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Going Out!

Going Out! The Kao Kids

Zoo: Default place to go if it doesn’t rain

September 15, 2012

We’ve been making good use of our zoo family membership to zip in and out of the zoo for one to two hours on weekday afternoons and weekend mornings. My eldest son, would lead the pack, by deciding which exibits he wished to see for each visit.

So far, we’ve had breakfast with Ah Meng’s descendants

Said hello to the parrots at every visit

Watched Stan the Sealion somersault and splash around

Gone on horsey rides and learned the difference between horses, ponies and falabellas

 

We can’t wait for Kai Kai and Jia Jia (not just because I can point out the similarity between them and me) so we can see some real kungfu panda moves!

 

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Going Out! Motherkao loves...

We heart the heartlands

August 15, 2012

If the wet markets ever vanished from the face of this city, I’ll pack up my bags and go for good. The heartland neighbourhoods with the all-too-familiar wet markets and hawker centres reveal such a paradoxical mix of the old and new. They showcase the richness and complexities of our heritage, culture and traditions and what truly is Singapore. It is one place you must visit to see the Singaporeanness in Singapore. It is in the heartland neighbourhood that you will find the original kway chap, wanton mee and fried carrot cake (forget about foodcourts!). Here, you can get a big glass of soybean milk for only sixty cents and order “Michael Jackson” with a straight face without being laughed at, with the same amount of money. “Michael Jackson”, for the uninitiated, is plain grass jelly (known as chin chow) mixed with soybean milk. It’s only in Singapore we find such humor and inventiveness.

We’ve been exploring the wet markets near us lately, mainly because we needed to hunt for shrimps, water snails and tubifex worms for the puffer fish and terrapins in our aquarium. And what better time to show our kids the real Singapore beneath the shiny veneer of our bustling, commercialised city, with this month being Singapore’s birthday month.

During the National Day weekend, we checked out the wet market at Ang Mo Kio Avenue 4 for brine shrimps to feed our puffer fish. We found an old uncle running a pet stall in the wet market, selling all sorts of tropical fish, shrimps, mealworms, mice and dwarf hamsters. Just next to him is another lady also selling pets. She has goldfish, puffers, terrapins and more dwarf hamsters. There, the kids squealed and jumped around in excitement looking at pets in a wet market. They also drank sugarcane juice, soybean milk and ate soursop ice jelly.

And only in the heartlands do you meet people who think they’ve known you forever. A few grannies smiled at me and approached me (at different times of our stroll there) to check if the two kids running around were mine; and upon seeing another one being strapped to my chest proceed to exclaim in disbelief that I was a rarity on Planet Singapore to have three kids so close together. It is in the heartlands I get a pat on the back for boosting the national birth rate.

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Food, glorious food! Going Out! Reviews

Wild honey yum

June 24, 2012

I’m the sort who can eat breakfast for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Actually, I am the sort who can eat eggs, butter and toast any time of the day.

So I heard from friends who raved about this restaurant that serves all-day breakfast. And I got the husband to indulge me a few days ago to have breakfast for lunch.

Wild Honey serves different possibilities of breakfast. We went to the one at Mandarin Gallery. The European Signature ($19) I had featured Eggs Benedict, prosciutto ham and mushrooms on a thick slice of toast. I’m not into food reviews so the best word I could use to describe what I ate is “yum”. I could use the toast to soak up all the oozing egg yolk from the eggs Ben and that, was very satisfying for me. Becks had forest berries in a bowl of bircher muesli, which they call their Swiss breakfast ($12) and my husband had a generous portion of spinach salad with slices of sweet potato and pumpkin ($16) and a cappuccino ($6).

It was a pleasant experience. The wait staff was chatty and friendly. The ambiance of the place was cosy and lovely. It wasn’t crowded but that’s because we went on a weekday. The breakfast was scrumptiously worth every cent I paid for.

Would definitely go again to try their version of a Tunisian breakfast. I heard the tomato stew with fried eggs and chorizo sausages are to die for.

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Going Out! The Kao Kids

Not so fun day out

June 23, 2012

I’m convinced after today that my kids are somewhat different from other kids. I’d had always thought all kids loved crowds, carnivals and carousels. Not mine, apparently.

Fatherkao and I have an aversion to crowds and queues. As far as I can remember, we’ve never stood in a queue for anything for more than three minutes and generally avoided crowded places. We would never queue to eat at any restaurant or stand in line for a taxi. If we had to queue to pay for groceries at the supermarket, we’d rather put everything back and order stuff online. We don’t even queue to go to church. We just head straight to the Overflow Room. We don’t go to town and we don’t like waiting for a parking lot. We avoid the heartland malls in the weekends and find respite in the airport terminals where there’s plenty of space for the kids to run, lots of restaurants which we don’t need to queue to eat at, and GST-free shopping. We weren’t always like that, of course, but as we got older, we just felt that life is too short to be wasting time doing unproductive things like queuing up. If we needed to pay more to save on time, we would. If we had to queue to get something free, we’d rather not. Yes, not even if they were giving out free handphones and iPads. Or houses. Or cars. But I digress.

