1. Zoe went to the Zoo this week. For the first time ever. And behaved like it's no big deal! Oh well!
(The best friend/ Zoe's Maasi (Aunt) who lives in San Diego, California has been insisting that Zoe be taken to the Zoo, ever since she was born. You see, the best friend's son/ my nephew is endearingly called Mowgli, so the jungle with all its animals and birds are really extended family for all of us now. Hence, the best friend's insistence that her New Yorker niece be acquainted with the extended family as soon as possible. Since a trip to the Zoo never really happened in NYC, I heard the bestie sending me a telepathic mental 'Hi-Fi' when we decided that we were going to take Zoe to the Zoo, this week, here in Singapore. The added perk of course was that we were accompanied by the other first-timer family members there - the SIL & BIL who gave Zoe great company on the trip and to us - a break from being her only baby-sitters on a day out.)
Naturally this being her first time ever, we were excited to take her to the Zoo. We had high hopes of seeing her marvel in delight, squeal in surprise and all those things that children do, at the sight of four legged creatures. (Being quite the animal lover, we thought she's be thrilled at seeing 'real-life' versions of animals, she's only seen this far in books or on Baby TV)
Contrary to our expectations, she seemed pretty ordinarily pleased and mildly shocked at seeing the creatures from her books, come to life at the Zoo. Other than her obvious delight at spotting certain animals, overall she did not seem to think much of the Zoo. It offered no obvious apparent novelty to her, almost convincingly making me scratch my head to wonder if I had taken her to a Zoo in the past perhaps?
This urban baby seemed more interested in pointing out a "Car", a "Bus", even the "Moon" and "Babies" around, even as gorgeous zebras and beautiful giraffes came strolling up close to her. Thankfully for the animals, she did notice them all and call out to each one of them, but with hardly any joy or element of surprise. It was as if she was at home, turning the pages of her animal book as she does everyday.
The trip to the Zoo did seem important once we left the Zoo though. For now, Zoe had seen live versions of animals as against their two-dimensional images and her associations with them seems to have grown stronger (or rather that's what we'd like to think). Still, we think we may have to wait for a few more months (hopefully and not years) before we get that much anticipated gleeful "Wow...." out of her at a beautiful Giraffe. A reaction the Moon invokes, undoubtedly, every single night as she points it out from our window!
2. The Singapore Zoo, as most suggest correctly, is a Must-Do on a trip here. Especially the much-spoken about, hyped Night Safari that seems like a hot-favourite among locals/ tourists alike. The Singapore Night Safari is one of the oldest wildlife night safaris in the world and immensely enjoyable as one sights a variety of animals in their natural habitat, nocturnally going about their respective business. Yet, to a slightly off-the-beaten-track mindset like mine, it appeared as though this was a performance, entirely staged for the viewer, promising to deliver complete value for his money. I wondered if all these animals were drugged into staging their acts, specifically at night, just so the Night Safari visitors could spot them? Since there were no real visible demarcations, except a glass barricade intelligently designed around the Indian Tiger's cave, it was surreal how animals could actually walk right up to the tram passing through their surroundings. As visitors, there were no 'safety guidelines' that we were asked to adhere to, when seated in the tram, except of course to not get off one while it was running. Inspite of this, it was a little odd that the animals went about their activities nonchalantly, as our noisy tram navigated it's way through the make-believe forest. Just to solve that mystery and to also visit the individual animal trails by night on foot (something we obviously steered clear of doing this time, fearing the over-exploratory aptitude of the little one, that might just land her in the lap of a deer busily chomping away at dinner), the Singapore Night Safari makes its way to my 'Places to re-visit' list!
3. We took the SIL & BIL to Club Street one night - also our very first time there, for Spanish Tapas at La Cicala. The food was great, but the portions albeit tapas, were microscopically small. That's the thing about this city - when they do a cuisine right, they cringe on the portion size. After going to a few Mexican places here, I've now figured the best place to eat a great guacamole and a lot of it, is at home! If you decide to pay us a surprise visit - be rest assured, whether or not you find us at home, there's sure to be a big bowl of freshly made lip-smackingly good guac in the refrigerator and home-made tortilla chips (Yes, I go all out) waiting for you!
