Bendy Tree

Just outside MIL's home, lived a very "bendy" tree. Every time it rains, the leaves would get so heavy with rainwater, that the whole tree would bend almost 45 degrees down and into the corridor of the flat. And when it's sunny again and the leaves have been dried off, the tree would slowly straighten up and back into it's original state!





MIL has been quite concerned as she was worried that the tree may break one day and someone might get hurt. Especially since there are quite a few children living on the same level. So I looked up the number for National Parks and called their hotline number. (1800 471 7300) I explained to them the location of the problematic tree and she said that they would send someone to look into it.

Hope that they would send someone to investigate during the rainy days as they wouldn't know which is the "bendy tree" when it's sunny! There, Miss CoCo saves the day again. So if you see any problematic trees, you too can report it to NParks. It's better to be safe than sorry!

That evening we ate out at Bugis Junction. I realise that as Jolie grows bigger and faster, photos of her gets more and more blurry.



Afternote: Apparently, N-Parks is quite efficient! MIL said that a foreign worker came the very next day and snipped off the top branches of the tree. She tried to ask him to trim off more branches, but I think he ignored her or something. I explained to her that he was probably only allowed to follow the instructions of the "tree experts" at N-Parks (and not from a neighbourhood auntie - of course I didn't say that) :) Cheers N-Park!

A trip to JB, sort of

As I have mentioned, Jolie just got her very 1st passport, so I was terribly itching to go travelling! So on Saturday, we decided to drive to Johor Bahru's Jusco. Well, we should have went earlier, like in the morning, but it would be better to go after she wakes up from her noon time nap.

By the time Jolie woke up, it was already close to 3pm, so after feeding her milk and getting the directions and stuff, it was already 4pm. We even had to top up fuel and change currencies before heading to the causeway! It was already 4 plus then, but we've packed everything, prepared everything, it would felt so silly to postphone the trip! So we went ahead anyway, I mean, the directions seemed pretty straight forward, we'll just drive to Jusco, buy some groceries, eat dinner and come back. Easy.

Erm, not so easy apparently. First of all, we don't have any white card. Zinc told me to get the cards from some booth at the customs area, but where? So we ended up asking the Malaysian customs officer for the cards and filling them up at full speed while he waited. Oops... I pity the car behind us. Hahaha... Sorry!

When we went through the customs, we were so happy! Yeah! Tang family's 1st visit overseas together! But our happiness was short lived as we realised that the directions we got from the web forum was based on the old customs. The new customs was much further in and was so complicated!

So we drove around and thought we missed a turn, so we did a u-turn, went on what we thought was the right lane, happily drove on, and ended up driving along the sea. WHAT?? How did we end up here? We were supposed to on a highway! We attempted to do a u-turn again, but this time we ended on the lane that lead us into the customs and before we know it, we were on our way back to Singapore again! *SLAP FOREHEAD*

So we were in the car for close to 3 hours, drove to Malaysia and back without even stepping foot onto Malaysian soil. Great.

GRRRRR... don't care, will try again soon!

TROFAST

Jolie's toys were getting out of hand. THEY ARE EVERYWHERE! I'm so sick of having her toys take over the whole house, so I decided to use IKEA's TROFAST storage systems. We have the exact same cabinet in our service balcony, holding all our household cleaning chemicals, laundry clips, floor mats, etc. I like how it looks in the catalog, under the children's room, so I thought it would be perfect for Jolie's room.

Cobby hard at work setting it up while I keep Jolie away from him.



When it's finished, Jolie thought it was a great hiding place.



Looking good! That's the new sofa bed from IKEA too. Another fantastic buy - saves alot of space!



Now the house is more clutter free! HAPPY~!




I Love IKEA~!

Jolie's 1st Passport

After lunch with Zinc the other day I went to pick up Jolie and my passport. The other day we went but I didn't know that I had left my stupid IC inside the scanner at home! So anyway, I had to go back again to pick up our passports!

So now Jolie has her very own passport! We can travel the world now! Yeah! Congratulations Jolie!

Lunch Out with Zinc

Was feeling a little down the other day, so I arranged for Mom to take care of Jolie and arrange lunch with Zinc! She's working in the East side now, so I thought it would be a great opportunity to take the circle line down!

