~ Goodbye 2010 ~

It is the time of the year to recap how we have spent our 2010. As I look back at my previous blog posts, I never fail to amaze myself with the list of happening events that have happened so far.

• My grandmother's passing (Jan)
• Gladys started nursery and Denver going to Primary 1 in their new schools (Jan) 
• Birth of BPDGTravels Blog (Jan)
• We changed a new car. (Jan-Feb)
• Denver passed NASSA Bronze Swimming Test (Mar)
• Arrival of my 2nd nephew (Noel Lau) - (May)
• Family trip to Shantou (Jun)
• Denver's first extraction of tooth (Jun) 
• Gladys attending her first art class (Sep) 
• Mommy suffering from HFMD (Sep)
• Family suffering from Conjunctivitis (Oct)
• Denver scoring 1st in class (Nov) 
• Family trip to Batam (Nov)
• SAF Chalet (Dec)
• Our new toys - Playstation Move & Xbox Kinect (Nov-Dec) 
• Family trip to Melaka and Johor Bahru (Dec)

In the year 2010, we have watched many movies together, took the children around various parts of Singapore (Universal Studio, Museum, Parks, Reservoirs etc), travelled to China and Malaysia and dine at Sakae Sushi almost every other month. (Thanks to the vouchers Mommy won at the Sakae Blogger Affair which has ended). We had a lot of great times together and the children have also progressed and acheived in their studies while enjoying school. Although we were pretty sickly at some moment in time, we have recovered and enjoyed our year-end holidays so far.

Frankly speaking, I am hoping the month of December don't go away so quickly as it also means it is the end of the holidays and time to get back to work and reality.

Nevertheless, wishing Year 2011 will continue to be a Great Year with more Peace, Happiness, Health and Prosperity!

~ Our New Toy - XBox Kinect ~

Recently, we have a new entertainment in the house - Xbox Kinect. Ever since "it" arrives, there have been a couple of changes.

1)  Movement of furnitures. The Kinect set does not requires any controller and lets your body interact with the games directly instead. However, it needs a lot of space. At least 6 feet (1.8m) from the sensor to the player. This is pretty challenging and disadvantage especially for the smaller flats in Singapore.

In order to make space and avoid hitting ourselves, we shifted the direction of our sofa. Tested playing with Kinect Adventures and it works well so far.

2) More "Work Outs". Since some of the Kinect games involve fully body co-ordination and speed, all of us had some form of exercise during play. I only played 2 games in Kinect Adventures and already perspiring and panting heavily. Not to mention experiencing pain in my legs and arms on the following day.

3) Indoor Family time. The games are simple, fun and easy to play. Even Gladys gets the hang of it very fast since there is no usage of controllers. Suitable for parents and children to play together and more family time together.

Apart from the space limitation, the children tends to cross their boundaries during play and hit each other. That is the problem when they get too excited about winning and forget to co-operate!
Denver & Gladys are having a great time with the Kinect but there is another concern that our neighbours staying downstairs may start to lodge a complain on us soon with all the jumping in the house. :p

~ New Year Countdown 2011 ~

Marina Bay countdown party no doubt is one of the most popular spot where Singaporeans/Tourists would like to be at to welcome the new year. But we are not going to join in the much expected crowd especially with our 2 young children.

There are still many countdown parties around the various heartlands like Serangoon, Sengkang and Buangkok and all around Singapore.

Serangoon Swing @ Serangoon Gardens Circus

Countdown 2011 @ Sengkang West. (Anchorvale CC)

Punggol South Harmony Countdown @ Compassvale link (Buangkok MRT)

Not forgetting our every year countdown party at my place - Punggol East 2011 Countdown Party @ Harmony Square!

More countdown parties at other heartlands on 31st December 2010. Which one will you be at? 3 more days to Year 2011!

~ Father's Birthday Lunch - Part 2 ~

Last Sunday, we had another lunch together with brother's family to celebrate my father's birthday. This time we went to Peng Catering Services Restuarant (亚平）located at Lor 1 Realty Park (near Hougang Ave 3).

I was first introduced to this restuarant through dining with Hubby and his family/relatives. It serves very delicious Teochew food and has always been one of our most frequent dining place during special occasion.

We ordered the $238 10-course set that comes with Longevity Buns, shark's fin soup, fish, chicken, spinach with scallops and others. I enjoyed almost every dish and my personal recommendation would be the cold dish, steamed pomfret and sweet yam! The steamed prawns are very fresh too! There is too much leftover food and we have to packet the chicken, yam basket and noodles back home. :)

Father & Mother enjoys the food as well as the company of the little ones. :) Happy Birthday once again, Dad!

~ Merry Christmas 2010! ~

It's Christmas! We went to 2 Christmas parties and the children received a lot of presents over the last 2 days. They are definitely the happiest lots with lots of chocolates, candies, games, fun and new found friends.

