Godiva treat - and a beautiful day afterall

So, I had grand plans of running this evening. In a bid to train leading up to the half-marathon in one month's time - gasp - I wanted to try running home from work. I was rather excited about it and was kinda looking forward. In between calls, the husband texted and it seemed that going to the gym was a possibility which was also nice because I love spending time with him.

 

Then work happened. And it got kinda stressful and all that kinda blah stuff and feelings. I watched the skies grow darker from my meeting room and felt slightly down. I felt bummed out that I couldn't run when I wanted to.

 

Bless this sweet, lovely man who volunteered to drive all the way out to town where I am to meet with me; despite being home already. The effort he made to come out, not backing off when he possibly could have chosen to stay home made me very pleased. We had a nice Jap dinner (burp) and after unwinding with the good food in my belly and feeling slightly flushed from the umeshu (it's healthy, right) I started to feel way better. I know that the challenges at work are just part and parcel of life and it's my journey to experience and gain knowledge from; plus it's all good. Life is really good and I am not going to let little challenges and learning blocks stumble me. Yes, they will train me but I am mindful that they should not consume me wholly. I am trying to remember to take things into perspective and be happy! I have so much to be thankful for in life and tonight was a real case where I still ended off the evening very beautifully with my love.

 

I guess it also helped that I discovered this ummaaaazzzzing ice-cream that is so rich and splendid it was worth every, single calorie (except for the waffle biscuit, could have been better). So with all this self-pep talk,  I declare that it was a good day afterall #thanksgiving

 

Oh sweet, rich chocolate ice-cream yummmm

Saturdate - with a whole bunch of people whom I love much

We finished Saturday evening off in a very adult-ish manner. No screams or yells, or food dropping or being stolen, no spills or any movement that needed to be quickly rectified/told off or rescued - none of all that mama-drama related to human people below the age of 7. It was all very sophisticated and rather pleasant!

 

With the kind mother taking the kids for dinner, the husband and I could actually prepare for the dinner in peace and quiet. We both stepped out of the house looking fresh and clean and un-frazzled. And look, I even brought a teeny, weeny bag with no need for bottles or diapers or anything. Like an adult (and no secret bag accompanying this teeny bag either - which is how I cheat through occasions, usually).

Saturdate

On this day, we tried out a new restaurant - Zafferno. It was picked rather randomly through a collection of suggestions and views off the list of Restaurant Week and it turned out to be a rather nice choice. The ambience was nice, rather spacious and the service was pretty good. The view was the only thing that I wished was better because it's located on level 43 and I had high hopes of it being served with a view. It wasn't, though but it's a small matter that did not mar the night's enjoyment in any way.

 

The menu was not bad and offered a selection of seafood, to pasta, to soups and meat. No choice for the dessert but it turned out to be real yummy anyway and it was all very pleasant.

 

(From top left, anti-clockwise) Oysters, fresh smoked salmon thingy, lobster bisque
(the non-pictured option was a creamy carrot-pumpkin soup), chocolate-tiramisu dessert, main of pasta with seafood (clams and mussels) and Angus prime beef topped with foie gras with sides of asparagus and potato.

 

Based on my two experiences of booking through Restaurant Week, with the other at Absinthe two nights ago, this definitely wins.

Family

What made the night super, was how the siblings and partners - all of us, gamely signed up for it with little hesitation. The fact that we all wanted to hang out together is what makes me happy, as the eldest sister. To talk about silly things, big things, ring things - whatever - it's secondary as what mattered was the time that we all took out to spend together, with one another.

Our original family started with 3 siblings, and through the years we have expanded and within the next 6 weeks, we'll welcome C officially to our family. Then within the next year, we will have officially welcomed B (uh, the letters appear in no chronological order and is purely coincidental haha) with #project3007 too.

I'm so thankful for siblings and great partners who accept us all - both good and bad - for who we are. As the saying goes, blood is thicker than water (or whiskey, or wine - whatever), and there's strength in numbers; these are all applicable because we are all mature adults with a willingness to communicate and big hearts to accept - all of which are great ingredients to make a good family great, and dinners super awesome.

It was, a good, good night!

Princess run

We welcomed November with happiness!

The GE run had always been sort of a tradition with the sister and I. Since the tradition that the sister and I had been broken last year, I was under no pressure to sign up again this year - despite us having had set our 'tradition' in earlier years (2013, 2012, 2011). However, while I was not too keen to run for the GE run, their new category caught my attention - the princess dash. It seemed like a fun event that K would be interested in, and why not? I thought.

However, with the bad weather the past two months, which continued intermittently until last week, I was all worried that this run wouldn't happen because of the haze (boo) but the weathers turned over the day leading up to the weekend and hooray! It was a no-haze-happy day and we managed to go ahead with this lovely event.

 

5 princesses and 1 prince

These little girls had all signed up to be part of the princess dash (all 100m of it!) and because I was on single parent duty, I brought the little boy along, why not!

 

Watching the older category run first

 

My babies and I (I made the effort to dress up in my pinkest/purplest
as-close-to-princess-as-I-could-outfit!)

