Saturday, December 31, 2011

Santa Rewards Ace For Being Brave And Going To The Dentist


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

Friday, December 30, 2011

Mamza Beach

LinkI 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!

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Food!

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

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Hard Rock Cafe Dubai

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