First wedding anniversary with our bundle of joy

Parent-teacher-meeting…never heard that term for a very long time.

We enrolled Cutie in an infant-care center since Dec 2014 and we had the first parent-teacher-meeting a few weeks ago. So fast time flies, Cutie has been inside the infant-care for 3 months.

I remember back in late last year, we were still discussing the care plans for Cutie once we all start work. Shall we leave her in an infant-care facility? Or leave her at grandmother’s home? Or hire a domestic helper?

Cutie is not the “easy” baby to take care of as she needs lots of care. We are aware of these and thus were quite hesistant of sending her an infant-care facility, fearing that teachers may not pay as much attention to Cutie’s various challenges as required. Cutie has sensitive skin and would have an eczema flare inermittently, she has problems finishing her milk and she was very dependant on the traditonal bab hammock to get to sleep.

We finally decided to go with this infant-care center Josiah Montessori @ Aperia, which offered 1:3 ratio and has available vacancy.

The teachers did manage to wean Cutie off the hammock after 2 weeks and it did surprise us when Cutie actually can fall asleep at night with just some patting and song humming.

Sleeping on a rocker

Cutie is always the “On the move” baby and she loves getting on her feet and on her belly to explore new surroundings, new toys and new friends. Well, Charlotte means “Free Man” anyway, so she loves to roam around freely. During the parent-teacher-meeting, her main teacher showed me some of Charlotte’s on-the-move pics which were so cute!

Walking with assistance from her favorite teacher

Enjoying the climb during play-time

Cutie can sit down to play on her own too, sometimes enjoying a quiet moment with her books and sometimes interacting with other babies. There was even a pic with Charlotte showing her friend how to play a cube!

Sitting on a bumbo chair

Attempting to read

Teaching a friend how to play

Those were good moments in school but sometimes there can be lapses in Cutie’s care during the last 3 months there. On 3 occasions, Charlotte was handed back to us with very bad diaper rashes, even though she did not have diarrhoea. Never before did Charlotte had such a bad case of diaper rash. Darling would meticulously apply Desitin cream and clean up for Cutie over the weekend and ensure Charlotte’s buttocks were back to a clean normal state during the new week in school. However during the next weekend, Charlotte will again have an angry looking Diaper rash with bad excoriations. It’s so bad that Charlotte would refuse to sit down and cries whenever we change her diapers, it was that painful. Back-and-Forth communication with the teachers finally had them realize the importance of regular diaper checks and change. Hopefully Charlotte will have no more Diaper rash days.

================================================ Chinese New Year! Charlotte baby celebrated her first Chinese New year this year! Even though she didn’t manage to master the “Gongxi Gongxi” gesture, she still managed to collect her very first AngBao! Haha. She enjoyed the festival thoroughly as there were plenty of stimulation and interaction with adults and children. She was so high daily that she would jump around on bed and “talk” non stop even when her bedtime is way over!

Cutie’s makeover during Chinese New Year

Darling managed to dress cutie up for the occasion and gave her a 格格makeover. Hahaha.

Having cutie baby around in our lives have definitely brought more laughter and joy. Cutie baby is the ONLY ONE capable of making darling melt everytime. When darling is angry or sad, a smile from our Charlotte baby will lighten her mood every time. How I wish I have that power!

 

Many cheeky moments of Cutie

 

Today marks the our 9 years courtship anniversary and 3 years actual day grand shanghai wedding anniversary. The best years of my life so far. I’m sure there will be more years better than these 9 years coming along and I can’t wait to explore the world with my darling and cutie Charlotte. Next challenge is to go overseas with them!

Cheeky Cutie Baby

32.7.10.224

In case you are wondering if this is an IP address… nope.

Make an educated guess what the numbers mean and maybe u are right?

It has been almost 11 weeks since my last entry about our Cutie Baby Charlotte, and a lot of interesting developments have taken place. =)

Sitting independently

 

“Sit @ 7 months, crawl at 8″….the old saying passed down from our parents’ time…..Cutie does not seem to follow that and she is more like Sit @ 6th month, Crawl + stand + assisted walk @ 7. She is developing motor skills quickly and I am so looking forward to the day we can UNLEASE her in the park and let her run wild! I may have to source for rare materials to clothe Cutie before setting her loose, by royal decree from my Darling, les Cutie suffers any injuries. Of course Cutie has to be clothed with fairyleather infused with magical energies, wears a helmet made from  adamantine, dons a mithril vest, finally completed with knee and elbow guards made from Spidersilk….Now where can I find those materials…..Any ideas?

Cutie has grown bored of just flipping and rolling around (she only does that when throwing a tantrum), now she wants to grab hold of anything to assist her standing up. The world looks different from a higher perspective and she is enjoying that. We occasionally indulge her by lifting her up on our shoulders but we have to limit that if we still want to keep our hair…YES she pulls hairs! She can sit fairly comfortably on her own, leaving her hands free to play with toys or her favorite piano gym.

