Project Homeland: The Toa Payoh Blue Animals (and Suzuki Ramen Bar)

We chanced upon this little play area one evening after visiting the large Dragon playground at Toa Payoh Lorong 5. Actually, we were on a hunt for food for dinner, and were delighted to find that the area we picked to dine at was actually near the little Dragon playground, as well as this open square with a series of blue animal statues (located next to Blk 201, Toa Payoh North). 

This isn't a playground per se, but the kids had fun trying to climb up every single statue. There's a goat, monkey, horse and dog, which initially led us to think they based the statues on the Chinese zodiac, but there were also other animals such as an elephant, squirrel and dolphin. 

The kids had a really good time, running around and climbing all the animals!

Just a few blocks away (Blk 203 Toa Payoh North), you'll find one of those ordinary coffeeshops. We love eating there because one of the stalls (Suzuki Ramen Bar, which has two other branches in Boat Quay and Tanjong Pagar) serves a really good ramen, with a thick, fragrant broth. 

You get a choice between red (spicy), white or black (squid ink) soup (we've tried all three, and liked the red spicy broth best!). 

If ramen isn't your thing, Collin's Grill serves up a decent (and HUGE) fish and chips for less than 10 bucks. The serving is so big, that both the older boys can share a plate but still have difficulty finishing it! 

It's good food, at great prices... but it is still a regular coffeeshop. So come prepared to face the heat, and bring your own clip-on high chair if you need one. We'll definitely be back next time!

Weekend wonderings: New year, new hopes

Lantana, photographed at the entrance to Sungei Buloh Nature Reserve

The new year sorta crept in on us.  Or at least it feels that way.  While others are all ready and geared up to face a brand new year with their resolutions penned... I seem to be spending the first week of 2011 finishing up stuff that I didn't complete in 2010, like scrap assignments, more spring cleaning, and of course, that dissertation.  So I'm going to "start" 2011 a week later, and use this week to clear up those things I've mentioned, while taking time to set goals.  Simple Mom had this list of questions to think through, which I though was pretty good for working through at the beginning of each year, so I'm going to use that. :)  Me and my sup have planned for the dissertation to be submitted for examination on the 10th (i.e., next Mon), so I'm working towards that and really looking forward to be done!

Anyway, we spent the new year pretty quietly.  New year's eve was spent having dinner with our DG at one of our DG mate's place, but we had to leave early for Junior J's bedtime.  The boy had fun playing with the rest and even tried out the rocking "goat" (it was those antique versions of a rocking horse)... however, he started coughing halfway through and we had to give him ventolin at home to make him more comfy.

New year's day was spent at home, just hanging out (while I also tried to squeeze in some time to write that dissertation).  One new development we discovered was that the little boy can now push the 4 carriages of his train together, and move it up and down the bridge and through the tunnel, and he is no longer so interested in taking apart the tracks (which he used to do, while saying "Uhoh!").

There was no regular church service on Sunday, so we met up with little S and her parents at Sungei Buloh for a morning walk.  Thankfully it was cloudy, and the kids got to see quite a few animals/insects... lots of egrets and plovers foraging, as well as these:

The first insect spotted: a katydid, resting on the side of the railing of the bridge. :)

Along the way in, we met Mr Monitor, who brazenly ignored us, even though we approached him pretty closely

We spotted tree-climbing crabs too, lots of mud lobster mounds, as well as this giant mudskipper... :)

We did get some bites even with after slathering on the repellant, but I think the kids had fun...

Then we headed for lunch at Marsiling Lane, and had bak kut teh (you know the Klang version, which is not the usual peppery type but the herbal type?  We love it!).  There was an egret walking around outside the coffeeshop, which got the two kids pretty excited!  

Hubby and I brought Junior J to Thomson Plaza at night for some grocery shopping, and had dinner over at Jonker's Nonya Cafe (the Nonya food is pretty good, and way cheaper than those Nonya restuarants).  I had the assam laksa, and hubby let the boy try some of the soup, and we let the boy take a few small sips of the chendol (the laksa was pretty decent for Singapore standards, but the chendol wasn't fantastic, so save the calories for the Melaka version).  Turned out to be a bad move, as we think the laksa might have triggered off another wheezing "attack" for the boy (according to hubby, the Chinese believe there is something inside the soup that worsens asthma, but I think he forgot at that point in time).  

