HTC Incredible S!

finally, i've reached the end of my mobile contract and am eligible to purchase a new hp!
of cos, i can buy a new one anytime but i just dont believe in paying so much for a hp without contract...
after some consideration, my choice of a new handset is HTC Incredible S!

im no hp guru.
to me, iphone is not a good choice since its still too pricey for my liking. and it doesnt support flash (not the camera flash! ha). blackberry not berry nice in appearnce.
HTC's pricing is pretty reasonable and i heard good feedbacks from friends so its a done deal for me. wahaha.
Incredible S's screen size is slightly bigger than that of iphone and boosts a 8mp camera.
so far so good and im happy to be using an android phone to surf some of my fav. websites on-off during the day.

thanks dear dear for getting the phone for me. :)
it will be better if you can stop nagging me on my other purchases. hehe.

green latern oath - to infinity and beyond, not!

caught the "green latern" with the husband and elder son yesterday.
yz was brave enough to sit through the show when it seems to be scarier for a 4yo kid as compared to X-men first class or Thor.
i pretty much enjoyed the show even though it's obviously setting the platform for its sequel.
the action sequences for it are good enough but can be better and longer though.
still, green latern is good enough!
i like a superhero who doesnt take himself very seriously.
i mean, ironman is my fav. fav. superhero, what do you think?!
and blake lively is damn gorgeous lor. lucky leo.
ok, awaiting for the next blockbuster for the son - Transformers 3!

not bad, not bad at all.

this weekend for the ng family is pretty much the same as others except that we attended a wedding and acquired a cable box!
this is the first wedding that i've attended that both the bride and the groom are getting married for the second time!
what are the odds for both to be married for the second time!?
but i guess, in this time of high divorce rate, getting married for the second time won't be such a rarity as we thought...
ok, more on this thought-provoking topic in another post perhaps.

starhub has given us 3months free trial for their cable service!
so after some simple installation yesterday afternoon, we have much more channels available to the ng family!
i've never had cable in my home before! so im pretty excited.
but i guess the happiest of all is yz! who can watch cartoon ANYTIME NOW!
of cos that is so not going to happen lah. we've told him cartoon is only available during evening time for an hour only.
so far he's buying it.
anyway, i dont think i will sign on the service after the 3m trial.
even with the current limited choices of mediacorp choices, i still have a hard time trying to chase the 9pm channel 8 serial!
cable is really a waste of money for us now.
perhaps when the kids and us are older....

sunday is as usual a lazy day.
phonics class for the elder son in the morning, nap time in the afternoon and vivo in the late afternoon.
this is becoming routine. tsktsk.


me + 黄豆豆
i like my top which is from HK. a giodardo collaboration with leo ku (yes, the singer!)

i might have got tired of shopping after all!
browsing through the stores of zara, MNG & ted baker and yet i cant anything to my fancy!
or maybe its just all the new clothings at home that i've yet to wear playing the guilt card with me...
my outfit for today is worn for the 1st time......

its papa day but hubbi decided to be sweet to bring me try max brenner which i wanted to try for the longest time since it opened its 1st branch @ esplanade... @_@


the chocolate souffle is yummilicious. even yz gives the thumbs up!

another full working week looms ahead!
just rememeber that both jun and jul have NO public hols. eeks.
but so far work is still gratifying as im still learning!
i really hope i dont speak too soon. wahaha.

the books i bought from bookdepository.com


so im back in the reading business.
while everyone whips out an iphone and pour their heart and soul in it in the trains, i whip out my chunky book and bury my nose in it.

talk about being obsolete. ha.


im done with "have a little faith" in slightly less than 1.5 weeks time.
its good though tuesdays with morrie is still better.
and i think mitch albom's non fiction books are wayyy better than his fiction ones.
i've 4 of his books. dun feel shy to borrow. but dont do so if you do not take care of books properly!

now onto "one day". so far 4 chapters into it.
its a really compelling one and i cant wait to finish it as well as watch the film (yes, starring anna hathaway & Jim Sturgess) later this year!

reading feeds the soul! yay!

yz & his fav. cartoon characters!

these photos were taken quite sometime back.
it was one of those happy evenings whereby im on leave and managed to ferry BOTH the sons to hb's workplace to wait for him to get off work at 6pm.
yeah, what luxury!

so at hb's workplace area, there are buzzlightyear and woody!
they are yz's fav. , esp. buzz since he has watched toy story 2&3 for a few times in school/home.

check out the boy's happiness!
maybe not so much with woody. ha.

