Welcome to the world Joshua Tan!

Here's my nephew, who arrived this morning at about 1am after a 17 hour labour. (Weight: 3.7kg)

Warning: Pictures might cause cardiac arrest

Our wagyu (better cut) at S$31; the normal wagyu costs S$28

We love yakiniku or Japanese barbeque, and one of our favourite restaurants for this is Gyu-kaku at Chijmes. It is cheaper than our other haunt--Yakinikutei Ao-Chan, at Le Meridien Hotel in Orchard Road--and the quality is not quite as fine. But who cares when you get wagyu as marbled as this.

I swear: They melt in your mouth.

What is quite yummy and not quite healthy either is their Horenso salad (S$11), which is spinach with Japanese sesame dressing. They forgot to add that bacon is included too. Perhaps they think they can con the health-conscious this way. But a glance at the creamy salad dressing that they've piled on and you know...

Horenso salad. Don't let the vegetables trick you; it isn't healthy.

What is palate-worthy is also their basil chicken (S$8) and beef tongue. Though Terence is not crazy about the beef tongue they serve at Gyu-kaku, I drool just thinking about it.

What you need to do just before you take the tongue off the grill is to squeeze a generous amount of lemon juice over it. The smokeyness mingled with the salt springled on the tongue and the tangy dash of lemon simply knocks the breath out of you.

The portions are good enough to share and as you can see from the prices, it really isn't very expensive.

It was Saturday night when we went, and the place was packed with gorgeous looking people. Even the waitress looked well made up. But after you've spent the whole day looking after your hyperactive toddler, all you ever want to do is count down to 8pm (his bed time) with great anticipation, and throw your deadbeat self on the bed thereafter. Doesn't matter if your shirt is stained with porridge, apple, and saliva.

But one has got to eat. Thank god the place was smoky. Anyone who claimed that they saw me there, I'd just say they were badly mistaken.

Letting go

I left my wallet at home. I desperately need my coffee. I'm first in the office, and so I can't borrow any money.

Life.

I've been making calls to child development centres, searching for the most suitable one. As a centre's director gave me a run down of the class' activities, I felt a pang of protectiveness that goes something like this:

- The class starts off with breakfast (Kai's going to refuse to eat cos I'm not there.)

- Then at XXam they take a shower (He's going to slip and fall! He's going to panic cos I'm not there to shower him! Why can't they let him go home and shower.)

- They have lunch... (Lunch, lunch! They're feeding him two meals?)

Writing them down makes me sound so irrational. I suppose my baby has to grow up someday.

New year, new clients

It is a little hard to blog about Flame's achievements on the editorial front. We have a lot of well-known Fortune 500 clients from the IT and healthcare industries, who commission us on a monthly and sometimes weekly basis to write customer success stories, internal newsletters and announcements (via e-mail/edm).

So while our PR accomplishments can be made public, some of the editorial projects can't be elaborated in my blog. But they are very exciting projects as they give us insights to how companies perform, operate, and manage their business.

Already, we have two new clients to add to our customer base as we ride into the year of the Rat. Here's a view of the Singapore Flyer from one of the clients' office. May Flame continue to fly high in 2008 and beyond!

A bicycle built for two

Terence spent close to S$600 on two new bicycles, a toddler seat and helmet, and one bicycle rack (for the car) over a period of two weeks. He did everything; all I had to do was to pick the colour of my bicycle.

That was how determined he was in getting my butt back onto a bicycle seat. No complains. He literally did everything, plus it was one of the reasons why we wanted to live near the beach anyway.

Kai loves the rides, but we do need to refine how we prepare for the trips. It took Terence 15-20 minutes to set up the rack and place the two bicycles in the most optimal position. By that time, I have a cranky kid in hand who's growing increasingly frustrated by the minute. So even before the actual exercise, Terence is perspiring, I'm aching from restraining and managing Kai, and Kai is all hot and bothered from not being able to get onto the bike.