Hope everyone had FUN and a GOOD time together too! MERRY CHRISTMAS  once again and looking forward to welcoming a NEW YEAR!

~ Drawings - Gladys' Art Showcase - Part 1 ~

It has been 2 half months since Gladys started her drawing and colouring class at the community centre. She has been enjoying her lessons so far and completed 12 drawings. ^_^

Initially I thought it might be too challenging for her to follow as the pace of the lessons are very fast. However, never underestimate a child's learning ability and adaptability. Not only was Gladys able to keep up from second lesson onwards, she had heaps of fun.

These are the artworks that she did using oil pastels and water colours. From lions, flamingoes, bugs to Doremon, fishes, kite flying. There are different theme to draw each week.

On their final lesson for this term, the teacher taught them to draw Santa Claus, Christmas tree and presents. This is a perfect Christmas card. :) Here's wishing everyone MERRY CHRISTMAS!

~ Calls from Gladys ~

Months after Gladys memorized my mobile number, she finally tried calling me from bbil's place while I was at work. This is exactly what happened when Denver memorized our numbers when he was 4. Back then, he will call me almost everyday to say that he misses me. Now, Gladys calls me every alternate day to tell me that she finishes her writings or waiting for me to return home to have dinner together instead.

The primary reason for the children to remember our mobile numbers and home address is to make sure they know who to call during emergency. I still recall Denver got lost near Carrefour at Plaza Singapura when he was 4 or 5 and Hubby got a call from the customer counter shortly as Denver gave them his number (even though he was crying badly already). That proves to be really helpful.

At times, the children abuses the calls and makes it very disturbing especially when I am busy at work. However, hearing their voices at the other end of the line can also be heartwarming and therapeutic from our hectic schedule. :)

~ How I spent my vacation days ~

I was on leave last week and had enjoyed it. Unfortunately vacation days are always too short and I'm back to work today. Awwww :( At least I managed to spend some time with the children, clean the house and get my things done.)

Monday - Family out for lunch at Sakae Sushi, movie watching (The Chronicles of Narnia 3: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader Official) at AMK Hub, a visit to the library, window shopping plus dinner at NEX (Serangoon).

Tuesday & Wednesday - House cleaning. The house was in a total mess with no mopping or vacuuming for at least 2-3 weeks! Toilets were not clean, stuff were left lying around and I practically left it be since I was too tired to clean up after our Batam trip and the chalet stay.

I spent 2 days digging out the closets, cabinets, boxes in the entire house and have the items rearranged and organised. We gave away some bags of old clothing and toys to charity and I threw over 10 bags of unwanted stuff. At least it is neat and tidy for now and I won't have a hard time when CNY is around the corner.

Thursday - Christmas shopping. There are many presents which we need to buy for the children and I spent a lot of time shopping around. Not to forget wrapping up the presents too. :)

Friday - Personal shopping. I went on my very own shopping spree at NEX and Citysquare mall. Primary objective is to hunt for some new clothing for CNY. Mission accomplished.

Saturday - Family time and we took my father for his birthday lunch, Headed down to the library @ Esplanade and Marina Bay waterfront to pen our wishes on the white spheres.

Sunday & Monday - 2D1N trip to Malacca (to be updated on our travel blog)

Is that too much for 1 week? I am really tired but at the same time missing vacation days already. 4 more days to Christmas and counting down!

~ Happy Birthday Daddy! ~

It's Daddy's 76th birthday and we took him out for a nice lunch at Imperial Court Shark's Fin restaurant at Grassroot's club. The Peking duck is really delicious and I think Daddy enjoyed the food. We also tried the fried ice-cream for dessert and it was something new for my parents.

Happy Birthday Daddy and wishing you good health and happiness!

~ Counting down to Christmas Parties! ~

Finally! We have completed our Christmas shopping with all the presents ready! This year, we bought a lot of gifts and it took me ages to finish wrapping them up. A very colourful sight and in all kinds of shapes and sizes. The children are just as excited to give them away. Looking forward to the Christmas parties next week! ^_^

~ Tuna Mayo Sushi ~

It has been awhile since I am in a mood to 'cook'. Since the powered sushi mix is going to expire soon, I thought I better make some sushi before it goes into the waste bin.

There are some cans of Tuna Mayonnaise left in the house and it is the easiest to make Tuna Mayo Sushi. I was able to make about 12 sushi with 3/4 cup of rice. Doesn't look too bad and I think it taste better than my previous attempt (due to the tuna). hahahah.

~ Boy's Bridage Share-a-Gift 2010 ~

It is that time of the year to share and bring on some cheer to the needy and less fortunate. Like previous years, Hubby and I did our little bit and made our donation via the collection point outside NTUC-Xtra.

Basic food and household items are welcome and the operation will be on-going until 20th December. For online donation drive it will be till 31st December.

