Happy Father's Day, Awesome Dads!

Is it just me or does Father's Day seem more low-key than Mother's Day? It is a pity, because it seems to suggest that Mums are more valued than Dads.

But that really shouldn't be the case, because Daddies are important. They matter. And we sure do need them as much as we need our Mums. 

Well, this year, I decided that I couldn't let Father's Day go without celebrating some of the awesome Dads that I know so I roped in some of my Mummy friends to help with a little Instagram tribute on @foxfashionsg. I asked them to contribute a picture corresponding to the photo prompt: "My Dad is an Awesome ______________." My amazing friends responded so well that I had more pictures than I was able to use. So I've decided to post the full list here instead. Here are our (or rather our kids') awesome Dads:

@missustay: My Dad is an Awesome Hugger!

@scissorspaperstoneblog: My Dad is an Awesome Encourager. 

@fanyin_ih: My Dad is an Awesome Sandcastle-Builder.

@olimomok: My Dad is an Awesome Superhero Dad!

@mummydelphine: My Dad is an Awesome Multi-tasker.

@mylollipopdays: My Dad is an Awesome Buddy.

 

@p2me1a: My Dad is an Awesome Storyteller.

@littlebluebottle: My Dad is an Awesome Acrobat!

@adollopofme: My Dad is an Awesome Car Washer

@aisakuraharuka: My Dad is an Awesome source of Support.

@susankoh: My Dad is an Awesome Ice-Cream Eating Companion!

@dottiedotz: My Dad is an Awesome Art Teacher.

@june_yong: My Dad is an Awesome Troubleshooter.

(There, I really felt like putting exclamations at the end of every one of those but felt it might be a bit much.)

And then there's our own Dad, the Daddy who is the an awesome Lego-builder (and supplier) and an awesome dance partner, who is the best playmate, tells the best stories, makes his children laugh with wild abandon. The one who is always up for a tickling match, reads countless books, and lets his children rummage through his awesome Lego collection (under highly supervised conditions). The one who is the firm disciplinarian, who leads family worship, who is the head of our house. the one who points us to Christ.

We had a rather low-key (yes, gasp, I did say low-key) Father's Day celebration as the husband strongly requested that I not make a big song and dance of it. So there were Father's Day greetings, and there was Nando's for lunch and his favourite Chicken Macaroni for dinner. He got to take a nice long uninterrupted nap and otherwise spent the whole day doing lots of fathering. It was just what he wanted.

(If your Dad is less low-key than ours, and if you're looking for ideas to celebrate Father's Day, here are some suggestions. In fact, you don't have to use them only on Father's Day -- use them to celebrate your Dad any day!)

Happy Father's Day to all you awesome Dads! We are blessed to have you.

Doing the Tarzan Thing at Forest Adventure

I think the first time I got to try out a rope course was probably at Outward Bound School during my secondary school days. Noey on the other hand got the chance to pretend to be Tarzan last weekend at the ripe ol' age of 5 (and a half) when he attended his friend's birthday party at Forest Adventure.

(Kids birthday parties are so awesome these days, aren't they??)

Forest Adventure has been on my radar for a while so I was very excited to have the opportunity to check it out. This is a tree top adventure course situated inside Bedok Reservoir Park and comprise of a Grand Course for adults and a Kids Course for children. The Kids Course, which we were there to attempt that day is specially designed for children aged 5 to 10 years and has a minimum height requirement of 1.1m. It has 16 crossings and finishes off with a zip line (which was everyone's favourite part!).

When Noey first got the invite to the party, I thought he might be a bit a bit nervous about participating, so I showed him some pictures which I found on the website to familiarise him with what was expected. He seemed eager and unfazed, which I took to be a good sign.  

He arrived at Forrest Adventure in high spirits and he and his friends all quickly got in line to get strapped up before they set off. Each kid got a harness and a helmet, and they were shown how the attach themselves to the safety line. And with that, they were off! I was a bit taken aback since I thought there would be more of a safety briefing, but I guess they were securely attached to the lines and there were instructors up the trees who were ready to help out where necessary, so they were pretty safe.

