Food glorious food...

Now that I am in my 6th month with baby, my appetite's come back! I suddenly have mood to go out for long meals again and the cravings for hawker soup noodles have lessen. So last weekend, we organised 2 outings..one was dinner at Galbalti's, upper bukit timah where lin and ren yuh met us for some good ol pasta and desserts. The parma ham with rockmelon and stuffed portobello mushrooms were great appetizers. Mains, we had 4 kinds of pasta - crab linguine, salmon cream penne, meat ravioli and an aglio olio with herb sauce. Desserts, ren yuh could not decide, so we ended up with a pine nut tart, hazelnut choc tart and tiramisu. what a feast!

Feast continued the next morning - sunday brunch at B&J's dempsey hill. met up with jimmy, gail, kok kee and anne for sausages and burgers..I like this place for its chill out atmosphere and of course we finished our meal with waffles and scoops of B&J ice cream.

Last night, we met up at La Braceria, remotely nestled near 6th Ave for Neel's bday meal. We started with 2 appetizers, parma ham w mozarella and eggplants. I liked the eggplant dish a lot..well done with the cheese. For mains, I went with an order of portobello mushroom ..surprisingly dissapointed as it came with the 2 smallest portobello mushrooms i have ever had :(..but tasted yummy regardless and sides of asparagus with more cheese was good. Dessert, the tiramisu was out of this world..i am craving it again!!

Baby's 26 weeks now..she has been moving a lot and I now play her nursery rhymes every night before we sleep. Jin poofed at me for paying $18 for the mothercare cd but hey, he doesn't sing to her so I think the CD's a gd investment :)). We have been such shopaholics - every night one of us will be monitoring ebay to bid for dresses for her..I think this is going to be one dressed up baby :) I also bought a second hand baby swing for her as well as some cloth books..have to collect tomorrow. Changes in me : noticed that my feet looks a bit swollen..gulp!

Here's baby at 26 weeks..getting bigger :D

Woken up by baby!

Have been getting really little sleep the past 3 night as baby's movements wake up me up halfway through my beauty rest ..although I am of course very happy that she's bouncing around so much, one does wonder why she can't do this during the day and sleep with me during the night..yawwnnn.

Boy, am I happy it's finally Friday ..the whole week was all about doing slides slides slides for VIP's visit next week..extremely mundane work :P..my eyes are definitely hurting as a result of long hours staring at the screen :(.

Had a great time back in KL last weekend..managed to satisfy durian cravings with RM100 worth of durians bought for durian party. This is how much durian was bought..and shared among 8 people..about 5 seeds per pax..YUMS

Jin and I also discovered another new noodle place near home..claypot lo shi fun..mixed with lots of mince meat, liver and 1 raw egg, it was very flavourful! Can't wait to eat it again on the next trip back :)..of course I will order my own pot minus the liver :D

Wilton course 1 - completed

So much has happened the past few weeks..the highlight would be me getting my Wilson cake deco course cert after 4 gruelling weeks ..I say gruelling because every Friday night for 4 weeks, I had to slave in the kitchen preparing icing for the class the next day. So instead of watching movies or hanging out at orchard, Jin and I were stuck at home making a mess of the kitchen :D. Here's some of the cool things I did and the finale being "Cin's Cake"

Weekends have been really busy and packed too. If we are not out baby shopping, it's catching up with friends like Waiming who we have not seen in a year. Had dinner with karen and waiming, Neel and wee hoon at Sweet Salty Thai at Upper bukit Timah. Pretty good thai food although portions were small. Service could be better - def teething issues of a new restaurant.

Another evening, we caught up with wee hoon and iz for a open air movie at the National Musuem. Here's Jin watching the free screening of Jason and the Argonauts.

One saturday saw us attending the spore air show at Changi..it was a hot hot day so we only stayed 2 hours - got to see some cool aircrafts and the sky sir show was pretty impressive.