But I digress. The thought of good food does that to me sometimes. Back to Club Street! This is another 'party' hood of Singapore, which basically comprises of a lane with many restaurants, wine bars and a few clubs. Among all of Singapore's 'party' hoods that I've been to this far - Dempsey Hill, Club Street, Holland Village, Collier Quay, Clarke Quay, Customs House & Duxton Hill - the last one, Duxton Hill, is my all-time favourite. It could have to do with the fact that it has a non-descript, semi-Tribeca semi-Williamsburg feel to it (Yeah yeah, go ahead and rant on that "Take the person out of NY, but you cannot take NY out of the person" mantra).
But overall, partying out in Singapore on weekends, as one would normally do in NYC, comes at a steep price - often at least twice or more than what one would spend for the same, in the Big Apple. That's just the thing about Singapore that takes a lot of getting used to - the prices on the menu.
4. The little one's class-size at school seems to be expanding/ contracting like it's a living organism of sorts. They started out as a class of three and have now expanded to a class of nine. This is what happens when you live in Expat central. As people come and go, so do their children. As I look back on my friend lists from when I was Zoe's age, I see that I still count most of them as my present-day friends as well. That will not be the case with my daughter, I realise, who sees an influx and outflux of new/ old friends each week.
Teacher Grace - Zoe's class teacher informed me smilingly, that on Wednesday this week, yet again, Zoe insisted on "sharing" (More like "force-sharing if you've seen what she's capable of) snacks with Poppy and then slept in class. All I could think of was Poppy's Mom must pack a mean snack that knocked out even Giant Zoe, right after!
Note to self: Find out what that potent snack was, the next time I meet Poppy's mom and keep it handy for when this little monster decides to drive me up the wall (which happens a LOT offlate)!
5. Singapore is as grey as it is green; by which I mean it is as vertically built-up in concrete, as it is horizontally adorned by lush green forest-like greens. It offers itself up as one of the few developed cities around the world, where pollution levels are in control and tall skyscrapers compete with huge rain forest trees next to each other. Approximately 50% of the land in Singapore is covered by plants or trees. That is an absolutely enviable statistic for a modern city-state!
As one navigates this city's streets and highways, one is amazed at how buildings alternate with thick wild landscaped areas that resemble rain forests. Even in the heart of the city, where we live, one can always spot exotic birds and hear their chirps and tweets, at any point of time during the day or at night. The most however, that one hears from these birds is at dusk, especially on a particular stretch of Orchard Road (stretching all the way between Somerset & Orchard MRT stations). I like to believe it's because like us humans, they all come back to their nests in the evening, after having led their own individual lives all day. The cacophony that abounds, symbolises the 'catching-up' they do, the stories they relate to each other and news they exchange, after a hard day's work. Much like how our lives function, when we come home from work and yap away to our partners/ families/ anybody willing to listen, our days happenings as we unfold before them what happened today and what did not....This otherwise, beautiful, poetic theory of mine, when put before the Hubster only gets me a pathetic - "Really? Try that story with Zoe. She might believe you. For me it's more like there are a million of you up there. Yapping away to glory!"
*Whatever*
6. We are now what you may call - seasoned 'Parents-who-party-without-their-kids'. Singapore has done that to us! It has given us back our "Pre-Z" lives, as we like to call that phase! It is clear that when we now talk of our next international move, this is the first aspect of our present day lives that appears diminishing in front of our eyes, making us go all skeptical about our move.
Don't get me wrong - It's not like we want to live here forever. But given the option of living here longer, say perhaps another few months - that we might just take, to make the most of our golden times here!
I see now, why people move to Singapore, for not just a few months, but for a couple of years at the very least. Apart from the extremely convenient, safe, worry-free lifestyle, there is a sense of a newly found independence here, especially for young parents, the kind you can never feel if you live on a constant deadline - to be back on time, to relieve the nanny. While it may be difficult to go back to a set-up like the one we had in NYC (of a full-time nanny), it is perhaps going to be toughest to move to Mumbai and try to establish a similar set-up in terms of childcare there, in today's trying times of child-mishap/ accident cases that emerge from India.
