What are you worrying about?

One day, I took a pix of this and whatsapped to my col Foo in Hong Kong.

 

Before you can say, ewww.. what the hell is that?? @_@

They are actually tea leaves, and I heard it's quite expensive.. I just wanted to know what they are called..

Foo, instead of telling me more about where to get the tea leaves, he just asked.. "Hey, I look at your palm, there're so many lines.. Is there something troubling you?"

Well, to say I'm happy go lucky or contented now is a lie.. of course I have many things that worry me right now.. plenty..

I'm most worried about my Jboy, on when will he start talking more to us?

I'm worried about his motor skills, his writing, his health, his everything!

I'm worried if I can ever find a suitable specialist that can help him with his problems.

I'm worried about my sister on her condition. Praying she will stay healthy always.

I'm worried if Roy will land in a good job, with regular working hours.

I'm worried for my buddy Yong, who's having a difficult pregnancy.

I'm worried about my spine, which the sinseh said might aggravate next time when I'm older.

I'm worried about my mom's health, she sometimes look so tired at the end of the day.

I'm worried coming end of the year, when my new nephew/niece arrives, that there will be more people crowding at my place!

I'm worried that my mom can't cope taking care of so many kids.

I'm worried that I might need to engage another helper which I don't want!

I'm worried that my present maid might not want to renew her contract.

I'm worried that I might need to quit to be a stay home mom.

I'm worried that I might not be able to travel this year.

I'm worried about my Yoyo in Manchester.

I'm worried that my insomnia might get worse, which is why I sleep like a log during the weekend afternoons. 

I'm worried about my eyebags, which everybody is asking why I look so tired every morning.

I'm worried that my hair is thinning, it got worse after I had J.

I'm worried that I might get a depression, what with all the worryings..

I need a beer! *yawnzz**

On 2nd thought, maybe not. Sinseh told me to avoid cold stuff..

I need kopi! *yawnzz***

Dry spell

I'm so slacked.. Just uploading a few pictures can take weeks.. We didn't go anywhere special so nothing much worth taking.. Anyway, still managed to squeeze out some random shots for you..

Went to buy cupcakes for my buddy Yong, who touched down on her birthday. She's finally back, for good. :)
I think it's not easy, a really tough decision for her. She has to give up everything in seattle and come back here to start afresh.. Huge sacrifice of mummy!

Letting Roy choose for a change..

The colours and varieties are so attractive but there're a tact too sweet for us..

As usual, the kids were not interested in posing for us..
Happy birthday, my dear friend.

We were at isetan scotts after class one saturday as Roy wanted to get a golfing glove. J preferred to use his hand rather than the golf club.. =_=

At my brother's place in sembawang. So far the boys can play along together without getting into a fight.. yet..

J still loves his Thomas train set best.. His very first set, a prezzie from Carmen.. :)

Paying a visit to my sister's col Eileen. She's very sweet, always give J lotsa stuff. So we got her kids some candies from Tokyo too.

I love the boys in stripes..

His hair look so long here! Time for a haircut!

Playing with Eileen's boy's toy cars..

We took J for a haircut at Dennis's longtime hairdresser. He has been visiting that salon since his teens.. maybe more than 20 years.. So loyal.. :)

Always so grouchy looking while waiting to go into class.

We bought this pair of slippers, that mop the floor at the same time you walk on. J insisted on wearing them.. I thought they went well with his attire that day. Asking him to do the salute pose for me.
His short fringe makes him look comical here..

Bashful look here..

Travelling to Tokyo with mum & kid, @ Citadines Shinjuku, March 2012

Hey peeps, sorry to keep you waiting.. Just counted that I've added 133 pictures to this post, omg! So proud of myself! Go go read.. :)

I'm back from a week's trip to Tokyo (again!), this time bringing J & mum in tow.. Well, mum always lament why we never bring J for trips, so this time she came along & will get to witness all the pros & cons, no explanation needed..

We took the night flight, thinking that J can sleep on board since it's so late.. but no.. he got all uncomfy & cranky cos he knew it's not his bed and made so much noise.. Mum & I were so busy coaxing him ended up we didn't catch any sleep.. Zzz..
No more overnight flights for him next time!