Quickie Bangkok weekend

Writing this on the way back from a fun filled but exhausting weekend in Bangkok. Accomplished our Bangkok trip mission which was 3 key things : eat good food, shop for baby's stuff and massage!! On the first night, after quickly dumping our luggage at the Siam Heritage hotel at Patpong, we made our way to World Trade Centre to try out the sea salt covered river fish by the roadside highly recommended by Charmaine. The fish was good although the base tasted sometimes too fishy. We also ordered a tom yum soup - very potent but oh soo delicious..I paid for the spice BIG time the next morning :p. We finished the night with a 1 hr massage for only 200 baht! What a good way to go to sleep :)

Next morning, Kun Nont picked us up in his 5 series and took us to his fav noodle stall behind MBK. The soup noodles were extremely flavourful and the beef rice was tender and tasteful. We visited his new home and it's huge..3 stories high and filled with wood furnishing..Jin shamelessly invited himself to stay at his next visit :D. I managed to drag Jin in the March heat to Chinatown where we walked around the wholesale markets looking for baby hair accessories. Also treated ourselves to expensive bird nest..frankly, can't tell the diff btwn the 300 baht and 600 baht ones ..they all taste equally good. yums!

After Chinatown, we headed to MBK - to get baby all her Carter's clothes..the 3rd floor of MBK has tons of little stalls and we found 3 stores selling the cute clothes..Jin was def more enthusiastic than me and we bought about 20 over pieces cos each item was "Sooo Cute" :) Then it was off to meet up with Jimmy and Gail (who coincidently was in Bkk the same weekend) for dinner at this place highly recommended by Kun Nont at the Sports Club near On Nut bts. The restaurant (Front Page) served pretty homestyle Thai cooking and Nont was kind enough to order our meal for us via the phone talking to the waitress in Thai.

We did not hv any concrete after dinner plans so suggested heading to Suan Lum mkt to look see..it was crowded and soo hot..bought a cute sailor looking dress for baby and then we parted ways to head back to our respective hotel area for another round of good 200baht massage b4 bedtime.

Sunday morning, we met up with our friends again and took them to our fav Sukhumvit Soi 26 noodle shop. The Jin and I checked out Siam Discovery where we got a nice photo frame which has 9 slots to put baby's ultrasound pix. Then it was back to MBK to hunt for white dress for baby..thankfully, found a shop selling Gymboree white dress..so cute! :)

With feet aching from too much walking, we dragged ourselves to the 6th floor of MBK for good pad thai and wonderful thai desserts. Then we jumped into a cab to JW marriott where I treated myself to a good pre natal full body massage, my first since being pregnant..it was S$100 but worth every penny as the therapist put me right at ease and with her gentle strokes, I was soon in dreamland. As I was signing the bill, she came by to give me a little pressie for baby..a pink pouch filled with little goodies of baby oil, soap, comb..so sweet :)

Jin managed to also treat himself to a last session of foot massage at Rakuten spa- then it was a quick run to the airport..surprisingly, I got stopped by the Tiger airways lady who insisted that I required a doc's letter to say it was safe for me to travel. I gritted my teeth and told her that their policy said only at 36 mths was a letter required and I am only 23 months la. GRRR. I guess that also means I am def pregnant and no longer just FAT ;)..it's actually quite nice cos people give up their seats for me at the BTS and carry my bags for me all the time.

Last week, even when I was in Seoul for work, everyone was soo nice and helped to carry my stuff..ahh, it's fun being pregnant at the 2nd tri. Full sleep, less bursting bladders, lots of baby movement...only thing is the ache I feel constantly at the bottom of the belly where the bone and skin is probably being stretched to accommodate growing baby. Here's a pix of baby at 23 weeks and me - she's a size of an BIG Mango according to babycentre.com - weighing more than 1 pound and about a foot long. Another 119 days to go....

Ringing in the Rat...

It's officially the year of the rat. we enjoyed a 5 day break..day 1 in penang and the remaining 4 days in KL. Penang was HOT - nothing new there. Good food as usual and everyone looks the same with the exception of the 2 littles one - Adriel and Micheal. Jin's Ah Ma looked really frail - she has aged since her hip ops..kinda sad seeing her in her current state as she has always been lively in all our previous visits. Here's a snapshot of the family lo hei.

KL activities kept us on our feet and got me all sick again..the weather coupled with my growing tum tum meant less sleep..which automatically equates a cold :(. On day 2 of CNY, I suddenly felt that my tummy skin was being stretched a LOT..and it was extremely uncomfortable..I had to try several sleep positions but nothing worked...in the end, I think it was pure tiredness that helped me sleep a bit through the night.

