Merry Christmas to all!

Believe it or not... I still receive presents from my friends!

The New Year Post

There wasn't any hogmanay for NYE, but... we have food!
Initially, Kev and I wanted a restful NYE, because we partied too much during Christmas.

And so we decided to leave Ziv with the in-law, have home-cooked dinner, DVD and admire the fireworks from our terrace to end the year.

I am a BIG fan of Swiss Butchery. Kev played the chef.


Anyway, the year didn't end as what we planned, instead, we went to J's place for wine and followed by MJ session till 5am again - right after our dinner and DVD.

2010 was a super great year for me, and I believe 2011 will be even better!

Happy New Year!

The Christmas Post

My definition of festive season: the occasion to scarf out, spend the night guzzling wine, play mahjong and oodles of love, love, love. And most importantly, MIA from my work desk - just kidding.

Christmas Eve
As usual, we kicked-off Christmas at J’s place.
There was food, tons of presents, children’s laughter and the Christmas spirit filled the air. I love it.

Ziv was a chirpy boy on that day. He got to play with many friends.




S (J's younger daughter) liked to play with Kevin for some unknown reason.


Clad in Rosette Cocktail Dress from Moda Shoppe. One of our best selling items. A picture with my MJ buddy and one of her chummy daughters.

The party ended at midnight, deposited Ziv at my in-law's place. Headed to Nativity church. After church, we returned back to J's place for MJ till 6am! Was zombie-fied.

Christmas Day

Christmas day was reserved for our families. Lunch buffet at Grassroot Country Club with the in-laws. Followed by dinner gathering at my Granny's place to celebrate her birthday in advance.

Ziv spent the late night opening presents from aunties and uncles. The animated boy was energized even though it was past midnight. At least it was Boxing Day that he started opening his presents.

Present from Daddy, he got a big budget this year. Haha...

Thanks J for her "understanding" presents - Prince's Desk, and also the Mummy and Son matching DKNY tops.

Kev was doing his very last minute job - assemblying the BBQ pit for Boxing Day. Just in case you wondered if he is throwing a kiss at me, you are absolutely wrong, he was saying, "WU liao." (for taking a picture of him assemblying the pit)


Boxing Day
Party at home. This time round we had a BBQ party, instead of the usual potluck. We got ourselves a caterer and that certainly saved us lots of time. Thanks C for ordering for us.


Indeed that was a small BBQ pit, all thanks to the lazy people at Carrefour.

Nevertheless, we had great food and great company. The satay were the best. And the overly bloated marshmellows.

While the rest were working hard for food, I took pictures with Abril. I would name her after the LV bag, Neverfull. Because she never got enough of food.

Kev got to play "Daddy" of a daughter. Abril was not gesticulating "oh-my-god", she was in fact trying to do "peekaboo". Adorable. When I see Abril, it was then that I realized Ziv is actually a big and independent boy now.

Ziv did serious posing in front of the camera again. Funny.

Not forgetting group photos, the ever exciting present exchange and log cake. We had a tough time making Abril to look at the camera, I wondered what would happened if we have more kids next year.

BTW, I really liked the t-shirt which R gave Ziv.

Happy New Year to all. Enjoy the last day of the festive season. Drink and be merry.

My First Xmas Present of the Year

It is always heartwarming and sweet to feel appreciated and loved, especially when the appreciation comes in the form of a gift. The stolid man of the household, Kevin loves to end the year with a gift for me, and definitely something I really like.

So, last week, I got my early Christmas present from Kev. There is a winding story behind this bag (not exceptional), and I am too exhausted to narrate here again.

Nevertheless, I love PINK and all the more I love the Balenciaga 10th Year Anniversary Special Edition. It is a tad small, less roomy, oh well, at least I can lug it during casual weekends. Women never got the right size and right bag, as I said.

My Christmas present...

Can you hear the jingling bells?

The Christmas lightings along Orchard Road, the Christmas carols played on the radio stations, the Starbucks Christmas takeaway cup that I drink every morning, the chilly weather we have these days… it’s hard to not realize that Christmas IS coming soon.

