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I just realized I never wrote a post about our trip to Singapore 2 weekends ago! We were initially supposed to go in early July to attend a friend’s wedding, but had to postpone the trip due to the bleeding episode. Luckily, the hotel allowed us to change the dates of our booking and we pushed the trip back by a month.

As with our previous trip to Singapore back in May last year, we stayed at Royal Plaza on Scotts. It’s conveniently located at the Orchard-Scotts crossroads, within walking distance to the MRT, Wheelock, Taka, Shaw Centre, Paragon. A plus point is that it’s a smoke-free hotel. The rooms aren’t spanking brand new despite undergoing some renovations about 2 years ago (if I remember correctly), but it’s quite spacious plus there’s free broadband and drinks from the minibar.

Timing of the trip was pretty good as I’d just crossed over into the second trimester, and the nausea that plagued me for the past few weeks was slowly but surely disappearing. My appetite while we were in Singapore was at an all time high…I felt like I could eat anything! However, unlike earlier trips, we didn’t make plans to try any new places as I wasn’t sure if I would feel up to it. As it is, we revisited some oldies but goodies: Sun and Moon @ Wheelock, Marmalade Pantry @ Palais Renaissance, Chatterbox @ Meritus Mandarin (the super-ex chicken rice place), Tony Romas, the Muddy Mud Pie @ Coffee Club…and stumbled upon some new ones:

1. Canelé Pâtisserie @ Shaw Centre - this branch probably opened within the last year or so as we didn’t see it during our May07 trip. I’ve never eaten in the one at Paragon, but Friday’s shopping left me feeling very peckish in the evening, and I nipped down for a bowl of mushroom soup which turned out to be rather yummy!

2. Cedele @ Wheelock which is situated right next to Sun & Moon - We had breakfast there one day, and it was good! I had Caramelised Banana Pancake with Orange Butter & Maple Syrup…you know it’s going to be a good day when brekkie sounds and tastes delicious! I really want to go back there one day to try their soups and mains.

3. La Strada @ Shaw Centre - among the few places we tried, I’d expected this to be the best, but it was sadly disappointing. Hubby’s cod fish was not cooked in the middle, the menu wasn’t all too exciting…we both just had a main course each and left without even trying their desserts.

4. McDonalds - haha…yes, I know we have McDonalds in Malaysia, but what we don’t have are the super awesome fried chicken wings that the McDonalds in Singapore has! It’s crispy, succulent and slightly spicy and oh so good as a late night snack!

5. Bistro Petit Salut @ Chip Bee Gardens - we went to Chip Bee Gardens because I wanted to stock up on chocolates from Shermay’s Cooking School. We ended up having the 3-course set lunch at this restaurant, and maybe we lucked out in choosing the restaurant (there are quite a few to choose from) coz the food was delish! Hubby had (and I’m quoting directly from their website) 1/2 dozen baked escargots with cherry tomatoes and garlic butter, oven-roasted chicken leg confit with wild mushroom cream sauce and gratin potato and choux buns with vanilla ice cream, warm chocolate sauce and sliced almonds, while I had the vine ripened tomato salad with basil, parsley, balsamic and olive oil (very refreshing and tangy), Provencal-styled slow braised pork ribs in tomato and white wine, gratinated in mixed herbs (very nice, tasted like goulash!) and mixed tropical fruits crumble infused with vanilla beans (piping hot and a perfect end to a light lunch). Best of all, each set only cost around $25++! Granted, the portions were not huge, but it was just right for us as we wanted something nice and light.

Shopping wise…well, hubby made a trip to Funan sans moi and came back with a whole load of little goodies, like these X-mini speakers. It’s quite a funny coincidence coz I’ve been wanting to buy it for ages (god knows why, it’s not like I need ‘em, but it’s just so cute!) but never mentioned it once to hubby, so I had quite a good laugh when I saw that he bought one on his own! Take a look, isn’t it cute?? Packs a punch too! Hubby bought the black one, but I think the one in red is even nicer…

He also bought me a shocking pink Speck MacBook cover that I could never seem to find in Malaysia…

As for myself, I stocked up on chocolates and finally bought the Microplane grater that I’ve been lusting after for ages! Ya, I know…not very exciting… Oh oh, and I found an orange cutter in Tangs! It cuts the orange into segments and separates it from the skin…how cool is that? Well, I used it when we got back to KL and while it does work, it leaves an awful lot of the orange still stuck to the skin which is extremely wasteful. Luckily, it doubles up as a juicer…haha…so that’s what I’ve been using it for since!

The bulk of our shopping, however, consisted of baby stuff! We bought the Quinny stroller & MaxiCosi infant car seat from Baby Avenue (thanks to Sherl’s recommendation!), the Medela breast pump from The First Few Years @ Paragon as well as the Pigeon bottle sterilizer @ Taka’s baby fair. Oooo…the baby fair! Lots of items with really good discounts and bargains…seriously, you can save alot of money buying stuff there instead! I also stocked up on Pigeon’s disposable breast pads as I plan to breastfeed…again, it’s cheaper in Singapore than in M’sia, even with the high exchange rate!

