Backtrack SG: Catching-up

I met up with the usual suspects on my June trip (I know, September’s coming, and I’m still talking about June…), but pity our schedules did not agree for Amy and Jeannie. In any case, the rest of the meet-up sessions were as usual, loads of fun, but as usual as well, not proper catch-ups since I would be looking over Rosabelle than focusing on who’s doing what/where now. Oh well…

On 6 June, we made a trip to Meibao’s house, her new pad (still at Mandarin Gardens) after she sold away her old one, to make more space since she had her second daughter, Emily, in April. As we had to go only after Rosabelle woke up from her afternoon nap, the rest of them like Shumin and her daughter, Meimei, and Jinxin, were waiting for us to cut Jinxin’s birthday cake as it was her birthday on that day.

My mum gave me a lift to the main road, and we then hailed a cab from there. Once in the taxi, my goodness, Rosabelle suddenly started bawling and wanted Popo – now this was highly strange as she was always very hostile towards my mum, not wanting Popo to go near her. She was crying so hard that the taxi driver asked, ‘She’s more attached to Popo, is it?’. So highly embarrassing. He must think I’m an irresponsible weekend mum who’s never around, bringing her home only for weekends... Anyway, luckily that strange spate stopped after I told her off severely, and as we went into the house, Rosabelle greeted Jinxin with a 快乐 (prompted by my生日).

I didn’t let Rosabelle eat the sweet cakes, but she took one kueh bangkit (soft type of cake) and enjoyed it, dirtying poor Meibao’s floor in the process.
As Meimei and Shumin had to go off first, it was just Jinxin and us as Rosabelle had fun playing around with Meibao’s older girl, Sophie’s, toys (they are both born on the same day), and we also saw the second girl, Emily (I forgot to take photos, can you believe it???), until Sophie woke up from her afternoon nap. This sweet girl had a tiring morning as she was taking part in the finals of the Motherhood Baby Competition – doesn’t she look so pretty?
She was quite clingy to Meibao, maybe because she just woke up, but quickly warmed up to Rosabelle and the grapes my girl was offering her. Sometimes my girl does get too over-zealous and passionate at times…
Guess who’s the girl-girl and who’s the tomboy between the two of them? Haha!
And there we have it – a foursome – can you believe slender and svelte Meibao, who looks barely out of her teens herself, is a mother of two???
Anyway, we then had to leave as my mum was calling to pick us up to go get dinner together, and so that marked the end of a short get-together, which I would not have missed for the world, especially after we did not make it due to Rosabelle’s sudden bout of diarrhea during our February visit.

The next day, on 7 June, there was another precious get-together with my ex-colleagues Kit, and Sin Sin, at the former’s nice house at Thomson 88. I remember wanting to change Rosabelle’s top that morning and she very cleverly plucked open her buttoned-up shirt for me to quickly put the top on – sheesh! Sin so nicely got Rosabelle a Playdough set (and my sis also had an unopened set – I should have waited and actually saved on having to buy one for her myself before I went back in June…), and Kit had prepared a very wholesome lunch of chicken porridge and fried bee hoon – yummy! Her teenage daughter, Claire, was also at home that day, and was very endearing towards Rosabelle, heh, so sweet. I remember it just wasn’t too long ago before I left for China in 2003 that Claire herself was just a toddler… sigh, time really flies!

Rosabelle also had a go at the piano in their house, and Sin, being a piano master, remarked that Rosabelle has potential for the piano as she’s using her fingers to tap on the keys, not banging them full-on as some kids do. Hmmm… is that why she loves singing and dancing, and can pick rhythms and music up so quickly? We shall see about that…

A few days later, on 9 June, my mum and Simon sent us to Pauline’s house (and Rosabelle could say she wanted to go for a ‘car ride’), where we all went upstairs before Simon left with my mum. It was nice to see RaeAnne and Raelynn again, as RaeAnne Jie Jie nicely, and gradually, shared her toys with Rosabelle.
We all had macaroni soup with nice, wholesome ingredients like chicken, fish meat and vegetables, and it was a good catch-up in spite of the girls’ conflicting schedules (RaeAnne had to sleep early right after lunch, whilst Rosabelle has late lunches and naps).
On the way home in the taxi, Rosabelle was quite fretful, wanting to nurse, and true enough, she KO-ed from 4pm till 7pm that afternoon, waking up once in between to nurse and fall back to sleep. Too much excitement in a day, I guess!

On 19 June, I took a taxi down to Turf City (my back-dated mother said Saturday’s a race day and the roads may be jammed… the whole race course had already shifted like eons back…), where we had lunch with Angeline, George and Belden at Sol Playground Café, and I was meeting their second son, Glendon, for the first time. It was a hot day and I’d initially wanted her to wear this cotton white dress, which looked rather over-sized for her…
And so she got changed into another outfit, and we got there in time as the Kohs were making their way there. It was a kid-friendly place, and there was an indoor play section, as well as an outdoor slide area. Belden wasn’t as scared of Rosabelle as before already, and they could play quite well alongside, if not together with, each other.
We had a good lunch, where they had huge portions of food, as Rosabelle ate tuna for the first time (massive chunks, and not just flakes of, tuna) with her pasta and sun-dried tomatoes, and drank some soup and pinched some of my strawberry milkshake. A tad too salty, but otherwise quite yummy.

Glendon also had his first taste of outside food (Angeline usually prepares for him prior and packs it out) – doesn’t he look oh-so-chubby?
After lunch, we all ventured out to the outdoor area where the kids had fun at the playground.
Next came nice dessert as George drove us all to The Daily Scoop at Sunset Way for nice ice-cream. I’d intended for waffles (something that Rosabelle can eat), but they sort of messed up the mixture and after about three unsuccessful tries, and a long wait, they asked if I could order something else instead. Oh well… I went with my de facto brownie and it was very good, alongside delicious ice-cream that Rosabelle could eat as well. Apparently, their lychee martini ice cream is superb, but pity there wasn’t any on that day. By this time, Glendon had already KO-ed on his mum’s lap, whilst Belden was eating too much (and too quickly) ice-cream for his mum’s liking, so we took a taxi back home after we all finished up the dessert.

Such precious catch-ups every time I’m in Singapore, where Rosabelle can see all the Uncles/Aunties who have been such long friends with her Mummy – priceless…