Old Turf Club Dinner

 On our second last night in Singapore, my uncle took us out to dinner at the Old Turf Club. I met up with my two cousins and their 3 adorable little daughters.

 We had lots of delicious dishes.

 This poor piglet has seen better days.

 This is where the seafood comes from. Nice and fresh.

Apparently, people eat these. 

Singapore 2013 - Orchard Road and Singapore Flyer

I love waking up in Singapore, and smelling all the food cooking and hearing the hustle of everyone on their way out to start the day. This was the view from our balcony; the Goodwood Park hotel.

 



This was the garden on the rooftop of the apartment. There was also a swimming pool.

 

 

Breakfast was at Ya Kun, a kaya toast cafe in the basement of the Far East Plaza mall below our apartment. I looove kaya toast and coffee for breakfast

 

Orchard Road still had some of the Christmas decorations up.

First stop was the enormous ION shopping mall. This place has all the major brands and a nice big open feel to it, even though it is underground. There are also some fab food outlets. Everything you could possibly need is here.

These shops are for window shopping only.

Lucky Plaza is an old original shopping centre. I remember going there as a child and thinking it was so exciting compared to shops back in Australia. Unfortunately, it isn;t in the ranks of the glitzy malls currently in operation, but it has a nice retro nostaligic feel to it.

next stop was Ngee Ann City, which is another massive mall on Orchard Road, home to my favourite store, Kinokuniya.

Lunch was in the food basement in Takashimaya. Roti prata is another of my Singaporean favourites. I highly recommend Takashimaya for its food stalls. There are all the Singapoean varieties as well as lots of Japanese goodies, Harrods, as supermarket and a lovely tea shop.

 

a quick swim back at the apartment.

Then it was off to the Singapore Flyer.

It's located not far from the Marina Bay Sands complex.

It's slightly terrifying riding in the flyer, especially when you reach the top, but worth the fear for the fantastic views.

 

 

 

 

 

This retro poster brings back memories. Do you know that when I was a little girl my dad would take me to Bruce Lee movies, which were extremely violent by anyone's standard. During the fight scenes I would close my eyes and cover my ears and pretend the punching sounds were  a tennis ball hitting a racket in a tennis match instead! I can't imagine taking my children to a violent kung fu movie, but I am proud/disturbed to say I have seen all of Bruce Lee's movies.

 

The day ended with pizza and pasta near our accommodation - a nice end to a busy, happy day.

 

 

SINGAPORE TRIP 2013

We have just returned from a wondeful holiday to one of my favourite countries, Singapore. It was my 8th trip there. This time was a little different, as we travelled with a diabetic child, which was challenging at times. I had already booked the holiday before my son's diagnosis and could not get a refund, so we chose to still go ahead with the holiday. Also, it was a big morale booster for him, and something to look forward to after all the horrible diabetic stuff he had been through.

We decided to try out the new Scoot airline, which is a budget airline and flies direct from the Gold Coast to Singapore. You choose how much legroom and luggage you wish to pay for. I chose the longest legroom option, which I think is worth the extra cost. The food was, well, how can I say this tactfully...horrible. I suggest you eat before you fly, and just have a cup of tea on board. You know you can always top up on yummy food when you get to Singapore airport. But other than that, it's just your stock standard budget flight - perfectly acceptable to get you from A to B with more money left over for shopping and eating out.

Flying with an insulin pump is a little challenging. Firstly, the pump must be removed from the body for the first 1/2 hour of the start and end of the flight, as air bubbles form in the line. When we arrived at Singapore airport, we had to sit in a public area and refill our son's insulin cartridge whilst attempting to keep the whole thing in a sterile environement. After a while, you just don;t feel self conscious about doing such things in public. Also, we had 3 different pieces of cabin luggage filled with all his medical supplies, just in case one bag became lost. It takes alot of planning and organising to travel with diabetes.

As we were hungry from not eating the airplane food, we ducked into Toast Box for a snack. Toast Box serves yummy kaya toast and drinks.  Then, we took a taxi to our accommodation; the Far East Plaza Apartments. We normally stay in hotels in Singapore, but I discovered we could rent an apartment for the same cost as one hotel room. The apartment consisted of two bedrooms, two bathrooms, loungeroom, dining room and large kitchen with a washing machine. There was also LCD TV, Foxtel and free WIFI.  I would definitely stay here again rather than a hotel room to have the extra facilities and room. It's located on Scotts Rd, near Orchard Rd, so it's in a perfect position for tourists who like to shop and eat.

The first thing one should do when arriving in Singapore is to eat! So we tried out the Food Opera food court in the ION shopping mall, which is all completely underground I think.

I chose char siew pork, noodles and wanton soup. Only $5.00! Singapore has a really refreshing lime juice drink which I always have with my meals when in town. The food courts in Singapore are absolutely fantastic. So much more appealing than Australian ones.  The variety is huge and most meals are cooked up fresh for you. My kids think it's hilarious that I take photos of my food. After dinner, we did a quick circuit of the mall before collapsing in bed and falling happily asleep.

After the stress of our son's diagnosis, we were really looking forward to our week in Singapore to spend some lovely time together as a family.