Fun @ Indoor Playground 11 September, 2011
Posted by dear1dear2 in Baby, Dear2, Learning Training, Sports & Health.1 comment so far
Indoor playgrounds are great places for our little ones. Apart from having a safe (aka soft) avenue for them to learn motor skills through play, climb, run arounds, they are also a great place to learn the first socialisation skills through interaction with other kids. Mummy loves to bring Baby1 to indoor playgrounds!
So far, we’ve only been to three of such. KidsAmaze at Jurong Safra seems to be the largest with the tallest playground with multiple storeys (really!!), but for our 19-month old, this seem to be kinda advance for her yet. We’ve heard of SingKids at Vivocity and T3, but at $18/hr per adult on weekends, it seems a bit extravagant…. There’s also one at (Orchid?) Country Club, but the pictures I’ve seen doesn’t seem very impressive with just 1 tiny ball area.
Let’s talk about those 3 that we’ve been to.
First, parking is free, so plus plus plus points. It’s free entry for kids under 1 year old, and $8 whole day for our 19-month old. Adults go in free, yeah. Among the 3 that we have visited, Fidgets is the largest, with 3/ 4 separate areas including 1 small corner for babies under 12 month. The play area for the older kids is very large, ample space for kids except when the kids are ‘released’ from whatever birthday party they were attending in the function rooms. During this time, you’ve better stay away from the play area until these rowdy bigger children return to their parties.
Go Go Bambini @ Dempsey
Again, parking is free at Dempsey, so horray. $6 for our little ones, and free for us parents. The interior however was very disappointing. First, the staff did not even ask if we want to sanitize our hands. No sanitization for us means none for other parents and kids there too. Hmm… This scores minus points at first impression. Then upon passing the gate, we were unsure if we need to change into socks already.. There were visible shoe prints on the floor, but the play area is just next to it!! Eeks, I don’t want to talk about how someone can walk (shoe or sock, I don’t know) into the toilet which is just round the corner, then go back into the play area.
On the play area, it’s really kinda small and low, and it gets even worse when the kids are released from their party. For a while, we were happily enjoying the exclusiveness to us (it was just us one family there on that Saturday late afternoon), but we had to scramble down to safety when the tods come scrambling up. It was a nightmare to even recall it.
Peekaboo @ Kallang Leisure Park
No free parking at the stadium area, so we put coupons every hourly because we don’t know how long Baby1 will enjoy the place. At $10 per entry, it seems expensive for a play area slightly bigger than that at Go Go Bambini. But despite it’s squeeze, the main playground is fun! Ample of balls in the balls area – that’s what I will really call a Balls Area. There’s even lots of rockers, and a mini slide and a mini swing, a tod-size sink/oven area, and a mini house, all so suitable for our little one. Yeah, truly, until Baby1 reaches 2 when she’s more mobile and confident in running around on her own, big playgrounds and slides don’t attract her as much as these little ones.
Next up, I’ll want to bring Baby1 to Polliwogs at East Coast Park. The parking at ECP is usually horrible at the most popular area where the playground is located, so we’ll see how it goes when we are there.
Have fun!
- Dear2
Pasta @ Olivevine, Suntec 10 September, 2011
Posted by dear1dear2 in Dear2, Food & Beverages.add a comment
Dear1 and Dear2 had pasta at OliveVine – Pasta Fusion at Suntec over the Comex weekend, and in my humble opinion, the pasta is nice!!
We ordered a grilled fish with cream pasta at $8.90, and a chicken cutlet in spicy spaghetti, topped up $4 to add a large glass of iced lemon tea, a soup and a dessert of the day (which turns out to be warm carrot cake). Both the pasta were fantastic!!
On the cream pasta first. Lots of cream sauce, and 3 slices of grilled fish. A very hearty presentation all for just $8.90, not a bad deal at all.
The second dish was even more awesome. The fried chicken cutlet was of a decent big size, served with a generous serving of the spaghetti. What I loved most about the pasta was it’s spicy taste and the spaghetti strands cooked just to the right softness, exactly how I like my pasta, yummy!
No GST or service charge (though you have to place your orders at the counter yourself), located at the Roof Garden on level 3, I will definitely come back for seconds if not for the expensive parking at Suntec. Not to mention the crowds here too, what a pity.
