Here's the second installment. I finally caught up with my blogging once more. Life had been way too hectic for my taste.

Mon 27 Jul

This week I have no driving lesson scheduled, so I stayed in school to do work and wait for my wife. For lunch, we went out to Bedok interchange to eat, but the hawker centre was closed for washing. We popped over to the coffee shop opposite the old Princess cinema where my colleague said had good western food, but it was closed. In the end, we had lunch at the NTUC coffee shop, and the place was jam-packed, likely for the same reason why we ended there in the first place.

Tue 28 Jul

This is the week of solace. First there was no driving yesterday. Today, there was no RT scheduled! Apparently it was blocked off, and I can't remember for what reason, but I was glad that I have a day's break. Going down on two weekdays a week was really exhausting, and not just for myself, but for my wife as well, since I wouldn't be there to help chase after Jadon as he crawls all over the house.

Wed 29 Jul

It was a typical long Wednesday in school, complete with remedial, and a lot of administrative work to clear. Cell meeting was shifted to Friday, so I had an evening free to spend with Jadon. Lunch was at 216 market again, and I had the beef steak with spaghetti for 7 bucks. The option of replacing the sides for spaghetti was cheaper (at no additional cost), but without the bacon chunks (i.e. the carbonara) the cream sauce taste did not suffice.

Thu 30 Jul


Another long day in college, but I managed to clear a great deal of work. I was due to lecture for the revision lectures soon, and also the deadline for setting the prelim questions was approaching, so I spent some time to clear those out of the way. In the evening, I went for RT, and I think the instructors decided to whack us a little harder than usual since Tuesday we had a break. My arms were aching when I went back, but of course, I would always have enough strength to lift Jadon up to 'fly'.

Fri 31 Jul

After my lessons and other administrative work, I went over to my in-laws' place to play with Jadon a while. In the evening, I ate an early dinner, and then made my way down to Marine Parade. I stopped by Parkway Parade for a short while to do some window-shopping, and also grabbed an ice-cream cone from Scoops, before I headed off to cell meeting at Touch Centre Chapel.

There has been a recent major upheaval in church due to some movements of the pastors. My own network pastor had decided to move up into the Adult Network instead of remaining in the Youth Network. I wanted to follow him originally, but after he consulted his own leader who was the head of the Youth Network, I was asked to remain in Youth Network since I had kids under me, and also I was still in contact with youths (in school). Hence, after some arrangements, I was moved into Ps Lawrence's network. Fortunately, I already know some people there, so I wasn't a total stranger, but I guess it will still take some time to adapt. Ps Lawrence's youths were staging a play the next day, so we were there to have cell meeting, as well as to pray for them. This was a formal introduction of us 'refugees' who went to join his network I suppose, so that we get to know the rest of the leaders.

Anyway, my friends Steph and Weiling were there, and after the session, they wanted dinner, so I got a drink and joined them. I ate about a third of their hor fun because they couldn't finish it, and bought one packet back for my wife. Alvin came by to pick Steph and the rest of us up, and gave me a ride to my in-laws' place, and he planted the idea of mahjong on National Day in me. Anyway, my wife couldn't finish her packet of hor fun, so I helped her finish. In the end, I think I ate close to one full packet overall. Haha.

Sat 1 Aug

I spent almost the whole day at my in-laws' place. For lunch, my wife wanted pasta from Il Piccolo (I still can't get the name right...the over-artistic signboard doesn't help), which I got for her, and for myself, I decided to try the Massive Sunrise burger from Botak Jones.

It was really massive. Bigger than a Carls Jr burger for sure.

It had 2 huge beef patties, 2 pieces of cheese, 4 fried eggs, amongst the other ingredients of tomato, onions, mushrooms and etc. I think the scary thing was that I finished the whole thing, along with the sides of coleslaw and baked cheese potato. Ouch. I think this meal alone has put back whatever fat I could have lost during RT.

Sun 2 Aug

My wife and I were running late for service, so we grabbed a breakfast to go from Mr Bean and Old Chang Kee. After service, we went to NTUC food court for lunch. My wife's girls went to get my wife a birthday cake to celebrate her birthday (two days early), so we adjourned to Hans (where they bought the cake) to eat the cake and have a brief cell group. After that, my wife wanted to buy some stuff, but along the way I spotted a nice cheap shirt from IP Zone, and I bought it. Heh.

