Exporing Kranji II

A rather late post following the Kranji exploration last Deepavali. Things had been hectic ... and now my daughter is sick (the elder one this time). As if it is not enough, the little one and myself got the cough and the flu as well. Is it the season to be sick? 

Anyway, since it is school holiday season (for those with kids in school) I want to share the Kranji Countryside experience that I had. It is a nice area to explore, it would be good if you have your own transport though, as the places of interest are rather apart from each other. However, they do have a shuttle service for certain places. So, please check before you go there alright.

We wanted to stop and look around at Bollywood Veggies, however, since it was raining, we couldn't get around in the rain and muddy grounds ... so we drove off to another place. I heard the food at their bistro "Poison Ivy" is good ... and healthy too!

Checking out their map, we decided to do some shopping (a girl can't pass out  any 'shopping' opportunity aye!)  ... since we are already around the area. We checked out Kok Fah Technology Pte Ltd. They have a Weekend Farm where they sell fresh produce. Check out the pictures below for more info. Beware that the market only opens on Weekends!

Bitter gourds! These are the darker green range .. which my mom said 'very bitter'

Bitter gourds ... these are the lighter green ones ... not so bitter I guess?

Their Aloe Vera source!! 

Weekend Farm @ Kok Fah

The veggies are FRESH!

Just near the entrance, there are some tables and chairs where you can sit around. There is a Koi fish pond and an aquarium where you can see a 'huge' 

Koi Pond

I bought quite a lot of vegetables during my visit there. There are quite a variety of vegetables, although sad to say, I am not familiar with the names ha ha!  Don't forget to get their fresh Aloe Vera if you like them. They sell it fresh $3 for a small round container. I chose to buy their Aloe Vera Honey drink $2 per bottle, which was not too bad. I would not buy the Mango pudding with Aloe Vera again though ... I found the pudding was too sweet and tasted powdery (not much of mango taste too!)

Next, Farmart! More shopping!! Yayy!! I went there once a few years ago during an assignment trip with my group mate. The place didn't change much except for the addition of the EPS parking gate (the parking used to be FREE!). Our parking charges turned out to be S$1 which was not too bad. 

I remember that they have a small animal corner where you can buy food and feed the animals. 

Feeding the rabbits

You can feed other animals too, other than rabbits, there are frogs, fishes, goats, hamsters etc. 

Oh, before you reached the Animal Farm area, you will find a pond where you can do prawning. I was not interested in prawning there, I rather go to the fish market and buy the lot!

If you come early to Farmart, you can get buy quail eggs ... apparently they sold out quite fast (gone by 11 am according to the uncle). We arrived there at about 2 pm ish .. of course they are already long gone! But I bought a tray of large eggs for S$5 (which is quite a good deal I think).

Do browse around the shops there, it is quite a mix and match of shops there. You can find a pet cum grooming shop, party balloon shop (you can customise the balloons too!), a live seafood market, Uncle William's shop (where you can get the quail eggs), water features shop, etc.

By the time we were done from Farmart, the girls were tired ... Oh well, I was bloody tired too.. We were all tired! We made our way back home, leaving the greeneries behind but with fond memories in our mind (and lots of fresh veggies n eggs!)

Exploring Kranji I

Today is a public holiday!! Happy Deepavali everyone!!

It is a rare occasion where my in-laws are off too today because my mother in law works on shifts throughout the month, she usually has to work over the weekend and public holidays too.

Today we decided to go out with the 2 girls. Started off with a brunch at Victory Restaurant at North Bridge Road. Famous for their Briyani and Murtabak. Beware, their portion is HUGE ... No, I am not kidding! It is really huge! I had a hard time finishing it .... luckily my dear husband helped out despite that Briyani is not in his favourite food list (he said it reminded him of his NS days, where they always had Briyani).

So, after the 'heavy' meal, we decided to do Longkang Fishing, have you heard of that before? There are quite a few places that you can go for Longkang Fishing, e.g. Pasir Ris Kids Kampong,  Bottle Tree Park, Haussman Marketing Aquarium, etc. However, today I chose to go to Haussman Marketing Aquarium at Kranji. I chose Kranji Countryside area because I know other than the aquarium, I can still explore the area for other stuff... like plant nurseries, or vegetable gardens etc.

Off we go to Kranji!! It was a long journey ... but the girls were excited! The area is really out of Singapore I would say. You don't see tall buildings or many cars, but all you can see around the area are green grasses and trees! Finally we arrived at our destination ... the skies were kind of dark when we arrived, but luckily the Longkang Fishing" area is covered. I scout the area for fishes... there was not much ... the area is quite small, but I guess it is enough for children.

Trying to catch some fishes!

The "Longkang Fishing" packages at Haussman are S$4 for Catch & Release (for 30 mins), and S$7 for Goldfish package. The uncle was kind enough to explain to me that the children are given a net and a bucket each and they can try to catch the fishes at the 'longkang'. If they really like fishes and would like to 'bring' back home, you can top up another S$3 and you will get a 180mm plastic tank, a packet of fish food, and 2 goldfishes back. You won't get the fishes that you catch at the 'longkang' itself. Reason being, he said, these fishes that are being caught at the 'longkang' are 'scared' after being chased around, so they will shed their skin and in summary, would not last long if you bring them home. So, they will give you few fishes from the aquarium to bring back if you buy the "Goldfish Package".

