ACE, ACE, Baby!:P

Expensive Dinner Vs Cheap Dinner

2012-01-09T11:38:00.007+08:00

It was sort of like the second last day of our friend's trip to Dubai and the highlight of the day is that they made a reservation to have dinner at a restaurant in the 7 star hotel, Burj Al Arab.

Initially, our friends say they would give my family a treat in the hotel lor.. but when I tried to make booking for them and saw tat the price of the meal is minimum 450dh per pax, I told her I wouldnt allow others to pay this sort of price for my meal cos even I wouldnt pay this sort of price.. wahahaha.. I have had fine dining once in my life and once is very enough..t hank you very much:) wahahaha..

Anyway, since there is only one highlight and we all got to rest till afternoon time.... we decided to go Shimmers to chill out somemore and take more pics of the sunset and also Burj Al Arab from Jumeriah Madinet area...

The beautiful sunset... by the sea....

Lao Uncle and God Grandma chilling out:)

One more been there done tat photo:)

I tot the colours looked good and took one more of the hotel...

Meanwhile, Ace got bored and went to the seaside to play with Max.

Shiok hor.. if we can lay on the deck chairs to watch sunset.. alas, to be honest, it was a little too chilly to enjoy doing tat now....

Ace helped me and Max to take a pic:)

Then finally it was time to make our way to Burj Al Arab..

That is Max smiling happily.. cos because of our frens, we got to drive our car into the hotel lor.. if not for them.. we wouldnt have been able to go in at all:) Ace looking excited in the car... And this is how the hotel lobby looks like from outside:)

The interior.. according to our frens who took these photos... the interior is so so only lah.. just alot of things plated in GOLD....

In the restaurant...

Dunno wat food this is but it does look good:) hahha

That is the waiter serving them white truffles for their veal with white truffles:)

And as the hotel is in the basement, there is a big fishtank inside acting like a pillar.. as you eat, the fishes will swim past you...... shiok hor:)

Anyway, when they came back, I asked Annie godma over whatsapp how it was and she said that the food was very very good... they paid something like 400plus sing per pax (total bill came to something like 4500dhs) in the end but it was worth it too:) The only thing she was not too happy about was the fact tat there was alot of screw up during the reservation process and that when they arrived, they almost did not let Lao Uncle into the restaurant cos even though he was wearing closed toe shoes, they say it is not dinner type of black shoes.. xiao.. got money can go in liao right?:P

Just to tease her a little... I told her this is my 72dhs dinner that night: Fried rice, fried noodles and teh beng at ny fav indon restaurant:) wahahahahahahahha....

Equally yummy leh:) hehehehehe...

But anyway, the hotel still not bad leh.. they actually wrote in to ask for feedback and when Annie godma complained about all the cock up, they actually say they will offer a dinner for two at one of their restaurants for a three course meal... so looks like in the end, me and Max still going to get a fine dining experience at Burj Al Arab after all since Annie godma not flying back to Dubai to use this free meal:)

Previous Post: When The Children Are Away, The Parents Go And Play...

When The Children Are Away, The Parents Go And Play

2012-01-08T03:14:00.008+08:00

You know the saying.. when the Cat is away, the mouse will be out to play... this special day, it was a case of the child is away.. (going to his godma's hotel for a sleepover again), the parents will be out to play:)

That is Ace all packed and excited and ready to go:)

That's me very happy cos I got another HOLIDAY!:)

After we dropped off Ace, Max said that he was hungry.. and so we went to Wagamama nearby for a quick bite:)

It is a very interesting place where they write your orders on this piece of paper in front of you... and they actualy sold receipes and even things like t shirts and stufff. I wonder who will buy it...

This is our fried noodles:)

And our gyoza!:) We din order too much as this is meant to be a quick bite... not really dinner;) wahahahahaahah. Cos we HAD dinner quite early....

Then Max brought me to Traders Vic.. which is a place tat played salsa music.. It is quite interesting given it has a very different crowd and there were people really dancing salsa there even though it was super crowded...

Puffer fish deco at the ceiling.... THis is one of the most popular drinks there.. everyone was carrying one of these glasses lor.. it looked like a margarita of some sort and had a flower inside... so we ordered that and something else...

More interesting drinks in interesting glasses... And finally, the band is out lor.. really not bad leh this band.. chio and can play music and can sing... very kiang lor!

That's our crazy bunch of friends.. they were already drinking for a few hours when they met us.. so tat day everyone was very high :) Only Max zat lat.. hahahaha.. cos he says if he did not, I would have to clean toilets tat night lor.. wahahaha.

After tat, to complete Max's usual clubbing experience, we went to their favourite supper place.. an indian restaurant to eat GOBI MANCHURIAN:) wahahaha

The next day, we woke up late and Max suggested that we go to another favourite place of his at Radisson Blue Hotel to eat the best dunno-wat-is-it-called ("You go there you will know lah.." he said) in the world.

How apt tat this sign greeted us by the door...

Here's some starters.. hmm.. even the butter and tomato salsa sauce for the bread tastes extra good:)

Max getting ready to DIG IN!!!!

Tadah! The famous "canelloni stuffed with ricotto and spinach"... It is as good.. if not, even BETTER than it looks!

So good tat Max even attempted to LICK THE PLATE!

We took a picture of the Menu so that we can remember wat it is called.. I found a receipe for it. I think when I am in the mood, one day I will try to make it.. Hehehehe..

Anyway, while we were having our meal, shaoye also having tomato and egg instant noodles at Annie Godma's place.. hahahahah...

Last but not least, some pics of these beautiful decor in the Radisson Blue Hotel...

I so love these lamps.. maybe I should buy one and bring back to sgp when I am relocating back for good:)

Previous Post: Chutneys Indian Restaurant

Chutneys Indian Restaurant

2012-01-07T19:23:00.009+08:00

Usually, in Dubai, we eat cheap indian food..wahahahah.. something like Saranava Bhagavan (dam, dun remember exact spelling or name).. or Green City is more up our alley:) But our visiting frens were told by their relatives that the byrani here is heavenly, the best in the world... and because my fren's travel priority number one is NICE restaurants:) We finally have a chance to visit a nicer indian restaurant:)

We picked one near our place called Chutneys in Movenpick at Bur Dubai. When our friends arrived on 23 dec, we wanted to go there but they were fully booked by the time we reached. This time.. we clever liao.. we call and book first.. wahahahaha...

When we reached there, Max was a little worried because they dun serve prata.. which is the only one indian food tat Ace eats.. and so we asked if they can like make the curry non spicy so tat ace can and will be willing to eat it...

First up, papadam with some interesting looking sauces. Dun take too much the first round.. they might be too overpowering for your liking:)

Ace of cos happy lah. they made one of the sauces sweet for him.. so he very enjoy...

Behold! Max and his PRE-DETOX tummy! I am very proud to announce after detox, my hubby has lost all the fats in gained in Dubai and MORE... this round, when we go back for CNY, people are not going to say.. "What happened to Max? He looks like he is pregnant!" wahahahaha

Papadum in beer, anyone???

And since this is atas restaurant right.. got music one lor... indian type of music with a little bit of singing...

On the left, is some vegeterian thingy like otah like tat one.. is ver very nice.. but i dunno wat is it.. on the right is the butter chicken masala:)

All the diff yummilicious type of curries.. the yellow one with beans is the least spicy for Ace's benefit..

Let me show you how to eat indian food....

Hahahaha.. max always likes to play the same trick lor! After the meal, he tricked god grandma to trying this... wahahahahahaha....

Afterward, ace say want to go toilet and poop... poor me, got to go with him lor... anyway, I noticed there are many pretty paintings of dubai near the toilets...

Notice all these paintings are about the skyline of Dubai...

Anyway, when we are totally done with the meal, the men went to the toilet while the ladies and the kids are....
- one taking picture
- one playing on the stairs
- one standing around waiting...

And then we brought the ladies to buy shoes and that is it.. the night is fully complete.. I must say I was so full I couldnt sleep .. wahahahaha...

inspired, I bought chicken masala pack and going to try to make vegeterian version with my mock chicken meat!:)

Previous Post: Wonderous Wonder Bus

Wonderous Wonder Bus

2012-01-06T19:13:00.002+08:00

Some time back, Ace went on a school trip on the wonderbus because the topic they were learning about for that semester is UAE (how very apt Ace joined them then and got to know more about the country he is staying in now...)

When he came home, he was like Wonder bus THIS and Wonder bus THAT.. I think he absolutely loved it and said he wanted to be on it again... and because our friends did not quite like the idea of an abbra, I tot the wonder bus might be more well recieved and suggested that they do a tour on the wonder bus;) Anyway, since we saw a discounted ticket on sale the night before, we bought the tickets lor;)

Anyway, this is us before the bus ride.. there were so many people there lor.. and they din have any signs.. it was only when we went up the bus then they told us that we needed to show our reciept to issue a ticket and in the end, the bus was overbooked and we had to wait for the next bus.

And it was so popular lor.. I saw so many people inside the wonderbus office waving money and waving their credit cards wanting to pay for their bus tickets but the booking agents just ignored them! Like tat also can! Then another woman paid for 18 tickets and asked for 19 seats.. initially saying tat the kid is younger than 3 (cos kids younger than 3 free) . However they say free is becos they get to seat on your lap... when they found out, they said their kid is scrawny 5 year old and needed a seat.. wahahahahaha.... chow kuan lor:)

That is our guide asking Ace where is he from... he said, "Singapore.."

"Can you sing a song from Singapore for us" The guide asked.. after a 10 second pause, my son said, "No!" And giggled.. wahahahahahah

I only realized this when I took the wonder bus.. that there are many palm trees grown in Dubai.. according to our guide.. UAE is the country with the most number of palm trees grown.. apparently they have like 2 million palm trees in the whole of UAE.. tat is almost as many people as we have in Dubai:P

Splash and in to the water we go!:)

Anyway, they gave out drinks and hor, Ace dam bloody heng lor.. by the time it is our turn to pick the drinks, no more orange juice left and only odd flavours... Ace wanted orange juice and last minute, the bus captain found ONE orange and Ace took it lor:)

That is Ace saying he is hungry but we were told no food allowed on the bus.. so I gave Ace the bread I brought and he secretly hid behind his jacket to eat.. wahahahahahaha...

Anyway, that's our guide sharing about Dubai.. That pic on the left is Dubai 20 years ago.. the pic on the right is the same stretch of road now.. 20 years later:) Isnt the transformation amazing!:)

Remember that I talked about Jumeriah The Palm.. this is the aerial view of it...

That is Burj Al Arab...

This is my favourite building across the creek.. See tat yellow line? Tat is our wonder bus!:)

Okie, thank you and good bye..

After tat we are all hungry abd went to have Lunch at chillis;)

After lunch, the whole jim gang spent another half hour walking around th mall with Ace cos Annie ganma wanted to reward Ace and he wanted to choose a toy.. he kept wanting the big boxes of toys tat are too expensive and finally settled for this shift changer thingy.. where you spray water on the car and it changes colour..

But that was not the end of our day:) We actually went for a nice indian dinner after tat:) More about tat in the next post:P

Previous Post: Dubai Museum and Global Village

Dubai Museum and Global Village

2012-01-05T03:04:00.013+08:00

We decided that since we rested the day before, we will meet our friends at the Dubai Museum and maybe take the abbra with them over to the gold souk and spice souk... before bringing them to a nice dinner at one of our fav cheap and good chinese restaurant here.. and then heading off to Global Village...

As our friends wanted to meet us at Dubai Museum and the only way I know how to get to that area is to walk there from my house... I looked up the location on google maps and then with a little bit of luck and some good effort, me and Ace took a 35 minute walk from our house to Dubai Museum.. So proud of myself! And in the process, I actually discovered there are a few small museums in the area that I have never visited before.. Ace wanted to go and I told him we will go another day with Daddy when we have got time...

