... so good to finally baptise the kitchen

blu (picture is for illustration only - not actual meal)
We finally cooked our first meal (actually just plain porridge as we had porridge with century egg, pork floss, five spice pork cubes, frozen mixed veggie and peanuts - all mircowaved food). So the showroom kitchen is finally opened!

Technically, Connie cooked spaghetti sauce the week before but I don't consider that a meal as it was just sauce.

Actually we had to delay the cooking for a whole week because of some issues with the Bosch gas hob. Believe it or not - the hob actually has two types of gas nozzles; one for cylinder gas and another for piped gas. The unit comes factory fitted for cylinder gas. As a result everytime we turn on the gas, there is a small flow of gas and if we attempt to have a bigger flame, the flames goes off with a 'poof'. So silly that no one told us about - not the salesperson, not the city gas technicians who came to install it, not even the Bosch service center person when we call to complain. Surprising the technician knew immediately the problem when we spoke to him on the phone.
Anyway, we are just glad that it is working. Now we can look forward to the next home cooked meal - maybe we will be adventurous and cook instant noodles.

.. so good to get all the local food in one comfy place

This year we broke tradition and celebrated Ken's birthday at Straits Kitchen, Grand Hyatt Hotel because Kenneth wanted all the local cuisine at one go. He didn't have time in his short visit to Singapore to sample all the local delights. So we chose the Straits Kitchen which is like an átas' food court. The food was great with Herbal Chicken soup (barely see it at the top of photo below,) Malay rendang, Indian nan, lots of local desserts ... Hyatt did provide the complimentary mini birthday cake!

Ken left last night for his internship in London. Not sure when we will meet him again in person but he is maturing in his thoughts and handling of things. We are so blessed to have him and Jon. Must have done something right to be so blessed. Thank you, Lord!

... so good to spend a couple of days with Connie and Ken

Last week Connie, Ken and I went to Palm Spring Golf Resort, Batam for an overnight trip with Teelia and her family. It was a good bonding time with Ken - we played 2 rounds of golf, had a great seafood dinner! Connie has pedicure and manicure and then a 3 hour body scrub and massage. Ken played very well despite not playing for a year. I guess a sportsman can play any game and can be good at it. I play a 45 for the first nine and then went downhill from there.

... so good to finally get towards the end of moving in

... some photos to show the álmost' finished product. We are actually every happy with the end results despite some questionable workmanship from the contractors. We love the cozy feeling of the place, the reduced area to clean yet we are comfortable and can still spread out when we want to! So thankful that we decided to down grade and move in.

... so good to wake up to a sunrise

it is so good to wake up each morning to this view. 7am, mug of piping hot coffee and sitting in the living room; it is so quiet you can hear the birds chipping. Then suddenly it is there - a beautiful amber globe hanging in the sky. What a beautiful scene - almost makes waking up each day a joy!

...so good to finally move in

We finally move in on 28th March to Blue Horizon though renovations were still going on. Photos of the new place to come later. Jon went on reservist in early April; so Connie and I went Hong Kong to take a break from the packing and unpacking! Met with old friends like KM, Peter, Ronald and Michael Tsui. Did some tourist stuff like visit the Peak, eat roast goose at Yung Kee and spent 8 hours in a spa in Shenzhen.

... so good to visit Kenneth

But it is better to be home. Connie and I travelled to US (Boston, New Haven and Hanover) to visit Kenneth and to watch him play in the CSA Team (@ Harvard) and Individual Finals (@ Dartmouth).

The Yale team came close to beating Trinity in the finals (5-4) but had to settle for second. On route to the finals, they had convincing wins over Dartmouth (8-1) and Princeton (7-2). The win over Princeton was particularly important as it confirmed their Ivy league title was no fluke.

Kenneth also made it to the quarter finals in the individual tournament. On route he beat Parth Sharma of Trinity. Again an important win to confirm his ranking in the top 10 nation wide.

In between the two tournament, we went to New York for a Broadway show, Jersey Boys. Great performance with chart topping songs. The only downside of the trip was the cold - the weather was either raining or snowing and hovered around -5 degree centigrade. Too cold for Singaporeans.

There was also good news in that Kenneth got his London internship for summer 2011. So overall a very good trip though we might not go the Nationals again as it cost just too much.