Last December my parents flew in for a two-week visit, and I got to spend Christmas with them for the first time since I moved to Singapore. We did the tourist thing for a couple of days, which is just another way of saying that we barely managed to squeeze in a couple of museum visits in between marathon shopping sessions.
You guys, my folks are adorable! I snapped this photo on our way to the MINT Museum of Toys, a thin slice of a building that houses thousands of — you guessed it — vintage toys. The admission price was on the steep side at S$15, but I thought it was worth it to see all the quirky childhood memorabilia. Toys were so much more charming in decades past. Now it’s all factory-perfect plastic and high-tech gadgetry.
I recently took a much-needed break from work to go on a short trip to Cebu with some old friends. Let me tell you, it did my soul good. When I got back to Singapore, at least five different people told me I was glowing. Here are some highlights from our vacation:
We threw ourselves off a bunch of waterfalls. Calling all thrill seekers! If you ever visit Cebu, you have to go canyoning at Montaneza Falls. You probably can’t tell, but that’s me throwing a peace sign while rappelling down a 100-foot waterfall. Pardon my French, but it felt fucking fantastic.
If I worked at a leave-your-imagination-at-the-door corporation and excitedly told colleagues that I had just seen a dinosaur-shaped puddle on the way to the loo, the normal reaction would have been to say, “What the hell are you smoking? Go back to your cubicle and finish writing that 37-page report that no one will bother to read.”
Luckily I work at a quirky company with people who can appreciate a little silliness here and there. Case in point: when I dragged my coworker, Gabe, to see the said puddle, he snapped a photo, edited it to create the diagram below, then sent an email announcing the momentous dinosaur sighting to the rest of the office.
Nikki and Gabe, brand consultants by day, wicked awesome archeologists by night.
Entrance to Singapore’s Red Dot Design Museum is free on the first weekend of each month, so my coworkers and I decided to pop in one Saturday. (Wondering about the name? Locals fondly refer to Singapore as the “little red dot”, because that’s how the tiny city-state appears on most world maps.)
My hyper-abbreviated review: There were some interesting displays but nothing worth the $8 entrance fee, if one were to drop by on a regular day. We did manage to snap a few cool photos, though
Obligatory tourist shot. It’s impossible to miss the colonial building that houses the museum. It’s painted fire-engine red and takes up an entire block.
My F1-crazy friend, Chrissa, came to Singapore to watch the night race last September. While she was here, we jumped at the chance to get flung into the air on the G-max Reverse Bungy ride at Clarke Quay. We loved it! A couple of lessons learned:
Go at night to avoid being roasted in the sun.
Wear pants instead of a miniskirt.
Below is a video of our ride. The scream you’ll hear during the release came from the guy holding the camera
We also went on the tamer GX-5 Xtreme Swing, but we unfortunately didn’t manage to get a video of that.