The run, on its own, wasn't difficult at all. The distance was short, but the idea of the girls dressing up for it was so adorable. Then to watch them all zoom with unbridled enthusiasm, that was priceless! I love exposing the children to sporting events and to have them respond so positively to it, made the heat and the pain of all that for a 'mere' 100m all worth it.
 

Post-run treats

 

Finishers

I was mildly sunburnt from the sun - no shelter whilst letting the children play at the bouncy castle - but that's a small price to pay, really for their morning of fun and laughter.

 

What a nice start to November, hooray!

Little Miss K graduates from kindy

Saturday, 31 October rolled along. For months prior, this little girl has been super excited telling us how she's been practising at school and singing and dancing along to songs in preparation of her graduation concert.

 

Some observations of K through the course of her preparations and on the actual day:

1) She really fancies dancing

This has been apparent for years, where everytime she has a performance at school, you'll see that she practises quite diligently at home. She shies from dancing for us, but she will break out into moves and she will look at herself in the reflection/mirrors. To watch her commit to enjoying dance is a joy to watch and I've contemplated signing her up for classes, but there doesn't seem to be time - yet. I'm hoping that I'll have a chance to enroll her via the school programme next year, let's see.

 

2) She loves putting on make-up

Being the girly-girl that she is, K really enjoyed being the centre of attention and putting make-up on her adorable little face. For her rehearsals, the teachers went ahead to draw her face - and yes, I use draw her face - because it was so much. It looked like she was a 6yo trying on the SQ-style make-up with a huge amount of eyeshadow and it was just, all a lot. She totally enjoyed it though and loved the fact that she was all dolled up.

 

On the actual day of the concert, I applied make-up for her for the first time in our lives and it felt like such an intimate experience. She was so happy and declared it "the best day ever! I'm super excited and happy!"

 

3) She is loved

There was no doubt that the family - beyond just the husband and I - would go to her concert to support her, and for that I am thankful, for her to receive the love and adoration of a group of loved ones. She was cheered and to watch her chest bloom with pride (yet playing it cool) was too adorable to watch and I know that she will be a girl who will always have angels watching over her.

 

4) My little girl is growing up

I knew she was going to be wearing her graduation gown and receiving her graduation certificate, but what I had not expected was to feel that emotional. That moment where she strode across the stage confidently to receive her certificate, made my heart burst into a million pieces and I could not stop smiling. My eyes also watered up and it was one of the most amazing feelings, a mish-mash of love and pride and wistfulness, watching my firstborn.

 

 

Pretty in pink

Waiting for the concert to begin. It was held in the hall of my primary school and
it felt so strange and surreal sitting in the premise of my ex-school!

My little girl

The moment that made me cry - sniff

Dancing two songs, represented in the chinese immersion class

The performances fromo her class

Finale

Proud Grandma

Happy graduates from K2

 

Proud parents

It was an amazing day of accomplishment and I am so happy for my beautiful daughter.

Dear K, you have grown up to be quite a little girl. Your character is strong and I know that we still have a long way to go together, but you have come so far and done a great job. Your heart is sweet and I know that you can be an amazing big girl and Mommy will be here with you every step along the way. Congratulations on your graduation from kindergarten, we are so, so proud of you.

Love you always and forever,
Mommy

TGIF

Not been great at running the past month and though today didn't feel a lot like motivation, I was driven to run because we had good weather. The haze has really been such a pain to everyone's lives, impacting our days and ways where we used to take for granted. 

So, indeed today, a day where the weather cleared and the sun was up and the air was breathable - I had to do it or it would be a total injustice! 

And so this happened. May we all enjoy the good weather where we have haze-free skies! TGIF

Date night - restaurant week, Absinthe

Tonight, we had dinner at Absinthe as part of restaurant week's offering. The dinner was fine though there were areas to improve upon - in our opinion - in terms of service, food delivery timings specifically.

We had add-ons of fresh oysters and wine. I opted the set meal as part of the meal offering for restaurant week which had a tuna tartare starter, prawns in a cup (uh, I don't know the atas name for that but it really was seasoned prawns with some light salad), my main was choice of sea bass followed by dessert of a pear tart.
 

The husband did not choose the set menu from the restaurant week offering, opting for their regular dinner meal that consists of goat's cheese + tomatoes for starters, lobster bisque followed by foie gras, main of lamb and dessert of a strawberry cake. 

All in all, it was a bit of a letdown experience because the service was slow. I do appreciate the restaurant manager coming up to us to express his apologies as they are already aware of the tardy service as they are trying to manage the larger crowds due to restaurant week take-up, and while that is not the key reason why we are unlikely to visit again, that did play a part. The rest of it is the fact that for the prices we paid, I think it could be equally well spent on other choices that would be more unique, served mind-blowing (not just 'good') food. The ambience was pretty nice and romantic, if you fancy the dim lights, nice white table cloth, well-dressed servers kinda thing (uh, though for the record, both the husband and I spilt sauce on the no-longer white table cloth - oops).

Still, it was a nice experience and for the special price of $55++ (without drinks or add-ons) during a restaurant week's special, it's affordable enough and worth a visit. I think the husband and I both think that the best out-take from the evening was the fact that we both made an effort to dress nice and make a point of date night, and spend the few hours together, just us.

Thank you for the time

Love

My little boy, 3 years 8 months old