Bloody Bloody Winter

I am officially FED UP with it being winter. Just when we thought spring was here - we enjoyed a day of 16 C last week - the birds were singing, the crocus flowers popped out, the bulbs started poking out of the ground - down comes the bloody temperature again and it starts snowing. Teh bloody cold is bloody ridiculous, with the wind chill factor it's minus 10 outside. BLOODY MINUS TEN.

Snow Dumpling, Icy Muffin

It's started snowing. At first it was just little crispy flakes that floated down only to melt as soon as they hit the ground. Then these were followed by larger fluffy crystals that settled and eventually covered everything in a fragile white blanket that crunched under our feet and stuck to the bunnies tails. This has been replaced by harder flakes, driven by a strong wind blowing in from the polar region, dropping temperatures and preventing any further melt. We've heard predictions of up to 20cm falling but so far it's nowhere near that much. 

The bunnies are making the best of it. Actually I don't think Dumpling knows what to make of it...he has only seen snow once before and seems to hate the feel of it clinging to his furry feet. He's sitting now in the garden, a puffed-up ball of disgruntled hair, looking for all the world like a grizzled cossack camping on the Siberian steppes.

Punky Muffin on the other hand is an old hand at dealing with snow, and having shorter hair doesn't become caked as much. You can see her here, fussily licking off the last few flakes that were impudent enough to land on her pristine white coat. How dare they.
As you can see I've put a range of snacks in the winter pavillion to keep them happy and dry but at the moment they prefer to sit in the snow and munch on a big branch I sawed off the apple tree this morning (I hold off pruning my apple trees until the winter to keep the bunnies in snacks throughout the long cold months...a bit unconventional but it doesn't seem to do the trees any harm).
They could always retreat to their hutch which is now winterised with perspex sheeting on all sides and a thick warm layer of soft bedding in which they have hollowed out a snug nest. However that would be like kids volunteering going to bed early and is NOT going to happen. Ever. So don't even suggest it. Just keep feeding us snacks.

Places I'm Glad I Don't Live #2

Some of you may recall my earlier post which showed very clearly why I wouldn't want to live here . Today I've found a more than appropriate #2 location for what must be a very creepy place to live at the moment: parts of Australia. More specifically: Wagga Wagga, where localized flooding has apparently driven all the spiders to crowd into trees to escape the rising waters. The result is these incredibly scary looking trees...I seriously pity any birds who were nesting when this happened.

And if you really want to see another creepy spider posting, see this. 

...Where I Don't Complain About The Cold

 

No need to use the bridges over the canals...we can just walk over!

Anyone who has read this blog for a while will know that I'm not a fan of the winter. Give me heat, humidity, the sweaty damp extremes of the tropics any time...just don't give me winter. Problem with that obviously is that we live in Europe where the winters are getting more extreme and if climate change reaches its seemingly inevitable conclusion, we will eventually be chipping ice off the windscreens from November until March every year.

However...we didn't really have a winter over here until about 10 days ago. The weather wizards had predicted this would be a "severe winter" with temperatures dropping to an estimated -23C!! Bah humbug I declared, and then bugger me if Mother Nature didn't open that big fridge door in the sky, with the mercury dropping to a record low of -22.9C a couple of days ago!! It's never been so cold in the Netherlands before. The good news is that we only had one day of very light snow, meaning the outdoor ice skating rinks are enjoying perfect conditions. Dry and extremely cold, the ice is dense and uniform and ideal for skating. We bought the kids some new skates (they outgrow them every year) and even Holger decided to treat himself to a decent pair.

Beautiful blue skies and sunshine have tempted them out onto the ice almost every day, and we're lucky in that the rink is right behind our house. I tell you, nothing makes kids fall asleep more quickly at night than racing home from a busy day at school to skate in the freezing cold for 2 hours, followed by dinner and a hot bath.

And me? Well, despite the fact that it looks lovely outside the temp is regularly -10 to -15 in the mornings and only moves up a couple of degrees throughout the day, so I'm hiding inside as much as possible. Tomorrow I'm taking my slippers to work because the floors in the office are so cold that by lunch time I'm numb from the waist down, and gusts of wind force blasts of icy air in through the wall sockets!! But I am definitely not complaining.

Spring Has Sprung!

