#THROWBACK 2019 CHINESE NEW YEAR 4th Feb 2019

Yes, our yearly affair. People will stay in their house or rush back to hometown – Malaysia and have a very decent meal- most of the time steamboat, yusheng and after that watch the count down.

For us… we are not going back to my husband’s hometown. But we are still going to jam at the custom for 5 hours to go to my parents’ holiday home in JB.

I like the ambience and atmosphere to celebrate in Malaysia.

Reason:

Bigger space for the kids to play
House everyone. Each couple have their own room.
Fireworks

For me, family is important.

By right, Chinese tradition (at least I know it is our Taiwanese tradition ) daughter married is not allow to go back to their maternal side for Chinese new year. They are only allow to come back on the second day of Chinese New year.

So I totally love the idea when my mother suggest we go in for CNY. Because I do know I do not have much time left to spent with them. So every moment is important.

I will help her cook and prepare for the feast. She will whip out 10 dishes.

I am always so proud of what we had made. I will made sure I will post online to showcase my mummy creation.

This year Chinese zodiac is Pig. So my dad and sister, created this yusheng.

After the meal, we will wait till 11.59pm. Our neighbour will have a great firework for us.

Meanwhile, will let the kids play these. POP. And Sky lanterns. We write our wishes on these lanterns and light up the candle wax in the and it will raise up like a hot air balloon.

I really hope these are the tradition we keep in these family. I know it is tough for the driver, Mr L, my brother in law, my Dad.

But how long can we keep these tradition.

Kids will grow up. And my parents will grow old soon and these will be gone even before we know it.

Mr L had been complaining the long Jam at the custom and the idea of my stupid tradition. And keep asking to drop these. I know the frustration and angry the driver get. I am a driver too. Even if I explained to him he still this is silly.

I do hope he will understand the family memories I want to create and keep.

Happy Chinese New Year to all.

When should kids get a phone?

Queenie is asking Tooth fairy to bring her a phone. I had to tell her it is too heavy for the tooth fairy, and they will not know what type they should get for you. She is only 7 years old.

Is age really the issue?

Photo by mohamed Abdelgaffar on Pexels.com

I feel that is not so much on what age shall we give them. The key word is Maturity, are they mature enough to handle this gadget. And the world she gonna be expose to.

Like she will be influence with all the inappropriate content, addicted to games, become overly depending on social media, or even get bullied in the cyber world. Not to mention the the increase cases of scam calls. These are kid we are talking about, they are not mentally prepared for these cases.

On the other hand, I also want her to be technological savvy.

But deep down I know she is not ready to own a phone:

She still do not understand the concern of $$, what if she lost the phone. she will not feel the pinch
No able to follow strictly on schedule, let alone follow my limited screen time rule
she does not portray to me she have a sense of responsibility of her actions and chores, tasks

So Mr L and I decided, she will not have the phone. Until, she show us she is ready.

Meanwhile, she will have guided screen time with us on laptop or ipad or. Us as parents, we must limited our phone time as well, so the kids know phone is not the only thing in the world.

2018 Christmas Day

Mr L wanted to bring the whole family out for the Day.. I will assume it i will be breakfast, and that is it…. Turns out… it is a full day event.

Boy or boy, lucky i brought enough diapers.

Managed to get all kids ready and left the house at 10am ish. I did all by myself without help.

First stop.. Dim Sum. Easy choice for all. Tim Ho Wan (添好运) @ Aperia Mall. This Michelin star dim sum joint at Aperia Mall is better as the crowd is very much manageable. Less than 5 mins we care able to have a table.

While waiting for our food, let mummy test out her new Samsung Note 9. My birthday present from Mr L.

Food arrived, busy eating, tend to the kids needs. Hence did not take a good shot of the the food.

Our favorite and their signature dishes. Baked BBQ Pork Bun, Prawn Dumplings, Prawn and Pork Dumplings, BBQ Pork Rice Roll, Stream Sponge Cake, Pork Ribs with Yam and Black Beans, Pan-fried Radish Cake and Glutinous Rice wrapped in Lotus Leaf. These are all our favorites.

Baked BBQ Pork Bun – Family favorite. A must try.

Pan-fried Radish Cake – Mr & Mrs, Queenie’s favorite. Recommend to try

Glutinous Rice wrapped in Lotus Leaf – Mr & Mrs’s
favorite. The taste is just nice in term of the sauce and the rice texture.

After the sumptuous brunch, we head to Cold Storage for a short shopping trip to top up the grocery and took a few candid shots with the Christmas deco.

Next stop, Singapore Art Museum. (SAM). Mr L decided to take public transport today, so we left the car at Aperia Mall. We had a good time there attended 2 workshop. And most important fact:

Free entry for Singaporean and Singapore PRs
Free workshops for the kids to attend

OK the kids are hungry, what is next? Food again la.

Again, the mount react faster than the hands and camera…

We had afternoon tea at the Tanuki at kapok @ National Design Centre

We tried this before at their other branch in Orchard Central. Their food is yummy. This time we tried the, SPAM WHAM! , Red lemon cheese velvet cake, wham! fries, TRUFFLE YAKINIKU ( donburi) and Mojito.

We tried our best to minimize the kids to use electronic gadget. so they will have papers, pencils in their bags so they can draw and keep themselves entertain. Of course, we does give in some times. As long as we parents know when to step in to set the limits. Matthew is the only one that is tough to handle, so Mr L will teach him a lesson when he is out of line, even in the public.

Managed to take a few shot outside the restaurant, good place to chill. Definitely, recommend you to try their Donburi set. Yummy!

A quick window shopping spree, at Bugis Junction. Do I enjoy it? NO WAY. It just make me remember why we avoid town every weekend. CROWDS everywhere. Does these people have other places to go?? Obviously not…

And the kids dun give us the time to shop. Plus the 2 younger old is way passed their nap time. Grouchy monsters on the loose, to prevent a meltdown from the kids, we divert their attention to take train.

Final stop, Paulaner Bräuhaus. We miss the German beer and can’t get enough of it since our Nov/Dec 2018 Europe trip. Can you blame us?

Kids playing with little toys, bought by A for our recent trip in Oct 2018 – Taiwan. Beer, sausages, and the famous crispy pork knuckle

I can’t hear the “kazi kazi” sound at all from the pork knuckle skin. I think the closest close I’m about to hear is my teeth breaking. Yes no kidding it is hard. I have not complaint to the beer and sausages and whipped potatoes.

After the whole food we are off to the take train to Aperia Mall. Thanks Mr L to plan all these for the family, and the kids are well behaved.

Except for Matt in the morning at Tim Ho Wan. But Mr L took care of it. Queenie keep asking if we can do it more often.

Considering her suggestions and estimate for the things we have done:

Tim Ho Wan – S$50
Taxi – S$9
Tanuki – $70
Train – Kids below 0.9m travel for free. S$7
Paulaner – S$90
Parking – S$2.50

Maybe not every weekend, every quarter we can still consider. S$230 can mean a lot for some family.

But a great day spent with the kids.