I am still contemplating if I should get a real Christmas tree from the nursery or bring out my gothic dark purple Christmas tree and start decorating it.

That aside, in fact mainly, I am busy with Moda Shoppe’s festive combo launch. As Moda Shoppe has become part of our lives and also for the fact that we treat our customers like our friends, we decided to have a combo sale specially for our customers, just like we give out presents to our friends during Christmas.

And I have to say, it is heartwarming to share what you like with your friends.

I love my Cut Out Collar Mini in grey. Wore that to Disneyland. I always like a one-piece dress, cause I don't have to worry about what to match for the bottom. Especially on trips, cause you don't have the time to stand in front of your overflow wardrobe to mix and match.


Pair it with a jacket and you are ready to go! (Jacket from Forever 21)
Crochet Trapeze Mini is another one item that I wore it to Disneyland, Kin's birthday at Taste Paradise and even to Equniox lunch. Didn't take much pictures of me wearing that... But I have a pic of C wearing that to a 5-star hotel in HK to celebrate her wedding anniversary with D.


A casual Friday in the office, pair the popular Beaded Tank Top with my H&M vest and Levi's super skinny jeans. Cindy had the Stripe Long Cardigan on to keep her warm in the office.


Here's a preview of the combo sale for our customers. The combos are mainly from our first few launches, because we left with 1 pc each for these items and so I thought, why not we have a throat slashing sale and give fantastic discounts (combo can be as cheap as only $18 and discount up to 70%!



Limited combo so grab them while you can!
I am still deciding when to launch the combo... probably this Tues or Wed.
Stay tune!

Long Weekend

The long weekend can either make (it enjoyable) or break (bore me to tears) me depending on what is lined up for me. And the most recent long weekend was terrific, especially that would mean one additional day to spend with Ziv.

Thursday:
I was already “intensely involved” in the mood for long weekend that I started to snake around on Wednesday. And needless to say, Thursday was just a very under-utilized working day with long yoga lesson. The eve of the PH embarked on with a lovely alfresco dining at Fish Market located at Bukit Timah, one of my most patronized restaurants and church-visit to 5 churches.

We were served with a very uniquely prepared escargots served in kueh pie ti shell in some sort of cream cheese and corn sauce, and I had the half lobster linguini while Kev ordered the highly recommended fish and chip. Everything was all well and good.

This year, Ziv went church visiting with my in-laws and he went to 6 churches in a tour bus and reached home even later than us.

The eve of PH was just splendid and the night ended young for us.

Day ended extremely pleased and looked forward to rest of the week.

Friday:
The day began late with brunch at Hatched at Evans road with the Yip family, aka, the usual suspects for brunch. Hatched has a smaller place as compared to Spruce, Jones and Jolly Frog and nevertheless, the brunch was slightly more interesting than Jolly Frog and it was pretty much less expensive and perhaps that was the reason for spotting so many local in the measly allocated place. However, I was slightly disgruntled with their incapacity to bring out the ‘Animal Farm’ pancakes for the kids and the reason given to us was ‘kitchen is busy’ and at that point of time, how I wished they can remain idle for the rest of the time when they are in business. Crap excuse! Hatched is also rigid with their menu, they refused to change my fried egg to poach egg with no reason given, and I probably be happier if they tell me, ‘the kitchen is busy’ rather than a straight ‘no’. Other than that, there’s nothing else to complain, the portion of the food was pretty substantial and value for money in the eyes of the local.

Ziv is serious about what he eats, he was making sure he is eating right. Haha.

A shot of the mothers and kids. Pale without minimum makeup for me. Don't tell me its the age.

Next, we went in search of costly Clek Ozzi (http://www.magnaclek.com/us/english/ozzi/index.aspx) booster seat designed by Paul Frank. And just in case you do not know who is Paul Frank, he is the designer who came out with the whimsical monkey character which you can see here http://www.paulfrank.com/about/. It must be the monkey which swept Ziv off his feet and he wants nothing but THE Ozzi booster seat that cost nearly 4 to 5 times more expensive than the normal Kaki Bukit booster seat!


