Jayden's 2nd Month Swim

Jayden turned 2 months 2 days ago. As a treat, we brought him for a swimming session at HarbourFront.

Now, this is a baby who enjoys his twice daily warm bath tremendously, so we figured that he would definitely love a swim.

Of course, we can't be too sure. Not with him giving us that "are you guys sure about this?" look.

But off we went to the swim centre and got him changed into disposable swim diapers. Every time we take off his clothes, it never fails to amaze me how much he's grown in 2 months.

Then comes the moment of truth, and it was just as we imagined it to be. In fact, it was even better.

Jayden simply loves the water. While all the other kids were crying and wailing their lungs out, the little one can't stop looking excited as he moved his arms and kicked his legs in the water. Very much a natural.

We're definitely bringing him back again some day

I'm a Dad!

Monday, 7th of June 2010 was an extraordinary day, to say the least. I was preparing to go for my hand surgery (to remove some titanium inplants) in the afternoon, but before I did that, I had to accompany Daisy for her routine gynaecological check-up in the morning.

Daisy was already 36 weeks pregnant and by my estimation, we would expect a baby by the end of June. In fact, Daisy already had strong contractions when she was 33 weeks in (she was even admitted for one night), and has been taking medication to delay delivery till the baby is full term. The deal is, for as long as she's taking her meds, she won't deliver. That way, by the time the baby is delivered, my hand would have healed nicely.

But the good Lord had different plans for us. The routine tocographical measurements that morning showed that she's already having contractions at intervals of 10 minutes. The doctor ordered that I cancel my surgery and admit her to the delivery ward that afternoon. I was still in a daze; not entirely sure if the doctor was sure of what she's doing.

True enough, within half a hour, Daisy started feeling the pains of contraction. I called off the surgey while she called the office to say that she won't be coming in, and we just grabbed a few things from home and headed to the hospital.

We've already decided that morning that some epidural would be good. No point making it any more difficult for her, is my thought. Lucky for that thought, for that made the whole experience so much more bearable in terms of pain and anxiety.

We checked in at 12pm. By 2pm, we could hear the gynae going through the other delivery rooms, telling her other patients to "Push!" Just before 4pm, she came into our delivery room. After some checks, she decided, "okay, let's delivery this baby now!" A few "Now, push!" later, my life has changed forever.

Baby Jayden came into this world at 1607hrs and he just amazed both Daisy and myself. After a few cries as he came into this world, Jayden just lay there at the baby cot and started to curiously check out his surrounding.

Almost immediately, Daisy started trying to breastfeed him and within a few minutes, the little baby learned to latch on for sustenance.

Jayden was born exactly a month early, weighing 2.8kg. We stayed 2 nights in the hospital and went home to Daisy's parents place, where we would stay till he's a month old.

Since coming into our lives, he has filled our days (and nights) with anxiety, fatigue and exasperation. More than that, however, he has also filled our lives with joy, wonder, amazement and humility at the goodness of God. If I may say so, he's one heck of a cute baby!

We thank the Lord for this wonderful gift of love and will strive to be good parents.

We would also like to thank all our friends who came, called, SMSed, left messages and sent bouquets of love. We really appreciate your well wishes.

Today, Jayden is one week old. We just got his birth certificate done back at Parkway East Hospital this afternoon. My son is officially a Singapore citizen, haha!

Now that I'm a dad, I'm definitely looking forward to what this next chapter in my life holds!

Marche

Was at Marche @ 313 Somerset to celebrate one sister's birthday, and another's farewell

More Furniture In The House

This morning, another piece of furniture was delivered to Chai Chee Avenue.

Truly, things will never be the same again... oh boy :-)

N97 - I'm Loving It!

Daisy found her N97 too bulky so she gave it to me instead. The N97 being my dream phone then, I gladly accepted and bought her a Samsung Jet in return. A few of Nokia's machines are really pretty good and I'm proud to have owned some of them; 8250, 8310, 6300, 6500Slider and now the N97.

