ドイツへの出張がシンガポールの祝日と週末にかかっていたので、お誕生日の今日夫は代休を取っています。せっかくお休みだから、ということで、デンプシーのP.S.Cafeにランチに出かけました。平日ですしインター系の学校は夏休みに入っているので空いているかと思いましたが、意外と混んでいました。夏休みなのでお子さん連れのご家族も何組か。それでも（人数が多いグループは待っておられましたが）並ばずに入れたので、週末より空いているかな？
My husband is taking a day off today as he was on a business trip recently over a public holiday and a weekend. It seemed a shame not to do anything when he has a day off so we went to P.S.Cafe in Dempsey for lunch. We thought it would be quiet as international schools are on summer holidays but it was busier than we expected. We didn’t have to wait, though, so maybe not as busy as on weekends. (Larger groups were waiting but they had some tables for 2.)
シンガポールに来た７年前は素敵なカフェがまだ少なかったのでよく行きましたが、そういえば最近はあまり行かなくなっています。素敵なカフェもレストランも増えました。それでも、ここは独特の雰囲気があって好きです。ただ、声が響くのですごくうるさくて、会話をするのは大変。
When we came to Singapore to live 7 years ago, there weren’t many nice cafes yet so I often had lunch here, but these days there are so many trendy-looking cafe in Singapore, I don’t seem to go there so often. However, I still like this place because it has a very unique atmosphere. The only trouble is that it’s almost always extremely noisy, the voices seem to travel far, so it’s a bit tiring.
夫は、プラウマンサンドとスープのセット。スープはトマトスープを選んでいましたが、あまり美味しくなかったです。わたしはクロックムッシュ。巨大！なので、半分だけ食べました。夜にお祝いディナーに出かけるので、お昼は軽めに。
My husband had a set of soup and sandwich – tomato soup and Ploughman sandwich. The soup wasn’t very nice, though. I had croque monsieu, which was huuuuge. It was good but just too much so I had about a half of it. We are going out for dinner tonight so we needed to be careful not to eat too much lunch.
ちょうど出かける時に強い雨が降っていたのですが、ランチが終わる頃には止んでいたので助かりました。
雨の後で涼しかったのでJones The Grocers やCulinaを久しぶりに覗いてみたら、Jones The Grocersは以前と随分変わっていました。Swiss Butcheryが入っていて、カフェ部分が随分広くなり、置かれている商品は以前に比べて少なくなっていたように思います。Culinaの方はそう変わっていなかったような。いつも思うのですが、あんなところまで食品のお買い物をしに行かれる人はどれほどおられるんでしょう。車がなくては行きにくいところにありますし、この２軒だけでは食材が揃うとは思えませんし。
When we were going out it was raining quite heavily but it had stopped by the time we finished our lunch and it was nice and cool. We walked to Jones The Grocer and Culina to have a look as we hadn’t been there for a long time. Culina didn’t seem so different but Jones The Grocers seems to have changed. They expanded the cafe part and don’t seem to have a lot of grocery. I must say, though, I often wonder how many people would go all the way there to do grocery shopping. It’s not as if you could get everything there and you do need a car.
Jones The Grocersもシンガポールに来たばかりの頃にP.S.Cafeに連れて行ってくださったお友達が連れて行ってくださったところで、とても素敵なお店でした。他にもお店が増えたせいもあるかと思いますが、随分変わってしまって残念な気がします。
When we first arrived in Singapore, a friend of mine took me to Jones The Grocers, Culina and P.S.Cafe. I really loved Jones The Grocers at the time – I liked what they had, how it looked etc. I suppose it’s partly because there have been some new places in Singapore but it doesn’t seem so attractive any more.