Soufong, a col from T3 was also on the flight with her husband. All of us looking tired & unwashed upon arrival. They're already in their warm jackets while we're still cool about it, lol..

ps: Noticed the same fringe partings for me & J? Lol.. Like mum like son!
pss: It might seemed like I'm strangling him but it's actually an effort to make him turn to face the camera! Lololololol...

As we can only check in at 1400hrs, so we decided to check out the places around the neighbourhood, specially the convenient stores.. Mum pausing in her footsteps & admiring the flowers..

Such lovely blooms.. Not just the sakura.. A whole lot of varieties of flowers are blooming on the streets..

A uncle feeding the pigeons, along the streets.. Somehow, their pigeons looked cleaner than ours.. lol..

So relieved when we can finally step into the room. This time round, I decided to book a service apartment instead of the usual hotel in shinjuku mainly because of mum & J. The rooms at Citadines are generally bigger & more spacious as they have a kitchenette too. My mum's eyes lit up when she saw the little kitchen.. :)

We were all tired after a long flight and couldn't wait to wash up and rest. But first thing first, making sure J has his milk, cannot let him go hungry nor cold one..

Our room consists of a queen size bed & a sofa bed and it's quite well-equipped. A working desk is essential for guests who're staying long term.

J started to develop some cold rashes on his face.. But it's just some pink dots instead of the usual red patches.. *Thank goodness**
Still drinking from the bottle, still the baby.. :P

I love Citadines, just so touched at their thoughfulness.. Everything is provided for.. there's even a toastbox, not that we're using it though..

And utensils for cooking too.. Yes, we can cook in the room! And we don't have to wash up, just leave the dirty plates in the sink & the housekeeper will replace them everyday. Ahhh.. perfect for lazy people like moi.. :)

Of course you must be wondering, so much of good food in Tokyo, why bother to cook? Well, my mum has to cook for our prince Jared. She's worried the food outside might not be J's liking so she has to make sure he's well fed before we go out..

There's this Lawson 100yen shop just a stone throw away from the apartment that sell lots of groceries & lots of sauces in little bottles. What a ingenious idea to open near to the apartment, knowing that people like us only need small portions of seasoning for cooking.. *love**

As J's still sleeping, mum stayed behind and asked us to go out for dinner. We simply had to make a trip to our favourite hunt in shinjuku, katsu don! Still good.. Told Roy he don't have to order upsize, he can finish up mine later.. :P

Mad love this jar of pickles.. Goes extremely well with the katsu don, yummy!

J's awake from his long nap & we got him fries from KFC. My mum wolfed down the 2 piece chicken.. Either she's very hungry or the chicken was extremely delicious.. :)

So cute, there's a sliding door to make partition to separate the beds in case you need privacy. Also can block out some of Roy's snoring.. @_@
It doesn't help that my mum snores too.. I had 5 sleepless nights during the vacation.. Good thing we always return to the apartment early evening so that I can catch a few winks of sleep..

What's so impressive was that I can slide the tv over to my side to watch and not disturb Roy's slumber.. All the wires are cleverly hidden behind.. Good or what?!!


Storing our stuff in the cabinets, even the fridge.. As if we're staying there for weeks right? Lol..


Plenty of space for our clothes.. Lovely..

A glimpse of the building from the outside.. From afar, I can see the nice shade of blue & yellow.. You can't miss it..

Jboy insisted on walking on the yellow strip pavement. It's my version of the yellow brick road.

Usually he likes to walk on his own but will want to hold our hands when taking the stairs or escalator..

We went to Tokyo station as we wanted to go to take the skybus nearby. At the underground shopping mall called Yaesu inside the station. A lot of shops selling cute stuff but I can't take my own sweet time to shop!

J's having a good time playing with the hammies.. Everything is irritatingly cute!

Food outside quite limited for my mum as she doesn't take pork. So we normally settle for fish, chicken and prawns..

Think I gotta train J how to eat by himself soon, my mum spoils him too much!

