Jurong Bird Park

Dearest Skyler,

Papa and Mama had worked through the night once more, Lil’ One. We only got to bed at 5 a.m. An hour later, Papa had to get up to pass some of his work to Uncle Jason who’d kindly agreed to bring it in for distribution. :p

Later in the morning, you woke up just in time for us to get you some milk and dash off to the nearby McDonald’s for breakfast. This is always a highlight for us, Lil’ One as it occurs so infrequently. Most of the time, we just skip breakfast completely as we wake up so late after Papa and Mama have slogged through the night. :p

We managed to get you a Hello Kitty PDA for you to play with with your Happy Meal. :D Maybe you won’t need to play with Papa’s phone as much (Papa doubts it though. :p)

After we got back from breakfast, we rushed to get dressed and then headed off to the Jurong Bird Park. Neither Papa nor Mama have been there in years – definitely not while we’ve been together; that makes it more than a decade! :D We were quite excited by the outing as it’s new place for us to explore together.

We just managed to get there in time for the ‘Children’s Parrot Show’! After the show, we went to the ‘World of Darkness’ exhibit where they’d placed a number of types of owls and other nocturnal birds. This was followed by a Panorail ride to the ‘Waterfall Station’ where we got off at the ‘Waterfall Aviary’.

As there was a ‘Pelican Chitchat’ at that time, we rushed off to the Pelican Cove so that we could see what it was about. A member of the staff was there to share with us about the different kinds of pelicans and their main characteristics. It was quite interesting but you weren’t very interested so we left before it ended. :p

We walked over to the ‘Swan Lake’ where we saw a few white and black swans. While we were standing on the ‘jetty’ three black swans swam up to us – we think they thought we were going to feed them. In fact, one of them actually pecked at our camera thinking it was food! :D Good thing Papa didn’t lose a finger to it! :p

On our journey back to the ‘Waterfall Aviary’, a flock of pelicans actually came swimming all the way across the lake to where we were when we had stood there for a while. They must have thought that we were going to feed them too! How hungry are these birds!? :D

When we got back to the ‘Waterfall Aviary’, we came across the ‘Bee-Eaters and Starling Feeding’ where another staff member was explaining the differences between and the characteristics of the bee-eaters and starlings. There were so many of them – the bee-eaters would just catch the food while it’s in the air while the starlings would eat the food that had fallen onto the floor.

As you were quite scared of the birds, we had to continue walking. We headed for the waterfall next. This is a man-made waterfall, Lil’ One. It’s the first of its kind in Singapore and it’s been a fixture of the birdpark since it opened!

We then headed back to the Panorail to get back to the Main Station. You were quite tired by then but we wanted to catch the ‘Birds n Buddies’ show at the ‘Pools Amphitheatre’. As there was a bit of time before the show started, we headed back into the ‘World of Darkness’ once more as you wanted to look at the owls again. In fact, we ended up walking around the exhibit twice! :D We then had to head for the show as it was about to begin.

The ‘Birds n Buddies’ show had lots and lots of birds and they got the birds to perform many ‘tricks’! Mama volunteered to help out in one of the ‘tricks’. Mama was one of three people who had to hold onto a hoop so that a couple of birds could fly through them. :D Oh! The ‘Buddies’ actually referred to staff members dressed up in bird costumes and they danced to the music or engaged in some antics to entertain the audience. :p The funny thing was, you really were more entertained by the ‘Buddies’ then by the birds! :D

We decided to head out after the show as you really were quite tired by then. You’d not napped at all the whole day. We dropped in on the ‘Penguin Expedition’ exhibit as it was on the way out. There were a few types of penguins there. They also had Emperor Penguins and the way they stood in the exhibit looked exactly like how they depicted the penguins in the movie ‘Happy Feet’! Wow! They really do stand around that way!

As you were quite thirsty and hungry by then, we stopped over at the Bongo Burgers to get ourselves a drink and some water to make you your milk.

While we were there, Papa had overheard the workers talk about a customer having left something behind at her table and they had kept the item. Papa hadn’t bothered to look to see what it was then. However, a few minutes later, Papa saw a customer come in and search for something at a table. She couldn’t find anything so she asked the worker that was near her about it. That boy just told her that he didn’t see anything either! Papa quickly rushed out to tell the girl that she should ask the people behind the counter and she did so and that was when the workers returned her her camera that she had carelessly left behind. Thank God for that girl that Papa had overheard the workers’ extremely loud conversation or she would have lost her camera to the workers there. Papa still can’t believe that the boy the customer had asked first didn’t even bother to ask the manager o the place whether anything had been found. Sigh… Service standards in Singapore are really really poor.

After we were done, we all went back to the Duckie Mobile and headed home. You were so exhausted by then that you fell asleep immediately on being put in your seat and didn’t wake up until we got home. :D

Later in the evening, we went to the Point for dinner. As you kept on asking for pizza, we had dinner at the pasta place where we could get you the pizza that you like. After dinner, we went grocery shopping for a while before heading home.

It’d been a very long day! :D

Papa and Mama love you, Lil’ One!