Daddy NiVleK

River Hongbao 春到河畔 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Kelvin Ang) — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 00:34:00 +0000

Well, it has become a tradition for us to visit the Annual River Hong Bao Festival which has been held at The Float @ Marina Bay. (Check out my post for 2012)This year, we have been trying to visit it for a few times, but failed as it was raining. Finally, the rain eased down yesterday and we managed to get a good run through the area.

The River HongBao 2013 starts here! It ends at 16th Feb 2013. Make sure you go there to soak in the atmosphere of the Chinese New Year!

I like the decorations of the entrance this year as compared to last year's. It is a little simpler but they use cherry blossoms which makes it look really "cosy" to me.

See little Jayden at the corner of the photo? ^_^ It really does looks nice especially when you look up into the skies at this area.

I felt that this year's River Hong Bao is a little more packed. Hmmm. A sign of 6.9 million? If you are going, please take good care of your kids and belongings!

The festival display starts with this - Lunar New Year is coming! 过年了！

Not forgetting the prosperity pineapples.

And giving us prosperity! Bless us to win the upcoming Hong Bao ToTo Draw! Hahaha

And in the background, you see many chinese vase.

Those are the Zodiac Animals (12 生肖灯组), peacefully sitting and waiting in their vase. Of course, the star of this year the the Snake!

We also took some photos that has special meaning to us! The tiger with the little tiger!

That's me and Jayden with the Mandarin ducks at the Oriental Bridge.

On the other side, you have the Longevity cranes.

And you cannot miss the God of Wealth 财神爷! We didn't notice any spraying of golden numbers this year, probably they stopped the practice?

The Abundance Giant Mural 年年有余

Many people still love the chinese riddles (猜灯迷) but the riddles are alien languages to me.

In the background, all the music and sounds are coming from the main stage.

KaiKai and JiaJia Lantern is also not to be missed. (I thought this will be supported/sponsored by Singapore Zoo, but its not. Heh)

We love pandas!

And little Jayden loves making funny faces when Hazel is at the camera. Here is the Good Fortune Fish behind us.

And finally, a picture with the National Blooms Mural before we leave the floating platform.

As usual, by the time we left the platform, we are too tired and the crowd is too much for us to explore the Food Street.

As for Jayden, he is exhausted!

More photos are available in my Facebook Page Photo Album here. Do check out the River Hong Bao before it closes!

Our 1st Day of CNY

noreply@blogger.com (Kelvin Ang) — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 03:36:00 +0000

Like what my last post had said, we didn't have much being planned for the CNY period. I thought that we were going for a visit to two places on Hazel's side of the family but it turns out that one of them was also away during this period, overseas, for some reason. So with that, we only visited one place and left quite early (and happily) for our own programmes.

My plan was to actually go to Sentosa to check out the Sentosa Flowers this year. But the rain stopped us. In fact, I realised that it rained almost the whole of yesterday! But since we are at Vivocity, we went looking for food to eat. If you have been to malls during the CNY period, you will know that most of the malls are closed for the festive period, including eateries and restaurants. I decided that we should head on to try something that we have not eaten before - Shin Kushiya.

I ordered the Yakitori Platter ($12.40) to try it out. Wow. I think it is not bad. I like the meat ball as it is still quite soft with a nice taste to it. The breast meat was also nicely done, even Hazel compliment it even she dislike breast meat.

Hazel ordered the Flamed Salmon Sushi Maki ($15.60). This is not bad too. The salmon is just lightly cooked and topped with Bonito flakes and a hint of mayo.

The greedy me added on a Sushi Set ($26.80). The quality of the sushi here is comparable to the ones at Sushi Tei, another Japanese restaurant chain. But I think this is slightly being priced a little higher. We also ordered a kids panda set ($10.80) for Jayden. Not pictured here. I have Hazel to thank that she stopped me from adding more orders. Phew. I really need to learn to keep my habit of over ordering in check. Else, I will never be able to hit my personal goal for this year.

Our rest of the day was spent at the Cinemas and then back to my parents place with this.

The Yu Sheng Set from Sakae Sushi. This is the Longevity Set for 6-7 pax @ $56.88. We have been ordering Sakae Sushi yu sheng set since last year and they have not disappoint us. This year, I thought that the set looks really huge for a 6-7 pax!

Opening it up, you get all the rest of the condiments and toppings of the yu sheng. And then, we are lost again to what to say during the Yu Sheng. Googling it now, I copy this from the source here.

Step 1 - Say “Gong Xi Fa Cai” (恭喜发财) & “Wan Shi Ru Yi” (万事如意) when you place shredded carrots & radish on the plate or place the yu sheng on the table

Step 2 - Say “Da Ji Da Li” (大吉大利) & “Ku Jin Jin Lai”(苦尽甘来) when you squeeze in lime or lemon over the fish yu sheng

Step 3 - Say “Nian Nian You Yu” (年年有余) when you place the fish yu sheng on the shredded carrots & radish.

Step 4 -Say “Hong Yun Dang Tou” (鸿运当头) when you sprinkle the red pickled ginger slices

Step 5 - Say “Jin Sha Man Tang” (金沙满堂) when you sprinkle in the chopped peanuts & toasted sesame seeds

Step 5 - Say “zhao cai jin bao” (招财进宝) when you sprinkle pepper all over the dish

Step 6 - Say “Wu Fu Lin Men” (五福临门) when you sprinkle the cinnamon powder & five spice powder

Step 7 - Say “Fu Yun Nian Nian” (富运年年) & “Rong Hua Fu Gui” (荣华富贵) when you drizzle in the peanut oil

Step 8 -Say “Tian Tian Mi Mi” (甜甜蜜蜜) when you drizzle in the plum sauce or kumquat paste or sprinkle in some pickled melon

Step 9 -Say “Man Di Huang Jin” (满地黄金) when you toss in the Pok Chui fried crackers

Step 10 - Say “Bu Bu Gao Sheng” (步步高升),”Feng Sheng Shui Qi” (风生水起), “Zheng Ti Jian Kang” (身体健康) while you toss your Chinese New Year Yu Sheng!

Look at the mess! Anyway, most of the mess is created by Jayden since he also joined in tossing of the yu sheng. Hahaha. I got to say that the portion is WAY TOO BIG for a 6-7 pax deal. It is enough if you are only having this as the meal, but we are going to have this...

Eh. How to finish? I broke my calorie count for the day. Wait. I don't even know how to count all this!!!!

Jayden was of course having fun, most of the time by disturbing him….

Truffle, our resident doggy at my parents place. Haha.

Although we did not visit many place, I still love going back to my parents place during the CNY festive period.

But too bad, for this year, my parents were too busy travelling and holidaying to make homemade cookies for me!! I miss my mum's pineapple tarts and almond cookies!!!! No other cookies come close!!

Happy Chinese New Year!

noreply@blogger.com (Kelvin Ang) — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 02:31:00 +0000

And the red packet giving starts. Or does it?

There has been a recent controversial post made by AIA Singapore, an insurance company on the rates for giving Ang Baos.

What do you think about this?

Personally, I feel that it is very very distasteful. I do give the benefit of doubt that the people behind this wanted to poke fun and be funny, but in the wrong way. Or perhaps, they believe that doing such silly antics will gain them many views and opinions, thus raising their hits in the web and gaining more publicity? If so, this again is so wrong.

If I do follow the rate, then what? Good ah? Or probably next year, AIA Singapore should come out with something called the RED PACKET INDEX. It will be a measurement of your "generosity", "ability" and "kiasu-ness" of giving red packets. We Singaporeans are good at doing KPIs, right?

Back to reality, I don't know about you. I give red packets to parents, wife and of course my own kid. But for the rest, my own family has a traditional that we don't overspend too much giving red packets. Hence, we do not double give. That means effectively, I need not give. Basically, all red packets are given by the generation above us. Our generation does not need to give unless there is no generation above that family. Some of us follow, some don't. Me? I don't give for my side. However, for my wife's side, we still do give the red packets out. We determine the amount of red packet to give by the closeness level. But nothing more than $10 for me. (I think I need to double confirm with Hazel)

Over the years, the CNY tradition for myself has kinda mellowed down a lot. I remember the days when my grandma was still around. We would have huge gatherings with all my auntie and uncles at my parents place. Before she passed away, she was staying with us and I love those steamboat reunion dinners. Now, we do our reunion dinners at outside restaurants, notably for consecutive two years, at Dian Xiao Er restaurant. And these dinners are only with my parents, brother and ourselves. No more big reunion dinners with all the uncles and aunties. It signify how important a figure head of the family is, in terms of bringing all the siblings together. Now, I still look forward to the annual steamboat dinner at my parents place, without all the uncles and aunties.

