Little One @ Hort Park

We are not new to Hort Park. It is a 23-hectare park located in the South-Western part of Singapore. It is the first one-stop gardening lifestyle hub in Asia that integrates gardening related activities together under one roof in a park setting. This park is unique because it gives you ideas how you can decorate your garden or balcony if you have one. They have showcase garden design.

If you love gardening, you can check this park out especially Gardener's Day Out which happens quarterly. Do check here for more details. Though I have been to the park countless times but I have not gone for any gardening events as yet.

The park is a rather small, you could walk through it and get done with it within an hour. (Our fastest record was within 15 minutes because we were just passing through to Pasir Panjang Nursery Open House). You will not find any fun activities such as cycling although there are people who picnics in the park. (I personally do not recommend as there is not much shade) The only fun activities for the children is probably the playgrounds, the swings around the park and fishes in the Water Garden near the Hort Centre. To add on, it is rather hot towards noon till late afternoon. Then, why do I keep coming back?

One practical reason is that it is probably the nearest park to our home. It is rather serene view with loads of pretty plants around, particularly the view of the Hort Lawn from Level 2 of the HortCentre. It makes me relax. I love the vegetable garden which the scarecrow stands. I am toying with the thought of growing my own vegetables but where should I plant them. I do not have a balcony and the sunniest spot in the flat is the bedroom. I like the English gardens that the Park had recently included. Sitting in a swing with such nice view is calming, not to mention, my favorite part of the playground as a child is always the swing.

Hort Park entrance @ 33 Hyderabad Road. Little One used to love playing with the mosaic wall.

Little One loves climbing these stairs

Swing! Swing! Swing! Swinging in such ambiance increases the happiness level! 

Such pretty gardens!

Little One @ Playground hop

It is a rare treat that I would bring Little One to explore neighbourhood playground. Usually, I would just bring her to a playground in our neighbourhood. Otherwise, it would be a playground in a park. Inspired by Ai from Sakura Haruka, she got me interested in other playgrounds in other neighbourhood.

It happened that all the relatives we visited in the first day of Chinese New Year are within Toa Payoh. We had set in our mind to visit the heritage dragon playground located in the region. When we stopped at the last stop, we realised we were so near Kim Keat Avenue that we decided to pay a visit to the Dinosaur Playground as well. 

Little did we know that these playgrounds are so near to one another. So in that afternoon, we did a playground hop from one to the other. See map below. We navigate using Street Directory app on our mobile.  

Make a guess which is Little One's favorite.

Dinosaur Playground

We found the Dinosaur Playground. This playground was introduced by Ai in her blog.  There were two dinosaurs sculptures and some dinosaur eggs. Next to them, there is a small slide in the form of Stegosaurus. 

Little One was interested in the slide while we the parents were more interested in the sculptures. We weren't the only one taking photos of the dinosaurs. LOL...

Castle Playground
This was featured in Ai's blog as well. The castle, though small, looked pretty awesome and I guessed it got Little One pretty excited as well. There were some kids playing here already. Comparing to the Dinosaur Playground, this play area is considered bigger to Little One.

Random Playground

This playground looked common so I called it a random playground. We labeled below our fear and our favorite in this playground. What I like about this playground is the 3 seater rocker, perfect from our family of 3 to play with. ha...

Dragon Playground
Welcome to the last stop! This playground is an icon of Toa Payoh. It is also an heritage playground.
Location: 28 Lorong 6 Toa Payoh

Notice how this playground is different from the rest that were mentioned above?
No modern plastic features, such as plastic slides
No soft ground padding.
Instead, it is on a raised platform full of sand.
The playground is made mainly of concrete and mosaic tiles.
Did I mention, the slides here were definitely faster?


This particular playground remains me of the one I used to play with - The Pelican and Tortoise playground with metal merry-go-round and a couple of swings with no safety gadgets attached at all. I think all the Pelican playground had been demolished some time ago. There is no chance for me to bring Little One to recap the memories I had with identical playground. Yet I am happy that we get to this dragon playground which was also designed by HDB's Mr Khor Ean Ghee.


