In-House Bento-making Workshop

After I conducted the bento making workshop organised by Health Promotion Board (HPB), I received quite a few invitations from several organisations, asking if I could do something similar. I would love to say YES to all of them but it was unfortunate that due to time contraints or logistics problems, I had to turn them down.

Hence,when my colleague, SW, approached me and asked me if I could do a in-house bento making workshop with her Girl Guides, I said yes immediately! :)

After some discussion with SW, we decided to keep it simpler by just doing bread bento. I listed down the stuff needed and SW settled that with the girls. We used the school's cookery room for the workshop. Quite simple logistic!

We began with workshop with a 45mins "theory" lesson. After that, the girls couldn't wait to start the hands-on.

They were more creative than I thought! They had very simple tools to play with compared to the participants at the HPB workshop but their creations were just as exciting!




Some colleagues came to attend the workshop too!

The girls had a lot of fun for 2 hours! They were so proud of their own creation and they were excited about presenting their bento to their parents. Awwww... this is why I like to conduct workshops!

As my morning routine has changed, I haven't been able to make "presentable" bentos which I can blog about but I still make simple ones for Jaimie and Clement. The happy faces on the students gave me a glimpse of how Jaimie looked when she brought her bento to school.

What is bento? Bento is LOVE. :)

Angry (Bird) -Angie

Remember I mentioned about the talented, funny-to-the-max comic artist Saulne whom we met during our trip to France?

That day, one of my colleagues SW posted something in her FB status which I thought was SO COOL.

"Life is like playing angry bird. When you fail, there will be a few pigs laughing."

I had to share with Saulne (Sylvain) this phrase because he is a big addict fan of angry bird! Then we started to talk about angry birds and I told him some of my students described me as "an angry bird"...=.=

He said it gave him an idea for a comic and he used my face in the comic!

Oh my god!!!! This is SOOOO COOOLL!!!! I have a comic strip drawn using my face!!! This is totally AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you so much, my friend!!!

Kids' Kampong

Wow.. when was the last time we had fun doing longkang fishing? It was almost 2 years ago! So when YS messaged me and invited us to celebrate Seraphine's 7th birthday at the Kids' Kampong, both Jaimie and I were thrilled. Clement is out of town so he missed the fun. Here's Seraphine, the birthday star, also the "Queen Fisher". She was good at longkang fishing!

When we stepped into the fishing area, we saw lots and lots of fish in the longkang. "Aiyah, a piece of cake, lah! Looks so much easier than the Bottle Tree Park longkang fishing!" I told myself. I handed over the net and the bucket to Jaimie and told her to go and catch the fish. "Just scoop, you will be able to catch. So easy!" Then, I stepped aside to make some phonecalls. Before I could finish making the call, Jaimie came to me, frustrated and disappointed. She couldn't catch A SINGLE fish.

I told her to show me how did she go about fishing. She demonstrated. Well, she was literally running after the fishes and plunge her fishing net into the longkang randomly.

"Aiyoh!! Jaimie!! Not like that! Come, mama show you!" With so much confidence, I chose a spot where there were many fish. "Look, this is how you should do it..." I told Jaimie. The moment I dipped my net into the water, all the fishes dispersed. "MOMMY!! The fishes are gone!" exclaimed Jaimie, who was even more disappointed by now. "Errrrr, dont worry!! I will catch them for you!"

And after that, I squatted beside the longkang for the next 30mins, perspiring and frustrated at the cunning fishes which swam in lightning speed. I managed to catch a decent number of fish (mostly young ones or sickly ones) and Jaimie was extremely pleased. Oh, Jaimie caught one too! But it was a dead fish.

After the longkang fishing, it's animal feeding time before we feed the little animals children.

They even have fighting fish! It's $4 for a match.

The children had a lot of fun feeding the animals and even experienced being pecked by the hungry ducks during the feed!

Now, it's the moment they have been waiting for -- lunch! While waiting for YS to pick up the kids' meals from MacDonalds, the children gathered for a drink while peeping at the birthday cake again and again.

Xaeus, so cheeky!

The final program for the day was "Pet Show". The kids were laughing so hysterically when 2 mice were put on a rappelling competition. They had the chance to touch and carry the pets too.

