One of those days...

It's a holiday here. Vesak Day to be exact. Sometimes called "Buddha's birthday," it actually encompasses the birth, enlightenment Nirvana, and passing of Gautama Buddha. The public holidays here are calibrated to reflect the cultural and religious diversity of our country.

Since the kids have been talking endlessly about setting up a marine tank at home, we set off to visit several aquariums today. It's a really tiring exercise simply because the shops and farms are located all over the island. After driving across the country, we arrived at Aquamarin in Jalan Kayu to find the shop's shutters shut.

Maybe we were too early, so we drove to the one at Tanjong Katong but couldn't locate the store. Perhaps it was closed too. We find it strange that retail stores like this are closed on a public holiday.

As if we were not foolish enough, we drove all the way from East Coast to West Coast Drive in search of another one. We finally found it but it was also closed. By then, the car was filled with two down-hearted kids and a tired adult.

Everyone lightened up when YK suggested having ramen for lunch. I drove to IMM mall nearby to find a long line of cars waiting to enter the carpark. It would take us at least 30 minutes just to get into the carpark!

We decided to go to the mall nearest to our house and heaved a sigh of relief to find a parking space. Well, luck just wasn't on our side. We went up to the 4th level and couldn't find our favourite ramen store. Where did it go to?

We couldn't believe our eyes. After walking round and round, we realised that the store was hoarded up and closed for renovations. What rotten luck! We finally settled for lunch at PastaMania.

I ordered pizza while the kids had pasta. With a day like this, you can guess if ordering pizza at Pastamania was a wise choice....

Well, let's just say there were leftovers.