A Saturday Outing - Henderson Waves

Thanks to National Park's planning, the southern part of Singapore has a pretty good network of park connectors. One of them includes the Hort Park which we went before and the other is the Henderson Waves where it connects Mount Faber and Telok Blangah Hill Park.

We brought the kids there during one of our Saturday routines. I thought the architecture of the bridge is really modern and artistic (see pictures). Surprisingly, there are a lot of hikers on such a morning, young and old. Singaporeans are really into keeping themselves healthy.

We started off at the top of Mt Faber and walk our way towards the bridge. Too bad, the weather was warm, sunny and humid. The kids got cranky after walking halfway through the bridge, so we didn't stay long in Telok Blangah Hill Park.

ColBar

To continue, after we left Hort Park, we went to one of our favourite hangout place: ColBar (short for Colonial Bar).

For those who don't know, this bar has a history which the surroundings and the description hanging on the wooden planks can tell. Even my pictures can tell you that it is kind of a "kampong" place. They sell an extensive range of chinese and western food. But our all time favourite is always the chicken curry. They have other nice dishes like the fried fish (whole fish with bones and head) with chips etc. Thinking of it makes me hungry already.

It is a quiet and relaxing place where the kids can roam anywhere they like and have fun playing the old tyre swing. Expect lots of expats and mosquitos in the evening though. Oh, and don't expect much service. Take the menu from the counter yourself, place your order at the counter and remember to return the menu back.

 

Hort Park

I mentioned that two Saturdays ago we went to Hort Park and got some potted plants from Hort Mart there.

Here are some of the pictueres we took (click on the collage to see enlarged image). Its quite a huge place with activity areas for the kids. And if you are the adventurous type, you can actually hike your way to Henderson Waves and to Mount Faber via the many bridges.

 

The only downside was we went in the morning. And by 11am, the sun is getting too hot for us to venture anymore into the park. So I suggest going there in the evening when its cooler. They also have a restaurant in the park. Not sure about the food quality as it was closed when we went there.

Here are the potted plants we bought to decorate our balcony. Fyi, they're growing well at the moment.

Ning's New Pet

Last Saturday, we went to Hort Park for a walk. And from the park, we bought some potted flowers, seeds and plants home to grow.

Well, to Ning's delight, the Begonia Rose that we bought, had a caterpillar on one of its leaves. And we decided to keep it in our plastic fish tank (the one we got from Bottle Tree Village) to watch it grow into a butterfly.

Not that I have a liking for such things. In fact, it kept eating and growing till I thought it was quite gross looking. But we thought it might be educational if we could let Ning see how the caterpillar will eventually weave itself into a cocoon and then into a butterfly.














Currently, our "Very Hungry Caterpillar" as Ning likes to call it (adapted from Eric Carle's book), is in the cocoon stage (see 2nd picture). And anytime now, its going to become a butterfly.

Don't worry, I'll let it off the fish tank and not keep it captive. That's why I'm posting these pictures now.

Speed & Noise of F1

While organizing my photos, I found this clip that I took during the F1 race.

They say the speed of the cars are at about 300km/hr on average. And between each car, the time difference is less than 1 second. Looking at the clip which is about 20secs with the 20 racing cars, I think these statistics are right.

Of course the noise is really deafening. I had my ear plugs in before the race started and was still in my ears all throughout the race. The noise level can be up to 130 decibels high (very very loud) and that is why the organizer strongly recommend children under the age of 7 not to attend the race.

Children's Day Celebration

As the title suggests, we held two gatherings on 1st Oct and the same weekend Sunday for our friends' kids to celebrate Children's Day.

To get into the mood, I even went to get some party decorations to hang up. Good thing is, these are generic decorations and we joked that I can recycle them next year.

The first party, featured in the slide show, mainly had kids that were less than 2 year olds. So Ning was the big sister there. The tods had a fun time playing the electric car and the walker. And of course, all parents were busy catching up and snapping pictures of their little ones.

Sadly, I was to busy with preparation of food that I forgot to take pictures (not even a single shot) for the second party. Because the children coming are older, ranging from 1 year olds to 7 year olds, we had kid's meal prepared like baked fish fingers, nuggets, hash browns and strawberry drink. And I can say, these kids can really eat. Next time, I must prepare more food for them.

