Lower Selatar Reservoir

We’re always on the lookout for places to take the kids to burn off some energy in the weekends. Recently we decided to check out what was at the end of the road leading to the Lower Seletar Reservoir.

There are several water reservoirs in Singapore although the vast majority of its water is pumped in from Malaysia. An ongoing source of friction between the two nations is that untreated water travels through a pipeline to Singapore, is treated and purified here, then sold back to the Malaysians. It means that Singapore always has enough water and Malaysia doesn’t need to build an expensive water treatment plant, but it’s still a source of much mud-slinging by Malaysia. Capitalism in action I guess.
As we arrived we passed a golf driving range on our left. A wizened little man was driving round in a specially designed vehicle with a massive scoop on the front collecting golf balls.

Fortunately there was a roof above his head as at least twenty golfers showed absolutely no intention of slowing down their shots while he was busy as work: our boys were both thrilled and horrified at the thought of the guy being mowed down in a hail of white dimpled bullets.

Parking the car we made our way up the slight hill to the edge of the reservoir, giving a large troop of monkeys who were intent on breaking into a primate-proof rubbish bin a wide berth on the way.
The kids were thrilled to discover a huge rocket ship resting on the waters edge, seemingly prepared for take-off. This hollow concrete structure hides a spiral staircase for an easy climb to the top and views out over the reservoir. There was a lovely cool breeze blowing across the water, heralding a change in the weather.
From the shore of this large man-made lake you look straight across the water to the Singapore Zoo on the far shore. The eerily straight paths were the perfect place for Niels to practice riding his new scooter, and the kids playground kept both he and Carl busy for half an hour. At the far end of the breezy walkway is a rain shelter and toilets, which we were quite grateful for as it started to spit with rain just as we discovered a second, smaller playground nearby. Fortunately for once the skies didn’t open to a downpour and we headed back to our starting point, spotting at least five eagles on the way.

The reservoir is definitely worth a visit and is an easy way to spend a couple of hours on a lazy Sunday if you’ve got kids or are interested in the birdlife. We’ll be back to explore further on a sunnier day.

From the mouths of babes

There are many bad habits in this world which can cause us pain or embarrassment and one of the milder of which I am guilty is swearing. I don’t know why this is such a problem with me: as kids we were never allowed to swear. Even the work ‘bum’ was considered off limits. My parents didn’t, and still don’t, swear and yet for some reason as I grew older it became a habit.
As every parent knows, swearing, like toga parties and Tequila slammers, is a habit that you have to lose with kids in the house. It’s just not right to turn the air blue in front of your kids because guess what? They will remember everything you say and repeat it back to you, probably in front of their primary school teacher or in your mother in law’s church.
I’ve grown better at taming my tongue since Niels was born. A perfect example: this morning I was trying to remove the empty 19 litre bottle from the top of the water cooler in our kitchen. It was stuck so I gave it a mighty yank and it flew off and smashed into the bridge of my nose with a CRACK!!! Convinced that it was broken and in considerable pain I was standing there with my hands pressed to my face to stop half of it sliding off and falling onto the kitchen floor with a wet splat and muttering fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck quietly when Niels came running in. “What’s wrong Mummy?”
“NOTHIIIIIIIIIING!” was my highly restrained reply. How’s that for self control?
Of course the occasional slip up is inevitable. One rainy afternoon I was driving to the supermarket. At a set of traffic lights road works had funnelled the traffic into one narrow lane. I was at the head of the queue and as I came to a stop a suicidal scooter rider – one of many who totally disregard the traffic rules – rushed up on the wrong side, and squeezed ahead of me, narrowly avoiding ending his day under my front wheels. “Stupid asshole” I muttered under my breath, wondering yet again how it’s possible that there are any scooter riders left alive in Singapore. As the light turned green we pulled away from him and Carl – who I had forgotten was sitting quietly in the back seat – leaned up against the rear window, fixed the scooter rider with a steely glare and screamed at the top of his voice: “YOU STUPID ASSHOLE!!”

