And yes, we finally made a day for Dawn to build sand castle! And I discovered something new about my hubby …..

He had no idea how to build a sand castle!! No wonder the last time, there wasn’t a proper photo taken for a sand castle!

And under the guide of his brilliant wife, we built our castle together!

Work half d0ne..spot the block beside the sand hill?  All along Dawn didn’t want to build the castle with us, she said that she is already building the castle by piling the sand up..

So after the brilliant wife impact the sand castle building skills to the dear hubby, she retreated to the picnic mat :p See how hardworking the dear hubby was!

Ta-da! Look at our castle! Like some Government House hor? Still got wall around it..

Our castle beside Dawn’s hill castle…

It was indeed tiring to squat and build sandcastle, I could feel that my legs were going to give way anytime..

The time flew by…seconds, minutes and hours…

Then it was the days which flew..

And the months..

The year just flew by…

Indeed live up to my name..Busy Mommy.

Having 2 kids really took up most of our time..lesser personal time now, and both hubby & I treasure our couple time and our own personal space whenever we have the opportunity.

We used to be able to sleep at 2am and wake up at 7am to leave for work…now we will start doing the nodding exercise when it’s 11pm.  Those were the days.

But Year 2011 was a rather fruitful year.  Had targets, reached targets and exceeded targets.  Small success but gave us a sense of achievement and joy.  To some other, the small success might be nothing to cheer about, but in our family, small achievement deserves cheers!

Resolutions may not be the right way to end a year and start a new year…for I believe that resolutions will still be resolutions by the end of that new year. Set reasonable goals or targets instead, and there’s surely a report card by the end of the year – whether it’s met, not met or exceeded.

Gambatte everyone! Jia you for the new year!

Delicious Chocolate cake , free from Canele for my tablet purchase…

After thinking a long time, finally decided to buy the 10.1 as a present for myself

Android is not so hard to use after all!  And customisation is best! And widgets!

Maybe I will change my mobile to Android too :p

We had shipped in a Baby Monitor from US too…after a round of research done by dear hubby.

The cost is definitely much cheaper than buying the same one in Singapore..and it became very helpful as we do not need to keep peeping from the door to check whether Eva had woke from her sleep..

We took a  day leave after our trip from Batam to spend time with Dawn and decided to bring her there so that she can have some fun + we can have some rest at the same time.  Because this place comes with a “cafe” beside the playground so that parents can enjoy a cup of coffee while the kids play! How good is that!

Rather big indoor playground…

Hello Dawn!

The entrnace fee comes with a free cup of coffee and the cafe serves food too! There’s also internet to use but the connection keep dropping though…and you will need to ask the staff for the password to access the network.  It’s much worth it to go there on weekdays as it’s unlimited play for 1 entrance fee while the weekends are charged by hour.

Tired Dawn trying to smile ‘cos mummy wants to take photo…

And she saw the stairs beside and insisted to take another photo…

Good place to keep your kids entertained and give the parents some coffee time

Peppa Pig!  Don’t go “huh”….you will soon realised that they are so cute!

Dawn love watching Peppa Pig via You Tube and she learn quite alot of stuff from there..including silly things..

I was having a hipcup the other day and she started telling me to jump up and down to stop the hipcup…and when I asked her where she learn it from, she said Peppa Pig!

Watch this, and you will like it too! More episodes available in You Tube!

Mummy : Ya lor, Because each time Dawn Dawn made mummy angry, mummy will have a pimple on the face.

A few days later…

Mummy : Dawn, how come your have a pimple (red spot) on your face?

Dawn : Because Mummy made me angry lo…

Mummy : ……..

The usual colourful design ….

The pool overlooks the sea!

Our room faced the city – the famous sight of “Welcome to Batam”.

Here’s the Mega Mall with a hypermart and a cinema inside.

Our room for the night…simple and new room.  Quite big as there’s ample space to put a rollaway. Quite a deal for a room at SGD$60 for the night.

We decided to do something different this trip as we had been to Batam for quite a few times already.  We just have to catch a cheap movie here! So we went to XXI at Mega Mall to catch Tin Tin 3D! And guess how much? About $7 per person for a 3D show! And it’s in English & no singing of National Anthem before the show :p

We had also decided not to buy any children clothes for Dawn & Eva as they have still a number of clothes and new ones for the coming CNY…so we spent the time buying what we need from Hypermart.

My friends do asked me what’s there to buy from Batam..well, you really need to compare and observe if you really want to have “some” savings.  For example, Sunsilk brand of shampoo, conditioner and serum are CHEAP there…it’s even cheaper than going to People’s Park to buy..and for ladies, pads sold in Batam is also cheaper (and the material & comfortable level is comparable to those sold in Singapore)..I think I mentioned Maybelline in my previous entry (which I kind of regret because when I went over there this time, the Maybelline shelves were almost EMPTY after the Sat-Sun crowd!).  Alot of Singaporeans will buy lots of instant noodles but we came to a conclusion that we still prefer the taste of instant noodles here in Singapore. Batteries, children toothbrushes, solempas, even philips light bulbs are cheap there.  If you are just there for a vacation and have a luggage space, then why not?

