Happy Father's Day!

I've forgotten how life was like when we were in Germany, when school broke for a couple of months long of summer. Luckily for me, the June holidays are just a mere 4 weeks. And the 2nd one is almost gone. 

I've been reminded gently by the kids what we could do at home other than watching endless shows that are offered on okto - the free kids' channel. 

 

Over the past two days, we've made a doll for Kristin and photo frames for Daddy. Nothing much. But enough to keep the kids still and entertained at the table for a couple of hours. We also did some homework (for piano mainly), Math and writing. How conscientious even during school hols. 

Maybe we should do water painting again. 

Happy Father's Day, Daddy! Yeah, we've been busy working at home. ;) 

pulau ubin - rhino rocks

When we arrived at Pulau Ubin, we were greeted by the ever faithful rhino that stands watch at the bay of the little isle. 

Thanks to Ailei (who organised everything) and to Andrew (who so patiently guided us along each step), we urbanites were getting a tour around Pulau Ubin, trekking along to discover what nature holds for us in this part of the world. Before you think it's a long hike, well no, we've got 9 kids with us and at some point of time, some would want to be carried, fed, pushed along in a buggy or go pee(oh actually, we're quite lucky since it was a hot day, water loss was by another route!), take a break, explore the nature, smell the leaves, touch the rocks or even stare at a spider. So 2 hours were really the maximum that the kids could handle and, we all did it! Lo hicimos! Are you doing a number now? Think Dora! 

The Lipstick Plant

When the seeds are crushed, they give a red stain. A natural food colouring used for butter and cheese, for example, to give the bright yellow.  

A-carrying, an-exploring, a-tasting... 

a-pushing, a-stopping, a-feeding... :) 

a-flicking of rocks to a-burning of jackfruit plant? LOL! 

a-studying of barnacles... 

a-making of lalang arrows and a-fighting... 

a-smiling in front of ermmm... dead coconut leaves? 

a-resting, a-smiling, a-snapping away for the parents... 

Oh.. that's just me, reminiscence of mailboxes and gates I haven't seen for the past 25 years! 

pulau ubin - lalang

In Germany, dandelions are everywhere. 

In Pulau Ubin, we have lalangs. 

And Kristin is just there to help the seeds disperse with a little (more) distance. :) 

not a typical library...

How big are these books? 

Pretty huge... 

Good enough for a game of hide-and-seek too....  

Yes, it's all about perspectives... :) 

Brought to you by bACk @ the Comic Strip Museum in Brussels. 

Christmas is in the air

Our calculated move to sacrifice part of Christmas and fly back to Singapore in a relatively empty long haul flight backfired! 

Who would have thought that the earlier flight from NYC to Frankfurt and then to Sg would end up having technical troubles and then cancelled? Who on that flight would have thought that he would miss Christmas in Perth/Sydney? Who would have thought that our flight would become part of the replacement to get the passengers home as soon as possible? 

I was told that there were no bookings for 1st class that night, while the business class and economy had 12 and 80 booked passengers respectively. So really, we could have had one row each to ourselves to sleep! BUT... sigh, no luck lah! 

In any case, our kids were really angels! They ate, watched videos, and slept. We made the wrong move of placing Alan between the kids during the 1st 8 hours of the flight, while I sat a row behind them with a mom and a son. Though I don't understand much Italian, the woman was scolding her son the whole time to keep still, while in actual fact, I didn't even hear the son make a single squeak. I think my kids were much louder than him. And then, she continued to apologise for scolding her son. I was, huh? Much later, she told me that she was afraid of flying. So that was the reason why she was so uptight that even each breath her son took would irritate her. In the end, I couldn't get a single wink in the first 8 hours until I switched place with Alan. And it was fantastic. The kids and I managed to contort ourselves into some positions which allowed all of us to lie down for a while. Actually, I was the one choreographing the moves, while the kids slept through. Alan was happy to get his aisle seat to stretch his legs. 

Comparing with our other single trip out of Sg three years ago, this flight went like a breeze. Then, I was travelling with my parents, Bryan at 27 months and Kristin at 12 weeks. A toddler who wanted to go up and down the aisle and a baby that I had to carry out of the bassinet once the seat-belt-sign was on. And this time round, we just slept... all slept even it was a couple of hours for me... it really is getting easier and easier each time we fly. Guess what? They don't even need their milk anymore when we travel. 

Krisworld never fails to captivate the kids' attention. Yes, Singapore Airlines is a great way to fly, indeed! 

smuggled aqua

Nowadays, I'm usually dehydrated whenever we fly. It isn't so much due to the dryness inflight, rather the security regulations intact to make sure nobody brings bottled water through the security area. And searching for a bottle of water at the duty free area's can sometimes be as difficult as looking for water in a desert! 

Bearing all those security regulations in mind, we had a water parade just before entering the checks. And this was the only one we forgot. It was still in our bag. A few days later, as I was unpacking I discovered this little bottle of aqua. Apparently, the Spanish checks at Barcelona had missed it. Tzzk tzzk tzzk! So much for safety regulations! 

sonja and bryan

  

Bryan enjoys being with Sonja, even though the age difference is 8 years. Bryan speaks really little German, while Sonja is too shy to use her English. 

My son was just being freaking irritating with the "Laterne" song, in preparation of St Martin's Day here. That much of German he knows. 

"Laterne, Laterne

Sonne, Mond und Sterne

Brenne auf mein Licht, brenne auf mein Licht

Nur meine liebe Laterne nicht." 

just for laughs...