It was a bit scary for me to see him up up there on his own, about 3m off the ground, and I was definitely waiting for him to freeze up or panic, but whaddya know? He totally relished it! Guess it helps that he doesn't have Mummy's fear of heights. Instead, he gamely progressed through each stage, and waited patiently behind some of his friends at times when he was held up. The obstacles were not always easy and there were some which were suspended, so they were wobbly and it did freak some of the kids out. I was really proud of my little adventurer!

After al the climbing and crossing, the zipline at the end was a sweet reward.

He enjoyed the zipline experience so much that he went up again for a repeat round just so he could come down again. 

Satisfied smile upon completing the course!

He got a certificate of achievement for completing, which I thought was a nice touch.

It as a really great experience and I think I might have to bring him again some time, and maybe I'll attempt the Grand Course myself? We'll have to see about that! 

Forest Adventure
825 Bedok Reservoir Road (inside Bedok Reservoir Park)
Singapore 479244
Tel: 8100 7420 (general information and individual bookings) | 81007421 (corporate and school groups)
Web: www.forestadventure.com.sg

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Ben & Jerry's Free Cone Day 2014

Free Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream! That certainly got my attention.

Free Cone Day has been a Ben & Jerry's tradition since 1979, a day when the ice-cream chain thanks its loyal customers for their support over the past year by dishing out free ice-cream to all! I think it's a nice gesture with the added bonus that it's great for PR! 

I've missed the event year after year, always realising at the last minute that it was D-Day. But this time! This time I had rather providentially walked past the the promotional poster at Great World City just the week before. I made a mental note of the date, then hatched a plan with our swim mates to head over for free ice-cream after our swim session on 8 April. We picked Dempsey, thinking that it's more inaccessible location might mean smaller crowds in the middle of the afternoon.

Well, the crowd wasn't small. There were loads of students! But the queue was very well managed and there was a carnival-like atmosphere around which made the whole process more palatable. Instead of holding the event at their store, Ben & Jerry's had wisely set up shop in the open carpark behind their store, so there was plenty of space for the snacking queue, and more stations for the scoopies who were busy dishing out ice-cream. There were also plenty of helpers getting folks to pose with props and being around to ensure that the queue was kept moving. Thumbs up on a well-run event! 

We made it to Free Cone Day!

That's me, the 1st year Cone Newbie. They handed out stickers to everyone, from 1st year Cone Newbies to 2nd Year Scoop Rockers, up to 6th year Moo Masters and 8th year Resident Gurus!  

Donation boxes were strategically placed to collect donations for Ben & Jerry's charity partner, The Children's Charities Association of Singapore. 

We stood in line for about half an hour before we got to the front of the queue. In that time, we had plenty of time to contemplate the all important question of which flavour we were going to get. I was pleasantly surprised to see that pretty much the full menu of scoop shop flavours were made available, though the the downside to going later in the day was that about half of the flavours had run out. They were out of New York Superfudge Chunk (my favourite flavour!!) and in fact, all chocolate-based flavours like Chocolate Therapy, Phish Food and Chocolate Fudge Brownie. In the end, I opted for their newest flavour Couch Potato, a vanilla ice-cream with a salty caramel swirl and chocolate covered potato chip clusters. It was surprisingly good! The kids wolfed down their English Toffee Crunch and Strawberry.

Friendly scoopies serving up our ice-cream

The little miss is well-pleased.

Even little B got in on the action, with a cone AND ice-cream in a cup!

It was a nice afternoon treat. Maybe I'll be back for my 2nd year next year! 

Soaking In The Festivities at Chinatown

Just last year, I started what I hope to be a tradition of bringing the kids to go soak up the atmosphere at Chinatown in the run-up to Chinese New Year.

It's not actually somewhere which I'm familiar with, Chinatown. My parents were not the sort of frequent the place. Or at least, if they did go, they rarely did bring me along. But I think as I've grown older, I've certainly become more nostalgic about my roots. I find myself more interested in customs and traditions and more keen to participate in them. And when it comes to the Chinese New Year, certainly Chinatown is where it's at.

