Relaxing in Singapore

We have enjoyed the busy city part of Singapore for the last two days, so on Tuesday we spent the entire day walking around the condo where we stayed during our stay there.

Matthew's friend Stefan has an awesome condo. It has a fantastic view and a wonderful breeze all day long. No need to use an aircon plus no mosquitos!





In the morning we put both of our boys in the buggy and went to the East Coast Park which is the biggest park in Singapore, and built almost entirely on reclaimed land. It only took us 10min to get there!

We had to go down this underpass to get to the park. Oliver was pretty excited!



Nice walk through the trees:



The park path just kept on going - the total area of the park is 185 hectares!!



You can hire mountain bikes, tandem bikes and even these family bikes.



There were waterski facilities too:



The beach boy Oliver loved playing on the beach.



Luca enjoyed coolish outdoor air too.





We enjoyed the walk so much - we walked for almost 2 hours! We had to stop for some ice cream:





In the evening we went to the pool in the condo.



Oliver made some friends and had a ball swimming or I should say jumping into the pool endlessly.



We had dinner with some of Matthew's friends and families. It was very casual and relaxing. But my legs were so stiff from all the walking we did in the morning.

Christmas lights

I didn't give up on shopping even though we were so tired from our IKEA excursion. On Monday night we went to Orchard Road to see some Christmas lights and Christmas shopping! It was such a lovely feeling to be in a city with FULL ON Christmas spirit. Gorgeous decorations everywhere, Christmas carols were played and you can buy what you are looking for! Lovely...









We accidentally ended up in this little Christmas market. There were so many cute Santas and reindeers:





I found this guy in the market - this years addition to the Roses Christmas decorations : )



To finish up the evening we had dinner looking at these wonderful Christmas lights - it tasted extra yummy! Oh I love Christmas! I am so glad we came on holiday to Singapore at this special time of the year.

IKEA on Sunday

Yes... I should have listened to my husband's advice - not to go to IKEA on Sundays. But I had to make sure we can fit that in while we were in Singapore. So off we went on a catastrophic shopping excursion.

There were of course so so many people there and having to push a buggy and keep track of a toddler who wants to jump on everything was a bad idea.

I only wanted to see their new Christmas range so it didn't take too long to go around in the end but when it came to grab a table to have some lunch and coffee - what a disaster :( (Lucky there were so many people around they couldn't really hear our screaming children... and me)



These lights looked very warm and Christmasy - I bought one each for the boys rooms.



A good thing was I didn't buy anything extra (as I usually do) so the shopping bill wasn't too bad!

Trip to Singapore

It has been so long since we got on a plane and went on a holiday. Maybe since July we haven't been anywhere!? It has been too long!

So on Sunday we all got on the plane to check out Singapore. I don't think Oliver has been to Singapore to have a holiday there yet, and of course it was the first time for Luca.

Oliver was extra excited to be going on the plane. It is so nice now that he enjoys pulling his own bag and walks by himself!



Safely got to Singapore:





I haven't seen Terminal 3 so we took the skytrain to check it out. Oliver was so impressed with the train rides as you can imagine : )



We had some dim sum lunch at the terminal and took a taxi to Matthew's friend's place on the East Coast. Yeah! Roses are on holiday!

Washoku demonstration

To increase awareness in Japanese culture in Brunei a special event was organised by embassy of Japan. It was Washoku (Japanese food) lectures and demonstration.

The entrance was nicely decorated with some Origami crafts:







Some of the ladies were dressed in traditional Japanese outfits:



Yoshimi and Me!



Shirubi and Yoshimi;



I was supposed to be in one of these outfits but didn't have enough time to put them on, maybe next time...

Ms Fujita, who has been teaching how to cook Japanese food for over 20 years was invited. We learned the history of sushi and the emphasis of seasons on Japanese cooking. I didn't know Sushi was originally from South East Asia, and not actually from Japan. She also explained some of the traditional celebrations we have in Japan by showing us what sort of food we eat and why and how we celebrate them. Again I learned lots of new things!



Demonstration began:





Very nicely presented: (which is very important in Japanese cooking you know)



We got to taste a plate of nice sushi at the end of the lecture too : )

It was unique event and I hope there will be more coming. I love my culture and it is a great feeling that people are interested and enthusiastic about learning more about Japan!

Bring and Buy event

Phew! It sure was a lot of work but I really enjoyed being an organiser for this event. It started a few weeks back by getting "sellers" who would like to "bring" their clothes, shoes, bags and kids clothes etc to our event. Boel and I received more than 1300 items from over 20 sellers. We were happy there were so many sellers until... we started to sort them out.

