OCBC Cycle 2011

This event took place two weeks ago and it was fun and a big challenge for me.


I do not cycle and have very limited experiences with cycling. My best-ever-to-be-remembered cycling episode was riding a rented bike right into a stationary pick-up truck, causing a great bruise on my shin and a dent on the truck, scaring the driver out of his seat and worried that I was badly hurt... (he was kind enough not to scold me though). I was about 21 years old then.



It was also at that age I met my Superpig and I had a date with him in my bruised shin and instead of a pat of comfort, I saw him huddled over laughing at my mishap. Him, on the other hand, was a pro in cycling (before he injured his knee) and was all athletic (note the used of the past tense!) After that incident, he decided that he should teach me how to cycle. However, his teaching amount to nothing as I fear cramped and crowded places. Anyone was to be near me when I was cycling, you could hear me SCREAM!!!



So I only cycled annually during the holidays with the kids on rented bikes. Those annual cycling exercises didnot amount to anything but butt and body aches and screaming at Superpig that I would not do it again.


Well, the screaming did not work. Instead, I was dragged into signing up for 20 km community ride. He promised that with 3 months to train, I should be well ready for the 20 km. Alas, 3 months went by with NO training ... except on one miserable night. I took 1.5 hour to do 10km... and I almost called in sick the next day due to all the aches I felt in all the muscles that I never knew they even existed.

The day eventually came and I did try to chicken out and was even scheming to eat lots of clams (see-hams with balachan chilli) to cause a dangerous stomach flu so as to get out of the 20km COMMUNITY RIDE (note the words in capital letters). No... my scheme did not work, Superpig was not letting me win this battle. The early morning of the fateful day, our bikes dismantled and packed into the car, our helmets tagged, we set off to the venue.

After breakfast, my hero went to put our bikes together again. Me... still trying to convince him that I will be a joke and please let me chicken out.

So obvious that I was not winning this 'chicken-out' battle... alas, a picture of us... before the COMMUNITY RIDE.

We... okay... I, made it to the start line. Without first, getting pushed around by some PRC rider that insisted that he had to cross the road before me and causing me to have a collision with my bike pedal and my shin... OUCH!!! And another accident, whereby I had to stop as there were people in front of me stopping to drink water and I had not able to switch lane as someone was coming up from behind... well, another someone rammed into me causing another shin and pedal collision ... OUCH!!!! (I found out later that the other someone was not very good in cycling too and he was wearing the click-on shoes for cycling which he was not confident enough to unclick himself...). There at the start-line, with bruises and blood on my right shin, we took a picture.

The massive number of cyclists at the start-line of the 20km COMMUNITY RIDE!

I cycled...I huffed and I puffed... all the way till I reached the 7.3km rest point (proof in picture below). Superpig laughed at my huffing and puffing... fine... I huffed and puffed... big deal. Yes, it was a big deal because I think I was the only one huffing and puffing away.



See my red face... I really am tired and shaking and trembling. I drowned 1.5 bottle of 100plus at this stage. 7.3 km was a mean feat for me already.

Then somewhere after the 7.3km came this long up slope! It was the Bayfront Bridge that has the Marina Bay Sands and the Singapore Flyers as its neighbours ... UPSLOPE!!!! You got to be kidding... volunteers at the bottom shouted out encouragements (as if it worked... duh...wanna come try doing it on my bike?) Superpig was on the way up... no problem for him at all... what a breeze! Me? I huffed and I puffed and my legs pedalled real hard but my bike was moving an inch with every twenty round of pedallin!!! I could have dismounted and pushed my bike up the slope. NO WAY!!! I am not letting Superpig a chance to laugh at me... I huffed and I puffed and I huffed and I puffed and I managed to get to the top of the slope (bridge... whatever!)

See his smirking face! ARhhhhh... how I LOVE him!

Here I was... trying my best to look as cool as a cucumber!


Now... look at the background and you will see a little girl... it was a breeze for her too!!!! I did mention that it was a community ride, didn't I? Which meant it should be a leisure ride, something that will not result in anyone HUFFING and PUFFING!!!

