Independence day

The honorary consul invited local estonians to his restaurant on the 24th to celebrate Estonian independence day. It was a great little party - just under 20 people, quite a colorful bunch. A few young girls who work in restaurants, a few bank, IT people, students etc. All in all an adventurous bunch, well travelled and enthusiastic. We found a few families with kids as well, even same age, so looking forward to a play date on Sunday. Also met finally the girl that my hairdresser has been talking about, however she had only been to him once. Just to prove the good fantasy of hairdressers because my impression from him was that she is a regular. And just last week a neighbor had given me a card from an estonian girl who works as a restaurant manager. She was there as well. 

Hopefully there will be some more regular get-togethers as the group got into quite a good mood and great relaxed atmosphere - well wine was flowing and we had a few shots of vodka to toast the Republic. 

The restaurant is very nice - an old colonial black-and-white house that has been renovated really nicely in fabulous garden setting with ponds and paths between the different seating areas. It is just tucked away from the main traffic and a bit hard to find so it doesn't get any passers by clients, just people who know about it. Which might be a bit hard in this economic climate. But hopefully it can keep going. It was just awarded the best new restaurant title recently.

Yesterday we had an event of the century - a rainbow! For some reason rainbows are extremely rare in Singapore and it caused a lot of excitement on the condo in the evening. For many kids it was the first time they saw one. 

Sorry, I have become such a bad writer, just so busy suddenly...

Robert works every day now and I have to entertain the kids on the weekends as well. Have been to the zoo again and everybody had a great time. On the weekend before that Robert had taken a day off and we planned to go to Pulau Ubin which is the last unspoilt island on the north coast with bicycle tracks and mangroves and wetlands to explore. Unfortunately Karl was not well so nothing came of it. Then as a minimum program we decided to go out for lunch and that turned the unlucky day into a catastrophic day - went to an italian and probably 15 minutes after leaving the restaurant as soon as I got home I was so violently sick like never before. Had to use all my willpower not to be sick in the lift with a pregnant neighbor. There was something wrong with my fish obviously because Raoul had had a few bites from it and was sick later as well. So much for a long awaited day off. I guess now we will have to wait for the next chance when the rig is finished and project all done.

Meanwhile I have become an addict of Bikram yoga. The manager at the yoga centre agreed to change my membership from the general one to Bikram and I have been going there a few times every week now. It is fantastic exercise - you have to work really hard and because of the heat sweat like on a treadmill. The first half of the class really feels like an intense cardio workout. Very tricky all the balancing and trying to contract every muscle and pull and push all at the same time. Second part is a bit more relaxing between the floor postures but in every posture you still work with every muscle very hard. It is really rewarding, afterwards feels like you have had a real proper workout but at the same time it gives you a strange "high", quite different from the normal post-gym adrenaline rush. So I'll go 3 times this week! Each instructor has a slightly different style and different tips and details, so really good.

Chinese new year

The Chingay parade (pictures below) was probably the closest we got to celebrating the Chinese new year although it is huge here and very much present everywhere you go. The parade was great - fantastic costumes, floats, special effects with smoke and fire. All very colorful just like Singapore itself with its many different cultures, most of which were in the parade with their costumes, music and dances. The dragon on one of the photos was spectacular - dotted with smoking incense sticks and fire spitting men walking around it. Very fierce. Our highlight was the Korean display as our taekwondo school took part. The boys were so excited to see their coaches and Karl said he wants to join next time so that he can wear this cool headband. He was very good at collecting all the stuff the paraders were giving out - leaflets, fans and sweets of course. Obviously as I explained with the photos the parade is a celebration on the Chinese new year and Chingay means masquerade in Hokkien. There is no connection to a gay parade whatsoever as homosexuality is forbidden here (although existing of course undercover) and carries prison sentence.

Apart from that the kids have had cny concerts at school and have been practicing some of the songs we hear in every shop these days. Beatrice was the lion's head in their performance, unfortunately the boys school didn't invite parents but we have seen some of the dance moves and heard the songs here. Also some neighbors have been kind and invited us to try their new year goodies like pineapple tarts and barbequed pork etc. And the kids have received quite a few of the famous red packets - hong bao's - with a few dollar notes. There are no presents at chinese new year, just money. Locals spend a lot of time with families eating and gambling and it all takes about 4 weeks - 2 before and 2 after the new years day. All the auspicious foods like raw fish and seafood go up in price before the holidays and restaurants cash in properly as well. On the new years eve it is apparently good to keep the children up late - the later they stay up the longer their parents live. We did not quite manage to follow that idea, should have gone to Chinatown for some excitement together with 200 000 Singaporeans. But as Robert has to get up 5.30 every morning late nights mingling with crowds are not really high on the priority list.

