Weekend at the Fairmont Singapore

(Inset: Faith with the camera cover on the plush linens of the Fairmont Singapore)

One of the family's favourite weekend activities actually involves checking into a nice local hotel and really living out the life of a tourist on vacation - we get the best of being pampered with the luxuries of hotel-living while not having to suffer through any jet-lag or exorbitant exchange rates.

This weekend, we went to the Fairmont (previously under Raffles) since mum's Raffles vouchers were expiring soon.

At 2pm, we had checked-in to the hotel. Consistent with the standards of Fairmont in Dubai, the room in Fairmont Singapore had familiar brands of toiletries, was spick-and-span and spacious. Recreation-wise, we had access to the gym, and the pool - the former was available only on paid basis when we were staying in the Swisshotel during National Day.

Fortunately for us, the weather held up and we managed to bring Faith down for a dip in the afternoon, close to 4. It was literally a dip because the waters were a tad bit cold, and we were concerned about Faith catching a cold - one of the things she seems to catch a bit too easily. As usual, after her swim and shower, Faith had her afternoon nap - somehow she slept so well today that her usual half hour nap dragged out to an hour - perhaps a sign that all the crawling and swimming was proving to be a bit more exhausting than expected for her.

In all, the day went passed quite uneventfully - and it was overall nice to have the family spend time together again doing one of our favourite past-times. It's also nice for us, because Eve and I tend to take more pictures of Faith when we go for outings like these.

I think this year, we have scrimped quite a bit by staying only in the Swisshotel during National Day (mum's Raffles card), Sheraton (free), and Intercontinental (mum's Intercontinental card), whereas, we used to stay in the Ritz-carlton and Conrad quite frequently. With hotel room rates going up, it only makes sense that we leverage on the perks that mum signs up for. I think we can certainly look forward to more of these in 2008, as mum shows no signs of giving up on these memberships. Yay! :)

So glad to be home this Xmas

I was driving home a few evenings ago when a thought struck me. I was just so glad that we're home for X'mas this year. I told Eve and she agreed - it's nice to travel but home is still always best. I still remember how last X'mas, we were in London and Paris and how even though we were in the company of very good friends and nice memories of our INSEAD days, we were still in a big way missing home and family during X'mas.

Before writing this, I took a look at our 2006 blog just to re-jog my memories of how we were feeling last X'mas when we were in London, Paris and Fontainebleau. Lots of memories came rushing back to me when I was reading the blog - I remember how we had flown to London from Houston on 23rd of Xmas with Eve expecting Baby 6 1/2 months old. And how we were so happy to meet with Adrian even for a short while and had to da pao food back to our London hotel near Leicester Square. This was something I didn't write in the blog then, but I remember that night sharing with Eve that I was quite sad that in a way, we weren't home for X'mas after spending so long in Houston and away from home, and she shared the same feeling. But still, we wanted to make the best of what we could given that we knew our mobility would change with Baby in tow in 2007. More importantly, if we had gone home, Eve wouldn't have been able to accompany me longer in Houston past the new year. Last X'mas we spent it in London, and we had the most expensive bowl of rice for X'mas lunch in Chinatown (6 pounds). We celebrated my birthday with Manisa and Ajay in their London apartment on X'mas Eve. On Boxing Day, we were busy dodging the crowd on Oxford Street because we were afraid people would bump into Eve. Subsequently, we had taken a train to Paris on 27 December and we went to our favourite La Duree that did not disappoint. We then spent a number of days in Fontainebleau reminising about old days before coming back to London to welcome the New Year with Manisa and Ajay.

When I re-read the blogs, it brought back nice memories of our time last year. At the same time, it reminded me of how I missed home last X'mas being away. And I think it all reinforced my happiness of being home for X'mas. Just today, we spent dinner at Chee Keong's wedding and the we had a chance to sit together as a complete family on my side - it was really nice to see Faith - a new addition to the family with the whole family. What a great way to end 2007 :)

Langkawi (mis)adventures

Our third and final family trip of the year, turned out to be a little bit more than what we had bargained for...:)

After an uneventful flight to Langkawi and treading the tarmac at Langkawi International airport, we were driven to Westin Langkawi in no time. The weather was actually nice and to my surprise, cool and breezy and not rainy as the weather forecast had advised.

When we arrived, we were actually quite happy with the place – it looked quite like a Banyan Tree-type resort and the front desk guys were nice enough to seat us down and serve us a much-appreciated drink after a long journey. Even when we checked in to the room, we had a good first impression – the plasma TV was as big as the one we had at home and the baby cot was all nice and ready in the room.

Somehow, however, it kind of went downhill from there. That night, we had ordered room service in after tucking Faith to sleep and the food quality I must say was not what we had expected from a Westin hotel. While the salad was of fair standard, the Won Ton Noodles that came was not hot and the fishball (in the Won ton noodle??) was actually not fresh and you could tell, pre-packed frozen. That night, I actually felt a bit chilly and tad bit nauseous.

When I woke, I immediately popped two panadols (thank goodness for our faithful travel medical kit) and that helped alleviate the nausea a little. Unfortunately, I was in no mood to indulge in the buffet breakfast and had only a small bowl of plain porridge.

To cut a long story short, because I was sick, we ended up eating in the hotel for lunch and dinner and unfortunately, that meant more food that was really quite not up to par and even a little unfresh. Unfortunately, by the second night, Eve had caught on a bit of the food poisoning and Faith in turn caught the bug – resulting in bouts of diarrhoea throughout the day. The last straw came, when on the second night, I heard Faith having diarrhoea again at 6am in the morning – I picked up my mobile, dialled Singapore Airlines and arranged for an earlier flight home.

If you ask if we’d ever go back to Langkawi or the Westin Langkawi again, I think it will very much depend on our spirit of adventure. Certainly, I think we’d be much more careful with drinking the water unboiled or even eating too much at the restaurant. I wouldn’t say we’d never go back, because the place had its redeeming points. For example, I must say the pool there was by far the best pool I’ve ever swam in – it was literally next to the islands, and the sea and it was an Olympic sized pool - quite different from the unusual shaped pools in most resorts. And because the pool picks up the warmth of the sun very quickly, I was literally swimming in a heated pool that was not over-chlorinated and yet glistening clear. And at the end, when we met with the manager of the hotel to give our feedback, we could tell the manager was genuine in making as much amends he could to make the rest of our stay more pleasant.

For now, however, we are all glad to be home safe and sound in our humble home in Ang Mo Kio in Singapore. Faith has now travelled to Indonesia, Dubai and Malaysia this year and Eve and I silently hope that whatever bug she has caught will make her more resilient for our trips in 2008.

Remaining pictures of time in Dubai

I've been bumming around and not blogging much since the return from Dubai. There's no excuse. I'm not busy unpacking nor with the frenzy of doing any Christmas shopping. Speaking of the latter, I ought to get my butt moving to start buying Christmas presents. Somehow, there's less of an impetus to wanna get into the Christmas pressie shopping mood cos I'm at home and not influenced by the loads of shopping bags hauled in by colleagues during this period. Still, what's gotta be done, gotta be done.

