Been doing a bit of wall decoration recently! Nothing fantastic… Just thought I’d make the wall less bare and brighten up Chloe’s day! Putting a few pics of Mummy and Daddy on the wall appears to keep Chloe entertained!

Tonight was dinner at The Ritz-Carlton Greenhouse Restaurant! When we booked it, we picked it cos of the menu - check it out! Sounds so yummy and the spread looked impressive!

I thoroughly enjoy going to different places and tasting foods - so much, sometimes I think I should have been a food critic! (But then again - my palate is not fantastic cos unlike Hupps - I can’t even taste what’s in a partic. dish sometimes! Oops)

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Menu:

Cold Selections
Barbecued Atlantic Salmon, Nicoise Salad and Smokey Barbecue Sauce
Seared Tuna Salad with Sesame Dressing
Char Grilled Asparagus, Buffalo Mozzarella Salad in Warm Caper Vinaigrette
Salad Lyonnaise with Mustard Dressing
Blue Swimmer Crab Salad
Smoked Salmon with Crispy Capers, Micro Herbs and Lemon Garnish

Live Sushi and Sashimi Station
Selection of Fresh Sashimi, Sushi and Maki Sushi
Served with Condiments and Sauces

Chawan Mushi
Salmon, Shimeji Mushroom, Garlic, Chives

Seafood On Ice
Oysters, Chilled Tiger Prawns, Mussels, Crabs and Scallops
Served with Condiments and Sauces

Miniatures on Ice
Foie Gras with Poached Fig and Lavosh Crackers
Seared Scallop with Barbecued Pork Salad
Seared Tuna with Calamansi Lime Salsa and Peanut Purple Shiso

Salad Bar
Selection of Salad Greens and Tossed Caesar Salad
Served with Home Made Dressing, Nuts and Condiments

Soup
Cream of Mushroom Soup, Truffle Oil
Chicken and Sweet Corn Soup

Hot Selections
Black Pepper Crab
Roasted Chicken Thigh, Wild Mushroom, Leeks and Porcini Sauce
Aromatic Braised Duckling
Crispy Fried Sea Bass with Sweet and Sour Sauce
Coq au Vin
Seafood E-fu Noodles
Butter Prawns
Spare Ribs with Guinness Malt Sauce
Stir Fried Asian Greens with Garlic and XO Dressing
Roasted Potatoes
Grilled Red Snapper
Sautéed Vegetables with Butter Sauce

Asian Curry Station
Thai Green Curry Vegetable
Lamb Vindaloo
Beef Rendang
Japanese Seafood Curry
Vegetable Korma
Butter Chicken
Briyani Rice served with Papadam ; or Aromatic Rice served with Garlic Naan and Onion Seed Naan

Carving Station
Local and Chinese Roasted Meat
Char Siew, Roasted Duck, Crispy Pork Belly, Soy Chicken

Live Station
Traditional Oyster Omelette Spring Onion, Chinese Parsley and Chili Sauce
Baked Oyster with Choice of Toppings - Mornay Sauce, Crispy Bacon with Kilpatrick Sauce, Tomato Salsa

Cheese Station
Selection of French and New World Farm House Cheese
Served with Crackers, Lavosh, Fruit Paste and Dried Fruits

Fruit Selections
Selection of Sliced and Whole Fruits
Water Melon, Honey Dew, Cantaloupe, Dragon Fruit, Pineapple, Papaya, Water Apple

Desserts
Chocolate and Hazelnut Royal Feuillatine Mousse Cake
Chocolate Fudge Cake
Vanilla Crème Bruleé
Orange Chocolate Cheese Cake
Tiramisu
Fresh Fruits Tart
MilleFeuille
Berry Angel Cake
Chocolate Praline
Assorted Nonya Kueh
Thai Sweets
Selection of Miniatures
Assorted Ice Cream and Sorbets served with Nuts and Fruit Coulis

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We arrived at the restaurant and saw the different stations - quite impressive I must add…. Very colourful and inviting! The dessert station and sashimi station partic. caught my eye… Cos I’m a MASSIVE fan of these! So with no delay, got shown to our table and started with the buffet!

Dan and Hupps were partic. impressed with the seafood section (esp. the oysters) - so they were keen to be one of the first to try them… Me, ofcos the sashimi!!!

Thank goodness littl’ Chloe was sound asleep in her pram for most of the evening - so that Hupps and I could enjoy our food in peace!

Overall verdict:

-The menu on paper is expressive but when you actually get there - there are some dishes which were not served (e.g. Foie Gras with Poached Fig and Lavosh Crackers - I was rather looking forward to this)
-The spread is good - so caters for different groups of tastebuds
-The seafood section looked fresh - Hupps said it tasted good! I didn’t have any… Not a major fan!
-The sashimi station was good and fresh cos they cut the slices in front of you, but I think because the turnover was so fast, the sashimi wasn’t as chilled as it should have been
-Fruit section was fab
-If you’re a cheese fan - you’ll love the spread here
-Good range of salads
-Soup station was different to what was stated on the menu…
-Didn’t really try any of the hot selection!! Ate alot but mainly salmon sashimi and dessert!
-Asian curry station was ok…

Overall, the food was ok…. For some unknown reason, although the spread was fab and the place was buzzing - it didn’t really “rock my boat” as they say! I ended the evening thinking to myself - it was only ok… there wasn’t much to rave on about..

I still rem the time when the “5 Tans” we went to the Fullerton back in Nov 2007 - now that buffet still stays in my mind (even though that was 1.5 years ago!).. The spread was not as vast, but the food tasted much better - from what I remember of it… *Just had a look at the posting again and it looked great! Maybe we should go again to the Fullerton*

Just come back from the doc and Oh maaannnnnnnnn.. this will be the third attack of the horrible mastitis!

