Of Beaches, Bugs and Buildings

I have been very busy at work over the last week because of a major restructuring and reorganisation exercise our company is currently undergoing. I've been spared the axe, but some of my colleagues were not so fortunate... It'll be a couple more months of this madness before everyone settles in properly into these changes... bosses, processes, seating location, roles and functions, ...all affected. Changes are always hard to swallow once you're in your comfort zone for far too long, but I think it's a step in the right direction. We'll have to rethink how we can work more efficiently.

Because of the things happening at work, I couldn't take leave during the March school break to bring the kids out or something. Cheryl did mention that she had wanted to have a picnic at the beach, so this morning, the whole lot of us (our family, my sis and kids, neighbour Sean & family) trouped our way to (where else?) Tanjong Beach at Sentosa. Unfortunately for us, there was some company family function being held there that day, so we had to "share" the beach with a whole lot of other people... But we managed to find a nice cool spot near the sea. The kids had fun playing in the sea water, and with the sand. Isaac's wearing Cheryl's previous swimming costume, that's why it's pink! I'm trying to get him to wear another one but he insisted on wearing this one...

We adults just sat back, watched the kids and enjoyed the sea breeze. We stuffed our faces with snacks. The weather was perfect. In fact it threatened to rain, but finally it just remained cloudy. We had sandwiches for lunch.

Soon after lunch, Sean had to go back for his swmimming lessons, so the rest of us remained in Sentosa and we decided to visit the Butterfly Park. With the Islander card, we got a 20% discount from the usual $10 entrance fee. It's interesting but I think it's not something we or the kids would want to visit again anytime soon. We're generally not insect lovers! TT & I literally went on a photo-taking frenzy. Many of the preserved (dead) butterflies and insects on display were extremely beautiful. The live fluttering ones, on the other hand, were quite a let-down. I managed to take this closeup pic of a live black butterfly.

This is a picture of rows and rows of live dangling butterfly pupae housed in a viewing cage. Several new-born butterflies had already broken out of their pupae and simply waiting for life to flow into their wings.

Got the kids to take this pic in the butterfly enclosure. Notice the interesting bug stools they were sitting on. The look on all their faces were pretty candid as well. Lauren was being spooked by a nearby fluttering butterfly while the rest looked on! I think the offending butterfly is that blurry brown thing at the bottom of the photo.

The park also houses many species of bugs and beetles. If you're squeamish about creepy crawlies, avoid this park. My sis and I were like going "Eeeeeewww..." at practically every live bug/worm exhibit. Look, this beetle's actually enjoying fresh orange juice, using his proboscis as a straw!

This live exhibit of some massive green stick insect thingy scored one of the highest points in our Eeeewwww-o-meter. Just compare it with TT's finger.

A preserved exhibit of some horny stag beetles! Let's give them some privacy... Hey, wait a minute, they're dead! Can almost hear the male beetle protest, "I swear I didn't do it!!"

A preserved exhibit of some not-so-lucky "fatt-fatt" (88) butterflies!

It was around 4pm when we decided to head back home... Isaac was too tired and fell asleep in the car. However on the way back, Sean's dad called us and said they were heading to the Singapore City Gallery at URA Centre at Maxwell Road. Sean had found out about this place from the book "Fun Singapore!" my sister had given him for his birthday. It's really quite an interesting place to visit. Lots of models of the city and urban landscape in Singapore, as well as other exhibits on Singapore's city and buildings. Here are the kids looking at the map of Singapore. We even managed to find the buildings we lived in! And below is the model of the IR and Singapore Flyer (Ferris Wheel) at Marina. Cool stuff! Unfortunately Isaac slept through the whole thing and we left him in the pram. Definitely will be bringing him here again some other day. I'm sure he'd love the place.
The Gallery closed at 5pm and we proceeded to the nearby Maxwell market for an early dinner. Isaac was rudely awakened by a lion dance troupe that was trawling every stall in the market. Hey, isn't it way past the Chinese New Year already? What's more I think the whole troupe consisted of non-Chinese members! Anyway, we had to tolerate the noise for a good 30min or so while we ate. Would have enjoyed the food more if not for the migraine-inducing din. Well at least Isaac finally got to watch a lion dance (or what he terms a "tong-tong-cheang") really up close. Here is the lion near a goreng pisang stall (btw, the pisang was good!).