So exciting! I felt like a tourist. It's pretty deserted though. Was it because it's a weekday afternoon?



This is the Bishan station. Looks like an airport!



On board the train!



The train's pretty quiet too. Good! Can take photos!



This is so cool! I put my face right at the front window and watched the train sped through the tunnel. The dark tunnel looks quite creepy though, what if suddenly I caught a glimpse of the glowing eyes of monsters that lives in dark tunnels like in the movies! Haha... The tunnel also reminded me of the indoor roller coaster. Wouldn't it be super cool if the train suddenly speed up and drop into the darkness like they do in the roller coaster! Whoo Hoo~!



Anyway, my ride was rudely interrupted because it turned out that the circle line was NOT OPENED YET!!!! WTF! So I had to stupidly wait for the opposite train at Bartley station to bring me all the way back to Bishan again, where I had to take the usual route. DUH...

Thankfully I came out early, so even with all the delays, I managed to reach 15min early! *PROUD* Hi Zinc! Long time no see!!!



So we ate a not-so-nice lunch at the crowded canteen, but the food wasn't important anyway. We bitched about the iPhone, chatted about my trip to Universal Studios, etc. It sure was nice chit chatting with Zinc again, almost felt like lunchtime back in DSI.



After we parted I felt SO MUCH better. I guess I have to remember that my friends are still around, and I just have to reach out them whenever I need them. :) Thanks Zinc for the lovely lunch!

Spritz Spritz

Guess what is Jolie's favourite thing to do now?

Calorie Laden Saturday

We must have clocked at least a few thousand calories on Saturday! For breakfast, we had a very satisfying Bak Chor Mee (Minced meat noodles) with a seriously thick cup of kopi. Yah we did burnt off some calories while doing our grocery shopping, but I'm sure we compensated it during lunch at Burger King.

It's been so long since I've had my Whopper Jr, fries and coke! I guess it's ok, I mean, Whopper Jr has got lots of vegetables right? So it's a balanced meal! :) After lunch I was feeling quite sleepy, so we ordered a cup of macchiato with a slice of chocolate truffle cake. It was delicious, but I wished that I had a bed for me to lie down instead really.

We headed for our movie, which was Date Night, starring the super funny duo Steve Carell and Tina Fey.



A must see for all couples, dating or married! The show was super funny and entertaining, at the same time, it did also touch on real issues that most couples face in their marriage. Besides, Mark Wahlberg did a small part in the show which was both funny and sexy! That was enough reason for me to catch the show! :P~~~



Ahem, sorry where was I? Yah, so can't go to the movies without popcorn, so we munched through the show. After the show I wanted to buy a bread knife, so we drove to Holland Village. After another stressful parallel parking experience, we parked the car and searched for this bakery supplies shop I heard before. Turned out that we found a nice and quiet spot of Holland Village that was lined with fancy restaurants, bakeries, shops and even Phoon Huat was there!

In the end I didn't buy the knife, but we walked around and found The Daily Scoop ice cream parlor! I've heard about it so often but I've never been there before! So imagine my excitement! Yeah! I remembered that they are famous for their local specialties, so I recommended to Cobby the Chendol while I ordered the durian. YUMS~!



After the ice cream it was already 5.30pm, so we were kind of stuck. Too early for dinner, but where else to go? In the end we decided to drive all the way back to Serangoon Gardens Chom Chom for dinner. It's been so long since we've been there as it's quite difficult to bring baby there.

It's like parallel parking day! I was forced to park in a parallel lot again, but thankfully, the lot was quite wide and there wasn't any cars behind me, pressuring me. OK, there was one eventually, but I was so engrossed with trying not to destroy the car that I didn't really noticed.

So I was like, taking forever to park the car, but thankfully I did it without doing any damage to anybody. Phew. We ordered the usual stuff at Chom Chom, but it's great to dine in a relaxing pace without baby screaming. Yes the food wasn't exactly healthy, but we don't eat like that everyday anyway.



Like I said, it was a calorie laden day. But in words of Dr Tay from ieatishootipost, "Never waste your calories on yucky food!" And I'm sure my calories were definitely not wasted.

