Learning new responsibilities

The (dis)advantages of being in the good age - The reality that is unknown to a kid's aspiration to be grown up.

The aspirations of financial independence, breaking free of curfews, late nights fun, exciting (aka dangerous to parents) hobbies and a more permanent break from studying! What we didnt know was the growing responsibilities, diminishing hours, automatically upgraded status when the people around u start to pop and the multiple things to learn (both at work and in the household!).

I ve been realising all of that responsibility part too soon when I decided to become a dog mama.  Got to make sure he gets fed and walked on time TWICE daily. Often, I have to sacrifice some sort of gatherings or turn up late cos there's no one else to help me fulfil the 2 most important chores for taking care of this baby. I also soon realised I cant fit everything and meet everyone as much as I used to or would like to!

But I am not quite complaining about this set of new responsibilities because I ve got quite a darling of a furball baby. And he keeps me grounded enough to make me adapt a fair bit to the future reponsibilities that are going to come. 

What I cant accept at the moment is the upgraded status to that of an Aunty O_O"

Who are we trying to kid when we insist that kids still call us jiejie?! Maybe in the initial few years of our adulthood, the kids from friends still can call us that...we can still live in denial. But it becomes a totally different story when someone in your family starts to pop..

You know you are something different when you wake up at 7am to this on weekends..

I was naturally known as Aunty Shuling to him for a while until N's mum realised I m too young to be called an AUNTY. She tried to switch to Jiejie Shuling last weekend.

YAY! Can still live in denial for another year before I legally get married to his Uncle Nigel and get an auto upgrade again. Holy Christ!

BUT!!! A conversation I had with the cuz brought me back to Earth last night. *WHO WAS I KIDDING?!?!* We were discussing the different pains of popping in different ways. She is going to pop THIS very week! OMG!

So naturally, I will be an aunty again, soon.. :S

Luckily someone's sharing the same status as me.. :) So it doesnt feel as bad..

Here, Uncle Nigel is trying to teach his nephew how to be a musician..

They played "You Are My Sunshine"! That's no ordinary song okay?! It's THE song that I learnt can pacify this baby! :) THE song that shuts him up while Uncle N was trying to drive through the din created at the backseats. THE song that makes him drink his milk silently. THE.SONG.

I am gonna pack this song + some evil tricks I learnt from a mama-collic to that wedding which we are going to attend with N's parents and the baby. It's coming. In December. I hope we get out of the dinner alive. 

And so, I have had my fair share of real baby parenting these few months. Doing quite badly though... He didnt finish his cereal on Sat morning... And we didnt know what to do :p

Also to my ultimate shock and horror, I have been finding joy in shopping for household products!!!

Luckily they got this garlic chopper in hot pink. Neutralises the Aunty association with this kinda products :) heh

I am quite conscientious when it comes to food-learning.

I used the chopper that very weekend!

Because I know I got to learn from somewhere, I get verrrry inspired by what I eat in restaurants...

And I have previously learnt how to identify a salted egg

So I went to the NTUC consecutively for 3 days to hunt these down! (These beans are somehow very seasonal. NTUC doesnt stock up everyday, just in case you might want to know)

Still didnt quite make it to restaurant standards. BAH! How do they make the salted yolk glue on to the french beans????

I think I have been asking N alot these days whether he thinks I have become an Aunty.. :S When the man doesnt answer you.....

Treasure Hunts

Never knew a separate community of lives existed in NTU.

N chanced upon it from an online snap forum. Details werent very precise, and the map got us to this herb garden at the Jalan Bahar entrance to NTU.

The attendant was rather surprised to see visitors there and asked where we are from.. Of course we werent there for a herb educational tour. We had other things in mind.... :p

While the man sets up his gear, I headed out to find some entertainment...

The calm of nature...

Lovely flutters settle on a leave

Dirty fellow

I swear by my point-and-shoot: It does a good bokeh, no? Although I had a hard time holding my breath and stabilising myself while I take these macro shots! No luxury of a stand and a remote control! But it's good right?!

Plant and insects community

Look up close - what I really see!

Abit overexposed but me like the color of this plant!

And snails climb trees!!!

Aching from that 2-hour ride under the sun yesterday. I almost forgot how tiring it is to work out in the sun O_o" and how it is to ride a moving bike. O__O"

Catching Up

I have been too caught up with some personal entertainment till the wee hours this week.. By the time I hit the sacks, Murphy will just be zonked out on his mattress like that.

 Makes me want to cuddle him in my arms but cant bear to wake him up from slumber.

He is too cute!

I always find the relationship he has with niuniu abit ai mei. I wonder what their doggy brain is thinking up there. Tell me. Dogs know how to flirt?! We were on N's CANDID camera!

If someone at home was near the door, she would 'tell' the person to get the keys and open the door already! I have seen that body language of hers too often! :D Shihtzus seldom bark, you got to learn to read them. :)

**2 years 5 months and still a proud mommy**

Lollipopping - Bakernanza

So I ended last Friday all hyped up over the yummy treats I was going to create over the weekend...