For the rest of the journey, it was still a huffing and puffing experience for me but I pedalled on till the end... 20km! I made it!


There we were at the end, with the medals to prove our success... okay, my success. I drowned another bottle of 100plus here. I was totally weak by now. Superpig had to help me with my bike. I had butt ache, calves cramps, shins cramps, toes cramps... and we still had to make our way back to the car which was a distance away.

There... I had completed my challenge. Next year, it will be another 2okm and I will not huff and puff anymore! I am determined to build up my stamina for it. And hopefully, in 2013, I can go on to the 40km challenge (OCBC should by then not be having this event anymore, considering the massive amount of money and manpower they had to put in for each event...)

Join me... anyone? 20km community ride for 2012....

Lunar New Year

My blog posts are so out of sync with the the dates on the calender. Ha... that is one busy mum (that's why).

This is the first Lunar New Year in the new nest. It was easier as I have yet to collect too much dust and clutter, so spring cleaning was done in one day (not counting the bathrooms... which was left to the last minute).

As usual, both Superpig and I are the youngest in our families so no one will come to our place for visiting. So it was quite a quiet Lunar New Year which after the first hectic day, we were practically left on our own to enjoy the long weekend.

However, our good old friends did drop by and it was good. That is what this house is for... for friends to come and play catch up. Yet, there are a few who did not join us and they are missed. I hope to see them soon.

On the First Day, the two Princesses in their pretty dresses sponsored by their paternal Grandmother. When the two are in amicable moods, they love each other to bits. I wish for more of such days.

This little one is a very good poser. When she sees the camera, she will flash you her best toothy smile and then she gives you her two fingers pose. She is a charmer.

This other princess, on the other hand, is more self-conscious. She is very careful when she smiles as she worries about how her teeth will look. So it is more challenging to get a good photo of her. Yet, when you do, you will be rewarded with her demure charm (which she does not portray on her day to day life... she is a tomboy!)


And here we are... the four of us.
Lastly, enough of the princesses, enough of having four in a picture.
It's only us!

Birthdays, Housewarming, Crafting, Relaxing...

The past few weeks were crazy around this house. There was massive unpacking and packing, sorting and throwing, drilling and cleaning... all for the sake of having a housewarming and birthday celebrations all in one.

First Fondant Cake (for the guests in the afternoon)

Second Fondant Cake (for the guests in the evening)

The two recipents of the cakes

Finally, a picture of the four of us.

I had always envied those people who could beautiful fondant cakes. I envied, I dreamt about it, I googled it, I youtubed it, I bought the ingredients, I tried it and it worked! I am proud of myself for the courage to try it. I am grateful for the many encouragement by Superpig and his usual,"You don't try, you will not know." attitude. I must also thank Aver for her mutliple food allergies that forced me to learn new ways of cooking and baking around those food items that she cannot eat.



Challenges push one to do things that he/she will not even think of doing. I have been put in many situations that are challenging and I must say that I walked out of these situations stronger but not without wounds. However, rather than crying over these wounds, I have learnt to soothe them and tell myself that I will not make the same mistakes hence suffer from the same wounds again.



Life is about facing our challenges, learning to overcome them and then looking forward to what lies ahead.




As for crafting... well, not much but I managed to squeeze in one yesterday as my children were taken off my hands.

I made three Kennys from South Park for my Superpig.

A day out into the gardens ...

on our 11th wedding anniversary.

After of 11 years of each other's nonsense, we have two princesses added into our lives to add in more nonsense. These 11 years have been filled with lots of laughter, tears, shouting, screaming, hugging, presents, love, insecurity and much more but I want to only remember the good and goofy things.

I remember his love for me, his tolerance towards me, his patience, his understanding, his never-ending 'cold' jokes... I hope he will remember the good and goofy things about me too.

The two princesses and their added nonsense to brighten up our lives.

After all the packing of the cameras, we set off to the Botanical Gardens. I had the intention of having an informal family portrait surrounded by nature but the plan was not carried out as Superpig was enticed by the BEAUTIFUL orchids in the National Orchid Gardens. Oh well, I guess the family portrait can wait because my memory card (s) were also exhausted by the hundreds of clicking to capture the beauty of the orchids.