It seemed like it would never happen but suddenly spring has arrived. The grass has greened ever so slightly, crocuses and snowdrops are blooming, and even the daffodils are on the verge of bursting into flower any minute. The wildlife is getting that itching feeling again too; our resident blackbird is once again lining her nest right by the back door, scaring the life out of me whenever I walk past by shooting past horizontally at nose level when I approach the door. Last week I was amazed to see a falcon perched on top of our bird feeding table, only about 4 metres from the window. At first I had a bit of a panic as I thought he was eyeing up Rocco, obliviously muching bird seed that had fallen to the ground below. However given that the rabbit was about 5 times larger than falcon, I'm pretty sure it was actually eyeballing the littel hole at the entrance to the burrow of our resident field mouse, who has hibernated the past few winters at the base of our magnolia tree. I realise this is a specatacularly bad photo but he kept flying away to a nearby tree every time he saw me approaching the window with a camera:

Spring is also the time of year for pruning some trees, and I was lucky to time a visit to my friend in Vorden just when she was having the willows on her farm cut back. Willow branches are utterly delicious - if you happen to be a rabbit - and provide a welcome snack at this time of year when the vegetation has been nibbled to bare dirt after a long winter. So I filled up the back of the car and brought home a load. The bunnies were ecstatic with my offering, less so with my trying to get photos of them eating it.


Monsieur Rocco A. Rabbit says: "Yezz? Can you not zee I am buzy, eating ze willow...enough of your zilly photoz, be gone!"

 In the mean time I've stored the pile in a corner of the garden - having rabbits is not really conducive to tidy gardening anyway - and give them a couple of branches a day to munch through, which keeps them busy and happy. Unless I try to take a photo, of course.


Madam Punky M. Rabbit is NOT AMUSED



Yes It Was THAT Flu

It turns out that our town has been hit by the Mexican flu, so I suppose that's what made Carl so sick. In the end he was off school for a week, but he's still tired and a bit paler than normal. Niels recovered quickly and is now completely in denial that he was ever sick. At least he doesn't suffer from man-flu (yet!).

Spring is finally arriving and I'm crossing every apendage hoping that we don't get a late snow storm or freeze. The flowers have started to come out, the birds are chirping like mad, and the bunnies are digging up the lawn. Again.



Rocco dozing in the sun



Rocco is doing brilliantly, and I've just taken a quick pic of him in the garden, dozing in the sun (above). He can hold this pose for anything up to about quarter of an hour before suddenly coming to life and hopping off to continue his rounds in the garden. I guess it's the bunny equivalent of nodding off in front of the t.v., without the drool. And in case you are wondering why Punky Muffin never seems to be in the photo with him, it's because every time I walk outside, this happens:

Punky Muffin: "pet me or feed me, just don't ignore me!"

Bumpity Bumpity Bump...

Ok as hubby rang especially from the North Sea last night to remind me, I can't keep complaining about the winter because we DID make it to Scotland last Friday afterall, despite the high winds. After our flights were cancelled we were luckily able to get seats on the evening flight departing at 8:35 for Glasgow and discovered it is possible to get sea sick on a plane. Yes, sea sick.

Meanwhile, Niels had come home for lunch on Friday and seemed off colour. He was quite tired so rather than send him back to school we bundled him into bed for a rest since it was going to be a late night. By the time we went to the airport he had a bit of a high temperature so I packed Paracetemol and my digital thermometer just in case.

As we boarded the plane the first thing we noticed was that it was MOVING. Not rolling down the runway, but sloshing from side to side as the wind gusts outside made it heave and pitch like a ship anchored in a stormy bay. We staggered down the aisle like 150 drunken sailors and it's the first time I've boarded a plane and heard every passenger clicking their seat belts on before the engines have even started. Ominous. The kids were excited to be off to another country, favourite monkey and bear clutched in their hands and no sign of sleepiness despite the late hour.

Taking off was...interesting. Remember that stormy bay? Apparently there were a few ski jumps installed just for fun and we bounced over every one before the wheels left the ground. Trying to keep a jolly I tone I said to the kids "this is fun, isn't it...aaaaAAAAAAAAAaaaahh!" as the wings dipped first left, then right, then the plane did that bizarre maneuvere where the nose twitches left, the tail flicks right, and you just know deep inside that planes are not supposed to fly diagonally! As we climbed steeply - presumably to avoid any more ski jumps - the sloshing sensation continued and Carl slowly turned pale, then slightly greenish. Out came the sick bag and I was left cursing the fact that Mum's always get to sit between the kids; why is it never Dad's that get puked on? Was that hidden in the small print of the marriage vows?

