SingKids Playground @ Changi Airport T3

29 May 2011

Heard that there're some new playgrounds at Changi Airport and off we went to check it out.

There's a bouncing castle at departure level but there was a long queue and we didn't want to wait.

We went down to the basement and we saw a play area called SingKids.

There's a big area for older kids and a smaller area (directly opposite) for the younger ones.

Kind of pricey though - $18.00 for one hour and must wear socks. Ended having to buy socks from them at $1.00 per pair for Eugene, hubby and me. Only one guardian can accompany the kid and so hubby and I took turns to accompany Eugene.


The big kids' area. Eugene didn't play on most of it.

The small kids' area.

He liked the slide .....

and balls........  now, I must say that a guardian must be in there to keep an eye on the kid if your kid is still a toddler or if he's short.

The balls area is very well padded and soft, even I had a hard time steadying myself.

When Eugene fell or laid down, he got all covered by the balls and sometimes he had trouble trying to get up and out. Once, he couldn't get up and he sank deeper down and all the balls started to cover him. I could see he was getting a bit panicky and I quickly have to grab him and pull him up.

and he loved chasing the balloons!

and then we saw the tall, huge slide......

Hubby : Eugene, would you like to go on this slide?

Eugene : YES!

Me : No way! he's too little !!!!

Hubby : not the highest one, the lower slide....

Me : no, no, no!

Not giving up, hubby sauntered over to the entrance. 

Hubby : Hey, can accompany the kid down. Ok, I will accompany Eugene down the slide. 

Me : ok, if you are with him.

WHERE'S THE KID????????

Hubby smiling sheepishly and pointed that Eugene had gone down by himself.

NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

Is he going to be alright? 
There he is! sliding down.....

coming out of the slide ............ mommy, I want to go again and yes, he had a go again - all by himself......

I asked hubby what happened and hubby said that when he asked Eugene if he wants daddy to accompany him or go down by himself - Eugene said that he want to go down on his own.

I guess looking at all the other kids who went down by themselves, he wanted to do it on his own too. But the other kids were bigger and older than him ! I was really worried then. But all's well, ends well. He had a good time.

Cheese Burger

Eugene wanted to eat at McDonald's.

Yes, I know it's bad and it's junk food. But we do not eat it frequently. Once in a blue moon.

And yes, it taste rather shiok, especially the fries!


Hubby ordered a cheese burger for Eugene. My eyes big big - are you sure he can eat a whole burger?

Alternating between his burger and the fries...

Eugene finished slightly more than half of the cheese burger and almost all the fries.

I Wait For You

This is KL. I think she is the youngest in the class.

 If KL's parents or grandparents picks her up after class before I come to pick up Eugene, she will stand outside the class and refuses to move because she wants to walk with Eugene.

Therein lies a problem.

KL will not move without Eugene. Eugene will not move without S.

So now, all of us will wait for each other and all of us will walk together on the way home.

KL would not walk beside Eugene and S but will walk in front, like a leader leading the way.

Occasionally, she would turn round to make sure that we are behind her.



Look at S and Eugene walking hand in hand. Happiness!

Mars & Venus

While watching OKTO with my kid, a commercial showed two sets of primary school kids  competing against each other. One set comprised of boys and the other comprised of gals.

Their insightful comment about each other?

Girls are very BOSSY

Boys are very UNFAITHFUL

Don't you agree to a certain extent?

Foreign Talents - PRC

I will touch on the PRCs because they are the majority FTs here and I'll just comment on the service staff.

They are everywhere. Sometimes you can tell from their looks or dressings but sometimes only when they speak.


Nothing against the PRC but they are in abundance here and you can't help but feel their presence more and encountering them more often.

I just wish that they will at least learn a bit of basic English - no need any Queen English lah - just basic and even broken English, also can.

I've come across some PRCs making the effort to respond in English but they are more the exception than the rule.


