How I Spent the Labour Day

Waking up to a very humid morning but the trio went ahead to have breakfast outside. After Evans was done with his morning milk-feed, papa drove us out to Lai Kee Pau. This time, we wanted to try the roasted meat from the other stall which we thought looked delicious. On top of that we could not resist but to order some dim sum to top up the roasted meat noodles.

The noodles fell below our expectations. The shao la was not bad, the char siew and roasted pork (shao rou) had the wok smell but then not impressive enough for me to order again. The noodles were a little soggy and the sauce made it kind of thick and mashy. Hmmm, disappointed. So it was a good thing we had the dim sum to fall back on to make it a more satisfying meal.

Hubby ordered a new item which was actually sweet tofu fish paste cake at the bottom, with a prawn on top. Yah, nothing big deal. I think the usuals (fu pi juan) still taste the best.

We also ordered the Liu Sha Bao for Evans... too dry. I think the Bao Today's version is still better.

After breakfast, I suggested bringing Evans to the playroom, to keep him entertained, also to enjoy the air con. Evans was of course delighted. He had a lot of fun with the play house and the slide. There was another baby seated in his pram at the play room. I think the dad brought him in to enjoy the air con too since the baby was way too young to play in there. Evans did try to say Hi. :)

Evans surely had a fun morning.

I was feeling a little tired but I thought to myself I needed some workout to feel upbeat and of course to "recover" from all the pork knuckles the previous night. So after I put Evans down for his afternoon nap, I asked hubby to help me look after Evans while I picked up my running shoes and headed for the gym downstairs.

Never really like to run on threadmill unless I do not have other better choice. As I did not have much time, I needed to finish the jog and go back for shower before Evans woke up, threadmill was the best alternative. Jogged for about 40 min or so. Felt accomplished though the speed and the distance covered were not impressive. But a pat on my shoulder for working out.  Hehe!

Another place to enjoy the air con and the free space for Evans to roam about would be.... .... AIRPORT! Yes, airport AGAIN & AGAIN! It's near our house, it's a few stations away... We spent the evening there, doing almost the same old thing but so long it pleased the little boy...

From the last Heguru lesson, the teacher mentioned that we could start introducing vegetables and fruits to the kid. So we brought Evans to the NTUC at T3, introducing him to the various fruits/vegetables. Though he wasn't really focused and at times, not too interested, I wanted to believe that sub-consciously he was learning. He did show some interests when I let him carry the cabbage and apples. It was a pity that all the fruits and vegetables were wrapped in cellophane. Here was papa's turn who tried to get Evans interested... ...

After dinner at the foodcourt, Evans re-visited the Aviation Gallery where he could play with the rotating "flowers" again.  And given that it was a PH, there were more kids running about. Very rowdy. Sometimes I wish the gallery could be revamped cos' with all the wear and tear caused by the kids running up and down, it looked quite sad and old.

This time, we did not spend much time convincing Evans to leave for home. He probably had played long enough and was a little tired. Then we took the train train home.

This was how the trio spent the PH away... :)

Star Awards 2013 Themed Dinner

The idea came pretty randomly. It started off as a dinner to celebrate getting of bonus but it went wild with a themed dinner. And we are glad it happened and everyone looked the part (at least some of the least expected guys tried to look formal). I don't know if it's the anticipation or it's the rare occasion where everyone dressed up so nicely together. We do not appear like this in wedding dinners even!

The dinner venue was set at Paulaner, Millenia Walk. It was the eve of a PH (Labour Day) so it was timely, we did not have to wake up early for work the next day.

The ladies spent a lot more effort to dress up for the evening. We brought clothes and heels to office for change. And we brought makeup set to touch up. I even brought fake lashies to put on! It was (to me) a big deal because I rarely wear fake lashes. Always wanted to try them on but always no time. This time, I attempted to put them on and succeeded! It reminded me of getting ready for prom or some performance when the 3 of us were busy dolling up in the ladies. 

The highlights of the Star Awards 2013 dinner... ...

A little jam on our way to the dinner

Look at the other guests, we were definitely OVERDRESSED.

Without jacket for now

The dudes started without the ladies!

Not so sure if it was our formal dressing or the weak air con, we started to perspire a little half way through the dinner. So thought the iced cold beer would lower the temperature but the beer was not icy at all. Probably that was also why I thought the beer tasted average. 

All those blue tinted photos were courtesy from Ah Yeo who used different camera mode on his new phone to capture. The tinted photos indeed gave a sense of arty look, don't you think?

