Summer vacation has come and almost gone...
Five weeks of home leave is almost coming to an end. We return home today. How did the five weeks pass so quickly? There are still a number of friends which I have not met up...so much to do, so little time.

Of course, the best part is meeting all the relations and friends and eating all the yummy food...



The kids eating Old Chang Kee, fried squid



My favourites - tulang (stewed chilli lamb's bone marrow) and mee kuah...slurp, slurp


The king of all fruits, smell like poo but taste heavenly - durians!




More of the durians, that's how you should eat them, along the road side!


What's little Ann staring at....


Her favourite paper prata...


Chopping it down


Ngor Hiang (fritters of all sorts)


Kai slurping down his ramen, one of the best outside Japan


Road side stall outside lau pa sha.


A feast of road side food - satay, fired kuay teow, sambal stingray.....

Places we have been




Having fun with their favourite cousins at the pool


The children must visit the library


ION , one of the newest shopping mall in Singapore....


Universal Studio, Singapore. Impressive!

It was our National Day...



Having fun while waiting for the tankers to pass by....

Last but not least, home coming is never complete without meeting up with friends and families....






It's back to the routine life in Shanghai once again, thanks to all for the fun time. I truly regret that I am unable to meet up with all of my friends. Please do accept my sincere apologies. Sigh...so much to do in such a short time. Till we meet again....

This is so Singaporean...(bwahahaha)
During lunchtime and when there is a huge crowd, finding seats is a difficult task, so once you find them, what do you do to 'secure' your seats while you go and order your food....


Use umbrella and tissue packs to 'choop' the seats. Very funny but very effective ok.

Friendship

There are all kinds of friends. Casual friends, good friends, old friends, best friends and list goes one. I love Facebook (FB) for the fact that it could help me to find "long-lost" friends. In fact, when it first started, I wasn't very interested in it. I am not a computer person. To me, no big deal about it. But then, being a mum to two kids, sooner or later they will reach the stage where, like all teenagers do, spend time on the computer yakking with friends. It is wise to be in the know.

When I was in the US of A, I started an account on FB and just left it. I didn't go into it, totally forgotten all about it until I started receiving notifications about so and so want to be my friend, so and so made a request...I started getting excited over it because, there were many secondary school friends who have found me.

Beginning of this year, my former Red Cross member and also my ex-SCGS schoolmate found me. It was exciting, like finding treasure in the sunken Titantic. Last month, she was in Shanghai with her family for the World Expo. She called me and we met up for dinner. It was our first meet up after 30 years!. That's a L-O-N-G time.

When I came back to SG, she was back from her SH vacation and we met up one more time. The wonderful thing about this friendship of ours is that there are no barriers. Although, we have not been in touch for so many years, even in FB, we don't chat. Seeing face to face, we could continue from where we last left off. It was such a joy.

When in SG, she invited me and the two kids to her club for lunch. When I heard that we were going to a club, I shrunk. I never love going to clubs, I always felt intimitated. I am never comfortable because people in clubs are so "high and mighty" and have no respect for non-members. That's my perception. This perception came about when I was invited for a work lunch, many moons ago at a club near the old Elizabeth Walk. I was dressed well (afterall, it's work lunch) with proper shoes and all. But I wasn't allowed into the restaurant (read...NOT fine-dinning) because my attire was collarless! I wanted to give the guy at the door a good thrashing and stomped out! If not for my respect for my kind boss, I probably would have made headline then. Then again, he was just doing his job...I should have given the "rulers" a piece of my mind.

If you are a faithful reader of the Straits Times, I am sure you have read of many incidents of clubs not allowing maids in, not welcoming guests etc....

Come, come, why do people pay so much for a club membership to have themselves and their guests suffocated by silly attires. To me, a club is for you to rest and relax. To let your hair down and not be squeezed into a mould of rules...

But this club which my friend belongs to is so comfortable. Ok, good things must share right? It is the Hollandse Club, opened since 1908. Very rich in history. This isn't your "ikan bilis" club. Members are locals, foreigners and expats...with over 40 nationalities! The moment we entered, we were cheerfully greeted by the staff. Listen up, the members there are all in t-shirts, bermudas and flip-fops. Ladies were dressed in sun-dresses and open-toe platform shoes (hello, this is hot, sunny, tropical island of Singapore). Restaurants are opened to all "dressers". I was completely at ease! It was a great Sunday afternoon catching up with each other.


Lunch with the family


Linus and Kai became good friends almost immediately. Born on the same year and same month.


