A little jaunt

I took a day off from work today to spend the day with my mother.

I drove to my mother's home in the morning and we went to our favourite coffee shop at Jalan Tua Kong for brunch.

As my brother's girlfriend (ZT) had to work the night shift today, we ordered a packed meal (comprising rice with cuttlefish, tou fu and sliced pork) for her lunch. While ZT ate her lunch, my mother and I freshened up for the next part of our outing.

Gosh, the sun was very hot today! We had to carry an umbrella each as we walked from my mother's home to the bus stop.

Just as we were approaching the bus stop, we missed the bus. Not to worry, another bus will be here soon.

When SBS Bus No. 7 arrived, we boarded the bus and sat down to enjoy the air-conditioning comfort. We were headed for Orchard Road, the shopping belt of Singapore.

Our first stop at Orchard Road was at the bank. Recently, Boy-Boy chewed on some currency notes that had unfortunately blown from the table to the floor. My mother painstakingly pieced together the jigsaw puzzle of torn pieces of currency notes and taped them together. One of the pieces was missing and along with it, 2 of the serial numbers on the S$10 note. We managed to change a S$10 note and a S$2 note. For the remaining S$10 note with the 2 missing serial numbers, the banker said that she would check with the monetary authority first whether it could be changed.

After we left the bank, we proceeded to the Dhoby Ghaut MRT station. This station is an interchange and it was so confusing as to which direction we should be headed for. Following the directional signs (which were numerous), we made our way from one end of the station to another end using the travelator (similar to what can be found at our Changi Airport).

Thereafter, we had to take an escalator down to the level below before we could board the MRT train headed in the North direction.

When we alighted at the Orchard MRT station, we walked through Wisma Atria and used the internal walkway to enter Ngee Ann City. Our destination was Takashimaya Department Store, located in Ngee Ann City. We had several Takashimaya vouchers and we wanted to use them.

In the end, we only browsed the kitchen section. There are so many types of cookware and kitchen appliances! We managed to purchase several items using the vouchers. We bought two sets of Tefal non-stick pans (each set comprised two non-stick pans and a fryer).

We also bought a digital scale using the voucher.

My mother wanted to drink iced coffee. However, the Coffee Club at Ngee Ann City and the Starbucks at Wisma Atria were both crowded. As such, we ended up at the food court in Wisma Atria where we ordered an iced coffee and a bowl of tau suan. The iced coffee was so thick that after we added more ice, we ended up with the equivalent of two portions of iced coffee. Now, that is what I call "value for money"!

Oops... look at the time! It was almost 5.30 pm! We decided to make our way back to my mother's home before we got lost in the sea of the after-office crowd.

Boy-Boy was very excited when we returned. He sniffed the Takashimaya paper bags that we were carrying and wondered what we bought.

My mother cooked some rice with fish and vegetables for Boy-Boy's dinner. Hmm... it looks delicious.

When Da joined us after work, my mother went into her "lady chef" mode and started making preparations for our dinner.

My mother's Philips sandwich maker came in handy tonight.

Would you like some luncheon meat and cheese sandwich? Or how about a chilli tuna and cheese sandwich?

As usual, Boy-Boy asked to share some of our dinner. He was miffed when we asked him to eat his own dinner instead.

Ta-da! Dinner is served. The plate in the middle at the back row contains samosas that Da and I bought from Amoy hawker centre yesterday which were heated up in the oven by my mother.

Da also had open-faced tuna and cheese sandwiches which were baked in the oven at 140 degrees for slightly less than 10 minutes.

After a satisfying dinner, it was time to sit back and relax with some black coffee (for my mother) and tea with milk (for Da and me).

We still have three S$10 Takashimaya vouchers left. Hmm... I wonder what we can buy using the vouchers?