Afternoon Tea

On Wednesday, my friend Michelle invited Jessica & I over to her place for tea. Actually it was to thank Jessica for baking the lovely cake for Kaka's Birthday.

After attending the playgroup, I met up with Jessica for lunch at the nearby cafeteria. Then, we headed to the bus stop and took a bus (it was a 45min ride from there to Michelle's place) over to Michelle's home.

Michelle was going to bake us English Scones & Jessica brought over some ready-made ingredients for her egg tarts!

The process :
Kneeding the dough for the egg tarts into their mould.

Pour egg-mix into the top. Bake.


Enjoying ourselves!


Voila!! Yummy scones fresh from the oven.


Egg Tarts.


What were the kids busy doing? Doing what they know best - PLAYING!


Showing off their masterpieces (I'm just there to be in the photo :D I didn't contribute making them at all.)


By the time the scones & tarts were done, the wind has died down a little. It was still a tad chilly and it wasn't a brilliant day, but at least it wasn't raining so we decided to have our Tea outside, English-style, of course. Scones with clotted cream & jam, English Tea (with milk) & Egg Tarts & soya bean drink! Haha.. it's a case of east-meets-west. Sorta.


We enjoyed it so much although by the time I went home, I was KNACKERED! We reached home at 645pm and that night, we had simple dinner because I didn't have time to cook a proper meal. Shean Wenn was so tired she slept from then to the next morning, waking up around midnight so I made her a bottle of milk since she skipped dinner.

Busy Bees

The past 2 weeks were so manic for us. I've been staying in London for almost 2 years (3, if you include the 1 year I was here before going back to KL again to work & prepare for the wedding) and this is the busiest I;ve ever been!

Since meeting Michelle & Kaka, and especially since Michelle got a car (yayy!).. the four of us have been going out alot during the weekdays. It was mainly for the two girls's benefit. What we did these 2 weeks.

9 Dec : Baby Gym
10 Dec : Went to Kaka's place for lunch and play
13 Dec : Michelle & I went to Billingsgate Fish Market to buy fresh fish. We left at 530am!
15 Dec : Museum of Docklands for Musical Monday
16 Dec : Kaka came over to play during lunch - I made the kids's lunch while Michelle brought Pizza for us!
17 Dec : Children's Garden (Steiner Playgroup)
18 Dec : BY came over for lunch and "interview" for coursework.
19 Dec : Messy Play at the local sure start centre, then off for lunch with the other moms.

And topping it off, I fell sick last Thursday and haven't been able to recover quite as fast due to my "hectic" schedule. I had runny nose & sorethroat and although have almost recovered, I still have a lingering ticklish cough due to my sorethroat and am now having a hoarse & sexy voice. ;)

When we met another mom, Jessica (mom to XinYi) who is a M'sian, we had even more activities - some of them introduced to us by her. She then introduced us to her friend and neighbour Jenny (mom to a boy Matt & girl MayLin). The other day, after our Messy Play, the four mothers, along with our five kids went for yumcha at a local chinese restaurant. Shean Wenn fell asleep in the car on the short 5 minutes drive there and I had to carry her WITH her baby carseat (she no longer uses this but I now use this to transport her in Michelle's car because it is such a hassle to install her toddler carseat) into the restaurant, and THIS resulted in a backache today.

Shean Wenn woke up halfway through lunch and she happily ate whatever I put on her bowl. And then, I turned away for awhile and she stood up and grabbed the hot water teacup next to Michelle and started to pour the water! I quickly grabbed it away from her and luckily she wasn't hurt or burnt by the water. What a near-miss... obviously I got a big nagging from the hubs when I relayed this story to him. Must be ultra careful now. Especially when Shean Wenn is such an inquisitive and fast-learner!

After their lunch, the older kids went down to play, running around the restaurant. The little ones looked on with envy and anticipation. I let SW down after she had finished her food and she happily ran around, playing with the other kids. I think she really enjoyed the company of the other kids. The five of them had so much fun in each other's company.

Here are some photos taken during Musical Mondays at the beautiful Museum of Docklands.



