Christy @ Kidsrsimple, Author at Kids 'R' Simple

Village Hotel Bugis Staycation in Kids’ Themed Room

As with all Village Hotel staycations, one thing we love is the good hospitality by their friendly staff. We have stayed in Village Hotel Changi (read here and here for our 2 times review on the Play and Stay package) and Village Hotel Katong (read here for the Kim Choo Peranakan Experience package) and both hotels have their unique charm. Both have great staff who served us well. Hence, we were full of expectations on our stay in Village Hotel Bugis which boasts their Kids’ Themed Room and I even had my mobile camera on video mode waiting to capture the kids’ excitement when they entered the room. Well, you will read our initial disappointment and how later on, the hotel staff saved the day and put the smiles back on to the kids’ face within an hour!

Village Hotel Bugis is located directly above the Golden Landmark shopping mall. Being situated at the crossroads of culture, it is a mere 5-minutes’ walk from Singapore’s Arab, Peranakan, and Indian heritage districts. Hence, if you stay in this hotel, you can Explore like a Local, especially if you are a foreigner, or even Singaporeans may find gems exploring along these streets!

DRIVING TO VILLAGE HOTEL BUGIS

If you are driving to the Village Hotel Bugis, you will see the Hotel’s entrance at the corner. I encourage you to park the your car on the 4th level carpark of the shopping mall for an extraordinary experience! Forgo the Basement carpark as your kids will be thrilled to take the car lift up to 4th level! I was thrilled too!

Hotel Amenities

The hotel lobby is on the 3rd level. If you are entering from the Hotel’s main entrance, take a long escalator up to the lobby. The check in was a breeze as usual for Village Hotels. The hotel’s lifts are kinda grand looking, except that they were super busy lifts with the hotel’s high occupancy rate. When we found our hotel room, my mobile video started recording, expecting the usual excitement from the kids. The room was, well clearly a Kids’ Themed Room with the lovely Marvels wall paper in baby blue. It has a king size bed, which looks luxurious, and a sofa bed at the side which we gathered that it must be one of the beds for the kids. We check out the bathroom. It has a bathtub which is a must-have for our staycation. Toiletries were placed neatly beside the sink and toothbrush and toothpaste were included (that’s important as we usually do not bring ours!) Everything was in place and looked good, except that it was missing any other signs of what should go into a Kids’ Themed Room except for the wall paper!

So what happened when our expectations do not go hand in hand with what we see? Mummy called the concierge to check if this was what was supposed to be a Kids’ Themed Room as she strongly believed there might be a mistake, and sent her kids to the swimming pool to start their staycation must-do activity, which is of course SWIMMING!

20170610_152546 — Interesting star-shaped swimming pool

KIDS’ THEMED ROOM

An hour later, the kids returned to the room with a totally transformed and lovely decorated opened sofa bed with 3 Pokemon cuddly toys, 2 cheerful cloud cushions and swans made of towels. We received some bath toys with kids’ shower set and toothbrush sets. It looked as if the superheroes did visit our room after all!

The very friendly staff, named Yeong, even taught my girl how to fold the towel to make a swan! His cheerful demeanour and his sincere apologies for not setting up the room prior to our arrival more than made up for our initial disappointment! We were even offered a family room upgrade which was newly decorated and more spacious than the Kids’ Room to compensate for the miscommunication. However, as the family room had no bathtub, we gladly stayed on in the cosy Kid’s Themed Room which by now, the kids had grown to love! Receiving great service can really turn mood around! So, we witnessed that!

Some of the things that we love in the room includes the hidden strip of light behind the bed frame that turns the room to a cosy ambience. The wall paper, simple as it looked, has subtle stars that glow in the dark!

You may be wondering how we slept as a family of 5. While this room is more suitable for 2 adults and 1-2 kids, we asked for a roll-away bed to have the 3 kids sleep more comfortably. You have to be a really accommodating person like our family to accept the narrow walkway after the roll-away bed is set up right in front of the TV! In order to save some money in some hotels that we stayed, we have done all sorts of sleeping arrangement to accommodate the growing kids! We had ever put blankets to sleep on the floor, arrange sofas beside the bed to create more space and safety while one kid sleeps, etc.

One thing I like in this staycation is that we all get to sleep in one room, so close to each other. I could talk to the kids without going to the next room. We could interact more within the same room. I will certainly miss such cosy nights after the kids grow up and we no longer can save some bucks by booking 1 hotel room.

