Gems of the Oldest Neighbourhood in Singapore

If there is anything that Tiong Bahru is famous for, it's for their yummilicious food! People from all over Singapore travel all the way here just to get their hands on freshly baked French baguette or traditional lor mee.

And I've been making a point to visit new cafes sprouting up all over the neighbourhood ever since my last exploration of the area.

So take a day tour with me as I show you the little gems in this town that I call home =)

Traditional Lion & Dragon dance is a common sight in our old school neighbourhood

We start off the day with the good ole breakfast. Folks here get up way before dawn for their favourite bread toast and traditional kopi-o (coffee without milk).

This coffee shop across the road from my house along Tiong Poh Road actually opens every morning at 3am
(I know because I spend countless nights writing/breastfeeding at 3am!)

Their famous dishes include the yong tau foo noodles and lor mee. But just as they open very early, they also close very early (around 2-3pm) so don't be late!

Alternatively, you can also head on over to the famous Tiong Bahru Market and savour the famous fried Hokkien prawn mee, chwee kueh, Tiong Bahru pau, lor mee & my personal favourite, Teochew fishball noodles! You'll love the value for money =)

But if you have a little more cash to spare and want a place with air-conditioning so that you can escape the heat, you may want to consider all the many quaint little cafes nearby. 

 Orange Thimble

(My personal experience here)

Cafe Pralet

Drips Bakery Cafe

Social Haus

40 Hands Coffee or Open Door Policy

Oh and if you're lost, here's a map:

Places to eat around Tiong Bahru

Of course there are other great eateries that are not mentioned here. You can explore and if you find something good, let me know! =)

And once your belly is full and contented, you may like to spend the rest of the afternoon learning to bake at Creative Culinaire (located next to Cafe Pralet) or browsing at Books Actually and Strangelets (see map).

Strangelets, Books Actually & Social Haus located on Yong Siak Street

If your kids are with you, you can also bring them to Tiong Bahru Park located just next to the Tiong Bahru MRT. The playground there is the largest playground in our town.

Tiong Bahru Playground

These days you'll almost never see playgrounds with sand and a merry-go-round in the heart of the city any more. I guarantee your kids will have a ball of a time!

Finally, chill out after dinner at Wangz Halo Bar (see map above).

At the roof of Wangz Hotel

This bar offers drinks at reasonable prices, screening of soccer games, live bands/DJs during weekends and a panoramic view of Shenton Way. My friends and I have spent the last 2 Christmases there and had loads of fun =)

And if you're too lazy to drag your tired ass home, there are like literally more than 20 hotels in the area for you to stay at! *laughs*

That's the end of our tour! Hope you had a nice time and we look forward to seeing you here soon =)


Tomorrow, June from mamawearpapashirt will be sharing about her favourite porridge stall and a hidden water park just a stone's throw away from Redhill MRT.


About June

June is a mother to two lively kids - Vera, a chatty three year old and Javier, a curious one year old. She is passionate about building strong families, children’s learning activities, and writing. She blogs at mamawearpapashirt, a place for parents to find love, confidence, hope and delight.

This post is part of a Blog Train hosted by Sarah at The Playful Parents.

Head on over to read about the hidden gems of other neighbourhoods through the eyes of Singapore Mom Bloggers!

The Most Famous Kitty Without a Mouth

For my next painting,

I drew this (after getting an inspiration off the internet), added the paint..

Making sure that it looked as authentic as possible..


Here, Kitty Kitty!
Acrylic on Canvas

What do you think? =)

Linking Up With:

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This post is part of my Mad-Made Art series that documents our artistic creations!

You can also see more on Instagram via the hashtag #madpsychmumart! 

