Lunch is served

Cooked 420g of hor fun. Remember during CB days, always enuf for 3 of them. Today, suddenly left with just settling the girls’ lunch when the man had to go office last minute. I noticed 420g would barely be enough for them 3 if hubby didn’t go back office. 

Lil’ one’s (on HBL) lunch time is from 12 - 1pm. The moment she came out of the room it’s an indication I can heat up the food while she takes a shower. Food on table at 12.12pm

Then che-che’s lunch (WFM today) served at 1.09pm. This kind of heating food at different times is still easy. Just needed to reheat the noodles in frying pan, reheat the gravy and then assemble the plate and pour hot gravy over. 

What’s left for me. 

After her meal, I ate whatever is leftover from che-che’s plate. So yah, 420g of hor fun is definitely not enough if it’s for the 3 of them. 

@ 2.32pm - heated up nonya dumpling to eat. My meals is always 不三不四. Either I have leftovers or not is always dependent on the girls. 

Adeniums

2nd Nov 

After a few days of intense unbearable heat, I noticed this pot of adenium has a few bunches of flowers sprouting. 

Dunno what species as I bought this pot from the nursery 

Feather Coat - bought from guy who brings in different species of adeniums

Underglaze Red

Romantic Star 

4th Nov

These beauties took my mind off things (for awhile) 

Not much growth from Romantic Star. Or are they sprouting leaves and not flowers? I bought these small pots of adeniums (3 or 4 of them) 2 years or more (?) back and only one pot has flowered once. That’s it! Fertilisers and heck care in watering and I don’t see any flowers. So disappointed. 

Feather Coat

Everyone at home on weekday

Abit of history first 

Just a few days back when I was telling the family we need to quickly use up the CDC vouchers and was finding ways on how to use up the ‘Hawkers and Heartland Merchants’ vouchers asap. We can use in almost every shop opposite us. Yay! 👍

I told che-che maybe she can log into my Singpass and use the vouchers during her lunch time. She mentioned it’s so troublesome and perhaps “when you send me to work in the mornings, we can go opposite to buy the carrot cake. Sure can use up one.” I responded with a laugh and asked her if she is indirectly asking me to send her to work every morning. 

This evening (3rd Nov)

I went into her room, “ for the girl who wants a free ride to work tmrw…..” She turned n smiled at me 🤣 “what time do you want to leave house?” Then she mentioned she might work from home. Yippee! Sometimes I do pity her and pick her up from work. Haha ! Cannot stop this bad habit lor! 

So happy! 

Feels like CB where everyone is at home. Lil’ one usually has her HBL on Mondays, hubby works from home and now che-che is working from home just today (the first WFH was on 11th Oct) 

Plan to cook Ipoh horfun for lunch. One dish meal. 

** edited on 4th Nov @ last minute hubby needs to go back office when he received a phonecall from office. Sigh….. and I’m worried about him driving. 

Pic added pic on 4th. 

Ipoh hor fun

Dining set

Changing the dining set has been on my mind since last year after the renovation. I had always wanted a SS dining table to match the kitchen. The Queen of Procrastinater 一直拖拖时间.  Checked local furniture shops’ website then realised all of them take their dining set from China!

Last week, looking at how badly the seat has become. Decided I better quickly do it now. Kindda recalled that I did upholster the Cellini dining chairs (when we stayed in Punggol) in Joo Chiat before and maybe can do the same to upholster the 4 chairs and couch. 

Messaged Mxxx for estimate quote to upholster, so that I can decide to upholster or just buy a new set. They promptly came back with their reply. $75/chair in either fabric or PVC, $280 for couch, transport fro and to my home $60 all before GST. In total that adds up to $697.60 😱. I can probably get a whole dining set with 4 chairs for $500++ from Taobao. I couldn’t check with Joo Chiat their price as they didn’t have any website. 

If I had upholster the chairs, there’s no way I can upholster this table. Simply not worth it, so I didn’t bother to ask them quote for this. 

Che-che don’t like the table, she keeps hitting the base. I don’t hit the base. She did say I have bad taste, the set is so ugly. I think I have classy taste tho.

I like the new japandi tables but it doesn’t match my existing cabinetry. 

This table seems okay but I don’t like the 4 legs that makes the table look so cheap style. Che-che says she hates the one we have, huge base and then food drop below difficult to clean. I asked her if she did the cleaning, I’m always the one cleaning the house so why is she complaining? I do drag the table and chairs out to vacumn and mop every once in a while. 

