Last Saturday, despite hearing about likely flash floods occurring over the weekend at several locations because of the monsoons, Catherine and I still decided to bring Darius to the Singapore Botanic Gardens. Besides wanting to bring him to a natural place, we were also interested to check out the Christmas tree decorations that were done by various organisations there.

Also, we have been wanting to bring Darius down Orchard Road to check out the Christmas lightings there at night. Since the Botanic Gardens is in the vicinity, we would be able to get to Orchard Road following our walk at the park.

Confident that we could bring Darius out without our home-cooked porridge following our Langkawi trip (see Langkawi Trip Recaps…), we took a cab and left home without them in the late morning. Unfortunately, though it was smooth going for lunch, it had turned out to be quite inconvenient in the evening as we were searching high and low for suitable food for him in the crowded Orchard Road area.

Along our journey on the cab towards botanic gardens, we saw rain came and went at different regions and were hoping it would be a dry weather over at the park. Even if it was raining there, we thought we could just patronise the neighbouring shopping malls while we waited for the rain to stop.

Unfortunately, we saw rain when we were nearing the Botanic Gardens so we changed our destination to Tanglin Mall instead.

The last time we were here, Darius was only 7 months old. We remembered taking some photos of him in the mall’s nicely furnished baby room (see Darius’ First Valentine’s Day at Botanic Garden) so we decided to take some shots of him again at the same spot.

Comparing the photographs of him then and now really amazed ourselves of how much he had changed! Probably because we are seeing him almost everyday, we can’t notice the dramatic change that Darius has been undergoing over the past few months:

7mths vs 17mths: Kids can indeed grow fast and change a lot!

We took a walk around the mall before heading down to the food court at the basement for lunch. Ordering food from the japanese stall, we asked for another bowl of pearl rice since Darius would be sharing food with us.

Mixing some chicken and salmon meat with the rice soaked by some miso soup, Darius had no complain about his food and the meal went quite smoothly. The pearl rice, being softer than ordinary rice, probably went down his throat pretty easily. I also tried adding a little japanese curry gravy into his rice and though he seemed to like it initally, the slight spiciness probably got to his tongue and so he complained on his subsequent scoops of rice, prompting me to stop adding more ‘curry flavour’ into his food. ^^|

After lunch, we went out of the Tanglin Mall into the sheltered area between the mall and Traders’ Hotel, but were disappointed that it was still raining outside. We let Darius run around the vast space while we chased after him and he was very happy to be free and let loose.

The rain seemed to be lighter after a while and we decided to start walking to the Botanic Gardens, and to wait for the rain to stop over there instead. It was a ten-minute walk but was made more difficult due to the rain. Still, we managed to arrive at the Botany Centre with our bodies dry, while Darius had already fallen asleep in the stroller along the way.

There was a Christmas tree in the centre so we passed some time experimenting with our camera, photographing the tree and the surroundings using different settings. We also noticed a group of youngsters cosplaying in Lolita-style clothings and taking photographs. They were also probably praying for the rain to stop too.

Over at the information counter, we picked up a map of the garden and also two disposable raincoat/poncho for free. It was good for them to be offering such services so that visitors could still have a walk in the park during rainy days. We also asked for the sheltered, barrier-free directions into the food court at the basement and were advised to take the lift down. The lift was a short walk from the counter but we had to cross through a carpark at the basement before reaching the food court.

The food court was cleaner and better furnished than we had thought, though the food were pretty expensive. We tried the mee rebus there but its gravy was much spicier than we had expected. Drinks were sold on a self serving basis.

Meanwhile, Darius woke up from his sleep and we prepared milk for him since it was his usual milk time. Looking out, we realised the rain had finally stopped and we pushed the stroller up a series of unsheltered ramps, situated just outside the food court.

Once Darius finished his milk, we carried him out of the stroller so he could walk around too. He sure got very excited and started ‘running’ along the long and wide paths in the garden, laughing merrily as he did so. Well, we’re not exactly sure if his movements were counted as running, but one thing for sure – he sure was moving very very fast with legs of that length. ^^|

When we reached an upslope, his favourite, he was even more excited. He kept wanting us to play tag with him. Catherine did her usual pretense chasing after him while he squealed and laughed at visitors walking alongside him.

