Lee Kui (Ah Hoi) Restaurant

It was a wonderful dinner that ended a surreal Saturday. Lazy lunch followed by a much needed deep tissue massage. Stroll around Ann Siang Hill and “accidentally” bought a lovely vintage (I love) dress. Quick glass of bubbly at Buyan before Austrian wine tasting at Group Therapy Café.

We made a new friend (Michael Thurner, ambassador for Austrian wines) from the wine tasting and in addition to the 2 bottles of whites we shortlisted to buy to bring for the BYO dinner, we ended up with 5 more bottles of “leftovers” from the tasting. Kekeke.


B has been raving about the teochew food at Lee Kui (Ah Hoi) Restaurant and I thought free corkage – no better time than tonight to check out the place. You need “critical mass” to sample dishes so our dinner party of 6 was perfect.

First up, the cold crab. Ooh I love crustaceans! The crab was so sweet and the roe so creamy. Very fresh. Would have been even better if there were some double shells but I’d order this dish again in a heartbeat.

Next dish that REALLY impressed me was another cold dish, the jelly fish and squid. This was totally different from the normal stringy jelly fish we have. The jelly fish served (in a most interesting and savory sauce) was heartily sliced and crunchy - it was so good. Definitely must go back just for this dish.

The rest of the dishes were very good too, although the star dish for me was the jelly fish. We ordered the signature oyster egg dish, which came generously piled with oysters and I liked how fluffy the fried egg was.

You can't go to a teochew restaurant and not order steamed fish, so we did. The pomfret didn't disappoint - it was fresh, cooked just nice and I was a tad embarassed for sucking the bones dry. I can't help it! It's tak glam but the bones (especially the head) are the best part :)

Other dishes ordered included the fried prawn balls (very addictive), stewed duck in claypot and braised cabbage with scallops. The latter was surprisingly tasty. By then, we were all stuffed (with food and burp, wine) but Ken Ken wanted more..

.. He wanted to try the signature dessert, the orh nee. I took some and yes it was good but I couldn't (yes me!) finish my bowl. Too much of a good thing, haha. Damage for our 11 course meal came up to $40+ a head - FANTASTIC value considering what we had.

Big Brother: Part 1

One thing i have been pondering over with this pregnancy so far ( aside from names, birth options, scans etc ) is how Flynn is going to go as a big brother. There is no doubt in my mind that we will have an initial period where he turns completely feral and refuses to co-operate. Hell, if he' anything like i was as an eldest child he'll probably have at least one attempt at killing his new sibling ( I'm joking - pushing your new brother off his change table isnt enough to kill them. Believe me, i tried! ). I'm hoping though that the transition from " only child " to " big brother " is relatively smooth.

Can you imagine this truck driving little grub as a big brother?

Flynn is so gorgeous with other people babies. Even though he's still a little shorty, he bends down to talk to babies and talks in this cute little baby voice. He asks if he can give them a cuddle or " pat " them, and when he does he strokes their little heads so gently it makes me smile. For such a rough monkey of a boy, he's incredibly sweet and gentle with people smaller than himself. ( This gentleness, however, does not yet extend to pregnant mothers. He's still happy to climb all over me ). It almost makes me proud that he's so aware of how to behave around babies, and especially proud of how protective he is towards them. Of course i know that it will be a bit different when the baby is living in his house, stealing away his mums attention, but i still have this inkling that the inherent gentleness and protectiveness will be there.

We've already explained to him what it means to be the big brother. It means he has to help us look after the baby, to give it lots of cuddles and kisses to keep it safe; it means he gets to move on to more " big boy " things and he can pass his baby stuff on to his new brother/sister; and it means he has to show the baby how to be a good boy or girl. Though i'm not expecting smooth sailing right from the outset, i have no doubt Flynn will be able to do all that. He may be a total dude, but he's a pretty caring little fellow when it comes down to it.

So at this point, with 15-ish weeks down and 24-ish weeks to go, i'm just going to keep on talking about babies and families and changes with Flynn, and hope that when push comes to shove its actually more of a cuddle than anything else.

What about you - for those who have more than one child, how did your eldest cope with becoming a sibling?

Purely Confident-ial

I dont think its any secret that i've been suffering from a slight crisis of confidence lately - last weeks massive freakout/depressive episode is evidence enough. And though i have a pretty great life at the moment - wonderful husband and son, pregnant, relatively steady income stream - i'm still letting those old feelings of inadequacy be stirred up ( definately prompted by the grand dumping by my ex-best friend back in late 2010 ). I dont know why i'm aware enough to know whats bugging me and why, but not be able to stop it. Bah - the curse of an ( apparently ) intelligent woman!

hate cats - love this pic....