Mon 3 Aug

The Hup Lee opposite school was odd today. The man told me my breakfast costed $3.50, so I gave him $5. He returned me $2.50, which was obviously too much, so I told him. He insisted that it was $2.50, so I took the change. I bought two packets of fried bee hoon, and it included chicken wing. So odd.

In the evening, I decided to take my wife and her family out to dinner to celebrate my wife's birthday. So my mother-in-law, sister-in-law, and Jadon came along with us to Sakura Restaurant at Safra Tampines. I think the food was below expectations, even though it was supposed to be Japanese season now. The only good thing was the slipper lobster that was available. Jadon was incredibly cute. He was laughing a lot when we took him out to see the Foosball table. He was very amused whenever we rolled the soccer figures. I whacked a lot of sashimi, but overall, I think I was the only one who ate enough to cover the cost of the buffet. Sigh.

Tue 4 Aug

Today was my wife's actual birthday, but I couldn't celebrate with her because of a mismatch in timetable (for this whole year actually) and we don't have a common timeslot for lunch. I went out with my colleagues to 216 market and had western food, and bought back food for my wife as usual. By the time my wife's lessons were over, we zipped over to my in-laws' place where I spent a short while with Jadon before I had to make my way to remedial training. Today's session was a bit more lax, because there was IPPT on Thursday, the very last session!

Wed 5 Aug

I had a long day as usual, and hung around for PDP time, after which my wife and I spent the rest of the day with Jadon. We had been teaching him new things, so now he could shake his head when he don't want something, and he can move his hands accordingly when we say 'gong xi'.

Thu 6 Aug

After a typical long day in school, including a short lunch in school, I headed over to take my IPPT. Just like the previous tries, I managed to clear the static stations with relative ease while most of my fellow sufferers already failed at either chin-up or standing broad jump stations. I ran according to my self-set timing for the first four rounds, and once more, my body gave up at the fifth round, and in the end, I failed the running by slightly over a minute. Sigh. I was hoping to clear this so that I don't have to come back for RT next year. Now I guess I'd have to sign up for IPPT Preparatory Training in September so that I can clear this year's window.

Fri 7 Aug

Today was an expensive day of food. There was a short day in school because of National Day celebrations, but I think this year's celebrations was somewhat lacklustre without any performances. The whole thing was more or less a big sing-along session. However, the students were extremely high, and I think it was because we gave out small Singapore flags for them to wave.

For lunch, some of us headed down to this ulu place in Hougang area to this restaurant called Yakiniku Nagomiya. It's a restaurant with this charcoal grill thing that you get to barbecue your own ordered food. We ordered a huge range of meats and mushrooms, and the most amazing thing was that the meat was extremely well-marinated, so the meat all turned out delicious after grilling. Especially the squid, which did not turn rubbery after grilling for a while. We were quite impressed with the food, and it worked out to be about $19 per person, but I wasn't full enough. After the lunch, we went to this nearby place Highland Centre (I think) to eat durian at 707. The durian was spectacularly good! But whopping expensive at $12 a kilogram. My estimation was that a single seed of durian costed about $2!

We spent the rest of the afternoon at home, doing chores and cleaning up the house. For dinner, we headed over to Elias Mall and ate at Hi Sshou, and we decided to splurge and ordered two ala carte buffets. We ate till we were bloated, and the food was still of good quality, especially the handrolls.

Hmm. One day after RT ended, and I was feasting. Ah well.

Sat 8 Aug

My wife and I went over to my in-laws' place to spend the day there with Jadon. For lunch, we went to eat at Il Piccolo, which was having a National Day promotion and the pastas were going at $4.40 for dine in. I eventually chose baked rice though because I was dead hungry.

In the evening, my wife, her sister, and I made our way down to Bukit Merah for dinner. We were attending the new English service that opened today. This was to make the whole Sunday free so that the kids could have a full day to devote to mugging. For us, we have one full day to spend with Jadon, so it was a win-win situation. I had my favourite fishball noodles for dinner, and we had cell group at the hawker centre.