This is how we slept as a family of 5 with an extra roll-away bed. 1 kid on Sofa bed, 1 kid on roll-away bed and 1 kid on the King bed with us.

Explore Like a Local

While this staycation does not include specific packages like the other 2 hotels that we have been to, it really doesn’t need any. It has so many places in the vicinity to check out!

You can uncover the culture of Singapore Malays when you pay a visit to Masjid Sultan – one of Singapore’s most impressive religious building. Its massive golden dome formed out of many glass bottles collected by devotees is a remarkable sight.

You can trace the history of the Singapore Malays and learn about their contributions towards nation-building at the Malay Heritage Centre. Located in the historic Kampong Glam precinct, your family can explore the artefacts, murals, and multimedia displays across nine galleries.

Both my elder kids have been to the above places with their school excursions, hence we skipped that and decided to take a leisurely stroll to our dinner place. On route, we finally walked to the building with the fascinating men holding a ball each – the Parkview Square, our Singapore’s very own ‘Gotham City’. To our excitement, we spotted many statues and beautiful sculptures on the ceiling, in a far corner, right in the middle and almost everywhere you turn your head to!

Best of all, it has recently opened a Parkview Museum featuring contemporary art and now showing an awesome exhibition on Sharks and Humanity. It was late when we passed it, but we will be back again to check it out before the exhibition ends on 9 Sept 2017!

EAT LIKE A LOCAL

We had dinner at one of the uncountable dining places around Bugis for Mala steamboat buffet. Village Hotels are usually situated right in the centre of delectable eating places. You will never never go hungry when you stay at Village Hotels. That’s one of the best attraction of staying with the hotel chain.

After dinner, we contemplated to watch a late night movie but it was hard to book a blockbuster on a Saturday night. Otherwise, it would be perfect to watch a movie and stroll back to the hotel just 5 minutes away. There are plenty of activities to do!

Breakfast Buffet at Mooi Chin Place

It was noticeable that the hotel has a high percentage of Indian tourists staying with them. It explains why the hotel has 2 breakfast places, with one on International + Indian cuisine on the 5th level in a restaurant called Landmark, and the other on International + Chinese cuisine on the 3rd level in Mooi Chin Place.

I shall let the food do the talking for a moment.

After breakfast, we explored the gym and found some interesting quotes to motivate the workout buffs!

For a family who loves staycation, we usually spend a great deal of time in the hotel room and its facilities. For a good part of the night, we watched X-Men: The Apocalypse on Fox movie channel while eating cup noodles and snacks for supper till midnight. The next morning, the kids spent an hour in the bathtub while the hub and I snugged in bed to watch TV. We decided that a staycation deserves more time to be spent in the hotel itself and we leave the exploration of the streets after we checked out.

BUT…

For the best hotel, I am sure there will be room for improvement for a better stay experience. It will be good to have the following in my honest opinion for a more interesting experience as part of the Kids’ Themed Room package:

Include Kids’ activity sets to engage the kids in the room for some quiet play and keep them busy.
The activity sets can include walk-about activities for the kids to explore the hotel premises or be a tourist together with the parents around the hotel’s vicinity.
Have more kids’ themed amenities in the room and around the hotel.
Include a kids’ stool in the bathroom to reach the sink.
Have kids’ play area in Dining area.

I realised that more and more hotels, including those that we have stayed before, are including kids’ friendly amenities and activities recently. With the start of the Kids’ Themed Room in Village Hotel Bugis, I am pretty positive that we will be seeing more kids’ friendly staycations down the road with Far East Hospitality!!

The Kids’ Themed Room includes:

• One night’s accommodation in Kids’ Themed Room
• Unlimited WiFi access
• Buffet breakfast for 2 adults, 1 child

Room Amenities:

• Individually Controlled Air Conditioning
• Hair Dryer
• In-Room safe box
• Iron and Ironing board
• Electric Kettle
• 40″ LCD TV with Cable TV Channels

Room rates and promotion:

Right now there is a mid-year Mega sale, with below rate for a weekend stay for Kids’ Themed Room:
Deluxe King Bed – SGD201.26 including tax

Click here to book for a staycation with Village Hotels!

