We went JB for a shopping and pedicure trip with Gil, Daryl & Dawn. I simply adore my pink and "bling bling" nails but my dear boy stepped on it while jumping around me. So I had to get a nail polish of a similar shade and some bling gel from Skin Food to repaint it....GRRRRR! We had KFC (Holiday plaza) for lunch and dinner at a Japanese Restaurant (City Sq). This was my 2nd time at the Jap restaurant and I must say the food was good..... felt really full and satisfied after dinner! We did not have any extra space for Baskin Robins' ice-cream which I so badly wanted to eat.... well never mind, will try it on our next trip to JB. Here are the pics.





On Sunday morning, we attended CEFC 30th Anniversary at Suntec Convention Hall. Was glad that we went. The testimony by Gurmit Singh (yes, PCK!) really touched my heart and at some point gave me goosebumps cos it could only be the hands of God moving in his life... A MIRACLE! Btw, he mentioned that he loved singing and I managed to record some parts of his song presentations..... I tell you...he has an amazing vocal!

Gurmit singing 1


Gurmit singing 2


Ps. Edmund's sermon on "Going Forth with Joy" encouraged me to find Joy in God in whatever circumstances I am in.... quite a timely message for me cos I have been pondering whether I should have another one...... I need the faith and courage to go thru' the whole ordeal again!



In the evening, we managed to get an "appointment" with Ps. Benny with the help of Danny (Thks bro!) Tho' we waited for almost an hour cos he had another meeting before us, it was all worth it! Good things are worth waiting for...hehehe.... we had fun sharing and as usual, Ps. Benny gave some wise advices. One of which was on finding a the right spouse. He mentioned that we needed (actually directed to Suling & Regina cos I am married!)to choose between a Playmate, Partner or Soul mate when choosing our other half. I personally felt that all 3 are important. Your spouse needs to be someone that you can have fun with, work with and share with! Anyway, he prayed for all of us and we left his room feeling refreshed and encouraged.


After meeting him, we went to Allson Hotel for my grandma's birthday buffet dinner at Cafe Fountainbleau. Tho' the spread was simple and and mostly local fare, I enjoyed them. The salmon was fresh, the double boiled soup was tasty and my favourite was the laksa! Even the black pepper beef and fried fish were good. I had a great time chatting with my aunties and cousin Jolen. My prince ate some crackers and rice. His gong gong even managed to bribe him with 2 servings of ice-cream..... you should see how happy he was that day!

Dinner at Allson Hotel

Ok now for all my usual update on food and finds.....

Went marketing at Sheng Siong last week and was surprised that they had become so organised and clean. There were more space and stuffs to look at. We bought the yummy otahs too. I think we will be buying our groceries from SS now cos the things are cheaper and have more varieties to choose from.

Bento and dinner I prepared last week.....

Content: Caramel corn, kaya buns, Rocher, Glutinous rice, sausages, curry buns and Otah sandwiches.


Black bean with prawns, sotong balls and mushrooms fried rice. I also deep fried some prawn paste drumsticks. Packed some for Mich who was in a rush to fetch her darling.

My SIL came this afternoon with her "na shou" sambal prawns..... it was really hot but very addictive......shiok! We chatted for a long time and decided to visit her at her place next week. Yeah, I can see my nephew Ryan!

Shall end this post with 2 "congrats":

1) Happy 21st Birthday Rachel, welcome to adulthood!
2) Congrats to Daphne for graduating with As!

Birthday Lunch at Amoy Street Hawker Centre


Saturday's evening was spent at Causeway Point with Von and Gil. We had dinner at the food court and went shopping for belts. Tom bought 2 belts for me.... happiness! Von had some make- up done by Estee Lauder workshop and I thot she looked really sweet that day (she seldom, almost never put on make-up most of the time). Pics of her are for sale below... ahem..... purposely made them small so "you" won't be satisfied looking at it...... $100 for a piece.......kekekekeke (private joke)!

Went to church on Sunday morning and had a great time. I was hesitating to bring Jo for Sunday School cos they had a HFMD case last week. But my darling little boy kept saying, "Mama, I want go Sunday School, see teacher!' Can't tell him "no" since he seemed so enthusiastic about attending his class. I am glad he enjoyed Sunday School. CEFC was so generous. They provided free lunch for the whole congregation the last 3 weeks! But we had our lunch at Vista Point instead cos wanted to have something warm.

