Cat tree trauma

Truffle is a playful cat. Being only 6 months old, she loves to explore and play with everything in the house. One of her favorite spot was the newly purchased cat tree. It has dangling elements which she loves to paw and bite. We were glad she loves to play on the cat tree until one evening when her paw was caught tangled with one of the dangling elements. It must have hurt terribly as she hissed and meowed in agony! Thankfully, we were able to free her with a pair of scissors and she has avoided the cat tree ever since. I'm grateful that the incident took place when T and I were at home and we were able to help her. This incident taught us to be more cautious when choosing fixtures and toys for our furkids.

Truffle on the cat tree

New appliance - Stand Mixer!

Stand mixers don't come cheap. One with a strong motor and sturdy attachments typically cost SGD 500 - 1000+. We deliberated on which to purchase for 4 months! Many evenings were occupied with reading reviews about mixers, visiting departmental shops to watch live demonstrations and checking out prices and deals. I was totally mesmerized with the design of a Kitchenaid and bowled over by the functions of a Kenwood K-mix. One moment I preferred the Kitchenaid, the next, I was swayed by the specs of the K-mix. Factoring in the cost, we even considered a hand-held mixer. I remember watching a few episodes of Frenchguycooking, Rachel Khoo's, Jamie Oliver's and Raymond Blanc's videos to see which one is best suited for our needs. Finally... we purchased the K-mix because of the bigger capacity of the bowl and a stronger motor. Garlic herb bread was the first item we made with the K-mix. The dough hook was superb! It kneaded the dough perfectly with minimum effort. Subsequent experiments include cranberry brownies with Bailey's whipped cream, cranberry bread and more to come.

Kenwood - K-mix

Adoption story

Since a young age, I always wanted to keep a pet. My parents never warmed up to the idea. Eventually, they kept a fish tank with a variety of ornamental fishes (on their own accord). I remember rushing to the front of the tank to feed the fishes after school, but I never did felt any sense of attachment to the fishes. This Aug, after T and I moved in to our own place, we decided to adopt a dog and a cat. (just like Garfield and Odie) Purchasing pets from a pet shop was never an option for us as we always wanted to give rescued animals a forever home.

Like anxious parents, we devoted many evenings preparing the house, making it as pet-friendly as possible and reading about animal care and behavior. We deliberated over which to adopt first, a cat or a dog and spent a few weeks visiting animal shelters. Finally, we adopted a white-black domestic short-fur cat, Ronny. Soon, we discovered that he has a timid personality and would do well with a cat companion rather than a dog. Hence, we took in his best mate from the same shelter - Truffle.
They have settled well in our home and we look forward to share more about them in future posts.

Truffle and Ronny

Our New Home! (edited)

Before getting married, T and I applied for a Build-To-Order (BTO) flat through Singapore's Housing-Development-Board (HDB). The duration of the application and completion of an apartment is approximately 3-4 years. (our application was made in Jan 2011) We opted for a 90 square meters apartment with 3 bedrooms.

On 10 June, we finalized our loans, made payments for the fire and house insurance, opened a utilities account and paid some bills, we became proud owners of a new apartment!


These are pictures of our apartment. We love the emerald view from all the windows, however, it will be a challenge to decorate this miniscule apartment and ensure that it meets our immense need for storage space.

Living room

Kitchen

Laundry room

View from living room

Living room

Corridor leading to bedrooms

Bedroom 1

Common toilet

Bedroom 2

Master bedroom toilet

Masterbedroom

Master bedroom

View from master bedroom

France 2014

It has been awhile since I last written! We spend 3 gorgeous weeks in France and Madrid in April. I'll write about the Madrid trip in a separate entry. Much time was spent with our family members, catching up and enjoying the spring weather. This was our 2nd trip to France, away from the hustle and bustle of city life, which I very much prefer. The sight of endless canola fields and smells from the lush forests were refreshing and captivating. 

To our delight, we were able to celebrate our nephew's 5th birthday this year! He had a pirate-themed party and my sister-in-law (sil) painstakingly planned every aspect of it for the children and the young-at-heart :D

Pirate crew bananas

Pirate hats for the guests (so creative!)