There were still some pictures that we took in Dubai that I didn't have the chance to post. Since I'm still in a somewhat lazy mood, instead of blogging, I'm just going to attach the remaining pictures with a few explanations here and there :)

On the 2nd last day in Dubai, Faith came down with running nose. My mood was dampened when Faith falls sick again. Decided not to go out that day, but to get out from the confines of the 4 walls in our hotel room, I brought her out for a walk just outside our hotel. As we were located in the financial district, there really isn't much sight to behold except for more buildings, the highway and of course, more ongoing construction works.

After we returned to our room, we whiled away some time, trying to take a picture of Faith, looking out at the cityline, but unfortunately, with the reflection off the windows, it was hard to take a nice shot of Faith, yet capturing the view outside. Either that or I'm limited by the lack of photography skills.

On Saturday, the day of our departure, we headed out to this place called Medinat Jumeirah after lunch. Its supposed to encompass a hotel, shopping and lots of restaurants and pubs. For lack of time, we only went to past the hotel lobby to get to the Chinese restaurant, Zheng He (supposed to be THE best Chinese restaurant recommended by TimeOut Dubai) and I did a quick shop around the Souk. The whole place resembles a themed hotel in Las Vegas. The draw was that the Burj Al Arab was very very near. From our alfresco table, we could very clearly see the iconic hotel and being touristy, we succumbed to lots of picture snapping.

And finally, more than 2 years after my return from our Morocco trip, I finally got to buy a set of Moroccan tea set and minature tagine. Yay!

Dubai

After a hectic week for both Eve and I, we finally had a chance to have a relaxed family breakfast on this Saturday morning. While we had already lowered our expectations of how leisurely this trip was going to be, we never expected the past few days to be so hectic for Eve in coping with Faith alone. I think we're all the more thankful for all the help we get back home now!
This morning, though we didn't exactly get to sleep in, it was nice nonetheless that we could for once in Dubai, take turns to look after Faith. Given that I didn't have to rush off for work unlike previous days, we took turns to feed Faith and carried her around a little so that she wouldn't get too fidgety in her pram. It seems Faith somehow decided that she no longer liked bananas as much as she did a few days ago. Where she finished a bowl of squashed banana (half a banana) a few days ago, she now turned away when Eve tried to give her bananas again. The good thing was she still seemed keen to eat her hard boiled egg yolks that the wait staff cooked for her.

After breakfast, we went to the Sunrise pool for a walk. There are two pools here in the hotel - the Sunrise pool allows one to see the Sunrise, while the Sunset pool allows you to see the Sunset. On previous days, I've woken up at 6:30am without fail to swim in the Sunrise pool and as you can imagine, the pool has always been very cold. Today, the sun was shining brightly and it was nice and warm. Hmm, maybe I'd try to go for a swim later before the flight home :)

After our morning walk, we went back to bathe Faith. We are planning to go out after lunch so we thought it best that Faith catches a nap before we go out. For the first time, thus, we were able to capture Faith in her bathtub - she seemed quite happy with this much bigger version of bathing facility (compared to what she has at home).

let's keep our fingers crossed for the rest of the day :)

Dubai as I see it

Source: http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/columns/2005/07/sinister_paradise.html

Dubai fascinates me. The entire city seems to be in a constant state of development. Developing newer, bigger and more iconic skyscrapers, office buildings, apartments, condominiums and malls. I even learnt a new term, Pentaminiums, meaning penthouse condominiums. Everywhere I travel along the highways, I see many buildings in different state of development and construction, seemingly trying to surpass one another with awe-inspiring or jaw-dropping intents.

Piling works ongoing in empty plots of land. Long cranes sitting high atop already tall, half-finished skyscrapers. A fully developed apartment tower is sandwiched in between another two partially constructed buildings. Every few kilometres, one can see billboards and posters advertising newer development areas and projects.

In time to come, the well-known Burj Al Arab will be surpassed by yet another monument skyscraper, the Burj Dubai. Looking at this latest project, the words that come to mind are sleek, majestic, modern, cool, cold.

The skyscrapers and buildings do make for a pretty sight. Sunlight reflecting off the shiny windows of ceiling to floor glass buildings, glittering and sparkling like blue sapphires. Images of the sky and fluffy clouds can be seen mirrored on these shiny glass facades. At night, the long cranes are all lighted up, and the skyline of the entire city twinkles every other second, warning helicopters and airplanes of the sheer height of all the skyscrapers in this concrete jungle desert city.

At times, they all seem so surreal and unreal. As much as I am a city girl, I just cannot imagine myself to be living in this city. Maybe I am not the sophisticated city mouse that I thought I am. Or perhaps, this is really the grandeur an oil-rich country can buy for itself.

And becos they are so rich, I imagine that it would be beneath most Arabs to think about working in the service industry. In the hotels, the malls and the retail shops, the staffs are Indians, Pakistanis, Filipinos or Africans. Carrefour has an entire section dedicated to selling common items and condiments for Indian and Philippines cuisines. Timeout Dubai list many Indian restaurants around the city, ranging from the affordable and value-for-money to the haute cuisine.

Still, I’m grateful for the chance to see and experience Dubai, even though I’m holed up in the hotel more often than not. I chalk it up to an education and eye-opening experience.

Right now, I can’t wait to go to the spice souk and/or perhaps the gold souk. Instead of being greeted by service staff with a foreign accent, I hope to glean into the Arab of old. One where perhaps, an old and weathered man, sitting amidst all his products, hawks his goods.

The unexpected trip

We’re in Dubai! I only had gotten wind of Louis’ trip last Thursday. Originally, we were supposed to fly on Saturday but as one of his colleagues needed some time to process his visa, the flight date was changed to Tuesday. On Monday afternoon at 2-ish pm, Louis called to ask if it was possible for me to finishing packing and be ready to fly on the 10 pm flight that night. It required some frantic packing but not impossible. And fly we did!

This being Faith’s first flight – and a 7-hour one at that – I was concerned if she would be able to take to the long flight. Thankfully, she did well and was a great baby on board the flight. Due to a delay in take-off, Faith was asleep by the time the plane finally took off. I was initially concerned if she would experience ear pressure on the ascent but was grateful that she pretty much slept throughout the flight.

Taking the night flight around her bedtime was great, cos it allowed her to sleep onboard. However, due to the 4-hour time difference, it was 1.30 am local time when we arrived in Dubai. By the time we cleared customs, travelled to the hotel and checked into our rooms, we had a slightly cranky baby who only had about 5 hours of sleep instead of her usual 11-12 hours.

As Louis was expected to be busy with his work, I’m pretty much left with Faith for most of the day – Louis only slept 2+ hrs after we checked into the room before he went off to work.

My first day in Dubai with Faith was rather uneventful as we stayed in the hotel as I wanted to adjust her to the time difference. Becos she didn’t had enough sleep and her feeding and napping times are now a little different, she was rather cranky at various times throughout the day. Our usually cheerful baby cried a lot more with strangers and even when I left her in the playpen or stroller while I prepared her food, took a shower or even ate my meals. Nevertheless, I brought her out to the hotel pool for a little sun and water, so she cheered up a little.

Of course, Louis, being the ever doting dad, was a little heartbroken to hear about his little one’s day when he returned home after work. That night, he carried her around and played with her until she slept cos he said “I don’t want her to cry anymore”:)

I’m sure Faith is going to turn out to be the regular daddy’s girl and Louis, being the soft hearted person that he is, would be wrapped tightly around his little girl’s finger and enjoy the fact. While it may seem like he’s spoiling her already, a part of me can’t help but being pleased that Faith is a daddy’s girl. After all, I think it’s a rightful place for every little girl to be and I know that ultimately, Louis wouldn’t spoil her rotten.

