The weather here has been quite humid and unpleasantly hot, but at least the bright sunny blue skies did make for nicely contrasting colors in the pictures. Most of the changes since the last visit were in the many tree and plant saplings that have sprouted up, removal of work fences in several areas giving us the first good solid look of the place from the front and at ground level, and also internal furnishings.

The 50m lap pool, one of three pools in the project.

The 20m heated pool. Not sure how useful that’s going to be in this kind of tropic weather.

Newly planted tree saplings near the Contemporary Bridge.

Straight lines against a blue morning sky.

Blocks 2 and 6 from Hougang Street 11.

Blocks 2 and 6 as seen along the pedestrian pavement at Lorong Ah Soo.

Where we’re at; Block 10. Tranquil World, the large landscape portion in front of the block still seems very much in-progress.

Several residents are already starting to talk to Interior Designers to propose plans for their dream home.

I wonder what the residents think of our monthly visits and going all photo-paparazzi at our home from their block!

Any one knows any good interior designers? =)

H: Mommy, mommy, I’m going to give you a surprise tomorrow!
M: Really?! That’s nice, sweetie.
H: The paint is still not dry. Tomorrow it will dry ok!
M: Hmmmm…………
H: It’s a Mother’s Day card I made in school, you know.
M: Oh.
H: It’s going to be a surprise ok; I will give you a card and there is a ribbon on it! *beaming to herself*
M: Hannah, you shouldn’t tell mommy about the surprise if you want it to be a surprise.
H: And there are 2 hearts on the card, you know. Teacher said must use two hands to give you the card!
D: What about daddy?
H: Father’s Day is many days later but I’m going to give you a toilet roll ok! It’s going to be a surprise too!
D: I’m getting a toilet roll…?!

Time for us soon also to change the title of this blog series to “Conversations with a Four Year Old” too!

Looks like the red hand of Sauron. Been re-watching LOTR over the weekend LOL.

For instance:

A car cuts in from the right into our lane with barely inches to spare and without signaling.

CY: “Crazy driver. I hope he bangs his car into a tree!”

Ling: “Dear, please don’t curse!”

Or this:

A sports-type car with all the black-dark tint windows and what sounds like a nitro-injected engine whizzes loudly past us, with wound-down windows, and an arm stretched right out with a cigarette.

CY: “I hate smokers. Doesn’t he know that his arm can hit motorcyclists? I hope he gets lung cancer!”

Ling: “Darling, please don’t curse!”

Or even something like that:

A car window wounds down, and out comes an entire mouthful of spit.

CY: “I hate people who spit! I hope he chokes on his saliva!”

Ling: “Dear, you shouldn’t be wishing evil on others!”

The both of us drive defensively and scrupulously abide with our traffic laws – and when someone doesn’t play by the rules of the land, I get morally indignant and vent to the much more civil wife who has to listen to me mouth off the most inventive curses I can muster – the above three aren’t nearly representative of my creative juices.

My role-model in cursing: Captain Haddock from the Tintin comic book series.

The funniest thing though is that I don’t possess ill intentions to those fellows whose driving behaviors irk me. Rather, the venting is actually a sort of verbal engagement I’ve got going on with Ling, and it does make for funny conversations in the car – though she usually often ends up sighing in resignation.

Not that this might keep going on for that much longer, given the prices of today’s Certificate of Entitlement. We just might not be able to afford a car in the years to come.=(

Just check out how happy she was on our way home. She spent the ride home adjusting (and readjusting) the two toys beside her.=)

She’s very aware how many more toys there are left to complete her Clubhouse collection now.

Fortunately, all’s not lost. Ling already has an idea what to get her for her fourth birthday next month. It certainly won’t be another character toy from the series.=)

There are lots of condominium apartment projects everywhere we look right now, with at least 4-5 in the immediate vicinity of our home already. Funnily, it seems from our casual observations that the building pace of those projects are a lot quicker than The Minton. Then again, while our forthcoming new home is solidly a ‘mass-market’ project, there are benefits to the sheer number of resident units and size of the project. What one loses in exclusivity, one gets lots of nice amenities that aren’t typical of projects with this level of cost per square feet: an air-conditioned badminton dome, several swimming pools, a sizable landscape garden, spa facilities – not that we’d likely ever going to use a lot of these facilities anyway though.

Our usual selection of pictures below, with the E-M5 + Olympus 75-300mm and LX7 pulling photographic duties.

Condo tree saplings starting to bloom flowers.

A worker aligning the plastic sheets covering the badminton dome.

A fellow resident remarked that the workers are testing the air conditioning unit’s compressor for gas pressure,

Workers at the Tiger Orchid Pavilion @ Tranquil World.

The plastic tiling half done for the Badminton Dome at this point.

Crates of cobblestone ready to line the driveway.

Block 14 and 14A. The sidelining plants and bushes are growing along nicely now.

Blocks 8, 6 and 2.

Blocks 14 and 12.

Blocks 10, 10A and 10B from mid-floor.

Tranquil World as seen from about the top-floor from an opposite block. Had to stick my hand with the LX7 out of a small slit to take this pictue.

The Contemporary Bridge.

The Grand Clubhouse.

Hannah having the run of the sidewalk adjacent to the project.

Honestly, it really doesn’t look like it’ll be done in June. We’re keeping an eye for September.

Over the last week and possibly because we were slowly exhausting our weekend morning brunch places, we ventured into a Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf joint at TampinesOne just to try something different for breakfast, and we were pretty impressed. The food itself was alright but it was possibly the laid back ambiance and decor that the both of us determined to start hitting beverage cafes as an alternative to the usual breakfast places we hit over weekends. Best of all, Hannah loves the new environments, and has taken to bringing either books or even worksheets to occupy herself with.

Thing is though is that location is everything. Not all these cafes are as equivalently conducive to stoning for an hour before we have to go about our business for the rest of the day, and the ones which are centrally located are also frequently descended upon quickly by hordes of JC and University students who’d buy a single beverage take-out and stretch their stay for the rest of the day.

Coffee Bean/Tea Leaf @ Tampines 1.

The same joint but at Greenwich the next weekend.

Practising her Chinese character strokes while waiting for our breakfasts to be served. She plows through those workbooks.

Photos taken again using the 14mm f2.5. The colors were pleasingly warm, which is a bit of an odd contrast against the somewhat cooler color rendition off the 20mm f1.7 which I sold away earlier this year.

A disclaimer here first – I’m no linguist and definitely not anywhere close to being regarded as a language expert. Where the English language is concerned, Yang speaks and writes better than I do. I had to sit for a English proficiency test in order to gain entry to a local university. You get the idea :)

The authors of the book has a chapter devoted to exploring why some children pick up language skills sooner as compared to others. In other words, why do some children speak sooner, better and more confidently than others? According to findings, baby DVDs did little to encourage infants to grow in the area of speech. So, save your moola on buying into all that hype. It was observed that infants learn faster from watching real humans speak than being parked in front of the black box watching educational videos. They learn best by watching how your mouth and facial muscles move as you speak. Monkey see, monkey do. That’s the current wisdom. :)

Hannah has taught Pluto how to surf board. We did not teach her how to do this though.=)

Another interesting observation was that children progress faster when other persons around them respond to topics that interest them. For example, if a child point her finger excitedly at a dead flower on the ground and her grandmother picks it up and talks about it in a similar tone of excitement, the child will often quickly absorb new vocabulary associated with the moment. I’ve seen a mother who put her daughter down when her kid alerted her to a little bird that flew over them. The mother dismissed her daughter’s interest and observational skill and muttered something like her daughter was only interested in birds. Perhaps the mother was not in the right mood. But it was an opportunity lost.

I noticed that Hannah learn better when I let her rope me into her daily chatter about her nursery school, toys, games, etc. I simply ‘played’ along with her enthusiasm in various subjects. I’d casually slip in new words or proper grammar in my communication with her and leave it up to her to pick them up. And she would almost always subconsciously or consciously copycat me to express herself in the topic too. And it has been amazing how the young brain could so effortlessly remember those new words which were uttered only once sometimes.

Since the beginning of nursery school this year, Hannah has developed a positive attitude towards learning the Chinese language. I don’t know what is her Chinese teacher’s secret formula but I do know that Hannah is fond of this particular teacher. She often mentions her in our conversations. My guess is that this Chinese teacher practises “people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care” (quote by John C Maxwell). Children are also sensitive and sensible towards the level of care shown by people around them. In the area of language, I believe that head knowledge and the heart must work hand-in-hand to bring out the best in a child’s development. And a head start in language acquisition should help a child communicate her needs and feelings better and reduce unnecessary frustration that growing up brings.

