Trick or treats!

My first (and last) pair of trick or treats-ers! I think the boy on the left is Zoro; the other boy... his skull (?) mask is worn backwards. Well, I must give him something for going round the neighbourhood still!

Thank gawd Terence asked me to buy some sweets before I hit the road home.

KO!

Kai was so thrilled and psyched up by Anna's company during our night out to Cicerellos (Perth, Australia) that he knocked out the minute he got into the car. He didn't even wake up when we brought him back to the hotel, undressed him, changed his diapers and put him in his PJs.

The Screening Room

The Screening Room has a rather novel concept that's worth checking out. It is a film-themed restaurant where you'd get to enjoy a menu that's inspired by the movie that's playing for the night. (So say if they're playing "Under the Tuscan sun", you can expect a Tuscan dinner.) And after the movie, you can chill out at the Screening Room's rooftop bar.

C'est la vie...

We watched "Singapore dreaming", tickets courtesy of the Sun Festival organisers.

I wept.

After the movie, Terence insisted that we try to get back some of the cool life (yeah right...) that we had before Kai came along by getting a drink at the bar. I had my first Cosmopolitan. Felt like Carrie from "Sex and the city" as I ordered it. But after I tasted it, I decided maybe I'll just stick to good old boring Bellini.

The moon shone high in the clear night sky, and all was bright and gay

Exorcising our demons at Busselton Jetty

We did it! We finally walked the long, long, long Busselton Jetty (1,841m) and visited the Underwater Observatory at the end of the jetty. (We abandoned the outing in cold, cold April this year.)

It took 22 minutes to walk there and 30 minutes to walk back. Kai insisted on walking on the way back though he was bent on self-destruction (i.e. running off the jetty) everytime we put him down.

We didn't think he got anything from the trip. All he wanted to do was switch the TV on and off in the observatory room (8m below sea level). (Please understand darling, it was something Mommy and Daddy HAD to do. And you've got no cause to complain. We carried you for one solid hour!)

Kai and Josh

The young Tan and Tay at Cicerello (Fremantle, Perth)

Kai's 16 months and Josh was about 10 months when we met earlier this month in Australia. But they look almost the same size! And it's hard to imagine that though Josh is six months younger and hasn't started walking, both Kai and Josh will enter Primary 1 at the same time. Of course the always-logical Terence says the disparity in months will not be that obvious when they grow up. (It helps to marry a smart man.)

Check out Kai's little right pinky (above and below). He's very dainty when he eats. He likes holding his food with his thumb and index fingers, and with his right pinky sticking out! I've given birth to a guniang eater!!!

Fire

Campfire's burning. Draw nearer.

To the warmth? Together with my friends. Draw nearer. Is it too warm for comfort?

You see the wood burning. Pretty colours. Red, orange, yellow.

Sparks fly. Heat in your face. Look up and see the faces around you. Are they friendly, happy, soulful, sad.

What about the shadows that dance around them. Are they friendly, frightful, fearful.

Now look at the faces again.
Am I with friends?

Written during the "Getting beyond the editor within" workshop conducted by Jacqueline Le Sueur at the Singapore Sun Festival.

# # #

It's essentially a creative writing workshop. In the first writing exercise, Jacqueline gave us each a word and we had three minutes to write something, anything, about the word we were given. I got the word "fire". Some other words received by others include "water", "earth", "rabbit".

I learnt that the technique that I applied during this exercise is what writers call "free writing". Free writing is an exercise in which you write quickly off the top of your head with no judgment intended. It is useful, on occasion, for getting a writing project started, but it is also the most common warm up exercise used by professional writers.

A Flame Milestone: We're the PR agency for the Singapore Sun Festival

Flame was approached by the organiser almost before the event started on 18 Oct and after they ahem "fired" their big-brand PR agency. Florence and the PR team worked their butts off for this event, but it's all worth it. Singapore Sun Festival is one of the biggest Singapore Tourism Board-supported events and the team got to rub shoulders with plenty of local and overseas celebrities (e.g. k.d. lang, Neil Humphrey, Pam Oei from the Dim Sum Dollies etc.)

The event is a "celebration of the arts and the art of living well". It consists of a series of events covering music, film, wine, literature, wellness, cuisine and visual arts. The team attended a Sun charity event where trishaws decorated by celebrities (e.g. Hossan Leong, Pam Oei, Denise Keller) were showcased.Highlighted here's my favourite trishaw decorated by Ketna Patel, which is in line with her Asia Pop project. And here's the Channel News Asia team conducting their interview infront of the trishaw.

I love to go a wandering

I got my wish to go tramping with Kai. It was unexpected. Terence only wanted to drive to the Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse at the Geographe Bay, and he was saying he was tired, can we not trek etc. But when we got there, we decided to go anyway. Good thing that we always kept the Macpac in the boot--courtesy of the Tays.

