Wow, 2 whole months of silence on the blog. Surely you realise it’s because we’ve been busy and not because we’re neglecting the blog

Where to begin? Hmm…. Well, first off, there I was back at work for 6 weeks unexpectedly so that pretty much kept me away from the PC apres-office. Then came the visitors from Oz and Kuching. GL and JW stayed with us for a whole week! At least the guest suite was put to good use.

After that was D&E’s wedding, oh boy!, what a whirlwind of activity… especially when lil Alex-Oli gets into his Thomas the Tank tooting mode. Trying to entertain Icelandics for 3 whole weeks is challenging. I am happy to report they share our love for our favourite comfort food – TT Chicken Rice!

via flickr.com

A nice retreat here and here followed. After almost 7years together, it’s nice to know Mr can still surprise me. And surprises galore it was I loved the ‘amazing race’ feel to our getaway. If anything, I brought one lesson home with me from that retreat. Pics to follow here.

Not knowing everything won’t kill anyone, lol.

Mr would have his pilgrimage to EpiCentre @ Wheelock. And since he’s met me, it’s included our annual gourmet (read: expensively greedy) pilgrimage to Chatterbox @ Meritus Mandarin for it’s $22 chicken rice. Of course, having known enough locals for a good number of years, I would never admit to going there for the exorbitantly priced slice of heaven. Even I’m not that silly. Mind you though, it may be $22++ but the meat portion is about 4x that of our local favourite $3.20 chicken rice.

a pilgrimage of greed

This year, we’ve found another place to add to our greed list. While roaming around the dungeons of the new mall on Orchard, Mr found our favourite Beef Noodle stall has been resurrected!! Hooray! So, that’s now on our list for the next visit. Though, we both agree that it’s rather disconcerting when one takes a moment to realise that we are in the bowels of Singapore filling our tummies and should, God forbit, an emergency evacuation be necessary, Basement 4 is not where I’d choose to be! Especially when it’s in a mall with narrow walkways and poorly signed exits.

Nevertheless, the trip came and went much too quickly. It’s now 2 weeks since we were last there. Why is it that good things always seem to end to soon? WHY???

What with the Influenza and haze situations, I’ve been thinking of alternative ways (read: non-shopping-mall ways) to occupy my time while Mr’s at work. So, after a quick click at Singapore’s tourism site, I thought I’d give cooking classes a go. Went with this one and I’ve just gotten confirmation that it will indeed happen! Yay. Mr will be happy that I’ll know (cross-fingers!) how to make chapati. Cos then he can truly start his journey towards being an indian-food-only vegetarian

Happy Birthday, AVCL!!

We’ve been blessed with 3 great years – ups, downs, laughs, tears and everything in between.

Here’s what we look forward to. It’s a quick, short but inspiring read.

Touching words from the mouths of babes on what ‘Love’ means. A group of professional people posed this question to a group of 4 to 8 year olds – “What does ‘love’ mean?”. The answers they got were broader and deeper than anyone could have imagined.

‘When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn’t bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That’s love.’
Rebecca- age 8

‘When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different.
You just know that your name is safe in their mouth.’
Billy – age 4

‘Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other.’
Karl – age 5

‘Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs.’
Chrissy – age 6

‘Love is what makes you smile when you’re tired.’
Terri – age 4

‘Love is when my Mummy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK.’
Danny – age 7

‘Love is when you kiss all the time. Then when you get tired of kissing, you still want to be together and you talk more. My Mummy and Daddy are like that. They look gross when they kiss’
Emily – age 8

‘Love is what’s in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen.’
Bobby – age 7 (Wow!)

‘If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate,’

Nikka – age 6
(we need a few million more Nikka’s on this planet)

‘Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, and then he wears it everyday.’
Noelle – age 7

‘Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well.’
Tommy – age 6

‘During my piano recital, I was on a stage and I was scared. I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling. He was the only one doing that. I wasn’t scared anymore.’
Cindy – age 8

‘My Mummy loves me more than anybody. You don’t see anyone else kissing me to sleep at night.’
Clare – age 6

‘Love is when Mummy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken.’
Elaine-age 5

‘Love is when Mummy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Robert Redford.’
Chris – age 7

‘Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day’
Mary Ann – age 4

I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones.

Lauren – age 4

‘When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you.’ (what an image)
Karen – age 7

‘Love is when Mummy sees Daddy on the toilet and she doesn’t think it’s gross.’
Mark – age 6

‘You really shouldn’t say ‘I love you’ unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget.’
Jessica – age 8

And the final one — Author and lecturer Leo Buscaglia once talked about a contest he was asked to judge.

The purpose of the contest was to find the most caring child. The winner was a four year old child whose next door neighbour was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife.

Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman’s yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there.

When his Mother asked what he had said to the neighbour, the little boy said, ‘Nothing, I just helped him cry.’