A CHILDREN’s Garden In Botanic

I was very tired yesterday. I did not get enough sleep the night before, and what welcomes at my work site me was intense task to be rushed. I intended to write about my Sunday trip to Jacob Ballas Children’s Garden with my kids, but my memory had failed me, that was why I am only writing it today. I learn about the garden only about a week back, and since my wife have a weekend assignment (road show), the trip would keep them occupied for the weekend and also give them a break before they settle down for their preparation of year-end examination.



As I was not familiar with this area, I parked at the car park near the Singapore Botanic Garden visitor center. Following the maps and the road signs, we walk about 20 minute to the garden within the park vicinity.



The greenery is something children cannot appreciate, while I enjoy my slow walk toward the garden, my kids would hassle me about the long walk and keep asking me, “我们到了吗?” So along the way I would talk to them about the plants, and took photos for them to kill their boredom.




The place is quite well planned for the children visitors. There is a controlled entrance which is guarded, the guard is meant to ensure that children in the garden are accompanied by adult since the entry is free. There are children’s toilets and drinking points, and the canteen is right outside the garden with little chairs and tables.






The garden is separated into many stations like water-play area, cave, suspension bridge, tree house, maze, etc. With its size and the variety of play area, it could easily keep the children busy for at least half a day, especially the water-play area. As I did not prepare extra clothing for the children, plus the weather was very sunny, we left the place after only 2 hours. Now, things got tough for me and the children, they were too exhausted to take the walk back to my car but there are not alternative, so the daddy (that’s me) has to lure, encourage, push and pull them along.



This is a picture of my youngest daughter learning how to drink from the water point on her own.



On the way back, we pass by the big pond where we had an encounter with the black swan.



When we reach the visitor center at last, we took a rest before we goes off. And we manage to spot and snap a picture of a squirrel hanging around our rest area.

Crab Story

How many ways of cooking a crab do you know? For most restaurants or coffee shops I know, it is normally about three to five ways. So it is going to be impossible to find one place that can cook your crab in say 10 ways, right? WRONG!!!



When I had my dinner here on Tuesday night, it was not so crowded, and I choose a smaller table right in front of the store, it so happen to be right in front of this light box which displays all the type of crabs they are offering. I came here quite often and never really realize they actually offer 16 types of crab dishes. If you are a crab lover, it is going to be tough on your pocket.

So far, I have only tried the Chilli, Black Pepper and Tang Hoon crab since it is the most common type of crab you can order anywhere without looking into the menu. But I will come back for more, some of them(the crabs) just look irresistible.

Family Day

My wife’s company had their family day last weekend at the SAFRA Resort. So our family was there for the whole of Saturday afternoon and evening.

We started with a swim with the kids in the pool. It reminds me of the life saving trainings in my poly days, it was tough. We trained twice, a total of eight hours a week, swimming close to a hundred laps every session. But sadly, swimming one lap now feels like a marathon.



After the swim, the kids join in the tele-match, magic show followed by barbeque dinner. My elder daughter was enjoying chocolate fondue so much she didn’t feel the chocolate flowing out from her month.

Sinful Enjoyment

My wife and I went for a walk at IMM few days back. We were feeling hungry when we happen to pass by this “Tea Room” selling Hong Kong food, which have a display menu showing something interesting, the price is reasonable too. The place looks quite popular as there were only few empty seats left. We decide our pick and my wife quickly take up a seat while I went on to queue ordered a ginger steamed egg, oyster beef with egg and HK crispy chicken with mushroom.

I collected my drinks and steam egg from the counter, then make my way to my table and wait for the main dishes to arrive. The steam egg was very smooth and soft, I can smell the fragrance of ginger as I put it in my month. Interestingly, this delicious dessert does not appear in the menu.





I took the beef rice while my wife had the chicken rice. Not only the rice was done in a different way but they also use different ingredients from what we have in our local food court. For example, the chicken rice was covered with molten cheese, and my wife described the rice as sinful. I didn’t understand the description till I tried the rice, it taste good in my month but at the same time, I started feeling very sinful as the molten cheese make its way through my throat.



The dishes also come with a soup as a set, which have included tremella(白木耳), red date(红枣), and papaya(木瓜). Well, whatever, it is really an enjoyment! I’ll be back, 湾仔香港奶茶店!

Have FUN At The FAIR

I have been quite busy lately, and I was neglecting my children. I can feel it by their responsiveness when I talk to them. But I didn’t know what to do, it is men’s weakness, we are made to be less sensitive and reactive to such situation. Luckily my wife have the solution (she’s the patch to my weakness), she suggested a walk at the fun fair.

I can still remember the joy I have when my dad brought me to one, when I was much younger. That’s always one rule to follow, we are not allow to play any “dee kam” (game). His explanation was pretty simple, the game is the first step to the gambling world, so it is to prevent us from cultivating the risk taking habit in our life.

Now that I am a father, I too avoided most of the game unless with close guidance. But these days, the focuses of the fun fair are mostly on necessities and foods. This is the first time I actually tried the fried ice-cream (炸雪糕), price is on the high side in my opinion, but nevertheless, I got two for the two elder girls. The taste is rather interesting, the girls enjoy it anyway.



