Welcome to Leonny's site! If you're new at Everyday Things and you enjoy the site, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. This way you'll be notified whenever there's a new post! Thanks for visiting!

Checking out Batur lake and mountain.

Breathtaking view.

Simply refreshing.

…

Captured by Wilson.

We went go-karting yesterday at Johor Bahru (JB), Malaysia!

The last time we went go-karting was over a year ago! And this time round, the group trip was organised by the Indonesian Professionals’ Association (IPA) and we joined in the fun!

There were some thirty-five of us (not everyone was in the photo above) and we all took taxis from the City Square Shopping centre.

And just like last year, we went to Permas Go-Kart Club again, BUT they’ve moved to a different location not too long ago. It’s now at ‘Plentong’, a smaller town in Johor Bahru.

The good news is, the circuit is now bigger and better.

And the not-so good news is, errr, the road leading up to the circuit is unexpectedly … bad! I mean, literally, it was offroad!

Our taxi had to slowly drive through what, more-appropriately, should be called a ‘jungle’ (on our left and right) for a good 3.5km! Gravels-and-mud-covered road tracks! And, the earlier rain and drizzle didn’t help much too.

Our driver - and all other taxi drivers who took the group there - was not at all happy. They claimed that if they had known about the bad road condition and how it’s so far into the ‘forest’, they wouldn’t have taken us there in the first place! And, they all asked for at least double the meter charge, if not more.

[We had a deal with our driver in the end : he'd wait for an hour and he'd take us back to the city]

Anyway, other than THAT, the go-karting experience itself was, refreshingly goooood!

The very first time I went go-karting was when I was in Perth. I was 15 years old then. My second time was last year. And so today was my third go-kart drive!

As I stomped on the gas to the max, I remember feeling how good it was to experience something so completely different from our daily routine! It was just, so refreshing!

Wilson and I so needed that (well, don’t we all?)

Anyway.

Here are more photos of the day!

[While waiting for the other group before us to finish, Vai observed his surroundings and Anya, well, she got herself busy wiping her Polliwalks duck shoes clean!]

[Anya's checking out daddy's hair cover, while Vai looked on, perhaps thinking how silly she looked with it on her head, haha!) Btw, every driver must put this on before wearing the helmet]

[Wilson and I took turns so one of us could be with the kids, who btw watched the many go-karts swooshing by quite intently!]

[As I sort of expected, we're the only ones WITH kids! Hehe]

Anyway.

We both enjoyed our go-kart outing today! And hopefully we don’t have to way till ‘next year’ to have another go!

…

Hope you had a great weekend!

Last weekend we took Wilson’s family for a night out at Chinatown as they’re looking for souvenirs to bring back to Jakarta.

It’s a pretty nice place for tourists (even locals) to visit I think. You’d find stuff like two-dollars fridge magnets with the word ‘Singapore’ on it, merlion-shaped keyrings or some eight-dollars chinese tote bags.

We were (obviously) not looking for anything in particular, but we did enjoy the overall atmosphere there.

And we checked out Chinatown Food Street on Smith Street too, where more than twenty food stalls sell all sorts of yummy food stuff.

Afterwards we walked for some ten minutes or so towards The Central shopping centre at Clarke Quay. Enjoyed a nice stroll by the Singapore river and watched people going mad on ‘Reverse Bungy‘ and ‘Xtreme Swing‘ too!

It was a nice night-out for everyone, I think!

We’ve been to the Singapore Zoo for quite a number of times but I don’t think we’ll ever get tired of it.

We get to see and learn about God’s beautiful creatures - big and small, cute and weird-looking - AND we simply love its open concept where we don’t have ‘cages’ between us and the animals, as well as the fact that it preserves its ‘green’ landscape well too.

The kids and I took Wilson’s family there today and we were there for a good six hours! They loved it!

And I must say, one of the nice things about Wilson’s family is that they love photography!

I mean, when we go out, everyone except my sister-in-law actually brings along a camera! Even my mom-in-law carries a video camera with her during such holiday trips!

[Top photo was taken by my father-in-law]

And so there, thanks to my brother-in-law, I had that shot of me and the kids! [left photo]

It was one of those times when BOTH Anya and Vai wanted to sit on the pram.

They whined and argued about who ’should’ sit and I knew I had to carry one of them in my sling. After all, we did walk quite a lot today.