Can you tell we really spend a lot of time dressing up?

 

The bickering duo

 

We ordered 2 portions of Pork Knuckles (boy, it was really huge), 1 plate of sausage with fries, the other sausage with wedges and 2 different types of salads (caesar and I do not know what's the other one because I did not like it). The Pork Knuckles were delicious, the skin was roasted till it was very crispy while the meat still kept its moist. But 2 plates of them were a little too much. And you kind of got sick eating so much meat after a while but luckily we managed to clear most of the food during our chats and jokes. I like the caesar salads, served with croutons. The lettuce was fresh and crunchy. The croutons gave the extra texture to it. The other salad tasted a little more sourish.

As for the sausages, there was really nothing special... given that by right they are supposed to be the specialty (right?) in the German restaurant. Or maybe I did not know how to appreciate German cuisine. They were ok but I could not recall if I liked any particular type.

 

Looking good, everyone!

 

Mr Kok could not join us because he had to celebrate his youngest gal's first birthday. We gave him live updates via the WhatsApp Chat group, with all the photos, where he started to anyhowly gave us different awards, based on our dressing. It was a shame that he could not join. And, he was the topic of our lame acts. Putting Mr Kok's face together with our handphones was really hilarious. What made it more challenging was we had iphones and samsungs, so the quality and the alighnment were different. This was what we could do... ... LOL!

 

 

 

What's the star awards dinner without the red carpet moments!?? So we managed to find some "Star-worthy" backdrop in Millenia Walk and there we went, snapping away. Weren't we lucky to find somewhere with red carpet and white background?!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I like the one Ah Yeo took of us, during the candid moments because they looked more natural and somehow gave the "celeb" feel. He should be our photographer next time. HEHE! He also put together the photos which he took earlier that night, and formed the collages.

We did not want to end the night so early because it would be lame! Haha! So we went to The Coffee Club for some tea and coffee and they had the cakes (which I did not, too FULL!). The seats we had were very orangey, so I did a little edit on the pictures so that they are less glaring. It was a nice place to end the night with all laughters and reminisce. The waitress who served us was very nice too, she was very welcoming and entertained our 'nonsense' by laughing  with us. Hahah! A lovely evening. :) It was so lovely that we are already starting to think about the next themed dinner! LOL! Probably can be along the line of "From Riches to Rags"... no more glam, the most unglam wins it all. :D Stay Tuned!

Lunch at the Toa Payoh Hawker Centre

It was a very hot afternoon. The guys were perspiring like mad. But for the sake of healthier food, we still went ahead to Toa Payoh Hawker Centre (the one near Phillips) for lunch. Bumped into Ah Leng Jie Jie who was also there for lunch with her colleagues. She worked at Phillips. 

It's probably a bad choice to have hot soup in this kind of weather but it was good. While the rest had sliced fish mee sua and Irene had the porridge, I had sliced fish Ee Mian. With a glass of glass jelly drink... ... perfect. The noodle soup mixed with the runny egg tasted good. I like the milky and thick texture the egg yolk gave to the soup. And the noodles was of the right "crunch", not too soggy for a soup noodles.

Something healthier than yesterday's Ribeye Steak at Breeks. Hehehe! Oh, almost forgot, we also ordered the very famous carrot cake for sharing. Good to share the calories and food tastes much nicer when you share! :)

The carrot cake was only $3 and the serving was just nice for 5 of us. The top layer was crispy because of the good spread of egg which was burnt but not too much, while the bottom carrot cake was soft and starchy. A combination of a good white carrot cake. No wonder we had to wait for about 30 min for it.

Oh and also, we can't wait for tonight's Star Awards Dinner!!!!!!!!! YAY!

Value Creation Day 2013 - Time to Start Work

Last I know is that my director has spoken to CA to clear things up and I need to get started on putting things together for VCD. Feeling the stress coming but I think I just have to do one thing at a time.

I understand CA was given one week to consider her posting options.

Anyway, I have sort of drawn up the activities which I needed to do but yet to put in the timeline because I have no expectations of what comes first or how long each activity will need. But to get started I think I need to just put a tentative one. Just to get a clearer mind on what I should do coming up in the coming week... ...

- Settle on the timeline for all the sub-activities
- Draft the specs for the exhibition and event management
- Email to the relevant directors to nominate 2 reps for the exhibition (on service related innovations)
- Decide on the awardees to be recognised on stage
- Email to relevant officers for their photos (to show them recognition by photos on screen)

I think this should be what I need to accomplish at least in the coming week.