Be warned: it's crowded and the stalls holders do not take too kindly to kids messing around for too long. That said, the kids still managed to have fun. It certainly helps to go with friends and that's what we did. It was a little crazy with three adults to five children. Tiring, but good fun.

Little adventurers, ready for action!

Having snacks while we checked out the stalls. I packed a little snack bag of chocolate wafer rolls for each of the kids and they chowed them down real quick! I was really tempted to buy a smaller version of one of those lion heads in the background and start my own little lion dance troupe at home...

The 5-year olds!

All 5 kids together, and almost all looking at the camera!

The two littles compare snacks.

Inspecting the 瓜子 and sneaking a few when no one is looking! This girl loves 瓜子!

All busy checking out the wares. This was a nice stall holder who entertained them for quite a while before he got worried that they were going to topple the bags of gunny sacks and all the food in them onto the ground.

Their favourite shop by far -- toys! Esp these Lego-lookalike superhero figurines, which were selling at the great price of $5 for 2. DD's actually seen these before selling for more, so he asked me to buy the whole set, 8 figurines in all. All the boys ended up getting one each too.

The "Decool" Superheroes. In addition to these five, there is Hawkeye, Superman and General Zod. An… interesting mix.

I ended up buying a mishmash of items home: Sparklers for the kids, Taiwanese jellies, the Decool Superheroes, and my favourite Chinese New Year decoration -- a red paper cutting.

Chinatown is also where I got this cute family portrait cutting last year. You pick the figures and they cut the names out on the spot. Amazing. What they cut is actually nicer than what I would write by hand. Hah. I've toted this out again for this year and I love how it immediately adds to the Chinese New Year Mood.

We rounded off the outing with a quick porridge and dim sum dinner at Tak Po. The dim sum wasn't bad but what I really enjoyed was the porridge. I shared a chicken porridge with Meips (foregoing my usual over of century egg porridge) and was surprised at how large the bowl was. There was plenty of chicken too. DD ordered the frogs legs and said it was delish. The prices were reasonable too. For 4 adults and 5 kids, the bill came up to only $60, with drinks all round, including a bottle of beer! We didn't manage to go eat Snow Ice at Mei Heong Yuen Dessert, which incidentally is the only thing that Noey seems to remember from last year's visit. Next time hopefully!

NDP 2013 in the Park

This National Day we did something a little different and stepped out of the house to catch the fireworks and aerial display. 

If you know my husband, you'd know that he's EXTREMELY crowd-adverse, so going out there to jostle with everyone else is not his idea of a good time. But our friends suggested a picnic at a nice spot and I guess the hubby decided that it was worth the risk. 

It worked out really well and everyone had a great time. There was good food, good company, and space for the children to play. And a good view to boot.

Picnic! Our eclectic mix of pizza, nuggets, popcorn chicken, otak and chicken rice. Quite representative of Singapore, I think!

Our base camp.

Happy faces!

Here comes the flag!

The bomb burst. One of my favourite moments. 

In the lull periods, the kids scooted and played among themselves.

The only downside was missing the actual parade. I have a soft spot for the parade and had originally intended to bring along our iPad to stream the parade live but simply forgot when the time came to leave. We therefore didn't realise that the Red Lions' performance had been cancelled and kept wondering why they didn't show up! Hah. I guess I'll just have to catch the repeat telecast when they screen it.

Watching fireworks live though is still the best -- and indeed only -- way to see them. I didn't take any photos of the fireworks aside from a couple for remembrance because I really wanted to soak in the moment. And besides, I'm sure there were a ton better fireworks shots from others! The kids were completely mesmerised, maybe none more than Meips. "Colourful bubbles!" she exclaimed and when they ended, she kept directing me back to our spot and asking for more. "I want more fireworks!" she demanded. The older kids were busy identifying what they could see in the sparkles. There were hearts and stars and golden showers, though Noey's declaration that he saw a "Saturn shape!" was probably one of the more amusing ones. (My son is such a geek, I tell you!)