Then worse, by the time we get to the beach, it starts to drizzle.

It explains why I have no picture of the bicycles, the rack with the bikes, or the toddler seat. So it's just us at the beach, before we went off riding into the sunset with the Tays.

Take heart. We only went twice. I'm pretty sure we'll wisen up.

For want of a bolster our sanity was lost

There are days when I feel like a bad mother. Someone who doesn't deserve my son's sweet kisses in the morning.

It all started with Kai's cot. The search culminated in a beautiful cot from Mothercare, which I begged them to make an exception and deliver before the originally designated delivery date. Reason was because we suspected (for the second time) that the old one had bed bugs in them. So no way would my brother-in-law want this hand-me-down now.

This also meant we had to throw away EVERYTHING associated with the old bed, including his pillow and bolster. Perhaps the more experienced mums would see red light flashing already. But no, not me.

For want of discipline our happiness was lost

For three whole nights after the arrival of his new bed, he refused to go to sleep at 8pm and sobbed like an abandoned child. And this was very strange for a boy who sleeps on the dot at 8pm every night almost without fail.

But the bad mummy thought he was just being naughty, and hardened her heart. So he was left to cry it out to reinforce the fact that his bed time is 8pm. Terence insisted on picking him up, and letting him sleep later as "perhaps he's not sleepy". He even wanted to drive over to his mum's place to 'borrow' the bolster Kai uses in the day since we hadn't bought a new one. I didn't think it'd make a difference. After all, he's just showing his preference to sleep later, which is a big no-no in my opinion.

On the morning of the fourth day, we found that he cried so much that he puked and finally fell asleep in his mess. So with a guilty heart, I went to office that day, made an effort to take time off to buy him a bolster and a book on "Cranky the crane" to make up for my bad behavior.

All that he ever wanted

That night, both mother and son approached bed time with dread. But the bad mummy hardened her heart again this time, placed the protesting toddler into his cot and before he could scream, placed the bolster in his hands.

With a sigh, he fell to sleep immediately.

All he needed was his BOLSTER!

There are days when Terence is right.

Flame is the PR agency for...

JobsDB.com Career Expo 2008 (18-20 Jan)

Flame is the PR agency for...

Dr. Martens

Matsuo: To recommend or not?

I've been hooked on Matsuo ever since Jeanne brought me there two years ago. It's a little Japanese joint that gets filled up very quickly, and the service staff can be rude and sometimes uppity. On some days, they won't let you in unless your whole party is there. And they won't let you have THE special table by the window even if the whole restaurant is full, and your party will fit in nicely there. It's for regulars only.

However, the place is so well loved by the Japanese salary men and well-coiffed Japanese housewives that you know it is the REAL deal. It's also run by a Japanese chef who speaks English, Chinese, and Hokkien.

I've NEVER been disappointed whenever I order the sashimi set at Matsuo. The chef always gives me toro (fatty tuna belly, albeit the more LC or low-class type), scallops, sweet prawns (they're expensive), and plenty of salmon roe. And his sashimi are always very fresh. All for just S$20 (before taxes and service charge)! It is a very, very good deal indeed.

Yet I've never blogged about them; I've could never really decide if they deserve the mention. Perhaps because the service staff can be snooty unless you're a regular, and Terence is convinced that I only get the good stuff because the chef likes me. Plus, they were nasty to our friends, the Chows.

But seriously, I've always had damn good sashimi there. For instance, Terence joined me for lunch on Friday, and we had hirame (flat fish) and fugu (seasonal) in our set. Nonetheless, you can't ignore the fact that the male diner next to us had only one sweet prawn, salmon, tuna, mekajiki, and temago. I could argue that he ordered the chirashi set, but truth be told: I always had scallops and toro even with my chirashi sets.

In the chef's defense, however, he didn't stinge on the amount of fish for the diner next to us, and the freshness of the fish is beyond description.

Anyhow, what tipped me over to blog about Matsuo finally was because... he gave us fugu!!!

