Our getaway overseas...... SENTOSA ....... continues yet again!

1 August 2008.

Nathaniel skipped school today as he was going to Sentosa with us. After a half hour job by the beach and a quick shower, I made a trip back home to pick him up. He was already dressed to go out. I had told him 2 days ago that he was going to Sentosa on Friday. And he remembered that. Its just amazing how much a child picks up things like that so quickly.

The two of us then made our way back to Amara to pick Shirley. Nat was so excited when we reached the hotel. At this age, I believe it does not take much to really satisfy a child. We then proceeded for the first activity of the day for Nat. The Luge! Knowing how sometimes Nat seems afraid of things, I primed him about the Luge. I told him we were going to the Luge and that the year before, his cousins wore helmets and went on it. I think he remembered because he did not resist wearing the helmet and drive the "small car." I told him that he will have to help Daddy drive the "small car." And I think giving him such an important job like made him want to go on it even more. At one stage of the descent down, I told him that he will have to tell me if he wants Daddy to go faster or slower. When I asked him which one? He told me, "Faster Daddy." So he seemed to enjoy it, though I could not see his face as he was sitting in front of me.

On our way up!!


On our way down!


At the end.


Mummy and Nat at the beach in front of the luge.


We then all took the sentosa bus from the beach station over to the Dolphin Lagoon just for the fun of it. We then took the beach tram to "koufu" where we had a quick snack and drink before we went to check out the primate encounter and the show. We managed to catch an iguana close up. Nat was quite a few steps behind us as we looked at the iguana!

On the bus.


The iguana.


The primate show was quite interesting. It was a monkey show! Nat enjoyed it toward the end when the monkey started to throw hoops.

Our getaway overseas...... SENTOSA ....... continues

It was off to the spa after lunch. We relaxed at the spa pool for a while. I then went to the heated jacuzzi in the men's changing room before the 90min swedish massage. Shirley did the pre-natal one of course. My therapist was quite old and did not have much knowledge about the oils. But oh well.....

We then went back to our room at Amara Sanctuary for a rest before heading to Imbiah lookout for a pizza/ pasta dinner.

The spa we went to.


The spa pool.


At Imbiah Lookout.


From the coffee bean at Imbiah.

Our getaway overseas...... SENTOSA

31st July 2008.

Shirley and I decided to stay for 2 nights in Sentosa. One night on our own, and the second night with Nat. The two of us started our holiday by checking into Amara Sanctuary at Sentosa and then headed to Il Lido for an Italian lunch. Il Lido is located at the Sentosa Golf Club. My my, the lunch was expensive! As I told Shirley, the more high class the restaurant, the smaller the servings.

Il Lido. Italian Restaurant at Sentosa Golf Club.


Shirley with her pasta.


My salmon!!

At the beach

27th July 2008, morning.

We decided to drive to the East Coast for breakfast today. We had visited the Old Town Coffee place, opened by Mark Lee twice before and we wanted to let my mother in law try the place, hence our visit. The verdict, well, the coffee was nice, but not the milk tea (it was diluted). The Nasi Lemak, was not that great. I guess it was also because I had just eaten the famous nasi lemak at Adam Road Food Centre, and thus I could compare the two. The asam laksa? Well, the review from mom-in-law was that the gravy was nice. So there. It was crowded I must say (the till must have been ringing very often!!) and the table turnover was quite fast too!

We then took a stroll to the beach area. Nat kind of likes the beach, but seems afraid of the water. I had to bring him closer. He then found out that he could throw sea shells into the water, and he liked that, judging from his enthusiasm after throwing the shell. In addition, he did not want to leave the beach!

Enjoying breakfast.


Nat's new friend. Mr. Owl.


Nat with Dad's umbrella.

DURIAN FEST 2008

27th July 2008.

The Tan Family decided to converge at eldest sister's house for steamboat. After the light and yummy dinner, we proceeded for the main event of the night.... DURIAN FEST 2008. Sponsored by SHIRLEY TAN CORPORATION, almost 30kg of durians were devoured by those present, with a little bit of extras leftover. They tasted good by the way, however, Nathaniel only took a little. At least we know that he is not adverse to it unlike our friends from the west.