Revisit the Past, Shoot for the Future

I was searching through my old blog (you know the one I wrote at before I became a mom and started this one) and found this list of things I vowed to achieve before I was 25. I didn't achieve them before 25 but hey, at least I achieved some of them eventually! *laughs*

Things I Must Achieve Before I'm 25:

Travel to Japan for hot springs & ferris wheels in Disneyland [Postponed due to nuclear leak]
Experience REAL snow in northern Europe [We honeymoon-ed in Switzerland]
Learn figure skating! [Yah right, my bones will break]
Get MARRIED =) [Sealed the deal on 2 May 2009]
Do LASIK (by 2007) so that I'll never have to wear specs till i'm grey [Specs-free since 2007]
Learn oil painting [Planning on taking lessons =)]
Do some paintings for my new house [Painted a painting with friends]
Go crazy shopping in Hongkong or Taiwan [Did both Hongkong AND Taiwan]
Get my Masters degree in Psychology [Took forever but I finally did it!]
Publish my first paper in a recognised journal [Still working on it]
Watch a musical with my sis [Watched 'Wicked' at MBS theatre ;)]

Whatever possessed me to think I can learn figure skating is beyond me -_-". Ok, now for new goals! :)

Things I Must Achieve Before I'm 30:

Travel to Japan
Travel to Disneyland
Skydiving in New Zealand
Learn oil painting
Paint at least once every 2 weeks
Publish my first paper in a recognised journal
Own my own house
Give birth to Baby #2 (& shut down baby-making factory by 30 *grin*)
Get my weight back down to pre-pregnancy!


What are your goals?

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This is What Badass Looks Like

Today I blogged at World Moms Blog on the need to spend just as much time on ourselves as we do on our kids. I said I would spend more time on art and I did! =)

Jumbo set costs about $49.90

I bought so many art supplies that I decided that I might as get the membership (which meant I can go back and buy more!) *grin*

But what do you do with so much paint and not enough walls to hang all your canvases?

I thought about it and decided it was more blessed to give than to receive! What better than to paint beautiful art pieces and give them to others? It was a win-win situation =)

So I asked my cg mates if they wanted a painting from me and asked those who did to send me a sample picture of what they wanted.

After looking at all the pictures they sent me, I decided to work on the easiest painting first, you know, just to start me off.

It was not something I particularly like to paint but the guy really wanted it so I tried my best.

Can you guess what it is?

After adding finishing touches, viola!

This is What Badass Looks Like
Acrylic on Canvas

Reminds me of Pumba from the Lion King, but meaner! *laughs*.

If you liked this painting, like us on Facebook to see the other paintings that I'm working on. It gets better and better, I promise =)

Stay tuned!

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This post is part of my Mad-Made Art series that documents our artistic creations!

You can also see more on Instagram via the hashtag #madpsychmumart! 

The Road to Sweet Dreams

I've been having an easier time putting baby girl to bed ever since I got her into the good old bedtime routine that every parenting book talks about.

Wanna know my not-so-secretive secret?

1) No Nap After 5pm
Ensure that she does not take a nap after 5pm. Not always an easy thing to do but 'short pain better than long pain' (direct translation of the Chinese idiom).

2) Drain the Energy

Usually the responsibility of the HOD of Play (i.e. Daddy)

Toss her into the air, tickle her into fits of laughter or chase her around the room! Whatever you do, make sure it really sucks out all her energy until there is nothing left.

3) Drink the Milk

Baby girl prefers drinking from a water bottle rather than a milk bottle

Get her to drink her milk. A full stomach almost always result in sleepy eyes.

4) Brush the Teeth
After repenting from my sin of not brushing baby girl's teeth at the dentist, I've been dutifully ensuring that her beautiful smile is well taken care of.

Propping baby girl on something higher so that she is at my eye level (don't want to bend down)

Tooth-brushing Tip: Make her laugh!

When she's laughing, her mouth opens up involuntarily thus making it easier for you to stick your brush in. Eventually, she'll also associate the brushing of teeth with laughter and will soon look forward to it. True story =)

5) Read the Books

Her collection of books placed strategically near her 'bed'

She loves to read so one book is usually not enough for her. Every time you finish reading one to her, she'll go "want some more!"

Her favourite is 'Bedtime with Baby Bop', which follows Baby Bop's own bedtime routine. I'd say to her at the end, "look Baby Bop went to sleep already. Do you want to sleep?" And she will usually nod her head and lie down on her mattress =)

6) Stay cool
And finally, the most important part of her bedtime routine is... *drum rolls*... the air-conditioner!

Baby girl just cannot fall asleep when it is hot! She will toss, she will turn and she'll even cry!

So you can just imagine my horror when one day the electricity of some of the units on my floor went out and we had no air-conditioning or fans. Of course baby girl couldn't sleep and was so cranky and frustrated that I decided to pack my bags and head off to my mum's house, which was thankfully just across the road, to stay for the night.

