BACK-DATED POST (JACOB BALLAS)

I heard a lot about the Jacob Ballas Children's Park but never knew how to get there. It seemed so damn elusive! We first tried to get there when we visited the Singapore Botanic Garden's from the main entrance. Duh! the park was at the other end & it would have taken us ages to get there (not interested in doing that!). So that mission was cancelled. Second time, we tried going by the Bukit Timah way, near IE (Institute of Education) coz I read in some of the blogs that it was somewhere there. Ermm ... we couldn't find the entrance coz the only way in was through a car-park barrier (only one way in). So the park couldn't possibly be inside IE right?? Errmm .. yes it was! That's what we found out when we finally got there on our third try. I told hubby to go through the car park barrier coz my instincts told me so. I reasoned that if the park wasn't there at the most we just pay for the minutes of parking or it might even be free of charge because of the grace period. Alas, we finally found (Mr) Jacob Ballas!!!
The funny thing is this park has an odd criteria. Only children under 12 (I think) could enter the park, but they can be accompanied by adults. Adults who wish to see the park (without the requisite kids) need to make some arrangement (at the counter, I think). So any adult who wanna see the park ... go "borrow" someone's kids, if you don't have any!

To tell you the truth, the park was a bit of a let down really. First of all, there is the parking charge (I sorta assumed all public parks parking was free ... not!). Then it was the size, the park was much smaller than I expected. Thirdly, I had this impression that the park was some fantastic area for the kids to play & explore ... it wasn't! (in my view anyway). Ok, it did have a "miserable" water feature (looked like it needed some scrubbing & maintenance) that you have to constantly press (the sensor of sorts) to let the water "sprout". Ok, maybe the kids might enjoy doing that but I just found it rather irritating & unnecessary. There was also a rather small playground, some educational plant thingies, a man-made waterfall & a (only good) suspension bridge. That's about it, even if there were more, I didn't see a real need to explore further coz I felt very let down by the place. Oh, they have short vising hours too!

Maybe I was expecting too much or I let myself think that this place was gonna be sooo fantastic. Not that there isn't stuff to see or do ... its just that we took such a long time to find this place, I was rather disappointed by its "grandeur" (or lack of it), when we finally found it. A lot of people on the blogs & the kids magazines also made the place seem more interesting than it really is. Well, maybe its just me .... but I assure you there are better places in Singapore, for kids to play in.

Surprisingly, Ryan seemed to enjoy himself quite a bit (u know kids, any form of play will excite them to bits!) but Mummy really don't see what the big deal was. I guess what can you expect from a place that cost nothing (free) .. not much I guess! I think the Marina Barrage was actually more fun! Which makes me think ... hhmm, maybe we should pay the barrage a visit again, very soon.

Anyway, here are the photos. I doubt we will be there again ... but then you never know, anything for Ryan!

Ryan liked feeling the water on his toes.

Mama, where did the water go? Did it stop again?

Getting some water from the pump, with Daddy.

On tip toes.

Daddy was smiling happily!

Trying to convince Ryan that it was safe to cross the bridge.

Tiny, wobbly steps!

Hanging on for dear life!

Trying to look cool & collected!

Tried to upload the vid I took of Ryan playing with the water but 3 hours on ... the vid still didn't finish uploading. Arrgh! I thought Blogger is geting better at this. Sigh ... maybe its because the video is longer than the ones I uploaded in the previous posts. Seem like "gambling" / tikam-tikam you know, sometimes you win, sometimes it "hangs" ... haha! Well, what can you do ... just trying to live within the limitations of my life!