dinner @ antoinette

it was a lazy sunday for us yesterday.
after the boys woke up from their naps, we made our way to the east to pass some stuff to my mum.
as she had a wedding dinner to attend in the evening, she had no time to entertain us, so we were shooed out of her house by 5+pm. ha.

decided to do some window-shopping for furnitures+ furnishings since there are a few showrooms/warehouses at the east side.
by the time we were done, its dinner time.
the husband asked me to choose somewhere near. racking my brains, i decided on antoinette @ penhas street since we were only a 3mins drive away!

been wanting to try their outlet @ mandarin gallery for the longest time but its always full.
so its good that we manage to try the food @ the penhas st's outlet with minimal crowd on a sunday evening. :)

we went a little crazy with ordering food for the ambience is just too pretty! :)
beef patty sandwich, wild mushroom risotto, all day breakfast - sunny side up with mushroom/onion + toast, rose tea, strawberry short cake + macaroons!
but really, just nice for our family of four.
the prices were reasonable too though the portion could be bigger ha.

YR at work:

nope, i dont want take photo with papa!

*baring a cheeky grin*!

Boy A

this weekend, i continue my ever-going pursuit of SnM (shopping, novel, movie! LOL! ok, very lame).
this time round, i finished Boy A - a novel i picked up previously @ borders closing down sale.
the book left me a little depressed after im done with it.
its basically about a child murderer going back to society after he has grown up.
an interesting topic, nevertheless.
set you thinking lots of questions with no apparant answers. @_@

theres a question at the end of the book asking why are most people more disturbed by child murderers than adult ones?
i guess the answers varied.
but one common one will be its pretty hard to swallow the fact that a child (so young and innocent) will have the intention to murder and may actually derive satisfaction from the act itself.
its easier to push the blame to society and the environment to be responsible in moulding the sinister natures of murderers.
we do like to think of kids as untainted, only to be contaminated in their growing up years right?

i dont think i will follow up with the film of same name.
just too depressing.

movies galore!

managed to catch quite a fair bit of show this month so that makes me a happy woman.
i so love getting lost in the reel world!

1) real steel
ever since i saw the trailer few months back, ive convinced myself this is a must watch.
given hugh jackman's track record, i know this show will be more than just a no-brainer action show of boxing and robots.
and it never disappoint me! its at least a 3.5-4 stars! :)
im especially delighted by the young boy. so cute and adorable.
and wussy me teared a little at the end when hugh's role is in his element of doing what he loves most....

2) midnight with paris
ive never really like woody allen's show.
finding them a little too bland and unexciting. and i always feel somehow he wasted the talents of the stella cast he always has on hand.
but midnight with paris totally blew me away.
ive always feel owen wilson is a darn good actor (go check out behind enemy lines) and finally someone cast him in a proper show.
woody allen seems to be writing about himself in the show and it ended up really much like an intimate project of the director.
the plot is good and fast-paced. the dialogue is witty. the cast is totally natural (i so so love adrian brody's portrayal of dali).
and best of all, paris is captured as it is. gorgeous.

3) hesher
im still trying to sort out my feelings towards this one.
the plot is totally original. the lead characters totally uncharacteristic.
and i totally cant categorize the show. is it drama? dark comedy?
argh. got me frustrated like how hesher frustrated the other characters.
and despite the irritation/frustation, we are all affected by hesher.
all i can say is gordon levitt's performance is perfect.
he is nothing like his character in 500 days of summer/inception. he is v v v versatile.
he has surely come a long way from 3rd rock from the sun/10 things i hate about you!
i cant wait to catch his new file - 50/50!

4) one day
the novel is definitely much much better than the show.
imagine 1 day as 1 chapter for 20 years in the novel.
even if 1 day is condensed into just 8mins screen time, its impossible to squeeze 20 days x 8 mins.
and each day is chocked full of details of significance in the book.
the show was destined to bomb...
still, anne hathaway and jim sturgess shared a convincing chemistry on screen.
and having read the book, i do find satisfaction to an extent to put pictures to the words.
so much so, that i let my tears free-flowed into tissues towards the later part of the film.
tsk tsk!

5) horrible bosses
i was actually quite reluctant to watch this.
but im glad i did. it was hilarious. so, im tickled by this brand of humor wahahah.
colin farrell is a hoot! he is sooooo funny.
though i know that he can act comedy since "in bruges" its an 8 in imdb, go watch it. totally worth your time!).

what will i watch next? :)

week 2 in oct: waiting game

machiam like back to preggy days: waiting game... haha.
things have been pretty quiet since both ourselves and our buyers exercised our options to purchase.