He started coughing much later after dinner, and it got so bad he started wheezing. :(  So it was ventolin syrup for him, but that didn't seem to clear up the wheeze so we had to bring him to KKH A&E late that night.  The boy ended up having to use an inhaler, but attached to a spacer (this chamber that you puff the meds into) as he was younger... Poor fellow was crying and pretty scared, but in between would echo us and tremulously say "good boy!" It broke my heart to see him that way. :(  We tried to give him the other meds as well, and he tried eating it, but it tasted so bad that he gagged and threw up.  We were stuck in the A&E til past midnight, so the boy really went bonkers at the end, but he fell asleep in the car on the way home.

The chronic cough and wheezing attacks have really impacted us in many ways, since many things seem to trigger off his cough: the dog, dust, perhaps the consumption of some foods.  We've had to make many lifestyle changes: We either thrown/sold our carpets, we're vacuuming more frequently, we vacuum the mattresses and the sofa, we're currently spring-cleaning to clear the house of unnecessary stuff.  We've cleared away many of the boy's soft toys, and are intending to give away more of them, and are now getting the boy more wooden toys instead.  My parents are now taking care of Nicky, and my in-laws will be coming down during CNY and will be adopting the doggy, since we really want the dog to go to a good home.  We consciously try to avoid places that trigger off his cough (places with furniture fumes, like Ikea, some apparel shops that are dusty like the Levi's store, any stores selling soft toys).  

I guess I'm not complaining (even though I do miss the dog), since some of these changes are for the better (a cleaner home is always welcome I guess!), and I know this is minor, compared to other parents who have children that are battling sicknesses that are way more severe and serious.  That being said, my heart still does ache every time I see the boy wheezing or in discomfort.  Hopefully it will pass when he grows older and his airways grow bigger, then perhaps we can bring Nicky home again.  So far, the boy does ask and peer under the bed to look for Nicky, but I don't think he's that attached to the dog yet, so its good.      

Ok, enough rambling... here's to 2011.  Many changes, many hopes.  A year when I'll be done with my studies (YAY!) and can focus on other things... This is late, but happy new year everyone!  God bless!

PS: Crate Paper featured my photo tray among other projects, in their first post for 2011... Yay! :)

Weekend wanderings: Red buildings and milkshakes

On the way to lunch... :)

We had a pretty uneventful weekend.  The hubby was on call on Saturday, so Junior J and I stayed home. The little boy finally got to go to Sunday school again the next day, after a few weeks absence, thanks to him falling sick a few times in a row.  He had fun playing and learning about "salt and light"... :)

We then had lunch with a couple of churchmates at Maxwell Road hawker centre (have you seen the queue for the porridge there?  Its amazingly and scarily long!)... followed by milkshakes over at this little shop nearby called "Once Upon a Milkshake".  

I loved the purple and white colour theme of the place!

The place is pretty nice, and the milkshakes were pretty reasonably priced.  Oh, and their chocolate milkshake was oh so yummy!  The scrapper in me liked how they labeled many things using chipboard lettering:

After lunch we wandered around the area for abit, and walked past the Red dot traffic building.  I really love those bright red walls, pity I only had the iPhone with me...

It had just rained, so the little boy's shoes were all soaked,
 thanks to him trying to walk into every puddle he saw!

Ah well, so that was our weekend, I hope yours was a great one!

PS: I realized I have 2 more weeks before my final draft for my dissertation is due.  I'm still making slow but steady progress, so hopefully I'll meet that deadline and be done with it soon!

Weekend wanderings: The unwired life

Flower growing at the Symphony Lake, Botanic Gardens

Just after I posted about Junior J turning 16 months, our internet connection promptly died.  We couldn't figure out what was wrong with it, since the hubby went and got the modem changed, and nothing seemed to work... so we ended up getting a new internet plan (ours was due for renewal anyway).