Amazingly once we gained altitude the flight smoothed out, the puke crisis was averted and the landings - there were about four before the wheels finally settled on the ground for good - were not too frightening. As my Dad says, any landing you can walk away from is a good one. It was off to the Crown Plaza where the kids were too hyper to sleep before 1 am, and hubby and I resorted to splitting up and taking one boy each into our beds and shutting the connencting room doors to settle them down. Hardly a romantic start to the weekend.

Now I REALLY Hate Winter

I just sat down to check up in for our flights to Scotland, where we plan to have a weekend away with the kids and go to hubby's belated work Xmas party. PLANNED, I should say; our flight has been cancelled due to strong winds. Bugger bugger bugger. Looks like I won't get to wear my new tartan skirt after all.

Shhhhhh.....

Tonight I was getting Niels into bed, with Carl already snuggled up warm in his room next door. I moved to the window to pull the curtains and "Ooohh!!!" Outside, as quiet as darkness itself, snow had started to fall. Big fat flakes the size of potato chips tumbled out of the night sky, illuminiated by the glow of street lights as they settled then quickly melted on the cobblestones.

I called Carl and he joined us, pink and warm and with eyes heavy with almost-sleep. As the three of us looked out at the falling snow the boys were silent, speechless in surprise at this unexpected white visitor. When they finally started speaking again it was in a whisper, as if talking loudly would disturb the magic and it would stop.

Winter has arrived.

Slip Sliding Away

Winter just won't let up over here. Temperatures are not extremely low but the ground is still below freezing and wet snow topped with rain a copule of nights ago has reduced many roads, foot paths and bike paths to dangerous skating rinks.

The warmer temperatures also pose a risks to animals and people who have grown accustomed to being able to safely walk on frozen lakes and canals. Click here to see photos and a video (you'll have to endure a 15 second ad first) of a pony being rescued by the fire brigade after falling through the ice - fortunatley the story ended well and the pony survived. The importance of frequently checking on livestock is higher than ever and thankfully this pony's owner discovered him quickly before he literally froze to death.

Even if you choose to stay on dry land the risks at the moment are pretty severe. Today I dared to take the boys to school on their bikes for the first time - big mistake. We discovered that the roads are covered with black ice; an almost invisible layer of thick ice which is lethally slippery. Even walking and pushing our bikes was tricky. The local council seems to have given up even pretending to do anything about it so we're taking a risk every time we step out the door. I still had half a bucket of raw salt in the garage so I've just been out throwing handfuls of it on the cycle path. I snapped one brave kid trying to cycle through - I've seen 3 fall off this morning already (see top photo).

This next photo shows the corner of our street - it looks like there's just a bit of slushy snow and water on the cobbles but this is solid ice up to 3cm thick in some places. I couldn't even walk over it when I went out to take the photo:

In this photo taken further up the street you can get a better idea of how much ice there is; what looks like white snow on the street is the uppermost surface of a thick layer of ice, roughened by traffic but no less slippery. Again, you can't walk or cycle over this at all (I've seen plenty of people pushing their bikes with long faces) and driving is risky.

I heard on the radio that between mid-December and mid-January, 17,000 people have been treated at hospital for injuries caused by falls. That's so many it's worth repeating: SEVENTEEN THOUSAND! The cost of all those accidents is around 6 BILLION euros, money which the insurance companies will recoup from all of us. So why aren't the councils salting the paths and cycle-ways? Because apparently they only worry about the roads, and by now, as you can see, plenty of them are not salted at all. There are several companies in Holland that produce salt, even one only about an hour away, but they simply can't keep up with demand despite operating at 100% capacity. Normally there are 20 days in the year when roads are salted; this year it has had to be done every day since mid- Decmeber.

It also doesn't help that so many people fail to clear the snow from the paths outside their houses, so it eventually becomes compacted into ice. Our rather uninspiring Prime Minister went on t.v. to declare that it was every citizens civic duty to keep the footpaths running alongside their properties free of snow and ice; and then showed hmself up for the dork he is by completely failing to doing so outside his own house!

Thousands Protest Against Global Warming...

...well, you've gotta laugh, right? No point keeping on grumbling about the endless snow...(mumble mumble groan)...

Snow, Snow, Snow

At last, the snow is finally melting. I may sound like a party pooper but by the time you're down to the last few patches of snow on the ground, very little of it is still white and I've grown very weary of trying to brush grey sludge off the kids clothes before they come inside.

