Our Sunday out with the family

Last Sunday's lunch, SIL Alicia made reservations at the chic Yauatcha Chinese Restaurant. The occasion : to meet up with her God-mom (and her husband) who were here for a holiday from Australia. We, party of 8 (including Shean Wenn) were seated at a corner near to their, may I say most tantalising, dessert bar.

(The dessert bar)

Squaremeal reviews of the restaurant "With its alluring, sultry nightclub-style decor, Yauatcha remains one of London’s chicest restaurants & is also one of the few to serve dim sum throughout the day."

I was abit disappointed that they didn't offer highchair for babies/kids. I don't know many restaurants in UK that does not offer this. Just shows they are clearly not interested in the "family"segment of customers.

Here, my Shean Wenn had to sit on their sofa chair, with us - with NO restraint.

("This is my cousin Patreeya", Shean Wenn looking adoringly at the photo of her new cousin)

She is obviously very happy here!

After a most hearty lunch, the 3 of us went around to look and choose our desserts

Shanghai Lily

Our 3 desserts, the third is Passionella, only photographed partly on the top right corner.

Kum Quat something

After lunch, we went for a short shopping spree along Regent Street. We got tired after 2 hours and decided to head back to SIL Alicia's pad in the city, just 15 minutes walk away. But because we drove, it took us faster with low traffic.


Shean Wenn resting somewhere near Alicia's place. She is seen holding the keys to the apartment.

Thanks for the great lunch, Alicia!! :D

Shean Wenn's Birthday Celebration : Part 2

(Shean Wenn's pink classic #1 cake)

Meng and I organised Shean Wenn's birthday with a lunch on Sunday 22 June 2008 with family and close friends in our favourite chinese restaurant near our place - One which we frequent almost every weekend. Afterall, we chinese just love our food so we thought of getting people together to eat, drink (chinese tea, what did you expect) and be merry was a good way of celebrating our first born's first birthday!

Two weeks before the celebration, invitations were sent. We had about 2 tables of family and friends joining us (20 adults plus 2 babies, SW included).

I had half expected the day to be rainy, but it turned out to be pretty sunny and pleasant.

We had arranged with the restaurant (since we knew the manager) for a starters of dim sums (4 different variety) and then a full-on 8-course meal! A friend of mine commented to me "What? Are we having dinner for lunch?". Well, yes. We think it's quite appropriate to stuff friends. I wouldn't complain if I get fed good food. And it was indeed a pretty good meal.

(Ginormous Talbot Fish - Very FRESH!)

PHOTOS with the FAMILY

(With "Gu Gu Alicia" who came bearing not 1, not 2, but 3 pressies!)

In between lunch (we needed to pace our stomachs for the 8-course meal), the two babies (Shean Wenn and her friend Tobey) got re-acquainted and had a good time playing with each other, supervised by the parents, of course.

("My friend Tobey came for my birthday party too!")

Tobey seen helping SW out with her pressies.

After lunch, it was dessert and cake-cutting time. We bought SW's cake (in the shape of the number 1) from Patisserie Valerie with the Double Chocolate Dream filling with the decoration from their "Classic Pink" range.


PHOTOS with FRIENDS

(Tobey and parents all the way from Northdampton)

(With some of daddy's friends)

Her presents!
She can't wait to tear off the wrappers, and went inspecting every present while having her afternoon milk. This is what you call dedication!

"ALL MINE!"

(Please tag your presents on my flickr page - click on this image to go there)

Read the chip-pea's account here

From Oxford to Oxford St...

Last Thur was Eil's last day staying at our place, and since the hubs has some "team bonding" activity going on during dinner and will be home late, I thought I'd go gallavanting around town with Eil - do some spot of shopping/window shopping and maybe go to a park!

First, she needs to get rid of her luggage (moving form my place over to another friend's place in Notting Hill/Bayswater area), so we made our way there. Our experience commuting in the Underground as a one pregnant lady and one petite lady lugging around a huge luggage didn't even bat any lashes. NO ONE gave up their seats for me, NO ONE volunteered to help Eil carried her luggage when we were standing at a bottom of a flight of steps. LONDONERS!

