Happy Birthday to Daddy Lim!

One of the reasons for Daddy Lim’s long leave is bcos he didn’t want to work on his bday. I understand, I will feel the same way too on my bday. In fact, I want to be on leave everyday and as and when too if I have the option. Hoho. 

Daddy Lim had been talking about a good dinner on his bday and did all the planning and booking. Not that I bo xin, I did my own bday buffet lunch planning and booking too last bday. It is just that if you rely on others, it may not happen. Don’t take chance.

Bcos Zaky said that he wanted to eat seafood buffet, Daddy Lim found this restaurant at Dorset hotel. It is nicely located in Outram, which is so near to my office. Daddy Lim and the kids drove from home. They made sure to leave a good tummy for the buffet. 

It is a small restaurant and the spread was so-so only. I forgot to take pictures bcos Daddy Lim and the kids arrived before I did and I was rushing to tackle the buffet. There were black pepper (skinny) crabs, fresh prawns, various shellfish, various fish dishes, sashimi and of course a few non seafood dishes. In my opinion, only the prawns were fresh and good and that was what I whacked. To make my $$ worth, I tried tackling the crabs too but seriously, the skinny crabs weren’t worth my efforts. 

Did I eat enough to make the $50ish++ price worth? I don’t think so. Then again, eating out is so expensive now and a decent meal in a restaurant may cost more than half of what we spent that night. 

When making the reservation, Daddy Lim specified that it was his bday. The staff gave him some cubes of cake (from the dessert table, muahahahha) and sang him a bday song. Hoho. 

Happy bday Bb! Pls stay healthy. Let us retire together and travel many many! 

Aren’t we supposed to diet after all the eating from the Europe trip? Hmmmm… Happy Bday! 

Mummy Lim

Post France & Germany and Christmas Celebrations!

While my holiday has ended, the kids and Daddy Lim’s had not. The kids are busy maximising their less than 3 weeks of school holiday left. Daddy Lim has taken leave and only need to go back to the office tomorrow. 

I don’t know if we suffered from jet lag. I am sure we did; that explained why we were all feeling so awake at 11pm and yet so tired in the morning, even after 7 hours of sleep. I am only glad that I had been busy at work, such that I didn’t have time to be jet lag during the days. 

Things have gone back to normalcy. I was in a hurry to color my greys right after I am back. I thought it wouldn’t bother me much while on holiday and could always rely on a beanie. I was so wrong. I got my greys hidden on Wednesday evening after work. I can flip my hair once again! 

We have less than 3 weeks before the year end. This is the time to scroll social media and see everybody else on holiday and be sad that mine had ended. Sob. It is also the time to start thinking of the next holiday. Hoho. Our tickets for June 2026 to Korea are booked. Woohoo! There is still March, September and year end holiday to ponder about. Hoho.

Would we go back to Europe soon? I don’t think so. The 13 hours flight is very painful, and I can imagine how painful it had been for Ah Yee and Athena when they had to fly to us. While the chill had been nice, I really don’t appreciate the short days that make things feel so gloomy. We got tired by 6pm bcos the sky would be dark by then. Things are also quieter in Europe in winter and most days we had only 1 main attraction/ activity. When I look back at the Europe holiday, I would definitely feel that it was so wasted to fly 13 hours for that. 

Nevertheless, it was good family time. Each time we see Athena, she would be a year (at least) older and each experience is different. Maybe the next time we meet could be somewhere in between Europe and Asia. Let me go check the world map and sky scanner. Hoho. 

On a different note, Christmas vibes are everywhere, even though we already had loads at the endless Christmas markets in France and Germany. I forgot to mention that we did small gifts exchange with CY, Ah Yee and Athena in France. We brought a lot of gifts and brought back loads too. We forgot photos in the midst of the excitement and fun. 

This is one of the gifts from Ah Yee, a huge recycling bag and it is so useful. 

Last evening, we went to my brother’s place for dinner. It was also an early Christmas gathering and in celebration of the 2nd F’s bday. She is turning 18! So fast! Where did all the time go? It will be Nana’s turn next year! Look at the table of good food, aka Popo’s love.