The Myth of Abstinence - Just Saying No Doesn't Work

I have to admit that I’m quite taken by Oprah Winfrey’s ‘O’ magazine. After all, as a thirty-something with an education, two young kids, a reasonable disposable income and interests in books, health, food and clever ways to appear more like a twenty-something, I fit squarely into her target group. Plus she really does have some excellent columnists, including Dr Phil (go on, you know you love him really), and Suze Orman (the blond with the great financial advice).
In the April issue there were two articles which grabbed my interest. Firstly, a swag of recipes and ideas for including coffee in everything from chicken to chilli.
Secondly, there is a most interesting article about the promotion of abstinence to American teens. Titled Sex & Teens: Why Abstinence Isn’t Working*, it explains that since 1996 the American government “has poured more than US$1 BILLION into abstinence-only education programs in the belief that teaching kids not to have sex until marriage is the only sure way to prevent teen pregnancy, STDs, and HIV infection.” And this would obviously work in the same way as telling people not to smoke, take drugs, drive SUVs or leave the toilet seat up would work, right? In fact the article goes on to point out that not only does telling kids to “just not to do it” not work, it’s actually endangering those same kids by exposing them to higher rates of pregnancy and disease!
“Last year a study out of the University of Oxford reviewed 13 abstinence-only HIV prevention programs involving more than 15,000 US youths and found that not one was successful at decreasing rates of HIV infection. Compared with control groups (which included students receiving no intervention at all or attending safe-sex courses), abstinence-only programs did not lower the incidence of unprotected sex, the frequency of STDs and pregnancy, or the number of partners students had: not did it get them to use condoms more often, or ironically enough, pursue abstinence.”
Remember, that’s one BILLION dollars we’re talking about to achieve this pitiful result. Even more shocking, some of the largest abstinence programs actually provide medically incorrect information.
In comparison, programs which do seem to work are those that are so-called comprehensive or “abstinence plus” programs, which emphasise celibacy but also teach about STDs and contraception use. When 56 of these programs were investigated two thirds were shown to have a positive effect on at least one risk behaviour, while abstinence only made almost no difference.
Perhaps the most surprising thing is that the government of one of the most developed nations in the world truly believes that telling their hormone-fuelled teenagers simply not to have sex will work. It’s my personal belief that this is almost impossible in any country but it’s absolutely laughable in a country whose culture is filled with erotic imagery in music, tv and all forms of media. The sexual exploits of so-called role models such as politicians and religious figures – who are after all adults – are exposed by country's media with glee so why do they expect their children to be any different? It's time they realised that sex is a normal part of human existence and teaching teens to do it responsibly without putting themselves or others at risk is a moral duty for all those involved in raising kids. Obviously leaving it up to the government, no matter how big their budget is, won't work.


*Credited to NB, which according to the magazine’s colophon is probably Nate Berkus.

Xacti What I need!

***Read the update to this posting as the bottom...

For ages I’ve wanted a new video camera to take clips of the kids and life in general. With a holiday in Bali coming up and prompted by Carl’s fourth birthday – they aren’t going to be small and cute forever! – I bit the bullet and started to look into what I really wanted. Back in Holland we actually still have our first handy-cam, a huge brick of a thing which records onto clumsy tapes which then have to be painstakingly edited via your tv and 15 km of multi-coloured cabling onto old fashioned video tapes. It was so much effort it put me off using it. Every minute of footage required ten minutes to get it onto tape. And these days, who even has a video machine??
Living in Gadget Land means that we are bombarded daily with marketing telling us how much we need the latest thingy-ma-jig, and High Definition (HD) tv, camera, videos etc seem to be the way of the future. Having spent some time looking on the internet and reading specialist magazines about video cameras, I set off with great trepidation to Singapore’s electronics Mecca: Sim Lim Square. **Read the update to this blog below.