For our previous Village Hotels staycation review, check out the below links:

Village Hotel Changi Staycation – Play and Stay

10 Things to Do While Staycationing at Village Hotel Changi

Village Hotel Katong Staycation + Kim Choo Peranakan Experience

Disclaimer: We were invited for a weekend staycation in Village Hotel Bugis for the purpose of this review. This is the 3rd hotel under Village Hotel Chain that we have reviewed and each experience is a unique and memorable one. Thanks to Far East Hospitality for the awesome service and great stay experience! 🙂

My CoolSculpting Journey – What to Expect on Day of Treatment at Halley Medical Aesthetics

Among the things that I have done in my thirties, the decision to walk into Halley Medical Aesthetics to slim down my thighs must be the boldest of all. I am of a tall and bigger built than most ladies and because I am tall, the fats are kind of evenly distributed and thus, not too obvious on the outer appearance.

However, my thighs are the ones that bothered me constantly since they look really unglamorous with skirts and shorts. So, freezing my fat cells by CoolSculpting is the answer that I have been waiting for! And what is nice about doing CoolSculpting with Halley Medical Aesthetics is that not only am I able to shorten my treatment time due to the number of machines they have, I am able to receive weight loss counseling while waiting for my treatment to complete.

What is CoolSculpting?

CoolSculpting by Zeltiq is a treatment to reduce stubborn fat bulges that may not respond to diet or exercise. It freezes and eliminates stubborn Fat by delivering precisely controlled cooling to gently and effectively target the fat cells underneath the skin. These treated fat cells are crystallised (frozen), and then die. Over time, your body naturally processes the fat and eliminates these dead cells, leaving a more sculpted silhouette. Further, the sub-zero freezing does not damage the skin or surrounding tissue. The CoolSculpting effects are long term as the treated fat cells are gone for good. It takes as early as 3 weeks and mostly around 3-6 months to see the full slimming effect.

Here is my sharing on the day of treatment, what happens during the non-invasive treatment and how I feel after!

What to Bring Along on the Day of Treatment?

A book, mobile phone and a cardigan. The book and mobile phone are to kill time and cardigan to keep warm as it may take a few hours if you are doing multiple treatment areas at one go in an air conditioned room. I also wore a long skirt just in case any redness may show after treatment. This redness, however, will go away with time.

How Long is the Treatment?

I was told to expect a 4.5 hours block of time for the entire treatment because there would be 4 applicators to be applied, alternating with 2 sets on my outer thighs and inner thighs. This also includes the time taken for the doctor to determine the areas that require freezing, marking them out, and preparing me for the treatment.

What to Expect on the Day of Treatment?

On the day of the treatment, I was happy to see familiar faces again and I was more relaxed. Jean Tong, the CoolSculpting programme manager and nutritionist, took my weight, blood pressure and measurements before we proceeded to see Dr Terence Tan in his consultation room. After a brief consultation session on my recorded measurements and confirming the target areas to work on, we proceeded to the CoolSculpting room. Over there, the exact target areas were drawn on my thighs and 2 therapists helped to set up the CoolSculpting machines and apply the first 2 applicators.

Applicators Used and Time of Treatment

Do you know that Halley Medical Aesthetics is one of the few clinics in Singapore that uses 2 CoolSculpting machines at the same time (or DualSculpting), therefore cutting down the treatment time by half?!

In fact, I would be one of the first to use a new applicator named, CoolAdvantage that will shorten usual treatment time by almost 50% with increased comfort. Without this CoolAdvantage and DualSculpting capability, I would have to do one applicator after another, resulting in a treatment time of about 4.5 hours. But instead, I only spent about 2hours plus for the treatment!

The applicator that was used for my outer thighs was the CoolSmooth PRO, with a treatment time of approximately 1 hour and the one used for my inner thighs was CoolAdvantage which only took 35 minutes.

Before the applicator was positioned on my thighs, the therapist placed a gel pad on the treatment area which will protect my skin during the procedure. Upon application, I could feel a tugging suction on my thigh area as the fatty tissue was drawn into the applicator cup. There was an intense coldness, which gave way to numbness after 5-10 minutes. It felt like a cold ice pack was placed on my thighs.

After applying the CoolSmooth PRO applicator on my right outer thigh, they then proceeded to apply the CoolAdvantage applicator on my left inner thigh. Once they are done, the therapists made sure I was comfortable by propping cushions to support my legs and covered me with blanket to keep warmth.

