Mom's Vacation 2008

My mom was here for a week and spent Christmas with me. This was our first bonding out-of-town escapade with just the two of us. It was the start of my 2 weeks+ long vacation, the longest vacation I had since I started working, soo cool! I tried planning the itinerary on things that were of interest to her. I had to take into consideration that she was quite old, therefore everything had to be the shortest possible walking distance. Suddenly I felt like a yaya with a bag of stuff (water, shawl, basic medicine, tissue paper, hand sanitizer, etc) following after her to make sure the trips are as smooth as possible.

Day 1 - Bugis and hotpot
Day 2 - Batam, Indonesia day trip
Day 3 - Sentosa
Day 4 - Zoo
Day 5 - Esplanade, Xmas Eve dinner
Day 6 - Orchard shopping, Xmas Dinner
Day 7 - back

I organized a Batam day trip with my friends here, which is actually among the few times she bonded with my friends. It was a fun trip, but the return trip got me so much nervous as the ferry bumped into a pole causing a loud bang. I was in panic mode thinking it might have caused holes for water to get in and shrink the whole ferry. Haunted by the fact that I have to be responsible for 10 other lives onboard being the organizer, including my mom. I myself was not ready to die! Thank God nothing happened. My friends were quite accomodating and I think it left a good impression on my mom. Probably it was her first time to interact directly with Filipinos and I even brought her to experience Noche Buena (we never had one back home) It was very amusing that my mom told me the next day that if in the future I came across Filipino suitors/bfs, she's okay with that as long as the guy is kind and industrious (masipag). Whahahahaha it kept me giggling. Wow as if an assumed ban has been lifted, can't believe it if I didn't hear it straight from her! But anyhow, I never really kept that 'unspoken ban' in mind before and I dont have any persistent Filipino suitor now, so it doesnt really make a difference on me. I kept teasing her the following days whether she'll take back her words. It was quite an amusing thing to recall, I felt moved by my mom's warmth.

She was quite proud seeing that I can look after myself well. I even cooked one meal for her (the pictures dont look appetizing though as I dont have time to 'decorate': buttered prawns, pork stew, spareribs noodles and some fried dimsum take-outs). She cant seem to believe that I can cook, wash dishes and iron clothes. :)


My mom's the typical old, traditional Filchi mom. I tried to hide the tag prices away from her whenever we're shopping as she kept converting sgd to php. A SG newspaper at 80cents is priced twice of Manila's cost of 12php, according to her. But we did enjoy shopping for her clothes and she bought one each for her close friends. I also bought her a handbag and a pair of shoes. She also likes the food here, including hawker.

We also met up with our neighbor who happened to be vacationing here as well that time. To my surprise, they wanted me to bring them to a Rolex store and was eyeing for a 450K php watch! Wow didn't know how ultra-rich these ppl are. Later she's asking me about where to buy LV bags. Hmm no worries, we'll get to that level. dan dan dan hahaha.

Highlights of food trips would be Pearl River Palace and No Signboard. Pearl River Palace is a must-try for all Chinese food lovers with its unique buffet concept and the exclusive Buddha-jump-over-the-wall soup. No Signboard resto has delicious but overpriced food. I'll blog about this separately next time.

Lastly this is one of my favorite pixs with her. It's not that I'm vain to like it because I am not the one blurred out hehe. I just like the effect. :) Cheers to 09!