For those of you who are going to be visiting Singapore in future and want to buy cheaper electronics, here are some words of advice. Firstly, avoid the tourist traps on Orchard Road such as Lucky Plaza in favour of Sim Lim Square, a 7-storey shopping mall filled exclusively with electronics stores. Once there, avoid the shops located right by the doors filled with predatory sales teams and browse the businesses further inside the building.
Secondly, decide more or less what you want to buy before you arrive – saving $200 on a camera is a dubious bargain if it takes half a day of your valuable holiday time to make the deal.
Having said that, I turned up expecting to buy a Sony HD camcorder with either 30 GB or 60GB internal hard drive. The first shop I visited was more than happy to sell me the 60 GB model (“special price for the pretty lady”) for about $2200 with a ‘free’ UV filter chucked in. Hmmm.
Further inside I came across Square United Cam, a modest business in the corner on the 1st floor. A very helpful (ie not slimy) sales guy actually listened to what I wanted to use the camera for and what my expectations were, then recommended the Sanyo Xacti VPC-CG65. For those interested in the technical stuff, it’s MPEG-4 6 megapixel with a 60 x digital zoom. The lens is AVC (made by Sony)…and it’s NOT an HD camera. As the guy patiently explained, HD is fine but most people aren’t set up to work with it – it wouldn’t be possible to burn my movies onto DVDs without a special editing suite so I’d have to pay to have it done at a shop every time. Plus without an HD tv and DVD player you can’t see the benefits anyway. Also, can you imagine what your pc would do if you tried to download 60GB of video onto it??? A 4 GB card will record 5 hours of video plus different users can use their own memory cards so you don't mix up your holiday flicks with hubby's fascinating ship construction momentos.
At the end of the day I’m no expert and who knows if it was the best deal I could have got. But I am deliriously happy with my teeny weeny camera which also takes 10 MB photos (even while you are filming if you want!), has a voice recording function for when I’m doing interviews, and weighs about as much as an egg. Seriously. It’s the shape of a gun grip without the barrel and very simple to use. The fold-out screen is big enough to see what you are filming/photographing clearly with ease.

The price: complete with 3 free batteries, a hard case, two 4GB memory cards and 1 GB card (for voice recordings), and a cleaning tool… $1300. Now that’s what I call a bargain!

***Actually that's what I call a rip-off: I was actually conned when I bought this camera. A few months later I bought the exact same camera for my sister as Paris Silk in Holland Village for about half the price. Ouch.

Kidnap Scams In Singapore

As a parent it's hard to imagine a more horrifying scenario. You receive a phone-call mid week and an unknown voice hisses down the phone line "we've got your child and if you don't pay up we're going to kill him". Before you can even start to register what's been said, 'your' child starts sobbing and screaming for help, begging you to save them before 'they' hurt them any more. This is followed by demands for money - lots of it - which need to be paid immediately to have your child returned. Does it sound like a movie script? This is what literally dozens of parents have been through here in Singapore recently as kidnap scams have hit the usually peaceful and law abiding city-state. Thankfully all of the calls have been hoaxes, although I read in the Straits Times that some parents did hand over up to $50,000.

Kidnap scams have hit Singapore before and have made a comeback, apparently run by Chinese nationals according to the Straits Times. The 'kidnappers' only ever speak Mandarin, as do their victims who are all Chinese. In one day the families of three girls from the same school were targeted. However nobody has actually been kidnapped, it's a cruel hoax.

Fortunately parents are usually able to get in contact with the children quickly - how many high school kids don't have a cell phone these days? - but it's still a scary experience and you must be left wondering why you were targeted, if it will happen again, and if the situtation is going to escalate.

Thunderstorm

If there's one thing I love it's a good thunderstorm. Fortunately we have LOTS of them here in Singapore, and in fact on a recent walking tour I did the guide claimed that Singapore is the most lightening-prone place on earth. Is it true? Who knows and really who could prove it anyway, but we do have some fantastic electric light shows. This afternoon I was working away, mindng my own business when a distant rumbling heralded the impending approach of a storm. It barely registered on the edge of my consciousness since we've become used to the sound of the condo next door being smashed to the ground in a dusty pile of rubble, nor did the first few flashes until CRACK BOOM!!!! an absolutely enormous bolt of lightening touched down nearby with an almost simultaneous roar of thunder. The floor shook and I swear my chair wobbled. That got my attention.