Don’t know why I keep getting it - cos I try to never reach engorgement.. but somehow still manage to get her relative mastitis! However, Chloe has been very erratic with the breastfeeding process - drinking more, on top of the solids… It’s rather crazy! At times, I worry that she may be eating far too much for her little belly!

Well, on a better note: I’m coming home!! Pretty soon - so wahay!

I had an intense talk with Daisy the other day, and we talked about luck, how some people just be able to land on the perfect job, able to make lot of money within a very short time frame, able to become successful within a very short time. I shared with her that day that not everyone is the same (thinking and attitude) and the timing of opportunities might not be the same, hence not everyone can be equally lucky.

To be honest, sometimes I feel slightly jealous of someone who is more successful than me, especially because I was his mentor before. But I know that he has really worked hard for that success, so he deserved those achievements. Actually thinking back, life has been very kind to me, gave me a steady stream of income, a great family, lovely wife, and now my pride and joy - Chloe. I should be glad that I am lucky enough to be healthy and able to enjoy all these.

Now today, I saw a video, thanks to a new friend, and it became even more clearer that, we should be more cotented with what life has to offer us, because we are so much more better off that a lot of other unfortunate people.

Please enjoy this video, and you can also watch the series at video 2, video 3.

Oh my, I just so don’t know where to start… There’s just so much I want to do, need to do, but just haven’t had the time nor energy nor inspiration to do!!

Periodically, I have been blogging - but mainly pics and a little writing - so pls excuse me if I go on and on and on today…

1) At this moment in time, Chloe is having her morning nap - a rareity may I add! She has been napping lesser in the days now… She used to have her morning nap (9:30am - 12midday), afternoon nap (3:30pm - 4:30pm) and then early evening nap (5:45pm - 6:30pm) and then 7:30 - 8pm was bedtime… Now, you’re luckily if she naps at all!! You probably think it’s no big deal… BUT it is! I used to do so many things/chill out during these nap times.. Now everything is on hold and I need to wait until she sleeps at bedtime… And do you really think I wanna be catching up with the days’ stuff when I’ve been faffing around with Chloe all day? Ummm - I so don’t think so!

But on a better note, Chloe sleeps generally throughout the night now… She sleeps at about 7:30 - 8pm (I feed her just before bedtime)… and then she wont generally wake up until 6 - 7am…. So it’s fab in that respect (if only I slept earlier and then I could take full adv of the non-disruptive sleep!!!) I say generally cos ofcourse there will be days that she will surprise you with her wake-up calls every 3 hours!!! Ummmm!

2) As well as not napping well now, Chloe in the day, is a light sleeper (whereas before, she would be in deep sleep)… So any faintest noise, a sneeze, the door, the tv, footsteps would just startle her and wake her up and then it’s a complete mission to get her back to sleep! Also, she much more curious now - and although tired and showing signs of tiredness, she just doesn’t want to sleep! So setting the comfortable napping setting is a mission also… But what really helps is air-con… My gal just lurves aircon! (Oops - I lurve aircon too!)

3) Chloe has completely by-passed the pacifier and bottle - Wahay!!! Since birth, Chloe has spat out the pacifier and rejected the bottle! Ummm.. Was starting to panic a little cos what would I do when I stop breastfeeding her and I need to feed her cow’s milk?!?! Well, I recently bought her a sipper cup and yip - she loves holding it and can slowly sip from this sipper cup… Also, she can also sip from an ordinary cup so yip, it’s all good and I’m happy about that!!!

4) Chloe is generally a quiet baby until she cries - where neighbours on the upper floors remind us of her screams! Chloe “babbles” on a bit more now and is more “talkative”… It’s nice cos at last, you don’t feel so stupid! Talking to a baby that doesn’t repsond verbally or physically to you is just so not stimulating and soon enuf you run out of ideas!!!! But then again, now that Chloe is more interactive, her attention span is VERY short and I find myself running out of ideas to entertain her!! So yeah - trying to keep her interested is SOOOOOOOO hard!

5) Solids and Chloe - she dislikes rice cereal (but I make sure or try to make sure - that’s if she doesn’t keep spitting it out!- that she finishes it all… It’s not much, so no excuse! ;p )
I’ve started giving her carrots, pumpkin and brocolli.. She loves carrots and pumpkin but Oh man, it so makes her poo stink! It absolutely pongs! Although good for her, feeding her solids is so much hard work compared to breastfeeding alone.. so much preparation/mess/washing! Listen to this, I’ve been a good mummy! 2 days ago, I prepared home-made food for her!! Yip, you heard me right! Food from scratch!! Was so excited being in the kitchen for a long time… But that excitement didn’t last too long after the motor of the blender over-heated, the steaming process of the foods took a little too long and I was over ambitious in the amount of food I thought I could prepare for the week! The proportions were SOOOO wrong… This was the week’s foods - 2 brocollis, 1 pumpkin, 3 sweet potatoes, 5 potatoes, spinich…. The result was so much steamed that I didn’t have enuf ice-cube trays to put them in! Umm, practice makes perfect!

Must dash now.. 30 mins later, Chloe is awake… *Racking my brains to see how to entertain her!*

Recently, Chloe has been trying to crawl!

This is not the normal crawl using hands and legs… what she does would make me cringe if she were to do it on a hard rough surface! But luckily, she will only do this type of crawl on a soft surface!

Head and face down, legs in place and then drag yourself to your destination using the face and legs! Ummmm!

Click here to see her in action!

*Excuse the messy room - Huppy was secretly video-ing*