On Fathers Day...

Can't help realising the difference in treatment between Father's Day and Mother's Day and feeling a slight injustice for all fathers out there... First of all, you don't get mega signages at shopping malls telling you when exactly Father's Day is (which made it difficult to make plans to celebrate it!). Secondly, you don't get bakeries designing special Father's Day cakes unlike Mother's Day where there are specially flavoured love-shaped cakes. Thirdly, you are not bombarded by advertisements luring you to pamper your Father. So, does it mean that our society value Mothers more than Fathers? Or is it that Mother's Day is a more 'fleece-able' day?

I sometimes feel that Fathers are the neglected lot when it comes to emotional pampering, although sometimes it is the own doing of fathers that resulted in the current state of neglect for their day. My dad is a fine example. He will say 'aiyah, no need to celebrate lah' or 'don't waste money lah' whenever we propose ways to celebrate Father's Day. But when it comes to Mother's Day, he will be the one making a reservation at the restaurant! Perhaps he feels that he too want to take the occasion to thank my mum for all that she has done for the family, or just a common perception that 'women always like these kinds of things'?

Hmmm... baffling...

happy daddy's day

circle of life - part II

this afternoon, myself and colleagues in my department had attended a wake of a fellow colleague who just passed away. he was in his early 40s and is survived by his wife and 2 very young sons. earlier this week on wednesday, he had encountered difficulty in the SRC swimming pool at my workplace and could not be revived after being rushed to NUH. the spooky thing is that i was in the same pool 24 hours before the accident happened.

this has to be the 4th funeral in the last 1 year or so that i am attending where the passing away is related to natural causes. my mind was struck with the miracle of life again and again especially with many new-borns in the last 1 year or so too.

Recipe - Pumpkin Bacon Croquette:)

Saw this recipe featured on tv this morning and it looks really easy. Hence i thought i'll post it on Kopitiam!

Ingredients: pumpkin (half), bacon (4 strips), 1 onion, 1 can of mushrooms, salt, pepper, flour, 1 egg, breadcrumbs.

Step 1: Wash pumpkin, cut into slices and steam until soft.(you can retain the skin but wash it clean).

Step 2: Cut bacon, mushrooms and onions. Put bacon into frying pan and fry till fragrant. Add onion and fry till fragrant and add mushrooms in the end. Once done, off fire and leave aside to cool.

Step 3: Once steamed, mash pumpkin in a bowl while hot. Then mix the fried bacon/onion/mushroom to the mashed pumpkin. Add some salt and pepper for taste. Once mixed, transfer the mixture into a container to cool. (you may want to divide the mixture into 6 portions while still hot so that you can take it out later more easily)

Step 4: Once cooled, prepare to fry the croquette. Beat an egg and get ready flour and breadcrumbs. Transfer each portion of the mixture from the container into your hands. Coat it with flour and then shape it into a circle. Then dip in egg mixture, followed by dipping it in breadcrumbs.

Step 5: Prepare oil for deepfrying. When oil is medium hot, put the croquette into the oil and fry. Once the shape of the croquette is fixed, flip to the other side. Ready to serve when it’s fried till golden brown!

Pour some of those Jap BBQ sauce before serving and viola! Enjoy!

Hong Kong Hong Kong...

Hmmm... Kopitiam has been quiet for a while, so let me post something!
In view of the school hols, if you are contemplating a short trip and if the destination happens to be Hong Kong, then i have a few places to recommend for shopping and food! Die die must go, die die must eat!

Hong Kong is an annual pilgrimage for CM and myself...and over the years, i've built up a list of the must-go places for shopping and food. During my recent visit in mid-May, the greatest treasure i found was Citigate Outlets, a factory outlet mall for clothing, shoes and other stuff. The greatest buy was Esprit where you can get tops and bottoms below S$10! Makes you never want to step into Esprit back here! There's also Geox shoes on sale at the Mirabell outlet, Nike, Adidas etc. Visit their website for a listing of the shops available! http://www.citygateoutlets.com.hk/index.html

For jeans lovers, there's this great shop (with signage of 'Sparta 135') i found along Temple Street (Kowloon) where jeans are usually on offer, at only HK$80 (S$16?!). The best thing about this shop is they do alterations (length and waistline) on the spot and they open till 12 mn daily!