This year, I heard from my parents that we are not even going to visit a few places that we have traditionally went to during the CNY visiting period. One has went on holiday during this period and the other has not extended any invitations. So for us, this year CNY is quite simple in that sense. Basically, visiting my parents, her parents, her relatives and that is about it. No visiting of any relatives from my side. In any case, I am not too close with any of my cousins. In fact, I used to loathe visiting in my younger days. There are a few characters that always stands out.

1) One that boasts about his capability and work. When I grew up, I think thats pretty much bullshit.

2) One that boasts about his children's education. Eh?

3) One that is filthy rich and always changes girlfriends. But ok la, he got married.

And actually quite a lot more.

But I do love one aspect of the visiting previously, the playing of blackjack and trying to win a little more red packet money. Now, I really can't be bothered too much by it.

Since the CNY visiting has really decreased throughout the years, we are also planning of doing a CNY getaway next year if everything works out properly. I actually had this idea for quite some time but didn't want to do it to save my ears from the nagging of avoiding CNY. Seeing that even my "elders" are doing it when they are "supposed" to host the mega visit annually, going on holidays for me isn't that bad after all.

I foresee that in years to come, CNY to me will just be another long holiday, just like any other public holidays.

Sad, but true.

Panda Mania @ The Singapore Zoo

noreply@blogger.com (Kelvin Ang) — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 22:24:00 +0000

The Singapore Zoo is one of the places that Jayden loves to go and with the upcoming River Safari to be opened soon, there is even more things for him to see and go WOW. But for now, the purpose of our most recent trip to the zoo is to busk in the recent Panda Mania in Singapore, i.e. to see Kia Kia and Jia Jia, the Giant Pandas in the Singapore Zoo.

Over the past few months, from the arrival of the pandas in November to now, Panda related items are really popping up everywhere. Even the Singapore's Official Newspaper had to feature the arrival of Pandas in the front page of the papers! WTH?

As we were holders of the Corporate Family Pass, we had to pay an additional amount to see the pandas in their new million dollar home, 8.6million to be exact. More expensive than the homes that you and me stay. (But City Harvest's Kong Hee's Sentosa Cove penthouse is more expensive than the Pandas at $9.3 million)

I actually chose a timeslot of 1030hrs as I thought we should not wait that long to see the pandas. But while paying, the better counter guy just beside me told another visitor that he should choose the timing of 1200hrs instead. This is the time that the Pandas are normally active and not sleeping. He also told us that one of the pandas, Jia Jia is currently doing some treatment and might not be available. Upon hearing that, I immediately told my counter guy to change my timing to 1200hrs instead.

With quite some time in our hands, we went on to walk around to explore the zoo once more.

During the last time when we were here, Jayden was in our arms most of the time and now, we let him loose! And he enjoys it!

It was time for the panda exhibit tour! We joined the snaking queue and were ushered inside the place in no time.

Before you get to see the pandas, you will pass by some other exhibits. Most of the exhibits along the way are still empty, some not even furnished up completely. The first animal that we saw upon entering the air con enclosure was this little creature, the red panda. Personally, I think that this little red panda is so cute!

And we were lucky! Kia Kia was not sleeping and busy having its meal!

And we were doubly lucky! We saw Jia Jia also as it walked around in and out of the exhibit into a holding area, presumably the place where they are doing her treatment.

Our time passed by quickly in this area. I didn't want to leave here. Not because I wanted to see more of the pandas, but the air con here is damn shiok!

As we were looking for places to have our lunch, we spotted the cafe just outside of the exhibit area. Although my colleague warned me that the panda bun is nothing special, I just have to get one to find it our by myself. It is actually not bad. It is a red bean paste bun. The paste was not too sweet and the dough was reasonably soft. It was not exactly cheap at $3.00 for one bun but it is worth the one time fun factor.

We can't wait for the rest of the river safari to be officially opened!

And while going back, we spotted the feeding session of this! Hazel thought that it will be fun to get Jayden to feed them and we did.

I actually wanted to upload the video I took but it was not processing correctly. I need to check it out again.

Finally, we went to watch the animal show again. The most amazing thing was that this guy here opened and peeled off the entire coconut husk with his bare hands. He even won the orang utan! Even the presenter was surprised as most people could hardly remove anything from the coconut, let alone to dehusk it.WOAH. Kudos to him!

With Jayden growing up and loving the zoo, maybe I should consider getting a personal Family Pass. Hmmm.

The new IMM

noreply@blogger.com (Kelvin Ang) — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 21:20:00 +0000

It is really a little luck that I get to go IMM just yesterday. Our plan was in fact to head to the new mall, Star Vista to check it out. But as luck has it, it rained pretty much the entire night. We figured that we will be caught in the jam if we were to go down at this time. After pondering over several choices, I decided that we should go to IMM. I have not been to IMM for quite some time and I understood from Hazel that it is undergoing renovations with quite a number of outlet stores coming up.

But first things first - To fill our stomaches.

As Hazel just works around this area, she helped to take away the curry rice from here before. And as it was a freaking rainy cold day, I wanted to eat something spicy and tangy to fill up my stomach.

And so, the same Baked Portuguese Curry Chicken Rice was my choice for dinner. For just $8.50, I think it is a pretty big portion and comes with the soup of the day. Most importantly, it is nice! I love the cheese topping with the curry gravy. It reminds me of the Pizza Hut's Curry Baked Rice but in a much tastier form. The thigh meat that was served to me was really tender and juicy. I have absolutely no complains whatsoever.

Hazel had the Shrimp Wanton Mee Soup ($5.50). We find it really just average. Strange thing happened though. Jayden gave up eating our home cooked porridge to have this for dinner. Ahhhhh~

The prawn paste fried chicken wings ($6) was served to us hot from the deep fryer. The amount of prawn paste used for marinating the chicken wing is just right and not too overpowering. I remembered eating prawn paste chicken from other restaurants or cafes that uses too much prawn paste till it makes the chicken taste horrible.

And Iced Yuan Yang ($3) was the little indulgence I gave myself. I didn't expect that the Yuan Yang will come topped with Vanilla Ice Cream. It does look appetising and pretty to look at, but I dun think that vanilla ice cream helped much with the taste of the drink.

I will eat in this cafe anytime as compared to the most recent one that is opened in Jurong Point, named Central.

Without much time left, I rushed to explore the rest of the mall to check out the new shops, not before going to this favourite place of mine in IMM.

As Hazel quoted and reminded me today, I said this once before. "If I don't eat a Coffee Bun from Roti Mum in IMM whenever I come to IMM, then there is no point to come to IMM!" And seriously, I will say that is true for the pre renovated IMM. There is nothing much here that attracts me to go other than the free parking it offers. It is frankly quite a boring mall. But now, the $30m renovation that is still in progress promises 40+ outlet stores which makes it Singapore's largest outlet centre. I can only think of one place in Singapore that has quite a number of outlet stores too - Changi City Point. We went there once and I was blown away by the number of outlet stores there.

We did not forget about our little Jayden too. Since I got a coffee bun, he got a chocolate bun! Notice the Popeye store behind? We are actually standing at a new lane after the renovation. I observed that CaptialMall has reduced the size of many stores that were previously occupying large floor areas.

Even the dining places were not spared, the previously huge Cafe Cartel is gone. And in its place is two new Japanese restaurants.

One of the most interesting store to me here is definitely this - The Coach Factory Store. I think this is the only outlet store for Coach in SIngapore. Correct me if I am wrong. Hazel told me that there is also an Agnes B outlet store opening. Singaporeans really do love their luxury items.

And oh, twelve cupcakes opened an outlet here too! But I shall not patronise them too often. Need to cut down on my calories intake!

Everywhere you go, you will just see the word outlet stores. Even casual brands like Giordano, Hang Ten, etc have opened their outlet stores here.

After checking the stores out, we sat down to let Jayden finish his chocolate bread. I really do wish he has the same interest in his regular meals as compared to snacks like this.

Lastly, Happy Lunar New Year to everyone! It is coming!

I am so looking forward to the break!

Year of the Snake 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Kelvin Ang) — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 21:24:00 +0000

Yesterday was supposed to be the real start of the Year of the Snake. Bet you didn't know that. If you did, Kudos to you.

Yesterday was the day of Li Chun, 立春, the start of the Solar year. In Chinese astrology, those that are born before the time of Li Chun are deemed as having the signs of the previous year zodiac and those that are born after Li Chun are those that are having the current year's zodiac.

In English, the confusion part is that if you are born somewhere between yesterday to 9th Feb 2013, you are already considered to be a Snake, not a Dragon.

Have you been to Chinatown this year? We have and I got to say that this year seems more packed than last year.

I think it has somehow become our family tradition to go the Chinatown at least once during the periods before the CNY arrives. We are not really suckers for buying those decors. (But I think I am a sucker for cookies =X)

A word of warning though. BE CAREFUL. When we were there on a Saturday night, it was packed. WAY too packed, like Sardines. The 6.9 million effect. There are stretches of the streets where everyone was literally breathing down to each other's neck and you can feel that everyone is just pushing you.

