Guess what?!

P: We're pregnant! Instead of calling everybody, we're posting the news online. "Dumpling" (made in Prague) is 13 weeks old and 6.5cm long. Sandy is well and thankfully she's hasn't suffered any morning sickness. Sandy did stop eating meat for two months but that was probably a result of styling and photographing 25 roast turkeys, 15 legs of ham and various other animals for a local supermaket chain's Christmas catalogue. Luckily that three-week shoot is over so she's taking small amounts of meat again ... but only in Asian dishes, no more Western-style Christmas ham or turkey for a while!

We're both so excited and are devouring baby books. Luckily we have Holly and Nel in England and Katrina and Steve downstairs to turn to for advice since they both recently gave birth. Below is the 12-week scan:

Oom-pah

P: Still in 'bier und wurst' mode after my recent trip to Germany, I went in search of teutonic sausage and stumbled upon an Oktoberfest party in Singapore! Two thousand people packed into an Erdinger-sponsored marquee on Merchant Road. The beer girls may not have been quite as buxom as their Bavarian counterparts but the weißbier was flowing just as fast. Also out were the lederhosen and Bavarian drinking songs ... we had to suffer 80s disco numbers. A big thank you to Suqi for emailing me the photos.

Chongqing mala steamboat

P: I woke up at 12pm today (it's a Sunday) and by 12.30 I was sitting in Chongqing Mala Steamboat Restaurant in Tanglin Shopping Centre. I'm not convinced super hot and spicy steamboat is a good idea for breakfast. We joined Yeo and Shannon ...



and Eric and Ling and kids ...



Enoki mushrooms, prawns, prawn balls, chicken balls, cuttlefish balls, fish balls, fish glue, beancurd skin, tofu, four types of veggie, dumplings, tanghoon noodles, tripe and twenty small plates of beef and lamb later, we could hardly walk. No dinner for us tonight.

Ich bin ein Frankfurter

P: I've just returned from ten days in Frankfurt, Germany, where I was exhibiting at a trade fair. I'm always so busy at the fair that I don't have time to eat well. That's my excuse anyway. This year I survived on: 2 kebabs, 8 frankfurters with bread, and 12 salami and camembert sandwiches.

A typical dinner/lunch/breakfast of beer, bread, frankfurters and a sparrow:

Katrina's birthday

P: Katrina and Steve threw another great party yesterday. We started in the garden but were forced inside when it began to rain. Dinner was a delicious Greek moussaka with garlic bread, pasta salad and green salad ... and a fantastic raspberry and chocolate mousse cake baked by Vicky. Greek coffee and Ouzo was the perfect way to round off the meal.

Mum & Dad's 40th wedding anniversary

P: Sandy and I flew back to England for Mum and Dad's 40th wedding anniversary. We were 60+ for lunch at Baxter Farm. Unfortunately the weather was pretty nasty but it was fantastic to see everybody again. And so many kids!!

Mum and Dad:



James and Fi's youngest daughter Anna ...



and their eldest Rosie:



Sandy and I:



Nel, Granny Faith, Mum and Dad, Holly:



Joe and I:



Holly chatting to Nikki, Granny Tatham on the far left:



Leela and Granny Faith:



Me, Nel, Faith and Dad:



Peter:



Joe and his daughter Libby:



Holly and a little mole:



Holly, Nel and baby Oscar:



Anna again:



Obviously Rosie and Anna are the photogenic ones:



Queen Victoria and Marion:



Mick:



Mel and Archie:



Tilly:



Dessert table:



Bob and Leela:



Dinner in the conservatory:



Faith with great-grandson Oscar:

Lifer

P: On Saturday, Sandy and I joined a loooong queue of fellow immigrants looking to apply for, or in our case renew, Singapore permanent residency. We've been here for five years now and our PR is about to expire. After three hours of sodukoing, pulling funny faces at unsuspecting babies and counting just how many hairclips a mainland Chinese girl can employ to pull her hair back, our number finally flashed on the screen and we presented ourselves to the immigration official. Not five minutes later we had a stamp for another 10 years each! It pains me think back to those post-university days working in Malaysia without an employment pass or any form of security and making endless visa runs to Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia. Now we're here for another 10 years! Jeez, I'll be 31 and Sandy 28 when we next need pay immigration a visit. Not.

Sichuan hot & sour soup

P: Sandy was complaining she hadn't eaten Chinese for a week and felt like eating something sour so I thought I'd try cooking Sichuan hot and sour soup. I decided against a seafood or meat version and opted for vegetarian instead. Monkey head mushrooms are pretty meaty and to these I added regular Chinese dried mushrooms, wood ear fungus and bamboo shoots. The actual soup is really just stock (turkey stock in my case; made from leftover turkeys from Sandy's Christmas catalogue shoot), black vinegar, soy, sugar, salt, white pepper, chilli oil and Sichuan pepper. And some spring onions and sesame oil added at the end of cooking. It took a lot of tweaking to get the right balance of ingredients but the end result wasn't too bad. Not quite up to Min Jiang restaurant standard but OK for a first attempt. We ate the soup with stirfried chilli chicken and stirfried baby kailan.

Our fridge is full to exploding. Sandy's been shooting Christmas catalogues for a local supermarket chain so we have turkeys, turkey steaks, roast chickens, whole hams, cheeses and fruit cakes coming out of our ears. Luckily downstairs has taken some turkey, ham, chicken and cheese. Sandy's other colleagues have also taken food back, as have the supermarket staff. They obviously can't resell this produce so at least it is being eaten and not chucked as often happens. I'm going to be taking ham or roast chicken sandwiches to the office for another month.

Chilli crab

S: While Phil was in Manila on business, my two sisters came to visit and we pigged out as usual. Here we are eating chilli crab in Geylang ...

Snoring

S: my nephew's the one on the left, husband on the right ...

DIY man

S: Phil is getting better at DIY! Putting up the curtains he only chopped off one finger. Amazingly the curtains are still up after two weeks; his shelves lasted ten days before falling down.

Food @ Baxter Farm

P: I love eating at Baxter Farm! Delicious food, perfect setting, service can be a bit slack. Roast lamb (from the village) with homemade redcurrant chilli jelly and roasted beetroot for dinner in the conservatory ...











Pork pie for lunch under the pear tree ...











It's back inside with Great Great Great Uncle Amos for beouf Bourgignon and bread dumplings smuggled in from Prague ...











And when there are sixty for lunch, it's into the barn with the ducks ...