Needless to say, our car was literally filled to the brim when we came back!

Following my previous post, we finally managed to test out the Bugaboo Bee last night at The Curve. Hubby, sadly, wasn’t all too impressed. He said it didn’t look like it was worth the amount of $$$ that we had to pay for it. True, it did look rather plain and not very sturdy…but it is really easy to push around. Folding & unfolding-wise, I still have to say that Quinny Buzz wins hands down between the three shortlisted strollers. The Bee takes quite abit of effort to open…it’s easy (just use one foot to press down on the latch), but perhaps I was being too careful seeing as it’s a display model (and an expensive one to boot!), or I just wasn’t strong enough…I didn’t have the strength to get it to open fully!

On the way home, we decided that since hubby doesn’t like the Bee, and I like the Maxi-Cosi car seat because of it’s lighter weight compared to Peg’s and hubby still thinks the Quinny looks good…it’s obviously the…err…obvious choice…

The store that we went to, Planete Enfants at MidValley (old wing, near Jaya Jusco on the 1st floor) will be getting a new stock of the Quinny Buzz soon, so we’ll probably wait for the stock to come in (the current model they have is the 2007 model, the new stock will be the 2008 model) and purchase it from there!

Now, the next problem is….what colour?!?!?

While hunting for strollers, we came across a host of other cool baby products with equally cool and out of this world price tags. Well, that’s why people call it a wishlist…

1. Stokke Xplory - it costs a cool RM4k+ in M’sia, but the demo video on the website pretty much convinced me that it might well be worth every sen…

2. Stokke TrippTrapp - another Stokke product…I’ve no idea how much this one costs but I’ve seen it being sold at The Curve. I like the design…very streamlined!

3. Bloombaby’s Coco Plexistyle Baby Lounger - perfect for the minimalist, retro home!

4. Bloombaby’s Fresco Contemporary Baby Chair - another Bloombaby product that caught my eye at Planete Enfants. Definitely wouldn’t look out of place in a swanky penthouse!

We wanted to take advantage of the sales that’s going on right now. Plus, we anticipated that we may be quite busy from September onwards due to some other projects. And I definitely don’t want to be waddling around in my third trimester frantically buying stuff at the last minute.

So…

We decided to start with the big ticket items…the stroller, car seat and breast pump…even though it’s really too early to start purchasing baby stuff.

We got some recommendations from friends on brands and shops to go to, and after spending two weekends folding, unfolding and pushing around strollers, we’ve more or less narrowed it down to these three:

It was actually a toss up between the Peg Perego Pliko P3 Modular System Tri-Fix and Quinny Buzz until I saw the Bugaboo Bee and read pretty good reviews about it. It’s probably the last one we’re going to test before coming to a decision.

As with most first time parents, we were totally confused at the beginning…there were a plethora of choices in terms of brands and different systems. 3-wheelers, 4-wheelers, infant carriers, car seats, umbrella fold…*faints* But going to the shops and testing it out for real, as well as talking to the shop assistants really helped.

We decided on the following criteria:

1. The stroller had to be light enough for me to carry…it shouldn’t be too bulky and unwieldy.
2. It has to be comfortable, ie. padded, of course.
3. We also decided to buy an infant carrier for the first 6 - 9 months, and then buy a car seat when baby outgrows the infant carrier. Hence, another must is that the infant carrier has to be able to fit onto the stroller, and of course, be light enough for me to move it from the car to the stroller.
4. The stroller also has to have an easy to open/close system that I can handle by myself.

All three brands that we shortlisted above fit most of the criteria above. Both the Buzz and the Bee can fit the Maxi-Cosi infant carrier, while Pliko P3 comes with it’s own infant carrier. We both prefer the Maxi-Cosi infant carrier as it’s lighter than Peg Perego’s, but the PP stroller is more versatile as there’s more space to carry baby stuff, shopping bags, etc.

Quinny Buzz’s unfolding system is a dream as it’s a one-touch hydraulic system (you’ve gotta see it to believe it). However, the stroller is really compact (which is not a bad thing)…but that means that there isn’t much place to put baby’s toys, etc. You can’t hang shopping bags on the handle as well because the Buzz is a 3-wheeler, and therefore, not as stable as 4-wheelers. Also, it’s a tad bit heavier than the Pliko P3.

So far, the Bugaboo Bee seems to be the middle ground between Peg Perego and Quinny. It’s compact, but has abit more storage space, and it fits the Maxi-Cosi infant carrier. We’re going to test it out this weekend…hopefully the real thing is as good as the reviews that I’ve read!

Price wise, Peg Perego is priced slightly lower than the Quinny, and the Bugaboo is the most expensive of the lot. Even with the sales, I think I’ll have to postpone purchasing my long dreamt-of Kitchen Aid mixer and/or ice cream maker for another year…

Oh, and it’s just a coincidence that the strollers are red in the photos above. We have no idea whether we have a baby girl or boy yet (another 2 months before we can find out!).