Cousin En En

MIL called me and asked if I'm bringing baby over to her place today. We usually go there on Thursdays, but since Jolie's having her immunization tomorrow, I explained to her that maybe we'll go over tomorrow instead.

Turns out that Cobby's cousin was bringing her daughter over to MIL's place too, and it was SO OBVIOUS that MIL wanted me to bring Jolie over to "show off"! Hahaha... So I got the hint and said that I'll bring her over. At the end of the phone call, she even asked me to make sure Jolie's all dressed up! Grandparents are so funny...

Qi En's almost 2 years old, but this was the very first time I'm seeing her too! I've always heard stories from MIL of how thin and timid she is, how her grandma takes care of her most of the time because the parents were too lazy to take care of their own child. Seriously, I don't understand these people. Why the hell did they have the child in the 1st place if they don't want to take on the hard work and responsibility?

Anyway, little En En was definitely not how I imagine her to be! She's really a pretty little thing, and she seems very friendly, sweet and enjoys being around everybody. Yes, she's not very big size, but her parents aren't exactly big size like Cobby and I, so she looks fine to me really. Anyway I'm used to Jolie being almost the same size as children much older than her.

Initially Jolie was kind of reserved and reluctant to play with her cousin. En En was a little hyper, so she was squealing and running around, which I think freaked out Jolie a little. She must be thinking who's this siao zar bor! Haha... But after awhile they warmed up to each other and started playing together.



Jolie was very sweet and shared her favourite treats with her cousin. They were even feeding each other! So 恩爱!



Here they were dancing to the music from one of the toys. The knee-bending move is Jolie's new dance routine lately. :)



Its so interesting to see the dynamics of peer influence. When En En saw Jolie eat her dinner, she demanded to have dinner too. When En En saw Jolie take her bath, she wanted to have her bath too! And when she saw her grand-aunt (MIL) carry Jolie, she want to be carried too! Of course, MIL is always happy to have another baby in her arms. 好幸福! (Jolie getting sleepy liao~)



Another cousin for Jolie to play with. Jolie's social circle is increasing! :)

Universal Studios!

Sis was back and she invited me to Universal Studios with some of her friends! A day out with a bunch of ladies without the baby or husband? Oh yeah! We met early for breakfast at Food Republic. Must fill up for extra energy!

Roti Prata for me!



A must camera shot for ALL Universal Studio visitors!



The first stop was Madagascar! Our very 1st ride, King Julien's Beach Party-Go-Round! This carousel is super cute with all the Madagascar characters. I chose the mean old granny because it's so funny! I'm riding a granny! Hahaha...



Me and the gang~!





After the performance we pushed and shoved to be 1st in line to take pictures with the penguins! Yeah!



Alex the Lion.



And the super cute King Julien. He suggested this pose for us!



Next stop, Far Far Away!



Oh look, Shrek's house! Scary~



Thankfully Shrek and Princess Fiona was quite nice. :)



Unfortunately they came out the same time as the Madagascar gang, so most of the people were queuing up to take pictures with the penguins. But we like everybody! So we were running around like mad women. It was hot and we're sweaty but it's SO much fun!

We also rode Enchanted Airways, a miniature roller coaster, which was very fun and a great warm up to more exciting rides ahead! The Shrek 4-D Adventures was also great! I can't tell you too much or else it would spoil all the surprise! The 4-D show was definitely exciting! Just outside the 4-D show was Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream Parlor! Of course must buy! So only 2 of us got ice creams while the rest quietly filled up our water bottles with the free ice water in the restaurant. What... we bought ice cream what! :P Next, The Lost World!



The Jurassic Park Rapids Adventure was their main attraction, but their waiting time was 60mins! We hesitated for a moment, but Sis said that it would be stupid not go since we're here, so we queued! My, they weren't kidding about the waiting time, so we used the time to take pictures!





After like, FOREVER, and my poor legs almost giving way, it's finally our turn!!!



Nervous!



Hold on tight!



OK, with all the splashing around, we got wet even before the slide. The ride was quite fun and exciting, especially while inside the very dark tunnel! But the actual slide was not very high, so it was kind of disappointing. But yeah, we got really WET!