Cutie and her Piano play gym

 

She can play on her own but she definitely prefers a playmate or many playmates. She will grab every opportunity to “Eh” an adult to play with her. Her small cutie head will follow you when u walk pass and then she will assess….if she fancies your company, she will either “eh” you over or she will start to crawl towards you…but if she is lazy to do that, she will just cry. She loves to just stand and bounce…she can just stand and bounce all day without feeling tired!!! Small bundle of energy which can be expanded beyond capacity… The solution??? The Fisher-Price Bouncer! Yeah!

Always wanting to stand, bounce and be entertained

Cutie in Bouncer, talking to Big Bird

 

 

Cutie is in childcare now for the last 6 weeks and she seems to be enjoying her time there. Teachers will be around her all the time and she is surrounded by other babies and cheerful people, singing songs. She feeds more regularly in school surprisingly and hope it helps with her weight gain! Well, with school and other children, there is bound to be viruses floating around and Cutie has been in and out of a cough since the start of Jan…missing a few days of school due to fever but she still remains cheerful most of the time. So, we kinda accepted that falling sick is part and parcel of school and it may be beneficial for Cutie in the long term by introducing her to the common viruses in the community, building up her immune system database. Nonetheless, we can see that Cutie is happy in school, as she will readily jump into the arms of her favorite teacher Angie every morning and reluctantly let me carry her away from school every evening. Haha. Hope she develops more inter-personal skills in school! I want our Cutie to be a sociable, adorable, smart active baby!

Cutie went for her KKH checkup in early Jan 2015. Her weight was 6.44kg, which maintained her at the 25th percentile but we are glad her height is at the 50-75th percentile and head circumference at 50th percentile…does that mean she has more potential to be intelligent?? We sure hope so! Hmm…now Charlotte looks so puny next to her ~7.8 kg cousin Joshua who is just 4 month old!!

Charlotte has started eating solids and Her masterchef Mummy spared no effort to create nutritious purees for her! Every week we would raid the supermarket in search of yummilicious stuff to make her puree. Currently she has tried brown rice, wholegrain cereal, millet rice, pumpkin, potatoes (Her Favourite!!), tomatoes, threadfin fish, sweet corn, carrots, beetroot, tofu, Kale. Fruits she has tried apples, bananas, orange, avocado (her Ex-favourite), Strawberries (Her favourite!!).

Nibbling away at her Favourite Little Strawberry

 

Darling has been wanting to try this with Cutie during 1 of our super-market trips and we eventually did it!!! (After a massive wipedown with several pieces of baby wipes…)

Cutie shopping for her “MumMum”

 

Yup, she enjoyed it for a while because the metal pieces are cold cold to the touch but after 30 min, she wants out…maybe she wants to push the shopping trolley!?!?

Charlotte has brought much joy into our lives and it’s amazing just to see how she’s learning new things and achieving new milestones. There’s never a dull moment in our lives now that Cutie is in the house! Of course, Poor mummy is often tired out by caring for her and coping with her busy work…Cutie is a bundle of energy which takes a long time to use up and takes a short time to recharge. Haha maybe they are made that way so they can ever-ready to learn from the fast changing world.

Mummy is still recharging but Cutie Charlotte has finished her Charge Cycle and ready for more activities!!!

 

Darling and I celebrate our 5th year wedding anniversary on the 31st Jan and I am indeed blessed to have 2 angels in my life now!

“Hold my hand as we celebrate our new lives together” The wedding quilt cover is still relevant for Cutie and us!

Hope there will be more happy days ahead for all of us!

 

 

And Finally… Yes 32.7.10.224, it’s the age of Cutie Baby Charlotte on this day… 32 weeks ie 7 months 10 days ie 224 days. Did you get it right? =)

Romantic dinner by our very own Punggol Masterchef

This shall be my first entry of this year!
When darling first mentioned that she will create a special menu for us on a special day, I have started to wonder when that SPECIAL day will be! Darling never fails to amaze me with her creativity and culinary prowess and this special day dinner is no exception.
Today Is THE day. A special meal from a special person. I feel so blessed.

Darling paid full attention to details, right from the table setup.
She even went to get fresh flowers and DIY a centrepiece for the table!

I sneaked a peek into the Masterchef kitchen n BOY what a sight! Looks like it’s going to be a seafood extravaganza!

Entrée coming up…
Fresh giant hokkaido Scallops grilled to perfection, on a bed of baby asparagus, topped with black truffles, pea sprouts n parmesan cheese, drizzled with lemon butter sauce.

Appetizer
Using Pumpkin, carrots and mushrooms combined with fresh local lobster, darling created a beautiful bisque! That tasted wonderful as well!

