We started our "date" by meeting at people's park hawker center to eat dinner. I was craving to eat the famous guo tie and steamed dumplings at one of the stalls. Unfortunately, their standard seemed to have dropped tremendously so dinner was quite a disappointment.
The stallholders at the hawker center seemed pretty fond of kids and many of them gave our kids sweets. Here's Sarah holding a packet of jelly in her hands. Can't really see it very well in the photo but it's the tiny blue packet in her hands. Well, she only held on to it but unknown to her, her Kor kor spied it and "schemed" to eat it up the next day.
Some other stall holder gave Caleb and Kimi some hacks sweet. We told them it was spicy but they insisted they wanted to eat it. So we let them try it and Kimi spat it out after 10s. Caleb (the more deprived one) kept telling us that it was spicy but refused to spit it out. He lasted for 3min before he couldn't take it anymore and spat it out too.
Kimi and Caleb and the daddies, very enthusiastic at the start of our journey
Though it was a Monday night, the streets were still quite busy and there was a considerable number of people at the bazaar. We had to try to follow each other closely so that we don't get lost in the crowd.
The kiddos walking together, hand-in-hand.
Sampling some really delicious braised mushrooms that the stall holders were selling.
The younger 2 kiddos. They're still at the age where they're not too interested in each other's company so Ian and Sarah were mostly stuck with us adults.
Sarah taking in the sights in a rather unglam manner and squashing her jelly as we push her along. It was actually a mistake for us to bring the stroller along coz of the crowd and the narrow streets. Probably would have been easier if we had carried her.
There was really quite a fair bit of things to see...
New Year decorations...
Flowers...
Clothes... Btw, I've come to realise that it's slightly cheaper to buy such clothes from Chinatown than elsewhere. I saw this pair of cheongsam that yeeyee bought for her girls at the bazaar. It was cheaper by a couple of dollars. Prob coz there's competition amongst the stalls.
Pomelos
Golden pumkins...
Caleb was really enjoying himself quite a fair bit and was busy touching the stuff and posing for photos...
Hello Amigo...
Monkey pose by the five foot way
He actually asked if it was alright for him to sit on the floor to pose...
Parting shot before we called it a night
And you must be wondering why I titled my post "Where it all started...", ya, coz this is where we think our HFMD saga started. That's our conclusion coz we only met Ian on Monday night and on Sunday when Caleb was confirmed with HFMD and I informed Ian's mummy, she called me and told me that she suspects Ian's down with HFMD too coz he too was having a fever and had rashes on his feet. Well, he really caught it as well so probably this is where it all started. Ian's family's luckier than us coz only Ian caught it. Familee's casualty rate's much much higher. Other than Caleb and Sarah, I caught it too. Thankfully it's past 1 week so I've recovered too but it sure wasn't fun.
During the CNY holidays, yeeyee who was "extremely" sympathetic, "reported" to me that she informed all my aunties and cousins that my entire family's down with HFMD and they were all shocked that I could catch it. Apparently two of my cousins who are nurses said that it's really not common for adults to catch it. However, I have also had my own discovery that though it's not common, it's not impossible as well. Yeeyee had 2 other friends who told her that they caught it as adults too so I'm not the only "weirdo" around. But, I'm probably the only one who's caught it so many times! Once every decade! Perhaps I can enter myself into the guiness book of records!
Oh, and my dear, dear sister, very kindly reminded me that the very first time I caught HFMD, I went to the doc and he told me that HFMD is actually a virus that comes from the chickens and the pigs. (Obviously yee yee and gu gu had a good laugh then when they heard!) Ya, but who can blame me for catching it once again when I've got them both at home with me! (Caleb's born in the year of the chicken and Sarah's born in the year of the pig)
So well, I hope this will be the end of our HFMD saga... dare I say, forever....
