Cool Christmas 2008

I am sure I have acclimatised to the weather in Singapore. Being the end of year monsoon season, we've been experiencing some pretty constant rainpours but at the same token, the sun shines quite quickly. This has however drop the temps quite dramatically around this dot of an island. I am also assuming due to the fact that we now live 15 levels high instead of the previous 10, the temps and the winds are cooler.... we've had a few nights sleep of NO aircon and it's great of the environment (am sure!) and our health!
We've had a busy wind up towards Christmas and all our activity tappers off just before our Phuket trip. This year, we didn't have visitors during the Christmas season, so we pretty much played by ear the entire time. We had our 3rd (now a tradition unless they decided to move away!) Christmas eve turkey with our family chef, cousin Iain's and his family. We are ALWAYS impress at his culinary skills and this year, he outdid himself further by making Turkey-Extravaganza, roasted with Parmaham butter. We had the usual (standards no lower) trimmings like the crunchy oven fried potatoes, the not so favourite brussel sprouts (no one eats is except me, not sure why we have it each year..), parsnips and roast carrots. Yummm! We ended the deal with Vanilla Macadamia Ice Cream cake plus our 'girls-made' mini puddings. Of course this entire evening was flowing with beautiful champagne and wine.Didn't get home till 12.30midnight. All exhausted.
Christmas morning was a late start as girls struggle to get out of bed. I was up to prepare the lunch menu for the day. We were having 'out of touch' friends, old neighbours, new friends and importantly our neighbours, who sadly didn't show up for various reasons. So leftovers were packed. The highlight was the fruits, I made sure we had plenty of stone fruits as per our Aussie tradition. Letitia has her good friend over and had fun. We later adjoined to my other cousin, Yen's place for 'Christmas-Leftovers', a great way to consolidate and exchange what's in overflowing from our fridge over a meal and fellowsip. It was a dinner to say goodbye to Yen's family as they return to their lives in KK.
In summary, we've been so blessed. I think as we settle in Singapore (nearly 3 years now), as we know more and more people, we are being touched/encouraged by more and more people. I did noticed that the girls were 'piled' with gifts under the Christmas tree unlike the previous years of 6 items in total. God's good. Next year (am sure for everyone!) is in the unknown. We are prepared for the worse yet trusting in GOD the way we did over the past years. Every move (career or house) we make, we make in HIM!

Be Blessed and count the Blessings! Have a great year-end!

Phuket 2008

This was our long awaited holidays that zipped pass TOO QUICKLY! This time we went to Phuket amidst all the anxieties and conflicts amongst the THAI nation, the Tsunami rumours, the terrorists looming here and there...
We enjoyed the lazy, no pressure feel of the place. The fact that there's even a kids fun swimming pool, free use of the kids club when parents are around, plus real cheap kids activities. The entire place is also catered by "JOE COOL'S" restaurant thay serve pretty interesting and classy meals at affordable prices. We love the kids menu. The restaurant prides itself with being kid's friendly and it's lived up to it by having more than 5-8 choices on the menu. They have up to 20 dishes to choose from. From the junkie nuggets and chips to the healthy sandwiches or pasta.


Our princess themed rooms...check out the other themes, space, actic etc!
We just wanted a break, a getaway, somewhere to relax, affordable and FUN for the girls. We found a resort to suit us to the "T". It's called Ramada Phuket. Phuket has a few resorts that specialises in family holidays and great service to cater for kids of all ages. This one we chose especially for the themed rooms. We figured, the kids have always found the hotel rooms 'boring' and no big deal (very different to us adults who's happy that someone else is making our beds etc). Click below to see the rooms...and start planning for your next family trip!

RAMADA KARON BEACH

ALL the other HARDWORK done!

KUDOS to all the teachers, volunteers, helpers, committee and CHILDREN (who got dragged along to ALL the precamp activities etc)

ANCIENT CHINA

MEDIEVAL CASTLE: Craft Making

MAYAN JUNGLE

HAWKS VILLAGE

HAWAIIAN VOLCANO

Inside STORY

SunBEAM Adventure started about a year ago and full sped ahead about 2 months before the week of the camp. We were at our "stations" a whole 3-5 days prior to the start. The castle grew daily and morphed each day. While "Ah Mah" and "Ee-Poh" was here on stopover and having a holiday, they could not runaway from the slavery we put them through..
Then, the knights and ladies came out to play. We all wore our "costumes" and acted our royal roles to impress and teach the little ones.
This is my pride and joy. A last minute decision as I decided to fill up the wall as a "station" post! Noone can mistake which ERA they are entering..
This is the "girlie" corner where the girls did their medieval hats. Alex taught the kids about Knight-hood at this corner so most of the deco is still "knight" like. Most of the posters presented illustrations about the life and times 'Pages', 'Squires', 'Knights' etc as well.

SunBEAM Adventure Camp-CEFC Bukit Panjang

Happening from tomorrow 20th-22nd, 9-5pm at Covenant Evangelical Free Church, 10 Jelapang Road, "SunBEAM Adventure Camp" promises to take each child on an adventure of a lifetime through the Amazon jungles, the American plains of the Hawks tribe, the Hawaiian Islands, the Ancient China as well as the Medieval English Castle. I will be Lady Sarah and Alex will be Sir Alexander...

