Prima Donna

One of our favourite pastimes is to stroll around the Botanic Gardens. Such a beautiful sanctuary in a bustling city. And it looks fabulous with the recent facelift.

We love the wholesome breakfast spread at Café Les Amis. Eggs, toast, coffee. The perfect start to a perfect Sunday.

I used to enjoy idyllic afternoons at roadside cafés. With an old novel, a long black coffee, and the occasional (ok, frequent) indulgence of carbo-laden pastries. And in the most cliche of ways, watch the world go by. The world routinely rushes by the glass window, rarely looking up or around. Most of the time, the world's ears are plastered to their cell phones.

Coffee at the Botanic Gardens is such a different experience. The world is freeze framed in a wonderful moment. Life does not merely glide by. It is bustling and brimming and overflowing. Children running and laughing, dogs sprawled on the sunny lawn.

Speaking of sanctuaries smack in the middle of the city, New York's Central Park comes to mind. According to wikipedia, it is twice the size of Monaco and eight times the size of the Vatican City. A luxurious piece of real estate in one of the most expensive cities on earth.

For those who like hard facts: both the Central Park and the Singapore Botanic Gardens were established in the late 1850s. At 128 acres, the latter is less than one-sixth of the size of Central Park.

You could row a boat in Central Park. At the Botanic Gardens, the water lilies sit unperturbed in a bed of floating leaves. Like Prima Donnas with a commanding presence on stage, posing serenely, regally, surrounded by twirling dancers and glittering lights.