Cruise - Day 1

We have been waiting for this day for a long time! A family holiday with our lovely friends :)
We put our nice travel clothes on and headed out to the ferry terminal which is located by the VivoCity/Harbourfront train station to Sentosa Island. Oliver was so excited to see his little friend Helen again and going into a big boat.



We got there just before they opened the check in desk. We were allowed to check in between 12-4pm but we decided to check in early so that we don't waste our time queuing up and get to spend a bit of time on board before we leave Singapore port.

Here we are! The Roses all ready to go!



Before getting on board we checked out our cruise ship - SuperStar Virgo



Of course Luca was fully into holiday mode too!



All four kids were fascinated by the ginormous ship in front of them.



Getting onto the ship:



When we got on board we were a little bit shocked to find our our cabin was way smaller than we expected (we didn't choose the balcony room as we thought we would be spending most of the time outside the cabin) maybe next time an extra room and outside view might be good. We didn't want to spend our time in little cabins so off we went to have onboard afternoon tea at the Mediterranean restaurant at the top of the ship.





Before we knew it, it was time to say good bye to Singapore - we were moving!!! We went up to the top deck heliport to enjoy the view:

















We thought an afternoon swim would be a great idea so we all got into swimming togs and got to the pool and guess what!? It started to rain :( We all felt quite cold so jumped into the nice warm jacuzzi. Wonderfully relaxing and the kids had a ball!





We were very disappointed to find out that we couldn't get any free drinks on the ship except when we were dining in the restaurant. When we did the cruise in the Caribbean they had all day drinks and snacks :(

Oh well we still enjoyed our (paid for) coffee and juice by the poolside:

This is what we were up to last week

A Star Cruise!

Visitors from Brunei

Our friends from Brunei, the Brunke family got here yesterday afternoon. It was so nice to see them again and especially seeing Oliver and Helen haven't forgotten and can still recognise each other.

They got to our (temporary) apartment just in time for afternoon tea. Since it was Mina's 1st birthday the day before, we got her a little birthday cake to celebrate - with a candle of course :)





The Brunke family:





Helen checking out the view:



Helen and Luca:



After a little play inside we went over to East Coast Park to get some exercise. We went through the underpass from the condo and rented a family bike (luckily both families could fit on one bike!)



Ready to go!



Despite a little bit of rain we (well done Hans and Matthew) managed to bike around for almost one hour. It was such great fun.

Ironman competition

This big event is currently being held at the ECP.
1.2km swimming, 90km bike ride and 20km of running!



When we went for a walk by the beach we checked out the expo tent. They were selling lots of sports gear and there were some good bargains.



The place is all set for the big event - here is the Shimano bike servicing tent.



The finish line - When we were there last night Oliver and Matthew went through it together. Oliver was pretty happy :)



We didn't make it to the park to see but we were lucky to view bits of the event from our balcony.





I was just amazed to see the number of people who were participating in the event. We are into exercise and fitness but it is just a bit too much for Matthew and I to train for...

Back in Singapore

Yes we are traveling again! We are going on a 4 day cruise to Penang and Phuket from this Sunday out of Singapore, so time to leave Japan for a while (we will be back in early April for a big family gathering).

I am getting used to travelling alone with my two boys but my lovely husband kindly booked us on a Singapore Airlines flight so that I don't need to do any transiting :) We haven't done a long flight for a long time so I had to make sure they were tired before we got on the plane.

I accidentally found this wonderful facility at the terminal in KIX. The boys were so happy and our waiting time for boarding disappeared painlessly and very quickly.







On the way out Oliver got a little gift from the place - cute origami watch :)



Traveling on a legacy airline was a great idea. All the cabin crew were so helpful and caring. Oliver was entertained by kids movies and even got kiddy size headphones. And the best part was this huge kiddy meal yum yum!





Luca was asleep for a reasonable amount of time so I enjoyed my lunch and watched a movie. I am so used to doing short flights so 7 hours was a bit too long. But we are back in Singapore at "daddy's house" and we will have lots of fun in the coming few weeks. We will have lots of catch ups with our Brunei friends :) Cannot wait!

Shinkansen lunch

We went out for shopping with my little sister Shinobu and her brand new baby Rua the other day. Before hitting all the shops we sat down and had lunch.

Oliver knew what he wanted straight away! Shinkansen kiddy lunch set.



And it came with a free fire engine toy (photo taken by Oliver).

Venus and Jupiter

I am impressed with myself finally adapting to the life without an amah (and no husband and a sick baby...) !! and still had a chance to read up something online today. Something special happening in the sky.

This week on Monday and Tuesday Venus and Jupiter apparently appear just 3 degrees apart. I could see them very close each other but without the moon like this article.

Can you see them in my iphone photo?

Biking doggy

Oliver is so impressed dogs in Japan can ride a bike!





This is one of the cell phone company SoftBank's famous dogs. He is supposed to be part of a human family and speaks Japanese. You can see this ad on youtube.

Shinkansen

Oliver is so overwhelmed by the fact that he can see trains every day as my parents live right next to the train station. Here is Oliver watching one of his favourite shinkansen- Haruka (he cannot say Haruka he says "Hakaka" - very cute).

He loves watching them so close but complains they are "too noisy!"

Finally...

Phew finally I am sitting in front of my computer. The last three weeks were the busiest, craziest times we have had as a family. We managed to pack up our well-loved Brunei house and fly over to the freezing Japanese winter (Matthew is in Singapore, working).

There were lots of things happening during the last few days of our Brunei time and of course since we got here to Osaka. I didn't realise I haven't been back here for almost one year!

Unfortunately three of us got a bad flu as soon as we got here and are only now getting back to our normal state. Oliver has been missing his Brunei house and his friends. Poor little man is so confused... It is taking him a long time to settle and feel at home.

I have lots and lots to blog about. Photos make things easier to look back and see what happened in the last few weeks. I will see how much I can blog about while Luca is asleep and Oliver is happy playing with his cousins :)

I will backdate the posts according to the dates.

(I am not sure what I will call my blog as we left Brunei and we are no longer Brunei Roses... Any suggestions?)

More strawberries

We are so lucky with strawberries this visit. This time we get to eat ginormous ones!
Almost the same size as toy cars:



So biiiiiggg!



Yummy!

Strawberry picking

My sister Mako called me early this morning to see if we are interested in going strawberry picking - Yes Please!!



We had a one hour time limit and they told us which lanes we can go to in. I've never been to one in Japan and this was my first time to see this special harvesting style. The fruit were set up at eye height, so it was very easy to pick - how cool is that!





Oliver was so impressed he was surrounded by his favourite fruit:



Hinata was so good helping him out:





Oliver was very specific which one to pick:



There was a place for you to sit down and you can get cakes and ice creams etc to make your special strawberry dessert. We sort of picked a little too many... (But of course I ate them all!!)







I hope we get to go with Matthew next time. It was such a fun afternoon.