In the Mudlarks area : An area dedicated for kids under 5s. Shean Wenn spent a long time playing on their sandbox, and the sand/water/river bunk.
An "explainer" explaining about the various boxes in the mudlarks gallery to the enthusiastic kids!

Karmen on the scale - how cute!

During musical time, the organiser blew bubbles (as snow) as he illustrates a Christmas tale... the kids were ecstatic! SW as usual, observed quietly from her place before deciding her next step - JOINING IN THE FUN.



More photos of the kids's play to ensue (when I get it off Michelle because, poor me has no camera).

London Aquarium

Date : 23 Aug 2008

Hubs thinks it's a good idea for us to visit the London Aquarium on Saturday as Sunday (today) is when Central London will be packed to the brim because of the Olympic Party happening at The Mall. And tomorrow (Monday), there is the Notting Hill Festivals, another traffic-stopping event.

We parked at hub's office and make the short walk to London Eye, passing by Shell Centre. We saw the queue to go up the London Eye - a 30mins 2km long snakey queue! We didn't know where to get the tickets so I asked a Marshall if I could get it at the "Fast Track" queue, he said yes. Little did I know that in order to get my "Oyster 2 for 1" ticket, I had to queue up at the London Aquarium entrance. So I spent about 20mins queueing for nothing! We then had to join the right queue and that too, was for about 15-20mins (it was about 1km long).

(Lunch at "The Fire Station" on the way to the aquarium)

Upon getting our tickets and entering, Shean Wenn was totally fascinated by the display of fish and marine wildlife.

(Totally fascinated by the fishes)

We allow her to look at the fishes and wildlife up close (at the tanks) and she kept pointing at them saying "Fish/Bish/Ish/Wish" (depending on her pronunciation).

(Koi Carp - so beautiful. I wonder how are my dad's Kois doing?)

BELOW : Moray Eel, I believe

We arrived at the Aquarium at about 2pm (by the time we queue up and entered, that is) and we saw on the board that there was to be a Shark Feeding at Zone 9 at 2.30pm. Which means we had to cover 8 zones to reach there. It was nearly impossible (we didn't want to backtrack) so we just took our time looking at the displays and tanks before reaching Zone 9 - The Pacific Ocean (where the Sharks are).

ZONE 9

ZONE 10 - CORAL REEF

Shean Wenn is so absorbed looking at the Tangs (the big yellow fish below) @ the Coral Reef section. Zone 12 is my favourite bit - looking at the Piranhas. I remember at about 4 or 5 years old, I went with my cousins to their church which was showing the movie "Piranhas" and was so scared for many nights after that because everytime I closed my eyes, the images of the man-eating piranhas eating their preys kept replaying in my head!! Haha. I am glad to say I did not get scarred for life though (same goes for the movie "Jaws"), phew!

TERRAPINS : Here is where I got "excited" debating and correcting the hubs when he pointed to one Terrapin and told SW "This is a turtle". I have always thought that turtles, tortoises and terrapins are quite distinct. Can you tell the difference between a turtle and a tortoise?

Turtle : Lives in the ocean and spends most of their time in the water, has webbed feet (for swimming)

Tortoise : Lives on land, does not have webbed feet but instead have round and stumpy feet with claws for walking.

Anyway, after searching around the internet, it seems that "In a biological respect, a tortoise is a kind of a turtle, but not all turtles are tortoises." (Source : Wisegeek)

And apparently, "turtles and tortoises are common names usually refer to differences in where the species live and how they use their habitat. But the names are also used differently in other parts of the world." (Source : Sandiegozoo)

So perhaps the hubs isn't that far wrong! (I should go tell him that later)

Zone 14 - The Rainforest!
Ahh, something familiar to end our tour in the Aquarium. I spotted this Arowana (from Amazon) - it was a huge one of about 2 feet long! Must be worth alot if sold to the Asian businessmen. (Many asian businessmen believe that keeping an Arowana will help them prosper in their business. I would know because I know many petrol station dealers keeping one in their offices!) Ok, so perhaps this one isn't the expensive species that people pay hundreds of thousands for.. . but still.

(Family portrait)

Shean Wenn pondering about her day out - by the Houses of Parliament

Overall, I really enjoyed the trip there. Barring the queuing, it was quite a smooth trip, and educational one for me too! But if you plan to go there, bear in mind that although they say this is "Not weather dependant", it is too - you need to anticipate the queuing (mostly outdoors), unless you can get there early when they open their doors.

