Golden Jubilee Long weekend - What do home mean to me

Home is when I am at the start of a business trip, I know I have a place to come back to.

- see you in a week's time

Pictures of day 2,3,4 of the long weekend:

Golden Jubilee Long week end - Picnic at Marina Barrage

[Right now is Sat, 8 Aug, night.  Thanks to Mabel coming to stay-over, I had most of this afternoon and tonight to myself, to finish up my blog.  I have schedule all the completed posts to be published in the coming week.  This is the last of the catch up, phew...]

On the first day of the golden jubilee long weekend, I went picnic with Yin's family, mum and Wee San. I suggested botanic garden, but Yin wanted it changed to Marina Barrage, as there's a mass picnic event there, with goodies, performances, and Black Knight show.

I was hot in the morning; we only last one hour (9 to 10+) in the open field.  We moved to the 2nd floor (shaded area) at 10+, and it actually started to rain at 11+!  We ate, flew kites, played some games, and watched the black knight show, and parted ways at close to 1.  As there was a jam in the carpark, we went for lunch at Satay by the bay.  Here are the beautiful photos, except for the totally black and grey planes :) !

Lynn sitting under the shade of the umbrella, eating her beehoon.

After makan, Lynn had a taste of flying kite:

QiWei's good; his kite flew high.  Jocye is almost as tall as me now.

The cousins' wefies.

After we moved to the 2nd floor, we went into the gallery for some aircon.

Lynn and Anthony; Anthony and Lynn..

The girls and their grandma playing paperball.

At 1150, we went back to the open field to catch the black knight show.  This is the view of the crowd on the bridge and at Marina East.

Finally the show started, amid the rain.  So all the photos are black and grey.

After the show, the crowd with their colourful umbrellas coming down, against the misty backdrop of super tree and MBS.

Family photos.  This is WK and my fav photo of the moment.

SG50 memorables

I was lamenting in April or May, that there is a lack of SG50 memorable.  Sometime in May or June, there was a Singapore Mint temporary stall at HDB Hub, so a bought a coin set and some other stuff.

The come July, it was really like the hashtag "simisai also SG50".  The "ultimate" is definitely the fishcake.

Here's some photos concerning memorable, fun-pack, celebration and milestones in life..

Just some stuff in the fun-pack.  There were lots of complains, but I'm contented.

After many years, I finally made the effort to put up the flag again.  The photo on the left is the view from 25th floor downwards, and the photo on the right is the view from ground floor upwards.  Looks like, we are the only one..

Lego set from MOE/school.  I find this gift very thoughtful.

Here's a short story about the Mac SG50 Hello Kitty set.  Everytime Mac introduce Hello Kitty set, me and Wee San will contact each other, to go eat Mac together, or to get the other to buy when one is out of town.  Basically, no one else in the family is kitty fan other than the 2 of us.  During the last set, we decided not to order online, but to get the kitty one by one each week.  Then we didn't manage to get the last one (Singing bone), and eventually got it through "other means"..  This year, Mac announced the sale quite late.  We did not contact each other, as we were both very busy.   On last Sunday night, while parking my car (Lynn was with me), we got a face-time call from my aunt.  They called to show off!  WS actually choose to order online this time round.  While chatting, I found out that theirs just got delivered.  I became very excited, shouting "Oh, I must rush home now, now!  The delivery should be by area, so ours must be delivered already too!!".  You see, this year, I also order online!  I didn't ask her why, I suppose like me, we can't bear to be disappointed, as this is the SG50 set.  In the picture below, the one on top is her set that came through Whatsapp, and below is our set that we assembled at home on Sunday night, as I was right :).

On 6th Aug, all school children went to school in red T.  Sweetie never like to post for photo for me, so I took this "ugly" shot, ha!

Me and sweetie talked about SG100 the other day.  Well, let's enjoy this moment first.

Space out (Malacca Jul/Aug 15)

It was a girls-weekend-getaway trip, mainly to eat, shop, and space-out...

Traffic was great, custom was a breeze.  The tour bus was less spacious than we expected.

Hatten hotel is full of Singaporean. It is clean, new and efficient.  15 mins walk to jonker street.

My most happy expenditure is my manicure, makes me feel pretty the whole week :); it cost RM 40.

On the first day, Ginny and I chatted for an hour at a cafe, while waiting for the other 2 to complete their foot reflexology. It had been a long time since I had such a heart to heart talk with her. 

Here are some photos. 

We spent almost 2 hours at this shop, where Lili got a nonya baju. She tried on many, and finally choose the purple top and tailor-make the skirt. 

On our way back from jonker, we were treated to firework display.

We made a reservation at Teo Soon Lee (teochew food) for Friday dinner, but got carried away by shopping, so we rescheduled to Sat lunch. Some dishes were good, others so-so.

We got the pool cum jonker view room.

Relaxing in the pool on Sat morn.

Joc and I failed to remember that it is Ginny's birthday on 6 August, so we didn't celebrate for her in the first 2 days. I only remembered on day2 night. On Sunday morn, joc and Ginny wanted to laze in the room, while me and Lili went for last min shopping. We got Ginny a card, and gave cash as bd gift. Ginny sent us pic of the card after getting back to sg. Wish her good health and happiness. May our friendship be strong and lasting.

Count down!

During the work week of 27-30 Jul, I was counting down to my Malacca trip with Lili, Joc and Ginny on the weekend.  I sent them teasers from Tuesday, all the way to Friday morning before we were to meet for breakfast at 8 am.

Hope this brighten your mood too:

28 Jul

29 Jul

30 Jul

31 Jul

我是好汉

During some of WK's business trips, he took the opportunities to travel to place of interest.  I have always been "jealous" of 2 of such trips, which were Niagara falls and and Great-wall of China.  Finally I was able to experience the Great-wall this year May.

A colleague offer to bring us there.  He's a Singaporean, who has live in China for close to 20 years.  He brought us to 慕田峪, which has lesser tourist.

It was a very hot day, but unlike humid Singapore, it felt less tiring in the dry heat of Beijing.  We  can start tracking from station 9, but opt to take the cable car to a higher entrance.  This is a shot from the cable car.

A group photo outside station 14 (after alighting the cable car, before our climb).

Entrance to the wall.  Here we met a 92 year old woman being carried down this flight of stairs.  We do not know how much she walked, but everyone's still impressed and clapped for her.

It was a good day, with very little people.  Even got this shot:

My aim is the top station at the middle of this photo.  The end of this route is a few more stations away, on the left hand side of this photo.

A beautiful pic of the side of the wall

I wonder, if there is incarnation, who were people like Roy N and Amos Y in the Qing dynasty?  Freedom fighter?  Dictator hater?

After an hour or more, finally I'm near my aim.  A photo of the view downwards:

My colleague Shawn (Malaysian) taking a rest before our final flight of stairs.  Here's for the record: when going up that flight of stairs, I'm actually on all fours!  It's very ver steep.

Finally!

I didn't read this, but took a picture for remembrance seek.

One down!