Soon, I was used to the cold and the suction feeling and was able to read my book. It is kinda cool to know that I could relax while getting fat cells destroyed in comfort. Also, no sweat needed to achieve slimmer thighs, it is THAT easy! As there was no invasive procedures and medication, I felt safe and did not worry if there would be any side effects because there would be totally none.

The CoolAdvantage applicator on the inner thigh was soon completed after 35min. The therapist came over to remove the applicator and massaged on the applied area. She kneaded and moved in circular motions for a few minutes. There was some slight discomfort but it was bearable. This step is very important as it helps to break down the crystallised fat cells and improve the fat reduction. Only when the treatment was done for the right outer thigh can they switch over: CoolSmooth Pro on my left outer thigh and CoolAdvantage on my right inner thigh.

How did I feel at the end of the treatment and weeks after?

At the end of the treatment, I felt a tingling sensation for the treated areas as my thighs were trying to get used to the numbness. The discomfort lasted for about 5 minutes and was gone. I was able to walk around and went about changing into my clothes. There were no obvious signs that I had just done a CoolSculpting treatment at all except for some mild redness on the treated areas, which went away totally the next day.

For the first 2 weeks, I only felt numbness at the treated areas. It felt weird whenever I touched the areas as though they were not my flesh. Other than this sensation, there was nothing different with my thighs except that I was starting to feel that my pants and jeans were no longer as tight as they used to be!

By the 4th week, I could fit into my pants and jeans easily and comfortably! In fact, on the appearance, they already look slimmer than before! And we are talking about just 4 weeks and ONE treatment! In fact, one treatment is sufficient to achieve the slimmer thighs I wanted! Yeah! It is encouraging to see the obvious difference and I am surely looking forward to seeing the full results!

Active Slim Programme

During the treatment, Jean introduced a weight loss programme to me to complement CoolSculpting. As I mentioned in my first post, I preferred to lose weight without using weight loss medications. So the team at Halley Medical Aesthetics customised a programme called “Active Slim”, which is now a standard item on their menu, for me that only invoivled nutrition counseling and meal replacements. Jean prescribed me Optifast, a meal replacement by Nestlé to help in my weight loss to reach my ideal BMI, as CoolSculpting helps in a slimmer silhouette and not weight loss. Optifast is the only meal replacement drink approved by Health Promotion Board and only meal replacement brand used in major hospitals.

I was initially rather skeptical about taking meal replacement, as I am one who enjoys eating and has a strong philosophy of not slimming by diet means. But Jean assured me that I only needed to take it once a day and it contains all the recommended vitamins and minerals needed with total calories count of only 160kCal. I could supplement that replaced meal with a fruit or small serving of salad for the fibre intake.

As I usually take a quick breakfast with a piece of bread and jam and a glass of milk, perhaps taking Optifast is a better choice as it gives me the nutrients I needed in the form of tasty strawberry milk. I could prevent myself from eating junk breakfast like roti prata or chee cheong fun.

So, making the RIGHT CHOICES when it comes to eating is important to help me stay healthy. What’s more, I get a slimmer body in return! Isn’t that wonderful?

Furthermore, taking meal replacement is not forever. Once I reach my targeted weight and BMI, I will just need to eat as per normal but choose my food options wisely to maintain my weight from then on. Considering all these factors, I was willing to give it a try.

Stay tune for the next post on Active Slim and CoolSculpting Results!

Follow me on my CoolSculpting Journey! Read about my CoolSculpting Consultation post here!

277 Orchard Road #03-15
Orchard Gateway Singapore 238858
T: 6737 8233
halley.com.sg
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Ending April 2017 with…

If you would have seen our weekends and weeknights 2 years ago and compare it to our current schedule, you would have noticed a great difference in our time spent as a family. It was all play and hardly any work on weekends and weeknights back then. We had fun planning for outdoor play and playing games at home. Those were the good old days.

Right now, we have a boring schedule. Weekends are ferrying kids to their 1,2 non-academic classes and that’s half a day gone. Afternoon we have 2 hours revision and it will be dinner time. After dinner, it will be rest and relax time. On weeknights, I try to get home before 630pm, eat dinner with the kids and by 730pm, we are back to studying. I cater first 30 minutes to Missy 12 and next 30 minutes to Master 10. At times when Master 10 does not need any of my help, I will spend slightly more time with Missy 12. Then plus some supervision of piano playing, I finally have time for Master 5. Poor Master 5! He has to play by himself as we will have to keep him out of the study room for an hour. I will try to compensate him by reading him 3 books every night after 9pm. Hence, it is not that bad except that his older siblings used to have more fun on weeknights with art and crafts, silly games and many fun play than he does now. I can’t wait for the exams to be over to resume our play.

