Once again, we are celebrating Mum’s birthday and this year, we’ve got Evan as an addition to this celebration. Just before we left for dinner, we had a birthday cake cutting session at home.
Like all the cake cutting sessions that we had, Ethan and Ezanne were always excited about it, singing the birthday song in English and Chinese and eagerly waiting for the moment, blowing the candles and cutting the cake. A little commotion happened during the cake cutting portion.
Last year, we had Mum’s birthday dinner at Seafood Paradise at Singapore Flyer. This year, we had Mum’s birthday dinner at Seafood Paradise too. But its at their newly opened restaurant at Terminal 2. The staff were friendly, they were not stingy on their servings and the restaurant was still quite spacious, at least, I could still maneuver the pram within the restaurant. Since the staff is friendly, I’ve requested them to help us take a family photo.
I know mum and dad enjoyed themselves. At least there wasn’t any negative complaints except for over-ordering the food. At least, I think this is the least that I can do for them.
After lunch, we headed to Let’s Play @ Changi which was a month long activity that Changi Airport Group organized.
Just before the children starts their 8 minutes of play, they were brief by the operators on some of the safety precautions, but seriously, I’m not too sure if the children understand or were even listening. But looking at the pictures, I guess they were.
After the briefing, the children dash onto the giant inflatable playground.
8 minutes later, we proceeded to Basement 2 where the children got their hands dirty doing sand art. I’m quite surprised that there is such a place at the airport for the children, probably because it was “hiding” at a corner, it just need to be more visible.
Ethan and Ezanne listened attentively to the instructions and started working on it.
When we thought that this was almost the end of the tour. We were surely wrong. Ethan had the chance to take the slide from B2 to B3 and zoom he went. Just before we went for our last activity of the day, the children were treated to candies which was sponsored by Candy Empire. Basically, they can take anything they want and how much they want.
Finally, the children were brought to Singkids Playsystem. Singkids Playsystem imports their equipments from Japan and are all patent, which means you will not see any imitation or expect any imitation from elsewhere. This was actually one of the places that both Ethan and Ezanne very much.
6 hours of non stop fun. We will like to take the opportunity to thank Changi Airport Group for organizing the event and sponsors, Candy Empire, Singkids Playsystem, Kid’s Painting Corner and Hard Rock Cafe for making it so memorable for us and for the children.
Just before lunch, we visited the butterfly park which Ethan is always fascinated with the butterflies he sees during his visit. He also tried taking a photo of the butterfly.
After the butterfly park, our friends from Changi Airport Group arranged for the children to feed the kois. Ethan and Ezanne definitely enjoyed feeding.
While we were waiting for others, we came across one of the world’s largest plasma screen, 103 inch to be exact and a comfortable sofa area for transit passengers to relax and enjoy great shows.
This sofa area is so comfortable that all of them (Mummy, Ethan and Ezanne) decided to take a break.
After the break, it was time for lunch which was served by Hard Rock Cafe.
The staff at Hard Rock Cafe were kind enough to sponsor lunch and free t-shirts for the children. Personally, I thought their hospitality was good. Lunch time was also a good time to interact with Changi Airport Group staff and to recharge ourselves for the physical activity which was planned after that.
While we were on our way to our next stop, we stopped at a koi pond and Ethan, Ezanne and the children were fascinated by the kois that they see.
After hanging around at the koi pond, the children went to a corner to do colouring.
Other than colouring, I discovered that Ethan loves drawing.
The children loves the colouring since there were ample supplies of crayons and papers. But good things always come to an end very quickly. We took the monorail and very soon, we were heading towards Terminal 3 for more surprises.
Our next stop after Family Zone was the Sunflower Garden.
Sunflower Garden is located at the Transit area of Terminal 2 and gives passengers an excellent view of the airport runway, see the aeroplanes and hear the sounds of the engine of the aeroplanes. Luckily, it was a not a very hot day, else I think the children will want to go into a sheltered area very quickly.
If you have a chance to visit, the sunflowers are definitely a must see.
Just when we were moving on to our next stop, I saw a Jam Studio at the airport!
We didn’t had a chance to try that though, probably not really suitable for the children.
If you’ve been reading this blog, you will know that both Ethan and myself attended Latte Session with Changi which brings us to places at the airport which not many people knows. This time, we were invited by Changi Airport Group (CAG) to experience some of the new activities that the airport has for the family.
We were supposed to meet at 10am but we were 15 minutes late and if Melvin is reading this, my sincere apologies. As recommended by Melvin, we park our car at Terminal 3 since the tour will end at this terminal. So we took the sky train to Terminal 2.
Ethan and Ezanne were exceptionally happy today, I’m not too sure why, but both of them were talking non-stop and were very sociable. The first stop was a playground at Family Zone at Terminal 2 Transit area. Both of them got so excited when they saw the playground and immediately ran and started climbing the obstacles when they were given the go ahead by me to do so.
What I like about this playground is it has an excellent view of the airport runway and while playing, the children gets fascinated by the aeroplanes that they see as well.
Family Zone also has a changing area for parents to change diapers for their children. If you are traveling and if you are at Terminal 2, this is a place which you will definitely find it suitable for you. It also have a TV area with chairs and sofa for the children to enjoy =.
Just before we left for our next stop, I got Ethan and Ezanne to take a picture.
I know you will be irritated to see this blog post if you have been following Ethan on his fanpage, my Facebook, following me on Twitter or on Instagram but I just have to blog about this, Ethan is on the back cover of Changi Connection.
