It's a long weekend, since the 27th October is the Deepavali day, a public holiday in Singapore and Malaysia for our fellow Indians to celebrate the light festival.
Having a boring weekend at home? Of course not! Mama has got the long weeekend all planned out a long time ago - grandaunt (mama's mama's sister) and her family will be visiting us in Singapore, all the way from the Cameron Highland (where Mama lived for her first 7-8 years of life!). Mama, Baba and I were proudly to be the host, and tried to make their visit to Singapore as enjoyable as possible.
And so we embarked on the Great Singapore Tour, especially catered from the Poon [Yi-Po, Yi-Gong, 2 Yi-yi (CS and CW), 1 Xiao Jiu-jiu (CT), 1 Jie-jie (jiu-jiu's gf, SA)], the Seng (Gonggong, Popo and Jiu-Jiu), and the Kam (papa, mama and I) families!!! Oopss, don't know if Mama should consider herself as the Seng or Kam family?!?!?!!! Can it be half-half :-)
Day 1 - 25th October 2008 (Saturday)
The Poon family arrived near the noon time. We picked up CT and SA from the train station at JB, while Jiu-jiu picked up the rest from the Changi Airport. All of us met up at the Bugis Junction, where our tour began.
One thing Mama has to mention here is the 25th October 2008 marks the day when baby Hao Re took the MRT for the very first time. He got very excited! Very playful during the ride, not only playing with us, but he tried to engage other passagers to play with him also, and kept looking around (for beautiful girl?). Stranger anxiety? Haha, that still hasn't happened on Hao Re so far! As it's a long journey (from Yew Tee to Bugis), we could barely keep him entertained..... luckily we arrived the destination before he got really bored (wanted to crawl on the floor!).
After having lunch, we proceeded to the famous "Kuan-Yin" temple. After making the offering, we continued to China Town, as there is really nothing much to see/to do (not that I know of) in Bugis, except shopping, which was not of our interest.
First went to the "Wan Fo" temple, the newest temple in town. It's interesting to see the glamorous of it, esp with the all gold buddha with gold flooring guarded 24 hours by the police, and the roof top garden is pretty nice, grandma loved the orchid! Walked around the China Town (again, really nothing much to see), made a quick stop at the Indian temple, and we were ready for dinner. Went to the "Lan Zhou" noodle house for their "la mian", really not bad, and some "xiao long bao", etc. Hope the Poons enjoyed it.
As this was the first day, shouldn't make them too tired. So we called it a day! It's the first time their visit our new home, Baba, Mama and Hao Re were happy that they have visitors for the very first time! The 2 Jiu-jiu went to play basketball for >1 hour! These 2 Jiu-jiu were good childhood friends due to their close age gap, and it's been a long time since they last met and to play basketball together. The rest just rested at home, watching tv, chatting, etc.
Oh, how about baby Hao Re? Hao Re behaves extremely well thoroughout the whole day. Really. If you don't see it, you won't believe what a good boy he is! He just followed wherever we went, air-con or without air-con, hot or cold, crowded or quiet, never got cranky, happy to play with anyone, happy to be carried with anyone, ate/drank whenever it's his feeding time, when we were eating, we gave him a little bit of our food for him to try, he happily ate it, and let us have our meal peacefully. Of course, except that he was a bit over-excited, with so many people to play with, and so many new things to see, his eyes rolled here and there non-stop! He was smiling/laughing the whole day. When reached home, he was still very excited, continued to play, and only went to bed at about 10.30pm (by the way, he went to bed later than his usual 9pm since grandparents were here last week.......). I think he really enjoyed the day a lot. Mama really proud of you!
Day 2 - 26th October 2008 (Sunday)
Everyone was behaving well. No need to rush them to wake up. All woke up "automatically" before 8.30am (the two jiu-jiu being the latest to wake up.......). Hao Re woke up at his usual 7.30am, Baba bathed him and we were ready for our 2nd day of adventure!
First for the day was a walk at part of the Orchard Road, from the Somerset to the Orchard station. Don't think the Orchard Road is interesting to the elderly, but because it's so famous as a tourist destination, we have to bring them there, just to have a browse through to see what Orchard is all about (though I was not sure if this is the right way to show Orchard Road). Had lunch at the Food Republic at the Wisma Atria, mainly for the very nice fried Hokkien prawn noodle. Yummy!
The afternoon program was to go on a Singapore River tour. Got on at Clarke Quay, and got off at the Merlion Park. Took photos with the Merlion, as usual, as this is the most iconic feature of the Republic of Singapore. We couldn't miss this, could we?
