With yesterday being the public holiday for Sunday’s National Day, we decided to head for town to Bras Basah Complex (百胜楼) in search of suitable children’s books for Darius. Worried that most of the shops might be closed, we made some calls to the two shops we were intending to visit prior to the trip.

Reaching there, many of the shops there were indeed closed but it didn’t bother us since we were only intending to check those two shops.

We first headed to Evernew Book Store at #01-07. It’s a second hand book store which has been around as long as I could remember, since I used to visit the place when I was a teenager. There were quite a number of second-hand children’s books at the shop but we didn’t find anything suitable.

We then headed to the next store on the third storey, a chinese book store specialising in children’s book called 友谊书斋, located at #03-07.

I was thankful it’s an air-conditioned shop since it was getting quite hot outside. Seeing that there was sufficient space in the store, I carried Darius out from his stroller to walk around. There was even a table especially set up with some toys for kids to spend their time on, which caught Darius’ attention for some time. Meanwhile, we found some interesting chinese books and bought a set of story books/DVDs which was recommended by another mother.

With our objectives fulfilled, we were uncertain where to head for next. We then spotted the National Library located just next door to the complex. We haven’t really visited the place before so we thought it would be a great opportunity to do so then.

Entering the Central Lending Library section at Basement 1, we located the Children’s Section. Catherine headed in to look for some books that she had originally intended to buy and she was glad to have found one of the books she had wanted.

Teenagers using the section for their studies...

At this point, Darius had just woken up from his nap but as we wouldn’t want him to make too much noise and disturb the other library users, we didn’t carry him out of his stroller. Instead, we decided to visit the other floors of the library where it wouldn’t be as crowded.

I spotted the venue ‘The Retreat’ written on the directory in the lift and we took the lift to the 10th floor of the National Library building. The lift has look-through walls so the view was pretty impressive as it moved up. Not recommended for people with height phobia though. ^^|

When we reached the 10th floor, we had a good bird’s eye view of the surroundings.

We then headed towards The Retreat, which was a small garden that offers some greenery in the area. We decided against going in however as we felt the big empty carpeted area that we were already standing on was a more suitable place for Darius to stretch his legs.

We carried him out from his stroller and he happily walked around in this unobstructed open space. It was until he persistantly tried to head towards the escalator nearby that we stopped him and carried him in our arms instead.

We spotted the Donors’ Collections and Asian Children’s Collection section just nearby. We decided to make a visit there since it was quite deserted and even if Darius did get too excited and started making noises, the disturbance he created to other library users would be kept to a minimum.

As we approached the main entrance, a male staff helped opened the door and welcomed us, briefly explaining the locations of each of the individual sections. We were pleasantly surprised with his warm welcome, and thought that he would probably have been pleased to be seeing us, since this section doesn’t get to see many visitors in the first place. ^^|

We browsed through the exhibits, which showcases items donated by people, such as precious photographs of the olden Singapore, books and transcripts etc. All the exhibits were locked safely behind glass cabinets so there’s no fear of theft or vandalism.

We allowed Darius to roam around the place, making sure he didn’t create much fuss. He was happily walking around in the area while we checked out the exhibits.

We then headed to another area in the same room where maps of Singapore were being showcased, with precious ones like those during the Japanese Occupation. As the structure of the place likened to a maze, Darius was getting excited and played hide-and-seek with us while he giggled as he ran about. We had to pick him up soon after to calm and quieten him down. ^^|

With that, we left the room and were deciding whether to head for home already.

While waiting for the lift, we spotted an unique looking building and identified it as Iluma, the new shopping centre located just opposite Bugis Junction. We had been wanting to visit the place so it was a good chance to do so.

As we walked around the mall, we saw that it was heavily influence by the Japanese culture, as many shops were Japan-themed.

We took a look at the directory and decided to skip the 2nd and 3rd floors, since they were mainly fashion stores. We thus headed straight to the 5th floor to check out the arcade centre. The place was buzzling with activities. We also spotted some large movie posters nearby and took some photos there.

We were getting hungry by then and went down to the 4th floor to check out the eateries there. We came across a japanese restaurant called Ebisboshi Shotengai, which offers quite a wide variety of japanese food at reasonable prices.

Catherine and I ordered their Curry Katsu Don and they were quite tasty, though I would have preferred their curry gravy to be warmer and thicker.

Today, as I flipped through the myPaper newspaper, there was an article on the restaurant. Only then I realised that there maid-themed Shabu-shabu (Japanese hot pot) section was also located within the restaurant itself. We didn’t get to try out the food there though.

After we finished our meal, we spotted a display at the exit and decided to give Darius a go at the exhibit. This was the end result:

Darius (デライアス) the Yawning Samurai ^^|

Before we leave Iluma, we wanted to check out the sky garden on the 7th floor. When we reached there though, we discovered it was still under construction. We headed for the arcade centre located there instead (same company as the one on the 5th floor) and were welcomed by a huge Doraemon figure.

Doraemon happily swallowed up Catherine and son

It was originally some kind of kiddy ride but it has been disabled by the management. As we walked further in, we spotted huge figures of Pikachu (from Pokemon) and Ultraman. There were also originally rides which had been decommissioned.

This arcade features some interesting simulation games but since they weren’t suitable for us with Darius around, we just browsed through the area before leaving. We did notice a 3D movie theatre within the arcade centre which has a 360-degree screen and the viewers wearing 3D glasses. Should be quite an interesting experience watching the shows.

We also noticed that a bar and LAN gaming centre was located on each side of the arcade centre, with big impressive projector screens at each location.

With that, we headed for home after our long but fulfilling trip. ^^

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