Wildseed Café — Singapore, Republic of Singapore

Singapore, Republic of Singapore 🇸🇬

I was hoping to have a little break from work.  I wanted to go somewhere new and fun for me and my young family.  I also wanted some place on East Asia, a part of the world I do not visit a lot.  There were lots of options to choose from: Malaysia, Hong Kong, South Korea, and Indonesia.  The choice was on Singapore.  Apparently, I chose it because a friend mentioned it as a good destination for the family.  So, I just planned my trip without much hesitation.  This shows you how circles of friends and family can affect your choices without much of thinking from your side.  Who says humans are sophisticated? I guess not in every decision we are.

Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, sometimes referred to as the Lion City, the Garden City or the Little Red Dot, is a sovereign city-state in Southeast Asia. It lies one degree (137 km) north of the equator, at the southern tip of peninsular Malaysia, with Indonesia's Riau Islands to the south. Singapore's territory consists of one main island along with 62 other islets.
— Wikipedia

Luckily, I did not regret my choice.  I found Singapore a great destination for a short (or long) family trip, indeed.  The green, with parks and gardens, is a general theme of the country.  Anywhere you go, you can find some escape routes that lead you to nature.  Yes, Singapore is still a highly sophisticated and modern city, as it appears from the photos that shows you strips of harbors and skyscrapers.  Yet, they managed to nestle within a natural landscape that can take your breath away.

Singapore is one of the world’s greenest cities
This city of skyscrapers is also one that is filled with lush greenery. Nearly half of Singapore’s land area (approximately 700 square kilometres) is under green cover. Beyond numerous parks and gardens, there are pockets of undiscovered plant life housed in the most unusual of places.
— Visit Singapore

Wildseed Café @ The Alkaff Mansion — Pin📍

In my actual trip to Singapore, I didn’t look for or stop by any interesting coffee houses.  So, in a virtual trip to this lovely country, I wanted to pick some place that can be a good stop for a possible future trip.  I wanted something that is reflective of the city’s beautiful nature.  So, the choice was on Wildseed Café which happened to have two branches in Singapore.  I picked the one that is in the middle of the parks and gardens.

Cosied at the ground level of The Alkaff Mansion, Wildseed Café is a pet-friendly floral café and patisserie that boasts a picturesque conservatory.
In a setting surrounded by a lush landscape of flora and fauna, Wildseed serves as a welcoming space for friends, families and pet owners to congregate. Offering a hearty selection of brunch items, freshly baked cakes and luscious pastries, the blooming café nestled on the gentle hill of Telok Blangah makes for a true escape from the bustling city.
— Wildseed Café

The cafe is in a mansion sharing space with other places as well.  Being on the top of the hill, with greenery and nature all around you makes it a great escape for a morning or an afternoon meal.  Both the indoors and the outdoors look appealing.  The outdoors feature a glasshouse, a garden pavilion I would say, which can fill you with beauty and calmness.  Again, green and nature help calm your senses and clear your mind.

A Mental Escape

My trip to Singapore was for only 5 days and 4 nights, in a time when I needed much of both disconnection and distraction.  I was overwhelmed by work at the time, and I had some decisions to make concerning both my life and my career.  So, a travel that resets usually helps.  It is like freeing your mind and busying it with something light and fun, knowing that it will continue its working on the background.  You simply hope that when you come back, you will have some fresh eye on whatever going on with your life.

Everyone has a need for a mental escape, and everyone has their own preferred ways in doing so.  I have learned throughout the years that a good and healthy mental escape for me has to have specific components.  You could call them a “recipe” of my escape.  Now, remember that my recipe might be totally different from yours.  We have different personalities and we are affected by different experiences and priorities.  Modeling an experience of someone else doesn’t necessarily lead to a good experience for you.

My recipe for a good escape usually has a travel component.  Traveling allows you to change so many things in your horizon at once and in usually the cheapest way possible.  It allows you to change location, time zone, people, scenery, and climate altogether, and for as a short of a period as 2 days if you wish.  You can go national or international.  You can go wild in your travel plans, or you can travel on budget, whatever suits your style and budget.  That is the first element in a plan for an escape; a travel.