True was that olden days playgrounds are more dangerous compared to modern playgrounds. Children are prone to cuts and grazes then. But we can't deny that such iconic playgrounds are more fun to play with. There is sand-play without the need to go to the beach. The slides are faster. (In other words, more fun) The only way to slow down is to 'squat and slide' or 'open your legs wide' to create fiction on both sides of slides to slow the whole process down. But one can't deny, accidents do happen regardless how safe the playground is made to be. If you look at a group of toddlers playing at playgrounds, you would know exactly what I mean. One slight neglect on supervision, accidents happen.

This is my first time to a iconic Dragon Playground. There were a few families here but we were the ones who spent the longest time here. Reason being, Little One loved this playground so much, she can't bear to leave.

This playground used to near former Blk 28 but the block was demolished. Take a look at how it used to look like here.

Tips: If you think you are going to spend quite some time down here. Get some cold drinks before coming. We got ours from Mac in SAFRA located just opposite the playground.

Designed by HDB's Mr Khor Ean Ghee, built in 1979. He designed the 1st theme animal themes, including dragon, pilican, giraffe and tortoise. 

PS: Did you know this dragon playground is not the earlier dragon design?
The earlier version has a longer spine, metal head and circular monkey bar and it was located in Toa Payoh Town Park.

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Chinese New Year Visitation

In a flash, 5 days of Chinese New Year had past. Most people would have resume their work life.

After reunion on New Year's eve, we stay awake to "shou sui" 守岁. The purpose of doing this  is that Chinese believe children who Shou Sui will increase the longevity of the parents.

During the 1st day of Chinese New Year, we would visit homes of my in-law's relatives to "bai nian" 拜年 . The first stop would be at my in-law home, after that, we would went visitations from house to house. Children and elderly would be given "ang pow" 压岁钱./ 红包(red packets with money).

We would continue visitation to other relatives on the second day. Usually, married daughters would visit their parents during this time. Hence, we would visit the home of the mother's family..Usually, by the end of the day, we would be pretty worn out with all the bustling activities that had been going on

This series of photo is the highlight of visitations.

Typically, during "Bai Nian", one would use a pair of Mandarin Oranges and say something auspicious to the other party. During this time, ang pows are given to the children or elderly.

We were visit as an extended family to other relatives' home. The visiting group will get bigger and bigger.

Yusheng (3 plates on the right), an auspicious dish in Singapore. 

Lohei ( an activity in which we would toss Yusheng in the air to signify that the coming year would be a prosperous year) in progress.

New Year goodies

Lunch at a relative's place

Home made Dinner in buffet style

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Reunion Dinner

Happy Lunar New Year! The last day of the Year of the Horse had just passed.

Tonight, I shall be blogging on the most important dinner for the Chinese family- the Reunion Dinner. Reunion dinner is a must for Chinese during Chinese New Year's Eve. It is a time family gets united again despite their busy schedules. It is a get - together meal for the extended family.

Although we often meet our extended family to eat together during weekends lunches, it is much of to carry on the tradition. Traditionally, our family has steamboat for dinner. It is very easy to prepare. Just get all the ingredients (basically prawn, meat, fish, vegetables ,noodles and food that you like. Nothing sour or bitter)  ready and one can easier have a sumptuous dinner.

Getting ready for  Reunion dinner!

Woohoo! Now!
Usually, we would prepare auspicious food item such as prawn which means "having a happy new year", fish and abalone for having abundance in the new year, Noodles for longevity.

Put in the raw meat to cook by using slotted ladle

All the ladles are in the soup

Adding vegetables such as spring onion to wish for cleverness

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Preparation for Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year is around the corner! Just one more week to go and I am not fully prepared yet. Spring cleaning is not completed! I have not got my new clothes and haircut! I am starting to stock some basic necessity such as toiletries for the new year because many shops do not open on the first 2 days of Lunar New Year. 

1. Stocking up of Red Packets

These red packets envelops are collected when I visited various museums and galleries. Aren't they cute?
Red packets will be given during New Year for the elderly and children. They will be given to the elderly together with a pair of Mandrain Oranges when we visit. We will say auspicious words when giving them. The elderly will return the favour by exchanging the oranges and red packets.

