Love this Baby Jogger City Mini!

2010 #1 left #2 right

This picture was right the day I bought the stroller in 2010. #1 refuse to give up her stroller and #2 was becoming way too attached to be being carried all the time and he was getting heavy.

After researching for double strollers and talking to sales girls for their opinions, I finally bought this stroller from Motherworks Singapore (lovely and helpful salesgirl). #1 climbed on right away. #2, who always became fussy when we put him down on stroller, saw that his sister was next to him on the City Mini and adapted to the stroller immediately. Within 5 minutes on the City Mini, he slept. Mom was happy with 2 kids down on stroller and snapped picture to send to their dad on his business trip in Seoul.

2012, after using the stroller everywhere we goes, including many travels and theme parks, it is still in a very good condition, being sturdy and all. I grocery shopped and put the bags on the stroller with no signs of toppling. #1 is 17kg and #2 14kg and are still excited to hop on to their stroller positions. They sleep peacefully without getting matted hair due to open mesh seats for extra ventilation.

Goes up escalators well. People can be so rude and not let children enter the elevators first; they rushed heads in and sometimes its only 2 floors up. Going down the escalator with 2 toddlers is a huge challenge and require 2 handlers.

Travel with ease as it folds us easy, although getting it to the locked position is an extra maneuver.  The travel bag is a worthy investment so that you don't get the stroller dirty from the long plane rides. You do, however, have to remove the wheels first and sometimes the stroller bag gets into the baggage pick-up/claim.

2012- #2 on the right and his cousin on his right. Both sleeping and that's Little Giraffe's blankies on their lap

My 2012 challenge is to persuade #1 or #2 to be gallant and give up for #3 to sit in the stroller...

Big Apple

I used to travel to NY twice annually for fashion week and have always prefer to stay in different hotels for every trip. I had stayed in Thirty-thirty Hotel, Mansfield Hotel, Shoreham Hotel, Marcel hotel, Hudson Hotel, Amsterdam Hotel, L.ecole Oakwood Apartment, and others which I don't remember...My favorites: Mansfield and Shoreham for their location and rooms.

Since I haven't been back to NYC for 2 years since pregnant with Baby J, I was quite excited to travel although it was the first time I leave Baby J for more than 1 night. As usual, I planned out schedule for shopping and work but this around, I failed to input some addresses as I thought me and Lina (my friend, partner, traveling buddy) was familiar with the city. Not.

Day 1 - Lost
We exit the hotel without even checking into our rooms, for 1. the room was not ready and 2. we worried that we wouldn't get out of the hotel if we succumbed to the temptation to rest in the room. So off we went to the Grand Station instead of Bus terminal. After 1 hour of walking around and arguing about the direction, we finally arrived the bus station at 3pm. At 7.30pm was the promised time as we wanted to go back early, I was lost in the huge outlet! I ran around, sweating and blistering my feet, while my friend waited for me. The bus left when I reached the bus stop. We took the 8.30pm bus which delayed for 1/2 hour. We checked in back to hotel at 10+, since we hadn't had our dinner, we walked around to find decent supper. At midnight, I was restless and my feet hurt so I walked out to pharmacy.

Stay Hotel- nice, clean, good Times Square located boutique hotel.

We just have to stop by Magnolia Bakery before going to the bus terminal to go to Woodsbury Outlet.

Back to the city. 11pm and hungry...we just walked in the bar next to the hotel

Day 2 - Jet-Lagged and again Lost

We started our day okay aside from waking up hungry and ate hotel breakfast. We went around Hyde park by foot as my friend 'remembered' the Apple Store at. After walking around the park, we were too tired and too proud to ask for directions, so we took a cab with hopes of the driver knowing where it is.
Here's my friends description - a park, glass building, a huge toy store, and Louis Vuitton. I merely gaped. Geez, if I had to ask her to describe to me early on, I would have known we went to the wrong park. So off we went to Central Park. After getting to the Apple store, which is 24/7, I got myself Itouch and we had to go back to hotel to change to the Fashion show in Hyde Park.
As much as I anticipate to attend fashion shows, I detest the nervousness of getting in the show and preening too much. Fashion can be tough, the business and the people...After the show, both of us, went around the park and took off our Louboutins and back to our Crocs. We went back to Central Park and window-shopped around FAO and the stores nearby.
Then we went for dinner and drinks, which then led to more drinks.

From Fifth Ave to Soho. You gotta visit Kiki De Montparnasse and buy a little posh item *wink.