The dramatic segments aside, I think I one of the things I enjoyed best was to be out there, soaking in the atmosphere. All around us were local families and groups of youths, mostly dressed in festive red, some even with the moon and stars too. They were picnicking, blading, biking, walking their dogs, listening to music, and taking group jump shots. There was a carnival-like vibe in the air, which I thought was apt, given that we were celebrating a birthday after all. So while a Ritz staycation is probably still my favourite way to catch the show, this certainly wasn't bad at all.

And with that, we celebrate another year of our nation's independence.

Like many of others I know, I've got my gripes about this place. About the overly materialistic society that exalts the wrong values. About the fast pace of development that increasingly isolates with its need to tear down and re-build. And especially about the competitive and stressful education system that doesn't allow kids the time to grow at their own pace and, well, just be kids. As a young university student, I had dreamt of venturing out. Leaving this place to work, and maybe to live. For 2 or 3 years, maybe even longer. But the husband had other plans and since my future was tied to his, here I have remained.

I don't know if we'd ever move, but I do know that even if we do, this here, Singapore, will always be home. It is where we grew up, got married, had our babies. It is part of our history in a way that is not possible to erase. And there are the things I love too: the safe streets, the super efficient public services, the melting pot of cultures in one space, the fact that you can get access to world-class acts in music, theatre, and film on a regular basis, and of course, the absolutely irreplaceable array of the best food ever.

This is home, truly. Happy 48th Birthday Singapore. 

 

London 2013: Jamie's Italian, Reading

So the big news is that Jamie Italian's Singapore branch opens tomorrow!

Ok, so it's only big news if you're a fan girl, which I must confess that I am. I've been a fan since the first time I watched The Naked Chef in a friend's room in the hall in UK. It was how he made cooking seem so… easy. Jamie Oliver taught me to cook, and I've never looked back.

Needless to say, I was quite excited to try a couple of his restaurants when in London in May/June this year. We celebrated my birthday at Barbecoa, and then for our last meal, we tucked in at Jamie's Italian's in Reading.

I thought it might be fun to show you some pics of Jamie's Italian in Reading on this day, to whet your appetite for the new local branch. 

It was quite a cool restaurant, in a stand-alone location over the water, but I didn't take any pics of that. All you get is the door. Oops.

A word from the man!

There's branding everywhere. You can buy these napkins too, and pretty much all the servingware they use. I expressed some incredulity at the commercialism, only to be told that people were stealing the napkins from the restaurant, so yeah.

The bar. Alas, the drinks aren't ours.

The eye-catching main counter with it's huge slabs of cured meat all hanging in a row. Mmm.

Meips, impressed with the Stokke Tripp Trapp. Definitely one of the classiest high chair options we've ever been offered at a restaurant.
(DD just rolled his eyes when I pointed it out!)

Now, what shall we order?

Our food! Here's a close-up of the Meat Plank.

Definitely got Noey's stamp of approval.

Crab & Avocado Bruschetta. Good but disappointingly smaller than expected. (Our friends had ordered the bruschettas on previous occasions and the portion was larger.) 

Crab Spaghettini. DD's order. Delicious with sweet crab.

Sausage Rigatoni, which was a special for the night, in a starter portion for Noey. I thought it tasted really good and full of flavour, but it was a bit spicy for Noey's liking. A bit on a boo-boo on my part to have forgotten to check the spiciness level of the dish before ordering!

Me and my Seafood Bucatini. They have this on the SIngapore menu! I loved the sauce though it was spicier than I anticipated, and the yummy fresh seafood. Wasn't so much a fan of the tubular spaghetti though. Would have preferred regular spaghetti, which I'm going to ask for if I order this in the Singapore restaurant.

The messy mouth says it all! Meips had a starter portion of the Sausage Pappardelle, which is also on the Singapore menu, and she really LOVED it. This one was a good one!

Happy faces all round, with our dear Aunty D!

It was a good meal, albeit a rather pricey one. Such was eating out in UK. How would the local Jamie's Italian measure up? You can bet I'll be going down to find out.