We did the small gifts exchange too. That explained the huge grocery bag that Daddy Lim was lugging earlier in the day. We went with a big bag of gifts and came home with another big bag. Hohoho. Merry Christmas! 

Of all the gifts, I am most impressed by the ones from the youngest F. 

Each of this has a magnet, clip and key chain. 

The magnets have made their way to the small space on our fridge, together with Zaky’s photo. lol. 

The key chains are so cute! I told the kids that they should hang the keychains on their school bags. Hahahahah. So funny! 

Ferlin said that she had stalked our fb for these photos. Nana is very appalled that her “bikini” photo is somewhere on FB. lol. I don’t remember.

This morning, I managed to move my butt for the Step class and I am very glad that I did. The class is made up of regulars and the instructor had pre-arranged this a Christmas theme class. I of course didn’t know but the regulars brought chocolates and were all dressed to the theme. 

Did you see the instructor in red shimmery track suit? The class was different from usual; it was intense dancy cardio and I totally love it. It was so fun! 

Since we didn’t get to spend Christmas outside of Singapore this year, I will soak up all the Singapore Christmasy vibes. 

Merry Christmas!

Mummy Lim

France & Germany! Day 11: Home Sweet Home!

We had the extra sofa bed with Ah Yee and Athena home. I have decided to take the sofa bed, all by myself. I thought it was much more comfortable than the double bed, much more firm and without the lint covered bedsheet. 

It wasn’t the best night sleep though. Not bcos of the sofa bed but I woke up a couple of times in the night and scared myself silly with thoughts related to the concentration camp. Thankfully, no nightmares and I was too lazy to crawl back to the bedroom, where Daddy Lim and the kids were. 

I woke up at 6am for my last HiiT. Done! A total of 4 HiiT for a total of 10 days. Not too bad.

We had to leave the accommodation at about 8am to catch the airport bus. I was googling on how to get to the airport and found the express airport bus via Klook. It would be so much easier than trying to figure out the train system and buying tickets. The accommodation was set up as per arrival. Thankfully, we didn’t have to make up the beds. 

It was again a warm day of about 10 degrees. We didn’t need the thermals or the outer jackets and could already pack them nicely in the luggage. Out came the 3rd luggage. With the exprsss bus, we didn’t have to worry about fighting with the peak hours crowd or finding space for the luggage on the train. 

We found the bus and got to the airport smoothly. The ride took about 55 mins. 

We arrived at the airport 3 hours in advance for our 12pm flight, knowing how security and immigration checks can sometimes take forever. The security checks were ok and we didn’t see the immigration, which is not needed for travel within Europe but we must clear immigration to go back to Singapore, right? 

This was Nana, packing her catacomb stones and hoping that she wouldn’t get caught at the security check. Nana must have a bad people look. She was stopped in Singapore and also in Germany security checks and had her bag (same bag) swapped for illegal substances. 

We eventually found the immigration, which is right before the gates for international flights. We could use the auto gates and got through immigration smoothly too. We had plenty of time for another snacks break. Yes, still eating and rolling. 

This was our plane. 

Zaky showing me how he intended to look cute and hopefully score a cookie from the air stewardess. Of course it didn’t work. Lol. 

The flight was shorter than the flight to Paris but still a good 11.5 hours. Unlike the flight to Paris, where I was exhausted from working hard for the holiday, I just woke up less than 6 hours ago and was very awake. I tried to sleep, twice somemore but failed. I ended up waiting hungrily for dinner. 

Then for bfast, which was served about 2 hours before arrival. The kids managed to sleep. 

Daylight.

Daddy Lim didn’t manage to sleep too. I caught 3 movies; I think he watched many more. By the way, he was in the middle block of the seats while I sat with the kids and the middle seat for him was empty. How nice… 

We survived the flight home. My poor butt! It was already Tuesday morning in Singapore. We came home to Mochi! He survived very well under the sitter’s care, who came 2x a day for 30 mins each and her last visit was on Monday evening. 

I think Mochi still recognises us ah. I think.. hoho. 