Missy 12 and Our Revision

I guess by now, everyone kind of knows our revision schedule has been religiously stuck to 30 min a day on weeknight and 2 hours on weekends. I am heartened that the revision has been going on very well and better than we expected. Considering we have only started such #30minrevision from January this year, I think we have made very good progress. We are certainly looking forward to how Missy 12 fares in her SA1. However, I am mentally prepared if her results showed that she needed more time to improve. I still feel that we have time to catch her weaknesses and focus more on them. It helps when I do not place expectations and target marks on her. I am not expecting big leaps of improvement. And it really helps that I know she has tried her best and that is all that matters. Still, I hope that our efforts will pay off and any slight improvement will be a boost of confidence to Missy 12 and me.

On Life as a FTWM – Time Spent at Home is PRECIOUS!

My current job allows me to work from home occasionally. I love this flexibility and makes full use of it to cook a simple love lunch for my kiddos. Each time I stay home to work, I will try to cook something different for them. I made Bentos, Baked Rice and Baked Pasta, Fried Udon, Carbonara, etc. The kids love to see me at home, even though I can nag at them to bathe, hang their towels, do their homework. I prepare tea break in the afternoon and listen to their day in school. We can have early dinner and the evening schedule is brought forward because I am at home. We sleep earlier too. I hope I can work from home come nearer the PSLE. What I used to jokingly said to a colleague that she took leave to make soup for the kids’ exams, I think it is my turn now to stay home to make soup for them as a morale booster. For mummies who have been through or those who are like me prepping for PSLE, do you and will you take a few months leave to stay home during PSLE period?

Activities in the midst of exams

As I have stated in my Life goes on in PSLE year, we still continue our usual schedule and have fun, albeit less of leisure activities. We checked out Safra Yishun new pool and for that day, we skipped a day of revision. We went for the Income Eco Run to soak in some early fresh air and sun. We also had fun creating Terrariums from Masons Home Deco and we skipped that night’s revision too. We played board games on rainy days and had movie nights. We do skip some other events due to the proximity of the exam dates like the Home Team event, Imaginarium opening day, and some other invites. Thus, before the exams are over, I am already planning the places to bring the kids to visit. I know that before long, Missy 12 will have to be back to her revision again to prepare for her prelims in July.

On Myself and self-care

I fell sick after 2 consecutive nights of waking up at 3am to work. Age is catching up and I need my 8 hours of sleep daily to function well. Because of that, I was down with flu for 2 weeks! This is what happened with low immunity. I have been trying to consciously eat healthily and read labels. I consume portions just enough for me and not force myself to eat the leftovers of the kids’ plates for fear of wasting food. I am trying to go the natural way of remedy via Essential Oils. My blogger friend, Serene from Xavvylicious is like a doctor who teaches us ways to recover naturally via Young Living EOs. Amazing results I have seen after trying on myself and my kids! As a result, we avoided taking medication and use the EOs to maintain good health in the long run.

I still have lots to improve on healthy living. For example, taking my eyes off the screen more often and cutting down social media screen time to save my eyes from fatigue. I need to exercise more too. I also need to be less serious at home, and get into the fun mood with the kids rather than focusing on whether they have done this, completed that. I probably have to relax more so that I can laugh more. Laughing more is the pill to youth. Sometimes I envy my helper who can laugh and get silly with the kids so easily. No stress, no worries.

On a Happier Note…

As I am writing this, the SA1 will officially end tomorrow. I need a good break from revision and I bet Missy 12 needs that too. So, we are going to rest and relax and go for playdates. I am going to date each kid to 1-1 date too. I can finally read more regularly with more time on hand, at least for a few weeks. Just thinking of the relax days ahead makes me very happy! Haha! I think you could really tell how stressful I feel being a PSLE mum who insists on no tuition, has no expectations and heavily burdened with responsibility to help her child meet her own target. Yes, I am really serious in shielding my child from all the academic stress and taking the stress solely upon myself. Stressful as it is now, I feel it is totally worth it as long as the enormous stress is not on the young child.

So, I am ending April 2017 with… away with the academic stress!!! Looking forward to a happy month in May!