H: Mommy, why are you wearing this pajamas?
M: Mommy could no longer fit into many of my T-shirts.
H: I buy you bigger shirts, ok.
M: Thank you, sweetie. :)
H: I will drive to Compass Point, buy pretty butterfly shirts from Metro for you ok.
M: Do you have money to buy the shirts?
H: You give me $20 ok. No…no, you give me many $20 dollars so that I can buy you many shirts ya.
H: Then you buy me a wallet from the shop that daddy bought his wallet…is it at Tampines Mall?…so that I can put my money in the wallet ok? Then you also give me some cards to put in my wallet too ok?
M: *laughs* Ok, sweetie.
H: When I grow taller…at 5 years old, I will drive to City Square when mommy and daddy is at work.
M:??!!
H: I will go my own self, yup, I will go alone and buy my own food. I will order a burger and also orange juice with a straw inside. Oh yeah, must order French fries too. Yup.
M: ???!!!

It was a teachable moment for us as parents. We impressed upon her that it was her responsibility to take care of her toys, and that we’d only get her a new Pluto if she showed to us over the next few days she was able to do this. I secretly went by the store nonetheless the next day to pick it up after Ling called the night before to report its loss.

Thing is though; those lessons will take a while to stick. Just over this weekend, Ling took me aside and asked that I withhold several of Hannah’s entertainment privileges as she’d been misbehaving. E.g. talking back to Mommy and leaving her toys on the floor. And I obliged, though that’d mean I now have to log into Hannah’s Hello Kitty Town on her behalf and to keep up her town and crops there LOL.

On the overall, Hannah’s still very well-behaved though, and she at least is responsive to the both of us when we have to discipline her. She’s not into tantrums (yet?), and seems to genuinely show remorse when we take her aside and educate her on responsible and proper behavior. Interestingly too, while she enjoys her entertainment privileges, e.g. Mickey Mouse Cluhouse, Angry Birds (!), and Hello Kitty Town, she doesn’t pine for them too much when they’re taken away from her. She instead goes about occupying herself with books, more plush toys, and builds and stacks things up, like this:

A Facebook friend who saw the picture immediately guessed that she got inspired by Angry Birds Rio.=)

Oh yes; all the pictures here were taken again on the 14mm. The next two turned out very well, especially the latter with a mix of strong primary colors.=)

Having a cup of warm milo during weekend brunch with grandparents.

Munching on strawberries.

Thankfully, lighting was all good on a bright and humid Saturday mid-morning, so the pictures were all shot at a pretty quick 1/1000s shutter speeds. The wide-angle shots were all taken again on the LX7.:)

On every occasion we’ve shot from the stretch of pavement that’s between the site and HDB blocks, Hannah enjoys running up and down the stretch.

A long 600mm shot into the Master bedroom toilet of a unit at Stack 30 Block 10.

The rear balcony of a Stack 30 Block 10 unit. This shot was previously impossible using the Panasonic 45-200mm.

The contemporary bridge that connects to Blocks 12C and 14.

Ling on camcorder duties again.:)

The first glass panels of the Badminton dome have been installed.

The side-gate located in front of Block 14.

Signature look of the apartment project!

Block 12A’s front facade all done up.

Another view of the contemporary bridge. Ling was wondering if the bridge was going to be covered, but I doubt so.

Our block. Can’t really see visible changes since our last visit.

The front of the apartment site. The HDR picture coming out of the LX7 didn’t work so well this time, and colors look quite odd.

The Grand Clubhouse has received its first coat of paint.

“Daddy you must drive slowly or you will hit the car in front and the car will spoil and you will have no car!”

There weren’t many patients in the queue at the clinic, though we still waited for nearly 90 minutes on account that each patient consultation was taking a while. The two girls went in when it was Hannah’s turn while I waited anxiously outside. 15 minutes later, the two stepped out, with Hannah looking her usual happy self. I asked Ling what the diagnosis was.

Ling: “Doctor said it’s likely gastric flu. Her tummy’s bloated. Hannah got three medicine doses.”

Me: “Wow. Three? I didn’t hear any screaming or hollering from outside.”

Ling: “It wasn’t taken via her mouth.”

Me: “Really?! Injections? That’s even more amazing she didn’t cry.”

Ling: “Er… the medicine was administered using the *other* entrance.”

Me: “?!? What other entrance??”

But after a while, I finally got it and could only say this:

“Ah.”

Ling only chuckled in response LOL.

Sometimes knowing less is better! Ling took the next day off to take care of our girl, and thankfully, her temperature has mostly subsided.:)

Tuck in :D

Ee-fu noodles also have some variation as well. I managed to find only one type at NTUC recently and so settled for it. Its cross-section was squarish. The other common type has an oblong cross-section. Tried a new recipe using this type of noodles for lunch and it was a hit with Hannah. :)

Ingredients (serves 2-3 persons)

• Ee-fu noodles (Yee mee) – 1 to 2 cakes (depending on size)
• Chicken broth – 300 ml (for braising)
• Sweet peas – 6, sliced breadth-wise
• Carrot – 1 small, peeled and cut into strips
• Baby corn – 3 fresh, sliced diagonally
• Shiitake mushrooms – 3 fresh, sliced
• Prawns – 8, shelled, deveined
• Sauce: 1tbsp oyster sauce, 1/2 tsp light soy sauce, 1/2 dark soy sauce, 1/4 tsp salt, 1 tsp sugar, 1 tsp cornflour, dash of pepper, few drops of sesame oil, 200 ml chicken broth

Method

1. Soak noodles in hot water in a medium pot. Use a pair of chopsticks to loosen and drain at once. Discard the hot water and add 300 ml chicken broth into the same pot and heat up to boiling.
2. Add noodles into the pot of boiling broth and lower the heat to simmer gently until broth is reduced. (If the noodles look plumped up and there is still some sauce left, it is okay) Dish up and divide amongst bowls.
3. Mix sauce ingredients and set aside.
4. Heat 1 tbsp of vegetable oil in a heated wok and stir-fry sweet peas, carrot strips and baby corn for about 4-5 minutes. Add mushrooms and continue to stir fry until they soften.
5. Stir the sauce mixture well and add it to the veggies. Bring to boil. When the sauce begins to thicken, add prawns to cook briefly (avoid over-cooking the prawns).
6. Turn off the heat and dish the sauce mixture onto the noodles in each bowl.
7. Serve hot.

The original recipe calls for only yellow chives, bean sprouts and straw mushrooms as the veggie components. I really liked this combination but yellow chives are not commonly available and so I improvised.

Wide-open at f1.4. This one was easier since the shot was directly head-on, though in relatively low-light.

At f1.6 over brunch at Serangoon Nex. Her classmate gave her a faux pearl necklace that she’s taken to wearing whenever we go out.

Drawing as morning activities. Tricky deciding which focus point at f1.6 as she was lying on the ground – articulating screen on the E-M5 real handy in these situation!

Using the 14mm f2.5. One of those self-portrait shots where the E-M5 was held at arms length in front the both of us.

An interesting conversation took place in the car too on the weekend morning while we were heading out to visit our new home at The Minton.

“Mommy, you cannot be too pretty!”

“Oh why is that so, Hannah dear?”

“Because I’m a princess and you cannot also be a princess. There can only be one princess and not two princess, you know?”

And she’s just asked for her ear lobes to be pierced so that she can start wearing ear studs!

Of the list of eight possibilities, our two favorites were:

Foo Jie ‘qín’ – 符杰勤 – diligence

Foo Jie ‘xūn’ – 符杰勋 – meritorious

My instinctive preference was the latter though on account of how it sounds when spoken, and also that his name would be similar to Hannah’s. Hannah’s name in Chinese is Foo Jiexīn – 符婕昕 (“dawn and the rising sun”); so her brother could be Foo Jiexūn. ‘xīn’ and ‘xūn’. Ling likes it too so looks like this will be what we’ll go with- unless we get other ideas later! :)

 Heart-shaped design for Hannah’s bowl :)

The recipe requires the rice to be fried simply and so I fried overnight rice with egg and corn. For the red sauce, I replaced chicken strips with white fish as I wanted to clear the frozen threadfin sitting in the freezer. The red sauce contained skinned tomato pieces, sliced onion, ketchup, sugar, salt, pepper, cornflour and water. For the white sauce, it contained prawns, sweet peas, evaporated milk, water, corn flour, sugar and salt.