- Dear2
Korea 2011 – Musings 2 September, 2011
Posted by dear1dear2 in Dear2, Travel & Discovery.add a comment
Dear1 and Dear2 have been trying for Baby2 for the past few months, so when Auntie Menses reported again, we decided to take this window of opportunity and go on a holiday. That means we have the next 2 weeks to decide, plan and book the holiday!!
Confirm that we want to go Korea, book the air tickets online, did research on hotels and make the bookings, bought the travel insurance, took out our Korean won and USD which we had changed earlier, and packed our luggages. Scramble to settle stuff at work, email the siblings on our flight and accommodation details, forgot to notify NS status on being out of county, and in 1 week’s time, we were off for our holiday. Kudos to Dear1 for doing all the research on attractions, air tickets and hotel in just 1 week’s time, most of which were very well arranged indeed. :)
We took the overnight flight to Korea, in the hope that Baby1 will sleep throughout the flight there. And since we can ask for early check-in in the hotel, we can go straight to the hotel once we reach Seoul. The flight will touch down around 6+ in the morning, take a 1 hour airport shuttle bus to CALT, and from there, there is a complimentary shuttle to the hotel, very nice. *Perfect arrangement*, except that Baby1 didn’t really sleep all the way through the flight as we have imagined, groan…
Ibis Seoul Ambassador is a very nice business hotel where the staff speaks reasonably good English. There is even a roof top garden though a bit miniature. But it is located right in the middle of 2 subway stations including the one at COEX Mall, both of which at least a 15 mins walk away. By the time I reach the subway station with Baby1 on the Beco, my legs were already tired out. Luckily the taxi rates in Seoul are not expensive, so we use that mode of transport quite frequently.
For food, we ate in a couple of places where the English menu is available, so it was yummy spicy tofu soup, or ox-tail soup with rice, or cold buckwheet noodles, or ramen, or simply just fastfood. The spread of kimchi and preserved vegetables was interesting; I even got used to eating kimchi radish and preserved green chillis. One kind assistant even demonstrated to us how to serve the free flow kimchi from it’s pot, and to season the ox-tail soup with salt. No wonder my first bowl was so tasteless!! Price wise, it’s really not very expensive, compared to Japan. Here, you can have a hearty meal at around 9,000 won, which works out to be about SGD 10. Not very expensive, considering that there’s lots of kimchi (aka vegetables), compared to Japan which is SGD 10 for just a bowl of Ramen.
On shopping, outside the hotel, restaurants and popular markets, most retailers cannot speak English, or probably very little of it. But don’t worry. If words cannot work on the price of an item, the shopkeepers will just show you the amount in real cash. Money transcends all languages, LOL. Dear1 even manage to negotiate down $2 off a pair of Baby1′s shoes at the Myeong Dong market, LOL!
The subway experience is definitely my proudest experience out of this trip. At first glance, it’s really very complicated. The subway grid is real messy with so many lines in various colours. There might be a English name for each station, but with hundreds of them on the map, it’s hard to locate where you are and where you want to go. Many places require that you do transfers too, so you need to decide which station to transfer at. And upon alighting the train, you’d better find the correct directions to led you to the right platform before you even start climbing the stairs up. Oh how interesting!!
Koreans are very fashionable. This summer, it was big black glasses (for both the men and women, some even without the lenses!), and hot shorts for the ladies. The shorts look orbit to me though, big and flair with a cutting that looks like what I wore in the 90′s, yet you can definitely tell that it’s in season now. And every where you go, there’s boundless shops that sell skin care products. Everyone’s fair and well-kept, except for their generally not-so-branded-looking clothes. Probably the Koreans have too many clothes that they need to keep for 4 seasons, so it seems like they don’t really go for branded clothes and shoes (unlike us superficial Singaporeans).
Finally, do be careful when you walk alongside Koreans, cos they don’t really watch where they are walking. True, in fast-paced cities including Tokyo, people tend to walk fast, but Koreans do walk as if they own the roads, bumping into people without so much as a glance. Somewhat like Hong Kong-ers except that Hong Kong is overly crowded for you to walk big.
Korea is pretty baby-friendly too. Though the subway stations deter strollers by all that stairs, you can rent a stroller at most malls, and baby-changing facilities are pretty easy to find too.
It was a nice trip for our family. Though short and tiring, Dear1 and Dear2 definitely had enjoyed ourselves and had fond memories of Seoul.
Till our next trip, let’s keep our fingers crossed that our Baby2-making is heading progress.
