Beautiful weekend

It was one of those unexpectedly blissful weekends. Started on Friday evening when KH came home unexpectedly early at 5pm because 'Tua Pek Kong' was moving temple near his workplace - road closures were expected, so the company did the wise thing and let everyone off early.

With this 'bonus', we packed the kids in the car and drove to Sentosa. Had dinner outdoors at the Koufu food court. The food was not great, but we all had a good time. There's something to be said about eating in the balmy sea air, sand beneath your feet. The kids played on the big net, we crossed the suspension bridge to the 'southernmost point of continental asia' (roll eyes here!) and checked out the islands and the ships in the distance. It was dusk, so all the lights were on and in the half-light, they looked like twinkly Christmas lights far away. Back on shore, the kids and KH did their usual stunts like "Who can climb this coconut tree?" So one by one, they inched up - yes including big buffalo honcho daddy KH - and literally hugged the tree at one point before jumping off. And of course, KH dusted off the usual "when I was young and living in a kampong in Malaysia..." stories for the kids!

We closed the night with an ice-cream treat at our favourite ice-cream joint - Island Creamery. Yum! And I finally found and bought my bottle of Port - so now I can finetune/rehearse the foie gras recipe before actually trying it out. Isaac is already licking his lips in anticipation. Also discovered La Petite Cuisine at Serene Centre - the menu sounds interesting. Nothing fancy or experimental, just plain ol' good straightforward French cooking. Confit de Canard and Foie Gras, Escargot in pastry. I like! Made a mental note to come back here one of these nights.

On Saturday morning, we watched Evan Almighty at Lido. OK, not cinema art in its finest moments. But Steve Carell and Morgan Freeman are always worth watching. The kids loved it. Interesting line that came out of the movie: When you pray for patience, does God give you patience or the opportunities to seek patience? Ah, read the fine print!! heh. I found that to be SO true.

On the not-so-good side, I saw someone I know doing something I'd rather not have seen. Was hanging about the cinema lobby when KH hissed at me to come over. He nodded towards a man standing nearby. We both know him. It was my friend's husband. He had his arm around a woman - NOT my friend. They were kissing and looking very lovey-dovey. I know this guy too - our families have met, interacted and his wife is pretty close to me. I know things were not good between them. And I know they have amicably agreed to lead separate lives while remaining married. But seeing this really brings it home to me. I find it quite pathetic and sad. And I was angry for my friend. There was no attempt to be discreet. I think he saw me. And took pains to sit far away from me in the cinema. Ah well. I wish the old days (where I could go up and whack him on the head with a heavy handbag) were alive and well! I won't tell my friend. What's the point? She already knows what a jerk he is.

The rest of Saturday progressed well - kids went for classes, I went to the Loft to meet some mummy-friends. Dinner was with the ILs - and surprisingly, it was a pleasant gathering I quite enjoyed. As usual, everyone left me alone so I came with my books/notes to plan Operation Japan. But towards the end, we still had some interesting conversation so the night was not a total boring loss after all.

Sunday, Gillian spent two hours with Granddad. Ah it brought back memories. :-) My dad used to drill me in Maths just before the PSLE too. At that time, I was hopeless in Maths. I remember him chain-smoking and agitatedly stubbing out cigarette after cigarette. I was working in a haze of cigarette smoke (passive smoking at its worst!) . And Dad was going on in exasperation: You GORBLOCK!! You STILL don't understand??? How many times must I explain this to you!!

Haha, oh that sounds SO familiar! This time, my dad had lovingly bought stacks of those school test papers for Gillian to work on. Never mind that Gillian was in EM3 and NOT EM2 as those papers were. Never mind she had the attention span of a gnat. Never mind that her reasoning/logic skills were so way off that we're stuck at Pri 4 maths! I warned Dad but Dad just waved it all off airily. So I was in some trepidation, wondering if Dad would explode or Gillian would still be in one piece by the time 'tuition' ended. I wondered how many times Dad would call Gillian Gorblock.

Not even once.

I went up to the house when it was done (the coward KH bailed out and chose to wait downstairs), to find both in good spirits. Dad waving his cigarette around (some things never change), a magnifying glass on the table (Dad not getting any younger) and Gillian grinning away. She's poor in ratio, he said. Work on it with her. Next week, he continued, Uncle Paul will take over. I gaped and then laughed. Geez, so my brother is getting roped into the action too eh? My daughter is sitting for the PSLE and my WHOLE family scrambles into action. Later Gillian told me that Uncle Paul said if she passed, he would give her money (!!) and Mama said that if she passed, she would bring her on a cruise (!!) . Mental note - speak to Mum and Paul about NOT giving bribes like this! I'm just waiting to see what carrot my sister will dangle from KL!

So in good spirits, we go to the Zoo, check out the new Orang Utan boardwalk and new Sea Safari show. Ah Meng has a new home - spiffy new glass enclosure. But poor lady sure looks lonely there.

The night and the weekend ended with a push-pull visit through the crowded aisles of the NTUC hypermart in AMK. Ugh, never again on a weekend. And the hungry tribe chomped down black peppar crayfish and wine chicken for dinner. Sheer bliss. That was a lovely weekend.