The Road to 40 Day 241/365: Curiousity Fun with Friends

It’s the start of a new week in this new year, but Vino’s classes start on Tuesday, so we have a free day.

Luckily, we were able to squeeze in a playdate with Angel, Jeremy, and Damien.

Their family has alternated between the PH and SG since Jeremy got a role here in SG last year. Unfortunately, every time Angel and Damien are here, we were out on a trip somewhere.

This December, they arrived in SG the same day that we left. I’ve always promised Angel I’d cook for them, but our schedules just can’t make it work. They’re supposed to fly out on Tuesday, but thankfully, they made time to meet before they left.

We booked a 12:30pm slot at Curiosity Cove in Mandai. It was my first time visiting the area since Vino’s field trip back in 2022.

A lot has changed in this place. There were a lot more food options now compared to before. It also looks like they have made the pickup and dropoff points more efficient.

The bird park is also in the area, which makes the Mandai Wildlife membership worth it in a sense because you can theoretically visit all the parks in one trip. If the Singapore Zoo was impressive then, the whole area is even more impressive now.

We met the Tetangcos at McDonald’s. This was the first time Vino and Damien met again since their playdate in Jurong pre-Vietnam, so it’s really been a while. However, if you put two kids of the same age with a level of extroversion, it’s like they’ve been friends forever.

From the moment that they met, they immediately bonded on the 6-7 gesture and proceeded to play Forsaken on Roblox.

After they played and Damien ate, we proceeded to enter the playground for our time slot.

The pair explored the place quick while the adults caught up with each other. Soon, the kids were “bored” and wanted to play with us. They suggested tag, but I countered with hide and seek. My plan was to let them hide, but we’ll stay and wait for them to get tired hiding.

It worked the first time because Vino couldn’t stay still and found us standing around at the same place where they left us. We still had to find Damien, who was very patient in hiding.

We were the hiders next round, so we went upstairs and made them work to look for us. For the next round, we again found the restless Vino, but had a difficult time finding Damien. We were all looking for her for a solid 10 minutes or so, and we just couldn’t find her.

Finally, Jeremy found her in one of the slides/treehouses, hiding patiently once again. That would be the last time we let them hide, because it was a bit tiring, and honestly made me a bit nervous looking for her that long.

I appreciate low-maintenance friendships like this one I have with the Tetangcos. We don’t meet often, but I feel the love and warmth of friendship on the rare times we do. It’s also why I always try to make myself a part of their plan when they are in SG.

We got on a bus to get to Choa Chu Kang, where we all parted ways. Vino and I haven’t had lunch yet, while Angel and Damien need to pack for their flight tomorrow.

We went to the food court, where I got him to try Pepper Lunch for the first time.

Since we were in a mall already, we took it as a chance to get a new screen protector for his tablet. The last one I got was a bad fit, but I couldn’t let the auntie who put it in remove it to install another wrong screen protector.

I got some stuff for dinner and Vino’s lunch for tomorrow before we went home. Vino wanted a home-made cheeseburger for his back-to-school lunch, so I had to oblige. For dinner, I made bistek – the first home-cooked meal I made for us after the holidays.

Cooking is always an adventure for me, because I don’t have exact measurements. Thankfully, this night’s mix was just right, and we all enjoyed it thoroughly. Che even got to a third serving of rice, which was great to see.

We asked Vino to stop playing on his tablet, which then led him to ask us to play board games with him. They went head to head on a couple of games before I joined in for Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza.

When we got to the bedroom, Vino asked to continue watching Stranger Things. I told him that it was almost 11pm, and if he still wanted to watch, he must not give me a hard time waking him up tomorrow.

Of course, he said yes, but tomorrow might be a different story.