Zhi Rui, my second nephew turns one tomorrow!! Gosh! Time flies! He started walking on his own a couple of days ago. He is curious all the time and is so eager to explore.
Tonight we gather at his house to celebrate his first birthday, but he is too small to know what birthday is.
Baby, may you recover from flu & cough soon. Stay in the pink of health always! Happy growing! And Happy First Birthday to you. Be a jolly baby!
I rested 3hrs after arriving Cape Town and lazed in the room as I couldn't sleep anymore. Another 2hrs before I meet my colleagues for lunch. Hmmm.. perhaps I was too excited to get to the summit of Table Mountain this evening. Ha.
My first meal in Cape Town, Ribs n calamari combo.
View of Table Mountain form the restaurant we had lunch.
Our plan's foiled. It turns out windy today, so the cable car to bring us up to the Table Mtn's closed. Therefore, we head back to the hotel to unwind at the poolside and soak up the beauty of sunset, with a drink in our hands. This virgin Mojito is so refreshing and I love it!
Yeah! Our animated icons are created!! 
This is ME!!
This is JoAnne in shades, trying to act cool. Hee.
This is Lorraine.
Lastly, this is Sherin, the vainest of all! Wahaha! She took the most time customizing her icon.
At 11pm, we ended up at JoAnne's house for WII game. It's our first time playing WII. Bowling's our first game and Lorraine top the game effortlessly. Humpf!! I came in third :( This is not all. We got more thrilled when we play tennis and boxing. Tennis is fun! We have to imagine us holding a racket and hit the ball once it comes into our direction. It's so interactive n real! We had good fun!
Went to Rayan's nursery school with Karen to pick him up from school. (Hmm.. I have not stepped into a school for a long time. ) His mom went into hiding and I waited for him outside the school, wanting to see if he could recognize me. He couldn't and he walked to his school bus instead. When mommy resurfaced with me, he then recognized me. 
We went for lunch at Downtown East food court. Mommy ordered a few dishes with rice for Rayan and here he is, eating on his own. I was eying his sausage but he refused to let me have a piece.
Rayan's eating on his own. Good boy!
Rayan's back home and drinking his milk before taking a short nap. He is so playful and refused to go to sleep, as he wanna play with us. Haha. All kids are alike.
Airing of "Little Nyonya" has ended but the craze over "Little Nyonya" has not died down. I hardly catch any episode and I am catching it online now. There are many cooking scenes introducing Nyonya cuisine and they look mouth-watering. Hence, when a colleague told me about this Peranakan restaurant, I suggested lunch there with a friend, as I'm very tempted to taste nyonya cuisine.
We had beef rendang, ayam buah keluak & mixed vegetables. Among the three dishes, the chicken dish was the most unique one. It's a distinctive dish combining chicken pieces with nuts from the Pangium edule or kepayang tree to produce a rich sauce. But I cannot really appreciate it. The black sauce was filled with the nut flavour. We did not over-stuffed ourselves as we wanted to sample nyonya dessert too. We had 3 different tpyes of desserts, namely the durian pengant, bo bo cha cha & gula melaka sago. The durian pengant's our favourite as it tasted just like durian!
Peranakan or Nonya cuisine combines Chinese, Malay and other influences into a unique blend.
Peranakans are descendants of early Chinese migrants who settled in Penang, Malacca and Singapore, inter-marrying with local Malays. The old Malay word nonya (also spelled nyonya), a term of respect and affection for women of prominent social standing (part “madame” and part “auntie”), has come to refer to the cuisine of the Perakanans.
Nonya cooking is the result of blending Chinese ingredients and wok cooking techniques with spices used by the Malay community. The food is tangy, aromatic, spicy and herbal. Key ingredients include coconut milk, galangal (a subtle, mustard-scented rhizome similar to ginger), candlenuts as both a flavoring and thickening agent, laksa leaf, pandan leaves (Pandanus amaryllifolius), belachan, tamarind juice, lemongrass, torch ginger bud, jicama, fragrant kaffir lime leaf, rice or egg noodles and cincaluk - a powerfully flavored, sour and salty shrimp-based condiment that is typically mixed with lime juice, chillies and shallots and eaten with rice, fried fish and other side dishes.
Mommy loves you, baby!