That's my cutesy sweetie pie at Tower Hill, London with her silly facial expressions and some shortbread crumbs. Mmmmmh butter! She said. 

London and eats...

We always put on weight whenever we're in London... 

How not to when: 

1) Bryan ate 4 char siew paus at each dim sum session! 

2) Daddy had ducks for three consecutive meals! 

3) Mommy loved all her dim sum treats and Indian curries! 

4) Kristin... erm, she didn't even finish her milk! But hmm, I think she also put on weight for all the shortbreads she gobbled down. I just had to tell her, This is just butter! 

We didn't manage to go to Yauyatcha. But after hearing so much about Hakkasan, Alan and I decided to go check out this 1-Michelin-Star restaurant. Indeed, we weren't at all disappointed! 

This was our favourite of the day, Scallop Siew Mai with fish roe: 

I thought this Cheong Fun was quite special too, with crispy beancurd skin as the inner layer, wrapping mushroom and bamboo pith: 

And this was Bryan drawing furiously before his Char Siew Paus came... 

Can't say that Hakkasan was better than Yauyatcha since we never been to the other restaurant before. But that will surely be a reason for us to be back in London again, right? :) 

Also... thanks to all those friends who recommended Pearl Liang. I think I just found the world's best duck there (ok, I admit I'm not much of duck fan). Certainly the queue and poor service at Four Seasons isn't all that worth it anymore. Just head over to Paddington for a nice treat in peace and with a lot of space! 

More on London to follow... IF I can find time amidst packing... 

talking about London...

Mommy: What are you going to do in London?

Bryan: Eat Char Siew Pau's. Many Char Siew Pau's! 

Mommy: Whom did we meet the last time when we were in London? 

Bryan: Gan-die and gan-ma! We stayed with them. 

Mommy: Did we meet any kids? 

Bryan, Thought for a while: oh yeah yeah... Sean. I met Sean. 

Mommy: What about Sean's mommy? Do you remember her? 

Bryan: Oh yeah yeah yeah... But I can't remember her name. 

Sorry Aunty Lilian, you're not a kid. Bryan can't remember your name. :p

oct weekend getaways 2

If anyone's looking for hotel accommodation in Europe, I'll recommend www.booking.com. You will always be guaranteed the best deals, sometimes even better than what the hotel websites offer you! 

As usual, booking.com did not disappoint us. We booked two nights with this business hotel, Hotel Bloom of funky and modern designs. The best part was we paid only 88 Euros per night, with breakfast and tax included! Our usual French chain Novotel was charging 120+ Euros/night for the weekend, without breakfast! 

The kids were greeted by beads in the retro lobby when we arrived: 

Bryan tucked in a scrumptious breakfast amidst a hall filled with designer pieces of furniture, just look at that spider-web-chair at the table behind Bryan: 

The room is newly renovated, spacious, clean and quiet, even though the hotel is along the main street where the trams run: 

Oh... these two bubble swings are the pure highlight! It's like THE playground for the kids. When we arrived on Friday evening, there were models and photographers working in this area:

Oct weekend getaways 1

Over the weekend, we were at a place where we could see this: 

climb through a shaft like this one: 

stay in a place as funky as this one: 

have a caricature of ourselves like this one: 

Oh yes, you guessed it! We were in Brussels.

More to follow... 

Ruegen... part 1

Have always wanted to visit the northern part of Germany. Actually, I was thinking more of Westerland, after having heard so much from my German friends who have beautiful childhood memories there. 

Not too long ago, however, Alan and I saw a programme on Ruegen. Immediately, we knew we would like this German isle, which is by the way, the biggest German island in the Baltic sea. 

I haven't had this feeling for the longest time - feeling so strange and different in a place, though I don't feel out of place because the people there are the friendliest at all time! I mean, we were the only Asians around! I guess being in Frankfurt, an international community, has made me forgotten about the German I know, while Ruegen reminds me that I am in fact back in Germany. Guess I just needed this special dose of nostalgia! :) 

Of course, being at the beach again brought pure joy to the kids! See it for yourselves! 

 

Who would have thought of making a sand angel? 

This boy is definitely gonna miss the fluffy white snow when he's back in sunny Singapore for good!

Yep, the sand's really fine and soft! With a little bit of sun, it would have been perfect white sand and blue seas... but as luck would have it... err... nope! Just fine and soft sand! :) 

France Road Trip in July

No time to blog, so let the photos tell the story... 

our photobook with Shutterfly. 

France, Road Trip, Part 1

When Alan showed  this to me on our Lumix, I thought, "What? Blue screen on camera?" 

He told me he took a picture of the sky! 

So to prove to you that the weather was absolutely fabulous throughout our road trip, this was how the sky looked like, every day! 

These pictures were taken in Sault, one of the days when we did the lavender route. It was actually late in the evening about 8.45pm. 

en route...

A wonderful shot of us on the German Autobahn A8 made possible by my SIL and brother following closely behind us on this: 

Guess who had the better car? 

Yes, we were driving down to Lake Constance for the weekend.

Plesseburg

 

Here we are again in Plesseburg in summer. Compare this with our little picture in the right hand column of our blog. Take away the snow and snow suits, add a couple of years. That's us again! :) 

summer's here...

Like my new header? Yeah, it's getting scorching hot here. I think we might have got a little sun-burnt yesterday at our friends' farm.

Here's Alan earning our stay there... we the city-dwellers were trying to press out hay. Hard work, sweat!