A lovely family day – thank you Vesak Day
I just love Buddha for giving a Monday off, that I have added two days to get FIVE IN A ROW. Weeeeeee. So for our Vesak day in lieu for it falling on a Sunday we ended up having A lovely family day – thank you Vesak Day. Massive hawker foodie one too with one old favourite and one new try-out for which I will be writing an IsLifeaRecipe blog. We ended up going to Satay By The Bay, Gardens By The Bay, Floral Fantasy, Flight Of The DragonFly and finishing off at Makanstura Gluttons Bay. Boom. Loads of walking to build up the appetite, but a wonderful and beautiful day out.
Let’s have a look, shall we?
Completely stuffed from Satay By The Bay we go for a wee walk to Floral Fantasy through the intense beauty of Gardens By The Bay public gardens area. So stuffed the kids needed a week break and sit down on these ‘Toad Stools’. So very cute.
Jude being a thieving Pirate trying to steal one of these from the CannonBall Tree. So so cheeky… “I only want one Dad…”
“Oh no guys I think this is going to collapse…? I’ll hold it up” Said strong man Jude….
My Amy going to her Chinese horoscope family, with a long distant cousin. Yes, it is a RAT, ha ha ha…
Whoaaaaaa boys watch out!!! That topiary Orangutan is HUGE. Jude summon up Godzilla to help you…?
The Straits Times reports sightings of a Giant walking with Mary Poppins in Gardens By The Bay. They say to approach them with caution. Because of Mary Poppins, accidentally poking you in the eye with the umbrella…
Another caution too of a serious nature. If you walk down to the sculpture called Planet, be very careful of this swarm of bees/wasps on a palm tree nearby. Could be very nasty experience if a wee one goes in there waving his/her arms about.
Oh no, I think this baby got stung already… Joking. Amazing bronze sculpture by a UK artist. His old fella is the size of Manulife Tower. Wouldn’t want to meet his Dad…
Next, we hit Floral Fantasy and Flight of The Dragonfly. The latter you are not allowed to film, and it is in 4D anyway so would be a waste of time. This really did make A lovely family day – thank you Vesak Day quite unique as it was a 1st. I’d get there quick if you have not been before as you can tell the exhibit is on its last legs. The flowers, a bit like me walking through the Gardens in the sun, and browning and wilting. Still, it is worth a visit. Another cracking display of unique stuff in Red Dot, this time inspired by The Japanese. Miz and Yuko – be proud of that, apparently, this is a Japanese concept?
HAVE A LOOK AT A WEE VIDEO HERE
Yep, it is stunning! Just starting to get a little tired around the edges though. This photo is not upside down by the way. It is literally all hanging from the ceiling.
Wow, Hydrangeas grabbed the camera focus, sorry family. I love these flowers as it reminds me of Mum and Nan’s gardens. We used to have white ones and then put a load of rusty nails and horseshoes in the soil. The iron from that would get in the soil, and into the root and hey presto turn the flowers blue. I kid you not!!!
It really is rather stunning here – I think augmented by my beautiful family. Although I think Jude is auditioning for the Bee Gees at the same time.
Another of my Mum and Nan’s favourites. Lupines. Stunning flowers with an exquisite fragrance to boot. Also loving the casual seating here crafted from Petrified Trees.
Here is that Nature chick hard at work. Wow!!! As a bee, how could you not think ding dong?
Mr Japanese Hydrangea expert gets his name on the Red Dot in Singapore. 24 varieties from him on display. TWENTY FOUR. OMG!!!
You need to watch the video for more on this display. It looks pretty ‘vanilla’ right. But these things move up and down with the music pumping through the display. It’s kind of mesmerizing, to be honest. Bloody brilliant.
Jude literally turned into a Bumble Bee. I think he was coming from his ‘in-flower’ sniffing covered in pollen. For sure he does not have hay-fever. Wow!!!
What can you say but Wow!!!
And the same again for my little Philippines orchid!!!
