Guobin and Angie's Wedding

We were so happy for them that we actually did not sleep very well the night before. It was to the extent that I thought I slept more during my own wedding. Anyway, the gatecrash started early in the morning, with one of the brothers picking me up to Guobin's place and soon we were in the standard formation, waiting to be teased by the sisters. It was a simple affair with some food eating (and dumping), mini-dancing, charades and poem creation, followed by the standard procedures of photo-taking and picking up of the bride. I guess we were left off quite easily by the sisters, though I must admit that tom yam jelly shall rank as the top gross food ever, together with raw bitter gourd.

The dinner banquet was held at MBS, one of the newest places around and the solemnisation ceremony prior to that was conducted smoothly as well, unaffected by the rainy weather a few hours before. I was helping with the solemnisation items and I was surprised to know that the Justice of Peace had six prior sessions and one more after, with the one before just happening in the ballroom next to theirs. I guess it was indeed a good date for marriage for later on we got to see photos of more people in our contacts tying the knot.

The service was good with much attention given to the guests, though I did find our attached server slight over-zealous in serving us. The food, however, was so-so and the high-expectant first dish was slightly disappointing as it was cold. The fish was overcooked and the dessert was too bitter. The rest did not leave much impression in my non-existent memory. Nonetheless, it was the joyous celebration of the official union of our friends which was most important and anything else did not matter.

Roasted (chilled) whole suckling pig

Sauteed king prawn with asparagus

Braised seafood broth with crab roe

Braised sliced abalone with sea cucumber in oyster sauce 

Steam (hard) red garoupa with crispy garlic;
crispy roasted chicken

Braised e-fu noodles with (missing) exotic mushroom

Chilled mango with (bitter) pomelo

43 and counting...

After our shopping spree, we proceeded to this dim sum place - Swee Choon Tim Sum Restaurant, recommended by one of our friends. It was an apt location to celebrate our union as we were in the area and especially since my dear had been yearning to eat dim sum for the longest of time.

The place was rather easily located with the help of streetdirectory.com and its prominent shop sign, thus it only required a short walk from Farrer Park MRT station. The queuing system for seats, in the form of a number display and a handsome young staff perpetually on a hands-free walkie-talkie, was rather sophisticated and efficient, and very soon, we were ushered to our places. The ordering system was simple as well and our stomachs were soon waiting patiently to satisfy their hungers.

It was indeed a good place having an old coffee shop feel and the food was excellent and non-greasy, though my dear prefer the food to have more seasonings to tickle her senses.

My dear surveying the menu

Me doing advertising for free

The hot barley and the cold soya bean with grass jelly drink

Fried banana and prawn

Xiao long bao, chee cheong fun and lo mai kai

Guo tie and fried mian xian

Sha liu bao, har gow, siew mai and cong you mian

Fried beancurd

Don't they whet your appetite? =)

Popular Fair and Shopping for Baby Stuffs 3

Much earlier in the week, we went to Expo (again) to beat the crowd for the Popular Fair as my dear had its membership card. We thought that it would be less crowded since it was a weekday and we could not really reach there in the morning due to work commitments. Little did we know that almost everyone was a Popular member and it was the first time that I actually saw that there was a queue to enter the exhibition hall and the queue can only start to move after 4 pm. As such, we decided to visit the Metro fair first to see if there were any stuffs worth buying and indeed there were.

We quickly went back to check the status of the Popular queue with our bulky items and we were astonished to find ourselves queuing outside the air-conditioned walkways. We found it even more absurd that the queue was growing continuously. Luckily, the queue moved rather fast and soon we found ourselves finally in the exhibition hall, only to see a longer winding and unmarked queue for the cashier. It appeared that Popular never learnt from its previous mistakes and half of the people there were probably stuck in one of the queues. Anyway, we went one round around the stationery section before abandoning our thoughts of buying something from the fair that day.

We returned to the battleground early on Saturday and we were glad that our decision was sound as the number of people there were indeed much lesser. That made shopping a more pleasurable activity. Anyway, we more or less knew what we wanted, thus we merely took the stuffs that we eyed previously and did a casual stroll around the sale exhibits to see if there were any stuffs which we left out. The queuing process was smooth and quick and we went back home to deposit our gains.


The cashier queue was rather short but we had an experience with an inexperienced temp staff which lengthened our stay there. From the shaking of her hand when she tore the receipt (the first and the many to come) from the receipt dispensing machine, it was evident that she was new, and it got worse after she made the first mistake of keying in the wrong final amount for the credit card machine. She got my dear to sign the refund receipt before repeating the purchasing process. That would have been alright if I had not went to check the items with the new receipts, which led to a discrepancy in the final amount. Thus, we went back and this time her supervisor was like helping out with our request. The poor cashier was like standing there watching her supervisor handling the matter, probably thinking of the repercussions to come.

My dear was like saying that I was like kicking a big fuss over a few dollars, which may affect the working progression of the girl, but to me, I just thought that I should not be paying for others' mistake. However, on hindsight, something which I did not do and I felt strongly afterwards that I should do was actually to give assurance to the poor girl that things like this are part and parcel of a cashier's life and that she should not broad too long over them. Probably such an assurance could make her unlucky day better.


Later, we went out again, shopping for the toiletries needed for cleaning Ruo Ran. And where else but the usual cheap toiletries shop at People's Park in the form of Swanston. I guess I'm just used to going there, even though the same products may be sold at similarly low prices back in my area. Another draw factor was its large variety of products and huge volume of shelf space. After which, we walked around Chinatown to see if we could get more baby stuffs before proceeding down to Balestier.

The items from Popular Fair

The items from Metro Sale and Popular Fair

The toiletries from Swanston

Progress of Xiao Xiao 7

Yet another trip to Wendy's. Similar comments about Ruo Ran being smallish and my dear needing to eat more. Another not so good news was that Ruo Ran was like in a breach position, with her head on mummy's and legs on mummy's left. Wendy's advice was to wait and see if Ruo Ran will turn on her own as there is nothing that we can do. Let's hope for the best.

However, we decided on the twin room package for my dear's delivery, after mulling over the pros and cons of the single and double room for a long while, where cost became the eventual determining factor.

Another picture of Ruo Ran:

Top left: her head facing towards you
Top right: cross-section of body from side
Bottom: cross-section of body from bottom

Shopping for Baby Stuffs 2

We went to Expo on the last day of the Parenthood Fair, meeting my dear's brother as well for breakfast. Prior to that day, we had seen some of our friends posting their "plunders" on facebook, thus sparking some ideas in us. The first thing we did was to queue for Pampers, which happened to be a good move, as the diapers were running low on stock. Some sizes even ran out of stock as we progressed through the queue. Luckily for us, we managed to get what we wanted. Lesson learnt: Must go for queue for diapers on the first day of any baby fairs.

After that, the shopping was at a more leisurely pace and we bought some stuffs which we did not buy previously. It was not really a good harvest as we did not see a good deal for breast pumps and baby carriers and we hope that the baby fair next month will be more fruitful. Nonetheless, Ruo Ran has more items for her usage.

Clockwise from top left: newborn diapers, baby wipes,
bottles, baby clothes, bed sheet, nursing top,
yoga pants, nail clipper, bottle brush