Before devouring.


After devouring.


Nathaniel looking on.


Por Por digging in.


Por Por and sponsor enjoying the durians.

Ben's Little World

Click on the title of this post. Thanks. Ben :)

AT JUSCO

24 May 2008.

This is a little dated. But Shirley and I thought that we should at least post this video. Its so funny. Nat just could not keep his eyes open at Jusco in the afternoon. We think that he was so tired after all the activity in JB.

Enjoy!

Racial Harmony Day

21 July 2008.

I had bought this set of clothes from Shanghai when I was there 2 weeks ago. I had got an email from Shirley about getting something for Nat as the school was going to celebrate Racial Harmony Day. So I managed to get this at "zhou jia zhuang", one of the places we visited after our 2 day meeting. As Shirley and I will be at work on the actual day, we dressed Nat up to see how he would look, and somehow, he started doing his kung fu actions. Or it could be a dance too!? Well only Nat knows!

More scans

I had showed 2 earlier scans. Here are the next 2 scans taken on 3 May and 26 May 2008. Looks good doesn't it???





You know the doctor will tell you where are the arms, legs, etc etc. And we pretend to know what he is saying. "Oh yes! Oh yes!" we answer him whenever he says there is the forearm, the thigh etc. We are doctors too!

Surprise Mummy!!!

14th July 2008.

Boy was Mummy surprised!!! Daddy and Mummy's good friends decided to drop by last night to celebrate Mummy's birthday with a Gelare cake. They had contacted Daddy via email last week when he was in Shanghai to arrange something. Daddy was supposed to take Mummy and I out for dinner last night, but Mummy said why not Tuesday (actual birthday)? So Daddy had to change the plan (least Mummy suspects) for them to come by the house instead. When Daddy got the sms from Uncle Sam that they were coming up, Daddy told Mummy to change. But Mummy thought he meant change the TV channel as we were watching TV. The next moment, Mummy saw the guys come out from the lift..... "SURPRISE!" I started laughing too when I saw Keegan come to the gate! Way to go!!

I enjoyed myself, singing Happy Birthday to Mummy and eating the ice-cream cake! Yum Yum. Thank you Uncle Ben and Sam, Auntie Eunice, Tina zeh zeh, Kevin Gor Gor and Keegan Di Di for coming by to celebrate with Mummy!

Love, Nat Nat :)

Gelare Cake.


My family.


The gang.


Chit chatting and eating cake.


Por Por, Keegan and I.

Sunday at Melaka

The Sunday started with breakfast at the hotel on the 21st floor. Each room came with 2 free breakfasts and we all took advantage of that. It was continental breakfast, but it filled us up good.

We headed down to the mall again! But this time to check out the other shops. We all split up to shop for our own stuff. Shirley went for a foot spa etc. Nat and I spent time together walking around. Nat was tired and I was forced to go back to the car to get the stroller. Funny thing is I met 2 people from Singapore. Tee Chin, my long time friend since primary school and Remin, Sam's friend. We don't see much of each other in Singapore, but we are able to meet in Melaka!

The Lims did not get anything much this time round. The Teohs and Chuas did though. But Uncle Ben did get something for Nat. A motorcycle!

Nat and his new toy. Thanks Uncle Ben!


After this, we went to Newton for lunch. Char Kway Teow, noodles and satay. We headed back to the hotel for a last minute shower before check out. It was check out at 3pm. After which we made a last stop for chendol! (see: http://eunicebenkevin.blogspot.com for the chendol photo!)

We started driving back to Singapore, making 2 stops. One was because Keegan had threw up on Eunice as he was not feeling well. We wish Keegan a speedy recovery. The last stop was for dinner just before the Tuas checkpoint. It was good bye to our friends from then on.

We Lims look forward to our next trip!!! Maybe next time we can try Bintan???

