Week 3 - Pizza pick-up catastrophe, Shaun's sick, 1st birthday party and battle of the table!

This week was a pretty quiet week… Monday back to school like normal.  Everyone was a little bit tired in the morning so we were a little late getting to school but actually made it there in time which is great.   I had to find a place to print pictures for Lino's family board and I found a cook kiosk at the mall that uploads pictures from the wifi and prints out little wallet sized pictures in only a few secs...pretty cool. 

Lino ended up having a pretty good day and I got a note from his teacher saying how well he did....hope to keep it up for the week!  I decided to take a venture to the first market, Tiong Boru, to buy meat and veggies but I was unhappily surprised to find that the market was pretty much empty. For some reason I assumed that the markets would be going pretty much every day but I guess Monday is a quiet day to find that the market was pretty much empty. For some reason I assumed that the markets would be going pretty much every day but I guess Monday is a quiet day. I was a little bit sad that I decided to go to that market instead of Little India but I just didn’t want to be bothered with all the transfers and figured this one was more convenient… I guess I learned my lesson. It wasn’t a complete new wasted trip I did get a bunch of vegetables they went down to the fair price to get a few other items that I couldn’t find there. But I did realize is that I need to invest in one of these rolling baskets if I’m going to keep this sort of shopping. Most of the locals have it so there’s no reason I shouldn’t. Dinner was at the Alexandra hawker center... I thought it would be fast but it turned out to be a long process. The best thing that came from it was that I found a Thai restaurant that had some amazing green curry. I will be back there again soon for sure! By the time we got home Mike was home so I knew it was pretty late.

By Tuesday Lino‘s lucky streak at school was coming close to an end… I got an email from his teacher in the morning talking about how he didn’t want to do his work and how he had to sit for 30 minutes until he finally decided to do the work. Oh Lino...will you ever learn? I couldn't even bother with a response.  Shaun got his first invitation to a birthday party which was exciting and nerve racking all at the same time.  We responded yes then got a second invitation to another party this weekend.  Apparently we had missed the initial invitation because it went out before we joined the group...the pressure is seriously on now.  I had to quickly get onto the Singapore Mom's group to see what the protocol was for giving birthday gifts.  Its funny because now I'm realizing that it is such a cultural thing...birthdays, and I didn't want to be the odd one out so I had to check to see what to do.  The responses were like normal, a group of people think gift cards are ok, another group says gifts only, a few saying money.  The strongest responses were for gits of toys or clothes with the gift receipt so that is the route we took.  I really miss the days of Ireland when all you have to do it put €5 into a birthday card and call it quits.  But that is because I hate looking for birthday gifts...I am not good at it.  Anyway time to buy a gift.  I met up with one of the moms from Shaun's school, Becky, to have a welcome to Singapore & to Jr Kindergarten chat.  She was really nice but she is probably leaving this year due to her husbands work so there won't be any friendship there.  I can also tell that once people move here they make a couple of friends then they seem to be set.  It is probably to hard to keep finding new friends because people come and go so quickly.  Well she confirmed that a gift would be the best way to go so that was good too.

Wednesday was shopping day.  The boys have Chinese New Year celebration at school on Friday and are encouraged to wear traditional Chinese outfits or red or bright color clothing so I decided to go get them a red Chinese outfit in Chinatown.  I don't know why I didn't think of that earlier because there were plenty to choose from and they were all relatively cheap.  Next I went to Little India to do some food shopping.  I actually got chicken there along with my fruits and veggies.  I wanted to get beef but most of the stands only had mutton, seafood or chicken.  I couldn't even see pork?  But Wednesday is definitely a better day to go although there were not as many stands open as I would expect.  I wonder if it was because of the time of day or just the day of week??  Since I was there I had to get some food for later :-).  I also made it over to the mall to get 2 gifts for Shaun's party.  I have to be honest and say I got the first thing I could find that was within the acceptable price range and looked like something the kids would like.  I didn't feel too bad because it was at Toys R Us and they could take it back easy enough.  Its incredible that there is a Toys R Us here...that might be my first 2 presents bought at TRU ever!  First but not likely to be the last... Lino had a good day at school which was great and Shaun came home with some weird cough...great.  I had signed Lino up to do a swim assessment/tester class and it was a little bit of an ordeal getting there because it started raining before we left.  So of course we were running behind but we made it there only to find out that the lessons had been canceled due to the rain and lighting.  The guy said we could wait it out to see if it cleared so we did but after about 25min I was tired of waiting so we left.  It looks like a good swim school so hopefully Lino likes it.  On our way home I finally checked my phone and saw that I had a text from the school saying practice was canceled due to the weather...I guess I should check my phone more often.  We got some of our clothes from Mike's boss today...this is part of the stash of stuff that Mike had been bringing over here with him when he was going back & forth from Ireland.  Josh was nice enough to store the suitcases for us and I've been begging Mike to get them because I've been living with the same 4 shirts for almost a month and it was getting to be to annoying. 