Another example of clean streets and beautiful blooms. We're at their business district, heading to Mitsubishi Building (next to Marunouchi Building)

On the skybus. Even though it's sunny that day but it's still quite chilly when the wind hit you..

A cute cat mascot for a local tv station.

Very very clean road & hardly any traffic, maybe cos it's a sunday.

You can see a lot of japs out in the good sunny weather. They love the heat.

J has this habit of touching the walls, glasses etc. Have to clean his hands more often in case he decides to put into his mouth..

A doggy in a sweater caught our attention.

Beautiful reflection of the clouds..

Beautiful blue sky and skyscrapers..

J loves to take trains & buses so must take a pic of the red bus to show him when he's older..

The course took about an hour and it covered places like Imperial Palace, National Museum of Modern Art, British Embassy, National Theater, Supreme Court, Diet Building, Govt ministries & Ginza.

A closer pix of me & my preciousss...

Nomming on the chocolate chip bread. I think cos the weather was cold, J's constantly hungry & keep asking for snacks.

After settling J back in the apartment, we were out once again searching for something hot & yummy. Have to eat ramen on our own as my mum can't take.. And it was sooooo good, omg..

Went to harajuku as it's relatively nearby shinjuku.. Looks more colourful at night..

This is actually their train station.

School girls with short short skirts.. Maybe their teachers (most likely males) approve of them donning short skirts too.. Lol..

We decided to have eggs and porridge for brekkie one morning as we saw how J enjoyed it so much.. Everybody knows that food is exceptionally good in Japan, even their eggs taste better. The yolks are so fresh & bigger.. Just go with some sauce taste so good...

Rice no doubt is much nicer and when you use it to cook porridge, it's so smooth and gooey.. And the sweet potatoes are super sweet..

J has been asking to go to the zoo for the past few days so we went to the nearest zoo at Ueno park. I can smelled the zoo from afar.. *shudders**
The zoo's situated within the park, the park within the city. Hardly any greenery or forestry.. I pity the animals.. But they seemed to be well-taken care of by the keepers.

Brotherhood.
Carmen suggested I should leash J by the wrist too but she couldn't pass to me soon enough..
So we're constantly watching out for J with eagle eyes..

This cockeral is super tamed and he's not even chained up.

Penguins enjoying the cold weather too..

The flamigoes getting bored cos there's no pond for them.. lol..

This shoebill stork looked so still that it looked like a fake bird..

My two dimpled boys.. Love them sooooo much..!
*even though they frequently drive me crazy.. ('',)**

We proceeded to the green house to see all the reptiles inside. They need the heat to survive..

A huge desert tortoise, look so big compared to the kids.

The keeper giving the iguana a loving pat..

First bloom of sakura!

Pretty in pink. Too bad we came a week early if not we could've see the sakura in their full glory. But it would mean the parks will be super duper packed with people, wth..

Jap kids doing the peace signs.. It's their favorite pose..

Back at Ueno market.
Really wanted to try the plump juicy strawberries but I'm worried it might be sour plus it's so ex.. It's easily about S$12-14.

Obasan showing J the different types of dried scallops, as if he understands.. Lol..

Our apartment is relatively close to the back of shinjuku, at the red light district or so called Kabuki. The neon lights are alluring..

Went to another ramen shop. There's a basket at the back of every seat for us to place our bags in there.. Simple yet ingenious idea..

A lot of singles eating by themselves.. It's the norm nowadays in Japan, the Japs choose to remain single and rich.. :P

Deep fried dumplings never taste so good..

The soup for this charsiew is light & full of favour & lots of veges to go along with..

Had a hot cuppa at the cafe near the apartment..

The only pix that I took of me & Roy. Really enjoyed the few hours of timeout that my mum gave us.. Lol..

All the baristas are young chaps.. Like most of the people who serve us are young japs.. wonder where all the senior citizens do for a living?

Went to the lawson 100 shop to buy more fish for my mum, it's super convenient.. They're all marinated and in small portions, my mum just have to grill a bit and it's ready to be eaten.. Very tasty somemore.. And it's so affordable! About S$1.60 for practically everything! Those selling here cost a lot more as they're all imported goods.

