Singapore 2014 in Pictures…

So i have not been blogging for a whole month! What have i been up to? Well, it was the summer school holidays and as is our custom, we went to Singapore to visit family and friends and of course to pig out on all that delicious food – hmmm… yum!

Let me take you through our time there very very briefly in pictures…

We set off on a jet plane – SQ A380 – we managed to get seats on the upper deck this time! Lots better than lower deck for us because we could get a window seat with just an aisle seat next to it. Yep a 2-in-a-row 😉 Which meant we could be a bit freer with our use of space. Plus the seat we chose had extra side storage – score!

Happy to be flying...
Happy to be flying…

Of course the person who really scored was my dear husband, who got upgraded to business class because economy was so packed! They couldn’t upgrade the boy and i cos we don’t travel enough, even though there were seats in business. But it’s okay. We got to be on the same deck (our original seat allocations put us on 2 different decks).

We enjoyed looking at old places which have been refurbished and given new life.

Riding a rickshaw at The Clifford Pier, which was the jetty where most people landed coming into Singapore in the 50s and 60s...
Riding a rickshaw at The Clifford Pier, which was the jetty where most people landed coming into Singapore in the 50s and 60s… Now it’s a fancy hotel and restaurant.

Exploring a new neighbourhood became a must because my in-laws moved to a new, smaller flat. But it is in a more convenient location, nearer downtown and has fantastic food just across the street!

Night view from my in-laws' new place...
Night view from my in-laws’ new place…

And we painted the town red – see the boys in their matching outfits?

Showing their love for their fav football club...
Showing their love for their fav football club…

Another place we explored was Labrabor Nature Reserve – another place which has been given a new lease of life. It was nice to walk around the park and get an ocean-view as well.

It was a very nice walk, great place for joggers, children to play and pet owners to walk their dogs...
It makes for a lovely walk, great place for joggers, children to play and pet owners to walk their dogs…

No trip would be complete without our little sushi monster getting his fill of his favourite food – Sushi! Actually this time round we did end up at a place where he didn’t like the sushi. It wasn’t terrible, just very limited in choices and it didn’t seem too fresh. Of course the major minus was they didn’t serve his favourite maki pieces.

He absolutely loves his sushi!
He absolutely loves his sushi!

From eating to getting eaten – well, almost… hehhee 😉 We visited the Dinosaurs Exhibition, From Dawn to Extinction at the Art Science Museum. Very impressive and quite fun, especially if you download the app and play along.

i love this shot!
i love this shot!

Time with family was the important thing – Tobias got to play football with his cousins. They played a few games with the boys who were already there as well as another team of middle-aged guys who came later.

Our team of 4 boys and a man did quite well in those short matches ;)
Our team of 4 boys and a man did quite well in those short matches 😉

This trip we did not do much touristy stuff. We did go to the River Safari – again. This time because we had complimentary tickets and we wanted to try out the Amazon River Ride which was not opened last year. It was just okay – a little too fast to catch sight of all the animals. Also it rained and rained and we almost did not get to ride the boat.

Panda themed food at the River Safari...
Panda themed food at the River Safari

So we looked at fish. Then we went to feed the fish. We tried out a fish spa, where you go and let little cleaner fish feed on the dead skin on your feet. Apparently very good for skin and blood circulation. The guy at the second place (we bought a package of 6 visits) told us that they used to provide full body, not just feet. But due to space constrains and the lack of interest (and i’m sure the cost of keep much bigger tanks of fish), they now only offer feet services.

Providing fish with nutrients from our feet :P
Providing fish with nutrients from our feet 😛

The only other touristy thing we did was visit the Science Center. Some parts of it was interesting and other parts not so. Quite a number of exhibits didn’t work too well. We did do the Human Body Experience, where you enter the giant mouth as food and exit as poo. It was interesting but it smelled (because of the type of latex they used to build the exhibit).

Having fun with optical illusions and that giant mouth we went through...
Having fun with optical illusions and that giant mouth we went through…

Last but not least, allow me to introduce you to Tobias’ and his uncle’s shared pet fish – there are two but could only get a clear photo of one of them. They are dragon fish and there are also 2 cleaner fish which live with them.

i think this one is called Ruby...
i think this one is called Ruby…

Of course we met family and friends and had tons to eat in between doing all of the above 😀 We enjoyed ourselves – nuff said!

syc

PS: i was wrong about the name of the fish – that one pictured is called Albi.

Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate…

A few weeks ago, we visited the Frey Chocolate Factory with some friends and had a wonderful time.

Now we have visited a few chocolate factories already – all throughout Switzerland but this one has to be my favourite!

For me and for the boy, it was probably the most comprehensive journey through the entire chocolate production process, from the cocoa beans to yummy dark brown bars of chocolate, which we all love.

Each group of visitors was given a batch name and can enter the factory when your batch was called – ours was named Lucky 🙂 We each received a headset attached to a device which gave us a choice of languages and all we had to do to listen to the description of a particular exhibit is to point the device at the infra-red spot and push the button.

