An afternoon walk at Southern Ridges

Our Dept has organised a staff bonding during vacation period to Southern Ridges.

I have asked the Dept organiser if I can bring my nephew along and they said it was fine. Therefore Nicholas followed us on this expedition.

The chartered bus brought us to Hortpark first which is at off Alexandra Road. This Hortpark is a must visit for people who loves gardening or has an appreciation for flowers and plants. I will definately asked CK and Mum along the next time. CK has asked me if Hortpark can bring dogs, I'll have to check that out.
Hortpark website --> http://www.gardentech.com.sg/dnn453/default.aspx

After exploring the Hortpark for about half an hour, the group gathered together for a warm up exercise before venturing into the 4 km walk from ridges to ridges. The bridges complete a 9km chain of greenery in the Southern Ridges, which consist primarily of three large hill parks - Mount Faber, Telok Blangah Hill Park and Kent Ridge Park. Our final destination will be at Mount Faber.

This is like a tree-top walk along high steel stilts. Along the way, we spotted a squirrel eating durian fruit from a durian tree. As we advanced, we were able to spot some unique "fruits" which might not be edible. We had a quick resting point near Alkaff mansion and continue to walk to Mount Faber. The journey of 4 km was pretty exhausting to me.

I was very appreciative of Edna and Huey Shan taking care of Nicholas for me during the walk. Energetic Edna was encouraging and spurring Nicholas along which helped a lot in boosting his desire to walk on. Sweety Huey Shan was gentle and patient with Nicholas. Overall the walk was tiring to me but anyhow was glad that Nicholas and myself with the help of friendly colleagues, we finally reached our destination. Before I wrote this blog at about 8:45pm, I called Nicholas and he was already asleep. I believed this day must be quite exhausting for him.

I was also very grateful to some lovable colleagues like Karen, Vim, 2 Erics, Ah "Ma" etc for playing, chatting and taking photographs with Nicholas. It made me feel that he was being welcomed to join the big group of "aunties", "uncles", "Jie Jies" and "Gou Gous"for this walk. Initially I was quite worried if Nicholas would reject walking such a long distance or made a fuss because the weather was really hot. Seems like my worries were unfounded.

Thank you for your help and friendliness :)

* Esther "Ah Ma", you really look too young to be called "Ah Ma" but you have insisted. Think when Nicholas called you "Ah Ma", I thought that it was very heart-warming. Thanks for taking care of Nicholas in Hortpark. Estay, thanks for staying back for the "laggers" like me :)
Website --> http://www.nparks.gov.sg/cms/index.php?option=com_visitorsguide&task=attractions&id=62&Itemid=73




Thank you video from Nicholas

Thank You for the bear

Dear friend

Thank you for the bear. I'm very touched to know that this is the only bear that you have owed ... and you are giving it to me.

I don't know what to say except "Thank you and I really appreciate your lovely bear".

Love, Diana

My dear friend ... you'll be fine ....

For a friend I dearly loved

Don't be despair
Don't be defeated
Don't be discouraged
As there are still love in this world

Open up yourself
Open your hearts
Open your mind
To those whom love you dearly

Love yourself
Love your family
Love your friends
Yes, there are many of us here

My dear friend
I feel your agony
I feel your pain
I feel your loneliness

You have touched my life since 1999
You have made me shear a tear or two today
You have been a great pal
And I'll like to let you know
You're not alone .. you've got us !!!

Love
Diana

Done 4 things in one day - Father's Day

This morning was quite blissful ... I enjoyed my sleep till 9:00am. However after that was a mad rush. Managed to take a shower and we decided to bring Jojo to Club4paws for an unusual morning walk. Upon reaching there, we saw about 4 golden retrievers already having their fun in the pool. As i need to go Yina's housewarming later, we cannot let Jojo have his first swim. He just walked around the premises till the bigger dogs came down after their swim. The golden retrievers chased him around and he was real small compared to the big darlings. Jojo must be having a real execise because he was panting very heavily after being "embushed" by dogs which were 4 times his size !

