Latest Scare - Our Dear Sparky

Sparky has been such a great part of our life. Counting back, it has been almost 13 years - dog years. Multiply that by 7 and we have a "old ah kong"!

Last month, Noah and Siti brought him for a long walk and he came back - feverish - like 40 degrees! I carried his limp body to the Vet.The Vet told us that it was like he was cooking all the organs inside. Also, he was shaking violently.

Then the tears, wild imagination came.

I have never given thought of the day he would leave us. And this was the closest scare I had.

Carried him to the Vet, he couldn't even lift his head.

He was hospitalised for 4 days, went on the drip. Vet prescribed steroids to stop the shaking.


Sparky got home after his fever came down. But he was never the same again. The most obvious would be the weight loss, he never gained back the weight. And the most painful would be seeing him laying down rather listlessly, watching us get by our daily schedules.

Here's a photo log of some of his best moments with us.

Penang - Land of Glorious Food/Makan

What would a "deviant" mum do when her son has no school on PSLE oral days and thanks to the YOG, has coinciding school vacation? Yes, plan for a short getaway. It has been a long time since we had a family vacation and thanks to budget airlines, we managed to secure $85 flight tickets to Penang.
It was planned to be a NO AGENDA, walk around and EAT EAT EAT holiday. And we did just that!

Day ONE

As soon as we checked in, we took the Hotel Shuttle to Gurney Plaza. We wasted no time in our food quest.

Gurney Hawker

Had seafood at a Restaurant

Day TWO

Took Rapid Bus 101 to Batu Feringgi.

Went to the Butterfly Park, got over the initial skepticism of the attraction, and enjoyed the tour eventually.
These are the simple things that we tend to overlook.

The highlight of the day would be the beach outside of Hard Rock Cafe Penang. The Sam family have always been a fan of the Sun, Sand and Sea and good American food (Thanks, HRC, love the potato skins!)

A day at the beach in Penang .....



How did we end our night?

Following recommendations from chubbyhubby.net, we had our char-siew at Teik Seng Makannan, seriously the best char siew I will ever taste in this lifetime!

Char siew sliced into thin slices and stir fried, end result - smoky and lacquered with a sweet and sticky glaze!

We finished it with a bang! Hawker food at the famous Macalister Food Joint for Chendol!

A Typical Night Street Hawker scene

Day THREE

Started our day at the One Corner Cafe - just walking distance to our hotel.

Had our dose of Kopi, Chee Cheong Fun, Wan Than Mee. Was told by locals that the Hokkien Mee was very popular, true enough, we were informed that the wait would be at least 30 mins....er...not today. But Definitely tomorrow we will have a go at it, put it on our top priority list.



A trip to Penang Hill didn't materialise as the Funicular (tram) was in the process of being replaced by new "high-tech" looking ones. A Rapid (Public bus) up and down Penang Hill gave us a city tour of Air Hitam.

Plus a little bit of shopping at here and there, we were pretty much stuffed by this time.

The other highlight would be the ferry ride to Butterworth, and passing the Penang Bridge was spectacular.



But never too late for supper....back to Gurney for asam-laksa and char kuey teow.
That night, Pete and myself rushed to the GYM at 9.40 pm, for reasons very obvious, we simply had to work it out!


Day Four

Did FOUR days just pass just like that?

The food quest just goes on .... agenda :
1) Hokkien Mee
2) Nandos
3) Buy famous tao sar piah and local goodies

It was hard to leave Food Paradise but school/work beckons ....

I do have a Food List and To-Do list for Penang, email me if you would like a copy!

XOXO,
Alve

PS: Leaving you with pictures in next post.

On the Youth Olympics "spirit"

A moment of pride and glory when the Singapore flag was introduced.

Seriously, this is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld

Happy 45th Birthday Singapore!!

I am proud to be a Singaporean.....Thank you Lord for all the blessings on this Nation.

Outing to Zoo

Found some time to visit the Singapore Zoo. We always enjoy our trip there, the Zoo never fails to surprise us at every trip.
Somehow, Noah just seems to get along with Animals.

Sweet Memories of Bali 2009

Paradise ... Bali December 2009

The entire Sam family trooped off to Bali in December for a well-deserved bi-annual reunion celebrations. Needless to say, it was "pure awesomeness" especially for the children - all 7 of them. To top it all, we all arranged for a photo shoot at the Villa we were staying.

When is the next holiday?