It was fantastic. We walked about 5km, which took about an hour--inclusive of the stop to catch whales at the Whale Lookout point. And we saw whales! Yeah, ok, they were far, far away but we caught some breaching action (or so we thought were breaching action) and water spouting from the blow-hole. We both took turns to carry Kai. The Macpac would be one helluva good investment if we lived in Australia.

It's spring in Perth

I couldn't be happier. Everywhere we went, we saw flowers--in someone's lawn, in the wild, in the gardens, along the road. Everywhere! Kai was taught big and small, colours, textures etc. through the flowers we saw. I think just about anyone can be a green thumb in Perth.

A Flame milestone: We're the PR agency for Art Singapore

And Resse did the stands for the opening ceremony!

It is a big deal. You see the Art Singapore poster almost everywhere in Singapore!

We finally visited...

Ah Demsey Road, Demsey Road. It brought back so much memories. Terence's camp was there (HQMC or HQ Medical Corps), and Corinne and I explored the dusty teak furniture warehouses once. It's changed so much since then, and is one of the places to eat/chill out/be seen/pose in a hip joint (see pic below).

Now you can find chi-chi restaurants, spas, ice cream parlours, bars, high-end grocers there. Jones the grocer is one of them. So much eye candy, and it is a veritable delight for gourmet food lovers. We oohed and ahhed over the truffles salt, while Kai attempted to lick the sample.

We did the Hacienda

I finally checked out Hacienda at Dempsey with babe-licious friend Constance.

Bleah.

Firstly, we couldn't find the place in the badly lit area. Signage was non existence, or at least we couldn't see it in the dark. When I finally trudged up the hill on my heels, two staff were at the entrance busy ignoring me. I finally asked: "Do you work here?!"

They clunked my Bellini on the table. Perhaps it was hard to gauge the distance to the table in the dark, so they set the Champagne glass rather loudly on the table. Same happened to Constance when her drink arrived. It's not damning, but we certainly raised our eyebrows at this.

My wagyu pizza took a long time to arrive. When it did, it was average. But I must say the crab cake was good though. When it was time to pay up, the bill took a long time to arrive.

I don't think I'll go back again, especially when there're so many more places to check out at Dempsey. We wanted to take a picture together, but it was just too dark. All I took on the outing was the tea light on my table.

What do you do with wet sand?

Saw another family trying to remove wet sand from the kids' feet at the beach today. We had that problem too the first time we brought Kai to the beach. We were so frazzled at the end of the messy exercise that we said it'd be a long time before we bring him to the beach again.

Not with talcum powder we won't.

Just use on the wet hands/feet, and the sand will come off in the jiffy. No need to even dry the hands/feet first. Plus you and baby will smell great thereafter! Best thing is, no more messing up the car! A definite must-carry for beach lovers.

(I read about this tip in my favourite parenting magazine, Parents.)

Yong Tau Foo

On the right of the Amoy Street Fried Oyster store is a yong tau foo store that's always very well patronised. Terence likes it but the MSG makes him feel funny. I don't know why anyone would queue for it. It's nice, but I personally wouldn't bother unless my husband does the standing. :)

Amoy Street Fried Oyster

It is not in Amoy Street at all, but at People's Park food market (#01-1016B).

We sometimes go to the market on Saturday afternoons to visit my parents. While we leave Kai with my parents at their store, Terence and I will go around sampling the food at the market.

We call such escapades Tapas (which is the name for a wide variety of appetizers in Spanish). We tried the char kway teow from the store previously, and liked it very much. There was a queue to warrant our curiosity too.

But when we went there last weekend, it wasn't as tasty as before. Maybe the cook was having a bad day. Having said that, I would suggest giving it a try.

Naturally we ordered the oyster omelette since they are after all the "Amoy Street Fried Oyster". But it had too much starch, not enough egg. You can give it a miss unless you crave for some oysters, which this store gives enough so you won't suspect your husband for eating more than his fair share.

Oops at Oosh

I think almost everyone in Singapore would have heard of Oosh by now. It was one of the restaurants I placed on my "to visit" list (note the past tense) until today.

Over lunch, Michelle narrated a friend's misadventure with the restaurant:

Three of them brought an overseas angmoh friend to Oosh. Being the gregarious person that he is, the angmoh told the waiter/chef to just serve them something special, be creative.

(At this point, alarm bells were already ringing in the heads of everyone listening to Michelle.)

Guess how much the bill came up to. Gary started off with S$500. I said S$900. Michelle said: "No, higher."

(Stunned silence around the table.)

The final figure? Close to S$3,000.

What on earth did they eat?

OK... they should have been more savvy and someone ought to have reined in the angmoh guy after he said that. But seriously, the restaurant should have warned their customers that it is going to cost them. Even if they were served toro, the best grade of sake ever etc. we can't fathom how it could come up to S$3,000.

After this incident, I'm certainly avoiding Oosh for sure.