[Personal] Mother's Day Celebration + Try & Review Ribena Blackcurrant Products

 My brother just came back from his trip to China. Since he went to Shenzhen, he brought back a lot of electronics because they were really cheap. One of the items he bought was a Karaoke set which he got it for like $300+. He invited us to his house to try out the system and also to celebration Mother's Day. 

After lunch, my daughter and I started singing. The system was good but we had to download the songs beforehand, and most of the newer songs were not available. It was great playing and listening to oldies as it comes with a speaker.

I received some Ribena Blackcurrent products from Try & Review so I brought them along for photo shoot and to share with my family. 

 After that, we played Rabbids: Party of Legends on the Switch. It's a fun multiplayer games. My mom joined us too and we had so much fun playing all the mini-games!

We enjoyed our Mother's Day dinner at the newly opened, air-conditioned FoodCity at Senja Close. It was great value for money and the food was really delicious. Would definitely be back again. I love spending Sundays with my family. My parents are getting older which is why family time is very important to me. I will usually set aside Sunday for my parents to come over and have meals together. It’s also the only day I can fully rest and recharge and do housework before the hectic school and work week starts, which is also why if I go out on Saturday, it’s usually packed with all the places or events I wanted to go. 

XOXO

[Personal] Celebrating Jessie's Birthday at DongQu 東區 Bar and Restaurant

 It's the Lucky 7's first meet-up for 2025 and it's a double celebration - Jessie's birthday and an early Chinese New Year gathering. For the venue, I searched on TikTok and IG, prioritizing a place that could accommodate a large group, young kids, and somewhere we hadn't tried before. After shortlisting a few options, we all agreed on DongQu Bar and Restaurant, a Taiwanese bar and restaurant located at Telok Ayer. I think we were quite excited to check out the cool cocktails featured and shared in the videos.  

It was raining heavily and the venue was still quite empty since we arrived early. We followed the staff to level 2 via the lift and when the lift door opened, we were greeted by numerous vintage television sets, one of which displayed footage of a live CCTV in operation. Each floor has a different unique theme, and the one on this floor where we would be seated, was designed in a Hong Kong 80s retro style.

Since we all arrived early, we had the chance to explore the various floors. On level 3, we discovered the Chill Lounge, a dreamy cloud space that is filled with a warm and soothing ambience.

Level 4 is the VIP area, boasting a European Victorian setting which is perfect for intimate private gatherings. I didn't explore level 1 as it was the bar area and was already quite packed by the time we finished touring the other levels.

We received a complimentary Yu Sheng to kick-start the dinner. It was my first Lo Hei of the year! Together, we tossed to a year filled with good health, happiness and prosperity! 

We ordered a variety of dishes for sharing, including Taiwan Skewers, Claypot River Prawn Vermicelli, Oysters, Wagyu Steak and a Braised Pork Rice for my girl. The food was good, but one plate of the skewers were served cold, so they replaced it with a new plate for us.

Flipping through the cocktails menu. 

Now it was time for some cocktails! I loved how creative and fancy their cocktails were, right down to the names. Kelvin had the 'Boss's Tears' (老板的眼泪  )。

Our birthday girl ordered the 'Far Away' (千里之外), which had a very pretty presentation, complete with a dramatic smoky effect.

Another surprise awaited our birthday girl. When I arrived early, I informed the staff about the birthday celebration that we will be having,  they took note of who the birthday girl was and served the two complimentary birthday shots for the lovely couple.  

The celebration turned out wonderfully and I felt grateful for the great food and companionship. I guess I will come back again to this place.  

📍DongQu 東區

176 Telok Ayer St 

Singapore 068624

XOXO

[Event] SAFRA Choa Chu Kang Celebrates 1st Year Anniversary

 SAFRA opened its seventh and latest clubhouse, nestled within Choa Chu Kang Park, which was officially launched on 23 November 2023. It's been a year, and I hadn't visited SAFRA Choa Chu Kang, despite my hubby being a SAFRA member. When I found out they were having a one-year anniversary carnival, we headed down to check out SAFRA Choa Chu Kang. Ironically, my hubby wasn't even aware of the existence of this latest clubhouse. 