My second important element for a successful escape is to be on complete solitude; i.e. going alone.  You might not agree with me much on this element, but I am a extreme introvert.  This means I usually find an overwhelming busy and social life a drain for me.  So, I usually plant mini escapes and some “me-time” in my schedule.  But when the going gets tough and when I have a lot going on that needs to sink, then I go traveling alone .. well most of the time.

My third element of a successful mental escape has something to do with my love of planning and the need to avoid surprises.  I found that acting out of character helped me a lot to freshen up and add some change.  So, I ensure going spontaneous in my escapes lately.  Depending on the kind of travel I am up to, I might hop on the car and just drive somewhere far.  Or, I might just keep planning to a minimum like securing tickets and lodging, and nothing further than that.  So, when I get to where I am heading, I just become out-of-my-character by simply being spontaneous.

So when I need to disconnect, to escape, and to distract a busy mind, I look for a spontaneous solo travel.  This helps a lot to reset and refresh.  It also became my annual ritual recently.  Yet, it is available as an option whenever I need it.

The Brain: The Story of You

The idea and the need for a mental escape takes me to a book about the brain.  The brain is a complex organ that can be a mysterious inner cosmo in each one of us.  A book that takes you in a journey inside the brain and the inner workings of it, and how it affects our identity, reality, and decisions, is a beautiful work by David Eagleman called “The Brain: The Story of You”.

The Brain: The Story of You

Locked in the silence and darkness of your skull, your brain fashions the rich narratives of your reality and your identity. Join renowned neuroscientist David Eagleman for a journey into the questions at the mysterious heart of our existence. What is reality? Who are “you”? How do you make decisions? Why does your brain need other people? How is technology poised to change what it means to be human?

In the course of his investigations, Eagleman guides us through the world of extreme sports, criminal justice, facial expressions, genocide, brain surgery, gut feelings, robotics, and the search for immortality. Strap in for a whistle-stop tour into the inner cosmos. In the infinitely dense tangle of billions of brain cells and their trillions of connections, something emerges that you might not have expected to see in there: you.

Amazon

The book helps you to understand and appreciate the complexity of the brain with interesting insights.  Here are some quotes that can shed some light on some of the content of the book.

On how our reality is nothing without a brain that models and paints the picture from our senses:

“What if I told you that the world around you, with its rich colors, textures, sounds, and scents is an illusion, a show put on for you by your brain? If you could perceive reality as it is, you would be shocked by its colorless, odorless, tasteless silence. Outside your brain, there is just energy and matter.”
― David Eagleman, The Brain: The Story of You

On the constant shape-shifting of the brain affected by our own experiences:

“All the experiences in your life - from single conversations to your broader culture - shape the microscopic details of your brain. Neurally speaking, who you are depends on where you've been. Your brain is a relentless shape-shifter, constantly rewriting its own circuitry- and because your experiences are unique, so are the vast detailed patterns in your neural networks. Because they continue to change your whole life, your identity is a moving target; it never reaches an endpoint.”
― David Eagleman, The Brain: The Story of You

On the idea that exercising willpower also depletes it as a resource:

“Because self-control requires energy, which means we have less energy available for the next thing we need to do. And that’s why resisting temptation, making hard decisions, or taking initiative all seem to draw from the same well of energy. So willpower isn’t something that we just exercise – it’s something we deplete.”
― David Eagleman, The Brain: The Story of You

On the uniqueness of decision making as a human trait and skill, and the important of comprehension and understanding for it to be effective:

“Decision making lies at the heart of everything: who we are, what we do, how we perceive the world around us. Without the ability to weigh alternatives, we would be hostages to our most basic drives. We wouldn’t be able to wisely navigate the now, or plan our future lives. Although you have a single identity, you’re not of a single mind: instead, you are a collection of many competing drives. By understanding how choices battle it out in the brain, we can learn to make better decisions for ourselves, and for our society.”
― David Eagleman, The Brain: The Story of You