Bye 2007 and Hello 2008!

It's been 7 months... since the last time I updated this blog. Friends have noticed and I think it's time that I uploaded all photos that have been taken and neglected. It's been a crazy 2007 with tuition tuition tuition and more tuition. With my crystal pin-making and cake-making craze, I seriously wonder where did i find the time to squeeze all these activities with running around after my two kids.


Let's recap, after Syuaib's birthday in May... and experimenting with icings oh yes! I was really busy organizing Abdillah's wedding lunch and dinner which was held in July. I was also have major hormonal breakouts so I fell prey to a facial beauty salon Derma Aethetics where I spent a bomb and yet, skin got worse. Haiz! Anyway, to make long story short, till now, I'm still having breakouts and i feel like a teenager again ( Wait... didn't think I had breakouts when I was a teenager.) ok so my hormones decides to give me pimple face when i'm nearing 30. I'm 30 by the way. THIRTY! just turned 30 in December last year. Luckily humans made a breakthrough in chemistry and created what we called now the "concealer".

Maybe it's because of the number 30. I got an advanced birthday gift, Samsung U600 handphone from hubby. My mom-in-law was super duper generous with me, not that she isn't always but last year, she got me a Guess bag when she got back from KL. It's not my favourite brand but so sweet of her, then I got an advanced birthday gift, a diamond pendant from her when she got back from Jakarta. She also bought for me kebayas from Bandung for Hari Raya. I'm like Whoa!! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Thanks to my dearest friends, Zah, Nad and Wati for the birthday cash and vouchers. I went on a shopping craze. Took advantage of the end- year Mango sale to grab 4 tops that only cost about $90. Just realised that I need new tops badly as all my favourite tops have turned yellow at the armpits. Yucks! Thanks Shah for the Billabong Gym bag. Very thoughtful....but it would be great if it's other brand like Puma or adidas coz Billabong is so very teenagerloh! Well... anyway, the thoughts that count. I also bought myself a birthday gift.... Yahoo!!... an Olympus U790 digi cam. Waterproof and shockproof. Got it at Comex for $549. The best present that I got was from my nephews and nieces. A bookmark made of wire that spelled 'We Luv Busu' The present made me all teary -eyed. Thank you all! I luv you too!

Made a new passport, the biometric one which only lasts for 5 years. Influenced by Singaporeans kiasu mannerism, I enrolled Syuaib for Kumon English and Maths at Eastpoint. So that shopping centre is now my playground. Will roam around in Watsons, NTUC, Popular bookstore and have my noodles at Banquet there while waiting for him to finish.

I've discovered http://www.flowerpod.com.sg/. I was hooked for a while with the forum pages checking on what's the bestsellers for all cosmetics, skin care, hair products and where's the best to go for facials, hair cut and even Brazilian waxing. Seriously, I couldn't believe that a girl could spend so much for beauty.. Sigh....

Visited hubby in Perth in November for a week with parents-in-law and kids, drove up to KL and Genting with the whole gang, all 15 of us crammed into two cars and sleep in a two-bedroom suite at Awana Resort. Imagine.... 5 adults, 5 teenagers and 5 children. It was a nightmare!!! He! He! in a good sense... It was like a boot camp for the teenagers and the children. A" Disciplinary Boot Camp"! (See photos at my link under photoblogs, Genting-KL)

I have been neglecting my reading habit too last year. However, thanks to Nad, 2007 ended with an excellent read. I would highly recommend anyone to pick up " The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini. A book that has all the elements that a best-seller book should have and even more!

It was a packed and very fulfilling 2007! What will it be for 2008? Another baby... maybe..

Bithday Cakes... birthday cakes and more birthday cakes

It was seriously unnecessary but as I was in the mood to experiment with frostings. Syuaib had a total of three birthday cakes. His grandma bought him a cake for his birthday party that she celebrated for him inviting her brothers and sisters. The other two I baked and decorated. I used buttercream icing as it is the easiest to pipe. Cream cheese frosting is delicious but is not good for piping as it is not stiff unless you add in loads of powdered sugar.. but then it will be too sweet. The one I made to bring for the chalet was the first pix below. The second one was for him to bring to school.

The funny thing is that Syuaib does not eat cakes. However.... he luvs birthday cakes especially his birthday cakes coz he luvs the act of blowing candles on his birthday cakes.

