Minneapolis because when we landed there was no gates for us to disembark. We were stuck on the tarmac for 40 minutes and coupled with the international arrival TSA, I had 5 minutes left when i cleared it.

I think I ran a full 2.4km from one end of the airport to the other and missed the flight by 5 minutes.


The Delta counter gave me and everyone else (there was a long queue and they were familiar faces from the same flight I was on) a free hotel and $15 meal coupon. Unfortunately I didn't have my luggage with me so I had to brave the cold with whatever I had on. And it was cold cold cold. I had steam coming out as I take a breath.