So I was happy to see fresh clothes for me and the boys but it sucked too because we don't have hangers to put stuff up (that is in the Ireland shipment) and I realized even with hangers we will have way to many clothes for just hangers so this weekend we will have to do some shelve shopping.  Oh, Mike wasn't happy that we had Indian food while he was out...he had a work dinner with the big bosses from Ireland.  There was an eclipse tonight and a blood moon which was pretty cool.  I didn't know it was happening until Cesar told me then I got this really good picture from one of the moms in Shaun's class.  The boys would have loved to see it but they were to tired so no need to wake them up for it...there will be another.

Thursday wasn't good.  Poor Shaun's cough got worse during the night and I ended up having to pull a chair into his room and sit with him.  He didn't seem like he could breath and the way the apartment is set up we can't really hear them in our room when their door is closed so what else is a mother to do?  So no school for him, instead he slept in then we went to the onsite clinic to see if it was anything major.  It was kind of a joke because I figured it was just a cold but with him having this crazy rash too I just wasn't sure.  But a cold with pre-bronchitis symptoms or something like that is what the guy said it was and he basically just gave him cough syrup.  It was cheap enough visit so I can't complain too much. 
 
The funny thing is that Shaun didn't act to sick because every chance he got he was trying to get my phone to listen to music and dance...he loves dancing.  The only way you could tell he was sick was because he didn't have as much energy as normal...he was sitting on the couch more than he would and when I told him to take a nap he actually did...in my arms in the chair of course.  It wouldn't have been to bad because I was tired too, I didn't get very good sleep either but the problem was that the building people were in the apartment putting in some extra support brackets in the cabinets which meant loud drilling!  Shaun slept through most of it because I closed his door but when they finally started on the adjacent wall he woke up.  After nap time I tried to get Shaun to go outside for a little for some fresh air but he wasn't having it so after Cesar got back with Lino from school I had to leave!  I was going stir crazy! 

I walked to the hawker center to get a coffee and food and on the way I saw the funnies thing, this lady on her phone texting holding her umbrella that was flipped inside out.  How ironic.  I thought the flipped umbrella's were only in Ireland but it happens here too and to add to it the lady didn't even seem to notice it because she was so intent on her message...classic.  By the time I got back the boys were out side playing.  Lino wanted to get into the pool and so did Shaun but I told him he could only put his feet in which meant that he jumped in anyway...seriously does anyone every listen to me?  So I get back and they are at the playground working out like they are at the gym.  It was too cute these 2 little peep squeaks trying to do push-ups and all this jazz but totally not doing them right.  I tried not to laugh but it was too funny.  Of course they thought it was great and wanted me to record them so I did :-) 