Anyway, after depositing the luggage safely at her friend's place, we headed for some roast duck around the corner. The "famous" roast duck - I told her i want to try out the new place (apparently the chef moved from one shop to the other shop a few doors down the road). We had a hearty meal - half a duck and a plate of veges. Eil decided that she couldn't finish the duck so I happily devoured the whole dish. Of course, my tummy by then felt like it will burst due to the amount of food I was consuming :)

After a very satisfying meal, we headed for Harrods. Every new tourist MUST visit this place, no? We did window shopping here mostly. We headed to the LV counter to check out their collection as Eil will be going to Paris for a few days with her hubby and LV is cheaper there. Oooh, such eye candies!

We then went around taking photos (illegally) around Harrods. Not noticing that there was a sign at their Egyptian Stairs that forbids photography. Well, too bad, we noticed it AFTER we took the photos.

Window display at Harrods
After spending a good amount of time in Harrods, we left empty handed.
Since the day wasn't sunny, we decided to do just indoor shopping and skip the park sight-seeing activity. Eil wanted to go to the new Primark in Oxford St again. So i obliged her and went along (I needed some tunic tops as well).

Gaah! It was madness in Primark - for clothes this cheap, it's no wonder. People everywhere, clothes strewn everywhere and the Primark sales assistants scrambling to put back every clothes that is strewn after each customer's browsing through them. The queue for the cashier till was l-o-n-g, so is the one for their changing room. Eil was excited again, and filled her basket up quickly! I browsed and chose some items and happy with them, I told her I have to go home (my legs at this point were almost giving up!). We hugged and said our goodbyes, with me wishing her a happy tour of Europe (with her hubby).

After a day of walking, the swelling on my feet
Went back and had dinner.. and rested after a rather interesting, fun-filled but tiring day out!

Rollerblading and skateboarding chicks @ Marmalade!

Drawings on the wall @ Marmalade, BV2
I'm now at my halfway mark - completed 20 weeks of pregnancy (another 20 to go!). I can't wait till the little baby comes out! I expect alot of hardwork and sleepless nights, but they (friends who are parents) say it's all worth it. :)

The 3 musketeers had lunch again today. We decided to check out the new place - Bangsar Village 2 (BV2). And decided on eating in Marmalade but turned out the food was bland, tasteless and not worth a second visit. :P
Today, the boys talked techy, I had NO input what-so-ever into the conversations, sorry Prav! I've warned you about the blank look if you want to "pick my brains" on technology.

This has been a good week :
> New developments at work, unfortunately I am turning it down.
> 4-day work week!
> Weather's lovely - breezy with low sunshine. Hope it lasts till after CNY!
> Met the other musketeers for lunch - Always a highlight!

Delicious Friday!

Afternoon shadows on the wall - the boys noticed it and were fascinated!
Today's a holiday for the company since tomorrow is an official national public holiday, so I have a day off! Started off the morning by going to the club for a swim with dad. It's been 2 weeks since i last exercise - really hate stopping my exercise "regime". Haha, more so now that I need to be physically fit - esp in the delivery room!! I only managed to swim for half an hour but i was diligently doing my laps most of the time.

Then had lunch with CG & Prav at Delicious Bangsar V. Prav is deliberating an idea for his new biz model since he left his old venture (And might I add, the very hip ex-CTO & co-founder of Lifelogger. Go read his blog here). He's now thinking of venturing into something else... Sounds like a plausible idea, i thought. Wish him luck in his next endeavor!

After lunch, I popped over to KLCC to meet Eil - she's visiting my fav hairdresser. She's trying out perming her hair for a change and I told her she should visit Jep, my trusty ol' hair stylist! He's fantastic. She seems to like wht he dd for her hair and we went shopping for awhile. Isetan is having sales AGAIN - barely 2 weeks after finishing their last SALE. How I miss this place - the hustle & bustle of Suria and the temptations of its shops.
Oooh.. i also bought some mangoes from Isetan as they were absolutely delicious - i bought them once 2 weeks ago.