Ran out of white sauce for Yang’s bowl…so the fried rice was exposed in the middle :P

The novel part of the recipe was to use folded aluminium foil to create patterns with the two sauces on the rice. I attempted a heart shape for Hannah’s bowl. Glad to learn and experience something new :) Taste-wise was okay. I plan to use curry leaves to infuse into the white sauce in my next attempt to create more kick in the flavour.

A strip of aluminium foil folded twice for creating patterns with the red and white sauces.

Verdict: A fun and satisfying one-dish meal. :)

I’ve been on the look-out for a larger bag too that would accommodate a refurbished Asus Zenbook I picked up for cheap, and had been reading up on the Billingham bags. These bags are widely considered the equivalent of Rolls-Royces when it comes to camera bags on account of their materials, loving care to design, and very high quality workmanship. They also, rather uniquely, have very high-resale value – the bags age very well, with many owners over the years remarking that their bags look as good as reasonably new even after years of use.

The bags are sold at many shops here, but their pricing tend to follow the UK/US retail prices i.e. pretty expensive. The one I was interested in – the Hadley Pro – lists on Amazon US already for USD269 and excluding shipping even. Ouch. I learned though after some bargain hunting that the same bags are available in South Korea for much lower prices, with this model selling for a quarter cheaper. After some further checking to ensure that the South Korean sellers were distributing the same real deals, I negotiated and submitted an offer – saving myself nearly a hundred moola compared to if I’d bought it locally – and a week after placing the order, the bag arrived by courier this morning. The model I went with was the Hadley Pro Sage Sage with Tan Leather Trim.

Billingham UK, a family-run business that first started off in the 1970s making fishing bags.

I had a choice of two material types for this bag; traditional canvas, or their purely synthetic FiberNyte – which apparently wears up with age even better, is slightly lighter and resists water better. I went with this.

Buckle fasteners and their quick releases.

Soft inner linings and generous padding throughout.

Every bag has a stitched label – and the bag’s unique serial number is stitched into the bag too. Amazing.

I have to say; the bag really does exude quality and elegance. Most camera bags are quite utilitarian and functional, but this Billingham bag is the kind that I think even women would like.:)

Here’s a video capture for keepsake :)

3 more months to 4 years old!

Best way again to get interesting poses from a three year old child is to give her something to interact with.:)

Just 18 months ago, we first fed her ice-cream and she didn’t like it one bit. Now, she’s a believer.

Ling remarked that this was the best 50 cents we’ve ever spent to delight our girl.:)

Hannah at all of 3 years 9 months is already a fan of Ikea with its large walking aisles and kid-friendly furniture sets for her to touch and feel. After this occasion though, I think her biggest impression will be the soft ice-cream that we introduced her to. She’s an instant fan of it, and couldn’t stop talking about how wonderful the yummy the ice-cream was all the way back home in the car.:)

The E-M5 alongside the new pancake lens did the picture-taking this time. The lens is quite a wonder; compact, focuses reliably and sharp right in the center. It’s just a little on the wide side though for casual shots like these, so I had to take care not to have frame and keep Hannah right in the center and the frame edges clear.

Without hair clips, she looks like a little China doll now.

We counted the number of playgrounds we walked through – and eventually it was 7 on our way to dinner, 4 more on the way back.

Our girl the chatterbox – who gave us a running commentary of everything she was doing, looking and seeing.

She still can’t put both feet on this balancing plank yet though.

She ran and accidentally fell at the carpark near her nanny’s place midweek, scraping her kneecap. Hopefully there’s no scaring.

Still teaching her the do’s and dont’s of crossing the roads here: “Look right, then look left, then look right again before crossing.”

Having fun with her Crocs She took the right one off to scratch her ankle a bit.

Having her first taste of ice-kachang. She loved it!

I’ve been having bad dreams lately. They were not just those upsetting kind of dreams but lucid ones. My mind was fully awake during the dreaming and I had control over my own character in the dreams. I could also decide whether to stop dreaming and wake up or continue along with the dream. In one dream, I screamed at a peeping Tom outside my parents’ house and that woke Yang up. In another, more than 50% of my students failed their O level exam.

My immediate response to such unusual phenomenon was to recall whether I had ingested anything new lately that might upset my well being. As much as I have suspected, my fish oil supplement was likely the culprit. According to available information on the Internet, fish oil and certain medication could have unpleasant side effects, including lucid dreaming. I stopped taking my fish oil capsule for a day and thankfully the bad dreams didn’t come back. Today, I took my supplement earlier in the day in hope that the effects would be diluted by the time I turned in.

Nutrition

I confess that I have been less careful over what I popped into my mouth for this pregnancy. I used to abstain from coffee (like totally) and tea (90% of the time). For no. 2, I took occasional sips of coffee from Yang’s cup on weekends and drink decaffeinated coffee (which is not 100% caffeine-free) once or twice weekly. I also take about 2 cups of tea weekly. Ya, I’ve not been a good girl. But coffee is my comfort drink and I’ve been stressed at work…

Raising a boy

I’m so used to raising a girl and now I’m apprehensive over the task of raising a boy. How ah? Act tough? Play rough? What if he prefers to play with dolls and soft toys? *faint*

2nd child syndrome

I think I would be less anxious and paranoid over every minute detail for our 2nd child. But would I care less and expect less for no. 2? Would my capacity for love diminish after no. 1? Would no. 2 be an ill-disciplined, under-achiever? Scary thought. I read some very encouraging sharing from other mothers who have 2 or more children – that while we might seem less bothered with our second child and so on, our experience with no. 1 would make us better-equipped mothers and the older kid plays a unique role of helping to bring up the younger sibling(s). The dynamics of a family changes with each new addition to the fold. And more often than not, raising children gets easier over time.

The value of children

After having our first child, I truly believe that no other experiences in life come close to parenting. My growth as a person would not be as rich without the parenting experience. I’m not good at explaining this but you know what I mean if you were a parent. The untold sacrifices, humbling experiences, evaluation of life perspectives, the ‘flesh of my flesh’ meaning tugs at one’s heartstrings, the affections of a child, the togetherness of a family…At the end of the day, we are richly blessed through our children.

Definitely going to be much easier for either of us to wash her hair every night during her bath.

She has a two-inch long light scar on her cheek, courtesy of her pre-nursery friend who scratched her. Or rather, “He’s not my friend anymore.” as she says!

She still prefers long hair though.:)

The rate that she’s picking up Chinese is also faster now. The video clip below shows her singing yet another new Chinese song taught in school.

Lyrics of the song for those who can read Chinese:

我是一个好宝宝, 天天上学校
看见老师有礼貌, 同学也要好
会做工作 会画图
唱歌游戏做体操
好宝宝 好宝宝
我要做一个好宝宝

The ultra small compact pancake lens returns a sleek profile to the E-M5.

To begin with; the lens is really small and light too – even more so than the 20mm f1.7 I sold away last month. The lens focuses briskly on the E-M5 if ever so slightly slower seemingly compared to the recently acquired 25mm f1.4, is pretty sharp in the frame center, and has just some slight barrel distortion. The widest aperture won’t give the degree of subject isolation and bokeh that one can get with the f1.4 lens, but it’s still fine for me.

Some first pictures. Ling was at work for a weekend event in school, so it was time for daddy and daughter bonding again.:)

Shot wide-open. The lens doesn’t offer resolutions as high as the other primes I’ve got, but it’s still pretty good.

Occupying herself with coloring activities.

Maybe all this is a good thing. Because there’s a good chance that 12 years from now, she wouldn’t want to be talking to us. We’d better enjoy and appreciate it when it lasts then first. Four pictures to follow; all excepting the third picture taken using the LX7.

She’s settled nicely into her booster seat in the car. We’re also slowly getting her to learn how to get up and down from the seat too – which she can with some effort. Getting out of the car altogether though is still a challenge.

A new stuffed toy has joined her ranks of favorite toys that accompany her to bed every night – it’s a small white stuffed puppy that she found at the bottom of her box of toys.

I persuaded Ling to give Toast Box another try over the weekend, and surprisingly, she found the food a bit more palatable than previously. Might be do with those pregnancy hormones! Here’s our girl trying out half-boiled eggs for the first time; she was alright with it though two eggs were a bit too much for her to finish.

Our girl is a lot more interested in the butter toast Mommy’s holding.:)

The both of us walked for just under an hour. Quite a surprise – because the memories of our 12 km trek through Sugi island carrying her on my back when she got tired still remain fresh in my mind. This time round though she was spritely game to walk the whole distance cheerfully, taking in the sights and chattering non-stop for most of it. The evening lights and lights in the many apartment blocks made for some colorful pictures too, though because the pictures are resized here, one can’t really see the awful noise that crept in real quick into the LX7’s images.