Sun 9 Aug

My wife and I headed over to my in-laws' place in the morning, and had breakfast at 216 market. We spent some time there, and my mother-in-law went to see a doctor to treat her sprained hand. Yep, Jadon is that active. My mother-in-law then went to her mother's place, and we joined her there later. I went along to help take care of Jadon in the car, and when we got there, we left Jadon with my mother-in-law, and my wife and I went to grab a really late lunch at Niwa Sushi off Eunos. The bento sets were surprisingly good, and I think the food was more enjoyable than what I typically eat at Sakae Sushi...at half the price! I ordered some salmon belly sashimi, which was full of delicious fats, to go with my bento, so it was a satisfying meal.

I then made my own way back to Pasir Ris, and headed over to Alvin's place. The idea that he floated some time ago about mahjong on National Day came to fruition, so we played. Shups' luck was amazing today, and she won all of us. I managed to win enough to minimize my loss to 2 bucks only, while the other two lost about $13 and $30 respectively. I wonder if Shups was that lucky or she had improved...hmm...nah, think it is more of the former. After grabbing some pizza for dinner, I made my way back to my in-laws' place, and we picked Jadon up to come home to spend the National Day holiday. He was so excited he was playing with us all the way till about midnight before he concussed after a bottle of milk.

Mon 10 Aug

We brought Jadon out with us to walk around at White Sands, and we stopped to have breakfast at Coffee Club. My wife ordered American breakfast, and it was delicious. I had some mushroom thing which was absolutely amazing in taste. I think so far we had tried almost half of the main course menu, and even for the specials that were introduced seasonally, we had not eaten anything worse than above average, and that was just once - carbonara. Everything else was at least good.

In the afternoon, we brought Jadon back to my mother-in-law, and my wife and I went for a late lunch (after such a deliciously heavy breakfast) at the 416 coffee shop. The first few times I had the sliced fish noodles there I wasn't particularly impressed. But lately, the quality had been getting higher, and had moved into a good choice for food. However, I really couldn't stand the ventilation in that coffee shop, and it was unbearably hot in the afternoon.

Tue 11 Aug

It was back to school, and the highlight of the day was lunch at 216 market. After a weekend of heavy food, I opted for a lighter choice of just ban mian. I spent the rest of the afternoon settling SPA (Schoolbased Practical Assessment) to key in marks and countercheck the scripts.

Wed 12 Aug

Not to my surprise, I ended up having lunch at 216 market once more. Again, I did not want to eat anything too heavy, so I went for Ipoh hor fun. After a long day in school, we went over to spend time with Jadon. My mother-in-law did not cook dinner today, so my wife and I went to Pizza Hut for dinner, since my wife had a desire to eat pizza. The food today was surprisingly good, down to the Hut's Platter fried stuff. The drink we ordered (some strawberry tea thing) was pretty good too. The most important thing was that the service was good. Usually Pizza Hut was crawling with waiters and waitresses who had no initiative and were not very attentive. Today, there was only one waiter and one manager running all over, but I was dead sure they were way more efficient than the previous crew of about five persons.

Thu 13 Aug

After a dreadfully long day of lessons and administration, I went for driving lesson in the late afternoon. When I was done, I detoured over to Tampines One and did some window-shopping, but more importantly, it was to buy this water filter system called Gurgle by Hyflux to install on the taps for my place and my in-laws' place. Basically, it was for getting pure filtered water to make milk for Jadon. It didn't come cheap, but at least now there is a promotion that threw in a spare filter cartridge (that costs $40+).

Fri 14 Aug

I went to school only to conduct temperature-taking exercise for my civics class, and after that, I caught a ride from my HOD to VJC where we attended a pedagogy conference. The two speakers in the morning were really good, but I think the whole thing dragged too long before tea break, and that wore the patience of more than just myself. The second speaker was amusing, and he outright criticized the local education system and tore it to bits, in front of an audience of teachers. But the most amazing part was that his topic was on the current context that the students were graduating into, so he was talking about the economic situation now, and he analyzed the past and the present, and he managed to throw in a ton of facts, figures, charts, graphs and economic theories and theorists, and yet was engaging and made us understand. Now that was a feat in itself.

