Chinese New Year Part 2 - Survivor Calcutta!

Edward blogged this day as survivor Safra but we were all calling it survivor calcutta because there were just so many Indians among us! It was a nice day from the start although our usual spot at Safra Tampines had been completely torn down. We decided to head to the beach and make our picnic spot there which was a great idea!

Em made nasi lemak (delicious as usual), daddy and mummy brought the chicken wings, spam, bread and daddy's surprise (frozen longans which Godpa claimed was actually his idea from years back), Godpa, Auntie Jack and Bear brought the drinks and we made do with the lack of cups by drinking water from bowls. (all because uncle from safra has been moved!), Edward and I brought the cucumber (which I assigned daddy to buy and cut hee hee) and Di paid for our additional drinks and brought other tidbits (and 2 lovely nightgowns for me and a mango top from Em). Plus, Les and Auntie Jack gave the baby some hongbaos (which we will keep for her hee hee again!)

We set up camp, wolfed down the food, gossiped and gambled, slept, I marked, edward and mummy took photo after photo, auntie jack killed a few grasshoppers and the boys swam. Then in the evening, we all took a walk on the sand bank where we had some lovely group shots because of the lighting.

So the photos you see are of our great day (with all the men except for marc and ross sucking in their stomachs for all their worth the whole day!) There is also many of several bungalow bills using nature for hanging things, laying things down and making our lives there enjoyable (hence survivor calcutta although we all agreed that poor daddy would be the first one voted out even though he claimed he would have been the fire starter and fish catcher. The 2nd would be Godpa - I have no idea why that all turned against him after that.)

Chinese New Year was great! And so were auntie Charlottes cornflake cookies!

Chinese New Year Part 1 - Zoe comes for a visit!

So it was a lovely friday night dinner with the Machados. Ally made her famous steamboat (the beef and prawns were excellent!) and we were all sitting around enjoying ourselves. (see allison's and phillip's blog for pictures). The Machados were about the embark on a family trip to Mayang Sari Bintan but the kids did not know it yet and there were all depressed especially little Megan who was practically in tears the whole night thinking that only her parents were going. So in the spirit of things, I offered to baby sit (or is it puppy sit) little zoe so that our fatty, pepper, could have a friend for the weekend. Little did I know that our little fatty, the nervous jumpy one, would turn out to be the monster of the weekend! It was her territory and she let zoe know that! She did not leave dear zoe alone for a minute expecting her to play and jump around. It got to the extent that we had to separate the 2 of them for the night and zoe slept with me in the TV room. To her credit, she was the gentlest doggie ever - no snapping, barking or retorting. She just did not give a damn about pepper climbing all over her and tugging at her and she had a wonderful sleep the whole night. The next day, we met mummy and daddy at the beach where the dogs had a wonderful run. Then zoe was sent to Karen's house where I am sure she had a more peaceful time! All is back to normal with fatty the queen of the household again!

The photos

For some reason my photos can't be uploaded on the same blog so here it is.

Pepper the Destroyer!

Well another week has passed by and last weekend was completely filled up with activities. On Friday evening, we bought fatty pepper this plastic chewable banana which had the most adorable face painted on it. I was only $1.20 and we thought fatty would love it. And my god she did! She pounced and flung her body on it like a lion to a hyena in enemy territory and in a matter of 2 hours tore it apart! We had to hide it from her but she just kept going round and round the house looking for it. Edward then hid it in the bar and the next morning, after a sleepless night (for pepper who was lovelorn for the damn banana), she dashed out of the room, headed straight for the bar and sat, tail wagging, in front of the drawer that Edward had put the banana in, bearing in mind that she had not seen Edward do that. So we gave up and today, the banana still has his smiley face but his entire crown has been ripped off.

On another note, had a lovely dinner with my mother in law and Edward because I was craving laksa. The laksa however, turned out to be NN (not nice). we then drove to Swensens tampines and met the lovely Machado family and stuffed our faces with ice cream. I had a chocolate crunch which is my favourite, Megs and MIL had vanilla, Baba had sticky chewy, Bro in Law had a sundae and Edward had some banana thing. I also had to buy a red top for Chinese New Year Celebration so I went to trusty BEGA and got an XL top which you can see. (made my colleague take a photo of me)

Today we are off for an in depth scan of the baby and yummy steamboat at the Machados. Thanks Ally!

So have a great Chinese New Year weekend! I know I will!

She works hard for the money! So hard for the money!

Well I am swamped with work. Not the its such a hectic day and I can't wait for it to be over swamped but a day by day, week by week swamped with work. I really look forward to the weekends although the mornings are now spent creating and preparing lessons for week. We are up to our ears that I have not been able to mark anything and my students are hounding me for their test results!

So in the spirit of work, here are some pictures of my best colleagues at work and of my desk. Believe it or not, my desk is one of the neatest in the staff room. The rest are piled high with papers and some can't even sit at their desk so they mark their stuff in the work room! Nevertheless, its these guys that keep my sanity around here! We are the most muti racial of the room and we gossip and bitch and complain all the time! I love it!

I have no idea how to put captions as many of you know I am technologically challenged although I can work all aspects of power point and publisher with my eyes closed! So I will give a no and description to my friends at work!

1. Guy in checked shirt is Shah - happily married, wife looks like bollywood actresss, great to talk to and has a gorgeous 6 month year old son.

2. Guy in blue shirt is Tafran - drives a subaru WRX, always joking, from St. Pats so talks like a eurasian and is great fun.

3. Lady in white is Christina - fellow complainer, gossiper and a great help for wrapping and designing anything pretty.

4. Lady in red is theng theng - in charge of time tabling (a meticulous hell of a job as there are 90 teachers with different schedules), has a baby girl and is very caring and kind.

So thats it for my week. Looking forward to a laksa dinner with hubby tonight, doing some investigation tomorrow concerning our obstetrician needs and making chicken chilli garam and a lovely soup for the weekend (thanks to edward whose new love is the vegetables uncle at our market.)

Oh the holidays are over!

Well! The last time I wrote anything was exactly a month ago and I was just wondering where all the time has gone. Christmas and its preparation I tell you!
Within a month, my sister came home, we went to Bintan, shopped my guts out, made achar, ikan bilis and tarts, put up the tree, shopped some more, wrapped presents, met my sister in law and brother in law who came down, shopped some more again, cleaned the house about 5,000 times, spent hours playing scrabble with in laws, met the same people everyday in the span of 7 days over christmas, celebrated new years in style and went back to work.

It was a blast! So if my words did not do much, I'll let the pictures do the talking! But before that, here is a recap of all the fabulous gifts I got!

From honey - Passion fruit shower gel, scrub and body butter and a lovely green mango handbag.
Moo/doo - maternity shorts, badedas shower gel (which I have coming out of my ears) and a lovely black top.
tuff and jamie - a lovely 3 way dress. Its a skirt, a tube or a halter! Far East is the best!
Machados - maternity cream for stretch marks (much needed!)
Dyers - a candle set
Em and Les - pedal pushers for preggers!
Di - $50 robinsons voucher (very much needed)
Godpa, auntie jack - corelle pots
deb - Perlinni bag which I just used to work today. Which girl can resist a bag?

I loved christmas!