What are these trees/plants?

  

Mangroves? 

But don't mangrove leaves sort of have round tips? 

These children discovered their secret passage way - as usual. And when the camera came out, they were all posing. Hmmm... where did they learn this from? 

Can you believe it?

    

Beach used to be 11 hours' drive away, but we are now only 10 minutes away from sun, sand and sea. 

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. 

appreciating art...

While we cleared off the old stuff, Alan and I went through postcards, pictures, books and essays that were made/written of the yore. Oh what memories! 

On Sunday afternoon, Alan decided to go through some of the photos again. This time with the kids. He had two photos similar to these here: 

Bryan was asked if he found the place familiar.

"Er... yes, yes. That Gaudi guy made it, right?" 

Absolutely! Yes. He calls it the five-finger church. Don't ask me why. There are more steeples than 5. 

We were in Barcelona, just before flying back to Singapore last year. Gaudi's buildings were such fun for the kids. They felt like they were in some fantasy-land. While creating space, Gaudi sought new structures in nature to break the convention of normal architecture. Since young, he developed a love for nature and this is evident in his mainly gothic yet with a romantic touch of style. What a true artist of his time. Of course, some people labelled him mental at that point of time too, and Gaudi's works were met with much criticism. 

And of course, the audio guide that we got when we were in Casa Milla (La Perdera)had a great impact on Bryan's appreciation of Gaudi's buildings. One great souvenir we bought was also a book on Gaudi, written for children. 

Unfortunately, Kristin was still too young to enjoy Gaudi's fantasy land. Hopefully she'll discover the beauty herself one day. 

first times in Sg...

A couple of weeks ago: 

First time for us @ Tiong Bahru Market since we came back. 

First time ice-kacang for the kids! 

Terrible pics from my handphone cam. Sorry! 

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! 

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... 

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: 

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... 

missing germany #1

I think I'll miss "the lazy Sunday afternoon in a park" like this one:

At this age, the kids are always fascinated by the things they can find in a park, e.g. wild flowers like daisies and buttercups, dandelions (they go crazy over this one!), stones/rocks, and at this time of the year it's about right for them to start their leaves/acorns/chestnuts collections. 

Today we were out exploring Guenthersburgpark. Fabulous playgrounds for kids! Hanging out there is almost fuss-free for the adults because the kids will definitely be able to find something to do on their own! 

Besides, kids like to hang around too... ! 

Of course, they'll have a swinging good time in the park! 

Note to self: Gotta remember to write about parks in and around Frankfurt. 

pretty food

We've been out all day since 10 am! Somehow the plan to dine out this weekend did not materialize...

thus the usual fast food from my kitchen. Whenever I have only 30 minutes to cook, this is what I serve. Nothing deep-fried. And it's a completely balanced meal when it's served with some white rice. 

Easy to prepare: 

Champignons chopped, asparagus chopped, tofu cut in cubes, tomatoes diced, egg, water, sesame seed oil, soy sauce. Place the dish in a microwavable steamer, then pop it into the microwave oven for 12 minutes on high. 

What's not to like when the kids finish up the plate quickly and they do not even have to know what sort of vegetables they are swallowing down! 

Above: In the microwave, 12 minutes later. 

When Alan came into the kitchen, he teased, "Oh! Pretty food again?" 

Bryan cheered, yay decorations again! 

Kristin thought, I'm pretty, so I get pretty food! :o) 

Here's my second attempt to make my food look presentable. :) 

Now over to your kitchen, what's for a quick-fix tonight? 

spaghetti rojak...

Instead of going to a tapas restaurant for dinner tonight, this was what we had at home. Something I whipped up last minute because Bryan had come up to me for the 5th time, asking me what I was going to cook for dinner. Someone was obviously hungry. 

For once my food looks presentable... :) 

Yep, I have a few things/people to thank: 

1) My husband who bought me a DSLR! 

2) My new DSLR that allows me to focus on the colourful noodles and blur out the untidy background of my kitchen counter. 

3) My son who helped me decorate, I mean garnish, the plate with a bit of sprinkled parsley, chilli powder and cheese. His eyes lit up when he heard that his mom was actually allowing him to decorate dinner tonight! 

4) My daughter who spilled parsley all over the kitchen floor... wait a minute, why am I thanking her for this mess? 

5) The white plate... that's why the food stands out... and that's why good restaurants always use white chinas! 

So what did we have? 

I know some people had grilled lamb and were all stuffed up to their throats at a dinner party tonight... (ok... you got it? kacau-kacau only :p)

Our plate was something pretty modest, put together with whatever ingredients I could find in my fridge. You must be thinking I stock up well... Yes, I just refilled my groceries this afternoon! ;) 

So presenting spaghetti mista: 

For the sauce, we had carrots grated, baby asparagus finely chopped, champignons sliced, bacon strips, spinach all stir-fried with shallots and then with gorgonzola cheese and cream added. What rojak! But it was delicious...