Then I had to run some errands at a building not far away.. but it rained when i wanted to start my walk over. Eil was kind enough to drive me there and waited for me. Lucky us, it took only 5 mins to collect my stuff frm there and we endured the hour-long ride home. Road was jam-packed as usual, with the office crowd.

:-) It's been a fruitful day for me! Love holidays!

Word of the day : DELICIOUS!

Catching up...

Had lunch with the gang today. WS is back from the US of A and we thought of meeting up. ES couldn't make it with us this time around. WL suggested Puzzini Pizza in DU. This is a swedish-italian place. Makes sense? No? Well, they serve mostly italian dishes (and a handful of swedish dish too) but with loads of cheeze! (That's how they spell cheese in their menu)

As i'm lactose-intolerant, there is no way i can escape the food, unless I go for the spaghetti marinara. But today i didn't feel like tomato, nor do i feel like seafood. So, i chose their pizza dish. It's said to be 'covered with alot of cheeze!'. Oh wow, Blimey!

M ordered a whole lot of cheeze-infused dishes. And i just have to try them .. afterall.. I do like food! She ordered a swedish dish which name i can't pronounce. I like the potato (covered with more cheeze!). WS & WL ordered swedish dishes as well. All rather nice, i was led to believe. When LL & BY arrived half hour later, we were already eating most of our food. And we all just digged into each other's food...

I must admit i didn't totally enjoy the lunch but heck, everyone else did! I do however, like their freshly made buns. Mini in size but taste absolutely delicious. Needless to say, i came home with a very bloated stomach.. and luckily did not let out any gas during the short ride back in BY&LL's new car - their Alfa 146. :P

Tuesdays with N..

Today, colleague Nurah and I went to *bucks to discuss planno range review. We always choose *bucks or the location nearby since we can enjoy the free internet. Ordered our drinks and sat down to work till lunch. We were working feverishly without realising how fast time flies, as we are supposed to have lunch at Alexis with some suppliers. (We didn't intend to go too early anyway, as N said this particular supplier is quite the pain in the ..well, bottom) But well, we DID manage to get there half past 12 for lunch. After some small pleasantries, we ordered and continued chatting. I used to love Alexis in Jln Telawi for their Tiramisu (glorious tiramisu) and never really minded their food. Well, i have to say i've changed my mind - the food is getting horrible and no amount of "ambience" is gonna make me like the place more. Nurah ordered last but got her food early, the other girls (our suppliers) ordered before us but got their food last! tssk tssk..

Had a rather bland (goes for both the food and the companionship) lunch, coupled with small talk abt the business and our incentive trip (Cruise to somewhere, sometime..).. and we were off. N will be getting off scott free (she is right, they are quite an annoying bunch) as I'll be having a Biz Review with them on Fri in Malacca (which only means we nd to drive thr early and come bk late). After all tht, N and I went shopping for a b'day gift for a fren's birthday today.. which set us back more than we expected but we really liked the gift - an elegant costume ring. We sure hope Sherin will like it!!
:)
We did find it cacat, though.. that the shop wanted to charge us for the gift box. Pfffttt! You'd thought tht we paid so much for a silver accesories that our ring would be nicely gift-wrapped! Yeah, just because it's in Bangsar doens't mean you have to charge for every single thing. Baah! Oh, but i did spot some nice chilli red earrings which is so so sexy!

After that, went bk to the office and was rushing to get e-mails done as I'm expected to be in a meeting with the whole team at 2.30pm. I got gastric halfway and went home early today :) Yayy*!

(*Yayy!! cos i got to go home early but Boohoo cos i was suffering like mad in the meeting with the gastric.. popped 2 charcoal pills but it didn't help much. I refused to take the gastric pill cos.. well, maybe cos i didn't hv any to begin with. Which makes the whole sentence kinda redundant)