Friday Shaun was back to school and for the most part feeling better and he slept better too which was good for all of us.  Mike decided to go into work a little late so that he could drop the boys into their class which they were excited about but it ended up being a big drama because Lino forgot his book bag somewhere between getting on the first bus and getting to the train station.  He noticed he didn't have it when he got off the bus and we checked the bus but didn't see it so we thought maybe he left it at the bus stop.  So since there were 3 adults and we didn't want to make them super late trying to find it Cesar said he would go back and see if it was at the bus stop by the apartment and we went on to school.  Apparently it wasn't at the bus stop so I was going to call the bus line to see if it may have slid under a seat and we didn't see it but then Cesar had a great idea to check the school where the bus stop was and sure enough someone thought a kid at the school had left their bag.  So Cesar saved the day because I told Lino he would just have to do without his snack and container for Chinese New Year celebration.  He didn't seem to care, as expected.  Cesar was able to get him his bag in the morning so he was lucky.  For the rest of the day I tried to do some work but was to tired so had to nap during the day...it was an amazing 30min power nap. Then decided to have pizza for dinner and I was looking at the prices and decided to pick up the pizza instead of having it delivered.  This was the beginning of the end for my Friday...  I checked the maps for a while to see where the closes Domino's pizza was to an MRT station and based on the map (I didn't actually check the distance) there was one on the way home from school so I figured we would just stop there, walk to get the pizza and take a bus home.  Easy peasy right? I knew I had a free pizza coupon from the last time we ordered and they also gave us other coupons to use.  The crazy thing was that if you picked up the pizza it was like 10 buck but to have it delivered it was $25!  That isn't even a large pizza that's just a "regular".  I couldn't bring myself to paying that so it just confirmed my decision to go pick it up...it would make more sense.  So at school pick up I call to order the pizza which was way more complicated than it should have been.  The guy who answered sounded like he was in a wind tunnel and he was like I can't use my free pizza coupon because I needed to spend a minimum of $10 to redeem it and I had only spent $9.90.  I went back and forth with him about it and told him he could charge me .10 for something else so that I could meet the minimum.   I'm not sure if he understood me or just didn't want to or couldn't do it but he was insistent that I had to spend $10 so I ordered something else to shut him up.  Still cheaper than getting it delivered...still make sense so just go with it Renee.  So we go to the train like normal and get off on the stop that is close to Dominos and it starts really raining (was was sprinkling before but this was more).  Cesar is trying to talk to me about his job interview that went good, I'm trying to map directions to the place and stay dry, the boys are all over me about getting my phone to play some stupid game or get ice cream or something...and I am starting to loose my cool.  We start walking and pull out the umbrellas but then I realize that the shop is like 1.5km away...not like its a long ways away but longer than I want to be walking with the boys in the rain.  So I make a quick decision to leave them at the mall, it was probably better because Shaun didn't need to be out in the rain anyway and I would go get the pizza and come back.  Good adjustment to the plan Renee...so the boys go back to the mall and I keep going.  But then I realize I have to cross over the motorway and I don't want to do that so I start looking at bus routes and find one that goes close to where I needed to go so I jump on...actually I think I saved myself some time and was able to stay dry.  I got to the stop and decided to change the plans again because I had originally thought we would all go and then take a bus from there back to the apartment so it didn't make sense for me to go back to the mall to get the boys...they should just meet me at the bus stop that I just got off on right?  Right!  So I told Cesar the plan, the bus ride was quick, 3 stops and they would be where I was.  So he was trying to get the boys to go (they were playing) and I was getting the pizza.  The shop was in a hawker center which was unexpected but easy enough to find.  So we are half way there but it has taken over 45min already just to get the pizza.  So I go back to the bus stop meeting place and wait for the boys.  After a while I text to see where they are and find out they had just got to the station so it was going to be a few minutes before they made it to me (there was traffic that direction).  After 15min I still didn't see them so I checked in again and Cesar said they were off of the bus and crossing over the bridge but I didn't see them.  What stop are you at????  Come to find out they got off at the next stop, stop 4 so they were past me.  So I told them which bus to get on to meet with me and so they were waiting for it.  For some reason I decided to check my directions again just to make sure that we were going the right direction and I realized that I was on the wrong side of the road!!!!!  I needed to be on the other side of the road to catch the bus going the opposite direction. 

So I had to quickly text Cesar to tell him not to take that bus, go back to the opposite side of the road and take a different bus...but wait for me because I would take it first.  What a freaking disaster!  They almost got on the bus that I had originally told them so I was lucky that I texted them just in time.  So back to the other side of the road we all go and eventually I get on the bus.  I want to make sure Cesar knows which bus I'm on so that he doesn't miss me so I am telling him all the buses that are passing me before I got onto my bus.  We seem to be on the same page and eventually we meet up!  By the time we made it home it was 6pm and the boys finish school at 3:30pm.  What a freaking ordeal and for what?  Two itty bitty pizzas????  OMG  I really needed a drink after that.  I can't believe that I did all that in order to save $15  I'm pretty sure it wasn't worth it but after seeing the size of the pizza (apparently it was 9') I am glad that I picked it up and didn't pay $25 for it to be delivered.  Next time I will just do the online special because at least that is a little more reasonably priced for 2 large pizzas.  Mike had almost as bad of an evening at work with all kind of drama at the end of the day.  He was planning to leave a little earlier since it was Friday but ended up staying late then getting caught in the rain too.  What a Friday

Saturday was birthday party day but before that we went to Ikea to get a few shelves to put into the closets.  I'm not sure if it will help or just take up space but we need to try.  The boys got ice cream before we left and Ikea has this cool dispenser that you use a token to dispense your ice cream.  Maybe all the Ikea's have this but I havn't had an Ikea close to me so I had no idea...pretty cool.  Next we had to rush out to Shaun's bday party.  Lino was going to the STEM carnival at school because he wasn't allowed to come to the party (per the Singapore mom groups suggestion...siblings are not a good idea).  Lino seemed to be ok with it which was good.  I had originally thought to take the bus over to Sentosa where the party was but we had already saw our bus leave and the city bus passed us too so it was just cutting it to close so we took a taxi. 