The princesses each were armed with digital cameras and my intention was for them to take photos of their loving parents but alas, the orchids caught their attention.

Seeing how bright he looks frolicking with the orchids, I cannot help it but to capture his gleeful look amongst the orchids that shared his colour on his shirt. He was so compatible with those little yellow ones.

This little princess with her cheeky smile and her digital camera caught the eyes of a group of Indian tourists who insisted on having her on their video. They sort of scared her ... she did not cooperate with them, gave them a blank stare and ran to hide behind her daddy's backside.

This big princess, on the other hand, had difficulty trying to smile. She doesn't really like to smile for the camera so it was a difficult task for me to take a pretty photo of her.

And that was how we spent the earlier part of the day, all wet with perspiration, out frolicking with the orchids. For the later part of the day, we soaked in air-conditioned mall, indulged in
tubs of pop-corn, watching a kid friendly movie "Mega Mind". To top it all off, we had a nice, cheap dinner at the basement of PS and three packs of chocolates as anniversary gifts to each other.

This year, there was no mega celebration in fancy restaurant nor big presents that burn our pockets. We simply enjoyed ourselves with our children with the simplest pleasures.

I will be back to show you the photos of the lovely orchids that sucked up all the memory in my memory cards of three cameras.

We are quite comfortably settled

Renovation for the new nest was held up and we had no where to go but to cramp in my mum's flat for about a week. Then, we moved ourselves into a 40% completed nest and we lived around all the inconveniences but we survived.

Now, we are almost done with the renovation. There is only the grilles left for the balcony to be up and about another twenty-five boxes to up pack... then we are done.

Today and tomorrow, I am taking these days off from the unpacking and am going to enjoy the time with my husband and my girls.

Today, 23 November, is the day that we have been married for 11 years! These 11 years were incredible... really love him and my girls. Really love my family.

11 years of togetherness...

...

Singapore's 45th Birthday

Yesterday, we celebrated the nation's independence of 45 years.
For 45 years, we have came a long way and with all the hardship of our ancestors, we the descendents get to enjoy the luxurious economy growth. So, for the sake of our children, we should also strive for stable economic growth and peaceful harmony between all races.

We were actually out and about looking at furniture for some ideas for our new place and when we drove home, we realised that at our town centre, it was set up for a fireworks. So we went home, took a rest while watching the NDP live on TV. When it was almost time, we walked to the town centre and experienced the fireworks up close!


When the firework started, everyone was excited and you will hear a long continuous scream and that would be Aver. She claimed that she wanted to be louder than the fireworks!


The second burst of fireworks came as a surprise!


And as we were about to leave to head home, the thrid burst started!


We enjoyed ourselves. Hope you had enjoyed your National Day too.

Valentine's Day

it came and went with a bustling of activities as it happened to fall on the first day of the Lunar New Year. So it was a good excuse for Superpig to not celebrate V-day and since we had all the visiting to do, I did not nag him for a celebration.

He took a day off from work the Friday before that weekend so that he could pick up Ash from school, since her school had an early dismissal due to the Lunar New Year celebration and mine dismissed at the usual time. He went shopping in the morning after dropping us off at schools.

He was so excited shopping and bought clothes for the girls. He was sending me sms-es and calling me to update on his shopping and it irked me that I was at work and not there. So I dropped him a hint to shop for my V-day's gift.

And he bought... (humble gifts from a humble place)

but I love them all as they are all useful things. I especially love the seaweed cutters which I had stopped myself from buying the last few times I was there. Other items include, shoe stands for freeing up space in the shoe cabinet, black chopping board with measurement to allow precise cutting of my maki, laundry bag for my fragile clothes. See how useful his gifts were?

Of course, he also gave me this thing that I am using now to blog... my laptop. It is a gift to cover for all 'gifting' occasions in the year 2010. I don't mind... as long as he continue to give me humble gifts from the humble place that suit my humble needs.

Anyone there???

Seems a bit quiet here at the blog ...
Seems like my friends have gone off to other places...
Well... life goes on.