So it appears that our kids have taken after us in that way.

I won priority passes to the Drypers Little Day Out at East Coast from the giveaway at Daphne’s blog  and thought it would be nice to take the kids out to a carnival to have some fun before I officially start work on Monday. So when I told the kids that we would be going to a carnival, they were all yay and hooray; but when we arrived there, they started looking like the Grinch stole Christmas. They didn’t want to queue for the kiddy rides or the carnival games. At the bouncy castles, Ben asked me if I could make all the other children go away so he could play. They didn’t share the enthusiasm other kids had for chasing bubbles. They headed to find open spaces and stood there to watch the crowd, mostly for the one hour we were there. I actually had to tell Ben and Becks that we would go home if they continued to be so grumpy to get them to ride the carousel.

There you have it, signs of crowd aversion, just like their parents. I’m sure other kids had much fun, going on unlimited rides (they were free), playing carnival games, eating popcorn and cotton candy (they were free too), dancing with Alvin and the Chipmunks and watching the outdoor movie screening Chipwrecked.

Mine were just grouchy, until dinner time at a quiet restaurant. Only then were they back to their usual selves – when away from the crowd.

 

 

 

 

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Becks Kao Ben Kao Going Out! The Kao Kids

Hokey Pokey Fun

June 14, 2012

Last week the husband told me he wanted to go to the PC Show. IT Show, PC Show, Comex, Sitex… I can never figure out what’s the difference, and why men would love to be found in crazy fairs like these. He said he would zip in to get something real quick, and I could go walk about Suntec City with the kids.

I decided not to walk about because there is no way any walking will happen with two toddlers. They run. And touch things. And do funny things. Like sit on the floor in the middle of nowhere when they are tired.

So I whisked them to the new indoor playground at Level 3 which I’ve read about in some mommy blogs.

Hokey Pokey was a little different from the indoor playgrounds my kids have been to. Unlike the usual helter-skelter, gym-like play structures that involve plenty of climbing, sliding, rolling and running, kids can actually sit still to play at Hokey Pokey. In my opinion, they’ve cheated a fair bit – the only bit that qualifies the place as an indoor playground was the soft structured slide – the rest were all masak masak, Little Tikes rides and educational toys. Hokey Pokey divides the area into the Pretend Play section, Discovery Corner, Interactive Play area and Music Corner. I wasn’t too impressed, to be honest; twenty-five bucks per kid for something my kids would get Mondays to Fridays at their daycare, and weekends at home, plus having to share all the masak masak with a lot more other children than those in their playgroup at daycare. At least in school, they play with children their age. Because this place admits kids six months to six years, my daughter had to put up with two older girls bossing her around and telling her she wasn’t allowed to touch this and that when she was trying to bake me a chicken / pour me some ketchup / serve me a pizza at the little cooking corner. She was constantly terrorised by other kids who would snatch her donuts and pots and plates. In school, if this ever happened, I’m sure it would have been a teachable moment. Unfortunately, most kids there were accompanied by their domestic helpers, so you can imagine that they themselves were also busy making new friends all around.

Nonetheless, Ben and Becks enjoyed themselves. I made fatherkao wear the baby to the PC Show, which got many heads a-turning, and so he claimed, so I was free to have pretend tea with my daughter and watch my son stack colourful birthday cakes. I also watched my daughter cook and my son explore wooden trains and musical instruments.

I did feel a little silly to be paying money to do so though. We do this all the time at home. But at least the husband got his shopping fix.

More details:
  • Hokey Pokey is at Suntec City Mall, Level 3-027E/F. next to the Groupon Store.
  • Opening hours: 10 am – 7 pm from Sunday to Thursday and 10 am – 9 pm on Friday and Saturday
  • Admission is $25 on weekends per kid for two-hour play and $15 for unlimited play on weekdays. Members get discounted rates. One accompanying adult per child only.
  • The place is well-maintained and the staff ensured the kids and adults sanitised their hands. I saw them cleaning and scrubbing after the bubble play. There is also a diaper change table for babies, lockers for bags and some seats for the adults who want to kid-watch.

 

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Ben Kao Going Out!

My mother, my Science teacher

June 6, 2012

I cannot teach my children Science. Or Maths, but that will be for another post another day.