The Melaka story continues

After tea break, we went over to the mall next to the hotel to do some grocery shopping at Carrefour. Things were much cheaper than Singapore and we ended up buying milk powder etc. For dinner, we headed down to Jonker's Walk. Boy was it crowded! We ended up having chicken rice balls for dinner!





Shirley and Nat waiting for the chicken rice.


Sam and Tina.


The Teohs.


My poh piah man at Jonkers.


My favourite supper treat!. Durian chendol at Jonkers.

Our "fast fast" trip to Melaka

5-6th July 2008.

The Teohs, the Chuas and the Lims made time for a weekend trip to Melaka. It was meant to get together and to relive some aspects of our very first trip to Melaka quite a few years back. We managed to get a good rate at Hotel Equatorial (thanks big Ben!) and we all had Club Rooms. The hotel was nice and the rooms were spacious! We started off Saturday morning from the Teoh's at Carmen Terrace. We passed the Tuas checkpoint without much fuss. We managed to get to our first "makan" place. Gosh! The place was renovated, but there were so many flies that it kind of put us off! But we managed to find another coffee joint to eat!

Nat and Tina zeh zeh



Nat with Tina zeh zeh's sunnies



Our breakfast stop



We pushed on from here to get to Melaka at about 1pm. As we passed by Makko, the Peranakan restaurant, we decided to have lunch there before checking in. We had the "chin cha loke omelette" which was a must have, asam fish amongst other dishes.

We checked in Hotel Equatorial immediately after lunch and headed straight for the swimming pool!

Towkay Ben checking us in on the 21st floor (only for Club rooms!!)



Ben with Nat at the pool



For more pool side antics, please see: http://eunicebenkevin.blogspot.com

After the poolside action, and after a quick shower, we went opposite for maggie goreng, chennai and drinks.
Here is sista Eunice enjoying her kopi.



We were at the yellow shop eating our maggie goreng and kopis/teh tarik. Then we saw the chennais from the blue stall next door. But the lady there told us that she could not serve us because we were at the yellow stall, so guess what we did, we finished up and moved to the blue stall to have the chennai. Gosh! We die die must try the chennai!

The yellow and blue stalls.

Announcing the impending arrival of...........

This was taken on 10 March 2008.

This is to announce officially that we are expecting our second child.



At this point, the foetus is so very small.

The next scan was taken on 5th April 2008.



Still small, but growing.

We had been telling Nat about baby. Nat says hi and good night at times. Also kisses mummy's tummy good night. We parents have to be sensitive to Nat's feelings especially when baby comes out. But we have started to prepare him.

As it stands, we are due officially on 2nd November 2008. But we suspect that it would be earlier some time in October. How do we know this? Well, with Nathaniel, we were early, so most probably, and the obstetrician agrees, it would be early. Good to know!!!

Look out for more scans in the coming posts. See you all soon.

Barney!!!!!!!!!!

8th June 2008.

It's Barney day! Daddy brought me on a "date". Just he and I went for a Barney concert at Suntec City. I was a little overwhelmed by the loud sound system that I kept putting my fingers into my ears, but as the show went on, I did not realise that I took the fingers out of my ears. I began to enjoy it, especially when they kept singing songs I knew from the VCDs Daddy bought for me. I especially liked "Baby Bop Hop!!!!"

Thanks Daddy!

Dim Sum

8th June 2008 was rare. We took a drive to Geylang in search of Dim Sum. I had to drive around a few times to find the place (your mom and I vaguely remembered there was a dim sum place!!). After finding the place and dropping you off, I drove a few more rounds to try and find parking!! Phew!! Anyway, we finally settled down to eat!!!!!

You and your favourite "char siew pau"



After the heavy breakfast, we decided to take a drive to Bedok Reservior to try and catch some dragon boat action, but we saw this Chinese man and his son trying out their cheap remote controlled boat. The boy was nervous as the currents seemed strong and the boat seemed to get further away from the shore. The father took over and told him not to worry and most "garangly" let the boat go out further away from the shore. Guess what happened next????? Scroll down to see the answer (a picture speaks a thousand words they say!)

The three of you checking out the boat.


The answer!


Peace!! (at the slide)


Me and You