Now I am rushing off to my second class of Bikram yoga - 90 minutes in 40 degrees C. The first class last week was very good although I was quite nervous and didn't know what was going to happen. See how it goes today.

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Sungei Buloh

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!

Happy New Year!

Happy new year to everyone! Again I have to apologize for not being up to date at all. And just took the chance to send my best wishes for 2009. Here the celebrations for the Chinese New Year are getting on the way already and I haven't even posted a report about Christmas. It is a Singaporean specialty that the celebrations smoothly change from one to the next because of all these different nationalities and customs and religions. So they just replace the decorations with the next holiday's and the party goes on. I have the feeling this year people are a bit stressed out with it because of the recession - just had to spend extra on Christmas gifts and now the "hong bao" or red packets (of money) for the CNY. And the Singaporean Chinese do celebrate both. But hopefully I'll get more insights about the Chinese New Year soon. We have made some new friends here on the condo and they fill us in all the traditions. Also a tour of Chinatown is on the agenda soon again.

Christmas was a bit different this time. We had come back from Vietnam on Christmas Eve and had our little celebration here in the afternoon. Raoul poor thing still had fever, the others couldn't wait for Father Christmas to arrive. Beatrice wrapped a carrot for Rudolph and made coffee for FC. He did come in the evening and even Raoul got up and joined in the singing. We had an Estonian FC as always and the boys still completely believed all his stories. Beatrice was a bit more suspicious and told me later she thought Father Christmas was the Estonian children's dad. I didn't comment but I guess we will have to think of something else for next year. 

On Christmas Day Robert had to go to work again and that was it. Just had a quiet day with Raoul still not well and so...

On Saturday after Christmas we went to say goodbye to Mia and Alex who have now gone back to Korea. This was quite sad as having found her here after many years has made my stay in Singapore so much more meaningful and interesting. We share many experiences and interests and spent nice time together, had good conversations and good fun as well. It will take a while to fill that void.

On New Years Eve I took the children to the Bird Park together with the other little twins of Robert's colleague and their mom. We had a good day out. Beatrice did get a new camera from Father Christmas and now it is full of pictures of birds heads, feet, beaks, tails etc. I haven't managed to download any yet. But she worked it out amazingly fast - no need to read the instructions or anything.

In the evening we just stayed home which was a wise decision considering that Robert had to get up 5.30 next morning as usual. It is not allowed to have fireworks here because of all the high-rise buildings and fire precautions, so it was rather quiet. The big fireworks at the Marina Bay were too far so could only watch them on TV.

On New Years day all the museums here had open house and as Robert was home by the afternoon we went to the philatelic museum again. It was good fun because it is very hands on and they had a special exhibition about superheroes and cartoon characters and postal stamps featuring those. Great for Karl who is a big fan of Spiderman and all sorts of heroes. Afterwards walked over to the seaside and the Esplanade and had dinner at a Korean restaurant. It seems recently that almost every time we all go out we end up having Korean food.

Last Saturday there was a work-BBQ. This time a bit more informal and earlier so we took the kids. It was in a condo where some colleagues live and turned out to be a great afternoon. The other little twins were there as well and the kids were well entertained. And the best part - we sent the dads off with the kids so we could have a glass of wine in peace with their mother and had a great bonding conversations between the moms of twins (ha ha ha). A bit too much wine in the end though ... 

From Monday the boys are back at school! Finally after 7 weeks holidays. Beatrice started on Wednesday. So now I have my time back.

For Singaporean schools this is the start of the school year so the boys have moved up a year and are in K1 now. New class and new teacher. She knows them well though as she used to teach in the class next to their old one and replace their teacher a few times. Raoul was still not keen to go and I took them in on the first day. Once there he found his old friends and new toys to play with and was happy to stay. What has made things better is that the "bad boys" who were on their bus have left kindy now for primary school and that is one thing less to worry about.

It has become very "wintery" now and we don't go to the pool as much. It is supposed to rain now but it doesn't luckily, it's just very windy which is very nice. Just the pool is a bit cold because the sun is lower than in the summer. That means we go to the playground in the afternoons and have made lot's of new friends. Finally also a family where there is someone for everyone - a 5.5 year old girl and a 3.5 year old boy. They all play really well together and go to each other's houses and that is very nice. Their mom is one of the few locals who goes to playground with the kids, otherwise it's always the maids. So I have become friends with her and we have a good chat while the kids play.