CNY 2025 Part 1

Our CNY started 1 week earlier bcos the kids’ youths came to visit. We bought a lot of CNY goodies to “feed” them but they only finished 3 tubs, meaning danger for us bcos we will end up finishing the rest. Hahaha. The kids said that we didn’t have to give out ang bao bcos it was actually before CNY and there were so many of them. We did bcos it is a blessing to be able to and the youths were all happily receiving ang baos. Who doesn’t like to receive ang baos?

Daddy Lim and I had to work later on the eve and thus the reunion dinner was moved a week earlier. Instead of the usual steamboat, we had our reunion dinner at the kopitiam near my brother’s place. 

My 1st yusheng. Huat ah! 

There was plenty of good food. Too much in fact that we had to tabao. 

On CNY eve, the kids went to my brother’s place for lunch and of course Popo cooked good food. Then, we went to Nainai’s place for reunion dinner. Instead of steamboat or home cooked, we ordered mini buffet delivery. It was pricy and for a min of 10 pax, so we ended up with a lot of leftovers again. Luckily, this time, there were neighbours to help. 

Nana had fanciful nails. 

I am happy for CNY bcos it meant 2 days of PH. Hoho. We started the morning with a jog, hoping to counter the calories intake but I think no way bcos we just kept eating. All my pictures on this CNY is about food. Lol. 

Before our jog.

After my 5km and Daddy Lim’s almost 4km. 

Daddy Lim even brought money, telling me that maybe we can have pratas after that. All the kopitiams are closed lor.

The 1st stop of our CNY was to my brother’s place and Popo made us sumptuous bfast. It was a long time since I had her fried beehoon and noodles. Everything tasted great. Hoho. 

With the bfast barely digested, we headed to Daddy Lim’s uncle’s place for more food. It was so delicious.

We had more food when we could barely fit in more into our tummies. The other relatives came later. The kids got to meet their little cousins. Nana won a dare and managed to get herself into the little kids’ tentage that was out of bounds to big people.

Can you see her? 

We left at 1ish, to go to my uncle’s place and missed the family picture. 

It had been years since we visited them bcos the timing always didn’t sync. We stayed only for a while but I got to meet some of my relatives and cousins, whom I have not seen for years. The kids were happy to get more ang baos.

Visitation is tiring business that we all came home and had to take a nap. Popo asked us to go to my brother’s house for dinner but we were too tired and we didn’t think that we would be hungry. We were wrong. We were still hungry by dinner time. Lol. So, we made our own steamboat! 

It was a simple spread but at least it was “our steamboat” and we were very full. See, I said this CNY is only about eating. Huat ah! 

Mummy Lim

CNY is Coming

I feel more of the CNY mood this round. A large part of it has to do with the kids’ youth coming to visit. This means that we have to buy CNY goodies. I like buying CNY goodies. Hoho. The only down side is that we are also happily eating those goodies when it is a long time before CNY arrives. We are already done with 3.5 tubs and CNY is still 1.5 weeks away. Hoho. 

I know, we shouldn’t start shopping for the goodies so early but they lined the shelves of the supermarkets and bakeries, calling me to bring them home. In addition, the youths are visiting this Saturday. So CNY does start early for us. Lol. 

Daddy Lim and I headed down to Chinatown last Saturday. The kids were still little when we last visited the CNY bazaar. It was a tough not lose a kid and navigate the crowded and narrow lanes. Daddy Lim hated the parking at Chinatown as well. This round, we parked further away and didn’t have to worry about parking or whiny kids. 

We had dinner at the Chinatown market before heading to the bazaar. Good food and happy tummy are the essential for the quest ahead. 

It was crowded, very crowded. My aim was to buy CNY goodies but there seems to be less of those and more of stalls selling CNY decorations. Nevertheless, the vibes were right. 

We coincidentally bummed into the LEGO zodiac signs. 

A 

Shopping in crowded places is not our forte. We didn’t last very long but at least bought some gummy sweets, some jelly and crackers. There was this stall that was selling CNY goodies cheaply but we decided that we would rather go for good tasting ones. Those look dodgy. This means more shopping at the supermarkets and bakeries. Hohoho. 

I am still trying to recover from the Shanghai trip and was almost dozing off on the bed when the kids came home from youth. Nana knew that we went to Chinatown for shopping and popped her head in, eager to find out what we bought bcos she didn’t see much on the dining table. Hoho. Will come, will come. 

Do people like CNY more as they get older? Haha. 

Mummy Lim

1st Business Trip 2025 to Beijing Part 2

I did feel a little silly to arrive in Shanghai to work in the hotel room. I comfort myself that at least it was a luxurious work environment. Haha. 

I woke up at 6am bcos I planned to go to the gym. It was hard. In fact, it was harder than other business trip maybe bcos I had an early flight, early morning and a long hard day. 

I made it on sheer will power. The gym is decent. I did my hiit and had muscle ache for the next 3 days. Lol.