National Orchid Garden

Another tiring and program-packed day...

11:00 - 12:30 National Orchid Garden (Botanic Gardens). I had a voucher for free entrance into the Orchid Garden, so we decided to go there today. TT had to pay the entrance fee of $5! TT just bought a Fujifilm FinePix camera from the IT Show, so all of us took many pictures of the orchids, including Cheryl and Isaac (with his plastic camera!). We looked like a family of fanatic compact camera photographers!

12:30 - 3:30 Make way to Tampines, have lunch at SIL's place.

4:00 - 5:15 Cheryl's Art Class

6:00 - 7:00 Swimming at Seletar Country Club. The kids had a good time swimming and playing at the slide in the pool. TT & me managed to cool down at the pool too.

7:00 - 8:00 Dinner

8:00 - 9:30 Kids' Playroom. After dinner, the kids went wild in the playroom and ball-room. I was afraid Isaac would be trampled by the older kids! Being the protective mother that I am, I was rather busy ensuring he did not get hurt. Fortunately there were no accidents, and the kids really used alot of energy and had lots of fun today.

You can guess how I felt like going back to work on Monday...

Haven't got time to sort out the pics.... just too many, now that we have 2 cameras...

Sean's Birthday

Today is our neighbour Sean's 7th birthday and instead of a having the same old kind of party year after year, his parents let him plan his own itinery/excursion for the day. Cheryl, Isaac and my nieces were invited to be his guests for the excursion.

I won't bore you with the details but I shall just give you an outline of the program for the day. BTW, Sean's family also has an Islander card, so no prizes for guessing where we went...

12:00 - 1:00 Lunch at Earl's Swensen restaurant in VivoCity.The kids enjoyed their lunch of fish & chips and pasta and Sean blew out his candle from a slice of ice-cream cake.

1:00 - 2:00 Took the Sentosa Express to Imbiah Station.We then took the escalator up to the cable car station. On the way the kids got distracted by the props left over by the Sentosa Flowers Exhibition.

2:00 - 2:30 Round-trip cable car ride. Sean's mum, myself and all the kids crammed into one cable car. The kids really enjoyed the ride, shouting "Hello!!" at every cable car they passed by. Nearly went deaf. Took the cable car to Mt. Faber and back again.

2:30 - 3:15 Calsberg SkyTower. TT escaped for his badminton game while I continued on with the outing. Isaac finally got his chance to take the Sky Tower. Nothing too spectacular.

3:15 - 4:00 Took the bus to UnderWater World. We crammed into a crowded bus to the Underwater World, but over there Sean's mum managed to convince him to skip this item, to my relief. The entrance fees were crazy and the kids were tired too. So we took a bus back to Imbiah Station.

4:30 - 4:30 Took the Sentosa Express back to VivoCity and drove home. Headed home. Isaac took his afternoon nap.

4:30 - 6:00 Break. While the adults took a rest, the kids (except Isaac) played in Sean's room.

6:00 - 7:15 Kite flying at West Coast Park. As Isaac was still asleep, we left for West Coast Park with the older kids for kite flying. The wind was quite erratic, so we weren't too successful in getting the kites up. But the kids had fun running about. I wasn't spared either. I think I ran at least 600m back and forth in the field... pant.. pant...

7:15 - 8:30 Dinner at Pasta Fresca along Pasir Panjang Rd. TT got back from his game and he met us at the restaurant along with Isaac, who was refreshed from his nap. We had a nice meal of pizza and pasta and the kids were very noisy.

9:00 - 9:30 Back home.The night ended with the kids playing sparklers downstairs.

A tiring but fun day for the kids. Needless to say, I was exhausted.

Merlion Walk

Our love affair with Sentosa continued today. We wanted to go to Botanic Gardens, but decided to try a different park. We didn't have enough time to cover the Merlion Walk during the Sentosa Flowers exhibition last week, so we decided to give it a try today. We drove in and parked at the Beach Station carpark.