STROLLERS NOT RECOMMENDED.

We attacked Chinatown with Jayden on Manduca! LOL. We actually was thinking for quite some time whether he will still want to be tied by the baby carrier. The answer is a resounding YES. He still loves it. I think he feels that walking is too tiring. Alamak.

Else, for bigger kids, we saw many being placed on the shoulders of the fathers. A good way to get some fresh air amidst the thick crowd.

The strangest booths in the Chinatown streets must be these booths. There are about 3-4 scattered around the area. I think it is a place that you come, sit down and see some photos, but most of the time play games. 100% of the people that are in this type of booths are on their phones or tablets playing games. They are completely in their own world. And seriously, a freaking bridal studio booth here??? WTH?

Snakes and ladders. But we didn't get to go to the head of the snake. Very hot la.

You know, this always tempts me but I always managed to survive this temptation but not the temptation of cookies. I bought 3 box of them for $10 and then two packs of macadamia nuts for $42. The price of this nuts are really nuts.

Before we left the entire place for home, I spotted this new shop. Nice. It is a popular tourist shop that sells almond biscuits in Macau. Now you don't need to go to Macau to get them!

Getting US Websites to work in Singapore

noreply@blogger.com (Kelvin Ang) — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 22:40:00 +0000

They are milking you.

Following on from my previous post about the joys and "cheapness" of online shopping, I thought I should write a little more on another aspect of it here. If you are a fashion geek or someone that reads quite a lot, you would have know that there are many brands in Asia that are being portrayed as a luxury or high end brand here. Abercombie & Fitch (A&F) is one of them, a middle class apparel store but being hyped up here as a more high end store. My missus at home wanted to get some of the clothes from there and as usual, it is much cheaper back in US where they had the christmas sales, clearance sales, etc etc. Buying it from any other retailer is a little risky too if you are not sure of how to differentiate the authentic and the fake. There are tons of fake goods out there.

So many people go to Mass Orders or MO, I don't know about you but it does seem like the organizer is milking every cent out of your pocket, while ensuring that you get a cheaper price as compared to the local stores. Check this sample of an MO of A&F stuff out.

{Quote}

Details of A&F MO
Exchange Rate: USD$1.00 = SGD$1.34
Duration: 2-3 weeks after placing order
Sales Tax: 9%
*Agent Fee: 9%
Shipping Rates:

*Agent in the states is able to repack the clothes and help us save on shipping. At the same time, he is able to check if the A&F shipped the right items and rectify problems (if any) before he ships to SG.

Calculating Final Price
[Total Amount in USD x 1.59 (currency rate X agent fee X sales tax) + (shipping per item x no. of items)]
eg. polo = [(USD$30 x 1.59) + (7 x 1) = SGD$54.7

{UnQuote}

Wow. So if I wanna get 3 tees and one pants, the shipping is $40!

But of course, if you just want to get one item from here, it is much cheaper getting someone to buy it for you and pay them. And there are selected stores that refuses to ship to a forwarding company and you have to find ways around it.

Getting around the restrictions - Web Proxy or VPN?

Here comes the thing about some stores. They track your IP address and they know that you are from Singapore. If you typed in http://www.abercombie.com, you will not be directed to the US store but it will redirect you to the Singapore online store which obviously retails at the same price as the local flagship store. The way around this is to either use a web proxy or a VPN.

One of the most popular services recently is HideMyAss.com. They offer a free web proxy and a paid VPN account. There is only so much you can do using a free web proxy and I STRONGLY recommend that you DO NOT engaged in putting in any passwords or personal information while on a web proxy, not even on hidemyass web proxy. On a web proxy, you are highly open to attacks and sniffing by hackers and the speed is much less reliable. Basically a web proxy is using your browser to redirect web browsing traffic through another third party IP address. VPN or Virtual Private Networking on the other hand are secured and you need not worry about any attacks. A VPN basically redirects ALL traffic to and from your computer through the secured VPN connection. In fact, there are many people basically using VPN on a regular basis just to hide their web presence and remain anonymous. You can read more about VPN and Web Proxy by simply googling.

With a VPN account (I have a paid VPN pro account at HideMyAss), you get to access any and everything that is usually restricted to only USA. Abercombie is one of them. You will not be redirected to the local Singapore store and is able to purchase and ship the items out and back to Singapore. I have to say that at this point, I have yet to purchase anything from Abercombie stores but I have read quite a number of reviews and comments saying that it is possible.

The other websites that should be mentioned are the ever popular Netflix and Hulu.

Both are web streaming services that gives you access to tens of thousands of movies and drama shows just with a click. What I love about Netflix is that they have a tab that says "Just for kids", click it and you will be directed to a page that has everything inside which is meant for kids. Some of the very popular shows in US like Fringe is also available in Hulu plus, just one day after showing on TV in the United States. If you were to click on that link, you will not be able to view anything except for a box that says "Sorry, Netflix is not available in your country yet." or "Sorry, currently our video library can only be watched from within United States." Most importantly, a paid VPN account is not really that expensive, costing about $USD4.99 a month during their christmas promotion. I have been using it to stream shows from Netflix and Hulu for consumption and I would say that the speed is acceptable for steaming in normal definition but not HD.

Setting up the VPN is not really that complicated too. HideMyAss has a client where you are able to install on both Mac and Windows computers to connect easily to their VPN servers. This is the client program on my iMac.

You can even use VPN on your iOS devices too by using the PPTP method and enter the address on your phone.

The only difficult technical part comes when you want to use the VPN service on a device that did not allow you to install the software. There is no way to do a PPTP on a PS3 or Xbox or Apple TV. Since Netflix and Hulu are basically TV streaming services, you will want to be able to watch it on the big screen. The problem is you cannot do it UNLESS you have a dd-wrt router and do a configuration on your router for the VPN to be on the router instead.

For me, I can't as my main router is actually my Time Capsule device which I love. (Bloody expensive thing, thanks to my wife for that present)

(+) Plus Points

They have 326 servers all around the world to choose from, i.e. about 38,500 different IP address to hide from.
You remain anonymous to anyone or forum tracking your IP address.
Your data is secured.

(-) Minus points

I am not on a fibre connection but on the Singnet 15MBps service FYI. The downside for me is the speed constraints of using a VPN service since the VPN is acting like a middle man to transfer all information and data.

Unotelly DNS Service

So I went on another hunt for a service that allows me to have access to Netflix, Hulu and any other streaming services that is restricted only to USA. I didnt want to have to buy another router just to set up the VPN account and I am looking also for a faster solution to streaming.

This was when I chanced upon this service called, UNOtelly.

It is a DNS service which channels your DNS lookup through their servers located in the US. I was skeptical of how simple this is, until I tried it. It works. To put it in simple layman terms, if you are watching a channel that UNOtelly supports, it detects that you are trying to access it and redirect your traffic through their DNS servers. They have one server in Singapore. You can check out the list of channels that they support through their page.

All you have to do is to manually edit the DNS servers that you look for and you are done. Refresh the connection through UNODNS website and you are ready to go. This is so simple because any device that requires to connect to the internet will have the option to manually choose a DNS server. Just change it and you are done.

However, there is this issue about the security of the UNOtelly service. Granted that I am not expert in this area, but I have read enough to know that the security of VPN triumphs over a service like Unotelly. The other thing is that using a VPN unblocks ANYTHING whereas the Unotelly only unblocks the services that they have mentioned in their website. The major advantage is that I am able to use the UNOtelly service on any of my devices and also be able to stream at a much faster speed. Streaming Netflix on my PS3 was even faster than on my iMac, which is strange but nice since I am able to watch at least with 720p on my PS3 netflix.

The service is also not expensive, costing USD$4.95 per month for the UNOtelly account. You get to try out a free trial here. Give it a try with a free month trial of Netflix.

I bet you will want to throw away your Starhub cable TV after that.

(+) Plus points

Able to watch Netflix and Hulu on any device. Set up on my iPad, iPhone and PS3 already! Easy!
Super easy to set up and then start to get connected.

(-) Minus points

Not as secured as VPN services
Will not be able to use this service if you are connected through mobile 3G or 4G

Expensive Pediped Shoes in Singapore

noreply@blogger.com (Kelvin Ang) — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 23:20:00 +0000

If you have read my earlier posts, we are closely monitoring Jayden's walking as he tends to walk pigeon toe and ever since realising that, we have made efforts in ensuring that his shoes or sandals are top notch with good support. We have been buying sports shoes like Nike and Adidas but recently went on to buy Pediped and Combi infant shoes. We were looking around in outlets like Mothercare for the pediped shoes and they cost SGD$90+! More expensive than my shoe!

