Dear all,
Wow, I've been away really long. In the meantime, I have done many things, of which I list a hodge-podge of things below:
- Travelled to Bali with hubby and his sister and her enthusiastic, youthful gang of 3 other friends (really enjoyed the whitewater rafting and wading in the clear blue, warm and shallow sea, with lapping waves that create waist high waves that make it quite fun and exciting! So unlike the really calm and gentle sea of Singapore. Besides that, many of the things I felt could be done in Singapore, e.g. spa massage, nice meals, even doing some sea sports like jet-skiing and flying fish - why don't we have it in Singapore? We have the sea space for it)
- Went with inlaws and family to Botanic Gardens again, and even though this time we didn't see the awesome band again, we did see large turtles swimming in a large pond, several black and white birds with really long thin legs and gigantic feet, and smelled some really awesome earl grey loose leaf tea in a tin, in the orchid garden shop; also I just really enjoyed the negative ions in that garden. I always feel so refreshed after walking through it
- Went to Starbucks twice on my own with my laptop to blog and journal and pray and read the Bible (what a luxury for a working mom with 2 young kids!), and in my alone time, I reflected on what I really wanted to do next year and resolved to write a book or at least, a series of articles addressing the most commonly asked but tricky questions and issues faced by Singaporeans today! They range from issues arising from relationships (or lack of them), to work to family to personal life. And I'm tentatively going to name it "80 Seconds", and aim for each chapter to finish reading within 80 seconds! So yes, the general gist of the book is to provide quick, snappy, and easy-to-read answers backed by quantitative statistics and sound reasoning wherever possible (I realised reading some websites debating some of these issues, the writers tend to make generalist or sweeping statements without any proof, and anyone who knows statistics knows that you can twist a statistic to support your argument, so even more so when you don't even quote statistics, it just makes the debate really hard to follow, or for people to know who's right). However, I do realise that in today's day and age, the number of people who read hardcopy books is rapidly dwindling (just take a look around the train), and since my primary aim in writing is to share my ideas, I may also publish these articles online too - watch this blog for posts of my articles!
- We went cycling with the kids (yes, my 15-month old Caleb and 2 year 9 month Jack) in Pulau Ubin, with my hubby's friends. It was surprisingly enjoyable, and a refreshing change from the usual mall-hopping and playground-visiting that we do. It costs $12 per bike if you want a child seat, and you get to use the bike the whole day! During the trip, we also had the chance to spot a really large spider and its intricate web, and as there were about ten kids there (my hubby's friends all brought their kids), we wanted them to see the spider. But the spider was just sitting in the middle of its web not doing anything, and Caleb had trouble seeing what the big fuss was about. So to catch his attention and show him where the spider was, I picked up a small stick and threw it at the impressive web. Sure enough, it caught and caused a stir in the web, which allowed Caleb to spot it, and also the spider immediately ran to check out the stick! But after feeling it around for quite a while, it realised it was not food, but then it started to twist the stick around and around, and slowly, slowly, eased the stick out of the web so it dropped to the floor! And then, it didn't stop there, it went on to repair the web so it was back to its pristine condition, ripe for catching mosquitoes and flies! Great spider! God really made the spider with amazing abilities.
- Went to two Christmas parties, of which one (organised by my cell) had the interesting game of "Sadistic Santa". It really had us in stitches at points, as the sadistic and selfish side of people came out! Leave a comment if you want to know how the game is played! Other games we played included two truths and a lie, and guess the baby photo :)
- Reconnected with my childhood favourite author, Christopher Pike, as in, I was wandering in Popular bookshop when I saw a brand new series of books written by him, when I thought he had stopped writing for a really long time. I quickly researched, and realised he had written a fair number of new books, and repackaged many of his old ones (good for him!) and even has 2 of his books being made into movies! Unbelieveable! I really enjoy his fast-paced, action-packed novels that usually contain mind-blowing ideas, premises and plot twists, but I find his forays into vampires and eastern religion a little less appealing than his other books
- Brought Jack to his playgroup for the first time today! Thankfully he didn't cry, although he did ask to leave quite a few times. We shall see how he behaves over the next few days, if he can really assimilate into his class.
- Borrowed and read endless books to both boys. I am constantly surprised at Jack's amazing memory, and Caleb is now babbling and speaking new words at an amazing rate. Sometimes he just mutters strings of words he knows one after another in quick succession, even if they are not making a sentence. Like "Keke, jie jie, papa" and "dog dog, sheep baaa, mae, ow ow". Caleb's personality is now coming through - he passionately likes animals, food, drawing and going out or "gai gai". Hmm... sounds a little like mommy... Jack likes playing with the tablet, going outdoors to run around and kick a ball around, and music. He really really loves music, almost to the point of going into a trance-like state and chortling with glee to himself when he is listening to a really nice track. His favourites include the soundtrack of Superman, Star Wars, Jurassic Park (from my hubby's sci-fi movie soundtrack CD) and now, an instrumental medley of Christian carols sent to us by a friend
- Read a lot of nice books, including Hunger Games (I reread the whole trilogy), Game of Thrones (I read all the books over 2 years! Now waiting for the sixth!), and some of Lee Child's Jack Reacher novels.
It's been a busy two weeks of holidays indeed. Am going back to work tomorrow! Can't wait!
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