One store I wish to mentioned, I previously tried this one store selling Teochew meat puff (潮州香饼). As far as I know, it is the only one in singapore, maybe JB and Batam too. I like particularly the one with oyster, definitely worth chewing on.



Then, there were the fun rides, and my wife lures them into take up a new challenge, the Viking (海盗船). My two elder girls enjoy the ride but the youngest one was too afraid and has to drop out half way. But I am delighted that they have the ride, because I had my first Viking ride after the age of twenty. The evening has at least eased the tension I have build up in the pass few days, and I slept well that night.

Harvest Moon

The Mid-Autumn festival falls on the fifteen day of the eighth lunar month, which according to the lunar calendar is also the exact middle of autumn. At this time, the moon's orbit is at its lowest angle to the horizon, making the moon appear brighter and larger than any other time of the year. In the Western tradition, it is also called the Hunter's Moon or Harvest Moon.

But today is also my in-law’s birthday. It is going to be a busy night though. I will have to attend the dinner, and then hopefully I will still have a bit of time to bring my kids for a walk. My wife have brought three lanterns for the kids a week ago, the two elder daughters got the traditional ones that uses candle to light up. I can remember that when I was much younger, this is a good time to play with fire, under the consent of my parent, I never fail to expend each of my lanterns.

According to a widespread folk tale, the Mid-Autumn Festival commemorates an uprising in China against the Mongol rulers of the Yuan Dynasty. As group gatherings were banned, it was impossible to make plans for a rebellion. Noting that the Mongols did not eat mooncakes, the advisor to the Chinese rebel leader Zhu Yuanzhang, came up with the idea of timing the rebellion to coincide with the Mid-Autumn Festival. He sought permission to distribute thousands of moon cakes to the Chinese residents in the city to bless the longevity of the Mongol emperor. Inside each cake, however, was inserted a piece of paper with the message: "Kill the Tatars on the 15th day of the Eighth Moon." (八月十五殺韃子) On the night of the Moon Festival, the rebels successfully attacked and overthrew the government. What followed was the establishment of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), under Zhu. Henceforth, the Mid-Autumn Festival was celebrated with moon cakes on a national level.

中秋佳节

Mid-Autumn Festival is only less than a week away, my earlier order for two boxes of mooncake have been delivered, there were meant to be a gift for my mother and In-laws.



When I send a box to my mum’s place, she immediately cut out one for us to try. So far I have also tasted some from Goodwood Park and KLT 錦綸泰 in my office, comparing the price of this 大中国月饼 with many others, it is actually cheap and good.

The box is a very simple one unlike the rest which explain the price. At below twenty five dollar per box for the double yolk type, it tasted better than many selling above thirty, or even forty dollar. Anyway, this is one popular shop that is responsible for one of the long lines in chinatown year after year, and they has never disappoint me so far.

A Final Episode

I don’t see my grandmother often, in fact not even a dozen times, and though I wasn’t very close to her, still it is a painful loss. The wake lasted for seven days in Batam. I was there only on sixth day due to my work commitment. It is been years since I last went, I realize only when I saw the age prints on the faces of my aunties and uncles. I couldn’t recognize them all, but they were happy to see me. They just hold my hand and smile and I can feel the closeness of our heart, the bond of our blood.





I could see from far the lantern were red signifying longevity. The Chinese believes that if one hit the age of seventy, or has five generations under them, then one is consider to have enjoyed longevity and the death is not a sad event. The setup was more or less similar what we have in Singapore. Unlike here, there are some restrictions to be followed very strictly, one of which is all forms of gambling activities are not allowed, this included manjong or card games which the authorities in Singapore would not enforce most of the time, so we could only spend the night chatting or sleeping.

After midnight, it was consider the seventh day, everyone have to kneel around coffin to wake the decease up for a shower, change to her new cloths and take her meal, we then burned the paper house, car and money for her to bring along before she move on to her afterlife.

The next day which was the last day, I found out that Band is also in the restriction list. We went through the Buddhism ceremony, before the coffin is transfer to a van, a police petrol car would clear all traffic lights along the way and escort the convoy non stop from the funeral parlour to the crematorium.

I was told that the crematorium uses kerosene and not gas. After a short prayer, the coffin was send into the funnel. The memorial tablet was then brought back and setup in one of the uncle’s house. The ceremony is then considered as ended after we change into our daily clothes. In Buddhism, the living is supposed to let go the sorrow and move on as death is just part of life.






My aunty drove us to the jetty after a short rest, where we book the 5.30pm ferry to Singapore. It was full of people that were there for the “Batam one day tour”, we could see many tour guide holding the little flag, shouting all over the place. Thanks to the human traffic on this last day of the school holiday, our ferry was late for one hour. The sky was almost dark when the ferry left for Singapore, I took some photo with my K810i to kill my boredom along the way.





When the Rasa Sentosa Resort came in view, I know home is near, I am back in Singapore. Each time I attend a funeral, it keep reminds me how importance and precious life is, I must learn to treasure the times I have with my family even more.