The hotel that we are staying boasted of having panoramic views of the city. We could see Burj Al Arab, the icon hotel resembling a billowing sail, and one of the Palm Islands from the first room that we checked into. From my current room, all I see are lots of nameless buildings, ongoing developments and the highways. I didn’t know before this, but traffic jams in Dubai seem bad. Starting from as early as 5 pm, I could see long lines of cars stuck along the highway.

Today, Faith and I met up with Hind, our Moroccan neighbour in France, who’s staying in Dubai as her husband, Salah, works here. However, Faith was still a little out of sorts and she cried when Hind tried to hug her. We headed out to the Mall of the Emirates but before we could get any serious shopping done, Ines (Hind’s daughter) called to say she was sick. I shooed Hind to head home while I loiter in the mall and went Carrefour to buy some vegetables for Faith’s meals.

Believe it or not, I ended up buying a pack of Pamper diapers becos they came in short packs, slightly different size and I think it’s a packaging that I don’t see in Singapore. Hahaha… wonder what Louis would say when he returns home. And yes, we did manage to see Ski Dubai, the indoor ski resort in the midst of this desert city.

Faith fell asleep halfway on my shoulder on the taxi ride back to the hotel. As I’m typing my post, Faith has been sleeping for the last 4 hours and its past her dinnertime. But I think I would let her sleep for as long as she wants. Poor baby. I think she’s tired and is still on Singapore time.

Faith's thoughts

Dear Grand-aunt Catherine,

Lookie! I've finally grown big enough to wear this lovely red onesie that you have sent. Grandma said its a lovely piece, although she has yet to see me wear it. Dad and mom think I look adorable in it too :) How do you think I look?

My paternal grandparents are on a cruise this weekend. So, I'm left to "terrorise" mom and dad the whole of Saturday until my Ye-ye (paternal grandfather) and Nai-nai (paternal grandmother) return on Sunday afternoon. Kekeke... Mom and dad shepherded me for a dim-sum lunch, together with Uncle Terence.

It was a little cold in the restaurant and dad's decided to pull on the hood of my sweater to keep my head and ears warm. He's always worried that I would catch a chill. I think I look kinda cool in this pink sweater. Ohhh... and the pink silk elephant is a present from Aunty Nell, Uncle Richard and Nicole Jie-jie. They just returned from a trip to Chang Mai.

Speaking of trips, I'm certainly looking forward to my trip to Langkawi in mid December with mom and dad. Oohhh.... more alone time with them. Yippee!!

Hope to see you soon in Singapore or if we are lucky enough, in UK ;)

Muak!

Grandniece, Faith

Happy Anniversary & Happy 8th Month

Its our 4th Wedding Anniversary today! And Faith's turned 8 months old too. With a baby in tow, it is hard to have any romantic dinner. Still, its nice to know that we have reached the 4-year mark this time around with something very very tangible. A beloved baby girl that we both love to bits :)

Work has been a tad busy for Louis this week, so it was hard for us to plan dinner out even though we were game to bring Faith along. However, he surprised me by coming home after work with a bouquet of red roses and my favourite, blue hydrangeas. Ahhhh.... he knows that I love hydrangeas and its a meaningful flower for me becos my hand bouquet on our wedding day was a bunch of blue hydrangeas.

Louis and I have always been openly affectionate with our feelings. Certainly, having a baby has diminished the number of lovey-dovey hugs and cuddles that we give each other -- we individually kiss, hug and cuddle Faith more now ;) Nonetheless, we try as hard as we can remember, amidst the demands on new parents, to show our love and affections for each other. In part, we feel that the open affections we have for each other is not only beneficial to our own relationship. As Faith grows, we hope she would observe and learn to give hugs, kisses and cuddles to family and close friends.

As for Faith, she's blossoming into a mischievous and curious baby at 8 months. She sits and crawls a little better, but still, she's not as steady. She tends to flop on her face or tummy at times, mostly when she's stretching to take or grab at things further away from her reach. Recently, she's started to pull herself up on her knees and occasionally to a standing position while in her cot.

And while I'm not certain if I will live to regret the decision, every morning, I've allow her to pull herself up while cushioned against the pillows on my bed to reach for items that I've put on our bed headboard. Her perennial favourite is to grab for the usually off-limit "toys" like my cellphone, the handy bottle of vapour Vicks or whatever knick-knacks that she set her sights upon.

Louis and I are grateful that she remains a smiley baby with a happy disposition. Our only wish is that she would continue to bestow her contagious smiles to everyone even as she grows. For it is what sets her apart from most babies -- her ability to break the ice and melt the hearts of most people that she meet with a somewhat gummy smile.

Happy Anniversary, darling and Happy 8th Month, Faith. We are indeed blessed in our lives.

New toy

Our wedding anniversary and Christmas came early this year. At least, the gift-giving part of it came early for me. I've got another brand new, spanking, shiny kitchen gadget from Louis. Its a KitchenAid Food Processor. Yippee!

Unfortunately, kitchen counter top space, like the real estate market in Singapore, is scarce. Hence, said gadget has to be relegated to a cupboard, which I had specifically cleared to make space for :)

Still, I'm rather excited by my new toy. So, am now wondering what should I make to maximise the use of the food processor. A rosti, hummus, cake, soup or all of the above? Hmmm... time to peruse through the cookbooks again for recipes and ideas.

RED! Ouch!

Faith is down again with bacterial infection. Sigh... this is the 4th time that she's sick and the doctor had to prescribe antibiotics yet another time. I hate when she has to take antibiotics. She tends to poop more as a side effect and when we do not notice and change her diapers quick enough, diaper rash occurs.

It happened the last time she took her antibiotics and it happened again last night. And we had been rather careful over the past few days. But seeing that nothing had happened, I had thought she cleared the "hurdle". Unfortunately, I only googled and found out after the event that the loose stools as a result of the medication would irritate the diaper area and if we do not change her frequently, rashes would occur.

Poor Faith's bum was all red cos we forgot to check and change her diapers in the evening. She was crying in pain even when we splashed cold water over the area. My poor poor baby. Bad bad mummy!

Faith - laughs and chuckles

For Faith's sake, I wanted to document the times when she gets so amused that she chuckles and laugh - beyond the smiles that she gives. Faith, I'd try to be specific as possible, but sometimes daddy doesn't really know what you found funny..so here goes, okay.

1. Tickle-tickle (hands): When we wipe her down before her bedtime, Eve and I almost invariably play a game of "tickle-tickle" with Faith. Essentially, we just tickle her palms with the wet cloth and oftentimes she starts chuckling even in anticipation of what we are going to do.

2. Tickling her rib-cage area: Noticed that Eve does this well and she manages to find the "ticklish" spot to blow onto. When Eve picks her up and presses her mouth close to Faith's rib-cage and starts blowing, Faith will invariably chuckle.

3. Grandparents' actions: Whether it is MIL or Mum and dad, they now have their own ways to amuse their dear granddaughter. On occasions, these causes Faith to chuckle and laugh. Sometimes on weekdays when I am home, I hear MIL and Faith laugh so much that they seem like they are having a little laughing secret between themselves.