Advanced planning, prep-work, research and a word-of-mouth tactic are some of the strategies I plan to employ, when I start my hunt for the appropriate child-care setup for Zoe in Mumbai. Contrary to what a lot of our friend's suggest to us, Hubster and I, are a bit too fiercely independent by nature. In other words, that means that we absolutely have no intentions of taking help from either set of Zoe's grandparents at all (inspite of their offer to do so), even though we plan to live in the same city as them, for a few months in the near future. Hence, we will provide for the perfect case-study for other young parents like us, who plan to follow in our footsteps in making a move (temporary or permanent) to Mumbai, with young children.
I see a big learning curve up ahead when that happens and albeit excited about it, I would be lying if I said I am not anxious about it. Happy in my belief that 'I ll cross that bridge when I come to it' for now we are just gloriously reveling in the comforts of being young, carefree parents who party away joyously and come and go at home as they like, knowing their kids are being well looked after, even in their absence!
7. Swimming has been going exceptionally well. In just about 5 one-hour long sessions with my instructor, I am now the frog I wanted to be. The next step is to fine-tune my FreeStyle technique and then perhaps move on to the Butterfly stroke. The instructor warns that the Butterfly stroke is extremely difficult to learn, so I am kinda looking forward to taking that up as a challenge.
My love affair with the pool has re-kindled. As if like a drug, the water pulls me towards it, at any given point of time (It's getting a little difficult to withhold the aquatic urge now as there are days when I find myself in the pool, twice a day). Glad that our stay here has brought back this forgotten love back into my life!
Next week brings some lunch and dinner dates with local friends and the SIL & BIL's departure, making it our first week in ages, without house-guests! The house will feel empty for sure as the daughter goes on her "No (insert name of most recent house guest)"...rant again! Time to plan the next itinerary then!
Love,
Shweyta
(The best friend/ Zoe's Maasi (Aunt) who lives in San Diego, California has been insisting that Zoe be taken to the Zoo, ever since she was born. You see, the best friend's son/ my nephew is endearingly called Mowgli, so the jungle with all its animals and birds are really extended family for all of us now. Hence, the best friend's insistence that her New Yorker niece be acquainted with the extended family as soon as possible. Since a trip to the Zoo never really happened in NYC, I heard the bestie sending me a telepathic mental 'Hi-Fi' when we decided that we were going to take Zoe to the Zoo, this week, here in Singapore. The added perk of course was that we were accompanied by the other first-timer family members there - the SIL & BIL who gave Zoe great company on the trip and to us - a break from being her only baby-sitters on a day out.)
Naturally this being her first time ever, we were excited to take her to the Zoo. We had high hopes of seeing her marvel in delight, squeal in surprise and all those things that children do, at the sight of four legged creatures. (Being quite the animal lover, we thought she's be thrilled at seeing 'real-life' versions of animals, she's only seen this far in books or on Baby TV)
Contrary to our expectations, she seemed pretty ordinarily pleased and mildly shocked at seeing the creatures from her books, come to life at the Zoo. Other than her obvious delight at spotting certain animals, overall she did not seem to think much of the Zoo. It offered no obvious apparent novelty to her, almost convincingly making me scratch my head to wonder if I had taken her to a Zoo in the past perhaps?
This urban baby seemed more interested in pointing out a "Car", a "Bus", even the "Moon" and "Babies" around, even as gorgeous zebras and beautiful giraffes came strolling up close to her. Thankfully for the animals, she did notice them all and call out to each one of them, but with hardly any joy or element of surprise. It was as if she was at home, turning the pages of her animal book as she does everyday.
