Was kindly invited to to the media preview of a little weird and A LOT fantastic’ Ben & Jerry ChunkFest 2013 held at The Promontory @ Marina Bay on 12 October 2013.

If you are a ice-cream lover, I'm sure this would be the annual event you look forward to! This year, Ben & Jerry’s also introduced a new flavour to Singapore, Couch Potato - a surreal combination of sweet vanilla and salted caramel and savory chocolate-covered potato chip clusters.

Unfortunately, the heavy rain dampened the spirit abit and caused the ground to be wet and muddy. My boys were certainly not game to weather through the ground to explore various booths.

Luckily, the ice cream tasting part saved the day and Sky happily tried the various flavors which the friendly staff were more than happy to serve.


Specially for the event, Ben & Jerry's also flew in a total of 13 exclusive US flavours just for the day

Sky had a good try on various different flavors! He kept asking for Milk & Cookies while I hope that they will bring in Peaches & Cream!

Other than ice cream, Ben & Jerry’s also tied up with several organisations, social enterprises and members of the public to bring in different perspectives of Fairness. This year, five Fairness Partners were also invited to champion their causes at the festival -  Blessings in A Bag, Dyslexia Association of Singapore and Project Happy Feet, Kerbside Gourmet and Chris’ Café @ The Hub.





While Sky was busy sampling various ice-cream, Seth became Daddy's model cos he's adamant about not wanting to stomp on the mushy ground.

Online shopping for clothes is absolutely necessary for me since I don't work in town nor have I have much free time. However, I still prefer to go brick and mortar shop for household items not until I discovered the much more benefits for online household items shopping too! Not only it's convenient, it is also very wallet-friendly!

Have touched up my new nest with some online purchases from half of the world around.

Amazon
Amazon is truly amazing! A wide range and variety of items and shipping to Singapore is FOC! Plus plus plus...they have truly amazing superb service! Oh man, what more can you ask! Here's highlighting some of the items I bought!

Door Stopper
Just had to find a sleeker version to replace the yucky and old fashioned door stopper that DH bought! I think I have OCD.


Don't laugh at me! Yes, I have "imported" Dustbins and I really love the simple and sleek look for these dustbins. Almost wanted to buy dustbins from Ikea until I spotted these at Amazon!

Wall Organizer
@ the kitchen for my ladles, scissors and such.

@ the yard for my brooms, mops and such


Vintage Jars
ok.. I admitted. This was purchased on impulse as they are just too lovely looking!! And, I found the use for all of it! I saw similar glass bottles selling at Typo for $4/bottle. Set of 6 is selling at Amazon now for US$10.99 which comes up to S$2.42/bottle! Grab it!
DhGate
If you followed my instagram, you would see these lovely quotes put up at the wall. Shipping is also FOC from China!! Another favourite part of my wall was the chalkboard area. That was actually the DB Box area and the chalkboard paper we purchased fitted nicely on the door.

These are the only three items I purchased from DhGate.

For the first time, DH really painstakingly the house rules letter by letter on the wall. It was only when we received the second decal for the boys' room, we realised that there was actually a simpler way of transferring the wall decal to the wall!

Taobao
I know Taobao is certainly not foreign to you. People buy all sorts of items from Taobao - from clothes all the way to bulky furniture. I also understand many buy lighting, bed frame, chairs from Taobao. I'm only a small small player. First, to surf in Chinese is abit challenging, second, purchases gotta be done through a shipper and different shippers have different way of calculating shipping charges. Third, according to experts of Taobao buyers, you have to buy those with crowns and stars. Anyway, I used Peeka as they seemed to have rave reviews. I did not bother to compare how the rest of the shippers' charges but there are quite a few recommended shipper like daigou65 or Amcon Express from internet. Anyway, signing up and purchasing through Peeka was real easy for me and I received my goods in good condition. So no complaints.

As I was flipping some Home Magazines, I noted features of living wall having collages of photos hung in a very organised yet artistic manner. Initially, our plan was to purchase the frames from Ikea..until, I spotted these from Taobao! It has different sets for you to choose from. It was super easy to arrange and put up due to the photo paper and nails provided. Each frame with shipping charges involved came up to be around $2/frame!


Tin Tin
Bought the metal paints to touch up the boys' room.



Clocks
Love these simple and quaint looking alarm clocks for the kids room. The alarm is indeed loud and clear..I can even hear from my room.



Da dah....hope this will inspires to do more shopping online.

A quick recap of some significant and memorable events that took place past few months.

Shan's performances July - Sept 13
This year, Shan was involved with quite a number of external dance events from her school Dance CCA. When I thought this year is not a SYF year for them, it will be much relaxed. Who knows...

She was one of the 4-girls KPOP group and their school was selected to perform for SYF@Esplanade: LIVE@élibrary (Asian Potpourri). There were journalists to interview the gals too.

