Week 22

I'm in a growth spurt. Last Saturday my weight was 54.8kg at the gynae. 1 week later, I'm 57kg! The good news is I can still see my feet although I feel like a burstable-watermelon after meals.

My current tummy size in week 22 (for the sake of Dylan and Alyssa who have not seen their small Ah Mai being preggers)!

Happy meal

Korean Shin Kim Chi noodles

- Load up with bak choy, cabbage, egg and chilli paid

Minced pork with french beans

-Marinate minced lean pork with soy sauce, fish sauce, sugar and chinese cooking wine for at least 30min. Fry garlic and pork, add french beans, chilli padi.

My simple and satisfying meal for one at home. Quick nutrition facts :-

- Protein: check. From pork and egg.

- Carbo: check. From noodles.

- Vitamins : check. From vege.

I'm ignoring the trans fat from noodles :)

Sticky glue

I'm a sticky glue - a term my girlfriends and I used to label boyfriends/husbands who are always ''around'' and love ''couple time''.

I like to spend my time with M. I enjoy the blissfulness of being together, even if we're doing our own thing, silently, as long as we're in the same room. The irony is I used to call him the sticky glue... always 'priding' and 'embracing' my independence / ME-time.

How pregnancy / marriage can change a person... Perhaps it's the hormones... Perhaps I'm just trying to cherish every bit of couple time before mojo's arrival :)

SoHo

H1N1 is so common now that our office doesn't really impose quarantine on those who have direct contact with H1N1 patients. So the fellas in "high risk categories" like moi are left to take matters into own hands- work from home. You may think it's cool to work from home but I don't think so...

Why?

1. No food: lack of good eateries in the neighbourhood (Prata doesn't count) and I'm too lazy to cook for one.


2. S .. L .. O.. W. connectivity: office web-based emails are slow and need to be refreshed to check for new mails. Ultra inconvenient!


3. Unproductive: despite having zero interruptions from irritating colleagues, I have constant writers block (maybe I need to see my boss's face to be motivated).


4. Lonely: I miss M more (blame it on the hormones)


5. Distractions: from the dogs next door, TV is just 5 steps from me, bedroom is 10 steps away!


6. Ergonomically unfriendly: My laptop screen is stoo small.. The dining table is my workstation - total mess now

*image from apartmenttherapy *

Quick facts about Mojo

Got a special request from a friend to update more about Mojo.

Quick facts (latest sonogram is unclear to post on blog)

Nick name: Mojo

Sex: 100% girl

Weight: 350 grams @ 21 weeks

Height: 14+cm

Features: Sharp chin like mom. Round nose. Her tummy size and overall body frame is 10% below average for now. I'm supposed to EAT MORE to help her put on more weight/grow

Personality: Rather active. Fluffy kicks here and there. Loves to be read at night*

* Erm...this is my own deduction. M reads to her everynight before I zzz. One night we were watching TV and past the normal reading time, she started to kick non-stop. So I asked M to read to her :-

SK: "Babe, i think mojo wants to be read"
Macho daddy: "Hey, we cannot give in so easily, we read when we want to read"
SK:...

Less than 5 minutes later

Macho daddy: "Ok, let's go and read to her." , "Mojo, you cannot bully us ah..."
SK:....

Outbreak

WL and I have coincidentally come into contact with people who have remotely contacted H1N1 patients. And guess what, there is nothing that we can do until we see symtoms! No one wants to do a test on us, no doctors want to see us.

Let me define "Remotely". It means I have contact with (A) who has contact with (B) who has contact with H1N1 patient (C).

(A) is not quarantining himself nor has any signs of flu/fever/sore throat. I don't have any symtoms either.

So what should I do?

i) Work from home to self-quarantine
ii) Nothing
iii) Scold (A) for being inconsiderate
vi) Wear a mask and continuing working
v) Avoid crowded places



I think I'll probably go with (ii) after (iii).

Retirement plan

I've found what I want to do when I retire! I'm going to teach cooking. Over the weekend, we attended a cooking class to surprise chef J for his birthday at Grandmothers Recipe. The chef, Rosaline Soon is a retired banker who conducts small cooking classes for maids, yuppies, friends, corporate team building etc. It's in a stylish yet cosy kitchen of her own in Thomson area.

Menu of the day - Beef Rendang, Ngor Hiong and Sambal Prawn. Never knew Rendang is such an easy dish to prepare. We spent 2.5 hours for the entire lesson with some hands-on time. It was fun, entertaining and yummy of course! Btw, I lurve her Miele stove and Barazzoni cookware!

Chatterboxed

Finally tried the over-hyped, over-priced Singapore’s most expensive chicken rice (S$22/plate).

Quantity: Generous for S$11
Chili: Average, not lethal
Rice: Very fragrant
Chicken: Average
View: Fantastic but irrelevant to me (acrophobic)
Final verdict: Won’t patronize if not for the one-for-one Amex card deal.

Navel gazing

Today, we have a special guest -WL. I reckon it would be fun to have some friends on my blog once in a while especially those who write randomly but never got down to blogging.

