Strawberry Shortcake

It has always been a joy celebrating sis's birthday. Not only because it falls on Singapore National Day; but this time round, we had a record of 7 members of the family in the birthday cake photo! Could have been 8 but Desmond was helping with the photo taking. By the way, this is a delayed post, as I got the photos only today =)

Yuan has grown fond of blowing candles. She even mastered the full "Happy Birthday" song for Mummy, and happily sang it the whole day long. Before the cake cutting, I was teaching her some Maths. I asked her how many candles should there be on the cake since Mummy is 31. After much negotiation with Yuan, we decided that it should be three.

But during the actual candle lighting, my parents thought that one candle is simple enough. That's why the initial photo was taken with only one lighted candle. And here comes Yuan's protests, who refuses to carry on with the celebration unless there are three candles. Of course she won.

I bought the Strawberry Shortcake from Prima Deli. Why SS? Actually it was a close fight between SS and Dora The Explorer which is Yuan's favourite character. SS because the cake design was bright and cheery. Also, it brings back memories of me and my sister when we were young, when we collected everything from SS wallets, stickers and pencil cases. I was surprised they still have this design after so many years.

I Love Home Cooked Food

Today, I had my first taste of home cooked food during lunch, in more than a week. Actually it is just a simple porridge meal with chicken, fish and vegetables. No extraordinary ingredients. But it tasted very special.

Mum was sick since last Friday; she was down with a very serious cough, flu, fever and sore throat. In fact, she was so delirious that I thought she has some mild memory loss and slight hallucination. What was worst was she has multiple allergies to drugs like penicillin/panadol. We suspected she got the flu virus from Dad, who just recovered less than 3 days ago. It was a costly oversight on my side for not quarantining them at night, as her immunity is very low due to the multiple drugs she is taking. I MUST remember to do that next time.

The first GP we see didnt seem to alleviate her condition much. Desperate as she still had bouts of fever, we went to her oncologist since she will know what kind of medicine goes well with her routine drugs.True enough, the $300 (!!!) fees for medicine + consultation worked magic on her, though she still took nearly 6 days to regain proper strength and vitality. On Thursday, she starting her daily nagging again, and even managed to go for her regular KTV session. Amitaba~

But for the past week, I suffered big time. Both me and Dad cannot even hold kitchen utensils well, so we dont want to make ourselves suffer even more by cooking. Two of the days, I had my packed dinner at a nearby hawker with Dad and one evening's dinner was spent at "Kou Fu" in NYP. Other days I ate with Desmond after work. And I must really say that the hawkers in Singapore really need to work on their recipes to cook up a proper "balanced" meal. Their high carbohydrates and protein dishes certainly dont work well on me.

I am the sort who cant live without plenty of greens on my plate. And the amount of veges I took for the whole week may be equivalent to what I took for lunch today. I also find myself walking aimlessly. without an idea in mind for dinner, looking for nutritious food. I cannot imagine if I ever need to do this on a long term basis. Maybe I should seriously start learning to cook.

So glad that she is well and up now; and of course has resumed her head-chef status. Will be dining at home tonight too. And I am very looking forward.

圈圈。圆圆。圈圈

别误会，这栏不是有关林俊杰的江南，而是我两个侄儿名字的缩写 =）

小小源泉就快两个月大了！上两个星期看到他，也明显的“发福”了许多，也比他姐姐爱喝奶，真令人疼爱！有时，他的招牌“无影手”还依稀可见，可是却老是让我以为他在发抖擞。但他现在总是贪睡，醒着的时间不多。除此之外，源泉与姐姐小时候，实在是难以分辨。以下照片为证!

小思源对于她这新降临的弟弟似乎没什么大抗拒。。反而显露出兴奋新奇的心情，也跟平常一样蹦蹦跳跳的。她也好像突然长大了， 知道泉泉才是baby， 有特权哭闹撒娇耍脾气， 而她，已经是小大人咯！那天，她要求我帮她画画，题目是“我的一家人”，我随手涂鸦了Andrew, Jasmine 和小思源，便问她：“家里还有谁呀？”，她立即回答：“还有爷爷，奶奶，大姑姑，二姑姑。。”“家里还有一个在睡觉的是谁啊？”经过了一阵子的纠缠，小思源才娇滴滴地说：“还有源泉咯！”

他们的世界是简单，纯洁的，所说的话也是发自内心的。对我而言，这是每个小孩最讨人喜欢的一面。可能唯一能让人受到威胁的就是他们说流就流的眼泪，而且他们也知道用在谁身上最管用，这应算是他们最狡猾的武器吧。

单纯无邪的童年时光，真令人又羡慕，又回味。