Reviewing The Year 2015

As 2015 comes to a close, its good to review the year, especially when its a good one. Its been awesome from many fronts.

Family - Wow what can I say thats not already obvious ... Emily has lightened up our lives. Not just Meimei and me but our parents and siblings as well. All the sleepless nights and tiredness worns away immediately when I recall the days before our little one arrive. Yes we don't get to laze on the sofa and watch TV anymore. We can't go anywhere on a whim or chance a meal at a hawker centre etc. But all these sacrifices are peanuts to the fulfilment and wholesomeness we have in return. Family life just feels more complete now :-)

Work - I count myself very lucky to have stumbled on this role. Though its on a one year contract basis, its purely project work and I don't have to deal with any operational scope. That's a big plus, I don't have to stay late for closing and the hours are pretty good with only occasional calls at night. Also its just a 10-15 minutes drive from home so I go home for lunch and see my baby everyday. Most importantly, the people I work with closely are very nice and accomodating. My boss has kids so she can relate to the challenges I'm having with a newborn. My colleagues are also helpful folks who will try their best to meet whatever needs you have of them. And by the looks of it my contract might be renewed so all is good!

Could this year have got any better? Nah, I'm contended with the blessings we have had and wouldn't ask for more. I can only hope that next year is just as good if not better ;-)

Christmas Dinner 2015

Meimei's cousins and family travelled to Singapore for Christmas this year. The plan was to have lunch or dinner together at a restaurant. But the stumbling block was the request to find a place where there is a children play area for the kids.

Eateries with children playground in their own premise is an extremely rare sight in Singapore, given the sky high rentals. Any inch of space would be used for extra tables to house more patrons. You don't need to provide children facilities to attract customers.

So Meimei managed to convince them to come to our humble home instead where Grandma has a bed to rest when tired and the kids can play in the playpen. Papa and uncle can also be at ease while drinking to their heart's content and not be inhibited by public eyes.

To welcome them Meimei prepared a huge spread of food. The pre-dinner appetisers alone was already a meal in itself. Everyone was already full by the time I came back with the Zhi Char ... 

I'm glad everyone enjoyed themselves ... or at least I think they did hahahah. Alcohol usually helps hehe and when you have a big group people tend to find company to chat with. And if they don't they can always play with the kids.

So I would say the get-together was a roaring success. There was a lot of food left though after ... enough for complete meals for a couple of days!

Dinner At Otto Ristorante

Its been a long while since I've enjoyed a dinner with folks at work. This group are nice cordial plant types, not the corporate crafty sort. So I was excited to join them for Christmas dinner and celebrate the year. 

My manager managed to get a pretty big budget (@$150/pax) for our get-together so we had a healthy choice of up market restaurants to choose from. Eventually the vote went to Otto Ristorante, an italian outfit along Maxwell Road.

We met up for pre-dinner drinks and finger food at a bar nearby so we arrived for dinner in good spirits ... And already half filled stomaches! So even though they were serving the 5 course Christmas set dinner, we opt for ala carte instead. 

Ripe Italian tomato, Burratina cheese and Pio Tosini Parma ham

Dill marinated amberjack with orange jelly and crunchy fennel salad

Crispy assorted mushrooms and goat cheese parcel with potato veloute

We had 3 sets of 3 anti-pasti to start, together with the fragant bread. And with white wine for drinks I was afraid everyone might already be done before the main course. 

Thankfully all the chatter and nicely paced serving help the starters to settle before the mains arrive. I ordered the Atlantic Tagliata and a colleague was kind to trade his suckling pig. 

Atlantic cod Tagliata with black taggia olives crust and sweet garlic sauce

Crispy “suckling pig” lacquered with acacia honey and balsamic vinegar

Seared Tuna on beetroot carpaccio with stracciatella cheese

Grilled lamb rack cutlet with comfit shallots and purple potato mash

I didn't get pictures of all the main courses, I recall someone ordered the Linguine with Boston Lobster and another had the Beef Tenderloin with bone marrow sauce. But that's ok ... it wouldn't be nice to go all the way across the table just to get a picture hehe.

Bergamot crème brulee with vincotto marinated raspberry

Warm chocolate cake with Haitian vanilla ice cream

Apple and pine nut crumble with chocolate ice cream and cinnamon sauce

I ordered the Creme Brulee to test it out for Meimei. I'll go for the warm chocolate cake ... it was heavenly heheh ... I know cos two colleagues gave me half each of their cake. So I actually had 2 servings of desserts!

The place is on the pricey end but not anymore far off than other reputable Italian restaurants. I'm definitely bringing Meimei here for a nice candlelight dinner soon.

Waking Up To Cooing

It just happened. We didn't expect it to happen so soon. A constant soft cooing sound woke us from our slumber. 

We woke to find her standing up on the crib and calling out to us. She has somehow learned to heeve herself up and hold onto the railing. And her call wasn't in distress but rather a soft mellow coo coo, trying to wake us. It just warms our heart hearing her yearn for our attention. 