Extracted from LHZB

There were also performances for National Day, Teacher's Day and school Mid-Autumn Festivals. I was lamenting to my friend that her Chinese Dance activities really 没完没了.

Representing the team to receive Certification of Appreciation from MP

Ballet Under The Stars - July 13
With a "ballerina" at home, we are fervent supporters of the annual BUTS. This year was no different.

Doctor For A Day Experience - July 13
Mount Elizabeth Novena organised an inaugural event “Doctor For A Day”. Really Kudos to Mount Elizabeth Novena to host this wonderful experiential learning for kids 5 to 12yo. Unfortunately, we were unable to find an appropriate timing suitable for Shan and thus only Sky was able to enjoy the session. Needless to say, with many parents aiming for their little ones to be future doc-to-be, the sessions were snapped up very fast.

The whole event was immaculately planned and executed. The doctors were in all smiles despite repeating and doing similar stuff over and over again. Must really salute their dedication and sincerity in running this event.



Sky graduated with a cert and group photo as a memory. They even got a stethoscope as a token. It was a good educational and engaging session for the kids and I truly hope that Mount Elizabeth Novena will run it again!

You think Sky is inspired somehow to contribute to the medical field of tomorrow?

CG Event by the beach
We have not been visiting the beach as often as we liked as kids are growing older and getting busier. A rare chance came when we planned an outing to East Coast Beach. The weather wasn't that great cos by noon, it was drizzling. Else, the kids would have cycled. Nevertheless, they had fun in the sand. After lunch, they still adjourned back to new place for a swim!

Pardon me for the long hiatus...comp was down for a period plus super busy with house shifting. From the time we had to vacate the house to the time our new place was ready, it was a good two months gap. During these two months, we put up at my parents' place and although it's a bit far for our usual activities, we are still thankful that there's no need to search for temporary lodgings and paid big rental for it.

Before I share more about my new place, I thought it's good to jot down the little interesting flashback during these times. My parents stay at Yew Tee while our activities centred around Clementi area. Hence, at times, we rather completed all activities before going back home as it can be quite a hassle with the 20-30mins drive. It dawned on me that we have already enjoyed so much convenience with the previous good location and it reminded me so much of "The city mouse and the country mouse".

Morning times
The whole ching gang will leave my parents' place by 645am. Seth, usually in his dreams, would be carried to the car to continue his beauty sleep during the journey to Gor Gor and Jie Jie's school. By the time we reach the kids' school, it will be around 710-715am. We would then proceed to have our breakfast. During that two months, it was a "challenge" thinking which coffee shop/ hawker to go. When we finally nicely settled down, Seth would then blur-ingly wake up knowing it's breakfast time.

In the past, our standard no-frill breakfast would be coffee and bread. For Seth, he would order from the "kitchen",  his fried egg or half boil egg or Cheese or Peanut Butter bread. During these two months, Seth has upped his morning appetite!  Like the usual Ah Pek in coffee shop, he will order the same items without fail - 2 eggs, 1 char siew bao and 1 glass of hot Milo.



IHe can even tell you which coffee shop in Clementi serves the best char siew bao! During these two months, we rotated between few coffee shops / hawkers in Clementi.  And, my breakie during these two months were very flavourful with Dim Sum, Bee Hoon, carrot cake...

Regulars @ Clementi Library
The kids' school and enrichment are centred around Clementi area. Hence, there were times when we rather spent time at Clementi Library waiting for one kid to finish his/ her class before the troupe goes back to Yew Tee. Monday was by far the most tiring day for us. Seth has enrichment at West Coast at 7pm while Shan ended her dance CCA at 6pm. While waiting for Seth to finish his lesson, Shan will cool herself at the Library doing her HW in her messy and sweaty school outfit. At times, I felt so sorry for her as by the time we reached back my parents' place, it would be well after 9pm. She would have to quickly shower and dry her hair before settled for the night. Thankfully, these episodes did not affect her studies and her CA results.

While Shan is having her ballet class on Sat/ Sun, Sky would also be in the library doing HW and reading as well.

Our bed
Thankfully, bedroom at my parent's place was huge enough to contain 5 of us! With two mattresses on the floor and a queen sized bed plus a couple of luggage, that was "home" for us that two months!

All glory to god, we are now happily settling well in the new place for a month already and house has now transformed to our home already. For the first few days in the new place, Seth was very upset and had withdrawal symptoms for his egg and char siew bao! People are really very adaptable creature. He's now back to Peanut Butter bread or egg for breakie!

side note
While hubby was doing unpacking during the initial days of shifting, he texted me, "Why on earth do you need 20 pairs of different length and patterns of shorts when you can live off one luggage for the past two months?!" LOL. Forgive him, he doesn't know the difference between shorts, berms, cullocks...