The trip to the Zoo did seem important once we left the Zoo though. For now, Zoe had seen live versions of animals as against their two-dimensional images and her associations with them seems to have grown stronger (or rather that's what we'd like to think). Still, we think we may have to wait for a few more months (hopefully and not years) before we get that much anticipated gleeful "Wow...." out of her at a beautiful Giraffe. A reaction the Moon invokes, undoubtedly, every single night as she points it out from our window!
2. The Singapore Zoo, as most suggest correctly, is a Must-Do on a trip here. Especially the much-spoken about, hyped Night Safari that seems like a hot-favourite among locals/ tourists alike. The Singapore Night Safari is one of the oldest wildlife night safaris in the world and immensely enjoyable as one sights a variety of animals in their natural habitat, nocturnally going about their respective business. Yet, to a slightly off-the-beaten-track mindset like mine, it appeared as though this was a performance, entirely staged for the viewer, promising to deliver complete value for his money. I wondered if all these animals were drugged into staging their acts, specifically at night, just so the Night Safari visitors could spot them? Since there were no real visible demarcations, except a glass barricade intelligently designed around the Indian Tiger's cave, it was surreal how animals could actually walk right up to the tram passing through their surroundings. As visitors, there were no 'safety guidelines' that we were asked to adhere to, when seated in the tram, except of course to not get off one while it was running. Inspite of this, it was a little odd that the animals went about their activities nonchalantly, as our noisy tram navigated it's way through the make-believe forest. Just to solve that mystery and to also visit the individual animal trails by night on foot (something we obviously steered clear of doing this time, fearing the over-exploratory aptitude of the little one, that might just land her in the lap of a deer busily chomping away at dinner), the Singapore Night Safari makes its way to my 'Places to re-visit' list!
3. We took the SIL & BIL to Club Street one night - also our very first time there, for Spanish Tapas at La Cicala. The food was great, but the portions albeit tapas, were microscopically small. That's the thing about this city - when they do a cuisine right, they cringe on the portion size. After going to a few Mexican places here, I've now figured the best place to eat a great guacamole and a lot of it, is at home! If you decide to pay us a surprise visit - be rest assured, whether or not you find us at home, there's sure to be a big bowl of freshly made lip-smackingly good guac in the refrigerator and home-made tortilla chips (Yes, I go all out) waiting for you!
But I digress. The thought of good food does that to me sometimes. Back to Club Street! This is another 'party' hood of Singapore, which basically comprises of a lane with many restaurants, wine bars and a few clubs. Among all of Singapore's 'party' hoods that I've been to this far - Dempsey Hill, Club Street, Holland Village, Collier Quay, Clarke Quay, Customs House & Duxton Hill - the last one, Duxton Hill, is my all-time favourite. It could have to do with the fact that it has a non-descript, semi-Tribeca semi-Williamsburg feel to it (Yeah yeah, go ahead and rant on that "Take the person out of NY, but you cannot take NY out of the person" mantra).
But overall, partying out in Singapore on weekends, as one would normally do in NYC, comes at a steep price - often at least twice or more than what one would spend for the same, in the Big Apple. That's just the thing about Singapore that takes a lot of getting used to - the prices on the menu.
4. The little one's class-size at school seems to be expanding/ contracting like it's a living organism of sorts. They started out as a class of three and have now expanded to a class of nine. This is what happens when you live in Expat central. As people come and go, so do their children. As I look back on my friend lists from when I was Zoe's age, I see that I still count most of them as my present-day friends as well. That will not be the case with my daughter, I realise, who sees an influx and outflux of new/ old friends each week.
Teacher Grace - Zoe's class teacher informed me smilingly, that on Wednesday this week, yet again, Zoe insisted on "sharing" (More like "force-sharing if you've seen what she's capable of) snacks with Poppy and then slept in class. All I could think of was Poppy's Mom must pack a mean snack that knocked out even Giant Zoe, right after!
Note to self: Find out what that potent snack was, the next time I meet Poppy's mom and keep it handy for when this little monster decides to drive me up the wall (which happens a LOT offlate)!
