Hello Singapore! Part 2

The next day, I was up relatively early on a Saturday morning. Cart was still sleeping. I was still feeling woozy from the jet lag was but excited to start the day, I got up.

My mum was already getting ready to go for her morning walks at the park near the house and I took the chance to join her.

An old shot I took of the park back on its opening day

One of my biggest fear of returning back to Singapore was that I would lose my immunity to the Singapore heat. It was a beautiful morning but already, I could feel a slight discomfort at the morning rays piercing through my skin. I pushed on and continued my walk for the next 30 minutes or before feeling a sense of respite when it was time to get back.

My mum was already being busy in the kitchen and she proceeded to stuff me with freshly made epok-epok. Of course, not having eaten mum’s home cooked food, I had a really big appetite. Cart and I ate about 3 large epok-epok each at one go.

Still rather lethargic, we took it slow and easy at home.

Cart gave my family some seasonal Italian sweets like the Panettone, Pandoro and Torrone. While I gave the ladies of the house a couple of cosmetics.

Like this cute puposka doll that I bought from Pupa. Mum looked extremely excited at opening the doll, seeing the different colours. I guess all women have this trait.

Later on, we set up the Wii set that we brought with us. I got it last year from Sim Lim Square to play in Italy thinking it was a universal device. Despite the assurance from the salesman saying that all Wii games are compatible regardless of region, the wii wouldn’t detect the PAL format that Italy uses. So, might as well donate it to the family.

And we played Raving Rabbits! It was such a silly game.

Later in the afternoon, my mum who is currently active volunteering for the neighbourhood zone, invited me over to some belated Hari Raya Karaoke meet at the community centre.

I met up with a number of my mum’s friends. It was interesting seeing aunties again, us talking in Malay, and watching them have fun karaoke-ing with Hari Raya songs. There was a pot-luck so I stuffed myself with a lot of home cooked food. And then the inevitable question was thrown at me.

“Any good news?”

“When are you going to have a baby?”

“Are you pregnant yet?”

In any-case later on, my siblings decided on having a day out and we went to Jurong Point.

So much changes since the last time I’ve been there. While the new wing was already completed in December 2008, there were not that many shops that were opened.

In contrast this time round, there were so many people and it was so crowded that I was surprised. When did Jurong Point become the place to go to? Was it always like this or was it because of the holiday season?

We started to look around, spotting out interesting things, just having fun and being silly.

Because had just a bit of time before the mall closes for the night, we headed to Prime NTUC and went a little nuts at buying a couple of food stuff, slowly buying items to be brought back to Italy. We had a late supper later on and we chatted about everything under the sky.

The next day, there was a family reunion at my maternal grandmother’s place.

I was still feeling rather jet-lagged. I found Cart and myself falling in and out of sleep despite all the relatives talking to us. There was a wonderful home cooked buffet spread which made me feel content and then it started again :

“Any good news?”

“When are you going to have a baby?”

“Are you pregnant yet?”