Eclair cake

Comte with tomatoes

The birthday cake

I could not be happier sharing the lives of my extended family. Visiting the kids' school, going through their weekly routine, visiting the playground they frequent, buying fresh produce from the local markets, preparing meals in the cosy kitchen, walking the dog, feeding ducks, have dinners and late night chats with family...these are sweet memories that I'll always cherish and remember. If I ever become a mom, I hope that I will be a hands-on mom like my sil.

Rambouillet

Baked apple tarte with my sil with the trusty Thermomix helper

The donkey and horse which my nephews fed spontaneously during a playground visit!

Forest walk

Oysters at a local market

Local market

The family's Vizsla :)

During our stay in the village, one of my favorite places to visit was the local bakery (boulangerie). The rustic smell of freshly baked bread, golden pastries and sweet delights was inviting and lovely. T was very fond of the macarons, which my mother-in-law (mil) raves about from time to time.

The wide and delicious array speaks for itself

Chocolate macaron

My favourites!!!!! Superb!

In Paris

Needless to say, we did spend 1-2 days in Paris to satisfy our innate shopaholics, with the excuse of buying souvenirs for friends and family. The experience was indeed unforgettable. Literally. While walking towards the metro at Opera, a group of gypsies attempted to pickpocket my husband. Thankfully the attempt was unsuccessful and we got away without losing anything. Back home that night, my sil told us that Asian tourists are frequent targets of petty crimes.

Galeries Lafayette

Roof top of Galeries Lafayette

Longchamp

Pierre Hermé

Pierre Hermé Easter specials

Pierre Hermé macarons (Passionfruit milk chocolate and rose)

Pierre Hermé macaron

Pierre Hermé

Versailles

With my sil's good planning, we managed to include a visit to Palace of Versailles in our itinerary! I was very excited about visiting the legendary Versailles because we did not get to go the last time and springtime is an added bonus for it! Nothing beats visiting historical places for a history buff like me. To get there, we took a RER train to Versailles-Rive Gauche station. From the station, it takes about 10 minutes to walk to the entrance of Versailles.

To beat the long ticketing queue, we purchased a ticket from the tourism office outside of Versailles. It is €2 more than the standard ticket, but I strongly recommend this if you are visiting during peak seasons. A one day pass (with audio guide) which entitles you to visit the palace, musical gardens and Marie-Antoinette's estate cost €27. The estate is massive! You could spend a full day in Versailles. (We arrived at 10am, left at 4pm) We toured the gardens first because of the long queue to the palace. (Even then, we took 1.5 hours to queue to get into the palace.) It is essential to wear a pair of good walking shoes. T packed sandwiches and snacks for the visit and I was very glad he did! Sitting on the park benches and taking in the view of the gardens was cheesy and romantic.

t

The ticket office where we purchased the tickets (beside Pullman hotel)

Château Chambord and Château de Chenonceau

Knowing my love for castles and all things medieval, my sil also planned a trip to 2 castles in Loire valley - Chambord and Chenonceau. I love both chateaus. The building style and history were immensely different and fascinating.

Château Chambord

Château Chambord

Château Chambord

Château Chambord

Château Chenonceau

Jardin de Giverny (Claude Monet's garden)

Back in school, one of the projects that I had to do, was to pick an artist and give a presentation about his/her works and painting style. I picked Claude Monet because I like his paintings and we share the same birth date! So imagine my delight when we visited Jardin de Giverny! Priceless! Monet created the magnificent gardens he wanted to paint... This guy is a visionary! Seeing his garden made me appreciate his paintings more than ever!

Honfleur, Normandy

We spent one weekend in Honfleur - a picturesque port town located in the North-West of France. You could read about its history here. The French founder of Quebec Canada, Samuel de Champlain was from Honfleur. This region is also famed for its local produce of seafood, cider and calvados. There is a particular recipe that celebrity chef, Rachel Khoo created which features cider and mussels from the region.

I had a fantastic time in France during this trip. We look forward to visiting again...hopefully in the near future.