In the evening, Ken wanted to get a helmet somewhere near Mustafa so we went Lavender Hawker Centre for dinner. Gil and Nicky were with us too. At first, we wanted to have a light dinner but after seeing the great variety of food stalls, we ordered a whole table of food! But we were rather disappointed cos the food was definitely below average except for the carrot cake which was not even highly recommended by some variety show. The only item we didn't tried was the wanton mee cos the queue was too long plus the plain looking noodles and char siew didn't look very appetising. Don't think we will dine there again. After dinner, we went shopping at Mustafa. It was a bad choice cos the place was really packed with mostly males, hate the feeling of being look from head to toe and worse still having close bodily contact(abt one cm away!) with them. The noise from all the chattering were also rather unbearable. Weekdays are still the best time to shop at Mustafa.

Since it was early, we went to our SIL's place after dropping Gil home to collect my Tupperware loot.... double happiness!

Dinner at Lavender Hawker Centre

Pics of Tom's birthday presents for me

We went NIE to fetch Gil on Monday and had dinner at one of the NTU's cafe. The food was ok and I liked the simple and cosy decor.

We invited 2 pretty ladies to our place for dinner last night. Had a good time catching up with them and reminising the past. Regina was such a sweet girl, bought us lots of goodies! Didn't know she went thru' so much at such a young age. But am glad to see that she had matured and became a stronger. Sophia (I prefer to call her Suling!) who brought the lovely apple strudel will be taking a Diploma in some baking school and we are looking forward to order Joash's 3rd birthday cake from her. Think we're going to meet up soon again and hopefully my dear bro DS will be there. Here are some pics of us...

I had recently became a neat freak after watching "Nu Ren Wo Zui Ta". Started to pack my stuff and storing them neatly. This was what I did to my collection of earrings and necklaces. Did you notice that my hangers are all in the same directlion? I have also cleared all the mess in my kitchen cabinets and fridge. Hopefully, I remain this neat for as long as possible!

Bentos I prepared this week for Tom.
Content: Heart shaped ham sandwiches/butter & jam sandwiches and sausages. Fried vegetarian bee hoon with crabsticks and ham plus fried chicken on picks.

Content of this morning bento: Ham and bread on picks. Kaya & curry buns. Some left-over fried rice with prawn rolls, chicken and pieces of ham. Did you notice that all the food were packed in Tupperware boxes? Luv them!

Bought this Limited Edition Cream Soda Caramel Corn from Daiso. Tasted sour at first bite cos of the fizzy powder but turned sweet the moment you chewed on it.... nice!

Finally, some crazy pics of Tom & I

You better brace yourself for this next pic

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

TATA!

Hope I didn't frightened you too much.......lol!

Yup, it's that time of the year where you either feel depressed over the fact that you're a year older or happy that you're a year wiser. For me, I believe in growing old gracefully....keke...... ai ya, I still look young what... just a step into the early thirties! I received lots of smses on my birthday. Thanks everyone who remembers. The first person who messaged me wasn't my hb tho', I was actually quite surprised to receive an sms from him. This post is mostly about my 31st birthday celebrations with family and friends.

First celebration, 10/8 (Sun):
I gave my dear family a treat at Joe's Kitchen Thai Cuisine. Have decided on this place after much reading up of various food blogs. Seems like a good place to enjoy affordable Thai food. I must say IMO that the food is slightly above average. Next time, I will give the super spicy mango salad, the below average tasting green curry and the "hard like tapioca" Brinjal a miss! But I will order the super crispy fish, the awesome wok hei taste Thai Kang Kong and the juicy Prawn cakes again. I liked the Crab Tang Hoon but found the tiny bits of shells in the tang hoon cumbersome to remove! So will order the Tiger Prawns version the next time. I also want to try the Deep Fried Stuffed Chicken which looked so tempting and the highly recommended Tom Yum Soup with Fried Fish. Overall, I like the friendly lady boss and most importantly, my beloved dad loved the food. We had a complimentary tapioca dessert which I don't really fancy. Gil bought my favourite Chocolate Banana Cake from Secret Recipe all the way from JB! I thot I wouldn't have a birthday cake this year cos everyone knows that I didn't really like cakes with the exception of CBC. Thanks Gil for lugging such a huge cake back (she walked in, not drive!) as birthday gift for me. Jo loved it too..... see pics of him licking up the plate below. And yes, I've got lots of lovely pressies from them.

