Wake Up and Smell the Cake

Husband's gone for 15 days. Third time in two months, or 22 out of 60 days. That's a whole lot of days. I usually stay at my mum's when the Husband isn't around especially for long periods, but I decided to stay on our own, and this will be the longest ever with him around. So far I've managed well, though I feel I should be bringing them out more on weekends, but I am just occupied with basic housework stuff. This weekend I shall make an effort to bring them to see Elmo and Cookie Monster. Haha. The day he went off, he wanted to eat some homecooked meal, and requested for rendang. I already have a rendang recipe from my mum , but we tried the minang version, provided by my friend. I tweaked it a bit, but I will show you the original recipe as well. Rendang Minang original version 1kg beef 1 litre pati santan 2 tbsp kerisik 1 pc asam keping 2 tbsp gula melaka 2 daun kunyit sliced thinly 3 tbsp cili kisar Ingredients to blend: 10 red onions 4 clove

Yes! No longer in my 20s as of yesterday haha. Getting older, I definitely can feel it. From the knee aches, back aches, to the reactions I realise I have on certain issues. More laid back, more composed and I'm learning to be more patient. Growing up definitely. Yesterday's celebration was simple, I didn't want buffet spreads or fancy cafes. Getting too old for such things haha! Buffet during Ramadan is not advisable, plus it's expensive. Cafes, so far all I've tried were disappointing, many people said sedap sedap but ok ok only, so I shall skip that and get food which I know is good. I actually wanted to eat Indian rojak ahhaha. But we ended up at Spize cos well rojak is usually at a hawker centre heh but Spize was good too cos we had a good table. Earlier in office, Husband surprised me with a bouquet of flowers on my table! Overjoyed! Too happy :) I don't usually ask for flowers, but hey which girl doesn't love getting flowers! Especially surpris

For Husband's birthday, I didn't want to make a cake like I normally do. Was supposed to surprise him with a roti kirai cake instead, and some yummy beef rendang . Didn't have time to make the happy birthday bunting to poke through the cake though, he woke up earlier than I expected and already took a piece haha. Managed to cook the beef rendang and roti kirai in the wee hours (3.30am!) of the morning, on a working weekday no less! Thank God for my pressure cooker, which did the cooking of the meat (tumis excluded) in half an hour, and if I had done normal stove cooking it would take more than 2 hours. Roti Kirai 1 box of low fat coconut milk (not cream) 450ml water 3/4 tsp salt 2 eggs 2 cups flour Yellow colouring (I used tumeric powder) *recipe edited and 8 August 2017 and it's Husband Approved!*

Whoever does work today is not normal. Haha. Eve of a public holiday yet no half day oh the pain! Saturday my siblings came over for lunch, and cooking was yet another diner dash. On the menu was daging masak merah and very simple fried cabbage. Butter cookies was supposed to be an after-lunch activity but it was changed to butter cake because of lack of time. I also had to go to the post office to get Junior's books that arrived but were too big for the mail box. Maybe I should have one big mail box outside my door and ask the postman to deposit it there instead. The queue at the post office was so long! When I came at about 10, I was like 60th in queue?! So Junior and I went to get some groceries while waiting for our turn, and when we came back, the number only moved up by 20. Damn. By the time we were done and back home, It was 11.30! Not enough time to cook the meat! Thankfully Junior explored his new books on his own quietly, so I had time to cook. Multi-tasked: frying

Feeling all emotional thinking about the send off tomorrow. One month is long. 32 days to be exact. That's actually more than a month. 5 weekends. Brings me back to 2009/2010 during those London-Singapore shuttling days. That was worse though, 8 to 10 weeks apart each time. But I thought days like those would be long gone, but here I'm facing one really soon. I'm really trying hard not to cry, although I have already teared but thankfully I have my flu to mask my runny nose. To make things worse, I was listening to a playlist of songs with the word "home". Great song choice, Far. Have switched to noisy rock music, but it doesn't seem to make me feel better. Tomorrow will be the send off, I'll expect that I'll be crying till my eyes are puffy. Oh wells. But on the bright side, I have things to look forward to. A confirm pecah perut lunch with colleagues after that, Junior's play group trial on Saturday morning, and an ex-classmate's wed

It's only Monday but I'm looking forward to the weekend. Just had a great weekend which started off on Friday with a long overdue date with Other Half. In our daily routined lives and busy work schedule, we tend to forget how to have fun and dates like these are meaningful and necessary reminders :) Back to planning for this weekend! Besides weddings (yup the season's here again), I have thought of a couple of things to do, especially with Junior. 1) Apple cupcakes. I have like 7 apples at home, 5 of which are green and bought for the sole intention of baking no way am I going to eat them raw haha, so off as apple cakes they go! I'm going to repeat the recipe I used before since it was a success. Since I'm going to chop the apples, I think I'll get Junior involved so he can play with the apples and batter :) 2) Go to the library. I have to get for us travel books on Lombok. Have not done much research as a dutiful travel planner and besides, I would real

