Marina Barrage: Picnic Dating!

Singapore is a boring place to date, seriously. Malls are grossly repetitive, cinemas are overcrowded and islands/hills are limited in number to explore. Thank goodness that I can still find quaint, little cafes to laze the afternoons away, but there is still a limited amount of caffeine I can take.

As the girlfriend and I pondered on something to do for the weekend, we realised there's one thing (two, in fact) that we had never done as a couple: Picnicking and kite-flying! And the best place (before Gardens By The Bay springs up anyway) to do that? Marina Barrage!




Maybe because it was not really that accessible, the crowd at the Barrage's rooftop was much lesser than I have expected, as pockets of people formed little gatherings while children gleefully ran around the large open area. Pretty kites dotted the skyline too!



Since it was a picnic, how could we do without a picnic basket? I was glad that I finally put the baskets that my mum saved from hampers to good use!

And so the brunch for two included:

Pringles - "Once you pop, you just can't stop!" I agree wholeheartedly.
Vita Lemon Tea - Nothing but the best ones that I can get my hands on.
Plain Water - Hydrate yourself under that sun!
Tissue - You don't expect me to pluck off grass and wipe my mouth, do you.
Homemade Foccacia Sandwiches - Customised!
Sushi - Simply because its easy to eat.
Fruits - Girlfriend insisted on being healthy.
Chocolate Tart - For the sweet tooth!




The girlfriend loves tuna while I insist on luncheon meat and cheese. Fine, lets have both! Chilli tuna for that extra kick, while melted cheese was the perfect match for a thick slab of pan-fried SPAM. Sandwiched between Gardania's foccacia loaf that smelt so good of herbs, we cleared them all!



I think all supermarkets' pre-packed sushi taste about the same, but I tend to favour Cold Storage as their value packs seem to hold all the ones that I wanted. Curbed my carbo needs!



There was this relatively new tart booth, JollyBell, at Bugis Junction basement, so I grabbed one of the cute Almond Chocolate tarts on my way out. Turned out to be a pretty good bet as the buttery crust was filled with smooth chocolate and chunks of almond. Shall try out the other flavours!



After clearing out the entire basket, its time to fly some kite! After many amateurish attempts, we finally got it up in the sky and if you can see, the tiny triangular one at the top right belonged to us. Loved how this shot turned out!




The girlfriend was all smiles for the camera, while I was simply a lazy kite-flier. Why stand when you can sit?

So where will you go with your boy/girl this weekend? If you haven't done a picnic or flew kites, give it some thought!

Marina Barrage
8 Marina Gardens Drive
Note: The shuttle bus service takes ages to come so if you are really impatient, a couple of bucks more for taxi won't hurt!

Taken with Nikon D70