WF and I agreed that its fun to get friends and kids over to catch up occasionally. Moreover, the toys that Ning and Zhi got bored playing seem to get extra attention when other kids come over. So it creates good economical sense rather than letting these toys collect dust!

Hay Diaries Goat Farm

I mentioned that two saturdays ago, we went to the Hay Diaries Goat Farm in Lim Chu Kang. I've finally uploaded the photos to share.

The kids enjoyed the outing pretty much. Seeing the goats being milked and feeding the kids (young of the goats). The milking is done every morning from 9 to 11am. So if you're planning to visit the farm, do so in the morning. We were lucky that there was an RC senior citizen outing, so the farm had a representative to explain to us the qualities of goat's milk and how they milked the goats etc. For $2, you get to have a pack of hay and feed the goats inside the farm.

To end the visit, the kids get to enjoy the cold chocolate goats' milk which we bought at the counter. You can actually order the milk and they'll deliver to you.

The highlight of the outing was actually to the dragonfruit farm next door. WF & Ning love to eat dragonfruits and finally we get to have a chance to see how the plant really look like.

In this fruit farm, other than growing dragonfruit, the owner grows other plants like chives, grapes (yes, I have the pictures to prove), bitter gourd etc. For Ning, she gets to see and touch the various plants like papaya, ginger, pumpkin which I think is a good educational exposure.

On a daily basis, these fruits/vegetables are harvested and sold on the premises. The owner's family even made dragonfruit jelly and grape jelly to sell, which Ning thoroughly enjoyed it at home. Of course, we loaded up on the dragonfruits into our car too.

 

Wah Fong's Birthday

In all fairness, I did celebrate WF's birthday this year. Ok, but let me stress, his birthday was in August and I forgot to post it here. Now that I remembered, its still better than not posting.

We invited the Bizaders (NUS Bizad) one weekend before his b-day to our place since a few of them are also August babies. And as in all previous birthdays for WF, I did what I do better: bake. So this year, its green tea cake with red bean paste filling. Something that is not so sweet and heavy. As far as I know, the guests like it. More importantly, WF finds it good (but not as good as the durian mousse). Maybe this christmass it'll be green tea log. Ha ha...

On his actual birthday, which was a weekday, I bought him a cake. An apple cake which Ning insisted on having. She never quite accept the fact that there are other people's birthday, not just hers. So she keep insisting it is her birthday as well.

She was all so excited and readily sang the birthday song to her Papa (and herself). And you can see from the photos, how happy Papa is.

Too bad, Papa forgot to buy Mama a birthday cake one month later, so she didn't get a chance to hear Ning sing a birthday song for her. Next year, I shall buy my own cake and get the kids to sing for me. *Humph*

Weekend Come and Go

It always happened so fast. And before we know it, its gone! I supposed weekends are always so packed with activities that time passes by so quickly.

I've mentioned in my previous post that we're planning to go to Hays Diaries last Saturday. We did. Only exception, I haven't upload the pictures of this outing. So this posting is on another Saturday outing we had some time ago to the Bottle Tree Village in Yishun (or was it near Khatib?).

Like its name, the tree is shaped like a bottle. And I believe currently in S'pore, there are two bottle tree parks. One in Sembawang, the other in Yishun.

In this Yishun's village, the adults can occupy themselves with prawn fishing. For the kids, there is a small man-made pond filled with "longkang" fishes to catch. Pay $10 and you get a plastic fish tank, net and fish feed. Then you can start to catch as many fishes as you can.

Both of them had an enjoyable time. Only sad thing is, all the fishes (we only had about 8 fishes in the tank so as to avoid overcrowding) die within 3 days after we brought home.

This wouldn't had happened if the staff in the Village had agreed to accept our $10 and loan us the fishing net & tank only. We had insisted to them that we don't want to bring the fishes (tank, net & feed) home knowing jolly too well that the fishes are not going to survive anyway. We just wanted to let the kids experienced catchng fishes. I really don't understand what is their mentally since its almost total profit for them by loaning us the equipments. But they keep insisting that we MUST have all these items. So now, the fishes are gone, the tank is empty and the net is missing... what a total waste (for the environment, business and us).