RaRa's Playground: March 2008

Dadi flew off to USA - New York and Boston on Sat nite. Momi and I sent him off at the airport at T3. Was kinda hoping that he would be catching an A380, but it is the usually Boeing 747. Not bad lor, he would be transiting at Frankfurt airport and I have indicated to him which playmobil I want liao. The rest is up to him.

It could some psycho-ing by Momi as I do not want Dadi to go for this trip. I have been asking him to give this trip a miss and stay at home with me. Yah lor, he is going alone without us. How can? Hiaz...

Anyway, to make up for it, Momi allowed me to hang around in the mega T3 after Dadi checked into the departure hall. Haha!! After Dadi checked in at 10pm, Momi and I hanged around until 11pm. What did we do? Loads. We checked out the Chocolate Factory, Bengawan Solo, Cocoa Trees, Supermarket, Food court etc. Basically, all the food outlets there. Love the NTUC supermarket in basement as there is a small lego corner for the kids to play while the parents shop in peace.

When we got home, I refused to sleep and asked for Dadi again. Momi estimated from the time and told me that Dadi's plane should be flying off around that time (nearing 12 midnight) and I could not call Dadi as his handphone would be shut off. Hiaz... Momi chided me for taking Dadi for granted and reminded me to make up for it by giving Dadi a big hug and kiss when he gets back next Sun morning.

Momi brought Gong Gong, Po Po and me for a day tour to local farms and fire station on Sat. Dadi couldn't join us cos the country needs him to be on stand-by for NS mobilisation. Anyway, heng ah! Cos when Momi went to get the tickets, there were only 3 left. I was kinda exempted so long as I sit on Momi's lap during the bus ride.

Anyway, here is the itinerary for the day
8.45am - Meet at CC
9.30am - Yisun Fire Station
11.30am - Hays Goat Farm
12.30pm - Lunch
2.00pm - Qian Hu Fish Farm
3.00pm - Vegetable Farm

This is my first proper visit to the fire station and I am ecstatic. Not only do I get to see all the vehicles, I get to be ON them and get a first hand feel of these vehicles!!! Hiak hiak!!!

I went onto the pumper, fast-response fire bike, ambulance, paramedic bike and of course, my favourite - the doorless Red Rhino!!! Super Duper cool yah!!!

I tried out all the helmets - (a) Commander's cool white-and-gold helmet - Super Stylo; (b) Fireman's orange helmet, and (c) Rescue officer's white helmet. Naturally, I also insisted that Momi tried them out as well. :)

There were 3 NSmen gor-gor who asked me if I wanted to try the various types of water hoses and water guns. Being that lousy scaredy cat, I refused lah cos that was cold water leh. Yah lor, and I stoopidly ask them for hot water somemore. Haha!!! Yah lor, where got people put out fire with hot water???

One of the highlights was a demonstration on the super water gun that can pump out a single shot of 1 litre of water everytime to create a mist of water vapour to douse the fire. It went off with a loud "POMP!!!" and I had to cover my ears. That was truly a super water gun. I like!

Of course, another highlight was the firemen's demonstration on their fast response time in the event of a fire alarm. They would cling on to a pole and slide down so quickly lor. Not pole-dancing lah, dummy. Slide down so that they dun need to waste time taking the stairs! There are 2 styles some more. One is American style, i.e wrap both arms and legs around pole and slide down. The other is Singapore style, wrap only one arm and one leg and slide down. I think the Singapore style is more stylo. I love the demo so much that at the end of it, I refused to go away. Instead, I stood at the bottom of the pole, looked up and kept shouting "Anyone coming down? Anyone coming down now?". Hey hey!! So pai-seh!!!

At the end of the visit, I got nice souvenior key-chains (in the design of an ambulance) and a comic book on fire prevention and safety. Hee, really education right?

Next was the goat's farm. This is actually my second visit in this month. Just went with my classmates last week on the 13 Mar, so I think some of the goats could still remember me cos they sniffed me out and ate from my hands!!! Haha!!!

Momi bought a packet of alfafa so that Po Po and I could feed the goats. Po Po and Momi are quit lousy lor, dun dare to feed initially. Me? Aiyah, I am so pally with the goats liao. In fact, I went "mum mum mum" and "meh meh meh" when I fed them. Kinda silly but cute lor. I especially love feeding the baby goats. Some of them preferred to sleep and I tried to cajoled them to come over for a bite by doing the "mum mum" and "meh meh" sounds. I tell you hor, some of the older goats are such fussy eaters. They sniffed the alfafa from my hand and rejected it cos it did not have leaves on it. Instead, it decided to chomp the younger alfafa (with leaves) offered by other kids... hmmmm. See, that's why i prefer to feed the babies. They are less fussy.

