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: 

the best cure for a cold...

Isn't a cocktail of paracetamol and pheniramine. It's curry! Even though curry noodle wasn't exactly on my mind as I set out for my lunch date with Alan, Jas and Jacq. 

We have been talking about having laksa for lunch for a really really long time. The first time Alan discovered Magic Wok serve laksa was about 2.5 years ago. What he had in mind was to pre-order assam laksa with the lady boss, Kim. Unfortunately for us, Kim wasn't around last night to take the call. So it was my husband and her husband Wah on the phone. And the result turned out to be curry noodle! 

Anyway, we were pleasantly surprised. 

This evening we had another bowl of soupy udon. 

The kids enjoyed it, while Alan and I were still too full from lunch to eat... 

After two big bowls, I think I'd be rid of my cold by tomorrow morning??? 

missing germany #4

A short weekend getaway is just about 3-4 hours' drive away from Frankfurt. This is something we will definitely miss when we're back in Sg.

3-4 hours away from Frankfurt, we have a choice of fanciful destinations: 

e.g. Brussels, Antwerp, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Den Haag, Luxembourg, Strasbourg, Colmar, Mullhouse, Lichtenstein, and of course, many cities in Germany and many places in Switzerland. 

5 hours will get us to Paris, Berlin or Prague. 

Oh... I'm already missing the long road trips. 

make photographie

Kristin's daycare teacher loves photography and this is her blog. She takes beautiful shots! Check out her photos here. 

Tell me a joke, please!

Bryan to Daddy: I'll say "boo" and you'll say "who", ok? Boo! 

Daddy: Who? 

Bryan: Don't cry, Daddy. It's just a joke! 

We were pretty tickled, even though it's a joke he copied off Dora. 

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Daddy: Now it's your turn. Knock, knock! 

Bryan: Knock, knock, who? 

Daddy: Who who who... owl hoo! 

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Over the weekend, Daddy and Bryan had a great time telling each other about the pink panther's jokes... 

It's so good to hear chatter and laughter! 

Thanks Alan for the time tonight. The kids really missed Daddy for the past weeks: the evenings and nights when you were travelling! 

Hello Autumn?

October 1st... 

- we're nearer to our departure date. 

- is much colder, at about 10 centigrade, than it has been in the past three years. 

- has lots of rain and wind... gee, it feels like November 1st! 

- many US series has returned to TV for the new season. That explains why it has been pretty quiet on my side. 

- Halloween is coming up... and then Thanksgiving, then Christmas, then New Year... lots of anticipation for festivities! 

- more pumpkins. A visit to a pumpkin patch for the kids? 

Oh, and a Happy Children's Day to all! I remember how I used to look forward to this last school holiday before the exam started in my primary school days! 

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! 

what do you read when your kids won't eat?

In my conversation with some of the blogger-moms here over the week, I came to realisation that I never once read anything pertaining to fussy eaters. What have I been thinking? How on earth do I still have fussy eaters to serve at each meal? No surprises there, of course. 

The truth of the matter is I did try, though I wasn't consulting any parenting books on that topic. 

Instead, I have books like "Good Enough to Eat. A kid's guide to food and nutrition." and Annabel Karmel's "Mom and Me Cookbook. Have fun in the kitchen!" I thought, instead of Mommy doing the reading, I should involve my kids in some literature that celebrates the goodness of food. 

It worked for Bryan, however, not so well with Kristin. 

Since these two books, we've come a long way: From studying the human anatomy of the digestive system to counting jelly beans on the table. With time, Bryan has changed from a plain-rice-only eater to an everything-goes boy. But Kristin... she still needs to be coaxed to pick up her spoon. Sometimes, it can really become crazy that she'd rather cry in the bathroom for 5 minutes and then return to the table willingly to start her meal, rather than a "Yes, Mommy, I'll give it a try." Strange thing is she likes to make a scene. Maybe she needs a little drama before she starts a meal. But no thanks, nope... I will not let my kids eat in front of the telly. 

