Goodbyes and hellos

The Real Housewives of FC

Goodbyes are always hard, aren't they? Even if you know you will see each other again.

This week, we bid farewell to Winifred and bb O as the family made their move back to Asia. We had an official farewell at Alana's café at Redwood City - a nice little cottage serving hearty brunch like pancakes, quiches, scrambles and toasts. 

There, we presented Winifred with our very own 'Winifred's Guide to Singapore'. We hope it will help her get acquainted with all the new eateries and to-go places back home. Relocation is scary, and little tips here and there go a long way!



Housewives hard at work

Ta-da!

The happy mama and baby

We drove them to the airport and helped with the luggage since we stay so close by. All the while, Bb O looked as if she knew something big was about to happen. As we waved goodbye to her at the gate, she looked as if she was going to cry. Argh... we are gonna miss this sweetie pie!

Last attempt to make bb O laugh at the airport

In the same week, we said hello to a new friend who has just arrived in the Bay Area. It's Jo's friend's friend, who also turned out to be Yiru's friend's friend. That we found out. Indeed, it's a small world!

Anyway, Yiru suggested Tootsies At the Stanford Barn - an Italian café serving breakfast/lunch, for our inaugural rendez-vous with Flora. I absolutely adore the ambience of the place - very cosy with its barn structure, red brick walls and pretty outdoor seating. Well, it's close to Stanford Shopping Centre so I guess it has the same European feel. The rest ordered sandwiches and burgers, while I opted for risotto balls which came with fresh arugula salad. Yums! But the thing I'll come back for is the hot chocolate - just the right amount of creaminess and richness for me!



Our big plates on the mini tables



Saying 'welcome' to Flora

After lunch, Yiru invited us over for a short session of tea and coffee before we zipped back to FC to fetch Z. It's really great knowing that the housewives' group is growing. It's so easy to talk to these girls since we are all around the same age and come from similar backgrounds. The husbands are gonna be real envious as we have more and more girls' outings!

Girls' night out

I didn't expect downtown Redwood City to be bustling with people on a Thursday night - the night of our first girls' outing!

When we came last November, Panda and I tried a couple of restaurants there because we were staying near the office. Since then, we didn't go back to explore further because we were content with the small eateries at San Mateo and Burlingame. And back in winter, Redwood City's Broadway/Main Street looked cold, dark and a little ghetto-ish.

So it came as a surprise to me when I saw restaurants overflowing with people. And I think it made the outing even more 'exciting'! We had all dressed up a little for the occasion - set our hair, do our make-up, worn our heels. The crowd made me feel as if we were really out in town, even though it's only Redwood City!

The first two restaurants Martin West GP and Vesta looked awesome but were unfortunately full to the brim with a 45-minute wait. So we settled for a cosy Italian restaurant next to Vesta. The wait staff at Vino Santo Bistro were really friendly and our food arrived in good time. Jo and I both order pasta (Fettuccini Vino Santo and Linguine Con Gamberi) while Winifred and Wendy had dinner specials (Risotto Con Merluzzo & Gamberi and steak).

 I must admit I'm happiest with my vodka cocktail. It's been too long since I had one.

The chocolate decadence was deemed a disappointment. But by the time dessert came, I was too happily engaged in chit chatting and giggling to feel the difference. And since I'm a simple eater, anything with chocolate goes! We ended up staying till we were one of the last two tables to leave.

We were all still quite high as Turbo Francis faithfully ferried each of the housewives home. I think the next time we have a girls' outing, we will be sorely missing Winifred's presence as she will be heading home in less than 2 weeks. Boohoho!