my bonus pressie to myself is finally here!

jas is back from her Europe trip and she has helped me buy the ring that i wanted successfully!

yeah! been eyeing the ring for the longest time (we are talking about years here) but it was always not on the top of the list for there were always coveted bags ahead of it.

finally, its on the top of my wish list this year and with the help of jas, I finally owned it!

not much cheaper than in sg ~ 15% cheaper? but still a good buy nevertheless.

I never get tired of anything rose gold. sweet!

 

bvlgari bzero  - rose gold with black ceramic

im a happy woman. I wonder what will catch my fancy for my upcoming trip in 2 weeks time!!

YZ turns 7!

my baobei turns 7 today!
since we have sort of celebrated his birthday in advance on wed by bringing him to the zoo, it was a pretty quiet day for us.
during the day, we let yr and him unwrapped the playmobil presents from my in-laws (the hero factory from my mum shall have to wait. hehe.) and they had a blast playing their fav. (my least) activity of play-fighting. argh...

at late afternoon, we left for katong 112 where we chanced upon a sale at the newbalance branch there!
I got myself a new sports top and socks while the younger boy finally got himself a decent pair of shoes for our upcoming trip. :D
after which, the boys spent time having fun at the water playground at the roof level.

we left for dinner at al forno @ east coast road - since yz wanted pizza and spaghetti for his birthday dinner. 
I chanced upon this restaurant previously when I was around the area and wanted to try it for the longest time.
however, while the food was pretty decent, I think it's a bit pricey.

along east coast road

I wish my baobei to be healthy & happy always! and continue to find joy in learning new stuff. :)

saturday - a wedding + catching up with dow team

it was a pretty packed busy Saturday for me yesterday... sometimes, im amazed at the stuff I achieved in a day.

early in the morning, we moved out of the house to novena for I have to finish up my annual health screening at the mount E novena hospital while the boys had their breakfast and jalan-jalan abit while waiting for me.
then we moved out to send YZ to his enrichment class at tampines. while the husband caught up with his work on his lappy at the kopitiam, I drove to TM with the younger boy to run errands.
then its back to home after the class ended and the adults busied ourselves with housework chores (what's new!!?).
I managed to catch a cat-nap before hitting the gym for a short run.
THEN, its time to bath and move out of the house so the boys can have their early dinner before sending me to Shangri-La for a wedding dinner!
by the time im out of the house the 2nd time of the day at 4+pm, I was feeling a little low in energy. @_@

wanted to take photo with YZ alone and guess who photo-bombed!

he looks so cheeky here!

 

the husband wanted to head to shaw to look for something so I recommended dinner at &made burger bistro at pacific plaza for them.

im glad that the man + 2 boys love the food here though I think PS café truffle fries is still better.

I cant resist but chomped on the fries and sweet desserts even though I'm having my dinner real soon!

 

ha, we got the boys to sit by themselves opposite us and we pretended its just us dating :P

 

they dropped me at Shangri-La before heading off to look for the in-laws to spend some time.

so fun to catch up with the dow peeps! have it been 10 years!?

gosh, the conversations just flowed like we only just met last week ha!

I have the loveliest evening with them!

having fun at the candid shots booth

 

managed to ambush the groom for a we-fie!

the clumsy boy we knew 10 years back is finally married!

congrats PCY!

 

the husband and boys came to fetch me at 10+pm and I felt bad that the boys missed their usual bedtime because of me.

looking forward to spending quality time with them today for it's YZ 7YO bday!!!

 

some outfits for the week:

left: dress from ms selfridge

middle: dress from forever new

right: top and pants from gg5

advanced bday celebration for YZ's 7YO bday!

given that its public holiday today, we decided to give in to YZ's request to visit the SG zoo as part of his 7YO bday celebration (actual day is this sunday though) today!

we've tried our utmost best to reach the zoo early but after the morning hassle, we only reached at around 10am...and the place was super crowded.. @_@

i was thinking if it was a mistake to come here on a public holiday.

luckily, once we were in, the crowd dispersed and it was much more manageable from there.

 

waiting for papa to get the tickets 

 

my boy is all grown up! he read the map and basically directed us on where to go the whole time.

 

it was good to see some of the same old animals like the white tiger, Asian elephants, snakes etc.

they are my fav! though the pacing of the white tiger always fazed me out and I just cant stay for too long near its enclosure area.

 

the polar bear area has been revamped and renovated and it's the first time we are seeing it.

