Our (Mis)adventure to the Jacob Ballas Children's Garden
Ah, the first weekend of the new year, and also the last few days of a long break.
To not get ourselves too tired for the upcoming work week, my wife suggested we could do something simple like checking out the Jacob Ballas Children’s Garden. That gave me an idea to have lunch at The Halia since we haven’t been there in a long time (Daniel, if you are reading this, know that The Halia used to be a dating spot for mama and papa).
Initially, we thought that the garden was a short walk away from our lunch place. I was also personally betting on the fact that Daniel woke up late that morning, which meant he might last a little longer without his afternoon nap. All of which were the recipe ingredients for mistake 1: I made my family walk through botanics garden instead of driving over.
After 15 minutes of walking, the dark afternoon clouds started to clear up and we soon realised that the route to the children’s garden was not so clear as it seems - zig zaging across NUS Law campus. Daniel began to get restless while the weather started turning up the heat on us. Mistake 2: The army man in me decided to push on believing it was just around the corner. But the truth was, we were not getting nearer by the minute.
So, in the end, we decided to head back to the car (parked at The Halia) and just call it a day.
But the stubborn me didn’t want to let the day go to waste and I was still hanging on to a promise of a fun and memorable day. So, I told my wife, “Why not we let Daniel sleep in the car for a while and then we drive over to the garden on the other side of Botanical Garden?”
Thankfully, Daniel managed to get some sleep in for a few minutes. He’s like a rechargeable Energizer battery who needs to be recharged at mid-day to last all the way till the evening, and boy oh boy .. he was so active afterwards
The treehouse slide has to be our favourite of all the play area in the garden. Don’t let the looks of it deceive you; it starts slow before going for a drastic drop, shooting you out of the tube like a cannonball!
Overall, while the garden was not really huge, it has enough play area to keep a two-year old entertained for long periods of time. Even papa had so much fun exploring the area.
Peranakan Diner
And before ended the day, we checked out this peranakan diner at Joo Chiat that we have never been to, since we have been sticking to our usual go-to places lately. The old school ambience, the little peranakan details on the wall, and of course the great food puts a really nice wrap to our break before starting the year refreshed.