Coincidentally, another mommy-friend sent me this link to an article titled "6 Food Mistakes Parents Make" in NY Times.  Clearly, we are comrades in the same struggle... everyday, three times a day! 

What do you do/read when your children won't eat? 

dash and dot

While getting ready to go to school this morning, Bryan all of a sudden asked me what it meant to have a dash and then a dot. 

For a moment (in my usual sleepy state of mind), I wondered why my son would be thinking about Morse code so early in the morning... Does he even know Morse code? Where did we read about it? etc

and then I thought again... 

"You mean the exclamation mark??? As in !!!!"

Nope... we don't have a genius here. Just a sleepy-head mommy!

 

why oh why...

Bryan has a friend who's very intelligent and likes to ask interesting question. His mom told me that he stumped a school administrator once when he was asked if he had any more question regarding the school he and his mom were touring.

He said, "Yes, one last question. Why is red red?" 

To be fair to the school administrator who was caught off guard, his mother would have been happy if this lady would just answer she didn't know but would promise to look for an answer. Instead, she gave a long lecture on red being a colour and started naming things that were red. Of course, Bryan's friend wasn't satisfied mainly because she didn't answer the question. So he asked again, "Why is red red?" Sensing the other lady's exasperation, his very wise mom swiftly whisked him away. 

I'm sure every parent of a young child would have at least encountered this why-question once in a while if not many times... maybe yours is even the type who'll always ask you why till you almost lose it. Most of the time, I just can't keep up with my children's why's and I'll tell them, "Why? Because the sky is high and pigs can't fly!" Very rarely, I'll say, oh let's go check it out on the internet. 

Tonight I was feeling cheeky... well, before you think I'm losing it again and comparing my son with another, nope.... I was really curious how a 5 year-old would react to such a why-question. So I posed the "red question" to my kindergartener. 

"Bryan, why is red red?"

"Hmmm..." He thought for a split second, then he probed back, "Why is pink pink, Mommy?" 

Hey... I think I just received a revelation: Bryan just gave me the reason why his friend asked that "red question". Don't we get it? Sometimes it's not about the answers. It's all about asking questions! Now this has certainly given me a new way to look at things. So kids, the next time you're gonna ask me another why-question, be prepared to have one thrown back at your face! They like it, to them it's just a game. :) 

what a great day to start the week...

What do a Bolivian woman, a German woman, an Iranian woman and a Singaporean woman have in common? 

They all had lunch together at my place today! Hee... a UN food convention! Lunch was such a resounding success that it was discussed promptly when and where the UN delegates could reconvene. ;)

Our similarities, however, extend beyond our interest in food. We are all mommies, we all have at least one child in the American preschool here, we are all originally not from Frankfurt. 

Told ya, Frankfurt has such a huge international community. 

Though we talked about many things over lunch, some topics invariably came back to our kids but with a bit of twist. That's why I like these moms so much. 

So one of the moms recounted that one day she accidentally walked in when the teacher was giving some kids time-out. The teacher sort of gave a "glare" like "Don't talk to them, these guys are on time out here." She left quickly. By the way, the kids concerned here were actually our kids... and guess what? We had such a good time laughing and one of the moms even cheered: Yay, serve the fella (referring to her son) right! Ok, it's not my intention to portray her as the mean witch mom here. And I know for a fact that she loves her son dearly. But what she wants is a good structure in her son's preschool years and she hopes for harder discipline! Wow... completely different from moms from my part of the world. I'm full of respect for this mom! Imagine a Sg mom marching into the school and interrogate the teacher in front of the whole class, demanding "So what crime did my child commit? How could you this and that blah blah blah... Are you sure my child was the culprit?" 

Also, we didn't complain how much stress our kids are under, nor scared ourselves silly about sending our children to thousands of enrichment classes... although we did wish that our kids had more homework. Btw, our kids love homework here! Maybe it's the lack of it that make them crave for more. Recently we've been given some flash cards to help our kids sound out the words at home and then tick off a checklist... yes, that's all, so simple. No worksheets to complete, no spelling lists to memorise, nothing to count! So with this kind of attitude, our subject quickly returned to where we could take our kids out for fun, e.g. Lochmuehle, Taunus Wunderland, Disneyland or Legoland.... 