The kids having s fun time at the bowling alley

This is one very special moment of this summer vacation.

Home...where the family is

The wonderful thing about being home is when family and extended families gather. So, I really cannot comprehen why some relations are so afraid to meet up. Really, at the end of the day, nothing else matters... not your house, not your car, not your successful career but your families. People that matter to you.

We were home at the right time. Two of our cousins (brothers) were celebrating their birthdays and the joy of being with the families just made the day!

Uncles, aunties, cousins. cousins' children etc, etc, etc.....


Birthday boys. The bigger one giving a recital and the smaller one chompping down a strawberry!

这就是所谓的，天伦之乐吧！

My second home...where the church is

I grew up in this church. Believe it or not, I only spend the first 13 years of my life NOT going to this church. It is indeed sad to know that these days, there are many church-hoppers. Really, Christianity is a relationship with the One above. There is nothing to do with how mega or how advance is the church building. How modern is the worship leader or how flashy is the pastor. HE is the same yesterday, today and forever.


After all these years, some people are still sitting in the same seat. Comfort zone?

He gave up!

Kai was actually very excited about going back to his SG school. He was looking forward to meeting his friends and even contributing what he has learned to the class. He had packed all his worksheets and workbooks to bring back with him.

School term is kind of different in both countries. In SH, school term starts from August to June while in SG, it is from January to November.

That meant, Kai has already finished his P4 when he went back to his SG school. I knew he would be bored to 'redo' everything again and have, many times, asked him if he really wanted to go back to school and again and again, he said a very firm 'yes'.

Finally, the day came and he was back at school. Very excited and anxious to meet his friends and teachers again but after one week, he gave up.

He was bored listening to everything he has already done and soon, became restless. Started fiddling with his pens and pencils. His teacher told him he was a disturbance to the class. Haiz....

By the fourth day, his excitment turned into boredom and he told me, he didn't want to go back to school anymore.

Apart from having knowledge, a little wisdom could have made Kai and the class more interesting. I would have involved him by getting him to teach the class, to share his knowledge with the class...it would have been fun. Sometimes, EQ is just as important.

代价是否太大了?

孩子学校放署假， 我带他们回家。老大很开心，因为又能和他的好朋友一起玩。可是现实和他所盼望的是不一样的。

不是朋友不跟他好，而是时间冲淡了他们的友情。看到孩子忧悒，我也为他赶到辛酸。唯一能做的，就是安慰他。“孩子必须有一个完整的家。为了父亲的工作，一家人都必须到国外去，不能分开来住。少了朋友，但家人永远都少不了”。

为了父亲的工作，孩子们都失去了交永久的朋友，享受深厚的友情。这个代价是否太大了呢？

Did someone say, I'm on "vacation"?

When I first became a mum, a good friend of ours gave me a book, titled - Motherhood is not for the wimps. Very funny comic book but spoke volumes of truth.

I have flew home with two kids in tow. Kids that are neither toddlers nor teenagers. Kids that are at the age where they will bicker, not able to help much and full of energy. Constantly, asking, "what are we going to do?" On top of that, moving in to stay in an almost empty house meant, setting up a home so that we all could at least, live simply for the next five weeks. Oh, by the way, dh isn't with us as he has work to do.

Then, there were schools to attend. With such hyper kids, don't expect them to laze around and do nothing for five weeks, either they will be driven to madness or I will be driven six feet underground. That meant, waking up early in the morning, getting no.1 to school then follow by no.2. I am stressed, like what Buzz Lightyear said, "to infinity and beyond."



I think I just found a new meaning to "summer vacation".

Homemade TV dinner?

We will be heading home and dh will join us later. I prepared some food for him otherwise, he will be feeding himself with the three minutes noodles!


Kai called them homemade TV dinner!

Look out for my next journey...if they get the wireless up and running!

Impressive

There is one thing which I really enjoy doing here in SH, is to bring the kids to the museums and I am always impressed by their museums. Many of them are very hands-on and the kids thoroughly enjoy each visit. Their museums here make our Discovery center and the Science museum look amateur.

This being the summer vacation, I brought the kids to the newest addition to the Shanghai museum scence...The Shanghai Animation and Comics Museum. Although, not fully completed, it was already a fun-filled four hours for us. We are really looking forward to visiting the museum again when the it is fully opened.






Cartoon characters of all sorts




Simple tools - paper and pencil, that's all that's required



The hands-on part

If you think there are nothing for children to do at Shanghai, think again.