Tonight's dinner: Fried Kailan & Steam Seabass, which has been blanketed by tomatos. Oops...

I've been confirmed in my role with the company. On the whole, I am happy here. And my Manager is generally happy with me too. :)

On the whole, I'm glad I've prayed for a nicer boss to work with and she is definitely more understanding and is so much more objective. The company provides flexi working time too although it's more consistent in it's policy for flexi-hours, compared with the previous company. As my Manager comes to work really early, she leaves earlier too and when I'm done for the day, I can just go off. Work life balance is a big thing for the vikings, I think. Lol.

Being able to get home to prepare dinner, ensuring the loved ones are provided with home goodness makes me very contented. Yes, the happiness I get is to be able to get home on time, prep my food and cook dinner everyday without fail. When we don't have plans on Saturdays, I cook too. Of course life is made easier with the help of the thermal pot, from which I make soup that can last us 2 days.

Happiness is all about the simple things in life. And I hope you find yours too. :)

We spent the evening at the hubs' aunt's place for the yearly Nepali Bhai Pooja. They stay just a train station away from us and so we took the stroller and walked there. K tends to want us to carry her after awhile and it's no joke carrying a 13kg weight so we've decided that she should sit in the stroller instead. Having not sat in her stroller for some time, she gleefully sat in it as soon as the hubs unfolded the stroller at our doorstep. Lol...

Having K is a good distraction for me, from the MIL's oft stupid comments and remarks. So she doesn't really bother me anymore in that sense. This year, we didn't have the youngest BIL join us as unfortunately he has been admitted back to the hospital due to the incessant headaches which  they finally found is due a viral infection after drawing fluid from his spine, for the 2nd time.

If I have mentioned it before, I am mentioning it again that the whole family has been admitted to the hospital this year. No surprises for the MIL of course. In fact, it'll be a surprise if she doesn't get admitted to the hospital. The FIL was second, the the hubs, who I must say was a scheduled surgery, and the same day the 2nd SIL had a miscarriage, followed by the youngest BIL on the onset of the terrible headaches then the 2nd BIL due to the accident. It's strange and hopefully, this is it.

The youngest BIL and family were supposed to to go on a holiday to Australia end October but he was re-admitted only a few days back and now has to be hospitalised and be on medication for 10 days, which means they will have to miss this holiday. The BIL had asked if the hubs and I would like to take over the tickets but unfortunately, I do not have 2 weeks of leave to spare. I'm sure the youngest SIL and nephew in law are upset but well, it's not a choice anyone would like to make. Hopefully, he gets well soon.

I'm kind of liking having public holidays fall on Wednesdays. It's almost akin to a 4 day work week. Work 2 days, rest, then work for another 2 days followed by the weekend. 

This morning, I suggested going to the Botanic Gardens for a walk. So after the laundry was done, the 3 of us headed out. Although I have been telling the hubs to park the car nearer to Bukit Timah, where the Jacob Ballas Children's Garden is, he stubbornly drove into the main carpark. Either he was stubborn or wasn't listening. It was so crowded and I was so frustrated with his attitude, I left him to decide what he wanted to do. He ended up exiting the car park as there were no empty lots and going to where I had mentioned from the beginning.

The children's garden is situated away from the main garden and we were lucky to find parking lots available. However, we managed to only spend all of 30 minutes due to the rain. The next time we go, I will be better prepared with K's swim gear as there is a water play area and she kept asking to play there. Thankfully, we were able to distract her with the many other play areas at the garden. Today is really just a recce trip, which was decided impromptu. Next time, we'll bring along her gear, some snacks and spend more time there. 

And because it rained, we drove off for lunch and by the time we reached home, it was about 1 pm, K's naptime in school. She had a good nap for slightly more than 2 hours, something which she hardly does when she's at home now. So that meant good rest for the daddy and mummy as well.

In the evening, we proceeded to the Pannu's house for a Deepavali dinner invite. Mavi and the hubs are childhood friends who grew up in the same neighbourhood. Their daughter is just 2 months older than K and attends the same childcare centre so the 2 had fun playing together although there wasn't much communication between them. It's funny just to see how they can play together without talking.

The 2 girls had their dinner separately, played together quietly and then not so quietly and when we left, K announced that she enjoyed herself! The Pannus even gifted K with a beautiful punjabi suit which Shareen has outgrown. Yes, she is a lot bigger than K although K is not exactly petite. On the whole, the hubs and I enjoyed ourselves too, ending the night with playing sparklers and party poppers that the good host provided. 

Whether K was a baby or when she reach 'toddler-hood', there would be something that we tend to buy frequently at some point. It used to be the Avent pacifiers, then tongs for her milk bottles as few times the hubs accidentally left them in the steriliser and needless to say, they warp at the end of the sterilisation session. Also, some broke.

Now that K's in her 31st month or should I say ever since she started school, guess what has frequently popped up in the 'have to buy' list?

Yes! Water-bottles! Somehow they don't last. After a while, they tend to leak. Although we did find the ones that we bought from our friendly neighbour across the causeway to be better and we finally also found the straw brush. 

This is just 5 bottles you see now. I cannot recall how many we have had to throw away already. I wonder what's next. Lol....

I have become such an 'auntie' that I hope it doesn't affect the way I look or talk.

I was supposed to pick K from school after work today but during lunch time, the hubs text me to say his evening meeting has been cancelled. The screenshot is self-explanatory:

I think K enjoyed herself the most. When we were there, we allowed her to take a kiddy car ride which only cost $2 for 5 minutes as opposed to $5 for 5 minutes the last time she took one at Vivo City. The makeshift stall is owned by a nice elderly uncle as opposed to a group teenagers hired to man the cash register. In short, it is very old-school and K got to 'drive' the car round the open area although most of the time she goes round in circles. 

When her 5 minutes of fun was up, we took a walk in the neighbourhood and was pleasantly surprised to see a few cafes sprouting up. We even finally managed to get K to try on a child's helmet, bought it and hopefully we can convince her to wear it if she wants to bring her balance bike or kick scooter down to the park.

A nice slow evening to end the work/school week. :)

Dinner tonight:

Pan-Fried Codfish dressed up in Omelette, Stir-Fried Spinach and left-over Baked Beans. 

I had wanted to cook a simple pan-fried codfish and was scouring the internet for a easy recipe. I modified it with whatever ingredients I had. I used Corn Flour to coat the fish, dip it in egg but didn't want to waste the balance of the egg, so I threw the remaining into the pan. And there we have a beautifully coated fish. Lol....