The search for an inspired one was fruitless and we were left with no choice but to drive over to Great World City to buy it and only to realized that Ziv is underweight and age for the seat. Left empty handed from the store. Anyway, we realised that the booster seat was tagged at this price for a reason, the Clek™ LATCH system locks the booster seat into place quickly and easily using your vehicle’s LATCH anchorage system, unlike the rest of the cheaper seats, they can't lock to the car seat and the kids may end up sliding left and right when a car turns sharply.

In the evening, we went to St Joseph Church where most of the Catholic congregate.

Day ended with all of us being lethargic.

Saturday:
Just when the boys were getting more and more comfortable with each other, the brunch ended and so, Emily and I planned a play date cum swimming session for the boys. After Macs for breakie, off they went for the dip. Ziv hasn’t had so much fun in the pool for a very long time, because Kev and I were too lazy to douse in the pool with him.

Here's 2 penguins at large...

Anway, after the half day of fun-filled activities for the boys, I learnt that you can’t put 2 boys together for too long, cause they will start to fight for the slightest things and they can be violent.

After the activities, Ziv had a good nap and by the time he woke up, we were arranging tables for our fave pastime, MJ.

Day ended at 3am and I was $150 poorer and Kevin $80 richer.

Sunday:
Shichida as usual in the afternoon and went to my mum’s place to let Ziv entertain my old parents and thereafter Easter Sunday buffet dinner with my in-laws at the Zhou Kitchen.

Day ended feeling fat and wonder why Monday has to come so soon!

According to J, this is the last long weekend for the year! How sad is that?!

Back from a long hiatus

I still can’t believe it that Chinese New Year holiday is OVER!! I took a long leave from work and end up having 9 days of long break. So what did we do during these 9 days?

- Sure-way to get blubber -
I cannot escape from the fate of getting blubber even though I don’t eat bak-kua, love-letters, and pineapple tarts (I don’t like them since young!). It is only this festive occasion that makes me feel that it is OK to pig-out, OK to gamble, OK to sleep late… I LOVE Chinese New Year and all the foods that come along with the occasion like steamboat, 10-course meal and Yu Sheng!
I binged from eve till to-day. The sinful-est meal of all? My visit to House of Seafood with my parents, 4 of us and only 3 likes to eat crabs (my dad hates crabs) and we ordered 2- 1kg crab cooked in 2 different ways! Along with the side dishes to cater for my dad and Ziv, I regretted suggesting this dinner to my parents cause that was the point that my weight started to gain!

Some other highlights (meals):
-- Spizza Delivery (nice but abit pricey)
-- Stone Grill (Ostrich meat) - JB
-- Ju Chun Yuan (Fried CodFish!!)

- Visiting -
I love visiting. To see people whom you only see once a year! It is always nice to get updates on their lives and it is nice to see how little girl transforms to a lady and ready for marriage. It is even better to let Ziv play with other kids and get worn-out so that he will sleep when we get back home.

- Spending a day at our neighboring country -
Had a road trip with Kevin to Malaysia, with the aim to eat, eat, eat and eat! We discovered a few nice restaurants but we missed the seafood place which we used to go years back. Well, lesson learnt, I downloaded the map to the seafood place and I make sure we eat it the next time we go there!

- Watching TVB Dramas -
Completed ‘Sweetness in Salt’ over 9 days and it was great! Now I am a quarter through ‘Beyond Realm of Conscience’!

- Gamble, Gamble and Gamble -
Our mahjong table was setup since CNY eve and it never leave our living room since then (sounded just like my Christmas tree). On CNY eve, my usual MJ kakis came over to our house to play MJ until 6am in the morning. Apart from the usual MJ kaki, I am glad that we recruited more kakis this time round, including my brother, cousin, ex neighbours and unknown players. The gambling only stopped on last Saturday!

So what’s next after Chinese New Year?

Lost weight of course!