It seemed to be an endless job when we catalogued each item by giving it a unique code and attaching colour coordinated price tags. My hand was getting really sore by the end of it from stapling them!

After that huge job we had to hang all the clothes on the hangers and organise the racks by types - evening dresses, casual tops, jeans, skirts etc etc. (You were wondering why I haven't updated my blog for a while right? Yeah, this was a big job!)

This is how it looked after all the hard work we put into it! - Our little boutique!









It was a great success! We had lots of happy "customers" who went home with smiles and the "sellers" made some money : )
Some of the unsold stuff went to a charity which was a nice way to close up the event!

Brrooom Brrooom

On Saturday we were invited to Oliver's little classmate Lucas's 3rd birthday party. It was held at the Jerudong Polo Club swimming pool. The pool side was decorated with lots of Cars balloons. Oliver was so excited!! (It is one of his obsessions at the moment)

Upon arrival we received a party bag (I actually thought this was a very good idea, you don't need to get busy running around at the end of the party!) and inside the bag there were some sweet treats and a water pistol that he could use straight away! What a fab idea!

Cutest party bag



Ready to hit the pool!





Unfortunately halfway though the party it started to rain very heavily so we had to come out of the pool.

Time for AWESOME birthday cake. Oliver just couldn't believe it!





Happy Birthday Lucas!



Each child got a Car each, how cool is that!?



Oliver chose Finn McMissile:



I am so glad Oliver made it to the party to celebrate with Lucas after the rough week he had. Happy birthday Lucas!!

I love you Luca

No doubt - they will be best friends!

Already Sunday again?!

Just a full on week for me and my boys. Matthew is away at the moment. It is so typical something goes wrong when he is away... As I mentioned on the last blog post I got piggy and ate so many donuts at the Empire. When we got home we went to simpang Sunday pizza (this time it was home made and extra yummy) I knew I couldn't possibly eat any more but greedy me couldn't resist the nice looking pizza and had a few pieces. I even ended up getting some to take away too. (What is wrong with me? I hope it's breast feeding, not my appetite...)

Anyway I wasn't planning to eat the few extra takeaway pieces but I thought they won't be as nice tomorrow so better eat them up. So I cleaned up another plate that night.

Well... it turned out to be the biggest mistake. On Monday morning at Zumba I was just feeling this food in my tummy and didn't do well at all. I couldn't eat anything until 5 in the evening... Plus I think my body couldn't process that amount of sugar and food as I got 24 hour flu symptoms. I spent all day in bed and most of the next day being so weak. I cannot believe there is such thing as "donuts&pizza flu".

I was still feeling very tired on Tuesday night. It's so funny when something is going wrong, it can still get worse! Oliver came to my bed around 2am in the morning covered in puke. He must have gotten sick while he was asleep then the uncomfortableness woke him up. He didn't seem sick or anything but was very confused to have a shower at 2 in the morning and get his hair washed.

I kept him at home on Wednesday but he seemed fine and didn't come down with anything. But at night time he got a super high temperature complaining his cheek was sore - yes his molars are coming out! Poor little man was so hot and couldn't move... So that was all night Wednesday and all Thursday gone for me.

Finally on Friday things got better, Oliver went to school and I got busy setting up our "Boutique" with Boel (I can blog about this next week when it opens!)

In the weekend we had two kids birthday parties. Busy busy busy! Before I could sit down and enjoy some TV it's already Sunday night. Some blogging and get ready for a night feed.

The good thing is that when you have a very bad week, next week always feels so much better. Bring it on!

Donut High Tea

I love these special themed High Teas at the Empire. This month it was "Donuts" Same as last time we enjoyed all you can eat donuts until we felt sick (I truly ate way too many, shouldn't go to these buffets when you are hungry... I ended up in bed on Monday from eating too much, couldn't eat anything until 5 in the evening!!).



Oliver got into it before we even got to our table. While I was checking the seating with the staff he was holding this first one. Of course it was a pink one, his favourite colour!





Luca was impressed by the range of the donuts too, there were so many sweet ones but also savoury ones too.







There were even "make your own" donuts too. Here is the chocolate fountain station. They also had make your own ice cream sandwich donuts!




This is my first plate of donuts. You won't believe how many more I had after this... (It was a pity they didn't have this promotion when you were over here last month Corin. I am sure you would have enjoyed it so much!)