Changi Connection is a corporate newsletter for Changi Airport Group and Ethan was on the page was because of his attendance for the 1st Latte Session with Changi. I received a call from Melvin one day who requested for the picture of Ethan as they were writing an article. Well, I thought why not but I was not sure how the photo will turn out and I thought Ethan’s photo could be one of the many.
When Melvin and his colleagues told me that the newsletter was ready and they had sent a copy to me, I was eagerly waiting and checking my letter box everyday. In fact, I was quite surprised to see Ethan’s photo (just his photo) for this story as I thought there were many other beautiful pictures taken. This picture holds two special meaning for me. One, it was Ethan who is in the photo and two, the photo was taken by me. It was just a shot to capture Ethan observing the 3D model of the entire Changi Airport. Well, I hope you enjoy the picture as much as I do when taking it and once again, thank you to the wonderful people at Changi Airport.
Did you miss our Latte Session with Changi experience? You can still read them here. You can actually see the original photo in one of the blog post.
The moment we arrived, Mandy from CAG told us, “Ok, so guys follow Ivan and the ladies will follow me, we are going to the toilet.” WHAT! What’s there to see at the airport? Just before we actually went into the toilet, the A380 was spotted. Ethan’s reaction was, “Dad Dad, I want to take the plane now.” If only taking a plane is like taking a bus in terms of its price and accessibility. Nevertheless, I told him that we will be taking it next year.
After the A380, we head to the toilets. What about the toilets? At Terminal 3 transit areas toilets, electronic feedback systems are installed for airport users to feedback on the cleanliness of the toilets real time. You can let the cleaner know that he has done a good job by touching the “Excellent” button or you can send in your feedback and let him know that the floors are wet.
After seeing the toilet, we got the opportunity to enter another special room, POWDER ROOM. Its located in the ladies and the use – For the ladies to pamper themselves after a long flight. Do you know how the flights are segregated at Changi? Long haul flights departs at Terminal 3 while regional flights departs from Terminal 2.
After the Powder Room, we head towards the Butterfly Garden where there were huge butterflies flying in front of us. Ethan was alittle scared actually.
After the butterfly park, we were brought to another surprised location, the movie theatre. There are 24 hours of screening of movies at this theatre at selected timeslots. Don’t expect the latest Hollywood blockbuster, but they are from the latest DVD release, it not that bad afterall.
Just before we left for the fire station, here’s the group photo that we’ve taken.
Finally, we headed to the Airport Fire station where there was a short demo on aircraft firefighting. Enjoy the video.
After the demo, there was a short briefing on the vehicles used at the fire station. You might want to know that fire engines at the airport doesn’t spray water, but foam. We also managed to go up the emergency stairs which are usually used during an A380 emergency situation.
This was the last area where we visited. Ethan and I enjoyed ourselves very much and we will like to thank the people at CAG, Melvin and Mandy and others (oops doesn’t know their name) for organizing this wonderful trip.
So after the tour, our guide, Mandy brought us to the first “RESTRICTED” Zone, Terminal 2 transit area. The first WOW was the 3D Experience Zone. There was a super big Samsung screen that was showing none other than Soccer which you will have the speakers just on your seat itself. There are also several TV corners where you can watch 3D movies, we can’t get it at our home yet, so why not try it at the airport.
Next to it was a section called Photo Me. Stand in front of the web cam, have your picture taken, show it on the big screen right in front of you and send a soft copy to your email or your loved ones. This was Ethan’s and my 1 minute of fame. This was definitely Ethan and mine’s favourite corner.
Next, we pass by Culture @ Changi. There was a stage for cultural performance as well as some display on some of the traditional games that we used to play. Oh, and Ethan decided to get on to the stage to have a picture taken.
We pass by a Orchid garden after that. Here are some interesting facts that you might be interested. Do you know that CAG owns the largest nursery in Singapore and all the plants in Changi Airport Terminal 1 to 3 are real. There is a cactus park at Terminal 1, unfortunately, we didn’t had the opportunity to visit that but I guess, it will be really interesting too.
Time was running out and we took the sky train to Terminal 3 for more exciting stuff.
Do you know what’s the powder room? A movie theatre in Changi Airport? How do the fireman put out aircraft fire? Well, stay tuned for Part 3!
In early November, Changi Airport Group (CAG) had a competition on Facebook for their Singapore based fans to tell them why Changi Airport is their favourite airport and the winners will get to go on a tour to Changi Airport to visit places where US, as a passenger might never notice or know. I submitted mine and YES, I got the invitation.
The session is called Latte with Changi but how forgetful can I be. Instead of a cuppa of Latte, I ordered a cup of tea instead and realised it only after I got my drink. Anyway, the gathering point was just outside Starbucks at Terminal 2.
Before the start of the tour of the fire station and the terminals, a briefing was conducted by Mr Ivan Tan, CAG’s Director of Corporate and Marketing Communications. I got to know that Changi Airport is actually 1 year older than me (it opened in 1981) and some interesting facts like there is a plane taking off or landing every 2 minutes at Changi and much more. Do you know that Changi Airport is currently the A380 hub in the world, which means, it is the airport handling the most number of A380s flight.
Ethan was actually quite fascinated with the airport modeling that was right in front of him. It has an overview of Terminal 1 to Terminal 3 and the budget terminal as well.
After the briefing, we were treated to breakfast, which was pretty sumptuous before starting the tour. Due to the rain, we started the tour of the terminal first before heading to the fire station.
What are the interesting finds at the Transit Lounge? How do the firefighters response to aircraft fire? I’ll be posting them soon in Part 2 and 3 of Latte Session with Changi.
