Inaugural Baking Attempt - Cupcakes!

I kept reading blogs of other mummies who can bake and has been envying them ever since. Especially when one of my customer-converted-to-goodfriend can bake and cook extremely well, I've been itching to try doing that myself too. So, throwing my other task aside, I bought a cheapo hand-held mixer on Friday and all the ingredients, then I baked on Saturday !

Here are the results:
Chocolate Cupcakes:


Damaged ones (cracked and erupted ones due to not-so-good control of the temperature):


Not too bad lah hor? but I find the cupcake sizes a wee too big, so I went to Phoon Huat and bought smaller ones and bake again on Sunday !

Mini Vanilla Cupcakes:


Vanilla Chocolate Chip Cupcakes:


Double Chocolate Chip Cupcakes:


Here's the cupcake recipe:
150g unsalted butter - softened
150g castor sugar
175g self raising flour
3 large eggs or 4 small eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Method:
Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees C
Crack eggs into a cup and beat lightly
Place all ingredients in a large bowl or mixing bowl
Beat for 2 minutes or until mixture is light and creamy
bake the cakes for 18 - 20 minutes --> Varies according to oven and size of cupcakes

It's super easy, if mamemo can bake, so can you !

Lot's of Blogging to Catch Up

Oh well, all because I procastinated ! OKAY ! I must write it down so as to stop this bad habit of mine! I want to blog about before 2007 ends :

1. Beijing Trip in June
2. Winston's Year End Concert
3. Perth Trip in November
   

Photos of Winston in School

It's been about a year since Winston entered Nursery 1. Think both my husband and I are glad to see that he likes school. He likes the teachers, his friends and even the aunties who cooked and did the general cleaning.

I'm glad he has changed from a whiny, crying baby to a happy preschooler who looks forward to school everyday, even after a 2 week holiday to Perth.

Some Serious Work:


A Cruise:


Outing to the Goat Farm:


Playing Masak Masak

Outdated Post

My Nephew was discharged 2 days after he was hospitalised...which is good, because he seems quite stressed out at the hospital. Can be seen from the numerous tantrums he threw.

平平安安

I realised the importance of the 4 words above yesterday. Or should I say, the shocking news I received last night coupled with the korean drama I was watching last night reinforced the importance of the 4 words above.

The first time I strongly feel about "平平安安" was during the time when Winston was born. Winston was born at 33 weeks, about 1.5 weeks after my waterbag burst prematurely. I was hospitalised and ordered bed rest during the 1.5 weeks and that was the longest 1.5 weeks in my life. I was constantly worrying about the baby, worrying whether he can make it if he is born prematurely. I broke down many times, both in the hospital and at home (my mum's home). Thankfully I have a strong support of my family and my husband's family, and luckily Winston is fine when born, just a little underweight at 1.9kg.

Last evening, I received news that my nephew has Childhood Nephrotic Syndrome on initial diagnosis. I was shocked because I didn't expect the severity of his sickness. However, come to think of it, this explains why his eyes puffed up so frequently. But I am sad because I cannot imagine how a 4 year old kid can go through the frequent blood and urine tests and hospitalisation. I pray that my brother and sis-in-law can be strong for their child.

Last night, I went home to watch the Korean drama, Thank You, about a kid being ostracised by the society because she has AIDS. I was crying when I watched the struggles of the cute child, her mother and her grandfather.

So, 平平安安 is very important.

Hub's back !

Hub's back on Friday evening! And with lots of DVDs for me !!! Thank you hub !

Winston is happy to see Daddy back, because he woke up on Saturday morning straightaway when I mention that Daddy is home. There is no whinings, no cries....no 赖床

So happy to see him back !

2 more days

Have been counting down to hubby's return from his trip since last week. I put the countdown timer on my msn and some of my friends have been asking me what i am counting down to. Sad to say I am not counting down to my last days in the company....sigh...

Winston's have been waking up at 7 am these 2 days...leaving me not much time to pack his bag and do the morning preparations, because he needs attention whenever he is awake...like want milk, want to pass motion etc. The worst is that he wants to watch the leapfrog DVD in the morning !! I allow him to watch because I want to minimise whinings in the morning and also give me time to prepare his stuff.