Compassvale Bow was pretty quiet, even for a side-road – which made it possible to leisurely take posed shots like this one here.

Blocks 264. Got to say that the new HDB apartment blocks are looking nicer than ever. Nothing quite like the old drab HDB blocks from 20 years ago.

The Quartz. Our Ang Mo bud once kidded during his 2008 visit that he’d happily buy a unit in this apartment if he had the dough for it.

The very wide-angle lens on the LX7 put to good use in this picture along Sengkang East Avenue.

For the return home stretch we cut through the blocks along Compassvale Link. Our girl couldn’t resist stopping by the pavilion to, well, hug the pillar.:)

Looking up into the night sky around Block 268.

Given the recent road incidents here involving children, we’ve taken every opportunity to start in-graining in our girl in responsible pedestrian habits. You know the routine – “Before you cross and even when you see the green man, make sure you look right first, then left, then look right again.”

Hannah loved the walkabout and asked to do this again. Surprisingly, not tomorrow (Monday) evening though – “I need to rest!”. :)

H: Mommy mommy, you must be careful ok.
M: Yes, sweetie.
H: You must lift up your leg to level 17…like this…and like that and then cross over the wire ok. Then you will not fall down you know.
M: That’s right, sweetie.
H: Mommy, later you put some cream on your leg and then tomorrow no more pain pain ok. I think it should Mopiko or Neoderm. Okay, put Mopiko.
M: Thank you, Hannah.
H: Mommy, I love you. You must be careful ok. Why you fall down?
M: Love you too, sweetie. Mommy didn’t lift up my leg high enough to cross over the wire.
H: Why you didn’t lift up your leg high enough?
M: Because mommy wasn’t careful.
H: Why weren’t you careful?
M: ……..

Hannah as she grows older has also been faring better in the long days when we’re out visiting. Just last year, she’d get tired and thus cranky real quick. But this year, she was able to sustain herself for an entire day out of home and even got through the first day of festivities without her usual afternoon nap.

For the first time, the Nikon gear stayed home this year too for CNY, with the E-M5 fully taking over photographic duties. Bounced flash shots using the Metz flashgun are still somewhat iffy with a tendency for under-exposure. So I dialed in a +0.7 EV for some of the flash shots and also took RAW versions just in case too.

The yearly CNY picture of the Foo clan will get larger by +1 next year in 2014.

The kids in their yearly iPad party.

Brunch at Yoshinoya over the long weekend and with the new 25mm f1.4. We enjoy having breakfasts here but the eatery just experienced a large price mark-up. Duh.

With the 25mm f1.4 shot wide-open. I seem to be getting the best results by just slightly stopping-down by half a stop.

Funnily, the weather for this year’s CNY has been rainy – quite unusual since for as long as memory serves, previous years’ CNYs have always ben hot and humid. On the days outside visitations and feastings, it was quite relaxing to be homebound during the 4 day holiday weekend.

Three weeks of waiting for the results was trying. The same old worries, the same old pessimism. We prayed. Still, my faith was weak. This was one of the reasons that kept me from wanting no. 2 for some time. After what it seemed to be an indefinite standstill, the news came. A boy with 46 chromosomes. Thank God.

No. 2′s Karyotype (Chromosomes)

I went for the usual 20-week ultrasound scan the following day. I thought all was well until the scan showed that the baby had single umbilical artery (SUA). A normal umbilical cord has 2 arteries and 1 vein. Mine has 1 artery and 1 vein. Implication? The baby may suffer congenital defects and low birth weight. This condition is 0.2 – 1% occurrence amongst pregnant women. Doc said that the baby’s heart and kidneys appeared normal at that stage but he would like to do another thorough scan at 32 weeks. I felt really somber. Told Yang to delay his application to his old boys’ association to secure a place for the boy at his alma mater in case our no. 2 needs to attend special school.

I know I should be thankful in all circumstances. And that I should not be in such a state of disquiet. But let me take time to sort out my feelings and life perspectives with God and hopefully be content for the rest of the pregnancy.

Hannah’s reaction was quite different though when we told her she’s going to be getting a little 弟弟 (little brother): “But I want a little 妹妹! (little sister)”

I’ve already starting thinking of baby names and have a couple that we like already beginning with the letter ‘H’. More on that later too.:)

The 25mm f1.4 has been on radar since last year now, but I kept putting it off and opting for cheaper alternatives (like the Sigma 30mm f2.8 from last October) largely because the lens is dreadfully expensive in Singapore – around S$800 (internationally US$499). I learned online recently though that the same lens as sold in Japan is much cheaper, even when compared to if I bought it from Amazon.com – I guess in good part because of discounts and also from currency fluctuations of the ¥ against the US$. In any case, I found the 25mm sold on Amazon Japan, and after finding what looked like a reputable forwarding company based in Japan, I ordered the lens just over a week ago, and finally picked it up from the post office this evening.

The newly arrived Panasonic 25mm f1.4 mounted on my E-M5.

The lens has been well-reviewed in numerous places, all of them consistently noting that the lens is very quick in focus, features lovely bokeh, very sharp in the center of the frame even when wide-open, and also features an hard-to-explain special look the lens teases out of its pictures. I haven’t played enough with the lens in the last hour to say to stretch the bokeh for the lens nor detect what the characteristic look of its images yet. But the lens sure is at least very quick – faster than both the Sigma 30mm and Panasonic 20mm f1.7 – and yep, center sharpness is high. And the subject for the first pictures – Hannah but of course.:)

After dinner and pretending to nap among her toys.

Easy way to get her to laugh these days – threaten to tickle her.:)

Playing with the lens cap.

The three pictures of our girl here were taken wide-open at f1.4. Total damage? S$585 by purchasing on Amazon Japan – saved around $220 if I’d purchased it here.=)

There’s been visible changes since our last visit 4 weeks ago, though I’m still really doubtful if our new place is going to be ready by June this year – the earlier optimistic estimate of earliest completion. Timing for our moving in and new home renovation against Ling’s delivery of our new baby and month-long confinement will be real tricky though. But if the place gets completed in September, that’s just as well – because that will be during my semester break and I can take some time off to personally supervise renovation work.

Our block’s right in the middle. The construction boards have been finally removed, with gave us – finally – a really good look at the ongoing construction from the ground level.

Construction workers hard at work even on the weekend.

Fixtures have also been installed for several stacks. This looks like the toilet, though we’ll have to look at the floor plans for the stack to be certain.

The badminton dome. The first glass panels have been mounted into the metallic frame.

Blocks 2, 6 and 8 lined up nicely in a row.

Blocks 10, 10A (ours), 10B and 10D (right in the picture’s center).

The Minton in HDR using the LX7′s built-in scene mode.

Hannah in her usual happy mood on our outing.:)

Ling is looking visibly pregnant. She did the video work again for this little new-home surveillance outing again.

In our previous Minton outings, I’d tried different equipment combinations. Initially it was the D7000 + Sigma 18-250mm, which encompassed the range of focal lengths I needed for both wide and zoomed in pictures. On another occasion, I took the D7000 and the E-M5, but its combined weight, plus the camcorder, was just too much. Then it was just the E-M5, but that meant frequent lens swaps for the long and wide shots. This time round, I smartened up. The LX7 went alongside the E-M5 + Panasonic 55-200mm for the ride this time. All the wide shots were taken with the LX7, and in the bright and sunny Sunday late morning, the pictures from the little compact came out beautifully well. This will be my go-to equipment combination for future visits from now on.:)

Agnes (Greek) – pure, virginal

Esther (Hebrew) – secret, hidden

Emma (Hebrew) – the female version of Emmanuel

Ling always has different perceptions about children names though and which are the ‘in’ ones, since she teaches school-going children. She did muse aloud just now though that if our surnames were Ching, the one name we should never choose for a baby girl would be ‘Monica’.:)

The both of us won’t get to vote in this upcoming election since the precinct under contest is just across the road, though because we’re still in the same vicinity, Ling has had the fortune of running into the election candidates doing their rounds in the heartland areas and soliciting for voter support. The funny thing was that she was actually trying very hard to avoid running into them LOL.

I’ve been growing to like the LX7, despite its image quality challenges. The compact is really pocketable, starts up and decides on its focus points briskly. The focusing isn’t always correct though; on a couple of occasions, the camera has focused on background objects rather than our girl, and it’s not always easy to tell from the rear view LCD when composing (this sort of focusing issues are much easier to detect when a viewfinder’s available).