Anyway, we finally went to Dubai Museum with our friends but because I have been there before, this time, instead of taking lots of photos.. I just concentrated on reading up and enjoying the exhibits:) If you want to see pics, you can go to my previous post about it.. hahahaha..

I only took photo of this because you know.. this is a pair of bones tat is found.. and they had their hands clasped together.. you know as in the famous saying, "Till death do us part"?

Anyway, after that, we walked to the Old Town area so that Annie godma can buy her scarfs and what nots from the textile souk.. one tip here.. whatever you buy here, BARGAIN! YOu ask price, they say a price, just bargain.. if it doesnt work out to your expectation, walk away... they will lower the price furthur! wahahahaha

And after that we were suppose to take the abbra across the creek to visit the the gold souk and the spice souk.. however, as it was a windy day, the waves on the creek look big and being true blue Singaporeans with concern for safety.. the gang decided that maybe we will take the air conditioned Abbra which looks bigger and is more stable..

But everyone looked tired (especially Lao Uncle and god grandma as they have been out shopping in MOE the whole morning as well) and so, we decided to just head to dinner...

While waiting for Max to pick us up, we just chilled out by the creek and boy, was it chilly:)

Anyway, after tat we made our way to Red House... This is me and max and ace's favourite- Tomato fried egg:) Our friends loved it so much we ordered a second helping!! wahahaha

Because God grandma love to eat duck, we ordered this plum sauce duck which turned out to be really nice and she said it is her favourite dish of the trip!:)

And of course, not to forget what Redhouse is famous for:) Lor tee kar:)

After that, we made our way to Global village:) hehehe.. as I have been there before and Annie complained that her camera ran out of batt, I lent her my camera lor:) hehehehe

Spongebob squarepants abaya, anyone?:P

Anyway, while we were there, we bought some tickets to take the wonderbus the next day cos they claimed that there is a 15% discount:)

Unconciously, we walked and walked till 12 midnight lor... wah.. din expect us to walk so long...

Previous Post: Wafi

Wafi

2012-01-04T04:32:00.003+08:00

After so many consecutive of having fun for so many days... so finally, we opted for a rest at home while our friends explored Outlet Mall by themselves:)

But we told them we will meet them and join them at Wafi for them to watch the christmas show and maybe have a little arabic meal in Wafi Gourmet.. which is something I myself I have never had a chance to do:)
First, I brought them to the big christmas tree to take pics... I din take much pics lah.. since I had been there a few days before, walked a few rounds and taken tonnes of pics already.. wahhahah...

And afterward, we went to watch the Wafi Lights show.. it was nice but was exactly the same as last year except last part said Happy 2012.. wahahahaha.. Just in case you are curious.. this is the lights show.. it is a show of lights with the buildings as a background..

Here is how it looks like.. But I must say the visual is much more grand when you see it in person:)

Anyway, after the show, we explored around the malls again and Xiao Uncle wanted to take picture with Lao Uncle lor:)

Ace wanted me to take pics of him sitting at the staircase.. dun ask me why..

Pharoah Ace?:P

Anyway, after wandering around to find dinner, we finally settled on eating at Wafi Gourmet.. actually like a dream come true for me cos I have been wanting to try local foods but because Max is vegeterian.. not really much of a chance...

Anyway, we found out from the restaurant manager that it is lebanese food... and I must say that their special lebanese bread, which the manager says cannot be found anywhere else, is THE BEST! So nice and fluffy and sweet.. Ace ate 3 pieces of it and full liao lor... wahhahaha.. Initially I was so worried he got nothing to eat... But he really loved just eating the bread with the soup...

And the soup is really another highlight I must add.. It is brocolli soup and they gave you a slice of lemon to squeeze and the result tastes HEAVENLY!!!!!

Here are the arabic dishes we tried.. there is a cheese roll, humus, taboleh... and some sort of grilled chicken... All quite nice:) My fav though is still the soup and the bread.. wahahahahahah:)

Thanks to Annie for fulfilling my dream of trying some more of the local food:)

Previous Post: Christmas At Kidzania

Christmas At Kidzania

2012-01-03T22:51:00.021+08:00

As a reward for being a goodboy, Ganma Annie said she will sponsor a trip to Kidzania for Ace on christmas day...

As you need to have a kid to go into kidzania, she was pretty excited to go there herself:)
So early at 9am in the morning, Max dropped us off at Dubai Mall.. Ace cannot help it but want to take pic with this car...

After tat, we slowly made our way over to Kidzania where we bought our FIRST CLASS TICKETS and got to transit into kidzania:) yipee!

First stop is to cash in the cheque we had at the bank to exchange for Kidzos.. which is the currency used here in Kidzania;)

Then off to the first stop... Flight simulation and to be a pilot... But as it was very early and relatively empty, Ace found it was not quite fun.. But we had to do this cos at our last trip here, this was the one thing we missed out on...

Anyway, I found out that there is a Parent's lounge at the second storey... once he has fulfilled his unfulfilled dream.. guess where he wants to go to next?

To be FIREMAN lor...

Having their fireman lessons and now ready to go:)

Ace was quite lucky... because they usually just go one round shouting "Kidzania, fire fighter!" and that is it.. at special hours, they will get to do missions... in this particular session, he got to go to the Flamingo Hotel and out out fire with a hose:) How cool is tat:)

I asked if he would like to go to the hospital but he prefers to be paramedic... so that is where he went to next... As he has experience and knows what is going to happen, he put his hands up quickly when they asked who wanted the stethescope and be a doctor... and lucky for him, he got it:) hehehe... check out his gleeful look:)

Then they are given some more lessons and sent over to where the casualty is laying down on the floor "injured"...

When asked if he heard anything after putting the stethescope on the casualty, Ace cheekily said, "No..." "But you are suppose to hear something.. if not, it means she is dead.." said the leader of the team of paramedics...

Bringing the casualty back with them...

Next stop, car designing at Chevrolet...

That is the car that Ace designed:)

We saw alot of people driving cars and tried to queue up.. but we were told you have to get a driving licence in order to "drive"...

So we went to queue up to get a licence lor.. then I figured out that the licence actually cost money:) hehehe... I found out this time tat some activities here cost kidzos.. so Ace used 10 kidzos to get a licence...

Valid till 2020... woo hoo!

But on the way to find the racing track, we got distracted by the art school and Ace decided to be a little Picasso:)

And just as we are about to reach the track, Ace discovered this.. BOTTLE YOUR OWN COKE station... he was so happy to have his own bottled coke and kept wanting to drink it...

Now, time for Ace Schumacher to zoom around the racing track...

Alas Schumacher Ace was a little too fast and crashed into another parked vehicle..heng he is safe.. so he continued racing again...

Tadah.. the champion!!!:)

Then of course, without fail, Ace chooses to be policeman! wahahaha.. Annie ganma was so tired by then she took a little rest on the benches nearby..

Anyway, we found out from the guy at the door that since Dubai Immigration is sponsoring this station, they will do most of the time, immigration officers instead of policeman as sponsors get to track the number of children who have done the activity.... policeman only comes on once every hour or so.. dam!

Anyway, their job is to go and dunno check wat.. I wonder if they checking for stowaways.. wahahahahahahahaa.... Anyway, they told us that there is a possibility that a Kidzania will be opening up in Malaysia.. good news for the kids in Singapore:)

Next we saw this swiss arabian perfume thingy and Ace decided that he wanted to make his own perfurme.. I am not a fan of the perfumes and I actually thought it is the most revolting smell I have ever smelt when I first came... but over time, I have gotten to appreciate it.. Not that I like it but I just understand why other people MAY like it... wahahahaha.. But you wun catch me dead with this perfume on me:) hahahahaha

Tadah, his perfume and a cert to certify his involvement:)

Next, he went to work in the DEWA department.. tat is like the PUB of Singapore lor.. it just some lesson and a computer quiz on how to safe energy. I hope he understands now that it is important to switch off the lights when he goes out of the room and it is a total waste of energy to open the fridge and stand there for 5 minutes deciding what he wants to eat!!!!! (On a side note, the lesson seems effective as i dun see him doing tat so much since this lesson:P)

Meanwhile, me and Annie godma just rest and relax one corner and camwhore! :)

Next, Ace decided to be a newspaper reporter (like mummy sort of used to be)... they in charge asked if he could speak english and I said he could.. cos now one year later, he is a much better reader and writer... They actually got him to type out his own conversation inside a comic strip on a ready made newspaper...

My son and his comic strip.. alas, his comic is about.. you guessed it.. POOP! Faintz....

This one is interesting.. it is working as a customers service officer in DU.. which is like our M1 or Starhub, Singtel equivillent in Singapore... you supposed to match the person to the person the caller wants to connect to.. like a quiz...

And then Ace decided that he wanted to be a construction worker.. wahahahaha... so building walls again lor..

Then Ace said he was hungry... so we went to mac donalds for food.. but he interestingly rejected my offer to buy a happy meal and said he just wanted fries and ice cream....

I found out that the happy meal here is like 5 dirhams more ex.. and wondered why..then I found out tat when your kids buy a happy meal and pay more, they get a hat and apron from mac donalds.. and then they can go inside the kitchen to wrap their own food and pack their own happy meal.. just as if they are working in mac donalds.. I told tat to another parent I was chatting with and he said he will bring his girl there cos it is her dream to work in Mac Donalds when she grows up and can take vacation jobs! hahahahaha.. (I dun think she really will in the end.. I would rather be a telemarketeer and earn $11 an hour than earn $2.50 an hour and mac donalds:P

Anyway, after that, when I asked Ace what he wanted to be.. he wanted to be a firefighter.. AGAIN!!!!

So boh pian lor.. this time there is long queue and we have to queue... Then two interesting things happened..

Ace asked me if he can talk to other people and make friends..."Of cos.." And Ace said "I want to make friends because I don't have any friends here..."

The little indian girl behind him heard that and said immediately, "I can be your friend if you want.. my cousins who are here with me always leave me alone and so I can be your friend..."

Wah.. then you see my boy turn on his charm and that little girl smiled and laughed... and in no time at all, they are fast friends liao:)

After a while, Ace complained to me and said that some boys out of the window did a "you are dead and I will slash your throat" sign to him and he is really upset by it.. "Why do you have to be upset?" I asked him... "Just ignore them.. they are being mean.." said the little girl...

And then after a while, the girl took the matter in her own hands.. went to the window and used sign language to tell the boys outside that they are dead too in her bid to protect Ace. Once Ace realized you could do tit for a tat and so he started gestulating and the boys just gestulated even more... I told Ace that the boys were wrong to do those signs but he isnt any better if he does the same as them.. and so he stopped...

And then, yet another interesting thing happened... The children were queuing and the line got messy.. so that they can tell who came first, the person in charge asked everyone to form one straight line and this irritating indian woman (an adult) declared that she was also in the line as she is queuing for her children.

The incharge told her that is not allowed as it is not fair for the other children and she started to raise her voice (maybe she tot loud will win) lah.. say wat she wants to see the supervisor lah.. blah blah blah... and so he brought his supervisor and the supervisor basically repeated the same thing that it is not allowed...

Then hor, when the supervisor left, the thick faced woman actually continued to stand there till her children came.. she was actually queuing on behalf of 4 children!!!!!!!!! And she quickly asked them to slot into the queue...

