Welcoming Year of the Rabbit

According to the elderly folks in my family, the Year of the Tiger is a bad year for Mr M and I (both born under the same zodiac sign - the Monkey. Double whammy?!!). Indeed it has been a terrible year - coping with illnesses month after month and in the last 2 weeks leading up to CNY, we were besieged by the flu - I am still recovering from Bronchitis, Wati had a fever running at 40 at its worse, followed by CY who recovered from fever in time for CNY, but was crawling on the 1st 2 days of CNY as the bacteria had gone to his calf muscles, again :-(

Yes, the clinics were awfully crowded - it's a flu epidemic alright.

Still, we managed to partake in the traditional celebrations, hosted 2 family parties and visited 5 families on Saturday to make up for our earlier absence.

Wishing all lots of cheer, good health and prosperity in the Year of the Rabbit!

Of Ghosts and Ghouls

29 October

It's Halloween again and this time round, I'm well prepared ... kind of.

Black gown from Spotlight (half price at $10 bought more than a month back), masks and devil's pitchfork from Cold Storage. They carried a pretty decent stock and variety for adults and kids, but like everything else meant for celebrations, must buy early - can't wait for last minute bargains; there wouldn't be any, a sure sign that the economy is booming in this small part of the world. What a dramatic change of circumstances from a year ago when the outlook was all doom and gloom and no one could foresee when the recession would bottom out.

So here's the get-up for Peanut who is now old enough to want to look scary for the occasion:

S.P wanted to be ... Iron Man. I did a google on "DIY iron man costume" - you should check out this site Instructables - some really awesome inspirations with LED arc reactors ... very serious and professional projects ... compared to my pathetic cardboard cut-outs:

Improvised decor made from paper plates and toilet paper:

I'm not scared of ghosts .. .I have a 'repulsor beam':

Green is the new black

13 Nov

There are some significant events which I left out in my summary of the last months' activities. Here is one of them - our company organised a beach cleaning activity at East Coast Park as one of our yearly activities to support the Green movement and no prize for guessing who I brought along as cleaners:

They were very enthusiastic with the tongs, picking up every bit of cigaratte butts and styrofoam. Our most interesting find was a piece of chicken bone.
We were blessed with blazing hot sun amidst the wet and rainy season:


This is more like what we usually do at the beach, minus the gloves:

See that garbage bag - our miserable 'collection' of rubbish. Call me a skeptic - I suspect there were a few reasons why the beach was relatively clean but it certainly had nothing to do with people being more civic conscious:

1. The beach has already been combed by the cleaners in the morning - our army of effective cleaners (mostly foreign labour - yes, I'm thankful for them) keeps Singapore clean and green whilst most of us are getting ready for work or school or still sleeping.

2. It was a Saturday morning (we had to be there before 8.30am) plus it was examinations period for the schools; translate to fewer visitors at the beach the evening before.

More than 2000 participants turned up for the event which made an entry in the Singapore Book of Records.

YOG at Pre-School By-the-Park

27 August Fun Friday for August

The year is coming to an end and I realize I still otang you the answer to my earlier post on YOG .. well, here's the answer ... finally:


The challenge was finding these boxing gloves - it happens ever so often - how you would remember coming across them somewhere before but just can't put your finger to it when you need them most ...

We Love Mushroom Soup

So thankful for this recipe - it is how Peanut and I survived his ordeals with HFMD (yes, the dreaded Hand Foot Mouth Disease) and microplasma.

Homemade Mushroom Soup (adapted from Karen Cheng's blog)

Ingredients
400g (I use 500g) of button mushrooms, cleaned and chopped

60g of butter

1 medium onion, chopped finely

1 small garlic clove, chopped finely

1 L of chicken stock (I use ½ L of Campbell’s Swanson Chicken broth, diluted with 150ml water and 100ml milk)

150ml cream (I use 1 can 170g Nestle cream)

salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

1) Gently cook onion and garlic in butter, until brown. About 10 minutes.

2) Add mushrooms, stir for 10-15 minutes.

3) Add chicken stock. Bring to boil and simmer for 15 minutes.

4) Stir in the cream.

5) Use a hand blender (or food processor) to blend the soup into a smooth consistency.

Serve hot with bread sticks or hard rolls. Serves 8-10 (Halved all portions of ingredients for 4-5 persons)

And it's a hit this Christmas, especially with the kids (from 3 to 18 y.o). This year we celebrated Christmas with 3 families - Christmas eve's dinner with our new found friends/neighbours, the Su family, Christmas lunch with the Seah family (this has become a traditional yearly affair) and of course, our family Christmas dinner. Hope all of you enjoyed your Christmas as much!