Anyhoodle, along with the awareness of the loss of confidence, there is also - this time - the realisation that there are small things that i can do to make myself feel better. I'm not talking about the big things like actually asking for help instead of doing everything on my own, i'm talking about the little things that can make a frumpy mum feel like a woman again, or a housewife feel like a rockstar.Things like:

* paint my nails - because of the work i do ( using heat and small handtools ) my nails always look crappy. But even a coat of barely there blush pink makes me feel a bit more flash, and a little less " Flashdance ";
* wear red - i always, always, always feel better in red! If i'm feeling particularly faboosh, no doubt i will end up gravitating towards something red, whether its a red cardy, a red dress or my favourite red flats ( which are currently dying. Sad face ).
* put on make up - i know this one is pretty basic for most women but i dont wear a whole lot of makeup. Even as a teenage girl it was a basic foundation and mascara, i never really bothered to learn about liquid eyeliner/bronzer/whatever all that goop is i see plastered on young girls today. For the last few months all i've worn to work is tinted moisturiser and thats it, but now in the first few weeks pregnancy my skin went off the rails and i found i was really bothered by the ruddiness and pimples, pimples and more pimples! So i've invested in some " Nude by Nature " mineral foundation and plan on wearing it everyday. I dont have a lot of time, especially on workdays, so a mineral foundation that i can just brush on and go sounds perfect to me!
* Catch up with friends - i need to this more often as spending time with people who like me FOR me reminds me that i am not the sum of what one person thinks of me. Unfortunately, the two good friends i have left from school are not always ready available ( one lives in another town now, and the other is a competitive horse rider and is off at competitions a lot ), so i need to either find some new friends or make the most of the opportunities i do have with my girls.

So my mission in the next 25 weeks - while i slowly turn into a human blimp but before a newborn baby ties me to the house for a while - is to make an effort to brighten my own life, and to disregard those people and thoughts that are trying to bring me down!

Totally Super!

Todays post is inspired by a post made by Lori from http://www.rrsahm.com/ a few days ago. Lori is jumping back into internet dating and has come up with her perfect " go to " question to seperate the men from the morons - " Who is your favourite super hero ? ". What struck me as funny is that Mick and I met on a web dating site and i actually asked him the exact same question on our second date! Despite not reading comic books, i'm a big of a comic book/graphic novel movie nerd, and on our second date we went to see " Watchmen " ( graphic novel, psuedo superheroes, kind of dark. Google it... ). When i asked him his favourite superhero, and we matched on 2 out of 3 in a Top 3 list, i knew it must be love! So, inspired by that very question - which, although it sounds unbelievable nerdy to some, i think actually gives away quite a bit about a person - here is my current Top 5 Favourite Superhero Type People Things :

1. Batman - Batman is my favourite for a few reasons, but mainly this: the man doesnt actually have super powers, he's just a really dark, tortured rich guy who's taken it upon himself to save the world. You know, vigilant style. Plus, he has cool gadget, a cool car, and his own cave. Ace.

2. Eric Draven aka " The Crow " - a lot of people have never heard of this one but Eric Draven comes in at #2 simply because he' so romantic. Romantic? Yes - for those not in the know basically Eric Draven is a guy who was murdered alonsgide his girlfriend and on the first anniversary of his death he returns from the dead to avenge his lady love. He has all these " you-cant-kill-me, i'm-already-dead " powers, and once he's killed off all the bad guys and made sure a young girl he knew is looked after, he returns to his grave and ( presumably ) can get on with the getting to heaven to be with his woman. So yes - way romantic!

3. Wolverine - total motorcycle riding, cigar chomping, big hair growing bad ass! Plus he has awesome adamantium claws and is played by the super-scrumptious Hugh Jackman at his muscular best. And, even though he's a grumpy rebel most of the time, he has his soft side. Everything a lady could want in a man mutant...

4. V - as in " V for Vendetta ". Again, he doesnt actually have super powers, he's just another ( literally ) tortured soul ( who may or may not be hideously mutilated ) who has taken it upon himself to save the world. Or, in V's case, to fight the system that oppresses the world he lives in. Which he does, ably assisted by a bald Natalie Portman in the film version. Because i dont like spoiling films, i wont give away the ending, except to say if what V does isnt heroic, i dont know what is.

5. Iron Man - lucky last, Iron Man makes the list for 3 reasons: a) he's another rich dude with cool gadgets, saving the world because he can; b) he's really funny and c) he's played in the film version by Robert Downey Jnr who, despite being old enough to be my father, is just a bit hot. Or a lot, you decide....