Then, went back to have a rest. As we have night program - the Night Safari! We are very brave parents, to bring a 9 months old baby to Night Safari :-) We chose Night Safari rather than the Zoo, because for the former, there is a nice tram ride, with very good tour guide, to go round to park. This way, the elderly don't have to walk. And for Yi-Po and Yi-Gong who are living at Cameron Highlands, don't think they would like to go under the hot sun! Plus that animals are more active at night, than those sleepy ones in the Zoo. Saw the Night Creature Show, not impressive at all, a lot of talking, very little action from the animals (just like to show in the zoo, had gone from good to bad, see previous entry http://babyhaore.blogspot.com/2008/09/two-first-this-weekend-cinema-zoo.html#links).
It's a long day. Reached home at about 10.30pm.
Notes on Hao Re - again, very very well behave today! Nap very little, but hey, that didn't bother anyone as he never got cranky! As long as Hao Re has enough energy to play/explore/see/laugh/babble...... really doesn't matter if he skipped 1 nap or 2 :-) Total napping time for the whole was about 1.5 hours. Eating as usual, but he became very interested in adult food.
Day 3 - 27th October 2008 (Monday)
It's an exciting day! We were going to FLY!!! Today, the whole bunch of people, including Hao Re, woke up a little bit later, haha, getting tired already...... And Jiu-Jiu was down with fever, and so couldn't join us. CS Yi-yi also has vomitted many times last night (due to food poisoning?), but luckily she recovered and continued the tour with us.
Reached to the Singapore Flyer at 11am. I would say it's pretty impressive, even at the ground floor and surrondings, there are lots of greens, and it's clean, and I felt very comfortable, though it's a bit quite. And we were ready for the fly! Well, I would say it's a pretty good experience, and it's worth a try. There are 2 drawbacks, in my eyes - it's not a scenic "flight", esp with the IR construction around, and since I "flew" on the London Eye before, I must say the London experience is much more favorable with many nice buildings around; and the second drawback was that those service crews were not very pleasant, compared to those at the Night Safari. To me, it's very important to have a warm welcome to visitors if you are going to make the place of interest a successful one.
After the "flight", we went to Suntec. To our dissappointment, the Fountain of Wealth is closed for maintenance. It's a big dissappointment esp to Yi-Po and Yi-Gong :-( Had lunch at the "Fei Chui Xiao Chu", made a mistake by ordering the 10-persons set lunch, the portion is far too huge, making it not that mouth-watering, though the taste was okay, as we struggle to finish it off (of course we couldn't no matter how hard we tried)....... should have ordered from the a-la-carte instead. But well, good thing was we have plenty to pack for our dinner :-) Their mango pudding was nice though, so that made a good closing for the big lunch!
Proceeded to Vivo City/Sentosa. When we reached to Sentosa, weather turned bad, started to drizzled. Visited the Images of Singapore (not too bad, but not very good either), and then the Merlion (this one is worse, nothing to see, just went up, took picture and came down, pretty meaningless.....). Went back home after that.
Asked hubby to pack the "Holland Village XO fish noodle" for the Poon family to try, as it's a pretty unique Singapore dish that couldn't be found in Malaysia. Have this with the leftover lunch dishes. I think somehow they enjoyed it, plus the comfy of having the meal at home :-)
Hao Re's behavious today? As you would have guessed, he was again very good boy. Just like the previous 2 days. But think he was a bit tired and didn't manage to stay up late. He knocked off at 9.30pm, together with Baba, who was also exhausted after driving and taking care of the 4 elderly the whole day, poor Baba!
Day 4 - 28th October 2008 (Tuesday)
It's the day to say bye-bye :-(
Baba didn't apply for leave and so went to work as usual. Jiu-jiu was still recovering from the fever so was on MC. Mama took leave so that could send the Poon family to the airport, and to accompany Hao Re at home for a day. Mama thought Hao Re might get over-excited over the 3 days and would be very difficult for his teachers to handle. So Mama stayed at home for 1 day to help Hao Re to "cool down", before returning to his routine.
Sent the Poon family to airport and they left Singapore on the 11.30am flight! Goodbye, and Hao Re will see them again next year, during the Chinese New Year.
When Mama was not at home, Hao Re was willing to "cooperate" with grandma, and willingly to eat/drink/sleep, without any fuss. BUT, when Mama arrived home from the airport, this baby was so smart, he knows how to get Mama attention - he refused to be fed by grandma, and only wanted Mama to pat him to sleep! What a clever boy!
Think Hao Re now understands grandma is someone he can trust, after grandma staying with us for 1 week. And now I am more relax, as I know Baba and grandma will be able to handle Hao Re when Mama was away for the business trip about 2 weeks later.
Hao Re is such an easy-to-take care baby - play/eat/sleep anywhere, anytime, with anyone, anyhow, doesn't cry, doesn't get cranky....... We are really blessed to have baby Hao Re. Hao Re, you are such a good and lovely boy, Mama and Baba are very proud of you!