They Might Be Curly Giants!

Every once in a while, we get a rare opportunity to go out by ourselves without the kids. Since the arrival of Maya, those opportunities have gotten even rarer, so a day out with Maya is the best thing we can get these days, which is not too bad considering that Maya is so much easier to handle than the twin terrors, Ajab and Ayeed.

After dropping them off at the MIL’s place, we went to settle some administrative matters with regards to Ajab’s school and paid the first month’s school fees of $344, from what meager amount is left of his baby bonus (Maya will contribute some of hers to Ajab’s school fees in future), we headed to Raffles City for lunch and a bit of shopping. Previously when we went to malls, we looked out for those which had the best amenities, best shops, best things to do, etc. These days the first thing we think about is, “Does it have a nursing / baby changing room?”

Going out and having a quiet lunch with just Maya is great. She spent the whole time sleeping, snug in the sling, and under the table (Trin moved her under there just in case she spilled something).

And speaking of food …. oh my god! We’re big fans of Coffee Club, having dined at so many of their outlets, but this is the first time we’ve dined at their outlet here at Raffles City. The food was good as usual, but the service was a total letdown! Trin had the seafood lasagna, which our rookie waiter kid, who was friendlier and more courteous than a geisha but more timid than a mouse, mistakenly called macaroni when he brought it to our table. This stunned me for a second as I tried to recall whether there was any macaroni on the menu. Not wanting to bother trying to remember with what poor and rapidly depleting memory I have these days, I simply told him we ordered lasagna, not macaroni. Off he went to check with his manager, then came back again and apologized for the mix-up.

What’s even funnier was when he placed the bowl of lasagna on the table right between us and told us that he did that so that we could “share” the lasagna. What?? Do we look like a couple of school kids sharing a plate of fries at McDonald’s?? I kind of felt sorry for the poor boy. I told Trin that it’s probably his first job as a waiter. *sigh!* Good thing he didn’t mistake my paella as fried rice or something.

That wasn’t the end of the screw-ups. Trin went to order cakes at the counter and for some reason, they presented us with the bill even before we had our cakes. That was weird, I thought, but Trin checked the items and seeing that they were correct, paid for our meal. Timid boy was funny as he asked Trin to take her credit card from the folder, instead of handing it to her, like as though he’s afraid that by touching the card, he’d get cooties or something.

It was when they presented our cakes in a box that we realised the waiters had thought we wanted them to go. Off they went to put our cakes on a plate, this time a minah served us. She placed our cakes on our table and left to stand somewhere else. I had to call her back. “Can we have some forks?”. Urrrghh!!! And to top it off, I found a tiny bit of aluminum foil in my cheesecake. Maybe it was just our luck that we had to dine in a cafe served by a lot of rookies.

In spite of the cock-ups at Coffee Club, we enjoyed our little outing with Maya. She was asleep most of the time and only woke up a couple of times to be nursed. She seems easier to pacify when she’s out than when she’s at home. Maybe we should bring her out more often. Oh, and Trin nursed her for the first time in the cab on our way home, so yay to her!