She loves doodling on the Galaxy Note, though it’s still just scribblings at the moment without pattern.

Ling remarked that she’s getting a little large for the shopping cart trolley. Won’t be long that she’ll have to come off it.

A stuffed toy of Swampy, the main character from Hannah’s favorite iPad game from last year, also just arrived by post too. The item had taken an unusually long to arrive – more than a month – leading to the eBay seller refunding the item after I queried why it was taking so long, and my now having to re-refund the seller LOL. Still, Hannah was thrilled to bits to finally get the toy, and it, alongside Pluto, accompanies her to bed now.:)

“I loooovveee Swampy!!!”

I attribute my sewing success to my mom.

My mother is a seamstress. It was common for young women of her generation to attend sewing classes and hence acquire some sewing skills to make or alter their own clothes. As history would have it, my mom met my dad and they got married. One day, a Malay neighbour asked my mom whether she could help sew a baju kurung (traditional Malay costume) for her and she agreed. The neighbour liked the baju kurung so much as it was well tailored. It was a small community and word got around. Soon enough, my mom started a small business in sewing baju kurung for the Malay folks. From her humble beginning, the business grew and thrived so well that my mom had to hire other homemakers with good sewing skills to manage her large orders.

Now, here’s where I came into the picture.

My mom began to rope in the family to help run the business. She trained me to stitch edges of cloths with a sewing machine called a serger. This is the fastest and easiest method to prevent cut edges of fabric from unravelling. But mind you, that serger was of the industrial kind and ran at high speeds. I learned how to feed each piece cloth into the serger where there was a sharp cutter to trim away the rough edges quickly and at the same time some needles would run through the edges to create a finished seam. I was nine years old then.

A cloth that has been seamed by a serger

During peak seasons, e.g. months leading up to Hari Raya Puasa, I also helped out in sewing up entire baju kurungs by using the standard sewing machine and hand-stitching for buttons and hems. I didn’t always enjoy the process as a kid but parents kept reminding us that it was all about survival and improving our standard of living. By the way too, my two younger brothers also picked up some sewing skills in their growing up years. My dad’s role was mainly to buy back lunches and dinners and also to do special deliveries when my mom couldn’t meet her deadlines for some of her customers.

After about 20 years into the business, the Malay community in Singapore has relied less on tailors for their traditional costumes as it has become easier and cheaper to buy off the rack. It was about time for my mom to slow down for retirement as well. She still takes in some customers to keep herself occupied – which I think is a good thing as this will keep her brain active in her senior years.

The Home Economics curriculum in secondary schools has seen modifications throughout the years. One significant change is the great reduction or total removal of sewing lessons while cookery lessons survived. This is a pity because sewing is such a useful skill to acquire. I notice that garment alteration services are quite costly nowadays. A simple shortening of the hem for a pair of pants can cost $6-10. Sigh, we do go for such services occasionally because of the lack of a sewing machine at home. Certain fabric such as denim should be machine sewn as it is a tough material. If it is a soft fabric, then I could get the alteration done by hand-stitching. I wish I could inherit my mom’s sewing machines but they are too bulky for storage purposes. Hmm, perhaps it’s time to shop around for small, portable one? :)

Hannah with a kiddie computer. It’s a hand-me down from Ling’s ex-colleage. She’s been enjoying especially the musical modes of the play toy.

Another activity she enjoys; rolling up paper receipts into makeshift binoculars. I’ve got an actual one for her on order off eBay – it should be arriving very soon.:)

Quickie and discretely taken picture at a Compass Point store.:)

The LX7′s macro feature coupled with a minimum focusing distance of just 1 cm is pretty nifty on the other hand, and from the first couple of macro attempts, fares better than the 12-50mm on the E-M5. The next time Ling wants a super close-up of a plant for her biology lessons, this is gonna be the camera to do the job.:)

No cropping in this close-up; just resizing. The front lens element was just about 2 cm away from the watch glass panel.

So, it wasn’t an easy decision to pick up a compact camera with the knowledge that they’re right now a challenged equipment type in terms of positioning. There are still a couple that are very well-regarded in terms of image quality, like the Sony RX100, which many regard as currently among the best compact cameras available. The thing costs about S$900 though, which is far more than I’m willing to pay for what is essentially a fun supplement to my E-M5. The Panasonic LX7, the latest iteration in a very successful series of small compact cameras, doesn’t offer image quality that approaches the RX100, but when it was available at Amazon for about half the price you’d pay for normally, I jumped at the opportunity and ordered one right away.

The LX7. The camera, unlikely most other compacts, doesn’t use an auto-retractable lens cover.

Three knobs and dials; one up-top, and two smaller dials on the camera’s rear.

The little compact took about 9 days from the point of ordering to reaching my door-step, and it seems pretty much exactly as the reviews have stated. It’s small, pretty light, attractively designed for the most part, responsive focusing – and a great bargain at the about $380 I paid. The rear LCD is bright, nicely saturated and suitably high-resolution. Image quality is an improvement over compact cameras from say 5 years ago, considered very good for compacts in its class – helped in no small part by the very bright f1.4 lens – but still pretty poor relative to larger sensor cameras. HD videos recorded on the other hand looks pretty good, especially when using the 60p mode. I might just bring this camera about everywhere I go just as a small HD camcorder!

Now; if I can only convince Ling to give up her 5 year old Panasonic LZ8 compact… :)

Something a little different happened early this morning though. Hannah and Mommy got into a tiff while at her brushing teeth routine. Hannah normally rinses four times and does her own counting, and not always consistently. When Ling tried to help count for her, Hannah got into a fit and said “Mommy, you cannot tell me what to do!” That response startled Ling, and she had to firmly tell Hannah that was uncalled for. As usual, Hannah was in tears and seemed to recognize that she’d done something wrong and upset Mommy terrifically.

On the upside, we noticed that Hannah has also become spontaneous in her demonstrations of affection, giving us hugs and telling us “I love you Daddy Mommy!” She’d run up to Mommy and say “I want to hug you”, and if the hug isn’t long enough for her, she’d say so. Or when she sometimes climbs up to sit next to me on the soft, hold my arm tightly and rest herself on my shoulder.

Growing up, and with the 20mm f1.7.

Still, it does seem to signify that as parents, we’ll need to up our game and continue to adjust our parenting behaviors and expectations. I’m hoping at least the new baby will at least still be as mild-mannered as Hannah is!

Still, whenever the first reviews of Tom Hooper’s Les Misérables are all putting in bets for the filmed musical to sweep this coming year’s academy awards, I decided to give it a go over the long holiday weekend, out of curiosity if nothing else.

2.5 hours later after the experience, my opinion of musicals remain unchanged: Ling loved it, but I disliked it. To be fair, the film’s visuals were suitably epic. The slums of 19th century Paris are re-created beautifully; even the near-end scene taking place in the sewers looked so real it made Ling cringe and feel real bad for actors who had to wallow in it (I had to remind her it was all made-believe). That a good portion of visuals were computer-generated was obvious too, though I assumed that stylization was intentional. And Sacha Baron Cohen’s turn as the scheming and greedy Thénardier brings to mind the years I enjoyed his performance as Ali G.

Hugh Jackman as Valjean in the 2012 film.

But then again, apart from Anne Hathaway (Fantine) and maybe Hugh Jackman (Valjean) at a couple of spots, I thought the rest of the main cast’s singing just awful to my ears. Amanda Seyfried’s (Cosette) voice was too lightweight, and Russell Crowe (Javert) sounded like he was straining at every near high note. And the director seemed to have an obsession with camera close-ups, not to mention weird camera angles. At nearly every solo number, you’ll find the camera literally in the actor’s face, with foreheads and necks frequently cropped off in the frame. When I have to purchase the inevitable Blu-ray for Ling later, I guess I could occupy myself counting the number of nostril hairs Crowe has in all those close-ups. The film felt like a relentless assault on my senses – might had been all that continuous non-stop singing – that I switched off and was struggling to stay awake. It got so bad that I switched on my iPad and fiddling with it, and in the darkness of the theater annoyed Ling who got distracted even by the tablet’s dimmed display LOL.