Yesterday he refused to off the TV when it was time to go...So he cried all the way to the carpark. Luckily, after I told Teacher Mei, Teacher Mei explained to him. So he was much better today as he willingly off the TV and DVD player when it's time to go.

My boy is growing up...

Hub’s not around - Me

Since Hub’s not around, I become the chauffeur for Winston ! Well, this is good since it puts my driving skills and confidence to test.

Day 1 was the most terrible. I couldn’t turn up to the ramp of the carpark in the morning. I tried 2 times before successful and it was very very close to the ramp’s wall. The worst is that there was a car behind me and he horned ! :( Day 1 night was not too good either…I couldn’t turn into the carpark on my first try, because I turned too late. So I reversed before trying again….luckily no cars behind.

Another case happened the evening before. I turned into Sis’s house to park upon brother’s suggestion. But when I reversed out later, my right side mirror knocked the gate! So Father gotta guide me to get out of the house. :P

Other then those above, everything is quite ok. But last night I braked a bit too suddenly before a hump and Winston fell forward and hit his knee….Aiyoh, cry all the way back to Sister’s house. So now I become very naggy, keep asking him to sit down…Sigh, should have enforce the car seat rule…a bit regret now.

Hub’s not around - Winston

Thankfully Winston has been pretty well-behaved for the first 4 days. Let’s hope I don’t jinx it by putting it down here.

However, he misses Daddy very much. The first 2 days were the worst. He would tell me that Daddy is home when he heard our neighbour open the door. He would ask me if I were fetching Daddy when I drive the car. He would ask Daddy to read or pat him to sleep. Just this morning, he had a bad dream and he was asking for Daddy again.

I had to constantly remind him that Daddy went to China, and would buy books and toys for him when he is back. That would appease him for a while.

Now, every night is a ritual. Reach home, if not bathed yet, bathe. Then watch 1 Leapfrog Learning DVD, read books on the mattress, then sleep. Because I am alone with Winston, I need to wait for him to sleep first before I can bathe. So I try to bring forward his sleeping time. First night was pretty successful (he slept at 1010pm !), but the following nights he would toss and turn and couldn’t get to sleep. I think partly because he slept for 3 hours in school every afternoon.

Well, tomorrow’s the weekend…I’m thinking of what activities to do with him!

Hub’s not around - Logistics Issues

It’s been 4 days that Hubby has left for working trip in China. And I survived !

Initially we were toying with the following options so that I can cope with Winston:
1) Shift to Mother’s house
2) Ask Mother to shift to our house
3) All remain status quo

And I chose (3) because (1) is too troublesome. Moreover, now with half of mother’s house gone, it’s a bit squeezy. For (2), there are a lot of logistics issues. Firstly, I would need to send Mother home or to the MRT Station every morning, so we would be caught in the peak hour jam outside the station every morning. On the other hand, Mother still wants to help Father in the morning, which means if I choose 2, Father would need to detour. to my house to fetch her at 5:30 every morning.

So now, every morning I would drive Winston to school every morning, park the car, then take the MRT to work. I would pick up the car every evening to fetch Winston back. It’s becoming a bit of clockwork now…hee hee..

Independent Driving for the First Time

Today’s the first time that I drive without hubby’s / sister’s company ! Only Winston’s company…:)

A great accomplishment, a pat on the back for Winston and Mommy…

Winston : for behaving himself in the car
Mommy : for driving confidently

btw, did i lock the car ? :P

My African Violets

Glouxinia
I grew this from a leaf, in a short span of 5 months !

Made Use of

I realised how this colleague has been making use of me.

Last month, when it was announced that I am going to take a big project, she psycho-ed me to persuade boss to let her partner me to do the project. She said that “It’s going to be difficult…That time, there were 5 of us on the same project…” Actually I have the confidence to do the project myself, but because of her naggings (she repeated this to me at least 5 times), I suggest this to boss, thankfully boss rejected.

Now, she had an even bigger project, and my project was scrapped because of customer’s last minute decision. Why don’t I see her including me into her project?