This is our "Station" of the Medieval Castle.

3 in 1 happening TODAY!

Today marks a milestone in our lives. For one thing, we all attended (minus daddy) our first ever end of term Speech & prize giving day in Singapore. Letitia won something and we were invited to see her march up the stage, do a little 'bow' at some complete VIP stranger, then shake hands to receive a certificate with a S$5 voucher from a bookshop. We were then given some 'entertainment' amidst all the prize awards, of choir singing, school band music, Indian traditional dance as well as a chinese 'spring' dance. Refreshments came later.. Was however impress with Principal's heartbeat! Note to self, write note to encourage Principal!

Secondly, girls had their locks snipped off a little for their 6-monthly cut. Each of their birthdays marked the 'hair-cut' time but nowadays, birthdays are quickly followed by Ballet exams which discourages trims of any sort in order to have hairs tied in a certain way...easily! So, now that the Ballet exams are over, shorter hair, healthier hair, a lot lighter and less knotty too!

Thirdly, Mathena is officially out of her Junior Bed and into a 'big GIRL' bed. This is looong delayed due to overly busy and tired parents. Her 'move' still comes with restrictions as Letitia is also been upgraded to the 'top bunk' making it the 'attractive' spot to be. Mathena is NOT allowed up there unless permission is given and theirs adult supervision. If caught, she will revert to 'baby bed'!!! My back is slightly sore....!

14th of November,..just another FULL day!

This is what happens when the kids get hold of your camera!

We are made of STEEL!

AMARA HOTEL: Elements Restaurant

Nothing to do with "Quantum of Solace" as we are yet to watch it. But a little highlight of the weekend-we celebrated our 11th Wedding Anniversary with our traditional all-you-can-eat style.

I received some lovely flowers! Sigh!

This time we tried out Amara Hotel-Elements which surprised us quite a bit. It served very traditional 'Bou=nutrition' style cooking with herbs etc. The range of cooked food was more Japanese and Chinese influence while the Dessert section was sufficient. Generally everything looks good but tastes pretty average.

We were dissapointed with very 'hungry' Singaporean(one person actually) who kept piling up plates of sashime/fish slices in front of us. Letitia stood open mouth as after she finally saw the plate refilled, this hungry lady gently shoved the entire TRAY of fish onto her plate...then walked away.

We were the first to leave the place and were asked again and again, 'Are you sure you are finished? It's still early!!' We were happy to have the plates cleared. The girls had their fill and enjoyed their chocolate fountain of marshmallows and strawberries. We tried a bit of everything and was flabberghasted by the slackness of the service.

The waitress and waitresses were obviously untrained in the hospitality field. They stood around dreaming of greener pastures, while my girls tried to CLIMB into their seats (not pulled out in courtesy) or our plates stacked up like little hills on our tables.


Apart from the less than standard service, we had a lovely family time. We spent time focusing on just us, our conversation, how blesssed we are, our yummy food and just hung out together. The girls pretended to be princesses and was dressed up for the evening.

Yummy Chocolate Sauce!

TV & Movie Watching in Public Schools!!!!!

I have been real busy juggling people, places and events. The best news is that the LAST of all of Letitia's Primary ONE assessments have finished and she gets to spend the rest of the 2 weeks, doing absolutely nothing..... in school!

Yesterday, Letitia came home with some shocking and totally annoying NEWS! She spend the entire afternoon of 6 hours in school watching movies, kids cartoons & PG programmes brought to school by her peers!! AAAARGH!

Okay, let me clarify myself. I AM NOT A ADVOCATE OF TV WATCHING FOR KIDS!! I do not need to explain my reasons but I am sure many already know that it is the ONE most brain cell reducing, numbing, unhealthy type choice of entertainment for children. One hour a day is to my standards BAD, as I have learnt that I need to use 5 hours to get my children's focus and attention back to normal as a result. Now, can you imagine the damage of 5-6hours?? I am not even talking about the 'content' of the programmes!!!!!
Do these 'educators' know that even PG is NOT suitable for 7 year olds? Do they realise that the word PG means exactly that? Parental guidance required!!!! Meaning, duh! Child has to be near parents to have explaination or situations clarified etc.

I stormed into school today to ask for 'what the plans are?' for the rest of the term and was informed promptly that, "We are letting the kids unwind after that have worked so hard for their exams! We want them to relax and veg out!!". Veg-out alright, to the extend that their brain matters DO become vegetable matter!!

I have since told the teacher, if there's nothing planned for the day. I will take her out of school. Even a visit to the ZOO has to be better than drowning in media watching.


Now, I have to clean up the mess created by "Meet the Robinsons", "Flushed Away" and Pink Panther. Who thinks I am over-rated, can come and answer these questions like, "Why did the mother leave the baby at the door? Why didn't she show her face?", "Why did the green guy become SOOO angry at the Lewis (fuzzy blond inventor kid)??, weren't they best friends??"..then there's Pink Panther and his clever antics of 'stealing, cheating & making the little man suffer!"....

Am seriously reconsidering homeschooling AGAIN!! Not Happy....AT ALL!!!!