Day 3 - Jet-lagged and Hangover

Ugh! I don't when was the last time I indulge myself with alcohol...since 2007, last shot of vodka at my own wedding. Oh the vodka mix and wine in our last Seoul trip 2 months ago doesn't count...On the impulse of meeting my fun friend, Francesca and combination of Lina, and plus feeling for the first time of mommy-day-off, we got point-blanked drunk. Thank goodness of my instinct to know when to have my last drink, me and Lina, manage to get back to hotel to sleep away.
Forcing ourselves to wake up for our business meeting at 10am was not an easy task. We were late and we tried to be sober. After the meeting, thank goodness it was a small presentation of shoes, we were both pale from hungover and maybe still a little drunk since we still want to continue to do our errands in the city. From 5th Ave to Soho, I had to drop by Kiki de M store. From Soho, I went to Ground Zero to pray for a dear friend, which I then found out, the memorial ground is no longer there. Dinner again was late at 9.30pm...

Day 4 - Tired and Dumb
Both of us should have known after days of not having a normal day, we should be more aware. Again, another mistake to top off our entire trip - we missed our flight. I assumed our flight of being close to midnight after years of flying that flight, did not make me check my itinerary record, which I had already receive the check-in SMS.
OMG...Lina assuming I know the time, fail to heed her female instincts to check her paper records. So while we both were waiting for the private car I called after finishing our buying meeting, outside with our luggages, Lina flipped open her paper records to check. Hold and behold... our Singapore Airline flight to Singapore was at 9.20pm instead of the 11+ I thought it was to be. It was 6.40pm and I called the car to come at 7.15pm.
So aghast we were, we chased around the street at Ganservoort, which by means, frequency of any yellow car that passes by is minimum and even less for a taxi van, since we had 3big luggages. Our car came after we manage to haul up the luggages into a van...we wasted another good 5minutes to move the luggages again into the the private car.
Another dumb mistake we made in this trip was the fact that both of us didn't bother to buy local number, which we both usually do. So we asked for the driver to lend us his phone while Lina called to the airport.
Even a lot of "pleases", we were told that if we don't get into the airport 1hour before departure, we are not able to fly. We then called other airline to book for other flight availability that fly out the same night. Both of us cannot afford to miss that night's flight. Lina had to go back to her 2 children as her caretaker was to leave; I had to connect flight from Singapore to Beijing and I don't get to my connection Beijing flight, I would screw up my itinerary for 2 cities and I couldn't imagine my husband flying semi-long haul flight alone with Baby J.
So after running around the booths, we decided on China Airline. My initial round trip ticket was economy but I couldn't envision myself to sit more than 30hours in econ, so I spend freaking $3000+ on my business one-way tix to Singapore. Call me spoiled but NY-Anchorage-Taipei-Hong Kong- Singapore-Beijing??? Business seat will keep me sane.

Pop Burger is a fast food, self service dining. Good decor, not fast food friendly price, so-so burgers.

FAO is a haven! For kids and young at hearts adults. On the first floor is kingdom of furry animal toys, going up the escalator, I was greeted with a scene of dragon made impressively with Lego.
2nd floor- children books, Lego land, dolls, toy houses, Barbie corner with Barbie catwalk runway, VTech, Alex Toys, The Big Piano (you can tap dance on the piano floor), and a room for private parties
3rd floor - infant land

12 Flights in 3 Weeks

How did I get myself to travel in 13flights? I'm not a jetsetter; I happened to transit in many countries. My initial traveling itinerary was New York for work and China for traveling with my entire family that includes my parents down to my nephews and of course, Baby J. Nothing crazy but I missed my flight from NY to Singapore en route China. So here's the crazy route I took.

Sept 10 Jakarta-Singapore
Sept 11 Singapore-Frankfurt (transit)
Sept 11 Frankfurt- NY
Sept 15 NY-Anchorage (transit)
Sept 16 Anchorage-Taipei (transit)
Sept 17 Taipei-Hong Kong (transit)
Sept 17 Hong Kong - Singapore (transit)
Sept 17 Singapore - Beijing
Sept 20 Beijing - Hangzhou
Sept 24 Shanghai - Hong Kong
Sept 27 Hong Kong- Singapore
Sept 28 Singapore - Jakarta

How did I survive? Sleeping pill, Kindle, inflight, movies, shawl for cold night, and optimism.

Singapore Trip

For the 10 years I grew up in Singapore, this small wonderful country, there's so many places and activities that I didn't visit and experience. Sure I visited Clarke Quay but I never bother to watch the G-Max the Ultimate Bungy.

My husband and our friend, Mr. L, bought tickets and I chickened out. I did bungee and rode on the one of the most highest roller coasters (Superman in US and the wooden roller coaster in Seoul), so its basically been-there-done-that-and-not-going-to-do-it-again. So off the two brave men sprung high into the air and bounced a few times before landing back to sanity.

After the crazy jump, we strolled down the street to visit my husband's fave jazz bar on Southbridge, which was again - my first jazz bar experience in Singapore.

