Ouch!

UK & Ireland trip - 2010 January

This trip was the first and the many more trips, which was all about Kian.
It was also a challenging one for us, to take a 3 1/2 month old baby on a 10-13 hours flight, and also figuring out his 'time' zones as he was already getting into a routine in Singapore but that was to become up side down.



Lucky for us, he was a super good baby on and off the plane. He slept through most of the flight and seemed to cope with the weather. Actually it wasn't as cold as I expected (well what do you expect?...on BBC it said The UK is in the grip of its longest cold snap for almost 30 years. )

When there was no wind, it was just cold and nice, and the snow covering the landscape was beautiful.
Kian had many winter clothes bought by his grandma, who had a perfect plan to hand them down to a friend who just gave birth to a boy. Like this red and navy blue ski jacket which was worn only once.

We had a relaxing time at Matt's parent's house, most of our time in UK. Kian had plenty of time to sleep and adjust to the UK time, while Matt indulged in home cook food.
Terry is quite a gourmet chef. His Italian dishes are really good.
Here, they have replicated a traditional X'mas dinner (with all the paper hats) to celebrate with the family, a belated X'mas.

We then took a cheeky 2nights 3 days trip to Dublin, Ireland on Mon - Wed. I think Matt thought since we are all O'Learys now, and what more with Kian O'Leary, it's only fair for us to visit the Origin.

But I know exactly why... we watch a movie called "ONCE" which is a story about a struggling musician in Dublin. Since then Matt's mind was set to visit Dublin - where the social scene is of musicians in pubs, birth place of world class beer and food is wholesome.

Here is us with Matt's friend Paul Grant (he lived in Singapore few years ago where they met through rugby) and his lovely girlfriend Emily.
Paul works for GUINNESS. It's especially cool to hear from the inside man on the wonder of the black stuff - GUINNESS.



Back in UK, we went to Matt's cousin's house where Kian met his relatives.
Here, Kian is being smothered by his doting second cousins, Katie, Joe, Connie, Daisy and Danny.






On our last day, on the way to the airport, Matt's good friends of whom all were at the wedding, gathered to see us off.









All in all, it was a very relaxing and refreshing holiday for us, thanks to Kian for being such a good boy, and so I guess... we as parents must be doing it right... he he

Looking back 1 year ago...

Look how svelte I was, last year around this time.

I was looking back on the photos when we were in Bali. http://olearysbali.blogspot.com/

My fitness membership resumes this January, since I suspended after knowing of my pregnancy, last February.

I must get back in shape... but tonight we are leaving for UK and Ireland...

Okay, diet starts after the trip....

Book Club

I joined a 'Book Club' which consists of the WAGS.
By the way, I've had this conversation with few people about the term 'WAGS' sounding negative, like demeaning or insulting as the wife or the girlfriend.
But I personally got over it for the convenience sake.
After all, we are the wives and the girlfriends, and it's easy just to sum it as WAGS.
Anyway, one afternoon while we were having a brunch, this forming of book club became a topic and we decided to read and review 1 book a month.
Each girl selects a book so we are 'booked up' until June or July.
I haven't chosen any book yet...

The first book of this year was "The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency' by Alexander McCall Smith.
This book is basically about a Botswanan lady setting up a detective agency and solves her clients' requests.
Of course there are romance and thrills involved, but what's interesting is that it offers the reader with the story of the country, the town, the landscape, lifestyle and nature of South Africa.
It is also comical - which is why, as with most good books, it becomes a movie, and in this case, it became HBO TV drama series. http://www.hbo.com/no1ladiesdetectiveagency/ I've never been to Africa or Botswana but when I saw the casts and photos of the TV series, I thought my imagination was pretty close!
There are 5 series to the book and we are not required to read the whole series for the book club but I'd love to read more!

X'mas Eve & X'mas Day 2009

It was also Kian-chan's first plane ride and overseas trip.
Matt and I was very anxious how Kian will react to the whole experience but he was a very good boy.
We stayed at Dharmawangsa hotel again, and according to the guy who picked us up from the airport, there were only 13 guests that weekend. Love it!

We met Ai-chan for the first time

On X'mas Eve, we went for lunch at Ramen 38 in Pacific Place then had dinner at home which was very nice. Lots of good food...
Then Matt fell asleep in Mom and the babies' room so we ended up sleeping over at their place.






The next day, which was the X'mas day, Daichan took us to Eastern Promise where we had a proper X'mas buffet. Indian food looked very good too!

On X'mas night, Daichan took us to an Oyster restaurant called Oyster in Plaza Senayan and we all ate as many oysters as our hearts desired. As Daichan puts it, "happiness is being able to afford whatever I desire to eat" :) sounds very convincing coming from a chef.

On the last day, we went to Sunter and according to Matt he ate the best durian ever.
I missed on that durian but had the best goat sate and goat soup ever.
I usually don't like goat or lamb but this was better than beef, pork or any other meat. Very yummy.

So to sum it up, it was a lot about food food food... and of course. But this time, it was also about babies, kids and family too.
I wonder how our next generation will be...

Mini Bazaar

The festive mood is everywhere... and I thought it is about time for us girls to meet.
So in the spirit of the season of giving and sharing, I organized a mini bazaar where we bring what we want to sell and share.







Inez brought her hand-made necklaces and some edgy, quirky, vintage accessories she sourced.

Pauline buys elegant, vintage, costume jewelery from States.

As for me, I bought lots of Jamu and other interesting Indonesian spa products from PP.

In a small scale it was a success, I suppose.
I have not bought any accessories for myself for a while, so it was a money well spent.
My slimming cream (with chili) was a hit too.
We definitely gave each other 'friendly' prices, it's a steal.
In fact, they could be below cost price.