I'm glad J's face look sharper like Roy's compared to my round shape face cos he's a boy mah..

This boy likes to cross his leg just like the adults, no idea where he learn from..

Worse that he rests his leg on my leg..!

My mum saw a lottery booth at the station and asked Roy to get a scratch & win ticket.. No such luck though.. :P

They can sell drinks & stuff at their train stations but you'll need to keep the rubbish until you leave the station as there's no bins inside the stations just like ours..

This vending machine is a TV screen that can show other commercials too, nice..

My brown hair boy..

Finally reached disneyland after an hour's train ride..

J's wowed by all the surroundings and colourful flowers..

Such lovely tulips..

Feel like getting a balloon for J but I know it'll just be a waste of $ as he doesn't appreciate one.. Might as well save up the $ for food.. Lol..

The band consisted of some ladies too, so it's not just a thing for the guys..

All the kids as well as some adults were entralled by the marching and music of the band..

For a moment I was wondering why the sea of people that day? I chose to go on a tuesday, and there's no public holiday too.. Apparently, there's some holiday for the school kids that week and all the themeparks were swarmed with schoolchildren.. Argghhhh!!!

Had to find something safe for my mum to eat for lunch. Their pizzas are nice!

Even the stirrers are cute!

Just looking at the sea of people is enough to make me giddy!

No choice had to go to It's a Small World ride as it's one of the fastest moving queues.

It was quite sunny that day so I whipped out my brolly. Apparently, I'm the only one who's using a brolly, the rest of the locals just queue quietly in the hot sun.. =_=

There's a lot of coins in the water so Roy made J tossed one in too.. Roy prayed for good health and that he can get a good job soon. Lol..

Just showed you one pix inside as there's nothing interesting about it..

But Japanese kids are super cute, even when they're digging for booger.. Hee..

Jessie from Toy Story. J refused to go over to take pix with her, I think he's a little freaked out..

Most of the characters will entertain the kids & will rather take pixs with them than with the adults..

Woody! And he's full of actions..

The huge crowd made me lost interest in taking pixs.. I just wanna get out of the themepark asap mann..

Managed to take one miserable pix of the parade though..

All & all, we only managed to take only two rides, It's a small world & Snow white ride. And we only lasted four hours in Disneyland.. Four hours?!?! Almost same as Disneyland HK. And tickets per adult cost around S$84 and my mum's senior discount cost S$72. Luckily it's still free for J. Anyway, total waste of my money. No more themeparks for J until he's much older & can appreciate the rides more! My yen... $$$$...

During the trip, sometimes when J misbehaved, Roy and I will give him the "death-stare".. Means stare at him long & hard.. Boy, he can stare back at us without a blink mann but this time I won. He stared at me until his eyeballs rolled up and he's off to dreamland..
I guessed he's too tired after the whole waiting game at disneyland..

I wanted to eat ramen again, so we walked around shinjuku main station to see if we can find any new shop to try. Stumbled across a inconspicuous little restaurant smacked right in between some sleazy shops.. My sharp eyes caught a pix of bowls of ramen and in we went. It's quite authentic and old, and judging from the steady flow of people walking in & out, we reckon the ramen must be good. Waiting in anticipation.

Miso ramen is my new found favourite as I like my soup base to be slightly milky & thick. Never mind the salty, I can always wash down with green tea. And this bowl did not failed me, it's soooooo good. Really awesome! Made a mental note next time to go to the land of ramen, Fukuoka and have ramen overdose mann..

Walking on the yellow brick road again.. Lucky thing we brought the stroller along as we cannot be carrying him all the time, even though he's not that heavy.. I think all the layers of clothing more or less added some extra weight in too.. Hee..

Munching on pancake.. He likes most of the pastries & bread that we bought from Lawson 100.. So I guess they must be really nice..

A monk with his alms bowl waiting for donations.. I wouldn't know how much I should give also..

Super juicy sweet melon. One piece cost 100 or 200 yen I think and that's about S$1.6 or $3.20.