The immediate thing was to unpack and we had 3 loadful of laundry to do. I managed to sneak a 3.5 hrs nap and work up 15 mins before my call at 1pm. Oh yes, my holiday had officially ended and my workday started on Tuesday afternoons on bcos I was trying to save on the annual leave and also work was piling. Thankfully, people  had been respectful of my vacation and I didn’t come back to a bursting inbox. I had been clearing my emails almost every other day too while in Europe. 

I survived the half workday and jet lag didn’t have a chance to haunt me bcos it was meetings after meetings. I didn’t have time to be jet lag. 

Our holidays have ended. Sob.

Mummy Lim

France & Germany! Day 10: Dachau Concentration Camp

Nana said that we should do something related to the wars when we visited Germany. After googling, we decided that we would go to the Dachau Concentration Camp and booked a tour via Klook. 

Daddy Lim and I woke up at 5ish, to walk Ah Yee and Athena to the train station. We did so, after seeing how unsafe the neighbourhood could be. Athena was half asleep and bid goodbye to Nana and Zaky, who were both briefly awake and then back to lala land. 

It was a warm morning. That is, warm enough to ditch the thermal wear. I am glad that we walked them to the station, bcos while there weren’t many people on the streets, we saw many empty beer bottles. I wouldn’t be surprised if a drunk popped out from somewhere. 

Goodbye to ah Yee and Athena, we really hope to see them soon. Poor Athena had to learn spelling and dictation after she went home. 

We went back to still sleeping kids. We had to gather at the tour agency, which is near to the train station, by 10.45am. 

Bfast! 

Zaky asked me to make him ah yee’s sandwich. I kindly invited him to DIY. The cheese in Europe really looks like those in cartoons and story books. 

We left the accommodation and walked to the travel agency. As mentioned, it was a warmer morning and we all went without our thermal top (only pants). The kids were in sweats that they bought in Europe. These were the only shopping we did in Europe bcos it was too much hassle to peel off the layers to try clothes.

Arrived at the agency and a big group was already waiting. The big group was split into 2 groups of 20ish people. Nana and Zaky were probably the youngest people in the group and we were the only Asians.

There was no private bus but the guide brought us to the camp via public transport - 1st a train, then to a bus. Nobody got lost.

From Google:

The 

Dachau concentration camp was the first and longest-running concentration camp established by the Nazis in Germany, serving as a prototype and training center for the entire concentration camp system. Operating from March 1933 until its liberation in April 1945, it was a site of immense suffering, forced labor, and mass death. 

• Initial Inmates: It was initially designed to incarcerate political prisoners, including communists, socialists, and trade unionists.
• Expansion of Prisoner Groups: Over time, the inmate population expanded to include a wide range of individuals deemed "undesirable" by the Nazi regime, such as Jews, Roma, Jehovah's Witnesses, homosexuals, people with mental and physical disabilities, criminals, and citizens from German-occupied territories.

It is a memorial site and a solemn place. One of the rules is to not disturb the peace of the dead in any way. 

Our guide is very knowledgeable. He gave us a very good brief of the history before even talking about the camp. I felt like I had just sat through a history lecture.

There was so much information to learn. We didn’t take many pictures of the camp, it felt disrespectful to do so. 

The infamous crematorium, which also housed the gas chamber.

We had a chance to walk through the small building and it was clean, bright and airy now but the thoughts that thousands lost their lives in this building sent shudders. 

The entire tour including the traveling took 5 hours. The actual tour was about 3. I thought it was a good tour; a chance to understand the wars and history. I am not a history buff but ended up googling on the wars to draw connections to the Dachau concentration camp. It was good learning for me. 

It was about 4ish pm when we arrived back at the train station. We didn’t had lunch and decided on “linner” and I was ready to cook instant noodles later in the night if needed. We took some walk bcos it was Sunday and many places were closed. While walking, Zaky and I indulged in the final pretzel.

We eventually settled on a beer place that serves dinner. Last bit of German food. 

We decided to head back to the accommodation and the packing started. It was our last night in the accommodation and also in Germany. We are going home! 

Mummy Lim