The hotel – taken from Mega Mall

We went back to the hotel to put our loots and decided to go to the seafood restaurant to have our dinner.  For so many trips to Batam, we had never tried the “cheap” seafood where almost everyone who went to Batam will rave about.

So we took a cab from the hotel and off we went! Golden Prawn 933!

In a “Kelong” like setting…eating by the sea (or water) :p

You get to chose your own seafood, such as live crabs, lobsters etc…The only thing is if you want prawns, they are not live!

We ordered Kang Kong – delicious!

Salted Egg Crab – worth the money! Delicious!

Oat Prawns – Oats are nice…Prawns are not so fresh but still ok la…personally like prawns which can be detached from the shell easily and not have to eat together with the shell…

Super nice to the pocket…and the cab driver waited for us to finish the dinner and brought us back to the hotel.  I actually wanted to ask him to help us buy satay or street cooked food on our way back as we passed by so many stalls which seems to be selling delicious food too! But we were too full then and decided we could be over eating …but kind of regretted after 3 hours later in the hotel room…

The next day lunch, we tried another place where they serve authentic Indonesia food.  This place is in Batam centre, at level 3 or 4, think the shop name is call Cohan.

Can never go without this….

Nasi Goreng..that satisfied my craving then and making it start again while writing this…

Grilled chicken…if only they also had marinated the inside…

VERY spicy Kang Kong – still prefer the one we had in Golden Prawn..

Fried Tempeh…talking about tempeh, I never was a fan of tempeh, or rather, I never set my teeth into tempeh after 1 try years ago.  It was during my last Batam trip, dear encouraged me to try and keep saying that the tempeh in Indonesia is very different from the ones in Singapore…and so I tried…and it’s TRUE! They do not have the awful smell or the taste, and it taste nice the more you chew on it!

Chicken Satay..tender meat but the ends were not cooked…

Fried Fish..

and Tofu…which those in Rio (Ayam Penyet) is better…

Rather cheap food and a satisfied lunch..

And that concludes our 2D1N stay at the new hotel with the very familiar Shopping Centre..

I really am looking forward for a longer vacation without the 2 kids to somewhere new..where both of us will feel fresh and learn new things..the trip to Tokyo is always in our memory and I wish it’s soon for another one…

And last year we had a good afternoon tea with baby Eva still in the tummy…this year, we took leave from work (and home :p) to have a lunch buffet in the line!

My 1st time there and only realised that that online booking actually offers good discount to the lunch buffet, too bad it doesn’t apply to bookings done on the day itself

The light reflected on the floor tiles before the entrance….

Had to walk a LONG way from Orchard MRT to the hotel  I think no more 2nd time walking to Shang anymore..

The food…I long heard from alot of friends that the line is a must try…but sad to say, I was not very fascinated by the buffet spread

Sashimi – can’t go wrong unless it’s not fresh.. The cut was thick!

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They serve Salmon belly too…but it’s not good as the salmon sashimi somehow…

The chicken, the potatoes, and the sausages…

The Indian station – Hubby was happy when he saw the Naan but he was so disappointed after a bite…and I told him it’s the worst naan that we have eaten…ever! It’s worst than the naan that we brought from The Soup Spoon! Gosh!

The Sushi…s0-s0

The seafood – the 1st crab claw that I ate was really sweet, but not so for the rest..the prawns were OK.

Ok, I was not expecting much for the rest of the food after all the previous food that we have tasted..but I went WOW with the Laksa…it was not watery, in fact the gravy was thick and delicious AND HOT without the chilli! Shiok! And it has the quail eggs!

Prawn noodles! Ok la – compared to some places which served really very tasteless prawn soup…

Wanton noodles – no need to try, don’t waste your stomach space :p

They serve Kopi Terik or Teh Terik…

Drunken prawns…tried this after we had our desserts as it ran out for a while..

My happy Lao Gong..not because of the food, but because of my presence!

Desserts time…

Nothing much to mention except for the mont blac (bottom left on picture) and the tiramisu…the mango pudding was quite good too…

Oh, the jelly has a childhood taste…those jelly which I bought from the drink stall during my primary school days from my pocket money and do not dare to tell my mom I ate jelly for lunch :p

If we had the 40% discount, the buffet would be worth it, but for the full price which we had paid, it’s really not worth the food & the reputation that it had established..Seems to have felt that the food were not of standards because of the huge discount that it gave to those who made a prior online booking and shortchange those who had paid full price.. Question is, why should they be penalizing those who did not make prior booking as firstly the place is not full, business still has to go one even it’s 1 guest, shouldn’t they welcome more one-the-day booking since it increase their patronage for the day…

No more the line buffet for us, unless we have the discounted fare…