As the weather is good, all the meaty stuff can be displayed out without turning bad.. They're mostly fish by the way & I don't smell any fishy smell at all. No flies too..

Grilled unagi & slight charred at the edges.. Shiok!

It was mum's birthday and we decided to surprised her with a cake on our way out to pack for food. Isetan closes at 8pm on time so we waited & loitered around and waited for the discounts to start.. Heh heh..

Pandan cake lookalike.. And they're so tall, wondering how they cut the portions out mann..

All of them looked so nice that I wouldn't bear to eat them up.

All the sticks of meat are to die for.. ahhhhhh!!

These boxes look like our traditonal cake boxes, except that they're pictures of squirrels!

Exceptionally crowded nearing closing hours, everybody's waiting for the price slashing!

Big tray of kong bak.

Roy hasn't forgotten his recent role as a HDB Ah Lau and joined in with all the obasans to see what good offers they having.. Lol..

All the food was quickly snapped up, all buying back for dinner or snacks..

These are what we got from isetan & also mum's favorite KFC (original flavour).

I know why she likes them so much.. The chicken was well marinated and it's so succulent. Totally different from those back here..

I love their bento set even though it's cold and slight expensive. I love anything that's packed into a lunchbox lah.. Their veges consisted of turnip, seaweed, black fugus, mushroom, broccoli, green pepper, pumpkin, lotus, cherry tomato & celery. They're sooooo good and full of flavour.. And the orange thingy was actually pumpkin but it tasted like sweet potato cos it's so sweet. Regret not getting another set.

I know OB would love to eat the kong bak, if he's still eating them.. Lol..

Tiger prawns for Roy & mum.

J's already asleep by the time we reached home. Couldn't wake him up, think he's mad tired.
He's most innocent & angelic when he's sleeping. Lol..

But when we asked,"Jared, you wanna eat cake? Happy birthday cake!"
His eyes opened in a flash and he sit up in a daze..

Initially I wanted a fruit cake cos it's healthier but Roy wanted a chocolate cake instead. No choice since he'll be the one finishing up the cake!

Even the Happy Birthday tag looked so much nicer than ours..

Happy Birthday to Grams. A big wet kiss for her!

And he got to blow the candle out for her.

After eating the cake, he plonked right back to sleep.. =_=

We continued to finish up the rest of the food and cleared up the table. And we stayed up to chit-chat for a while, afterall it's our last night at the apartment.

Now peeps, if you ever choose to stay at Citadines in future, remember to avoid staying at rooms 10 and 11, that depends on which floor you staying at as there are no windows for these 2 rooms. Like we stayed on the 8th floor, so it's room 810 & 811.

J loves sitting on our red luggage. I remembered he insisted on sitting on it for a ride when we went to hk in may 2010, and he's about 22 months old.

Colourful earphones for the kids.. J doesn't insist on walking up and down the aisle nor get out from his seat but still, he cannot sit for long and will want to stand up to look around.. Climbed to my seat and to mum's.. Very busy lah..

J's kids meal. He managed to finish all the nuggets and the omelette with tomato rice inside. The cabin food out from Japan are always good. I took his bun by the way, it went very well with the butter. And because I was busy feeding J, the bimbotic stewardess missed my share and I couldn't get to eat the japanese meal on board cos it's all taken up! I love their cold soba! :(

And we're allowed to take the lunchbox back for him. Just so cute to watch him carrying a little case out from the aircraft, like a little businessman.. :)

This time round, we didn't get the chance to shop much and we got mostly foodstuff back. Wish I can bring the whole Lawson 100 back!

Really cherished the timeout by ourselves and really appreciated that my mum came along & help me to babysit J. But she too agreed that it's too tiring & troublesome to bring J along for trips like this as we hardly had the chance to do anything else. This boy has no patience at all! Countries like NZ or Aust will be more suitable as besides the sceneries, there's nothing else to do come 5pm as all the stores will be closed by then..
Or maybe when my sis & Dennis come along for the trip.. Then I know that J will definitely be in good hands.. Lol.. *cheeky smile**