When I first got the N97, I immediately liked it. The transition from the 6500 (S) to the N97 provided large amounts of exploration and fun.

This week, another major landmark development happened. Nokia's new Ovi Maps 3.03 now comes with free navigation for a wide range of Nokia products. Woohoo!

Suddenly, the N97 thrumps the iphone on more fronts.

In-built FM transmitter... the songs I play on my phone can be played over a radio. Today we were listening to music from my phone in the car, when suddenly, the sound of snoring can be heard over the radio. Apparently, the wife used my phone to record my snoring to prove a point.

Default Message Reader... No need to read SMS while driving anymore. Let the phone read the message out loud for you. Only problem is, if kanasai is written as KNS, then the phone will read "kay-Ann-Ass".

Dual LED Flash... doubles up as a torch light.

5.0M camera with auto-focus and Carl Zeiss lenses... nuff said

Physical QWERTY keyboard... when we need precision typing. Although, I still use the alpha-numeric keypad most of the time.

I'm not too concerned about software comparisons as it's clearly only a matter of time before both phones have identical software support and applications range. It's the hardware that makes more things possible.

All hail the N97!

Happy New Year 2010!

This year, Daisy and me spent New Year's Eve resting at home. She had to rest (and boy, so did I!) so we cancelled all prior plans and just watched a movie in the comfort of our living room. Sincere apologies to all whose parties we could not attend.

Ever since I started writing on a web log, I've managed to document the arrival of 2007, 2008 and 2009. Brings back tons of memories, as I look back at those fun times!

Nevertheles, it's no less meaningful spending alone time with Daisy at home and watching the fireworks from our window.

As our home also overlook the sea off East Coast Park, we could see fireworks going off in Indonesia as well as numerous flares being fired off the commercial vessels that line the waterline.

On another note, the four of us - me, Daisy, Minh and Andrew; finally opened our Christmas presents on 30th December 2009! Woohoo!

Happy New Year 2010 Everyone!

Christmas Eve 2009

Here's wishing everyone a very merry Christmas. Unlike other years, this year I'm not attending the Christmas vigil at midnight but will go for Christmas Day mass tomorrow.


This evening, it was just a quiet dinner with Daisy and her parents, accompanied by a very rare bottle of red.

Loving my bottle of Cirillo Estate 1850 Old Vine Grenache 2004.

The wine is made from Granache grapes from vines planted way back in 1850. That's why it's so rare and hard to find. Again, I'm no expert, but as far as I'm concerned, it's nice to the last drop! haha!

BBQ at the Chen's

Had a great evening BBQ over at CP and Helena's new place. Me and Daisy were the earliest to arrive so we had a chance to take a picture together. Daisy then went off for a friend's hen party.

The place is simply great. Nice cluster condo with a fantastic rooftop area. Perfect for BBQ and drinks!

Unfortunately, I was so engrossed in the BBQ (the portable BBQ grill is a must have for anyone with a space in their home for BBQ!) that I forgot to take any other pictures of the event.

Dinner At The Chen's

I love getting invitations to dinner at Jamie Chen's place. Yesterday evening was another such impromptu culinary delight. This guy's cooking is really good, and getting better.

For starters, we had braised mushrooms, vinegared zucchini, long beans stir-fried with bacon slices and roast duck breast so good, you would think you're in France.

Our mains came in the form of Shanghainese braised duck. Reminded of the sweet Hakka braised duck from my mother's side of the family, only better!

We also had steamed prawns..

And mango clams!

Dinner ended with oven baked eggplant and sweetcorn.

I should also mention that to wash down all that food, we had a bottle Wolfblass moscato and some Sapporo beer.

As always, no visit to the Chen's is complete without cigar and Scotch whiskey, and this time we took our time savouring the grand-daddy of all whiskey; Laphroaig.

Thanks Chen Peng and Helena! Love you guys!

UK & Europe Honeymoon - A Picture A Day

This is a quick summary of our trip to the UK and Europe in August. A picture a day, plus a few words.

