Amelie @ 1 Year Old

It's Amelie's 1 year old birthday party! We arrived late as we were at my friend's daughter's first month celebration. So, by the time we arrived, everyone is nicely fed and watered. Shortly after our dinner, its time for birthday cake!

Here is the birthday girl, Amelie sitting in front of her cake.


Time to blow candles!










After all food, drinks and cake, its down to some "serious" reading.

Vernette @ 1 Month

We were invited to Alvin's daughter 1 month old celebration.
Introducing Vernette...

Congrats Alvin, hope you will enjoy times with your little princess.
Now, we are off to another little girl birthday celebration.

IPPT

Sigh... Another dreadful time for me.
It's time for my IPPT test, one of my nemeses, as I have only passed once ever since I left army!

So when its time, I dragged myself to Maju Camp for my test. After going through the "security" check which basically checked if your mobile phone has a camera (*nevermind the bomb in the boot*), I was able to enter into the camp and in-process for the IPPT test.

Soon, the impending doom looms. We proceed to the multi-purpose hall for the test. It turns out that there is a new system in place. All IPPT stations are replaced by machine (with PTIs supervising, of course) and you are able to choose which station to go first!!

So I started out with Shuttle run as its the nearest to me, that was a piece of cake. :) Next was standing broad jump which sadly, I can only managed a pass (too much fat to lug). Then my first hurdle, the chin-up bar. Surprisingly, I managed to pass the chin-up! That really boosted my morale. So I proceed to my last station which is the sit-up. I was fairly confident that I was able to get high score but I was disappointed. Guess my tummy really grow over time. Nevertheless, I managed to pass but not the desired result.

Now, its judgement time. Its the 2.4Km run. After sitting around, doing some stretching, its finally time for the run. I started the run with this older guy ahead of me, so I decided to run behind him. After 1 lap, I was still behind him and doing good time... took me under 4mins to do one run (3 laps in total). When I enter the second lap, I can feel all the fatigue setting in, my steps are getting smaller and feels alot heavier... and still, I am behind this older guy... Starting the third lap, my eyes are getting blurry and I am grasping for air but I told myself, this the final lap and push and push.... and this is the result....
















I passed!!! Woohoo!! No more IPPT test until next birthday.
Doh! That's just a few days away! Sigh. Guess I will be back in Maju camp soon enough.

Vesak Day

Happy Vesak Day !
Hmm... should you be greeting people with "Happy Vesak Day"???
Oh well, its still a holiday for everyone.

Its a holiday and what did we do today?

Clean our very very dirty aircon... I got this brand of DIY aircon cleaner called Concaire from Homefix. I used a whole bottle to clean my car's aircon condenser but I don't think it help much. With the second bottle, I cleaned our room fan coil unit. I didn't realise how dirty it was until I saw the fan blades.


Gosh, there were clunks of dirt clustered on the blade.... See how dirty the water is after the cleaning??? *Gross*

Looks like I will need some professional cleaning services when the next servicing comes. Its really hard to remove all the dirt in the fan coil unit.

A Day of Activities

Started the day by giving ourselves a little treat, and that is to sleep! After an additional 2 hours sleep, we are ready to start our day...

I bought some almonds from our nearby wet market recently and found that they are quite soft, abit chewy... so I decided to give them a roast with our small toaster (the type you toast bread with). For a trial, I took a handful and started roasting them. After a couple of minutes, my wife asked me.. you smell something burning? And I raised my eyebrows and thought to myself, "Oh shoot!". Well, the first batch was toasted a little too long and turn out alittle dark brown and crispy but still edible. So I took the remaining almonds and set the toaster to a lower temperature and give them all a good roast. Yum!



























Picture of second batch of almonds after toasting.
I tried with 190 degree celsius, for about 15 minutes. After eating some almonds, its time to bathe the dogs and wash Callum's clothes. Man, they are so small..




























Soon, its time for dinner. We decided to go Centerpoint as we are looking for some supplies for Callum from Mothercare. Had our dinner at the Orchard Point at a Japanese eatery, followed by coffee and cake at McCafe. After several of walking around, its time to go home. When we got home and put Callum down on our bed, he surprised us with this :



























He actually pull his foot to his mouth and wanted to suck on his toes!!! Quite cute actually.

Now its time for more sleep!