HDB first appointment has fixed to be on 1st week of nov. meaning that ive to hand over the keys to the new owners by end dec! *gasp*
which means!! we have only 3.5 weeks for renovation and moving into our new place before we are "homeless".
personally, i find the timeline tight though many have said it takes at most 3 weeks for condo with minimal reno.
hmm... guess it depends how fast my contractor can work and how "extensive" our eventual reno plans come up to be.

my back-up plan is to shift all the furnitures to a warehouse (thanks god for the lower storage rates compare to last time) and shifting back to my parents' place for a week or two.
i actually prefer this plan cos i want the reno to be a proper one rather than a rushed one where we need to rectify defects afterwards!
but stingy hubbi is of cos very very reluctant to go down this road. well, 由不得他! :P

well well, we'll be meeting up with our previous contractor tomorrow. lets see if the timeline is doable by him. :)
yes, we are going back to our ex-contractor who helped us to do up our current redhill flat. we like his honesty and upfront attitude.
and he will tell us pros and cons of different materials but leaving us to make the choice ultimately.
i felt our reno costs was a steal given the work done and the worksmanship (everything well intact after almost 6 years!) but heard that he is not so cheap now... @_@
shall see what the quotation come up with..
the only drawback is he is still at best a contractor, not really an ID, though his staff do come up with some nice 3D drawings for us last time. in fact, all the false ceiling layout were thought by them.. ha. shall see if their "skills" improve after these years!

our project's developers have just submitted approval for TOP to BCA.
*fingers crossed* hope it will TOP by end oct so we can do 1 round of defects check before we get the key in early dec.

can only wait and see. how exciting!
luckily, the best lesson that i've learnt from having 2 boys is 以不变应万变!
ok, getting crappy haha.
updates again!

happy birthday, 黄勇智！

today is mr yong tee's 4yo birthday and a public holiday too!
that means, we can spend the whole day with the birthday boy! :)
we have a tentative plan for him but the day played out itself really well with all of us enjoying it lots!
lets see what we did today:


(left) bright & alert when we left house at 10am! with a party pack full of snacks, he is ready to rock the day, haha.
he's wearing our bday pressie for him too - birkenstock sandals :)
(right) on board the mrt with papa - where are we heading so early in the day?

to suntec that is! we are going on the duck tour! *wee*
yz was especially excited with boarding "a car that can turn into a boat too".

happy boy with his duck tour ticket

we had a 15mins window time for dim sum brekkie at food republic before boarding time at 11am.
the duck snaked its way past suntec, the flyer and eventually to the splashpoint opposite costa rhu condo to "splash" into the kallang river!

in the water!

the tour was quite a short one at around 45mins and >than 80% of the passengers were locals. wahaha.
still, it was interesting to hear some nuggets of previously unknown information about singapore from the guide.
we were very lucky to complete the river cruise part before it started to rain while on our way back to suntec near the end of the tour. *phwee*
i wouldnt like to be in the water with the heavy rain afterwards.

MBS!

the merlion who has too much drinks the night before.

got this duck whistle for him which makes a quacking sound - ha.

after the tour, we window-shopped abit at suntec while mulling over lunch choices.
i decided to treat hubbi and the elder son to the supposedly famous shin-sapporo ramen (next to old town cafe) for lunch.
we thought the ramen was pretty decent, especially the soup base being light and tasty.
but i guess, we still prefer those from marutama @ liang court and nantsuttei @ parco millenia. *slurp*

after lunch, we were pretty at a loss whats next.
in the end, we let yz chose (by pointing randomly on the mrt map - we restricted him to the yellow circle line) and he pointed at bras basah stop! which was a brilliant idea since we love books. :)

so off we go!

(left) this display is interesting at promenade station. and bras basah station design is cool with alot of natural light flooding in.
(right) when we exited the station, we got distracted by SAM (Singapore Art Musuem) next to it and decided to explore here instead.

we were in luck for one of the exhibition was free for today due to public holiday.
so we took a slow stroll through Amanda Heng's exhibition - Speak to me, walk with me.
i wouldnt say i came out of it particularly enlightened or whatsoever, but its a good exposure to yz i presume.
he did asked some questions of which i have no answers to most of them. lol.

and then, it started raining heavily again. @_@
so we waited out for awhile at the entrance before deciding to go for another round of *munch munch*. ha.


waiting for rain to subside

tired of waiting, we adjourned to the eatery next to SAM - Food for thought!
a very alert yz here. haha.