Funnily, just prior to the film, I’d dug out an old DVD I had of a 1998 film adaption of the same book the musical is based on and gave it another watch. The film starred an A list cast: two of the best male dramatic actors Liam Neeson as Valjean and Geoffrey Rush as Javert, alongside Uma Thurman and Claire Danes as Fantine and Cosette respectively. The film doesn’t follow the book as closely as the musical might nor is it as large-scale as the filmed-musical with its lower production budget. But I found Neeson’s transformation from convict to a benevolent and forgiving man a lot more believable than Jackman’s performance. Best of all and the highlight in the older film for me is Rush’s single-minded Valjean. Unlike the musical, we don’t get to hear the character sing out his thoughts and can only rely on the actor’s spoken dialog and his expressions, and Rush does not disappoint. Even Ling remarked that she thought Rush was a better Javert compared to Crowe.

Liam Neeson as Valjean in the 1998 film.

In all; if you’ve enjoy the musical, I imagine you’d like the new 2012 adaptation. If the music holds nothing for you, go for the 1998 film as I did.:)

Another such opportunity came about over the last several days. Ling’s been back to school with several meetings ahead of the start of the new academic year. With Hannah’s nanny out of the country on vacation, it was my turn to be a stay-at-home Hannah-minder. Pretty fun if exhaustive experience, since my turns at keeping Hannah ‘entertained’ so far have been usually half a day at most and at home but not entire days so far. Our girl is a little less clingy to Ling these days than she once was say a year ago though she still seems to gravitate somewhat more to Mommy than Daddy, so this was a great chance to build up some more of that daddy-daughter bonding.

Though it doesn’t look like it, the pictures below were taken over the span of two days.

Waiting at the bus-stop. Where Pluto goes, she goes.

Using the kid’s height bus bell; she asked that she be the one to press it and it was my teaching moment on what the bell does.

On the LRT. Yep she prefers to stand. Check out her choke-like grip on Pluto’s neck LOL.

Ling has taught her how to use her EZLink card too.

Back at home. This was one of our activities where she stacked up her toys as high as she could, and asked me to guess how many there were. I posted this up on Facebook, and only one friend correctly guessed how many there were!

We’ve also been starting to prepare for the new baby. We gave away most of the equipment used for Hannah after she outgrew them, as we thought we wouldn’t be having more children. Rather than buy everything new again, we’re planning to mix both new and used equipment this time round. Ling has been scouring online forums frequented by Singapore mommies, and midweek we picked up a used pram.

The new Combi pram.

Nikon D7000 (Win). This one was a marginally ‘right’ decision. I picked up the D7000 to replace the D300 nearly a year ago now, and still marvel at how light the camera is. Compared to the D300, the absence of focusing levers and metering buttons to toggle between modes still proves troublesome and is the singularly largest thing I’ve still yet to adjust on the D7000. I haven’t used this DSLR as much since picking up the E-M5 though, but it’s still a great camera to use on the occasion when coupled with the portrait prime lenses. I suspect when the newborn comes into our family in July, I’ll be using this camera a lot again.

Sigma 70-200mm f2.8 (Mixed). This lens cost more than the D7000 but has still yet to see extensive use – on account that apart from our park outings, there hasn’t been many occasions where it’s been necessary to bring this out. One occasion would had been Hannah’s year-end pre-nursery concert in November, but the school advised that there’d be official event photographers and parents were ‘discouraged’ from taking pictures. We went to the event to see parents bring all kinds of photography gizmos, including several with Canon’s signature L lenses. Now we know better, so hopefully next year will see extensive usage of this fast zoom lens.

The old E-PL2 which I now use at work, the E-M5 and the D7000.

Olympus E-M5 (Win). This has been one of the best purchasing decisions of the year. The micro four-thirds camera has won numerous photography accolades and has been viewed as among the best, if not at the top of its peers, camera of the year among review sites. The camera’s light, focuses extremely quickly, and when coupled with the two portrait lenses I have for the camera – the 20mm f1.7 and 30mm f2.8 below – have helped me take many of Hannah’s most memorable pictures of the year. I still think the Fujifilm X cameras – especially the X-Pro1 or X-E1 renders colors visibly better than the E-M5 or D7000 – but they’re still let down by apparently more sluggish auto-focusing speeds, which is absolutely critical when trying to take pictures of a 3.5 year old daughter who won’t remain still. Maybe when Fujifilm releases an X series camera that is as quick as the E-M5 will I finally make the jump of selling away all my Nikon gear and picking up the X system.

Sigma 30mm f2.8 (Win). For the very low cost of the lens, this has been the best bargain I’ve found this year. The lens is very sharp out of the box and focuses quicker than the Panasonic 20mm f1.7. In fact, I hardly use the 20mm as much anymore. The focal length is a little on the long side for Hannah – it’s meant I routinely have to take a few more steps backwards to have her in the right picture frame, so there’s been some necessary adjustment to technique.

Telunas Beach Resort vacation (Win). Mostly right decision. The hospitality at the resort was wonderful, as was the companionship we enjoyed with our Ang mo family friend, Matt. It was only let down by less than pristine waters. The highlight of the trip? Ling and myself carrying Hannah in the 12 km trek up to the jungle waterfall LOL.

No idea how Ling managed it, but I got through the hike carrying Hannah by counting 1 to 100, repeat etc.

Melaka vacation (Win). Our second short vacation. Somewhat less memorable than the Telunas one, given the fact that we didn’t sight-see very much, preferring just to take it real easy as Ling was still wrestling with the early stages of pregnancy. That said, the stay at The Majestic was wonderful, with a beautifully done-up and comfortable room. Hannah adjusted to the trip very well, gobbling up everything we put before her and swam a great deal too. She still talks about the trip a week after we got home.:)

Macbook Pro Retina (Win). No contest; easy win. I dislike the fruit company, but they still make the most amazing notebooks. I still get more than a few colleagues or students asking how come I bought a souped up Macbook Pro and run Windows exclusively on it though.

Motorola Xoom 2 (Mixed). This Android tablet was intended to replace the iPad 2 that Ling (accidentally but who really knows) destroyed. I picked it up at a bargain, but while I like and enjoy using the Android OS a lot more than iOS, the hardware just simply wasn’t up to spec leading to sluggish performance all round. This would had been a bad purchasing decision were it not for that I can still find uses for it e.g. at work or for Hannah.

The Xoom 2 and the iPad (4) Retina.

iPad 4 Retina (Win). Still hate the fruit company, but iOS has Hannah’s favorite apps. The tablet’s distinctly heavier than iPad 2 though – something I still haven’t been able to adjust to.

Samsung Galaxy Note (Win). A year ago, people were wondering how ridiculous it’d look to hold a small tablet-sized phone beside your ear and makes call. Today, no one bats an eyelid anymore – and there are even large ph-ablets in development now. Now that I’ve used a smartphone with a large screen and experienced its benefits browsing, notetaking, scrolling through pictures etc. doing just about everything, I can’t see myself ever going back to a phone that’s smaller, including a certain smartphone with a 4 inch screen from a certain fruit company.

Canon IXUS HS115 + WP-DC310L (Win). This camera was the surprise ‘win’ for the year. I didn’t expect to use it nearly this much taking pictures of Hannah swimming, but in the just over half-year since purchase, I’ve taken several thousand pictures with it.

Fun pictures like these. First-Person Shooter starring Daddy and Hannah; Daddy won (no fight LOL).

Best of all, the waterproof casing is still holding out great.:)

Our stay at The Majestic was near perfect. Housekeeping was brisk and so prompt in fact that we had to on several occasions turn housekeeping away. Comparatively speaking, I don’t think the staff service at this hotel has been the warmest I’ve observed – that accolade still goes to Telunas Beach Resort – but The Majestic comes very close. Staff were consistently friendly and went out of their way to please. One incident especially sticks in my mind: we were waiting for the sixth floor lift to take the lift down to the lobby. The lift door opened to show a staff member with a small push-cart of maintenance items. The lift was comfortably large enough for all of us to join in on our way down, but the staff immediately exited and vacated the lift for us and courteously kept it open and assisted us in pushing the appropriate lift buttons (not that we needed it).

Every staff we encountered – the concierge, the restaurant waiters, the doormen, and even the maintenance workers contracted to do some painting work while we were there – all offered greetings at every turn. Several even engaged Hannah by chatting with her, though our girl – shy as she normally is – normally needed prompting from us to reciprocate. Likewise, we returned the courtesies whenever we received it. Hopefully it goes a bit of a way to show that not all Singaporeans are unhappy or grouchy.

Morning breakfasts at The Majestic. Hannah had some admirers, including a middle-age Caucasian couple who found her very cute!

Nasi Lemak at the hotel. Very delicious! We had these three times.

Pretty small ala carte breakfast menu though.