Time passed by fast, realised it's time to make a move. I was slightly late when I reached Yina's house. I managed to meet Estya downstairs and we came up together. After exploring the beautiful house, we went to have our lunch. I was real hungry as I have not taken any breakfast. The catered food is quite delicious. I was pretty fussy about catered food as most of the times they were not nice. We had a good time chatting and cracking some jokes. As I need to go to my mum's house to supervise the kitchen renovation, I made a move later an hour's time.

Yina's house warming with LSCT's colleagues/friends














Finally, today is the last day of my mum's kitchen renovation. The missing doors, washhand basin's cabinet and the opaque glass backing were fixed. My mum is very relief that finally the nightmare is over as renovation is somewhat dirty and inconvenient. She has engaged me as her "professional" consultant to "deal" everything from quotations, materials selection, supervision etc. I enjoyed the process as I am always very fond of home decorations.

Mum's kitchen from "Kitchen's old look" to "Renovation" to "Completed Look"





Completed Kitchen


Tomorrow is Father's Day. We have actually intended to celebrate Father's Day and CK's belated Birthday at "No Sign Board" restaurant at Vivocity tomorrow. Since my dad has suggested a restaursant opposite their flat, therefore we would postpone the "No Sing Board" treat to next week. Surprisingly, the food offered in this neighbourhood restaurant is not too bad, It has been operating for 2 years now, but we have never thought of eating there. My dad is quite happy with the food which is very important. My father saw a familiar person in the same restaurant. He told us that the elderly man sitting in another table is a long-timed (but not much contact now) friend who played basketball with him and mum. Time really flew by, my dad and his friend are already in their seventies. I was quite convinced that we all have to treasure our youth and be happy when we can. Time wait for no men !
Anyhow I'll like to wish my Father a Happy Father's Day!!

Dinner at "Different Taste" Restaurant

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HUBBY !!!! (2008)

Today is your Birthday !!!

Today is the day that you were born 35 years ago !!!

I can't be happier that you were born then ....

Have a blessed and happy Birthday, hubby !!!

Birthdays Celebration

Friday was a real super busy day and we did not get home till after midnight. Therefore, I was dead-tired to even switch on my notebook.

Siew Yen, Jin Yin, Jo and the rest have suggested to celebrate CK's birthday on Friday night. They have decided to treat him to "Si Chuan Dou Hua" restaurant but CK has finally decided that we would just treat him at "Lao Ba Sha". We have ordered quite a number of dishes to go with the rice. After the dinner, we wanted to go somewhere else for a drink and chat. We walked to a nearby TCC but they have already closed for the day. Therefore we went to Esplanade Starbucks for coffee, juices and cakes. It was quite a pity as the stretch along the bay was under construction and we can't get a great view of the marina area. However if you walked further down to where the merlion is, you'll still be able to catch the wonderful night scene. We ended our lovely evening by eating 3 pieces of "not so tasty" cakes as a celebration for CK.








The next day, we continue to celebrate birthdays with our long-timed Poly friends. We met at Ichiban Boshi at Esplanade. This time we were celebrating Mui Huang, CK and Andrew's Birthday all at one time. We ordered about 14 types of Japanese dishes and wonder if we can finished all of them ? To our surprise, we could.

Before the dishes were served, we heard a commotion just outside the restaurant. A group of people were crowding around 3 comically dressed men in Japanese Kimono. They have a outrageous long "hat" on their head that bobbed dangerously as they nodded their head. Lee Lim and me decided that we should followed them as we have not managed to capture even a single shoot of them with our camera. The 2 of us followed them down the escalator to an open space. The 3 comical men stopped near a table where a couple of men were leisurely having their drinks. They took their food and pretend to drink the drinks. The men were very much amused. I thought it was a good chance to switch my still camera to a video shoot. When I focused the lens on one of the comical men, he spotted me taking video of him. he then came forward and struck a pose for me. This caught attention from the other 2 comical men. The 3 of them came forward to me and struck several poses .. nearer and nearer to me. I was quite taken-back when one of them came and shook my hand. It did not occurred to me that when he bowed and shook my hands, his outrageous hat "hit" my head several times as he continued to bow to me!! So "Malu" because everyone surrounding us were laughing away, including Lee Lim !!!! I was captured by the Esplanade professional video camera and Camera men ! I hope that they are not airing this for their promotion purpose ... hee hee .. what a day !! Lee Lim must be very amused by them and luckily did not take my "malu" video.. hee hee

