Rockstar In Da Lion City (Part 1)

This is a bit of a cheat, because I can’t run around much (especially in the heat) each day, having been enjoying 15-25 (on a “bad” day) degree Celsius weather in Hk… So every morning we basically have some activity and then have to come back after lunch for a lie-down (most of the time I can’t sleep!) before night-time activities. It’s either that or cramps/ hunger pangs no matter how much I eat (oh joy, as I hurtle ever closer to the size of a minivan). Totally different from the Rockstar pregnancy, I’d really like to meet This little person who is so hijacking my life of fun and activity right now humph. But anyway lemme wrap up the Sentosa bit in pics first…

We were supposed to go to the Underwater World with his “Let’s Do Lunch” shark tee, but transport was so crowded/ non-existent we gave up and went back to the hotel… After that is… Port Belly, this awesome kiddie water play area and restaurant!

We park Rockstar here each time Kings and I take turns going back to mind our stuff and following him around…

Obviously I can’t go up with him so when its my turn to keep an eye on him while Kings has a break (hot sun!), I follow him around and stand at the bottom of various slides to wait for him to emerge. So every once in awhile he’ll go “Meet you at blue/ green/ red slide” and then I’ll go wait at corresponding giant child dispenser to collect him… The slides go quite fast u c…

One thing I really love is you can park here and not feel obliged to eat and move/ order lots or move, unlike in HK…

The only glitch is getting back to the hotel. The tram is too full, not even any standing room, and it’s a 40-minute wait for a cab (fairly unheard of in HK) – not even calling all the listed numbers on a sign encouraging us to call to avoid long wait times helps, because there’s simply no cabs.

But I did get this pic of an old-ish Asian tourist dude waiting… There were a couple heavily tattoo-ed pretty Caucasian girls (entire arms covered in very beautiful tattoos, wearing strapless dresses) too, but I didn’t manage to sneak a pic… They did strike up a conversation with Rockstar though, but I was too hot, tired and grouchy (snapped at another Asian lady cutting the queue – so Hongkie of me! But it was obvious she knew she was cutting the queue and wanted to do it anyway and I was Come on, you’re a young woman who doesn’t have little kids in tow nor are you freaking pregnant and bathed in sweat so NO MERCY FOR YOU! Grrr!) to ask for a pic 🙁

“Actually, I’m not Singaporean,” our bartender at the Hard Rock pool tells us. When I ask him if he’s noticed the spike in living costs over the years (7, for us, 3 for him – I’m so not used to how much room service and breakfast buffets and things cost now, it’s comparable to HK prices) he says “Definitely… But it’s worse in Malaysia for young people like us doing these jobs… In Singapore you make maybe SGD 1600 doing these jobs… It’s enough to still pay for meals and stuff. In Malaysia……..”

And so, on to da city, as we follow Kings on his business trip proper…

Dis is not a signboard.

(But it’s a pretty yummy seafood restaurant)

At No Signboard Seafood restaurant in Esplanade, the two women at the next table glance at Rockstar’s booster seat and complain several times to the wait staff that there is “a baby” sitting next to them, while Kings and Rockstar are in the Gents’. They request wait staff move Rockstar’s high chair away from near their table. No one complies. “We really, really don’t want a baby sitting next to us. Can’t you do anything?”

When wait staff reply in the negative, they ask to switch tables. Again no luck, and they then start complaining about babies “never wanting to sit still.” I deliberately make no move, but Kings, returning from the toilet with Rockstar, immediately moves his seat (unaware of their complaints – it was a better view for Rockstar but because they were complaining I was smiling and sitting sweetly and stalling on moving his booster for as long as I could. (Is pregnancy making me a real bitch or what?!) If they’d asked me nicely I would’ve with pleasure – but they said nothing to me, instead complaining loudly about “baby behavior in restaurants,”) thereby spoiling my fun.

Anyway still don’t understand why they were that snippy – Rockstar wasn’t even speaking as loud as they did (nor were any of the handful of little kids scattered around the restaurant) in some Asian language I couldn’t recognize that is definitely not Bahasa, any of the Chinese dialects, Tagalog or Korean (I ask Rockstar for confirmation – he has a couple schoolmates who revert to Korean on the playground so his Korean-dar has proved better than mine before, even though he can’t actually understand the actual words – it’s amazing how much kids pick up from playground talk because it’s something they’re interested in)…

Then we walk briefly round the Esplanade (Rockstar of course knows it better as “the Durians”.) From watching Rockstar gambol up and down I notice Kings has wandered off into a corner. “Crazy guy yelling, they just called Security, I want to see what they do.”

Boh lieu lah my hub, I start. “But he’s an Ang Moh, (ie obviously foreign) I want to see how Security behaves.” Oh, right. Because in Hk no one ever cares. Everyone yells at everyone. For cutting queue, for being rude (haha), once an old-ish pedestrian and a younger motorcyclist started pushing each other right in front of our car on a side street. Pedestrian was complaining that when Motorcyclist put his foot down off the bike for balance, he had stepped on his foot. So he hit Motorcyclist on his helmet, in a gesture meant to be more rude than harmful. Then carried on with the verbal abuse.

Finally Motorcyclist said, “Know what, let’s just settle it in the clearing over there, lemme park my bike,” at which point Pedestrian finally went on his way. What went thru my mind as they stood directly in front of our car gesticulating angrily was:
1) Crap. How long are these two going to take. I don’t know enough Cantonese to ask these two to move and our elderly part time driver who is quite kaypoh is definitely not opening his mouth, he’s going to sit there and watch the show. I’m going to be late picking Rockstar. He HATES when I’m late after Putonghua.
2) Stupid Pedestrian. He’s almost a head shorter than Motorcyclist, and he’s not even wearing a helmet.

Anyway. Onward to the Four Seasons business hotel in Orchard Road area. I likey. The Rockstar, nnot so much. Hard Rock would blast music for pool parties necessitating bedtime to be after midnight because we could all hear it from our rooms, but in this more civilized part of the world, no such luck for the Rockstar.

So nice. And it’s like 30-40% cheaper than Hard Rock…

Can I take that painting home? And the mirror? How bout the table…..?

Rockstar liked that bird so much he went,

“A bird was look-ing for
Some Easter e-eggs
But they all turned in-to 
Di-no-saur e-eggs…..”