古人的智慧？

Yesterday was the final gathering at AhYee's place for the year. Usually we have four - CNY, 清明，and the two death anniversaries of the grands. I think once we had an extra one when Yan was back with her family.

This time, the turnout was smaller than usual. MY, YQ and XW, SanGu and family were overseas. LY didn't mention but his family was not there too. I was there on my own as it was our fortnightly visit to the kids' grands. It was quieter. 

And I had a revelation. 

Such praying occasions are not really for the dead. They are for the living to come together as an extended family. Such is the wisdom of the ancients, no?

I really enjoy chatting with the extended family. Sometimes we talked about funny things in the past, sometimes we asked about travel plans and tips.

So I bear with all the incense smoke. To say I'm not a fan of our neighbour's twice daily incense burning is an understatement. But I can deal with it once in a while, at such praying occasions or at temples. Just don't get too close for too long. 

I was amazed at this!

AhYee said YQ also knows how to do it. Later at home, I learnt that Sito also knows how - for exam scripts!! And better, while watching AhYee, I suddenly remember how we used to help Mother fold the incense paper into tubes tucked in the ends and throw into a big bag to bring downstairs to burn! 

The offerings yesterday

The table wasn't filled as we had fewer people. Notice the pair of shoes at the back? For Grams :) One thing is missing though - her 3-in-1 kopi! Oops...

I was so full... Was chatting with Mother at the dining table when food coma attacked. We went into the bedroom with the rest and continued chatting in aircon comfort. 

When we left, everyone packed something home. I was happy to pack more bah zangs hahaha! And some snacks plus a box of jelly (not in picture coz not an offering) that was meant for MY but Mother didn't know she was overseas coz she still doesn't have a phone and hence no WhatsApp *.*

Weekly activities so far

This being PSLE year, we decided that we would do one activity each week during the midyear term break.

In the first week, well, the main activity was changed from Swensen's Unlimited to Little Pond, no thanks to an ulcer.

In the second week, Yang and Yu went to a friend's birthday party. Why only two of them? Coz this friend - who is Yu's classmate - happens to stay in the same block as us, and he and his younger sister often play together with Yang and Yu at the playground. Kai doesn't really join them. 

The party was at The Cage @ Kallang. The kids had so much fun playing laser tag. I didn't join them even though there were still free guns coz I wanted to take pictures! In one game where each player had only one life, Yang and Yu were the last remaining opponents - brothers turning against each other! Hoho!

The rest were waiting for them but blocked by a tent

I experienced a candy piñata for the first time. The kids were violent! Birthday boy had thought his friends would not be so rough...! So now we have two big boxes of candy at home, don't know when they'll finish them.

It was a rainy day. We walked a distance from Mountbatten MRT to the venue and then to Stadium MRT where we had dinner at Astons. Saw Yu having soup for the first time - he liked it, especially the croutons!

What about Kai? He played Nintendo at home lor.. Anyway, he is free to go for chess tournaments at Bishan every Tuesday if he wants. He also has two other tournaments this month. For the first one, I even brought his brothers to Macs for dinner to celebrate the end of my ulcers! The second one will be on Yang's birthday but it isn't a full-day event so we have time to celebrate.

In the third week, we had two outings but Yang could only go to one...

On Thursday, I brought Kai and Yu to Mother's place to wrap bah zang, my annual activity :) But I missed my annual glutinous rice breakfast from 409 hawker centre coz it's undergoing renovation! Mother told me the night before and I was so sad! 

Googled that there should be breakfast options at the coffeeshop downstairs so we went there instead. Big mistake. Two fried maggi plus luncheon meat for Kai and fried pork and Taiwan sausage for Yu cost $8! Really, nothing beats HV hawker centre - noodles plus two items under $3. Even the fried pork not so ex.

My nasi lemak was regular price like HV and the ingredients were freshly fried. Drinks were ok. Kids said the milo was very good.

Tummies filled, it was time to start the wrapping. Let them wrap one each but they couldn't fold the thing down. Nvm, Mama to the rescue!

First time for Kai

Second time for Yu

Having his own dumpling

A tad smaller coz small hands

We wrapped some 60 bah zangs in about two hours. Add another couple of hours of cooking. By the time their dumplings cooled enough to eat, they were just able to eat it as they had such a big breakfast. After that, we packed our dumplings and headed home.

Kai the strong boy carried 25 dumplings - very heavy!

Wa, so buddy! For 10 seconds

Yu was carrying a pair of shoes. Mother got them from some event for the elderly but didn't want them. I tried and realised they were my size! Maybe the staff got her 39 instead of her 36? Anyway, very happy to have shoes for year end holiday as my sneakers are kind of falling apart...