4. Funny dance: Sometimes, Faith laughs when I do a "running-man" dance in front of her. Proves more effective when accompanied with sudden movements e.g. jerking of shoulder.

5. Lifting: This one works almost all the time. When Eve stands up and lifts Faith up and lets her "kick-off" her stomach/chest area. Think Faith likes the feeling of being "in the air."

6. Unexplainables: Sometimes, for no apparent reason, or at least for no consistent reason that we find particularly funny, Faith will laugh. For example, there are occasions when we make funny faces or clucking sounds and Faith will really chuckle. Does not consistently elicit laughter from her though, though these actions almost always make her smile.

She can crawl

Slowly and only with a few moves, Faith has started to really crawl her first few steps yesterday at my MIL's place. For the last 1-2 weeks, she's mainly wobbling when she got on her hands and knees, trying to get her balance. Finally, she's gotten her balancing act a little better and can now crawl a few slow steps before flopping onto her face and tummy :)

Yay! Yet another milestone achievement for our little girl. Now, I'm really very very worried. We have yet to houseproof our home. Its a crawling-walking disaster right now, a hazard not only to Faith's well-being but our peace of mind too.

Food Glorious Food!

Frankly, I don't know what I do with my time. The days just seem to pass so very quickly and one week has gone by and another has started. Before you know it, I'm so behind my blog entries for the last few weeks.

I haven't exactly been lazing around. The days flew by becos I think I was busier. Busy with cooking/baking mainly. I had my first "order" of muffins, albeit it was from my cousin, to bake 20 muffins for her school's event and I charged only at cost :) Still, its nice to have some reaffirmation that these home-baked muffins are yummy enough and not the often polite but encouraging comments meant to spur me to greater culinary aspirations. For the occasion, I decided to bake two varieties of muffins;- blueberry muffins and chocolate banana mascarpone muffin.

As for my other passion-of-the-month, I've also cooked 2 more Korean dishes, Sundubu Chigae and Jab-Chae. In one of my earlier postings, I've mentioned about Sundubu Chigae and how this little humble soup of tofu in a spicy broth made me a Korean cuisine convert. Thus, it is only natural that I should attempt to learn to make this dish on my own.

Surprisingly, it was a relatively easy dish to make and again, you don't really need any special Korean condiments. In order to make an "authentic" bowl of Sundubu, I'd convinced myself that I need to use the right equipment i.e. an earthen bowl. I'd procure my little "find" at the Korean grocery stall, Sol, located at the basement of Orchard Cineleisure. While there, I was very very tempted to buy another stone bowl to make Dosul Bibimbap but sanity and caution prevailed.

The verdict according to my dear hubby was that it tasted as good as the ones we had in Woo Jong, the Korean restaurant in Paris, as well as other Korean restaurants. The total cost of it (minus the cost of the earthen bowl) was only at a fraction of the ghastly amount these restaurants charged. Additionally, it taste better than the bland versions served up in many of the local foodcourts too.

Jab-chae, a festive noodle dish made of sweet potato noodle wasn't as successful. While final output was passable, the proportion of sesame oil used in the recipe had resulted in a rather oily plate of noodles. I figured that I would just need to tweak the proportion of sesame oil used the next time to get it right. Till then, here's the recipe for Sundubu Chigae.

Sundubu Chigae

Ingredients

1 tbsp red chilli oil

2 cloves crushed garlic

1 tbsp chilli powder

1 tsp light soy suace

1/2 onion, peeled and sliced

30g kimchi, roughly chopped

100g minced beef

1/2 beef or chicken stock cube

300ml water

1 tube silken tofu, sliced into rounds

1 egg

1 leek, sliced

Method

1. Heat the earthen bowl or a clay pot until hot. Reduce heat and add in chilli oil, garlic, chilli powder, soy sauce, onion, stock cube, kimchi and minced beef. Stir fry for 5 minutes.

2. Pour in the water and bring to a boil. Add the tofu rounds and simmer over low heat for about 10-15 minutes.

3. Crack the egg into the soup and remove from the heat. Sprinkle the leek slices and serve.

Random Musings on a Friday night

It's been a while since I've written. And when I don't write, I seem to get the feeling that I'm losing my grammar and vocab. I have this imagery of a woodpecker slowly chipping away at my "English" part of my brain - each moment chipping away at bits of vocab and grammar. Maybe this woodpecker is called "Aging". Or perhaps it is "Fatherhood" :) So here goes my random musings on a Friday night....

On Bumbo Consumer Recall As a parent, I have been now more aware of Consumer Toys Recall - each time I see one (e.g. the Fisher Price recall in China), I keep an eye out for whether Faith owns the toy. To my surprise, I just saw over the news that the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with Bumbo, announced a voluntary recall of the Bumbo seats that Faith has. It turns out that CPSC has received 28 reports of young children falling out of the Bumbo Baby Sitter seat, including three skull fractures, which occurred when children fell out of chairs that had been placed on tables.





When I checked the company website, I realised that the company was not offering refunds. Rather, it was offering to make replacement sets. Because the warning labels currently embedded onto the back of the seats are not that visible. The warning label warns that consumers should "NEVER use the Bumbo Baby Seat on any elevated surface. Also, because the Bumbo Baby Seat is designed not to be totally restrictive, never leave a child unattended in their Bumbo Baby Seat. A child can get out and get hurt."

Verdict: Faith has outgrown the seat in anycase and is more into her high chair. To be safe, we'd probably not be giving the Bumbo to anyone as a hand-me down.

"Goo, gaa, grr?" Today over dinner, I had my first sight of Faith's new expression of anger or displeasure. Where in the past she used to just frown and/or scream, she has now gone further. She has started to hold her breath and scream so that she goes slightly red - the same expression she has when she wants to 'poo' except that she holds that expression much longer when she is angry. I asked Eve if this was the first time she is seeing this - she said no. - Faith has done this in the past afternoons as well. My first thoughts were: imagine myself, a hubbie/father who comes home rather punctually by 7 and yet I miss this milestone. What more would one miss if one travels overseas?

Rock-a-crawl-baby Along with her new-found expression of displeasure, Faith has also started to more visibly "crawl". Actually, it is now more a "rocking" of her buttocks when she is balanced on her hands and knees. I think Eve is convinced that Faith will benefit from having knee guards when she starts, so we'd probably shop around for a pair this weekend.

Faith and Mother in Law Faith has had the fortune of having very doting grandparents who take turns to take care of her over the weekday and weekends. My mother-in-law comes over every weekday around lunch time to look after her without fail. On her way here, she also buys lunch for Eve and more often than not groceries for dinner as well.

We can all see that Faith is very special to my mother-in-law. She's very proud of Faith's every development and she is quick to let her neighbours know of Faith's milestones. And even though she occasionally "beat- Faith's backside" when she is naughty, you can tell her heart melts when Faith starts crying (e.g when she is resisting to take her nap). It is not easy to look after Faith especially since she is getting more demanding by the day, and the fact that MIL looks after her for the most part of the afternoon, sometimes having to manage Faith alone (Eve does need some alone time after all).

Faith, if you read this, pls be grateful for all you have received in the past. Our only hope is you grow up reminding yourself of how fortunate you have been to have been so loved.