So I stood at the window enjoying the show for a while and it was only when things started to quieten down a bit that I thought to grab my camera and try to capture it on film. So here's a rather feeble ending to what was one of the best storms I've been in. Next time I'll be a bit quicker off the mark.

One day I'll sit down and record all the amazing lightening strike stories I've heard since living here, although they never have happy endings of course! Needless to say at the least hint of thunder I chase the kids out of the pool.

30 mins later...

WOW! That's what I call fast feedback! Thanks to Tracker who just published a comment on this post, including the following weblink: http://app.nea.gov.sg/cms/htdocs/article.asp?pid=1203all about lightening activity in Singapore.

The Site says: "Singapore has one of the highest rates of lightning activity in the world. Lying near the Equator, the weather is hot and humid almost all year round. Conditions are favourable for the development of lightning producing thunderstorm clouds. An average of 171 thunderstorm days (days when thunder is heard) are recorded annually in Singapore. "

Cool Pool Toy II

For his birthday Carl received a really cool inflatable racing car from his Nana (my Mum) in New Zealand. We've been through a few pool toys in our time here - after all the kids swim every day - but this is one of the best looking ones. Carl is still learning to stay on it as a bit of balance is required but Niels has it all figured out.

The best part of course is when they 'crash' and Mum tips them off...

Lion Dance

The fifteen days of Chinese Lunar New Year celebrations recently ended around the world. Here in Singapore, with Chinese making up around 70% of the population, it’s a big event with all sorts of festivities across the island. I’ve posted on this before but wanted to share with you one of the highlights of the New Year celebrations, the Lion Dance.

Every year a Lion Dance is organised at school for the kids to enjoy. At that time of year you often see little trucks decorated with flags carrying the Lion Dance teams in their brightly coloured costumes to venues where they perform this traditional ritual.

Legend has it that long ago in China, the people were attacked by a fearsome beast called the Nian (“neen”) on the same day every year. The people marked the end of a year by his visits to the human civilization, which is where the Chinese word for year came from. This happened for many years until a wise man thought up a plan to scare the monster away. He constructed a lion suit from brightly coloured material and danced around it in to frighten the monster away. He was aided by the clashing of symbols and banging of large drums to make him seem even more frightening. The lion successfully chased away the Nian and the Lion Dance has been done ever since.

An important part of the dance is the offering of a plate of vegetables and oranges (considered to be lucky) to the lions. The lions ‘eat’ these and then toss them into the crowd – catching a piece is supposed to bring you luck.
Below is a video clip of the kids enjoying the Lion Dance at school. If you look closely you’ll see the lions eyes blinking and the ears moving. The dancers are judged by how well they can make the lions “come to life” during the dance.

Singapore: Crane City

If you live for any length of time in Singapore it's bound to happen: one day the building next door, or just down the street, disappears. Almost over night. The economy is super-heated over here and the building boom has to be seen to be believed. Cranes prick the skyline from horizon to horizon as ever taller condos and office towers are built. Unfortunately the condo next to ours is now suffering the same fate. Like a high tech dinosaur a demolition machine is biting chunks out of the doomed building, reducing it to rubble while spraying water to dampen the dust.
We'll probably be gone by the time construction begins so won't have to face the prospect of a forty storey condo being perched next to us, but it does give us a chance to watch how quickly a building can be demolished.

High Season For The Tooth Fairy

Bless his cotton socks, but Niels does look cute with half his teeth missing!

So far he's lost six baby teeth, with only two adult teeth having grown back. It makes him lisp a little bit and it's just so cute!

I can vividly remember losing my baby teeth, being unable to resist wiggling each loose tooth until it loosened enough to fall/be pulled out. Niels is much braver than I ever was though; no sooner is a tooth a bit wiggly then he grabs it with his fingers and yanks it out, leaving just a bloody hole in his satisfied grin. Perhaps he's just in a hurry to get the Tooth Fairy's fee.