Kai grabbing his fave kebab via Junction 8

You can't see it but Yu was snacking on OCK karaage while watching Kai's kebab being made :p

Yang had his first bah zang of the season that very night but he found it too peppery - yes, Mother accidentally added a tad more pepper this time! So poor Yang decided to skip the dumplings this season :(

On Friday, we went on an excursion to Bukit Panjang. The kids had been wanting to go back to visit their childhood neighbourhood. So we combined swimming, library and nostalgia into one!

重游旧地

Our first stop was the Senja Cashew pool. First time there. Quite small, just a competition pool, a kiddy play pool and a jacuzzi pool. But it was enough. Made the kids do six laps before letting them loose in the play pool.

Like Legoland water park!

They were too big for the slide - guard stopped Yang from sliding down - but they seemed to have had fun just splashing about.

Getting a massage!

So glad the weather held up! It was forecast to rain but it didn't. I was thinking that 端午节 was always very hot since I was a kid. But I don't know if it was the weather or the heat from cooking dumplings the whole day!

Bought some snacks from Scarlett and went to the library to rest and read before an early dinner at Swensen's. Then we got a maths topical revision book for Yang at Popular, and grabbed more snacks from Japan home. This kind of replaced our fortnightly Saturday trips so our Saturday was spent at home, just nice for Yang to pack in more revision!

Back to the kiddy playground for a bit of fun - they're too big now!

Went to Junction 10 to visit their child care centre. It had undergone some renovation and also changed its uniforms. Seemed like only one of their teachers remained teaching there but she was gone for the day by the time we got there.

Used to pass by this canal all the time - spotted only one turtle this time

Notice Yang's brolly sticking out of his bag? Last time using it!

"Toured" Hillion before making our way home. It's been a nostalgic walk. I was walking with Yu when we reached Bukit Panjang, it was so cute to hear him say oh he remembered this and that, or something had changed. When we passed through the walkway next to the bus interchange exit on our way to Junction 10, Yu said I brought him back via that path when he needed to poop during a dinner at Captain Kim's - I don't even remember!

Fave kiddy ride area - Yang could hardly fit!

Where Yang once stood, mesmerised, while I searched madly for him

All of them don't remember our first home anymore, since we moved away before Kai turned six. But they all remember our second home at Bukit Panjang. So much memories for all of us. Now we all have refreshed memories of our old hood :)

Somehow, we didn't get this nostalgic feeling about HV when we moved away to BP. Maybe coz we were still coming back every fortnight to visit the grands! Anyway, we've moved back for over three years now. It's like we never left.

Yesterday was a regular day, just cooked porridge for lunch and had dinner at HV hawker centre. Oh, we saw that the traffic light at the bus stop was finally functional! We did a first pass :) Then crossed back at the next traffic light haha! So happy!

Kai and Yu wanted to head back early for Nintendo after dinner, so Yang found himself alone with us after returning from washing his hands. Alone time with our middle child :)

Benefits :)

We like the ice cream at Chateraise, yummy and so affordable. The brothers had some ice cream at home; we have a tub of Bulla cookies and cream in the freezer so no complaints since they wanted to go home early.

We're now also one week away from school reopening. So for baking day today, I made a butter cake on top of a loaf of soft white bread, a boule of ahem, artisanal yeast bread, six pork floss batons using the artisanal bread dough and their pizza lunch. Packed away five big servings of the butter cake for Yang to bring to school and Sito had three pieces of the remaining at tea - take it as Fathers' Day treat? :p 

We don't celebrate these commercial days but it's nice to remind the boys to at least show a verbal appreciation for Papa who is also their EMS tutor, wikipedia in all things big and small, and inspirational speaker :)

Happy new year and a summary

It's 2026, woohoo!

So we slept through all the countdown and fireworks :p Old already, cannot understand crowds, cannot stay up so late. 

And on this day, I woke at 8.20 am. So happy until I realised that tmr it's 6.10 am again *.* Yes, the new school year is starting... 

Got the boys to pack their schoolbag today - nothing much coz no timetable yet. Also got them to clear their cabinets but the amount of unwanted stuff was unfortunately very little.. I have three little hoarders...

Since it's the new year (and I have leftover mashed pumpkin from making pumpkin noodles a couple of weeks ago), I made some pumpkin mochi pancakes. Eat 金瓜 to bring in the 金 and may the kids be 顶呱呱 in their studies! But Yu didn't eat any, even when we had a small plate of dipping sugar. Ah well, all the best to him? :p

Later, we'll be having hotpot for dinner. Macam LNY, haha! 