It felt like we were the women from the stone age, trading items for items.
And our men in some cave, singing and drinking around the fire.

In the attempt to have some 'Us' time, I searched for a good movie to watch, and go for a 'date' with Matt.

Luckily, AVATAR was just showing in cinemas so off we went.
I bought the tickets before hand to avoid disappointments knowing how a highly hyped block buster Hollywood Sci-Fi movies can get in Singapore, and so I was able to get the last top row seats of the largest screen cinema in Asia.
Sure enough, on the first day was a Friday night and there were many audience, including a row of Gay Geeks.

The effects of the movie was very very good. They made the aliens look so real.
But what was very obvious to me was that the objects they used in the story and the elements were very much taken from Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (風の谷のナウシカ, Kaze no Tani no Naushika) and Princess Mononoke (もののけ姫, Mononoke-hime) both directed by Hayao Miyazaki.

While I give credit for AVATAR's creativity in making the effects so real and the degree of imagination, the story line is pretty straight forward - human vs aliens, resembling the war we have today, like the greedy government vs the tree huggers.
It is still far from the depth and twist of the script of Hayao Miyazaki's films. He is the original and his stuff is nothing anyone saw before or after!
There are few good animated film directors in Japan though.
Recently there was a movie that won an international film prize. I really wanna watch it.

Gosh, I'm such an Otaku!

Kian started to giggle :)

It's absolutely the sweetest feeling when he smiles and responds back.
He even giggled out pretty loud with a wide round and pointed mouth.

Marrieglo (our helper) started potty training for Kian and according to her, he successfully peed in the pot 4 times a day, which means he hardly wet the nappy! Good start Kian!

who's this sexy man?

Matt has been on a healthy diet and lost some weight, wearing clothes that used to be tight on him before.

He stopped drinking beer! And definitely stopped eating McDonald's after a big night out.

And how cute and innocent .... when he's sleeping...

Dad meets Kian for the first time.

Had a nice visit from mom & dad........until......













I hope Matt learned something...
like, don't mention the war.

Calven's 39th birthday

Lucky us to be invited to Calven's birthday dinner as his close friends. (he has many many friends and so it is an honor!)

Dinner was at Senso and my ravioli was oh so nice, I craved for it the very next day! It must be the truffle!











After that we went to Karaoke! of course!
I thought I chose the last song perfectly: "Last Christmas" but no, Monty keyed in "Sex machine"...

End of Maternity Leave

I've come to the end of my maternity leave.
I didn't know what or how it will be, until the day comes, and I wouldn't know how I will cope until I start working.

Today, supposedly my first day to work, I was very tired from the busy weekend and still had to wake up for Kian in the middle of the night, twice and the 3rd time Matt took charge but I was awake too.
Despite of the tiredness, I was very sad in the morning, to leave Kian-chan.
So I asked permission from my boss to start from Dec 1, which is tomorrow.

And so I went shopping for new clothes, shoes and a bag.
It's the only way for me to feel happy to go to work....

Whatever makes her happy on a Saturday Night

I invited 8 of my girl friends (and all Singaporean!) for dinner & drinks to home.
Some people knew some people but not all.
But it turned out a great night, and the girls seemed to enjoy themselves.
I cooked lasagna, renkon salad, egg and tuna sushi rolls.
All dishes went well, although Ling and Peggy couldn't eat the lasagna because they don't eat beef!
And I was worried about pork!
Next time I should prepare something without beef...
And except Ling, we all had wine to drink and emptied 8 bottles! (okay, maybe I drank more than some girls...)

At one point, everyone was talking at once, wanting to be heard! That was loud!

WAGS and Babies

Saturday afternoon I went to watch the rugby match with Kian.

It's a good place to meet the WAGS (wives and girlfriends).
They are very good with babies that I can safely have beer or wine and enjoy myself too.

I never noticed how many babies/toddlers there were, until I got my own.
And surprised to know even the girls who doesn't have babies are very good in handling babies.
Matt was warned by his fellow players that bringing a baby (probably as cute as Kian) is giving ideas to their girlfriends... oops!

Dennis, my ex-colleague came down to see Kian.

He has 4 children of his own. Recently, the 4 children and the mother went back to Philippines because they think it's the best thing to do for their children's education and well being.

He is misses his children so much...
I can't imagine being apart from Matt and Kian, but I guess they did what is the best for the family.

Oh, but of course, we haven't forgotten the main purpose, to cheer our beloved husband or boyfriend play hard and rough under the scorching hot sun followed by rain... tough!

Jim Thompson - A Thai Restaurant

Went here for late lunch.

I really like the entrance to the interior.

The building used to be a Chapel, so the ceiling was very high.

The table we sat was a sofa on one side, with plush cushions.

Beautiful decorations and good service (except for some of the young staff at the toilet who had no idea about helping us find a place for changing baby diaper).

And food was good. (La Na Thai does it better).

It's been a while since I was impressed with the decoration of a restaurant (not that I go out a lot...)

Kian's first Video debut.

new hair cut

I cut and gave highlights to my hair. It's supposed to have more waves and lighter in color but I couldn't do it. Maybe next time.
For now, the new length and color is refreshing to me, on top of newly becoming a mother.

First outing with Kian

Okay, forgive me it's all about Kian-chan now... but of course! He's just 2 weeks old!

We took Kian-chan to Vivo city.
It was a test and experiment to take him out while Mum is still around (so she can give advise).
He was very quiet (sleeping all the time). Never awake.
He woke up once for milk but I think he was unconscious. So I guess that was a success.

That night, without him, we went to eat the Pepper Crab and Durian in front of our house.

As usual, people were queuing for the Pepper Crab.

But it will be the last time we dine there. Forget atmosphere.
Mom & I was dumb founded when a women behind us farted so loud! NO MORE! (only take away from now!)