- Dear2
Baby1′s First Day in School 1 September, 2011
Posted by dear1dear2 in Baby, Dear2, Learning Training.add a comment
It’s 1 September 2011 today, Teacher’s Day, and it’s Baby1′s first day in school!!
At 6am, Baby1 woke up crying for milk. No choice, gotto drag our sleepy bodies up and make milk for her. After that, it was eyes’ wide open and play until we set off for Granny’s house at 7.30, slightly earlier than our usual timings.
In the car, Baby1 fell asleep while Mummy and Daddy were chatting away. Oh no, will she sleep past the 9 o’clock school time? But no choice again, better let her sleep a bit now rather than have her tired later. 15 mins of cat nap and Baby1 was wide awake again, ready to play. Throughout the whole morning, Mummy and Daddy and Granny keep telling her that she’s going to school today and she’s going to play with many Gor Gor and Jie Jie, hee hee…
At 8.35, Baby1 held onto Mummy and Granny’s hand, with Ye Ye walking behind, and we walked all the way to the school premise. The 2 hours Little Learners Playgroup is located in one of the void deck in the RC, a good 10 mins walk from Granny’s house. For the very first time, Baby1 walked all the way on her own without carrying! Good job, baby!
From afar, we saw a few toddlers in the same yellow and blue uniform. The teachers were still inside preparing the class, so every one was just sitting around. To prep Baby1, Mummy and Granny kept showing her “there’s Jie Jie and Gor Gor, later go play with them”. Ye Ye was seated a little behind the void deck, so during the 10 min wait, Baby1 was running between Ye Ye and Mummy, as well as occasionally leaning over Jie Jie’s bottle to see what she was drinking.
At 9, the teachers, set up 2 small chairs at the door and began distributing thermometers. We had already taken ours at home using the specially-bought forehead thermometer. One by one, the students lined up and the teacher began inspecting their tongues, palms and feet with a torch light. We let most of the students go in first, and Baby1 had her turn next. Oh no, Baby1 started to get frightened when the teacher tried to get her to open her mouth. Oh no, will this begin her tantrum-throwing when everything was so-far-so-good until now? The teacher managed to perform a quick inspection and temperature recording and we were off into the room.
Inside, the Gor Gors and Jie Jies were quietly sitting around the tables and playing among themselves. By now, Baby1 was more interested in playing outside, then being inside the room. Luckily, one slightly older Jie Jie came along and began staring at Baby1, probably because she’s a new face. That helps to warm things up a little and Mummy was frantically ushering her to go play with Jie Jie. Soon after, another bigger Jie Jie with an Apple tag on her shirt came along. She take a badge from the box on the table and pinned it to Baby1′s t-shirt. Surprising, Baby1 didn’t protest at all!
Class was almost about to start by now, but Mummy was still worried, will Baby1 cry later when Mummy and Granny leaves the room? But no sooner than this thought, the teachers started to urge the earlier older Jie Jie to come play with Baby1. Supposedly she is the ‘Monitress’ as we have heard from the teacher. Baby1 was led further into the room to mingle with a group of kids, and we only manage to pick her out as she is the shortest and fairest in class. Seeing that she was nicely mingled with the other students, Mummy and Granny quietly sneaked off and the teacher closed the door to start the class.
Granny decided to hang around since we have to pick Baby1 in an hour’s time. The class usuallylasts from 9 to 11am, but the teacher advised an hour’s lesson for the first few lessons until the students gets more familiar. We went to the nearby Community Centre to blow air con, and when we returned 45 mins later, Ye Ye was still sitting outside the class. Hee hee, Ye Ye was worried that Baby1 will cry in class, so he decided to ‘standby’ outside, sounds to me like typical Daddy Dear1. :p
At 10, the door opened and Baby1 was ready to go home carrying her own bag and a paper fish in her hand. And she seemed happy, not at all crying! Horray, seems that Baby1 had an enjoyable time in school today.
Mummy, Granny and Ye Ye walked Baby1 all the way home, stopping at the playground to play a little while.
It was Baby1′s first day in school, and I am glad that it was a happy one. Tomorrow is Teacher’s Day holiday, the whole of next week is School Holidays, the following Monday is Polling Day off-in-lieu, so it’s gonna be some time until her next lesson. Hope the second and third and subsequent lessons turn out well for Baby1 too. :)
- Dear2