What a pity that this kind of stress-free school-life is almost at its last chaper for us now. Soon we'll be dumped back into the cauldron of stress, rat race and paper chase in Sg... sigh! 

Wait a minute, this post is supposed to have a positive tone... ok, I got to psych myself up again for the great week ahead of me. The kindergarten class has a field trip at the end of this week. I'm gonna convince the teacher to let me tag along to take pictures, yay! 

And talking about pictures, here are what we had for lunch... sorry just leftovers... we were too eager to start that we didn't take any pictures at all! 

Clockwise from top: Rendang... (blurred out coz it didn't look as good as the one in Lilian's), bee hoon and my favourite salad to go with the curry!

Again, yummy and pretty cakes from the famous Siesmayer Cafe in Frankfurt. Thanks, Mania! 

And little cupcakes made by Fatima's lovely boys! Thank you, little darlings! 

It would have looked so much better if I had a white teapot, teacup, saucer and plate... 

P/S Representatives from Moscow and London could not make it for lunch today. Their flights were cancelled... :( 

missing germany #2

This series of "missing germany"-posts is conceived not according to order of preference. They are mainly things/people/events that come to my mind as I prepare to return to Singapore mentally. The actual packing process will have to start eventually... but after Halloween. In case your name is mentioned in this series of posts as "missing germany #39 or something", it doesn't mean you are really at position #39 in my heart nor does it mean I'll miss you any less than missing germany #1, #2, #3, #4, ... or #38. I will still miss you nonetheless. Anyway, point is please don't go murdering the other person who might happen to be in my "missing germany #38 or earlier" post. There... my disclaimer :)

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I was cooking lunch today and I was trying to think hard about what I'd be listening to if I were to back in Singapore right then and there. 

And bang! Wow... am I gonna miss this radio channel: Radio FFH. 

My history with Radio FFH goes deep, right into my uni days in Kassel. I always had my radio channel fixed on errmm, gee I don't even know what the frequency modulation (FM) is... and I call it my favourite station? Yeah... I think it's somewhere around 105.7 FM. Anyway... I somehow always manage to tune into the right station... Yep coz I can sometimes even recognise my favourite DJs' voice, e.g. Johannes Schere und Sabine Schneider - these two names have been in my head probably since my uni days till now. 

Why do I like Radio FFH so much? 

1) It has a good mix of music, of course. 

2) I listen to radio in Germany pretty often for pragmatic reasons like weather reports (important when the temperature can drop drastically within 24 hours) and news (I don't get to watch regular TV since my kids monopolise it for their own DVD shows, which reminds me why Alan and I even subscribe to cable TV when we never get to watch it.)

3) Funny programmes like "Marie aus Paris" (translated: Marie from Paris). Basically, it's about this French woman who calls up anyone and asks a funny question and the telephone conversation is recorded for entertainment purpose. e.g. She once called a yodeling group and asked if anyone in the group would sing the German national anthem when Germany played one of its European championship matches in a Swiss stadium. Yodeling the national anthem of course... Anyway, you might not enjoy the humour as much as I do, this is one of the sources where I get actual German entertainment, in this case, however, disguised with a French accent. In my uni days, it was a guy who did a similar show. 

4) Strange news, e.g. today there was some hype about teenagers in Hessia who love "Hasensprung Turnier" (translated: bunny hop competition). Really, there're such associations around! Here's a competition I found online, from Denmark. I was told that this competition originated from the Scandinavia. 

5)Alan always wonders why I seem to know where traffic congestions are on the highways. Well, when I listen enough traffic report each day, I always know which Autobahn intersection to avoid... And which Autobahn has roadworks etc... Quite an extensive geography I cover there since I don't necessarily travel the actual distance. 

Anyway... technology has improved. Thank goodness... this part of missing germany can be replicated in Singapore, any time with the web radio. Hurray for the Internet! 

Do you have a favourite radio station? 

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?