Flowers, Flowers Everywhere!

Oh no... is that... is that...RAIN!? Dear God - NO!!!!!! 

I can't bear the thought of being inside with two toddlers. We don't have a car and - like any city - taxis here are impossible to get in the rain. So when I saw rain this morning, I almost started to cry.

We had this big day planned, all of it outside. Cheryl suggested we go to the Singapore Garden Festival at a place called Suntec which is Singapore's big convention center. She knows I like to walk and said we could do it pretty easily from here. Tom looked at a map and said it'd take 30 minutes.

We put on our raincoats and headed out into the rain. I've always liked walking in the rain, but pushing a stroller through the rain isn't as pleasant. Even in their raincoats, the kids' legs were getting wet. Plus, it's so bloody humid here that the raincoats were a bit like glue stuck to our skin.

We powered through and an hour later - not a half hour - an hour later we arrived.

The Garden Festival is a bit like The Philadelphia Flower Show though not as big I think. One floor here was devoted to nothing but orchids. It was truly amazing! There was every kind of orchid imaginable: big, little, red, yellow, purple, white - I mean this place had it all. 

Maisie and Tom did a batik painting while I chased after Hudson who was thrilled to get the chance to run. That little fella is fast - the fastest kid I've ever seen, in fact. He crawled like no other baby on the planet and now he runs faster than most adults. I'm not exaggerating. People always comment on how fast my boy is. He's so athletic in general. I am truly looking forward to retiring and living off his big income as a professional athlete!

One side story: the two of us took swimming in Briarcliff Manor at a rather large gym. After his lesson, I was putting on lotion, both of us butt naked when Hudson took off out the front door of the swim locker room. I ran to get a towel - a tiny, tiny gym towel that covers very little. By the time I caught up with him, he was in elliptical area, cutting madly this way and that way between the machines. I was running, bent over, arm extended with my bare bottom hanging out trying to catch my little man who was laughing hysterially, screaming, "Penis! Penis!" I finally grabbed him and hurried back to the locker room, mortified. That was bad enough, but the next day at Starbucks, I heard somebody telling her friend the story. Eegads.

Anyway - back to the flowers. One exhibit on this floor was a Smurf Village with a bubble machine pumping out dozens of floating wonders. Hudson was in heaven!

The next floor was my favorite featuring various landscapes each with a distinctly Asian feel. One of the winners here also often wins The Philadelpha Flower Show. Why did that surprise me? Anyway, there were various scenarios, some for balconies (which are a way of life here), some for tables, some for walls etc.

It was a good way to spend a rainy day and it gave me an idea of what it'd be like to live here versus be a tourist here. Simply, when I first moved to New York, I did all the tourist things: Statue of Liberty, Empire State, Times Square and, of course, the World Trade Centers (how I still miss them!). Eventually, I started doing other weekend things like the Macy's Flower Show. This Garden Show wasn't on my top list of tourist things to do here, but it was a great way to spend a rainy day with cranky, over-tired, hyped-up kids.

So now the truth: it was nice, but the Philadelphia Flower Show beats it hands down. I covered it several times for CBS and it is far more special. If you haven't been, go!