How did your April go? 🙂

Life Goes On in PSLE year – from a Mum with NO Expectations

Life goes on in the PSLE year. I must ensure that. Indeed we are doing that.

I gave ourselves a day off from revision on Good Friday holiday and played board games at home and relaxed on that rainy day. And we are talking about 3 weeks to SA1. We do not stop the piano lessons and the art classes because of PSLE. We still go for kids run events, check out Safra Yishun new pool, go for dinner gatherings, have sleepovers, and Missy will be taking her piano exam in July. Nothing is very much different except that we revise almost daily, doing just #30minrevision. We are fine with skipping a day or 2 of revision and choose sleep over study. When people ask Missy if she is stressed with PSLE preparations, she replied no. With that, I think I have done my part to shield her from academic stress. Remember? I was determined to make PSLE year a not-so UNenjoyable one for her.

But ask me if I feel stressful with my first child’s PSLE year. My answer is a Yes.

I am stressed because I worry that I may not be capable to help her meet her expectations to enter her target school. I put the entire home teaching responsibility on myself since I decided to go the No-Tuition route.
I am stressed because even though I know time is insufficient, I cannot cramp in too much revision time because I advocate balance and play.

And ask me if I have any expectations for her? The answer is ZERO expectations if you are talking about grades and marks and target schools. Expectations on ATTITUDE? Yes, plenty! Don’t bluff! You might say. Believe it or not, the only expectation comes from Missy herself. My role is to help her to get into the school that she targets for. That’s all.

Because I do not have expectations, it guides me a great deal in our revision plan.

I started by focusing on her weakness and basics. Initially, I was alarmed that her foundation was so weak in various subjects. Since I have no expectations for her to go into any top schools from the start, I calculated that we have time to start anew and drill the basics. If I have expectations to target for top schools, then I can bet that our revision will be a super stressful one to cover basics and advance to being able to do any kind of killer questions. Tackling killer questions is NOT our priority nor a MUST to master. If time permits, yes, we shall do that and A* will be a bonus, but NOT a MUST-HAVE.

Once the basics were grasped, which was really quick because of Missy’s good learning attitude, we explored further in depth. Within 4 months from January to now, we are ready to tackle the harder questions in Math, putting more ticks than crosses in English Paper Booklet B, and getting the hang in answering Science Open-Ended Questions.

I do not ask for her to complete all the 10+ sets of top school papers for every subject, nor do I expect her to complete half the assessment books. We try to do revision within our means and time available. There is still much laughter in the house everyday and Missy is still her jovial self. Seeing that she still has a life despite everyone else getting stressed up in this year, I am really happy.

I can’t emphasize enough on how Missy’s change in learning attitude drives her to improve in a short time. It makes revision time so much easier. In the past, we spent much time dealing with tantrums, testing each other’s patience, teaching through gritting teeth with angry tones that refused to enter the ears. And not forgetting the eyes-rolling, head turned away and arms-crossing act. By and by, it took more than a year before she came to an awakening, got motivated, became receptive to my teaching and cooperated perfectly during revision time. I must say consistent love helps a lot in her attitude transformation.

I told Missy:

If there is any improvement in your academic, you are the one to make it happen.
You will certainly do well, it is just a matter of time.

I hope she continues her good attitude which will certainly bring her far in life.

To PSLE, here we come!!

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Follow our PSLE revision sharing here!

Safra Yishun Pool Reopens with Kids Play Pool and Slides!

Safra Yishun Swimming Pool is one of our most favourite pools! It was one of the earliest Safra pools that have kids’ slides. We love that the pool is nested among trees, beautiful landscaping, greenery, clear blue skies and lovely 90’s music playing in the background. You can’t see other buildings or HDB flats from the pool. I always feel like I have escaped to some beautiful resort away from the hustle and bustle of our busy city. Come dusk, the pool’s soft lights give the whole swimming pool a romantic feel. And it is also the very reason why our whole family are Safra members!

The reopening of Safra Yishun Pool is what our family is looking forward to for the longest time! We were honoured to be invited to the Aloha Pool Party to check out the newly refurbished pool. It has many improvements!

PIRATE THEMED PLAY AREA (WADING POOL)

The Wading Pool is now a Pirate themed play area suitable for 4-8 years old. There are slides out of treasure chest box, pirate hat and ship. There are several water play jets which are designed to only eject water spray within the pool so that those onlookers at the side do not get sprayed on. These are also common play features in all Safra kids’ pools.