"I SOOOO love wide and long paths! I can run freely!"

A kid thought he was crying as she only heard him making noises from the back. Someone was photographing her boyfriend walking along the path uphill and the boyfriend suggested to include Darius in too, since “the child is so cute…” Catherine overheard. Then, he tried moving along and occasionally called out to Darius who was still laughing non-stop and running oblivious. Catherine then heard that they ‘caught’ him nicely into the picture and told me when I caught up with her (was photographing a bunch of flowers) that, “Hey, they captured Darius’ photo. We should ask for copyrights! haha”

As we explored the gardens while chasing after the bursting-with-energy Darius, we were also appreciating and snapping photographs of the surroundings. The weather was perfect for park visits since the air was now cooling with a cloudy overcast after the rain. Park lovers also began to come in after they realised that the rain had stopped.

Droplets on plants after rain makes for nice shots

The last time we came to the Botanic Gardens, we had only visited the area around the Jacob’s Children Garden which was all the way to the other side of the garden. So this was actually the first time that we were covering the main part of the garden with Catherine and Darius.

The garden was really very well-maintained and beautiful with plenty of photography opportunities; we could see many visitors carrying cameras and snapping around, most of them holding DSLR cameras. Seems that DSLR cameras are getting more popular with the increasing variety of models and wider price range.

Armed with our own camera, of course we were shutter happy and started looking for opportunities to take shots of each other:

Darius busy picking his teeth ^^|

Autumn in Korea? …Not!

The walk in the park was very fun and entertaining with Darius around, though it was extremely exhaustive at the same time. Even though the weather was cooling, I was sweating quite profusely(so was Darius!) due to the repeated chasing after him and sometimes running ahead of him when I’m trying to take shots of him. I took turns with Catherine to to do the chasing and photography and looking after the stroller&bags. I couldn’t imagine how bad it could be if it was a normal, sunny afternoon. ^^|

Anyway, trying to photograph an active toddler is really an experience! We are in awe of children photographers now. Some of the photos did not turn out too well with him running too fast so we actually discussed about the settings of the camera with each other while trying to keep an eye on him. It became more like a photography outing for both of us… ^^| Also, he is still camera-shy and often looked away when we wanted to take photos of him while posing with him or just at him. Thus, we used up even more energy trying to entice him to look at the camera-person.

We also went down to the swan lake, where we could see a pair of swans swimming elegantly along the edge of the lake. We were glad they were not afraid of humans so that we could easily have a clear view of them as they swam past us.

While walking around the garden, both Catherine and I had our fair shares of taking shots at the fauna and flora. Here are some of the photogaphs we took there:

We like the 'cute' way they paddled their feet. Didn't know they swim like that.

Nice shot with the Swan passing by and Dar being cooperative

Interesting Cactus

Tired Papa chasing after the 'energizer-bunny' Darius

Someone hanged an ornament here out of nowhere. ^^ The tree was quite void of leaves.

By the time we finished, it was getting late and near 6pm. We washed up a little, changed Darius out of his sweaty clothes and discovered that his socks and inner soles of his shoes were quite wet. He must have gotten it wet when at the start of our walk, he ran into a puddle. We thought it was waterproof and didn’t bother. Little did we know we had let him walked around for so long in wet feet! This reminded us to get him a new shoe with hard sole. He needed a change of shoes anyway since it was getting small.

Unfortunately, we didn’t have any spare socks and shoes so he had to be confined to the stroller in bare feet. He was quite whiny by this time but calmed down after he was given some biscuits to eat. (We always pack a few in a small air-tight container and bring it everytime we go out) I think he was famished.

A Parting Shot... Darius barefoot looking stoned. Tired and hungry...

It was a fun family trip and since Darius enjoyed his trip to the Botanic Gardens so much, Catherine and I told ourselves that we would want to take the effort to make park trips a weekly affair for us. These would also be good opportunities to polish up our photography skills. Hopefully the weather will be doing us justice then. ^^

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