Little Family's Little Holiday

There's a lot of firsts in our parenting experience with our first kid. I guess that is only natural. Thankfully, we survived our first holiday all on our own and enjoyed ourselves at the same time too.

What we learnt was that Faith loves to travel. We think she's got the travel bug in her. Either that or she thinks the entire holiday is one big long outing with her 2 favourite people. Faith was a great and well-behaved baby on the trip -- doling out smiles rather generously at all the staff at the resort, tourists and strangers alike.
Going on a 3D2N trip is akin to planning for a similar length event for a "VIP" -- there's a lot of coordination that we needed to do to ensure that this little "VIP's" routine would be able to fit into all the travel logistics. And becos she's now on 2 meals of solids a day, we had to chug along the slow cooker, a thermos, chopping board, knife, vegetable peeler, blender, dishwashing liquids, yaddah yaddah yaddah, along for the trip.

Being the anal mom that I am, I absolutely refuted all suggestions of bringing jars of baby food. No siree! If I can cook all my food from scratch for family and friends, I most definitely am not going to subject my baby to commercial baby food. Even if that means I'm lugging part of my kitchen along for a short trip.

Of course, this being Faith's very first trip, we wanted to capture all memories of it as future evidence to our little one that we did bring her out somewhere. This also meant that my fingers were pretty much trigger-happy and we were not the least abashed at clicking our camera away throughout the trip. The good thing was that Faith seemed to be in baby heaven. As a result, many of her pictures had her smiling her toothy grin gamely.

Our aim for this trip was to relax as much as possible and enjoy food from the 3 restaurants within the resort. On our last trip to Bintan , we discovered that all 3 restaurants served very good food. Now that we have a baby in tow, we decided against travelling out to any of the neighbouring resorts or the Kelong but just dine in.

However, we later realised that our choice of restaurants whittled down from 3 to 2 as Saffron, their signature Thai fusion restaurant do not allow babies. Oh well... :)

After settling into our villa, we headed to the all-day dining restaurant, Tree Top, for our tea. The bread they served while we waited for our appetiser was great, especially when you slather French butter liberally on it -- or at least I did. And they served us both a little "amuse bouche" of grilled beef skewer too even though we only ordered an Indonesian appetiser sampler to share between the two of us. I think its true that we eat with our eyes too cos all the stunning display of dishes with adornments certainly make the food that we ate tastier.

Thereafter, we headed back to our villa where we changed Faith into her swimming costume and let her have a dip in the jacuzzi. I'm not sure if she knows the difference between the jacuzzi and her bathtub at home cos she was just too engrossed in chewing her little rubber ducky the entire time ;) We didn't really have that much time left after the jacuzzi dip. It was nap time for Faith, fed her her dinner, had ours and then back to the villa to rest for the night.

And so ended our first day. We wanted to keep the pace of the entire break relax and restful. On account that we are now parents of a baby, there has to be some responsibilities involved. Thus, R&R time for the entire trip pretty much revolved around Faith's routine of sleeping, eating, napping, playing and pooping ;) We kept her on Singapore time even though Indonesia is one hour behind Singapore and it worked out advantageously for all of us.

Day 2 of the trip was what I most looked forward to. A MASSAGE! After nearly 1 1/2 years where I couldn't have any while pregnant and had to wait another 4-6 months post-delivery becos of the C-section, I finally got a full body massage! It was heavenly! After Louis and I took turns having our massage, we brought Faith out to the beach for a walk and a dip in the pool. All too soon, it was her nap time, dinner time and then off to bed for all of us.

Day 3 of the trip was a short and uneventful one on account that it was the last day of our stay and our ferry back home was in the early afternoon. Thankfully, my MIL was there to pick us up from the ferry terminal. So, we didn’t have to lug baggage, strollers and barang-barang, along with Faith into the cab.

My mom, anxious about her grand-daughter’s first overseas trip called on Sunday to ask how her little one was doing. And I think she missed Faith too cos she repeated ask if we needed her to come over when we return. So, we told her to come on over and it was a good thing too. Cos even though it was meant to be a relaxing trip, all of us were tired out after the trip. Its really great and fortunate that we have both our families on hand and nearby to help out.

That night, it was early to bed for all of us :)

Happy Birthday, Nicole!

Its my niece, Nicole's 7th birthday today.

My mom, who had been looking after her since she was around 1 1/2 yrs old until late last year, asked if I could bake her some blueberry muffins. Of course!

So, here they are, all packed up in a box, which my mom would be bringing to her this evening. Especially for the birthday girl, there's more than the recommended portion of blueberries called for in the recipe.

Happy Birthday, little Rabbit Princess :)

Korean Noodle Salad (Salad-Guksu)

Louis and I are still hooked onto our Korean dramas via cable Channel 55. Right now, we are catching Jumong, Prince of the Legend and The Song of Prince every weekday nights. Unfortunately for Louis, his Korean drama addiction is causing him to sleep much later cos The Song of Prince is airing at 11.40 pm to 12.40 pm, Mondays to Fridays.

Seeing that I have bid farewell to my cupcakes baking, I thought I should dedicate something to Korean food to match our addition. Korean cuisine is one which I only discovered when I was in France. A Korean friend of ours once organised a class get-together at a Korean restaurant, Woo Jung, in Paris. Woo Jung is located in the 16th arrondissement (Metro: Passy), very near to the Eiffel Tower. In fact, you can see the tower while standing on the sidewalk of the restaurant. We tried to return to the restaurant again last year when we were in Paris. Alas... it was closed and the staff were on vacation. Sigh...

Prior to that, my knowledge of Korean food was limited to what was sold in our local food courts. Quite frankly speaking, most weren't authentic and the repertoire were limited to different types of stir-fry hot plates such as Bulgogi. In Woo-Jung, I was exposed to the many different side dishes, many of which were deliciously prepared and were quickly gobbled up. And it was where I tasted my first tureen of Soondubu Chigae, a kind of spicy soft bean curd stew, that started me on my obsession on my return to Singapore to find chigae with exactly the same taste as those served in Woo Jung.

And I slowly learnt that there are many other Korean dishes that I was totally ignorant of, but once my eyes were opened to this "new" cuisine, I quickly lapped them all up. I especially love the bean sprout salad (kong-na-mul-mu-chim), seasoned spinach (si-geum-chi-mu-chim), stuff cucumber kimchi (o-e-so-bae-gi), sweet potato noodles (jab-chae), braised short ribs (gal-bi-jjim), spring onion and seafood pancake (pa-jeon) and a whole lot more. Most often than not, I just love the little side dishes that are served at the table and can never get enough of them.

So, I started perusing my Korean cookbook by Lee MinJung, as I watched my Korean dramas every night, pondering and deciding which of the dishes shall I attempt next. Since I had lots of soba on hand in the fridge and the list of other ingredients and condiments were easily found in the compartments of my fridge and kitchen, I decided to make Salad Guksu, a cold noodle dish mixed with vegetables in a spicy sweet sauce.