Main
The main dish is Freshly caught King Grouper loins, lightly grilled, complemented by sauté mushrooms n onions, served in a bed of baby asparagus. The dish is then completed with lemon butter sauce

Dessert
Wholesome chocolate pound cake drenched in yummy Hersey’s chocolate fudge

The whole meal is complemented with Glacier wine

Thank you darling for the wonderful n sweet dinner. I am loving every moment spent with u! I’m indeed the most blessed man in the world to have u as my darling!

I love you!
Ok, now to wash the dishes…

Grand Shanghai Wedding 17 March 2012

Today is the day, the one we have been preparing for and waiting for!

The day started early, we are supposed to bash the gate and brave the onslaught of the merciless sisters before entering the door to my bride. The auspicious timing to enter Darling’s house is 9am so we have 1 full hour of “torture” before the “sweetness” of seeing Darling in her white gown and veil.

Brothers arrived promptly at 7am, to prepare. We had a dress code, I am going to be the “Wong Fei Hung” and the brothers are going to be my disciples. They will each be armed with 绝世武功 and they brought along their 武林秘笈, just in case they need last minute revision…haha.

Meanwhile, Darling is busy with her make-up and hair-do while her sisters are cooking up many fierce barriers and obstacles to test us!

Darling with hairdresser

sisters checking on progress

Evening gown Wedding gown

The roped-in “sister”

良药苦口

busy with the sweet part

Thick Gooey Nectar with red dates

Wasabi Apples

The make-up process is completing and my lovely darling is becoming the bride of the century!! (In my opinion…)

Happy and Excited bride!

Mama covers the veil

Well, well, it’s our turn to showoff what we are made of!! Come on 兄弟们!上! “ROAR”!!

Badge of Valor

Head Brother’s Badge

18 palms to tame the dragon

打狗棒法

胜利的吼叫

The gatecrashing games are well thought of and are not your typical games, using typical tools. The presentation and delicacies and games combine into 1 unforgettable experience! Even Zhenxian says that it is confirmed THE most unforgettable gatecrashing he has been through! The delicacies especially!! We have to drink green poison ivy, followed by a sweet looking Killer, then eat some hot spicy shit, not forgetting the sour lemony yogurt designed just for me! (I hate raw yogurt!)

The 3 REAL sisters

welcome drink

Toast to a good start

Toast to a sour good drink with good friends

Eating shit Yikai

Varied reactions after eating spicy shit

lip swelling after the green poison ivy? Or just natural thick lips

Next up, some games to spice up the day! The spinning around the umbrella game really got our Teacher mad! Haha, but we love our creativity! “Hold the umbrella and spin around it”, never expected a bunch of 30 year-olds to be so cheeky eh, and old students are the worst to teach! Hahaha…

What they want us to do

What we did instead

We were supposed to each go around the umbrella 10 times before collecting a handful of jigsaw pieces, to form the big picture…which we were never ever meant to know….how can we possibly finish the jigsaw puzzle within 15 minutes??

The jigsaw puzzle quest… …

So we had to eat the wasabi apples….yeah, where got people add wasabi to apples one…except during gate-crashing gates? Haha =D

gulp it all down! I Love Wasabi but I love Darling more

When we thought things couldn’t get more crazy, we were made to wear the Hawaiian straw dresses and we were to draw a smiley face on each other’s tummy using lipstick! Hmm…Belly dance coming up?? Yup! We were made to dance to a Korean girl group’s MTV! Haha, I don’t know what I am doing, I just knew that I was shaking my butt non-stop! =p

Edric showing us the role models

Hilarious dance move by me

U think thats all? Nonono, next we have to eat Ang Ku Kueh.
Instructions: “Put the Ang Ku Kueh on the forehead and try to eat it.”
No way are we going to let the oily ang ku kueh slide down our faces!! So we put the ang Ku Kueh on each other’s forehead, and eat them directly from the forehead…hahaha..

Me eating from Jianye

Then we are supposed to smear lipstick all over our lips and plant these lips on each other to form “I Love You”

Is that a Channel lipstick?

Our collective Love effort

Now it’s time finally to write the wedding promises to Darling!

Looking through the wedding promises

With 1 final show hand Ang Pao, we were finally allowed through the heavily padlocked door!

Victory!!

I changed out of my war suit and went on to claim my wife! Yeah Darling, I am coming for you!

A Kiss to seal the victory

Now we have to go through the traditional bit of the wedding ceremony. We are going to have the tea ceremony at my parents’ place, then return to Darling’s place to have the tea ceremony.
Darling is shielded from any bad spirits as well as bad sunlight, using the little red umbrella.

Nice colors, good shot by Yu Hsin

serving tea to my parents

团团圆圆，圆圆满满

We changed to our beautiful Kua and MaGua

Tea for my mama =)

The soft boiled egg dessert together, 甜甜蜜蜜

group shot with sistas

group shot with brudders

So we have our fun at the tea ceremonies, it’s time to journey to our future home…our very own Love Nest! There we will switch on the bedside lamps to signify prosperity and many many children! (darling will faintz at this, Haha)

back at our Punggol Springs Love Nest to switch on the 床头灯

I like hearing Darling Laugh Out Loud =D

Finally, we proceeded to My Waterway @ Punggol, to take some outdoor shots and footage for our Same Day Edit Video. I can sense Darling and the brudders and sistas being a bit tired by now, but it’s the almost the last phase, hang on!