"Tell me Bryan, does Mommy cook better than Vapiano?" (Vapiano is the children's favourite pasta joint.) 

"O yes, Mommy. It's yummy!"

There... I solicited a compliment from my son... 

Aren't kids just sweet? All they wanna do is to please us parents! :) 

dino-mania!

Continuing from our Saturday excursion to Senckenbergsmuseum...

By chance, we arrived at Dino Fest, an event held by the museum to kindle/cultivate interest in creatures of the past. 

How else can a child learn more about dinosaur other than creating one of his own? 

Bryan sculptured his very own ankylosaurus out of clay: 

What do you think? It's a pretty close interpretation, ya? You might not be able to take a closer look at its tail. Alan and I are very proud of him that he added so much details to his mini sculpture. He did it without a single bit of help from us - hee... we hadn't the foggiest idea how an ankylosaurus looked like anyway. 

Kristin? A brachiosaurus, of course. Can't you tell? Actually, she only made some of the dino eggs. Mommy made the brachiosaurus simply because that's the only dino she knew how to make: 

Bryan's ankylosaurus, however, did not make it back home intact. It fell from great heights, from Bryan's arm to the museum ground. Luckily, we got home before the clay hardened. Still his ankylosaurus did not manage to escape the fate of amputated limbs after Bryan made his close inspection at his work tonight. 

Daddy is attempting super-glue-surgery. But it sure looks like we need to go buy some clay soon. 

leaping into the depths of sea...

We were at the Senckenbergsmuseum (a musuem of natural history and science) again yesterday. It's probably the 3rd or 4th time Daddy came along, and every time when he was there, there seemed to be some exciting events going on. Yesterday was the Dino Fest. 

The kids were engrossed in the puppet show, though my children didn't understand a single bit of German. Still, Bryan managed to learn that a triceratop is called a Dreihorn in German at the end of the day. 

When we came to the section on the formation of earth and the continental drift theory, Mommy and Daddy were trying to make sense out of the diagrams while the kids were happily running around the museum grounds. 

Daddy: Oh, that's in English. Maybe we can read it to the kids. Hey Bryan... 

Bryan: Yes Daddy? 

Mommy: We read about the Pangea in the Dinosaur book back home right? You wanna know more about the supercontinent? 

Bryan to Daddy: O yes, but before you read that to me, I gotta tell you something first. (pointing to the chart below) You see those creatures at the bottom of the sea. They are called trilobites. There were many of those on the sea beds! Look... 

Daddy: How do you know about them? 

Bryan: Oh... from the LeapPad we have at home (a gift from his aunt in Sg, arrived on Aug 10th when Daddy came back from Sg, less than a month old!) 

At this moment, Alan and I were searching on the board for our answers... and sure enough, we found Trilobiten among the German section. I was quite amazed that Bryan could recognise the drawings of trilobites, even though I'm pretty sure Leap Pad has them in pictures. Anyway, this isn't about how much our son knows, rather how ignorant his parents are... 

Looks like we should be hanging out in the museum more often. The kids are alright. They absorb a lot just by running around in the museum! 

O yes... The Leap Pad is one good investment! 

Since then, we've been talking about the triassic, jurassic and cretaceous periods! 

weekend wind-down...

Autumn's near - there's no doubt about it (just look at those apples), although the temperature for the weekend soared at 30 deg C! 

The kids were thrilled to be back at Appel Happel for the apples again. Alan and I had to stop them from picking too much. Can't do much with too many apples - not quite in the mood to bake nor puree it. Besides, the season has just begun and not all fruits are in their sweetest yet. 

Pumpkins... another sign of autumn... :(

Then we headed back to Frankfurt for lunch and some skate-scooting fun in the city centre. 

The usual Museumsuferfest (nothing much, just some info stands on the cultural options available here in Frankfurt) was along the river Main. Just whiling our time away, hanging out with crowds, expending the kids' energy, testing some shots with the new camera...

Sounds pretty sob and unhappening huh... yep, autumn means we only have three months left here! Sniff!

Skate, skate away! 

After having been a proud owner of a DSLR for a mere half month, I was telling my husband that I needed a macro lens! Haha! :p

For those who lived/are still living in Frankfurt: 

Now we all know that Goethe's born here and you can always spot traces of Goethe here and there. How about this one? Schiller! One of Goethe's closest friend. Anyone knows where to find this statue? I've already given you a clue. Just humor me on this one, ok? ;)