Here's their address: Goldhill Plaza, #01-17. It'd be nice to hear what you think of them.

Bentendo. Oishi!

Lately, I've been craving for noodles. Springy, well textured, and flavourful noodles. Bentendo, a Japanese spaghetti house, in Great World City was just what I was looking for.

I used to poo-poo the Japanese's take on Western cuisine, but not anymore (or at least not so much anymore). Bentendo does quite a good job with both their tomato- and cream-based pastas, and the spaghetti is done right, i.e. al dente style. And their Japanese sauce-based pastas get a thumbs-up from me and tastes just as good as that expensive soba joint in Paragon.

Dinner yesterday was their cold spaghetti with salmon, salmon roe, sweet prawns, and it hit just the right spot in the stomach. *sigh*

Life's tough

Being a working mother has left me very little time for myself. So one of the unsaid-resolutions I made this year is to take time out for me, myself and I. So yesterday, I happily advised my husband: "I'm off shopping at Wisma Atria!"

Destination: Tough Jeans

It's a popular Hong Kong brand that's known for their deconstructed jeans, but what I'm really crazy about are their bags. Their bags have a ruggard, hobo look that's fashionable, durable and funky at the same time. The design of some of their clasps/clips makes the bags look burglar-proof--i.e. even if a thief gets his hand on your bag, he won't be able to open it. I was introduced to the brand, surprise surprise, by Terence many years ago when he bought me my first Tough bag from Taiwan.

Even their paper bag looked so good that I didn't do the environmentally-friendly thing of asking them to pack my purchase into my bag.

Just as I was paying for my t-shirt, Terence called and said, "Are you on your way home?"
Me: "No, I'm still shopping."
Terence: "Still shopping? But Wanti (maid) is cooking steak for dinner."
Me: "I know, go ahead then. I told you I was shopping!"
Terence: "I didn't know you'd take so long."

It's a tough life isn't it? And it was suppose to be my night out.

Cot/Bed or mattress?

Don't mess with me. I'm "grumpy without chocolate".

Excitement is mounting in the Tan family as Gary (Terence's brother) is expecting his first kid in a few weeks time. So we've been passing on the baby stuff we don't need (for now) to him, and that would eventually include the cot that Kai's using now.

Kai is gradually outgrowing his cot, which was handed down to us from the Tays. We've been debating about what we need to get for months now, and our conclusion always changes. Do we get:
1. A cot that turns into a toddler's bed?
2. A toddler's bed (with rails, if there's such a thing)?
3. A mattress until he's old enough for a bed?

Just what do other mothers do?

According to what I call the "Mother's bible"--"What to expect the toddler years", a toddler should/could move from a cot to a toddler's bed when he turns two. OK, so we thought to let him sleep on a mattress until he turns two, and we'd move him into a bed. Then I thought, and I thought, and I thought (for a night):
1. What if he doesn't want to sleep, and he goes wandering around his bedroom to play.
2. He wakes up in the middle of the night, and decides to play.
3. He gets into trouble with god-knows-what even after we've super-childproofed his room in the middle of the night.

So when Terence woke up the next day, we debated over the issue yet again. We finally decided *drum roll please* to get him a bigger cot that turns into a toddler's bed.

BUT, that doesn't signal the end of our dilemma. We still have to search for a bed that we ALL like.

We've gone to:
1. Baby's Hyperstore (the mother of all warehouse store for baby products in Kaki Bukit)
2. Mothercare (the outlets in Parkway Parade and Centrepoint)
3. Kiddy Palace (Parkway Parade)
4. Mothers Work
5. The ultra nice, but super expensive Flexa store in United Square (it's from Denmark, that's why)
6. Ikea (Tampines)

We still don't have a new cot yet. However, I'm glad to say the solution is near... We've finally shortlisted a model we like from Mothercare and we're going to check out the options at Mothers Work tomorrow (I think).

Wish us luck...