Singapore Zoo (Part 4)

This a a 'must go' place everytime we're in Singapore. The zoo :-). So this time no exception. Singapore zoo is a great place, very child friendly and clean. We can easily spend more than half a day here looking at animals, playing at the water park area and just chilling out.

S$5 per bowl of carrots (about 5 carrots)

Singapore Flyer (Part 3)

Papa took Hayley to Singapore Flyer on a Friday when I was at work. Again the entrance fee is not cheap, adult is S$29.50 and kid (3 and above) is S$20.65. The entire circle took about 30 mins (according to papa). After the flyer they walked to Marina Bay.

Universal Studios (Part 2)

During our Singapore trip, one of the day was spent at USS. The USS trip was a year end event organised by my company for the staff and therefore my ticket is paid for, Hayley is under 4 so it's free and we paid for papa's. The ticket is not cheap though, S$72 per adult and because we bought more than 30 tickets at a go, they gave us corporate discounts. Guess how much? S$4 wor....sigh....

Anyway, just wanted to say the place is great, kids and adults will love it. Lots of rides, lots of places to spend money and lots of entertainment along the street. We went on a Saturday so it was a bit crowded and queues for rides were slightly long (2 hours for Transformers). Other than the Transformers and The Mummy ride, the rest of the rides are suitable for kids (some requires adult supervision).

I'll let the photos do all the talking :-)

Steven Spielberg introducing his movies and special effects (Jurassic park, ET)

We're waiting for the hurricane. When it finally hit, it was quite real and interesting with wind, water, fire and even a ship crashing into us effect.

The ultimate ride in 3D, this ride is SUPER cool

Hayley's ride

Waterworld show, another great entertainment

Watching Shrek in 4D, we got spat at by the donkey and even have spiders

climbing up our legs.. so darn real

Waiting for her roller coaster, although it was considered a mild one to most people, I was still scared when it was over but she said 'mom, this was fun!'....

Shrek and Fiona dating

Singapore trip (Part 1)

This year my company decided to organise a family day out at USS and a year end party at a restaurant in Sentosa Boardwalk. So off we go again to Singapore in December 2011. Our first time (the 3 of us) to Singapore was back in Dec 2009. This time Zac was left at the babysitter's for a couple of days cause we didn't want to stress him out as we know we'll be out the whole day :(. Reni was left at my aunty's.

As the airfare for the 3 of us in Dec was quite expensive, we decided to drive. The journey took us about 4 hours and with the help of a GPS, we managed to find our way in Singapore pretty easily.

At Vivo City

Kids dressed as elves at our company's year end dinner party (Hayley and Minyu)

Some rich man's car

On the way back, we stopped by at JPO. Some of the stuff at JPO were much cheaper than in Singapore. So many people were seen queuing at the Coach outlet (insane). There are still plenty of shops not opened and even that the place is already pretty crowded.

More photos on the places we visited in Singapore in the next few posts, USS, Singapore Zoo and Singapore Flyer. So enjoy :)

Peer pressure

I am feeling the pressure.

Most of my friends have started sending their kids who are about the same age as Hayley to piano classes, ballet classes, music classes, arts classes, swimming lessons and whatever classes you can find out there and they asked me if I have or if I am going to send my girl to any.

My girl is turning 4 in Feb and the pressure is intensifying. One part of me wanted to send her to these classes so she's on par with the other kids her age, spend less time in front of the TV and teaches her about discipline and responsibilities but the other part of me is asking ME a lot of questions. Does she really need these classes at such young age? Why do I want to give in to these peer pressures and get my already hectic weekend even more hectic having to chauffeur her between classes? Will she be less smart, less cool or less intelligent if she is not attending any of these classes? I don't have the answers.

I guess there is no harm in keeping her occupied with something she is keen on rather than have her at home with her eyes glued to the tv all the time. But at 3+, what would suit her? I've tried to observe her to see if she's good at anything specific so I can continue to hone those skills but the only thing she is good at from my observation is 'talking'! She can really talk and makes you shake your head in disbelief all the time!

I asked her a couple of times if she wants to learn piano, she said yes. Then I asked her if she wants to learn dancing and she said yes. I asked her again if she wants swimming, she said she can swim. I asked her again to pick a favourite and she said 'mmm... I want dancing, I want piano, I want swimming'. How la like that?! Oh her teachers did say she love to dance. Of course she love to dance, she's my kid, got my genes la! :-)

So I tried to list down a couple of the most common ones:-

1. Ballet? Nah, she's too boyish for that. Ballet needs poise and discipline and she's got none of those.
2. Piano? This is a maybe but definitely not now. We are hoping to bring papa's piano out from hometown and when the piano is here (whenever that will be), then we can consider this.
3. Arts? She's still too playful for things that requires focus and attention. The teacher mentioned to me during the report card day that she has improved a lot overall but it is still quite tough to get her to finish something that requires concentration and focus. She gets distracted easily as always and you really need to sit next to her and instruct her to finish what she started.
4. Dancing? Hip hop or breakdance might suit her but what's the benefit? She often dances in front of the TV at home anyway.
5. Swimming? That's an idea but where can I find swimming schools? Both papa and I can't swim so we need her to know how to swim :-)

What did you all plan out for your kids? What would you recommend for a an active talkative kid like mine? Care to share with me?

Swiss Garden Kuantan

This is actually a long outstanding post. Its been almost a month since our trip to Kuantan was from 25 - 27 July. Anyway, I have been busy at work and at home (too tired to do anything at home) and didn't have time to sort out the photos.

Anyway, not going to elaborate much here (maybe just a little bit la in case some of you are keen to go) but instead will let the photos do most of the story telling :-)

This is the view of the pool, the beach and the coffee house taken from the lobby.

The lobby, the place looks a little dark as it was taken late afternoon on a rainy day. But the newly refurbished lobby is really nice. Very cosy and welcoming.

Hayley love taking photos with the trishaw, and of course her papa

A shot of us taken by Hayley

Her favourite ie playing sand and catching crabs

At the fruit farm, eat all you can (seasoned fruits only) paid for by the hotel. The tour is for 2 hours and includes transport. We only managed to eat rambutans (Hayley asked 'how come got hair one?') and of course durians. We experienced picking up the durians from the ground and then the orchard owner will open it for us. He will also pick up a couple from various trees to let us try the different types. They were delicious! Unfortunately Hayley didn't like it. She also enjoyed following the goats we saw at the farm.

More time at the beach on the 2nd day. Papa is going to kill me for exposing his 5 months belly. At certain angle, his looks bigger than mine.. hahaha

Her second favourite place ie the swimming pool. We spent most of our time either on the beach or at the pool or in the bath tub in the room.

Of course we dropped by the turtle sanctuary. It was hot and therefore we didn't stay for too long. We arrived around 1.45pm and was told that the place is closed from 1 - 2pm (lunch time probably). So we waited and snapped some photos instead at the beach nearby.

Lastly, a family photo taken at the entrance of Club Med where the beach and the sand are so much nicer. This beach is just next to the turtle sanctuary. Unfortunately we are not allowed to pop into Club Med so we only stopped for a while to snap some photos before heading home. And yes I do look very fat in the photos... I blame it on the angle and the wind blowing my hair away from my face :-(.

Here are some general comments on the hotel, food etc for those who may be keen to visit:

The hotel and the room

As you can see, I didn't take any photos of the room because it wasn't at all impressive. We booked the garden view room as per the promo package but instead we've got the car park view room. I requested for a room closest to the lift so I don't have to walk too much but ended up getting a room in the middle so I still had to do some walking to the lifts. The furnishing in the room were old and I didn't have any mood at all to snap photos (yes bad).

But I do like the lobby and the pool area. They have an adult's pool, a children's pool and a jacuzzi which unfortunately was out of order the 3 days we were there.

The check in was also quite disappointing as when we arrived there were 3 staff on duty and 2 families checking in/out and I am not sure why I still had to wait almost 20 mins to be attended to. As for the staff, most of them are not very friendly. We had to wait for 10 mins before someone (and that is after us calling many times) came to attend to us at the coffee house.

The food

On the first day when we arrived, we were too lazy to go out for food. So we had hi-tea at the hotel. The price was RM28nett per person and the food I would say was quite ok - acceptable la. We also had dinner on the 1st day at the Blossom Chinese restaurant that comes with the package. The menu were pre-selected so as expected it was nothing fancy and definitely nothing to shout about. We got 3 dishes (chicken, beancurd and vege) with 1 soup, a fruit platter and chinese tea.

On the 2nd day, we had lunch in town at one of the regular kopitiam. As for dinner, we got slaughtered at the Beserah Seafood restaurant. We ordered a steam fish (can't remember what fish), a spinach soup, fu yong egg and 2 drinks and the bill came up to RM70! So please do not go to that seafood restaurant unless you want to get slaughtered! But I have to say that the fish was really good and tasty :-)

On the 3rd day, we checked out and went straight to the turtle sanctuary. On the way back we stopped by at another Seafood restuarant located at the entrance of Legend Cherating and we ordered venison, vege, seafood fried rice and drinks and it cost us less than RM40. The price is very reasonable and the price list is displayed in the menu. So definitely no hanky panky here.

We also bought some prawn and fish crackers back for families, colleagues and neighbours.

The trip

I would say Hayley enjoyed the trip the most. She was so happy throughout the whole trip. It makes us happy to see her so happy. She kept telling us that she wanted to play sand, go to the beach and sea after we got back. She was also a darling throughout the whole journey of 5 hours (2.5 hrs each way). Although she didn't nap on the way to Kuantan, she didn't really fuss at all and remained seated in her car seat, although occasionally we need to entertain her. On the way back, she slept for 2 hrs :-).

Papa on the other hand complained about the driving. He finally admits that he was getting old and driving for 2.5 hours non stop was too taxing for him. I guess he was just tired as he didn't really sleep well both nights as we shared a king bed and 'Hayley the terror' who slept in the middle terrorised us both during the night with her kung fu kicks and punches.

To summarise it all, it was definitely a simple but memorable trip for us as it will be our last trip as a family of 3!