Btw, I don’t usually carry my kids on my back with a sling. Somehow I just feel this position puts a heavier strain on my shoulder than carrying the kid in front and on my left side like I usually do.

Or, perhaps it’s simply because I’ve yet to figure out how to best wear the sling for this position.

Anyway.

We had HEAPS of photos taken today and here are some of my chosen ones.

[Last photo]
Vai personally asked me to take a photo of him sitting there by the ‘actual-sized hippos cut-out posters’.

Btw, here’s one interesting fact I learned today :
According to the info sheet, each pygmy hippo (the smaller one) is, on average, about 160 kg in weight, and it’d take TEN pygmy hippos to make one Nile hippo (the bigger one in the photo)!

AND, since Vai is now 15.2kg, that means it’d take ten to eleven Vai to make one pygmy hippo and about one hundred Vai to make just one Nile hippo!

Cool stuff!

We had such a nice time at East Coast Park yesterday!

The kids enjoyed some sandplay and went on playing and running along the beach.

We rented some bicycles too and cycled quite a fair bit till we’re away from the ‘public holiday’ crowd. And how I LOVE the forested cycling tracks and the whole ‘close to nature’ feel! It was awesome!

Anyway, here are some more of our captured moments of the day! Enjoy!

[Info]
- Bicycle rental : $6 per 2 hours (for single seater, with and without child seat); $8 per 2 hours (for tandem ones). You get a bottle of mineral water too upon returning the bikes.
- As it’s a public holiday, there’s quite a big crowd along the beach nearest to the eating area. The available ’shower area’ was packed with people too and so we roughly ‘cleaned up’ our kids off the sands near McDonald’s, which was ALSO crowded.

The other day Anya, her nursery school friends and teachers went to Garden Asia!

The main aim was to ‘impart an appreciation of our natural environment and rural heritage’ to our little ones. And I thought, that was cool!

It was all pretty hands-on too apparently! They could touch worms and frogs (Anya wasn’t too keen on this though!) AND they ‘re-potted’ their own plants!

It was a nice surprise when I saw every kid actually came back with a potted plant in their hands!

And so, here I introduce to you all, our new little ‘pet’ called Leafy!

Leafy now sits near our window and both kids give it a regular ‘drink’ twice a day.

Quite a good lesson on caring for something too, I reckon.

And to me, it sure is BETTER than having my 4.5yo and 2yo care for a hamster or a rabbit! 

Last week Anya had her one week break before Term 4 starts again, today.

[As I sent her to school earlier today I thought to myself, goodness, she's already in TERM FOUR! I could still vividly remember how she cried and screamed for me when she first started nursery early this year! *sigh* The next thing I know she'll be in Uni! Okay I exaggerate, but really, time flies so fast!]

Anyway.

We were out and about every day last week. Well, except for Wednesday when it rained almost ‘throughout the day’.

And this was what we did :

MONDAY : Vivo City

Got together with a few other moms and kids at Vivo City. Initially we wanted the kids to have fun at the playground, BUT since it rained so much :

- Kids ran around and played with balloons (we got them free from Marche!) on level 3, near the Sentosa Ticketing Booth. Nice and spacious there.
- Moms snacked at Burger King while most kids napped
- Kids played at Toys “R” Us on level 2 (they played with the many ’sample’ toys there)

[Photo]
That’s Vai trying REAL hard to blow a balloon WHILE walking back to join the other kids. A bit hard with his eyes all closed, but no, he didn’t hit a pole or anything during his many attempts, hehe.

We were out for a good 8 hours that day! (including our bus trips to and from Vivo). It was rather tiring for me though (who had to carry out two sleeping kids, a pram and two heavy bags down the bus when we reached home)

…

TUESDAY : Palawan Beach, Sentosa

Today the three of us went with a rather big group of moms and kids to Vivo City, and took the monorail to Sentosa from there! It was all cloudy that noon, which was great! The kids had fun!

And before we went back to Vivo City, we hopped on the monorail and stopped by the ‘Imbiah Station’ to check out the towering 37-metre high ‘Merlion‘! Vai was about to doze off but when he saw the statue, he got all excited again and only slept soundly on our way back!

…

THURSDAY : Women’s Fellowship

Today is more like an ‘outing’ for me! The kids played with the others while I had a bit of ‘me-time’ and learned more about God’s word. It was refreshing.

[photo]
The girls were busy checking out something and Vai couldn’t help but join in.