After hearing the explanation, I feel kind of sad for these fish and as I helped my daughter to catch them, I saw quite a number of those little fish that are already dead ...

Now when I think about it again, I think I would rather not do Longkang Fishing anymore if it is hurting these little fish. I saw on someone's blog about the Bottle Tree Longkang fishing, which they actually bring back the fish that they caught. Maybe that is better, rather than being caught and released again just to be caught again by other kids. The fish must be very scared and stressed!!

We did caught quite a number of fishes which then released back to the longkang. I opted to top-up S$3 so that we can bring back some fish for the girls. It was written that you will get 2 goldfish in the brochure, but we got 3 goldfish! My daughter is very happy and she can't wait to feed them!

Our goldfish!

An instruction was attached to the tank and it said that you should fill the tank up to 80% of the capacity. Leave it for 2 hours before transferring the fish; and only to feed them 4 pellets of fish food after 2 days. My daughter, of course, could not wait that long! I was very upset because we have not left the tap water for 2 hours yet (only about 1 hr) and my daughter asked my maid to put the fish into the tank! Then, she fed them not 4 but maybe 15 pellets at one time! My maid had to hide the fish food just in case she will take it and feed them again! I tried to explain to her that the fishes should not overeat or they might die... she got scared and now said that she didn't want the fish anymore and asked me to throw them away!

Poor fish! I think I am going to use this opportunity tomorrow to teach her about not to abandon pets and teach her how to take care of pets. If she still does not want to take care of the fish, I would  give it away to someone who would appreciate them more or I would release the fish to the canal near our house.

07.11.2012 - she's 14 months old!

07.11.12  

I just read on the Today newspaper, that it is 7-11 day (get it? I mean the stores 7-11). I was smiling because of that in the morning... Today is also the 3rd day of observation... and her 14th month birthday! My little girls seems better today. She managed to give few smiles throughout the day and her eyes looked bigger. She even managed to scold her sister ... Yes it is not a good thing to scold the older sister for all the small little things she did, but .... it is a good sign that she is regaining her 'old' self!

I still hear bits of nasty coughs here and there, but she is more chatty today ... more livelier and even tried to walk on her own. She turns 14 months today, but she doesn't dare to walk on her own yet unless on a 'soft' surface. I am not too worried for now about that ... I am more worried that when she starts walking (or running) she can't stop! (which is always the case isn't it!). I am now enjoying the time, where she would need me to sashay her here and there around the house ... or even just to move from the sofa to the coffee table! Other mothers out there ... enjoy this moment!!! When they are able to walk on their own ... you will miss this phase...

It is now 5.30 pm Singapore time ... just another 6 hours plus to go, and I can take a huge deep breath!

ps: today is also the day where Mr. Obama got re-elected as the President again... YAY!!! I could do a celebration for all the good things that happens today!

Thinking positive ...

It has been days since I last posted here.... It has been a busy week... the two girls fell sick one after the other, with the little one having fever (up to 39.8 degrees Celsius) for a week!

It was a horrible weekend ... Although the Halloween Play Date went well... well that is another story (will post the photos later on).

Being a mother of two now, I thought I would get pass that period where I would react too much over small things that happened to the girls. I used to bring my first daughter every time she was sick. With the second girl ... I am more relax and 'lenient'. A bit of runny nose and cough for a few days does not worry me too much; or low grade fever for 2 days doesn't worry me much too as long as the children are still happy and active.

So, when the little one fell sick, I was still thinking ... arrghh nothing serious, just a few dose of paracetamol and she will be alright. The little one never had high fever before in her entire 13 months of existence. I know one day she would have high fever ... It will happen and I know it, however, I never thought it would come now!  On the 2nd day, her fever just goes up and up... 3rd day which was last Friday, I decided to bring her to the clinic. Doc gave antibiotics, some other stuff for her phlegm. Fever still high even on the 5th day which was Sunday. At first I wanted to wait till Monday, to bring her to the doctor again ... but seeing the little one getting weaker by the hour. I decided to bring her to KKH.

KKH is like the last resort (in my mind). I had bad experiences there ... long waiting time, crying babies and kids running around. You don't see happy faces there because everyone is just 'tense'. However, they do have all the equipment specialised for young children. The head doctor is very experienced... (very).

When we brought my daughter on Sunday night (around 8pm), there wasn't many people at the registration area ... I thought ... hmmm the lot of the people are already inside which is usually the case. Our number was called within a minute or two. When temperature was taken, the fever has gone up to 39.8 C. I was shocked ... she just had her temp checked an hour earlier and took medicines and antibiotics too. My heart just sank... The nurse told us to register and go straight to counter 11.

I know the horrible experiences before (with the 1st one), this time we had to use the nebuliser on her since she is having difficulty breathing. Then, we had to do some tests.... seeing your darling daughter's face when her finger was pricked for blood test ... Urrgghh... made me want to cry too. Then there is the chest X-ray, where I have to hold her limbs against the seat so that they can take the x-ray ... I am just glad that it is all over. Doctor said the blood test only shows viral infections... the x-ray confirmed of the infection in the chest.  It was written as 'pneumonia' but a mild to moderate one. Just to be on the safe side, she has to go for another X-ray next month at a polyclinic.

I am still monitoring her health now, because the Doctor said if she still has fever after 3 days, I got to come back again since it might be something else. Today is the 2nd day ... and she is recovering slowly, but I can still see she is still weak, but more active ... I can see a bit of smile.

One more day .... I hope she recovers well.