20111224 East Coast Park

On Christmas Eve, daddy indulged mommy's whims and the whole family (ok, 3 person only lah) went to East Coast Park for a cycling trip despite the gloomy monsoon weather.

Mommy is always thinking of getting a bicycle with a seat for Kathleen so that she can cycle her to nearby place, but before she put the money down for another bicycle (yes, there is one at home, a impulse buying which was unused because it is too high for mommy and her terrible cycling skills), she needs to know that she can balance with a kid in tow.

Daddy parked the car far away, and it was raining before we walked to the nearest bicycle kisok.

Its been a long time since mommy had been to the beach, and saw that nowadays, the bicycle kisok also rent out 4 wheels 'bicycles' that allows for 2 adults and 2 children, or 4 adults and 2 children.  They move really slowly but its a good way for family to cycle together especially for people who cannot balance! :P

Seek shelter and waited for the rain to stop before we rented 2 bicycles, one with a child seat at the front, and one without.  Mommy tried to cycle with Kathleen in the child seat, but cannot, so daddy took over.  We took a break after 15minutes, and Kathleen just cannot wait to get back onto the bicycle again (despite her earlier reservations as her last experience on an adult bicycle was more than 3 years ago)!

trying to get back onto the bicycle while mommy still want to catch her breath

Mommy then took over, and cycle halfway from Area C to the hawker centre before Kathleen asked for a change of rider because mommy is 'too slow'.

Had lunch at the hawker centre before cycling back to Area C when it rained heavily again and we had to stop at the same shelter as before.

At the hawker centre, mommy showed Kathleen her shaking hands as she had not cycled for a long time, and Kathleen laughed and keep imitating mommy's shaking hands.

The rain stopped about 20minutes before the end of the 2 hour rental, and daddy went to exchange the bicycle with the child seat in front to one with the child seat.

K insisting on climbing onto the adult seat for a photoshoot

This time round, mommy found it easier to cycle, maybe because now her kneecaps are not pointing outwards (as her knees are blocked by the child seat if it is placed in front).  So maybe a child seat at the back will be a better choice even though having a child seat in front is safer?  Too bad they didn't have those bicycles with a normal black bicycle seat in front for younger children else mommy can try that out too!

All in all, think we cycled for 45 min to 1 hour during the 2 hour rental, the rest of the time being taken by lunch and all the resting due to the heavier rain (we cycled when its just drizzling).

After that, we let K went to the beach for some sand play.  And she spent most of her time walking to the sea to get water into her pail, bringing it back to mat area, and then pouring it into the sand.

We also saw a man walking out to sea casting a net to catch fishes (we peeked into his pail, and yes, he got quite a few fishes inside) and a family of older children using a opened inverted umbrella to scoop sea water (errrrrr.....).

pouring sea water into the sea

Many ships at the horizon

Mommy got 'chicken wings syndrome (三姨姨's terms for muscle cramp at the armpit/upper arm area after gripping the bicycle's handle too hard)' on the left arm that day :P