Saturday, March 31, 2012

Times Square Mall

Max plays soccer at this place near Times Square so whenever we drive past Times Square, Ace will tell us that Henry (his school bus friend) told him that it is a very fun place blah blah blah...

He kept talking about it week after week and we decided finally to explore this place after Max's soccer game.

When we arrived though, our very first priority was to get ourselves some dinner. Alas, the dinner here is very sad.. no mac donalds and the only thing tat Ace might want to eat here is Subway.. which I even had to entice him to choose by telling him that their meals came with either chips or soft cookies...

The food court even though very sad in choice.. is very intereesting:) It has an open concept and looks out into some sort of adventure obstacle course.. so you could hav a meal while you looked at others squirming as they try to overcome obstacle after obstacle in the obstacle course:) It looked like alot of fun:) But I think i am too much of a scaredy cat to try it.. wahahahah

Interesting view, isn't it?

But Ace said he was very hungry and so he just digged in and didn't really enjoy the view until he finally finished his meal.. wahahahaha:) He must be super hungry...

We saw a super big Sharaf.. which is like our Best Denki in Singapore. Ace said "Yeah, boy's toys.." cos we always referred to these sort of shop as Daddy's favourite toy store.

They were promoting this new kinect game from Disney and it is really alot of fun. The best thing is tat this mall is sort of deserted so there is no one fighting to play the game with Ace and so he got to play with his dad for a good 15 minutes:)

Initially, when Max was just observing, he noted that Ace does not seem to understand the cause and effect of the game as he keeps moving too close to the kinect machine and losing his sense of direction about where to go..

BUT, when Max finally joined in and played with Ace, Ace outplayed him lor:) Somehow along the way as he played, Ace started to understand how things work and started to outlast and outrun Max in the game! wahahaahaa... I guess Max spoke too soon!:)




The boys do seem to be having alot of fun, don't they. Ace has declared this his current favourite mall:) wahahahaha

Well, the store also has some hello kitty stuff.. my favourite is this Hello Kitty Samsung phone.. too bad it is pricey... alas, I think if I did up my iphone, it can look equally cute:) hahahahaha

While I had been on the search for an extra phone.. every since Max brought home the puncher and helped me punch my mini sim using my dubai phonecard, I have been very happy with my iphone and my lau ya nokia phone since I dun use my singapore line much:) (But if you whatsapp me often, my registered number is still my singapore line since most pple i talk to are from singapore..)

In the mall, there is also the COOLEST place in Dubai. Not because it is "cool" as in hip.. but because it is "cold". Apparently, the three coldest places in dubai irregardless of weather are the ice skating ring in dubai mall (6 degrees celsius), Ski Dubai in Mall of Emirates (5 degree celsius) and Ice Bar in this mall (4 degree celsius).

Basically, if you paid something like 60 dirhams, you get to go in and sit inside for 45 min and get a nice hot drink and some winter clothes to keep you warm.

But leh, according to my friend, Annie, who went to this place, she said what you see outside is what you get.. so might as well take photos from the outside.. ahahahaha. i guess I will visit this place one day when i have friends coming to Dubai;)

There is also a huge HK shop but alas, the shop so big.. but there was nothing that caught my fancy...
There was also a Dino LIVE exhibition here. It costs 50 dirhams to get in.. and since when it was at another place, there was a groupon thingy for it, we are waiting for groupon to come out with another promo before we will bring Ace to visit.. luckily, Ace did not make much of a fuss over it:)

Then Ace started to complain that he is thirsty... the reason? He saw this coffee place and wanted to have iced chocolate and coffee with us:) Since we are quite full, I asked Max to just order one drink to share and so Max ordered only one mocha.. but instead of a frappe, he ordered an ice mocha and so Ace did not really like it and ended up just wolfing down the cheese cake:)

They have a nice kids corner with a bear cushion and some toys.. so cute! And also, NO ONE AROUND TO FIGHT FOR IT!:)




R and R a little before we explore this adventure store which is like decathalon...



Ace lying down on the hammock and becoming frightened cos he was unable to get up! hahahaha

Ace asked me what this is.. we found it in the horse riding section of the store.. I told him it is a whip to whip naughty children.. wahahahahahaha

I also found this interesting dead bird under the Falconry section.. the people here like to rear falcons and the fake grass patch goes over their arm so that their falcon can stand on their arm... But i really dunno wat this bird is for...

This is how the obstacle course looked like from the store.. you have to be minimum 25km and 1.25m tall to do this.. so Ace is too short and too light to try it yet..

Also discovered a -25degrees chill chamber for you to test out their winter gear.. gosh, never see this before lor.. wonder how much money they have to invest just to have this chamber... and then no one inside the shop to buy anything.. how do they survive???

Satisfied, we decided we will come here once every few months as we like it cos it is not crowded at all:)

Previous Post: Hard Rock Cafe Again!

Friday, March 30, 2012

Hard Rock Cafe Again!

Ace has been going crazy over the spicy toufu in Spring Bamboo and that is ALL that he ever wants to eat.

The other day, while we were thinking of where to go for dinner and Max suggested Hard Rock Cafe and instead of whining and complaining that they do not serve white sauce spaghetti that he liked, Ace just said, "Ok!" and looked really excited about going!;)

When we arrived though, Ace started to sulk... cos we were told they have a new ruling.. that children have to go home at 10pm... so Ace was upset he has to leave early.. but we thought that is just nice as we want him to sleep early as well...


When we arrived, the waiters were dancing to the world cup africa song. And we noticed that instead of just the waiters and waitresses, there were many children and teenagers who were also dancing on the stage.. we tried to get Ace excited and go on stage to dance but he refused...