Our Paths crossed and we are destined to be together forever

The couple of the century

Thank you sisters!

Thank you brothers!

Love is in the air

We wrapped up the day’s photoshoots with this final group shot, before heading for our own rest haven.
Brothers and sisters will head home for some rest and will dress up for the Grand Shanghai Wedding banquet tonight.
Darling and me made our way to Grand Copthorne Waterfront hotel to prepare for our final show! Hahaha.
The ending picture of this post will be a meaningful shot.
I hope it will come true.

Hold me Tight Darling and Never let go… … Please

Buildup to the big day.

It is going to be a series of backdated entries as I try to revisit the days leading up to our Grand Shanghai wedding =)

There is the traditional 过大礼 and 安床 that we have to complete before the big day and it does involve lots of shopping and buying!!
Our 过大礼 is on the 11 Feb 2012, from the auspicious date chosen by our Geomancy master “Orh Kee Tong” (Haha, the nickname we gave him…Shh..). I got Jeff (1 of my eventual brother-in-arms) to help out. Quite a number of stuff to bring over, including the oranges, candles, pig trotter cans etc.

So we made our way to Darling’s place after 9am (the auspicious time) and had the simple ceremony. The groom is supposed to hand over a set of gifts to the bride side and the bride is then to return a portion of the gifts as an exchange, of course not forgetting some Ang Paos here and there.
The Ceremony is completed fast and this is all the gifts we exchanged. Kinda ripped off by the shops as they kept telling us what to buy and exchange “by tradition” but nonetheless it’s an interesting piece of tradition we succeeded in preserving.

Now is the showcase of what we bought for our wedding cakes!
I got the traditional Teochew wedding biscuits…

Darling got the beautiful cupcakes from Cheryl!







Next up, we have to tie the red cloths in front of our doors!

Our 安床 is on the 15 March 2012, where we are supposed to put the bed nicely, decorate the house, put on new bedsheets, in preparation for our new life together!

Looks like we are all set for our Grand Shanghai wedding on the 17 March 2012!
For now a sneak preview… …

Oven adventures

Having an oven is so much fun!!!
Initially the salesperson was warning us that the oven will spoil if we never use it regularly. He even advised us to switch it on and heat up the oven for fun if we do not use it regularly. Haha, no need lo!! We are fully utilizing our oven!!
And with the addition of our super Kenwood kitchen mixer, nothing can stop Darling and Dar Dar from their Oven fun!

Kenwood Classic Major, Winner - Domestic Diva Awards (Singapore Women's Weekly)

We have yet to sign up for our free baking workshop at the AFC studio…haha but we are already experimenting with online recipes.
One of our very first bakes is the chicken… haha, my babarian obsession to grill my own chicken and tear the meat off it!! Grunt!
In the end, I was too lazy to marinate my own chicken, so bought a readily marinated one from Cold Storage. Lolz

Grilled herb marinated chicken

The chicken is quite big for Darling and me, lucky we got Xian’s sister to help eating and help in da-baoing a big drumstick for Bryan. We also made lasagna and brocoli to go with it. =)
The next major meal made by darling using the oven was this super Lovalicious breakfast!

Breakfast full of love

This breakfast really touched me deep deep! Darling really put a lot of effort into this. Everything is in hearts!! Truly amazing my darling. That’s how creative my Darling is!!
Our current favorite website for baking recipes is “joyofbaking.com” The website has lots of nice easy-to-follow recipes and some even comes with a video demonstration! Really easy way to learn to bake =D.
Next, Darling made these lovely muffins, using the small foil cups. Don’t just look at the pretty face of these muffins, they really pack a punch! Full of flavourful chocolate chips! And most important of all…handmade with Darling’s love

Love Muffins

More pics of the lovely chocolate chip muffins

After muffins, Darling wants to take up the cupcake challenge! She wants to try out cakecups as well as the icing decoration =) We even bought small packets of decorative sugar from Red Man =p

The cupcake batter ready to be baked

With the 3D hotair of our Bosch oven turned on, the batter soon becomes… …

Fresh cupcakes hot from the oven

And then with the whip of our kitchen mixer and under the delicate hands of my darling, they soon become… …

The finished product, Vanilla Cupcakes

This is our very first attempt making and decorating cupcakes and it’s a really fun and sweet (coz we keep eating the left-over icing) baking session!
This attmept really perked up Darling’s interest in cupcakes and very soon, there shall be a second attempt. =)
Darling bought Hershey’s chocolate powder for her next cupcake experiment and off we go to our next cupcake adventure!