Then leh, she dam bloody suay.... she go and cut queue in front of an arabic lady with a very young boy.. when the boy saw four more people in front of him, he looked terribly upset cos tat means he needs to queue another half an hour for his turn... dun which mother can tahan that right? so the arabic woman quarrel with the indian woman.. and even louder.. telling her this is not fair and not nice. and insisting to see the manager.. so the manager came and the arabic woman just loudly repeated what she said and repeat and repeat till the indian woman "teeth mouth no words" and finally, she very ashamedly ask her four kids to go with her...

Poor kids, I bet they cannot come to this fireman station anymore.... Anyway, I think the indian woman is ridiculous... thankfully the arabic mummy stood up for herself.. I think if i were behind here and she only slot one kid, I would have closed one eye.. but four kids? wah lau eh...

Anyway, Ace went on to be his FIREFIGHTER again:)

And then... guess what, my son wanted to do the policeman thing again... So we tried to go back and queue during the timing where they say will have policeman activities...

This time he was lucky again:) cos it is joint missions exercise back at the Flamingo Hotel... the fireman will come here and put out the fire and the policemen are there to guard and ask people to keep away...

Policeman hard at work...

That is Ace asking people to keep away.. very serious looking policeman:)

After that, Ace said he wanted to worth with the vault.. so he went and got to send money somewhere...

After he came back and reported back to the station, he said he wanted to queue to do it AGAIN.. cos he wanted to collect money this time! wahahahhaha

There he is.. queuing again...

Finally collecting money at TNT and completing his mission...

Next, he said he wanted to make milk at the milk factory...

That's Annie godma at the other side of the room. hehee

Anyway, they had to go through a sort of "bath", then got to put on their white robes and first stop was take the colouring.. and then add some sort of white powder.. and then still got wat check for bacteria or wat...

And after tat you pour it into this machine and press the flavour tat you want..

Out comes his chocolate milk:) I think the other stuff is all fake one lah.. cos i think it is not allowed to make the milk outside of a proper factory..

Ace finished the milk in two gulps lor!

And then we queued up for the supermart and guess wat, we were queuing behind the "evil boys" (ace named them tat) who were gestulating about cutting throats.. to him.. And some other girl tried to cut queue and interestingly, the boys stood up for Ace and said Ace was here first... But maybe it could be part of the they look down on girls thing cos they said it with such disdain...

Anyway, in the supermart, you get to be cashier and afterward, customer... everyone only allowed to buy 5 items but they still shopped like crazy...

Ace putting it back and finally getting to shop.. by the way, you dun get the merchandise you bought.. they are all fake.. you just get a receipt :)

Time to count money.. after Ace picked out the things he could buy with his money, we were still short of $10 and so we went to do car design one more time so tat he could pick out a magic trick that costs 50 kidzos:)

Just a side note, we saw two arabic men treating Kidzania like their own garden:) hehehe.. First class seats.. wahhahahaha:)

After tat, while bringing Ace to the toilet, I met two frens who were here in Dubai on a trip!:) Small small world lor:)

Anyway, Ace was in a tantrum cos the exit of Kidzania led to a toy shop.. he watned to buy a toy and i din want to buy for him.. cos it was something he already had. (it was a policeman set) and so he sulked all the way out of kidzania.. his godma heart soft lor.. say ok buy for him.. so after we walked like 10 min to another part of the mall to meet Annie godma's parents, we had to walk all the way back again to buy the toy only to find tat the toy is for 3 years old.. and then we spent another 20 min waiting for shaoye to choose his toy.. really tired dao..........

Anyway, finally after we met up with Annie's friend who just arrived in Dubai and Annie's parents, we brought them to see the water fountain show and headed off to a really nice dinner at Ace's favourite restaurant in dubai- Sino Chai:)

After two nights of partying and one whole day at kidzania, I woke up the next day aching ALL OVER my body lor!! wahahahahahaha...

Anyway, looking at the choice of careers my sons has tried.. I dun think he will wanna be a doctor or wat.. he probably wants to be something with ACTION to save or service people when he grows up.. wahahahaha..

Previous Post: Christmas Eve At Madinet Jumeriah

Christmas Eve At Madinet Jumeriah

2012-01-02T21:48:00.017+08:00

The little boy woke up in the hotel the next day and was very happy lor:)

According to godma, he shared a seat with her father and the two of them just talked for hours on the chair.. giggling non stop.. poor godma and god grandma wanted to sleep right but cannot sleep cos these two men were too noisy.. afterward when I asked Ace what they were talking about, he said they were talking about POOP.. yew...

Anyway, afterward, Ace declared that he is Xiao Uncle and that godma's dad is LAO UNCLE.. and so we called them tat for the rest of the trip.. after this bonding time, the two of them became best frens.. which made god ah ma jealous cos she also wanted to be best frens with Ace as she adored him....

It is really our blessing to know this family lor.. minute we meet they already just welcome us into their group like tat... so all encompassing:) Really make me miss my two sets of parents (in laws included as the other set)....

Anyway, as promised to Annie, I hosted them in my house for a meal that I cooked lah. At her request, I made the niang bittergourd dish.. and i also made salty duck rice and fried an egg... I think the food is not too bad..

In fact, Annie's mum told me that I should be so honoured. Annie does not like to take bittergourd but she took many pieces of what I made:) wahahaha.... she also liked my chilli.. hehehe...
Simple meal made with love okie:)

That's Annie.. super excited n taking photos:)

Ace was also super excited and gave her her present and all of them their christmas cards:)

After lunch, Max managed to book a chrsitmas eve dinner somewhere in jumeriah.. and so, max went to take a nap.. while i went to dress up as Ace entertained the rest of the old folks by showing them how to play dance central and golf on the kinect:)

We made a wrong turn and ended up in a unfamilar part of Jumeriah Madinet... so we just walked and walked...

And as we walked, we just took picture with watever nice thing tat we saw:)

The hotel lobby featured a nice toy train...
We walked inside the hotel grounds and it was simply beautiful...

And before we realized it, we accidentally found the beach!:)

And realized tat we can take fantastic pics of Burj Al Arab here! wow.. heng man! Anyway, when god grandma wanted to take pic, ace ran away.. minute lao uncle wanted to take pic.. he automatic go and take and pose for pic with him lor.. wahahahahah

I think they really have a bond... Annie godma says she has never seen her dad speak to anyone so much.. as her dad is very quiet usually.. and much of an introvert.. wat can I say right? This boy is ren jian ren ai one:) wahahahah

The other side of the beach, we saw this interesting building..

After googling when we got home, we found out it is a restaurant... maybe some day can go there to eat at sunset:)

Wah.. Ace is so strong ah!

Wah, Max lagi best lor!:)

This is Burj Al Arab later in the night...

SO shiok if can come here and chill out at the beach..

Ace took this photo for us.. pretending to get married again lor:) wahahahahhaaha.. second beach wedding!:)

Then afterward we went to the shopping area to walk around.. cos there was some carnvial there..

That is a heater to heat up the environment during cold cold winter:)

Care for a ride on the abbra? Well I prefer the ones at the creek... cost only 1 dh.. the abbra boat ride here cost 60 dh lor.. I think can take at the creek till i xiao lor:) wahahahahaha

We found out you needed to buy tickets into the christmas carnival and so we bought lor.. since the tickets can be used to buy food and drinks there...

In the end, we used the tickets to buy the worlds most expensive 5 packets of cookies:) wahahahahaha... but the cookies were delicious!

Walked around the mall somemore and saw these interesting stuff... this is a quirky map of dubai... I think most of the things on it.. I have already been there, done tat:)

This is the Burj late at night...

I super love this lamp so wanted to take photo with it:)

As we walked to our restaurant, we saw a turtle conservation area...

It was super dark and so after photoshop, this photo still looks lousy.. but you can tell it is a turtle right?:P

Ace said he wanted to take picture with Frosty the Snowman...

We saw this really little chair and when max sat down, it creeked and wobbled and so max got up but the guard there said it is meant to be like tat.. we found out later it is some sort of rocking chair:) Max says it is quite comfy:)

Our restaurant;)

Beautiful candles right?:P

I tried to eat all the desserts featured here but only had tummy to try half of them:) wahahahaha.. and some we were lucky we got the last few pieces lor.. YUMS:)

Everyone is happy.. Annie is surprised when Ace almost dropped something.. anyway, Ace just wanted to open the party popper cos we found out there are little toys and a crown inside each popper.. and becuase Ace is such a lovable kid, alot of adults gave him their toys:) wahaha

And the happiest thing for Ace is that there was SUSHI!!!!!!

We even had a present to bring home:)

Anyway, on our way home, I saw this sign... initially I wondered if it is a lesbian wedding man.. wahahahahah.. anyway, I googled and found out that it is more of like a Hen night... for friends and family to give blessings to the bride:)

And since it was christmas eve, me and Max went out again with the blessings of godma who bb sat ace again.. as Ace really enjoyed staying there... we went out with Max's friends to this club called Club Seven in dubai.. it is similar to Rocky's but the singers here are more chio and got dancers too:)

Also, they serve fruits instead of veg...

Of course after a few round of drinks, we went dancing at the dance floor lor:) hehehe.. it was great fun and Max's buddies are great fun too... hehehe..

Highlight of that night is the table of 15 young, pretty thai babes sitting next to us.. wahahaha.. very soon all the single and available ones in our group all dancing with pretty babes in the dance floor liao.. wahahahaha:)

Previous Post: Got Fren From Far Come, Dam Happy AGAIN

Got Fren From Far Come, Dam Happy AGAIN

2012-01-01T02:43:00.012+08:00

I am blessed indeed..

Just a month or so after I arrive in Dubai, 2 close frens whom I have not seen for a while visited me... And now, just another few mths down the road, another good friend of mine comes and visit me together with her family...

Annie is a friend I got to know when i was working part time during my uni holidays:) She used to be my "boss" so to speak and we kept in touch all these while cos she is one of the warmest and most sincere person you can ever meet. She is generous (brought me a voucher to eat Lawry's for my birthday when I told her I never eat before) and sensitive and kind (sent me flowers when my first love broke up with me so that she can cheer me up)

Anyway, since I have had Ace, Annie has been talking about becoming godma to my children but as Ace already has a few godmas.. she said she will be godma to my next child.. But unfortunately, after so many years, there seemed no sign of another child and so leh, Plus ace asked me why Annie can only be Anya's godma and not his and so, we officially made her Ace's godma.. wahahahah:)

Before she came over, she offered to babysit Ace for a night or two so that Max and I can spend some time together... and just so he would be open to the idea of sleeping at someone else's place, I told him tat Annie godma is inviting him over to a sleepover party at her hotel... which got him really excited cos he has been bugging me about having a sleepover at our place for his fren for a long time:)

Anyway, we agreed to pick her and her family up and went to the airport to wait for her. Since the flight is arriving from Singapore, we saw quite a few singaporeans... singaporean radar alert! wahahaha.. our friends here tell me that malaysians and singaporeans are the ONLY people who will walk around in bermudas and slippers here!:)

And after waiting for close to 3 hours (the customs queue was long and not moving)... out comes Annie ganma:) FINALLY!:)

We had wanted to bring them to eat indian dinner but alas, as it was christmas eve eve... the restaurant was fully booked and so we brought them to another one of our fav restaurants nearby called Lan kwai Fong:) Annie said her mum is a duck fan and so we ordered the "best Peking Duck in the middle east"... and I finally got a chance to try... wahhhaha:)

While LKF has very good food, I think the Peking duck is just like roasted duck lor.. it is probably BEST in the UAE because it is the ONLY restaurant tat sells peking duck:) wahahahaha...

Annie, after dinner, we went home to pick up Ace's barang barang because he wanted to start his sleepover party TONIGHT!! And even after a sumptous dinner, he sees the welcome food in the hotel and he still wants to drink more milk!!!