After the water ride we planned to ride the Canopy Flyer to dry us off, but after queuing for awhile, the ride broke down! The staff said that they need to fix it and do some trial runs, and couldn't say how long it would take, so we decided to come back later instead. One of our friends wanted to try the Amber Rock Climb, so we all headed there to watch her climb. I was hesitant to participate as I was afraid I would fail and make a fool of myself, but after watching small kids doing it, I just paid the extra $10, signed the disclaimer contract, and strapped up!



I waited quite long as I was busy watching a young English boy being tortured by his brother and father. The poor chubby boy had climbed quite high up, but he was stuck as he didn't know how to go on, he's tired, and kept on shouting that he wanted to come down. But the two guys below kept shouting at him to keep going, and spoke among themselves in disgusted tones of how he's giving up. Please lah, just let him come down! Argh! After a very long while, while I was finally getting ready to go up, he made it. Good for him! :)

It's so different when you're face is against the wall. You can't see where the slots are, so I just thought of how my instructors taught me back in Outward Bound school. Keep feeling the rocks for slots, go slow, and use your leg muscles!



Everybody said they were so impressed on how fast and steady I got up the wall. Sis said that I was like a gecko, I guess my long limps was an advantage! Haha... I did feel quite good going up the wall, it was easier than I expected and it was definitely a great trill as I reached the top! WHOO HOO!!!



When I got down my arms were numb from exertion! But it was SO FUN!!! Hope I wouldn't be in too much pain the next day to care for baby! :P Very forced victory smile... Tired!



Next on the map, Ancient Egypt! Our friend highly recommended the Revenge of the Mummy ride, which was an indoor roller coaster, so my sis and another friend decided to opt out while the rest of us go for it!

As you can see in the photo below, 2 THUMBS UP!!!



A Die-Die-Must-Try! The effects were fantastic and the ride was unexpected and thrilling! We came out and found out that Sis was STILL QUEUING for her lame Treasure Hunters jeep ride, so we WENT FOR A 2ND TIME! Yes there were no surprises this time, but it was just as fun! We even sat on the front roll! I'm usually not so brave to sit in the front roll, but hey, it's an indoor roller coaster. You can't see anything anyway!

We went backwards and headed for the Water World show. The show was starting soon, so we quickly ran in but the center sitting area was already full.



Erm the show was quite boring actually, nothing spectacular. All I could think of was how HUNGRY I was! We were running on pure adrenaline so far, and once we sat down and cooled off, the hunger pangs hit me hard! So regret that I didn't grab a hot dog on the way to the show!

The next stop was supposed to be the highlight of Universal Studios, which was the Battlestar Galactica CYLON and HUMAN roller coaster ride. Unfortunately, the ride was closed! I planned to take the ride, but when I actually got there and stood under the unbelievably HUGE tracks, I was secretly relieved that it was closed! I wondered if I even have the guts to go on the ride if it's running! Hahaha...



Have to content with sitting on the seat only. Hahaha...



The last stop was New York! We were seriously exhausted by then and were just heading to find some food when some staff said that the show was starting soon and said that we could sit down on the floor. So we were like, OK! Whao! It was a super cool Hip Hop street dance performance!



They were so cool and so CUTE! (too bad you can't see it, but the guy in blue is the cutest!) Guess what, when they pulled volunteers, they pulled my Sis up! Normally it's fine, but then she was the ONLY woman in the group! They rest were all small kids! Haha!



So they did some moves together and horror! They ask everybody to do a solo dance! The other tourists and especially a small little girl was super cute and danced away. BUT when it was Sis's turn, she, well, did a strange arm movement that left us in fits of laughter when the show ended. Hey, at least she was sporting enough to do it! Good effort! I think I wouldn't know what to do if it was me! :P

Again, we planned to find food as we had some vouchers that wouldn't be valid 30 mins before the park closes, which was very soon, but we came across another attraction, which was this Special Effects show. Short, but very cool.

Just before we leave, we had to do something very important. SHOP!



They have merchandise shops for every area, so we quickly back track to Madagascar to grab the cutest stuff!

It was only 6.45pm, but by then we were totally spent! We're wet, sweaty, oily, exhausted. HUNGRY. So we finally headed for dinner back in Singapore and I had to leave before everybody else as it was getting late. I've had so much fun! It's been so long since I felt so happy and free, but at the end of the day, I still feel happy seeing my baby and Cobby again.