We went back and I did some search online and found from pediped Singapore website that it is indeed selling it at crazy prices here. If the local distributor sells at this prices, of course all other retailers will sell it at that range. We were looking at the Flex - Sahara Blue Sandal Shoe and as stated in Pediped's website, it is retailing at $93. Searching around the internet, you find other shops like De Baby Shoppe selling it at $92.90, Mumy@Home is selling it at $93 too. I kinda stopped it here and Hazel continued the search and we realised that the shoes are really affordable back in US.

Pediped is selling the same shoe at USD$49 but wait. Amazon US is selling it with a discount and there was a free shipping promotion. So it actually just cost USD$33.47 for that same shoe. Using xe.com to convert the price, that means each pair is just SGD$40. THAT IS MORE THAN HALF THE PRICE!!!

The catch? Amazon does not ship to Singapore BUT we have forwarders like Vpost, Comgateway, Citi Globeshopper to thank for.So we bought it.

And here it is. It took 2 weeks to arrive, ordered on the 12th December and received it on the 26th December. Total price we paid was USD$68.43 (SGD$83.60) and with shipping, the most it could have costed us is approx SGD$110 since we have bought other items and forward it with the pediped shoes. Compare this to the price of the same two shoes (Sahara + Benji Boot) at $93 and $106, it would have costed us $199. WOW.

So thanks to the distributor for bringing it to Singapore, we will try out the sizes in your authorised outlets and buy it online.

Happy Online Shopping 2013.

Pioneer Spring Restaurant

noreply@blogger.com (Kelvin Ang) — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 13:53:00 +0000

This blog post is not an actual blog post, it is meant to show that a same experience can be written in two very different ways WHILE maintaining the facts right. I do not mean to say that many bloggers do this, but with more and more bloggers getting tempted, they need to be reminded that integrity is important. I do agree that a blog post can be written in a constructive manner, but if you felt like crap or dislike something, it is not right to ignore that and only post positive remarks, misleading your readers. To me, a blog is personal, it is subjective and not objective.

I will not put effort into doing this post but you should get the idea. I just have to remove my personal feeling and remarks and it does seem better and a good place to try.

See my actual experience here.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Well, it's New Year's Eve and I told Hazel that we should avoid the city area after seeing the ridiculous crowd during Christmas Eve.

So we decided to head down to a nearby restaurant for a good meal.

Pioneer Spring came into my mind since one of my colleagues mentioned that the renovations have completed and now, they offer a buffet spread.

We knew that it was normally not packed and so it was the ideal place to dine amidst the crazy crowd even here in Jurong Point. It was only just 6pm+ and the queues at the usual Din Tai Fung, Swensens, Lai Lai Casual Dining were snaking with queues.

Upon reaching the place, I was greeted by a very friendly staff who told me about the prices and great selection they offer. From signature crabs, fresh oysters, snow crab legs, etc etc, it certainly sounds mouth watering.

Upon entering the restaurant, behind the wall lies the buffet spread. While cursing along with my camera in hand, I also spotted one of the staff introducing their potential customer of what they are offering.

Oysters and crabs greets you when you enter it. Behind the cooked food spread is the dessert selection which consist of cakes, nonya desserts and fruits.

Upon being seated, we were served with two oysters at the beginning of the meal, including a mini buddha jump over the wall. It was a nice gesture and they even have a sign at the table telling you that.

The oysters tasted just great and were juicy! Yum!

The buffet here has the cheapest price in Jurong Point as compared to the next buffet spread. Pioneer Spring has their spread at $39.90++ on a weekend, public holidays or eve while Kushinbo is more expensive at $46.90++ on the same day. Morever, it has over 100 exotic dishes for you to choose from. Check out their brochure!

Pioneer Spring Restaurant

Jurong Point Shopping Centre (JP2) #B1-45/46 (next to DBS Bank)
Restaurant : 6861 6833, 6861 0503

A bad experience at Pioneer Spring Restaurant

noreply@blogger.com (Kelvin Ang) — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 13:32:00 +0000

Well, it's New Year's Eve and I told Hazel that we should avoid the city area after seeing the ridiculous crowd during Christmas Eve.

So we decided to head down to a nearby restaurant for a good meal.

Pioneer Spring came into my mind since one of my colleagues mentioned that the renovations have completed and now, they offer a buffet spread.

Upon entering the restaurant, behind the wall lies the buffet spread.

Oysters and crabs greets you when you enter it. Behind the cooked food spread is the dessert selection which consist of cakes, nonya desserts and fruits.

My experience was great till one of the staff, an old man, skinny with white hair practically kept telling me in louder voices that I should not be taking photos here. (You can actually spot him in the photos)

What?!?! I have NEVER been told that in any restaurant before, even fine dining restaurants where I practically snapped every inch of the place. For what reason, I really have no idea why he stopped me. It should be common sense that more posted photos gave them exposure. And being a new restaurant, they needed that. But given that it was a grouchy old man who stopped me with menacing eyes on a new year's eve, I decided to be a good boy and keep my camera.

The experience went kinda downhill from there. I ordered teppanyaki, you know, get a clip, choose your meat and leave it with the counter. A nice gentlemen had the patience to place veggie, fish and meat in separate full plates and that same staff, always lurking around the teppanyaki corner, at the doorway in the photos, told him not to waste plates and dump everything into one plate and passed him back the two clips. It was also not being very pleasantly said in a courteous manner. That guy seemed shocked and even say "sorry". Eh? You pay to eat and get treated like shit, yet you say sorry? Then again, that old man was really fierce looking and was grumbling away non stop and directing all the rest of the staff, like a boss.

We were served with two oysters at the beginning of the meal, including a mini buddha jump over the wall. It was a nice gesture and they even have a sign at the table telling you that.

But when I went over to the counter that serves the oyster, guess what I read there? "EAT AT YOUR OWN RISK."

You mean you did not do your due diligence to prevent food poisoning and provide good and hygienic food handlers? What the hell is eat at your own risk? I pay to eat and I expect that you make efforts to ensure a minimum of clean, safe food. Having seen that, I did not take any more oysters.

So, I left to take some teppanyaki dishes, I put a piece of beef with some bean sprouts and vegetables. When the dish came, it only had the steak. So I went to take another serving, now bean sprouts with vegetable and shishamo. And guess what came,

No shishamo??? It was only quite a while later that my shishamo came and I can only attribute this to one thing. The way the teppanyaki is being handled is that they just dump everything together to cook without remembering what was placed on the plate. It was worst that the food is not really good.

I ended up taking some other food just to fill my stomach while avoiding this uncle who is staring at me, if I brought my camera along.

Well, I did, at least not my Olympus OMD, but my iPhone. But too bad it was quite blur. One of my favourites at any buffet spread is the dessert selection and the dessert here is really bad. They have cakes and just some nonya desserts, a green bean soup and a super sweet mango pomelo. Nah.

As for seating arrangement wise, they are trying to maximise the use of space and cramped many people together. Most of the tables are 8 person tables. So if you are a family of 3 or 4, you will have some other family sitting right next to you. The other table is about 80cm away. No privacy if you ask me.

Price wise, an adult is $39.90++ for weekends and eve of public holidays.

If I have to say about one good thing was that, they have a good friendly staff trying to get customers inside, but it all changes inside.

I will not recommend this to anyone. For that price range, go down to Kushinbo just around the corner which have an amazing spread and good service at $46.90++ for the same day.

Oh, I asked the counter when I made my payment for the dinner. That old man is THE BOSS.

Pioneer Spring Restaurant
Jurong Point Shopping Centre (JP2) #B1-45/46 (next to DBS Bank)
Restaurant : 6861 6833, 6861 0503

It has been a good 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Kelvin Ang) — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 09:27:00 +0000

For me, 2012 was great on many levels.

First of all, I finally finished my studies as this has been on my list for quite a long time. Completing it means many things for me, such as ~~being able to burn off my books,~~ not having something lingering at the back of my mind, completing a personal achievement, and, most importantly, having more time for family. I have to say that most of the push came from my late boss whom I respected a lot. He was the one that gave me the ultimatum to complete my masters, failing which, I am to face the music. Unfortunately, he passed on late this year and I did not have the chance to thank him for giving me the push and also the opportunity. Strangely, having completed my studies, I became more busy with work, facing new challenges, which I love. But doing the masters part time has taught the the lesson of time management. Though I may not be interested in wanting to go for more academic studies any time soon, I am definitely supporting the cause of continuing education. There are so much to learn about what you do for a living. And if one day, you tell yourself that you have reached the top and there is nothing for you to learn, I think that will be the time of your downfall. The learning and growing experience is never ending. The food documentary about Jiro Dreams of Sushi, a three star Michelin restaurant in Japan that only sells sushi, still being operated by a 85 year old Japanese, is a fine example of striving continuously for the best.