After the sumptuous dinner with much laughter, teasing and jokes, we viewed Lee Lim's recent trip to Hokkaido. Before coming over to Esplanade, I brought my notebook to my mum's place to do some work, therefore have told Lee Lim to bring her USB with her so that we can all view the photoes through the computer. To most of us, the highlights of Lee Lim's trip were the funny introduction of the items bought by herself and her sister. We felt that Lee Lim has a great potential of a good sales person armed with accounting knowledge. Of course, THANK YOU to LEE LIM for the lovely gifts from Hokkaido !

Unfortunately Esther, Andrew and Colette cannot join us for the drinks. So the group of us proceeded to "hunt" for a nice place for drinks. We chanced on this beautifully dressed restaurant called "The Museum of Cookies". The ladies (excluding CK) were very attracted by the exquisitely, elaborately decorated European style furnishings and lightings. This unique cafe has a huge varieties of dainty cookies ranging from flowers flavored to local delights flavors. The lady in charge pushed in a trolley full of cookies and passed around some samples for us to taste with some introduction given. We tasted rose, lavender, blueberry, lotus etc. We agreed that the cookies were fantastic !! No wonder their cookies were voted by her World as the best cookies in Singapore ! However the cookies does not come cheap, it costs a hefty amount for $35 per small tin.

This cafe offers unique tea, coffee, chocolates drinks where we were not familiar with. They were obviously introducing a distinctive European Tea culture to the locals. We felt very lady-like for that few hours in the cafe... but won't be long once we stepped out of the cafe. We ordered 2 rather weird cakes for Ah Fang and CK. One is creamy durian cake and the other was blueberry cake. It was quite hilarious when these 2 super-small cakes were served. They were not the traditional or common cakes that we normally eat but the cakes were kinda of melted and very very soft. It almost looks like mousse cake to me but even mousse cake's texture were harder than this! The creamy durian cake was lovely and tasted just like real durian. However the blueberry cake tasted kind of weird.

Anyway, it was a very very special and unqiue experience for all of us !


3 comical men at Esplanade


Singing Happy Birthday song softly to Ah Fang and CK .. remembering we were in a dainty cafe ... HAPPY ADVANCED/BELATED BIRTHDAY TO AH FANG, CK & ANDREW !!!!


At Ichiban Boshi & Encounter with 3 weird men




At "The Museum Of Cookies"

Congratulations to Yen Chiu & a day to Club4paws

This afternoon, I've managed to chat with hubby's niece, Yen Chiu on MSN. (aka, also my niece lah) Very glad to know that her examinations were finally over and she has officially graduated from NUS !

Yen Chiu, CONGRATULATIONS for obtaining 1st Class Honors! I know that you would pass with flying colours as you have always been very diligent since young. Your academic results have always been very impressive!

Remember about our KTV session ! It'll be on my treat to you for doing so well.
And also good luck for your first real job ! It'll be an entirely new experience in your next chapter in life !

(Actually it's been kind of strange feeling to see you as a little girl since I've known your uncle CK and now you're almost an working adult. Have to admit that age is really catching up with the 2 of us ! Haha ... )

- Remembering our first trip to Melbourne in 2005, you're still a under-grad then !
=====================================================================

We went to Club4paws at Stagmont Ring Road to take a look at a newly opened club for dogs. (Very near our house)

The club's facilities is simple but they have a relatively vast place for the dogs to run and mingle with each other. It also has a pool for dogs to swim ! We wanted Jojo to socialise with other dogs to gain more confidence and to wear out his abundant energy. The club's owner accessed Jojo's temperament and concluded that he's able to join the club as he has a sweet temper. Hee hee. (If the dogs are aggressive, they would not be able to join the club. This is to ensure safety to other "furry" club members) They will also have a grooming service and a cafe coming up in mid June 08.

We were there for about an hour and apparently Jojo seems to like the place, therefore we signed him up as a member. Lucky Jojo!

Club4paws website--> http://www.club4paws.com.sg/services.htm

Jojo loves to mingle with people as well!