Darling's Hershey Choco-Love cuppies

Up close and personal with the Choco-Love Cuppies and the improved icing!

The previous icing made for the Vanilla cupcakes was too soft and fluid so this time round, Darling added in a generous amount of icing sugar and the consistency of the icing turned out just nice.
Now is my turn to try my hand at baking something for darling. Christmas season is near so I decided to give it a shot at making Gingerbread man! Darling has never eaten a gingerbread man before, neither have I…haha
The ingredient list really got me blurred…what the hell is molasses? Well, a trip to Red Man got me all the listed ingredients. Molasses is a type of cane sugar extract which is thick and sticky, almost like honey’s consistency but black/ dark brown in colour. The smell is also different…haha
Quite exciting to really bake and create something on my own. I did not study Home Econs before and the only thing I really cooked myself is instant noodles. All the time I have my darling at my side to guide me in cooking…this time I was alone. So scared, yet excited…
I was thinking how happy and surprised Darling will be when she sees and eats my gingerbread man! Shiok!
My first attempt at making the dough failed miserably… =( The dough I made is so sticky!! It looks so so different from the joyofbaking.com video! I was so so sooo disappointed… Well, maybe I added the ingredients in the wrong order? Or maybe my measurements were not accurate? I endured the heartache and threw the failed dough away, and started my second attempt at the dough! I must succeed this time!! This second attempt, I have not enough molasses as per the recipe so I used 3/4 volume of what the recipe suggested…Viola, guess what??? The dough came out perfect!!! Hahahahahaha
I really shouted “YES, YES, YES!!” when I saw the dough changing into the consistency as shown in the video! I knew this will definitely succeed!

The freshly baked Gingerbread man

My babies came out of the oven in 4 batches. The first batch were too crispy as I made them too thin…so I made some adjustments to the subsequent batches and they really looked more like the gingerbread man I knew. Next mission… the decoration… So what do you think of my art-work??

Batch 1 decorated by me.

Decorating them is so much fun!! I was smiling to myself while decorating them coz I knew Darling will be so happy to see these cute babies!! Haha.
She was indeed surprised and happy and excited to see these gingerbread man! Mission accomplished!!
So we went back to our Punggol love nest in order to continue the decoration of the rest of the gingerbread man…but there was a big twist of event…I was too rushed to finish decorating the first batch of gingerbread man so I did not have time to clear up my mess before I left the house. Darling was so so angry and disgusted to see the whole kitchen in a mess…sigh…all my fault. I have successfully turned an happy event into an unhappy event single-handedly again…
Well, I cleaned up the mess and mopped the house floor to atone for my sins and lucky darling forgived me in the end…and we ended up finishing the decoration for the remaining gingerbread man!! Yay!!! Mission finally accomplished and all’s well that ends well!!

Darling and Dar Dar's combined efforts. Can you guess who decorated which ones?

The latest additon to our oven adventure has to be the chicken pies =)
Darling has always been famous for her chicken pies at home. Even her picky brother likes her chicken pies and her sisters are eagerly looking forward to them too. This time round, darling is making chicken pies for me!! Haha YEAH!

The "I love U" chicken pies

I showed my colleague KJ this picture and she was like “So pretty!!!” Hahaha
When I finished work that day, I rushed home and enjoyed the best chicken pie I have tasted so far!! Darling’s version of the chicken pie =x
The pastry was light and fluffy and the fillings were not too watery. And it’s not excessively oily too. Healthy chicken pies by darling!

The finished chicken pies

I gobbled up 4 STAT! Haha, really good stuff. Today I brought some for my colleagues KJ, Chris, Vincent and they all have praises for the pies! For the rest who have no chance to savour these pies…there will be chances…wait for them. Haha
I am looking forward to our next project! The countdown cupcakes. They will be chocolate cupcakes with Hershey’s chocolate frosting! Can’t wait…

Happy 2011 birthday Darling!

Time flies and it’s that part of the year again, drum roll….Darling’s Birthday!!
I Initally planned on giving a surprise to darling but she found out about it anyway…darling is too smart!
Darling sensed that the arrangement of the pillows on our bed has changed so she started to explore before she found the flowers!

Simple "Lego-style" Birthday greetings and fresh flowers

Opps, showed darling's age unknowingly

So flowers I gave to darling, what about the present? Haha, had it all preapred!!

What's a birthday without the present?

What did Dar Dar buy for Darling???

Au Revoir

So what did Dar Dar write inside that small small card, that resulted in Darling reading it with so much interest?? Well, you can only ask Xian to be sure.

Hmm...what sweet stuff did Dar Dar write??

Judging from the smile on Darling’s face, I think Darling likes the tiny surprise I had for her!! Yay!

