A perfect day. What is your definition of a perfect day? For
me, it’s a day when you get to spend your whole day doing fun things and just
spend the time with someone close to you. I just had that perfect day on
Thursday.
The planning took place about a week back. Had to think
about the different available activities, which are preferably something that
we have not done before, but which we think would be fun to do. It’s not easy
to plan for outings. For instance, there will always be a place which you
intend to go but later found out that the place will be unavailable for a
private event etc. After some brainstorming and discussion, we finally settled
on two main activities: picnic and ice-skating.
I could not remember when I had my last picnic, be it with
family or friends. So, to say that I lack experience in picnics, not to mention
planning them, would not be too far off. Nevertheless, there was always Google
and friends that you can rely on. Phew.
I think one of the most challenging part of planning for a
picnic is deciding on the suitable foods and how much to bring to the picnic
place. After making a list of the different foods, I had it trimmed down based
on practicality and convenience. I think some people may have thought that’s it
is crazy to plan for a picnic during this erratic rainy season. But I beg to
differ. I feel that if you have the time now, just do it. Nobody knows what
will happen tomorrow or the day after. Of course, we have contingency plans,
which I feel is essential in any sort of planning.
A few days before Thursday, I decided to bake something for
the picnic. After much help from Mr Google, I decided to make mini cheesecakes.
The ingredients were relatively easy to find. The equipments though were not. I
had to go to many different places to try and get the suitable baking pan.
Sadly, once I thought that I have bought the right one, it turned out to be too
big for my small toaster oven when I tried to place it once I reached home. In
the end, I ended up using silicon moulds. Talking about the oven, it’s also a
challenge during baking. All the recipes will indicate the required temperature
to bake the food in and for how long. This would be easy in a normal
conventional oven. But for this small toaster oven, I can only set the duration
of the baking. So, it’s more of a trial and error and pure observations.
Fortunately, my first attempt in baking mini cheesecakes turned out well. I
made two different types: OREO and cherry mini cheesecakes. For a baker or a
cook, nothing is more satisfying than your tasters giving you positive and
honest opinion on the food you have just made. I made another batch the day
after for the picnic, to ensure freshness.
On the day, I woke up a few hours earlier to boil some
hotdogs and fishballs for the picnic. Then, went over to Khatib to pick the car
up at about 10am, went home to fetch my stuffs (a total of 7 bags!) and then
off to Northpoint to buy the rest of the food such as sandwiches and sushi, and
drinks. Drove over to Serangoon and picked her up at about noon. Then, we went
to Streats Hong Kong Cafe at City Square Mall to have our lunch. One of the
staff there still remembered us after so long. What a good memory. At this
point of time, we noticed that it started to rain (oh no!). Nevertheless, I
still drove over to the intended destination: Singapore Botanic Gardens.
Brought out all our stuffs and walked around trying to find a suitable
sheltered place for our picnic. After some distance and pouring of the rain, we
finally found a nice place called the Bandstand.
Laid out the mat and then we began strumming string
instruments; she with her ukulele and I with my guitar. After many years, I’m
still a newbie, having the ability to play only a single chord confidently.
She, on the other hand, plays her instrument like a professional despite having
only gotten her ukulele a few weeks back. I have nothing but admiration for her
skills. The singing accompanying the strumming sounds very nice too, as a
stranger could attest. After a while of playing, we started to indulge on the
food we brought. Continued strumming after that, took some pictures here and
there, and just spend the rest of the afternoon having fun and enjoying each
other’s company.
Time flies when you’re having fun. Before we know it,
evening had come and it was an indication that sadly, it was time to pack up
and move on to the next part of our planned activity – ice skating! We walked
all the way back to the carpark, drove to Kallang and reached more than an hour
later. We could have reached much faster if not for the rain and traffic jam.
The only other time I was skating on the ice was when I was still studying in
the polytechnic. So, not surprisingly, I was quite apprehensive of how well I
would skate, and how many falls I would take. Fortunately, I had zero falls and
was able to skate comfortably on the ice. I guess my experience in in-line
skating previously does help a little. We skated for about an hour or so with
some near-falls on her part, and some picture taking here and there. One word –
FUN!
Later, we drove over to one of the ECP carparks and
continued for a while the strumming of our instruments. Heh. We departed around
11 plus to Serangoon. Dropped her off at her house, with a little heavy heart
on my part I must say, and drove back to Sembawang. Reached home at around 1am.
For some people, a good day is when you get to do
interesting and fun things, or the things you always like or wanted to do. For
others, it’s just spending valuable time with people dear to you. On Thursday,
I’m glad and thankful to have both. It was a perfect day, for me.
A list on itinerary, what to bring, do and make.
Ingredients
for the mini cheesecakes
The
finished products
Maps all screenshot and saved in photo album. But we still
got lost on the way to kallang though. Sorry!
Our ride for the day
Nice place
Big vs Small
Food
Grey
jeans
All smiles after a fun day =)
To You,
Thank you for giving me the chance to plan this day for us.
I always thought it’s cool to have a picnic out on the grass and under the sun.
Yes, it rained and no sun was seen on that day. Nevertheless, I still had so
much fun doing things together with you. Your ukulele playing was awesome,
while your singing was literally, music to the ears. Indeed, they probably
lighten up the mood on that part of the gardens. I'm sorry if any part of the day did not meet your expectations. Thank you for the great
company on that day. I had so much fun. And I really hope the same goes for you
too.
:)
~~Love is the emblem of eternity; it confounds all
notion of time~~
