Our Kampung (a.k.a 'Village' for the non ASEANs)

Ossining is a town in Westchester County, New York, United States. The population was 37,674 at the 2010 census. It contains two villages, the Village of Ossining and part of Briarcliff Manor, we live in the village of Briarcliff Manor.

 This is a shot of the main street of Briarcliff Manor. It is literally only 15-20 shops long including a fire department, a couple of banks, the USPS and a hall.

 This is the girls favourite quaint little community library. We love this place as the librarians actually KNOW the books and it's contents and having conversations with these ladies can be amazing!

 

The buidling on the left is actually a beautiful retirement home alongside the main street and the other picture shows a typical 'home like' building built to contain businesses typically medicals, lawyers and accountants. This one is actually just down the road from my house and we go there for the GPs and the Paediatric services.

As we drive further and venture into the inner parts of the village, we start to see homes of this stature..

 

As the girls are doing a little bit of homeschooling to catch up with the entire year they missed due to the transition from Singapore to the USA, we are learning quite a bit about the establishment of this region and of course the other states. In the early 1600s, land was bought from the local Indians to build colonies and a certain Frederick Philipse (we are yet to read up about him) bought the area which presently constitutes the Town of Ossining from the Sint Sinck Indians in 1685. His manor (loves how it is called a MANOR when it is a HUGE gigantic piece of land) extended from Spuyten Duyvil Creek on the border between present day Manhattan and the Bronx to the Croton River. The last lord of the manor, also named Frederick Philipse, was a Loyalist in the American Revolutionary War, so the State of New York confiscated the manor in 1779. Big oops on who you 'support'!

 This is the older part of Ossining. I drive down this road a few times a day to drop Alex to the train station. It looks totally 'cast in time' and I can just see horse drawn carriages up and down the streets.

 This is our old faithful train station that takes Alex to and from Manhattan into Grand Central 5 days a week and according to the residents here, the trains has only broke down 1-2times in 5 years! Very reliable, may be a bit late sometimes but no major hassles.

 We were actually here 4 of July to see the fireworks except we were on a patch of grass. This leads to a ferry point to bring people to the other side of New York, across the Teppan Zee river... I think!

 This is the famous Sing Sing Prison.

In 1813, the village of Sing Sing was incorporated, and in 1845, the New York State Legislature created a new town out of the northern part of what had been the Town of Mount Pleasant. A local Indian authority suggested the town be named Ossinsing, a different form of the name Sing Sing. One year later the last "s" was removed for ease in pronunciation. In 1881, the town considered changing its name to "Garfield Plains" to honor the recently assassinated President of the United States, James Garfield, but dropped the idea after the much larger city of White Plains in southern Westchester County objected. White Plains is where all the MALLS/Asian groceries are...yet to see them all

In 1901, to prevent confusion of goods made in the village with Sing Sing prison-made items, local officials had the village name changed to Ossining as well. (Ooooh, so chinese and scared of bad reputation?!?)

In 1902 an area east of the village of Ossining, then known as Whitson's Crossing, was incorporated as the village of Briarcliff Manor.

AND Points of interest or trivia

• The Sleepy Hollow Country Club was formerly the home of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt's granddaughter Margaret, designed by Stanford White. ^[8]
• The late Brooke Astor's home Holly Hill is located in Briarcliff Manor.
• The Edith Macy Conference Center, an internationally important conference and training facility owned by the Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA), is in Briarcliff Manor.

• Briarcliff is the site of the Trump National Golf Course (formerly Briar Hall Country Club), owned by the real-estate mogul Donald Trump 

and here's where most of the goss comes from.. 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Briarcliff_Manor,_New_York
What amazes me the most is...we live in a little village...little in terms of the USA but the history of this place is in the 100s AND the people have recorded and kept so much of the heritage with so much pride.

CHAN family in our backyard (summer 2012)

Settling in....Midtown Manhattan vs Upstate NY

 When we first arrived into Manhattan, this was the apartments that work put us in. This was pretty much how it looked like when we first entered. It surely did not look like this the very next day. The view was of a busy and often noisy city lights but different to this picture, we had a LCD tv where the buffet was and one less sofa. 2 bedrooms either side of this and a dining and kitchen right opposite the living space. It was a hop skip away from everything. An 900sqft amazing way to live and get to know the city of New York, New York....

 

Then, after 30 homes, we found this simple little abode in a quiet street in the township of Ossining. About 45mins north into the Westchester area is a popular yet quiet area. It is popular because the trains are effective in taking people in and out of city and when in this area, you will not even imagine you are in the hustle and bustle state of NYC. We were told again and again that we have to find an area that has good schools and yes, doing our homework, this village is not the top but at least not too far from the top listings. It was however further from the train station which accounted for the affordable rent and the 'bigger' and more comfortable designs. We later found (2months later) that this home at a 2200sqft approx is considered 'small' in this village...ha ha!

 The first week of arrival, our youngest person in the CHAN family turned ONE! We made it memorable and tried as much as we could to capture this moment though, it would have been nicer to have family and friends around...at least by then, we were all nearly recovered from our jet lag.

 A tiny kitchen that help feed the entire family of 5 with minimal utensils and things to use. Made me miss my Maplewoods kitchen. But I was soon blessed with a nice, fully functional kitchen that I can cook up a storm (baby food mostly) with and I was happy to just wait...

 

The city has it's draws...the lovely galleries,  the amazing museums,..

 

and of course the glitz and glamour...

 Back where the chipmunks, squirrels and groundhogs roam...this is now our home to unpack, to settle, to sleep, to play, to pray and to slowly allow God to unveil His plans in our life. We are thankful for sooooo many of His providence!

 ..and yes, 2nd Birthday celebrated in our favourite part of the house, the breakfast bench where many meals are eaten, fought over and splattered.

We are here for the fresh air, for the space, for the community (really nice people here!) and also for a safe place to bring up the family. Let's see what Ossining/Briarcliff Manor has to offer...