This wasn't the best idea either because although my driver was very nice he had no idea where this place was.  Sentosa island is pretty big and looks to be a little confusion for drivers but I would have to assume that he has dropped many customers there as a taxi driver.  I think he was just to busy talking that he didn't pay any attention to what he was doing.  He was asking me if I was Afro-American and I had to give him my speech about not really liking to use the term African American because I am just American and happen to be black so maybe Black American is a better description. 

Then he was telling me about his background, he is Chinese and even though he has no family in China he considers his self Chinese.  Then told me some story about some missile from China that was using GPS signals from the US and how bad that experiment went and how bad it made the Chinese look or something...I had no idea what he was talking about.  So I ask him does that mean he is not Singaporean?  He had to think about it but eventually he clarified himself...he is a Singaporean of Chinese descent.   Well good for you.  I'm American with bitch descent if you don't get me to this party!!!!  I was starting to loose my friendliness because during our 'descent' discussion he ended up in the parking lot of the Casino and he was just driving around in circles because he said he didn't know how to get out!!!! WTF!!!!  Finally he found the exit and there were 2 ways you could go...exit Sentosa Island or exit the Casino...he took the first exit of course!  So we had to drive back across the island and turn around to go right back to the Casino.  I told him to just drop us off and we would find a way there.  He actually charged me for his tour of the parking lot...if we weren't already late I would have argued with him about the fare.  But we were late and it was only $10 so I just had to let it go.  After tracking around the place for about 10min we finally made it to the party and we apparently were not too late which was good.  The party was at the Butterfly Garden and there was zoo keeper that we doing demonstrations with some of the animals which was cool.  Shaun was in love with the lizard!  I was trying to convince myself to chat with the parents more but I was so focused on Shaun's interactions with his class that I didn't do much chatting to begin with. 

He didn't seem to be mixing with any of the other kids at first but I could tell that he knew them and he had a few that seems to be friends he might play with more than the others.  I think he was just too excited about the stuff at the garden to worry to much about the kids.  Eventually I tried to encourage him to play with some of his friends and sit with them so he did.  He has similar interactions with them as he does Lino...meaning he was shacking one kid like he wanted his head to come off...the kid didn't seem to mind to much thank goodness.  Then he was kissing all over on the girls, as Shaun normally does, you could tell they had mixed emotions about that and then there was another kid that he was trying to play with but that kid didn't want to play and Shaun just kept on messing with him.  I had to shut that down because I didn't want the parents getting upset...I have no idea if they would or not but there were to many American parents there so there was a good chance they could be offended.  After a while Shaun seemed to get into the mingling spirit and it appeared that the birthday girl is probably one of the class leaders and her good friend too.  These 2 seem to be the love of Shaun's eye...for the moment. 

He was kissing and hugging on them after the cake was served and even though they were kind of pushing him off they kept going back to him too...typical girls.  Then they were off playing together.  Shaun was trying to direct them to do something but the birthday girl, the leader, was re-directing them another direction.  It was cute to watch.   The party was kind of long but good.  I did eventually chat with a few parents which was good...mostly Americans which was funny.  They were all really nice too!!!  I hope to be able to chat more with them.  I also found out that 2 of the families live in one of the condos that we were considering...that would have been cool to be in the same condo and same class...oh well.  One of the dads fro California, who has been living in Singapore for over 10yrs was giving me the breakdown of the country.

  He was pretty funny and super talkative which in this case was good.  He was saying how a lot of people really like living in Singapore but they don't love it or consider it home.  He was telling me about how closed minded people can be here which Mike has said too.  Not that they aren't smart because they are but if a rule says to do ACB they do it just like that, ACB.  No one ever thinks maybe we should do it in order, ABC, because the rule says to do it ACB so that is how they do it. 

Stuff like that.  He said it can be pretty frustrating at times like when he orders a burger at a restaurant and asks for no meat on extra veggies instead because he is a vegetarian.  Most people look at him like he has 3 heads then give some speech about how they can't do that because its a burger and they have to keep the order as it is because of inventory or cost or something like that.  I can't even imagine...he is asking them to take off the meat and add more veggies and he would pay the regular price.  In what world is that a problem?????  Anyway, things like this happen all the time and I can start to see it here and there.  It was a good chat.  Eventually I was able to get Shaun to leave and we met up with Mike and Lino at VivoCity.  Lino had a great time at the STEM carnival and Mike said it was pretty cool but he was upset because one of the rides Lino really wanted to ride had a huge line and Mike stayed in the line for a long time but the carnival closed when they were 3 people away for getting onto the ride.  Mike tried to get the guy to let Lino ride because he had been waiting for like 30min to ride it but the guy said the carnival was closed so he couldn't...this is another example of sticking to the rules.  Mike was so upset!!!! 