Ace got his pick of the bedrooms to sleep in and he chose the one with the kingsize bed over the queensized one because he rationalized that he needs alot of room when he sleeps as he turns around in all directions and doesnt want to kick his godma as they will be sleeping together.. wahahahaha:) win liao lor!

And he played and played like never ending energizer bunny till 1 plus and still dun sleep.. 2am, very seh liao still insist want to read his book.. I din even know he packed and brought his book along!

I heard he finally zzz after tat... but felt so sorry toward his godma that she had to take care of him till so late when she had just taken a 7 hour flight... But she said it is her usual bedtime anyway and they didnt really need to take care of Ace as he was basically self entertaining himself:)
So while all that is happening, what were me and Max up to? We decided to spend some time together nd Max brought me to this outdoor club.. alas after we got our hands stamped for entry, we found out that the outdoor area is closed cos there was some other event.. bummer..

So we just had a beer while wondering where else to go...

The nicely decorated club.. anyway, after a drink, we decided to move to Rocky's bar near our place...

Max and AC (who was working here) have been telling me about this place and how funny their in house stand up comedian is...

I found out his name is Jaya and unfortunately, most of his gags are in tagalog, this being a Filipino cafe cum pub... But hor, just watching how the other people laughed at his jokes made me want to luff liao lor.. plus when he noticed people from overseas and made a few jokes in english, it was dam funny lor:) The only thing we understood is that when he said, "palapanpan.." then it is time to clap...

And they also had these accompanying dancers who wear very little and danced half heartedly on stage.. waiting for their turn to sing... next to us was a group of drooling men who were drooling over their hot pants revealing legs:) Unfortunately the girls not very chio and only a few of them can sing well...

We stayed on for a few sets but still no sign of Jaya doing any performance and max said the highlight is him singing in both female and male voice...

Anyway, top left photo featured this crazy man.. with long hair dressed in cutsey boots and tights and a polka dotted boxers with a white shirt... wahahahaha.. he was dancing very seductively with (maybe his gay partner) his friend and got stopped by the security guard.. apparently no contact is allowed for same sex dancing..

Right top corner is MEILING.. well, Max and AC call her tat cos she looks chinese.. she packs powerful vocals and really can sing lor!!

Bottom left are typical snacks served in phillipino bars. Very strange right? They serve carrots and cucumbers instead of peanuts here...

Anyway, during one of the breaks, Max went to the toilet and and saw Jaya and told him, "Look i brought my wife today to see you sing.. if you are not singing, we are going home...

Jaya promised to sing and true to his word... he did this for us:)

Anyway, max bought him a drink after tat and we went home after tat happy:)

The nicely decorated photos are taken by Annie.. Annie.. hope you dun mind tat i use them:)

Previous Post: Santa Rewards Ace For Being Brave And Going To The...

Santa Rewards Ace For Being Brave And Going To The Dentist

2011-12-31T02:54:00.006+08:00

As I have mentioned before, Ace's teeth has got some sort of bacterial that comes back all the time and thus, it requires regular cleaning at the dentist... just before we came to dubai.. we had his teeth cleaned but not long after he arrived, it started turning black again... mostly also because this little boy always tries to cheat and not brush his teeth at night...

So the other day, when I saw this really good deal on groupon, I asked Max to purchase it.. it was a 599dh package tat includes xray, cleaning and flouride and a check... all at the price of just 99dhs...

As the voucher is only valid for a few months, just before Ace's godma came to visit, we decided to bring him to the dentist...

The dentist looked like a very atas place and initially, i tot it was a children's dental clinic.. only to find that it was not one tat served children... Ace was rather frightened after the last experience in Singapore and no matter how I tried to prep talk him.. he still says he is frightened and chooses to be frightened...

When we arrived, the nurse brought Ace to do an xray on his teeth. Apparently, he says it was quite painful for him as there was like a clip to clip his jaws into place... but he turned out ok in the end....

As we were brought to a plainly furnished dental room, Ace asked if I could hold his hand and I told him it is time that he learnt to be brave and do this by himself.. but I would stay in the room...

And then, the dentist arrived.. it was a rather young Syrian doctor who had been living in USA for 9 years before relocating here about a year ago... he is quite upbeat and friendly and tried to intro himself to Ace. Since he has four kids himself (I found out as we chit chatted while he was doing his job), I think he is rather good with kids as well...

First, he asked Ace to lie down and my son, wanting to find watever excuse to run away from this ordeal said the light shining down was too bright... and guess wat? The nurse brought back a pair of sunshades for Ace! wahahahahha

And after putting on the shades, Ace did not want to lie down again. The dentist tried to make him feel comfy and said we cannot force him.. so he asked Ace, "Do you have any questions before we start? We will answer all your questions and make sure you are ok and agreeable before we proceed.. ok?"

And so, my son started to use this as an excellent excuse to delay time right? So he started asking what is this.. what is that.. it was like a mini lesson at the dentist lor...

"Ace, don't waste Mr Dentist's time..." I said but the dentist said it is ok.. let him ask.... and really patiently answered all his questions till Ace had no questions left..

Then the dentist said they were going to start and showed Ace what he was going to use.. But no matter how he asked Ace to touch the salt spray contraption (which was a better tool to clean Ace's teeth), Ace refused to touch it as it had a seemingly sharp, thin tip... like a sharp pencil ...

So in the end, boh pian lor.. gotto use the round round rubber thing with some sort of paste.. which is less effective...

Anyway, as he cleaned Ace's teeth, the dentist started chatting with me.. first asking me if I was from China.. and then I said I was from Singapore and he asked if that was a part of China... and when i explained tat we are an independent country... right next to malaysia and thailand (thinking he might have heard of these countries) and he asked if we were a part of Malaysia and if I have heard of Brunei.. wahahahahahaha... HILARIOUS!

My mum met an American some 30 years ago and got asked the same question... 30 years later, with the world becoming smaller with the internet, I am surprised that someone well educated and seemingly exposed to more of the world like Mr Dentist actually did not know where Singapore is!!

Anyway, as he was cleaning, he just chit chatted with me and with Ace... and praising Ace every now and then for being a brave boy.. intially, Ace trembled.. and kept asking the dentist to stop every now and then... but after a while, I noticed that when I wanted to ask the dentist to stop, instead of saying stop, Ace started to count from 0-10 using his fingers.... once he reached 10, he recounted again if the dentist was not done yet....

What a brilliant idea? And he came up with it all by himself! I asked him later how he came up with the idea and he merely said that he made a choice to be brave and so he decided to count...

Anyway, the dentist is very patient.. after he finished the cleaning, he told Ace that some people's teeth are just more prone to retaining colour.. there is nothing wrong with his teeth but to keep them white, he has to brush properly twice a day.. once in the morning and once at night..

And then he even taught Ace how to brush teeth using a teeth model:)

And then Ace got his flouride treatment and instructions to keep away from sweet things for the next two hours.. I told him rest of the day no sweet things for him.. wahahaha:)

Anyway, we realized that Wafi shopping mall is within our view.. so we decided to walk there and hang around and wait for Max to pick us up...

After an adventure walk (we had to brave through sprinklers tat made us wet and crazy drivers driving on the roads), we finally arrived in Wafi:) I brought Ace to their Christmas center piece.. which has the theme of Toy Soldiers this year.

He saw the brochure and asked me if he could get a ticket to go and visit santa clause because for 55 dirhams, you get a photo with santa on his lap.. and a toy soldier soft toy.. I think and some vouchers for you to eat and drink inside Wafi.. But i was thinking that since I am not going ot eat here, the voucher swill be quite useless so quite boh hua lor... But i was tempted to do it since he was such a good boy.... But I told him we wait and see first.. thinking if we going to eat dinner here, then maybe I will do it:)

But the centrepiece was not much to see.. so after a while, we started walking around the mall.. i saw these bling bling shoes and asked ace if he would wear them when he grows up since he likes all things shiny.. my son always tells me he likes bling bling and he likes bling things on me.. plus when he is in school and see shiny paper or streamers or sequinnes, he will bring them home!!!!

But he says they are too bling for boys.. tat is more for women.. wahahha:)

Anyway, I saw this interesting thing when walking around... what a great quote from Cinderella:)

And I guess Ace got bored also cos we like walked around that boring mall something like 5 times:) So he got me to take pics of him with this and that...

We came across this shop tat sells the prettiest christmas ornaments lor.. so lovely.. right?:P

After a while, we were really tired and so I went back to the christmas tree area to sit down and rest.. after a while, we saw someone pulling a sleigh along... and then, who should come onto the sleigh but SANTA CLAUS!

So Ace got to wave at Santa.. hehehe.. Apparently, it is either for Santas to change shift or to go for his pee break cos after a while, he came back again in a sleigh and went into the room for the meet and greet...

One more pic to show off his now very white teeth:)

Anyway, Max came to pick us and we decided to head somewhere else for dinner since it was so boring here... we decided on food court in Lamcy Plaza in the end so that Ace can eat his mac donalds and drink MILK (for his teeth). We found that at the foodcourt, there is also a Santa's house and all you needed to do is sign up...

There was even like a workshop where Ace got to make his own christmas photo frame.. I just however, did not like the way they run it.. they insisted the children make the frame exactly like the sample they had.. I whispered to Ace that he can do and paste it however he likes:) hehehe... cos i think it is more impt to be creative!

Tadah, his very special photoframe all done:)

And he even got a little soft toy from the Santa meet and greet!

Ace was sooooooooooooooooo happy to get it because he told me, "Santa gave me a present, mummy... because I am a good boy..." So I guess it is more of the defination of being a good boy that he was seeking...

Anyway, he has named his monkey Little Chubby and has been happily playing with LC ever since:)

I guess the heavens also still decided to reward Ace for his bravery despite giving Ace a super ngiaow mummy!;)

Previous Post: Mamza Beach

Mamza Beach

2011-12-30T01:29:00.010+08:00

I remembered that the last time when we came to dubai for a holiday, there was this beach tat we visited which was very beautiful.. and so, we decided to revisit the place this time...

That, by the way, is me showing off my new shades tat i bought for 100 dh at Dragon Mart...

Maybe it was too early.. or maybe now, the weather is much colder, the beach was actually quite empty...

Anyway, there was nothing much to see and as we were here on a whim, we did not actually bring the barang to picnic here or wat.. so leh, after walking around for a while and watching idiots jump into the sea to have a swimming contest in the cold, cold ocean.. strange men throwing WHOLE pieces of the arabic bread (size of a single pax pan size pizza in Pizza Hut) to try to feed the seagulls (Hello???? The seagulls have very small beak leh.. at least break it up into pieces lah...) and fishermen fishing, we decided to go somewhere else instead...

Ended up having dinner at Lan Kwai Fong and going to Lamcy plaza to do some shopping at our favourite indian supermart tat sells lots of vegeterian stuff since our frens are coming to visit us in dubai as we are expecting them come over for a meal:)

On our way to Lamcy, we saw this car tat looks like Bumblebee from Transformers and so Ace quickly went to take a photo with it...

Anyway, our friends who have been living in dubai have feedbacked that many of them have never been to the beach,.. perhaps we will do a picnic at the beach.. but then again.. now is super duper cold lor:) wahahahaha... Even when I go downstairs to pick Ace in the afternoon at 2pm, i need to wear jacket cos cold wind is blowing all the time...

On a completely unrelated note, Ace asked me the other day, as I was cooking, if I could make him macaroni cheese.... I already started to fry all the veggie and ingredients liao then he say lor.. so i told him it is too late liao... cos I started frying.. heck, even the marcaroni is already inside frying liao lor..

He asked if I can add cheese inside and I said it is too late and it doesnt work this way.."Mummy, try lah.. you never try you tell me it cannot work? You know science or not.. you have to experiment!"