I did a pre-registration online for 2 tickets which entitled us to 4 carnival games, 4 carnival rides and 4 snacks and two goodie bags. 

We had lunch at Mr Teh Tarik Cartel, which serves halal tze char dishes. The portion was big, even though we ordered small for all the dishes. Afterward, my hubby and my girl went for a swim at the all-weather sheltered swimming pool. My only complaint was that only the main pool was sheltered, the baby pool and some of the seating areas were exposed to the rain. While some seating areas had giant umbrellas for shelter, we were still asked to move inside in case of lightning. I didn't go swimming, so I stayed at the seating area to look after our belongings. 

 

Every SAFRA member gets one change to join in the sure-win gashapon machine and we won a $10 SAFRA voucher! We played the carnival games and had some snacks. Afterward, hubby needed to leave, so my girl and I stayed on.  

My girl and I went to all the levels to uncover the hidden Santa stockings and we took part in an online quiz. After completing the online quiz with all the correct answers, we went back to the Customer Service Officers to receive a customized SAFRA 2025 table calendar. 

I also registered and paid for the Basic Food Photography workshop hosted by Joel, and our props were Chateraise desserts. My girl picked the strawberry cake and after taking some nice photos, we got to enjoy it too. Participants also received some vouchers, I used the $5 voucher for our dinner. For dinner, we ate at Ishiro Fusion Bowl at Food Paradise. The setting was lovely with mandopop playing in the background. Love the vibes. 

After dinner, we witnessed the Christmas lights-up ceremony and enjoyed the free-flow snow play accompanied by Christmas songs! Everybody loves it. We all got ourselves foamy and messy, but who cares? It was Singapore's snow without the cold! I think the snow lasted quite long, after the last segment which was a magic show and when we were heading home, it was still snowing. 

We spent the whole day at Safra Choa Chu Kang and it was great. We made our way to Choa Chu Kang bus interchange and my girl requested for a photo here. 

Sunday's breakfast was this edible cookie from The Bakers Formulae received after we completed a survey for this event, really smart of them to use M&Ms as the colouring. 

XOXO

[Personal] Rena's First Teachers' Day Celebration with Superheroes Theme

 Back in my days, we used to celebrate Teachers' Day on the 1st of September, but since 2011 onwards, Teachers' Day has been fixed on the first Friday of September instead so that the teachers can have a longer weekend to rest and recharge. Likewise for Children's Day which has been changed from the 1st of October to the first Friday of October for the same reason. 

We were informed a few days earlier through the LittleFamilyRoom App that the school will be celebrating Teachers' Day one day in advance which is on Thursday and that the theme for the celebration is Superheroes. Being Rena's first Teachers' Day celebration in school, I felt excited to dress her up according to the theme although I think she do not have any favourite Superheroes characters yet. She had outgrown her Wonder Women costume and so I went to search for a new one. I recalled last year when I got my Halloween costumes from Spotlight, they do sell this kind of superheroes costumes too. 

Made a trip down to Spotlight and I'm right, there are indeed lots of different character costumes to choose from. I got Rena the Supergirl character costume at size 4 - 6 which fits her just nice. At the same time, I also picked up a big packet of candies for Pinata Mix and some heart-shape chocolates too from Spotlight as well. Happy to settle all the items needed at just one stop.  

Together with Rena, we packed the candies and chocolate into individual packets for her to bring to school to distribute. It was a great time doing this together as I also get to learn more about her favourite teachers. There was even one unfamiliar teacher's name which I think is an intern coming to observe the class. They do have interns coming to observe the class occasionally. This was also a great time to show our gratitude and appreciations to the teachers who has been so patiently taking care and nurturing the kids. In my opinion, the pre-primary school teachers deserved equal if not more appreciations as compared to the teachers in the Primary schools too. 

Taking care of a bunch of super active and curious toddlers is not easy task at all. Just one already worn me out and they had to take care of so many of them. Not forgetting sometimes the kids do throw tantrums without any known reasons. It's definitely not an easy job and so I wanna wish all the teachers a Happy Teacher's Day! 

XOXO