When he lost his first tooth he was a bit anxious. Having bits fall off his body was not cool. So I explained to him the marvellous wonder of the tooth fairy turning up and exchanging his extra bits for cold hard cash. Money was just starting to become important to him as he realised what you could do with it, and the idea of someone/thing giving him cash for body parts he no longer needed had a strong appeal. You could see the cogs in his mind whirring as he considered this, then he looked at me with a mercenary glint in is eye and asked "is there a hair fairy too?"

@ Sunrice – Turning Up The Heat At Cookery School

Finally I have attended a cooking class in Singapore. With a more flexible schedule now that Carl is in school, I’ve been looking at some local cooking schools to learn more about the fantastic food here. I admit it – I love food, I love cooking, and the best food in the world must surely come from Asia. Loads of fresh seafood, a huge variety of vegetables, and a seemingly endless array of spices make cooking and eating a gastronomic journey of discovery.

‘At Sunrice’ is a professional culinary school which trains chefs at a stunning stone colonial building located at the top of the hill in Fort Canning Park, smack bang in the centre of the city. Established in 1859 as an arms store, barracks and hospital, Fort Canning contains precious memorials of Singapore's early history dating back to the 14th century and Sir Stamford Raffles' personal bungalow. The Spice Garden is a replica of the original 19-hectare tract Raffles established in 1822 as the first experimental and botanical garden in Singapore.
An important site within the park is a grave for a Malay Sultan dating back to the 1400s. We were recently at Fort Canning for the Burns night, and right next door to that function room is the At Sunrice academy. Fortunately the cooking academy also offers casual cooking classes for the ‘leisure cook’ as they so charmingly call us. My day there started at 8.30am with a guided walk through the spice gardens with the charming and knowledgeable Rampeetha, also known as ‘Chef A’. Describing himself as a “kampong boy from Thailand”, Chef A is in fact a highly respected chef who was lured away from one of the top hotels in Bangkok to head the culinary academy. After walking through the gardens identifying and smelling everything from lemon grass to pepper, pandan and ginger and learning about their uses, we headed up to the school and enjoyed a break before settling down to learn how to make five typical Singaporean dishes.
The academy offers morning classes for Thai, Indian, Malay, Singaporean, and New Asian food. This time I’d chosen Singaporean but I’d love to go back to do more. Chef first demonstrated how to make spicy satay with peanut sauce, then we got down to work ourselves to make Ondeh Ondeh, a Nonya desert of steamed mashed sweet potato rolled into balls, stuffed with a chunk of solid palm sugar, then boiled until the sugar melts inside and served rolled in freshly grated coconut. We also made Kway Teow, which is two types of noodles stir fried together with seafood and lots of soy sauce, and black pepper prawns. It was a great experience with just five of us in the class and I’m looking forward to going back again, maybe with a group of friends this time. Needless to say hubby is dead keen as he wants to eat the results!

Singapore Air Show

Now I’m not really one for enjoying machines: cars don't interest me, I make too many long-haul flights every year to find planes anything other than a means from getting from one place to another, and frankly boats are hubby’s passion, not mine. However I was keen to go to the widely advertised Singapore Air Show on Sunday 24th February, if only to see the Black Knights - the Singapore Air Force’s aerobatic flight team who do amazing aerial displays in their specially painted fighter jets.





On a perfect blue sky day we stood on the tarmac at the huge, spanking brand new custom-built site near Changi and watched the jets thunder over head executing incredible stunts. This was a real Top Gun experience and girls, I can tell you the sun wasn’t the only thing heating up the crowd on the tarmac! The adrenalin rush of flying one of those things must be amazing. The absolute topper was when two jets passed low in front of us, one flying upside down and positioned only 3 metres above the head of his fellow pilot!!! God knows how they didn’t hit each other, I’ve never seen anything like it. I have to admit I was pretty happy that all the flying was not done directly above the crowds – I kept thinking about those t.v. programmes showing planes crashing into the crowds at air shows.