Highlight of this CNY was mom's 60th bday - we held a party for 55 of her friends and relatives at a nyonya restaurant BiBi Chik. Played some bingo, had impromptu karoake sessions by Grandpa and Uncle Henry and the 60 mini cupcakes were a delight.

Another fun factor was the doggie Mom helped doggiesat..Bubbles the shih tzu - poor dog had her fur shaved off so she looked really weird..but adorable none the less :)

We also caught up with many groups of friends : Sean and Adeline, HP "old" group, LB & family, Lin and RY - everyone looked great and healthy :)

Relish for OK burgers..overpriced!

Jin's been really accommodative in my recent eating habits..it seems all i want to eat these days are soupy stuff..can be soupy tom yam, soupy pan mee, chinese soups etc..felt it was my turn to give him a treat so we checked out Relish at Cluny Court for saturday lunch. Jin ordered the Relish burger while I went for the Mexicano..I did not realise that the cheese for the burgers was an optional $3 so imagine my surprise to bite into my well done burger (cant eat medium well :p) and found only jalapenos, avocado spread with meat..sigh..what's a burger without the cheese indulgence? :p

Jin's house burger was good but not as good as marmalade's pantry. At least service was good and attentive..they allowed me to change my sides of chips to salad and on the attentive part, my poor hubby did not realise that there was a clear glass door blocking his way from stepping onto the balcony and smacked right onto the glass with a loud "bang"..ouch! and 2 kind lady servers came around to ask if he was okay ;). they should def tint the glass! I am sure lots of birds smack right into the glass too thinking it's a clear doorway.

Our weekend went quite well..we did the usual market stop on saturday morning for our weekly soup ingredients shopping. sunday morning, jin woke up extra early to cook sausages for our picnic at the botanical gardens..he even grilled a banana which added to the already nice gesture. we took some belly shots of me at 17 weeks..cant see much but i did elaborately extend my tum tum ;).

I invited the girls over for a pre CNY get together and we had a good laugh watching serene L and mad trying to break open the coconuts Mad brought as drinks. As it was raining, a lot of our planned outdoor activities could not be carried out so we amused ourselves by going for test drives..we visited both the nissan and lexus showroom and i test drove the murano and rx 350. guess which one i liked ;)))

dinner was with jimmy and RY and lin. we tried out curry garden at turf city..the masala tosai was yums! then it back to our place where i lost MJ 4 rounds in a row :P..give up!

2 more work days till CNY..cant wait!!

A baby for jin and me :)

We found out we were expecting in December! It's been quite hard trying to keep the news under wraps, especially since we met up with a lot of old friends who can't help but ask when we were having a kid..Jin and I just smile and reply : hopefully this year ..hehehe :D

It's been 16 weeks and we are slowly letting the news out...partly because I don't think I can hide the baby bump any longer and the vain me does not want ppl to think I am just getting fat due to all the holiday meals :p (pix on right - Union Sq in SF - 13 weeks)

Has been quite an uneventful pregnancy with an exception to the down syndrome scare I got last week from my triple test results. I chose to quickly do an amnio and thankfully, results from amnio gave us an ALL CLEAR :). Other than that, I did not get the morning sickness or major food cravings.. I did however get the occasional headaches when I was hungry and of course during the first few months I was pretty exhausted.

Sometimes, I even wonder if I am pregnant as I don't feel any different since the past month..that's why I really look fwd to the doc visits where an ultrasound of the baby always amazes me..I think the sound of the heartbeat is the coolest sound in the world at this point..hmm, if only I was rich enuff to own one of those machines..hehe..lucky katie holmes!

The cons of being pregnant is definitely the no-no to sashimi :(..it was really quite torturous to be in Tokyo during christmas and watch Jin from outside our fav stand up sushi shop enjoying himself. I also really miss my active lifestyle..no skiing, no golfing, no running, no massages..I could not even do the rides at Disney Sea! thankfully, I can still swim (i do dislike cold water though) and started pre-natal yoga yesterday. Need to find good prenatal massage place to pull me through the next 6 months :)

Next steps : have to find confinement nanny..have already booked cik fauziah for my post natal massages..leaving the stroller and car seat purchases to Jin. I love delegating!