First up... Superpig's birthday was last Friday.
He went to work as usual and he did hint about a cake.
The night before, we were at a minimart and he said,"You need to replenish your baking stuff?"
I did not think much of it until Friday afternoon itself and realised that he hinted for a birthday cake.
So I baked... and this is a chocolate eggless butterless cake.




It was perfect for Aver.
It was good enough just that I cut the sugar down a lot so it was not as sweet as a cake should be.
Aver loved the cake a lot as she was simply thrilled that she could eat one.
Ash loved it too as she was involved in the baking.




Then there is a little girl, C, whose birthday falls behind Kenny's.

So I made her a bag.

I made another one for her little sister, C, whose birthday was a lot earlier (which I had forgotten...sorry)

I hope they like the bags.

Kids' Valentine Crafts

Since it is Valentine's Day, I wanted to have the children work on some heart day's crafts.

For Aver, I cut out a heart on construction paper and let her cut paper scraps tp stick on the big heart. This allow her to learn scissors skill.


For Ash, I followed Martha Stewart's napkin heart dollies. She had difficulty trying to cut through the thick layers. When she saw the final product, she was very happy. She found the little piece and opened it up. She exclaimed,"Mummy, look! It's a flower!" So I guess she was happy with her craft.

Happy Valentine's Day to you out there.

Some crafting to divert my attention

There are some irritating problems happening in the homefront. I had spent too much time and effort plus brain juice fretting over it and hence I fell sick, drove badly as my mind was busy... However, I am very glad that the Lord sent a nice lady to listen and to talk to me.

She told me to stop fretting and move on... only when I move on than my life will be free of bad vibes. She told me to be still and to listen to the Lord's voice.

So I moved on... the problem is smaller now but still there but we can solve it.

So I made these roses... its the month of Love. So I made these roses to brighten up our house.


Then I seached for my stash of cross-stitch fabric and sewed this. It is small, about 3 inches by 3 inches and I still do not have any idea what to do with it yet. What you see here is not the completed one yet.

Happy Love month to you out there.

First Day of Lunar New Year 2009

After two days of cleaning, I have to finally keep all cleaning equipments as it is bad omen to clean on the first day.

After so many years, now I finally unserstood why we are not allowed to clean or do any housework on the first day of Lunar New Year. Long ago and till now, women usually stayed home and made sure that food was on the table to feed the family and the house was cleaned throughout the year. They do not have any rest days or annual leave. Hence, there must be some wise lady who decided that they should also have some days to rest and put up their feet, if not to put on some make up and feel beautiful again. Hence, NO HOUSEWORK on the first day of Lunar New Year. (What do you think?)

Anyway, even if I want to clean the house, I can't as out first day have always been packed.

We started the day with my feeble attempt to style their hair with rag curls. I should have done it the night before so that the hair will dry as they slept.

Then, the princesses got to 拜年 to us with two oranges and we returned them with red packets.

And we were off to their paternal grandmother's house and then round the island we went and ended up at my brother's place for dinner. I felt so much more comfortable there than anywhere else and dinner was good... with my mum's best belachan chilli.

However, Ash vomited after drinking a cup of milk... guess she had not chewed her food properly and she did too much jumping around with her cousins.

So this is the four of us wishing all of you a wonderful and blessed "moo moo" year ahead.

Visit to Chinatown (Con't)

I promised to continue from the previous post about our visit to Chinatown and I do not have to tell you why it took such a long time for it... Haiz... time ... time... time...

Anyway, let's talk about the trip.

Interesting looking plant with interesting lookin fruits.

Beautiful orchids (sorry for the lousy photos... my hands were already shaking with fatigue from carrying Aver)

Cute looking mandarin orange bags

Wonderful array of shoes...

You can buy those off the tables or you can mix and match the soles to the top and have one made to you liking.

Here is the master putting in the nails for my pair.

This is my pair... I like it but thought it looks a little solemn. I hope to get another pair .. a pink one or a white one.

Then there are waxed meat... no idea why they are still around. I only eat the sausages and had tried the wax duck (or something...) and totally puked. Maybe, my aunt did not know how to prepare them so it does not taste nice at all.

So that is the end of Chinatown for me. Next year, we will visit again and hopefully there will be less swearing.