This is the golden reward for all the sleepless nights. Now I can look forward to waking up to beautiful cooing every morning, at least before she learns to shout papa and mama hahaha.

Since she knows how to stand with support, I'm pretty sure she will soon be running unassisted through out the house. Already she attempts to let go of a hand and balance on her two feet. 

She is a daredevil that knows no fear or pain.  Somehow that scares me abit but yet I feel encouraged that she is not afraid to try things on her own. Her sense of self discovery is strong and that can only aid her in her future mental development. 

An Indian Wedding

Neighbours invited us for their daughter's wedding.

Stubbornness Showing At 9 Months

She's showing her personality more as she reaches the 9th month. Very stubborn and bad tempered at times. She is going to be a handful. I was reluctant to be the 严父 but she is leaving me with no choice. I still love her to bits but must establish boundaries before she goes wayward beyond control.

Little Miss Sunshine

Aiyah ... Cannot see~!

我没坏蛋！

我不吃～ :-P

点虫虫，虫虫飞～！

Zzzz ... Nom Nom Nom ... Zzzz

My 淑女 Look

Fishes Fishes Where Are You ~

赌神wannabe

First MRT Ride

Do Posts Look The Same When Editing From Ipad?

It's very hard work blogging on Ipad's safari. I can't even change font type without having the help bar come up and block my fingers from the Font tool button. I had to start typing first on the default Times New Roman and getting to the 3rd line or so before I can 'Select All' and switch to Verdana. It also wouldn't let me switch to my desired font upfront before I start. I suspect it may be easier on html but I've never learned the language.

So here I am trying to string together a post using the ios touch keyboard. What comes easy on an iphone with 2 thumbs turns into a challenge when i try to type using all ten. Just note that I've given up just in the last sentence and am now doing baby typing with my 2 index fingers. I need to 'feel' the keys if I was to type like normal.

Why am I torturing myself? Well, I guess I'm just working around my circumstances. You see, Emily usually sleeps in our room in her own crib because she hasn't been able to sleep through the night yet even at 8 months. We don't have a baby camera install in our master so we have to take turns to watch over her when she goes to sleep at about 8pm. And Meimei has been busy in recent months so I take watch duty most of the time. I actually look forward to it as its quite relaxing since I could laze in bed and play with the ipad or iphone.

And herein lies the problem too. I've been falling behind on my blogging since I can't be at the imac on most nights. I'm very used to uploading my photos into the imac and blogging on it. A real keyboard and mouse makes a world of difference when it comes to publishing. Also my entire store of pictures are on it.

So to get around this issue I'm trying out blogging on the ipad. Of course its not that simple, I have to do some prep work first by syncing pictures I want on the blog into a temp album first. And I haven't really tested this at this time of writing so I'm crossing my fingers that the formatting isn't going to run all over the place. 

Anyways we'll know in the next few post. Cos this looks like the only way I'm gonna get up to speed on the posting. Its important to keep the momentum since absence tends to lead to a withering blog ... *gasp! Hmmm maybe I should invest in a ipad keyboard ...

HK Trip 2015 - 25 to 30 Nov - Part 2

28 Nov - The 2 Hour Slumber

Very rarely does Emily sleep any longer than 30 minutes during the day. So it kinda excite us when she kept going after an hour. We constantly checked on her though to make sure she wasn't in distress. But with this we lost the whole afternoon and could only get out for lunch at 3pm. I managed to get a run at HMV to grab some DVDs.

Papa and Mama was kind to babysit after returning from dinner so we had a chance for a quick date night. We didn't have many choices though since it was already 9pm when we set out so we went to the same diner Papa and Mama was at earlier. Decent food, it had all the hallmarks of The Ship restaurant.

29 Nov - A Day To Ourselves

For the most part. I was on my own for breakfast. After that Papa and Mama took over Emily and Meimei and I had a couple of ours to ourselves. We took the MTR to Causeway Bay and then transferred to the Ting~Ting to get to Sai Wan Ho district. We were back to Asahikawa Japanese Restaurant again. I still had the vivid memory of this obnoxious platter of Salmon Sashimi served on a huge bowl of ice. Although we didn't get to order one ourselves (the menu looks to have changed since we were last here in 2013) we still managed to savour a few delicate dishes. I'm coming back here for sure!

I think a big part of the satisfaction also stamps from the fact that the meal cost a fraction of what it would cost if we had ordered the same in Singapore. Move over Sushi Teh, this is how you do it. The sashimi was fresher than any you could get in Singapore.

30 Nov - Back to Singapore

The day was uneventful. We had an afternoon flight so we didn't get to venture out. I might reconsider the notion of a midnight flight considering that Emily made a bigger fuss on the trip back.

All in all, this was a wonderful trip. It's Emily's first airplane ride and it was a joy to have her see all her distance relatives on Meimei's side. And everyone was singing the same tune, she has grown up so much due to the trip. She just seemed to blossom overnight.