Ok, snow is lovely for the first few days, even a dedicated summerphile like myself will admit that. Once it started it seemed the snow would never stop, drifting down first in tiny pin-pricks of white then developing into big fat fluffy flakes. It was so light that it was possible to scoop up a whole snow-shovel full of the stuff at a time; I know because I had to dig the car out. Several times.

We were puzzled to hear the distinct roar of a tractor motoring around the house at one stage, and looked out the windows to see a snow plough clearing the roads outside, a very rare sight for us. It returned twice more during the day to try and keep the roads clear. It failed.

One bright side was the we had fitted winter tyres on the car just 48 hours before - a brilliant bit of foresight for which I would like to claim the credit. If only it had been my idea!

The bunny bungalow has been winterised with sheets of plastic, an extra thick layer of shredded hemp on the floor and the boudoir filled with a bale of fluffy straw to keep them warm. I also had the brilliant idea of buying a large covered cat litter box, filled with an inviting pile of tasty hay (in 2 different flavours) and a snug base of hemp to keep their bottoms warm. I removed the swinging door and it looked so inviting, just like a warm little cave, that if I was small enough I would have crawled in there myself. The bunnies took one look at it, voted to completely ignore it, and prefer to sit in the cold snow instead. Typical.

Pointy Bit Up Please

Winter is fast approaching here in Cloggie land, although the unseasonably mild weather is giving us all a false sense of security about how bad the winter may be. One of these days we’re going to wake up to find the car is frozen to the driveway and I’ll have to chip my way in with a pickaxe, but in the meantime we’re practically basking in temperatures around 10-13 degrees C. However the short days mean it’s time to get out into the garden for a last rummage in the dirt, and in Holland, the land of tulips, that means it’s time to plant flower bulbs.
Now let me start by saying that although I enjoy gardening and getting a bit muddy, I can quite confidently say that I’m a fairly crap gardener. My plants don’t flourish; they limp along until a season changes enough for them to flop limply in relief at not having to pretend they will ever live up to the promieses on their labels. The soil around our house is awful – any topsoil was strip-mined and sold off by the developers – and the borders are characterized by either endless shade or desert-like over exposure to the sun.
However these factors haven’t deterred me from spending money on new plants like a pro, and hope, if not my garden, sprouts eternal. In this respect, bulbs are the perfect plants for me. You just chuck them in the ground, do nothing for a few months, and hey presto, you have flowers in the spring time.

I clearly remember the very first time I planted bulbs (yes really). It was back on our farm near Matamata, in the North Island of New Zealand. We had a fairly large fruit orchard next to the house, which my Dad had rigged with a lethally impressive electric fence system. Wires running along the base of the fruit trees were cunningly arranged at just the right height to allow the resident sheep to nibble the grass around the base, but not chew on the tree trunks. Over time the sheep actually learned to stand on their hind legs to reach the lower branches, and it wasn’t unusual to look out the window to the very odd sight of what appeared to be a flock of dancing sheep staggering around under the trees, snouts raised in the air. As an added bonus the electric fence also prevented possum damage. These beasties are a huge pest in New Zealand; having been imported from Australia years ago to a land with a mild climate and no predators the population has boomed to millions, and one possum will happily strip a fruit tree in a night. However if you were a wayward possum daring to cavort around our house at night, there was a very good chance the last thing you would ever see was my Dad, his Y-fronts glowing in the moonlight, squinting down the barrel of a .22 getting ready to change your mind manually.

I decided to brighten the orchard with daffodils. Having read that the best way to achieve a natural looking placement of bulbs was to literally toss them in handfuls over the area and plant them when they landed, I subsequently spent the next half hour cursing and trying to locate the bloody things again while avoiding the electric fences. Having done that, I pretty much sabotaged my chances of a bumper flower crop by planting them…upside down. For some reason it seemed logical that the pointy bit would stick downwards. With such a hopeless record of bulb planting, who could EVER have guessed I would end up with Dutch nationality??

OMG It's Another Birthday

We are in the throes of planning another birthday party - Niels is turning 8 shortly and we want to have both the 'grown ups' and the 'kids' parties before hubby returns to sea next week. Hopefully the incredibly crap weather will brighten up so we can celebrate it outdoors, something we've been able to do since the year he was born. While sorting out the party streamers, paper napkins, cups and whistles decorated with Play Mobil pirates which I brought back from Singapore (how I miss the party shop in Great World City!) it suddenly occurred to me that I hadn't posted about Carls 5th birthday way back in February.

