新年来咯! CNY Goodies!

The most exciting festive is just round the corner! Chinese New Year is my personal favorite festive of all times!

Not only are we able to gather as a family and enjoy some time of catching up, getting Angpows for the younger ones, giving love to one another, and one main thing of CNY is the chance to eat all the delicious CNY Goodies!

As the years passed, CNY goodies are getting more and more popular and thus, many of the products out there are done as mass productions (factory production). Thus every year, we are just looking around and asking friends if they have any recommendations for homemade CNY goodies.

If you also one of them, look no further! Let me introduce to you the homemade CNY goodies that is available online!
Yes! You can get homemade CNY goodies without going all the way to your Malaysia relative’s place or some friend’s Auntie’s daughter’s home. All you need is a few clicks on your laptop or even mobile phones, and you will have your favorite goodies sent to you within days!

www.cnydelivery.com

This online platform is exclusively selling homemade CNY goodies from bakers established in 1971, Poon Confectionary.

With a wide range of selection, you will surely be able to find your usual favorites and some new flavors to add on to your CNY display when relatives and friends come over in the coming weeks.

And for this CNY, a personal note – stop counting that calories and just enjoy the goodies!
Because they are worth it!

 

For a full list of what is available, just click on the link and browse on.
www.cnydelivery.com

From the Kuan Family, we wish all our readers a Prosperous and Happy Chinese New Year!!

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Just to top it off, we are giving away 1 Golden Pillow Pineapple Tarts each to 3 winners in total.
Just follow the following steps to win a delicious CNY goodie for you and your family!

The giveaway will run from today till 20 Jan 2019 (Sunday), 10pm. All the best!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Carnival Fun - Family Bonding

I think carnivals are the best way to promote family bonding. What better ways than food, games and prizes?

How not to get a “NOooooo” when painting your hands?

Do it when everyone else is doing it too.

Organized by Touch Community, this simple act of hand prints on wall will serve to remind people of equality and unity.

The J Babies’ handprints.

We have been to many carnivals before, and the girls will always pester us to play at the game stalls.

 

  

If not for charity, I seriously believe that we are (the girls are) throwing money towards something that was designed for fun but not for winning.

 

But no matter what, I am learning that family outings are not so much on how much we spend or not spend. It’s the time when we build memories that will last. And I want to create memories with my family that carnivals are fun because we are able to enjoy fun and do charity at the same time.

Isn’t it enough to see this face of contentment? =)

To add on to the great day, this is the first time both girls won something from the games.

 

PS. my mom won’t be too happy with the additions of soft toys at home.. hahaha..

Camping with a Capital G

A few weeks back our family finally fulfilled a long standing wish of the ladies. Read it right, the man in the house aka me was not the least interested in camping.

I mean which man who has gone through army’s field camp (except the really minority) would say they loved the experience. Sleeping on hard uneven ground, tents pitched with less than enough enthusiasm, bugs and sorts crawling all over the place, and if you are lucky like me, rain and soggy muddy field.

That was the background of camping for me and no amount of words or pictures can I manage to lower the ladies’ excitement of this camping trip. Well, at least the venue is not some ulu places but the East Coast Park.

Welcome Glamping Society!

A brief understanding what is glamping. A simple way to understand is camping with style and much more comfort. No bugs, no hard sleeping floor (in fact you have beds), no fear of rain, no fear of being attack by wild boar, no army officers to shout at you! Hahaha..

We were treated to a luxurious 6-man tent, so we invited a fee friends over for some gathering and fun.

Check out the interior decorated like bohemian style, rugs and all.

Here are a few cool facts about glamping.

1. No need to set up the tent on your own. All is done nicely and securely for you (I mean that is what you are paying for). So just bring your barang barang and bunk in.

2. Simple food are provided for you and your group. Be wild and free, that’s all we need to do!

3. Just relax and enjoy. We basically just packed our change of clothing for sleep, the rest are taken care of. There was even a flamingo float for those who are interested to ride the ECP waves.

4. Plan a BBQ. Okay, we didn’t cos we were lazy to bring all the stuff and food. McDelivery is available.

5. Enjoy the sunset! This is probably the main reason for having it at East Coast Park. The sunset was stunning!

Last but not the least, spend a great evening with the missus. No camping or glamping is complete without the missus completing her wish.

Happy wife = happy husband

Growing up Gals: Fearful or Fearless?

As we grow older, do we become more fearful or fearless of things around us?
For me, I knew my fears pretty early in life – fear of heights, fear of roller-coaster, fear of cockroaches. And sadly, the 3 fears have grown up together with me, like my unwanted best friends.

So I was fascinated to see how this phenomena will turn out in my girls’ lives.

Joey (11 years old), typical first born child (like me). Independent, bossy, self-motivated (like me).
Jayne (8 years old), typical younger sibling (if there is one). Shows more public affections, not as independent, slightly less motivated (like Kless’ brother).

Just a few years back, I remembered that Joey was still a timid girl, not willing to try most of the activities that required her to climb or jump or with speed. Of course, I am more than willing to accompany her since I am one not given to fast speed activities too. But on hind sight, I am thinking did I stifle her growth in courage or trust by not encouraging her to try?
Jayne on the other hand, was more willing to take the water slides and do the 4D rides, etc.