For that, it is also related to experiences of being a father. Being a father is a role to play and not a function of the family. A function has specific things to do but a role is all encompassing. I have learnt through the hard way of parenting, which I guess many of us do, that some things should not be done. The one most important lesson that Jayden taught me is "LEAD BY EXAMPLE". I cannot say it simpler. I preach it at work, making sure I do what I say and I demand that from my people. But little did I know that the most impact I had was on my son. I am ashamed to say that he has learnt quite a number of bad habits from me. For example, putting his leg on the chair upright while he eats, like an ah beng. Who did he learn from? Me. Of course, being an adult, I don't do it outside but in the comfort of my home, I am just used to putting one leg up while eating. But Jayden, being just a baby, simply imitates you since he is not capable of understanding that this is rude. I am still trying consciously to change this bad habit of mine. I have to give thanks to my wife who kept nagging at me about it and being the stubborn person, I did not listen till it was too late. Now, we just have to keep reminding him that we should not put up our leg while eating. And for this alone, I have been trying as hard as possible to change my bad habits. (I have many. Ooops)

Parenting is also an experience that teaches you many things along the way. There is no great book or law that you need to abide to. A parent provides the best for his children but that best differs from everyone. Things that work on one might not work on others but the meaning behind the things of what parents do are the most important. To succeed, you need to know the outcome. And from that outcome you want, you will take action to adjust your parenting style to suit that. Putting it into practise, it is not easy to do but certainly something that we have to keep adjusting our actions to achieve the outcome.

On terms of relationship, putting continuous effort is of utmost importance. For my bad habits that my wife put up with me, I am grateful. But slowly and surely, I am continuing to remind myself that we both have a part to play in the household, in terms of housework, parenting, playtime, rest time, etc. I am guilty of the "crown prince" syndrome, where I am used to being served back at my parents place. And I certainly do realised that many of the little "fights" that we have stemmed from the housework duty. But I have to say that I am really really trying hard to be a "commoner". To my wife, Hazel, I love you lots for everything and anything.

For blogging, I posted something earlier on about it. I think I am much more clear of why I blog. I used to be excited about being invited to events, sponsored for something, queried about doing an advert for others but now no. Not any more.

I will still blog, because I want to and not because of any other reasons. I guess I will still take sponsors IF it is god damn interestingly related AND no funny clauses in the agreement restricting my opinion. I will choose to still post negative comments if it is bad. I am starting to find some posts or blogs by others a little too commercialised. I am also not shy to say that I have unsubscribed to quite a number of blogs that I feel are going towards the "SEO optimization by keywords", "adverts more than blog posts" or that I feel the blogger is not being truthful. If you just want to make some extra money out of blogging, by all means, but do have the courtesy to tell others that. Having seen some restrictions placed by sponsors/agencies for restricting negative ideas and opinions of the sponsored product/item/event, the words similar to "any opinion or blah blah is solely by XXX and XXX only provided the thing for review" is as good as not putting it there. Also, having met some PRs and a cool blogger during an event shone light on money making by commercialising parenting blogs and managing blogs sponsors. Whoa. I have never looked at those blogs the same way again.

Last but not least,

Wishing you a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Rich & Good Cake Shop

noreply@blogger.com (Kelvin Ang) — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 21:12:00 +0000

The best swiss rolls that I ever tasted is here, from Rich & Good Cake shop. The weirdest thing was that I rediscovered it during my NS reservist. About 10+ years back, I was just your NS boy but got a little lucky to be posted to a good place for serving his NS. During then, my officer/supervisor always loves to get swiss rolls from this place. If I do remember correctly, they were sold at $3 per roll. So fast forward back to the present, when I returned back to reservist and saw her, she brought the same swiss rolls. They looked awfully familiar and she reminded me that this is the exact same one that she used to get when we are serving NS.

It still tasted as good and the KAYA swiss roll is still the favourite. They use their own homemade kaya and coupled with the layers of puffy and spongy cakes, they are to die for!

I immediately sent Hazel an MMS with a picture of the shop address and told her that we need to go there and get the cakes for her to try. Jayden would love it too!

Guess what, as fate decides, we passed by the shop just as we went shopping for the Combi products in my previous post. It is tucked inside an insignificant shopfront. Nothing fanciful they do here. Very vintage and traditional front but when you open up the glass door inside, the wave of coconut kaya smell just sweeps you over.

The swiss rolls here are sold in these boxes in their pure uncut form and you can request for a plastic knife for cutting into the portions that you want.

And for the benefit of you, my readers, here is the price list as their products.

Rich & Good Cake Shop
24 Kandahar Street
Singapore 198887
Tel: +65 62943324

On the lookout for toddler shoes

noreply@blogger.com (Kelvin Ang) — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 10:50:00 +0000

Shoes. Something very important for little Jayden as we have been getting him shoes that provide him with some sort of arch support, a recommendation by the physiotherapist that we went to. Pediped shoes have been our number one choice but, boy, they are freaking expensive in Singapore. The price is sky high in Singapore compared to a similar one sold in the US. They sell for about SGD90+ here at distributors, for example Mother Care and if you go to the internet, you find them selling for about USD$40 per pair. Problem is PediPed US does not ship to forwarders as Hazel as went about trying. In the end, she managed to find a good place to get the shoes online. Still, it will take time for shipping to arrive and Jayden's shoes are already spoilt.

So the next alternative that we were looking at is shoes by Combi. And what better place to go than the Combi Distributor itself, Tai Sing.

Thank god for the sunny weather. We actually wanted to come over here last week but the sudden downpour really deterred us from going.

A good 2 years has passed since we came here and the last time we came here for for the baby stroller and car seat.

But surprise surprise, the previous place that displays all the combo products are no longer here. In place of it are TONS of toys, the entire area has became a toys store!

Check out the photo I took 2 years ago at the same place with the similar Combi Logo banner at the back and the chines ang bao decoration on the pillar of the wall.

I asked the aunties manning the place and found out that the combi products have been shifted to a new showroom. WHOA. They must have been doing great to expand their shop front.

The new showroom is along the same road, just about 2 mins walk away.

Tada! Combi paradise.

And the shoes that we came looking for. Hazel was a little disappointed that one of the particular type of sandals were not sold here but we still left with a beautiful pair of sandals like shoe.

I also managed to take a good look at one of my shortlisted baby car seat, something to replace the Combi Corroco that is being installed. The Combi Joyride is certainly one of my top picks.Tai Sing is selling it at $319 before 10% store discount. Hmmmm. I wanted to get Jayden to sit in it to show us but he was being a little too cranky today and sorely refused!

We will be back!

Keep Blogging…for the correct reason

noreply@blogger.com (Kelvin Ang) — Sun, 09 Dec 2012 09:48:00 +0000

I have been quite relaxed in terms of keeping up with blogging and weeks passes by real quickly. If there is one thing I would want to put an excuse to is this - I have finally graduated and completed my Masters degree.

I have been delaying this degree for quite sometime and the last part of getting to complete my thesis was tough. My momentum has slowed down as I put priority of my life and work over the thesis and I couldn't keep the drive of completing it up. My deadline has been extending and I told myself that this is it. I have to complete this thesis and graduated as it has been in my New Year's Goal for 2 years! To my surprise, I completed it and more surprisingly, I completed it with distinction. Somehow, having graduated, my professional work took a turn of events, be it a coincidence or not, I was appointed to run other projects beyond my wildest imagination. It has been tough and it is still very challenging. I am really mentally exhausted everyday I reach home and I just wanna take a break, play with Jayden and watch some drama or anime. Blogging is the last thing on my mind. By the way, I still have 1000+ blog post/articles to read as stated on my Google Reader.

This break in blogging also gave me time to think and reflect. What was the reason that I blog for?

I have subscribed to tons of blogs, many of which I find useful, some interesting to catch up to read, others are really just blogs in disguise. I still stand by my principle of why I blog. This was the first post I made during then.

This blog, Daddy NiVleK was created to share about my experiences in becoming a father. Since then, it has moved on to sharing the joys of parenthood and more or less as a digital scrapbook where I add words to the thousands of photos that I take. Of course, since I am a crazy tech guy and someone that loves good food, I love writing about them. When I got into the blogging thing, I met and know a few bloggers. It was nice to know more people and I am still loving the idea of reaching out to others over what I write. And then, I realised the one most important factor to why I blog.

It is the passion. The passion about something makes me just want to write about it and if I know at the back of my head that I am kinda forced to write, I unconsciously hate it.

I kept having the illusion of making sure that I will blog at the minimum of once per 2 days but after years of keeping this blog, I guess that will not work for me. Bloggers will understand this. Call it the writers block or whatever. For me, I have never liked the idea of forcing myself to blog. Thus, you will never see me participating in those blog linky/train where various bloggers write about a topic which one blogger started and they have to do it at a fixed day of the week. The thought of it is agonising enough. I have tried to do one of my own with a "Gadget Daddy Wednesday" but whole thing was dropped faster than the speed of light. I have enough deadlines to meet at work and I will not want to make blogging another deadline. Like what Yvonne @ Beadsyy Diary has written in her recent post, "to give a deadline to a passion, it takes the fun out of doing it", I agree wholeheartedly.