Hai.. so in the end, I added tomato sauce to watever I was frying and added a piece of cheese... the result turn out to be very nice and Ace says that is the macaroni cheese he is talking about.. wahahahahah:)

Yes, Ace.. lesson learnt...

Previous post: Food!

Food!

2011-12-29T19:52:00.006+08:00

As always, there has to be a post about food right:) We are singaporeans living in Dubai:)

Anyway, during the Winter Solace, we made some aballing with peanut soup...

Before you get very impressed.. let me inform you that this aballing are pre made ones we bought from the chinese supermarts with peanut inside them.. the peanut soup were bought from the same supermart... the only thing I did to make this is boil water and boil the aballing and boil the peanut soup to heat it after I added water to make it less sweet:)

Anyway, my sis sent me a pic of a red tang yuan.. it is the type my grandma will make for us during dong zhi.... some pink and some white in brown sugar syrup... made me feel warm and tingly all over.. I so miss my family at that moment when I saw this photo....

Too bad grandma is already old and has alheizmer.. I guess she might not remember this but i am sure my cousins all do:)

On a side note, my grandma had a bad fall and used her arm to break her fall... she escaped with just a hairline crack on her arm and it doesnt seem to pain her much but her whole arm is blue black lor... when my sis sent me a photo, I felt so heart pain for her.. But me and Ace sent her lots of love.. hope tat when we get back during CNY, her hand will get much better...

Anyway, Max was given this at work.. it is some sort of indian sweet.. he brought home for me to try.. they are horribly sweet! I dunno how anyone can eat this! After really just trying a little bite of everything, I threw it away... thank you to whoever gave max this.. I am sorry I wasted your food but your kind intentions are very much appreciated even though I still dunno how to appreciate indian sweets:)

Nowadays, on wkends, the NAKED chef gets bz in the kitchen.. this is a typical weekend breakfast the the naked chef makes for us:)

Ace loves it:) Cos it is like his Mc D breakfast:)

This is naked chef and his creations:)

And of cos I must reciprocrate right? Ladies and gentlemen... presenting.... CHua Family Cai Tow Kway! One of Ace's fav dinner options now:) wahahahah

This one is Chai Tow Kway BLACK:) waahhaahahah

I din make the kway though.. max brought it home from his sgp trip.. this cny will wanna buy more:)

Anyway, while we are on the subject of food.. i saw these durians for sale at the supermart but Max says no smell one.. sure no nice.. so cannot buy one.. cant wait to go back sgp man:) Durian party anyone?:P

Anyway, my later experiment is peanut shake.. I tried grounded peanut with ice and milk... it taste good but is still not the same as the one we tried at the bubble tea house in IC.. it is not thick.. I am going to try using real peanut butter with vanilla ice cream the next time.. wahhha.. when I successful then tell you okie?:P Anyway, this version is still a fav breakfast option with Ace:)

Previous Post: Hard Rock Cafe Dubai

Hard Rock Cafe Dubai

2011-12-28T17:10:00.009+08:00

Hard Rock Cafe closed down in Dubai some years ago because I heard that there were intoxicated people who got into a fight... after a few years of rest, it is finally reopened again! We found out by chance when we drove into Dubai Festival City mall:) anyway, we thought maybe it would be a good idea to go there for dinner.. hehe...

When we parked our car and came out of the car park, we saw the Ferrari shop and Ace immediately asked if he could pose with his ferrari.. wahahahah...

"I love it!" says Ace.. praying everyday that he can buy one one day.....

As it was early, we decided to walk around a little bit before we went to HRC for dinner.. we walked past this "river" in the shopping mall and found these interesting boats... apparently if you pay, you can control the boat and float around for 15 minutes or so...

Then it was time for DINNER! When we arrived, we found out tat it is the first opening weekend at HRC.. wah.. we so honoured... :) and after we arrived, the crowd started to have to queue lor.. so we were lucky:) Here is Max acting cool with the book of Icons tat describe HRC...

But of cos, he is excited when he gets the DRINKS MENU:)

As for Ace, he is just totally engrossed with his kids menu which also doubled up as a fun quiz booklet...

Initially, the crowd was mostly ang moh.. but as it got later, more and more arabic people came as well:) The waitress told us that the band will play later and so we decided to hang around after dinner to catch the band;)

So while waiting for our food, Max and Ace continued to figure out puzzles together...

They even provided crayons with the HARD ROCK cafe sign on them:)

Finally, Ace's macaronni in tomato sauce with cheese arrived. it is the only item avail in the kids menu tat is vegeterian...

Ace din seem to like it that much...

But thank god he was happy with the chocolate shake:) hahaha

Our food... NACHOS with CHEESE!
And the vegeterian burger! It is very very very nice lor.. I still missing it now.. it is tasty and flavourful and smells so good lor!

Then we realized tat every half an hour or so, the waitresses and waiters will go on stage and do a funky dance;) hehehe. cute..

Anyway, Ace is also very impressed with our burger as we eat it while watching them dance:)

See, so many layers.. one layer of bread.. on top is a veggie patty made with (my guess) beans, mushrooms, carrot, onion and chopped walnut.. on top of tat is a portebella mushroom that is grilled... right on top of tat? grilled tomatoes and lettuce with mayo! then to top it off.. extra big burger bread.. YUMS!

Anyway, after we finished eating and while waiting for the band to start I loooked through the icons book and took pics of the more memorable items inside...

This one is about how HRC became wat it is today.. it started with two guitarist.. famous ones donating their guitars to this cafe tat they frequented.. one of them is Eric Clapton:)

Some outfit Madonna wore during her world tour...

This one I just took cos the furry guitars look nice:)

After the waiters danced one more round, the band finally came on!

Here is the band coming to shake hands with Max and Ace:)

max says it is common to have many birthday dedications here.. so this is one of the many we heard in the night.. wahahah

A few more photos before we go home:)

Good bye Ferrari, goodbye HRC:) We will be back SOON!

Anyway, I tot this would be the closest I can get to enjoying pubbing but clubbing.. But I was wrong.. when my fren came visiting, she babysat for me and I went clubbing for 4 days in a week :) Very fun... more about it.. LATER:) hehehe...

Previous Post: Brave Ace

Brave Ace

2011-12-27T02:58:00.004+08:00

Actually hor, me and Max sort of miss the days when Ace was still a scaredy cat... afraid of heights afraid of this and that.. as we feel that natural instinct and fear will keep him safe...

But after a few months of exposure in the international school with very active and vivacious playmates .. and some exposure in the local playgrounds that feature children who are all about having fun minus the manners and waiting for turns, Ace has some realization too that being a scaredy cat will not help you have the most fun...

So, he made a decision to be brave (or so he said to me) and since then, we have been seeing him climbing all over the places and doing many dare devil stunts he would NEVER ever want to try in Singapore.

The other day, brought him to the mall and he saw this stone structure (which is actually made of plastic lah) and Ace exclaimed that his school has this rock climbing like thingy too.. and he loves to climb it and then without a nary thought, he just climbed right to the very top and when I wanted to stand below to support him or catch him in case he falls, he asked me to go away and told me, "You don't have to stand here, Mummy.. I can do this by myself..."

Max felt his legs turn jelly as Ace ascended right to the very top and stood there, on his very own Mount Everest, looking very smug that he has conquered a new height:)

I talked to him about this on a seperate occasion and told him that I am very happy that he has shown much more courage and bravery and that he is having more fun now that he is more adventurous... But I told him that I was like any parent, worried for him...

"But Mummy want Ace to be brave.. so mummy reminds myself that I have to trust you... So Mummy trust you that you will know the fine line between having fun and being dangerous and that you always know what you are doing and that you will always take good care of yourself... can you promise me to always take good care of yourself?"

"Oh Mum, I always know what I am doing.." he said...

Anyway, being away from the very Chinese society here has allowed me to make some interesting observations about parenting in other parts of the world.

I have always thought that being careful and overtly protective is a very Asian thing... But I noticed here in Dubai that it is really more of a very CHINESE thing... cos the Indian parents are actually very easy going parents... As I observed, many a times, very young indian children as young as 2 or 3 are allowed to roam freely... jump up and down staircases and their parents would usually be oblivious to the dangers presented in front of them while typical chinese singaporeans like me and my friends will either make comments or think in our hearts, "Oh no! Is tat little boy/girl going to fall off? Why the parents let them loose like tat??"

Arabic parents seem to be pretty much the same way... when they bring their children to the playground, they usually just leave them there and just sit by the side and they dun seem to interfere with how their children play....

Ang moh parents also let their kids do pretty much what they like. They keep and eye on them but dun really restrict them unless they are in some real danger or wat... Young kids can crawl all over the place (in singapore we will say the floor is too dirty to do that).

Come to think of it, Chinese parents actually also allow their children to roam freely.. (And without pants somemore lor)..

so conclusion, our very super protective style of parenting is merely SINGAPOREAN style.. Kiasu, Kiasee...wahahahahaha... People always say Singaporeans cannot think cos we always follow what our govt ask us to do.. but what to do? Since young we have been conditioned by our parents wor:) hahahahaha...

Anyway, just very happy that Ace is much more brave n willing to do alot more now:P

Previous Post: Emma's Christmas Card

Emma's Christmas Card

2011-12-26T23:06:00.009+08:00

Well, since Ace was a xmas baubel in his school concert, we decided to use his costume as a decoration for our door :)

Ace also recieved many xmas cards from his loved ones and his classmates.... and so we used them to decorate our wall:)

Then one day, Ace came home from school and showed me a very special card:)

Hehehe.. it was a christmas card from the girl he said he liked in his class called Emma;) wahahaha.. so I teased him and asked him... "Emma sent you a card????? Wah...."

And then Ace became very paiseh and shy and tried to hide his head and giggle behind his hands.. wahahahhaha

He looks so sweet when he is embarrassed right?:P wahahaha

And most importantly, he is very happy lah:)

Anyway, while we are on the topic of christmas;) I got my christmas pressie from Max-- tadah.. KINECT.. that comes with kinect adventures and Joy ride.. we also bought other games like Dance Central and Kinect Sports...

My son is super excited lor.. it is the first thing he wants to do when he comes home.. and for about 2 weeks, he has been coming home, doing his homework quickly, eating quickly and just doing everything happily and quickly just so that he can play with kinect.. wahahahah:)

But after two weeks of it, he not so excited to play liao.. but still tries to complete his tasks, albiet a little slower and with less enthusiasm so that he can get to watch The Simpsons and logon to the dairy of a whimpy kid website to play games...

In addition to the Kinect, Ace also got a remote control car from Max as a christmas present. This remote control car is quite cool lor..it can go really fast and can even drift:) hehe

Previous Post: Max Gets His Head Chopped Off!!!

Max Gets His Head Chopped Off!!!

2011-12-25T20:22:00.015+08:00

I read online that there will be magicians performing in Mirdiff City Center in line with their xmas promotions... so one weekend, while we were free, we made a trip down to watch the magicians perform.. the two magicians are arabic magicians, Gino an Costa.. I think Gino is sort of like the Chris Angel in the arabic world as he has his own magic show on street magic here in this part of the world..

Anyway, for the first half hour, Costa the magician was up first... He was more of a hit with the kids as his brand of magic is more humour.. and his magic tricks were sort of easy to guess how to do (after we hav watched many episodes of breaking the magician's code).. hahahaha..

The magician was looking for people to help him with his tricks.. first time he picked Max, Max act blur and purposely ignore him... but second time he called Max again.. max gamely went up the stage.. Max has this sort of look.. always go where also kenna call up the stage to do things one.. I guess he has the "I am fun and game for anything" sort of look.. hahaha

Costa asked Max where is he from and Max said "Singapore.." and the world very small lor.. our frens who were also in the mall heard this word and got interested to look at the stage.. see the botak head look very familiar from far and came closer to take a look.. wahahhaa...