The recipe called for soba noodles but I had some spare cha soba, so I used that instead. For the vinegar, I used Japanese Mizkan grain flavoured distilled vinegar, but you can use any white vinegar The recipe for the salad noodles is as follows:

Salad Guksu
Adapted from Feast of Flavours from the Korean Kitchen by Lee MinJung

Ingredients
2 bundles Cha soba or soba noodles
5 leaves lettuce, julienned
1 medium cucumber, julienned
1/2 carrot, julienned
4 sticks crab stick, shredded

Sauce
3 tbsp light soya sauce
3 tbsp vinegar
2 tbsp lemon juice
3 tbsp sugar
1/2 tbsp oyster sauce
2 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
1 tsp wasabi
1 tbsp chilli powder
1 tbsp sesame oil

Method
1. Combine the ingredients for sauce and blend well. Refrigerate.

2. Blanch noodles in boiling water until al dente, then wash under cold running water. Drain well.

3. Remove the smashed garlic from the sauce. Mix noodles with chilled sauce and some vegetables and crab stick.

4. Garnish with remaining vegetables and crab stick and serve.

I find that if you put the noodles back in the fridge and let it sit for a while, the noodles will absorb the flavour of the sauce better. I like that the sauce is a little sweet and spicy, interspersed with the flavour of sesame oil, giving it an uplifting fragrance. Perhaps the next time when I make it, I would add some sesame seeds into the mixture to give a slightly crunch.

The uglist cupcakes ever

Cupcakes and I just don't cut it. And I think I've baked my second and very last batch of cupcakes. Ever.

Last week, I baked the first batch of cupcakes based on a recipe from a renowned local culinary school that a friend gave me. It was absolutely disastrous! The instructions warned to be careful when mixing the liquid butter into the batter to ensure it emulsifies properly or you would see the butter melting out of the cupcakes while in the oven, creating a dodgy cake texture. Guess what? I didn't beat the butter in properly and it wasn't emulsified. True enough, I could see the butter leaking out from the cupcake cups while in the oven.

I wanted to throw the entire batch into the rubbish chute but my mom insisted on bringing half of them back home for my dad. According to her, he devoured them all and loved it. I was flabbergasted. The remaining half of course ended up in the dustbin cos Louis wasn't too keen on it and I felt it tasted like rancid oil. Urrgghhh!!!

After the failed session, I "researched" on the Internet, ploughing through a number of cupcake recipes from cooks/chefs that I admire and finally settled on a mascarpone cupcakes with strawberry glaze recipe by Giada de Laurentiis, a Le Cordon Bleu trained Italian-American chef who has a smashing figure and great face to go along with the smarts.

This time around, the sponge itself turned out great. It was light and fluffy, helped by the use of mascarpone cheese. My only grouse was that the recipe used an instant cake mix -- making it fail-proof -- which coming from Giada, I was a teeny-weeny bit disappointed cos it feels like I'm cheating. The glaze or icing was a totally separate issue.

I decided to use lesser icing sugar so that it wouldn't be too sweet. Of course, I didn't realise until later that the portion of icing sugar used makes a different to the thickness of the glaze and how quickly it would dry up. Hence, when I coated the first few cupcakes, it was all runny and the glaze was dripping down the sides of the cupcakes onto the kitchen counter top. So, I added more icing to make it up to the original amount stated in the recipe but still, it was a bit runny.

Which leads me to my conclusion and the first two sentences of this post. I've baked my last cupcakes and I doubt I will ever bake another again. Why, you may ask. The third time might be the magic. But I highly doubt it. The problem lies not with the recipes or even how practice makes perfect. The problem lies with me.

You see, I always feel that when you cook or bake something, you have to have passion and a healthy dose of respect or even awe for what you're doing. Unfortunately, I've neither that much passion, liking nor respect for cupcakes. Perhaps, that's why my 2 batches of cupcakes went south :)

Don't get me wrong. I totally respect the skills and creativity of the many people who have baked and decorated beautiful and dainty cupcakes. I think its an art. Just one that's not for me.

I don't really like to eat cupcakes. To be fair, I haven't eaten that many cupcakes but from accounts by a few friends, cupcakes are more aesthetically pleasing then pleasure to the 5 senses. Plus, there's no audience for my cupcakes. Louis isn't too keen on them. And I think the "demand" from the rest of the extended family for cupcakes is lacklustre at best. Furthermore, I only want to bake cupcakes, not eat them myself.

Maybe its the green-eye monster in me that's oozing everything sour at my two failed attempts while seeing others happily baking their nth batches of cupcakes. Damaged pride aside, I think I should focus any remnant energy from being a mother to something that yields a much higher ROI. If cupcakes ain't it, there's a whole universe of other desserts, pastries and different cuisine for me to experiment.

So, au revoir cupcakes and hello to everything else ;)

"Marblelous" Gift

After more than a year of staying in our home, Louis and I still love it very much. Coming home after a few hours away or after work is always pleasurable and restful. Its definitely more than a house. Its our home. Filled with creature comforts, knick-knacks and memories that we like and love. And I think Faith feels the same way too. Whenever we are out after a day and when we bring her home, we'll put her in her cot and turn on the mobile at her bed. And she would have a delighted smile, at times, kicking her hands and feet in excitement and pure pleasure.

Louis and I took nearly half a year of intense house hunting before we finally found this unit that we loved at first sight. Everything felt right about our house. Naturally, the kitchen takes pride of place in the entire house and its where I love to potter, cook and bake. The wall between our kitchen and living/dinning room is separately by glass halfway from the waist up to the ceiling. While I'm in the kitchen doing my baking or preparing Faith's food, I could always see what she's up to in the living room.

Really, there's nothing that I don't like in the house, although I sometimes daydream that if we have another house and/or a bigger renovation budget, I would like to have a marble kitchen counter top. We currently have a gray with white speckles solid surface that looks pleasing and serves its purpose. Except that when I want to roll out rich doughs (doughs enriched with more butter), its a little of a challenge given our humid and hot weather.

I used to bake and make a lot of apple galettes, a type of open, crispy and crusty apple tart, when I was in France. When I returned and tried making them in my kitchen, the toughest challenge is always rolling out the dough. Just out from the fridge, it would be too cold and hard to roll. After a few minutes of rolling, the dough goes from softer and pliable to become wet and sticky, that no amount of flouring would help. And I would end up having a holey dough at the end as I try to transfer the dough from the counter top to the tart tray.

A marble counter top would be useful as it is cool and would hopefully make it easier to roll the dough without it getting wet and sticky too quickly. I've read that in some professional kitchens when they do a lot of rich doughs (e.g. those for croissants), their steel counter tops would be fitted to have cold water running underneath it so that counter top remains cool. That makes it easier to handle the doughs. I'm not a Michelin-starred chef nor am I'm running a professional home-kitchen myself. Which is why I am perfectly happy with just a marble kitchen counter top ;)

My friend, Ching has been renovating her new house and has generously given me a rectangle slab of marble cut out from her bathroom sink. Actually, she was so generous that she gave me the bigger of the 2 marble slabs she had. Plus, she had her contractor chamfered the marble slabs so that there wouldn't be any rough edges.

So, while I do not have a marble counter top, I have the next best thing now... a nice slab of marble (very heavy though). I think I shall make me (and her, of course) a nice apple galette with it very soon ;)

Thanks much, Ching :)

1 + 1 = 2

No... I'm not out to prove any mathematical equation or show my mathematical prowess (as if such simple addition would make me a Math Olympiad!). Just that Faith has "sprouted" her 2nd tooth, right next to the first one that came up a few days ago.