This is our baby.. :)
The baby boy is due on 14.2.2009! His parents are filled with anticipation and mommy couldn't wait to see his arrival! The skin on her tummy has over-stretched & causing too much discomfort. Awww.. must be very uncomfortable! Poor mommy!
Diana, may you have a smooth delivery!
Upon arriving San Juan Capistrano at 7am, we realized Mission San Juan Capistrano opens at 8.30am. Thus we take a walk in the vicinity and to our surprise, we discovered some really nice places nearby.
Here's a farm for animal feeding.
Time for breakfast! I had pancakes with strawberries! It's realy good.
We took a walk in the estate & we were charmed by all the houses here. They are unique in its own way. 
Mission San Juan Capistrano is opened finally!
We made our first stop at IHOP (famous for pancake) to fill our stomachs before we set off for Venice Beach. IHOP is 10mins walk from the hotel, hence, we normally come here for breakfast.
Arrived Venice Beach after 45mins drive from Anaheim.
We had a pleasant walk here.
Caught sunset in the car on our way to Santa Monica. It's really awesome!!
This strawberry milkshake is reaaaalllly good!!
We missed the Santa Monica exit on the highway. By the time we got to Santa Monica, we were famished. Thus, I suggested we have dinner at the fast food restaurant, Johnny Rockets. And this is the burger I gobbled down in no time.
We dropped by a nearby fun fare before heading back to hotel. I was super zombied-out already but Benjamin & Grace were still full of energy.
We got back to the hotel at 11pm. Wasting no time, I made a dash for the bed, as we are meeting up to drive to San Juan Capistrano on the next day.
Shrimp Heaven, consisting cocktail shrimp, tempura shrimp, coconut shrimp & ...
Bourbon Mahi Mahi
Charbroiled cajun mahi mahi with bourbon sauce and shrimp served over mashed potatoes.
Coconut shrimp.
After work, starved colleague, Benjamin & I walked to Bubba Gump for dinner as we didn't have proper food for the last 15hrs at work. During a casual conversation at work, we discovered we share a common hobby and he's planning to drive out in Anaheim to do some shooting. Without saying, I would follow suit. And we managed to get a few keen parties to join us. Yahoo! Am looking forward to exploring the Orange County the next day. After a hearty meal, we left Bubba Gump stuffed and satisfied :)
The Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. Restaurant and Market is a chain of seafood restaurants inspired by the 1994 film Forrest Gump. Launched in 1996 by Viacom Consumer Products (part of Viacom, which also owns Paramount Pictures, the distributor of Forrest Gump) and the Rusty Pelican Company. As of 2008, it had 22 locations in United States, 2 in Mexico, and 7 in eastern countries of Asia. The most famous restaurant is located at 1501 Broadway in Times Square, New York, NY in the Paramount Building. The first one opened up in Monterey, California. The restaurant is named after the movie's main characters Benjamin Bufford "Bubba" Blue and Forrest Gump, who were inspired to go into the shrimping business per Bubba's suggestion.
The menu consists mostly of shrimp dishes, but also other seafood, as well as Southern and Cajun cuisine, due to the main character Forrest coming from Alabama. On the company's menu, the company's CEO says (quoting from the movie) that "shrimp is the fruit of the sea. You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, saute it. Dey's uh, shrimp-kabobs, shrimp creole, shrimp gumbo, pan fried, deep fried, stir-fried, there's pineapple shrimp, lemon shrimp, coconut shrimp, pepper shrimp, shrimp soup, shrimp stew, shrimp salad, shrimp and potatoes, shrimp burger, shrimp sandwich. Th-that's about it."
Here's the website www.bubbagump.com.
We went to Ministry of Food in Bugis Junction to pre-celebrate JoAnne's birthday. She brought us to this fairly new japanese restaurant with extensive menu which is wallet-friendly. While waiting for Lydia to arrive, famished us had tofu & avocado salad and fried chicken maki. Both tasted pretty good. Perhaps we were starving, thus, whatever went into our stomachs sure taste good.
After the entre, I had a hard time deciding on the dessert as I was spoiled for choice! Hmmm.. I would return for more. This time, I had 3 scoops of ice cream with waffle. The sesame ice cream sure tasted good!
Happy Birthday, JoAnne! Glad you enjoyed dinner with us. Must wear the cape okie, even though all of you find it weirdly-designed. Ha.