Meanwhile, I was suffering from wired withdrawal: No daily fixes of "Apartment Therapy"and "Ohdeedoh" (you are talking about someone who used to keep every single issue of the Ikea catalogue since the time they set up shop in Singapore).  No checking of email, and no Facebook.  I felt odd.  My fingers itched.  So I made off with the hubby's iPhone (mine has no data plan, his does), and got to read and send emails with it, and did a bit of blog hopping here and there during the boy's naps.  However, I guess the internet dying on me was good too since it made me unstick my fingers from a mouse, and focus on other things.   (The nice lady at Singtel loaned us a modem to use meanwhile, hence my posting now.)

We had a busy and great (and a relatively unwired) weekend, thanks to the public holiday on Friday (the hubby was on call on Saturday though)!  We managed to:

:: Get a beautiful new kettle.  Our old one (more than a decade old!) had announced its retirement a week ago, by submitting its resignation letter consisting of loads of gunky stuff from the heating element.  Oh, and we also went shopping at the Philips carnival and bought some stuff, like a new phone, since our old one decided to follow in the way our kettle.

:: Spend an evening at the Botanic Gardens with the boy's grandparents.  We wandered around the Symphony lake, but the boy was rather sleepy then, so he was quieter than usual...

However, he had quite abit of fun walking around the rolling lawns amidst picnicking families and couples...

And stopped many times to examine the grass...

... As well stare at pretty girls having picnics (believe me, we've never ever taught him to do that, he's always had this tendency to flirt with girls, both little and big).  And he promptly fell down since he was so busy looking at this group of girls (which was probably done on purpose since that ensured all their attention was on him)!

And we ended the day with dinner at Casa Verde again, and this time, we managed to try the pizza, which was really good!  

:: Do some major grocery shopping... as well as stock up on some scrapbook supplies (Papermarket was having this big sale, and the hubby was nice enough to let me go shopping while he brought the boy for a walk around the mall).

:: Go for a long, slow drive down Old Upper Thomson Road.  This was a spur of the moment thing (and we didn't have the camera). The hubby wanted to let the little boy go and see the monkeys (macaques) that tend to hang around the area, and the boy was fascinated!

:: End our Sunday by trying out some pretty decent fish and chips at a coffeeshop in Toa Payoh (the boy liked the fish, but the batter was a tad too salty)...

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Taiwan Translated: Day 3 at Danshui and Keelung

We started off our road trip in Taiwan on an ambitious note, driving from Taipei all the way to Hualien in two days... after which the hubby and I concluded that we would slow down and take more time to explore each place, especially since we had baby J in tow.

Day 3 in Taiwan was spent wandering around in Danshui.  We didn't manage to visit Fort San Domingo (which was built by the Spanish when they occupied the area), but happened to chance across the Danshui Presbyterian Church while strolling around.  Sunday service was in session when we were there (I nearly walked in thanks to my excitement in photographing the church), so we walked around the church grounds instead, which still had their nativity and Christmas scenes up:

Then we had some time wandering around the area around and at the Fisherman's Wharf (Yuren Matou), and bought two colourful handwoven baskets.  These seem to be one of the common craft products sold in the area, and came in very handy for holding various things like gloves and coats when we were travelling in the car.  The area is crammed full of shops selling all sorts of stuff, ranging from food (like sausages stuffed with fish or pork, as well as quail eggs wrapped in a fluffy coat of fried egg and whitebait which hubby gamely posed with)...

 to winter wear and doggy clothes...

and of course, fresh seafood!

No visit to the wharf is complete without a boat trip across, so we took a quick cruise and came back to the wharf for more munching (fried sotong and "pearl" dumplings, nicely washed down with sugercane juice).