Most of the exhibits have a hands-on part. One of my favourites is this one which shows chocolate packaging design through the years, from the 1900s onwards. We could also take home a sample of the current packaging of one of their current popular chocolate.

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There was also a cute giant box of chocolate where people could get in, dress up as a praline and take photos.

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The kids liked the little digital game where they threw bars of chocolate via a motion detector.freychoco20140622c

And no visit to a chocolate factory would be complete without the tasting of the delicious brown stuff 😉 There was a whole conveyor belt full, along with 2 chocolate fountains where you can cover fruits with liquid brown gold – YUM!

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i did not order it but there was the option get a photo of yourselves taken and printed on a chocolate bar. There was also a short quiz on a computer we could take to find out our chocolate type. We each got a computer print-out of the results and a custom chocolate recipe for our chocolate type.

Tobias got The Stylish and a Chocolate Cupcake recipe. i got The Curious Gourmet and a recipe for Fig and Chilli Chocolates 😉

There was one down side – they played this video which was screened on their big wall in the room about every 20 minutes or so and that messed up things if you were in the middle of listening to an exhibit.

Other than that, it was a great visit. i highly recommend visiting the Frey Chocolate Factory. The plus is that all their chocolates are fair-trade!

syc

 

Memories…

Over the last few months, there have been little things that have happened and events/places we have been to, which i want to remember and would have loved for each of these to have a blog-post each… but life took over and those posts never got written. Besides, some are really small things and others have already passed so i thought i put them all into one big photo post.

So here are some memories from our last few months:

Camera 360Some time in February, Tobias decided that he would attempt to finish an entire Subway Foot-long Sandwich (a whole 30 centimeters of bread and fillings). He has tried a few times since but has not been successful. It doesn’t matter whether he did or did not finish that huge sandwich; what was important is that he tried and it was fun watching him try 😉

Camera 360Sticking with the food theme, we found a new Sushi place to eat at. Now if you know have known us (in real life) for some time, you would have been told at some point that our boy is a Sushi-Monster! He LOVES Sushi!! So this is a big thing. Yooji’s serves great sushi and it’s a conveyor-belt system which my boy adores. The other attraction is the tablet ordering-system – very modern, complete with little games and internet access to entertain you while you wait for your food. The only problem is how expensive it is to eat there, especially when he can finish an average of seven plates by himself!

Camera 360At the beginning of March, Tobias started going to Chinese class again. We had him in one class when he was in Kindergarten but that closed after a year or two due to a lack of students. Now his best friend and his best friend’s brother are going to one, he has decided to join them, which is fabulous. Unfortunately, it is a fair drive to get to class and now the other parents who share the driving have found another teacher much closer so it looks like we will continue with classes but with another teacher.

Camera 360After the Sportsferien (Sports Holiday in February), Tobias picked up Unihockey (floor-ball) and is loving it. None of his friends play this sport but it doesn’t matter, he enjoys it and is making new friends on the team.

memories20140613eDaddy’s birthday should have gotten a blog post all its own BUT… we had to celebrated it belated and then life got busy. So here’s our little celebration at home with the 6-minute Chocolate Cake.

memories20140613fWe got invited to a Swiss-American wedding! This was special because we got invited to the dinner, which is a first for us. We got to see how a Swiss wedding dinner works from beginning to end – so very different from ours. It was all about having fun – my kind of wedding! There were games and lots of laughter and conversation; it was a long long fun-filled event – we left early (close to 11pm). We really enjoyed ourselves and it was an excuse to see the lovely city of St Gallen. i’m not posting a picture of the couple because i don’t have permission and because i couldn’t get good pictures. So i’m posting a picture of the very lovely homemade table decorations – i really liked them!

memories20140613gSo this year’s English League Premiership saw Liverpool, my husband’s beloved team, having a real shot at winning the cup. Which is the reason why Tobias and i left him with his friends in a pub one Sunday afternoon and went to a small Medieval Festival in Luzern. We enjoyed the sunshine while walking around the stalls. Tobias got to work with a blacksmith and hammered out a small horseshoe.

memories20140613hA highlight for Tobias in April was getting to play the Cajón during worship at church. He has been asking and asking to be allowed to play with Daddy during worship and he finally got to do it. He was thrilled so was i and i’m so proud!

memories20140613iLike a true Singaporean, i bring you back to the food. We (husband and i) got to eat at a small family-run Vietnamese restaurant in Liebefeld, Bern, (Pho Saigon) directly opposite the chinese grocery shop. They serve authentic Vietnamese food and we love it and will definitely be back for more.

memories20140613jLast but not least, we have been living in renovations since the start of May. The real-estate company which owns our quartier has decided it is time to renovate the facade of our building. So the scaffolding went up and will stay up till the middle of July. Tobias was really excited cos he could open his window and walk directly onto the scaffolding. Of course, that idea was met with much disapproval.

Yes much has happened. Looking forward to a quiet summer holiday – is that possible?

syc