I like inuka's new habitat! much more spacious than before and visitors get to see him in action more clearly.

when we were there, he was very active and swimming in circles non-stop coming to the glass panels and kicking away earning happy gasps and giggles from the crowd.

we even get to see him dived in from the platform into the water a few times!

it is good to see him seemingly active and happy.

happy boys seeing almost all the animals in zoo today

 

waiting for the Asian elephant show

white rhinos - YR's fav, don't ask me why

cheetah - amazing long limbs

 

and it's always fun to refresh the general knowledge on how to differentiate between an alligator and a crocodile, or what is the difference in their furs between a cheetah, panther, leopard!

oh, and the young of a kangaroo is a joey!

it was fun learning again with the boys.

 

we left the zoo at around 3+pm and from there, we zoomed to windowsill café near jalan besar for yummy pies - more like tarts if you ask me. 

 

the lemon with strawberry one is really good!

 

and from there, I had the sudden craving for frog legs porridge so off we go to geylang for an early dinner.

the dinner was super satisfying but considering KFC for lunch, tarts for tea break and now this for dinner.... i think I need to seriously count my calories from tomorrow onwards again! :(

 

and that is it for today.

super tiring. i think the boys will snooze before 9 and the adults by 11.. haha.

weekend - pancakes and pressies for the boys

 

after yz's enrichment class in the morning yesterday, I decided to get the ng family out of the house for some activities.

it was not going to be a laze-at-home day for us!

we went to try the strictly pancakes branch at upper east coast road. it was alright for me for im never a pancake/waffles fan but the boys were more than happy to share their caramelized banana pancakes topped with chocolate ice-cream with their pappy.



 

pancakes galore!

 

after the sweet treats, we made our way to bugis junction - been eons since we last visited it.

and i remember again why it's not our fav. hangout place....

 

today, we brought my mum for dim sum lunch at paradise pavilion at MBFC - abit zzzz to be at my workplace area on a sunday....

glad that everyone enjoys dim sum and we set off to bedok mall after that.

yz's bday is next sunday so popo decided to let the boys choose a set from the lego shop!

after much "negotiation" with the husband and I, we finally relented to allow a hero factory set for each boy.

 

this weekend is undoubtedly a lovely one for YZ & YR!

the year is ending!





don't you have this feeling??

its like it's oct already! gosh, are we officially in Q4 of the year?

im hurtling towards my grand 33rd birthday.... I need to go into denial mode soon.

 

anyway the working week has been more than just busy for me especially when i came down with sore throat and super blocked nose from wednesday onwards!

but with self-medication, I managed to make most of the symptoms go away and ok enough to go for a jog this morning! it has been awhile since my last jog on Tuesday... @_@

after the org chart change announcement last fri, this week has been crazy busy for me.

apart from working on home on wed (to spend time with the elder boy as he has no school for this week due to PSLE marking), it was like back-to-back meetings on Mon, Thurs and Fri plus a full day offsite workshop on Tue.

I don't know how I survive it but I did.

I think im more ready to face next week's trials given there is a holiday break mid-week!

 

and i cant wait for our family holiday to come soon!

counting down - another 4 weeks to go!

 

some outfits for the week:

left: top and cropped pants from gg5

middle: shirt from zara, skirt from gg5

right: top from A/X jeans from Guess by Marciano

change is constant

it has been a pretty exciting time at work this week.

there is a change in the org chart and some of the changes and rotation of people are very much unexpected..

its a good/bad(?) thing that my role is still the same I guess?

opportunities may be coming up and I wonder if im in the right time/position to capitalise on them.

oh well, we shall see.

 

and yesterday, went for a fantabulous outing with my colls.

dinner at tampopo and then K-ing our lungs out at liang court partyworld! *woohoo*

nothing beats a good Rihanna/gaga song to get the crowd dancing. LOL.

 

and 8 of us polished off 2 bottles of whiskey. *burp*

and everyone remained sane when we parted our way. we are good drinkers! hehe.

 

some outfits for the week:

 

left: romper from forever new

middle: dress from MNG

right: top from uniqlo, vest from ??, cropped pants from zara

a good weekend - or rather, making it good.

i started the weekend with no planning but it ended well.

I feel like im more in-tuned with an ENFP than an ENFJ now. :P

you need to know a little about MBTI if you know what im saying.

 

was feeling rather grouchy yesterday morning and decided to request for some time-out to spend time with myself doing my favorite activity: shopping!

the husband was the nicest by allowing that - dropping me off at bugis while the boys and him made their way to in-laws place for lunch and fetching me from orchard in the late afternoon! :D

 

first stop: haji lane!

ahhh.... it's been ages since I've been there and I really want to take a look at soon lee after such a long hiatus.

to think that I popped by there at least twice a week when I was working around the area 3 years back!