I can’t select the colour of the legs. I don’t like to have any furniture black and gold except for the piano which we can’t do anything about it

Old folks like me think this is nice but I don’t like the glossy table top. If I wanted to change, I’d change to matte table top

See this? A dining table + 6 chairs plus shipping fees $312.24 

Needed to save money so looked for chairs and the compartment couch. A search in Shoppee shows this chair  is selling at $111.82/pc

I only paid $56.26/pc

In total 4 chairs and one compartment couch costs $244.29

I just need to fix them. I don’t think I’m that lousy that I can’t fix the chairs right? Hope nobody falls 😂

I hope the new set can last us a long time. This chair only lasted us for 9 years before all the seam came undone and sponge visible. 

Another thing I had always wanted to do was to do a wooden decking in PES. That would costs us average $3k? Gasp! 没有钱没有钱！

So upsetting and angry with self

Why do I keep dropping this phone? Usually for my phones, I hardly drop them if not only once throughout its lifespan with me. But this phone - iPhone 13pro , hubby bought it for me when it was launched in 2021 Sep 24th. I did not open the box until few months later before our US trip. Prior to that I was using 7plus (seriously?) and honestly still happy with it. I didn’t ask him for the phone but he buys phone for all of us. 

Today I had to drop the phone while I was transferring some pics I don’t need for iMovie so as to save space on phone while I slowly do the iMovie (actually I can’t do it slow, I need to finish as much as possible asap. But still have to do the itinerary and still have to make comparison whether to buy JR pass or buy individual tickets. Sianz! Che-che is supposed to do this and end up I need to pick up the pieces. Fed up lah!). I had the SanDisk at the bottom of my phone when it dropped. It fell out of my phone and under the bed 😟. And now it’s broken. 

So upsetting. Since I need to bring lil’ one to PP tomorrow I shall drop by Challenger 

Didn’t want to waste money buying anything and now I have to spend $99.90 (based on price in Shoppee). Smack my own hand for being so careless. Wait! Why is it so expensive $118 in Challenger? If I use my $20 Lendlease voucher, I’ll pay $98. So lucky I still have voucher to offset a small amount. Still…… if only I didn’t drop the phone.  

Ms Thermie’s new function +lousy Sterra

The Sterra water tank hasn’t been working well lately - water not cold. Takes a longer time to dispense hot water. Lil’ one told me that her colleagues in YMCA were complaining how lousy Sterra water tank is. Yah! Really! At least the first Ruhens served us well and longer. 

This morning hubby changed the filter. Initially when che-che filled up her water bottle the water was cloudy. Later in the afternoon she tried again wanting to fill up her water bottle for the next day, then there were bits of strange white things floating in the water.  😧 She decided to use the old way (one small pan, how much water can she get?) to boil water over the stove and I decided to use Ms Thermie. 

Filled up Ms Thermie to 1.5litres of water and used the kettle function 

Takes slightly more than 8.47mins as I started the timer few seconds late. 

Cooling down takes a longer time. I left it there until the machine shuts off by itself 🤣

Sterra installed on 6th June 2022. Changed filters at least twice already? Damn lousy

Posted this in Facebook then. Useless! Never work hard for us at all. 

Left cup is from the tap; right cup from the filter. All bubbly. Need to check how to troubleshoot this. 

Getting so emotional

My emotion came in waves, one moment I will be so busy with housework and then next I will cry. 

It’s just so hard to pretend all is okay but it is not.

So proud of myself + rubbish ranting

Since we have $400 of food and possibly doctor and haircut visits till 31st Dec 2024, I need to try to finish them asap. 

Busy day - doing housework and washing x2 cars, I came back home around 12+ extremely tired. Need to leave house to pick lil’ one from school at 2+. 

Today is cooking day, I took the fish and DDDK a teriyaki chicken (took some out in the morning to prepare lil’ one’s lunch) out to thaw BUT I’M JUST SO EXHAUSTED. I don’t think I can get any cooking done in such a short time, and I didn’t want to cook after I’ve picked her up. 