I had plenty of time to get ready before meeting my colleague for bfast at 8am. The spread was really good but I had to control bcos it would be a whole day of eating.

The view from the restaurant. 

My meetings started at 9am and I took the calls from the hotel. There was a company lunch and I took a taxi to the lunch venue. I didn’t feel very cold but my colleague who saw how little I was wearing, were very worried for me. Haha. 

Lunch was at a very elaborately decorated vegetarian restaurant bcos some of the colleagues are vegetarian. We were even given a tour of the restaurant before lunch was served. It was refurnished from an old house.

Not only is the restaurant fanciful but the food too. We had to figured out which part of the food was not edible and told that the leaves were for decoration.

Atas siol. It didn’t even taste like I was eating vegetarian food bcos it was so flavourful. I was so full from the multiple courses. 

We headed back to the hotel for meetings and catchup before the company annual event - which was the main reason why I was in Shanghai. I have come to realised that the China colleagues are very hospitable and whatever they plan/ do will be very elaborated. They even got the guests (us) makeup artists and costume. I didn’t know that.

I have the very trendy red eye shadow and the 卧蚕. We were all ushered to the restaurant, which is a short walk from the office at 6ish. There was barely much time in the  office. The dinner was at a German restaurant and there were a lot of meat! Such a contrast from lunch. 

This was my costume for the night. 

Now that I looked at it, I realised why I was told that I looked like a 女侠. 我的剑呢? 

The dinner ended at 9.30pm and it was 10ish by the time we were back to the hotel. A little email and I could barely open my eyes. 

Before I knew it, my alarm rang at 6am. It was just as hard to drag myself to the gym. It was treadmill this time. 

Treadmill to a lovely view. I could see the moving vessels while doing my 4.5km. It was a busy river. The treadmill is different from what I am used to. It has this treaded run pad and super noisy. I supposed it is meant to increase friction but I ended up tripping several times. 

Bfast at 8am again! 

I headed back to the room for calls again, then checked out and to the office at 11am. 

My colleague insisted that we should do lunch but I wasn’t even hungry from bfast. Then again, the 蟹黄面 that she recommended was so good. 

Then I got to drink Chagee! Auntie S said that she had to wait up to 40 mins when she ordered in Singapore. There was almost no Q but online orders came in rapidly and each order was more than 10 cups. My colleague said that it is common to do mini celebrations in office with bubble tea, thus the mass order.

My Chagee!

The famous bag that I see everybody carries. I brought it home. 

How was my red milk tea? It tasted normal leh. Haha. It definitely isn’t worth a 40mins wait in Singapore. My colleague ordered that red milk tea bcos it is one of the top selling. Just normal lah.

I skipped dinner, worked and met people and soon it was 8pm and time to leave for the airport. While in the car to the airport, Daddy Lim texted that the home digital lock had gone crazy and he couldn’t unlock the door. The kids were thankfully still at my brother’s place and school. Daddy Lim tried many of the pins that we had used but none worked and was super frustrated.

I recently tried changing the lock pin and knew that there was a YouTube video on how to reset/ change pin etc. However, the man just refused to watch the entire video to find the relevant portion of the video and ended up calling the locksmith for $250. I had to screenshot and send him the instructions and it worked! Zzzzzzz.. so he had to ask the locksmith not to come and paid $50. No wonder Daddy Lim was so glad that I was coming home. He said that he was super busy in those few days that I was away. 

I was at the airport at about 9pm and the checked in counters were just prepping for checking in. Long qs were forming. Then I realised that there is a separate counter for Krisflyer Elite Silver members. Yes, I managed to keep my status last year with the final Beijing trip. Hohoho. 

I totally enjoy the short checkin Q and the boarding priority. 

I was hungry and had pizza and cinnamon bun. 

I know I shouldn’t but had supper on the flight. Hoho. 

The flight was very full and there was this Chinese man in the middle seat while I was in the aisle seat. While I understand that the hand rest is the middle seat person privilege, he was constantly invading into my air space. I had to scoot to one side of my seat to avoid any physical contact. I duno if it was bcos of that or the Chagee tea, which my colleague said that it is high in caffeine, I slept so badly that I was so irritated. 

Thankfully, I made it alive back home. The flight was 5 hours long, which is similar to the flight time for Mumbai but bcos there was no time difference, I got home earlier to rest before my meetings in the afternoon. 

So yah, 1st trip done! 

Mummy Lim

1st Business Trip 2025 to Beijing Part 1

My last business trip in 2024 was in early December and I was super happy to take a break. Traveling for holiday is a different story altogether. 

2025 has started and so have the business trips. The 1st one is to Shanghai and once again, I got invited to the annual celebration. It is a short trip bcos it is right smack of a busy work period.

