[1100hrs] This morning David took us out for brunch.
A small building amidst horse stables and another restaurant next door, people still come here to ride horses and then grab a bite to eat. Although expats frequent this place, it is still a ‘local’ hangout. You can’t get there by public transport so it was great having our local guide, David.
Jocelyn was amazed with the Appletiser drink she ordered, and even more amazed with the Grapetiser drink that I ordered. We had time for a coffee before we stretched and went for a walk.
[1300hrs] We walked through the nearby ‘mall’, which was pretty much just a corridor of shopping outlets selling household items. We were looking for a large shopping mall but didn’t find one. There was however, a Giant supermarket so we went in and bought a few things.
It was incredibly hot and we were exhausted from walking around without much luck, so we gave up on finding a large airconditioned shopping mall and went home.
[1600hrs] Christina had left for the airport; Jocelyn and I were picked up by our cousins Lisa and Malcolm for an outing. Malcolm had an interest in fish and so when we found out that I have also started keeping fish at home, he thought we’d enjoy going to the nearby fish farm. *YAY*
OH MY GOSH!! This place was amazing! And huge!! I could just imagine spending a whole day there with the guys who got me stuck into fish in the first place. I made sure I took lots of photos to show them!
I was running around gawking at all the pretty fish and how much cheaper they are to buy in Singapore. I suppose it’s because most of the fish at the aquariums back in Perth actually come from Singapore. The tropical weather is perfect for breeding the types of fish we have in our aquariums. The guppies were only SD$1.00 each!! And they were having a sale on them! *WAH*
There was a separate room display for the Dragon Fish. These fish can get very expensive so I don’t think I’ll be getting one any time soon. The most expensive one we saw in the display room was SD$6888. EEP
The fish farm had a little section with ponds and when I saw they offered the ‘spa fish’ service, I jumped at the chance to try it. I never had time to try it last time I was in Singapore and it was very expensive to do it on Sentosa. Here, I paid only SD$10.00 for half an hour. There was no one watching over us though, so I could have probably stayed most of the day if I wanted to.
There were several other people there when I arrived at the poolside. There were three pools – one with small fish the size of anchovies; the second had medium sized fish up to about 10cm in length; and the third was full of larger fish - some the size of the large koi you see in ponds! Of course I went to the first pool first!
As soon as I sat down on the pool’s ledge, I immediately got nervous. I needed to take a deep breath before I ventured my feet into the water, but as soon as I saw the little fish turn and swim towards my feet, I yanked them out. It went like this for the next ten minutes or so. Jocelyn was getting impatient and telling me to ‘just put it in!’. There was a little kid sitting on the other side of the pool looking on - she must have been wondering why a grown woman was squealing, squirming and hyperventilating so much over a few tiny fish.
I finally managed to get my heels into the water and the fish began nibbling. It felt so weird…you could feel their little mouths sucking away so fast that the combined sucking felt like your foot was vibrating. After a I finally got over my fears of the little fish, I was able to submerge my whole feet into the water. After a while, I plucked up the courage to try bigger fish. Jocelyn and Lisa lead me to the pool with the largest fish while I had my eyes closed. I sat down, stuck my feet in the water, opened my eyes, saw the large fish making their way to my feet and I panicked, squealed and jumped out of the water. I went to the medium sized fish pool and it took a bit of getting used to their bigger mouths. The vibrating sensation was stronger.After a few minutes with the medium sized fish, I got plucky and went to try the bigger fish again, I was able to put my feet in for the smaller fish in the pool, but as soon as the larger fish swam towards me, out came my feet. I know…I’m a wuss!
When we got into the car to leave, I could still feel the vibrating sensation on my feet.
[1800hrs] Malcolm and his fiancé, Li Ming, dropped Jocelyn, Lisa and I off at our Aunty Eng’s place and they headed off to run errands. We walked with Aunty Eng down the road to have dinner at the nearby hawker centre. We ordered a lot of food for just the four of us…amazingly we actually ate most of it and didn’t need to take any of it home!
half a roast chicken
chilli tofu
kang kong
‘dong ku’ mushrooms
egg omelette
curry sauce
sweet & sour pork/chicken
I forget how much the meal cost us…but I do remember Jocelyn said she paid SD$19.00 for both the halves of chicken and duck. Yum!
[2100hrs] We said goodnight to Aunty Eng and headed to the MRT station. On the way, we saw a little fairground had been set up and there were BUMPER CARS! I managed to convince Lisa and Jocelyn to go on them with me - whee!
[2300hrs] Back at home, Kim Kee warmed up some of the red bean soup she had made earlier in the day. She’s gotten tips on how to make it from both her mum and mother-in-law. I think it tasted great! Nice and soothing for a late night snack. You can have it chilled or warm, but I prefer it warm.
