Giving Thanks in February

4th Feb (Tue)

thankful to be working alongside angels... received a 头头 kiss yesterday and today i received 补品 seh... 

sat in Vanessa's interesting art club lesson and gave it a go too... will try to complete it before 元宵... heee

Happi SG60 with 60 I-eat in Singapore

Singapore is 60th this year!!! so i'm setting a 60 Singapore hawker food quest for myself to indulge in since our hawker culture was successfully inscribed in UNESCO... 😋😋😋

(6) potion for 1 @ $5 from SK Kway Chap, just opposite home sweet home also... other than its yumminess, the other thing that i like about this stall is the extreme cleanliness... watching uncle prepare each dish with a wipe wipe here, wipe wipe there is kind of interesting... also luv spotting the 夫妻档 having dinner in Nex occasionally when i was a frequent at Nex long long ago... heee 

(3 Feb Mon)

(5) my favourite ban mian from 全心面, just opposite home sweet home too... a tiny one chef auntie store that has no digital footprint at all... anyway, chef auntie is super generous with the 面 and the 料 that i have to ask for 少面 every time... 😍😍😍 

7, 25, 27 & 28 Jan... this is how much i like this ban mian, especially on a cold cold day... 

(4) my favourite wanton mee from Li Fatt Wanton Mee just opposite home sweet home... luv the generous black sauce with green veg and yummy wanton... has been eating it when it was just $2.50 back in 2011, now it's $4... the power of inflation!!! 

23 Jan (Thur)

(3) one of the healthier version of char kway tiao from 91翠绿炒粿条面 @ Golden Mile... see the green veg, i like... spot the mini fried whitebaits that looked like 菜虫s, i like too... see the two big prawns, i luv... all these @ $4.50... 😍😍😍

22 Jan (Wed)

(2) Bak Chor Meepok @ 乐满园 coffeeshop... 重重的一包 at only $3 !!! 😍😍😍 

10th Jan (Fri)

(1) buy 2 free 1 姜葱田鸡 with veg & tofu @ Chang Jiang G1 as 开工大餐

3 Jan (Fri)

蛇年 '蛇么' 都棒棒 !

【 大年初四  1 Feb 】

back to the chuas for MORE CHUAS CNY GOODIES !!! ...we are so lucky that 蔡小妹 can cook and is willing to cook... 😍😍😍

matchy matchy 蔡小宝 & wifey for Prassad's engagement party... 最萌身高差...💕

Alfred was lazy to be out & about so we four ladies went ahead with our CNY outing to Chinese Garden but first, dinner @ Eden Cafe... the two seniors took the forks for their mee siam so 蔡小妹 and I had to make do with chopsticks for our pasta... 😂😂😂

the two of them smile with a wink!!! 😍😍😍

very pretty garden with pretty pagodas, bridges and pavilions... 😍😍😍

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【 大年初二  30 Jan 】

morning coffee time then nua nua abit before tabao-ing 2 tupperwares of chua's chap chai & 5 ngoh hiang back to home sweet home 

heating up 1/4 of the chap chai and cooking my first pot of rice since covid time in my mini rice cooker from mx!!! 😂😂😂

my 小宝贝 looking utterly disappointed in me for not being at home much these few days seh... 😅😅😅

super thankful that i have a family big enough to be able to enjoy the festive noise and festive vibe yet also small enough to 废 together during this festive period... 😍😍😍... really ate alot alot these 3 days that i went for a 10km walk!!! 

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【 大年初一  29 Jan 】

woke up to our  蔡家 初一  must have!!! 蔡妈咪 insisted that 蔡小妹 must use 8 粒 of cabbage!!! 

showed with my action just how good it was!!! 😋😋😋

《 蛇年 之 '蛇么' 都好看!!! 》

luving my new pj for the year !!!  舒服又好看 !!!

original plan was to show off our 好看的 CNY new clothes with a walk walk @ Chinese Garden, followed by dinner @ Eden Cafe

activated Plan B when it rained @ hg, got overly cloudy in wlds and weather forecast was 5% rainy in the evening at Chinese Garden area... =S 

好看程度 - 3.5 颗星... at least i didnt have to roll my eyes... 😅😅😅

same same shoes with 蔡妈咪 !!! 

mac for dinner / supper after movie at 9+pm



then we finished up the remaining 5 episodes of Dr Baek which is super 好看 !!!