For a while, I had been feeling her gum with my finger to check if the other would break out when I realised she had one coming out. But I couldn't feel anything until this morning, as I was admiring and checking on her first tooth that I saw another whitish spot to the right of it.

Ahhh... now she has two and I'm secretly glad (not so secret anymore with this post) cos I think she would look cuter with 2 teeth rather than 1. Altogether now, let's chant: "1 tooth good, 2 teeth better! 1 tooth good, 2 teeth better" (to the rhythm of Animal Farm's "2 legs good, 4 legs better") ;)

Macaron madness

Flavours from left to right:- hazelnut macaron with truffle cream & roasted hazelnut, green tea macaron with green tea cream, almond macaron with sesame cream, almond macaron with pistachio cream and brandied cherry, almond macaron with green lime cream and chestnut cream and candied chestnut.

I was all of 28 years old when I had my first taste of macarons. In fact, Louis and I have never even heard of them until we were in France and our Japanese neighbours brought a gift of macarons for dessert when we had them over for dinner.

I only knew that they mustn't be cheap, cos the nicely decorated box of macarons came with a little booklet with information about the Patisserie that made them. And that Patisserie, Frederic Cassel, was well-known among the Insead partners to be The Best pastry and sweet shop in the entire ville of Fontainebleau -- I think it could rival some of the better patisseries in Paris too. Its also the one that served champagne to its long queue of waiting customers who were lining all the way out of its store on the eve of Christmas and New Year, waiting to collect their orders of cakes for the festive season (dig that!).

Never underestimate the allure of macarons. You may snub your nose at these little button-like nibblets that seem to anything but innocent and unassuming. Yet, one bite into a well executed confectionery of meringue-like, chewy maracons will start you on your way to a lifelong addiction. You would be reaching your hands into the box and before you know it, all the macarons are gone.

I can't figure out exactly what makes them so enticing. Be it the slightly crisp crust of the macarons as you bite into it, or the chewy interior sandwiched between either a jam or cream centre, that is sometimes accompanied by a little nutty crunch (for the ones with cream centre). Altogether, they certainly make a bewitching combination. Personally, I prefer the cream centres to jams as I find the latter to be a tad too sweet for my taste.

The good macarons can be so delicious have you devouring a load of them before you realised that you've over consume your daily calories. And the mediocre or lousy ones are enough to turn you away with the tasteless and toothache-inducing cookies and bland cream centre that simply lacks the oomph. And I've had my taste of those even in France and in Singapore.

When we first return from Singapore from France, I was extremely excited to see a popular local-chain of cafe, well-known for its French cakes and pastries, offering macarons. However, my first bite into one turned me off and since then, I've never attempt to order them anymore even though I love their cakes and other dessert selections.

My favourite macarons in France is from Laduree. They have an outlet along Champs-Elysee and another on the 2nd floor of Printemps at Boulevard Haussmann in the 9th arrondissemont. I've never been to the one at Champs-Elysee but whenever I make a trip into Paris and if I head towards Boulevard Haussman for my favourite pastime -- which is to window shop and admire all the clothes at Galleries Lafayette and Printemps -- without a doubt, I would find my legs carrying me automatically towards the Laduree outlet. I would buy myself a precious box of 7 macarons and resist the urge to eat those delicious cookies even though I'm itching to do so the entire trip back to Fonty just so that I could share them with Louis at home.

A box of 7 macarons would cost around 8 euros (which costs around S$16). Hence, we considered buying and eating macarons from Laduree to be a real treat back then cos we were a poor student and spouse on a shoe-string budget. Oohhh... but the fun of choosing the 7 flavours from the myraid choices of macarons while the waitress looks on impatiently and with a little imperious air about her. You would be simply spoilt for choice becos other than the 11 staple flavours, they would have seasonal and other special/temporary creation available

After the disappointing order of macarons in Singapore, I had thought that the only opportunity that I would ever have of eating these delicious little cookies would be when we return to France. And then we went to Bangkok 3 times within a year in 2005/6. Amazingly, they had a Lenotre outlet (another chain of French pattiserie) located at the basement of Siam Paragon (I've heard there's another outlet at the new BKK airport but the items are a bit more expensive there). Guess what? We chanced upon a strip box of 5 macarons at 80 Baht (approx S$3.50). These were the cheapest macarons that I've found.

You can imagine too that we would stuff our face with it whenever we were in BKK and bring home more. We once bought back almost 20 boxes of these for souvenirs and gifts. Of course, I'm rather proud that I've managed to convert a few friends to become macaron lovers/addicts after they had their taste of it. I'm biased but these macarons weren't as good as the ones in Laduree and they only had 5 flavours (chocolate, coffee, vanilla, pistachio and strawberry). However, they were the best substitutes in Asia.

That was until we discovered something closer to home... Canele Patisserie Chocolaterie, under the Les Amis group. The macarons by Canele are good (although not as good as Laduree's, IMHO) and now, we could satisfy our macaron cravings anytime -- especially when Louis workplace is right smack where Canele is at Robertson Walk. Best of all, they have a caramel sel flavour which is my absolute favourite when it comes to macarons :)

On Monday, I was reading Chubby Hubby* when he wrote about the Macaron Festival at Canele for the month of October where they were featuring 6 "exotic" flavours of the moment. Certainly we had to try these new flavours! So, I told Louis to go buy them the next day.

A word of caution... I feel that they are a little exorbitant though! The usual macarons costs about $1.80/pc and Louis simply told the girl over the counter that he wanted the macarons on promotion for Oct and headed to pay for it at the counter. He (and I upon hearing it) had a rude shock! It cost S$22 for a box, albeit it was a nicely packaged one.

For such a pricey item, you bet the both of us are savouring every single bite of the macarons. In fact, we had a taste of the sesame and the almond with pistachio cream and brandied cherry. We both prefer the sesame. Tomorrow night, we will try another 2 flavours, and Friday, the last 2. We'll give our verdict then.

I'm now wondering if I should go learn to make my own macarons. In fact, Shermay's Cooking School has been offering classes by Jocelyn Shu (of Kuidaore) which are always full the minute they broadcast it online. CP has recently gone for a class. He once asked me before if I would like to go for a class together with him. At that time, I snubbed him and snobbishly told him that it would be too much of a hassle to make my own macarons. I would rather buy them off the shelf and enjoy them. Now, I'm eating humble pie and begging him to come to my house to make a batch and show me how to do it ;) It just goes to show you never say never. Kekeke....

*Note: Chubby Hubby also wrote that the best macarons in Paris were from Pierre Herme. I've never tried them but you bet I'm going to the next time I am in Paris.

Almost pickpocketed!

Buying something for my mom is always a challenge. For one, she's a vegetarian and a rather fussy one at that -- she only likes chinese cuisine. The other reason is that she is a woman of simple needs and wants.

For the longest time, whenever I holidayed overseas, it would always be difficult for me to think of what to buy for her -- she usually wouldn't like any of the food product that I bought, even if they are suitable for vegetarian, and she doesn't need a lot of things.

Inevitably, I would always end up buying a bag back for my mom. I've bought her a Coach leather bag, a Liz Claiborne bag and a Longchamp pliage bag. All of which she would either complained that the handle of the bag was too thick, too short, not enough compartments or too small. And so, she continues to carry her worldly possessions in one of those kiddy-looking cloth gusset bags that she buys cheaply from the one of the shops in HDB Hub all over Singapore.