About the author :- a very dear friend who shared a big part of my life and best of all - she's preggers too! Our daily conversation now revolves mostly how we feel, what we eat and the latest quirks or changes to our BODY. Below is a snippet of her daily scribble...

I have never prided myself for having a nice belly button. It was just the thing there since the beginning of my existence. Never fancied it enuf to have a belly ring either.

Lately, one worry has become quite pronounced, literally. My belly button has taken on a little life of its own, and beginning to scream pain whenever touched. Today, it has been perpetually on scream mode. OUCH.

I think the inevitable is going to happen to me. My belly button is gonna pop out. As one website described it - the "innie" becomes an "outie" or aptly described as looking pretty much like a popped out timer on a well done turkey.

Like the many changes that I have been experiencing since the beginning of my pregnancy, I am supposed to take it in my stride and wear it like another proud badge of pregnancy. Well, we shall see how that badge looks on my clothes.

On the brighter side of things, I suppose it does give me a chance to clean out all the lint that's accumulated there since I was a kid.

Men are like Waffles, Women are like Spaghetti

Came across this book by Bill and Pam Farrel (which I have not read).

I find the term interesting. Men process life in boxes, separated by walls. Their thoughts are divided into boxes that have space for one issue and ONE issue only. Eg. when a man is at work, he is at work. When he is driving, he is driving. When he is watching TV, he is plainly watching TV. He spends most of his time in boxes that make him feel the best and successful, and ignore boxes that confuse or make him feel like a failure.

In contrast, women (I can totally identify) process life like a plate of pasta. Her thought processes are like the noodles, inter-twined with each other. Therefore she is good at multi-tasking. Talk on the phone, prepare a meal, making a shopping list; all at the same time. This happens to me all the time and M can’t stand it!

So a woman deems that every problem is connected to another problem. By disconnecting issue 1 with issue 2 is an act of denial. So women constantly need to talk things through and link the logical, emotional and spiritual aspects of the issue. Often, this is the root of stress, while a woman makes all the connections, the man is frantically jumping from boxes to keep up. So by the time the woman is finished, the man is lost and confused!

Oh fellow girls, please note that there are also boxes that are empty, ie no words, no thoughts. Men will usually park himself in the empty boxes to relax. So don't be oversensitive or fault them if they reply "nothing'' to your quesiton: "Darling, what's on your mind?" . It could really be NOTHING.

I suppose we are never too old to look at relationship from a different perspective, and never too late to fine tune our approach to build deeper understanding with our partner.

Amalfi Coast cuisine in Singapore?

*If you're also a follower of M's blog, sorry, it's on the same topic!*

We’ve seen this restaurant around and always wonder how a posh-looking Italian restaurant survives in the whoopee whoop of Jalan Gelanggang. It’s tugged in the midst of neighbourhood shophouses which included a childcare, interior design and mechanical shop. We finally patronized the place 2 nights ago.

The 1st impression was bad - We were the only customers, the waitress was blur, the Italian chef seemed confused by my requests, the wait was long (only because I was pressed for time) and the pricing definitely wasn’t neighbourhood standard. So I sulkily waited for our food, expecting it to be a disaster.

BUT , my linguine marinara and M’s linguine with prawn and pesto turned out to be SUPERB! I’m a boring diner when it comes to Italian and usually only order marinara or tomatoe based pasta. So I think I’m qualified to be a marinara pasta connoisseur :) . I can safely say that their marinara is the best, after Da Paolo Serene Centre and topped Valentino!.

The dessert- fried egg plant covered in chocolate sauce was out of this world!!! (remember, I don’t like dessert)

The restaurant is owned by 2 Italian brothers from the Amalfi Coast and a Singaporean doctor. They also hired a lady chef who spent a few years in culinary school – the ultimate dessert is her signature! Our bill came out to S$66 – absolutely worth it!

So, take a drive out to the North and try this uncovered gem! I wished I had taken some pictures but like I said, I was sulking before the food arrived…

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

I'm a fickle durian lover ie. in certain years, I liked them. In other years, I couldn't bear the smell. I'm currently at the liking rotation but purely because I was told that durian could strengthen baby. Oh what the heck, be it a myth or truth, just try lah.

BUT the weird thing is, I picked up a slight OCD - I'm eating durian with a spoon! Something I learnt from my cousin (hmm.. selective Hainanese genes perhaps). I snorted at the idea at first but once I tried, I got hooked. No more hands! It's somehow easier and cleaner and neater. They taste as nice as using hands, seriously.

Honeymoon (again) in Maldives

What can I say?? Thank you Jesus for a beautiful week!!!

Resting area outside our villa

View of another island

Blue and white

The two new colours that temporarily replace my love for orange and green. The nice white and blue sky, the different shades of clear blue sea and the sparkling white sandy beach.... I'm soaking every bit of these!

Highly recommended for mom-to-be: a beach holiday! Breeze, waves, wind, massage, snorkelling, eat, naps, read, barefoot walk, peaceful couple time and full 8 hours of zzzz...
Can I extend my trip please...