More details: http://www.bbshare.sg/

If you happen to pass by the gift box, do send in your donations generously! :)

~ Primary 2 School Books ~

We went to Denver's school to purchase his Primary 2 books earlier this month. After comparing the pricing at Popular vs Pacific Bookstore, there isn't any major difference in savings. Moreover, our total books & stationary purchase is less than $100. (Thanks to the second-hand textbooks that were passed down by friends and relatives.) Hence, we decided to get all the items from school.

Instead of going on the destinated day for P2 books purchase, we picked a later date in the week since Hubby & I got to work. When we arrived at around 9am, we were first in queue. :) Within 15mins, we completed all our purchase and it has been so much faster and hassle-free.

The current ergonomic backpack which we bought for Denver last year is still in a pretty good shape and hopefully it can last for another term or 2. I would consider that value for money already. :) Still, we bought a same design school bag as a backup (just in case).

I have also labelled and wrapped most of the textbooks and activity books. This time it took me half the time to complete it as I re-used all the old name labels and most of the old plastic sheet wrappers that were used for Denver's P1 books (since the books are almost the same in size).

Generally, I do not like to spend the money to buy the ready-made books cover as it is not economical plus I prefer to wrap them using the plastic sheets which is more lasting. I often find the edge or sides of the book covers torn after some time but plastic sheets don't seems to have that problem. The fact that Denver has always been untidy and rough with handling his books, I'm still able to re-use the plastic sheets covers for his P2 books proved my point. ^_^

Most parents may write the names directly on the textbooks of activity books but I have that weird habit of printing the name out, cutting and pasting it on the books. The bad thing is it is a waste of time and resources, but I find it neater and easier to read. Since I am using the scotch-tape to paste over the label, I was able to remove the label easily from his old books and paste it on his new books. With the reused labels and wrappers, the books still look as good as new.

We are almost ready for a new school term next year. :)

~ Singapore BookFest 2010 ~

We just came back from BookFest@Singapore 2010 which is held in the Suntec Convention Halls 601-603. Singapore's largest book fair is in it's 5th running year (thanks to Popular Holdings Limited) and it always draws a huge crowd especially during the weekends.

I always enjoy going through the books and stationery sections. There are so much to see (story/assessment books, gifts, stationery, education aids and etc) and we spent hours within the 3 convention halls. This year, I noticed the organizers have prepared many orange pull-style trolly bags on top of the usual basket carriers and push carts. Thumbs up for this arranagement as push carts are limited in numbers and takes up more space and the baskets are small and heavy to carry around. The trolly bags have definitely improve the customers' mobility and convenience as well as increasing their shopping and browsing experience within the BookFest. :)

~ 烦 ~

不知为什么, 每当要放长假的时候, 总是不顺利。刚刚度过了愉快的周末，这个星期却超忙的。这几天下来的精神和心情也不太好。越是期待，感觉越倒霉。越想把事情做好，却欲速则不达。
真的好想不看，不听，不理，不想。

希望明天会更好！

~ 5 Years Service Award ~

I received my 5 years service award gift earlier today. It is a 20 piece stainless steel flatware set which I picked from the gift catalogue. There are a range of other gifts from vase, watches, clock, jewelry and I decided to pick on something that might be more useful to me. On top of that, I am looking forward to the additional cash rewards that should be coming in with this month payroll. ^_^ Yippee..

~ Weekend stay at Changi Chalet ~

We are spending our weekends at one of the chalet in Changi. ^_^ Weather hasn't been good lately as it has been pretty rainy. Showers with thunder are expected over the next few days in the afternoon. That doesn't sound like good news for us.

Meanwhile, the children are extremely happy and excited and we are enjoying our stay so far. Loads of tibits, food, drinks, games and more! Will be posting more detail updates on our travel blog soon. :)

~ Teen Titans Super Awesome Christmas ~

After a Bubbly Fun at City Square mall last weekend, we were at Hougang mall earlier to catch the "Teen Titans Super Awesome Christmas" performance. The entire half hour show is full of music and dance which Gladys enjoys a lot. Denver was a bit disappointed as he thought there will be some fighting scenes. Little boy always seems to be looking for more action but it is all about Christmas and we should be seeking Peace. :)

Some videos of the music and dance performance by the Teen Titans. :)

~ Loving December ~

I LOVE December. It is one of my favourite months. Why?

1. Earlier pay day + 13th month (Yeah.. getting more $$$ to pay more bills. hahaha.)
2. Lesser work days since I usually clear my remaining leave in December. Only 10 more working days left for December! Yippee!
3. Holiday mood with Christmas and New Year approaching + busy shopping and wrapping presents.
4. Christmas/New Year Countdown parties.
5. More family outings (taking the children around during their school holidays).
6. More personal time (to clean up all the junk in the house. hahahah)  ^_^

Plus... counting down and looking forward to a NEW YEAR!