Last year, I finally nailed down the right features and specs and gotten my mom a bag that she would carry -- one of those signature Harrods gusset bag, with a lining and build-in zipper compartment inside the bag. And I pestered her for a while to swap her cloth bag for the Harrods bag.

In the afternoon, as she was reaching into her bag to grab her ringing cellphone, she suddenly realised that there was a long sharp slit on the side of the bag. With a loud exclamation to me, she told me her bag has a hole! For a while, I had thought that it was a defective side seam or something. But when I had a good look at the bag, I realised that the slit was too sharp, long and straight to be a bag default.

In fact, it looked as if someone had taken a very sharp knife or penknife and slashed the side of the bag, slitting through some parts of the inner-lining. And I observed too that there was a slight slit at the top of the bag, as if a person has wanted to slashed it from the top but becos it was double-folded and stitched, was too thick to slit through.

Checking through the items inside, thankfully, nothing had been stolen. However, my mom's ancient wallet (its a bulging crocodile-skin wallet that looks like it belongs to a museum and my mom has used for nearly 20 years!) was placed near the slit. We figured that the pickpocket must have tried to slit the side of the bag to get to the wallet. But becos my mom's wallet was so fat and crammed full of I-don't-know-what, the pickpocket couldn't extract it out from the bag after slitting it.

What's most amazing was that my mom has no idea when and where her bag got slashed. In fact, the slashed might have been there on Sat when she went to a crowded temple or along the way from her house to mine. Still, its amazing that everything was intact. Thankfully!

It has taken me years to find a bag for my mom and now, with a slash of a penknife, my mom's back to carrying one of her kiddy cloth bag. See, she's now carrying this red "Strawberry Shortcake" bag. Sigh...

Water fun

Saturday, Faith experienced her very first dip in the pool. And I really mean dip. We were having a potluck dinner at P&E's place and they have a pool in their condo. So, we decided that it would be convenient to bring Faith for her first swim there, after which, we could adjourn upstairs and shamelessly borrow bathtub, soap and baby cot and all to bath and clean Faith up ;)

The day started out promising, but around the time that we were about to leave for P&E's place, the sky started to look a little overcast, with dark clouds looming ahead. By the time we reached their place and changed Faith, the sky looked even more threatening. Nevertheless, we decided to bring her down still for a dip. Or rather, Faith's dad was looking for a good excuse for him to go for a swim after that ;)

Despite the dark clouds and all, Faith seem to enjoy her time in the pool. As it was rather windy at the poolside, we quickly got her out after about 5 minutes of play. Let's hope we would have better luck with the weather on our trip to Bintan in another 2 weeks time.

Faith is featured in UK Magazine :)

I was at lunch today when Eve called me. She sounded rather excited and her first words were that Faith has been featured in a UK magazine. I was a bit speechless for a while because I was thinking if Eve had meant something like a bunch of Baby Faiths from UK were being featured in this UK magazine. Or some other play of words. After all, my dear wife has been spending quite a bit of time on Scrabulous.

As it turns out, it was literally our Faith that appeared in a women's magazine a few oceans away - all the way in UK :)

First, some background on this magazine. According to the website, "My Weekly" is "a widely read magazine aimed at "young" women of all ages. We are read by busy young mothers, active middle-aged wives, and elderly retired ladies. Although their ages cover the full spectrum, they have one important factor in common - they want their weekly magazine to be entertaining."

I had a brief glance through at the content and I felt it was probably similar to our 8 Days.

In this magazine, they have this section known as "All About You" in the opening pages. This section is "the place to share your news, views, thoughts and dreams..and especially the photos that make you smile". This was the section where Faith's picture turned up, along with other baby/kids photos under the caption "Little Treasures!"

So how did Faith's photo end up in this magazine? It was all thanks to Auntie Catherine who is now currently in UK. Eve had some time back sent her some pics of Faith at 2 months. Aunty Catherine then submitted Faith's photo to the magazine. Unexpectedly, they actually published it in the Sep 22 2007 installment of the magazine. Talk about a surpise! :)

Cutting tooth

Many weeks ago, I've posted on my suspicions that Faith might be teething becos she was exhibiting some signs of of salivation, gnawing/biting on items and sleepless nights. The weeks passed and as there wasn't further signs of any tooth sprouting, I had dismissed that thought and pushed it to the back of my mind.

For the past few nights, Louis and I were kept awake by Faith's incessant crying or roused out of sleep in the middle of the night. Even at 6 months, Faith continues to wake at least once a night for feeding. More often than not, she would promptly fall back to sleep after. For the last few nights, she was still awake after feeding and resisted our attempts to pet her back to sleep. It was trying when you are so sleepy and tired and have on hand a baby that wouldn't want to sleep.

We thought that the problem was becos she doesn't know how to grt back to sleep on her own after waking up. Louis and I are guilty of being overly anxious parents. Every time she wimples or cries a little, either or both of us would rush into the room to comfort her. Deciding that it was time for our baby to learn how to fall back to sleep on her own, we've decided to put her right back into the cot in her own room. If and when she roused from her sleep and starts crying, we would wait 5 minutes to see if she can quieten down and fall back asleep on her own. If not, we would go in, comfort her, put her back to sleep and retreat out of her room. This time around, we decided that the both of us would remain sleeping in our room.

We also decided to leave her and our doors ajar and not use the baby monitor -- I'm guilty of picking up the baby monitor once in a while, putting it very close to my ears to listen if she's making any sounds. Between the time that we put her to sleep till our bedtime, she woke about 4 times, crying each time for 5 minutes before went in to help put her to sleep.

Thankfully, she sleep soundly after that till 3-ish in the morning, roused a little for her night feed and promptly fell back to sleep until 7-ish this morning. That's when Louis and I woke and decided to bring her back to our room so that she can sleep the rest of the morning with us in our bedroom. Actually, I'm always in a dilemma. Whenever she's in the room sleeping with us, I would feel that we need to get her to sleep in her own room. But when she's sleeping in her own room, I miss her so much :( What a conflicting mom I am. Fortunately or unfortunately, Louis is of the same sentiments too. ;)

When Faith and I finally decided to stir our lazy bones and get up for the morning, I usually play with her on our bed for a while, tickling her to make her giggle or pulling her into a sitting position. And as usual, my little one would try to grab hold of my fingers to put it into her mouth to gum it.

That's when I discovered today for the first time something sharp when she gummed down on my finger. I let her gum my finger a few more times, got her to open her mouth to examine her gums and what do you know???!!! I saw a tiny speck of whitish tooth breaking through her gums. Its so small that its easy to miss it but for the sharp sensation when she gum my fingers.

Finally! There's a logical explanation for her restless sleep and constant waking over the last few nights. My baby was uncomfortable becos she was teething! What a dummy mummy I am -- it rhymes!

I hope with the breaking of the tooth, Faith would be able to go back to her normal routine of sleeping again. While its rather tempting to bring her back to our bed so that we could pamper her a little more during her teething phase, I think we should continue to stick with letting her sleep in her own room for now. Or more rightly, I hope we wouldn't cave in and bring her back to our bed ;)

Still, I'm rather happy and proud of my little one for going through yet another of her development milestones.