So, what was Clan Sito up to after the Beijing holiday? We spent a lot of time at home studying!

But we did have some fun here and there..

Went to Legoland on Thursday, 18 December. We had wanted to go on Wednesday but since milk delivery is always on Wednesdays, we decided to prioritise milk and go the next day. But I forgot and had ordered frozen meat to be delivered on Thursday. So I changed the delivery to Wednesday. 

Then, I received news from my milk man that the current batch of milk had an expiry date within a week of delivery. So I decided to postpone delivery to wait for the new batch. To avoid confusing my meat seller, I didn't change the meat delivery date. And of all days, my period came on Thursday. Sian... Legoland is fine but the mall toilets aren't too conducive...

The lucky thing was the weather - it was lovely! Finally no rain in the afternoon!

But of course we didn't know ahead of time. It was near lunch time when we got there but we didn't eat at Nanyang cafe as usual as we were afraid it would rain the afternoon. So we made a snack stop at BIG supermarket instead. 

There were still highlights despite having been to Legoland n times. The build-and-race area has been refurnished with a new Ferrari, new tracks and a new virtual race using real Lego builds. Yu finally rode the VR roller coaster with the headset and it was great, he said. 

Kai piggybacked Yang when he said his leg hurt, awww...

Took little dragon with him

Hard to get in, hard to get out - we're old!

The virtual race with real builds

Then we went back to the malls near the checkpoint for lunch, massage and shopping :) This time, Sito managed to nail the time for grab rides so we avoided fare hikes to and from Legoland.

Early dinner at Meng Meng

Back home, chess is a key feature. Since after his exams, Kai has been going for chess tournaments in Bishan some Tuesdays, and attended a few other tournaments. Sometimes, he met a friend or two before that to play. Once, he went to a friend's place and his friend fried noodles for him! Wa, when can my kids cook for me....?!

Mother continued to cook for us though. Went over for dinner one day, and ate too much... Brought home 15 bah zangs and all were gone in three days, thanks to the kids fighting with me for them! But I'm also glad that they like this traditional food :)

Our year-end festivities started with a 2.5kg semi bone-in ham - real ham! Sito glazed it very well and it looked and tasted wonderful! So moist unlike the ham roll we had a couple of years back. But Kai didn't like it as there were fatty bits in the real deal *.* 

Simple Xmas eve dinner

Also took a chicken fricasse recipe and added pasta instead of reducing the sauce. There were also cabbage steak, grilled pineapple slices and sausages. Too much food :p The ham alone could feed us five times! Since then, I had used some ham to stirfry with taukwa and leeks - so good and all the kids liked it. Next week, I'll make fried rice with it...

For Christmas day, we ditched KFC for Jollibee coz Yang doesn't like the 11 secret herbs and spices... Sito made the trip to Vivocity to buy the fried chicken. They were still crispy when we opened them up! The fries were still yummy too. I think really, no more KFC Christmas for us....

Xmas day breakfast at the newly opened Yakun

What's with my hand...? :p

On Boxing Day, we went cycling! But first, breakfast at Macs at Metropolis. Filled them up with a big brunch, cycled the energy out of them, fed them a good lunner at Le Shrimp. Yu took some time to familiarise himself with cycling again before we cycled to the playground. They played mostly on the swings and the flying fox. I tried the flying fox too - so hard to get down when stuck in the middle!!!

Cycling and swimming were the only two exercises the kids had this term break. With Nintendo in the afternoon, none was keen to head to the playground! 

We had wanted to go to the Queenstown swimming pool but the opening had been delayed from this quarter to the next. So we went back to Delta - sheltered pool. I kena complaints coz I forgot their goggles. But by the time they got into the water, they forgot all about it - just splashed around. They also did some form of backstroke so no goggles needed.

So cold!

The Papa boat is still going strong

Come to think of it, that was also Sito's only exercise in December. He got Flu A from Beijing and was quite sick for a few days. Then rest.... until now.... Nvm, he's lean enough and no more IPPT!

Oh, this Christmas, we had a total of three logcakes! Bought two on 5 Dec :) when we went to Jurong East - we had planned to get the Ikea log cake but also saw some at Donki so we bought two :p The chocolate crunch logcake from Ikea was frozen anyway so it ended up being eaten the last. The Donki logcake was a refreshing yuzu flavour while the middle logcake was a black forest one from Prima Deli from our journey to the east.

