Weekends down at the beach?

I write this short catch-up blog with a heavy sense of irony, given last week’s minor incident down at the beach.  However, it is important to spill the beans on the delightful part of Singapore that is the East Coast Park, the right lung of the city.
East Coast Park is…is….is what? To many here it is the essence of outdoor living. To others, on first view (and maybe this is because I have lived in other places where open-space is not a luxury) it’s just a park. A long, skinny 200m strip of grass on reclaimed land (effectively a flat sand-dune) that stretches for several kilometers from Marine Parade to Changi Airport between the East Coast Parkway (a highway, also built on reclaimed land) and the tanker-filled ocean. To me, it’s a place of peace, meditation, good spirits and escape from the office.

Squeezed into this furrow, like taught hamstrings in a pair of cycling shorts, are a walking track, a bike and in-line skate path, multiple bbq pits and even camping zones. On the weekend there are any number of extended family pitches set up around the bbq pits; it’s a heart-warming sight in this day and age to have 20+ people, sitting together, laughing and smiling together, enjoying a family meal and simply having fun together. The beach itself is not so much a beach as another furrow of land that is made of golden sand. Further to the east the beach does become more of the Australian type beach that I’ve come to know and love, but you’re still swimming in a boatyard.

After exploring the childishly amusingly named Kaki Bukit shopping strip one weekend, Lady and I took a cab through the rain to East Coast Lagoon Food Court – a huge set up of structured food stalls, covering the usual whirl of Asian delights. You can sit by the lagoon (a man-made lagoon) and watch the new 360 degree cable-water-ski or alternatively stare out to sea and watch the tanker and cargo ships swinging slowly on their moorings not one mile from the beach.

East Coast Park is an action centre for Singapore; cycling, running, futsal, volleyball, triathlon, kiddy ball-pits and now waterskiing/wakeboarding. It’s got a lot to offer and with very established food outlets covering thai, seafood, a micro-brewery (Red Dot) and even KFC or MacDonald’s (for the teens of course, once in a while) there’s heaps to do for a whole day and evening.

That I think is one of the important things to remember if you’re on the island for any length of time. You’ve got to split out your weekend activities and pace yourself. Singapore’s not the biggest place and without leaving the island, your options might initially seem less than what you may be used to in larger countries. I mean, the UK is not the biggest place either but within a 4hr drive you’re in the Lake District or sub-tropical Cornwall. 8hrs from London and you’re in Glasgow, an erstwhile European Capital of Culture, none the less.
However, search, dig, seek and you’ll find nuggets of joy hidden between the glossy exterior of one mall and the next. Maybe that’s why another taxi driver told me that the three national sports in Singapore are shopping, eating and drinking. Today we managed to split our day into two main focuses, 1) being shopping for Junior and 2) took a late lunch and a walk through the park. It took us all day and combined two of the national sports missing out on the third as we’re not drinking together given the pending arrival of a small Shovel. A trowel, if you will.
Shovel