 

nothing much caught my fancy - I was a little disappointed at not getting anything from soon lee.

but there was a surprise buy - a ring from a local designer.  I first saw it in one of the shops at orchard gateway but I didn't buy then as I thought it's a tad over-priced for a designer I've never heard of.

when I saw it again in one of the shops at haji lane, I think it's meant for me to buy it. hahaha.

 

I left for orchard after jalan-jalan at haji lane. it's been such a long time since I visited ion and ALONE! *woohoo*

I spent good time at COS and even though I really love their designs but I cant bring myself to pay close to $200 for a cant-be-any-simpler shirt dress.....

their accessories are pretty cool so I got myself a pretty necklace. :D

 

and much as I tried not to, I ended up buying stuff from my fav. store again - ZARA....

surprisingly the fall winter range this year is pretty good though nothing fancy about the color range of cos.

I got myself a jacket, a shirt and a top - all in black or white... @_@

 

the boys came picked me up and we headed to PS after that.

I managed to visit rockstar near PS though again, I cant find anything that I fancy! how frustrating!

had a good dinner at Nam Nam and finished off with koi bubble tea. yum!

 

for today, hubbi and I were totally clueless where to go for lunch and I randomly suggested yong siak street known for quirky/interesting shops and eateries.

for once, mr ng is spontaneous and off we go!

 

on the way to yong siak street (@rd tiong bahru area)

 

we had lunch at Cheng's 27 located at you got it, 27 yong siak street, for some hainanese foodfare.

not too bad though the soup tasted a little too saltish.

 
we took a slow stroll along the street which is extremely short but pretty choked full with cafes and shops alike.
forty hands is crazy full, same goes for open door policy. next time, perhaps!
books actually is delighting. we spent some time there browsing through titles.
when I first stepped in, I cant contained my excitement and commented to the husband:"it smells like bras brasah here!".

it has an interesting selection of titles that are rarely seen in mainstream bookstores.
I chanced upon a book - the lover's dictionary by david leviathan - , flipped to a page and an extract got me hooked then and there.

this is the part:
"healthy,adj.

There are times when I'm all alone and I think, This is it. This is actually the natural state. All I need is my thoughts and my small acts of creation and my ability to go or do whatever I want to go or do. I am myself, and that is the point. Pairing is a social construction. It is by no means necessary for everyone to do it. Maybe I'm better like this. Maybe I could live my life in my own world, and then simply leave it when it's time to go."

through direct, even harsh definitions of seemingly harmless words, the book attempts to describe love. I cant wait to read it and I really hope it's worth the purchase.

they have cats in the shop!

 

we did a lot of walking for it was nary a dull moment around the neighborhood!

cafes and shops sprung up where we least expected it.

 

we saw PS café - the latest branch in town but today, we gave truffle fries a miss.

 

before we knew it, we had reached drips cafe at tiong poh road!

and so it will be a tarts day for us.

pretty decent tarts but I think the tarts at windowsill are better anytime!

and I realized iced earl grey tea without any syrup is horrible. but I drank it vodka shots style - holding the breath - since I've enough sugar intake from the tarts for the day!

 

top left: that spidey hand is YR's not mine.

 

after that, we did a quick drive-by along keong saik road! but we were simply too full to eat anymore at the eateries there.

still, that didn't stop us from buying $10 worth of bah kwa from kim hock seng to munch on!

they were crazy yummy! I think the honey-soaked BBQ meat is the best bah kwa I've ever eaten!

also, we saw some interesting restaurants that hubbi and I can try next time!



it had been a good holiday for the ng family today.
now the boys are watching ET holiday special on tv now while I will laze the rest of the evening away!
yeah!

a quiet week

it has been a quiet week at work for me. now that im in the new role not required to do any closing activities, month-end feels like just another week to me.

not that im complaining but it just feels a little weird when my counterparts were all hard at work trying to do their closing while i continue with my BAU stuff.

learning to exit the office when everyone is mad busy is an art too.

I came very close to leopard-crawling out on wed....

 

yesterday was good. hubbi and I managed to go off work before 5pm and we picked up the boys to start the long weekend earlier. :)

no plans for the next few days but I guess lazing at home sounds good too! :P

 

the only "exciting" thing for the week may just be the few pounds that I managed to shed off? it is coming to 3 weeks since I started counting the calories and I think I can safely say im lighter by 1kg though im not sure how much of that is coming off from the muffin top which is my ultimate objective anyway....

 

I shall continue for another few weeks - once I reached my optimal weight or so, I guess I can cut myself some slack and start eating some of my fav. snacks!

 

some outfits for the week:

 

left: top and pants from bysi

middle: top from axara, pants from AL&Alicia

right: top from zara, skirt from topshop