Would have bought a fourth one after dinner at Le Shrim but it was going to rain and we had two brollies among five of us so we ran off. We were lucky the rain was light at the BV MRT junction and Sito went without a brolly. By the time we cut through the HDB estate to the last traffic light, it was pouring! Took two trips to bring everyone over and we stayed dry, phew!

And most recently, it was our 忘年会！Third time at Makan@Jen and it didn't disappoint. But it got more crowded every year! I was glad I hit the desserts early coz by the time Sito went for it, the logcakes were gone and we had to wait for the next batch...

One hiccup - I went with a weird tummy that I, um, didn't manage to clear in the day. After half a cup of milk coffee at the end of the meal, I started feeling bad. Laosai bad. The rest waited for me in the lobby area while I went in and out of the toilet. At one point, it felt like that Vivocity episode again! I was resting in the lobby, hoping for the pain to subside so that we could quickly grab a taxi home but nope, I suddenly had to vomit. 

I think it was the original tummy ache triggered by the milk coffee. It wasn't like I ate so much until I had to vomit - I already know I'm past the age to stuff myself. So I was very sad - the yummy coconut logcake, the lovely baked fish, the perfectly roasted broccoli, and I spent time and effort queueing for and shelling the jumbo river prawns! Actually I had only three of those prawns. The only upside was that the vomit was sweet, not bitter. Ok, tmi, haha!

Yang asked if I ate chilli, coz he knew chilli upsets my tummy. But these two days, he didn't tell me to skip my morning milk coffee...

Black and blue are the colours of the day

Looking at the skaters while waiting for the bus home

The term break this time felt longer, perhaps coz we left for Beijing right after school ended so the time in SG was more continuous. I would really miss waking up late! Not very late anyway.. Only once did the kids allow me to sleep until 830 am... Else one or two or three might be on our bed at 730 am, which is the earliest I allow them to disturb us...

So, now we're almost ready for the new school year - books mostly settled including wrapping the textbooks, just waiting for others to become available, shoes mostly done, including new shoes for LNY! 

Auntie wrapping books

I used to wrap my own books after seeing Mother do it but my kids aren't bothered... I insist on wrapping Kai and Yang's books but for Yu, well, no younger sibling to give his books to so what's the point?! I decided to ask him - he wanted his books wrapped. Ah well, I asked for it.

Happy new year to us all!

A special dragon boat festival

Coz Yang and Yu tried to wrap bah zang :)

I had originally arranged with Mother to wrap bah zang on Wednesday when the boys all came home late. Then a couple of weeks back, we were going through Yu's Chinese and came across a passage on dragon boat festival. This boy said he wanted to learn how to wrap bah zang. 

So I quickly rearranged to last Saturday. Yang decided to join us too as the alternative was to go with Papa who was accompanying Kai to a chess tournament. 

On Saturday, I prepared Kai's usual chess tournament day breakfast - prata with scrambled eggs - and also gave the brothers some eggs. By the time we all got ready, it was pushing 9 am - so late!

I had to swing by the hawker centre to get my usual pre-bah zang fix - glutinous rice from the economic beehoon stall. Few hawker stalls sell this and none near me! So by the time I finished my breakfast and started wrapping, it was 10 am.

I demonstrated wrapping once, and helped these two with their wrapping. They managed to put the ingredients in and made one fold in the leaves :) So they didn't wrap the thing fully but it was fine. I think they had a good experience and could try again next time. 

Yang had a softer grip so his leave pouch remained roundish

Yu gripped the leave pouch quite tightly so it was kind of flattened :)

I spent 1.5h making some 40-50 bah zang while the boys watched TV. Things didn't end there. As the bah zang went for their hot bath, they went to the playground downstairs. I went after them in 30 min to grab their lunch and my iced kopi - very very hot day!

It was more waiting for the bah zangs to cook and cool down, before we could bring them home. I put some aside for breakfast the next day and put the rest in the fridge.

It was a happy breakfast! Kai had two. Yang happily ate his bah zang - Mother marked out their creations with bits of ruffian string. He said he didn't know why he didn't like it last time :) Yu was sad that his bah zang wasn't pretty; it broke up as I opened it. He said he used to prefer outside bah zang to WaiPo's ones but now he had forgotten the taste of outside bah zang and this was yummy. So he had a second one - ok la, the two of them made small bah zang :) 

But that means I had only one bah zang. Oh well, I could eat less... I'm just happy that all three of them like it :) This tradition can then carry on :)

端午节吃粽子

It's 端午节 today :)

Yesterday, we all went to Mother's place to (watch me) wrap rice dumplings. But we were very late - Yang finished his breakfast late, it rained, we went to the market to pack brunch for parents and lunch for kids.

