Parenting »

Exploring Our Children’s Potentials

14 July 2022 – 3:34 pm |

“Thanks” to today’s gadgets, more and more kids tend to say, “I don’t know what I’m good at. I don’t know what I like. I’m not interested in anything actually.” (But somehow they are interested …

Read the full story »
Parenting

From the ups and downs of parenthood, to practical tips on enjoying and managing life with children.

Inspirational

Where inspiring thoughts and treasured life lessons are learned and shared.

Places to Visit

From Hong Kong to Bali, from Universal Studios Singapore to farmstays and beaches in Perth, we share photos, info and tips with you!

Crafts & Activity Ideas for Kids

How many different things can we do with our little ones at home and outside? Too many.

Photography

Where precious daily moments are captured and seen through the lens. Sharing with you tips, iphone apps, and ideas too.

Home » Daily

I Miss The Outdoors!

30 May 20126 Comments


[A typical traffic condition during the day in Jakarta]

 

By now we’ve officially lived in Jakarta for a little over 2.5 months.

And people generally ask if it’s been alright for us so far. Whether we’ve adjusted well to the ‘tougher’ aspects of living in Jakarta. You know, stuff like, the daily traffic jams, the pollution, the many ‘big holes’ on the roads, the slow internet connection and bad phone signals at our place.

For a while I thought I am doing fine, ie. Not missing Singapore and all.

But then I was wrong.

Okay let me explain.

I DO think that we are adjusting okay with those tougher parts of living in Jakarta.

I mean, while it IS of course inconvenient (especially when compared to the organised and generally very efficient Singapore living), we do get on with life everyday, and it’s been okay. Would’ve been nice if many things are better improved of course (eg. The road system), but I guess I simply prefer to not always complain about the reality of living in Jakarta that we CAN’T change anyway.

BUT.

There’s one thing that I just recently realised : we tend to be more confined to the indoors here in Jakarta, than when we’re in Singapore.

We are inside the four walls of our home, we hop into our car, we’re stuck in traffic, we get off our car and enter a building, we go back into our car and return home.

And THIS is quite a big change for me who’s so used to being out and about, out in the open, everyday.

[Relaxing water-play at Jurong Birdpark’s Birdz of Play area]

I mean, even when it’s just me and the three kids back in Singapore, I could take them to Sentosa, to Palawan beach! By public transport!

Yeah, people say that Singapore is just this concrete jungle where nothing is natural anymore. Even the beach is ‘man-made’.

Well, man-made or not, I’d say … at least in Singapore we could be in the outdoors SO much more often. And, these spots are easily accessible.

We could go to the beach (Palawan Beach, Siloso Beach, East Coast, etc) in the weekends.

We could go rollerblading and cycling in our neighbourhood every single day.

We could take a stroll down Orchard Road and enjoy the different street performances (especially more happening if it’s in the weekends)

 


[Enjoying an afternoon stroll along the Sentosa Boardwalk] 


And, nearly every weekend, there’re different things that we can check out, be it a flea market along the Marina Bay, the Army Open House, or just … something.

Basically, although we don’t have mountains and valleys in Singapore, we could at least choose to be away from buildings and malls and simply enjoy being out in the open. Everyday.

Sigh.

As you can tell, I’ve just been missing the outdoors a lot lately.

 

There’s GREAT news though!

(Good news, for me =)

Because we CAN enjoy nature and the outdoors here, much more beautiful too, it’s just that they’re a few hours away from Jakarta!

We could drive towards the mountain top  (ie. Puncak), we could see paddyfields, we could check out beautiful beaches. I mean, there’s actually a LOT for us to see and explore out in the open here in Indonesia, if only we’d drive out for a few hours to get there (or, take a domestic flight).

I know, it’s not ideal, but to me, it’s better than nothing!

And so right now, I am just really LOOKING FORWARD to checking out different outdoor places real soon! =)

(read: School holiday starts this weekend! Whoopee!!)