First class rocks

went to catch "X-men:first class" with the elder son and husband yesterday after work.
the show is first class! entertaining with the characters 有血有肉!
and spoiler alert here: the show has 2 very nice cameo surprises! :)
and we unlock so many interesting nuggests about X-men:
like how did Prof X ended up in a wheelchair
like how magneto got his cap to keep Prof X out of his mind
like how all of them got their "stage" names
and many more. berry nice!

just like how i was pretty impressed by James McAvoy in atonement, it was the same here for Michael Fassbender (magneto in this show).
magneto is the more interesting character in the show and the actor did the role justice by acting well in it.
still, though he acted well, the scene where he showed his sorrow and pain for prof X in the show pales much in comparison to the scene where old magneto looked on in pain at old Prof X in X-men 3 when phoenix killed him.
姜还是老的辣！

ok, enough about my nonsense.
go catch the show NOW!

learning the ropes yet again

it's almost a week since i've started work at my new company.
so far so good.
the most immediate change for me is that i can no longer drive to work, the parking fees is simply too atrocious!
so now, the husband takes the car but he will send me to work 2-3 days out of a week.
being ferried to work is such a nice thing! i almost forget that feeling for i was the one driving ah long to his workplace most of the time for the past 1.5-2 years!
and i rediscovered the joy of reading books in train.
so now, i read during the journey back home. even though my house is just a mere 5 stops away from my office, i try to squeeze in as many lines as possible.
ahh, simple joy in life.

the other obvious change would be the (serious) lack of food and shopping choices in my new workplace area as compared to my previous one in bugis!
now my shopping dollars are partially channelled to higher food cost. pui.
i shall be diligent and walk further for nicer and more affordable food.

work-wise, its a frenzy of handover from my team members.
im still trying to understand as much as i can but i guess (and definitely hope) things will fall in place naturally over time (depending how long!)..
if going by my gut feelings, my team and boss are a decent bunch.
and that is good enough, right!? office politics and cold shoulders are big no-nos for me!

really hope i can settle in smoothly in my position.
if everything goes well, i really want to stay in this company for as long as i can given its good benefits and hours that work well for people with kids like me.
*fingers crossed*

but again, me being me, my butt will always be itchy.
we shall see.

super advanced papa's day to hubbi

this is dear dear enjoying the signature burger @ spruce


hubbi was mentioning to me that father's day is just round the corner.
and being the insensitive (only to him) wife, i thought he was thinking of dinner plans for our dads.
until he asked :"so any treats for me?".
then i remembered ya hor, he also papa to my boys. heh.

so when he said that father's day is THIS sunday, i thought it will be good to treat him an early papa's day dinner during one of the weekdays.
so tonight, with didi @ por por's house, we went to spruce for dinner.
it was a relaxed evening. with us reaching home around the same time at 630pm.
last minute reservations done, some house chores done and then moving out of the house an hour later for spruce.

it is until NOW that i remembered that father's day is the 3rd sunday and NOT 2nd sunday of june!
tsktsk.
我们又摆乌龙了...

Macau Day 4: Macau Tower

last day in macau! our flight is at 5+pm so we still had the day on hand.
we lazed in the room till 9+am then decided to move our butts out.
brekkie was at mac! haha. the boy was very excited and we tried the localized meal - macaroni soup with egg & sausage + hashbrown.
LOL - what a combi. but it aint too bad!

@ mac

after brekkie, we went to michael jackson mini exhibition in sofitel.
yes, there is one in our very own hotel featuring his famous glittery socks & glove. hehe.

then, its back to our hotel room to pack up and we were ready to check out at noon time.

our berry nice hotel lobby

after leaving our luggage with the concierge, we took a cab to macau tower

macau tower on a gloomy day


lunch was at a cafe there and i finally managed to try curry fishball noodles! not too bad! :)

there was really nothing much there and the highlight is actually toy r us on the 2nd floor.
its slightly bigger than the one at vivo and the elder son went absolutely crazy in it.
we actually spent nearly an hour there. haha.