Before the children went home, they had their fishes packed for them. I convinced Jaimie to let the fishes go. Jaimie wanted to bring home the fishes very much but she is indeed a very kind and compassionate girl. She bid her (MINE!) fishes goodbye and sent them back to the longkang.

It was a very unique birthday party and I'm sure the children will remember it for a long, long time. Happy Birthday, Seraphine! Thank you for inviting us to your special party!

Jaimie's Second Visit To The Dentist

Jaimie had a very pleasant dental experience with Dr Eng last September. She's overdue for her second visit and I finally found time to bring her to clean up her pearly whites yesterday. Unlike her mommy (yours truly), she was quite excited about visiting the dentist. She remembers Dr Eng, the clinic and the room.

The usual routine was done-- polishing, scaling, X-Ray (to check the development of her adult teeth) and learning to brush properly. Her 2 lower front teeth are a teeny wheeny bit shaky, according to Dr Eng. He predicted that they would be replaced at about half a year later.

So, it's pizza to celerate a successful visit to the dentist. :) Jaimie ate 5/8 of the 7" Hawaiian pizza.

France, Paris, See you again!

We spent our last few days in Paris doing more sightseeing and shopping. The plan which Cedric and Elodie drawn out for us was changed "every 30 seconds" (in Cedric's words) because we were falling sick one by one. It's Clement's turn to run a high fever while Pam's 2 children had not gotten much better. This picture was taken behind the Paris Opera House. That's the "full strength" for that day.
Fragonard is THE famous perfume maker in France. I bought some for my friends.

Paris Opera House, front view.

Then we proceeded to the 7th floor of Galleries Lafayette, where the viewing gallery was. The interior design is stunningly beautiful!

At the viewing gallery, where we could see the entire Paris.

After lunch, Cedric had to go back to the office and Elodie took over as the tour guide. Terry brought the kids to join the afternoon tour after they had rested in the morning. Poor Xaeus and Xalicia. Their fever just wouldn't go down.

Moulin Rouge was our next destination!

The children were super excited about Eiffel Tower.

Jaimie broke into a dance in her excitment.=.=''' This is so Bollywood.

We didn't go up the Eiffel Tower as the tickets were sold out till next week!!! And we went for our boat ride along River Seine. Clement was feeling very unwell and he didn't take any pictures.

The next day, which was the second last day in Paris, Clement was running a very high fever already so he didn't join us for the morning. He rested at home with Elodie while we visited Notre Dame therefore no pictures. He joined for lunch and then he went back to the apartment again. This time, he went back with the guys as the ladies were going to take a break and have some time to ourselves! Guess where we went?

I am a very happy woman!

Then, Elodie brought us to have the best macarons in Paris for our afternoon tea. I was very pleased to know that they are have the same luxury pastry shop in Mandarin Gallery! It's renamed as Antoinette. Can't wait to go there to have a luxurious afternoon tea again!

The guys were cooking dinner (how nice!) when we came back to the apartment for our final dinner gathering.

Terry and Pam.

Yeow Seng and Shelley.

Cedric and Elodie.

Us. With Clement pretending to look ok.

That was how he looked (wearing his thick jacket indoor due to the fever!)

Cedric prepared this rum for us and the guys were made to drink some. Clement was not spared. According to Cedric, this was what Clement needed for a good night's rest!

On our last morning in Paris, Clement was still too unwell to join us so no pictures again. I snapped this one with my handphone. It's a rare picture with all the children!! By the way, we threatened them so that they sat still for 15 seconds for the picture. Heh heh heh.

After some touring and final souvenir shopping, we took taxi to the airport at 5pm. We took a long, long, long, long, long time to check in (Changi Airport is one of the world's best airport, we must be proud of it!!!) and by the time we were done, the eateries in the airport were closing. We grabbed some sandwiches and had a quick dinner.

The goodbye was difficult. All the girls were crying at the departure gate and the boys exchanged long handshakes and hugs. Cedric and Elodie will try to come to Singapore next year. We said we'll return 5 years later.

Our 18 days trip has finally came to an end. We brought back more than 2000 photos, loads of memories and tons of bond for our friendship.

This is a wonderful, wonderful trip.