Before you all nod sagely and say that this only confirms you're suspicions that the only reason I had kids was so I could poke fun at them mercilessly on my blog, I must point out that I was in New Zealand at the time, and Carl was in Sweden. He celebrated the day in fine style with TWO birthday cakes which, oddly enough, were eaten for breakfast. They were seasoned with piles of sweets and washed down with sweet drinks, and I can only say that I was pleased not to be there to try and contain Carl and his brother once all that sugar hit their system 30 minutes later.

Fortunately they were surrounded by metres of snow, and few things burn off a kids energy quite so efficiently as running around in ten layers of clothing trying not to slip over on the ice or trip up in the powder.

My sister in law kindly provided a cake, which hubby decorated with Bob The Builder toys he'd secretly smuggled up there from home. This is Carl's third Bob The Builder birthday cake in his life, and I can't guarantee he won't request another for his next birthday.

At least it was easier to assemble than the daunting task which faces me this weekend: Niels wants his cake to be either a Spitfire or a Hawker Hurricane. Lucky me.

First hints of a thaw...

Just three more days and I will be heading off to New Zealand to see the family. My Mum, my grandmother, and one of my sisters will all be having a birthday while I'm there, so that's more than enough good reasons to make the long journey. Plus I'll get to spend a day in Singapore on the way through, where I've arranged to meet friends for coffee, lunch, and pedicures! Just what every weary traveller needs.

Ironically, they are in the middle of a heat wave. My sister told me this morning that temperatures reached 34 C today, which is exceptionally hot for that part of New Zealand (Tauranga). Thank goodness I'm not going to Australia where they are suffering temps in the 40s. I have to admit I'm looking forward to the warmth though. Winter has lasted long enough and I am so sick of being buried in clothes whenever I venture outside. The kids seem to have adapted well enough and it's certainly no where near as cold as it was, but still...

However it pays to look on the bright side of course, and it's heartening to see the first signs of spring starting to emerge. It was warm enough to risk a short recon-trip to the garden yesterday and I tried to tame some of the wilderness which has taken grip of the front garden. Clearing the long dead tufts of grass I discovered some crocus flowers poking up above the soil - signs that things are picking up after all. Hope blooms...

By Special Request...

...a blog posting with no kids in it! The temperature has now risen above nil and the snow and ice has melted, leaving us to contend with a biting easterly wind which is blowing in straight from the frigid steppes of Russia, by the feel of it. Still it would be a shame not to share some more pics of the beautiful effects the Big Freeze created.

Rocco and Ashley were less than amused with the snow situation. While they will quite happily sit in the rain with only the occasional flick of their ears hinting that they do afterall realise they are getting wet, neither of them liked to hop through the show.

In sympathy I dragged out a large square of carpet for them to rest their fluffy butts on, reasoning that any sane creature would enjoy the luxury of sitting on dry woolly pile rather than cold, wet snow. Which simply goes to prove than one should never attempt to hazard a guess at what is going on inside a rabbits head. My offering was greeted initially with paranoid suspicion before being disdainfully sniffed, nibbled, and finally shat upon before the rabbits retruned to their grumpy vigil in the snow. With their ample butts pointed towards the house, the message was clear: We Are Not Amused.

There is simply no pleasing some bunnies.

It's Been A While...

...but yes we're still alive and fully functioning! Despite the cold. And the ice. And the snow.

OK, ok, you've all seen the weather forecast and know that the Big Freeze is over now, and we are - for the time being at least - living through milder weather. The temp drops below freezing at night but rises to about 3-4 Celsius during the day, which seems almost tropical in comparison to a week ago. Unless of course you have just moved from the tropics. And unless a FORTY DEGREE temperature difference doesn't bother you. Hmmm, who could I be referring to???

Anyway, I am so over complaining. check out these pics. Directly behind our house is a 'natuur ijs baan' (natural ice rink), which is basically a flat open area which is flooded with water when the temperature drops below freezing for long enough to make it worthwhile. There are two skating areas; one is for sleds, beginner skaters, and amateurs such as your truely. The ice is rough and lumpy and no-one is skating at any speed on it. The second rink, a large oval, is highly polished and reserved for SERIOUS SKATERS. There are a surprising number of these in the Netherlands, and God forbid you wander into their path. There is a kind of winter apartheid which exists, fully accepted in Dutch society, and it ensures that rank amateurs such as myself don't dare to venture onto real skating ice. Fair enough too, it's so bloody slippery that you'll fall over and break an arm within 30 seconds of venturing onto the rink.