15 year old Ong 老爷爷 dozed off minutes into the show and snored freaking loudly!!!

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【 除夕  28 Jan 】

《 蛇年 之 '蛇么' 都好吃 !!! 》

back to having steamboat as our cny reunion dinner on mummy's request... 

蔡妈咪's new 口头禅 is "这么多 这么多"...

thank you 蔡小妹 for being in charge of preparing so many ingredients for the steamboat section, buying the new steamboat pot and grill set to make reunion dinner more pleasant-ful for Alvin who doesnt like steamboat and also coming up with the ingenious idea to let Asti have her own pot and grill due to our different diet needs... 😍😍😍

thank you Asti for being an amazing 辅助  

thank you 蔡小弟 and 蔡小 wifey for being in charge of the grill section 

and 蔡家三老 formed the 什么都不用做 就有得吃 trio!!!... and Angela even made sure that i have my own 'fei zai' (肥仔) drink at original level of sweetness...😍😍😍

 《 蛇年 之 '蛇plus' 多多 !!! 》

祝蔡妈咪:

身体健康    笑容多多    子女孝顺    钱多多多

3rd year where giving ang bao to the little chuas is just a 仪式感 for 蔡妈咪... 

added in a little candy note of wishes and thanks into their physical ang bao this year with the e-$$$ credited just before /at midnight...

luving our ATMs from Alvin & wifey... 😍😍😍

蔡妈咪 happily went to bed at 9 plus since her old folks arent around anymore while the rest of us kept ourselves awake with this hilarious k-drama on Netflix...  

squeeze squeeze 乐 with Angela for the night at 2am after 3 episodes... 😴😴😴

Beneficial Reading in 2025

 after a year of 'forceful' reading in 2024, i found out that my reading preference is at two extreme > romance in Chinese and self-help books in English

reading Chinese romance books started way back when i was only 12, a year or two after 蔡妈咪 picked up the habit as i had to tag along her to book stores to rent them so very often... every visit would last at least an hour so might as well make my time and her money worth... 

in my peak, usually during the school holidays, i could finish 3 books a day... headache was a norm from long hours of reading and crying over all the misunderstandings and unacquitted love of the characters...my eyes would be so puffy from the crying that i had multi-layer eyelids... 😂😂😂... 

i stopped reading them during JC times, after an S-0 told me that they made me form unrealistic expectation of him... and i think i also got busier with school, then with work and definitely with more fun things to occupy my time with... 

then Covid hit, confined at home, watched one show after another on Netflix and i was hooked onto a C-drama that was adapted from a "juicy" novel... and the floodgate is open once more... now even more because of the many many online platforms... 就是喜欢谈恋爱的感觉, 甜甜的... 以前是希望发生在自己身上... 现在是接受现实, 享受想象就可以了... 😍😍😍

i think i was only a English reader in primary school... have recollections of reading all, if not most of the books by Roald Dahl and the series of Nancy Drew, Secret Seven, Hardy Boys, Famous Five, Sweet Valley Twins... moved on the Reader Digest in Secondary school and stopped reading altogether when silent reading was no longer mandatory in my life... 😂😂😂... completed the first few books of Harry Potter before it got too dark and sadist and Twilight because of the movies... 

Read an English suspense / adventure book hoping that it would ignite my love for reading in English... nah, didnt like it... too adulty for me with the much violence and sexual references... eventually it was books on how to be better at my job and how to better my life that kept me willing to continue reading... 

so for this year, i'm gonna continue my love for trashy romance novel in Chinese as nutrients for my heart and self-help books in English as tonic for my brain...  

the trashy romance novels that i read / listen to are so trashy that i'm too embarrassed to mention the titles to anyone... hence the title of this post is "Beneficial" reading where i only document the worthy books... 😅😅😅 

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(III) completed on : 27 Jan 2025

interesting read about the 典故 behind the idioms... 😍😍😍... suitable for kiddos who need to write compos... 

