Planning for National Day/ Jubilee Weekend

We are not the super ardent fans of the annual National Day Parade, although YX watches and re-watches the video clip I downloaded from youtube(?), of NDP 2014. Somehow she loves the pageantry and the music.

Since 2015 is Singapore's 50th birthday, we decided to try and ballot for the NDP tickets. We were not lucky enough to get selected, so I'm now back to the drawing board on what to do for that weekend. 

Thankfully, with the attention and Govt funding for #SG50, there are a whole plethora of events out there on the same weekend, whether organised by the public sector or private organisations. 

I guess I will be ploughing through the singapore50.sg website very soon! 

And do check regularly on my SGEvents calendar, as I add more events there. Meanwhile, I am also searching for a (not-so-technically-challenging way) for me to share that listing. 

Jubilee Winds and Percussion 21 June 2015

Jubilee Winds and Percussion 《鼓吹狮城庆金禧》

by City Chinese Orchestra 狮城华乐团

21 June 2015, 5pm  Victoria Concert Hall

It has been a while since I last watched a CityCO concert (previous attendance was at "Footprints", if I'm not wrong). This year, the mid-year concert coincides with Father's Day, and so I delayed purchasing my ticket as plans with the extended family were not firmed up. It was not until 3 days before the concert that I was able to confirm my availability (as well as alternative toddler-sitting plans). By then, tickets for the cheapest category were almost all gone, and I was pretty horrified to hear the SISTIC counter lady tell me she could only offer me the first row of stall seats. I was adamant on going (and hubby wasn't), so I bumped up to Cat 2 and got myself a single Circle seat ticket. There went my $49...

It has been a long while since I stepped foot into Victoria Concert Hall as it was renovated. I took the opportunity to arrive earlier and walk around the place. All those memories of the concerts I performed in my teens flooded me. The physical surroundings outside the concert hall and theatre looked cleaner and classier, but still with all the lovely architecture feels. 

Above: The backs of the seats from the former concert hall were re-used in refurbishing the Theatre next door.  The seat numbers were shown on the back. I recall having to peer behind the seat to double-check that we had the correct seat. heehee

Above: Today, a spiral staircase brings the audience to the Circle seats at the 3rd floor. Gone are the two flights of staircases that we sat on to chat in-between rehearsals, eat our packed lunches/dinners/snacks, or just to hang out. 😞

All photos are my own. 

My selfie stick purchase

Finally got down to buying a selfie stick (from qoo10). The purchase came in via normal mail safe and sound, and looked sturdy.

I made the mistake of opening the package in front of YX, and so she was bugging me for it the next few days once she saw it.

Here are some pictures taken by her.

Home Bakes - Hershey's Perfect Choc Chip Cookies

My niece wanted to prepare some cookies to gift her school CCA seniors, and so we tried a recipe taken off hershey's website.

We experimented with the size stated in the instructions ("rounded teaspoons" of dough) as well as the easier-but-larger size using my small ice cream scoop.

Verdict (which I could predict anyway): the smaller cookies tended to be more crisp, and larger ones had softer centres. At least that was the case on the actual day of baking. We will have to wait a few days to see if the flavour and texture changes after some days of storage.

Our first SEA Games experience

YX was getting excited about SEA Games after her childcare arranged for them to attend one of the tennis matches (held at Kallang Tennis Centre) on Tue, 9 June 2015.

Thus I searched around and decided to bring her (& my nieces/nephews) to the Singapore Sports Hub today when there were non-ticketed events (Athletics) going on.

We boarded a direct bus from home (196) and alighted at the People's Association bus stop along Nicoll Highway before walking towards the #SeaGamesCarnival.

It was pretty sunny whilst we roamed around the carnival areas. As usual, it took quite a while (and many, many prods) to get YX interested and brave enough to attempt some of the simple games at the carnival.

She enjoyed the 'Pool Soccer' and 'Hockey Golf' games best. While we were waiting for the older children to queue and complete their games, I half-cajoled, half-dragged her to the other end of the carnival to look at the "Rocky Mountain", Art & Craft, and "Giant Slide" games. She managed to obtain 5 stamps on her carnival card to happily receive her redemption items and a lucky draw chance.

It was then time for lunch before we explored the rest of the public areas. The sports hub library was quite crowded with carnival-goers, mainly families and students. The projector screen was showing the Men's water polo match and so we sat down and relaxed to watch while the heavens opened and poured rain for a while.

The hubby and eldest niece went shopping for SEA Games T-shirts, and we watched a skipping-rope competition before we decided to leave. Hubby had to go home pick the car and I was to bring the children back to my parents' place, where we have our weekly dinner gathering.

On the way back to the bus stop, we passed by the National Stadium again and decided to spend some time watching the ongoing Athletics. YX was clearly excited from the experience, this being her first time in an actual sports stadium, watching live sports events.

Above: YX and my nieces and nephews, when we were waiting in queue to get into the National Stadium.
Below: Just before we left the Stadium for home.

Above: The SEA Games participating nations flags and the SEA Games cauldron, against the Tanjong Rhu backdrop.

Family birthday-JS's cake - Disney princesses

I was put off preparing buttercream and/or fondant cakes for a while as my family was not too keen on the taste and high butter/sugar content of these decorations. But as I re-started my baking habit in May, I started to hanker after those beautifully decorated cakes again. I remembered that I had once bought a set of plastic Disney princess 3D cake toppers at YX's insistence some years back, only to realise that I had not put that expensive purchase to good use yet.

My niece (JS) birthday was coming up soon in mid June, so I whatsapped my sister to ask what the little gal preferred. Apparently her current favourites were Frozen, Ben and Holly, Peppa Pig. I had made a Peppa Pig cake before, and JS would be having a Frozen-themed cake for celebrations in her childcare, so I decided to use the 3D cake toppers and try my hand at fondant again.

I baked the sponge cake layers using a sponge cake premix (the Prima brand 'Optima' flour) on Tuesday. On Wed, I whipped up half a batch of Mousselline Buttercream (recipe from 'The Cake Bible') to fill and cover the sponge layers. I was deciding between this and the sweeter / more-likely-to-crust normal buttercream, and eventually decided on this as the temperatures were soaring these days (34 deg Celsius in the afternoons when I'm doing baking/ decorating). I remembered that fondant cakes weren't supposed to be refrigerated so I needed an icing that could hold up at room temperature.

(Top: baked 2 pieces of 8x5inch sponge cakes.

Bottom: I wanted a square cake, so I split one of the cakes and joined together. 

And filled and frosted together)

***

COVERING WITH FONDANT

(Top: sides of cake covered with store-bought white fondant. Top of cake covered with green fondant which I coloured using Wilton's gel -blue and yellow. Looks like I need to work on joining the seams, which I had hurriedly pinched together while the buttercream was 'melting' underneath

Bottom: Green buttercream leaves to cover the ugly seams)

***

ADDING FLOWERS AND "TREES"

With the "defective" areas settled, it was time to add the frills. I placed the toppers and estimated the space that would be available for the other 'garden/flower' decorations.