See, even Superman was dancing on stage!


Had a yummilicious dinner and a set of 3 different desserts to round off the day:) yums yums...

And while we were listening to the band, we moved Ace to sit between us so that he can enjoy the music together with us. All of a sudden, he pulled my hand and Max's hands with his hands and put our hands together. When we clasped our hands togehter, Ace used his hands to make a heart shape and put it beside our hands and then he closed his eyes in deep concentration...

He looked like those people on TV who trying to do magic trick using the power of intent .... hahahahhaha

I looked at Max and he looked at me.. and we smiled at each other at Ace's silly antics. I couldnt hold it back any longer and asked Ace what is he doing...

"Shh.... I am trying to help the two of you make baby..." and he started to close his eyes and focused intently on our hands again...

Like that can make baby meh? Wahahaha... I laughed out really loudly and Max too. Ace must have thought he is doing something right and he started to action action... he started to move his hands as if he is doing those kungfu and controlling his breadths to pass some inner power or wat to us.. and then he even did one or two kung fu like poses (like ru lai shen zhang) and then with a satisified smile.. he said, "Ok already..."

Hahahaha.. Looks like Ace wants a baby bro or sis more than we do!:)


Anyway, come 10pm, we were politely asked to leave and even though Ace was a little upset, he had already enjoyed himself quite a bit.

A few days later, he told me that he liked the World Cup Africa song.. when i asked him if it was the song we heard in Hard Rock (cos the waiters performed to the song, Waka Waka) and he said it isn't. So I got him to sing it for me.. and he sang that song! Wahahahaha.. and insisted that it is not the same song as the one we heard in hard rock..

Anyway, since then, he has been bugging me about whether I have downloaded the song for him because he declared that "This is my favourite song now..."

Yeah.. right! But well, at least that seems to be one more song he can sing in karaoke:)

Previous Post:What Do You Do In Yin Du Coffe Shop?

Thursday, March 29, 2012

What Do You Do In Yin Du Coffe Shop?

What comes to mind when you see a sign like tat? Initially I tot it meant Indian Coffeeshop... (that is why max and Ace are doing the 'indian dance pose'. Only much later, I realized that it actually meant YIN DU.. as in SILVER CITY.. wahahahaha.. And what is this silver city about and wat the heck is a Coffe Shop???

Tadah! It is a karaoke! hahahahaha.. we finally found one tat is more wholesome... (cos the other one tat we went to had hostesses running about outside..)

Their system also dam good lor.. so loud tat everyone had to cover their ears...

But i am not sure if it was the very full dinner we had at Sun Tour restaurant or because our friends were tired after a whole afternoon of Mahjong.. everyone seemed a little quiet and reserved that day.. Ace was the only one who was dam excited and dancing around the whole room whenever someone was singing a fast number!:)

The very bored uncles...

Fayth jie jie singing...

Charlotte jie jie choosing her songs....

The system is actually not too bad and the songs are not too old as well. If you are willing to pay a little bit more, they even allow you to buy your own food and drinks and bring it in..

On our way home, we were dividing the cost and realized that if they were fully booked everyday.. even with just three rooms for singing, the boss of the place will be making few hundred thousand a year lor! so everyone said they also want to start their own karaoke in dubai.. wahahahahahaha:)

Anyway, I am glad this system has newer songs so at least Ace got to sing one or two songs. Too bad for Ace and his best friend Lee Sir though.. there is no Puff the Magic Dragon for them to sing.. hahahhaahha

Previous Post: Street Walker Festival At Dubai Marina

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Street Walker Festival At Dubai Marina

Max read somewhere that there is a street festival in Dubai Marina Mall and since the weekends are getting qutie boring, we decided to drive all the way there to take a look lah. I was expecting like a whole carnival and was very interested in this Soft People exhibition they had.

Alas, I was a tad disappointed when I reached the mall as it was just some ad hoc street performances at the promenade area. Also, the SOFT PEOPLE exhibition (which is an exhibition of female bodies made of yarn) was just a few people strewn randomly around the mall with no explanation whatsoever.

But thankfully, the street performances were quite interesting..

Ace was however quite upset that the weather was warm and there was nothing he was really interested in. Somehow he couldn't appreciate watching how this man was trying to balance on a few cylinders and all he wanted to do was to go to Borders to read books! wahahahahahaha.....

So he was grumpy throughout.. check out tat scowl....


Even the most exciting tricks did not help to make him excited!

Ace's bad mood was made worse when we saw a balloon man who made fantastic balloons.. he can make not just dogs and flowers but elmo and even Super Mario lor! Ace wanted a balloon but we found out that you had to pay for the balloon. I felt it was quite useless to pay for a balloon tat will lao hong after a while and had no educational value and told Ace I will not get him one.. so he started sulking...

Anyway, after that, we decided to go for dinner with our friend Wai Leng who stayed nearby and she suggested that we go supermart to buy some stuff and visit her new place and she will cook dinner for us:) hahaha..

While the chef was busy cooking, Max was bz checking his phone and Ace was just busy eating cos we had a very light lunch and i figured he was super hungry by then:)

This is the view of the house...

Big Chef Wai Leng at work.. i helped to beat and season eggs and to entertain Chef by chatting with her:) wahahaha


This is a pic taken using the panorama function of an app...

I din take pics of the food cos was too hungry by then:) Just tucked in merrily! Very nice! Thanks, Wai Leng for the wonderful dinner!

Too bad we couldnt stay longer as it was saturday night and Ace had school tomorrow and we had to reach home earlier so that he can go to bed early.

Previous Post: World Book Day