Last weekend, we decided to go to the Bukit Timah Saddle Club, have breakfast at Riders Cafe and look at horses. I wanted to open Ben’s eyes to the equestrian world.

I’ve always been fascinated with the art of horse riding. I’ve never been on a horse and it has been my dream to. As a little girl, many a nights have been spent dreaming of riding a black handsome stallion and being able to steeplechase and play polo. But I soon learnt, as I grew up, that the equestrian world is a rich world only for the elite few, and my hopes of donning a sexy pair of jodhpurs and leather riding boots and reining a horse soon melted like butter on a hot day.

But still, I love horses. And I’d thought this would be a great chance to teach Ben something about them. And get him to sit on the saddle, riding a real one, instead of putting a one-dollar coin each time we see a horsey kiddy ride.

So we walked around the stables and I taught him that domesticated horses are those we can ride; that horses have hooves and manes; that a baby horse is called a foal; that they graze by biting off grass and other vegetation.

I would have loved to tell him more: that these majestic creatures move with four basic gaits (and the coolest is the gallop!); that they are intelligent mammals with excellent spatial discrimination abilities; that the Bedouins were the first people who bred extensive pedigrees of Arabian horses. But I will save that for a later time.

He got quite excited when I told him he’d get to ride a pony. All I needed to do was to pay ten bucks. And then he asked, “What’s a pony, Mama?”

And I replied, “It’s a baby horse.”

Stop it, I know you’re laughing at me right now. Because I’ve been an ignorant fool who probably slept through all the science lessons in primary school. I didn’t even know I had taught my son the wrong stuff. And he went round yelling “I’m gonna ride a baby horse!” all through breakfast at Riders Cafe.

Until fatherkao came to my rescue and told him that a pony is a small horse, alright; but not a baby horse. A horse is a horse because of its height. A pony is under an approximate height at the withers (the tallest point of the body of a four-legged mammal), and like a horse, there are many different breeds of ponies. It is certainly not a foal. And it is not another horse breed.

He also told me in the car I had better not teach Ben science-related stuff when he goes to primary school.

Agree totally.

More details:
  • Pony rides at Bukit Timah Saddle Club on Sundays (10am – 1pm) for $10. The BTSC website says Saturdays and Sundays but we chatted with the people there and they said they won’t be doing this on Saturdays anymore, starting this month.
  • Breakfast at Riders Cafe: Be prepared to wait 30 – 45 minutes for a table if you’re walking in. I couldn’t get a reservation for a month! And I tried booking through CHOPE and there seems to be no way to get a table online for breakfast for the next few months. Breakfast there was great, but not worth the wait if you find the weather a little too humid.
  • The other restaurant to try is The Marmalade Pantry. I hear their cupcakes are fantastic. Will be trying the next time we’re there.
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Going Out!

The grass is greener here at POLW

May 13, 2012

So I’m a little late in posting this. Almost everyone I know with young children have gone to POLW, the new kids’ water theme park at Sentosa.

We figured since Jake and the Neverland Pirates is all the rage now with the kids (they are watching reruns of Season One on Disney Junior every day at 7.30pm), we’d bring them to see a real enough pirate ship – one that spews water and has lots of other jolly buccanneers running around onboard, pretending to be Jake, Izzy and Cubby, just like my kids.

Picture from polw.com.sg

Unfortunately for them, the pirate ship didn’t appeal much. It was honestly, just like many of the other water playgrounds they’ve seen. They did get wet but wanted to abandon ship as early as they could. They didn’t like the foam party either. The activities which could be paid for with the curios they were given (sing: “It’s time to count our GOLD DOUBLOONS! Yyaahhyy!!”) didn’t interest them much too (watering a pot of plants for 30 curios? They do it for free at their grandparents’!). So they found themselves a corner at the little sand pit at Curiosity Island and built sandcastles for their little pirate-selves.

What was great about this outing was that the adults (seven of us!) went in free and had a nice picnic. What was even better was the lawn grass! No red ants (think East Coast Park) and no coarse sand (think any beach in Sentosa); just nice green, albeit artificial, grass to sit on to enjoy the sunshine and laughter from the children at the sandpit nearby.

The nice lawn grass was totally worth the thirty bucks. Because we had all the fun as a family there. And it was cool, soft, and insect-free.

More Details:
  • Port of Lost Wonder (POLW) at Palawan Beach (opens 10am to 6.30pm daily)
  • Kids pay $8 on weekdays and $15 on weekends (any kid under 12, but my infant went in free, of course)
  • Things to bring: swimwear, sunscreen, sand toys, picnic mats (unless you want to pay $13 for one there)
  • Go early. Once they hit maximum capacity, POLW will deny you entry. We saw many longing faces at the entrance when we left at 1pm. Bet they were all waiting to get wet!
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