Visiting Vivo City

R on the roof of Vivo City

I wrote before about how the parks here are mostly empty, even during peak weekend hours. But that doesn't mean that all the Singaporeans are at home: they are all at the mall!

Malls are a huge part of life here, the prime place for family outings, dates, hanging out with friends, and people watching. They combine Singapore's two great loves, food and shopping, with air conditioning and a high level of cleanliness, and this seems to be an unbeatable combination. Not surprisingly the island is covered with malls of all sizes and price levels, from the luxury palaces on Orchard Road to the bargain bin chaos of Little India.

Most malls are very child friendly, with easy stroller access, changing rooms, and even nursing rooms in the larger places. They also usually include free playgrounds or play areas. The largest mall in Singapore is pretty close to our house and features both an outdoor playground and a wading pool on the roof (which is of course chlorinated and filtered, because this is Singapore!). It's a fun outing for R and I, even if I dislike malls on principle.

Copying the other kids

Usually we then go out for German food at Brotzeit, which is a Singapore-based Bavarian chain. Despite being mostly German ethnically, B does not like the food (he thinks it's too heavy) but I am a big fan (sausage+sauerkraut yum!). R always gets french fries, one of her favorite foods, and thus is happy to go with me.

French fries are serious business

My lunch

Brotzeit's decor scheme is kind of cool

It's often full of hip professionals (at least by Singaporean standards), since they are famous for their beer selection:
 but being Singapore, children are more than welcome too

Little R Goes to the Mall

Yesterday I took little R to the mall to buy new shoes. After I bought her a pair of ergonomic imported Spanish leather shoes (I know, what a waste of money; but I am a nervous first-time mother) and some baby flip flops (so she can fit in with the other Singaporean babies), we went to the mall's roof.

There they have a really nice playground, complete with water fountains for the kids to play in. Little R had so much fun playing with the water jets. She got totally soaked, but didn't care (luckily I had brought another change of clothes).

I had a good time too, because there was a Starbucks right next to the playground. While she was running around sopping wet, I sat in the shade and drank my java chip frappucino. It was a win-win: I think we will be back!

I Have a New Camera

Contemplating how to break the camera

So last week little R broke my camera while we were at the park, by managing to pry the lens cap open (it was off at the time) and then getting sand lodged within, along with scratching the lens. Oops. I guess giving your electronics to a toddler is not a good idea.

Rifling through the diaper bag

Today I bought a new camera and I love it. It's just a point and shoot, which is good since I don't know how to use any of the manual settings anyway. Now I can take pictures of Singapore and little R again, except because the camera is better, my photos might look a little nicer.

Little R isn't allowed to play with the camera anymore though: this is what she has to say about that.

B Is Back from Japan!

B got in from Tokyo late last night (at about 2 am). I was very happy to see him: I missed him and was also a little bit tired of taking care of little R without any breaks for 4 days straight, especially while trying to unpack and organize all our worldly possessions. He had a fairly good time at the conference, and was reminded anew of how much he likes Japan. I hope that we can visit again soon on a family vacation: R will be too small to care for quite some time yet, but I would love to see the Japanese alps, Nara and Kyoto again, and stay again in a traditional ryokan. And there are many attractions that we didn't have time for before, including Hiroshima and the Itsukushima shrine.

B returned home bearing gifts. I got several pairs of tabi (split toe) socks featuring rabbits and shochu (sweet potato) liquor housed in a statue of a tanuki (magical raccoon dog animal known for drunkenness), and little R got a summer yukata. She looks adorable in it, and now I have another reason to visit Japan: to buy her a new wardrobe!

Mexican Food in Singapore, and Shopping

Tonight B, little R and I went out for Mexican food. I was rather surprised that they even had Mexican food in Singapore, although I guess I shouldn't be: we've eaten Mexican food in Shanghai, Tokyo and Taipei too, and honestly Singapore is a lot more cosmopolitan than two of those places.

We went to Margarita's,which is not only a Mexican restaurant but is also quite near our apartment. The food was really good (beats the other Asian contenders most definitely) and pretty authentic, though not perfect (they put red onions in my taco salad, which seems a little odd). The chips and salsa were quite good, but the best thing was my margarita, which was really excellent. It also cost $16 sgd, but what can you do?

The restaurant was not quite what I expected, though, because it was really fancy/expensive. We got one dish and one drink each, and one appetizer to split, and the bill was about $70. I felt a little bit bad about taking little R there, since all the other diners were paying such high prices and thus probably wanted a quiet dinner. But the restaurant did have a supply of high chairs available, and the servers were all excited to see her (one even insisted on holding her for 5 minutes), so it's probably OK. I love that Singapore is so child friendly. I don't think that taking a six-month-old to an expensive restaurant in the US would win me any friends.

After dinner, we walked to Clementi Mall, which was packed, I suppose because shopping is what most Singaporeans do for fun. They say it's the national sport (funny because Chinese people are so completely unathletic). B wants to buy another new computer (electronic equipment is basically the only thing he ever wants to buy), this one to be paid for by his work. In order to have them foot the bill, he must get 3 quotes, so we shopped around while he tried to figure which would be best (he did not decide yet, unsurprisingly since he is so careful and cautious when making decisions, much to my impatient self's chagrin). Then we took a taxi home.

I do not enjoy buying electronic equipment (though I love using it). What I really want to splurge on is clothes, accessories and shoes. However, it is difficult to enjoy shopping with little R in tow. (I also wanted to wait until I lost some more weight before spending much on clothes. Maybe this is dumb though, and I should just buy some outfits now to make myself feel pretty.) I need a babysitter for this reason alone, so that I can spend money quicker!

I am planning to go shopping when we are in the US, since I know my parents will be delighted to babysit little R. I must think about what I want to buy, so that I can have a wardrobe, not just a bunch of disconnected items that don't match (really the current situation). I recently joined Pinterest, and will dedicate some time to coming up with ideas there. So exciting! Thanks B for making a good salary!