Hair Talk

It's been 6 months since my last hair rebonding. Now that I've discovered the online forums, I've gone to a new place after going through a thread on good hair stylists. The salon's name is Heatwave located at Marina Square. The forum has mentioned that Joanne is good so I've made an advanced appointment with her. She took only 2 hours for the rebonding process and sure enough after washing my hair at home, it's not as straight as I prefer it to be. Her cut was really normal. Nothing fantastic. The kerastase treatment was quite ex too. There won't be a second time.

It's always the same case. After patronising Gilbert's Hair Journal for 16 years, it seems really difficult to find any other hair stylist that can topped him. The thing is Gilbert always cut the same hairstyle for me and since I'm getting older, I want a haircut that is current... something different. 'Gilbert, I want a fringe' No! it will be flat!. "Gilbert, I want to have a bob hairstyle. No! Long hair suits you better. The thing is it's getting hotter and hotter each day and running after my two young kids makes my long hair a chore.

Carrot Cake

Mazlin.... thanks for your order. It's a real pleasure to bake this for your mommy. Hope she luvs it!!

My latest craze....

One of my cousins got engaged last weekend and I made this rocher flower arrangement for her. It has 21 ferrero rochers carefully wrapped with gold organza and white net. I was extremely pleased with the outcome. In fact, if there's anyone interested, I think I'll be able to offer the arrangement for $45 with options of different colour combinations for the flowers and the organza. Mind you that you can never get such a deal from the florist shop.

So much to do & so little time

I was watching my fave cable channel Travel & Living. David Rocco was cooking pasta and he was throwing in sage leaves and rosemary into the pot. Since I have this vision that one day, Ill be able to whip up these gorgeous meals, I've added in 'Know your Herbs & Spices' into my Things to do list for year 2007. To date, the following are the what I have decided to conquer for year 2007:

Know your Koran
(Every week, I spelled out Arabic Alphabets and read the Koran sentence by sentence and I'm beginning to have this itch to know their meanings. So, I've found myself another Koran that includes Translations in Indonesian. Good enough for me. I hope to complete reading the Koran and understand what I'm reading before I turn 30 this year.)
Learn Conversational Mandarin
(I went to the wet market last Saturday and was stumped a few times due to my lack of language skills. Seriously, sometimes I'm ashamed of myself for living in Singapore for 29 years and not knowing even the most simple Mandarin or Hokkien words. So there... I've bought myself 2 CD-Roms to learn some Mandarin)
Know your World
(My tuition kid's mum enthusiastically recounted her great holiday last December in Turkey. If time had permitted, she would have taken a ferry across to Greece. Huh? Is that possible? The first thing I did when I reached home was to check the atlas and sure enough Greece is right next to Turkey. I'm like duh! Ok... so it's about time I know my world
Learn your Herbs & Spices
(Yup.... get to know them really well , their uses and where to get them so if I would one day in the near future cook something out of a recipe book, I know at least, I got my Spices and herbs right)

2007....what will I do?

Syuaib is in nursery now at Al Iman and Syahid is 14 mths happily discovering new things . I just turned 29 in December last year and very glad that I'm back to my original weight. I've got my Quran reciting back on track, once a week and my tuition sessions have kicked in, 4 days a week sometimes one session per day and others 2. I make it a point to visit the library fortnightly to borrow books for the kids as I can see that they enjoy them.

Apart from all these everyday mundane routine, I must make some new goals for myself for this year or else I'll definitely feel like it would be a wasted year. Maybe I should learn Mandarin? Or learn how to ride a bicycle? ......... still thinking..... minutes after minutes passes by....... still thinking......oh no Syahid has awaken now. I'll come back once I've decided...

Gym VS Bedok Reservior

I woke up filling bloated and extremely lethargic on New Year's Day. No wonder, I remembered clearly stuffing myself with pineapple tarts and many slices of butter cakes at my mom's place the day before. Not only that, I ate Mee Soto, rice and Mee Goreng too. Yup... all those carbohydrates and bad fats are circulating throughout my body. Hubby was at home so I told him I need to get rid of the excess food as well as the guilty feeling. "Give me an hour, I'll just drive to Laguna and have a quick run on the treadmill, a few crunches and squats and I'll be done" Hubby had other ideas in his head. He suggested us jogging at Bedok Reservoir instead. I was quite apprehensive on the idea as I'm not a fan of jogging outdoors. I'm not into hot weather, you see. He managed to persuade me saying I could jog while Syuaib rode his bicycle.

