Our Singapore Trip Is Ineffable!

I wouldn't say that we're  "back to reality" as others often say when they get back from vacation, but yes, we're home, happy and inspired to go back to our routine after seeing our children once again.   

Our 5 days of bonding and building memories with our son and younger daughter with their families in Singapore was not a dream, they are as real as we know and feel; an awesome experience that is difficult to describe;  "there are no words to express.....", we often say but I learned that there's a word for that,  "ineffable".  When we feel or experience something we find difficult to describe, the word is ineffable.  

On the flip side, it is always good to be home and sleep on our own bed. I missed snuggling under my double-king-size-soft-and-smooth-light-as-a-feather fleece blanket. 

Whenever we visit, our children always go out of their way to entertain us, alternately taking off from work so someone can bring us around.  They are constantly asking where else we want to go, what we need to shop or what we want to eat.  

They always bring us to new places, eating out is always a new experience, a novelty except the American Club which we never fail to go to. Our Singapore visit is never complete unless we go there.  It is a nice family place and I love the Union Bar where people get a quick bite after work and watch the latest games on tv.  But what I like there are the bottomless popcorn, sung sung peanuts and potato chips they  serve free along with our drinks. 

 

We spent a lot of time with our 2-year-old grandson to get better acquainted with him and for him to know us well.  When we go out and he is buckled up on his car seat in our son's Audi, he starts his roll call: 

"papa" and glances at the front passenger seat; 

"Dada", who is driving

"Nana", he then looks my way 

"Mei-mei", to his Mom who is between us in the back seat. 

"--kas", that's him. 

If the car goes fast and looks like we come too close to the car in front of us, he'll say "oh ..oh...."

When he says "excuse", you have to get out of his way. 

We even toured his school:

We posed at the entrance of Mind Champs

Inside his classroom with his best friend Luke. 

We stayed in our son's condo where our younger daughter and her husband live close by, just a few blocks away that it is convenient for them to come by every night for dinner.  

Baking is my daughter's passion; on the first night, 

she brought this banana up-side down cake; the next night, it was a mushroom quiche, but we failed to take a picture, so sorry, but it was yummy, our grandson loved it.  

This moussaka generously topped with cheese baked to just-the-right-golden-brown color was served on our last night along with the pizza and pasta. 

When we slept over at her condo one night and we dined at Toast Box.

This was taken at Capitol Piazza, near Marina Bay Sands. Our son-in-law is not in the picture, he was busy checking out our reservation when we posed at the restaurant facade. 

Our lunches were always in a new restaurant we've never been to,  except on Sunday when our daughter prepared lunch in their condo. 

We've been at Dempsey before but not in Chopsuey restaurant. The food was basically Chinese with Asian fusion.  I loved the crispy beef with orange sauce, I'd like to try that at home sometime soon. 

Our daughter brought us to the restaurant of celebrity Chef Gordon Ramsay at Marina Bay Sands.  

I ordered quinoa salad and Jim ordered the duck for starters.

This is my braised ox cheek and on the right is Jim's baked fish while the one above is my daughter's roast duck with salad greens.  

The food was great, though the chef's food repertoire is generally salty for our taste that we urgently needed a latte afterwards. 

This vacation is exactly the kind of break we needed. As our usual practice, we both messaged our children from the airport: 

"Thank you so much for this wonderful vacation, your time and attention as well as the sumptuous meals, we had a great time".  I messaged.

They all acknowledged that they also enjoyed our company. 

"Thanks for the visit, come more often, your grandson is becoming so attached.  The five days went so fast, suddenly your visit was over.", my son replied.  Our daughter replied in pretty much the same tone. 

We had a grand time, now I'd say it again, it was ineffable!