Happy Happy girl

Next up is Darling’s Birthday treat =)
She had this strong desire to eat hairy crabs so she requested that as her birthday treat. Hmm…I initially had another place in mind which can offer great views and good ambience but since darling is the birthday girl, she gets the final say!
The dinner venue is the same as our AD dinner venue…which is…

Grand Shanghai

Taking a pic with what we are going to eat later..hahaha

We are always amazed by the setting of Grand Shanghai…the charm it exudes, the beauty it holds…

The interior of Grang Shanghai

Here comes the menu proper =)

The Menu

The hairy crab menu

We chose the set whereby we will have 2 hairy crabs each! Haha, it is our first time eating hairy crabs and since it is a seasonal delicacy, we must truly savour this creature by eating 2!

Our dish to share, the crispy eel

Our crispy eel does not taste like eel at all leh, but it does have a certain shiokness to it. Munching it while listening to oldies and sipping tea…quite a nice combi.

Black Fungus Salad

First up is the black fungus salad. The black fungus are big big pieces and really crunchy. The dressing is mild spicy yet slight sourish, really good appetizer.

Xiao Long Bao

The Xiao Long Bao is a nice size, full of savoury juices inside. The meat is tender and when taken together with the ginger and vinegar, is simply heavenly.
Next up is the nightmare of some support groups out there…but it’s a heavenly dish for me!!

Double boiled Shark's bone with Superior Shark's Fin

The soup is full of flavour, and the shark’s fin are really big pieces! Full of Shark’s fin in every mouth! This dish we must have in our dinner banquet menu! =p
Now the main highight of the night.. …The creature that is renowed over the world…all the way from China…these hairy things that are only available a few months a year…大闸蟹!

The cute little hairy yummy thing

If you are wondering how to start tasting these little hairy creatures, heehee, there is nothing to worry about coz the waitress will help us prepare the delicacy =)

The waitress is making bite sizes of the crab in the background. The sauce for dipping is in the foreground.

All ready to go into our tummy. Look at all those yummy roe!!

The roe is the main highlight of hairy crabs and the roe is really smooth and yummy. There is also this sticky stuff around the roe area and the waitress says they are all fats… (-.-”
They have these crab meat eating tool provided so it’s really easy to finish eating the whole crab with minimal meat left behind. There is not much meat in this tiny thing but the meat is quite firm and have a good texture. Lucky we ordered 2!!

Darling using the tool to extract leg meat

After the main dish, we are going to have some fibre to help in the digestion =D

Braised Abalone with Sea Cucumber and Spinach

The sea cucumber is nice and squashy, I like!! The spinach portion is big too.
Next up is something light, also made partly with the yummy hairy crab roe.

Steamed Dumplings with Crab Roe

The dumplings itself is quite nice but I really cannot taste any crab roe. I supposed they used it to make the skin of the dumplings since the colour is yellow too.
At this point we are quite full already so it’s about time we have dessert =)

Chilled 胖大海 with Lily Bulb

We have no idea what 胖大海 is but it does taste nice and chilled…haha. A refreshing dessert.
That ends Darling’s birthday dinner! Full and satisfied!
Hmm…are we missing something here? It’s a birthday right??
YES!! The birthday cake!! it’s at our Punggol Springs love nest =x

Darling's birthday cake during the combined birthday celebration with Darling's mummy

Darling's very own birthday cake from Awfully Chocolate

Make a wish darling, and may all your wishes come true!

Happy Birthday my darling! Hope you enjoyed your birthday and your gift. May all your wishes come true!!
I love you!

The Birth of a Love Nest…Part 3

It’s been a long and tiring gestational period and finally we are in the final trimester! Our love nest is nearing delivery!

Renovating a new house is indeed an enriching, yet stressful event. It’s an event that is really trying for any couple. Any engaged couple or newly wedded couple, upon going through the renovation process, will definitely have many fierce exchanges. Sourcing for IDs, decision of designs, negotiation phase with ID, payment installations, frequent monitoring of progress, choosing of colours, choosing of materials, defect checking and rectification, all these are possible stressors and potential sparks for arguments. In addition to work stress, threshold for arguments is definitely lower. Renovation is not merely a simple affair of leaving everything to the ID and expecting a beautiful product. Gone are the days when there were honest professional contractors who has pride in their work and will deliver to their best ability, to give us the perfect product we so desire. Nowadays with the stress of high material prices, shop rental prices, workers wages and firece competition for business amongst companies, there is bound to be temptations to take short-cuts. Consumers, like us, have to make time and effort to check on contractor’s work in order to rest well at night. We cannot leave everything to our ID to settle (even though we so desire to do so), simply because we cannot convince ourselves to trust our ID.

Well, now that our renovation is coming to an end. I shall share the new look of our love nest!! Transformed from an empty space with concrete walls and cement floor to one which we can call our VERY OWN LOVE NEST!