Then I recalled her past doings:
1) Her isolated cubicle, one of the best one on our floors, was actually meant for me by my previous boss. But she quickly told my previous boss that she has already told our admin assistant that she is going to sit there.
2) She helped me on my previous previous project’s CBA, and she expected me to return the favour. We had another junior member whom she said that I could rope in to help in my previous project. Then when her intern is leaving, she requested the junior member to be back to help her. That time, the junior member was in the midst of completing a task, but she couldn’t even wait for a week. She even lost her temper and put phrases like “hell hath no fury” in her msn message.

Her other actions to her outside friends are questionable too…She profited $100 from her friend who bought over her old office notebook. Yet complained about how her friend chased her for the notebook because his notebook is dying. The sale was delayed for some reason.

But she complained to me about how her close ex-IJ friend borrowed $60 from her to buy C&K shoes but yet to return the $ to her.

Now, I am wary of getting help from her, talking to her, or even helping her.

Renotalk Post : Constant Complainant

I posted this on Renotalk :
“I have a colleague who is a constant complainant about the workload that she has. She keeps complaining about how short the time she is given, and how much work our boss gave her. Then because of the unreasonable workload, she needs to bring work home. And this morning, she just told me that she worked until 12am. And because of the unreasonable workload, she wants to change job.

I used to be sympathetic towards her, until I found that she has been msn-ing most of the time during office hours. I often can hear her typing furiously at her keyboard and sometimes giggles can come from her cubicle. (She is seated just opposite me)

Not that I’m particular about internet surfing / msning during working hours, because I am also guilty of that. hee hee :) but I do it when I finish most of my stuff. I think it’s a bit overboard if you msn the 80% of the working hours, then left 20% to do work. Lagi best, complain everyday…getting on my nerves liao”

Reflections on Driving Lessons

I quite enjoy the driving lessons, minus the travelling to-and-fro the driving center and my house. Why ? You may ask ? Isn’t it stressful ? There is a certain amount of stress, but the joy of learning driving is that you are somehow protected against accidents, because u know that the instructor would be more kan cheong than you are. Well it could be a false sense of security, but then you would be less worried about crashing other people’s car, then in the process, damage your own car and need to argue with the other party whose fault it is.A car in Singapore cost a fortune. The cheapest Jap car could cost at least $45,000. Therefore naturally would be heartpain if anything happen to it.

Another thing that I would like to rant about is the long time that one could get a driving license.

I registered on 4 Feb 2007, took my first test on 11 Jun 2007, failed, then passed the second attempt on 31 Aug 2007.
The school mandated that you need to pass 22 lessons before you can book the test date. So let me show you the process that I went through:
Mar 2007 - completed 22 lessons and book 1st test date : End Aug 2007
Apr 2007 - Managed to book 11 Jun 2007 after logging in to the website to check for slots being given up
Jun 2007 - Took and failed first attempt, book re-test on 31 Aug 2007
4 Aug 07 - PDL Expired, make new one
31 Aug 07 - Passed

From here you can see:
1) There is a long queue for test dates. On the average, one needs to wait for 5 months from time of booking of test date to the actual test date. For re-test, waiting time is shorter about 1.5 to 2 months
2) PDL only last for 6 months

Because of the long waiting time, there is a gap between the end of all lessons to the actual test date. This may cause the student to forget what to do. Not only that, the mismatch between the validity period of the PDL and the long waiting time causes most students to apply for 2 or more PDLs before they pass. Isn’t this a sheer wastage of at least $25 ?

There must be something wrong with the system.

Pass Driving Test

AT LAST !!! I passed my driving test.

For those who doesn’t know, taking driving lessons and test is a VERY Big deal in Singapore. When you passed, people would woo and waa and congratulate you ! This is unlike other countries where learning how to drive is a natural thing because you would be severely handicapped if you do not know how to drive.

Let me compute how much I spent just to get the card:
1) First attempt 5 years ago

Final Theory Test ========> $6
Lessons at BBDC ========> $500 (est)
Provisional Driving License ===> $25

2) Second attempt

2 PDL ===============> $50
lessons at SSDC =========> $2500(est)
Driving License ==========> $50

ESTIMATED Total = SGD $3131

Improvement

Hi Winston,

You've shown a great improvement in School, especially in the mornings and evenings. You would give Daddy and Mummy a bear hug and a kiss each, before going into the classroom yourself. Most of the time, there is no whining and no delay tactics now, unlike this post . In the evenings, there is less delay tactics too. Thumbs up !!