(left) photo time while waiting for the food to come
(right) mixed berries pancakes - *yummeh*

the food was pretty good. i wonder when can we come here again to try the mains?
the rain finally stopped and we walked to bras basah complex as planned. SAM has been a delightful detour.
hubbi kept saying he didnt feel like he's in sg but more like exploring new places when we were overseas.
i couldnt agree more!

bras basah brought back all the memories of my schooldays when i went there to browse through different book stores and getting different kind of pens/highlighters from the art & craft shops.
after yz had his share of browsing through the children's section, we moved on again (yes, lots of walking...).

back to boring raffles city where we did our usual stuff - window shopping and settling our dinner.
my window shopping led to me buying a pair of shoes from JWest. BUT BUT BUT there is a 20% sale.
so its a good buy.........i presume.
after the early dinner, all of us were mad tired and we were home in a jiffy via mrt (its only 6+pm! haha).
and poor yz having waking up so early this morning and missing his nap, K.O.ed after his milk feed at 8pm!
goody good.
hubbi and i can spent time watching the tube together... until we hit the sack too. :P

it has been a long and fun day for us! i think the elder son really enjoyed himself.
dun forget, he depreciated his full party pack of snacks bit by bit the whole day.
that must be the totally awesome for him! :)

YZ bday celebration @ school!

today, both hubbi and myself left work early to have a mini bday celebration with yz and his classmates at his school.
cake was simply thomas & friend one from polar.
nothing special but the kids were more than happy to sing bday song to yz, eat the cake and receive party packs (more snacks!) from the birthday boy! :)


look at our iron grips on him! wahaha.




happy yz blowing the candles and cutting his cake

we didnt go anywhere after that as we've programmes lined up for his actual birthday tomorrow!
better go home rest more haha.
and we decided to bake cookies! it must have been nearly 2 years since i last baked..
nevertheless, we had fun mixing all the ingredients together.
esp. yz who helped to stuff the chocolate chips into the cookie dough!

tada, the dough and chocolate chips (top up again and again at yz's request..)

"growing" in the oven

the end results aint too bad just that i feel its a tad too dry.
well well, the husband and son are not complaining so i guess its still a successful attempt!

time to save again...

was kinda busy for the months of Aug - early Oct due to the following:
- each member of the ng family taking turn to fall ill @_@
- 4 weddings on different weekends...
- busy selling our unit and buying our new house
- staycation
- and many other misc outings.
so i've been more than deprived from my usual shopping activities. and this is not good.

and SO, i went crazy the last 2.5 weeks buying clothings again! *gulp*
and SO, i bought a dress from zara, 2 tops & a skirt from gg5, a top from MNG, a vest from rockstar, 2 skirts from BYSI and a top from Dressy.
ok, time to hibernate again. :(
and how timely when the bill for a-mei jan's concert came along too.
2 cat1 tickets price is crazy!!! its a birthday gift for ah long, if you are wondering.
and yes, im more excited than him obviously.

one got papa hair, one got mama hair.

GUESS WHO.

staycation @ Novatel - advance bday celebration for yz

since the ng family is not going anywhere for hols for the rest of the year *pout* due to us moving house, we've tried to plan more activities to make up for it.
so we did a staycation on sunday partly to take a break from the mundane work week as well as to do a mini pre-celebration for yz's 4yo bday (though its almost 1 week + earlier, :P).

so in the morning after yz's phonics class, we went home bath and pack the stuff for the short staycation.
after that, its time to drop yr off at my mum's place. sorry baobei, not bringing you along this time round but will do so for the next staycation in dec (yeah, there's another one!).

we were staying at Novatel clarke quay this time. though also pretty near to our house, this area is seldom explored by us with the kids.
now that yz is older, thought it will be nice to let him experience some "night-life" with us. haha.


check-in was pretty decent at 2pm. :)

we have view of MBS ok, dun play play.

we went to suntec and let yz do all the happy things.
let him snack at ya-kun when he said he's hungry.
brought him to the arcade for games.
let him roam at toy-r-us to his heart content.
i think its a pretty decent outing for the little boy. :)


part of the action

we went back to the hotel to rest awhile before deciding where to go for dinner.
decided to try the in-house restaurant since we've very good experience with novatel perth as well as sofitel macau.
thinking all are under the accor umbrella, standard should be there?