The trip was only confirmed last week. I flew early Tuesday morning to Shanghai and back on Thursday night, red-eye flight. It was so rush that I forgot several things but God sent angels. A colleague, who is also attending the event asked if I am staying in the same hotel on Sunday afternoon. That was when I realised that I had forgotten to book the hotel. Lol. Then another one asked on Monday if it would be super cold in Shanghai and I got reminded to bring my winter jacket. Hohoho. Otherwise, I would be in Shanghai but no hotel and no winter jacket.

While I had always enjoyed winter holidays, I didn’t look forward to Shanghai winter as much bcos I haven’t forgotten about Beijing bitter winter cold. The good thing is that Shanghai is less cold and we would really be shuttling between hotel and office and literally not much time to experience the winter cold. 

My flight was at 7.20am on Tuesday morning and I was up at 4ish. Even Mochi was still sleeping in Nana’s room. The strays accompanied me. This is “Blackie”. I duno why he is in the middle of the road. 

My usual routine would be to shop and buy something for myself from DFS. I wasn’t short on any of my comestic or skincare but I wanted to buy something and got myself perfume. Hoho. 

Then, it was too sad not to have a hot drink. 

Bcos I took such a long time to decide what to buy, I ended up arriving at the gate shortly before boarding. I am so glad that I still have my Krisflyer Elite Silver status for 2025. I barely clocked enough miles to maintain my status. It was shorter Qs both at the checkin and also boarding. Nice! 

By the time bfast was served, I was hungry. 

The flight was uneventful and comfortable. It was fairly empty and I was seated in the centre block with the middle seat empty. I caught a movie and then tried to nap in prep of the long day ahead. 

Hello Shanghai! The pilot announced that it was 15 degrees! Super nice!

While collecting luggage, I realised how they strategically placed each luggage for easy retrieval. So thoughtful. 

I got out of the airport smoothly and took a taxi to the hotel. My China colleague had wanted to arrange for a car for me but I assured them that I will be fine after the Beijing training. All good. I hand carried the winter jacket but I didn’t even need it. It was airport - taxi - hotel. The little bit of exposure to the winter chill was enjoyable.

The hotel is about 1 hour’s drive from the airport and recommended by the China colleague. MGM Shanghai West Bund feels like an atas hotel. Even the door cards are blink blink.

The room is huge! 

The original plan was to head to the office but a few meetings came up in the day and there wasn’t time. I started my meetings the moment I got into the car and didn’t stop until the sun started to set. The beautiful view from my room. 

Nearing dinner, the hotel sent me these sweet treats. 

I was peckish during dinner but the in-room dining selection was so sad. I almost 点外卖 until I realised that the hotel is too atas and 外卖 may not be able to deliver. So I made it through with snacks, coffee and the airplane bun. Hoho. 

My last meeting finally ended at 10pm and I was fully dead. The hotel bed was so big and nice. I had 4 fluffy pillows to myself and the linen was so silky smooth. Of course I was knocked out. Good night! 

Mummy Lim

Nana’s O Level - Part 3

I forgot to mention about last Friday’s dinner. We got to eat what the kids deemed as “good food” in celebration. Nana’s choice of food. 

The ice cream that we had was nicer but I forgot the pictures. 

After visiting SAJC, EJC and NJC, and what her tutor had said about wasting her good grades on SAJC,  she is now less keen on SAJC. SAJC was the 1st JC that they had visited and she said that the students were aggressively zealous. EJC tops (as expected) bcos of the new and fun environment. She visited ACJC yday and has to really decide on her 2nd choice very carefully.

We went into a huge debate with her on whether it is ACJC or NJC for choice 2. Her argument of why *not* NJC is the rundown facilities, the toxic environment and lousy school notes. We cannot see her perspectives. As working adults, we have seen our fair share of toxicity and are sure NJC is nowhere in comparison, maybe even a good training ground. Lol. While there are online comments that thrash NJC, there are a fair amount of existing and ex-students who stood up for NJC too. Isn’t that the case for all schools? Moreover, 2 years would pass so quickly - half her time would be spent learning new/ more in-depth subjects and the other half preparing for A level. 很快的. Most importantly, NJC sounded so much more prestigious than ACJC and produces students with good result. I know, I was from ACJC and should love ACJC but looking at my A level results…. Never mind. Hoho. 

We eventually left the choice to Nana, reminding that if she really did get into ACJC and results aren’t as ideal bcos her environment is too lax, then tuition lor. Before she even went for the open house, we already know that she has already made up her mind to choose ACJC over NJC. 

The options were submitted last night bcos I would be away for the next few days. She was given 12 options and  we found out eventually that only choice 1 is compulsory. But like all kaisu Singaporeans, we filled up all 12 choices. 

She compromised and put NJC as 3rd choice over SAJC. From choice 3 onwards, I think it didn’t quite matter. It would be EJC or ACJC. 

Anyway, choices are made and the rest is in God’s hands. Let’s see 4 Feb, 9am. 

Mummy Lim