Saturday, November 2, 2013

Lunch, Dinner and a Walk at the Botanical Gardens

Jacquie, Sarah and Mum
So after dinner at Jumbo Seafood restaurant, I met up with Jacquie and her sister Sarah for lunch with Mum at Paradise Dynasty, a Shanghainese Dim Sum restaurant for lunch. Mum was insistent that there should be no shellfish in the food and gave specific instructions to the servers. However, when she tucked into the fried rice, she suspected something shell-fishy and promptly sent the dish back; the waiter apologized profusely, promising us free dessert. I was more than okay with that, but then the manager returned with the fried rice, saying that the suspect morsel was indeed chicken. I avoided eating the dish after that for obvious reasons. :)


After lunch we headed to PS Cafe (brand endorsement here; I expect free cakes from now on) for a post-lunch coffee before Mum suggested  a mini tour of the prewar houses in our neighborhood and then heading back home for a bit of a chat. It started raining on our way home and by the time we stepped through the front door, the lightning flashed and the thunder roared. Sarah and Jacquie were trapped with us for the next couple of hours!! 

No, seriously we had a very nice chat and when the rain let up we walked down to Newton Hawker Centre, where Sarah and Jacquie were meeting a friend for dinner. I  took a slow walk back up Orchard Road and by the time I got home Mum was fast asleep, snoring. Proof that she had just as good a time as I did.

The next day, Jacquie and Sarah kindly invited me out for dinner at Clarke Quay- yay, they weren't sick on me yet- on their last night in Singapore. After walking around a bit, we dined at the very hip Indochine Forbidden City. It was delicious. Dinner was great but the company was better!  We made a post meal trip to Little India to see the Diwali lights. It was packed with people, ready to celebrate the holiday. Sarah and Jacquie bought a few trinkets for their neice before deciding to head back to the hotel. I was surprised that we were able to book a cab relatively quickly as usually it's never that easy. Thanks for dinner and a fun night out, Jacquie and Sarah!


The Botanical Gardens
Jacquie had one last full day of school visits before jetting off to London, so Sarah and I made plans to walk to the Botanical Gardens and Nassim Road.

So at around 9:30am the next morning, give or take a couple of minutes, Sarah and I set off from their hotel to the Botanical Gardens. It was hot! and I was drenched within minutes. We made our way around the gardens, including the Orchid Gardens before grabbing something to drink at the cafe and walking up  Nassim Road, one of the poshest neighborhoods in town. Those houses are unbelievably massive and the architecture of each house is completely different: some are modern; others are throwbacks to prewar days; some are neo classical with ornate columns. Sarah took photos of some of the more eye catching ones. After three hours - I was sweat-soaked and smelled like a sad sack of sardines - we made it back to the hotel. Sarah had some last minute packing to do before heading back to Sydney and I had to run some errands. And so sadly, a really fun week had come to an end all too soon. We have to catch up soon, Sarah and Jacquie, be it in London, Sydney or Singapore. Thanks so much for a really fun week!
One of the houses on Nassim Road

No comments:

Post a Comment

Search This Blog