After all that walking, my feet are going "ouch, ouch, ouch"!

We had a very busy day today.

Event #1 => air-conditioning servicing. The air-conditioning servicemen turned up 15 minutes early (at 9.15 am instead of 9.30 am) to service our air-conditioning. The boss of the company used to live opposite my mother but he has since moved away (but within the vicinity, we heard).

After servicing all our air-conditioning, he informed us that the air-conditioning in the master bedroom was noisy because of the baby power that the filter had caught.

Event #2 = breakfast. After the air-conditioning servicemen left, we sat down to breakfast. Da had made a quick visit to our favourite coffeeshop at Jalan Tua Kong to buy breakfast.

This is Da's nasi lemak breakfast:-

This is my nasi lemak breakfast:-

Event #3 => dental appointment. It has been almost a year since we visited our dentist. After being placed on the waiting list, we were informed that there were two back-to-back slots available for us, the first slot being at 3.15 pm.

Da had his dental treatment after me. While he was undergoing his treatment, I let Princess walk around in the dental clinic. This is her first visit to the dentist. According to him, children can start having dental treatment around 4 1/2 years of age. Okay... something to bear in mind.

We asked the dentist about cleaning Princess' tongue. She does not enjoy it and will push my hand away. According to the dentist, there is no necessity to clean her tongue if she puts up resistance. Instead, the solution is to let her drink more water.

Event #4 => Visit to Katong Catholic Book Store. As the book store was located near the dental clinic, we decided to visit the book store. We bought a children's Bible for Princess. She already has a children's Bible that PIL gave her for her baptism. However, the one that we bought today was a simplified version comprising the Old Testament and New Testament stories and the book was the thick kind that was suitable for young children who have a tendency to tear the pages of a book. While we were there, we bumped into Da's ex-university schoolmate. This ex-schoolmate is also acquainted with Da's sister (TGN) and her husband (TYK) as well as several other mutual friends.

Event #5 => teatime at Glory Catering. As the dental clinic was located near Glory Catering at East Coast Road, we proceeded to Glory Catering after our dental treatment.

Da ordered a mee siam.

I ordered a popiah.

We shared a glass of kopi tarik kurang manis.

Princess slept through our teatime. When we had just finished eating, she woke up from her nap and I gave her some Nestle rice cereal with mixed vegetables to eat.

Event #6 => stopover at Awfully Chocolate. Da, Princess and I shared a scoop of chocolate ice cream. This is the first time that I have eaten the chocolate ice cream from Awfully Chocolate and I have to say that it is "awfully divine"!

Event #7 => visit to Changi Airport. After we left Awfully Chocolate, we parked our car at the public carpark near Kembangan MRT station. We then took a Mass Rapid Transit train to Changi Airport. The last time that Princess went to Changi Airport, she could not walk yet. This time around, we could not stop her. She was on fire! My feet are aching and groaning as I type this post.

Event #8 => late dinner. We left Changi Airport at 8+ pm and made our way home. As we were in the elevator in our development, I asked Princess whether she was tired and she nodded her head.

When we reached home, we sponged Princess and gave her a bottle of milk. She promptly fell asleep after she and I recounted the events of the day. I asked her whether she remembered being carried by her cousin (SCT) whom we met at Awfully Chocolate today and she nodded her head. Such a sweet girl!

I have to confess that I took 40 winks myself. When I woke up from my short nap, I shuffled my feet to the kitchen to prepare a simple dinner (comprising of leftovers in our refrigerator).

After dinner, we ate some duku langsat.

And some chocolate.

Yawn! It has been an exhausting day for us. Good night!

Duku langsat

The duku langsat is one of my favourite fruits.

When I was growing up, my parents used to buy duku langsat by the kilogrammes at a time.

Despite the thick yellow leathery skin, the flesh is sweetish. It is difficult to stop eating once you have started. It is so addictive!

What is not commonly known about the duku langsat (other than to fruit sellers) is that if you do not intend to eat the duku langsat on the spot, you should not handle the duku langsat using your bare hands. It seems that doing so can cause the duku langsat to spoil easily. As such, one will often find fruit sellers using a saucer (for example) to scoop the duku langsat.

Hurried meals

I was running late for work today, so I had a hurried breakfast.

As Da had to leave earlier for work, he bought breakfast beehoon for my mother.

I also ate breakfast beehoon but I saved the toufu for Princess.

I had to work late today. By the time I came home, Princess had gone to bed. Da informed me that she had suddenly developed the sniffles and my mother had given her some runny nose medication before my mother went home.

I rummaged through our refrigerator and warmed up a curry puff and a bread bun.

I also snacked on one square of chocolate (yes, we all need to watch our waistline, huh?).

A colleague gave me a packet of Starbucks potato chips. I had barely eaten a few pieces when Princess woke up crying. Okay... time for night duty.

Noodle day

Mom's breakfast:-

My breakfast:-

With a mug of hot coffee, of course....