So Mother had started wrapping some. She made them quite big as the leaves were big and complained about longer cooking time. Somehow, she couldn't manipulate the size. Nvm, mf to the rescue! Made the rest a little cuter :) Coz I like to eat two at one go so they cannot be too big :p

Yu had the patience to watch me wrap just one

Kai and Yang already watched me wrap dumplings two years ago. The kids watched a lot of Netflix while I wrapped dumplings and waited for the dumplings to cook and cool down. Sito and I had our brunch on arrival while the kids had their lunch around noon.

This time, I took way under an hour to finish up the rice. In all, there were fewer than 40 rice dumplings. We brought 19 home :)

Swung by AMK Hub to walk walk and cool down, scoring some Krispy Kreme doughtnuts along the way. Then we ended up at One HV - one receipt for milk let the three play the dragon bouncy castle while Sito brought all the food home. 

Our kids were a menace to themselves and other kids *.* Luckily, Sito came back quickly enough and I got them out of the bouncy castle...

Dinner was at Little Pond - this time, we didn't order the vege and ordered more shabu beef instead. The ice cream selection was different from last time - chocolate and green tea and surprisingly, Kai liked the green tea more! Sito and I enjoyed their hot tea :) We plan to come back to eat their skewers (with yummy Chinese spices) and enjoy free flow tea at some point :)

Anyway, this morning, we had doughtnuts for breakfast. Even though Yang enjoyed the rice dumplings two years ago, he didn't like this time! I let him have a bite of mine and he decided to have ham and cheese sandwich instead. Kai, Yu and I had two each while Sito had one. Now we're left with only 12! :(

The first time all the kids love bah zang!

Yes, I'm super happy that my kids now love bah zang! :)

We didn't make any last year coz Mother just had a kidney stone removed. So I hesitated at my first bah zang. I mean, when I was wrapping them; no hesitation when it comes to eating them!

Then muscular memory kicked in, phew!

Brought these two along for the first time!

Coz no helper and Sito isn't in town. Anyway, they are now big enough to hang out on their own, and I want them to take part in this annual tradition in more ways than one... Yu continued to go to school - that one more troublesome!

Yang stopped reading his book to watch Kai solve his 6-cube. Yup, he can solve it. Time to consider a 7-cube...

Btw, notice the background in the photo above? This was a train on the north south line. The cabin walls were yellow with age already, like trains in older cities... 

Late breakfast - bee hoon with their new fave Taiwan sausage from my fave stall at blk 409!

I had breakfast too - glutinous rice. Yes, knowing that there would be bah zang, I still bought glutinous rice! But it's so hard to find otherwise! 

All ready and waiting for me!

I think this must be the first photo of me bao-ing zang! Thanks, Yang!

Yang pointed out the cooked ones accurately - can you?

Yup, the ones at the top. The two black holes on the table were caused by me years back when I played with candles on the table during mid autumn festival and it got too hot...! Shhh, don't tell the kids I played with fire!!

We made 64 in two hours. The kids just watched TV and snacked on Wang Wang *.* We left when all the bah zangs were done. Mother left with us to bring some to Yan's mother, CY's mother and a friend. I learnt too late that CY was at her mother's place! Missed a catch-up in person...

Checking if they were cooked through

Kai asked for one and he loved it! What a lovely smile :)

I was too full from my breakfast so I only managed to have one when we got home. So yummy this year! The taste varies from year to year coz Mother doesn't measure ingredients *.* But my siblings said salty *.*

I let Yang - who was playing in the room with Kai - taste a bit and he said it was nice. When he was done, he came out to find that I had finished my bah zang. He went, "You finished everything?!" Then he saw the bag of bah zangs on the table, and happily asked for one. On a plate, like GeGe, not like Mama who ate it off the bamboo leaves!

He ate this very quickly!

Yu liked it too!

I packed char siew noodles for Kai and Yang, and two buns for Yu. Yu always asked me to buy bah zang from the stall downstairs. I bought once and he didn't like it. I also didn't like it - too fatty and not much taste. I let him have a bit of mine and he said it was yummy but the one I bought was yummier. Tsk!! Anyway, I opened a new one for him and he had most of it.

Then Kai decided that he was still hungry and had another one!

Kai had one at AMK, and we brought 18 home. 10 are now in the freezer and two are right behind me on the dining table. I shall have the two for breakfast tmr while the kids have their fave Yakun :p

Very happy 端午节！