When I was feeding the goats, I kept telling Momi that my Nai Nai loves "yang meh meh". How I wish I could bring one "yang meh meh" home to give to Nai Nai...

What about my grandparents? Haha!!! My Gong Gong couldn't stand the smell and made a quick exit to rest outside. Po Po soon went after him after a few attempts to feed the goats. That resting area was for us to take a break and get some refreshments. Momi took the opportunity to buy 5 bottles of chocolate goat milk to lug home for me. Of course, I must also drink some milk there lah before we proceed to the Hawker Centre for lunch. My stomach is getting empty leh.

Lunch was at a hawker centre at Choa Chu Kang. Nothing fantastic, the usual fish slice E-mian for me. Yums!

Next, we proceeded to Qian Hu to look at the different types of fishes. I recognised some of them as Gong Gong and Ye Ye keep fishes at home. One of my favourite was the dark showroom for giant arrowana fish. So many of them in different colours - Red, gold and silver. I also love the fat and giantic goldfishes. Each one of them are bigger than my 2 fists put together. The best part is, there is a tank full of big-bellied goldfish and I kept telling Momi that they are all pregnant goldfish.

I also love the fighting fish which their vibrant hues of blue, green, red and purple. In the end, Momi and Po Po helped Gong Gong to pick up 2 fighting fish to bring home - one red and one blue, each priced at $5. I tried to pick one for myself, priced at $2 but Momi said no cos she didn't find it beautiful. She also refused to let Gong Gong buy for me as she opined that it probably wouldn't survive the rest of the trip under my hands. Shoots!!!

Anyway, I love the fish farm so much that I kept asking Momi to snap pictures of the fish until the camera battery went flat. Heng ah, we caught pictures of most of the interesting fish, except for the marine fish... There were colourful guppies, funny-looking elephant fish (spot a trunk-like snout), little fish with chinese characters and numbers tattooed on them (call them 4D fish can?), spotty stringray, flowerhorn fish (luo han fish), mini albino lobsters, crabs and spa fish.

I wanted to feed the fish sama sama what I did at the Goat Farm, but Momi said cannot cos we did not find people sending fish feed at the farm lor. The farm owner is probably worried that we might overfeed his fish and cause them to have indigestion or worse still, die from over-eating. Hiak hiak!!!

Last stop was the vegetable farm. When we went there, most of the veggies have already been harvested. The plots are either bare or covered by little seedlings which we couldn't tell what kind of veggie. Ended up, Momi had to refer to the display tag to tell me that this is kailan, chye sim, nai bai, that is spinach, chinese chives, chinese parsley etc.

The only plant that was flourishing like nobody's business is the aloe vera loh. That plot of land looked like a desert lor.

Luckily, there are fruits hanging from the trees lor, such as the bananas, chilli, papayas, strange-looking melons, passion-fruits, pineapples, dragon-fruits... just to name a few. It was fun as I have never seen these fruits growing on trees. Think Momi was excited to see passion-fruit plants and dragon-fruit plants too.

I asked Momi to show me Cai Dao (long beans) but it seems that it is not a popular veggie to be grown on the farm lor. Cannot find it at all.

Oh, I also spotted plastic bags growing on a tree leh. Din know plastic bags grow from tree lor... hahaha!!! Turned out that was a guava tree and the plastic bags were wrapped around the fruits to prevent bats and insects from getting to the fruits lor.

Momi and I discovered a big birdcage full of colourful birds and an enclosure holding 4 bunnies at one end of the farm. As usual, I squatted in front of the bunnies and told them to come to me. Too bad, it appeared that two bunnies were not in very healthy condition as their fur was falling. Momi forbade me to pat them.

As usual, Gong Gong and Po Po took one trip round the farm and decided that there was nothing much to see cos all the veggies kena plucked liao. Gong Gong - an avid fish lover, checked out the pond in the resting area, while Po Po - avid shopper, checked out the veggies on sale in the farm. Being the typical auntie, she bought carrots, pearl beans, bittergourd, potatoes etc.

Momi spied a chiller containing mango puddings, aloe vera jelly and aloe vera honey drinks and decided to buy some to let us try. Yums! I love the mango pudding and aloe vera drink so much!!! I actually drank 70% of a bottle of aloe vera drink and refused to share it with Momi. I insisted on finishing the bottle, but Momi stopped me as she worried that I might pee in my pants on the trip back. Of course, I was not happy and threw tantrums in the bus, until she hugged and patted me to sleep lor. It was pure bliss to nap for 1/2 hour in the bus, especially when the rain came in and it was nice and cool.

That's about it for my one-day educational tour. Quite a lengthy update yah. There was another small story after our outing, but I think Momi will update it another day. According to her, she will still fume whenever she thinks about the incident. So, stay tuned to find out what irks her so much lor! Bye!