With a cold environment on the other hand, baby girl can fall asleep in just 30 seconds (especially if she's really tired).

And there you have it!

Generally if I follow these steps, she will be in dreamland in no time. And by "no time", I mean 10.30pm. She never sleeps earlier than that.. just like her mummy they say.

Ah well.

What's your child's bedtime routine?

Development of Self-Awareness

Children start to show recognition of self at around 18 months.

How do we know this?

Research has shown that if you show photos of different children to a child who's around 18 months old, he/she is able to accurately select a photo of self from a set of 3 photos. They are also more likely to copy the actions of self rather than of another infant when watching videos of each.

But the most common way to tell if your child has developed self-awareness is by administering the famous “Rouge” Test (Anderson, 1972; Lewis & Brooks-Gunn, 1979).

You can even conduct this test yourself in the comfort of your own home =)

Do-It-Yourself Psychology Experiment: The "Rouge" Test

Step 1: Dab some lipstick on your child's nose

Step 2: Bring your child in front of a mirror

 Remember, don't do anything that will hint to the child that there is something on his/her nose!

Step 3: Observe your child's reaction

If your child makes a conscious attempt to touch the nose to either wipe the lipstick mark away or shows some indication that it is there, then your child has developed self-awareness =)

This development of self-awareness happens typically around 18 months old (plus, minus).

Try it yourself! You can be your own psychologist =)

I May Have Some Kind of Balance Disorder

I have zero spatial awareness.

I knock into people all the time.

I walk on a flat ground with flats and still managed to trip and fall. True story.

Credits: babyblues.com

I think I may have some kind of Inner Ear Dysfunction or Balance Disorder.

And I think it's genetic.

My mum has it. My sister has it. And now my baby girl have it.

*Sigh*

And this is why, unlike other fashionista moms, I adamantly refused to wear heels of any kind when I was pregnant. I just hated the thought of having to carry a large bowling ball at the tummy while balancing on 'stilts', knowing full well that I have a predisposition for falling flat on my face.

I will never forgive myself if anything happened to my baby because of vanity!

So I chucked my heels to the far forgotten corners of my shoe cabinet, only to finally dig them out when I went back to work.

Only to fall and scrape my knee very badly on the way to my 1st class as an associate lecturer
-_-"

*Double sigh*

Maybe it's time to pay a visit to an Otolaryngologist... an ENT doctor lah *laughs*

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My Master Commencement

Master of Social Sciences

I've already graduated with a Master's degree but I had to wait a whole year to receive my official certificate and transcripts just because I missed last year's commencement by a hair.

But my dad was super excited about it and was dying to go so I started to get excited too even though I wasn't initially.

I remembered a time in my graduate studies where I thought that I will never finish it or graduate due to the many problems that came up because of my thesis project. Thankfully I didn't, so here I am =)

NUS Commencement 2012

With my greatest supporters of my studies! =)

My dad and the hubby were the happiest because their financial support is the very reason why I'm able to do my masters in the first place.

With the Hubby & Dad

My dad was the one who paid for my school fees while the hubby took care of my daily expenses. Although I was earning a little from giving tuition, I'm sure I would have been slogging my life away after school hours if it were not for them!

My proud parents

I know my new-age parents don't require their children to give them a monthly allowance but I do, not out of obligation but out of love and appreciation to them.

Thanks to my awesome family for your love and support! And especially to my brother, who specially took leave to attend my commencement just to be my personal photographer. Thanks bro!


P.S: It's my first day at my new job as a civil servant! Wish me luck! =)

Baking a Birthday Cake for My Girl

After an enjoyable afternoon where I learnt to bake for the 1st time, I had an idea to bake a cake for my baby girl's 2nd birthday!

Obviously I'm not talented enough to do this on my own so off I went to the nearest chef available. Why, Mrs P of course! *laughs*

We decided to do a simple butter cake (you're talking about a baking-idiot like me after all *laughs*). After buying the ingredients at a nearby supermarket, we are ready to begin!

Laying out our baking utensils & ingredients

Ingredients You'll Need:
250g of unsalted butter
2 cups of self-raising flour
3 eggs
2 tablespoons of vanilla essence
1+1/4 cups of castor sugar
1 cup of milk
1 packet of marshmallows

You must be wondering what the marshmallows were for? Well, that was for the fondant that I intended to make. I googled (as usual) for a fondant recipe and found not only all the different ways you can make fondant but how to do it. Perfect! Or so I thought.

