I did once promise that this wouldn’t be yet another blog about children/motherhood – and it isn’t – but this is such a bargain basement find, I simply can’t not write about it (even if you don’t have any children of your own, you’re bound to get asked along to a dreadful children’s party sooner or later and this will prepare you!).  In a world where mothers really do have to work in order to be able to afford anything from good old Mothers Work Maternity…this may not be salubrious but it’s a gem.  

HGMIL (see? What a name!) supply OG and Kiddy Palace, among others, and will also sell to you at trade prices. No glitzy showroom, just a warehouse (as pictured above), you need to do your research before you go.  Their website is basic as hell but does give you a feel for what you can buy here. They are also extremely helpful on the phone, so it’s worth ringing ahead if you have any queries. Their office, the floor above the warehouse, has vast catalogues of all their stock and about a million more things than they have listed online, so going in person definitely does get better results.

I bought a child’s bike from here for the princely sum of $80 which was half the price the shop at Henry Park was quoting. It came fully assembled and ready for use (when I rang them up this morning before writing this, she said on the telephone that most bikes come flat packed and you have to assemble them yourself; this was definitely not the case when I was there and almost all the bikes I saw were built. Anyway, even if the policy changes from one week to the next, they are so nice here that you could probably ask them if you could slip one of their warehouse workers – aka the topless chaps in the first pic – $20 and have them build it for you).

It feels like it’s miles away but actually it’s not, it’s in Upper (upper) Thomson; very near the Island Club in fact, which would be the perfect place for a spot of civilised lunch, post shop.

The man to speak to – either on the telephone or in person –  is James, who runs the operation.

Not for the faint hearted. Only consider coming here if you are prepared to walk in to a place which, from the outside, looks like this:

HGMIL, 4 Tagore Lane

T: (+65) 6456 4584 or (+65) 6456 3097

Handle bar image courtesy of NBC