The next best thing about HK is the food! There's a nice steamboat shop, 稻香88 located at the third flr of SilverCord Centre in Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon. The best thing about it is that it's half-price after 9pm daily! Everything! Last year, when we were there, we had crayfish, plates of beef, etc etc and it only came up to HK$40 per person! This is a must-go place if you are in HK and don't be surprised to find many locals joining the queue! Another die-die must try place is an eatery called "Australian Milk Company" along Parkes Street, Jordan, Kowloon. Their toast, steamed milk and almond egg custard is the best we've tried! It's really heavenly! Then, next to Australian Milk Company is a wanton noodle shop called Mak Mun Kee 麦文记. Their wanton and pig trotters noodles is really shiok! And after dinner, you'll need dessert! Must try Honeymoon Dessert 满记's mango sago and chin chow. Much better than anything offered here!
I have a more comprehensive list of places to shop/makan so email me if you need the list!

Enjoy!

More than words

It's been 6 months since WQ left. I don't think i need to say more about how he must still be dearly missed. Remember when he emotionally prompted us all to give a minute of silence to reflect on the bukit batok campus/council room before we moved out? It turned out to be quite a comical moment for some of us, amidst the sadness that bound us all. Perhaps it's an apt moment now to take a minute off your schedule to think of him... in the spirit of Kopitiam.

Another new beginning

Hi Kopitiam!

Phew.. my life has finally returned to some form of organisation for me to be able to pop by here again. Yes, for the record, our son has arrived! Let me introduce you to little Kieran. Thank you, those who found time to drop by at the hospital, and those who witnessed our moment of low and offered comforting words. It has been quite a rollercoaster ride for PS and me, over these first weeks. More to come later on, for now i just want to share with you the moments that gave us that "it's all worth it" feeling...

Role model

Darren was down with diarrhea for the last 2 weeks. It started with high fever and watery stools. Bacterial infection was suspected and with that hospitalisation was recommended to hydrate him and also put him on iv antibiotics (oral antibiotics will not be effective as it worsens diarrhea). Not another stay at TMC!!! I thought, but yes, it is, again

The most horrifying experience was to put Darren on a drip. The first one done on the leg didn't go well, and instead of the liquid/medication going to the vein, it went to the tissues around the leg.... He was crying a lot and I thought it was from his diarrhea cramps, so I carried him upright with his head rested on my shoulder.... it comforted him for a while, but then occasionally he looked at me with this very pathetic expression n started crying again. I still remember his expression now and felt that he must be telling me "Mummy, I'm trying my best not to cry but it's really painful!!" Babies can't talk but their cries do communicate, and it pains me to have failed him that I've not noticed all this while, liquid was filling up his feet and calf. In fact by the time we discovered, his calf was so tight that I could hardly press it down (it's twice the size of his other leg and the ankle is not visible) and his toes looked purplish.

I was hysterical... the minute they removed the drip from Darren, he had this confused look on his face and stopped crying instantly,...it's like "hey, it not painful now, what was that?!" Of course, looking at the state of his feet I started crying and the minute he saw that, he started crying again, he must be thinking "Oh something horrible must have happened to make mummy react like that". Instantly I realised my effect on him and had to hide my panic and comfort him smiling....
Thankfully the swelling subsided after a day.

Children draw strength/learnings from parents, so parents always have to appear strong and positive (anyone watched The Persuit of Happyness - i thought that was a nice movie). I also remember an incident with Justin when he wanted to do something and I casually made a negative remark (not in front of him but to Guohao) about that intended action. Immediately, Justin told Guohao, "Daddy, I cannot do that because mommy said bla bla" Gosh, I wasn;t even talking to him... immediately I had to explain to him that I don;t mean what I said earlier and that he can of course proceed with his activity....

As our children grow older, it's largely our thinking/actions (subsequenty friends and teachers) that is going to shape their thoughts and behaviour as they really look to us as their model...a big responsibility.

testing testing 123

thanks everyone who came to my place .. it was a nice gathering.. pardon me i really a computer idiot and my ang moh no good .. but me willing to learn e art of blogging.. this shall be my first ever blog.. thanks yilin for helping me with my pc and also helping me create an account.. very excited indeed.. yilin for your info my hp pc died once again.. so sad..

i tried loading the pics .. a few questions : why the pics have to appear at the top? can i arrange it my way? how to do it? can add wordings on the pic itself? how? thanks in advance....

happy birthday mummy

no prize for guessing whose house this is, the birthday gal's age, and what have guochuan's legs gotten into.