Not sure whether it's because of you starting to bring breakfast to school. We bought a lunchbox for you and starts to prepare breakfast for you to bring to school. Then you'll be all excited about bringing the box to school....Wonder when will the excitement die down ???

Also, we realise that the school has taught you the good habit of going to the toilet before sleeping. Well, if only they can teach you more like night-time potty training etc. hee hee

Winston's 3rd birthday (School)

We celebrated Winston's 3rd Birthday in School on 27th. According to the teachers, another girl in his class celebrated earlier in the morning. My goodness, so many July babies!

Let the Pictures do the talking:

Blow the cake!


Yummy!


Goodie Bag Time!


Then we had a great time downstairs riding his new bicycle from Daddy !

Independence

Henry’s coming home tomorrow morning. So I decided to give it a try at managing Winston alone. What the heck…it’s only a few waking hours before he comes home right ?

I’m glad I made the decision. Because we had a wonderful evening today. Watching TV together, play lego, read books and finally hitting the sack. But of course, I woke up to make this entry.

He is much easier to handle than when we stayed at mother’s house. Let’s hope I don’t jinx it by recording it down. Although he did disobey me for a short while, but after I warned him, he actually stopped.

A strong boost tonight ! Maybe I’ll try to stay at our house during Henry’s next trip !

Wish me luck !

N73 !!!

My N73 arrived today ! So happy. But $298 poorer….
must reduce spending soon…realised my expenditure increased after re-deploying to HQ…too many temptations already :(

好心没好报

Well the title’s in Chinese because I forgot the English-equivalent idiom.

Oh well, it’s all because of my parent’s rental problems. It just happened that Winston and I were staying at my parent’s house, so mom asked me to take a look at the tenant agreement. So in the end she signed it. BUT, the $ collected is less than the amount agreed in the contract ! because one of the tenant is shifting out, so she made partial payment. But according to my sis, we previously agreed to have the entire tenancy to be managed as a whole, and not individual, hence regardless of who or how many people is renting, we should collect the whole amount.

Well, I was shocked. So I made the wrong recommendation. And mom had already signed the agreement.

On the surface, sis did not say that I was wrong, but I was damn sian. Why am I the one to handle this when big sis was handling it all along ?

So…I decided to wash my hands off the entire thing. Less stress on me

0 and 1

You can be a funny boy sometimes. In fact, Daddy and Mummy feel that you are a charming boy when you don’t throw tantrums. Like logic gates, you have only 2 states : 1 and 0 : happy and whiny….no in-between

1: Happy

You’ll sing songs; pull mummy or daddy to read books; talk to yourself; point out things to mummy and daddy; and even compose new songs.

Occurance:
seldom in the morning. Normally this mood occurs at around 10am when you are fully awake, after your bath (during weekends) and breakfast. This mood also occurs in the evening during weekends in yima’s house when you are playing with your cousins. This also occurs when we bring you to your favourite places like airport, zoo, supermarket etc

0: Whiny

As the mood states, you’ll whine, lie on the floor or ground, and sometimes worsen to a loud cry. When it worsen to a loud cry, you’ll hit anyone or anything around you.

Occurance:
anytime of the day when you do not get what you want, including additional sleep, toys, books, kiddy rides, TV etc.

Percentage

about 40-60. Guess which is which ?

Nightmare

Dear Winston,

Last night, you had a terrible nightmare. I’m not sure whether it is due to the punishment session on Friday or is it because you had a wild day in school. But you cried and cried and didn’t want mummy to console you. The remorseful feeling came back. The worse thing is daddy only woke up after you vomitted.

When you cried the second time, Daddy lost his temper and shouted at you and you cried even louder. Mummy,then quickly step in to console you. After you manage to fall asleep, mummy began to think about the following questions:

1) Did my punishments (aka physical punishment) result you to be so violent in nature?
2) Should I continue, because mummy’s family said that we are too soft with you?
3) Should I just ignore what other people say ?
4) Should we have an alternative arrangement to let you sleep in po po’s house a few times in a week? So that mummy and daddy can get our rest ? Or should we get a maid and let you sleep with the maid ?
5) Is this a phase you are going through ? If yes, when is it going to end ??