5. Singapore is as grey as it is green; by which I mean it is as vertically built-up in concrete, as it is horizontally adorned by lush green forest-like greens. It offers itself up as one of the few developed cities around the world, where pollution levels are in control and tall skyscrapers compete with huge rain forest trees next to each other. Approximately 50% of the land in Singapore is covered by plants or trees. That is an absolutely enviable statistic for a modern city-state!
As one navigates this city's streets and highways, one is amazed at how buildings alternate with thick wild landscaped areas that resemble rain forests. Even in the heart of the city, where we live, one can always spot exotic birds and hear their chirps and tweets, at any point of time during the day or at night. The most however, that one hears from these birds is at dusk, especially on a particular stretch of Orchard Road (stretching all the way between Somerset & Orchard MRT stations). I like to believe it's because like us humans, they all come back to their nests in the evening, after having led their own individual lives all day. The cacophony that abounds, symbolises the 'catching-up' they do, the stories they relate to each other and news they exchange, after a hard day's work. Much like how our lives function, when we come home from work and yap away to our partners/ families/ anybody willing to listen, our days happenings as we unfold before them what happened today and what did not....This otherwise, beautiful, poetic theory of mine, when put before the Hubster only gets me a pathetic - "Really? Try that story with Zoe. She might believe you. For me it's more like there are a million of you up there. Yapping away to glory!"
*Whatever*
6. We are now what you may call - seasoned 'Parents-who-party-without-their-kids'. Singapore has done that to us! It has given us back our "Pre-Z" lives, as we like to call that phase! It is clear that when we now talk of our next international move, this is the first aspect of our present day lives that appears diminishing in front of our eyes, making us go all skeptical about our move.
Don't get me wrong - It's not like we want to live here forever. But given the option of living here longer, say perhaps another few months - that we might just take, to make the most of our golden times here!
I see now, why people move to Singapore, for not just a few months, but for a couple of years at the very least. Apart from the extremely convenient, safe, worry-free lifestyle, there is a sense of a newly found independence here, especially for young parents, the kind you can never feel if you live on a constant deadline - to be back on time, to relieve the nanny. While it may be difficult to go back to a set-up like the one we had in NYC (of a full-time nanny), it is perhaps going to be toughest to move to Mumbai and try to establish a similar set-up in terms of childcare there, in today's trying times of child-mishap/ accident cases that emerge from India.
Advanced planning, prep-work, research and a word-of-mouth tactic are some of the strategies I plan to employ, when I start my hunt for the appropriate child-care setup for Zoe in Mumbai. Contrary to what a lot of our friend's suggest to us, Hubster and I, are a bit too fiercely independent by nature. In other words, that means that we absolutely have no intentions of taking help from either set of Zoe's grandparents at all (inspite of their offer to do so), even though we plan to live in the same city as them, for a few months in the near future. Hence, we will provide for the perfect case-study for other young parents like us, who plan to follow in our footsteps in making a move (temporary or permanent) to Mumbai, with young children.
I see a big learning curve up ahead when that happens and albeit excited about it, I would be lying if I said I am not anxious about it. Happy in my belief that 'I ll cross that bridge when I come to it' for now we are just gloriously reveling in the comforts of being young, carefree parents who party away joyously and come and go at home as they like, knowing their kids are being well looked after, even in their absence!
7. Swimming has been going exceptionally well. In just about 5 one-hour long sessions with my instructor, I am now the frog I wanted to be. The next step is to fine-tune my FreeStyle technique and then perhaps move on to the Butterfly stroke. The instructor warns that the Butterfly stroke is extremely difficult to learn, so I am kinda looking forward to taking that up as a challenge.
My love affair with the pool has re-kindled. As if like a drug, the water pulls me towards it, at any given point of time (It's getting a little difficult to withhold the aquatic urge now as there are days when I find myself in the pool, twice a day). Glad that our stay here has brought back this forgotten love back into my life!
Next week brings some lunch and dinner dates with local friends and the SIL & BIL's departure, making it our first week in ages, without house-guests! The house will feel empty for sure as the daughter goes on her "No (insert name of most recent house guest)"...rant again! Time to plan the next itinerary then!
Love,
Shweyta
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