I chose to make fondant using marshmallows and powdered sugar as it's the easiest. But as we had forgotten to buy powdered sugar, I googled again and found that we can make it by blending ordinary sugar in a blender! Genius =)

Clockwise from left: Blending sugar to make powdered sugar; Sugar & marshmallows before microwaving;
Mixture of melted marshmallows (after microwaving for 2 minutes) & powdered sugar

Unfortunately, that was where the success ended. After trying hard to blend the melted marshmallows and powdered sugar together to create fondant, it just didn't work out like I had hoped *sigh*

And that's probably the last time I'm ever going to try and make fondant -_-

Baby girl probably benefitted the most from my failed attempt..

Stealing a bite of the 'fondant'

Mrs P has had a lot of experience baking cakes so she did most of the work while I only helped out just enough to say that I had a hand in baking it *laughs*.

Step 1: Sift self-raising flour
Step 2: Cream butter, sugar & vanilla essence with electric mixer. Add in the eggs and continue. Cream until light and fluffy.

Creaming the butter, sugar, vanilla essence and eggs

Step 3: Fold in flour and milk, alternating between flour and milk a little at a time until the mixture is blended.

Step 4: Grease the baking container and fill it with the cake batter.

Step 5: Preheat oven at 180 degree celcius and bake for 25 minutes.

Baking the batter in the oven

And viola!

Completed!

Mrs P's Tip: Poke a satay stick into the cake to check if it's done. If the stick comes out clean, it is done! =)

And next up is my favourite, decorating! As you know, we don't have fondant so thankfully we had a backup plan. We turned once again to our best friend Google and found a simple icing recipe.

Creaming the butter, powdered sugar & vanilla essence

I decided not to add colouring to the icing just in case it turns out looking weird. And after spreading it onto the cake..

..and piping in the words using black icing that I had bought, the cake is finally complete!

Lovingly made for you my darling! =)

I had wanted to add in more decorations but the hubby thinks it's ok the way it is. Right.. I mean after all, the uglier it is, the more likely people will believe I made it right?! -_-

We brought the cake to my parents' house to celebrate baby girl's birthday with them.

Celebrations Part 2

My dad was in town so it made the celebrations even more special =)

Overall the cake tasted great except that it's a little plain. We definitely could have added some chocolate chips or other ingredients to 'spice' it up a bit.

I can't wait to join Mrs P in more baking sessions!

And by that, I mean helping her to crack the eggs while she does everything else (and then going on to blog about it as if I did it *laughs*).

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Forget Retail, I Need My Art Therapy!

Some watch a movie. Others (like the hubby) get immersed into the virtual world of Diablo III. And still others peruse pages and pages of online shops for their daily dose of retail medicine.

But for people like me, there is nothing more therapeutic than painting on a canvas or getting fingers dirty with glue for relaxation =)

It was time for one of my art therapy sessions as I badly needed one so I decided to join a few of the SMBs for an art session at Arteastiq.

Social Painting & Tea

SMBs (from left): Me, Dominique, June, Virginia & Rachel

I was late (yeah, yeah, I know.. as usual..) so I ended up choosing a relatively easier picture to paint rather than a scenic forest, which I knew I wouldn't have time to finish. Each session at Arteastiq is limited to 3 hours and any additional hours spent are chargeable at $5/hour.

As we painted, we drank our tea and talked about anything and everything. I enjoyed it tremendously =)

After working on my painting for 2.5 hours (I was late remember), this was what I came up with:

My half-completed painting

I still did not manage to finish it despite choosing a simpler picture *sigh*

Anyway, thankfully I had acrylic paint at home, which was not as good as the ones at Arteastic but enough for me to work with.

Two-some
Acrylic on Canvas

Do you know why I chose Lilies? They're one of my favourite flowers! I may not look like it, but I love flowers (and especially painting them)! *grin*

After a day of treatment, I'm finally finding myself again.. my artistic self that is! I've since lined up a series of art projects/antidotes for more of the much needed therapy sessions =)

Watch this space!

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This post is part of my Mad-Made Art series that documents our artistic creations!

You can also see more on Instagram via the hashtag #madpsychmumart!