Weekend activities

Saturday morning, we went to the Botanical Garden. The initial plan was to meet with the Meyer Family (aka Anna-Maria, Soren, Eva & Sofia) and check out the children's section. Well, the taxi driver took us the the Park, and getting off, we realize we are on the opposite side from where to be... The map promised a 30 min walk. Well, assume that didn't consider +35 degrees and two toddlers who wanted to walk by themselves... Almost 1.5 hr later, we end up in the children's section - jabadabadoooo :-) 
After being in the 'fountain section' for about 20 min, it started to rain, so off we went to have lunch at the Meyer residence!

Will definitely come back though as the park was very beautiful and relaxing!

 

 

 





Hannah chatting with best friend Olivia in Hong Kong :-)

 

Hannah has a 'fetish' for bandages and is
 here showing off her new bandage with a crocodile on :-)



Hannah taking her midday nap on the living room floor...

Matilde & Hannah are 'washing' Lisa the doll's clothes... see the result in the video below... :-)

 

Pool time!!

It is not easy to learn how to walk.... or as you sing in Swedish: "en slank han dit o en slank han hit..."!





Playdates, job discussions, and a night out!

Life in Singapore feels rather similar to having my maternity leave with Matilde - lots of playdates, coffee lattee and obviously - kids :-) I have also managed to have job discussions with a few companies, as realizing I cannot stay home full-time, as probably will drive myself insane... or maybe after the summer holiday, I love it so much and simply become a full-on expat wife!! (guess that Porsche dream of Morten will remain a dream then.... ;-)

When first moving in here in Singapore, we hadn't seen the apartment, but trusted our agent as she is also a friend of ours. Unfortunately, we forgot mentioning we would like to have a regular owen; not a gas oven as in Bel-Air, not a conventional oven like in the Happy Valley flat, simply a regular oven - well, we are now stuck with the latter.... Did try to make cup cakes though and they turned out ok, at least from the look of such. Tastewise...not so good....! (but since the cabinets are emptied out on candy, the crunchy and rather tastless cup cakes become a saviour for a sugar desperate mummy....hm....)

 

Hannah has been to a playdate with 4 kids from her future class. It was fun to meet the kids and the moms, and the kids had a good time. The high was when the organizing mom brought out snacks... maybe not from the mummies viewpoint re the outlook of getting the kids to eat dinner in less than an hour went down the drain...

 

Hannah, Conrad & Olivia

Matilde & I went to the Danish Church playgroup and Matilde loved it, as always when other kids are around! It was +10 kids with mummies/nannies and we sang Danish songs and had snack time. I have signed up for bringing snacks in a few weeks, but after realizing the owen is not what I thought it would be, is not having too high of hopes for the snack outcome...

 




We have been recommended to visit Demsey Hill from several friends so here we go - it was a cozy area with art galleries and furniture shops mixed with restaurangs and a big playground. We went for dinnerat 'Prime Society' with Morten's collegue Soren and family, a friend of Anna-Maria, and a DK collegue, Martin. The food was delicious but I had to ask them to re-heat my beef half-way trough the dinner, as been running with the kids... oh well :-)

Parrots!!

Hannah, Sofia & Eva

"Sleeping Bunny...! :-)

The Danish Consulate of Singapore invited us for a viewing of 'Haevnen' or 'A Better World' in English. I already saw it with the Hong Kong Danish Consulate but it was so good I didn't mind watching it again!

First week in Singapore!

Have now managed over a week in Singapore and we are still happy about the move - hence good news :)
Gotta admit though that after a few days with no phone and not a full calender, I started to climb on the walls... I know it is ridiculous but need some time to get used to the slower pace and not having work issues to deal with... not that taking care of a "terrible-two's" toddler & an almost-walking 10 months old is a walk in the park....!

