When the man takes charge

Today is the first day Papa is trying his hands in putting Mini to sleep all by himself, meaning bathing then feeding and singing the Mini lullabies before putting him down into his cot and sneaking out of his room.

And Papa did it!

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Is she fat, or what? + Utt's nursery 50% done up

With Utt getting close to 8 months, Buddy can hardly come on my lap anymore. He has to settle for lying on the carpet close to me, and placing his head on my lap for some head patting moments.

I sometimes wonder if Buddy is puzzled about what is happening to this monkey friend of his. Deep down inside, he may be lamenting how unfair life is as the monkey feeds herself so much that her tummy is growing at an unstoppable rate.

Getting Utt's room prep for his arrival. Still many things undone: his mobile is arriving in a week, linens and his clothes are unwashed, cover for his changing mat is not sewn (but I guess we still have plenty of time for these!)

 
.... and everyone's waiting!

My dream house

We found a very nice neighborhood yesterday, probably the only place in town that we would very much like to call home. Only problem is, the land (which is triple the size of our current place!) is as expensive as the sale of our house. Meaning we need to fork out more money for construction (i.e. designing the place ourselves, contracting a company and not living in modular housing) and furnishing. Tempting as it sounds, but we are not sure if it's a good idea to be having liability at this moment. But the huge space would mean alot for a growing family.

I am contemplating making a trip to Agra for Taj Mahal this month end when I am in Delhi, only concern is I am not sure if it is wise to take the 3-hour journey with Mini Us. Going to Delhi without a trip to Agra definitely sounds like an incomplete India trip

Buy a HDB flat and your fate lies in the hands of the authorities

HDB is telling me that key collection is tentative in the 4th quarter of 2012 but there can be an early completion and handover by the project management team meaning there is a possibility that I can collect my keys in the 2nd or 3rd quarter of the year. The choices for me are:

- to pay a couple of hundreds to get a Power of Attorney
- to cross my fingers and pray that the deferment of key collection is within HDB acceptable time period (and they are not able to tell what is "acceptable time frame". What I do know is we cannot defer for too long as we "will have a problem then")

Doesn't the fact that I am heavily pregnant and is not allowed to fly/ I have just given birth and is in confinement makes it a valid enough reason for the deferment to be acceptable? I mean seriously, they are telling me that it could be any time from the 2nd quarter to the 4th. That is a whole 6 months and I am supposed to be on stand-by. Or, pay a couple of hundreds to get the PoA.

That's why I say, no matter how many Singapore Day you are hosting around the globe doesn't matter to people like us who are staying abroad for extended period of time. Go to this portal if you can: http://www2.overseassingaporean.sg/ and check the kind of crap they do. Seriously, they provide no answers to any of my questions regarding citizenship of my baby, application of citizenship by descent, how I can deal with authorities when I am aborad, etc. For goodness sake, we need a one-stop portal for convenience, not just a propaganda tool.

Freedom fighters on the wall

This is a picture of pictures




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Adding some colours

Finally the framing is done! Van Gogh's Wheatfield with Cypresses that I lugged back from London



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Garden done!

Garden done up in time for folks' arrival



With P's new purchase at the background.


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Weekend garden makeover

Found some garden chairs at in- laws' farm some time back and finally got down to giving them a new look today.

Before


Arranged in order: before, with primer coating, then the end look.


In black!


Running out of spray paint and some parts are still patchy . Anyway, going to grab more paint, and getting my weekly massage as well!

P is getting home a new tree today. Hopefully the garden will be ready when my folks are here. 1.5 more weeks!

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The Thais' version of gnome

Make a round in the flower market and came home with our new friend:

P giving him and his new nest a shower



Our new friend looking all calm.


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I cannot explain my love for IKEA

This is a picture of my living area, accessorized with our new purchases from IKEA.



It is unbelievable, but yes we lugged home a rug! I am loving the red. It makes the space looks so incredibly cheerful.

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Weekend, you left too soon!

Oversize pretzel on Saturday night

Arts and craft on Sunday morning

The man working on his plane

Check out the pilot!



My turn: The flying pig!


MM wihout legs

MM

MM with wings!

The final product

Followed by a evening plant hunt at the flower market. Here's our new purchase sitting next to the TV unit:

Finally, we have some green in the house!

And then it was a hectic night preparing for the arrival of our guests for the first BBQ, right in our garden. It was a night of good food, good company. Our guests just left and I am dead beat!!!

When I get up tomorrow, can it be Sunday again?

Homemade onsen

This is amazing





The onsen bath salts sizzle then turned the tub of water into a pale green colour. I actually did feel like soaking in a japanese onzen.

This followed by today's purchase and more cheese.


I love mid week!

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Weekday nights of an aspiring SAHM

On Monday night, P went off after dinner to attend a wake. Alone at home, I decided to give our house a thorough clean. This is how marriage life (and moving out) has changed our lives!!!

My kitchen at its tiptop.


Tuesday night was P's turn to cook. Unpexpectedly, he managed to prepare a yummylicious pot of curry. I decided to try out some new recipes I have found on the web and found myself kept busy till 10.30 pm preparing our dessert.

Fruits of my labour, CHAR SIEW BAO! My very supportive husband finished all 4 in a go.



And with the left over dough, I started making custard buns! Frankly, the custard buns tasted horrible. The attempt to re-create 流沙奶皇包 failed. The filling hardened into some paste that tasted incredibly egg-ish.


I am thankful for having a husband who can stomach all kind of food and never say no to cleaning up the kitchen mess (at least for now)!

White spaces

Love the super duper clean spaces to the max!







via Desiretoinspire

Food

Monday's delight by P


I now declare baking my favourite cooking method! Save the trouble of cleaning up the kitchen mess and it's healthy too. I am now hoping that I can bake/ steam every single dish so my kitchen would never be in a oily state




My kinda tasteless mushroom soup, plus leftovers from the buffet served the day before


The dish at the upper right hand corner is "Moo Tod", aka deep dried pork strips. It's finger licking good! I don't know how the Thais marinate it, but it's so fragrant and tasty. So if you are visiting Thailand, don't just stop at Tom Yum Goong!

And here's our first pot of orchids, from P's cousin.

Be back soon

Finally, we got the moving in ceremony over and done with. I guess it was ok-ish. We didn't have a splendid full-filled day but well, we survived.

We had a really rough week and I am glad everything's pretty much back to the norm. I am so glad that I am going to be home in less another 4 days. Seriously, I need some really good rest and I need some chilling out sessions with everyone back at home.

Morning sprouts

All the mini bak choys!!!


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Gardeners' monday

We spent our Sunday evening at my in-laws' farm and I was happily picking fresh vegetables, got a kick out of it and ended up buying some vegetable seeds at the fresh market while grocery shopping. After work on day 1 of the week (hogged by fatigue, retardation, etc.), we got 2 new planter boxes from the local flower market and headed home.

And so, we began planting our first crop in the garden!


Compared to me, the urbanite, P is actually very well-versed in all the gardening know-hows.




We are planting bak choy!!!