Dinner request

Baby sitting and Dinner Request

As we wanted to give the new parents some time off to themselves, we offered to babysit James. They visit quite often on Sundays but this is the first time after 20+ years that I will be looking after a baby for the whole night. I was so worried and had so many what ifs.... but little Mr. was a darling.

His parents dropped him off around 7+ so that's when I fed him, then around 10 gave him his bath -ooo... he loves his bath time, he is ever so quite then, just enjoying the warmth of the water! So anyway, after his bath, gave him his last feed and he only woke up at 4 for his next. Dropped off again straight after that and did not wake up till 8. Hope he will be like this next time we baby sit!

So anyway after his parents picked him up in the morning, I went supermarket shopping as I had invited some friends over for dinner. I offered to make nasi lemak but he was craving chicken rice. He is leaving for Singapore on Wednesday for a holiday and yet he wanted chicken rice. Told him if my chicken rice was not good enough then do not blame me! hehe.

So menu for the night was boiled chicken, har cheong kai (this is more for Pat as he does not like plain chicken), siu yoke and oyster sauced chye sim. Dessert was pavlova and special request of kueh kosui - no pics as you can find them in the archives!

Sorry pictures look terrible as I only remembered to take them halfway during the meal!

Matt & Donna's wedding

Wedding Cake


Warning! Another long post!
As you have seen from my previous posts, I have made wedding cakes before. 1 tier and 2 tiers and not very big ones at that! So when Matt and Donna decided to get married, I offered to bake them a cake and they wanted 3 tiers and white and burgundy themed. Good! I thought - gives me a chance to practice and widen my portfolio of cakes.

Hmm.. told Pat will not bake a cake for free again (lol) as I never imagined it would be such a difficult task. Boy, do I admire those people who do it for a living, but then again, when it is a job, I suppose it gets easier!

Anyway, a week after I returned from Singapore, I baked the top layer - a 6 inch fruit cake which traditionally in UK, you keep for the christening of your first child. Had to bake the cake earlier as I had to feed it brandy. Step one done!

Then Tuesday of last week, baked the 2nd layer and it did not turn out well. When I tried the recipe some time back, it was ok but perhaps this time, it was bigger - 10 inches - the cake was not high enough. So Wednesday night, baked another one using a different recipe. Yay, it worked.

Thursday, took a day off and baked the bottom layer - 12 inches. Then whilst waiting for it to cool, made the sugarpaste rose and the roses for the middle tier. The 2 bottom tiers are chocolate.

Then after dinner, covered all 3 cakes. Friday night after work, after dinner continued with the deco. Worked till around 0230 and decided I had to stop. I didn't like the deco but as it was so late, my mind was not working as I did not know what to do with it as it just looked a mess. While in bed, did manage to have an idea of how to "cure" the problem, but it meant that I had to re-cover the cake as the burgundy colour would be showing as it had seeped into the frosting.

So next morning, woke up bright and early but feeling like s**t, went downstairs to try and finish the cake. Redesigned the placing of the flowers and this time, I was quite happy with it. So tried as hard and as quick as possible to cover the cake and then had to drive to the cake shop about 40 mins(1 way) away to get separate cake boxes to house the cakes. When I went to the shop 2 weeks ago, the lady said to assemble them and take it to the venue, but I was worried about the weight of the cakes and them toppling over, so went back to get them. While I was there, got some silver sparkle as well to highlight the roses. Left home at 1000 and got back at 1130, not bad driving, eh, considering it was like 60 + miles both ways. hehe.

so, so to cut a very long story a bit shorter, got everything ready by 1300, got dressed and arrived at the venue at 1430. The wedding ceremony was scheduled to begin at 1530, so 1 hour for me to set up the cake. The most time consuming thing on arrival was to add the beads to the cake! But tada, here is my or rather Matt and Donna's wedding cake.







One last picture before I go, just could not resist taking this. Found this in the loo! Don't you think it is so sweet?

My holiday

My holiday

Apologies for the lack of post and now please sit down, have a cup of tea cos it's going to be a fairly long one as I am going to put 2 1/2 weeks of stories into 1 post!

The main purpose of my going to Singapore at was to attend my cousin's wedding and then have my hols there as well. It was a good thing that Pat did not come with me because on the day I landed, when I called Pat to inform him that I had arrived, he told me that his dad had passed away. We had discussed it already that if that happend, I would still continue my holiday and not turn back but he will try to see if he could delay the funeral. So luckily he could and the funeral was scheduled for 24 August, 2 days after I get back.

I got upgraded on my way out and for the first time in ages, I did manage to catch some sleep. Arrived at SG airport not expecting to see anyone but whilst glancing at the crowd, saw Liana trying to pretend to be inconspicious but failing miserably. haha. What a sweet surprise! The silly girl did not check with the airlines on the arrival of my flight taking for granted that it would be on time, she had to wait 2 hours!

Anyway, got home, got showered and then went out for dinner with Liana and my mum.

2 days later, it's Adeline and Scott's wedding! It was a wonderful wedding. As Scott is an American of Scottish descent, he and his groomsmen wore kilts and as Adeline is half Peranakan, she had her matron of honour and bridesmaids in kebayas. Dinner was at Shangri-La's ballroom and everything was oh so nice!

Mum and Dad walking her down the aisle


I do


With groomsmen and bridesmaids


On stage with both sets of PILs


3 generations


As I was going to be in Singapore during this period, coincidentally, so were a few of my Sec 4 classmates. One was coming in from US for her sister's wedding, yet another from the US back for a holiday and another from Holland also back for holiday. Last minute we had another from UK as well. So we had a mini gathering again this year. Last year, I think we had about 80+ of us. This year we managed to gather about 40+ of us, which I think is also quite good.

All the girls


Sec 4/1


And then another one as some of them could not make it for the 1st gathering, so thanks to Chris, we had it at her place, with some wonderful food to go with it.

2nd SJC gathering






Then I had a 3rd gathering also for some others who could not make the 1st.

3rd mini SJC gathering


I have a lot of wonderful classmates who bother to meet up with me when I am back, some of whom I have been in school with since we were 6! Thank you all!

The rest of my hols were spent just going out with my mum and daughter or catching up with other friends.

Some of the food that I had.

Lunch with Andrew and company at Yanti restaurant







Ramen at Ippodo




Lunch at PS Cafe - thanks to E and D






Dinner at Flo's






We also went to RW at Sentosa and watched Resort World Circus show Voyage de la Vie. We had tickets from Mary - so thank you Mary. For those of you who have not watched this yet, please do. It is a wonderful performance and will keep you captivated throughout the 90 mins.

On the evening before heading out to the airport for my flight back, had dinner with my cousins and their mum. Thank you cousins!



That my friends is my trip in a nutshell and I am back to the real world!