First he got Max to help him with some sort of card trick... (Here is a video of how it worked)

Then came the HEAD CHOPPING ONE:)

Gino told Max he is going to chop off his head:)

I asked Max what he was thinking when he was there and he said he was also slightly afraid that the trick might fail and he might be hurt.. but then I know if the trick is not safe, they wun ask LIVE audience to do one lah... Ace, however was dam kan cheong, thinking his dad is going to lose his head.. from sitting down, he stood up and looked anxiously at the stage...

This is how the trick went..

When the trick ended, Max heaved a sigh of relieve and Costa said he will make something for Max's son to thank him:)

Despite Ace wanting a dinosaur.. Costa only knew how to make dog.. wahahaha:)

So our frens came up to us and said Hello after tat:)

Then after hanging around abit, we realized that Gino was coming up next.. he is more like Liu Qian.. his magic is very grand music type one... first trick is the unimpressive "let the table fly" trick....

Then it built up to a slightly more interesting one where they would cover his assistant in a curtain and everytime they lifted their curtain down after 3o seconds, she would be in a different outfit!

The highlight had to be this.... He got a random member of the audience, hypnothized her and made her float in the air! I cannot figure out how this is done man.. but anyway, this is my favourtie trick.... and here is a video of how the trick went...

This is part two... and the girl just wakes up and din know wat happened!

The next trick is the magician getting an audience who wears a coat.. he gets him to tie up his beautiful assistance in all sorts of crissed crossed tricky knots.. double knot somemore...

Then after tying many knots and you are sure she cannot escape right.. they raise the curtain for a minute or so with the man with coat standing in front of her and tadah, now they are still in the same position but the girl has the coat underneath her knots!!!

Aint it amazing?

Anyway, after the care of losing his dad.... Ace claimed tat his fav trick is the one tat Max almost got his head chopped off... wahahahahaha....

Anyway, we walked around a little bit and decided to go supermarket shopping and head home..

And while walking in the shops, Max bought me a new pair of Klipsh earphones.. HEE :) Excellent noise cancelling... now we will each have a pair of earphones when we take plane together when travelling:)

Previous Post: Soccer With Daddy

Soccer With Daddy

2011-12-24T01:24:00.012+08:00

Because Ace stated in his SOS book that his term go is to get better at playing soccer, while I was out on a girls day out with Fayth, Max and Ace went out to have some soccer fun too:) But alas, right after they bought a ball from the shop (no kidding, they HAVE to buy Liverpool one which is more expensive..) Ace fell asleep in the car and by the time they reached the park, I was already done! So Max came to pick me up and we went to another nearby park to play...

First Max tried to give Ace specific instructions on how to dribble the ball...

While I just camwhore away:P

But Ace seem to have problem following the instructions as his body cannot seem to move accordingly.. or maybe he doesnt really understand the instructions fully..

In the end, Max gave up, just let him play however he wants and Ace seem to be playing much better after tat! wahahahahaaha

Afterward, we went to GREEN CITY.. an indian restaurant to eat our dinner.. (I tried going in the afternoon with my girl friends but it was closed.. so I still got to eat there in the end.) Their egg prata is very special and very yummy too....

At the end of the meal, we were served this. These are spices with sugar tat indians take to freshen their mouths after a meal. Max told Ace it is nice and asked him to try... which Ace gamely did..

Eww... what taste is that??

Can LONG BIAK lor... wahahahahahahah

Once Ace realized he was tricked by daddy, he swore never to eat this again.. wahhahahahaa

Previous Post: Ace's Random Doodlings

Ace's Random Doodlings

2011-12-23T23:30:00.021+08:00

Ace is currently in a "creative" phase.. writing, drawing and doodling all the time, everywhere he goes...

Here are some samples of his random doodlings...

This series is about UAE's national day...

Whahahahaa... I asked him what about Singapore and he said he loves Singapore too... But this one is for UAE's national day...

The next series is his letter for Santa...

He subsequently wrote more letters to Santa and each and every one of them is asking for ipod, iphone and ipad. Even when he makes cards for others for xmas and for birthdays, he also wishes they will get ipads.. wahahahahaha...:P

I tell him to pray hard and wait till he big liao and he can earn money and buy his own ipad:)

This is his birthday card for his godpa:

Dunno how he knows that these money bags will make godpa very happy.. wahahahaa... he designed by himself lor...

And he wrote this by himself...

Best part is hor, he actually designed this part too... what anything wrong, still can email him at his new email addresss lor..... WAHAHAHAHA!

This one he made for his Ah Yee on her birthday.. it is quite a different style and maybe he is in a different mood..but whoever says tat in a birthday card! This is a result of me showing him a pic of his Ah Yee with a new hairstyle... Wahahaha.. (Note, the first page thing tat looks like a face is supposed to be a birthday cake... and part of the reason this card looks diff is also cos this one I let him do himself without any monitoring from me....)

This one tells of his ambition to be a spy... It is a main theme of many of his doodlings..

The other day, while waiting for his dad to finish playing soccer, he came up with this list..
List of things he wants to achieve....

He is spying on the bus uncle cos the bus uncle always forbids him to sleep on the bus.. wahahah... I think he really has this thing against the uncle for not letting him sleep in the bus even though I try to explain it is probably a safety measure and that the uncle is trying to keep him safe... He is everyday thinking about ways to outsmart the uncle.. yesterday he told me that he found out that if you lie back far enough, uncle cannot see your face and dunno if you are sleeping.. today, he told me smugly that he can sleep in school bus already.. cos if you turn your face to the window, uncle will think you looking at window and cannot tell you are asleep... WHAHAHA...

As for the second one on the list.. he means tat he wants to have a team of spy girls.. gteam means GIRL TEAM and he wants them ALL to love him... what a Casanova!

His third one I think is self explanatory:)

I have nothing against becoming a SPY boss.. but where in the world did he get the idea to "find a sexy wife" I really have no idea!!!! WAHAHAHAHA...

And then why only work 6 hours instead of 8? Cos he says he wants to have more time to relax and enjoy himself... i think his number one core value is enjoyment lor:) wahahahaha

This is listed under the jobs section.. so these are the jobs he want to do.. wahahaha.. He actually told me afterward tat after he becomes prime minister and retires, he wants to drive taxi for fun! wahahahahahahaha

This is another one of his wish lists:

Hilarious! He never fails to crack me up:)

PS:　Ｓpeaking of which.. after Ace drew all his list, his dad finished his soccer game and we went to Mall of Emirates for Dinner. Here are some random photos I have of that day and I guess I just insert them here for convenience:)
In Dubai, this is quite common.. somehow these pple think their cars are big so they will need to park in two lots.. it is particularly irritating however to see them in crowded malls where parking is scarce...

Ace says he wants to learn to play the guitar as he loves to make music.. found something slightly larger than a ukelele... too bad no guitar lessons in his school:)

And tat is him posing with the toy soldier:) By the way, Ace has grown much taller in the last few months.. from just being at my chest level, he has reached my arm pit level liao!

My son cannot help it one.. he see nice cars he has to take photos with them.. wahaaha... I pray also he will earn alot of money in future and can buy all the cars he likes.. wahahaha..

Previous Post: I Look Like Sand!

I Look Like Sand!

2011-12-22T21:32:00.004+08:00

My little Fashionista has strong sense of fashion and what he likes to wear lor.. since birth, he would SMILE at the clothes that he likes to wear and now tat he is older and more vocal... he simply decides what he wants to wear and it is not easy to get him to change his mind about what he wants to wear...

The other day, I asked him if he would like to wear this long sleeve shirt that his dad bought for him. He only wore it once and it is really nice and getting too small for him if he does not wear it soon...

As it was cold, I also asked him to wear his long pants and since the others were in the washer, he only has this pair of sand coloured ones left. And as the shirt was also sand coloured... he declined.. explaining, "I don't like the top and bottom to be same colour.. I like top and bottom different colour.."

But I cajoled him to just try it on and so just to entertain me, he did...

But the moment he put on the shirt, he exclaimed to me disgustedly, "See, now I look like sand!"

As I did not expect this outburst, I laughed till there were tears in my eyes..

And then I asked him to pose for a photo for me so that I can blog about it and he gamely posed.. with a disgusted expression too.. I din ask him to do tat.. he did it himself.. wahahaha..

Anyway, a few weeks later, I was just telling Max about this incident and he said, "Yeah, I also dun like the top and bottom to be the same colour.." Ah.. so that is where Ace inherited this quirk from... wahahahaha:)

Previous Post: Ace Gets His Own Email

Ace Gets His Own Email

2011-12-21T20:39:00.004+08:00

Some time back, out of the blue, my son asked if we could help him start an email account and a facebook account so that he gets email and facebook at the same time....

Max promptly agreed and when he was free, he started out creating an account.. I couldnt believe it but the login name "acechua" was already taken and so we had to do some sort of variation of it... Being really showy, the boys brainstormed and came up with a flashy nick of some sorts like "acechua rocks" wah piangz....

Anyway, and so, upon getting his email, Ace sent me an emai (above.. screen captured from my iphone) l..

When our frens visited us... he put his email on little pieces of paper and gave out his namecard:) wahahahaha... And my very nice friends actually bothered to email him the very next day and Ace was so excited to receive emails from his friends...

Anyway, the first time he replied, I will read to him and help him type out his emails as he dictated... so he went ahead and dictated really long emails tat included stories and songs...

Then his dad sent him an email asking him why he did not type by himself and so the next time, he wanted to type by himself and I left him to it.. end up he only gave short replies to the email like"Ha ha.." or "Good"... wahahahahahah..

I told Max it is better tat I reply for Ace so we can monitor his emails and what he says.... so we are back to me typing for him again... BUT tat translates to extra work for me.. so I told ace he can only check his email on weekends and not on weekdays... so he checks his email like once a week....

Thankfully, Max hasnt started a Facebook for him yet because of not, that means even MORE work for me... hahahahaha....

Anyway, if you want to email Ace.. pls pm me on my email or my FB and I will send you his email address..:) Note though that he only reads email ONCE A WEEK so please dun expect instant replies.. even though you can most certainly expect his replies to either be hilarious or nonsensical.. wahahahahaha...

Previous post: Hot Air Balloon Show

Hot Air Balloon Show

2011-12-20T10:58:00.000+08:00

Ok, this is seriously belated but well, I have been bz:)

Anyway, during the National Day celebrations in UAE, there was some night time balloon show and we and our friends decided to go watch it. I am glad our frens suggested this because on our own, me and max wouldnt even know this event existed.. and this is something we have never seen in Singapore:)

Anyway, the event was held in Meydan (top left photo).. which is a building built for horse racing... and since it is illegal to gamble right, this horse racing place was built solely for them to use for events like these or for the one charity horse racing competition that is held once a year... And the building is BIG lor! Got land, really different lor:)

Anyway, as it is UAE National day, we saw a nicely decorated car in the car park...

When we arrived, we just saw alot of people and we didnt know if the event started or not since all the balloons were laid flat on the floor... ask the security guards they also dunno.. wah biangz...

Luckily we found our friends who had reserved seats in advance and even bought dinner for us to share! As the event was stated as 5-7pm.. we wondered wat time it will really start since it was already 6 plus..

You see, UAE is not very good at keeping time for events. An event like the fireworks might be slated to start at 8.30 every night... but leh, in some nights it would start at 8.15, in some nights it will start at 8.45..but it never starts at 8.30 as stated.. wahahaha:)

Anyway, the event only finally started at 7 plus!!!:P Which I tot was a pity if the balloons were going into the sky since sunset in dubai makes the sky really beautiful:) and tat happens around 6pm or so...
And finally at 7 plus, we saw the hot air balloons starting to rise.... they were blowing air into the balloons using fans....

