I M 2

Not Ip Man 2 but IRON MAN 2. I just got back from watching it. It was AWESOME The comic shop that I frequent G&B at Rochor organised the first day screening of Iron Man 2 for its members. I bought 2 tickets to catch it at iluma. I think its the first time I had visited iluma, I like the parking although it was a little windy up, the width of the up ramp was very spacious. The show would start at 7.30pm I picked the missus up at around 6.30pm and we reached ilima around 6.50pm I collected my tickets and door gifts (a free comic) and we managed to get some dinner before we went in to catch the show. so here’s some spoilers …….. the show was really good. I had a hard time trying to find Stan Lee, did not manage to spot him this round. Whiplash was awesome. Nick Fury was an interesting character. The head of SHIELD was played by Samuel L Jackson. Love the kickass part by the Black Widow. The ending was pretty abrupt but you get to see the beginnings of The Avengers. Seems to be a tie-in there. Good movie … and now on to I M 3 !!!!

The Ring -- Part 3

Read that the sacriest movie of all time (to me anyway) will have a part 3 to it. "The Ring 3-D" is in the works. Now that would make it even more scary. There were certain scenes in the original that made it unforgettable. I was closing my eyes at some of them. Can you imagine watching it in 3-D and that long hair lady in white starts to climb out of the well !!! or even worst that scene where she climbs out of the TV set and everything in 3-D ! I can't wait for it to come out in 3-D on the DVD format.

an email update

Bintan Holiday

 

Bintan Lagoon Resort was where the family took a short weekend break recently. The day started with a massive packing exercise. I have never brought so much stuff for a 3 night 2 day holiday before. Now I am the type of guy who can travel really light, just a change of underwear and I would probably be fine. 90% of the stuff were for the babies which included their diapers, food, clothing and other misc. stuff. We had a full suit case filled with their stuff, we decided only to bring 1 pram as we figured that was enough plus we had two baby slings as well. And here’s what we had to bring along.

  

It was quite a big group going as a friend of ours with their kid maid and friend was coming. My sister-in-law also joined us so that she could share a room with our maid. So for us 4 adults and the 2 small ones we called 2 cabs. Cabs came and it was about a 20 minute ride to the Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal. Our boat left around lunch time and it was a 1 hour trip to Bintan. Little Nigel got kind of bored on the vessel as you can see here.

Little Natalie on the other hand slept most of the way. They did pretty well onboard the vessel it was their feeding time half way across and they had their food on board. The sea was rough and I think the adults felt worst than the kids. Soon we arrived at Bintan, took some time to clear immigration and customs as we had to wait for our luggage it was the first time I had to check in luggage when going to Bintan. Soon we boarded the bus and would bring us to the resort.

After checking in we had lunch at the Golf Centre, it was a nice little stroll from the main building to the Golf Centre. We had a quick lunch and it was back to the resort as the day was getting hotter. See the ‘little prince’ below who was sheltered with the umbrella, you can just make out the ‘little princess’ who had a paper hat to shield her.

The room was nice and cool we got 4 rooms 2 of each adjoining. Here I am with Nigel in his sling and Natalie in hers.

 

 

The resort had its fair share of little animals especially squirrels, you can see them scampering up trees or running on the road. One of them was seen crossing the passage way in the hotel !!

The second day was much cooler as it was an overcast day and the kids went for their little dip in the pool. We had bought them their new swimming attire and it was the first time they would be using them. Our friend had bought 2 baby tubes where you can put the child head in and keep them afloat. Nigel loved it and he really likes the water. Natalie made a little fussy I think she does not like the tube round her neck. Here are some pictures of them swimming.

 

 

That night we had dinner at the Kelong. It was quite nice seafood dinner. It was at the Nirwana resort and we had to take a bus there. (provided by the hotel) The place as the name suggested was a Kelong. There was this banner advertising some new activities, can you tell what’s wrong with it ? Tell you at the end.

I had my Javanese Massage which was really good, felt refreshed after that. Soon it was the last day and time to go home. Another huge luggage packing exercise was carried out. The kids were fantastic on the voyage back except that Nigel decided to poop on board and as usual Natalie just slept through the journey. It was not so rough but the boat stopped half way and the captain came over the intercom saying that they needed to flush something out of their motor as there was a ‘foreign’ object in it. We bobbed in the water for a bout 3 minutes before we were on our way again.