The hubs's verdict : Not as fun as the Seaworld in Brisbane ( he cited there there wasn't any dolphins!). Well, it can't be as fun as Seawolrd because this is an indoor AQUARIUM and not a SEAWORLD, dear hubby.

Broken again...

I can't believe it: our fridge, with the replaced compressor, is broken again.

I had noticed the smell (probably the gas of the compressor) earlier last evening but thought nothing of it. We just bought our weekly grocery shopping - about £80 of stuff. This morning, the hubs confirmed my suspicions. We hauled most of the lot to Alicia's place in the afternoon. She had trouble finding space in her own fridge to accomodate the stuff we brought over :P (I hope the ice cream can still be eaten)

My hope is that Hoover will replace this with a new unit (new fridge, that is, not a compressor) so that we don't experience another episode like this. Especially when you have a young toddler to feed.

Now, I am so full from dinner - having to finish up whatever that's left in the fridge - ALOT of fishballs. *burp*

Anyway, after lunch with Alicia and her housemate, I headed out for a haircut. Shoulder-length again so I can perm it end of the year, hopefully!

* * * * * * * *

Two weeks ago, Shean Wenn attended a "Teddy Bear's picnic" held by Gymboree.

Before the picnic, I asked Shean Wenn to pick her bear to bring along for the "picnic". She chose her "Pooh Bear Bear", which was given to her by my cousin, Vivienne.

(Enjoying herself in the ball pool, with Pooh Bear Bear)

The picnic : There were alot of kids (and their moms), and it was alot of singing. Shean Wenn enjoyed herself by rummaging through stuff/toys, singing and dancing by herself (to the music and even without the music). There were some snacks provided by gymboree, not much variety - but for £2 entrance fee (with gives you a Raffles Ticket too), I can't complain. They have this chocolate roll which tasted pretty awful - filling were too sweet and the roll was a tad dry. Our asian version is definitely better (even without effort) - those pasar malam ones taste so much better than this!

Anyway, during Raffles Draw, we won ourselves a consolation prize - an inflatable Gymboree ball.

After gymboree, I brought SW to a nearby park and I reckoned she enjoyed herself on the swing more!

"Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee"

Backdated : Redbull Air Race

(A plane flew right past infront of the balcony - my ONLY good shot of the whole event)

Two weekends ago, Patrick and wife invited us to their swanky apartment for lunch and also to watc the Redbull Air Race live in their balcony.

We arrived amidst gloomy weather, it was cloudy and windy as we parked the car and saw that the area was cordoned off to the public since this is a ticketted event. Patrick managed to cook a feast - green curry mussels, asam fish and sambal belacan vegetable. All spicy stuff to whet our appetite. Shean Wenn fell asleep in the car on the way here so the four of us sat down for lunch while she slumbered on the long couch even with the loud roaring of planes flying past.

After a hearty meal, we headed down to watch the air race. It was quite eventless - it's the finals.. there weren't many planes in action and they just seemed to zoom past some between some poles situated at various points in the Thames River at the shortest time possible without knocking over them.

Somewhat like this - look at the trail of smoke behind it.

Drizzling when we went down.

(SW and daddy posing with uncle Patrick)

(Three of them against the O2 backdrop)

We headed back up again since there isn't much activity going on, plus it was raining. Me, I was eyeing the pool and thinking how wonderful if I could be soaking in there sipping my margherita. Hey!

Back upstairs, Shean Wenn toddled around the place as though she owns it. Truth is, she is almost always excited to see, feel and venture around new places. She climbs up and down the sofas, table even. Peer through doors into rooms, stared at herself in the big mirror in the hallway and happily want to go out onto the balcony. Daddy and uncle Patrick had to escort her back in a few times ... tssk! My little girl.

(Sitting still with daddy)

We spent the whole afternoon with them and by the time we went home, we were so stuffed from lunch, dessert, after-dessert dessert (there was Konnyaku Jelly followed by Ice-Cream) we had a very light dinner. Such gracious host. Thanks Patrick and Amy!