Mervyn Hoe: My Daily Happenings

Last week, Eve and I patronize to Little India three times! Believe it or not! And to the same shop. It's Komala along Racecourse road. It serves vegetarian Indian cuisine and we love it so much! And I'm so amazed that Josh enjoyed the food too! And the keropok called papadum. We tried their garlic naan and it's terrific. Also the big circular dish! Love the chick peas curry and boy, I'm hungry again when I type this. They have a tasty mint chilli paste and it's so delicious. One thing I love this place is that the staff is very friendly and generous too. They top up the ingredients and my favorite dal! Love my Indian food!! Actually from young, I was brought up by Sri Lankan maid for close to three years and for lunch she would cool her very own dishes with dal and spinach. Loved eating with rice and using my right hand to eat too! Missed those days which made me overweight because I nap straight after I ate the lunch! Indian food is so delicious!! H...

On 26th Oct 2012, Kate officially walks by herself unassisted!! We are so thrilled when she herself walks from her table to the couch.. And so many much more self-distant walking. And amazingly, it marks the 15th month 15th day! 1515! What a beautiful number! (quick go and buy 4-D)!! She has grown so much now. We have seen her speech increased in the number of words too! She follow us to speak especially calling daddy, "mum mum" for eating, Josh, ah-ma. And she understands what we want her to do. For example, to sit down, switch on the music, walk, stand and play toys too! She loves music and when she passes by one shop with music, she stops and shakes her body. This is so amazing, and similar to Josh. One day can bring my children to Zouk! This is so fun! Kate and Josh dancing on the platform with the music She and a ball! She loves this cute little ball.. We watched "Despicable Me" and one of the children looks like Kate! ...

Children are born artists and it is up to us to engage them in artwork. My father in law is a free lance artist and he has his own art studio at Eunos. One day, my mother in law brought my two children down to his art studio to draw Josh's acting uniform for a play. He will be acting as a green frog. I'm so amazed the way he hold the brush and the full concentration he has. He is really focused! Kate is so happy! The green circles as the frog prints. He is really amazing. Look at the eyes. Happy picture and the background is my father-in-law's latest art work! Kate having her brushing time at the painting. He dips more paint. Even though the circles are not exactly circular, he manages to  put the paint within the boundary drawn. Happy Kate and the art brush! Do you want to paint with me? Or I paint you? Art work with kids may be a little messy. However, they wi...

It's pleasant that at times my children are well behaved, "angelic" at times. For Kate, she would laugh at things when we laugh. For Josh, he would be a gentleman by saying "Thank you Daddy / Mummy" when offered something to him. The otherwise happens too. Children between 2-4 years old do have their fair share of tantrums as now, they are in their explorative nature, testing grounds and their limits. The more '"NO"s we mention, all the more these little adults want to do the otherwise. And at times, Josh will be unhappy. What do I do? Of course I will be unhappy and what we have read is there are a few rules to tackle it. I have made a few mistakes there and then. I'm of course fine tuning. Rule Number One ----------------------- Never shout or beat your child. Speak to him and ask softly, "What is the matter?" and if can, distract him (not using iPhone if possible). And bring him away from the situation and talk to him pri...

I really want to thank you God for letting me and Eve to attend Church for this past few years. It's only today that I realize what is it that qualifies me to enter the church and to learn? Have I contributed anything to deserve a seating space in the sermon? I thought of it and what I can say is that probably my faith in God in the building fund, the multiple offerings as well as attending cellgroup are some of the activities that I have done as a Christian. It's not alot as compared to others and feel that I haven't press into the word of God so much. I should read up more on the phrases and the bible verses. I can see that Pastor Kong has really and always put 110% in his sermon outlines and really want us to bring home the message. I have been procrastinating to attend the bible lessons too. More over, it is just located beside my office! Relatively speaking, I can say that his passion is really from his heart with the anointing of God's teaching, it blends well...

I feel that as parents, all the more we should spend time with our own children. They will actually know what you are doing and soon, follow what you are doing. For Josh, now occasionally he will say, "Daddy, Josh now go appointment to meet client." It's actually been awhile since I have brought Josh to office already. This morning, we went to Bishan Park and we played the swing. It's fun and I'm amazed that Kate loved it so much. She smiles and she knows to hold on tight to the chains. Josh also like the feeling of swinging to and fro, and I reminded him of the book,"Higher Higher" of a Dad pushing his daughter on a swing and goes up higher and higher till the space. Picture of Josh and me at the slide. Picture of Kate and me at the slide. Josh is eating his nuts at the background. Trying another shot with them. We chanced by a small pond and it has beautiful water lotus flower! All of them bloom so well! We managed to t...

I was on my way to office and suddenly, the thought of blood donation popped in my head. I went to Dhoby Ghaut Exchange as they have a blood bank there. It's newly opened and I can say that they are very efficient. I wrote my particulars and did my blood pressure. It's normal and my iron level is 15.6! It's normal too! And they say that strong iron levels is attributed to eating lean meat and leafy vegetables, which are in my diet. Then came the actual blood donation! To tell you frankly, actually I'm quite afraid of blood and needles. Whenever they get into me, I would turn my head to the other side, hoping the needle won't burst my veins! However, I'm amazed that it's absolutely painless. The nurse is very skilled and friendly. Within 7 minutes or so, my blood bag is filled. And it's done! My next blood donation is first week of January next year. I feel much refreshed after the donation! Proud of myself. In fact, they have a history, saying th...

It was a fine Saturday and everyone got up early. We had breakfast and made the choice to head to Sentosa to have a sunny beach fun! We took Circle Line and the Sentosa Express and we reached Beach Station within 40 minutes. We had our lunch at Asian Kitchen and their food is very good and affordable. Staff are friendly and we enjoyed the Chicken Rice, Dou Miao ($3.80 only for a large plate), 6 chicken wings for $3.80 and a beef noodle soup. It was air conditioned and luckily we didn't choose Seah Im Food centre as it's crowded and no air con!   Kate and me on the Sentosa Express     Josh and I making an attempt to make the sandcastle       We are on the Sentosa Tram, it brings us to the Siloso Beach       We brought our very own coconut and it is so juicy.       I'm trying to open up the coconut with our home knife       Felt like a kid once again to make ...