Day 0 - [13 Aug 09]

Singapore

With much eagerness, we said goodbye to Singapore and get our hectic work lives out of our systems for a good two weeks.

We took a midnight flight out of Changi. The timing was great as we were scheduled to arrive at Heathrow early the next morning, giving us one full day in London.

Day 1 - [14 Aug 09]

London & Manchester

We reached London early in the morning at met Fu Onn at his house. We then went for our first meal in Europe; Ponti's Full English Breakfast at Liverpool Street tube station.

When Fiona did get to knock off that evening, we hopped on the train to Manchester. Woohoo!

Day 2 - [15 Aug 09]

Manchester

We spent the morning walking around Manchester city centre. We could see a mix of Reds and SkyBlues in town.

After checking out of our apartment, Daisy and myself checked into a hotel room at Salford Quays, which was within the vicinity of Manchester United's Old Trafford stadium. We spent the afternoon immersing ourselves in the scenic Salford Quays area and checking out the MUFC Megastore. Fu Onn and Fiona left for York that evening.

Day 3 - [16 Aug 09]

Manchester & Edinburgh

When we woke up on Sunday morning, we could feel that the atmosphere to be distinctly different from the day before. There was more buzz and the you could see more people on the streets. Almost every other person in that part of town wore a red top!

As we made our way to the stadium, we soon became part of a massive procession of football fans heading to the Promised Land of Soccerdom. For the two of us; we finally fulfilled our own soccer pilgrimage by watching Manchester United play a Premiership match at Old Trafford. After the match, we took a flight out to Scotland.

Day 4 - [17 Aug 09]

Edinburgh & London

We had initially wanted to stay in the B&Bs of the Scottish Highlands; with a scenic loch in front of the guesthouse and a cloudy mountain at the back. But a rescheduling of Manchester United's season opening match meant we could only spend one night in Edinburgh. A single malt whiskey fueled night no less!

We even went off the beaten tourist track and ventured into the countryside to visit a whiskey distillery. In fact, that distillery turned out to be the one producing Glenkinchie, which we had just tasted the night before. The most memorable part of our trip to Edinburgh has to be our ascend to Arthur's Seat, a peak in Holyrood Park. That evening, we flew back to London.

Day 5 - [18 Aug 09]

London & Amsterdam

As Fiona had to work, Daisy, Fu Onn and myself flew off the next day to Amsterdam.

Amsterdam is a beautiful city and the people were very friendly. I must also mention that our hotel in Amsterdam was the nicest one we've stayed in during the course of the two weeks. I was banned from trying to smoke weed but we did have watch a live 'adult' show in the famous red light district.

Day 6 - [19 Aug 09]

Amsterdam & Bruges

From the land of Grolsch, we took a train to the land of Duvel!

After a quick transit at Antwerp, we arrived at the medieval city of Bruges. Now this is a city lost in time! From the narrow stone paved roads to the architecture of all the buildings around the city, you will definitely feel transported back to a time of knights on horses and maidens walking by with their laundry buckets. OK, so maybe it's just me.

Day 7 - [20 Aug 09]

Bruges

Initially, we imagined this place to be less known and hence less touristy. That proved to be wrong and you could tell that the city survives entirely on tourist money; with its many romantic canals, windmills, churches, chocolatiers and restaurants.

For a tiny city, it has numerous Michelin starred restaurants. There are also downsides to this place. The hotels are of very inferior quality, shops close very early and food is very expensive. That said, we still had a lot of chocolate, beer and mussels!

Day 8 [21 Aug 09]

Bruges, Brussels & Barcelona

We left Bruges early to spend a few hours in Brussels, for more chocolate, beer and mussels! Haha!

In the evening, we took a flight to Spain where Fiona rejoined us, and what a (heat) shock Spain turned out to be. Barcelona was hot! The greatest shock came when we found out that our apartment did not have air conditioning!

Day 9 - [22 Aug 09]

Barcelona

As hot as it was, we still managed to pack our few days with activities. Walking down La Ramblas, touring the Nou Camp, visiting Segadra Familia, enjoying the vista atop Montjuic, etc..