ncl tried tenderloin w foie gars which i tried the baked cod as usual

mine was quite sumptious with the cod being super juicy. but ah long tenderloin was abit let-down especially for that price..
still, it was a good dinner with warm ambience.

we spent the evening strolling at clarke quay area. yz was very very fascinated by the reverse bungee and all those "uncle/auntie" screaming as the ball shoots up. LOL.

we got him a small slice of cake (strawberry shortcake - his fav) and sing the happy birthday song for him.
he was beaming with happiness. :))

*roar*

last stop was to liang court to grab snacks of all kind from the mediya supermart and to kino for mags!
the son and i had so much fun choosing wat to buy to make up his party bday packs to his fellow classmates. :)
hubbi as usual grab chips for our late night movie @ the hotel after the son zzzz.

yz was so tired by the long day though he only K.O.ed at almost 11pm.
hubbi and i caught trashy B-grade movie - Piranha 3D on starmovie which munching on chips. haha.
all in all, it was a really fun outing!

cant wait for the next staycation for my bday with YR as well. :)

week 4 of september: more cast in stone!

finally, after going back and forth with a few bankers, we have finally decided on our choice of bank!
though there a few clauses here and there that we are not too comfy with, i guess its pretty much the same for other banks.
nothing too much of a big deal, i guess.
just that we have to go and do the necessary repayment and adjustment in few months to come....

and so on wed, we went to sign the letter of offer with the bank and then to the lawyer side to exercise the option to purchase!
tada! all done for the 1st step and now we have more or less buy over our unit of choice! *wee*

and one great piece of good news is that the developers have submitted to BCA for TOP approval. So TOP should be by end Oct/early Nov which is in line with our expectations and plan! we will be doing 1 round of defects check with the seller once they got the keys from developers. YEAH!

things to keep us busy for the next month before HDB 1st appt in 1st week of nov will be to engage our choice of contractor for the renovation!
again, this means me scrutinizing over many home magazines and working out a quotation with the contractor.
im sure the husband will play his usual minimal part in all these. pui!

dun care, so long i get the design and budget i want!


ok, lets see how it goes. *excited*

Arc S + casa kidi = fun saturday

this week has been a pretty busy one. since the motion for moving house has started, there are tons of admin to do.
we let yz's school knew of our intention to let him continue till end of the year only. so forms are filled (pretty breezy) but i cant help but think if he will transit well to kindy come jan...
met up with our contractor to have a preliminary discussion on what we want for the new house.
he came back to us pretty fast with the tentative quotation. though his prices are really competitve, hubbi and i were still abit fazed by the price.
no choice, guess reno costs has risen quite a fair bit since 5 years back!
and of cos, the ongoing battle continues with the husband as to what should be added or not.
im glad to say aesthetics is going to win over budget... for now. HIAKS.

admist the crazy week, hubbi managed to give me a nice surprise by getting me the new SE Xperia Arc S on a whim!
Singtel was having some 1day promo and he was renewing FIL's contract so he thought its a good chance to get me a new hp.
though HTC is good enough, the camera functions is really blah.

tada: testing out the hp on yesterday once i got it!

its really clear! though i've resized this shot before posting.
love of my life - my boys!

from now on, most of our weekends will be spent viewing furnitures, fittings and such. :(
today, we went to source for bed frames for the family.
after the boys' naps, it was pretty late at 4pm already so we only manage to go to cellini @ changi & casa kidi @ tampines.


出发了！

saw 1 or 2 bedframes @ cellini for ourselves. will keep in mind as we go explore more furniture shops.
next stop is definitely more fun for all of us - CASA KIDI!
so many nice kiddy furnitures there! :)
we saw a few bedframes that will be really fun for the boys but that will have to wait till we assess if their new bedroom can fit those in.
shall wait and see.

meanwhile, there is a mini playground there and they had fun while we sat nearby snacking away. wahaha.


yz with his fav. toystory - wallpaper as backdrop.

week 3 of sept: the mandatory stressful week

this has not been a good week! :(
first of all, valuation report is finally out after 4 working days (6 calendar days), an eternity to us, on monday.
even better, the valuation is lower than what we expected.
and best of all, upon hearing the valuation for our unit, the buyer requested to lower initial offer price by $5k! @_@
luckily for mr lim, we managed to "hold 住" the price as per originally agreed.