The first week has been full of playdates, getting residence cards / finding good grocery stores / where to make extra keys / the closest bus & MRT stop / parks with shade / where and when to find kids at our complex's play grounds (apparently, not until 5-530ish so have now pushed dinner to 630-7ish, feeling adventurous... ;-) 

Getting a taxi in Singapore is definitely not as easy as in Hong Kong!! I have so far had to wait at least 10-20 min to either get one from the street or by ordering one. When stopping taxis on the street, half of them are going in the wrong direction and is not really interested in taking me to some place across town (guess I can't blame them...) If you instead call for one, it takes for ever to get through to the operator and then another eternity to locate a taxi in the nearby surroundings... Anyhow, I have always managed to get where I want so guess it is not that big of a deal :-)

...that said, we have decided we will for sure get a car after the summer....! Since the prices here are insanely high, Morten is deaply depressed as the money spent for a tiny Mazda would easily get him big and shiny Porche in Hong Kong.... ohps! So yes, I have promised he'll get the latter if we move back to HK to get him back on his feet again ;-)

Playdate with Sofia & Eva

Picnic in a nearby park

 

Sunday Brunch with Anne, Casper & Conrad, friends who lived in Hong Kong in

same complex as Morten before I moved there. Conrad and Hannah are only 2

weeks apart and already enjoy eachother's company! Hannah will start same school

as Conrad after the summer, so great they get to know eachother already now.

 

Picnic by the pool. Great idea but was not quite as relaxed as we were
aiming for...surprisingly enough ;-)

 




Playdate with the Swedish mummy group. Matilde enjoyed herself big time,
only having her own age group around. Everyone were very sweet!
Afterwards, four mummies with daughters went for lunch in a nearby mall and
luckily enough, the kids behaved exceptionally well (Matilde slept...) After, we
aimed for some shopping where Matilde's new diaper brand proved not being
of as good quality as promised... and we went home! :-)

Meja & Matilde samtalar :-)

Casper & Morten tried out our Squash court,
Hannah was very fashinated!

Singapore - our new home lah :-)

We have arrived to our new home country and so far, only good vibes! We have had a few intense days with getting our home organized, exploring the closeby surroundings, relaxing by the pool, and feel we are all settled down.

Hannah's future school is located only 5 min walk from our house and Morten's office is about 10 min cab ride away, can't be better location wise! We have several pools in the complex, 3 play grounds and one fish pond, so almost feel like our old home in Bel-Air (minus our great friends of course!) The ocean is about 10 min walk from our place, and the beach parks offer great recreation possibilities.

Now to the negative side: it is steamingly hot and when it rains, my gosh you get wet!! Try to get a cab when it is raining - forget it! At least if you don't have a phone to call for a cab (my phone was lost in the move, just slightly irritating....) Anyhow, with a XXXL umbrella and a new phone (+65-84312120), this issue should be solved :-)

The girls have adopted to their new home country after a few days, but Hannah is still talking about 'Tower 7' where we lived in Hong Kong, her close friends, and her teacher Ms. Kathleen. She keeps asking us: "Where IS Singapore?!" since we have talked so much about it :-)

The mom has not really adopted the new lifestyle of being an expat wife without a job :S
She really miss her job but will work on accepting the new situation...



Matilde's room




Hannah's room



 





My back is hurting.....

We found some really big fish in the pond, wonder
what those fish get fed...!

One of the playground brought back childhood
memories from Skarhamn :-)

Our first visitors: Morten's collegues Kasper
& Soren with families

Story time for Hannah, Sofia & Eva (Soren &
Anna-Maria's twin girls who are one month older
than Hannah)



My dear friends Arthur & Ming from OOCL Logistics in HK
(service providers from H&M) sent me the nicest
Good Luck basket, that really made my day!!

Morten & I had lunch at a Swedish cafe place. I was
super excited when I found the place, unfortunately not when we left.... the food wasn't really typical Swedish... (but what is except Swedish meatballs :-)



Matilde 'walks' and 'walks'... great to see how she develops

but wow would it be nice if she would just for a minute sit happily

on the floor playing with toys.... :-)

Hannah's favorite playground with a seesaw - the faster and higher she

 flew up in the air, the better, of course. My fearless daughter...! :-)

Farewell lunch with the H&M Global Shipping Team:
Vicky, Chris, Hide, Mats and myself

Modelling at Top-Toy

Before leaving Hong Kong, the girls had their final photo shoot at Top-Toy. Hannah did her first when she was only 3 months old (the baby furthest to the left: http://www.top-toy.com/sales-channels/) Hannah's friend Otto joined us this time.

 

 

Mummy & Matilde <3

Hannah taking a break :)

Attempt to 'High Five!!'

Otto & Hannah