FRIDAY : Thomas & Friends LIVE at Singapore Expo

Had a nice day out with Nic and Will today. Anya and Vai managed to sit through it all and joined in the actions and singing too.

If you ask me, I’ve always loved live musical performances. The dancing, the singing, the props, the costumes, the lighting, everything. So I’m always happy to go to such live shows with the kids.

The Thomas & Friends Live was nice (though I feel there’s quite a bit of talking at some points which may not be too appealing for those who’re not Thomas-enthusiasts), but somehow I do notice that Anya and Vai were so much more excited when they went to see Dora Live! I guess it’s because they’re so much more familiar with the characters, the songs and all (They watch their Dora and Diego DVD almost everyday!)

SATURDAY : Chinatown and Clarke Quay

For the whole of this month, there’s this Mid-Autumn Festival going on at Clarke Quay and Singapore River. Though frankly I’m not too familiar with what it’s all about (I know it’s that time of the year where there’ll be lots of mooncakes and lanterns!), we want the kids to be part of the whole festivity. To see Chinatown, its crowd and colourful decorations.

The four of us went with another family and too bad when we reached Clarke Quay, it started raining and we didn’t get to see much of the exhibited lanterns there! We watched parts of the lion dance performance and a few others from Central shopping centre’s window though! (not too fun for us adults, but I think the kids didn’t mind too much)

Anyway, the festival is still going on till the end of the month! You may want to check it out!

And if you have school-going kids, hope you had a great time with your family too last week!

The last time we went to Palawan Beach was some 2 months ago. An all-moms-and-kids day out during the school holiday!

This time round, Wilson and our friends came along.

[We chose Palawan Beach over Siloso Beach because it's more 'family friendly' there, with waterplay sections and a food court available in the area!]

Anyway, we reached there at about 4.30pm and the weather was nice and cloudy. And other than one misadventure, the day went great for everyone!

Yes that’s Anya and Vai showing some ‘love’ for each other, while 1.5yo Nicole joined their ‘lets-sit-on-the-ground’ act!

And when we returned to Vivo City by monorail close to 8pm, the darkening blue sky was just spectacular!

One of the things I like about Singapore is that despite the fact that it’s a relatively small-sized country, it tries to preserve at least some of its greenery.

There are quite a number of preserved parks all around the island (click HERE to see the list of parks you can visit).

Last month we went to visit Pasir Ris Park, and this time round we visited Bukit Batok Nature Park!

I love the refreshing smell of the trees and the fact that we’re surrounded by so much greenery, away from the hustle and bustle of city life.

The kids squatted and observed little mushrooms growing on the side of the walkway. They watched squirrels running about and climbing on trees. They looked for turtles and monkeys too, but somehow they were no where to be seen today.

Wilson and I took our sandals off and tried walking about on the pebbled walk way too, which btw is a common form of exercise amongst the older generation, as the pressure on the feet promotes better blood circulation, or so they say. Whatever it is, I was cringing throughout! (and I guess that means I’m simply not fit?)

Anyway, there’s an area for sandplay and playground equipments there too!

The weather was cool and cloudy today, which made our trekking trip a lot more enjoyable.

We brought along our stroller and the kids took their turns and sat on it. Daddy carried whoever’s not on the stroller once in a while too, as and when they got tired from too much walking.

I must say, we parents might feel physically tired (from all that stroller-pushing and occasional carrying up and down the hilly walk), but it really was a refreshing day out!

Got to do this more regularly, I think!

If you’ve never been to Jacob Ballas Children’s Garden (part of the Singapore Botanic Gardens), then you may want to check this place out with your kids.

Though the whole area itself is not that big, every time the kids visit the place, they always enjoy their waterplay there.

[Oh fyi, they've removed the three metal water pumps - for safety reason perhaps? - as well as the 'shower head' that used to be between the sand and waterplay area. And instead, they now provide a few green plastic watering cans for the kids to play with]

Oh anyway. We were there yesterday from 10.30am till 2pm (and yes, I think we all went home with a nice sun tan!)

They have a little cafe near the entrance and so we all had our lunch there (the kids had their packed meals, and I tried out its sausage spaghetti - which was surprisingly quite nice)

And oh, we checked out their treehouse as well.

Other than sandplay (note: not that much of it there though), the kids had fun going up and down the slides!

Yup, it was another nice day out!

* As you can tell, I’m SO enjoying this school holiday! Heh. *