THEN, buyer submitted valuation report to their bank to get the LO. without the LO, they cant exercise the option. sigh.
what has thought to require only 1 day turnaround turns out to another additional 3-4 working days!
which means the earliest the buyer can exercise (provided they REALLY DO!) the option is on fri!!!

this is very bad for we can't issue the cheque to the other side since we dont have a "confirmed plus guranteed" deal on this side. SIGH.
and to make things worse, there is another potential buyer on the other side.
which may means no unit for us or higher purchase price.... :(

after some serious discussion with the husband, we decided to issue cheque and offer to purchase to the other seller on wed.
which means, we are taking a gamble here.
and luckily we did, cos the seller came back to nego on our proposed terms and we were glad to iron out this part before our buyer exercise so our timeline of buying and selling is more in sync.

and we counted our lucky stars on fri! our buyers' LO was churned out in the evening and they came to exercise the option to purchase our flat immediately! :)
and we got the option to purchase our choice unit from the seller too.
*yay*

ok, next step: to nego the best loan deal with all the bankers out there! *sweat*
naturally, the task falls on me with the husband, clueless as usual, washed up on the shore like a blur seaweed... tsktsk.
gimme the energy and bargaining power pls!

water fun at vivo

some back-dated photos at vivo
the boys love the water playarea there, though im not v keen on the cleanliness of water there...

week 2: be a good salesman!

and if you aint or lazy like us, get a good agent. :)

week 2 sept:
the valuer appointed by HDB came down on tuesday and the process was over in a jiffy!
when i said jiffy, it really meant 10mins! @_@
open house scheduled on wed - just 1 potential buyer since mr lim has already done 1 round of screening based on offer price from the sat open house buyer.

and guess what, the buyer offered on the spot (despite no valuation report) and said they were able to exercise the same day too! and their offer is actually higher than the 1st offer!
BUT (of cos, there is always a catch in life), there were some conditions im not comfortable with and actually they cant exercise on the same day too since 1 of the buyer is not in town (chey!).

we sort of rejected the offer though the person said will get the other buyer to fly back by week after next. but in reality, 1-2 weeks in property market is eternity! HAHA. but of cos, no harm saying ok since we may not have sold our unit by then......

and the agent/seller for the unit that we are v. interested in are chasing us to offer our cheque asap!! so stressed!
we can only do so if we have a chq from our buyer and exercised OTP on our side mah! PUI!
bottleneck is now the valuation report which is nowhere to be seen!
my buyer needs it to get loan approval from bank before he will sign the OTP.
THEN, i can give MY buyer our cheque for his unit.
really hope valuation report wil be out 1st thing next week! valuer must be zzzzing..... @_@

weddings back to back!

it has been a super duper tiring weekend for me!
the weekend started with meeting up with the hall friends for fifi's bday dinner on friday evening.
venue was at les bouchons @ robertson quay - steak & fries! *yums*
still, the best steak for me has to be from au petit @ dempsey..
it was so good catching up with them that time flies and before i knew it, its 11pm+ and i made my move first as I've a longggg day on sat!

why was sat a long day?? its shirley & wayne's wedding and im one of the jiemei!
gosh! woke up at 6+am and reached the bride's place by 730pm.. yawn, despite turning in last night only after 12midnight... @_@
was looking forward to the gatecrashing but it was rather a lacklustre one with the brothers being wishywashy and all.....:P
caught in jam when commuting between the groom's family house and the bride's one... so the tea ceremony was officially over near to 2pm..
dashed home to catch a nap (much needed) with the boys... zzzzzzz

in the evening, the ng family moved out to the hotel - fairmount!
my job is to help out at the reception though i think bobo did a much better job than moi... oops.


with jm

with the sisters!

the boys managed to stay up and good till 11pm! well done!
by the time we reached home, they have K.O.ed! hehehe.
hubbi and myself turned to dreamland soon too... esp. for me.

slept till late morning on sunday. thanks to the husband who helped me to take care of the boys while i continued zzzzing.
and i took nap again with them in the afternoon too!
old age is surely catching up. haha.

and before i know it, time for the ng family to move out again!
both hubbi and myself have wedding dinners (again!) in the evening. so we left yr at my mum's place before we left for our respective venues.
for me, its frances wedding @ raffles town club!
yz came along with me and he was pretty managable during the night. but can see that he's pretty tired out from attending 2 wedding dinners in a row!

ok, now back home and yz dozed off on the way back as expected.
i better washed up fast and hit the sack! closing day 1 tomorrow, gulp!