Our favourite places

Since starting 3/4 time work these days, I treasure my mornings and late afternoons with Madison a whole lot more.


We have a few favourite places that we visit every day. There are days that I feel like doing nothing but laze at home, but then I tell myself to make a little bit more effort and do something different.





The top 5 places that we go to:

1. Singapore Botanic Gardens: has to take the cake.

Close to us by car, fairly decent parking ( if you get there at the right time ) and cool on hot days.
Also the great Casa Verde cafe that is fairly child friendly and serves decent breakfasts.

2. Singapore Swimming club:

I would take her there everyday if we lived closer but it has everything... swimming pool, playground, shower facilities, reading place and deli for lunch. Only trouble is the drive there and back which takes 15 to 20 minutes each way, depending on traffic.

3. Playground opposite us at the HDB block.

Friendly group of elderly folks dancing there every morning, rain or shine! Live, repeated Chinese dancing music piped from their portable player, Little Tikes playground with the works.. what more could a kid ask for? Occasional little kids that drop by to play as well. Main problem ? The ferocious morning sun that beats down unrelentlessly by 0830h!

4. Novena Square:

Ok... not really a child friendly place but there's a supermarket that we can browse through, shopping cart that she can push around or stand in, airconditioning to keep us from sweating buckets outdoors!

5. Jacob Ballas Children's gardens: Singapore Botanic Gardens

Its kind of connected to the main Gardens but a little off the main area, closer to the Bukit Timah side of things. If only it weren't so hot on a usual day.. large sandpit area, water fountains for kids to splash around in, plenty of child friendly trails and a little waterfall too. Oh, and a tree house that doubles as a playground too. Just a pity the cafe isn't very nice... considering the number of people that pass through its doors I would have thought someone would have capitalized on it and made a great alfresco child friendly dining area!

Of course there are other places we go, like Sentosa's Palawan beach, Giant supermarket at Turf city, Orchard road, Vivocity and the other shopping malls. Singapore is kind of small, but with a little imagination we usually have some fun ( for an hour or 2 -- if we're lucky! ).

And I realized... it's not just me alone anymore! I have a companion now! Pretty cool... just the 2 of us sitting at the cafe having drinks! ( The diet coke/coffee for me and ice for Madison ! Or hot choc for the 2 of us ! ) Hmm... what next? Hair dressing appointments? Spa treats? Shopping with daddy's credit card? I'm getting excited!