We took a MPV cab back which we should have done in the first place as it could accommodate all of us in one cab. All in it was a good trip especially for the little ones since it was their first time out of the country. That means their passports have been stamped and they are only 4 months old. Lucky little ones.

Here is Nigel really enjoying himself with the float, guess where he is swimming in. That’s right in the hotel tub. He just can’t get enough of it. But I think he is too big for the tube and will have to do without it soon.

As to what was wrong with the banner, it’s in English except for the work ‘tahun’ (which means years)

Case of the Missing Crab

The family recently went for a Seafood Dinner at the East Coast (near MacDonald’s) it was a weekend and my sister-in-law had already made the booking and we were thinking of getting the ala-carte menu. Having arrived there and after a family discussion, you know how it is with big families it takes some time before a decision was made. It was decided to try out their buffet. The waitress told us that yes we can have the buffet but there is no Chilli Crab. Now wait a minute you mean this very reputable Seafood Restaurant did not have Chilli Crab ??? She went on to say that for buffet there is no Chilli Crab. Now you need to understand that in the buffet menu you could order anything you wish but there were 3 dishes which would be served only once and Chilli Crab which was their signature dish was one of it. However it was decided that we would still take the buffet.

Half way through our dinner a waiter came into our room (we had a room to ourselves as it was a big group) with plates of Chilli Crab. He was of course ushered out quickly by the other waitress saying that it was the wrong table. What a surprise we got when we saw the crabs. So after further questioning with the waitress, it was determined from her explanation that you had to pre-book for the buffet Chilli Crab. Now his was a real surprised to us as it seems very strange that they could not even serve a plate of Chilli Crab per table and that menu item is something that you could not reorder it was just going to be 1 per table. After my brother-in-law spoke to the manager we were served soft-shell crab.

That was not the end of it though. The missus actually was a little pissed off as we had dinner previously at another of the groups restaurant and after that dinner they asked her to apply for a member card which she felt since the food was good she did apply for it and we were here having dinner because she happens to be a member. That Chilli Crab incident really did not go down well with her. The next day she submitted a complain online to the company. She was pleasantly surprised that they actually called her back and tried to clarify the situation. They even offered my missus the Crabs again but my missus decline as she said it is not about compensation but that she wanted to make a point about the service standards of the restaurant group as she felt the explanation from the staff was inaccurate and misleading. So thinking that was it she felt satisfied that she had made her point. But that was not the end of it. Apparently her niece had also wrote in a complain and she received a call as well some time after my missus and after all the explanation, she took up their offer to have the Crabs which the manager of the restaurant mentioned that we could come down to have it at the restaurant or she could have it delivered to the home. Home delivery was chosen so again on that weekend we had round 2 seafood dinner with this time the real deal Chilli Crab. To the restaurant’s credit the crabs came and the manager even called to ensure that we received the crabs. They were really great, the unique thing about this version was you could add cut chilli’s to make it more spicy and it had pineapples mixed in the sauce. Not only did the crabs come but it came with ‘man tou’.

Clash of the Titans(Babies)

It was suppose to be our first movie night after the babies had arrived. Ever since the little ones arrival we had not had much free time but now that they are more than 3 months old and a little bigger and easier to handle (or so it seems) we decided to catch a movie and leave the babies with my sister-in-law together with the maid it should not pose much of a problem as the little ones have stayed at her place before.

As we had complimentary tickets to catch a movie in the GV Gold Class, it was our second free set of tickets the first being something we won at an event and this one was given to us by a friend as a form of appreciation for helping out with her wedding. I picked the current show being shown in the Gold Class which was Clash of the Titans. Its something the misses wasn’t too keen on seeing since as she said “you know, I probably will not understand all this Greek stuff” but nevertheless it was our first movie outing in months and an adventure type movie, well I could not ask for anything more ….. or could I ?

We dropped the little ones off, the missus went for a facial since we had the afternoon and evening free. I checked out some comics and toys the local comic shop before picking her up to head on down to catch the movie. We did a little bit of shopping before the movie started and that was when we got a call from my sister-in-law saying that the kids were throwing a fuss and not sleeping and it could be that they were not used to the place, she suggested taking the kids back to our place. So we rushed off down to her house but by that time the kids had quieten down and were both fast asleep. In the end we decided we could still make the show and off we went again.