Abit of sidetracking: I slept at close to 2am coz was trying to figure an out why the aircon compressor made so much noise behind so was going from room to room switching off and then on the aircon (we had an almost similar problem beginning of this year) 

I woke up at 6+ to cook her porridge and fry teriyaki. Finished cooking at 6.41am. Hubby saw how tired I am and said he’ll send her to school. I went back to bed trying to nap for another hour when che-che made so much noise preparing herself for work that I think I only managed a 15mins knock-out. Tried to go back to sleep but couldn’t, so woke up to tidy and vacumn two rooms and then sent her to work half hour earlier than usual (coz she had to be there early) came back and continued with houseworks + wash 2 cars. Suppose to handwash the floor mats today but I cannot take it anymore. How did our mothers do it? Cooking 3 meals and doing housework? 

So anyway…… the hardworking Lily told me to cook coz I shouldn’t let hubby eat too much outside food now. The lazy Lily told me “you’re not a Superwoman. Just pack since you have CDC vouchers.”

Went across our house’s Koufu and used $14 in Chang Cheng to pick out some dishes for dinner. Lil’ one was feeling a little hungry so bought her char siew bun for $2 (2 for $2. Cheap leh!). She was upset that R&B doesn’t accept CDC vouchers 😂. Girl ah! I just bought you Liho yesterday! 

Left $234 + $150 (June’s) = $384. How to spend that fast in 7 weeks? 

Only one person in the household can redeem. So it’ll be a challenge if I want che-che to help spend the money during her lunch time. Anyway I noticed I can use the vouchers in the handy fix shop, maybe we can get some body shower gel, mouthwash 😂. 

I complain and talk to myself

I complain and talk to myself when I drive. 

“Uncle! Can you drive faster?” 

“Uncle! I’m so kind to give way to you when I have the right of way. Where’s your Thank You? So rude. 早知道 don’t give way to you.” 

“Aiyoh…..ah di ah…you’re a young boy and you walk so slow like grandfather like that.” 

“Aiyoh! Where’s your signal? Want to turn also don’t put signal.” 

“Horn horn horn for what?! Just turn green and u expect me to fly?” 

“Oi! Your grandfather’s road is it?”

These are just some examples of what I’ll grouch in the car. 

Am so used to it even when che-che is driving. Today I sat in the passenger seat as the mechanic had to drive the car around to hear the sound that was coming from the car coz I didn't know what was the problem.

At one road, a guy just opened his car door so big (parallel parked along the road in Ubi) without checking, just as we were so close to him.

Immediately my comments was "uncle! You never check before you open door is it?!" The mechanic just burst out laughing. I totally forgot I had a stranger in the car. 

*just for the records. They needed to replace one of the two front absorber spring set. I can’t believe the rest of the family cannot hear the weird sound coming from the car

CDC vouchers

I keep forgetting to use the CDC vouchers that the government gave. Think for one year 

Made a trip to get a little groceries and decided to use it. 

Recording how much I’m left with. Gasp! I realise there’s June’s stack of vouchers. All these expires end December. I need to use them quickly. Maybe buy more toilet rolls? Buy more Dettols? Buy more cleaning stuffs? 

And since I have $400 of CDC vouchers for makan, I don’t have to cook 😂. Buy $400 worth of Swee Heng bread for lil’ one to eat 🤣 for 3 meals each day for the next 3 months?😅

On This Day - (29th Oct) #Reminders from FB#

29th Oct 2023

Girlfriend sent this over. Their last concert. She was so so lucky to get tickets to their concert coz in Japan it's by lottery system, one can try all the dates but get none at all. She only chose one location and she got it! Extremely lucky!

Che-che was superbly envious of Aunty Mio. I told Mio she can adopt my child and let her go with her to the concert .

#なにわ男子#

29th Oct 2022

* added a photo into the Vietnam 🇻🇳 photo album *

With permission from my talented bro Pauline Patrick

Teo to post this.

requested that he drew a window view for me coz I was so 😤 for not having one.

And this is what my humorous brother came up with

🤣. Nothing can stop Tom and Jerry at their witty fights even at 35,000ft.

29th Oct 2021

In the meantime, I shall continue to leave this in the car. I hope I rmbr to get it fixed, I hope I will wake up from the wrong side of the bed one day and decide to go out of the 🏡 

29th Oct 2021

3rd day of eating snake. I took 3 days annual leave leaving the man to help vacumn the house n then start his busy work. I barely did anything more in the house. There r times when you just want to give up and relax and ...then I start to worry / feel guilty abt the houseworks piled up. Like so crazy right? This is the feeling when one has no domestic helper? Or is it just me?