To get an idea of what it was like, click on the following link to see some film posted on You Tube for Aviation Week magainze: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7SiBEh51ic







The Black Knights were followed by about 90 minutes of incredible flight displays by a range of combat and commercial planes. Fortunately hubby had thought to bring ear plugs.
It's a good tip to anyone planning to visit such a show as the jet engines can be incredibly loud at close range.







It seems everybody from the Americans to the Germans wanted to show off their hardware. A huge Airbus A380 lumbered overhead, and we were able to take a close look at another which was parked among the static aircraft displays. What an enormous passenger plane, it certainly looks like the biggest in the world and like a fat bumble bee you can’t help but wonder how the thing ever gets off the ground. The one parked on the tarmac proved to be very useful for providing shade and hundreds of people were able to take shelter from the burning sun under its massive outstretched wings - it looked for all the world like a goose guarding its over-sized brood!





Apart from the spectacular fly-overs there was a lot to see on the ground. The Air Show is first and foremost a trade show, with the public only being allowed to visit in the final two days. The world’s collective war mongers and defence despots had already done their deals and left by the time we were allowed to take a look. The kids were fascinated by the tanks, artillery etc on display, and particularly by a really cool tank-like vehicle which carries a fold-out bridge on its roof for constructing instant bridges (photo left). Very handy I would think following floods or earthquakes. Niels and his Dad walked through a huge twin rotor helicopter which they thought was pretty cool, and both boys were jumping up and down in excitement at being able to sit in a real plane cockpit which was on display in one of the exhibition halls.



As always we had arrived fairly early in the day, and it turned out to be so hot outside that we left by 1 o’clock. Another good reason to leave was the thickening crowds – I have never seen so many people pouring into a venue as I did when we left. I don’t know how many people attended but hubby reckoned it must have been close to 100,000. Crowds that dense just make us feel uncomfortable so we headed off home to jump in the pool and cool down.

It was a fantastic day and if you ever get the chance to attend one of these air shows, do go because you won’t regret it.

Happy 4th Birthday Carl!

Wow, what a busy couple of weeks we’ve had! This blog has been totally neglected – ironically the more things I want to tell people about, the less time I have to sit down and do it, so I’m waaaaaaaaaaayyy behind. First of all, it was hubby’s birthday on the 17th. As he is over 13 he didn’t get to have a birthday cake in the shape of his favourite toy, but we did have a bar b q around the pool which was lots of fun.

Next on the list was Carl, who has finally turned four years old. I say ‘finally’ because he already started school back in January, something that would normally happen once he was four in Holland. However over here at the Hollandse School they move the little kids from the pre-school up to the primary school four times a year, so whoever has their birthday in the first quarter started after the Christmas break. He considers himself to be a BIG BOY now and has developed a BIG MOUTH to go with it.

On Wednesday, his actual birthday, he opened his presents before school in a flurry of shredded paper and squeals of delight. List toppers were a cool inflatable racing car for the pool, an alphabet learning game which plays a fantastically irritating tune he absolutely loves, handfuls of pirate figures (also coveted by his older brother) and Doc Tox, the latest instalment for his collection of Planet Protectors from the Early Learning Centre.*

Carl’s favourite thing in the world at the moment is robots, so guess who was up until 10.30 pm making robot shaped cookies for him to take to school last week? On the left you can see him sitting on the knee of his beloved teacher, Juf Jannie, during his birthday celebration at school. He was telling me all about how much fun he had at school the other day when he stopped, sighed, looked up with a dreamy smile on his face and said "I really like ladies, Mummy!"

Then on Saturday he had a few of his friends come over for robot cake before being whisked away to SAFRA at Toa Payoh where there is a huge indoor kids playground. Later on hubby and I admitted it may well have been the perfect birthday party venue: you just let the kids loose and they run around yelling and screaming and having a great time, safely enclosed inside a fenced area while the parents chill out on the other side. After 90 minutes we packed them back into the car, headed home, and rehydrated them all in time for their parents to pick them up again. Easy!