We arrived about 20 minutes late but with all the trailers and stuff I think we may have missed the first 5 or 10 minutes of the show. Anyway we decided to have our dinner and the missus went to order our food. I told her just order anything she liked for me and her. She came back saying that she had ordered a set meal which consisted of an appetiser, main and dessert. The food came to our seats. We had the chips set as appetizers and a seafood basket as our main. The ice-cream and brownie came later. It was suppose to be a set for 1 person but it looked a lot and luckily we shared the set. The seafood basket consisted of wedges, calamari, prawns, crab stick, spring roll and chicken wings. It was pretty good spread or as the missus said “I think I enjoy the food better than the movie.”

If you are looking for a review of the movie, well lets just say I’ll not spoil your surprise, go watch the movie.

Easter Baptism

The journey has finally ended for the missus after 18 months, she has finally been baptised at the Easter Virgil Mass on Saturday. Her journey through the Rites of Christian Initiation for Adults began on 2 Oct 2008 and ended this weekend on 3 Apr 2010.

The day started like every other, I went to Church at noon to help with the preparations, some setup of flowers, baptism and confirmation cards and a few other last minute details. As the mass would be almost 3 hours long we decided not to bring the kids along, got my sister-in-law to help baby sit the kids. My mom, sis, her cousin and a friend of hers turned up to witness her Baptism, Confirmation and receiving the Eucharist. We had to be in church by 5.30pm for some dinner and last minute briefing for the elect and their godparents. The mass would start at 7.30pm. Besides the English RCIA, there was also the Mandarin RCIA and the Youth the RCIY who would also be baptised, all in around 35 people would be baptised this year in our church.

Here she is on her way into church after the briefing.

With her Godma above and below with the other elects and candidates.

The baptism was done by the priest with water which is poured across the forehead of the elect. I did not get a good shot as basically I had to take it over the head and shoulders of the priest which was difficult considering I am not the tallest and the priest’s robs were blocking the face of the elect that also caused me problem. The anointing was done to symbolize the confirmation rites.

 

Well there was one other surprise as we were the only married couple who were sponsors and elect we got to do the offering of bread and wine.

 

By the time everything was over and the hugs and well wishes were done it was around 10.30pm. I went home tired but happy. Finally the 4 of us in the family have all been baptism.

EMail Blogging

Oh ya, lets try if sending an update from my email account works !! If so maybe can have more frequent updates J

Day Out

Had a few errands to run recently such as making the kids passport, Sending the kids for their monthly checkup and this round there would be a jab as well and I also decided to get my identity card changed.

Took the kids out the other day to the Singapore Immigration to collect their passports. I had submitted their application for a passport online with a photo I took at home using a white background, uploaded the image and paid the fee, was just worried that the images could be unusable, but as it turns out they were ok and soon a letter came to inform us that the passports were ready for collections.

After a quick breakfast we were off to immigration I had made an e-appointment before I went down, since this should reduce the waiting time and it was really fast, within 15 minutes we were called and they did final checks on the passport before handing them over to us. While I was at Immigration I decided to have my identify card changed as it has never been changed since the last upgrading exercise (guess it would be more than 20 years ago) which was sometime when I was in secondary school. Had to pay a fee for it which I felt should not be since the card was damage mainly due to wear and tear over the years as the identity card is now being used for a fair number of things from library loans to queue numbers. It took some time but since I could get it done on the spot the wait was relatively ok about 20 minutes to get registered and 30 minutes for the card to be produced.

After that was done it was off to babies check up with the paediatrician. The kids were doing well, their jabs were administered which caused them to cry like no tomorrow but that lasted just a short while and soon they were back to normal. The paedi gave some panadol incase the kids came down with fever which would last a day or 2. Little Nat had some extra medication to ease her tummy, and Nigel had what they call cradle cap. There was an interesting conversation with the doc and the missus on this and it went something like this :-

Me the Dad [D] : he has some roughness on his head.

Paediatrician [P] : oh, its just some minor rash we call cradle cap, if you want just get some olive oil and when you bath him just rub some in to soften the area and wash it off.

LATER

[D] to my missus, the Mummy [M] : So that cradle cap thingy we need to get olive oil, go NTUC buy those olive oil is it? the extra virgin type or what ?

[M] : No lah not that type of olive oil, there is baby type olive oil for skin not cooking, you want his hair to catch fire ah !!

Well thank goodness for mums else if leave it to the Daddy probably end up with an MJ Pepsi Commercial Moment.