A date with the wife for CNY

(All photos taken using iPhone 4S and edited on iPhone. I only applied watermark on my Mac)

Two days for Chinese New Year isn't enough for us! We need at least three! And we have not caught any Chinese New Year movie (贺岁片) yet! So, we have already planned to take another day off yesterday and spend some time together. Unforunately, for our little darling Jayden, he has to go to the childcare. Jayden, we will bring you to the movies when you are a little older! Promise!

The first thing to do that day? Find a place for breakfast - We are famished! No interesting places nearby and so, we hopped into Old Town for the breakfast set.

Coffee for me, Tea for her

Assam Laksa for me. I am not ordering this ever. Sardines in my laksa??? Huh?

Potato Prata for her. Although the prat a taste like the pratas sold frozen in NTUC, it is somehow better than mine!

And we added soft boiled eggs too! It is hard to get this wrong. The only thing I am not too satisfied was that it was too cooked for my taste.

Let the movies begin!!

We will only have time for two movies and we decided that we should choose one local production and another Hong Kong one.

Dance Dance Dragon (龙众舞)and All's Well Ends Well 2012 (八星抱喜) were the movies we chose. Not going to do a review but in short, we prefer the local production.

Popcorn time!

After the show, we still have a little bit of time left to just walk around and do some shopping. Items on our list are a haversack to replace the tote bag that Hazel is using to keep Jayden's milk/diapers/etc and a new suitcase for our Royal Carribean Cruise.

I like their way of misleading people into thinking otherwise.

I honestly didn't know that there is this branch in Orchard that look so classy! By the way, it seems like Gong Cha has invaded and took over the entire Orchard area. I do recall any KOI cafe in orchard area.

And we went on to Somerset 313 and finally got a haversack. The decor in 313 is a refreshing one after seeing countless dragons in every single mall. As one of my friends posted in my instagram feed, it looks like Medusa!!!

Photo Essay - Jayden Goes Shopping

River Ang Bao / 春到河畔 2012

There is one more activity that is a must for many Chinese families in Singapore - To visit the yearly River Ang Bao (春到河畔迎新年新加坡2012大游园) and this year like the previous, has the event held at the The Float @ Marina Bay.

River Ang Bao has already started on 21st Sat Jan 2012 and will last till 29 Jan 2012 (Sunday). Time is from 12noon to 1130pm daily.

Do note that parking in Marina Square will be expected to be very limited and crowded. In fact, we went round and round the carpark and finally parked somewhere with no lots. And since we are already there, why not take some photos?

Here is a map of the River Ang Bao.

The first thing we saw was the "gate". Photo time!

We expected a huge huge crowd and did not bring along our strollers. No picture No talk for the crowd.

The main highlight for this year is the Martial God of Wealth shown here with his tiger. It is believed that the Martial God of Wealth is a symbol used in boosting economy and bringing wealth and prosperity to businessmen. 

And as per usual practice, the god of wealth will spread his wealth to lucky visitors that is able to get a piece of "gold". It is actually randomly generated numbers printed on gold colored papers for punters to buy their fix of 4D or Toto. And this just displays the uniqueness of Singaporeans. Wait, I actually meant creativity.

Turning the umbrella on the other side in an attempt to get a better chance of having one piece of the paper land inside! OMG. 

With the number of people crowding around, it is quite difficult to get nice clear shots of the many lantern displays in River Angbao. We managed to snug in a couple of shots with Jayden! (with Fu Lu Shou in the background)

There is one thing I did kinda manage to get pretty decent shots of - The Zodiac Animal lanterns, a total of 12 of them!

There is also another place that will interests foodies. The food street. This year, river angbao has over 40 stalls set up with many different delicacies. We were discouraged by the sheer amount of crowd that could be seen and did not went into the food street.

But we did buy some other stuff that is just outside of the food street.

Queued up for this. It was selling at $2 for one or $5 for 3. Being your typical Singaporean, dun waste my effort queuing la, so take 3 lor.

And I also got this Dragon Bread Candy to snack on. It must have been years since the last time I ate one of this. Yummy!

And to wash all the stuff down. An expensive syrup water costing $2.50.No bird nest la. Jelly bits have.

And to encourage donations, the organizers have cleverly use this!

They say you will get good fortune if you can strike the gong with your coin! (Sorry no refund) Simple gimmick but it works! I will have threw my coins into this place if I had any in my pocket!

One last thing, if you are bringing your kids, no worries. They have tons of activities and play areas for toddlers and above. 

CNY @ Singapore Art Museum

What is a better way to spend the long weekends apart from visiting your relatives for the Chinese New Year? Spend some time with your loved ones at the museums!

(Source: NHB)

The National Heritage Board has generously provided free admission to several participating museums (Singapore Art Museum, Asian Civilizations Museum, National Museum of Singapore, Peranakan Museum and Singapore Philatelic Museum) for this festive season. Click on this link to find out more!

Together with my wife and son, we went to explore the Singapore Art Museum (SAM) for the first time.

Superman melting in the heat of Singapore?

One of the main show at the Singapore Art Museum is "the collectors show - CHIMERA" It brings together notable works of Asian contemporary art from 21 private collections around the world.

We had a stroller to push our very tired Jayden around and access was not an issue, in fact the entire place is very spacious and accommodating to people with disabilities. 

On thing to note for parents with young children. Some of the pieces in the Chimera exhibit is not very suitable for young children. Some of the pieces require viewer discretion and parental guidance, such as this.

But there are many other wonderful pieces there too.

Statue of Venus by Yaoyi Kusama and Jesus by Takashi Murakami.

By this time, our darling son is already fast asleep after the tiring day out, which is not a bad thing since he needs to rest for the long day ahead and we can have some peace!

Moving on after adjusting his stroller to a comfortable position for sleeping, there are more interesting pieces, some of which shown after the break.

Red Carpet IV by Rashid Rasa. There are thousands of images of animals slaughtered and dismembered body parts used to make this huge mosaic artwork.

Chapter Two: Giant by Tomoko Konoike. This is part three in a four part chapter series of a surrealistic nature in reverse order. This reverse timeline hints at the desire not to look towards the future but to instead to go back in time to the past and to seek answers for the present.

Paper Plates by Hamra Abbas. These are literally paper plates woven intricately with paper strips with the words "Please Get Served".

One of my favorites has to be this. 

The chapel.

It is in the chapel on the second level with a array of laser beams shooting on to a mirror on the ground and then reflecting it away. Smoke machines periodically puff out smoke to make the laser beams visible. I think we stayed here for a good time!

And with that we continued to the Signature Art Prize 2011 by Asia Pacific Breweries Foundation.

The grand prize which is also my favorite. From Philippines - Baston ni Kabunian, Bilang Pero di Mabilang (Cane of Kabunian, numbered but cannot recounted) by Rodel Tapaya

What is a trip without some self shots?

And our last stop is to the Learning Gallery.

Remember Walter, the giant bunny?

I like this. It depicts the current generation - titled Goddess Series: Mobile Phone Kids by Justin Lee. Check out the mobile phone carried by the kid on the left and a mcdonald's on the right.

One last thing,

Self reflection for myself. And probably for many. "The grass is always greener on the inside"