All kids are back to school now and life here is very much back to normal. We have made some new friends and explored more of Singapore.

When we first came back we noticed a new African family here on the condo. Then a week later when Beatrice started school the boy was on her bus and when she came back it turned out he is actually in her class. So that was a big cheer. Nelson comes from Kenya and they have a slightly different family arrangement - mom works and dad stays at home (with the maid). It is nice for the kids to have somebody with a similar after school schedule. Most local kids have all sorts of enrichment classes and tuitions going on all week and can get out to the pool on the weekend if lucky (and the only for a swimming lesson). Maybe we take a too relaxed approach and are not pushy enough but thats how it is. Tryed to get Beatrice to take swimming lessons one Sunday morning but unfortunately she didn't like it. She is a very good self tought swimmer and would benefit from lessons immensely but I guess she was put off when the two girls in the class swam a lot quicker. Only they were 9 and had had lessons for over 3 years. Still cannot convince her to try again.
Also another new family here that we have befriended with a funny "this small world" twist - they are chinese US citizens, husband works for ABS, which is the US competitor of LR, and they lived in Pusan Korea before coming here. Just on the day when I started talkin to Ailing, Robert had had a meeting in the ABS office! So Singapore really is a small village of 4 mio people.

We have done a bit of exploring as well. Went up the highest mountain of Singapore a few weeks ago - whole 176 meters above sea level! But it is still quite a nice place to go - nature reserve with old rainforest, quite a lot of wildlife, especially monkeys, and good walks up and down the hill. Then last Sunday tryed another nature reserve and walked by the MacRitchie reservoir, where some of our drinking water comes from. There is a boardwalk along the shore that is very nice. We met some monkeys again and one of them tryed to take Raouls hat and Karls water bottle. The boys fought back successfully. Then a little later I noticed a lizard in the bushes. This was a truly massive monitor lizard, probably nearly 2 m from top to tail and wide and fat in the body. We climbed through the bushes and had a good look. He didn't let himself to be disturbed and showed off his long tongue. Unfortunately we only had the phone camera with us and I haven't learned how to download photos from there. The way back was not a boardwalk but a very muddy path. Strangely the boys kept complaining and winging about it - especially Raoul who used to enjoy wading through all the deepest puddles in the New Forest and fill his wellies with water and mud to the top. There is also a treetop walk in this reserve, so we'll try that next time.
One Sunday we did a tour in Chinatown again and had a funny experience. Robert has been going to a foot reflexology place there and right next to it is one of the many fish-spas around, that are quite popular now. So while he had his feet massaged we went to feed the fish. The first sensation is absolutely crazy. As a new foot comes into the pool all the fish storm it and it is so unbelievably tickly to have them around your feet in their hundreds. I just couldn't stop giggling. But once you get used to it it is quite pleasant. This spa had two tanks - one with small fish where we started off and then the "piranha" tank. I didn't think I'd dare the last one, but actually after a little encouragement it was very good. Also there is a small extra tank higher up for the hands. So that was a good start for the kids. Beatrice was very brave very quickly and enjoyed it so much that she kept talking about the "next time". Karl got in eventually and liked it, Raoul took the longest. He was just trying to catch the fish and finally put his feet in when our 30 min was nearly over. I asked the staff and actually the fish do get other food, so they just nibble on peoples feet for fun. And the "big" fish are only the size of average anjovies.
We were hoping to see a big lantern and dragon parade in Chinatown that evening but the wait was too long for the kis so we missed that. Automn is a very colourful time here not in terms of nature but of all kinds of different traditional festivals - the chinese harvest festival, Hari Raya, Deepavali. All more or less at the same time. There is going to be a big harvest lantern party at the boys school tomorrow, so looking forward to that.
Oh, and we had an evening at the shipyard that they arranged a few weeks ago for clients with food and entertainment. Was quite funny with a lot of beer-drinking competitions (England won) and that kind of things, not exactly a diplomatic reception. But there was a lucky draw and probably for the first time I actually won something - a silver pendant with necklace! So here you go.