A walk down memory lane

Two weeks ago, Edward and I decided to go for a drive around the Opera Estate area. He wanted to show me his old house and I wanted to see what my primary school looked like now. Driving up that hill toward the school brought back so many memories and standing in front of it, I realise now just how small we were and how big we taught it was. All in all, it took us about 10 steps to walk down the corridor and back. All I know was that it was as if someone had taken me, made me 7 years old again and put me back there. Nothing has changed and for those who were to CHIJ Opera Estate I hope this brings back countless memories.

Do you remember:
1. The coloured stones outside the office that we used to play while we waited for our bus? Big yellow, small green...

2. Do you remember our assembly ground that could fit a whole session?
3. Do you remember the steps leading to the field that we used to play "the alphabet game" on and jump to the alphabet announced?
4. the mother hen and chicks game we used to play - making nests out of the grass that had been mowed.
5. The toilets at the end of the corridor and the little library outside each class?
6. The canteen - Auntie Mary, Ethel, fish cake soup and the drinks that were always full of bees?
7. The steps leading to the assembly ground where we took our class photo?
8. The rabbit cage on the field?
9. The drain by the assembly ground where we had to brush our teeth?
10. The packet milk that we had to drink everyday?
11. Bus no 20 white and 20 green that took us to Bedok Interchange?
12. The music room on the 3rd floor that everyone said was haunted?

I still can't believe that I can remember all this. It only means that those were damn good days!

Weekend at Bernies!

Pepper (aka chesty La Rue) and Zorro

Can you spot the difference?

Birthday Season Part 3

On Friday evening after work, we headed over to the Machados for a birthday BBQ for little Mikey who is now 3 years old. We were instructed to buy him a Barney stuffed toy and stickers and he was thrilled by them especially the stickers considering that he had the same exact stuff toy! Dinner was great - BBQ Machado style - with wings, steaks, potato salad, baked beans, corn on the cob and lots of coke with ice! I especially enjoyed the birthday cake which was chocolate with some kind of biscuit (much like kit kat) Needless to say I stuffed my face and could barely walk after that.

Saturday, Edward and I started out hunting for a baby expo (yes Mischa actually said the words "baby expo") but as many of you from the east know, Singapore Expo was one big awful mess of cars and people who were flocking to a Watsons sale. We never found the baby expo so we decided to head to Pasta Fresca at Siglap only to find it under renovation. What are the damn odds!! We then drove to pasta fresca east coast, discovered we were the only asians there among the whites, suffered through a one man singing show of mispronounced words and off tune melodies and then headed home.

Sunday was a great day. Thanks to my steamboat craving, I decided to have a steamboat lunch for two of my best gals - Regina and May - whom I have known forever!! They came after mass, we sat down and ate from 145 pm to 445 pm, cooked everything and ate everything that was made and then settled down for dessert which May brought - ice cream, peaches and chocolate sauce. We talked and talked and laughed and I just love being with them any time!They went home at 7pm and Edward and i brought our fatty for a walk.

Birthday season Part 2

Well it has been a sad week for Edward and his family as they have lost someone special. So I contemplated for a long time if I should post this blog. Then I got to thinking that the reason why they are so sad and why we are sad when someone leaves us is because most of us are part of very close knit families. I have met many colleagues who only meet their families during reunion dinner or christmas. Some only see their children on the weekend as they are too busy over the week to take them home. So personally I am glad and eternally grateful to be part of not 1 but 3 families that love me, pamper me and take care of me, make me laugh everytime we meet and probably is the most important catalyst to my being happy on a daily basis.

So what you see here is my Oliveiro side - my mother's side - Nicole's and my nan's birthday.

We always laugh when we meet and we have great conversations about anything under the sun! Nicole's party was filled with noisy convent girls (aren't we familiar with that), two lurking boys who probably wanted to tangkap one of them, good food, one very fat but tame cat and one oversized and not so tame golden retriever.

The man of the match so to speak had to be Corey. At 17, this young man greeted every single person at the door, served and topped up drinks for everyone the entire night, checked that everyone had water at dinner, made sure we were comfortable and still had time in the afternoon to take his sister to the Esplanade for a treat at the chocolate bar. And he could keep up intelligently with all our conversations that ranged from ancient history to books. I was in complete awe watching him!

My nan's party was filled with yummy hawker food bought by my parents and fiona, coffee birthday cake brought by Edward and myself, beer - brought by Roger (albeit very late) and dessert brought by auntie Asiah. We ate, we talked some more, became confused at nan's packing of food techniques and logic and then we all dispersed.