Yes. Yes. I’m SOOO looking forward to driving somewhere with the family, refreshing my eyes and mind =)

The great outdoors, … here we come!!

What’s your view?

If we live in a busy metropolitan city, like Singapore or Jakarta, we’re swamped with work, housework, deadlines, every single day.

And I think we all need to refresh ourselves every now and then.

(I wrote how one’s regular exposure to the open space helps in nurturing a more open mind a while back. Click HERE to read the post)

So, how do YOU usually refresh your mind? What do YOU do as a family?

6 Comments »

  • Efy says:

    Ci leonny cm masukan, untuk pantai, maybe can try pergi ke ancol, ada pantai yg lumayan bersih dan ga rame ,ancol beach city, letaknya di dalam kompleks ancol, cari shopping mall ancol beachcity ( mall nya ms baru buka, br bbrp resto coffe shop yg buka) menghadap k pantai dan anak2 bisa maen di pantai nya.. So ga perlu jauh2 ke anyer hehehe dan jg kalo mau outdoor bisa ke mall cntral park ada taman outdoor dalam komplek mall nya 🙂

    • dev says:

      boleh juga nih sarannya, saya baru tau ada pantai yg ga rame, ancol dekat mananya? susah ga cari lokasinya? thx ya

      • Leonny says:

        Hello Dev,

        Aku ada reply komentarnya Efy juga.

        Itu hari kita jg sempet ke Ancol dan anak2 ada main2 pasir disana. Itu bagian dari cafe, namanya Segarra Cafe di Ancol. Memang ada ‘sand pit’ by the beach, dan kitanya bisa duduk2 outdoor sambil pesen makan/ minum disana. Outdoors, and it was nice. But, ya itu … perlu siap utk keluar uang agak banyak di cafe itu 8-|

    • Leonny says:

      Thank you Efy buat idenya.

      Aku pernah ke Ancol beach … ada tempat makan disana (lupa namanya, tapi it’s really nice, and by the beach), dan anak2 main pasir disana sambil yang dewasa2nya ngobrol santai deh … Very nice place and atmosphere.

      Tapi yang ‘berasa’ banget itu sih mmg lebih ke hal bagaimana pilihannya ya paling Ancol saja yang ‘outdoor’, dan itupun kita perlu bayar utk masuk Ancol …
      Dan kalau mau ke pantai yang lebih ‘sepi dan safe’ utk anak2 main sambil kitanya ngobrol2 misalnya, kita nya ya perlu nga-fe di pinggir pantai .. Again, perlu keluar uang lagi … Jadi intinya memang realitinya, di Jakarta perlu ‘keluar uang’ utk bisa menikmati outdoors … ya, kecuali kita drive out ke arah sentul dll kali yah? =)

  • Abby says:

    Hi Leonny, I agree with you that going out and about in Singapore is really quite easy and there are a lot of places to enjoy during weekends. Thanks for your post reminding us to be more thankful and less complaining in Singapore. Yeah hope you and your children can enjoy the REAL outdoor in Indonesia very soon.

    Yes ourdoor refreshes us, helps us to distress and slows down our lives for a while. For my family, we push the baby to the neighborhood park and playground almost every day in the evening, that’s the time I feel we really enjoyed JUSTING BEING WITH EACH OTHER

    • Leonny says:

      Hi Abby,

      We did drive out of the city over the weekend, and it was nice! =)

      And yes, I miss that ‘neighbourhood walk’ … We used to just go towards the nearby supermarket and playground, just so that we could go out and the kids would be on their bikes / scooter, while I pushed the pram =)

Leave a comment!

Add your comment below, or trackback from your own site. You can also subscribe to these comments via RSS.

Be nice. Keep it clean. Stay on topic. No spam.

You can use these tags:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

This is a Gravatar-enabled weblog. To get your own globally-recognized-avatar, please register at Gravatar.

CommentLuv badge

Translate This Blog NOW »
%d bloggers like this: