The Bub in the Belly

On Friday evening, I joined a group of mummies for dinner at Hanabi. With the end of Chinese New Year, it was time for some non-Chinese food! There were 13 of us, and we ate and chatted non-stop. We discuss the same topics everytime we meet up: children, husbands and sex (making more babies) - hahaha! Well, I guess parenthood brings so many unique experiences, no matter if you have one child or five, so there's always something "new" to talk about.

On Saturday, we brought Ryan for PlayClub. They had Parents' Chats this week. This is our third Parents' Chats and we really didn't have anything to ask. As usual, the class photo was taken after the chats, so that was the only thing we were interested in!

Class photo - we are standing in the middle (my mum is standing next to me, wearing red)

It's Friday and the weekend is almost here! I still remember last weekend - it was a series of meals strung together by Ryan's classes. It started on Friday evening, when we met up with some of Richard's colleagues and ex-colleagues for a steamboat dinner at 7th Storey Restaurant at Wilkie Edge. We thought that we might have to leave a little earlier but Ryan was really well-behaved and towards the end, he just fell asleep in my arms, so we managed to last till the end, when everyone parted ways.

The next day before Ryan's Playclub, we met up with Kenny, Belinda and their son, Matthias, for lunch at Lao Beijing in Tiong Bahru Plaza. We ordered the set lunch from the tasting menu. It was for four but the portions were so generous that we had to ask for two of the courses to be doggy-bagged. Great value for money, haha! Dinner was Chinese fare at Taste Paradise in Ion Orchard. Ryan polished off a bowl of fried rice, so I think it's safe to say that he approved of the food there.

On Sunday after Ryan's swimming class, we had brunch at Beach Road Prawn Noodle at East Coast Road. I had the prawn noodle and Richard (and Ryan) had the pork rib noodle plus we ordered some ngoh hiang and other fried stuff. Yum. After Shichida class, dinner was a simple affair at Crystal Jade Kitchen at Great World City. Again, we met up with Kenny, Belinda and their son, Matthias and again, we ordered the set menu for four. This time, the portions were just nice.

Lately on weekends, we have adopted a new practice - we have been loitering! Late at night, after the shops have closed, the three of us will loiter along Orchard Road. There is no target destination or aim, we simply meander along, stroll up and down, enjoying the cool night air. It started when late one night, Ryan was still full of energy and so we decided to let him burn it off - we took him out to Borders (Borders closes at midnight on Fridays and Saturdays) and after Borders closed, we let him walk up and down the street until he was ready to go home.

It's almost like going to a park. The area is quite brightly lit. The pedestrian streets are wide and spacious and there are lots of plants and trees (not as many as in a park of course). There were also quite a lot of people milling about, some loitering like us and others on their way somewhere. I like it. In the day, people are rushing from one mall to the next and Orchard Road is all business. At night, the people are different, they don't have things to do, places to be, they just want to chill and relax. Somehow, it's more personal.

Here's a video of Ryan outside Far East Shopping Centre (next to Borders), burning off his calories by going up and down the stairs, and up and down the stairs, and up and down the stairs (he claps his hands after each rotation). We have to accompany him on his stair climbing (we take turns) and it was not funny because he did it more than 20 times!

More calorie-busting activity for the boys!


Here are some photos taken on a different night. This time we were loitering outside Ion Orchard after it had closed.


More stairs!

There was a large crowd gathered on the steps outside Ion Orchard, they were listening to two Filipino buskers - the lady was singing and the man was playing the keyboard. Some people even got up to dance. It was so wonderful - it didn't matter whether a businessman sat next to a domestic helper, whether an old retiree was dancing with a young teenager or whether a Filipino and the Chinese man next to her were humming the same lyrics. When everyone came together just to listen to the music, there was, for that brief space in time, no differences, no pretenses, no prejudices, just a real sense of community. Just wonderful.