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. :) 

this is not kkk...

just a knight wannabe in his homemade costume. 

Last day @ Daddy's office in Frankfurt. Daddy was busy packing, Mommy talking, Kristin sleeping, while Bryan was engrossed in taping up his costume. 

one last time on Feldberg...

Just half an hour drive out of Frankfurt city, one can scale some height of a 1000 m in the Taunus area. This green reserve is often a lure to people who like to hike in the summer or sled/ski in the winter. In our very last year, we found ourselves up on Feldberg pretty often, in fact all four seasons: Spring time with the surprise snowfall during Easter, to fly a kite in summer, to enjoy the warm sun in autumn and just one last chance to sled during the second last weekend of November. 

By the way, according to my past experience (after all, I've lived on and off for about 10 years in Germany), a winter is only good i.e. shiok with plenty of snowfall, when there's snow by the 2nd half of November, which was the case before we left Germany, and is the situation right now. Bet our friends there must be enjoying the snowy days. As I type this entry, it's minus 10 centigrade now with light snowfall in Frankfurt. Comparatively, chances of snowfall in Frankfurt are already much lower than where I used to study since Frankfurt in situated by the river Main and is much lower in altitude compared with Kassel. Quite unfortunately, we didn't manage to sled much the past couple of years when winter was very much an extension of autumn/spring. 

Anyhow, here are a couple of pics of us in the fluffy snow on Feldberg, just the situation I was saving our sleds and snow boots for. But I did forget something, hadn't I? Just stare at the picture below closely! 

first movies...

Bryan's first movie ever was Ratatouille. He was about 4 years and 3 months old. He sat in the cinema flanked by Mom and Dad. Still, half way through the film, he cried. Daddy quickly swooped him off his seat and brought him out for some fresh air. 5 minutes later, he was back in the theatre again. Except for that little hiccup, Bryan managed to sit through the whole movie. 

Kristin's first movie ever was Madagascar 2. She was about 3 years and 3 months old. A whole year younger than Bryan. I didn't expect her to sit through. But she did! Not once did she scream, nor was she clingy... she sat on her own. Actually, she stood for some time. Swayed between Bryan's and my seat. Then she sat some more, ate popcorns, while her eyes were still fixed on the big screen. And when the music came on, she had no qualms to jump off from her seat and dance! No tears, no fears! Hurrah! Looks like Mommy can go for a movie more often now! With the kids. 

The theatre was almost just ours. Bryan, Kristin and I with Bryan's friend and his friend's mom. There were a couple sitting right at the back. How cool was that? It was private viewing! 

frankfurter bookfair

Somehow it slipped my mind completely to blog about the book fair this year. Nothing spectacular, since Sterling wasn't giving away free books plus there were many many other organisations present to collect books for a good cause e.g. Some representatives from the American English Library were there speaking to each stall to ask for a donation of books. I saw an African man with huge stacks of books. He claimed that he'd be sending the books back to Africa. Alan was skeptical when I told him about it. "Are you sure he's not selling them in Africa?" 

Here's our take from this year's book fair. We weren't so crazy this year. 

In preparation for our last extended weekend at the end of November before we leave Germany for good: 

romancing@siesmayer-ffm.de

The ambience... 

The table... 

The food... 

The couple...? Not her... me! Behind the camera! 

The flowers... 

The glass... 

The place... 

that we will definitely miss... 

kristin@palmengarten.de

Yay daisies! 

He loves me, he loves me not, he loves me, he loves me not, he loves me...

The new Pocky Girl! It's Pocky... 

Look Mommy, a red leaf! 

Ok, not the wrong thing in the mouth... 

This is my lipstick, Mommy! 

Pocky, yay!

missing germany #8

This Friday was quite special. Bryan was off to his friend Ryan's home for a play date - not the special part. It's a perfect autumn day with 18 centigrade and a clear blue sky, thus I decided to ride a bike to school to pick Kristin up - I can only manage biking with one kid, however. Yep, picking Kristin up with the bike was the special part. Besides being a great workout, the ride also allowed me to take some exciting pictures along the way to school... yep, I will certainly do this again, if I only have one kid to pick up from the preschool. 

Instead of allowing me to make a pit stop at Grueneburgpark (a public park), Kristin wanted to take a walk in Palmengarten (one that requires an entrance fee, though it doesn't really matter since we have a season ticket, just that I had to go home first to fish out the ticket from my bag). She was exceedingly well-behaved today. Or maybe it's the weather... it was so good, I felt so good... I didn't care if she was whining a little, errm, actually, I can't remember if she did whine, did she? 

By the time we came to this pond in Palmengarten (there are several in Palmengarten), Kristin refused to move. So I decided to start taking a few photos since I couldn't tear her away from the pond and its little drain...

Anyway, it has been pretty warm the whole day. I saw no harm letting her play with the running water: 

In between, I thought I could make a few photos to send in as a photo assignment to Digital Photography School (DPS) which has the theme of "bubbles" for the week. 

I took over a couple of dozens, deleted many... and am still having problems deliberating on which one to send in... 