@ toy r us

we left the place for senado square again for some last minute buys and food of cos.
one more egg tart for me before we came back! hehe.

very bored yz while waiting for us to buy our things..

by the time we touched down at changi airport, it was almost 945pm.
still, we grabbed some bites at hans for we were famished!
as you can see from my posts on macau, this trip is definitely more of a gastronomical one than a shopping one!
and im 1 kg heavier from the trip! together with the weight gain before the trip, i need to shed 2 kgs now. *pui*

shopping wise, of cos i still managed to buy something.
but definitely more ok as compared to my HK shopping spree in mar! hehe.
this time round, i've only bought 2 shoes, a dress, a top and a handful of accessories.
but i spent quite a bit on skincare, stocking up on eye cream and make up remover for my current stash are finishing up soon.
:( why is skincare so expensive. sigh.

ok, all in all, it has been a short wonderful trip with the husband and yz!
definitely missed yr the whole time but we really think he's better off being king with my parents then coming along.
i guess, for the rest of the year, no more flying for me. perhaps a cruise or short trip to genting will suffice nearer to year-end!

Macau Day 3: Day trip to HK!

there is only so much we can do in macau, so we made a day trip to macau on tuesday!
we took the free shuttle bus from our hotel to the ferry terminal at around 9+am to buy tickets to HK.

we took the 945am ferry

a still sleepy yz waiting for boarding time

the journey to HK was a little uncomfy as the waters were rather choppy but luckily the trip took only around an hour.

not berry happy w papa. heh.

the ferry terminal at HK is at HK island side. so we found ourselves around the area of 上环.

1st stop is of cos to satisfy our hunger pangs!

we went to maxim palace @ city hall area for dim sum lunch!


the dim sum was good! *slurp*

after our brunch, its time for some shopping. though more of window shopping for me.
perhaps with GSS at the back of my mind, it just doesnt make much sense to splurge for this trip.
or maybe, im jaded (*gasp*) by shopping.

anyway, this day trip to HK is more for the husband.
he came back to buy something that he failed to do so the last time we were here in march.
so, we went over to kowloon area for that.

and by late afternoon, we were ready for, once again, food! hehe.
to 翠华 tea house!


@ Tsui wah. can you spot hubbi's purchase?
yz looked on excitedly at our 菠罗包!

we made our way slowly back to the ferry terminal to catch the 6+pm ferry back to macau.
being scaredy cat me, i didnt want to make the trip across the sea in the dark. :P
so we reached our hotel at 7+pm and was totally tired out.
but still, we need to eat dinner, no?
since i've the accor card, we decided to try the mistral cafe in sofitel (im entitled to 33% off!).


by then, yz was berry cranky since he skipped his nap for the day (again!). luckily, iphone saved the day before the food came.
my pan-seared cod fish was uber juicy and delicious!
same goes for hubbi's beef sandwich. :)

after dinner, we took a stroll within the hotel.
it was a shame that i didnt bring yz's swimsuit for this trip for the pool is pretty decent in sofitel.
but, we saw some flies in the pool and yz didnt even want to play water in the shallow parts.. oh well.


@ the pool

it has been a long day for all of us.
the son and myself K.O.ed by 10+pm after our bath while the husband stayed up a while longer playing with his new "toy".

zzzzzzzzz

Macau Day 2: Coloane, Cotai & Taipa

its day 2 of our trip and for today, we will be spending most of the time on the other island of macau.
so we woke up early and left the hotel by 9.30am! what a feat for us, hehe.


me and my mr. strong.

1st stop was to the famous lord stow bakery @ coloane area for the egg tarts!


i prefer theirs as the egg tarts are less oily. and trust me, egg tarts ARE v v v oily given all the fresh butter used...

breakfast was at lord stow cafe in the same area too. and what a hearty brekkie we had, baked potato for me and thai chicken rice for the husband. siao anot, you tell me.

navigating using local transport? ha, chicken feet to me.
some asking around by resourceful me and soon, we were waiting for local bus to bring us to the cotai strip where all the branded hotels (venetian, hard rock, galaxy etc) are!

waitng at the bus stop and on board the bus!

venetian is pretty similar to marina bay sands but the shops here are more "friendly".