Another friend suggested Valentino restaurant, I almost thought its related to the fashion house but thank goodness, its a very down-to-earth restaurant. Cozy and family-run Valentino serves some homey food and the prices are not daunting either. Here's the address and make sure you reserve ahead!
Ristorante Da Valentino
11 Jalan Bingka
Singapore, 588908, Singapore

Doota!

Mommies, girlfriends, bargain shoppers, fashionistas, and fellow bloggers, be sure to visit Doota! in Dondaemum. 8 floors of shopping area- B1 trendy/ sports, L1 women clothes, L2 more women's fashion, L3 Shoes & bags, L4 Accessories & Make-up, L5 men's fashion, L6 Children's shopping haven, L7 souveniers& homewares. Pick up children's hanbok for as cheap as 32,000W (USD30). Remember- if you are buying a lot and paying in cash, you can ask for discount. Ask for calculator and punch in the number you are bargaining for. You can't bargain too much in this place, disc usually goes up to 5% of total value.

Baby on Air

More pics from my blackberry...
Baby J is relatively easy on air. Our trip to Seoul is longest air time for her so I planned for the night flight - the red eye flight. We even went to the airport few hours earlier so she could sleep on her stroller.
Maybe Baby J could feel our excitement taking her for a trip, she stayed clear-eyed throughout the 3 hour wait in airport. On the plane, it took her awhile to settle down, she joined in the chorus of the other babies' cries on the same row and I had to walk and rock her to sleep.
Both mommy and daddy were already so tired and it was until 2am when she finally slept on the flight bassinet. Before I could doze, there was turbulence and I had to take Baby J out from her bassinet. We finally had couple of hours to nap before we touch down Seoul (approx 6hrs flight Singapore-Seoul).

On our flight back to Singapore, we took the 7pm flight and upgraded our seats to business class, using up all the mileage we earned for 1yr! It was a new plane, with the full recline seats, I thought Julia would be able to sleep this time around. Nope. With the extra space, it became playground for her to climb over to daddy and rummage the inflight magazines.
After few hours, when she was so tired from being unable to sleep and crying, she threw up. The best thing I could do was to stay calm, smacked daddy's head to wake him up, wiped off puke from my face and neck, grabbed baby's spare pajamas, walked over to restroom to clean baby first then barked at daddy to get my spare clothes. Baby J was too tired to cry further and she finally succumbed to sleep.With the plane buzz and my husband's snore, I got some sleep with Baby J next to me on the seat.
All was well towards immigrations and baggage claim, it was inside the taxi when Baby J woke up and grinned at us. It was 1am.

Travel Seoul

I lived in Seoul for 9 months as a housewife and I didn't really enjoy my time there due to lost in translation and homesickness. However, re-visiting Seoul with Baby J and friends turned out to very enjoyable. Here's what we did...
We strolled Baby J in the park. There are various parks by the rivers and many people jog, walk, play tennis, reading book, and many other activities. We saw the ducks by the river and it was first time for Baby J to see ducks up close.

Shopping!! Upscale shopping Corso Como on Apgujeong vs affordable shopping in Dongdaemun. Fantastic Korean beef, I'm not a big beef eater but I can taste quality! The Koreans carve good meet for the grill... I went into shopping craze for 3 different visitations to children's section! Its all about shopping, eating, hanging out and walking around till the wee hours. There are many 24hr restaurants, mini marts and super-late-night shopping.

For many local Koreans, or just these few Korean chaps we were with, they haven't visit the Namsan tower. Its a tourist thing and it was quite fun when you are with funny and easygoing group. We went on weekend, so there weren't any partking and there was a long queue to get on to the airconless cable car for an awful 5 minutes ride due to heat, so I highly suggest to visit any tourist place during weekdays.

Chaining locks of well wishes and loves on the gate. I had seen this display of love chains in Yellow Mountain, China, and well, that beats anything else...

Other worthwhile places to go in Seoul for the well-travelled visitors:

1. Everland Theme Park - this is fantastic for both adults and children. Ride the Express roller coaster which is touted as the Asian tallest roller coaster! Don't forget to purchase the picture outside the ride for a funny remembrance on how your face and hair look like.
2. Apgujeong Rodeo - Sit by any cafes and pay about $5 for coffee to people see. If you are lucky, you may chance upon local celebrities.
3. Nami Island - many dramas are filmed here, so walk down the memory if you are a Korean drama fan.
4. Eden Club - ever wonder where the beautiful and hip people spend their Saturday night? Eden. Wow! Back in my prime time, where I used to club, and let's just stick to Jkt, S'pore and HK, Eden Club in Ritz Carlton hotel has the most good people under one roof and on the same night. I haven't step into nightlife since I got married and due accompanying friends, that I got to sample Eden, and I was overwhelmed by the scene! Me and husband left at 1.30am and our friends told us when they left at 3.30am, there were still many people getting into the club.