Pottery or bouldering? Pick your kind of concentration

Brunch is all talk and no task. Give the group a problem and the conversation looks after itself.

Book pottery if your group wants to talk while it works, and bouldering if it would rather go quiet for a few minutes at a time and then argue about it on the mat. Both fix the problem with the standard catch-up, which is all talk and no task: two hours over brunch covering work, property prices and somebody’s renovation, and nobody has learnt anything. The compromise is that these are two separate plans, not a double bill, so ask the group first and book one. The keenest organiser should not get to decide everybody else’s sweat levels.

Pottery is the steady kind of concentration: you sit, you get your hands muddy and the conversation carries on. Bouldering is the stop-start kind: a few minutes of total focus on the wall, then a long chat while you work out where it all went wrong. Either way, nobody is any good at it yet, and that is the point.

Goodman Ceramic Studio: the name has moved on

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Check the address before you book. The studio takes its name from Goodman Road, and older listings still place it at Goodman Arts Centre, but its own website gives Excalibur Centre on Ubi Crescent, a short walk from Ubi MRT. So this is a pottery afternoon in the east, in an industrial building rather than an arts campus.

It is the better pick for a mixed-age group or a family. The studio is large, run by a team of wheel-throwing veterans and established ceramic artists, and teaches wheel throwing and hand-building for every age; adults book through the studio’s class link. It also bills itself as a pioneer of corporate team building, and its testimonials mention a group of 40 coming through at once, so a few friends around a wheel will not trouble it. It even sells glazes, tools and home kilns, in case the hobby takes hold and the spare room goes with it.

Before you compare prices, read the small print on what happens after the class. Firing and glazing are often charged separately, and on the family listings the first glaze can be included while later pieces cost extra. The studio’s main page doesn’t say how long firing takes, so ask when you can collect. Waiting to find out whether your bowl survived the kiln is half the fun.

Boulder Planet: climbing in the heartland mall

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Photo: Serusen, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The pick for a group of adults who like a challenge and don’t mind sweating in public. Boulder Planet sits in two neighbourhood malls: the basement of Sembawang Shopping Centre and the second floor of Grantral Mall on MacPherson Road, near Tai Seng. It was founded in 2021 by Bento and co-founder Patrice Verosil, a former competitive climber.

The way in is the Starter Pack: an 80-minute introduction to safety, etiquette, footwork and route reading, then two weeks of unlimited entry at both branches with climbing shoes included. It only pays off if you go back, so pencil in a second session before the fortnight runs out, and compare it with single entries if you are not sure you will. The minimum age is 13, which rules it out for a family with younger children. Wear sportswear you can move in, and leave skirts and dresses at home.

Which branch? Check each gym’s range of easier routes before you choose; that matters more to a beginner than the commute. Both have showers, which you will want.

Leave room to be bad at it

Make learning the goal. Nobody needs to throw the best bowl or top the hardest route to justify the afternoon. Turn up in time for the introduction, keep the evening loose and book a meal afterwards. That is when the wonky pots and the near-misses on the wall become the best part of the story.

Good to know Both are paid, bookable activities: confirm the session, age limits, what's included (firing and glazing for pottery; shoes and entry period for climbing) and cancellation terms on the operators' own booking pages. Goodman Ceramic Studio is now at Excalibur Centre, Ubi Crescent, not Goodman Arts Centre.

Want more plans with a built-in talking point? Here are our favourite dates with something to talk about.