Recent Visit to the Science Centre

The objective of our last visit to the science center was to renew some library books and to return a few. Max fell asleep on our way there, so he and grandma stayed in the car while Micah and I went in.

We did not know it was a special day for the science center where they had programmes for school children, and especially for those with handicap. So to our horror the whole place was swarmed! People everywhere and the whole place was bustling like a beehive. There were canopies set out at the main entrance for packed lunches for the students and teachers.

When we entered into the aquarium area, we saw a special display had been set up for aquatic creatures. Micah quickly got distracted. We saw eels, turtles and lobsters in the three different tanks. He was most interested in the eels as the person in charge started taking them out of the jars for the crowd to handle them. Quite an experience indeed. We also got to touch a couple of real life turtle the size of a watermelon and weighing more than one.


It took me half an hour to finally get Micah away and up to the library. There he asked me to read him a few books and then to look for more books on trains. By the time we headed back to the car, more than an hour had passed. Then the cat and mice game began: Grandma and Max were gone! Obviously Max had woken up and we had to look for them. My natural instinct was to head for the ball-pool room (specially for ages 2-4) as that's the place we usually hang out, plus it keeps the crowd out. Micah had a good time stacking shaped blocks made of sponge (made a wall and then a train) while I kept looking out of the glass enclosure, hoping to catch a glimpse of Grandma and Max. Finally, after about an hour Gadget-daddy called and said grandma had called home (Gadget-daddy was working from home that day) as she could not find us (she asked him to call my handphone as she could not remember my number). Grandma and Max were waiting outside.


"Outside" could mean any where for those of you who had seen the place. It took me another 10 minutes to persuade Micah to leave his "train" to look for Grandma and Max. We headed back to the car - no Grandma and Max. We looked at the displays just outside the main building - no Grandma and Max. We walked arounf the aquarium area - no Grandma and Max. Finally I headed into the souvenir's shop and spotted the two. They were having a snack, an apple and a bun, at the table where they usually display those mind-boggling brain-cracking kind of games available there.

Then it was back to the special display of eels and turtles and lobsters. At last, with both boys shirt-damp and hand-chilly, we started heading to the car. But as we step out, Grandma just could not resist this: The Milo truck* was there. So we joined in the queue for a free cup of sweet cold chocolatey drink. While grandma and the boys sat under the canopy for their drink (by now most of the students had had their lunch and some of the tables were empty), I went to bring the car around. The clouds above looked like they were going to burst any moment.



Heading back, we talked about our special day at the science center: The eels, the "train" and the Milo truck. Quite fun sometimes to be in a band wagon, though not directly involved.



* The Milo truck reminds me of all the sports days we had in school since primary 1. We'll all go in a single file, by class or by teams, to get a cup of sweet cold chocolatey drink. Till today this is my favourite beverage. Guess tastebuds are "programmed" from young.