So we just carried on with our dinner.. proudly sponsored by Uncle Gan... who actually did not buy our share but merely eat less to share with us cos the queue is too dam long in the food court to re-queue for more food...

As more of the balloons started getting inflated, there were alot of pple walking around in nice costumes.. and i am still wondering wat is going to happen next. Our fren, C, who does marketing and event management would joke and tell us..."If I were organizing this.. this wouldnt happen.." when we complained about things like dunno when it will start, dunno wat this event is and dunno wat the MC is talking about cos the sound system was so bad...But well, complaining is typical Singaporean behaviour and habit:P wahahahaha...

Tadah! Almost done... and they start to use torches to blow hot air inside and the balloons started to like stand up...

We noticed the balloons were all tied to cars... apparently the cars were used as weights to hold the balloon down...

We still did not know what to expect.. are the balloons going to fly? We saw some pple going into the baskets of the balloon but there was no announcement...

But it was a sight to behold though... even though Ace was too hungry to appreciate it:) wahahaha

My favourite is this balloon.. which is a birthday cake to celebrate UAE's 40th birthday...

Some 40 years ago, when oil was discovered in Abu Dhabi, the Shiek of Dubai go and jio Shiek of Abu Dhabi to form a constitution and then he went on to jio other shieks from other parts nearby to form their own "kingdom" so to speak. There were 6 rulers who joined and later and extra one joined and this created the 7 countries tat made up United Arab Emirates... This year, the tagline is called Spirit of the Union and the poster features all the current 7 rulers of Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Al Ain, Ajman, Fujairah, Ras al-Khaimah and Umm al-Quwain.

See my hungry son.. more interested in drinks and food than in taking pics:)

Once the balloons were up and there was lighting, we all took pics here and there:)

And then we waited for the balloon to rise.. but after these pple climbed in.. still nothing happen lor.. they just stood in the basket tat did not fly:P wahahahahaha

That is them giving the balloons a boost of heated helium:) beautiful hor?:P

And they turned off the lights and continued BOOSTING the balloons:)

Happy birthday, UAE:)

Somehow, cos Ace's first term subject is UAE, he has somehow gotten to know UAE quite well (I am ashamed to say, even better than Singapore) and he is always singing songs about UAE and always writing notes about how he loves UAE and how he loves Singapore:) wahahahaha.... National Education should buck up lor! get them when they are young, dun wait till primary 5!!:P wahahahahahaha:) Especially those PRs... so they dun leave sgp and still always think country of origin is their home... and REMEMBER to take good care of singapore and the greenery we have:) hehehe...

Anyway, that is the Shiek of Dubai and his son.. according to my friends, when Dubai needs money, their good fren Abu Dhabi will come and save the day.. so you will see Shiek Khalifa's (head of Abu Dhabi) face everywhere.... But once they dun need money, you will see the Dubai Shiek's pics everywhere again.. hehehe:) I also just found out tat the street in front of the mall where I stay is named after Shiek Khalifa too:)

In the end, only the Shiek's balloon was allow to lift off maybe like one storey off the ground... the rest were just deflated...

Still, it was not an anti climax:) Cos we started noticing alot of pple having these lanterns like the Kong Ming lanterns people use to make wishes in Taiwan.. the packaging on them said "Wish Making Lanterns" in chinese and I wondered if the other people who were not chinese here understood wat the lanterns are for..

As we could not find where they are selling the lanterns, we decided to make our wishes using other pple's lanterns.. wahahahaha:)

And then more and more people bought the lanterns and the crowd went downstairs to light lanterns lor.. actually I pity the people who clean up afterward.. the lanterns fly to the air and once they run out of fuel will drop down again so they will drop all over the race course lor.. which is a huge area to clean up!:)

There was an Arabic man who bought like 20 lanterns and gave them away freely and Ace got a free one from him:)

By then, Max also bought like 10 lanterns for all of us to share:)

This is Ace's wish on his lantern.. he wished for lots of money so that he can buy a ferrari and also a nice house to live in:) wahahahahahahahahahaha... I certainly hope his wish comes true cos he says he also going to buy a house for me and a car for daddy:)

When time came for me to make my wish though, I suddenly realized I actually dun have much to wish for cos I am contented with what I have now.. so I just wished for what I always pray for everyday... World Peace and that my family will be happy and filled with good fortune... I also prayed for good health for my family and for my good friends and sisters:) And also a dragon bb for my sis:) Since can pray, also pray for heavens to let me HUAT AH!!!:)

Lighting up the fuel first...

Bye bye lantern.. may you bring my wishes to the heavens above and ask help from Angels to make it come true:)

Sending blessings to the lantern and all the people I love:)

Max helping other people with their lanterns... we met a fellow singaporean there and were lucky to do so... hahaha.. they din have lighter.. we got lighter but din have pen to write on the lantern:) Hahahahahaa...

and only after he finished, he finally started helping himself with his own lantern...

Max wished for Love, Abundance, Health and Wealth to everyone around us:)

Huat ah!!!!!

One more left and we just light it with blessings instead of messages and wishes:)

Here's to a better 2012.. and like my friend Lency said... "Here's to the BEST YEAR EVER!!!!"

Previous post: Ace's Christmas Performance

Ace's Christmas Performance

2011-12-19T16:37:00.022+08:00

Ace had a school performance and it is titled A Cracking Christmas since it is very near christmas...

When we arrived at the school, it was decorated nicely with lots of xmas decorations.. even for the coconut trees.. wahahahaha:)

Max waiting for the show to start...

Me waiting for the show to start.. After a while, I realized there is actually an informal queue and so we went to join the queue and ended up queuing under the hot sun for 15 min.. chuanz man... but all for a good seat to take photos...

Before the show started...

This pretty lady here is Ace's teacher, Ms O'Donnel:)

Ace was very excited when he saw me in the crowd and waved to me excitedly:) he is dressed as a christmas baubel...

The boy with golden hair is James.. one of his best frens in class.. so the story starts with a little boy asking the christmas angel what is christmas and the christmas angel tries to explain to him...

First she explains about Santa Claus and this group of kids comes and sing some santa song.. I also dun remember wat song liao.. wahahaha

Then comes a younger class.. I think they are year ones cos they all katek and cute... and they were Santa's reindeers and they sang Rudolf the Rednose Reindeer...

I noticed Ace doing tat and wondered if the music was too loud.. I asked him later what he was doing and he said, "My ears itchy lah.." wahahahahahahah

Then time for Ace and his classmates to come up as they are the christmas baubles on the christmas tree!:)

Their costumes are made up of single colour tops together with a christmas bauble tt they made themselves.. i think Ace's bauble is one of the nicest! It is now hanging proudly at our door as an xmas decoration:)

The little boy on Ace's left is his current best fren, Dominic.. the one on the right is Mehher..

Ace is singing ROcking Around the Christmas Tree..

That's Ace doing his Robot Dance at the instrumental part with no singing. I think he really did it very well and he was one of those tat danced the best!:)

For Ace, it was very funny cos the lyrics go something like "Mistletoe hanging on the trees, every couple wants to stop..." and he always sings "Ms O'Donnel hanging on the treees" wahahaha...

Then it was time for the snowflakes boys and girls to sing Frosty The Snowman:)

Then we were brought to Bethlehem where Jesus was born... but alas, the boy playing the role of Joseph, Jesus's father fell off the stage and was injured and so everyone was stunned and lost for a while..

That's Ace wishing everyone a merry christmas and a happy new year:)

His expression so cute right?:P wahahah

Ace having fun with Dominic after their performance:P

Time to go back to class:)

Anyway, here is the youtube video :

Rocking Around The Christmas Tree

Ace is standing on the left side of stage wearing a green top and red sparkles:)He is tall and so sticks out like sore thumb.. u cant miss him... too bad iphone video cannot ZOOM... so tat is why so small.. I think their class sings the best:)
We Wish You A Merry Xmas

Previous Post: Kara Yong Yuan OK!

Kara Yong Yuan OK!

2011-12-18T05:37:00.011+08:00

I have always enjoyed singing;)

Because of my love for singing.. I like to go karaoke and belt out a song or two with my friends:) Before I came over to dubai, I was thinking what I can do in Dubai to fill up my time and decided tat if I ever do have to relocate to dubai, I would buy myself a kinect.. and a karaoke system so tat I can sing at home;) wahahahah...

Anyway, I found out later tat there are a few karaokes in Dubai... not very nice, or grand or with lots of songs like in sgp.. but they will do.. since I sing old songs anyway :) wahahaha..

The other day when Lily suggested that we go karaoke, I was happy to oblige.. happiest is tat I can bring my son along as I know Ace loves to sing too:) As for Max, he was just happy to go cos there is BEER:) ahahaha

That's Max posing and pretending to be cool.. Okie, he is not pretending.. he is REALLY COOL:) wahahahaha

That's Ace all excited and playing with the mic...

The very unfortunate thing is this... the karaoke that we went to is a cheena ching chong type of karaoke.. they have mostly chinese songs and very very small selection of english songs like the oldies... The biggest problem is that all the songs that my son likes and knows how to sing like Time of the Night, All You Need Is Love, Can't Smile Without You, Mr Sandman... all cannot be found in their song list!

So the next best thing I did.. I chose a song tat would allow Ace to dance as I sang.. wahaha:) at least he gets to be involved...

Besides, he has a reason to be happy.. drinks were included in our package and so Ace was very happily drinking away the coke.. till we told him that he only has TWO cups allowance...

That's him slyly taking another sip while he tot no one was watching...

This is the song of god, Gan... he any song also can sing one.. chinese, cantonese, english.. you name it, he can sing it! Good ah!

Note: Ace is secretly sipping his coke again....

This one female singing god, Charlotte:) Hahahahaha... the one in white... is accompanying dancer.. wahahahahahahahaha

After a while, Ace got very bored... and also upset cos no matter how we tried, we couldn't find any song that he can sing or knows how to sing...

To entertain him, his new best fren, Lee Sir gor gor played games with him lor.. they teach him how to play Five Ten.. wahhahahahahahaah.. and Ace was happy to LOSe cos he wants to drink his coke!!!!!

Then I chose another dance hit "Bu Ru Tiao Wu" by Chen Huiling and my male dancers Lee Sir Gor gor and Ace Chua Di Di started dancing in front liao.. wahahaha

So action right?:P

Then Max surprised himself by singing a duet with me:) wahahaha.. it is a new song that I am still learning to sing called Mei Na Me Jian Dan by Huang Xiaohu...

Apparently, Max can sing this song cos our good fren, AC passed him the mp3 of this song and he loaded it in his car player and he has heard it a few hundred times liao.. wahahaha:) I told the others they should buy 4D cos Max dun anyhow open golden mouth one...:)

Ace tried to dance for us... but after a while he also xian liao..

Unexpectedly, someone chose the song... by the Wen Na Wu Hu.. you know.. kenny B, Alan Tam band? they sang this song during their concert tat goes, "My heart goes shalaalala.. shalala in the morning...." and since it was catchy and there is lyrics and it is just repeating the same lyrics.. Ace finally had a song to sing along!

And the boys CHEERS to the main reason why they are here:) BEER!

Now tat he can sing a segment of the song, Ace is motivated and continued to try to find another song that he can sing..

He finally found this song which is a little ditty about walking, jumping and hopping to school.. something for preschool kids I think cos it keeps repeating.."I will walk walk walk to school.. walk to school.." and it just replaces the verb with other verbs like hop or jump...

