....... a Time to Share a Time to R3member
Lilypie 2nd Birthday Ticker

Saturday, May 23, 2009

A visit to Singapore Zoo

As you may notice, I have not been blogging for sometime and this post is an outdated post which I deliberately amend the post date back to the past.

I have not been to Zoo for ages and I can't recall when was the last trip to Zoo. At this age, Zoo is the last place in your mind, maybe mine, as looking at the animals just don't amaze me anymore. However, things have changed recently when Zach starts to learn his animals from the Big Book which Stella bought for him. He can point to the Elephant, Panda, Polar Bear, Cat, Dog, Lion, Tiger, Turtle, Owl, Butterflies and many more... :). Of course, I'm so proud of him and I don't think I score like him when I was his age.

With this, I'm so eager to bring him to Zoo to let him have his first hands on, ok maybe he can't touch the tiger, lion or polar bears but at least he gets to see the real stuff rather from the boring picture which I keep repeating to him.

I have some free passes as my company is a Zoo friend. My FIL and Mh's friend where invited and off we went to Zoo on an early Saturday morning. I was beaming like a child again and I can't wait to show Zach the various animals. And of course, I think this was my 2nd visit to Sg Zoo since I was like 4 years old?? So, to me it's like a new attraction to me all together and I heard good reviews of Sg Zoo. My colleague was a fan and she goes to Zoo every once a year! She can even recite the animal feeding time to me and she had drew a well map to follow on so that I will not miss out any of the feeding time. She can even highlight to me which one to make a go and which is a must/die die must see. Do let me know if you need the itinerary from me.

Anyway, I told myself to take it easy as we may just play by ears on whatever comes along. It's more like the animals suit Zach's time than we suit their time :p. We didn't manage to cover the whole place as it starts pouring madly around 2pm and by this time I was so drained and tired from the chasing and entertaining the animals, yes trying to attract their attention to look at us so that Zach can have a good view of them and at the same time entertaining my son so that he knows that is an elephant/tiger/giraffe/zebra and what nots...I came back with an aching body. Yea, surprise isnt' it? I should be strolling and enjoying the animals but I end up like running a 10km marathon.

There was a water play area for kids. Zach was initially grumpy as it's near to his nap time but when he saw the playground at the water area immediately his level of energy from 0 to 10. He had fun time and MH was busy running after him. I take it easy by having some KFC at the open area. Besides KFC, there is Ben & Jerry cafe next to KFC. I didn't manage to roam around the area as there's another big playground and a flying fox next to the water play area. Besides this, I understand there's a petting zoo around the area. I was too tired for all this and I just don't feel like dirty my hand and petting any animals. I decide to stay put where by butt is and enjoy my KFC :p. What a bliss.
All in, I must say Sg Zoo do impress me and I would love to go back again to cover the rest that I miss. The landscaping is nicely done and I can see they put great effort in maitaining the place to attract the locals and touries. Oh yes, the tram which we paid $5/pax is well money spend. To me at least, we just hop on when it starts pouring and when we were so damn tired in walking it is like a blessing to us. Yes, the place is not big but I guess running around with a hyperactive kid takes the toll on me. The tram serves the purpose.
Ok, what are we waiting for? Of course, it's picture time!

Group photo

A nice walk where you can hear the birds chirping and you may able to see some monkeys
Malaysian Tapir, Zach still thinks this is a cow (he is partly right)

White Tiger
Elephant during the token feeding. I guess Zach enjoy the elephant the most. But he was running away when he see the big fat elephant trunk coming towards him! haha..at least he's scare of something here. Maybe I should get an elephant toy trunk to discipline him

Look at the trunk, a little intimidating to me too :p

Zach with Gong Gong
Orang Utans doing the stunt
Sexy Zebra
Another sexy one. Tall and Slim giraffe

Forest Trail - I enjoy this very much. Lotsa butterflies, peacocks, ducks, bat that comes near to you. Zach loves it too and he was waving his hands and say fly fly when he sees the butterflies.

Here a Bat-Man in action
Butterfly sucking the juice from the watermelon. Look so inviting!

Raccon. Bored look. Badly needs some entertainment.

A tired looking Zach with yi-yi after his round of play at the water playgound
We were waiting for the Rainforest show but it starts to pour and it was cancelled. What a pity and I heard it was a good show!
We call it a day after this and home sweet home...

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Landed in KLIA

It was Zach’s 1st visit to KLIA on 3rd May09.

Going every nook and corner to discover the place. Oh well, I was afraid that he will just push one of those billboards down. Look at him playing at every corner he is able to squeeze thru'.

So far, there is some renovation going around in the departure hall. Other than that, the place is more or less the same 2 years back.

Mh and Zach waiting for the aerotrain

Nothing much to shop and see. Just spend about half an hour browsing the various shops there. Somehow, I’m still not fascinated with KLIA comparing to Changi Airport. I sum this up to the shops and environment that the place created to travelers and non travelers. Stella commented that the KLians don’t go to KLIA for dinner. But S’porean goes to Changi for leisure and dining. That’s the difference here.

Friday, May 15, 2009

Belated Birthday Post

Over the Labour Day weekend, I was fortunate that my dear ones are with me to celebrate my birthday. Another year older but I still feel evergreen as ever!