It was 4 in the afternoon and the sun was still shining. We realised that the gravel track was not suitable for Syuaib to cycle. Hubby insisted on me jogging first while he looked after Syuaib. I started jogging along the track. It was bad , really bad. It was my first time running on a gravel track. The sound of my footsteps stamping on them was very irritating. The heat from the scorching sun was unbearable. I could hear every beat of my heartbeat clearly as I did not bring my MP3 along and most of the time I was jogging alone. The place was deserted. I'm definitely not turning back so I continued jogging while cursing under my breath till I reached the point where I started. SO..... one round the reservoir is 5 km. ok... I'll be clocking 5km too if I'm on the treadmill but it will definitely be very comfortable for me at the gym. There will be air conditioning, my MP3 and a nice cushioned floor for me to run on. East Coast is much a btter place to run than this. Hard concrete and at 7 am, the air is cool and fresh.

I was so mad at hubby for his stupid idea. I told him for someone to run around Bedok reservoir at such an hour and weather, that person must be a hardcore runner. Me, on the other hand is not training for any pain endurance competition or any marathon. I should have just brushed off his idea and went to the gym instead.

Phuket again?

It was an emergency holiday. Got to know that we were going to Phuket only the day before. Hubby managed to get his last day of work on the 22nd of November and guess what? He will start his new job on the 1st of Dec. It was a mad rush for him to clear all his paper work given that it was a 24 hour resignation notice.

We were crossed between Bali, Bandung and Phuket. The only flight available was Phuket so off we go bringing along Syuaib but leaving Syahid, our smallest one at home. I was actually a tad disappointed that we were not going to Bali coz the last time I went there was 9 years ago. The trip to Phuket would be my third time.

We stayed at Le Meridien Beach Resort and boy i did not regret one bit. It's private beach was gorgeous. Facing the Andaman sea, I could walk 100 m into the sea and the water was still only touching my chest. The water was not very salty, the waves were gentle, the sand very fine and there were no ships at all blocking the view of the coastal line. It was really beautiful.

Syuaib turned into a beach bum. Every morning, he would cried out, Let's go to the beach!. He loved playing with the sand with his beach toys which of course, we needed to buy a set as his own set was at home. We took a boat trip to Phi Phi Island. Shafik brought Syuaib fully equipped with his life jacket down into the water while I waited in the boat taking their pictures. We visited Monkey beach too.

We managed to chance upon two very good restaurants. A seafood restaurant and another serving North Indian. TheNorth Indian restaurant has a nice ambience and the food was delicious. I'm not really a fan of Indian food but this one was an exception. Every dish that we ordered were tasty. It's special Naan bread had slices of sweet juice mangoes on it. It's name is Ali Baba restaurant located on Ruamchai Rd, along Patong beach, opp Holiday Inn.

In the morning of the last day in Phuket, while everyone was asleep, I sat at the hotel balcony with a cup of Milo. It was about 7 in the morning. Everything looked so peaceful and it was then that all my new year resolutions came to me. The seaview was really beautiful that you couldn't help but to think of nice things. I know that this holiday would be my last with hubby in the next two years and i was really glad that we managed to have these nice moments together away from the hustle and bustle of the city back home, away from the mundane everyday routine. It was then too that I told myself to look at the positive side of everything that comes my way and to face every obstacles and problems that might arise for the next two years graciously......while hubby is away... that is

My Day off.

It's been ages since i rollerblade. Zah called me yesterday to arrange for a rollerblading session at East Cost with her. Managed to find my 12 year old blades under the bed. The blades has really served me well and it did it again. No problem gliding along the pavement from Fort Road to the Food Centre. Zah fetched me with her bike in this really short shorts. I made her hurry jsut in case my in-laws caught her with her get-up. Before blading, I had one of my favourite breakfast food from Macs, Hotcakes. Yummy.... After blading, Wati joined us from lunch at Raffles Banquet. Lunch was Ban Mian, Tim Sum and Carrot Cake. All shared between the three of us.

We then proceed to this five storey building called ICON, opposite Bugis Junction. It housed as what Zah called it 'quirky' clothes and accesories. Both Wati and Zah bought clothes that look like they were made in the 80's. Most of the shops are selling these types of clothes. They kept saying the clothes look gorgeous and I seriously couldn't agree with them. Most of them are oversized tops or dresses that looked dowdy to me. Of course, I didn't tell them this as i might offend them. Zah kept saying that they're very fashionable now. Don't think I can carry the 80s look so nope... even how fashionable the clothes may be, if it makes me look like a christmas tree, I'm not wearing them. You can call me old-fashioned but I know what looks good on me.