Cycling @ East Coast Park

After sometime, I manage to fulfill one of my waiting lists that is – bring Zach for a spin at East Coast Park (ECP).

It was a good and bright Sunday morning and Dad, Lily and Sis was in town. I marched the troop to ECP for early in the morning with MH half sleeping. We reach the Family bicycle (Carpark E, near to the East Coast food court) kiosk at 8:15am and rented the bikes for 2 hours. I wasn’t’ very happy with this shop due to some incidence happen later on. We went there after a few times and I feel their service level sucks. I may consider other kiosk in future and I’m sure there are plenty out there.

It was our very first time we did the tandem cycle. Initially I was a little skeptical as I have not done this for sometime. Considering that I’m the “main rider” and carrying Zach and Mh (who was heavy :p), maneuvering the bike needs skill. Anyway, we manage to cycle at least 10km. The bicycle route is very scenic and if you go there before the sun is up, the air will be very cooling and pleasant to ride.

Zach was a little confuse intially. Am I on a stroller with mum?

 

Here comes the threesome

 

Say Cheezeeeee!

Chill out at East Coast PArk

Chilling out at East Coast Park and just people watching on a Sunday late afternoon. Wasnt there for people watching but I was there waiting for my sis as she went off cycling on the long stretch. Came without a book/mag to past my time, so the only way to fill my boredom is to people watch and eavesdrop on ppl's conversation...hiak hiak hiak...

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As you may notice, I have not been blogging for sometime and this post is an outdated post which I deliberately amend the post date back to the past.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

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

Getting heated up

Yesterday was another freaking hot day! All 3 of us were hiding in the room with air conditioned and fan blasting. It was just too hot and I told hubby that I just wish that I had a pool in front of me to dip!

With this idea, we decided to head off to Sengkang Swimming Complex. It was newly built sometime early this year and heard some good review on this place. In total, the complex house 2 adults pool, 1 children's pool and 8 slides. I noticed this place is very wheel chair friendly as they are rams everywhere including the pool.

Considering the entrance fee for weekend, $2.00 for adult and $1.00 for children, it's definitely worth going. This complex has a 24hours McDonald and 7-Eleven.

When we reached the complex, I was swarmed by the many cars parking illegally by the road side. This tells me, it's going to be real crowded inside there as many people sharing the same thoughts.

As you can see, here's the children's pool, super crowded. Zach was elated to see the slides and playground and he wanted to climb up into one of the slides. Maybe next time, mummy will bring you down together.

Children's pool

Zach enjoying floating around in his float (tsk, please don't get too excited of the hunk beside my boy)

Slides! No guts to try now. Afraid my bikini will MIA halfway thru :p

View of the children's pool when dusk sets in

This is what I mean about the jacuzzi. What do you think? Feel like I'm a koi fish blends in together with the landscape.

Indoor pool with ram, friendly for wheelchair.

We swam for about an hour an half and decided to have a shower and head out for dinner.

One reason which makes me consider to come back to this place is the water pressure is BAD! I can bet you that Zach's pee is faster and bigger than the one I had in the shower room. Water were merely trickling down and I'm having a hard time choosing which body part to go first. I was so frustrated with the water pressure and I decided to go without a bath. I change into my clothing with the cholorine smell sticking to my skin.

We had Boon Tong Kee's chicken rice for dinner and we did some grocerries shopping in Giant before calling a day. Oh, another thing after 2 years of missing swimming my body was aching all over.. *ouch* (only 2 laps and that's it!)