Anyway, we were trying to decide about dinner but the boys wanted to play in the water and some other stuff so Mike ended up taking the shuttle back to the apartment to get swim trunks so the boys could splash around and I went back down to the pharmacy to see if there was something else I could put on Shaun's rash...it was still bothering him.  The nice thing about being black, especially in Singapore is that there are not that many like me so the pharmacist actually remembered me and I showed him the rash on Shaun and was telling him all the stuff that I had put on him was burning and the rash wasn't getting better.  He suggested a few other creams and I wasn't convinced it would help so we decided that maybe Shaun needed to go back to the mild shampoo and body wash and stuff because maybe that was keeping the irritation going? It was a good possibility and definitely wouldn't hurt so I got some of the Aveeno baby shampoo & wash and Eczema lotion to see if anything could sooth it. 

By the time we finished shopping Mike still wasn't back so the boys put their feet into the water until they could change. We had thought we would only be there for a little while but ended up staying for like 2hrs I think.  The boys couldn't pull themselves out of the water!!!  Eventually the sun was going down and we were getting hungry so they got out and we were heading to go eat but they saw another play area and had to go play.  This is starting to be a bad perk to the malls...so many different play areas in the mall that are just too cool to pass up.  So we let them play there for a while then we went to the food court to eat...it was to late to do anything else.  Mike went to secure us a table while I took the boys to get food.  When we finally found something that the boys would eat and went to find Mike I immediately could tell there was an issue at the table.  It is kind of funny because the table situation at the food courts here are kind of like the parking spots on a University campus.  You know, when there are several cars circling the parking lot trying to find a person who is leaving.  When you see a potential spot you go and sit there with your blinker on to mark your territory.  Then another car comes up the opposite side of the lane and does the same thing.  Its like a Mexican standoff at this point and it all depends on how the car exits the spot.  Will they realize you were there first and pull out so that you have the easiest access to the spot or will they not care and just pull out the direction that best suits them?  Then will the other car respect that you were there first or do they think they made it there at the same time or that they are just more desperate for the spot and willing to break the moral code of parking spot etiquette and take the spot at all cost?   Take that scenario and overlay that onto a picnic table like seating.

  Mike is there SITTING in one spot with his bag on the other side.  We come up to the table and there is a girl STANDING next to him darting her eyes back and forth between him, the seats and us.  The boys plop down completely unaware of the tension in the air and start fussing about their food.  I notice this tension but not sure what exactly is going on so I tell Mike to go and get his food and I'll get the boys going.  He isn't moving!  Now I really take in the situation and I am starting to get an idea what is going on but I'm not sure so I give him the look "what's up?" but before he can answer me 3 other guys come over to the table and I my suspicions have been confirmed.  There is not really enough room for all of us to sit there so either Mike swooped in and took the table like the New Yorker that he is or he was there at the same time and the girl thought he would give up the table????  No way to tell right now...to much tension.  So I go get my food and Mike texts me the issue..."She tried to take the table but I got here first".  Too funny!!!!!  So basically no one really won because we all squeezed into this small table and had our dinner.  The left before us so we finally got to talk more about what happen and the full story was that Mike saw the table and saw that the people who were there were leaving soon so he stayed close by like a stalker and waited until they left to come over.  On the other hand the girls saw the same scenario and decided to go over to table immediately and put her bags next to the people who were leaving.  When Mike saw this he came over and the people got up and he sat down.  The girl told him that she was reserving the table for her and her friends and Mike said that he had been waiting for the table to be free for a while.  That was the end of their conversation...it was a dual to the death at that point.  Oh the struggle is real.

Sunday was chill day...got up and went to have dim sum buffet at the mall which wasn't buffet but order what you want in 1hr and stay as long as you want to eat.  The food wasn't the best but it was pretty good.  The boys actually enjoyed a few of the dishes too so that was good.  The funny part about the "buffet" was that you can order what you want in the hour but if you have food wastage you are charged.  So everything you order you have to eat.  I think its a really really good idea.  It stops you from ordering all kind of crazy things because if you don't like you have to eat it or pay for it and it helps to keep from wasting food...too many people going hungry around the world for that.  The boys were happy to have an ipad day while Mike put together the computer table and shelves that we had got from Ikea on Saturday.  We needed this rest day...its been way to busy these last few weeks.