Then there is that thing about being sponsored and whatever. It is cool. Bloggers love it. But do I? Well, if that event or item is something that I want and intending to go or get, by all means yes. Having said that, many adult bloggers are blogging out of their free time and have a steady income. Sure. I might be a lil' jealous of other bloggers being sponsored of something that I wanted to get and they got it free. Then I will just spend my own money to get it or go for it.

In the end, I know one thing. I hate to mince my words. I have been in some events, invited and given some stuff, told to write about it and when the event turned out to be a flop, I will normally be pissed since it wasted my time. My typical post will be a "DO NOT GO" conclusion post. Or for items that I paid good money for and it is rubbish, be sure to read my post stating it clearly. So what do I do if I attended some crap event or got some lousy product? I do not post anything about that event or item. By doing a post will be contrary to my belief and hypocritical. Yes, everything has some good in it. You will have bloggers able to write solely about the good things that happen or the advantages of the gadget, but there are always the dark side of it. A blog post can be made in such a way that it is objective and not subjective, leading the reader to conclude by himself/herself. But where is the personal touch if the post is made objectively? I am not a journalist.

There is a fine line between good bloggers and awesome bloggers. Awesome bloggers made themselves awesome just because of their hint of personality inside every single post.

And me?

I do not blog because I want freebies. I do not blog because I want extra income. I do not blog because I feel great having tons of fans or followers.

I blog because I want to, and not because anyone else wants me to.

Christmas Village @ Singapore Flyer

noreply@blogger.com (Kelvin Ang) — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 23:28:00 +0000

I have been hearing about this Christmas Village repeatedly over the radio whilst driving and Hazel did bring it up for a suggestion of a place to visit. For the starters, I came with quite a high expectation of the displays since it was so publicized over various media outlets.

I parked at the Singapore Flyer and the Christmas Village greeted us as we walked across the link way to find some food for dinner. I checked out the admission price. Wow. If you come before 6.30 which is classified as the Non peak hour, it is $6 for adults and $4 for children (3 and above) but once it is after 630pm, the price doubles to $12 for adults and $8 for children. To just check out lights, etc it is not very cheap if you ask me.

Since I am still grumbling about spending ridiculous amount of money on SOCKS (SOCKS!!! I read the price label wrongly), Hazel suggested to eat here in the Singapore Food Trail instead of restaurants. Hahaha. Anyway, I am still pissed at spending so much on socks. Heh.

Jayden looking stoned after being woken up from his nap in the car.

The map of the area was displayed as you walked in after paying the admission. Looks big?

Some pictures at the "Santa's Workshop". By the way, the "Santa" here when we were there is quite a nice chap, but he don't really look like Santa lor. And frankly, this place is a photo op place and of course, there are official photographers around to help with taking your photos and then getting it printed immediately with a price.

The gnomes christmassy Christmas.

The Singapore Flyer also has its own christmas tree with a santa and reindeer riding up towards the star.

A large christmas pine tree lighted up.

Reindeer riding up towards the Singapore Flyer.

Snowman, reindeers and angel amidst the snowy white pines. I was actually waiting around for the snow to come falling since it was stated on the board that there is snow being blown at a 15mins interval. We waited for quite a while and only came to realise that the machine is out of order.

Photo op with Santa on his sledge!

We didn't really spend much time here as we need not spend that too. The number of exhibits is just way too little for the admission price. I paid the same amt for the entrance to the lantern festival and didn't felt cheated. But if you are at Singapore flyer, guess that is the only place with the "Christmas" lights.

Do we like it?

Plus (+)

Various photo opportunities
Something new. First Christmas Village in the Tropics

Minus (-)

Admission price way too steep for the amount of things inside.
Snow machine not working when we were there.
There is much more lights (FOC) in the Orchard Area.

Hokey Pokey - Our New Playground

noreply@blogger.com (Kelvin Ang) — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 21:59:00 +0000

We recently signed up at this new playground at Suntec City Mall. I guess we were a little late too after so many fellow mummy and daddy bloggers have went there to have fun!

With so many different playgrounds available in Singapore, we really just wanted to sign up as a regular with one at a place that we frequent often. One of our favourite shopping areas apart from my neighbourhood Jurong Point is the Marina Square/Suntec Area. And Hokey Pokey happens to be just there.

Upon entering the place, you will be greeted with a huge selection of toys. They have shelves nicely displaying various toys to play with.

Jayden went crazy over the vacuum cleaners here. He was holding on to the brooms and vacuum cleaners and letting go!

He liked it so much that Hazel went out around different places to find one that we can buy and let him play at home. Luckily, there isn't any. Cos I ain't a fan of vacuum cleaner toys. :P

Other than these toys, there are others like these kiddie ride toys that you can find just at the entrance to the playground.

Jayden did try a few of them but there wasn't any that he particularly likes. Good bonus points here was that most of the toys here have working batteries or are in relatively good condition at the time we were there.

You also have a mini slide which to our surprise, he didn't like. It is really interesting to know that he LOVES the neighbourhood playground slide and will go on it repeatedly but just plainly refuses to go on this slide at Hokey Pokey. In fact, he also refuses to go to an even small slide or into the pool of balls. I was thinking if it is the pool of balls that deterred him from playing the slide but it wasn't. We recently tried to encourage him to go on a slide at park playground and he also refuses to go on it.

We tried to get him on this mini roller coaster thing and the minute he knows that this car is going down, he tries to break free and get out. Ahhh, he is getting risk adverse. Well, we will continue to encourage him to try new things and to ensure that we will always be there and its safe.

After all there, he came over to the other corner of the playground with tamer toys to play with.

And this is his favourite during his first visit. I bought many similar products like this for him to play at home.

And this fishing thing. I tried to find it at toys store but still could not find any. Any help please?

Overall, we like the place. It does help that the place is only for kids from 6 months to 6 years old. Being a parent of a 2 year old child and not having experience controlling a 7 year old kid, it really irritate the hell out of me and older kids come over to the toddler area to disturb in other playgrounds.

Do check it out. More over at their Facebook Page.

HOKEY POKEY
Address: 3 Temasek Boulevard #03-027E/F Suntec City Mall S038983.
Tel: 6884 5385
Opening Hours: Sun – Thurs: 10am to 7pm, Fri – Sat: 10am to 9pm

Giveaway - NTUC U Family and Fairprice Vouchers!

noreply@blogger.com (Kelvin Ang) — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 10:40:00 +0000

Have you been waiting for a post? I hope you have because since my reservist is ending soon, my tempo for blogging seems to have kicked in again! And what is a better post than one that does a giveaway to start the ball rolling!

Recently, if you have been following, I wrote a post on me being part of the NTUC U Family Blog Champions and a hint of a giveaway. And this is what you have been waiting for.

Let me reiterate what U Family is and what it stands for.

U Family is a community that advocates the building of strong and happy families by championing work-life integration for working families. They are into organising family bonding events, networking lunches for like-minded working parents and interest group get-togethers. U Family makes networking accessible, parenting information available and family activities affordable.

We are a strong supporter of the NTUC U Family's efforts and goals and I am personally a firm believer of creating work life balance. If you are thinking and cracking your head over where to go for some good events targeted at families, look no further than the events organised by the U Family.

In fact, if you are like minded parents like me and wishes to receive updates on the latest events and promotions for families. A welcome gift of a $30 NTUC Fairprice Voucher awaits all sign ups if you take part in this giveaway! There is a total of 2 $30 vouchers to be won from here. Winners are chosen randomly and winners will be announced on 5th November 2012 on my Facebook page.

To win, just follow these simple steps.

1) Like Daddy NiVleK's Facebook Page

2) Join U Family for Free (from 29th October to 4th November 2012) (If you are currently a U Family member but would like to take part in this giveaway, please use a family member's name for the registration instead as this giveaway is only for NEW sign ups.)

3) Leave a comment on this blog post with your email address. We need your email address to contact you if you are the winner. Share with us what is the one place you love to bring your family out for a good meal! I always believe in bonding over meal times!

By the way, if you have not sign up for the upcoming NTUC U Family Mega Event, you should check it out now! We will be there too!

Family Night Out Mega Dance! Hit the dance floor with your kids!

Date: 24 November 2012, Saturday
Time: 7.00pm to 10.00pm (Registration & pre-event activities* start at 6pm)
Venue: The Coliseum™, Hard Rock Hotel® Singapore
Level 2, 8 Sentosa Gateway
Singapore 098269

T&C for giveaway

This giveaway is open to readers of Daddy NiVleK and those residing in Singapore only.
Winner(s) must sign-up during the giveaway period to qualify for the prize. i.e 29th October to 4th November
This is sponsored and managed by U Family and its representing agency Dice Studio LLP.
Winners will be contacted via email.
All decisions made are final.
U Family and Dice Studio LLP reserve the right to change the contents and the terms & conditions of the giveaway without prior notice.