Here’s my Jelly birthday Cake. This is my first time having a jelly birthday cake and it comes in chocolate flavor. Very tasty and not overly sweet. Forget to ta-pao some home. I still think of this when I reach Sg.

Singing birthday song and birthday gal and not birthday boy also enjoy the birthday song so much! Both grinning from ear to ear. That’s the mantra of staying evergreen.
Zach, please pass the cutter to mummy. Zach “hijacked” my cake cutter. *pls ignore the birthday gal in pajamas suit*

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Picnic @ Botanical Garden

Last weekend, we had a picnic at the Botanical Garden in the morning. It was my 2nd time to BG and my 1st to picnic there. It has a nice big area for the children to run around and roll down the small little hill. Love this place and I’ll be back for more picnics or just taking a nice evening walk will be good. Indeed, I didn’t roam around the place as I was so comfortable with the park and I stay put there and watching Zach running around and playing with the soapy bubbles.

Zach with his Poky and MH
At the entrance of the Botanical Garden. It has nice mini water features on every planted tree there. Zach is just so curious with the water flowing.
This is what I mean. BIG and nice garden to sit and enjoy the picnic
Children enjoying themselves to the fullest. Notice what is Zach doing? Looking at ants J

Friday, May 8, 2009

Lunch @ Manpuku

Come to think of it, this is the 2nd consecutive post on Japanese food!. What's more, I had 3x of Japanese food within a week *burp*. This shows, I'm out of Japanese food for a month? Maybe...
We had lunch at the newly build Tampines 1 in Manpuku. It works like Marche but all food stores are selling all Japanese cuisine. Since it’s a weekday, there’s not much crowd when we reach there at 1pm. I heard some reviews on the fruit tarts which are really good and thought that we can have this for our dessert later. However, the queue was horrendously long and I give a skip and decide to come back some other time for the tarts.

We get to choose our seats and they have nice different settings. Nice ambience and I must say they pay a lot of effort in decorating the whole place up.
So, I went around to check out the different food stalls they have here. First stop, Hokkaido Ramen. They are famous for the Shoyu Ramen and it does look good. The soup base is very different from the normal ramen soup. It has a tinge of Shoyu and stands out differently from other ramen soup. This was in my order list but I decide to check out on others.

Next stop, Bontejyu.Very interesting menu they have here. I was having hard time in deciding what to order. Finally, I decided on Mochi and Cheese. Judging by the look and most of other diners order, I reckon I can’t go wrong with this stall. I will definitely be back again and try some of their dishes in their menu
Next stop, this stall offers rice wrapped in omelet. I was looking at the chef frying the rice and omelet and somehow I feel I can have this in other places. So I give this a skip. But I can’t deny the omelet does look inviting as I’m an egg lover person! I love my eggs in any way you cook it.
Here is the stall that sells Curry Rice/Noodle in Japanese way. I give this a skip as I still love my curry to be fiery hot and with coconut base. Tempura stall! They have quite a wide range of tempura. Didn’t order any from here as I’m eyeing on the sashimi corner. The sashimi section! I ordered a mix sashimi (with salmon belly).
Also, there’s the Yakitori section. I ordered asparagus with pork belly, pork belly and grilled squids. Last stop, our dessert and I ordered Macha with Soda. Not a bad combination. For dessert, I ordered mochi comes in 3 flavours. Red bean, black sesame, and the last flavor I can’t really figured it out. It’s sweet and salty at the same time :p. Don't really like the mochi texture as the inner of the ball is a little hardened. not as soft as it seems.

The bill came to about $50+ for the 2 of us and judging by the number of dishes we have, I’ll certainly go for ala-carte buffet in future. I love my salmon sashimi too much and it hurts my pocket to pay $12.90 for the above plate.
To round it up, I had a good lunch here comes with the ambience which is nicely decorated.

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Lunch @ Sushi Zanmai

Revisit this place again after 2 years. I remember Sushi Zanmai when it was newly open, the salmon sashimi is fresh and thick! Such a divine when you taste the crunchiness of the salmon belly. According to my good ol’ friend, the chef are from Japan and are experienced in their sashimi section.

I had this plan in my head when we spend our Labour Day in M'sia. I'm craving for Jap food again and we had lunch there on Labour Day with Stella. Here’s what we order for the 4 of us:-

1. 4 plates of salmon belly sashimi
2. 2 plates of 3 types assorted sashimi
3. 1 plate of Hamachi
4. Soft shell crab
5. 1 plate of Idako
6. 1 plate of Agedashi Tofu
7. 1 bowl Teriyaki chicken set for Dad (who doesn’t take raw food)
8. 1 bowl of Udon for Stella (who craved for Udon suddenly)
9. 1 Spider Handroll
10. 1 plate of assorted Vege Tempura
11. 2 chawanmushi
12. 1 Dragon roll (with fried prawns)
13. 1 plate of seafood sweet beancurd

Overall, I find this place standard has dropped and the raw cut are basically nothing to shout at. Glad that the freshness of the sashimi is there but I’ll try other place in future for a more satisfying lunch. The bill came to RM210+ incl drinks and tax.

Soft Shell Crab

Teriyaki Chicken Salmon Sashimi

Idako

Zach's joining the lunch but making pretty there