28 January 2016. Time flies as we approach the end of the first month of the new year.
What have you done so far this month? Busy with your Primary One child like I did during the first 2 weeks and now busy doing our "last minute" Chinese New Year shopping?
Finally I finished my own CNY clothes shopping last weekends! This year CNY is so "early"! In just another 10 days, it is already CNY! There are so many things I had done in January and so many things I had yet to do~~~
Princess goes to Primary One
As many know, my little baby princess turned 6 years old last Nov and now she is in Primary 1! Like many gancheong and ONZ mothers, I took 2 days leave to "support" Jamie and to attend the curriculum and parenting talks. Through the participation of the two days orientation programme, I was lucky to find a group of enthu but not overly enthu mummies. Yes, it is important to be enthu about your child's academic but being with a group of overly enthu parents, we will not only add stress to our kids, we will also add stress to ourselves. Please lor, we already have to worry about bread and butter everyday, and now has to be worried about our kids' homework. Still not enough for us to be worried meh?
I find myself now feeling obliged to fly home after work to revise school work and learn spelling and 听写 with Jamie. I am kinda of worried I will lose myself.. *cough* like our parents did. :P
However, Jamie surprises me every other day from being able to read new English words now using her newly picked up phonic skills, to getting 96/100 for her first 听写. I am never a very smart child, so I always choose to study smart. What I mean by study smart? Well, if I know I die also cannot remember a Maths formula then I will choose to skip that topic and focus on the other topics which I can score in. Similarly, since I don't think Jamie is able to score 100 marks for Chinese 听写, hence I don't find it helpful to push her unrealistically. I am happy for her to get 80-90 marks. Thus I was really happy for her when she comes home with 96 marks for her first 听写.
I also love hearing all the stories she brings home about her new friends. Little Jamie is never good with names (like her Baba), hence she likes to give them "nickname" or "code name". Example who and who is her number 2 friend whom she got to know on her school bus. She was extremely thrilled (so am I) when a "3rd" new friend asked her to be her BFF!
I am looking forward to hear more stories about Jamie's adventure in her Primary School.
Prince turns THREE
Our prince ended his terrible two this January. But it does not make him an angel yet. Haha! He is still as cheeky but I have to say, he is more "reasonable" and he expresses himself so much better now. I love to be surprised by him every other day too, hearing the new words and full sentences coming out from his mouth.
His princey look really melts my heart too and I have to consciously refrain myself from letting him get away from his misdeeds simply by giving me a kiss on my lips! Haha!
Laogong's Birthday Staycation
Last weekends, we checked in at DoubleTree@JB again for Laogong's birthday staycation. Among the three JB hotels we had our staycations before (ie. Hotel Jen @ Puteri Harbour, KSL Resort and DoubleTree@JB, we personally like DoubleTree more. Not sure if Hilton is more upclass than Shangri-la but I find the hotel staff more approachable and proactive.
I feel that the hotel rooms are more value for money too because for S$204, we can actually get a lovely and cosy one bedroom suite at DoubleTree@JB!
We also get to sign up HHonours member for FREE. For the one bedroom suite, we are entitled to FOC pre-dinner liquor and canapés at the Executive Lounge, plus breakfast at Executive Lounge or Tosco Restnt instead of the main breakfast area. The pre-dinner liquor is really heavenly for us who can drink a lot. They not only serve good quality red and white wine, a variety of spirit and whiskey with different mixers, they also served bottled beer. The canapés were filling enough to be eaten as dinner too.
Nevertheless, we still proceeded to have our "real dinner" at Tosco Restnt. The indoor ambience was great and you can also choose to have your food served by the poolside. I was very full, hence shared a pasta and dessert with Laogong.
The next morning we had our breakfast exclusively at Tosco Restnt. Love the omelette as always and the porridge too.
Did CNY shopping for my CNY and new work clothes! Okay, frankly if not for our currency power, some of the dresses I bought at RM89-139 are not considered cheap for the locals. But of coz compared to the min $50s-$80s dresses selling in SG boutiques, the dresses I bought are considered cheap.
After our simple dinner and 1-2hr jam at the customs, we got home to cut Laogong's birthday cake with our princess and prince!
New Korean BBQ and New Chilling HangOut
I lately fell in love with Korean BBQ...
I not only went to Arirang Korean BBQ Buffet with Laogong to celebrate our 16th years anniversary, I also went for another Korean BBQ Buffet at Chinatown Point to celebrate Yeewen's birthday. I personally like the cooked food at Arirang but the meat served at Chinatown Point is of better quality. There are more variety of meat over there too. You cannot imagine we 3 girls could finish 4 servings of beef, 3 servings of pork and 2 servings of chicken! And not including the soups, sides and vegetables we had too!
Arirang Korean BBQ Buffet
Korean BBQ Buffet at Chinatown Point
Chupito - Shooters Paradise but really not for us
Met up with Yvonne to "celebrate her new venture". We were adventurous and wanted to try Shooters @ Chupito and Tanyoto Steamboat Supper Buffet.
We concluded that Shooters are not for us. Harry Potter's Butter Beer tastes interesting though. We were pretty amazed by the amount of alcohol that was mixed into our looking harmless drinks. It was a cool place but definitely not for us. Haha!
We finally tasted Tanyoto. Nothing fantastic really except for the interesting soup bases, ie, salted cabbage and fish base and tomato soup base. The seafood and meat don't smell very fresh either. After my horrible two nights at TTSH, I became very cautious about what I eat so I didn't eat much in the end. Won't go again.. :P
My January is so happening hor? But there are so much more to do before CNY. Hope I get to check these off my "To Do List" soon! ^^
