maplehue, welcome back! wah - you're still feasting on hari raya goodies arh .. i have thrown most of mine away except for the choccies, leave that as rewards for sofi if she's been good ... hahahah.
yah i know la, i'm still working on it .. hehehehe .. i bought sofi a barbie but she's only interested in my dolls at the moment, and if i take mine out to change their costumes, that's when she'll ask for her barbie. in the meantime i have expanded my collection too .. hahahah ..
did you get the bag? i must admit that i haven't had the time or money to lust after LV bags since starting my doll collection (hahahaha) .. my colleague just passed me the catalog for Chanel's new season collection and this one has the prices so it was kind of nice to be able to drool over the bags and shoes .. hahahah .. not the prices though ..
de_luxe, yah she's been with us on the last two trips to sweden. it's always nice to have another person to baby-sit the kids so me and elias can go out for late supper, etc. when we were in denmark in 2007, she wasn't feeling well and stayed at the hotel with sofi so we took the opportunity to go to museum erotica .. hahahah, i don't think my mom would have wanted to go to a museum dedicated to x-rated stuff .. hahaha.
yah, cebu was our first trip without the kids .. i don't know if i can handle going away without them again .. hahaha .. which is weird because they've stayed for days at my parents' place and i was ok with that. i think i just missed them loads that time cos a lot of families brought their kids at that resort - so made me think of them being in sg and us being there .. boo hoo!
my mom didn't really show her excitement when i got pregnant the first time, much less the second time since she was already a grandmother then .. but my MIL was super excited cos first grandchild. they were joking that we had one kid with us when we went back to sweden in 2007, two kids in 2008 so maybe we would have child no. 3 the next time we go back up .. we're like no thanks!
julia, even a void deck wedding will cost some cos you still need to factor in rental for space and use of power, water, any damages later on .. plus the decor and food .. i did mine at void deck too ..
it's ok to have the solemnisation ceremony at your rented place .. i did mine at the last rented apartment since that was where me and the husband were setting up home.
i find the environment at ROMM a bit impersonal but that's just me .. doing the ceremony at a mosque is quite the fashion now, a lot of couples are opting for this instead.
glympse, i don't know if he's just saying this but elias has told me, and quite recently at that when we were talking about moving back, that he didn't feel like sweden is his home anymore .. he said that each time we've been back, it just feels like a vacation, something foreign - same feeling that he had the first few times he was in sg for hols. i find it hard to believe that over 20+ years living there could be eradicated in a matter of a few years living here but he insisted that it was true and he felt no particular attachment, except for his family and friends, to the city or country.
my doll collection is coming along nicely. i've managed to obtain another 4 girls so now i have 6 in total .. hahaha .. the other day we were at paragon and came across some jewellery boxes shaped like couches and chairs, so bought those cos they were the right size to use as props. elias also got me a portable light box to use when taking photos of the dolls - he's not really helping, is he .. in curbing my fascination? hahaha ..
emi, thanks girl .. i managed to find some Hi-5 books here for Sofi and she was sooo thrilled to get them as birthday pressies. her father's gift has been relegated to the bottom of the toy box - she even gave it to Elin, as soon as she's managed to take the entire wrapping off. even Elin was more interested in the box than the gift itself - poor Elias.
val, i'm still here .. i think of all the sg brides here, i'm the only one who have stayed put .. hahahah .. some of us have met up before and yes, would be nice to organise something.
Mrs N, re: the cot death, i don't know why but i kept checking on Sofi cos i was so worried that she might stop breathing during the night .. it's irrational but i just couldn't help feeling that way .. it only stopped when she was around one year old. with elin, i did it for a while until she's capable of pushing the blanket away, etc ..
Hej to you,
Elizabeth. How have you been - busy with your work?
chrisl, not yet .. we were in orchard road last weekend and some of the christmas decorations are up and lit up already. elias thinks it's waaaaay too earlier to start getting in the mood for christmas .. we're only putting our tree up maybe the week before the actual day.
hahahah - he doesn't miss the snow cos at the last apartment, he was the designated snow shovelling person for the walkway. hahahaha .. since he lives in the ground floor apartment of the building at the back, they designated him to shovel the snow and grit off the walkway. he wasn't too happy about that cos it can be back-breaking work .. plus last winter, he was going back to the hotel when it started raining so he wasn't pleased with having very cold, hard rain drops splashing on his face. he even called me to tell him that he's in much 'pain' and can't wait to get back to sg .. hahahaha ..
as usual, the menu is slowly expanding to more items and is going to get out of control if i don't put a stop to it .. hahahah .. i think i'm just going to do the usual meatballs with gravy, potato gratin, pickled herring (bought from ikea), beetroot and red cabbage salad. i might do poached salmon as well if i have the time. elias has asked his mom to send some brown beans and he's going to attempt to make saffron buns again (the last two years have been failures). also my family didn't really like the non-alcoholic glogg i made so it's not making a comeback this year. oh joy - more work in the kitchen for me!
Guess I'd better start stocking up on red date tea and ginger tea! 
Emil and I were saying that if we set up a ban mian stall in Sweden in winter, it's sure to be popular 