It's a pity really that we stayed in a place without air conditioning. That taught us a very valuable lesson in booking for hotels in the future. Overall, it was still a good trip. We also had our best meal over the two weeks in a chic local restaurant called La Botiga. Highly recommended. It was a gem of a find for us, really. I'll probably blog about that story in another post.

Day 10 - [23 Aug 09]

Barcelona & Paris

Barcelona may be a beautiful city but the heat was really too much for us.

So, after saying goodbye to Fu Onn and Fiona, both going back to London to work, we continued on our way to Paris! Ah! The cool French weather was so welcoming. I can't understand why Cristiano Ronaldo would ever want a move to Spain so much!

Day 11 - [24 Aug 09]

Paris

Paris was amazing! All that talk about it being the most romantic city on Earth, well, it's probably mostly true.

The very simple act of strolling down Avenue des Champs-Élysées already feels so romantic. This is easily my favourite city during the course of the two weeks that we were in Europe.

Day 12 - [25 Aug 09]

Paris & London

With heavy heart, we said goodbye to Paris and took the Eurostar back to London.

That night, our hosts (Fu Onn and Fiona) brought us to a Szechuan restaurant near Liverpool Street. As a matter of fact, we had Chinese food every single night that we were in London!

Day 13 - [26 Aug 09]

London

While our hosts went to work, we took the time to do the usual touristy stuffs.

While we did not see the Queen in person, we did see her palace and a host of other London landmarks. We also watched a West End play (Les Misérables) and did some shopping over at Chinatown.

Day 14 - [27 Aug 09]

London

The whole Chinatown shopping trip was to help prepare for a steamboat dinner on our last night in London.

It will be an evening that all 4 of us will remember for a long time. We had a yin-yang steamboat of chicken soup and mala soup on the verandah of Fu Onn's apartment. The winds were strong and super cold. As dinner progressed, we started pulling on more clothes to counter the cold. After dinner, Fu Onn and myself went out to a nearby bar for drinks and got caught up in a karaoke mood. After 5 beers each, we went home to find Daisy and Fiona still awake and started setting up for a home karaoke session, projecting Youtube MTV on his TV. The video recording of that session will make for many a good laugh in the years to come.




Day 15 - [28 Aug 09]
London



After doing some last minute shopping and taking a final good look around London, it was finally time to head home to Singapore.



We had wanted to have a good dinner at Heathrow before the flight but a mess-up of tax rebate issues meant that there wasn't any time at all for dinner.


Day 16 - [29 Aug 09]
Singapore


After what seemed like a never ending flight, we finally touched down back in Singapore on a fine Saturday evening.

It was a most memorable 2 weeks of our lives together. What made it even more memorable was the fact that we also spent most of that time in the company of good friends.

We would definitely love to go back and spend more time in Scotland and France. Not to forget, we have yet to visit Italy, and the Vatical City in particular. Till then, there is the (very important) issue of working hard and saving up to take care of. Haha!

Thanks for reading! :-)

UK & Europe Honeymoon - I

After being cramped in tiny seats in a plane full of ang mohs for 13 hours, the captain finally announced: "A very warm welcome to a great London summer day!".

I looked out the airplane window and thought; what a load of crap... where's the warmth, and, what summer?

Anyways, we took a train to the city and met Fu Onn. Long lost gay boyfriend on my honeymoon, like WTF huh? We went to Liverpool Street Tube station for breakfast.

Here's what Pinto's Full English Breakfast look like. And I'm not having anymore of that for the rest of the trip, thank you very much.

After late breakfast, we retreated to FuOnn's place to rest. His bachelor's pad is a real cool studio apartment.

The wife enjoying the view from the corridor.

The husband and his long lost boyfriend enjoying a gay moment.

Haha, what a honeymoon this is going to be! Now a bit too jet-lagged but the excitement will start tonight. Train to Manchester leaves in 2 hours!

Old Trafford Here We Come!