Our daily breakfasts at the hotel’s restaurant were idyllic and quiet affairs well-attended to by staff, and yep no screaming children or Singaporeans tripping over themselves at the buffet queue. There was one minor hiccup though; the concierge staff mistakenly advised us on our third day that ala carte items didn’t come with our stay package even after our repeated requests for clarification. Thankfully, that still got resolved pretty quickly by the duty manager who overhead our discussion with the concierge, and immediately stepped in to apologize on behalf of his staff, clarified, and followed-up to make sure everything was in order in the subsequent days.

Hannah lounging at our room. She watched a lot of Disney Junior TV.

Another delightful hotel perk; lots of containers containing those little tidbits we loved as children ourselves. These are little candy cookies. Hannah asked for a few of these each time we walked past the container. I think the lobby staff were kept busy topping up the container just for her.:)

The two girls at an afternoon swim.

The hotel’s pool was pretty small too; at perhaps around 10 by 3 meters. But the pool was very clean and though the hotel was fully booked during our period of stay, we had more/less the pool to ourselves during the two occasions when Hannah swam – or paddled about rather.

Apart from fine-dine breakfasts, we ate like the locals everywhere else. The cleanliness of the eateries took some getting use to, especially us as Singaporeans spoiled on normally clean eating surroundings. In fact, the less seen about the possibly less than savory preparatory conditions for some of the food we had, the better it was for me! Ling was especially bothered by the pollution. The coffee shops we ate at had no rules about patrons puffing away indoors, so on several occasions, we hurriedly had to finish eating if only to escape what seemed like Smokers Wild joints. A couple of smokers did notice that we had a young girl with us, so helpfully accommodated by moving to a further seat whenever it was possible, but others couldn’t care less.

Helping herself to garlic naans at Pak Putra. She was receptive to the mutton daal too.

There’s always just one question we ask ourselves to gauge whether a vacation was generally worth the expense:would we return to the place again? For this trip to Melaka, the answer would be a reluctant ‘no’ for myself, but not for any reasons to do with the cuisine or the stay at The Majestic. The food was on the overall decent and accommodation was great. It’s just that there wasn’t very much to do in the city itself outside eating and lounging around. There were a couple of sights worth checking out of course, but they were also quite crowded. Probably because the core area of Melaka is so compact, everyone zeroes in on the same place. There’s about a day’s worth of sight-seeing in the core city itself, but that seems about it.

In sum, If your intent for the vacation is to just spend time with family and to just relax, a small and luxury property like The Majestic fits the bill nicely. I’m already thinking of which other place to go to on our next short trip in the next 6 months; we’ll probably check out Batam. A visitor’s blog has some notes about a property stay that she’s frequented, and it looks intriguing.:)

Where shall we go next?

Fish Porridge @ Wang Food Court

Reviews for this fish porridge stall at Wang Food Court shows up on a couple of blog and foodie places online, and Ling marked it out as a must-check-out eating place when we were planning for the trip. The foodcourt is situated beside Hotel Grand Continental, which itself was just a short 5 minute from The Majestic. We popped by the foodcourt on our first day after checking into the hotel in the early afternoon, but most stalls at the foodcourt were closed, necessitating a return visit on the second day evening.

The stall offers a variety of fish-based fare. We both tried the fish porridge (MY$3.50 and upwards), and found it surprisingly nothing like what the reviews online raved. Ling was especially disappointed that the fish didn’t seem fresh and the soup base for the porridge was bland. I’m not normally a fan of fish-based porridges or soups, but frankly, even the fish soups in my school canteen taste better. Also, I wasn’t expecting stellar customer service, but even that seemed lacking. We both found the middle-age lady serving us unfriendly; her tone when taking our orders was curt and she snorted a loud “沒有” (“don’t have”) when we politely asked for an additional small serving bowl for Hannah.

Also; the fish slices had bones in them; so some caution is necessary if you’ve got young children with you.

Maybe the stall was just having a bad day.

Other stalls at the foodcourt looked a lot more appealing. There was a long queue at the Nasi Lemak stall especially too.

Mei Sin Café

This café is also just very nearby The Majestic, and we dropped by for a quick lunch on day 4 on Saturday just before noon. We weren’t expecting much when Tripadvisor ranks this at #114 of #162 granted though that it’s just got one review to its name. The coffee shop was pretty packed with lunch-time crowds, so we were still a little hopeful. So, we ordered the char kway teow and wanton noodles. And the food was, well, still bland with the latter just a little more tasty than the char kway teow which needed a lot more black sweet sauce. Sigh.

Mei Sin Cafe @ Jalan Bunga Raya Pantai.

Bland.

The two girls tucking in. Wanton noodles were slightly better.

At least the service was much better. The elderly gentleman whipping up the kway teow was friendly. This guy was a one-man show; cooking, serving, and collecting back used dishes all by himself. Interestingly, each plate of noodles was cooked separately. The aunties manning the wanton noodle stall were even warm, chatting with Hannah, and even obliging Ling’s request to cut the noodles up into smaller strips for our little girl.

On a different note; we picked up a couple of trays of pineapple tarts from Malacca Jonker Nonya Enterprise on our way to Pak Putra yesterday evening. The baker must be proud of her 100% homemade tarts, since her name is even included in the cover packaging. We’re going to try these when we’re back at home – and if they’re good, Ling’s probably gonna write up about it here.:)

Pineapple tarts from Jonker Street.

Thing is; we’ve had mostly average to abysmal luck with Chinese food in Melaka (you’ll read about this in our Foodie post #4) and I wasn’t that keen to test luck again, whereas all the Indian cuisine we’ve tried in Melaka – putting aside the fact that it was all Carbo heavy – have been pretty good. Moreover, Pak Putra Tandoori & Naan was in the approximate direction of Jonker Street that we were going by anyway.

Now, finding the place was supposed to be easy – except that this time round, iOS maps were just plain wrong, pointing us to an address that was about 100m away from the actual place. We wandered around the area for nearly 45 minutes before eventually finding the restaurant – imagine the relief we felt.

Like finally finding the oasis in the desert! The crowd at 1830 hrs. The restaurant is a double-shop size that can sit a lot of patrons, and there is more seating outside at the car park lots in front too.

The ovens for the Naan are situated on the outside in-front.

The restaurant is like many other local Melaka restaurants we’ve dined at; it’s spartan, totally functional and without the usual amenities i.e. air-conditioning that Singaporeans expect at eating places. A quick visual glance at the other patrons also having dinner gave us early confidence though: both Chinese, Indians and Malays were robustly tucking into Naans, and we saw a mix of patrons: families, couples, singles and even a couple of elderly Caucasians, mildly surprising since the street was some distance away from the very touristy Jonker Street.

Feeling all adventurous, we ordered three Naans: a garlic/butter, an onion, and a double-cheese which was highly recommended by a Jonker Street salesperson we’d just bought pineapple tarts from. The Naans come with their own gravy, but we added Tandoori chicken which a lot of other patrons were also having, and a mutton daal. And a large Mango Lassi (of course, Matt). The Tandoori chicken was barbequed well on the outside though small bits of it were still a little bloody. Its meat was succulent with strong flavor and a slight tinge of chili. The mutton daal on the other hand was just prefect; thick, lots of spices, and generous in its helping. The mutton dip was so good we just ignored that accompanying Naan dip altogether.

The bill came to MY$33.50 (S$13.50); slightly pricier than the other Indian fare we’ve had in Melaka, but still way cheaper than back in Singapore and delicious to boot.

Hannah taking an interest in the Mango Lassi. She loved it!

Tandoori chicken legs for Ling.

Mutton daal for me!

One of our three Naans; which was a lot of food for the three of us. This one’s the garlic/butter one.

The walk back to The Majestic took 50 minutes, and ended with Ling grumbling if we could avoid finding #1 rated restaurants that were so far from our accommodation LOL.

One local blogger in SIngapore has remarked in his posts about Melaka; that generally speaking, the grittier the place, the tastier the food is likely going to be. We haven’t quite put that theory to absolute test yet, but having tried several Indian eateries and stalls in our Melaka stay, we’re ready to say that Indian cuisine is good everywhere we go. We covered these three places on our third day: lunch, dinner and supper.

Restoran Saravanna

After reading the blogger’s post of the Indian fare whipped up at this roadside restaurant, we gave it a go for lunch. The place was almost directly just opposite The Majestic at Jalan Bunga Raya Pantai; you just cross the road, walk about 10 meters, and there it is.

Front facade doesn’t look like much, but looks are deceiving.