I like that the water safety rules are big and visible too.

TRAINING POOL

Beside the Pirate themed play area is the Training Pool of 1.0m water level. This pool can be closed for FINS Swim School swimming class during the weekends in the morning and evening. They have kept the 2 pools connected by a shallow pool walkway. My kids always love to lie on their backs and tummies with their bodies partially submerged in water.

KIDS PLAY POOL WITH RAINBOW SLIDES

The 3rd pool is the Kids Play Pool with rainbow slides. There are two slides with a big waterfall in the middle. One slide has a gentle slope for younger kids. It is common to see young toddlers or babies accompanied by adults to slide down together. If not, there is always an adult to catch the young one when he/she slides down.

For older kids and adults, there is another slide which is steeper and longer. This slide is FAST! Parents, do take note to keep clear of the exit of this slide to prevent your kids or yourself being crashed into by the slide user!

The waterfall area is a hit too as many love to have the water come down hard on them.

OLYMPIC-SIZE LAP POOL

Similarly, the kids play pool with slides is connected by a shallow pool walkway to the Olympic-Size Lap Pool. Hence, parents need to be extra watchful for little kids wandering into the deep pool.

POOL CONNECTING TO JACUZZI POOL

The 5th pool area is another 1.0m pool connected to a Jacuzzi Pool. There are benches at the sides here to relax and watch your kids at the same time. During weekends, there will be some complimentary floats for the kids to play with too. Look at all these pizza floats, watermelon floats, lobsters, and even the coconut tree is sailing on the waters!

SHOWER ROOMS AND FACILITIES

The first thing that caught my attention is that there are many mirrors in the ladies. I am not too sure about gents though, but we ladies surely need more mirrors to check ourselves before and after swim!

WASHING AREA

Can you see the big mirror on the left of the photo? There is a washing basin for little ones too.

Here is a vanity area with hairdryer and hooks for bags by the side. There are more hairdryers outside the changing cubicles.

CHANGING CUBICLES

There is a changing area with 2 cubicles that have curtains, stools and mirrors, yes mirrors again LOL! I remember the previous changing room did not have curtains and I really hate to change in the toilet cubicle or the wet shower room. Hence, I am happy to see this improvement.

TOILET CUBICLES

There are several toilet cubicles, a kid urinal and a baby changing station.

SHOWER ROOMS

There are more shower rooms than before and a central area with hooks to cater for hanging of bags and clothes without wetting the seats when parents help their young children to change after bath. I think this is very considerate!

One thing we love about swimming in Safra pools is the rain shower head and water temperature control! We can bathe in warm water! But, the down side of this shower cubicle is that it does not have a lock. We wonder why? So, you had better leave your shoes outside the cubicle or hang a towel over the door to alert others that the shower cubicle is occupied, if you do not wish to have a rude shock of others pushing the door open!

LOCKERS

Outside the shower rooms, there is a water cooler and many lockers with a token of just $0.40 to keep your valuables and bags safe. The locker is big enough to put in a bag and shoes.

More information:

Safra Yishun

Address: 60 Yishun Avenue 4, Singapore 769027
Tel: 6852 8200
Website: Safra Yishun Pool

Operating Hours

Mon*	11am – 9.30pm
Tue – Fri	7am – 9.30pm
Sat, Sun, PH	8am – 9.30pm

* On Mondays, pools will resume normal operations after pool maintenance.

Swimming Pool Rates

Mon – Fri	$1.15 (Concession) $2.20 (Normal)
Sat, Sun & Public Holidays	$1.70 (Concession) $3.30 (Normal)

Terms & Conditions

SAFRA members enjoy FREE entry into the pools daily.
Guests would need to be signed in by a SAFRA member.
Each SAFRA member is only allowed to bring along a maximum of three accompanying paying guests per day to the swimming pools at all SAFRA clubs.
Children below the age of 5 enjoy FREE entry into the pools.
Concession rate applies to children above the age of 5 who are below the height of 140cm.
Anyone above 140cm in height will have to pay Normal Guest rate.

Disclaimer: Thank you Safra for inviting us to preview the reopening of Safra Yishun Pool and the awesome Aloha Pool Party! We certainly enjoyed ourselves to the fullest for 4 full hours checking out our favourite pool!