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15 years ago
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Back from the sunny Egypt
Arrived back here late Sunday night after a week of sunshine and warmth. The good thing here - most of the snow is gone now and the worst slosh was here while we were away!
Egypt was fab. Similar temperatures to Singapore (+28C) but very dry, so it doesn't make you sweat at all. And it cools down quite a bit in the evenings, so really pleasant. The sea was +26C - still warmer than the unheated swimming pools at the hotel. And we loved it! Just on the beach of the hotel was a beautiful reef, dropping down 10 meters or so just some 10 meters from the shore. They had their own jetty, so you could walk to the drop-off point. We usually swam but on the last days the water got very shallow, so couldn't swim from the shore. Beautiful coral and fish life! We spotted a giant puffer - about 1 m long and nice fat in a kind of cave on the shallow bit and it was sitting there and blinking its big dark blue eyes for several days. Then Robert scared him away unfortunately and on our last day the water was to shallow to get to it (him,her?). But a very funny fish it was indeed.
We also made a small half day trip to the Ras Mohammed nature reserve - more snorkelling and some other sites. It was more open sea so the water was too cold for the kids to swim. Beatrice swam out at one spot. Robert saw a barracuda, I didn't see anything that I didn't see at the hotel reef as well. They showed us the cracks in the desert that happened during 1981 earthquake. Now filled with water and up to 15 meters deep. First time for all of us to see anything like it, very interesting. And there is a small mangrove forest as well. Rather different from S-E Asian mangroves and a bit of a surprize there right next to the desert. Then we had a "buffet lunch" with a difference - sitting on rugs by the beach. Men had been cooking on charcole there and then. We were the first ones there but then groups started to arrive one after another dominated by Russians and it got very busy and noisy. Food was tasty though and nobody got sick.
The rest of the time we just stayed at our hotel - with the beach, several pools, gym and kids club there was enough to do for us. Beatrice probably liked the kids club best - a bit of a homecoming really with an Indonesian nanny Resa, who was the sweetest person you can imagine. Just like they are - happy and playful. It was in fact always a struggle to make them leave the club to come to the beach.
Food was great but we tryed to stick to a certain exercise routine and with all these stairs to go up and down to get to the beach and back managed to balance it quite well.
Would definitely do that again - such an easy break to take from here with direct flight and no time difference. There had to be a hickup at the end of course. Were on the plane already (that was delayed by half a day that we spent at the hotel)as they were calling for a passanger. She arrived finally. Then the captain announces that because of her delay we had lost our slot for take-off and the next one available is in 2 hours 30 minutes. I was sure there would be an announcement after a few minutes that this was a joke but there wasn't and it wasn't a joke. So we sat there for 2 hours! And with the Estonians being so calm and patient nobody even tryed to lynch the lady (who was in check-in before us!).
Meanwhile here - as I had expected my article was published in the beginning of last week and it had caused a real storm - 400 comments on the website within the first day, official replies from the ministry of education, teacher's association, student's association etc. However the only people who shared my views seem to be the ones who live or have lived abroad and have had kids in school in UK or other places. Everyone here seems to think 3 months summer break is fine because the kids are so tired of school and work so hard and there is so little sunlight most of the year! Well, I give up. But a great experiment in a way that one comment can stir such an upheaval!
Egypt was fab. Similar temperatures to Singapore (+28C) but very dry, so it doesn't make you sweat at all. And it cools down quite a bit in the evenings, so really pleasant. The sea was +26C - still warmer than the unheated swimming pools at the hotel. And we loved it! Just on the beach of the hotel was a beautiful reef, dropping down 10 meters or so just some 10 meters from the shore. They had their own jetty, so you could walk to the drop-off point. We usually swam but on the last days the water got very shallow, so couldn't swim from the shore. Beautiful coral and fish life! We spotted a giant puffer - about 1 m long and nice fat in a kind of cave on the shallow bit and it was sitting there and blinking its big dark blue eyes for several days. Then Robert scared him away unfortunately and on our last day the water was to shallow to get to it (him,her?). But a very funny fish it was indeed.
We also made a small half day trip to the Ras Mohammed nature reserve - more snorkelling and some other sites. It was more open sea so the water was too cold for the kids to swim. Beatrice swam out at one spot. Robert saw a barracuda, I didn't see anything that I didn't see at the hotel reef as well. They showed us the cracks in the desert that happened during 1981 earthquake. Now filled with water and up to 15 meters deep. First time for all of us to see anything like it, very interesting. And there is a small mangrove forest as well. Rather different from S-E Asian mangroves and a bit of a surprize there right next to the desert. Then we had a "buffet lunch" with a difference - sitting on rugs by the beach. Men had been cooking on charcole there and then. We were the first ones there but then groups started to arrive one after another dominated by Russians and it got very busy and noisy. Food was tasty though and nobody got sick.
The rest of the time we just stayed at our hotel - with the beach, several pools, gym and kids club there was enough to do for us. Beatrice probably liked the kids club best - a bit of a homecoming really with an Indonesian nanny Resa, who was the sweetest person you can imagine. Just like they are - happy and playful. It was in fact always a struggle to make them leave the club to come to the beach.
Food was great but we tryed to stick to a certain exercise routine and with all these stairs to go up and down to get to the beach and back managed to balance it quite well.
Would definitely do that again - such an easy break to take from here with direct flight and no time difference. There had to be a hickup at the end of course. Were on the plane already (that was delayed by half a day that we spent at the hotel)as they were calling for a passanger. She arrived finally. Then the captain announces that because of her delay we had lost our slot for take-off and the next one available is in 2 hours 30 minutes. I was sure there would be an announcement after a few minutes that this was a joke but there wasn't and it wasn't a joke. So we sat there for 2 hours! And with the Estonians being so calm and patient nobody even tryed to lynch the lady (who was in check-in before us!).