Like many other Singaporean Chinese, we all love Indian food, though when it comes to knowing for certain what to try, we can get a little clueless. For this time round, we tried the Roti canai – which is the Malaysian equivalent of Roti pratas – and had a couple of egg and eggless ones. Bit of novel experience too; that gravy helpings are DIY. There’s a contraption comprising several metallic containers of gravy variants, and you help yourself to it (though you don’t get to horde the entire gravy train to yourself though – it’s communal).

Roti canai with two gravies – yummy!

Pluto’s still getting choked.:)

Help Yourself to It gravy service.

Total damage for 2 egg, 2 kosong canais, Ling’s Teh Halia and a can drink for me was MY$8 (S$3). Nowhere can you find similar and as delicious fare at this price in Singapore.

Vazhal Elai (Banana Leaf) Restaurant

This restaurant, located at 42 Jalan Munshi Abdullah, was a lot harder to find. Tripadvisor’s entry for this eatery is “Banana Leaf” restaurant; only that the place’s signboard says something else. It didn’t help too that the iOS and Google maps gave conflicting instructions where this eatery was. We ended up wandering around looking for the place on the first evening, settling for Lu Yeh Yan eventually. We found the place the second time round just now. Compared to Restoran Saravanna, the place looked and felt cleaner with its brighter décor and looked recently renovated.

Eat like the locals; no plates – just banana leaves. We did indulge ourselves with one luxury though: we ate with forks and spoons.

We were the only Chinese in the restaurant at dinner time, and got quite a mix of both curious and also amused looks at these two obvious non-locals with a three year old girl who didn’t stop chattering, the moreso when I fished out the E-M5 to take pictures of what we were having! The fare served in this restaurant was common Indian fare, judging from the menu pasted on the wall, but it sure was authentic. I had the mutton, Ling had the chicken and vegetable sides alongside white rice, all served on banana leafs – literally. Hannah had the Thosai. Just look at her:

Hannah going at it like a Pro… and so totally ignoring Daddy.:)

All delicious, and we cleaned our plates excepting Hannah; she wanted to leave some room for the candy cookies back at the hotel. Damage was MY$16 (S$6.50). The funniest thing was that Ling was still hungry. So, without stopping, we headed back in the general direction of the hotel and stopped for…

Puteri Erra Roti John

This stall was located at a foodcourt also almost directly opposite The Majestic at Jalan Bunga Raya Pantai.

It’s factory line behind this stall front.

I went straight ahead to like them on Facebook. Where’s my free coupon?! :)

There was a long queue for this fellow’s Roti Johns; at least a dozen and another half were served before it came to our turn. Ling chuckled that the joint is like a factory line; someone just concentrates on frying the bread, someone else does the vegetable and gravy dressing, and a third person does the packing and serving. Ling ordered two, but was misheard and we got three instead at MY$2 each ($0.80). The stuff was pretty oily but once you get past the fact that eating one of these will make you feel like you’ve just deducted a few more days out of your life, they were still incredibly delicious.

And no; we didn’t finish all three – it was too much food LOL.

Aside from our daily breakfasts at The Majestic which came as part of our stay package, we dined for the most part like the locals did; literally street side stalls with cars wheezing past less than a meter away, food courts, and coffee shops. Ling had done quite a bit of homework and Googling about finding out the good eating places and fitting them into our general itinerary and areas to visit each day.

Lu Yeh Yen

This was a Chinese restaurant just 5 minutes walk from The Majestic, with opening hours between 1800 to 0200 hrs. The restaurant is pretty easy to find as it’s located beside a small Chinese temple; in fact it seemed that you could dine on the temple grounds itself too. We went by the restaurant on the first evening, and though it was just us and a couple of other patrons (interestingly all Caucasian), our food took a while to arrive – nearly 30 minutes. We had the sweet/sour pork ribs, salted vegetable soup with toufu, fried rice, and mixed vegetables. The bill totaled MY$34 (S$13.50). Each dish – we asked for smallest portions – was between MY$6 to MY$9.

Luh Yeh Yen Restaurant along Jalan Bunga Raya Pantai.

Hannah was a little grouchy over dinner. She’s fit right into today’s statistic about Singaporeans being the most grouchy people around.

There was sufficient food to go round for all of us, and taste-wise was alright and about equivalent to the neighborhood zi-cha eateries back at home. Not much care was given to each dish’s presentation though, The wait staff were responsive and helpful though not what I’d call warm or friendly.

Nadeje Cake House

This came by way of Doreen’s recommendation; that its Mille Crepes was something we absolutely had to try for tummy pleasure. This little eatery is tucked away at one of a series of parallel side roads about 7 minutes walk from Dataran Pahlawan Melaka Megamall. We found the café without much difficulty, thanks in good part to iPad maps and also the café’s striking black-colored exterior facade.

We initially thought that we’d just stop for cakes, supposing that this place wasn’t going to offer anything else. When we saw that the place also had an menu comprising western main courses, we decided to have lunch here too. That turned out to be a bit of a mistake. The café wasn’t crowded during the near lunch hour we visited. Wait service was attentive and took the initiative to get appropriate cutlery for our young daughter.

Original Mille Crepe.

Tiramisu. No alcohol, so alright for Hannah.

Cake slices were around MY$9, with main courses MY$10 onwards. We tried the Tiramisu and Original Mille Crepe, both of which were suitably creamy and marvelous. Beverages were a pretty exotic Pineapple Yakult mix and Ice Chocolate Latte, both which were ordinary. The main courses though were disappointing: we found the cream Carbonara and Mushroom Cream Soup plain and diluted respectively. Bill was MY$51.50 ($20.50) The little cup containing the sweetener for the Latte had a prominent ant swimming at the top, which the wait staff replaced apologetically after I pointed it out. Interestingly, the Tripadvisor reviews for this place is mixed, with some noting problematic wait service standards. We didn’t face any such difficulty, though that might had been also because the hour we went was off-peak.

On the overall, recommended for the yummy cakes but not for the rest of the menu.

The two girls climbing up St. Paul’s Hill.

The ruins of St. Paul’s Church at the hill’s summit.

180 degree view from the hill.

Part of the outbound journey to the first stop – St. Paul’s Hill – was a little tricky given how scarce pedestrian crossings were at along the main road, which resulted in us making mad dashes, usually carrying Hannah, across the road. Nothing quite as scary as in Shanghai or Beijing though; the drivers here in Melaka at least seem to be respectful of pedestrians, unlike in China where I felt like though I was to be roadkill. The weather mid-morning journeying up was both good and bad; good because there was a fierce overcast which saw the sun tucked safely away, bad because there was a very slight drizzle.

We navigated our way to St. Paul’s Hill without too much difficulty, thanks to the iOS maps on the trusty and new iPad – yep I double checked the directions with Google maps before we made the trip LOL – and the climb up was expedited by stone steps all the way up. There wasn’t much to see up top as the hill isn’t very high, but you do get a good part of the 360 degree view of Melaka, with the Menara Taming Siri being the most significant landmark in the viewpoint.

The Melaka Revolving Tower was a 10 minute short walk nearby, but we stopped by the Taman Merdeka park midway. This is a pretty small park with several crowd pleasing vehicle exhibits, including several carriages of a train and a turbo-prop plane. Our girl gamely took on the challenge that many other local kids were making a beeline for; essentially posing beside the vehicles.

Hannah posing with the train. She’s balanced herself nicely on the train’s step.

The Revolving Tower is reportedly one of the more interesting sights in Melaka. It features an air-conditioned gyro tower that goes up 80 meters above ground, offering a full 360 degree view of the city. Pretty pricey at MY$20/adult and MY$10/child, and the ride isn’t very long at about 10 minutes. But the view was spectacular, helped also by the clear– if overcast– late morning weather. Hannah certainly enjoyed the ride, and asked for a pair of binoculars too so that she can see better “things that are far far away”!

The Tower against a cloudy late morning.

View from the rotating platform.

The roof-top of the Megamall was undergoing some massive renovation. On the right is Hatten Hotel, which was recommended by Doreen (the recommendation came too late though; we’d already booked The Majestic).

Cruise ship yonder!

Towards the end, Hannah so totally disregarded the overhead announcement to remain in our seats.

The last stop was the Dataran Pahlawan Melaka Megamall, a fairly recent and large shopping mall just a few minutes walk away from the Tower. Prices for the branded apparel shops were about similar and in fact higher than in Singapore, so we ended up not buying anything, except for a pair of butterfly wings that Hannah wore and adored.:)

Outside the Megamall.

Just when I remarked that the city doesn’t seem to have many China tourists, we bumped into one such group. That’s Ling helpfully providing directions to the Megamall, and Hannah especially chirpy because of her new wings.:)