The quickest Singapore visit

This weeked the kids and I had to go to Singapore, due to some admin stuff. It was probably the strangest SIN trip we've ever done... can you believe, we went to IKEA - without buying ANYTHING! :D

Ha ha, yes: IKEA. Well, we went over on the evening flight on Friday and back on the morning flight on Sunday, so we literally only had one day there. All we really wanted to do, was see our friends the Roses and say goodbye for now. I asked the kids what they wanted to do with them, and they both asked to go to IKEA for lunch!
It suited quite well, since Nathan was going back to his IKEA yesterday to get some more things for our arrival, so then we could tell him what we had picked out, and he could get just that!

They now have Swedish pick n' mix in IKEA! Fab!

Apart from our little morning IKEA excursion, we just hang about at their Condo. Ashley was teething so she wasn't really in a good mood at all, apart from right here, when I managed to snap a quick photo of her smiling:

We also took the kids for a swim in their pool, but it all was a bit much for Luca in the end:

Some nice Indian dinner by the pool, aaahhh...

After enjoying a few hours in my favourite airport Changi, we took our very last flight back HOME to Brunei, with RBA. Next time we're on a plane, we're out of here for good...

B & B in Singapore

Even though it was a rather late night for us on Friday, we were up early Saturday and straight after breakfast, off we went - not a minute to loose when it comes to shopping!
We were going to meet up with Misuzu at IKEA. Beenal and Misuzu hadn't seen each other for nearly two years, so it was about time.

Misuzu had brought Oliver too, but he spent the first hour in 'Småland', the playland, so we could browse and shop in peace. They had brought out all the Christmas stuff early, so there was a lot to look at! Lucky us!
I wish I would've taken a photo of us when we tried to pay... there was just so much stuff... and a lot of it times three, as we all bought some of the same things!
We had to bribe Oliver with a $1 soft ice, because it sure took a while to get all our purchases through the check-out...

Taxi photo, on the way from somewhere to somewhere. We took a lot of taxis this weekend!

It was a bit of a shame we didn't have the time to spend in our suite really. The hotel was actually really nice. Really nice..!

Our suite even came with it's own Nespresso machine!

 
No, we had no time for dawdling around! After having dropped all our IKEA purchases off with the bell boy at the hotel, we jumped back in a cab and attacked Orchard Road. We were on a mission! We had Christmas presents to look for and clothes to try on... We covered it all, and even had time for a Pumpkin Latte break, mmmmm! Very Christmassy!

We actually managed to shop 10am-10pm! Not bad huh!
All of Orchard Road, mostly in ION, then we did Vivo City, and last but not least, a last-minute look in Robinsons at Raffles City, until closing time and we were ushered out of there...

Once we finally got back to the hotel with the last bags, we were really hungry. Turned out it was actually a bit of a mission to find somewhere where the kitchen was open after 10pm! After wandering around the block, starving, we finally found a German Beer Bar that was still open.
We ordered up some pork schnitzel and 'Tropical Toms' (some kind of "beertail", rhum, juices and beer) - and enjoyed some live music. Not bad at all!

We decided to pack that evening, since we had quite a lot of things and suspected it would take us a while. We were right, the wrapping paper didn't fit at all for one... and I must say it was really a bit of a challenge this time! I should actually always travel with two suitcases, no matter how short the trip!

Last breakfast, with a view. The Conrad Centennial, which we stayed in, really was in the perfect location for us. Right by Suntec City, and close to everything.

I even managed to squeeze it all in! Well, nearly anyway. I still carried an IKEA bag as hand luggage as I had bought a few glass things, that I didn't want to break on the way.

A truly successful shopping weekend - filled with lots and lots of laughs! Thank you Beenal, I had a super duper time!

SIN nightlife

Just after we got back from Singapore last time, Beenal told me she was about to go over there in November. To make a long story short, her parents-in-law were supposed to come out, but had to cancel their trip due to illness, and could cancel every part of their big trip - apart from this hotel in Singapore this weekend.
Beenal's husband thought she should go over and enjoy it on her own, as taking the whole family would be really expensive, so... I kindly offered to come along and accompany her (even though I'd just been, I know)! Well, opportunities like this don't present themselves that often!

Since she was working Friday, she could only catch the evening flight whereas I went over in the morning and spent the day with Misuzu. Firstly at 'Fika', as you've seen, and then at Raffles City for a little bit of shopping.
In the evening Misuzu invited me back for dinner at her place, while I waited for Beenal's flight to arrive. We had some minestrone soup and nice NZ wine.

When Beenal arrived, she picked me up and we went straight to the hotel, and checked into our Executive suite... Even though it was rather late, we managed to enjoy a couple of glasses of wine at the Executive lounge as well, before actually going up to explore our... suite..! :)

Then we got changed and went out to explore the nightlife. The Scotts were in Singapore as well, and they had asked us to join them at Ku De Ta, a night club on top of the posh Marina Bay Sands.
Fueled by all that wine - we danced all night long!

 

We had such a fun night!

Fika

On Friday I got to spend time with Misuzu. Picked her and Ashley up at their condo, and out we went for lunch. I wanted to try this Swedish bistro 'Fika', so we headed down close to Little India.

The place was really busy, and they had a quite a large menu for a small café. It was hard to choose for me, I wanted to order it all!

In the end I settled for a shrimp and egg open faced sandwich, with some Kopparberg Cider; and Misuzu had 'pyttipanna' (diced potatoes, onions and beef with sliced beetroot), one of my absolute favourite dishes. 

The portions were really big, so when it came to dessert we decided to share, which was a good decision. We got a huge piece of 'kladdkaka' (a bit like a brownie) with strawberries and ice cream.

It's a shame the location was a bit off our normal trail. I'll try to come back again, if we are down that part of town some other time. It was really nice!

The 787 Dreamliner

I've said it before, traveling from Brunei to Singapore is such an easy trip to make. I went over again this weekend, and this time I was lucky enough to get to fly on RBA's new Boeing 787 - the Dreamliner for the first time. It was launched here in Brunei on the 12th of October, and only did it's inaugural flight on the 18th.

We were spoiled with lots of space on Friday morning, there was only 6 of us up the front. I took the opportunity to take some photos. Nice and roomy:

My seat for the morning, by the window:

The windows are bigger, and they don't have blinds. Instead you push that little button under it, and you can gradually control the tint of the window from transparent to dark:

 

Unfortunately there was another couple sitting just across the aisle from me, so I felt a bit silly (especially on such a short flight) starting to play too much with all the buttons! I would've wanted to check how the seat reclined, and how flat the bed went etc. Instead I just put my feet up and enjoyed a movie.

Ha ha, not sure I can send the kids to the toilet by themselves anymore though, they'll take forever having far too much fun with all the buttons in there..! :D

It was nice that when you opened the door to go into the toilet, the light was blue, until you locked the door from the inside. Makes for less disruption for the passengers sitting right outside the toilet I guess, they don't have to get the bright light in their eyes.

It really was a nice flight. I'm looking forward to getting on the Dreamliner again when it's time for another Europe trip.