Went to wi W again, I thought it would be the last chance. I must have mistakenly read that it ends on 4th Nov, now I realised it's 14th. I thought since school term ends this week for lil' one n next week when che-che resumes f2f lectures my route would be different n I'll not come by this area at all. Then late at night we received news that all lectures will be on zoom for the remaining semester. This is good news, meaning no need to chauffeur anyone. is

After , went down to Funan to get my filter lens replaced. It's jammed, so the guy directed me to someone who has the equipment to remove the lens.

Sigh….. And was disappointed when I found out he only opens at 1pm. I didn't have time to go down today as lil' one ended school at 12pm and I had already packed their lunch for them. I needed to be home asap too coz lil' one has online CCA, che-che has her lectures. A wasted trip for me.

Which means I have to make a trip down deliberately one day to get this removed n changed. I know it's easy for me since I have the car, but I'm just so lazy to leave the house.

#lazyme#

29th Oct 2021

It's never enough.

The flowers are just so lovely

29th Oct 2020

Signed up one other girl for Thursdays' fun / torture.

Whoever follows me into the class will get to choose lunch of her choice + bubble tea.

The other girl will get to eat in foodcourt + teh-o / ice milo.

Lil' one will follow me for the time being.

#therealtorturestartsnextweek# #akandatang#

29th Oct 2016

For the first time che-che said that the one in Shanghai tastes better than here. She's always complaining about food not nice there etc..

Footnote written in 2024 : They don't have this dish here in the restaurant anymore, so the girls haven't stepped or asked to go there to eat.

29th Oct 2016

Though I have no idea how often is she going to use it.

29th Oct 2014

Dinner is served.

Bon appetit

29th Oct 2014

* added new photos to Bangkok 2014 album*

Elephants fellowship

Wat Ket

As Wat Ket was situated near the jail, convicts visited this temple for a final chance to pray before execution.

Thanks for the bumpy ride!!

29th Oct 2013

Clear! Clear! Clear!

Woah! Love 💗 this moment.

29th Oct 2013

Today my lil' one told us she went to the school chapel to say Hail Mary 10x. (We had a good laugh...y was she there?) So I asked her did she hold on to rosary. Her answer "no mummy. But u must buy me the card!!"

The funniest incident that happened quite some time back during school mass. Priest said "u can sit or kneel". My lil' one went to kneel. (4) Hahahaha! We burst out laughing (y and then she said "but he said we can sit or kneel. I can choose what!"

I've reminded her time n time n again to pls remain seated during communion. I hope she did.

Footnote written in 2023 : My lil' one always never fail to make us laugh . @Aricia Ting

Really hoped she didn't think it was food and she went up during communion 🤭 #wernotcatholics#

Footnote written in 2024 : Aricia Ting so cute this girl. So innocent and blur.

29th Oct 2013

Not forgetting the boo-boos too.

Footnote written in 2023 : Aricia Ting fell and then 变傻 😂

She likes to be carried ALL the time but there are days when she's Little Miss Touch-Me-Not.

This video shows her pushing her sister away (n she almost fell)

Footnote written in 2021 : "Mummy why THIS meimei so nottie?"

Athena you never knew your sister is this naughty?

And you only have ONE sister, don't have to mention the word 'this'

Athena is a good big sister. Aricia is a little terror being the younger one.

I do miss them being young. Che-che was chubby cute cute then.

29th Oct 2012

The girls asked me "aunty, when is Aricia celebrating her birthday? On which day?" I said "not yet".

During school time, they told Chayanne from another class that she wasn't invited. I feel like I'm being played out by my girl.

She forgot to bring her "cards" and she told me today she asked her classmates "who wants to come to my birthday party"? The kids obediently put up their hands. ROFL!!

Oh my! If she continues this, the lil kids will tell their mummies/daddies abt the invitation for 2 years later.

Wah seh! Ah lao says like that no choice must give her birthday party right? Thing is... It's Che-Che's

crucial year. Moreover 七岁都还没过、讲到八岁

Footnote written in 2023 : Muahaha! That incident when I was busy with che-che and she Aricia Ting kept herself busy by writing her own birthday party invite for 2yrs later ⅛ k).

Kids all believed her coz in her own make-belief

-world she sounded so convincing. As usual, her mom has to clear up the mess she left behind.

＃被她气死咯#

Footnote written in 2024 : Aricia Ting 妹妹啊..

Charmaine Yeo "chayanne you are not invited." And all the kids play happily together in the playground after kindy, as if nothing has happened while the mom has to do the PR recovery.