@ venetian

whatever the lucky boy requested, we gave in. tsk tsk.
so, we had a go on the gondola rides!
to be fair, i did enjoyed the part where our boatman sang "月亮代表我的心". haha.

berry happy us.

foodie time again. 猪扒包!

because this is only so-so, we decided to venture out yet again to find real yummy 猪扒包!
there is a famous stall (大利来记) at taipa which sells 猪扒包 known to be delicious, so here we go!

i like the 猪扒包 here! despite the crazy hot weather (lucky macau is not that humid at all), there were many people here!
they only started selling at 3pm onwards till they sold out. we reached at ard 3.30pm so definitely still plenty for us. :)

next up, to the famous taipa street for almond rolls, 老婆饼, durian ice-cream etc!

i still prefer durian ice-cream in singapore. not to mention cheaper too!

by late afternoon, we were pretty tired out from all the commuting in the name of food...
we were ready to go back to macau island....
this time we tried the 小巴 which will bring us back to the other island via one of the 3 bridges connecting the 2 islands. :)

on board the bus. look how tired yz was but he refused to take his nap in the stroller! tsktsk.

we alighted near fisherman wharf area as hubbi wanted to visit the panerai official shop at one central (near MGM, Wynn hotel etc).
before heading to one central, we made a short stop to Wynn hotel lobby where it has a free performance every 30mins during the day!

the globe-like thingy behind me has 12 western horoscopes on it.
during the show, it will open up to reveal a dragon who will surface and do a rotation up towards the ceiling!

tada! while it rotated up, the ceiling above (showcasing 12 chinese horoscopes animals) will open up too!

and when it does, it shows a LCD sceen with v life-like fire!

it was really an entertaining performance. :)
it was said to bring good luck to those who watch it so it is not surprising for me to see many people rushing out from the casino to catch it before going back again. wahaha.

after boring one central (too many atas brands), we left for senado square to hunt for dinner.

dinner was @ 黄枝记 this time round.
and im just addicted to their shrimp roe noodles. yum yum!

an early night for all of us. it had been a long day!!

Macau Day 1: St. Paul Ruins & Senado Square

i've a 2 weeks break before the start of my new job hence we decided to make another short trip during this jobless period!
after much consideration, onwards to macau for hubbi, yz and myself!
so on sunday, we woke up like any normal day.
after some last minute packing up, we were good to go!
first stop was of cos to deposit yr at my mum's place before heading to the budget terminal.
after a hearty breakkie @ mac, we were ready to board tiger airways!

3.5 hrs later, we touched down at macau airport. *wee*


on the transit bus to the terminal from the plane
see how happy the boy was after his nap during flight!

we took a cab to our hotel, sofitel ponte 16, and did the check-in in a jiffy. :)


our berry nice hotel room. can you spot the son trying to blend in?
our view from the room.

no time to lose! after some freshening up, we were ready to move out & explore macau.
our hotel is a stone throw to both st paul ruins & senado sqaure so these shall be where we were heading for the day.

不三不四的时间 @ 4+ pm didnt stop us from having a yummy meal!
i had shrimp roe noodles , a popular dish for macau while the husband ate his usual beef brisket noodles.
check out the huge ass wantons!

after satisfying our growling tummies, we set off for st paul ruins!

macau is pretty picturesque in some areas.

@st paul ruins!


and of cos we continue eating along the way...
be it almond rolls, the very very popular portugese egg tarts, fruit juices etc... *burp*

senado square is pretty small and nothing much though it boosts some shops that i dun mind like staccato & bonjour (something like sasa but more on selling skincare at much lower prices!).

slightly buay song yz @ senado square

we had another hearty late dinner at one of those local eateries which hubbi totally dig.
since its only day 1 and its not like macau has anywhere interesting to go after dark (if you are not a gambler), we called it a day at 9pm and went back to our comfy hotel room. :)

yz enjoying life.
we had a LCD tv in the bathroom too! so here he is, soaking in the tub and watching his fav. cartoon shows!

the rest of macau trip coming up!