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(II) completed on : 6 Jan 2025

started this book on Friday afternoon and received the heart aching news that night... it's as if whoever / whatever here there is prepping me for the terrible news... my viet green bean cake whom was under my form-ship for 4 years has passed on last December... if only... but there's no 'if only' in life after it happens... 早知如此 何必当初..

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(I) completed on : I.II.MMXXV

> happy breathing technique to wake the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex when the amygdala is in control 

> notice, comment and celebrate character strengths that lead to achievement and not of achievement itself

> additional printable @ myHappymind

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Giving Thanks in January

27 Jan (Mon)

giving thanks to yue lian, new boss, yan ping, cherandy, evelyn, jeo, qi yi and sylvia for these cny goodies... jeo says the earrings will give me 旺旺 at my favourite game oh... 😍😍😍... everybody Huat ah!!! 

25th Jan (Sat)

陪蔡妹妹追星... took the effort to dress in their 应援色 of rose quartz and serenity with white... of the 13 members from Seventeen, 11 performed and 蔡妹妹 was so proud of me for being able to recognise all 11 of them within 90 minutes into the concert!!! 😂😂😂

enjoyed their performance lots even though i didnt know any of their songs nor understand what they were singing about... happy vibes songs by so many tall cute guys who can sing and dance... i like!!! 😍😍😍

luv the 绕场一周 segment the most and DK is the funniest, cutest, with the nicest smile and my favourite eye candy among the 11 that i 'met' today... 😍😍😍... oh, and boy, he luvs our chilli crabs and couldnt stop raving about it!!! 😂😂😂

24th Jan (Fri)

met up with my favourite mini boss for lunch @ 90 Minutes Korean Tteokbokki Hotpot Buffet... simple fare at only $12.50++ each after a 30% discount with Eatigo... 😍😍😍

23rd Jan (Thur)

Xy's hatchday meet up @ Kai Duck, Ngee Ann City

duck duck soup soup on a cold cold day = very full & satisfied tummy... 😍😍😍

Vv, knowing my eye candy luv for 战战, purposely took me to 'him' on our way to the train station... heee 

22nd Jan (Wed)

no class today so left work @ 10.30am to go collect these super duper cute CNY meringues cookies from CrunchyTeeth... only 70 sets available and lucky me managed to get my hands on two sets!!! 😎

9th Jan (Thur)

survived my first mri... not as scary as i had imagined it to be... another case of 自己吓自己... 😅😅😅

8th Jan (Wed)

giving thanks to 暖暖心 colleagues... Jeo gifted me this tube of sunscreen after hearing my complains about my 'new' sunspots during our Aston lunch last week while Ai Rin gave me a thank you note & cookie for her hatchday prezzie... 😍😍😍 

4th Jan (Sat)

had a terrible night of sleep... had a terrible moody morning...it's a day where i shouldnt be left alone to 胡思乱想 胡思乱骂 so super thankful when joyce invited me over to gym together and thankful for kakis who suggested, sponsored and participated in our first ever mask-jong together too... 😂😂😂

I.II.MMXXV (Thur)

original plan was to title this year's monthly entry as "MicroJoy in..." as inspired by the book "MicroJoys" that i read in May last year... but I had used "Joy in..." just in 2024 and MicroJoy in 2025 does sound like a downgrade in retrospect... 😂😂😂

nopx, i'm not gonna jinx my 2025... my life can only get better and be better. Since i'm reading on how practicing gratitude is an amazing tool to help children (and me) build our happiness and well-being in "My Happy Mind", i decided to tweak it for this year's monthly headers... 

and for today, i am giving thanks to :

> wise & flexible leadership that allows me to sleep in a little more and to wfh today

> the efficiency and resourcefulness to finish all that i had to for Art & PAL... no math this year!!! HooWoo!!! 

> the determination to complete book #1 of the year "My Happy Mind"

> the anti-laziness to go out for lunch just so to have the much needed veg intake and for my 7km hamster walk walk which allowed me to bump into uncle wan!!!