These are the shots I'm happy with:

Shot 1, shutter@1/60, aperture@6.3, ISO@400, on sub-auto at aperture priority mode :  

Shot 2, shutter@1/60, aperture@5.6, ISO@400, on manual mode: 

Shot 3, shutter@1/60, aperture@5.6, ISO@400, on manual:

Shot 4 on manual with shutter@1/60, aperture@5.6, ISO@400 : 

Shot 5 on manual with shutter@1/60, aperture@5.6, ISO@400 :

So which one, my friends? Will appreciate some critiques... :)

missing germany #7

Remembering Frankfurt, this is Alte Oper (the old opera house): 

The fountain: 

The water: 

Remembering Grueneburgpark, this is the Korean House (built to commemorate Frankfurter Book Fair 2005 during which Korea was the country featured). Looks like I was in the Far East... 

The Japanese Wall: 

I wanted to return to take more shots. But on our way home (on bike), Kristin refused to let me make a pit stop for more photos... sigh! 

Biking and taking photos in this wonderful weather... that's something I'll surely miss... 

schwarz gefahren!

Walnuts... fresh ones below walnut trees... sweet! 

In the area around the kids' preschool, there are plenty of chestnut, walnut and oak trees. Every autumn we see many unfamiliar faces in the neighbourhood and these people have come to gather bags and bags of chestnuts and walnuts. 

Today, being the warmest day of this week, I thought I could join the crowd and pick some nuts, when I picked the kids up at the preschool. After 5 walnuts, my handphone started to ring. It was my Polish cleaning lady. In her few words of German, I realised that I had unwittingly locked her up in my apartment when I rushed out to pick up the kids. It would have been too tedious to explain to her that I had another set of key in one of the drawers and that she could still let herself out - my Polish Putzfrau doesn't understand much German, while I can't speak any Polish! So, in the simplest sentence I could tell her, "Bitte warten. Ich komme sofort zurueck!" (Please wait, I'll be right back.) 

Luckily for me, I managed to evoke some empathy with the kids: I told them Oma Halina was trapped in our house and we had to go back to rescue her immediately. It was the fastest walk we ever made to the bus-stop and within 15 minutes, we were back home to save Oma Halina. 

In our hurry to execute our rescue mission, I forgot to pay for my bus ride home. In Germany, it's a trust system. People usually get their tickets if necessary with the bus driver at boarding. The bus driver will not question if one already has a valid ticket. Once in a while, spot checks will be conducted. And passengers caught without a valid ticket will have to pay a fine of 40 Euro. So I schwarz gefahren i.e. travelling without a valid ticket, with absolute no intention on my part. Thank goodness there was no one conducting a spot check. Else, I would have ended up paying another 40 Euro, which is the amount I pay my cleaning lady every week! 

So our walnut picking was cut short... Hopefully, Kristin and I will return to pick some more walnuts/chestnuts tomorrow, while Bryan will be heading over to his best friend's place for a playdate after school. 

missing germany #6

I joined another of Bryan's field trips again. It was an excursion to a pumpkin patch. 

I don't think I'd have so much to time to join my kids on field trips once I'm back in Singapore. Though I'll only be working part-time, how busy my weekly schedule is still remains to be seen, esp when I need to be back at work for not more than 3 times a week. I'm still hoping for not more than twice a week, fingers crossed on that one. 

Bryan with a huge pumpkin. 

Bryan running down the plum orchard, adjacent to pumpkin patch. The plums were sugar sweet! Nothing is indeed fresher than when it's from the source, directly! 

missing germany #5

This is our subway stop, Bockenheimer Warte. 

Platform for U4. 

A pretty platform, I would say. You have billboards featuring the Senckenberg Museum on one side: 

And on the other side, Palmengarten is featured. We live among these tourist attractions of Frankfurt city: 

U4 riding in... aiyah... if only the man in black suit stood still... 

TV @ 1/4, AV @ 6.3, WB on auto, ISO @ 800. 

Nonetheless, I still like this shot a lot. The idea was to freeze the men at the platform with the moving train. And of course, you see "Bockenheimer Warte" in the background at the left hand side. Here's giving it a more nostalgic look: 

missing germany #3

This post is for next year so that my kids will not forget the season of colours - autumn! 

I always love autumn. Perhaps it's cos the much needed cool air to give some respite to a hot summer, although the past two summers hadn't been the hottest in history.

I love autumn for the beautiful colours too. A walk or a drive through the countryside now is just so beautiful, as if one had stepped into a fairy tale picture book. 

Though it's a pretty grey day for autumn and I feel like curling up in bed with a book, I'm still gonna miss this cool air and melancholy of the fall. 

This is my house downstairs. Not as grand looking as Lilian's. Besides, the grey background doesn't do much justice to this otherwise pretty pleasant environment. Didn't have my DSLR with me too... well, it's not something you carry around with you everyday! But I did have Lumix in my bag. Not too bad already... who carries a camera in her handbag everyday? 

I always like to observe this wall at this time of the year. There are more colours with each passing day in the fall. This will, however, be the last time I'm watching this colourful wall. 

Just a close-up to show you what I mean by colours. :) 

The brother and sister, what a rare sight indeed! 

Below are just two other pictures I took on our way home from school. Just stood amazed once again, wondering how many colours leaves could actually have!