Unexciting us were wondering where to go for dinner on an uneventful Saturday. Hub’s brainstorm – How about Food for Thought at Botanic Gardens? We like Food for Thought, we like Botanic Gardens, we’d never been to this new branch, so why not? Turned out to be the worst suggestion ever
an unexpectedly long adventure. As usual, we entered 1 Cluny Road into the trusty Google Maps app, and waited for the nice route map to appear. We made it to the Bukit Timah entrance in 15 mins or less, but B was fussing (read: wailing in the back seat) so it was a bit stressful.
Then my lousy navigation skills which have seen many better days brought us round and round the LKY School (silly one way roads), as we sought to exit and make our way to 1 Cluny Rd, where the eatery was supposedly located. From the map, the pin looked nearest to the Nassim Rd carpark. After 2 more wrong turns thanks to my lousy navigation skills we finally made it to the carpark. Which was full.
So I bundled Baby B out with my trusty Ergo, took K too, since she didn’t want to be left in the car waiting with Papa for a carpark space till goodness knows when, took the Deuter backpack containing phone and iPad to navigate, whilst hubs did the car thing and would find us later by calling. I erroneously walked towards the “Food court” sign, since some reviews mentioned that Food for Thought was where the “old food court” was situated. Thinking that the signs might not have been updated. But no. I found a functioning food court, and no Food for Thought, near Raffles Building.
By then, hubs had thankfully found a parking space, and then we walked towards the other way. We nearly went towards the Biodiversity Centre, thinking that sounded close to Botany centre, which other reviews had mentioned. We HAD been to the Botany centre before during a previous photoshoot, but didn’t figure out that this carpark was not quite “4m away” from the Botany centre, which was nowhere in sight. We made it to the Visitor Centre, and hubby bless his (not too proud to ask) heart, immediately asked the Casa Verde staff where Food for Thought was. They said 20 min walk. Nerves were rather frayed by then, but we decided to press on. K was a real trooper and didn’t complain as we walked for almost half an hour before we reached the promised land food.
En route, we chanced upon Opera at the Park! So that was why the carpark nearest Symphony Lake was so full… blur us didn’t even realise. So we took a little break to soak in the music. 
A nice surprise that tempered the grumpiness was when an old school friend suddenly popped up “Hi!”. It was nice to see her, even though she was rushing to bring her kiddo to the toilet. Ha, us mums.
It was nice that the concert was so well-attended. The Botanic Gardens is always one place that makes us feel like we’re not quite in Singapore. Ironically it’s also one of our “national treasures”, which is rather unique to our garden state.
Thought this made a pretty picture of music at dusk. Also enjoyed the fact that I could listen to classical music and chat at the same time! Finally finally finally we found Food for Thought. Then we were faced with the next challenge. The long snaking queue to order and pay! Thankfully the kids held up, and the food did arrive very very quickly after we ordered. Food-wise, it was okay. We didn’t manage to check out the playground since it was rather late by the time we were done. The wait-staff were eager, polite and overall, service was commendable.
Hubs and I mused about whether we should be supportive of those who employed the elderly. The staff here were mainly young. I guess I am all for active aging, and for the elderly to stay gainfully employed, but those who are too old (say 70 and above?) should really not HAVE to work. They could do a little part time non-menial, light menial work if they really wanted, but I still feel that our society owes them a decent basic living. If their children can and are willing to help, all the better. But surely our trillions reserves or LTA ERP COE revenue could be channeled towards providing them with some form of dignity in their sunset years.
K topped the evening off with a great big fuss about getting a cupcake as we walked out, mainly cos she wanted the MARSHMELLOW atop it, but when we found out that we had to rejoin the queue to purchase from the cake counter, we were out in a jiffy, yelling tod in tow. Our philosophy has always been to take the hard line in cases like these. C’est la vie, mon cherie. No sense of entitlement there. Life is not a cupcake handed to you on a silver platter as and when you wish.
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