I don't quite know how to describe the Merlion Walk but it's a 120m long colourful mosaic walkway with a shallow stream flowing through it. The kids love wading through it. Initially they were reluctant to go in, but once they were in it, they found it quite fun. I'm not sure if it was initially meant for people to wade in, but it was allowed. The kids walked in the stream with their Crocs shoes and tried not to get the rest of their clothes wet by avoiding the jets of water spouting out at regular intervals. But in the end, they got wet anyway, and poor Isaac lost his footing at a slightly deeper end of the stream and got totally drenched. Luckily TT rushed in to fish him out quickly. He looked a little bewildered but did not cry. We changed them into a fresh set of dry clothes (which I had brought along, or else I would have never allowed them into the stream). Then it was mandatory to take the Sentosa Express train to VivoCity where we had lunch at Food Republic before heading back to get our car from the Beach Station. Below are some of the pics of the Merlion Walk. Of course the colourful mosaic got me into a photo-taking frenzy again...

At night, we decided to risk the crowds to catch the fireworks at the Esplanade bridge. There was one last display to mark Chap Goh Mei, the last and 15th day of the lunar new year. Because it was already about 10min before 9pm, TT dropped us at the bridge while he tried to find a place to park his car. I carried Isaac, and Cheryl followed closely while we made our way to the middle of the bridge. We managed to find a good spot between two photographers' tripods. Fortunately for me it wasn't as crowded as it was during National Day and there was a slight cooling sea breeze. The fireworks started before TT could join us but at least he managed to catch it. I got a little tired carrying Isaac while waiting and during the display. Decided not to take photos this time so that I could just enjoy the fireworks. I couldn't anyway since I was carrying Isaac. The explosions were pretty loud and heart-thumping, especially for the large fireworks, but Isaac took it well. We've already prepared him beforehand, and he did say he wanted to see the fireworks up close. I remember it was quite frightening for him and Cheryl to watch fireworks for the first time at close range. This round he just stuck his fingers into his ears. So did Cheryl.

After that we had a closer look at the small merlion and I bought some ice cream while waiting for TT to drive the car back to pick us up. Tiring, but at least we got to see the fireworks live.

Kelong Trip

TT and my BIL Mel, made an overnight fishing trip (Fri-Sat) to a kelong near the Sibu Islands off the coast of west Johor. From the jetty they took a speedboat to one of the kelongs located in the middle of the sea.

I've been there before once while I was 6 months pregnant with Isaac in June 2004. Yeah, a heavily pregnant woman riding on a speedboat! This is a pic of me fishing then! Looks like I caught something! Actually it's the first time for me doing something like this. Using a string of about 4 baitless hooks, me & my sis managed to catch a good number of small fish so that the guys can use them as bait for larger catches. The guys enjoy going there for fishing. So my sister and I magnanimously allowed them to go for the fishing trip themselves. Fortunately, Isaac didn't miss TT too much for that one night and didn't give me any trouble while I was putting him to bed.

They went there in the hope of catching a good number of ikan parang, which was supposed to be in season. In the end, Mel managed to catch only one ikan parang, while TT caught a respectable-sized unidentified fish (see pic) which we steamed and ate for dinner on Saturday when they returned. The rest of the catch consisted of smaller fish like ikan kuning.

A Shot at the $10 Million Toto

I am one of those who firmly believe that it is a pure waste of time and money to "invest" in lottery like 4D and Toto. But I guess there is nothing wrong in a person holding on to the hope of winning big one day. But I still believe if you invest wisely (you don't need a lot of money to start with), you can be assured of returns instead of simply relying on pure chance.

The last time we did this so-called "investment" was after my dad's death. We bought a couple of 4D numbers using his niche number, death cert., etc. Nothing. Since Toto was $10million this round, no harm trying, TT said. So on Thursday night, TT took out our toy bingo set (which my sis gave as a Christmas present), removed numbers above 45, and we let the kids give the tombola some spins. We let the kids do 2 sets of 7 numbers each, TT and I rolled one set each. The kids had a lot of fun doing it, but we had to stop them because it was past their bedtime! Anyway, didn't win lah... or else I wouldn't be still here blogging about my mundane life...