Sketch and 3D picture of our living area

Sketch and 3D picture of our cosy area

Sketch and 3D picture of our MBR TV feature and MBR bathroom

The sketch and 3D picture of our MBR

Sketch and 3D picture of our kitchen

Of course, nothing is so easy in this world. Our ID definitely will cause problems along the way.
The first major problem….her plumber drilled into the kitchen water pipe within the wall while trying to install the backsplash! Of all places, the plumber have to choose a spot so close to the blue tape marking from HDB!

Notice how close it is to the blue tape?

Of course, the plumber have to fix it up! According to the plumber, welding is the way to go, really hope it does not create any future problems. HDB mentioned that we have to get our own plumber to fix it and HDB will not need any notification or report. Fine, ID have to do it and ID have to give us assurance that it will not leak in the future….Hope the water that spurted out did not cause water damage to the cabinets opposite as well as the oven.

Damage done

post welding

Patching up of kitchen tile

The next major problem is our kitchen entrance… …
It was initially planned to have an inner sliding glass door but just when ID have to order the glass, she realized a grave mistake…a rather amateurist mistake!! She got the measurements all wrong!! She mentioned that our original kitchen entrance is too big for her to make an inner sliding glass door. The glass door when pushed open fully, will result in our entrance narrowed to a mere 60cm width (this is because the side wall next to the fridge is not long enough for the glass to slide into, and the excess glass will eat into the space of our kitchen entrance). Ok, fine…so what next? She suggested extending our kitchen side wall, to make the entrance smaller, in order for us to have a swing open glass door. She says that the wall extension can also effectively cover up our fridge, serving 2 purposes. She is also very sure it will work. So it was made…

Wall extension

Guess what?? Surprise, surprise…now our fridge is jutting out of the wall extension! We did give our fridge dimensions to her before she proceeded to do the wall extension. As a professional ID, common sense tells us that there should a good distance between the back of the fridge to the wall for proper ventilation right? And it’s usually at least 5 cm…well, she only made allowance for 5 mm…..Isn’t this a super amateur mistake? Angry or not? Of course angry! Angry Bird!

Simulated fridge, showing the extent it protrudes out. Measuring tape shows height of fridge

So in the end, we ended up doing a sliding glass door on the outside of the kitchen. Not the best option but it’s one that definitely works. If only she has done her homework, if only she has foresaw this problem, we wouldn’t have to go through the agony and stress of making this kitchen sliding door! Stupid ID… …

The eventual clear glass sliding door

The next problem is our bathroom doors placement. Can you all accept this end result??

The exposure of bathroom tiles after door closed

How can anyone accept this? ID still have the cheek to tell me that some of her clients actually accepted this! She came up with a ugly suggestion of building a “kerb” outside the door along the passageway to “cover up” the exposure. OMG, no way man! We demanded a change in placement and told her to shift the door forward!

The nice end product! No more bathroom tiles exposure

Ok, now I shall show the readers around our almost completed love nest!

TV feature wall in living room minus the future 46" TV

Our cosy area, where mahjong and games will be played

Our dining area where Darling and Dar Dar will whip up and enjoy delicious dishes together!

Our MBR bathroom where we will make ourselves clean before Gai Gai or Orh Orh

Not forgeting the glass shower screen

We can dance in the rain while bathing!

Full height mirror for Darling to have the perfect view of herself after dressing up

Bedhead with crystals! Darling loves this to the MAX!

We have just completed a almost 30 item defect checklist for our ID to settle by the end of this week. Hopefully she can rectify everything and then polish our floor before handover.
Yay!! Our Love Nest is nearing the end….

Next event….Our Pre-wedding photography on 6 Nov 2011! Stay tuned… …

The Birth of a Love Nest…Part 2

Whoa, been a while since I updated this birth…haha, and it is almost ready!

Well, the next major step to renovation will be the fabrication of the false ceiling as well as the installation of lights.

The installation of the build-up wall and part of false ceiling

We did a built-up-wall in order to let our entire wall be flushed. This is to prevent a space behind half our sofa. And it looks neater this way too…of course this comes at a price but a beautiful home is always priceless. The dining area brick feature is ready but looks a bit raw. This is going to be one of our nicest corner of our love nest!! Can’t wait to see the finished product!

another view of our built-up-wall

This should make it clearer. The original HDB wall adjacent to the window is too short to fit our sofa in, so we decided to give the entire wall a continuous flushed look. The false ceiling really looks raw without lights and paint.

Our MBR ceiling

Once all the false ceilings are up, it’s time for our lights to take center stage!!

Cove lights up. Down lights up!

Once the cove lights and downlights are up, the living room is transformed into a more refined space…more like a place worthy of humans to live in! Haha.

Service Yard light

Bomb Shelter light

Kitchen light

MBR downlights and cove lights

The next major step would be the installation of carpentry. Our ID was quite lousy and slack and we wait almost 3 weeks after our lights installation before the carpentry finally came! How glad we were when we saw our “Lego-brick” carpentry arrive!