Some incidents :

(1) China Bus Driver

I was on an SBS bus when the bus broke down. Driver called on the mobile to his HQ and asked what to do. From his accent, knew he's from China.

Next thing, he was gesturing to the passengers to get down from the bus.
There were Malay and Indian passengers and they asked him (in English) what's happening and what now?

China bus driver obviously can't speak any English as he just keep gesturing for us to get off the bus.

I stepped in and asked the driver (in Mandarin) what we should do and only then he explained in Mandarin that he will give out tickets for all of us to take the next bus free - of cos, I have to translate and explained to the rest of the passengers.

** isn't it dangerous that the driver is only able to express himself in his native language (Mandarin)?
What if he need to call his HQ in an emergency and the operator can't speak or understand Mandarin?
How is he going to communicate to his passengers if need be? There are not only chinese passengers but also malays, indians, the non-chinese, non-mandarin speaking?


(2) China Taxi-Driver

Was in a taxi with my aunt. Aunt spoke teochew dialect but China driver obviously don't understand (not driver's fault). Told him in English - also don't understand.

My Mandarin is pretty bad and so we ended up in another building (only know how to say this building's name in Mandarin) close to the building that we are supposed to head to.

** if the passenger don't speak Mandarin, how?



(3) China Sales-Staffs

Some can guess what you are asking them. You ask them in English, they answer you in Mandarin.

Some don't understand at all. What do they do? They holler to their colleagues who know some English to serve you. This is not fair to your colleague isn't it?


+

I'm not against any China Chinese or any nationalities but as they say, when in Rome, do what the Romans do.

If you are in the public service, you cannot just be in your own world and not learn the common language, English, to communicate with non-Mandarin speaking people.

Singapore is a multi-racial country !

But I think the employers should be the ones to be blamed as I'm sure they knows if their employees can speak English or not.

If the employers still hire them, then of cos the employees won't make an effort.

As an employee, I will be thinking : If you still hire me even though you know that I don't know English, then that meant you don't care, don't mind if I don't know English, so why I bother to learn?



** employer of (1), (2) and (3) above : hello, only Chinese people in Singapore is it? Also, doesn't mean if you are Chinese, can understand Mandarin, you know.


Of cos, some people out there can say, hey, if employ a Filipina, the Filipina cannot speak Mandarin to the Mandarin speaking customers.

No one person is gonna be able to speak Mandarin, Malay, Indian.

What I'm saying is that the service staff should at least know some basic English which is the common language that we speak here among the different races to communicate with each other.

As some other bloggers said : I feel like a stranger in my own country.

The Kid Said ........(3)

Eugene came up to me with a scared look on his face.

Hmm.... what did he do now? (I thought to myself)

Me : Eugene, what's wrong?

Eugene : Mommy, I broke the camera

I quickly took the camera from his hand - no more battery power - the boy thought he had broke it. But I played along.

Eugene : Mommy, are you angry?

Me : No, but I'm sad. Now I have no more camera (making a sad and pathetic face) and I have no money to buy a new one.

Can you give me your Piggy bank? I will use the money in your piggy bank to buy a new camera.

Eugene : wait Mommy, I'm going out for awhile (went out of the study room to the living room and came back with his piggy bank and handed it to me)

Me : You are really giving me your Piggy bank? Are you sure?

Eugene : Yes, mommy.

The next day ...........

Me : So Eugene, I'll take the money from your piggy bank to buy a new camera, ok?

Eugene : OK, mommy!

Me : You are sure? No more money in the piggy bank you know!

Eugene : Don't worry!

The "Don't worry" caught me off guard - ha ha.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Me : Eugene, where did you get this blister on the back of your foot?

Hubby : Think the sandals is too small for him now and the strap is cutting into his foot.

Eugene : No, it's not the sandals. It's the boots. Can I put a plaster?

