We were doing our usual weekly grocery last Sunday. Normally we go to Fairprice since we get rebates and rewards via linkpoints but we were late in going out that we ended up doing the grocery at Cold Storage instead (they close later than Fairprice). I bought just some essentials and food that we were going to eat for the next 3-4 days, so I paid at the counter and left with the bags. It wasn’t until we reached home and I was storing the groceries that I noticed that a bag was missing and that bag contained all the food. We tried calling the store to check for the bag but it was already closed, we did shop near closing time. So I was really pissed that I left the bag and had no choice but to try and go back the next day to see if the items were still there.

I was only able to go back to the grocery after E’s playgym class in the afternoon and really I wasn’t expecting that the bag would still be there. I think I was more or less resigned that I wasted about $20 worth of food by forgetting that bag. So when I got to the grocery I approached this guy to ask about the bag and he went to a couple of the cashiers to ask and he was told to check the logbook (it was a logbook of things that got left behind, it would seem that it is a common occurrence :p) and he got back to me to check with me if the items listed on the book were the items that I left. After confirming the items, he went to get similar items off the shelves to give to me, it turns out the actual items that I left were put back on the shelf so whatever is of the equivalent price would be the ones given back, most of the items that he did give me were priced higher than the items I bought. He asked to see my receipt just to note on it that I had already taken the items and that was it. Now I don’t know if this is the way that supermarkets handle things like this, this was the first time that it happened to me but I was pleasantly surprised at the procedure they had. It was simple and easy for both parties. And is it bad for me to think that if that were to happen to me in Manila that I would never have been able to retrieve the left items?

Panalo ang passport pic ni little boy. Whenever someone sees it, they always comment on how cute he is. They can’t help it! hahahaha!! di naman obvious na proud ano?!!

Because of a visa application (more on that in another post), I had to renew my passport which expires in January 2009. Initially we planned to have it renewed in Manila so that the renewed passport would be a machine readable one (MRP). But since we were advised against doing that and to avoid any issues that may arise we just decided to have it renewed here at the Philippine embassy in Singapore. What’s really disappointing is that the passports they still issue here for renewal is still the old green passport (the MRP has a maroon colored cover). Kainis  when I have to renew again in 2010 as the International Civil Aviation Authority requires all UN member countries to use MRPs by April 1, 2010. Not to mention the cost, it’s SGD85 for a 32-page passport, that’s equivalent to 4-5 passports in Manila. Hay, I wished I had renewed my passport in Manila last December, malay ko ba na mag-aaply pala kami ng visa. Anyways, I applied for the renewal last Sunday and will be getting my new passport later.

aliw!! click here to view the video.

Last month we went to the inaugural Singapore Airshow at the Changi Exhibition Centre. The first four days were for trade visitors only which left the public just the weekend to see the exhibits. All the tickets were presold online and as expected a lot of people came. We chose to go on a Saturday and when we arrived at pasir ris mrt to get on the free shuttle to the event site we were told by the people manning the area that we came at the right time because earlier in the day people had to wait in line for two hours just for the shuttle. It was also a long wait from the entrance to the changi exhibition centre up to the actual entrance for the airshow, I think we waited on the bus for more than 30mins. As we were entering the area we saw tons of people who were leaving the area queuing either for the taxi (even for the premium taxis there was a looooong line) or for the shuttle buses. There was also an aerobatic flying displays by the Black Knights of the Republic of Singapore Air Force and the Roulettes of the Royal Australian Air Force which we didn’t get to see since we went in the afternoon. E enjoyed looking at all the displays and had a fun time collecting pins from some of the exhibits. By the time we were leaving the venue there was still a queue (although shorter) so we decided to hop on the paid shuttle to changi expo instead.

Been tagged by marikit mom, Thanks Tin!

Here’s the drill started by Mitch of When Silence Speaks:

If you still keep your baby’s first 3 days photos, I We would love to see them. Label them as 1st, 2nd or 3rd day (as shown below). After that, please post the most recent one, one photo will do. You can post as much as you want though. I’m sure you will realize and tell yourself “seems like yesterday“.

THEN

Day One - getting cleaned up.

Day Two - at the nursery, he already scratched his cheeks.

Day Three - first day at home.

NOW

opening his presents last christmas

playing with his dada @ changi’s budget terminal

at our condo

tagging margaux & bianca’s mommy jody, franco & simon’s mommy april, and asha’s mommy nympha.

While in Manila last January, my mom took us to dinner at Metrowalk and we saw that they had a dolphin show there (Wonderful World of Dolphins) and of course E wanted to see the show. It was a bit pricey though at P300/head, and at the same rate for both adults and kids but we still watched since the guama wanted to please the apo hehe. So we watched the show with I think about less than 40 people in attendance. But the good thing about it was E got chosen to go up for the sea lions, he didn’t know what was gonna happen that’s why when the sea lion kissed him he didn’t like it. As soon as he stepped off the stage until he got back to his seat, he was wiping off his cheek with his hands and saying “eeww!”. After the show though when they were announcing that you can have your picture taken with the dolphin, E immediately told me that he wanted to do that. And after asking him a number of times if he really wanted it (obvious ba na ayaw ko nung una kasi may bayad eh :p) we queued up. And yes, we ended up buying his pic with the sea lion as well.

check this one out > marklivesinikea.com

To our extended family that is. Our new baby niece - Mika.

Congratulations Ival & Cathy.  Welcome to the world baby Mika.

We celebrated E’s birthday last January in Manila. At first we thought of planning a big party (this would be the first time we would celebrate his birthday in Manila with our families) but we opted to just throw him a simple birthday dinner. Good thing my BIL’s wife has a restaurant (Tony’s Bar & Grill along Mindanao Avenue) so we just reserved the function room and ordered a buffet dinner.

One thing we had to take care of before going home to the province for the new year was to order E’s birthday cake. So off we went to Goldilocks at Trinoma. After going through the cakes album, we decided on getting him a Cars-themed cake and had E choose which design he wanted.

On the day of his birthday he was so excited to get his cake that when we loaded the cake in the car he kept peeking around the tissue cover. He had lots of fun at the party running around with his cousins and playing with his uncles. I think the most fun was when blowing out the birthday candles. He had so much fun hearing everyone sing him the birthday song and knowing that once the song was finished he would get to blow out the candles that we did it five times.

Here are some of the pics:

with ichi’s fam	with my fam
with my cute goddaughter A	e with his godsister T
singing happy birthday	blowing his cake
E was super happy with the birthday song and blowing of the candles that we did it 5 times
birthday boy	family pic
family friends	with hs friends
lim cousins
getting the cars	E with his uncles, cousins and godsister

more pics here.