Baby, you’ve been having frequent nightmares and violent ones. Mummy and Daddy couldn’t take it anymore. It is so very tiring.

School - Love or Hate ?

Ever since you’ve started school in Dec 06, we observed that you love school in the evenings and you hate school in the mornings.

In the mornings, you won’t want to leave mummy and daddy. Everyday after teacher checked your hands and washed your hands, you will use delay tactics, like ask daddy to carry you to see the plants or ask mummy to carry you into the classroom. The only 2 days that mummy was proud of you happened last week when you brought your bag into your classroom by yourself without crying or whining. One of the 2 days, mummy made the mistake of peeping at you through the window and after you saw me, you refused to let me go.

In the evenings, you won’t want to leave school. You will want to ride the bicycles round and round the school front yard, until mummy and daddy threatened to leave you, then you’ll whine again.

Dear…when will your behaviour improve ?

Perth, here we come

Just booked a tiger airways flight to Perth in November for the 3 of us ! yippee! Planning starts !

Actually, I really wanted to join in the Cairns trip with the chua family, because I felt that travelling as a group would be fun and Winston would enjoy the company of his cousins very much. However, something triggered me to pull out from the trip yesterday.

This matter also triggered me to lose my temper with Winston yesterday.

I dislike my sister-in-law.

I dislike her high-handedness in handling of relationships especially with our side of the family. She thinks that only her way of handling kids is the best. There was once she sarcastically told me that she envied me for being able to tolerate Winston’s running about during mealtime. Isn’t that indirectly boasting that my nephew is able to sit down during dinner time ?

Ever since her son was born, and ever since she established the routine of coming to my mother’s and later my sister’s house for dinner everyday, she would ask my mother to bathe for my nephew everyday. I dislike her way of instructing my mother what to do, and I dislike my mother for quietly abiding by her instructions. Now, my mother takes in upon herself that it’s her job to do it.

You know what, I hope that my nephew’s wife would treat her in the same way.

Beijing Trip Day 2 - 25 May 2007

The next day, Husband went to work and both Winston and I took our time to wake up, wash up and have breakfast downstairs. The buffet is pathetic, despite the brand of the hotel. Winston didn't even want the bread because they are too hard. Ended up he just had an egg and yoghurt.

Today's itinerary is the Palace Museum or 故宫, the Palace which the past Emperors lived in. Weather is real hot and I walked from the hotel with Winston in the stroller to the Palace, took about 30 mins.

Let the pictures do the talking:






Unfortunately the main palace is under refurbishment, guess in preparation for the 2008 Beijing Olympics :(


See the nice and bright coloured beams ? This is the refurbished look. I believe non-refurbished ones should be pretty dirty




The palace is so huge, but I think we only covered 10-20% of the palace because the place is not pram friendly and the weather is really too hot.








Didn't get to walk to Tiananmen Square because Winston was throwing a tantrum due to the hot weather, so we quickly went back to the hotel.

So moral of the story, never go to Beijing in Summer

Beijing Trip Day 1 - 24 May 2007

We took the 1am flight to Beijing. Cannot believe it that the flight is packed with people on business and families with small kids despite the late hour. Winston is excited (as usual) at the boarding area, but once we reach our seats, he fell asleep, even before the plane took off !

Reach Beijing at around 7am, and the traffic in beijing is crazy ! We took about 1.5 hours to reach the hotel ! This is where we stayed :


Our hotel room doesn't have an external view, only an internal view:


The indoor swimming pool


The little monkey fell asleep again after we settled down in the room. Husband went to work and I zo bo in the room:


In the evening, when Husband is back, we went jalan at the nearby Wang Fu Jing Street:




Notice that the sky is pretty dark, not because it's late at night, but because the city is shrouded in dust. Plus there are quite a substantial number of renovations of the pavement at the Wang Fu Jing Street, so the place is really quite dusty.
More about Wang Fu Jing here

We bought some sweets, and a pre-packed Beijing duck as souvenirs because our trip is short.

We went to the Ajisen Ramen-equivalent for dinner. Not bad :)


A nice church: