Snowy

We have got a new member of the family now - a little white creature called Snowy. Yes, it's a hamster that Beatrice has been begging for for a while and on Saturday we went to the pet shop and she bought one for her own pocket money. The boys helped out with their piggy banks and we chipped in the rest for the cage etc. Beatrice is so smitten and cannot go out of the house for a long time without missing her. Also the boys love to play with her.

I have taken a membership at a yoga club and it is great to have some different excersize for a change. After the power yoga class on Friday I was so much in pain the whole weekend - all muscles I didn't even know exist. I felt like a person who has never even seen a gym from inside - and there I have been working as hard as I can almost every day. So just to show how a change in routine can lead to new discoveries. I'll go and try pilates today. They even do bikram yoga and I'd like to try if I can fit it in my schedule some day - that's the hot yoga of Madonna etc.

Also we bought roller skates for Beatrice and myself and are making good progress. Had even a lesson on Saturday, because I couldn't stop. The breaking technique is so different from ice skating and it is no good if you cannot stop.

On Sunday we finally had a chance to explore some more of Singapore again. Robert was home by the afternoon and we went to the Sungei Buloh wetland reserve which is a mangrove on the north east of the island. What a difference to the normal hustle and bustle. On Sundays you usually have millions of people everywhere but this place was amazingly calm and quiet. We were greeted at the entrance by a large monitor lizard - well over a meter long. And during the walk met many more of those, really huge ones. There is a boardwalk through the mangroves and we saw many crabs and fish. There are these funny tree climbing crabs - they were climbing and sitting on the trunks and roots of the trees in their hundreds. Karl was very good at spotting them. Then after an ice cream break we did a 3 km walk hoping to see some big snakes and crocodiles. Saw many birds and more monitor lizards and fish and some wild dogs but unfortunately no crocs or pythons. Though clearly they do live there at least there were warning signs and also some quite fresh croc footprints in the mud. Have to try another time. We were so close to Malaysia there that we could see people moving around and hear the prayers from the mosque on the other side of the water. Really worthwhile the long journey - there are not many tranquil places like that in Singapore!