3rd-Party Failure

Hoping to save some money, a.k.a cheapskate, I ordered a 3rd-party Nikon SC-28 hotshoe cord for off-camera flash. Cost me S$40 inclusive of shipping from Hong Kong. Boy, am I going to regret it.

The new setup:




Happily I took it to my company's dinner n dance. When I came back, I could pull the cord off the camera! It seems the catch to the retaining pin is loose! I couldn't reach the 4 screws underneath. In the end, I cut the cord to get an opening and pry and twisted.



What a disaster. I bought the original Nikon SC-29 the very next day for a cool S$128. Fits perfectly ...

Shopping Resumed

I'm seriously deprived of shopping for the past few months. Finally found some time to do a little shopping but I think I went a little uncontrolled! :P

Shopping for shoes:



Shopping for Baby's stuffs:


Shopping for Baby and our party wear:


Shopping for accessories for the x'mas party... shopping for birthday gifts for baby celebrations and lots of shopping for x'mas presents ahead! Wow, shopping makes me feel good, I'm satisfied now! :)


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Charlene's 2nd Birthday Party

So fast, it seems very recently that DC helped take studio pictures of Charlene on her 1st birthday and now she's 2 already! She looks different, indeed like what they say, babies does grow up very fast!




Baby slept throughout the celebration and missed the group photo of all kids!


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Afternoon Tea at Regent Hotel

Chanced upon an article about the Best of Britain afternoon tea at the Tea Lounge in Regent Hotel. Lasting for 2 weeks only, it was quite well-received. We couldn't get a reservation last weekend so we could only manage this Saturday.

Service wasn't too good. There is only one person to direct the people to the seats and she was missing for quite some time when we arrived. That's not all, they could find my reservation ... They did manage to accommodate us finally and CP also insisted on the plush sofa seats :D

Like the Conrad, you get a few selections of teas, like rose petal, vanilla, Assam or jasmine. You can opt for any and as many as you like. I opted for the lapsang songchou. It's quite unique, there's a fragrant smoked woody taste to the tea. I always enjoyed strong teas. CP and my parents selected rose petal, vanilla and Assam respectively. Again, service was slow here, our teas and coffees took a long time to be served.

Poor service aside, the food spread is simply fabulous! Wide selection of sandwiches (there's ox tongue sandwich), puddings, cakes, pastries, cheese and finger food. Best of all, they all taste good!

Maid of Honour pastry

The chef was quite proud of this. Crisp and fluffy, it was very nice indeed.

Tender-licious lamb




The pastry chef was quite a friendly guy. He gave us an intro on the various types of pastries served at the buffet. On a side note, he's the pastry chef for the Italian restaurant Basilica upstairs.





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Baby Swimming 4

There are some new faces today, the usual staff were not there. There is this lady from China who always likes to carry and hug him whenever she sees him... Probably, today she's at the new branch?

Today, we see all tricks from sessions 1-3: the different types of kicks, going round in circles and bouncing across the tub! I noticed that he was beginning to use his hands to push the water while swimming! :) He seems more relaxed, going round in circles more and looking out of the window more. But, just when he thought he was having fun, the assistant tried to get him kicking which he didn't like and so, he complained by crying. We knew it's time to get him out of the water and the time is just right as we have to proceed to our next venue...

Duckie Talk.. this time a bigger duckie.


Relaxing in the water.


Getting ready to spring?


Family photo with a different perspective...


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Poles Apart

This year, Orchard Road and Marina Bay will have different themes (instead of just one) and will extend to the Singapore river as well.

X'mas is actually at our doorsteps!

This is what DC sees when he steps out of office at 7pm:


The Christmas light-up at Marina Bay themed "A Glitzy Christmas by the Bay" takes inspiration from the mythological tale of the Midas’ Touch where oceanic design elements like waves and a bejewelled clam motif turn into a glittering gold extravaganza, symbolising royalty and abundance, and suitable for the year-end holiday season...

This is what I see when I step out of office at 7pm:


The Christmas light-up on Orchard Road is themed “A Christmas All Decked Out” to showcase fashion as one of the key experiences of shopping on Orchard Road. Various snowmen, reindeers and even Santa Claus have been given style makeovers and are decked up in the latest fashions of the season.

DC and I are definitely in different worlds, at different ends of the stretch of long road, we are many many poles apart! His x'mas world is full of gold and warmth and mine is icy blue and cold... oh unless I popped by my HQ which is in his area! :P


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Lansinoh Milk Bags

It seems just yesterday that I was very upset about my limited milk supply but today, I've got the whole freezer compartment - okay I'm exaggerating, only about half it - filled with frozen milk!

It's not that my supply suddenly increased by a lot but it's that Baby has been drinking very little! It's also because we were out mostly during the weekends, thus allowing the EBM to accumulate.


Pictures taken at 8 Nov 09. I have 4 times more now! Imagine 4 columns of milk bags staked together... :D

Was initially using the Medela bottles to store the milk in fridge but when we decided it's time to freeze them, we realised that we have not enough storage bottles! Wanted to get the Medela milk bags but then, DC's friend recommended this brand of milk bag. I have also read good comments about this bag. The Lansinoh bags are so much cheaper than the Medela bags, has double seal that prevents leakage and the best thing is that they are easily stackable, thus saving a lot of freezer space (Now, I'm sharing the freezer compartment with my MIL who stores food there)! We never looked back since and I'm happy to say that I'm on my third pack now...


Picture taken on 17 Sep 09. Now, instead of allocating the exact amount per feed in a bottle, we now fill up the whole milk into taller bottles. This stores more and saves bottles.

Now, though Baby has no complaints on the frozen milk that we stored in the glass bottles, I have yet to let him try those in the milk bags. Heard that some Baby reject because of the "metallic" smell.. hope mine won't!!!


Related Tweet:
31 Oct 2009, 1:34 AM, CP: Running out of container to store my BM, finally the milk bags are here! :)


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Fun Things to do in the Shower

I had a hard time washing Baby's hair and keeping his hair clean because his hair is too loong! One day, instead of the routine hair wash, to keep myself entertained, I quickly do up some hairstyles (have to be quick otherwise he will complain!) and playfully asked DC to snap some pictures of them. Hehe, I mean there aren't a lot of 3 month olds with long hairs that you could do quicky hairstyles on - our baby is one of them, so why not? :P

Things will get more fun when he's able to sit up in his tub! :D

Unicorn


Superman


Dragonball


Astroboy


Teletubby


?

Photos above were taken just before his recent haircut.


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Flu Attack

DC had runny nose and I'm down with sore throat.



I'm masking myself today, let's hope our little one is safe from our germs!


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X'mas Costume Party Excitement

We have a X'mas costume party coming up next week and now, we are all excited about it! :)

Hmmm, what fairytale character should Baby be? We are still considering...

I have called up the costume shops in Singapore but they do not have costumes for babies. I told DC I want to make one for Baby but haha, that's just a passing remark cos I simply do not have the time! :P Then, we found some really cute ones online.

The question now is whether there is enough time for the costumes to be shipped over? We have already placed our orders, let's keep our fingers crossed! :)

[Updated on 13 Dec 2009: Sad to say, both batches of outfits did not arrive in time. First batch came 1 day later and the second batch came 3 days later. Thank God we found a really cute reindeer suit at Mothercare! :)]


Related Tweet:
2 Dec 2009, PM, CP: Excited about what to dress baby up as for the upcoming x'mas costume party! :D


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