Confinement

OK while the baby talk is getting hot, can we also talk about the mothers instead. Actually this is a little bit about the fathers too, and their stomachs....Has anyone ordered confinement food catering before? We've considered cooking it ourselves (which actually means mothers and maids) but were not completely sure about our own expertise to concoct quality food. Plus, with all the caution about the mothers getting 'feng' and their difficulty to recuperate after giving birth, we started giving a more serious thought to the claims of traditional chinese confinement meals.

There seems to be 2 main suppliers in the market now - natal essentials and new baby. Has anyone tried them or heard of some others?

Good morning HC! Announcements for today...

Sorry, don't mean to steal our secretaries' lime light, just can't resist using the punchline we were once so used to.

It's Fenfei's Good Friday hosting! Yes it's all happening on Good Friday, beginning 12:30pm. Dear ol' Fenfei, the once swashbuckling pirate of the yellow city, has invited all of us to her nostalgic Tiong Bahru lovenest for an afternoon of fun and laughter. So bring along your better halves, kids and maids too, and make it a really good friday... don't forget the balloons and party poppers!

For fear of attracting the loads of FF's ardent serial opera fans, i'll only reveal her address to you if you give me a buzz...

PS: If we're lucky, we may get to rub shoulders with Fann, Zoe and... mmm who are the stars these days anyway?

 

 

and oh, of course. i have to publish a few of my daughter's pictures too.
can anybody update on qiwei's baby? out already? what's the latest news?

Chance encounter

 

 

so coincidental, met xue'e and darren at the botanical gardens last sunday.
didn't see guohao and justin because they were busy feeding the swans at the lake.
darren is such a gentle and sweet kid. he comes across to me as very mild-mannered.
the age gap shows too, wen my 14-month-old daughter made some sounds and gave him a disapproving look, and the fact that I raised my voice and corrected my daughter, darren burst out crying. but (tears) easy come, easy go, as you can see from the pictures.

well, it's a nice place to bring family to, especially on a sunday when the setting sun emits a very warm golden hue.
it's my 1st time there with my family, and there will be many more.

Another blog when I am away from home

Well well well.....been some time since i last written something here but nevertheless, I am actually secretly reading and monitoring all your blogs. I must admit though that i did not catch up with most of the comments on the side as i find it to troublesome and can't be bothered, really, to read them.

Today i happened to read the comments by the side and found out that my joke in an earlier post about the doctor in blue shirt was read by ermmm....his wife or maybe himself!

Wansin and Chong Kiat, take no offence on a personal level! I am not sure if an apology is really warranted because it was indeed really weird to see a doctor wearing a doctor's ID at another doctor's funeral. I can't help but to notice it, and apparently, most of us feel the same way too. More strange is that the ID is just hanging on the neck that looks to me like it can be removed easily within a split of a second. And those letters "KK", they simply stick out so prominently that one can read it at almost 200 metres away....

However, in due respect, I am aware that every tear shed on that incident was real and filled with emotions. All of us feltthe same way that both of you did and I am very sure you are more attached to WQ than most of us are, including myself. So I applaud what you and your hubby has done for WQ.

If you really have noticed, the name tag joke is really a prelude to my underlying puzzling question. If you are still reading our posts, can you shed some light on why medical students like to carry the stethoscope around their neck so much? I really want to find out the reason(s)!!!!Are they too busy to remove it from their necks while on their way to canteen? If so, then why does dental students have the time to remove their masks when they visit the canteen while medical students do not remove the stethoscope on their neck? The most obvious or "trying to be funny" reason is probably the former need to use their mouth to eat but the latter can always make use of utensils instead of the instrument hanging on their neck. It is really frustrating when one cannot attached a credible rationale and explanation behind the actions of the erm...medical students and as such, I had no choice but to temporarily label them as show-offs.

In any case, I started out with the intention to blog on other things but I guess it's getting late now and i will need to get some sleep. Hope to catch up again on Good Friday.