2. Decoration at home

Chinese Paper cutting. Chinese Word 春 (Spring) and a bat is incorporated as part of the design. Notice the word is placed upside down. By putting the word upside down symbolises Spring and Good Fortune arrives (春到福到 ).  I made lots of butterflies which means "hu die" in Chinese. It is a phonogram for 福叠 "fu die" which means loads of happiness. 
I am still thinking whether this design is too simple. Should I add more? 

This particular  春 (Spring)  cut out was done in a Chinese paper cutting  library programme.  

Little One wanted to decorate as well. And hence, this is up on our wall. She was inspired by this decoration at Westgate.

3. Goodies for the New Year

In the past, I only bought pineapple tarts, Nian Gao (Sticky Rice Cake) and nuts. This year, a lot more goodies as Little One would be eating them as well.

Top row: 2 boxes of almond cookies from Koi Kei Bakery (original Man made Almond cookies and Black sesame Almond cookies) and Pistachio (开心果) which literary means "happy fruit" wishing for happiness.
Middle row: a container of Pineapple tarts (which means "prosperity comes" literary in Hokkien wishing for Prosperity) from mother in law, a container of Oatmeal cookie  and a container of black sesame cookie (from Hung Huat Cakes & Pastries @ Sim Vista Market & Food Centre) and a packets of candied fruit (蜜饯) from the Chinatown Festive Street Bazaar to signify sweetness and smoothness in the new year.
Front row: Mandarin Oranges from library@Chinatown who happened to celebrate their anniversary last month end. (Mandarin oranges are auspicious because they are known as "Kum" in Cantonese which means gold. Gold is associated with prosperity too.) and Nian Gao which meant 年年高升 which means getting  promoted  every year.

If you are looking for fresh home made pasties and wish to avoid the crowd at Chinatown, you may want to visit Sims Vista Market and Food Centre instead.

There are 2 stalls selling New Year goodies. One is Hung Huat which I purchase Oatmeal cookies and black sesame cookies while the other is Jia Confectionery, which Ai from Sakura Haruka had blog about in her post. 

This is the first time I bought from this stall. I happened to around the area for a workshop and found this place. We were looking to get our dinner fixed but many stalls were closed then. When we passed by Hung Huat which was 2 doors away from Jin Confectionery, the nice aroma from the stalls tempted me to take a closer look. For no particular reason, I choose Hung Huat first. I was allowed to sample their cookies and it is up to me to decide whether or not to buy. I did not buy the pineapple tarts although it is the best seller simply because my mother in law had already given me some. I particularly like the oatmeal cookies which the seller told me goes well with coffee. I also picked the black sesame cookies because it is my favorite kind of cookies. The seller told me they have been in business for 30 years. 

Hung Huat Cake & Pastries @ Sims Vista Market and Food Centre

I will continue to buy auspicious food items for the family, get myself new cloths and haircut if there is time. This coming week, I will probably be too busy with spring cleaning...

What about you? Are you done with your new year preparation?

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Light- Up of Chinese New Year Decoration @ Chinatown

We will be ushering in the Year of the Goat in less than a month! For those of you who may not know, the Chinese zodiac is a repeating cycle of 12 years. Each year is represented by an animal. The 12 zodiac animals are: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Pig. How's your New Year preparation? I still have loads to do!

Wishing tree

This year is the year of the Goat

Chinatown is always very crowded on its official Light-Up and Opening Ceremony and  Chinese New Year Eve. We spotted Lion Dance troupe. It seemed that they were waiting for their turn to perform. We left after waiting for a while.

I particularly love the neon lights of this building

Festive Street Bazaar. Basically, you can find Chinese goodies, plants and decorations in this place. 

Various ornamental plants that have auspicious meaning are being sold here

Notice it's RED, RED and more RED everywhere? This is Chinese auspicious colour.

After walking through the crowd for an hour, we decide to leave but not without my favorite almond biscuits from Koi Kei Bakery.

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