I was going to create a COLORFUL storm in the kitchen! We ran all over Singapore to gather the ingredients. N dropped Pinky and I at BIY over in Bukit Timah for some 'light' shopping... And both of us went gah gah over the HUGE range of colorful products they had in store!!! It was tough resisting the urge to grab all the pretty stuffs! I had a hard time being objective -  having consistently to debate over whether it is a necessity for the weekend's creation or a good-to-have for any impromptu bakes next time (cos you never know when you might need it right?!) *pouts* 

Anyway, the preparation process took longer than I expected. So a rough time gauge of what went on on Saturday :)

3pm - Some of them from my shopping bagss after BIY and Phoon Huat @ Bencoolen. We settled at Juju hotpot for luncheon.

 I never got soooooo excited over sweetsss before, except when I was younger. Now I do! From an NTUC trip to the candy aisle. (Pastel Sequins not included)

The main art and craft ingredient - this colour was SOLD OUT all over Singapore that weekend! :S But we managed to hunt down one in BIY :) Got them in PINK too!

So we were all set for the fun part! BAKING starts!! :) At 5pm! :D

5-6pm - Prepared cake mixture and sent into the oven for 40 minutes! 

TADAH!! Chocolate sponge cake!

While setting the cake aside to cool, we whipped up the frosting. I decided to go all chocolatey, so made a chocolate frosting :)

Raw frosting before being whisked...

6-10pm - after mixing&kneading the frosting and cake, we had to roll the dough into tiny balls like this! We had about 70 to roll!!!!!! Hence explains the time when we FINALLY finished! There was a quick Mackers dinner break in between and some playtime with Murphy lah...

11pm - Pushed in all lollipop sticks into rolled balls *yawnzzz* So I had to keep myself hyped up again. Decided to start the craftwork on ONE lolli to see how it will look like...

See a Hello Kitty ribbon set out on the napkin already? We bought 2 bottles of M&Ms cos we only needed the reds for the ribbons :) And the kitty ears all attached - that's made of edible chocolate too!

So FINALLY done!! At least we saw how the creation was going to turn out!

YAY! The FIRST Hello Kitty!!! More motivation to continue into the long night! :)

And luckily we did! Cos it was kinda fruitful to see all the heads popping up :):):)

Hello Kitty!

Funky people!

They all had CHOCOLATE for hairs! *slurpzzz*

Love-strucks

These were created cos we decided Kitty required too much effort and we would have to have a change in plan if we still wanted to sleep that night..

With the remaining drying and painting which only ended at 2am... (Z_Z)" but it was satisfying to see the results of our hard work... :) We only kept a few for ourselves and decided to give away the rest! :)

For a November baby! :)

Hope she likes it! :) Wendy, for you!

I doubt I ll be doing another batch that soon! :D Had a serious hangover on Sunday!

I think I ll stick to making kueh balus (5 min bake time) for awhile.. :) Already got the baking tray! :) heh heh! I m evil at fattening up people around me :)

Pre-empt

Before the start of another foodiebulous weekend!

And start counting our blessings for the variety of foods available, yet cursing & swearing at the expanding waistlines they have given us.

RAHR!!!

Sin Ma Live Seafood at Geylang - 5 Nov

On how we havent seen each other in ages. Make that how we havent seen each as a couple ever ;p Underground dating amongst the blading clan! On house renovations and the tricks. And our common love for good food :)

The frogs rock socks. We tricked Atsu and Mari's friends into eating these yummalicious claypot goodies and getting consensus that it was yummy goodie before telling them it was frog. :/ They actually didnt know the English word. So we told them it was keropi! *STARED AT US WIDE EYED*

Japanese BUFFET Restaurant at Heerens basement - 6 Nov

It was unplanned. But I was totally decked out in a Buffet-able dress: MAXI!!! :):)

So there we went to celebrate N's last 2xth :)

We gorged outselves silly with multiple repeats of our favorites!!!

 MY personal favorite - the dessert bar!

I had uncountable sticks of fondue! And the healthy shots!! yummmy!!

Crystal Jade La Mian 7 Nov

A real farewell this time round + 2 birthday kids.

Plus one more semi-old man's bdae around the corner - N loves to hang out with this bunch of my friends. He says they are fun and talk nonsense, he likes!

So with the number of grand occassions prompting the meetup, I decided to make Chocolate Brandy Muffins. Only thing was, I had no brandy. And my last Baileys was consumed at some party by the sister. I only had 2 options left at home - DOM or Vodka. Or those martell/cognac whatsoever we always got from the 7th Lunar Month, and I dunno how to use those!

It was an obvious choice between the DOM and the Vodka....

although....

a bizarre choice!

So my great friends of 10 years proved their worth by gulfing down the bizarre chocolate chip-mango-vodka-muffin. *touched*

To the start of another great weekend!!!!

I ll let in a secret! It has got to do with Hello Kitty! :)

Growing Up

Realisation of age catching up on you when you could no longer hum the tunes to the latest popular mandarin hits; and when half the award winners looked foreign to you.

This is my favourite now ;p She carried off her boyish charisma verrrrry well! Almost fell in love with the manly persona *hurhur* like school time idol crush. wth..

N got the tickets by dialling in, without knowing the prize and without an idea of what embarassing stage presence he had to make to earn those. ;p;p

He insisted that it was coz he was talking to me on the other phone. O_o" it's always easy to push the blame lovingly to others, no? ;p

Anyhoos. He had a long haul flight to catch. So I got Ms Ong to go with me instead. :)

Correct choice. She knows MORE people there! :)