The Road to 40 Day 49/365: Friends day Friday

Spent the day with a couple of friends of Vino and a couple of friends of ours, as Che arrived at night time.

It was Vino’s first day of the summer break, and I had pre-planned a playdate with two of his good friends in class.

Back when we were in Vietnam, Vino had a class trip to a place called Vietopia. It was like a small city where kids could take on different roles to earn money. They learn a bit of what people do and take on their jobs in a role-playing capacity.

We had just arrived in VN from a trip when that school activity happened, but Vino said he wanted to go. So, we went into the place on our own coin and just hung out with some of his classmates that he bumped into while we were there.

Now that we’re back in SG, Kidzania in Sentosa re-opened. It has a similar concept, but it closed down around COVID era. Now that it’s back, I was super excited to get Vino to play their with friends.

While Vino and I play together, this place doesn’t feel like a dad-kid place, but rather a kid-kid place. It was a bit on the expensive side, but thankfully, the parents of two of Vino’s good friends were also excited about the idea because their sons haven’t tried it before as well.

I met them around 10:30AM and we all went in. The boys were super excited to see the small city. It’s nice that they partnered up with several brands, so things are a bit familiar at least.

They had a chance to learn about the Irvin’s brand of salted egg snacks and simulated making it. At the end of the session, they had fish skin chips.

They went into a Yakult factory where they learned about the brand, what it does, and got a sample at the end.

When it was time to eat lunch, everyone was good with Pizza. When I checked the price, there was a 2-dollar difference for ordering pizza and drinks and making your own pizza with a free drink. Of course, I chose the latter.

The kids also became shoppers, athletes, game coders, paramedics, firemen, immigration officers, bank auditors, and even delivery guys to earn money. They spent some of their money becoming pilots and flight crews.

While it was tiring, there was actually a parents’ lounge where I could have stayed in. However, I chose to shadow them wherever they went, carrying their bags and keeping their money for them.

I feel like I’m living vicariously through them as they explored the place. I would have had that much fun as well if I were their age in a place like this.

I told the parents they could go home by around 2 or 3pm but they were having so much fun, we ended up leaving the place at 5PM, just shy of the 5:20PM closing time.

Their helpers came to pick them up and I turned the kids over to them. Vino said he was hungry, so we went to get onigiri before we went home.

He doesn’t regularly eat it, but I urged him to try it and thankfully, he finished it. I’m happy that he isn’t very picky with what he eats. He has his preferences, but he’s fine if we serve him something.

It will help really well when he’s on playdates with other kids.

Back home, we welcomed Che back from her work trip. Vino was all excited and picked her up from the elevator.

We were set to host Steph and James. It’s kind of a weekly or bi-monthly thing, but if given the chance, we would be seeing each other every day just to hang out.

We had some Japanese food from one of our favorites, Fish Mart Sakuraya.

It was a pretty eventful week, so there was a lot of stories to share – probably more than usual. It’s good to have friends we can talk to about things with no judgements and interesting insights.

At some point, Vino got bored and asked to do something. I took him aside to play with him a bit so Che can catch up with Steph and James.

Later, Vino decided to get on his tablet and hole up in the room.

Good wine, good food, and great conversations ended our week. I’m just thankful that we can have these opportunities in our life.

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