HK Trip 2015 - 25 to 30 Nov - Part 1

This year is different, very different. Gone were the carefree days where we roam the busy streets of Mong Kok to shop. Now every activity is planned to coincide with the feeding patterns of one little rascal ...

25 Nov - Midnight Flight to HK

They only offered the midnight flight for the discounted tickets. Even for the odd hour, it was fully packed flight. Pity the folks sitting around us as we try to pacify Emily as best as we could. I might opt out of midnight flights again until kids are older.

Thankfully Papa had already arrive earlier with Nyama so we had a room to crash for a couple of hours before checking into ours. Emily held her bottle for the first time. She seems to have grown up for this trip.

As usual the first stop is a trip 七喜 to see grandma. Somehow Emily couldn't warm up to great grandma and cried every time she was brought close to her. Today was also the first time she's having her own bread.

We ended the day takeaways from a nearby restaurant. There was no way we could eat out with Emily. And everyone was beat from the flight.

26 Nov - Meet and Greet Continues

Breakfast at the usual coffee place. This is the only place in HK that I would finish a 菠蘿油 all on my own. Even Honolulu Cafe's cannot compete with it. OO knows it's good too hehe.

Meimei made sure we squeeze in a trip to Diaso in Mong Kok. It's her latest craze, lucky it's only $2 an item. After that we had Yum Cha with PoPo at Wan Chai. It's planned by Papa and Mama so we couldn't say no. I suppose its important to keep in touch with friends and family, even if we only meet once a year.

27 Nov - The Fake Michelin
We braved the temptation to stay near the hotel today and went all the way to Wan Chai for our favourite Honolulu Cafe. We've been here every time we are in HK for their egg tart. We only had time to tabao some for dinner at 七喜. But still I'm proud to report that it's still as good as ever.

I can't say the same for Yung Kee's legacy though. Kam's Roast Goose at Wan Chai was supposed to be the 'successor' having obtain a 2015 Michelin Star while the original Yung Kee lost it. I must say it is an extremely bad pretender. I cannot see how it can be a Michelin, the roast goose was horrible. It was tough and tasteless. Gone were the days of Yung Kee when the roast goose was rich and succulent. Emily's not impressed either haha .. Yuck~!

The Simple Things - Crawling

She's hit another important milestone today. They seem to be coming frequently these days.

She crawled towards me today. Not the confident stride but still slow and unsure of herself. But it's amazing to see her grow so fast.

Although I love seeing her grow and learn new tricks everyday, a little part of me wishes time will slow down to give me more time to watch her. That tiny step, that glee in her eye when you play with her ... ahhh love love.

You Didn't See Me

Umm numb numb ummm You do not see me Umm numb numb ummm ...

A Week Of Sleepless Nights

We brought Emily to the paediatrician for her scheduled vaccination last Friday. And for some unknown reason, they conveniently gave Emily a 2nd jab for flu together with the scheduled one before we paid for it. And only at the payment counter were we given the package deal for the 2nd set of vaccinations.

To be fair, I do not know better what is required for a baby. I'm not the type to read profusely to figure out every detail to child upbringing. I find that there are many different perspectives and what you read may not always be inline with your beliefs. So I put my trust in the doctors who are the professionals and know it better. So it alarms me that they just went ahead to give Emily a 2nd jab which is not on the 'must' list by MOH.

This excess dose of vaccination gave Emily fever for the first time. We tried to ride it through but she was going up into the dangerous 39+ during the weekend and so we went back on Monday to have her look on again by the paediatrician. What ticked me off was the audacity by the paediatrician and nurses to claim that the fever did not originated from the vaccination but rather from a viral bug she caught ... it just happen to be a coincidence. Coincidence my foot!

Sigh ... but there was little we can do other than doing a blood test and getting more potent medication for the high fever. Thankfully the blood test results came back good and indicated that Emily's immune system was still putting up a good fight.

So armed with a comforting knowledge that our little baby was in no immediate danger and with added medication, we went home and saw through the rest of the week with sleepless nights as we try as much as possible to get up every 2-3 hours to check on her. It's no wonder why everyone says it's better to have kids earlier .... a couple of nights like that is taking a huge toll on both of us. But ... anything for our precious little princess!

8 Months of Joy

It's picture time again! She's learned a lot of new tricks over the past month. We like that she is very observant. It's healthy for a growing baby.

来呀！我们一起玩！

Afternoon biscuit snack time

Gotcha~!

我没偷吃饼干呀～

Can I have one of that
yummy looking cake?

The Simple Things - Sitting

Emily sat up on her own today. And Meimei and I were right there to witness it. We have been giving her ample tummy time with hopes she will learn to crawl and its paid off.

Sitting up on her own is the first step to crawling. Soon enough we would need to step up a playpen and cushion all the furniture. But that's ok, she is worth every effort, every late night.

She's oblivious to this important milestone though as she looks at us in bewilderment. "Why is Mami and Papi clapping and cheering?" She must be thinking ...