*The Early Learning Centre (http://www.elc.co.uk/) is a British toy shop chain which sells a wide range of ‘educational’ toys. The Planet Protectors are a team of environmental warrior animals who fight the planet polluter, Doc Tox. I only mention this because I’ve bought a few things from the ELC since we’ve lived in Singapore and I have to say that although they are pricey compared to your standard stores like Toys R Us, the toys are very well made, rugged, and last for ages. Even Carl – toy annihilator extraordinaire – hasn’t managed to break any of the Planet Protectors and the big wooden castle I bought for his 3rd birthday is still going strong and looking good. I recommend them to anyone with kids aged under 10.

We Mere Mortals

At the risk of having you all run away to read someone else’s blog which, I’m going to recommend to any parents out there to click the following link to Finslippy. This Mum of a two year old recently asked readers to send in their bad parenting stories – those moments which all parents have where you just completely lose your cool and end up making a complete ass of yourself and feeling guilty for the rest of your life. The result was phenomenal, and if you have kids (or even better: if you’re thinking of having them and don’t know what you’re in for!) you have to read these real-life stories from loving parents who like the rest of us are just, well…human.

http://www.finslippy.com/finslippy/2008/01/we-are-all-winn.html

I guarantee you will laugh, be horrified, and at the end you will think "well I'm not that bad after all!"

Canonball Trees and Freaky Figs

One of the great things about living in the tropics is the incredible flora and fauna. I've lost count of the number of times I've been walking through a park or even down the street and say, "wow, look at that !"





This first photo shows one of the coolest and weirdest trees which I've found here. Known as the Canon Ball Tree, it seems pretty ordinary until you notice the enormous brown spheres hanging from the lower branches. Solid to the touch and really heavy, they seem like they could literally be used as canon balls. They are suspended on long, naked, vine like stems which must be pretty tough to support the weight.

As if that weren't enough to set the tree apart, it also has the most amazing huge pink flowers with a white cup-shaped heart topped by yellow stamens. They are just stunning and look exotic enough to be something you'd normally have to pay to see in a botanical garden, yet here they are just growing alongside the road.


You can see a hand on the right-hand edge of the first photo holding one of the 'canon balls'. This is one of the women with whom I did a walking tour of historic Black & White houses recently. Although she is holding her hand there to give a sense of the size of the spherical fruits, we just about caused an accident on the very busy Tanglin Road when we stopped to feel this trees balls!

Another weird and wonderful tree I've come across is the local fig. For some unknown reason, the figs here grow their fruit straight out of the trunck instead of in bunches hanging from stems like any normal tree would do. The effect is kind of creepy actually but I suppose there must be a good reason for it.

I don't know if you can actually eat these figs - maybe one of you can let me know, the fruit may just be ornamental.



It's always worth keeping your eyes open and taking the time to look closely at the plant life here, because you just never know what weird and unusual discoveries you'll make.

Carl Decides He's A Big Guy

About ten days ago Carl suddenly made an announcement: he didn't want to swim with his floater any more. Since he's turning four this month and is very confident in the pool it seemed like a reasonable idea. I took the floater off, he carefully pushed himelf off from the steps...and had endless fun discovering that all those spastic movements he has been perfecting over the past two years were in fact nature's prelude to swimming. Seemingly defying the laws of physics as understood by Carl, his chubby little body actually floats.

I could have told him that it's just the fat in his oh-so-kissable little cheeks that keeps his head buoyant, but hey, let's let him think it's because of his own efforts for a while. Here he is daring to put his face all the way under for the first time, in the kids pool.

Lazy Sunny Days

The Netherlands has been enjoying a bit of warmer weather lately, as you can see in this pic of Rocco and Ashley basking in the rays of mid-winter sun.

Ashley figured out long ago that her man makes the perfect pillow, especially when he's got his full winter coat.

Doesn't it just make you want to go aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh?

