Wednesday, August 11, 2010

National Day celebrations

The National Day long weekend was a welcome break to the school term, especially for Lesley-Anne who had just completed her term tests. Kenneth happened to be away in Hong Kong over the weekend, so it was bonding time for the three of us.

Although I did make Andre fit in some time for work (CA2s coming up afterall), it was generally a weekend of fun and family time. As always, we make any excuse for food! First up was a trip to Botak Jones (our very first) for Sunday lunch to see what all the hype was about.

The food is reasonably priced, portions are generous and we like the sides. Funnily enough, we found that their signature item - the burger - tasted a little flat. The salmon was flaky, moist and came with a scrumptious garlicky sauce. Andre loved the fish burger which was more like fish and chips with a side of bun! We ended with a slice of oreo cheesecake. All in all, worth a repeat visit. We'll probably try their steak the next time and their cheesy baked potato which was sold out when we were there.

For Sunday dinner, we attempted a recipe for cheese-baked rice. The texture turned out really nice, creamy rice with a crusty cheese topping. However, we all felt it could do with more flavour. Might post the recipe for this one if our second attempt works out better.

On Tuesday night, we ordered Pizza Hut delivery. Always a favourite with the kids and there was a National Day special - 45% discount for online orders. Even as I'm writing this post, I'm thinking we've maxed out on our junk food quota. Maybe I should impose a fish soup diet for a while...

Ok, moving away from food and onto activities. We stayed home for the most part (I hate driving so when Kenneth isn't home, we tend to be self quarantined).

We watched movies and assembled a 500-piece jig-saw together. This is an old one we found in the store-room - it's such a hilarious picture entitled "Happy Mother's Day". You can see the mum balancing a whole acrobatic troop while performing household chores. A great imagery on what mums have to juggle!

We also found an old game called Jackpot. Well, that's probably not the actual name, it's just what I call it. I remember playing it with my sister from a very young age, maybe about 5 or 6 and kept it all this time. I think I became such a hoarder because I had so few gifts as a child, I just hung on to everything!

I've never seen the game sold anywhere on the market these days and I don't know if anyone else has played it. You basically try to match the picture on the sides and a jackpot happens when you can match 2 sides of a triangle at one go. The person with the most points wins. It's actually quite fun for such a simple game, the only hassle is having to record the points and add them up. I would love to know if anyone else has ever played this game.

So that was our National Day celebrations - what did you do?

Addendum:

Is it just me or was this year's National Day parade rather uninspiring? Only the backdrop and props were impressive, the rest of it - singing and dancing included - were meh. Lesley-Anne asked whether the organisers had blown the entire budget on the props and left nothing for the costumes cos some of them looked like they were pasted together using tracing paper and embellished with strips of coloured cellophane. Keke.

10 comments:

Lilian said...

What a fun weekend. And all the food looks so rich, definitely need to rest the tummy after this.

Never seen the Jackpot game, looks fun. Oh, I never got many gifts too as a kid, so that doesn't quite explain why you're a hoarder haha...

monlim said...

Lilian: Hehe... maybe you need to be extra sentimental too! I just drove past my late piano teacher's house (still in original condition though no one lives in it now) and took pictures of it from the outside. Pure nostalgia.

kjj said...

OMG! i LUURVE jigsaw puzzles! but no one will complete one with me. especially one that's with 101 Dalmatians. (don't ask - i clearly wasn't thinking when i bought that!)

happy national (bonding) day!

rgds - kjj

monlim said...

KJJ: Ooh, another jigsaw lover! Although I'm not too sure I would attempt one with 101 dogs with spots... almost as bad as those where 3/4 of the picture is blue sky :P

Happy National Day to you too!!

Jo said...

Yes, yes I have played the triangle game before ! Wow, was it called "Jackpot" : can't remember ...it really brings back memories! Was the game something you kept for years ? Just like a while back when I played "Perfection" & "Master Mind" with our girls ...
nostalgia ! Hoping to try out more classics in due course ! The "old" computer games like "Space Invaders" and "Frogger" are also making a come-back !

monlim said...

Jo: Wow, you're the only person I know outside of my family who actually knows the triangle game!! I played Master Mind too, think it was one of the more popular game. And of course Space Invaders and Pacman!

Anonymous said...

I agree about the National Day parade. I especially hated the costumes, why couldn't they just have red and white? What's with the black and white stripes - everyone looked like zebras or bumblebees.

You're not the only hoarder - my boys are still playing with my all my old board games (Monopoly, MasterMind, Scrabble etc, 1 whole cupboard full), electronic games (duh..why so slow one?) and my and hubby's combined Lego and Meccano sets! and beat this - we used my hubby's old playpen, my toddler bed, his old pedal car etc (I still can't figure out how my MIL managed to store all that in the storeroom of a HDB flat!). They've all been put back into storage now - by MIL, ready for her greatgrandchildren!
elan

monlim said...

Elan: I totally agree about the costumes. Why does it seem like the organisers want to make it as corny as possible?? Denise Keller looked like she could sail away in a flood in hers, boat shape at the hips and all.

Wah, I give it to your hubby's family, they're the king and queen of hoarders! Your MIL sure has foresight - if she wants great grandchildren soon, your sons gotta get busy, hehe.

NYMacMom w 3 said...

Hi Monica,
Being 4 years in Singapore, here's what we've been up to for National Day.

1) I never fail to see how lucky Singaporeans are to have a gov who actually invests in building patriotism. The hype, the ads, the NDPs, the previews and the millions of $$ go up in flames. No other country goes this far, thus no other country has their people loving and being loyal to their country like this.

2) On the same note, we struggle with not being 'part' and feeling lost in this season. So we have found refuge in the many friendship we've built and use this day to celebrate the 'arrival' of us in this amazing country. We hang out for food (anywhere and take out too!) and watch the parade in whoever's house has the biggest tv (not ours, hehe)

3) My girls(only 7 & 9) goes non stop ooooohhh and ahhhhh at the NDP and yes, I teach into them how they can still love this country tho they don't call it their own. This country has embrace us and has stretched her hands out to us sometimes, much, much more than our homeland.

...and we LOVE Botak Jones, affordable comfort food (to us) and so happy he's everywhere.

Thanks for being so authentic and real. It gives me encouragement to read your articles.

xoxo,
Sarah Chan

monlim said...

Sarah: You make me feel a little ashamed for my negative thoughts! It takes someone like you, with an outside eye, to remind Singaporeans that yes, we do have it pretty good here. I'm truly glad you find that you can call this place home, have found some great friends and that your 2 girls are settling in nicely. Thanks for the timely reminder!

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