life in singapore … with baby
Posted in baby stuff on Sep 2nd, 2008
Olive had her first experience of terrorizing a babysitter last night — two babysitters in fact — as Sandy and I left her in the care of Aunty Hueh Hueh and Aunty Ngae while we went out to The Esplanade to watch the Singapore Lyric Opera’s performance of Puccini’s Turandot. Not unlike Princess Turandot, Olive [...]
Posted in baby stuff on Aug 31st, 2008
Sandy: Both Phil and baby Olive have diarrhoea … one of them because of rotavirus (we suspect), the other due to a six-hour drinking binge followed by spicy food and four hours of sleep. Phil has already self-medicated with a bacon, mushroom and poached-egg sandwich but we’re going to have to take Olive to the [...]
Posted in baby stuff on Aug 24th, 2008
Finally, we’ve picked up our F1 tickets! Very exciting. These tickets give us access to the Walkabout Zone, which surrounds most of the Marina Bay Street Circuit except for the Northern Loop where the pit lane, start and finish are. I notice from the rules and regs that we’re not allowed umbrellas so let’s hope [...]
Posted in baby stuff on Aug 23rd, 2008
Olive opened her first bank account with OCBC, although Sandy nearly defected to DBS after the idiotic staff at OCBC Alexandra Village took one hour to complete the forms and open the account. Olive is now a proud OCBC Mighty Saver and has already chewed the corner off her passbook to celebrate.
Posted in baby stuff on Aug 23rd, 2008
Olive’s beautiful blanket (click to enlarge) was made by her grandmother in England. Actually I remember Mum knitting it in Hong Kong, Thailand and Singapore so it’s been round the world a few times before landing in Olive’s cot in Singapore. The aircon in our bedroom, which Olive still shares (not for much longer, kiddo, [...]
Posted in baby stuff on Aug 20th, 2008
Cousin Will flew into Singapore for a few days on his way back to UK from Melbourne. He quickly learnt it’s easier to babysit when you get a few drinks down you.
Posted in baby stuff on Aug 16th, 2008
Karen and Aik popped by to visit Olive on Friday afternoon and came laden with moon pies (a fancy name for mooncakes?) and durian puffs. Hmmm, I like! Olive was quite well behaved but she needs to learn how to relax when held by others and not cling to me, mummy-slave, all day long.
But, back [...]
Posted in baby stuff, food on Aug 10th, 2008
Sunday started out cold (30ºC / 90ºF) and wet so we decided to walk up to the new chocolate bar for a hot chocolate and coffee. Laurent Bernard opened its jungle outlet a few months ago and offers a dozen different hot chocolates as well as coffees, teas, champagne and a selection of freshly baked [...]
Posted in baby stuff on Aug 9th, 2008
Putting her mohawk to good use, Olive has modelled for her first punk album sleeve.
Posted in baby stuff on Aug 8th, 2008
Olive and Sandy rescue a striped kukri snake from the middle of the road outside the house. The snake is so called as it has teeth the shape of kukri blades, the famous weapon of choice of the Nepalese Gurkhas. It feeds on eggs, lizards and other snakes so we reckoned we were safe.
For a [...]
Posted in baby stuff, food, kitchen diaries on Aug 5th, 2008
Sandy and Olive have been up in KL for ten days now and I can’t wait to see them tomorrow. Olive is sleeping 12 or 13 hours a night, which is amazing at only 3 1/2 months, and Sandy says Olive rolled over for the first time yesterday! It’s been lonely without them – I [...]
Posted in baby stuff on Jul 30th, 2008
While Sandy and Olive are back in Malaysia visiting family, I decided to decorate the wall next to Olive’s cot to give her a surprise when she returns. I found some really fun wall stickers at Lifebaby and chose the garden theme for Olive. The great thing about these stickers is that you can peel [...]
Posted in baby stuff on Jul 30th, 2008
Jonathan threw a surprise party for Shah to celebrate the big something-zero. The surprise was that Shah showed up at all as Jonathan was having trouble reaching her on the mobile. The party comprised two groups of alcoholics: the Hash House Harriers, who run and drink; and the Cable Car regulars who, sensibly, just sit [...]
Posted in baby stuff on Jul 30th, 2008
Singapore’s most eligible bachelor Drunkle Sri (drunk uncle Sri) proving he knows which way up to hold a baby.
“That was a baby? I thought it was a huge can of beer!” -Sri
Posted in baby stuff on Jul 20th, 2008
Runaway pram! Last seen speeding down Portsdown Road towards Colbar.
Look out for a huge pram driven by an unhappy pouting baby sporting a mohican (mohawk).
