The Bub in the Belly

Saturday was a day of sisterly love as a small group of my dear friends came over to see Rachel. It was a mini reunion for us as well, as some of us had not seen each other for years (although we keep in touch over the internet and phone).

This is about half of our "gang" - three of us live in Singapore, one flew in from Hong Kong and one came in from Johor, Malaysia just for this meetup. We call ourselves "budakkampung" - meaning "village kids". Most of the other half of the "gang" is based in Malaysia, with a couple of others in Riyadh and Jakarta. I'll be meeting up with the Malaysia-based ones later in the month.

Everytime we snapped a photo, you'd find us all tuned to our smartphones to send the photos to the rest of the gang and see their messages in reply. It's pretty amazing how our friendship has lasted through so many decades and despite being scattered over so many countries. I hope my children will have something like that for themselves when they grow up.

We sat around the dining table and chatted the afternoon away from about 1 pm till about 5 pm. And we ate - boy, did we eat! We ate curry chicken with rice and bread, chicken rice, two types of noodles, three flavours of ice-cream, a ton of fruit, followed by a big slice of cake. Yup, we took the opportunity to have an early and mini full month celebration for baby Rachel.


"Aunty" Josie

"Aunty" Sheri

Oh, this one is not an "auntie" - this is one of my friend's daughters, Ashley!




As they left, Ee Fann popped by to give us goodies to celebrate his daughter's full month - Zi Ern was born on 7 June. Thanks Ee Fann and Shann!

The moon was lovely tonight, big and full. We took Ryan's lanterns - last year's Spongebob and this year's Thomas the Train (both given to him by his nanny) - and made our way to the beach. We got there about half-past nine and there weren't many people around. I guess most people stayed indoors because of the haze, or perhaps they had more happening places to be.

We took a slow stroll along the pedestrian walk, taking in the cool air and the quiet night. Ryan wanted to be carried, although he insisted on carrying both his lanterns himself.

Interestingly, it was very quiet. There were some couples, young and old, carrying lanterns and strolling along. There were some sitting on the beach by the light of their lanterns. There were some people hanging out in groups, lighting sparklers. Yet, there were no loud voices, nobody running around being rowdy. It was as if everyone was lost in their own little world and they appreciated the peace and the quiet. Amazing.

My mum arrived in Singapore on Wednesday night, so we were able to spend the last day of the Chinese New Year (Thursday) together. Of course, it was food and more food!

My mum spent the afternoon in Chinatown while I went to work. My partners and I treated our team (associates and secretaries) to lunch at Si Chuan Dou Hua, which is on the 60th floor of UOB Plaza (Tower 1). The menu was quite good, but frankly speaking, after dining so well over the past 15 days, I thought there was little that could really impress me. I was therefore pleasantly surprised that, of all dishes, their yee sang (or yu sheng) was the best that I have tasted in all the restaurants I have been to over these past two weeks. They served it with fried enoki mushrooms and crispy salmon skin, aside from the usual salmon, abalone, mandarin peel, pearl onion, etc.

Usually when there is yee sang, the guests lose interest after the first small helping and have to be persuaded to take further helpings to help finish the dish. In the end, the service staff will simply transfer the remainder onto a smaller plate to make space for the next course. None of that was necessary today. Everyone was fighting to have more!

Long Spout Tea Performance

The view from the restaurant on the 60th floor of UOB Plaza 1

See the silhouettes on the upper floor at the left? That's Richard carrying Ryan in his arms, with my mum sitting across the table.