Raya's coming! And the Raya Grinch is back! Seriously. I can't remember the last time I was sooo looking forward to Hari Raya. I look forward only to food and yummy cakes and kuih which I will eat at one corner sitting quietly by myself hurhur. But this time round I'll have an 11.7kg toddler to handle. I do hope he won't be so cranky. Anyway! Here's what I've been up to lately. Took Friday off so that I could have the four day long holiday dedicated for baking. Thursday was pineapple tarts at my mum's cos there is no way I'm gonna do tarts on my own with a baby to handle. We managed to make two batches for my mum's household and mine. Friday and Saturday was spent on Almond London, for three households. This, I did on my own and I literally spent the entire day on them cos every half an hour or so Junior wants my attention. I managed to get him to sit quietly for a bit, but as expected no one activity lasts more than 10 minutes, so he was off aga

Counting down to being reunited with Other Half! 17 hours more to go :)))) Absence does make the heart grow fonder. But the absence shouldn't be too often either, that wouldn't be fun for me anyway. But but but!! Am sooo excited to welcome Husband back!! I've paid back 11, 18 left. Of late I realise I get slight headaches in the afternoon on the days I fast. Maybe it's due to lack of water and food? I'm now contemplating if I should continue, but I should at the very least try, if I can't then that's another story. Headaches in the afternoon is tolerable, but my headache on Day 11 started early, like at 10am thereabouts. And by the time it was almost time to break fast, I was really famished. I do know some people don't fast and pay fidyah instead with the reason of breastfeeding. Hmm. Sounds too easy, doesn't it. Haha. I'll try and see how lah. I wanted to welcome Husband back with fresh homemade butter cake but I didn't have time to.

Hello everyone I am feeling very lazy to work and so many people are on leave already! My fingers on my left hand smells of baby barf! As weird as it may sound, I shall not wash it with soap just as yet cos I will smell my fingers if I miss my boy. And I miss my boy so so much! I miss my other boy too. He was busy with sooo many things over the weekend that I only managed to enjoy his company only minutes before dozing off. And I don't want movie dates! No fun just watching the screen -_-" But then again I always talk a lot in movies. I love to spoil the show and give my own commentary. Hahahha. Husband gets irritated by it but I do it anyway teeheehee! Today is the last day for the 1-for-1 Filet-O-Fish deal. Maybe I shall have two Filet-O-Fish burgers for lunch! :D Tampines Mall is overcrowded. 9kg baby on a ring sling for TWO hours is sooo not advisable for your shoulder. Pain will last two days. Minimum. Okay I just smelt my fingers. Baby barf isn't ni

Not in the best of moods today. Except for the good news that Fang gave birth early this morning!! So excited for her! :) Expanding Appetite Right now I need chocolate. I'm craving it so bad it's like as if I'm pregnant. Which I'm not. I just had lunch too by the way. The past two days I've noticed I have a huge appetite. And even after I had a meal, I can still feel hungry or feel like a gastric's coming. That isn't good news for someone who still has lots of kilos to lose. Forgetting Things I wanted to bring my orange chocolate Marks & Spencer biscuits but I forgot. Just like how I forgot to throw out the rubbish bag from the toilet too. I wonder what's in my head. Yesterday I forgot to bring my pump's valve. Had to rush all the way home to get it. Urgh.  Anyway. I'm still finding it hard to balance these days. Motherhood isn't easy. Time for Learn and Play Yes I am still figuring out when to play and teach Junior. Weekdays s

This is the first week (or that I can remember) that we have the whole weekend to ourselves. No extended family, no errands to run, and best of all, The Husband didn't think about work. Absolute family time. And we totally enjoyed it! Saturday morning we went to the market, bought some groceries for cooking my favourite Sindhi Briyani (yumyum!) for the day, and bought Junior's home clothes. Then we lazed around at home till late afternoon and went out for a bit of shopping. Junior's first time in a pram in Orchard! But he didn't last long, about two hours only -_-" Sunday we went out too, had a simple dinner at Charco's and went to Ikea. We were supposed to go to the beach for a sunset walk but it was pretty hot even at 5 in the evening. Oh and did I mention the sun!! Omg the hot hot sun! PERFECT for drying clothes! So perfect, I washed clothes on both days! Totally love it hahahaha. Okay I know I sound so housewife-ish. Here's Junior in the car

Just a simple, quick lunch with Other Half. Bank - BK - bus ride back to office. And it is bliss ♥ :) First lunch date since I came back to work.  First time on the bus together here! Funfun :) We should do it more often! Heehee~

Celebrated our second anniversary last Monday. What an amazing two years it has been, and thinking back all the things we did and went through! This year, with a baby practically hanging on to me 24/7, I couldn't bake or even complete a decent card! But I did come up with a short and simple message which sums up everything: Loving you is like butter cake. It is easy, non-extravagant yet so good and wholesome, and it gets better by the day :) I know! Butter cake right! Me, baking, buttrer cake! Perfect! Muahahaha In other news!! My fingers got itchy and so!!! I got for myself a snakeskin handbag! At a steal ! The last time I bought for myself a leather handbag was a year ago, my favourite leather, ostrich skin. So okay la hor one year on, quite justified to get one now hehe. Awesomeposum! Just in time for raya! :)