Then it was down the North coast highway, along which is dotted with many points of interest, such as the Temple of the 18 Kings (Shibawang Gongmiao) as well as the rock formations at Yeliu.  However, since we were rushing down to Keelung, we only stopped once to view the huge stone arch known as Shimen (Stone gate).  The hubby saw this bridge at the ocean's edge and pronounced it as THE gate:

But he was wrong, as the actual Shimen turned out to be quite far off from the water's edge as plate tectonics had moved it.  There are steps etched into the massive arch, so we managed to climb up to the top and braved the freezing winds to take some photos. :)

Then it was all the way down to Keelung (Jilong), the second largest port in Taiwan, and unfortunately we got lost trying to find our hotel since the city is full of one way streets that made us go round and round the area.  Finally, after circling the place for awhile, we managed to get to the hotel (Hua Shuai Hotel), which turned out to be quite a little gem thanks to its proximity to the night market.  Our room was really comfy, with down pillows and a king-sized bed... (However, the room was a tad small, so it was quite cramped after we set up the travel cot.)

Keelung has various sights and the city is bursting with shops selling everything and anything, but the hubby had planned to come here only for one reason: Keelung's Temple Street Night Market (Jilong Miaokou) has supposedly the best snack food in Taiwan.  Our hotel was about a 5 minute walk away from the market, and we went nuts buying food for dinner: Oyster omelette (darn good), muah chi, fried chicken, oyster mee sua (this one wasn't that great though), just to name a few... and that very good meal ended our day with a bang (and an extremely full stomach)!

Weekend wanderings: F is for fun...

The weekend that past was a long weekend as Friday was the Hari Raya public holiday, and it was an enjoyable fun-filled weekend of friends, food and fabric (more about that in the next post!)... and to make it even more fantastic, the hubby came home with flowers for me on Thursday, which made my day! :)

Friday morning saw us heading down to the Tiong Bahru market for breakfast, as hubby wanted to buy salted vegetables (he swears that the market sells a superior salted veg) to cook duck soup for a potluck in the evening.  We tried the wanton noodles there, which were very yummy, but the queue was extremely long!

The potluck in the evening was at one of our DG mate P's (and the team leader of our Yunnan trip) house, and we had stew, chicken wings, chicken soup, duck soup (cooked by hubby!), fried rice, roast pork... and the highlight of the evening was this fantastic Aumonieres de mangues au caramel laitier made by one of our Yunnan team-mates, C.  She had just come back from learning how to cook in France, and the dessert was really good, but the guys kept teasing her and saying she went all the way to France to learn how to make roti prata filled with mango!  Baby J was busy crawling around during the potluck and destroying an old envelope... and he learnt how to climb up a step while he was at it (took him only a few tries before he mastered it!).  

Then it was an NIE classmate's wedding at the Raffles Hotel on Saturday afternoon.  Hubby was on call, so he dropped us off at work and I headed down to town with baby J.  It was baby J's first time on the MRT train (we usually take the bus), and was really quiet as he was occupied by looking at all the people around him.  However, he was so restless during the wedding that I missed most of the ceremony as I had to take him outside to settle down, but it was quite nice wandering around the hotel, which is really pretty... Had a good time catching up with 2 of my NIE classmates, whom I've haven't met in ages (but then, that's pretty common since all the teachers are always drowning in work!).  Oh, and for once, the wedding favour was a useful item: A ruler!  (And I love the words on it!)

Ahhhh... Sunday was challenging, as I had to get myself and baby J ready (breakfast and baths for both of us that is!) and we had to head down to church on our own since hubby was going to go to church straight from work.  If that wasn't enough, baby J gagged during breakfast and puked up most of what he ate, and the dog had a stomach upset (thanks to him drinking fish tank water as hubby left a pail of water plants on the floor as he was replanting his aquarium) and had diarrhoea all over my bedroom floor! I ended up having to take a cab, but we made it there in one piece!

We had a buffet lunch with baby J's Godpa and P at a Chinese restaurant in the Fusionopolis, (which actually is a R&D complex), which serves pretty decent fried sotong and century egg porridge, and then wandered around their supermarket checking out interesting snacks and food.

Oh, and finally, I was just telling hubby that we have been spending a little too much on eating out, so for the month of December, we're going on a "Project Cheap Chomps", where we're going to challenge ourselves to have yummy meals costing less than $5 per person when we eat out... and I'm going to try to cook more.  (Ok, I've just realised that this blog is turning into a food blog, which it is not, so I'm going to try to restrict food posts to Friday!)

Hope everyone had a great weekend as well! :)