Dinner at Joe's Kitchen Thai Cuisine



2nd Celebration, 11/8 (Mon):
We're going up the Flyer! That day was my SIL's birthday. She invited us over for a sandwich cum cake cutting party. I got her some facial masks as a gift. My niece and nephew bought a cute Eeyore mug as a bd present for me. During dinner, we casually chatted about our free August babies' treat on the Flyer with the coupons and my BIL gave the green light for my SIL to come with us! My SIL was elated cos she seldom had the chance of going out on her own. So off we go before he changed his mind! The ride on the flyer was pleasant but I couldn't take any nice pics cos it was too dark. Think the best time to go if you want to take pics would be before 7 pm. Jo was captivated by the lights from all the buildings around us. We went for supper at Long House after the ride.

Celebrating my SIL's Birthday






A Trip to The Flyer




Videos of our ride on the Flyer








Third celebration, 12/8 (Tues):
Tom had make reservation at Ma Maison for my birthday. I was really looking forward to a meal at this popular Japanese Western food restaurant. We were greeted by a pleasant looking Japanese lady when we entered the restaurant. I noticed that there were lots of Japanese in this place so I reckoned that the food here must be good cos even Japanese dine here. I like the interior decor, kind of nostalgic and cosy. The service was excellent too. We had Camembert Cheese, Hotplate Hamburger Steak and Squid Ink Pasta. The cheese was lovely and the honey, vinegar and black pepper dip goes very well with it. The hamburger steak,their signature dish was IMO, PERFECT. But my fave would be the Squid Ink Pasta......... I heart it even tho' there were only 3 pieces of squids, 1 piece of chicken and 5 pieces of mushrooms (yes, I counted them!) but the pasta was the star of the dish! The prices were also reasonable. My only complain is the portion of the food.....guess this is the place where you go for the quality not the quantity...hee..... honestly, I think I can finished all 3 items by myself! We actually went Macdonlad for some fries and ice-cream after a short window shopping...... we're big eaters!

Well, the day didn't end just like that, I had a "not so surprising" surprise by my wonderful young friends who came over to my place while I was getting Jo to bed. They brought ice-cream from Island Creamery and sang me a birthday song. Thanks guys and gals for the treat. We also had donuts from JCO.

Dinner at Ma Maison

My Pressies!

I AM SO BLESSED....... COUNTING MY BLESSINGS EVERYDAY!

Other Stuff

Dinner at our usual Sembawang food centre

Painting with Joash (see his blog for more)

I am going to start a small area here for me to put up the sermons that I heard on Sunday. Mostly in quotes and short points plus my personal reflections. This is a sermon by Ps. Ann Chan.

Title: Rekindling Your Spiritual Passion (2Cor 7:8-16)

1. We can lose our passion gradually or even suddenly. The ease of life should produce more gratefulness and thankfulness but we often neglect that.

2. In order to come close with God, we need to come clean with God.

3. Godly sorrow = repentance of heart = help us to understand our spiritual well being. Worldly sorrow = Death and Destruction

4. Four critical needs for today:
a)Renew: The need to BREAK IN (v8-9)
b)Repent: The need to BREAK WITH (v10)
c) Refresh: The need to BREAKTHROUGH (v11-12)
d) Rejoice: The need to BREAK FORTH (v13-16)

5. When was the last time we enter into solitude with God?

6. What is worse than coldness of heart? It is the veil in our heart/the enemy/effective block to spiritual progress/our wants. Remove the veil...... for the pure in heart shall see God.

Most of us were in tears and went on our knees to ask God to rekindle our passion and forgave us for stubbornly holding on to the veil. I need to see Him again. While praying, I saw the Lord holding up a sign that says,"Welcome back". Make a certain breakthrough in me Lord, I am coming back ........

We sang a song written by Ps Ann and Ruth Ling during service and it really speaks of how I felt.

I was surprised to find this video of the song on Youtube (Btw, this is not CEFC and Ps Ann)


Make A Certain Breakthrough © Ann Chan & Ruth Ling 2006

In my life of searching for the plain and simple way, Many paths were so winding, the roads were never straight, Then the Spirit of God broke through and healed my broken wings, And showed me the way into His heart

Chorus
And I know that God is leading in a clear and certain way, My one life for your purpose, Jesus, I offer up this day, To follow you completely, to do all that you say, Cleanse my life, fill me up, And use me this day, Make a certain breakthrough, Make it today

In these days of danger, Lord, we rest upon Your grace, With Your tender and skillful hands, You shape this stubborn clay, Yes You calm my inmost being, giving courage to hope again, And to build this one life in power and faith