It's Day 11 with Junior, but it feels like we've had him for a few weeks! Haha. My mum's been a fantastic help around the house coming almost daily to cook and help with household chores. Best mum ever :) Her mum did that for her too when she gave birth to me, and I think she's just passing it on. And it's a huge advantage having your parents live near you! Junior was born on 30 June 2011, at a little past 11pm, and weighs a whopping 4 kilos! By normal birth mind you. A total of 44 hours of labour, though the contractions at the beginning weren't that bad cos I could still walk around the hospital. We went to the hospital on 29th, two hours earlier than our induce appointment because I already had "show". We thought, Junior's very punctual! First sign of labour on his EDD! But dilation took longer than expected, plus there weren't enough beds for non-emergency cases like me so I had to wait till 30th afternoon before they could burst my water

Baked egg tarts (or so I thought) last Saturday. It was a nice, couple time Saturday. Sometimes our weekends can get so packed, there's no couple time. But on the bright side we're living on our own, and that gives us more opportunities for couple time. I love our own little space :) I happened to come across egg tart recipes, and this particular one from Chow Times which didn't need to use a crust. Perfect since I couldn't find instant crusts at the NTUC near my house. All I need is a greased muffin tray and I'm good to go! Adapted the recipe a little bit for some experimentation. My Ingredients 1 cup mix of white and brown sugar 3 1/2 tablespoons margarine, melted 2 eggs 1 cup flour 1 can 388ml condensed milk 2 cups milk 1 tsp vanilla powder Mix the ingredients together to form a smooth mixture, and transfer to the muffin trays. I baked at 200°C for 15 minutes, and then 160°C for 18 minutes. Tarts in the oven!! Look at them rise so high! And yet no

Today three years ago is a date I won't forget :) The start of something new, the best thing I've probably ever did and definitely not regretting that bold step. Yesterday's ayam sambal tomato turned out great! Yay! Was a mad dash at the kitchen. Other Half dropped me off at home and went to practise his golf while I cook. Quite a rush and kitchen was turned upside down but it was worth it! The only thing to improve is not to use too much oil for the sambal. The onions were happily swimming in the oil HAHAHAHA. No wonder it turned out nice! Took a bit more than an hour to prepare everything, I think I need to find ways to cut the time for cooking, like pre-peeling the onions and garlic maybe since I've already tried frying the chicken at the same time I cook the sambal. I think yesterday was a good start and a confidence booster definitely! But today, I'm not cooking hahaha. We're out to celebrate a special date ;) And I still have leftover chicken which cou

FFL must be having one heck of a time because I haven't heard from her since! Tsk tsk. I hope those two newly weds are having the best times of their lives! :) Hmm. Makes me wanna go for yet another honeymoon too. Hahahahaha. Sunday was hectic. Saturday we were in JB to help out with Cousin's wedding, and the next morning we came back to SG for two couples' solemnisation before rushing back for Cousin's wedding. I was in unglamorous flats because heels would kill my feet with so much running around. I don't really like wearing flats, makes me feel so short and bare and lazy. I love solemnisations! Especially if it's the solemnisation of a cute couple. And I always feel like pengantin baru too even though it's been more than a year! Haha! 

Whirlwind of weddings this weekend! Tomorrow we're off to JB to rewang for cousin's wedding on Sunday, and there's two other weddings on that day too. FFL's getting married yay!!! Very happy for her :) And another is a good colleague of mine, actually the guy is my colleague too haha. Very sweet couple! Mad rush from one solemnisation to another, and then to JB! I hope it won't be as tiring as last Wednesday's solemnisation. FFL, I'll write a special post for you soon! Haha. Hope you wedding runs smoothly and all goes well! Remember to smile and please don't worry about anything else! Just enjoy the day, look gorgeous and glow! We'll see you this Sunday! :)

Husband's coming back today yippeee!! I'm as happy as a lark! No no. As happy as a goldfish!:) Today is our fourteenth month anniversary. Fourteen wonderful months of being married to the most awesomest husband in the world! It's such a great feeling to love and be loved, and having that special someone with you always.You are my punching bag, my joy, my hero and thinking about you always makes me smile. And of course, you let me irritate you hehe! On the topic of love, I totally love this song! Just The Way You Are by Bruno Mars. It's like the perfect song each girl wants their other half to sing to them! *melts*

LKY's wife is remembered to be many things - wife, confidante, lawyer, mother. The short tribute clip I saw on the news the day she passed away. Kinda sweet lah how their romance started. It also made me realise Mdm Kwa was a great woman. She's one of those that truly reflects the saying "behind every successful man is a woman". Makes you think, what kind of wife are you to your husband.