Our shoe rack on the left and parts of the display cabinet on the right

Our TV console and part of TV feature wall

Our kitchen in the raw

Our MBR bathroom vanity top

This is where our Super Comfy King-size Sealy mattress will be!

This is our MBR wardrobe...Ok, Darling's wardrobe, with a full height mirror!

This shall be where Darling chooses her beautiful clothes and admire her beauty everyday! A full height mirror to take in the beautiful image of darling! YEAH!

Our semi-finished cosy area, with the shoe rack, bomb shelter concealment, the satee and the display cabinet

The display cabinet is supposed to be a tic-tac-toe design, interlaces with black glass. This shall be our cosy area! We can play our Mahjong while watching TV, or even sit down on the satee while wearing our shoes.

Our TV feature wall, without the glass and mirror sides

Darling's mum checking out the faulty concealment door

The tic-tac mechanism is faulty in the first version of this door. Cannot close the door easily once it’s open! Of course we cannot take it lying down. We confronted the ID and she eventually got it changed.

The full view of our kitchen

The kitchen view photo is taken from the service yard looking in. The kitchen is small but it sure contains everything we need!

We love the colour of the laminates we chose. Good choice by darling!

This is where all the delicious cakes and roast will come out from

The initial proposed kitchen colour was black and white. So glad that darling is strongly against it! And we eventually chose silver with white. Excellent choice and unique colour combination that looks nice!

Now, the best time to test the lights is at night right? After 3-4 days of installing our carpentry, we have now installed our beautiful lights at our dining area and our living area.

Dining area lights

Our dining lights with its beautiful shadows

Our living room light when viewed from below

Admiring the lights with my parents

With the carpentry almost finishing and the lights all installed. We have considered ourselves completing a major part of our renovation. The next steps will be to finish up the rest of the carpentry, do the painting and plumbing works. It’s nearing the end Darling. Hang in there!

The next instalment will show you the final outlook of our love nest…stay tuned

The Birth of a Love Nest… …

As the title implies, this post shall be the start of a series in an attempt to document the progress of our love nest renovation. Renovation is a stressful progress, but I really hope that at the end of the whole time, we can sit back and relax over a cup of tea and tell ourselves that it’s all worth it… …
It all started from our BTO exercise when we got our very own home.

Road sign to our future love nest

Building in progress

The probable completion date

So we started waiting for the date to come….keeps going into the punggol forums to get the latest updates from our project engineer and finally it was announced that keys will start to be distributed in early 2011. We are however sad to hear that our block construction will be delayed due to some faults and that we can only start getting keys from July onwards. Well, we have to bear with the daily facebook updates about our neighbours buying furniture and doing renovation while we wait for our bunch of keys.

The exteriors of our nests

No matter how long the wait is, it has to come to an end and we eventually got our keys on 13 July. This post I have covered previously about us throwing in our “Ong-Lai” and Oranges. I shall now showcase our house interior.
Our love nest is just like a plain canvas waiting for us to give it colour and life!

View of dining area from living room

Our living area and bedrooms passageway

The next meaning visit will be on 3 August, when our flooring is being done! They are so so nice! Glossy, shiny tiles and it makes our Love Nest bright and happy! Good choice by Darling!

Darling examining the shiny floor of the living room

Darling inspecting our Dining Area feature wall

Come 10 August, our Dining Area feature wall is all done up! Looking impressive but wait till it’s fully painted, it will present a totally different feeling!

Our beautiful Dining Area

So far so good? Except the small kitchen…That’s the problem with all new HDB flats, the kitchens are damn small! Not that we are big cooks lah but nobody will complain that the kitchen is too big right? Big is always good! But if HDB were to ask me to choose a bigger living room or a bigger kitchen, I would choose a bigger living room anytime!

A glimpse into our small kitchen and our service yard beyond

After the flooring is done, we had the aircon man from Gain City out up the air-con trunking together with ID’s contractor putting up the false ceiling. After the false ceiling is up, Darling was saying that our love nest “looks more like a home”. I totally agree! Our love nest is slowly coming into shape…

False ceiling looking from living room window

Our living room with false ceiling and proposed TV feature wall in progress

13 Sept is our first delivery day!
Check out our stuff! We delivered the Oven and water heater, as well as the lights and our professional kitchen sink!

Our Bosch oven for our delicious cakes and pastries and a water heater for our bath after the baking session

These are the nice lightings goodies in those boxes.

Our Belllari professional sink

You may think that’s the end of delivery? Haha, there is still a long long to wait! Look at Darling” current house…her bedroom has already become a mini storage room!

Tip of the ice-berg in Darling's current home...overflowing soon

kitchen sink, bathroom towel rack and bathroom accessories

Ok, I shall end my post now. The next post Will be about our lights! Haha, A house with good lights just make it more cosy… …
Now we are looking forward to 28 Sept 2011…we are going to watch the Lion King @ Marina Bay Sands!