Posted in baby stuff on Jul 20th, 2008
Olive will be three months old on Tuesday. She’s the best baby ever! She’s sleeping better, chatting, smiling and she can entertain herself for half an hour or more watching Kari’s mobile or playing in her house. The biggest change to our routine has been Olive’s improved sleeping habits. After three months of waking every [...]
Posted in baby stuff, food on Jul 15th, 2008
Do check out this wonderful new site, Do Me A Favour, offering beautiful customised foodie gifts for weddings, births, birthdays, anniversaries, corporate events, etc. The company was established by a former Wine & Dine colleague of mine and I can’t wait for the next big event to give these as gifts. So, you all know [...]
Posted in baby stuff on Jul 13th, 2008
Everybody’s having babies! To round off a weekend of visiting babies, we popped in to see Terence and Vicky who gave birth to Ethan Gareth Su-Fernando two days ago. Ethan is tiny (or is Olive just big?) and really adorable. Congratulations and we hope Terry gets some sleep soon!
Posted in baby stuff on Jul 13th, 2008
Steve, Katrina and Thalia flew back from Dubai for a holiday and we joined them at PS Café in Dempsey Village to celebrate Thalia’s third birthday. Sunday brunch at PS Café is a real family affair, every other table has a buggy parked next to it. Olive bought a dress for the occasion and carried [...]
Posted in baby stuff on Jul 13th, 2008
Olive keeping daddy occupied.
Congratulations to Olive, who slept for eight hours last night! She went down at 9.30pm, talking herself to sleep, then woke at 5.45am.
Her ladyship waiting for breakfast to be delivered:
Posted in baby stuff on Jul 12th, 2008
Hashi and Hooi Hooi gave birth to Yukie (pronounced “yookie” with a very short “air” on the end) so we dropped in for lunch to see the baby. Yukie is tiny! Half Olive’s size. Luckily, Hooi Hooi has had no problems breastfeeding problems; she’s attending breastfeeding classes and all the other nine mums in her [...]
Posted in baby stuff on Jun 29th, 2008
Sandy’s two sisters, Hueh Hueh and Ah Ngae, drove down from KL so we packed a picnic and headed off to the Eco Lake at the Botanic Gardens for smoked salmon, cold cuts, roast beef, couscous, potatoes in salsa verde, strawberries and cream, and freshly baked lemon drizzle cake and chocolate brownies. Hooi Hooi, nine [...]
Posted in baby stuff on Jun 22nd, 2008
Singapore held its first ‘opera in the park’ at the Botanic Gardens on Saturday. The Singapore Lyric Opera and Singapore Lyric Opera Children’s Choir performed a selection of operatic favourites to a healthy mix of Singaporean and expat families with loads of kids, dogs and trailing maids playing in the late afternoon sun. Afternoons such [...]
Posted in baby stuff on Jun 21st, 2008
The house is full of baby toys. And babies. Holly and Oscar flew in from London so there are six of us in the house at the mo. Some random photos:
Posted in baby stuff on Jun 16th, 2008
Sandy, Mum and Olive enjoyed a tai tai lunch at Marmalade Pantry in Holland Village. Dinner was more casual down at the local Chinese seafood restaurant with dishes of sambal stingray, crayfish in cereal with curry leaves, sambal sweet potato leaves and an onion omelette. I knew there would be an argument over which cake [...]
Posted in baby stuff on Jun 15th, 2008
[Above: Grandmother and granddaughter's hat parade. Olive's little pink number is from Petit Bateau, thank you Shah and Jonathan.]
Singapore’s National Parks Board recently opened HortPark, a 23-hectare “gardening hub” — we like hubs in Singapore — just down the road from our house. We took a stroll there this morning and found the place buzzing [...]
Posted in baby stuff on Jun 15th, 2008
Somebody collapsed with the effort of writing my father’s day card. Thank you Olive. Those look like Mummy’s favourite truffles, what a coincidence!
Posted in baby stuff on Jun 13th, 2008
A big thank you to Kari and family from Rødding in Denmark for sending Olive her first mobile. Kari was Phil’s au pair 30 years ago. The mobile reached Singapore just at the right time - Olive has finally begun to focus more on her surroundings and loves to lie back and gaze at the [...]
Posted in baby stuff, food on Jun 13th, 2008
Mum celebrated her birthday here in Singapore. Sandy, Olive, Mum and I had a great dinner at Halia restaurant in the Botanic Gardens. Olive was a star, she was well behaved the whole evening.
Seared blue fin tuna for Sandy …
Javanese spice-encrusted rack of lamb for Phil …
Lait frais de la bossom for Olive …
No dinner [...]
Posted in baby stuff on Jun 9th, 2008
I’m so sad cousin Oscar will miss his flight to Singapore tomorrow . Please get better soon Oscar and fly over to visit me.