And then... qi mi kway tok dio tang... Max chose this song called Puff the Magic Dragon... and Ace started singing merrily away with Lee Sir.... I was so impressed the both of them can sing a song that they have never heard before.. and sing till wu lai wu kee lor!

Then Lee Sir told me a few days later that he actually has learn this song before when he was in school.. yet another few days later, Ace told me that he has also learnt this song in school before...

There are not many children's song that I do not know how to sing and so i am very curious about this one tat I have never heard of in my life till now:)

I went to google it and found it to be some sort of adult- children's song tat seems to be famous in the 60s about how people grow up and hardships in life made them stop believing in fantasy...

Here's a video of it..

Previous Post: Heritage Park

Heritage Park

2011-12-17T18:14:00.020+08:00

Part 2 of our day out was to visit the Heritage Park cos there was supposedly some sort of celebration activity going on in Heritage Park during the National Day Holiadys...
These, by the way, are the old houses tat the people in Dubai used to live in some 50-60 years ago. Looking at their skycrapers now.. you cannot help but marvel and how much they have grown and how fast they have developed...

There was a stage area and chairs but no performers and no audience.. sigh..

But Max and Ace sat down anyway just to rest their feet:)

Then as true blue singaporeans always can find yummy food.. we found this uncle making traditional sweets (which i DID NOT buy.. cos based on experience, will be too darn sweet for our liking)...

And these aunties making local delights.. they look like indian desserts to me though:)

Ace looking hungry...

Yums! This one is like pancake with syrup.. the twist is tat the pancakes has got some sort of spice in them:)

This one looks like tissue prata to me lor:) hahaha.. in fact, taste the same...haha

And then we saw some people rehearsing on stage lor.. they dancing to arabic song while twirling not batons but RIFLES!

They even had rehearsal for the police dog who was going to perform how it can sniff out drugs or something like tat...

And then we decided to walk around and walk along the creek a little bit lah:) cos the Heritage village like nothing much liao...

We discovered on the side near the creek, there are more activities... I din know just parking a few good looking harley davidson bikes there can also be considered novelty booth.. hahaha:)

And then we walked to this place which looked like it was some museum..

Took a picture with the signboard tat had the official poster for their 40th National Day:)

Anyway, the lamp building is actually the house of one of the shieks but it has been made into a museum now...

Inside, there is alot of explaination about Islam as a religion. And while the western world always talks about and writes about how the middle east treat women badly, it is interesting that based on my observation here, and like what this poster is saying, I think Islam actually promotes protecting women and being extra kind to them:) hahaha...

The three good frens resting... cos very tired after walking so much:)

I found out also that Islam Quran has alot of similarities with Christianity. In fact, in one of the rooms, there is a WHOLE segment of exhibits that are devoted to explaining about NOAH's ARK and also the story of Adam and Eve.. both familiar to me as Christian stories from the bible...(that I studied when I was in secondary school)...

And then we explored furthur and found a camel museum...

It had lots of exhibits talking about how camels are important to the normads and how they were useful for doing trade etc... I was complaining about how there were no camels there and found as stuffed one in one of the rooms.. mighty eerie if you ask me...

This is one of the first pics they have taken of camels..

Sadly though, no camels in the yard.... Would have been nice to have a real life one here right?

Before we left, we discovered the chairs in the yard are actually very comfy..

So comfy that our two friends here contemplated just running away with them.. wahahahaha;)

And then we came to the creek and took another rest...

Ace, who is usually a scaredy cat had a sudden display of bravery... he saw some people seated on the railing by the creek and without saying a thing, he just walked over, climbed over and sat there.....

When I saw him do that, my legs turned into jelly lor! I was so afraid tat he would fall into the sea.... When I tried to support him, he said, "No, I can do it on my own.."

And then I asked Max to come and take a look and Max gave me a "Wow" look and then decided to test Ace.

He looked around the area and surveyed it for a bit...

And then he had an idea... he told Ace that if he walked to this 10cm wide, 1.5 metres long plank tat was sticking out of the edge of the creek... and stood there, he would give Ace 3 dirhams.. My son, instead of saying that he is scared (which is his usual reply) just turned and started to walk towards the plank! Max's heart almost dropped out of his chest! I almost fainted on the spot!

My god! My son is getting very "wu ji" (got seeds) now... Max says now he is the one who 玩不起.. cos cannot dare him liao.. wahahaha:)

Anyway, I talked to Ace and asked him why he is suddenly so brave.. climbing high, doing things he din dare to do.. jumping into the pool... he said very simply that he made a decision..."I decided I don't want to be a scaredy cat anymore and just be brave.."

Wow.. so, not just happiness is a choice... even COURAGE.. is merely a choice:) So whenever you are fearful.... remember tat.. this is a great lesson my son has taught me:)

I took this pic cos I tot the single boat with a single bird looks kind of poetic ...hehe

Single boat with lots of flying birds also not bad.. hahah

Then I took tonnes of photos trying to capture the birds in their flight.. these are a few of my best shots... Let me just say i got no skill.. it was a matter of luck.. just snap away.. :) hahahaha

I like this one cos they look like they are dancing:) But actually, they are eating cos someone was throwing bread into the creek and feeding them:)

Then we decided to go back to our car and we passed a real life camel:)

"Ain't I cute?:P" said the camel..

I think the camel finds me cute too cos he looks like he is trying to kiss me!;) wahahahaha

Then we saw horses and this very kind uncle walked to us and motioned us to take photo with him.. such a nice man!

This horse is available for riding if you pay.. but all it got was not customers but just pple staring at it.. wahahaha:D

Anyway, we made our way to have dinner at The Red House.. a little Chinese restaurant nearby... initially Ace did not want to go as my son is very atas.. he only likes to go restaurant tat looks classy and nice... food nice or not is not so impt to him.... Everytime we try to go red house, he will complain tat he dun like the place because it is very old... But we explained tat when we do things in a group... we follow wat most pple want to do.. we dun complain when they dun want to go where we want to go.... and so he went along..

The restaurant turned out to be rather crowded and so we got to seat in the second storey.. the second storey was recently painted i think.. so it looks a little more new...plus it is interesting for Ace to sit in this room tat looks like an attic... I have this thing about attics and maybe Ace inherited it.. and so Ace decided tat he now LIKES Red House and actually bugged us to bring him there again a week later... Hahahaha

Previous Post:Daytime Walk By The Creek

Daytime Walk By The Creek

2011-12-16T19:28:00.006+08:00

Just a day after saying goodbye to your friends in Abu Dhabi, we received a surprised call from them the next day saying that they were in Dubai and that they were downstairs and wanted to come up to our apartment to borrow our toilet! wahahaha

Heng the house is semi decent sort of neat.. hahahaha...

Anyway, they said they are keen to go for a walk by the creek and will be heading to karoaoke and heritage village for national day celebrations.. Since I havent been by the creek in daylight, and since i am also interested to do karaoke and heritage village... I opted to go along.. Max seeing how keen I was to go out agreed to go along too:) hehe

That's Ace and his new best friend, Lee Sir.

I assumed these boats parked here belong to the Rich and Famous of Dubai.. wahaha:)

Swee right??

This is my favourite building... I always see it when waiting for Ace to come home from school and i just love tat it always reflects the creek's waters so i always feel I am beside the creek:P

We saw lots of seagulls too:)

Me and Max pretending to get married again:) wahaha

These birds even posed for us.. not bad right?

This monument is awarded to Dubai for making the city a nice place to live in.. I wonder why SGP din get any award leh?:P wahhaahahahahah

Caught a seagull in flight!

This is the very atas looking boat we saw the other time..and this is how it looks like in the day..

Aren't these seagulls cute?:P

We wanted to take pics of the birds flying but no matter how Max clapped, they wouldnt fly and so Ace went, "ROARRRRRR!!" and somehow tat seemed to do the trick! Maybe seagulls are afraid of lions??:P

Anyway, after tat, we headed off to the Heritage Village.. which will be in another post:) hehe

Previous Post: Lao Uncle

Lao Uncle

2011-12-15T19:00:00.004+08:00

I think my son is a lao uncle.. I really do...

Cos his favourite songs are all the oldies lor...

He has currently a few favs like All You Need Is Love, Can't Smile Without You, Mr Sandman and his absolutely MOST favourite one is WHY by Annie Lennox..

I am just so amused that he likes THIS song and that whenever he sings it, he sings it with so much emotions.. so I JUST had to make this video of him singing the song.. wahahahaha..

Enjoy...

Maybe he is old soul trapped in young body.. wahahaha..

Inspired by him.. and since we were forced to listen to the same song like 10,000 times while driving around, we decided to make our own Chua Family MTV.. wahahaha..

Previous Post: Ace Can Swim!

Ace Can Swim!

2011-12-14T17:35:00.008+08:00

Ace has been going for swimming lessons for a LONG, LONG TIME.. In fact I think he started out swimming lessons back in September in 2009...

So for the past 2 years or so till right when we were coming over to Dubai, he has gone from being very scared of water.. all the way to being ok to be in water and being able to float and also swim by using a swim board.

But he has been staying sort of stagnant on the learning curve for the last one and a half years and as the next items on his learning chart would be to lose the board and also to jump into the pool.. but try as we might... counselling, reward system or scolding... no matter wat we did.. he just REFUSED to jump into the pool and his teacher, Mr Loke said not to force him..

It got to a point where he actually even started to request tat we stop his swimming lessons...

Anyway, before we came over to Dubai, I told him that swimming is an important curriculum here and that he would have swimming lessons and that maybe he would have strict teachers... And so while he was generally excited to go to a new place and have a new school, he was quite afraid of the lessons.. to my surprise however, when he came home, he told me that his swimming lessons were very fun:)

And then about a week later, we started getting letters from his swimming teacher to request that he goes for extra lessons to build is confidence in the water and grudgingly, we agreed.. cos the cost of it is almost double of wat we paid in sgp...

So everytime he has swimming lessons, when I pick him up from the school bus after a day in school, I would ask him how is his day in school and based on his replies, the conclusion I got was that he enjoyed the extra lessons as they were mostly playing games with the noodle floats and stuff but he said he did not like his class swimming lessons (he gets one lesson of swimming in his usual class curriculum) because his teacher forced him to learn free style...

But when I checked with his teacher during meet the parents.. his teacher said he seems to be enjoying all his swimming lessons well...

Anyway, about a week or two ago, he came and excitedly announced to me that "I can dive into the pool, mummy! I can jump in!"

"That's great! Please show us when we bring you swimming the next time..." I told him and gave him a high five and a hug.

Fast forward to about 1-2 weeks later and our friend Charlotte and Lee invited us over to their pad in Abu Dhabi... the tipping point for Ace was tat they had a heated pool in the building..:)

Anyway, when it was time to visit the pool, we found out that they were closing earlier that day as it was a holiday eve... so Ace only had like 20 min left to swim...

The moment he reached there, without a moment to lose, he changed into his pants and dived right into the pool... no board, no nothing and he started kicking merrily away! Both myself and max were so pleasantly surprised!

Finally and suddenly, we begin to feel tat the extra swimming lessons were worth it.. I really dunno how they did it but they manage to help Ace overcome his fear of the water and dive right in just like tat?! It's fantastic!!!

I am so proud of my son!!!!

Check out max's surprised, happy face:)

I went gaga taking pics and our friends who were with us must be thinking I am like some mad woman to be so happy over something like tat.. wahahahha...

And here is proof tat Ace dares to JUMP and dive into the pool!

All in all, I think the whole experience of going to an international school in Dubai has made Ace a much more courageous and confident kid:) I hope he will still remember the lessons he has learnt here when he does go back to Singapore for good;)

Previous Post: Rainbow Shiek's Car Museum