As time passed, things seems to change a bit. Joey grew bolder and Jayne took lesser interest in the exciting stuff.

We brought the girls to a small indoor rock climbing studio recently. Hoping that the girls will have a chance to try it out and learn something new. Especially for Jayne, she has always like to do such rock climbing activities.

My Little Climbing Room is situated at Promenade @ Pelikat, which is in Hougang area. As you can see, it is quite a colorful place and both my girls liked it immediately.

 

 

The climbing walls are categorized as fun, beginners, intermediate and advance. The fun walls are like the ones shown above, where the kids can just climb up and touch randomly selected numbers or go through the hula-hoops. Both of these walls do not required other equipment or ropes.

In fact, when Joey stood beside the number wall, she is almost half way there.

While Jayne took a bit more effort, but nonetheless it was not difficult for them.

 

Joey gave up on the hula-hoops obstacle course as she is more like her dad, quite stiff boned. Thankfully, we still have Jayne (that’s why it’s good to have more than one child). And her size is just perfect.

Another fun wall is to climb and touch the dots on the wall, and do it in the fastest time.

  

So far so good, until when we got to the more serious climbs. This was when I was suddenly buffered by Jayne’s reactions.

 

Jayne the courageous girl has become the timid gal, she was afraid of the heights and possible fall even though she was tightly supported by the ropes. On the other hand, Joey passed the test! She conquered all the 3 levels of rock climbing walls and was eager to do it again and again (until her fingers are too tired to grip anything).

What happened??

Is Jayne going through a stage of self realization? Realizing that she is not that “garang” anymore? Are the changes due to peer pressure in school?
One became fearful and the other became fearless.

Girls, if you are reading this post, Daddy is not telling you to be fearful or fearless. In life, never swing to the extremes, there is nothing absolutely fearful nor is there anything absolutely fearless.

“Fear not, be of good cheer, be strong and courageous.”

Don’t be fearful of anything, cos you have daddy and Daddy to take care of you. But be of good courage, learn to say “no” or to protect yourself when the need arises.
Don’t be fearless and live life with no discipline. Only with discipline can one learn to build character.

In the meantime, just enjoy the fun!

 

块三点心 Dim Sum @ $1.30

After staying in Woodlands for more than 3 decades, I am still very amazed at the new things I find around this neighborhood. This time round we visited a 24-hour dim sum place at Primz BizHub Coffeeshop (21 Woodlands Close).

As described perfectly by the stall name 块三点心 (Kuai San Dian Xin), all the dim sum are sold for $1.30 each. Yes! You read it right! Opens 24 hours daily, dim sum @ $1.30 each.

We visited on a Sunday evening around 6:30pm dinner time, though there was a queue but the service was fast and good.

There were ample seats in the coffeeshop too.

Don’t expect restaurant service, you have to queue, order and pay before you get your food. Basically there are only 30 dim sum items to choose from. But you can surely find the usual delights like, Char Siew Pau, Pork Ribs, Siew Mai, Prawn Dumpling, Carrot Cake, and even Century Egg Pork Porridge.

We (read me) were determined to try as much as we can. And here is our round 1 orders. We had 2 rounds in total, and mind you it was just for the 4 of us (2 adults + 2 kids).

Total cost was a whopping $20.80!!

I know some of you must be thinking how good is the dim sum. So here is the verdict, on a scale of 1 to 5.

Century Egg Porridge (3 points) & Carrot Cake (3 points)
The exterior was crispy and nice. The carrot cake inside was decent, but I would recommend to eat it fast, once it is cool the skin can be a bit too hard to swallow.

Prawn Dumpling (3.5 points) & Siew Mai 2.5 points)
We had a second helping of the prawn dumplings, in total of 3 baskets. That should tell you either we love prawn dumplings or it is really quite nice.
As for the siew mai, personally not much of a pork eater, I felt that the pork taste was a bit too strong for me. I had to dip it with chili sauce to finish the plate.

HK Style Prawn Chee Cheong Fun (3.5 points)
Another dish that demanded a second serving. The cheong fun was soft and at $1.30, I have to say the prawn given was in good proportion. It was still nice even when it was slightly cold.

Paper Wrapped Chicken (4 points)
Definitely my first choice in future. Technically the dish is a chicken wing wrapped in paper and lightly salted, with a tinge of ginger and Chinese cooking wine. It’s not too dry, just nice to go along with anything, maybe even plain porridge.

Fried Yam Dumpling (1 point), Xian Zhu Roll (2.5 points) & Fried Sotong Roll (2.5 points)
If you are a Cantonese like me, don’t spoilt your taste buds with the yam dumpling. Not worth the money even when it is $1.30. The fillings were dry, very little and the yam paste was almost non-existence.
As for the xian zhu roll and fried sotong rolls, it has always been our family’s top favorite, but the girls just only managed to finish till the last piece. I think the problem is too oily and the skin was not crispy enough.

Like I said earlier, do not expect restaurant standard. So as we managed our expectations, the overall experience was good. I think we will still come back for more, especially when it is opened round the clock. A good consideration for the late supper peeps!

The last mouth.

Kuan Family 好介绍!