Singtel's Home Without Walls ScrapBook

noreply@blogger.com (Kelvin Ang) — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 23:34:00 +0000

This is something I want to share with you guys, something that I always wanted to do too! What is that?

A SCRAPBOOK!!! And you get the chance to win a printed copy of it!

As part of Singtel's "Home Without Walls" initiative, Singtel has freshly launched a Scrapbook App to encourage Singaporeans to connect with their families and forge strong bonds with their loved ones and community. Of course, as I have mentioned earlier, there is also a concurrent contest ongoing where users can share and relate their family stories through a digital photo album.

From now till 23 October 2012, SingTel’s “Home Without Walls” Family Scrapbook will allow Singaporeans to explore the creative applications of technology by enabling them to create a photo album of special memories by logging into SingTel’s Family Scrapbook at www.homewithoutwalls.com/scrapbook. It is essential that you are logged in as a Facebook user to use this app and you will have to authorise the app to access your Facebook.

Here is how you proceed to go about creating it.

It is really quite simple to use. Do remember to save your scrapbook so that you can continue with it. You can have up to 40+ pages!! Do it quickly! The top ten submissions will win a free printed copy of the scrapbook!

I will love doing this since taking photos of our daily life, events and happenings are just part of me and having a printed copy of these memories will be lovely.

My family album will be more on the growing up years of Jayden from 0 - 2+, a period that is both difficult as new parents and memorable because of the many "first" that we encounter.

A pictorial guide to the scrapbook making

1. Choose your theme.

2. Change your cover design (if you wish)

3. Import your photos! IMPORT MANY!! If you are a seasoned user of photography, post process them before importing to make it even better.

4. But if you are not that great at photoshopping, they have built in various photo effect filters to use! Nice!

5. Here you can choose your page layout!

6. And some stickers to play along too! Check out my "Jayden" Stickers! Wooah!

That's it! Have fun! And remember, the app uses a lot of "drag and drop" method! Have some great time doing up your scrapbook!

My Birthday Lunch @ Tung Lok Signatures

noreply@blogger.com (Kelvin Ang) — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 21:03:00 +0000

Just a few years ago, my family birthday celebrations were always happening in some seafood restaurants (notably Long Beach Seafood) for most of the celebration dinner get togethers. I am happy that now it has changed. We are going to different places for the birthday celebration and trying out new things. For my family birthday celebration of yours truly bday, Hazel and I decided that Tung Lok Signatures at Vivocity will be a great choice. It was also that we had been here before and we think that the dim sum selection is not bad. We decided against a birthday dinner as per our usual practice since doing it on a Sunday night is really quite tiring. Most importantly, the price range is still not that high up here for my parents.

Since there was a party of six here, it also means that we can try out new things that we have not had the chance to taste it previously. The Fried Turnip Cake with XO chill sauce ($7.00) was really good. It is fried with eggs and bean sprouts. Although it says that it is fried with chilli sauce, it isn't really spicy at all. In fact, Jayden love this dish too and kept asking for seconds.

Soya Duck Wing ($8.00). A dish that I will probably never order if I did not come to this place with my parents. I didn't really like it. The wings are well marinated with the soya sauce and even deep into the wings, you can still taste the marinate. However, duck wings are unlike chicken wings which are fatter and consist of a little more meat. Duck wings are mostly skin with little meat inside it. The meat isn't really particularly tender too.

Wanna french kiss a duck? Order this dish - Duck Tongue in XO Chili Sauce ($10.00). I can safely say that I will NEVER order this dish if dinning with Hazel only. I plucked up my courage and tried one of it. Surprise. Duck tongues have a bone in the middle of it. And there is a "fishy" type smell on the tongue. My brother love it, not me. This is just another case of acquired taste.

Hazel ordered the Deep Fried Prawn Rolls with Banana ($4.80). To me, it is like a Chinese banana fritters with fresh succulent prawns inside it. I would have preferred it to have lesser prawns and more bananas inside it. After all, there are so many other dishes with prawns inside.

Poached Seasonal Vegetables ($8.00) were ordered by my bro. Vegetables slightly poached and drenched in sauce.

One of the new MUST order dishes for Tung Lok Signatures is this - Steamed Custard Sponge Cake ($3.80). The cake is very very soft and you can see different layers here. The yellowish layer inside the cake is actually custard or salted egg yolk and there is another layer of black sponge cake. I couldn't identify what that is. But this cake is really nice! It might be a little sweet for those not keen on sweet stuffs but for most of us, it is just wonderful.

After we are done with our main, we got the kitchen to send the cake my mother bought and did our family tradition of singing a bday song and taking yearly birthday photos.

Making a wish.

Blowing out the candle. Jayden helps too!

And cutting the birthday cake. It always seems like Jayden is the one having the birthday since he LOVES to cut cake, blow candles and sing birthday songs!

One last thing, a lovely Mango Ice Cream with sago in Young Coconut to end off the wonderful meal we had in Tung Lok Signatures.

Thomas and the Hidden Treasure Live!

noreply@blogger.com (Kelvin Ang) — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 21:18:00 +0000

We just caught the Thomas and the Hidden Treasure Live show over the weekend, our first show as a family and also my very first kiddie musical. Read on to find out what I think of it!

For the Thomas and the Hidden Treasure show in Singapore, it is organised by VizPro and held in Singapore Expo. To be frank, I have never caught any show in Singapore Expo so I was really waiting to see how it fares here. They use Hall 8 for the show and laid out chairs for the seating arrangement. Personally, I am not very pleased with the seating arrangement.

First of all, due to the seats they used, which are basically conference or seminar type seats (common in Expo) tied up together to prevent it from moving too much, the booster seats which are provided are really not very stable. You can see from the photo that the based of the seat is actually smaller than the booster seat which just means that if your toddler so much as wriggles on the seat, there is a tendency for he to fall. To counteract this, we had to rest our elbows on the seat when he was using it. We didn't like this.

We took the $61 tickets which means that I am siting somewhere here, at the middle of the seating area. The category I tickets are right at the front (of course) but the seats are not on steps. The advantage is that kids seated in that area are able to go to a common area just right in front of the stage to watch the show RIGHT in front of them.

Well, other than the seats which I am not happy with, Jayden is very much excited about the whole show!

We also got him a ~~damn expensive~~ Thomas Lantern for $30, something we started to do whenever we attend shows as a souvenir.

And the lantern is now just somewhere among the pile of toys he has at home. Haha. Anyway, it is a good bedside night lamp to find things in the dark!

Spoiler ALERT!

So the show is about Thomas on Sodor who is given the very important task of bringing visitors on the Pirates of Sodor Tour.

You can also expect to see a few other familiar trains, Percy, James and Gordon are also featured here. (And that is about it)

Thomas brings them to the woods to find the treasure but was unfortunate to have met with a broken track, leaving the visitors stranding in the whispering woods. He causes confusion and worries for the holiday makers and is terribly upset about it. Due to this, the Fat Controller punished him by removing his privilege of bringing the visitors on this Pirates tour, giving the job to a very keen Percy.

Thomas takes over the job of transporting fish and is not at all affected by it.

Much to everyone's surprise, it was because he took this punishment and led everyone to be able to find the Hidden Treasure!

The end.

Was it worth it? Well, Jayden loves Thomas and as he is still young at about 2+, we doubt he understands the story of the show. The appearances of Thomas and the other train engines are few and it can be said that they are more like supporting cast where the rest dance and sing. Jayden's attention is only being grabbed by the appearance of the train engines and if the they are at the spotlight. There is too much going on at the show that we think that we cannot recommend it to children below 3.

One last thing, DO NOT BE FOOLED BY THE FREE CONTAINERS OUT AT THE ENTRANCES. If you can't say no, it is better not to get the free containers as the sales promoters will just keep calling your phone, bombing it and then when they get to your place, they will keep promoting the product and use rather shrewd tactics to get you to buy their $3000+ (I guess one) anti dust mite machine.

I have been there, done that. We did not buy though. Be warned.

Swensen's New Breakfast Menu

noreply@blogger.com (Kelvin Ang) — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 21:03:00 +0000

We have had a few breakfasts at Swensen's before (blogged about one of the few times) and although we didn't think they were that fantastic, but I would say it is value for money for that price range. With the news of an improved menu for the Breakfast, I told Hazel that we had to go down and check it out for ourselves.

In tow with us was our active little toddler Jayden who cannot stop making silly faces at me.

And it stops because he asked for "phone phone!".

Busy with playing games on the phone now. I missed an opportunity to listen to a talk about the influences of digital media on babies, toddlers and young children. I guess that talk will be insightful for me as I am really interested to know how much is a lot and how little is enough? Jayden still has the habit of watching Youtube or playing with games during his mealtimes. He is not really interested in self feeding.