Upon thinking, yes, he did wear a pair of boots the day before and he did complain of some pain but we looked at his sole instead and missed the blister at the back of his ankle.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

While waiting for the classroom's door to open, one of Eugene's classmate arrived with her mom and she started talking to her mom.

Eugene : you talk! you can talk! you're talking! 

Eugene kept repeating that to her. I guess she's really quiet in class and thus Eugene was surprised when words came out from her. 
I didn't know what to say and was worried that her mom might be angry with Eugene.


Kid's Mom : yes, she can talk!

 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Me : Today is Friday. What day is tomorrow?


Eugene : Thursday!


Me : No, yesterday was Thursday. Today is Friday and tomorrow is ......?

Eugene : (after thinking for awhile) --- NO SCHOOL DAY ! -------

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Powder Mess

Hmm..... Eugene is unusually quiet. For parents, you know that this is not good as it means that the kid is up to something.

This was what Eugene was up to ........

Feeling guilty.

we realised that the mess extended all the way to the study room too.....

Rat @ Toa Payoh Foodcourt Koufu

My fren SY said to me : did you see the pic of the big rat spotted at Koufu at the chicken rice stall as reported in My Paper?

Well no, but I'm definitely going to search on the net to find the pic.

And here it is,


OMG!!!!! look at the size of it!!!! (click on it to see bigger pic, I just couldn't post it bigger cos it's so eeeky). It is so gross!!!!!!

It is right smack on the display food tray. And look at that long tail!!!! Eeeek!!!!!

Luckily I've never eaten at that chicken rice stall but I had eaten from the satay beehoon stall next to it - any rat went into the satay sauce? I won't know - gosh, I feel like puking just thinking about it.

Gosh, did it eat the whole chicken or what. It's really big and fat.

Or maybe it's Remy from Ratatouille giving lessons on cooking.

This is cute.......

.

.

.

.

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but this is absolutely scary and gross!!!!!!

FREAK OUT!!!!!

Another Gal

No, Eugene's not having a crush on another gal. It is still only 'S' (here and here). 'S' is the only one that Eugene will automatically rush and ask to hold hands and also try to kiss goodbye !

Here he is holding hands with another of his classmate 'A'.'A' s got beautiful naturally curly hair.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle !

That's the mantra of 'Bob The Builder'.

Ok, I'm not much of a 'green' person but hubby is.

Eugene used to only watch hubby throw the stuff into the bin for recycling as then he was young and short.

 Now that he's older, time for him to get used to the concept of recycling and do his part for the environment.

Yay! the 2 "green" boys.

Durian Luvs

Eugene loves to eat durian!

When he was younger, he would eat just 1 seed. But now, he will take 2. Don't dare to give him more as it will be too heaty.

Magic Painting

Eugene had been asking to paint. Think he saw some people doing some painting while watching TV. Everytime we go to Popular, he would head straight to the brushes section and feeling and looking at the brushes for quite a while.

I had also been thinking of exposing him to it - will be fun for him, ya?

But I hesitated, why?

- will it be a fleeting interest and money wasted?

- ok, I admit, I was more worried that he'll splatter the house and I'll have to clean up the mess!

One day, while at Popular Bookstore to decide if I really should buy him some paints, somebody left a book at the paint shelf. Hmm... what is this? The title caught my interest - Magic Painting, just add water and voila, auto colours.

Ha, somebody up there heard my concern(thanks!). This would be perfect! At least can let him try and see how it goes before buying the whole works.

You dip a brush in water and paint over the picture and voila! instant colour!

I told Eugene that he can get to choose his own brush and he was so excited and trotted quickly to the brushes section and chose one for himself (er.. I steered him towards the cheaper brush as he had picked up a very expensive one).

Notice Eugene holding the brush in both his right and left hand?

I notice he's using his right hand more to do stuff but I've seen him switching easily to his left hand as well - like he's able to feed himself using either his right or left hand.

I guess kids at his age are still finding out which his dominant hand is?