Da's dinner (nasi goreng):-

My dinner (yes, noodles again!):-

MIL's dinner:-

And to end the meal on a sweet note... Cadbury chocolate!

simple dinner

For the umpteenth time in the past few weeks, I had to work through lunchtime again and I had to settle for a mug of hot Milo for my lunch.

Well, to look on the bright side of things, I may be able to slim down at this rate. *grin*

By the time I reached home today, it was rather late. As such, I decided to have a simple dinner comprising a chicken pie and two small bread buns, all of which I warmed up in the oven.

Here are some thoughts for the day. If you ask a service provider to quote to attend to Items 1 to 5 on a list and after you have accepted the service provider's quote, you now require the service provider to attend to an additional 3 items, would it be fair for the service provider to re-quote at a higher amount because of the additional work to be done? I personally feel that it would only be fair as the perimeters of the work scope have now been widened and it would not be fair to hold the service provider to the earlier quote. Do others share the same view?

"ta pau" from Marine Terrace

In the past, Da and I would bypass the food outlets at Marine Terrace at night as we were under the impression that there was "nothing to eat over there at night".

We have since changed our minds.

Nowadays, every now and then, PIL would help us buy our dinner from a coffeeshop at Marine Terrace. The food is delicious.

This is Da's fried rice from the coffeeshop at Marine Terrace.

This is my claypot noodle from the same coffeeshop.

If you are in the Marine Terrace vicinity in the morning, do check out the hawker centre over there. There are several stalls that sell delicious breakfast food, including one that sells my all-time favourite - ban cheng kueh.

Dinner with in-laws

Drool factor - priceless.

Our breakfast today... at Qi Ji, of course! Da ordered the nasi lemak set 1 whereas I ordered the nasi lemak set 3.

After Princess' enrichment class, we were back at Qi Ji (at Suntec Tower Two) for tea-time. I ordered mee siam.

Da ordered the laksa.

For dinner, we went to PIL's home.

MIL had cooked black sauce chicken.

There is a cafeteria located at the clubhouse of the development where PIL live. MIL went to the cafeteria and ordered a few dishes, one of which was stir-fried vegetables.

MIL also ordered sliced fish fried with ginger.

MIL requested for chopped garlic for me. I like to mix chopped garlic with my steamed white rice.

I requested MIL to order the deep fried toufu as well because I wanted to give some to Princess.

The deep fried toufu is served with sweet and sauce sauce.

MIL decided to fry an omelette as well.

Our dinner feast:-

After dinner, MIL brought out a cake from Awfully Chocolate that Da's niece (SCT) had given PIL.

This is their signature cake - the original flavour.

The cake goes well with a mug of hot coffee.

Parkway Parade outing

Despite it being a saturday, we woke up relatively early and decided to head off to Parkway Parade for breakfast.

We ended up at a relatively new wing located at Parkway Parade where it is similar to a food court except that the food stalls are all serving fast food.

We settled for KFC. Their breakfast is quite tasty. Princess ate a bit of the scrambled egg but was not keen on the rest of the items on my A.M. platter.

In the early afternoon, we met FIL and MIL for lunch at Parkway Parade. We had initially thought of eating at Yoshinoya but FIL requested to eat beef burger, so we changed the dining establishment to Carl's Jr. This is the first time that FIL and MIL are eating food from Carl's JR.

As KFC was located next to Carl's Jr, MIL bought a small portion of mashed potato (minus the gravy) for Princess.

As Princess was tired after the day's outing, she went to bed early. Da was still full from his Carl's Jr lunch (heehee... I had shared one burger with MIL and hence I was still able to eat dinner), so I warmed up a tau sar piah and two small pieces of homemade ban cheng kueh for my dinner.

Thank You, Lord that You are on our side and no weapon formed against us shall prosper. I trust You to give us victory and I know that everything will fall into place in our lives.

So thankful that it is a friday

In the past few weeks, the economy seems to be moving quickly and I am often left trying to catch my breath. Why is every project urgent and needs to be attended to immediately? Why are we trying to catch our tail on a daily basis?

This has been a very long work week for me, peppered with almost daily headaches. Even panadol has not worked.

I am therefore very thankful that it is a friday today. I look forward to a relaxing weekend spent with family.

I managed to leave the office a little earlier today and reached home around 8 pm.

My mother ate beef noodles for dinner today.

FIL ate chicken rice.

MIL decided to share her cup of coffee with FIL.

MIL is a chilli lover and she could not resist "snacking" on a saucer of pounded chilli.

The bananas that FIL bought for Princess had become a little overripe and as such, she did not finish eating her banana today.

MIL, Da and I ate nonya dumpling for our dinner today. MIL had bought the dumplings from a shop at East Coast Road.

MIL was given a box of cheese cookies at work today. I sampled a piece but declined a second helping as I found the cookies a tad too savoury for my liking.

MIL was also given some homemade ban cheng kueh and I warmed them up together with other snacks for after-dinner snacks.

I give thanks to the Lord that I managed to "survive this week". I pray for His blessings for next week and trust Him to see me through.