Back to the topic of the new menu, I chose the Hearty Steak & Eggs ($14.90). I didn't expect the steak to be wonderful since the price is just $14.90 but I did expect a slightly larger portion though. The portion is really very small and thin. You will not be asked about the "done-ness" of the steak since it is so thin that I think it will normally be well done. The Ciabatta rolls were quite delicious with honey butter inside it. Hazel didn't really like it though.

Hazel had the Classic French Toast with Honey Butter Cream ($10.90). The french toast is now quite different from what Swensen's used to offer and Hazel was not too pleased with it. One thing different here was also the pancakes selection. Now they only offer the normal pancakes set rather than the different pancakes which is a good change since I hardly have pancakes here. But please bring back the old french toast!! Gone was also the egg that comes with a french toast set.

You should note that the meal now comes with ONLY coffee or tea. If you want orange/apple juice, you will have to top up $1 for it. That basically means the new menu is much more expensive. Previously, a traditional French toast set will set you back for $6.90 complete with your choice of orange/apple juice PLUS coffee/tea. Now to have a french toast set with juice will cost you $11.90. A difference of $5. WOW. I certainly don't mind a small change, but an increase of $5 is way too much.

Swensen's used to be a place that rivals all other breakfast places that we go due to the affordability but now, with its new improved and more costly breakfast menu, I think we will go there MUCH lesser. Many others will probably think the same.

Y Biking again!

noreply@blogger.com (Kelvin Ang) — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 20:50:00 +0000

We were told by our visits to the doctor regarding his walking that having a bicycle/tricycle will help in aiding him to walk better and improve coordination. In view of that, we got him a "tricycle". However, he was still not tall enough to be using it properly and he just refuses to put his feet on the pedal to step on it. In fact, he enjoys tip toeing on it and reversing!

Fearing for the worst that that might even make his condition worst, I got out his previous baby ride. The Y Bike.

And he is fascinated by it all over again. Now he prefers to ride on this rather than the bicycle. He looks a little too big for the Y Bike now but the most important part is that he is having fun! Check out the post that I did on the Y Bike more than a year ago!

So much fun that he is sweating crazily in this hot weather!

I am glad that I took this out again but I think I will keep it again soon after he grows a little taller to urge him to try cycling!

Causeway Bay Hong Kong Cafe

noreply@blogger.com (Kelvin Ang) — Sun, 07 Oct 2012 21:54:00 +0000

Going to cafe type eating places seems to have caught up on us. I can't even say if it is good or not but it is definitely cheaper than our usual food haunts but it is a refreshing change. Recently, when we were shopping in the Orchard area and queuing up on my iPhone 5, we decided to head to the Causeway Bay Hong Kong Cafe for our dinner. We are usually quite at lost on what to have for dinner here. Most restaurants in this area are quite packed and the tables are very close to one another. Also, the more popular restaurants have quite a long waiting time and thus, we decided to go for the less known cafes.

Jayden seems very happy about our choice? LOL. Truth be said, the reason that we decided on this place is also for Jayden. We did not have enough time to prepare food for him to be brought out in a food warmer and thus, we had to select a restaurant that will sell items that he will more likely be eating. Jayden love noodles but he is also quite picky on the type of noodles and the soup base that the noodle is in.

We ordered some drinks to cool us down after walking around in circles while waiting for my queue number for the iPhone 5. Hazel had the Salted Lemon Tea with Plum Juice ($5.30). I tried it and I thought that it was a little too sweet for my tastebuds and the sweetness overpowered the sourness from the plum.

I had the Red Bean Sago ($5.30). I am a fan of Red Bean and I love almost everything that has red bean in it. This is no exception as well. The only thing was that it is destroying my diet plans.

For my dinner, I had the Fried Nissin Noodle with Kam Hiong Sauce ($10.90). This was quite tasty with the Kam Hiong Sauce. A little spicy too but not until the extend that one has to grab for water to wash away the chilli. I wished it was a little less oiler though.

Hazel had the Nissin Noodle with Egg and Luncheon Meat. ($7.90) Quite standard comfort food to me.

As I was feeling a little hungry, I added a side dish of the HK Cola Chicken Wings ($7.30). This was also one of the recommended dish in the menu but I think that it is really average and nothing much to shout about. It tasted more like the chicken was fried and then dipped into Coke Cola.

Overall, the food was reasonable but we didn't have much that we will want to try for our next visit. It is rare that I take quite some time to choose my meal from the menu. There are only two reasons. One is that there are too many things that I want to eat and the other is that there is nothing that interests me. For this cafe, I took some time to choose and my reason was the latter.

Causeway Bay Hong Kong Cafe
Address: 176 Orchard Road,
#01-105/111 The Centrepoint, Singapore

The Ladies Shoe Expert

noreply@blogger.com (Kelvin Ang) — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 22:17:00 +0000

People say "Kids say the earnest things." I heard all about it but I have to experience it myself and I did. We were out shopping one day and Jayden was in very good spirits after a nice long nap in his stroller as we pushed him around Orchard. He woke up as Hazel was going to look for new shoes, try them on and probably get a few pairs. Since Jayden was already in the stroller for so long, I didn't want to let him continue sitting in the pram, so I got him up and immediately, he just excitedly got down and followed Hazel to look at shoes.

While Hazel was trying her shoes and Jayden was making naughty and funny faces with me, I had this interesting conversation with him.

Me: "Jayden, go see what Mummy is doing. Is her shoe nice?"

Jayden goes off towards Hazel's direction as I remain sitting on the sofa area.

Jayden: "Mummy, nice!!" He says as he points towards the shoe on the ground. He then picks up the shoe and put it down for Hazel to try.

Jayden: "Mummy, wear shoe!!"

Hazel: "OK. Mummy wear."

Hazel took off the existing show and wore the one Jayden was pointing at.

Jayden: "OK Mummy. WALK!"

He then proceeds to go behind her and push Hazel to walk and see if the shoe nice or not. And after Hazel walks with much amusement, Jayden comes back to me.

Jayden: "Nice!"

LOL. The ladies serving us were also amused as they were observing him and smiling the whole time.

Previously, I wanted Jayden to grow up faster. Now I really want him to stop growing so fast!! SO CUTE at this age!!!!

Thomas Live! & Mickey Live! Shows

noreply@blogger.com (Kelvin Ang) — Fri, 05 Oct 2012 22:32:00 +0000

If you thought concerts were expensive, I think Kids Shows are more expensive comparing the scale and complexity of it. OK. I have yet to really watch a kiddy live show but I am going to. Soon. In fact, I will be going down to Singapore Expo for the Thomas Live - Thomas and the Hidden Treasure show later. (I am still on my way back from Brisbane as we speak) So I kinda got to rush from Changi to Jurong to offload my luggage and then drive back to Singapore Expo for the show. Honestly, I think I will be really very tired after the show.

Check out his collection of Thomas and Friends Toys. The collection is still not as big as his Tayo bus collection though but I am sure it will grow. Lets see if his interest in trains and etc will continue.

SYNOPSIS
Asian Premiere - All New Thomas Stage Show Live In Singapore!

Celebrate this Children’s Day with Thomas & Friends™! After the successful world tour of Thomas Live on Stage in ‘A Circus Comes To Town’, MediaCorp VizPro is proud to welcome Thomas & Friends™ back for a brand new musical theatre show, ‘Thomas and the Hidden Treasure’.

It’s a busy time on Sodor for Thomas and his friends as they help The Fat Controller prepare to welcome a group of holiday makers, who are visiting the island. Thomas is given an exciting and very important job of taking the visitors on a “Pirates of Sodor Tour”, but he gets distracted at the prospect of finding some real long lost treasure. Will Thomas be able to find the treasure and delight his passengers, or will he cause confusion and delay and spoil their holiday? With life-size moving engines and an original score of songs, this new live musical adventure will appeal to all young Thomas fans and their families

Here's hoping that it is money well spent!

And there is more!

Hazel's Mickey Mouse Collection. Steady le. Don't play play. She is really a fan of Mickey Mouse and I think if Singapore has a Disneyland, we will be one of the first to register for Annual Passes.

Experience the excitement with your favorite Disney friends

Hit the road with Mickey Mouse and your favorite Disney friends for a hilarious talent search in the all-new Disney Live! Mickey’s Rockin' Road Show! Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy set out on a zany road trip where audiences join in and help find the coolest acts around. Along the way, hit a high note with Cinderella; get your bounce on with Tigger; and shout out your loudest "yee-haw" at a hoedown with Woody, Jessie and Buzz Lightyear from Disney/Pixar's Toy Story!

Grab your family for a fun-filled getaway at this live, show-stopping adventure jam-packed with unexpected twists, turns and hijinks -right in your hometown!

So, we got to watch the Disney Live! show. And yes, I have a Mickey Mouse Head as part of my home decor. Honestly, if I get to redo the decor again. I will make it MORE Mickey Mouse themed. LOL

Stay tuned for my review on the show!