PS: The following photo is of two rescued rabbits which Liesbeth is currently nursing back to health. The black and white one is affected by a condition known as head tilt, usually caused by a bacterial infection. The brown one was dumped at only 4 weeks of age (when it should have still been with its mother) because it's eyes hadn't yet opened - a sign that something is seriously wrong. Both are on antibiotics and with lots of TLC and with the appropriate veterinary care are expected to make more or less full recoveries to enjoy good quality lives. (The brown one may be blind but that is not necessarily a hindrance to a house rabbit who lives in a stable, trusted environment as a rabbits smell and hearing are so well developed they can take over much of the role of sight). If ever you needed an argument against buying a pet rabbit from a breeder, remember this: both of these rabbits were literally DUMPED in a box on her doorstep by breeders who couldn't be bothered looking after them responsibly because there wasn't going to be a profit in it. If you want to offer a safe and loving home to rabbits, rescue them from your local animal shelter. They all deserve a second chance. Breeders don't.

OK OK, Here Are The Photos...

It seems that you are a blood thirsty lot. Having read that I took a photo of poor hubby's head wound apparently nothing less than full disclosure will provide satisfaction. So here you are: the before and after shots.

Here's before:

...now scroll down to see after...





























WOW! Those nurses at ER really did a great job!

Off To The Hospital...Again

So there we were yesterday afternoon, enjoying an hour by the pool. I had my feet up reading a book while Niels and Carl splashed up and down on one of the gazillion inflatable toys they've been through since we moved here. Hubby had been out but I heard the car come back and it wasn't long before he joined the kids in the pool. Now we all know what boys are like - admittedly it took me a while to adjust having come from a family of all girls but basically if you get two or more males in any given space they just love to start wrestling each other and horsing around. As Niels likes to call it, having a bit of "tickle and rough". I swear he invented that phrase all by himself.

I buried my nose deeper in my book, relieved that Daddy was here this time to keep the kids entertained when suddenly there was the distinctive cry of a child in pain. I looked up and saw Niels floundering to the side of the pool, holding a hand over his mouth, and hubby standing with a look of extreme pain clutching the top of his head. This can't be good, I'm thinking.

I grabbed a towel and jogged over - it turned out that Niels had jumped into the pool, but instead of landing next to Daddy, he'd landed right on top of him. I was expecting blood and bits of teeth and tongue. Shit shit shit shit and he's got two adult teeth now, I bet they're damaged...I slowly prised his fingers open...and nothing! Finally found a tiny cut on the bottom of his chin and maybe two little drops of blood. Phew.

I turned to hubby who was still standing in the pool clutching the top of his head...and saw a thick red trickle of blood oozing through his hair, over his ear and down his arm. "Get out of the pool honey, you're bleeding".

"Aaah, he jumped right on top of me. Is he ok?"

"Get OUT of the pool honey, you're bleeding." By now I'm wondering, shit that blood isn't coming out of his ear, is it?

"Is Niels ok? Did he bite his tongue?" By now there are little red puffs of cloud appearing in the water where the blood is running off his elbow into the pool.

"GET.OUT.OF.THE.POOL. YOU.ARE.BLEEDING" (I mean what is this, brain damage??)

Hubby finally gets out of the pool, so I shoved him into the shower and washed away the blood, tracking back up until I found a pretty good sized split on top of his head. Hmmmm, looks like stitches are needed.

With the towel pressed firmly on his head I ushered everyone into inside. Niels was fine, just feeling bad for hurting his Dad. Once the kids were sorted I grab my camera, took a photo of hubby's wound and showed him. Time for hospital.

Once again the efficient Singaporean medical system had him fixed up (two stitches) and out the door within an hour or so. So now all three of them have been to the ER. Carl when he split his chin over when he fell over next to the pool and needed 4 stitches; Niels when he took up sword swallowing http://thesingaporesling.blogspot.com/2007/12/my-son-sword-swallower.html; and now hubby. They say trouble comes in threes so hopefully I'm immune.

Monkey Boy

Recently I blogged about the Chinese Zodiac and the different animal signs our family fall under (http://thesingaporesling.blogspot.com/2008/02/ready-for-year-of-rat.html). Carl was born in 2004, the year of the monkey, and he fits the profile perfectly. Further evidence: check out this recent photo, taken downstairs. Our very own Monkey Boy!