Everywhere you turn. You just cannot help but keep going ooooh and ahhhhhhh.
So my Mary said to please take a picture here in front of this rather weird structure. I think she lost interest in a big way, and so did the lady in glasses behind her who decided to have a good dig in her nose instead…
The Tiffany two. The mention of free ice-cream was clearly too much for them to resist a wee pose!!!
Ooooooh. See what I mean. Can’t help it!!!
Two of my favourites up next. These are tiny little orchids, but so bloody vibrant in colour. INcredible little things.
Seriously, look at them. Wow!!!
I kid you not, there were more selfies happening here than at Lucky Plaza. It was incredible to have some ‘space’ to get a photo with no-one else nudging in. Yes, you do need some patience to visit this place.
Another oooooooh!!!
Ahhhhhhhhhh!
Even the flipping grapevine leaves made me stop and stare and take a snap. And not even a glass of wine on offer.
OK, this is a bad photo. What you are not seeing here is all the waterfalls behind my Mary. LED lights and all that. Absolutely brilliant, but on the setting I chose absolutely crap. Sorry, wifey!
Amaze-balls beautiful. Man would my Mum, Nan, Obaachan and Ogichan love it here!!!
OK, now with the correct setting on the camera you can see the waterfall with some orchids in the foreground. V.beautiful!
And then out of the blue, there is little glass covered area. This has the tiniest and most colourful frogs you will ever see. Stunning right. Also deadly. These are the frogs that Amazonian natives use to coat their darts in. These little buggers, AKA poison-dart frogs, and deadly. A bit like a large Tequila.
So so cute. A couple of CM’s only.
Jude pointed this one out to me. Is there such a thing as a fly-catcher orchid? He thinks there is. And the answer is… YES. My little scientist is absolutely correct.
Even some moss had me transfixed and wanting to take a snap. Well, this is the last photo before we queued for the 4D film which was really cool, even having smello-vision. Willy Wonka eat your heart out fella. Next, we are off for another walk to Esplanade for dinner.
The Red Dot’s very own Chocolate Orange. The Art & Science Museum. We sure do have a cool city that we live in. Very cool.
And then this fella goes soaring past hitting the air currents, and yes it has a fish in its talons. This is a stunning Sea Eagle. Huge birds that just glide about in circles riding the hot air, then dive down with amazing speed to grab fish lurking too long near the surface.
Come on it is a cool city right?
OK, a tad boring photo. But it has some relevance. This is where The National Day Parade meanders past. It is a huge event. 1,000’s of people sit here watch the parade and the entertainment on, what is currently a football pitch. That includes dancing. So what’s the context? It appears my Amy might be dancing on here for this year’s National Day Parade. OMG!!!
Boy were we tourists today. Snapping photos of landmarks non-stop. But it was fun, and it really was a lovely day out in the open-air with very limited bloody iPads.
And we reach the dinner destination. KF Seetoh’s brain-child. A new hawker concept down at The Esplanade called Makansutra Gluttons Bay. Hell yes, we’re ordering big kids so get them large chopsticks and that spoon, please!!!
12 individual stalls representing local fare, with a wee smattering of Western in there too which is the reason I chose here to be honest, despite loving Makansutra and StreetFood Congress. But 1st Mummy needs a Prosecco so off we march to a bar before we sit, dine and finish off the amazing day.
I’ll be writing that blog re the food here on IsLifeaRecipe.net so watch for that, but suffice to say we are happy and eager at the end of such a wonderful family outing. Love you guys!!! Thank you!!!
And that was that. The end of A lovely family day – thank you Vesak Day. It was brilliant. Many little firsts for us. A lovely, energetic day. Some walking for which we did receive some complaints from The Philippines (you know who you are). It was beautiful. Again Red Dot some incredible new cool stuff for us to visit and see. I reckon if you copy what we did you will have no option but to just have an amazing day that you will all absolutely – ENJOY!!!
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