Meanwhile here - as I had expected my article was published in the beginning of last week and it had caused a real storm - 400 comments on the website within the first day, official replies from the ministry of education, teacher's association, student's association etc. However the only people who shared my views seem to be the ones who live or have lived abroad and have had kids in school in UK or other places. Everyone here seems to think 3 months summer break is fine because the kids are so tired of school and work so hard and there is so little sunlight most of the year! Well, I give up. But a great experiment in a way that one comment can stir such an upheaval!
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Just sitting at the airport and waiting for our flight to Sharm-el-sheikh that has been delayed by an hour. Can't wait to get some sun and warmth on the skin! We have had more snow this week and even went skiing on Wednesday - Robert and the boys and me. After that it has started to melt and the streets don't look pretty. I wish it would be really warm while we are away and all this terrible stuff will be gone when we come back.
Beatrice has tryed the 2nd grade this week at school. She struggles of course with the Estonian at this level but I think we could work on it and get there in the end. However we have a much bigger hurdle to overcome - she has really grown fond of the girls in her grade 1 class and misses them badly, also she says the gr 2 teacher is mean. She is really kind of rough and it probably doesn't fit into her plan to have an extra student in class. So will have to see what we will do after the break. In a way I want her to work at the top of her abilities but on the other hand if she is so unhappy with the social side of it it does not make much sense. Quite tricky. Estonian school system doesn't apply individual attention that she is used to so it is a long uphill struggle. In fact I have started my quest in the education policy and written an article about school holidays. Probably they will publish while we are away and all kids will be expelled from school anyway! It's just that the 3-month long summer holiday has no more economical reason like it used to and only means that kids have less time in school than in other countries and the schedule is so tight to get all the curriculum done in a shorter time. More on that later.
Beatrice has tryed the 2nd grade this week at school. She struggles of course with the Estonian at this level but I think we could work on it and get there in the end. However we have a much bigger hurdle to overcome - she has really grown fond of the girls in her grade 1 class and misses them badly, also she says the gr 2 teacher is mean. She is really kind of rough and it probably doesn't fit into her plan to have an extra student in class. So will have to see what we will do after the break. In a way I want her to work at the top of her abilities but on the other hand if she is so unhappy with the social side of it it does not make much sense. Quite tricky. Estonian school system doesn't apply individual attention that she is used to so it is a long uphill struggle. In fact I have started my quest in the education policy and written an article about school holidays. Probably they will publish while we are away and all kids will be expelled from school anyway! It's just that the 3-month long summer holiday has no more economical reason like it used to and only means that kids have less time in school than in other countries and the schedule is so tight to get all the curriculum done in a shorter time. More on that later.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Have had a bit of a change to our usual routine now! Robert is back from Croatia since 1 week. The last weeks there were a bit of a wild west atmosphere - subcontractors requesting their pay from the shipyard with Kalashnikovs in the car boot, fights and police investigations. It seems the Croatians are still a bit influenced by the recent war and more easily ready to draw a gun to resolve issues... The project team was removed from the island for the last week for safety reasons! But Robert got back safe and sound.
We also had our Swedish grandma here last weekend. She came while Beatrice was still down with a bad tummy bug that has been going around. The only ones in the family to be spared were Grandma Heli and me, everyone else got it - kids, Robert, my parents. Then last week the boy's kindergarten had 2 cases of scarlet fever so we have kept them out of there, don't want to take the risk before the holiday! Will have to check the situation on that tomorrow and decide what to do for this week. They are too bored staying at home of course.
Luckily last week the movie "Girl with the dragon tattoo" was still on and we managed to go and see it. Don't know if they have shown it in Singapore or UK, Swedish movie by Norwegian director. I liked most of it but they had changed some details compared with the book. Partly understandable but there was one particular scene that I found annoying - when Martin Vanger drives away after his horrors were discovered, in the book he just drives into the oncoming truck and Lisbet turns around - in the film his car makes a few turns and Lisbet stands next to the car while he begs her to help him and she just walk away after the car blows up. I fought this scene made Lisbet appear ruthless and mean which she isn't in the same way in the book. Now the second part is showing, looking forward to go and see it.
Spring is still not coming - we have days with lovely sunshine and +3 temp but the next night it might snow again. More of the same forcast for the starting week. If it goes on like that it will take until July for all the snow to melt. Of course it has given us a chance to do more ice-skating and outdoor snow fun.
We also had our Swedish grandma here last weekend. She came while Beatrice was still down with a bad tummy bug that has been going around. The only ones in the family to be spared were Grandma Heli and me, everyone else got it - kids, Robert, my parents. Then last week the boy's kindergarten had 2 cases of scarlet fever so we have kept them out of there, don't want to take the risk before the holiday! Will have to check the situation on that tomorrow and decide what to do for this week. They are too bored staying at home of course.
Luckily last week the movie "Girl with the dragon tattoo" was still on and we managed to go and see it. Don't know if they have shown it in Singapore or UK, Swedish movie by Norwegian director. I liked most of it but they had changed some details compared with the book. Partly understandable but there was one particular scene that I found annoying - when Martin Vanger drives away after his horrors were discovered, in the book he just drives into the oncoming truck and Lisbet turns around - in the film his car makes a few turns and Lisbet stands next to the car while he begs her to help him and she just walk away after the car blows up. I fought this scene made Lisbet appear ruthless and mean which she isn't in the same way in the book. Now the second part is showing, looking forward to go and see it.
Spring is still not coming - we have days with lovely sunshine and +3 temp but the next night it might snow again. More of the same forcast for the starting week. If it goes on like that it will take until July for all the snow to melt. Of course it has given us a chance to do more ice-skating and outdoor snow fun.
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