A Rewarding Shopping Day at Great Singapore Sale (GSS)

Last week, I dated both my children for a day of GSS shopping. With them growing so rapidly & seeing them always busy with their school works & friends, it is really not a easy task to find a day when both of them are free. Finally, a weekday was reserved & there we went on our shopping spree for the whole day.

It was a day well spent with them not just merely getting to buy the things we had wanted for ourselves. It was fun helping each other to make up our minds on the colour selections & many other final details before deciding on the purchases. In between our shopping, we stopped to rest our tired legs & to enjoy our coffee break at Toast Box.

There were so much to see & buy just along the stretch of shopping centres in Orchard Road alone. After a day of tired but happy shopping, the three of us landed ourselves for a good Chinese dinner at Crystal Jade in Ngee Ann City. Hmmm . . . the pan-fried black pepper beef cubes with wine, steam cod & their spinach with three types of eggs in superior stock were all very yummy. My boy highly recommended the dish of beef. The texture & fragrance was done just right to be accompanied with rice.

Too bad, their dad was too busy with his work & couldn't join us for dinner that evening. After dinner, we continued our last stop of shopping at Heeren before their dad came to fetch us home. After dropping off the children to go home with all our shopping stuffs, I accompanied their dad for his dinner. Just giving him my companionship was also a delight although I couldn't join him to eat.

New Cell Group Bonding

In the mist of our busy schedule, our cell members have found time during the start of June school holidays for relaxation & bonding at National Service Resort & Country Club . We had a bbq dinner on the last night of our stay. A sumptuous spread of food were prepared by various members of our group. We had satays, marinated stingrays, marinated pork chops, 2 types of marinated chicken wings (mustard, honey & herb and also teriyaki), beautiful mixed vegetables & fruits salads, chicken curry, sausages, cuttlefish balls, ice-creams, agar agar, fruits & wine.

So, as best said, let that picture speak a thousand words . . . . . .






More chefs at work. Hahaha ... Hurry, hurry, many are getting hungry.


Child labour? Why not? Under daddy's supervision is perfectly acceptable.




























Hey, who cooked it?


Byran, look here! you're on candid camera.


Thanks David, you've brightened our day! We love your shirt.






Tempting, right?'










"Two's a company, three's a crowd." Wrong, who said that? It should be "Two's a company, three's a party"


four's a celebration; and five's . . . .


Yum, yum, not bluffing you, the satay tastes reeeeal good ... hmmm ...







Want to know how we handle the leftovers? Oh well! losers eat them all. Poor Joel, must have gotten to eat most of them . . . .



Taking a break from eating.

GCS Gathering

It's party time!

Nearly a hundred of us, members of Green Culture came together for a fun-filled evening at Green Baron's place on the 23rd of May. He has so graciously booked his condo function room to host this memorable event for all of us. Another person whom we have to thank is Ah Kee. She has offered herself voluntarily to co-ordinate & organize this grand event. Mind you, not an easy task! Ah Kee has really done us a big favour.

It was my first time meeting so many member gardeners from the Green Culture since becoming a member last year. I have learned from many experienced gardeners the know-how of growing both ornamental plants & also the edibles. Meeting & getting to know the members in person has indeed reinforced our friendship & trust when chatting with them via the online forum.

Members brought their plants, seeds & cuttings to do their exchanges with fellow members. Many of them were just very generous & gave away what they have brought along with them to the function. I was very fortunate to have received many interesting plants. I have now added mint, thai basil, cat whiskers, periwinkles, dill, cactus, coleus (painted nettle), cockscomb, fancy leaf caladium, syngonium (pink green) balsam & even a dragon's tongue (if I am correct with the name) to my collection.

Green Baron has also let us toured his condo compound & introduced to us many different plants & fruit trees along the way before we went up to visit his balcony garden in his house. All his plants & collections are enough to prove to his visitors what a seasoned gardener he is. I am utterly impressed!

Plants was of course the star of the evening. However, Green Culture members are also fine food lovers; so needless to say, there was that spread of yummy food to pamper everyone's taste palate. In fact, many of them contributed their home-cooked specialities.

So can you imagine; with all the fine food, interesting topics of plants & exchanges topping up with great companies, can anyone tell me who will not be looking forward to our next gathering?

By the way, our next gathering will be the 5th anniversary celebration of Green Culture in four months' time.

HDB Ice Cream Peddler

This is a common scene in my country local housing estate (HDB).

On alternate Saturday afternoons, at about 2pm, the ice-cream vendor will park his mobile ice-cream cart at a shady corner of the park and starts ringing his bell. He is very wise to choose a corner where there is always a constant human traffic. People walking to and fro the estate and the bus stop will surely not miss him, especially on a hot and humid afternoon. Anyway, he already has a regular pool of customers faithfully waiting for him on those Saturdays. One of them is my mum. My boy and her are supporters of his ice-cream. Cheap and good. One of the indulgences both grandma and her grandson will enjoy together every alternate weekend.

My mum will delightfully announce to my boy that the ice-cream "uncle" has arrived. She will stop at anything she is doing and go downstair quickly to queue for her turn to buy the smooth creamy ice-cream. Prior to that, she will usually discuss with my boy which two flavours they want to get for that particular Saturday. They have many nice flavours to choose from. Chocolate, strawberries, raspberries, vanilla, corn, durian and coffee. The ice-cream vendor will take out a big slab of ice-cream from his mobile cart freezer, cut them into smaller thick rectangular slices and stick each individual slice between two pieces of crispy waffle biscuits. Wala! there, he passes his ice-cream sandwiches to his queueing customers. Each sandwich costs 70 cents. Or you can also buy from him the whole ice-cream slab for $5 which is usually sold for $7 at other upmarket outlets. Each slab can be cut into eight smaller rectangular slices. So it is always more economical to get the whole slab home but do request ice-cream uncle to slice it up for you individually with the wrapper still attached. He will generously pack for you many pieces of waffles biscuits to be used later when you make the ice-cream sandwiches at home.