Sat 15 Aug

In the morning, my wife and I headed down to Geylang area to the clinic of my wife's gynaecologist. After waiting for nearly one and a half hours (of course, we grabbed a big breakfast from Ho Kee nearby), we finally got to our turn. My wife was supposed to do a blood test for Down's syndrome likelihood in the child, but the gynae did an ultrasound anyway. After some detailed scanning, we saw something between the legs...the second one was going to be a boy! Yay! Two sons to inherit my toys/anime/movies/comics/Xbox 360/Wii/Magic the Gathering cards. When they grow older, we can start a mahjong table on our own - my wife, myself and our two sons. I must start them young. Mahjong is intellectual enough to polish their cognitive prowess. Magic as well. Bwahaha.

After that we headed over to Tampines One to pick up the Gurgle system that I ordered on Thursday. However, along the way, my wife went in G2000 to find a loose top for herself, and I spotted the big, big sale. The short-sleeved shirts were going for $23, the long-sleeved shirts and pants for going for $29!!! And if you buy 3 items or more, there was a further 20% discount! I went berserk just like the other time at Club Marc, and after some time of trying, I ended up buying 5 short-sleeved shirts, 2 long-sleeved shirts and 1 pair of pants. I could have bought more, but my wife wanted to check out some other shops. All in all, it worked out to be an average of $20 per piece.

That is dirt cheap for working clothes. Bwahahahaha.

Sun 16 Aug

I brought my mum out with me and my wife to White Sands where we ate at Wan Chai. After that, we went around to do a bit of shopping. I blew almost a hundred bucks on clothes - but this time it was for Jadon! His one year birthday was coming up soon anyway, so that is cause for splurging. Incidentally, I also bought a t-shirt for myself, and another one for my wife.

Because we didn't bring Jadon home this weekend, I brought my mum with us to see Jadon. He was extremely excited and happy today (then again, he's happily laughing and playing every day). My mother-in-law didn't cook, so for dinner, my mum, mother-in-law, sister-in-law, my wife and I, together with Jadon in a baby chair, had dinner at Hiang Suar Restaurant nearby.

Mon 17 Aug

I had a bad start to the day when I bought breakfast from Seng Ban Choon. I had no choice because all the usual stalls were closed, so that left them as the only stall with decent bee hoon for breakfast. I asked for red chilli (sauce) and green chilli for one packet, and the guy at the stall (nicknamed 'sexy uncle' by most because of his super-short shorts) forgot the red chilli. I reminded him and he gave me this black face. Which was typical, because he was perpetually grouchy. Then after I paid him, I asked for chopsticks, and he gave me a scowl. Yep, this guy actually gets pissed off when you ask him for chopsticks or other disposable utensils when you takeaway. How else are you supposed to eat, you wonder? Nope, this natural point does not occur to this grouch. When he threw the chopsticks hard into my bag of food, he also shoved the change into my hand. At that point, I really felt like throwing the coins to his face and said that it was to pay for the chopsticks, but I thought that was giving him too much benefits.

Why do I torture myself every once in a while buying from him? I also wonder.

After a relatively short day at school, I headed down to Eunos for my driving lesson. Today I learnt parallel parking, and as usual, my instructor just sprang the surprise on me without telling me in advance what he was teaching me. In the evening, my wife and I headed down to Tampines to do some shopping. I bought a few pairs of toe socks for myself to replace my torn ones. Oh yeah, I finally thought of a plausible reason why students walk so disgustingly slow - it was to preserve their socks! I walk so darn fast that it burns and tears holes in my socks very quickly. Yeah, that must be the reason why they crawl from place to place.

My wife and I decided to have dinner at Sushi Teh. Now, I had been there before several times to eat sushi, and I already knew that their food was much better than Sakae for just a bit more in price. Today, I tried the ramen while my wife tried the udon, and the food was spectacular. I now hold it in the same high regard (almost) as Ministry of Food. The dragon roll sushi we ordered was delicious! Then we ordered yuzu sorbet and watermelon sorbet for dessert. The yuzu sorbet was so fragrant that we couldn't stop harping on how good it was all the way through.

Eventually, we ended up at Angies the Choice, which was the very reason why we went to Tampines actually, to order a birthday cake for Jadon. After looking through all the cutesy designs, we decided to go for something simple which really represents him - a cheeky smiley that formed the whole cake.