Happy Chinese Lunar New Year

I am so glad that Chinese New Year is here!!

Will be enjoying a super long holiday (about 9 days) by going nowhere but home and MJ.

Unfortunately, Barbie didn't come out with a 2010 Chinese New Year doll. Such a let-down.

Wish everyone

新年快乐，心想事成, 全家安康！

Family Lunch

A day before returning to work after the long festive holiday, I had a family lunch at Ah Yat Seafood Restaurant to celebrate my Grandma's birthday.

We discovered that Ziv likes to eat fresh scallop (white colour) and he was calling it 'lup, lup'. As parents, we decided to give up our shares of scallop for the precious little one. My mum even commented that she should not gobble up her share of scallops so fast, if not she could gave it to Ziv.

Anyway, he ate the scallops with fried rice which we ordered for him specially. Ziv loves RICE. Whenever we ask him what he wants, he will always say RICE, RICE.

The boy is frowning because my brother made funny faces at him... his double eyelids are eventually showing... I secretly hope that he has my double eyelids rather than Kev's single eyelids.


The oldest and the youngest in the room....

On a separate note, here's a picture of the barky Coby at home.

This is a picture that I took using my dad's camera. I am still figuring out how to take aperture pictures!!

Digital SLR

I am looking for a good DSLR for my newfound hobby (again, after baking). Photography, that is.

See these pictures that inspired me...

Jumping Ziv...

Abril and Ziv...

Christmas pictures taken by BS using Canon EOS 500D.

Currently on my list is the Canon EOS 500D, I am totally clueless about cameras and buying it based on word of mouth. However, my most important concern is that it MUST work in cold temperature as in winter season. So any other suggestions, bring it on!

Xmas Post

Time flies and now Xmas is over and me, deprive of sleep... I think I am suffering from post-xmas depression... :(

Our Tree:
After much dalliance, the tree is finally up! A picture taken after Ziv woke up from his nap.


Pre-Xmas Dinner:
As I mentioned, this Xmas season kicked start with a dinner gathering at the Vanilla Pod. It was a great recommendation from Kooshlog, and may I add, a nice place for rendezvous. We have a special little guest this time, baby Sherlyn. This little cutie will grow up to be a femme fatale!

Xmas Eve
Venue: J (MJ Kaki)'s Abode

J and B are Kevin's family friends and J is my very best MJ kaki. Both families work in the same industry and my in-laws are the couple's baptism Godparents, the relationship is complicated. Anyway, going to their house on Xmas Eve is almost like a tradition. We feasted, juiced up and exchange presents and I mean LOTS of presents. Because they have a big family that lives under one roof, therefore, the present exchange is often MASSIVE. Check out the presents under the Xmas tree!

J and B have 2 adorable daughters and both of them always have cherubic smiles on their faces. Ziv loves to jump up and down on their bed... not very polite though...

After church we did what we do best, play MJ. Ended at 6am! We had a hard time waking up on time for the Xmas lunch with our in-laws and relatives.

Our Boxing Day Gathering
Time: 1230pm
Venue: Cel's Abode

I want to thank all my friends who make this gathering possible every year. As we grow older, we ended up having many commitments, and it is THAT something, perhaps that kind of special FRIENDSHIP that bring us all together to celebrate the joyous occasion.

The enthusiasm in us never seemed to cease as the years go by. Everyone is so flexible with their schedule and there is no tug-of-war over date selection. And my wish for the next gathering? More little members can join in the fun. Two years ago was Ziv, who joined, and now this year we have the chummy 8-mth old Abril. Who's next? Maybe Aihuey's?

Our potluck.


Limited pictures here, am still waiting for my 'arch enemy' to upload his pictures, taken from a very super duper sophisticated camera that no one knows how to use, including him. (you know what I mean).

So who is the happiest person after all the Xmas celebrations? My baby, of course.

Posing with 10 of his presents.

Ziv's favourite presents are of course the hi-5 dvds from Mummy and the Thomas the Train bag, lunch box and water-bottle set from our ex neighbour, S and A.