A rare Saturday outing

It was the end of a mundane, brainless, stress free three weeks of reservist training. Since I was going to get sucked back into reality (i.e. stress, endless emails and sleepless nights) next Monday, I decided to alter my original plan of going back to the office to clear some work.

Our first stop of the day was Botanical Gardens. We have never been there since they revamped and Penny had read about some 'children's park' of some sort that we thought Velouria would love. My last memories of Botanical Gardens were the huge pond where we, as children, used to go to feed the fish and swans (or geese?) would roam around the park (or was I dreaming?). Regardless, it had been reeaally long since I last went there.

After some boo-boos, we finally found our way to the 'children's park', the Jacob Ballas' Children's Garden. Apparently, Velouria had been there before during a school excursion and she was all excited and Energizer bunny-esque as we turned into the car park.

Truth be told, the place was quite fun. Velouria had fun especially at the treehouse playground and drinking from water coolers was still a novelty for her. I tried my hand at sliding down the tubes at the playground too, hurting my butt in the process of getting stuck on the way down (the tubes were obviously NOT designed for adults in mind).

We wandered around aimlessly for a while, crossing little streams and coming across arty-farty looking trees. Before we knew it we were back at the entrance, so I guess that was a sign for us to leave. Of course, Penny had to spend a bomb at the kiosk to buy some artificial flavour laden, ang moh packet drink for Velouria before leaving.

What a morning! But that was just the beginning. Somehow, despite being drenched in perspiration, we still managed to muster enough strength to go home, pack our things and head to SAFRA Mount Faber to go swimming. I amaze even myself sometimes.

Velouria's pizza

As was always the usual practice, Grace House had planned another field trip for the end of the first semester. Velouria was so excited about the trip to Pastamania's kitchen (they had learned about pizzas a few weeks prior) and she could not stop yapping about making her own.

When the day finally arrived, she couldn't keep still and hopped onto her school bus gleefully when it came to pick her up, eager to sink her hands into pizza dough.

At the end of the day, she came back with a bag of goodies (a cute little T-shirt, a balloon and other similar nonsense) and a pizza box with a label that read 'NOT SUITABLE FOR CONSUMPTION' stuck on the lid. Which got me thinking; was it inedible because it wasn't cooked yet or because the pizza preparation wasn't prepared according to the normal hygiene standards being adhered to? Knowing kids, the latter reason was the more probable explanation.

Nevertheless, I'm sure Velouria had fun. She threw a fit when I told her we had to throw it away due to the imminent arrival of flies after a few days. I had to soothe her by showing the picture that I had taken, just so we will have memories of her deformed pizza.

Serving the country

It's that time of the year again. I had to rummage the store room and cupboard to dig out my shoes, No. 3 uniform and coveralls. Yes sir! It's time for my reservist again. I even had to dig out an old mangkali handphone (that is, one without a camera).

According to friends who had gone before me, they had already warned me that gone were the days of lazing around and going for canteen breaks. This reservist was a back-breaking, nerve-wrecking one as we had to follow the regulars out as the prepared the different forms of munitions for use. After so many years, this was the first reservist that I actually perspired and had to even go home on one of my lunch breaks to change my T-shirt as I was soaked.

But it was a good break from work. For 3 weeks, I didn't have to worry about things in the office (although my mobile did ring occassionally with suppliers asking me this and that). Just brainless, simple, mundane tasks. And more canteen breaks with curry puffs, samosas and sring rolls.

It suddenly dawned onto me why there were cases of people collapsing halfway into their 2.4km run. Their diet is so damn sinful! Fried noodles with chicken wings for breakfast (it's that or nasi lemak), chicken chop or fish and chips for lunch (cookhouse food still sucks even after it has been commercialised) then curry puffs for tea break.

With all that junking, I'm surpised I passed my IPPT!