Despite the intense cold which makes your feet ache so badly that stories of climbers lost on Mount Cook suddenly spring to mind and your toes feel like they've turned black within an hour, it is so much fun to play on the ice. The neighbours are swooshing down the canals to work, the kids are going to school on sleds pulled by parents and all are wrapped in dozens of layers of clothes...The sun shone for much of the time the weather was seriously cold and so it was absolutely beautiful. Global warming??? Show me the money honey.

The worst part of this weather (apart from the extreme dryness of the air which makes your skin, hair and nails simply dissolve and flake off) is that it take at least 10-15 minutes to get the kids and myself ready to leave the house. I mean, even inside you're wearing trousers, long sleeved shirts and socks, but you have to add over trousers, boots/shoes, scarves, hat, gloves, and jackets. Add up the individual bits then multiply them by the actual number of individual items, and you get some idea of how long it takes to get out the door. Of course one glove is always missing, one shoe is always AWOL, where is that damn hat anyway???

...And Yet Colder Still

Just when we thought it couldn't get any colder: tonight the temperature will drop to minus 17C!!! For years Holger has accused me of exaggerating how cold winter gets in the Netherlands, refuting my claims of the coldest day of my life being in Vorden, 1996, when the mercury plunged to -18C, with a wind chill factor of a further 10 degrees. Now today, finally, vengeance is mine. Fresh from his tropical cruise bringing the Aoka Mizu from Singapore to the Suez Canal, totally un-acclimatised and still sporting a tropical tan, Mr "it never gets that cold" is having to eat his words. With a hearty sprinkling of frost on top.

We threw open the curtains this morning to find that snow had fallen silently during the night, blanketing everything in a thick crisp layer of white. The kids of course were ecstatic, and because today was also the first day of school for them, they figured this was simply an extra special treat we'd arranged to make the occasion even more festive. Oh, the power we have when our kids are still young enough to believe their parents are all omnipotent and powerful, that we can do anything, even control the weather! It was still dark as we walked to school, throwing snowballs and scrunching through the pristine snow. By the time we got their all our faces were glowing pink from the chill but it was the most fun any of us have had going to school.

Then once school was finished, we headed into town to do some jobs, the kids perched on the sled. Holger was the designated workhorse, although he didn't seem to mind and the kids managed to resist the urge to whack the back of his neck with a snowball at every second step.

I'll let you know how we survive the Big Freeze.

Ups and Downs

So here we are, back in the Netherlands at last. My mother in law had turned up the central heating to a welcoming 20 C, bought a Xmas tree and made sure there was plenty of food in the cupboards. We stumbled off the plane at 5:30am to a night as dark as pitch which seemed to stretch on endlessly as we drove across the country towards Lochem. Would the sun ever rise again? Just as we were starting to despair of ever seeing light again the darkness lightened to a misty grey, and trees and large boerderij farm houses emerged from the still, clammy fog. Perfectly flat countryside stretched away on both sides of the highway, interrupted only by the straight silvery lines of drainage canals dug into the loamy soil. The highway, busy at any time of the day with streams of lights rushing upon us then receding into the distance, bypassed villages faintly visible in the dim light, each punctuated with a central church spire like a pastoral dart board. We were home.

Things that are great about being back in Holland:

• Good wine for 5 euros a bottle - or less! (eat your hearts our, Singaporeans!)
• REAL Dutch cheese which doesn't costs Sing$60/kilo (yes that's 30 euros!)
• Ollie bollen, apple bignets, real bread (swoon!)
• Forests - the kind you can run through with the kids without having to battle undergrowth or worry about standing on a snake
• Other people's kids being as noisy and active as mine

Things I already miss about Singapore

• The weather: it's -10 degrees C tonite!!!
• Rice: instead of a choice of over 40 varieties and packet sizes at the supermarket, here you can choose from 5 varieties which have all been processed to death and are guaranteed to be totally sterile and not stick together...how are you supposed to eat that with chopsticks???
• Seafood so fresh it's practically flopping on your plate
• The swimming pool - the kids are bouncing off the walls already
• Our apartment...when did our house shrink? When did my kitchen become so small????

Lightening strike at Wilby

For a while I've been trying to make a short video of the amazing electrical storms we get in Singapore. Today I almost got more than I bargained for. I was just a bit too close to the action! Watch this video I shot from our balcony - then watch it again, and take note of exactly where the lighting is going in the first couple of seconds.

Now that was close!