Blackout 18/08

We had just finished dinner and the 2 kids were both engaged in their own activities. Kyle was playing on the computer and Meryl was playing puzzles in the living room with me. It was almost 8 in the evening.

The hubby came back from work and we were about to open the gate for him when, lo and behold, darkness engulfed us! I promptly went to the switchbox to see which button had tripped but all was intact. Next I went outside to check if our neghbour's house had lights and it had. Umm...we were completely clueless what had happened.

I contacted Singapore Powers and was told that help will arrive in an hour's time.

We managed to find a box of birthday candle and proceeded to set up a 'candle-lit' dinner for the hubby. The kids were thrilled!! I was flabbergasted! No fan, no lights, no TV ,no computers! For an hour!!

Of course, the hubby and I made use of this teachable moment to drum in the importance of conserving energy yada, yada, yada...and what will happen if there is no more supply...yada yada yada..all the while praying in our hearts that such a day will never come.

To our surprise, help arrived within a mere 10 minutes even before the hubby finished his dinner. 2 men from the Town council came and went on to set things right. They showed us the cause of the 'blackout' - a badly burnt fuse probably caused by loose wires. I was horrified and queried if a fire can be caused this way. One said yes but the other said no unconvincingly. Just keeping my fingers crossed that this will be the 1st and last.

Soon the lights came back on and we resumed our activities with renewed thankfulness.

Enrichment for Kids

The newly opened Anchorvale CC with 8 slides and a sheltered pool . You can see my block behind the pool.

The hubby and I are of the same mind when it comes to learning; no enrichment classes (at least for now) but to expose them to a wide variety of activities. To date, Kyle who is 5 and Meryl who is 3 1/2 has not attended any classes which is curriculum-based. However, this year, we have decided to include some structured learning into their activities:

• Wednesday night - badminton at AVCC 2hrs (family affair)


• Wednesday evening -Kyle's piano lesson (indiv)


• Thursday morning - Kyle's chess class ( conducted in his kindergarten)


• Thursday - Gymnastics in school


• Friday night - Kyle's swimming class (Meryl also go swimming for fun)


• Sat morning - Meryl's ballet class


• May holidays - 1 week Speech and drama camp for Kyle which included singing and acting.

The mummy is also going for a course this August - Hair cutting!!! This is a timed decision due to the hubby and son's penchant for haircuts which they go ever so often, hand in hand. With the escalating prices of things, I need to cut corners, literally, and this is one area that I can help shave costs (at least save $20 per month).

That said and done, proximity is also of utmost consideration. Kyle's piano class is conducted at the block next to mine, his swimming and Meryl's ballet is also at the newly opened CC which is 5 mins ride on bicycle and Kyle's chess and gymnastic is held in school. Luckily for them, otherwise they will not get to attend anything as I hate travelling to anywhere for anything, except for food and shopping!!!!

Mussel Farm Kelong

Sunday morning and we decided at the last minute to go to the hubbys friend's kelong. After a quick call to confirm the time, we headed for Jalan Kayu to buy otak, bread and some yutiao for our lunch. We arrived at the run-down jetty at about 11am and waited for his friend.

It was low tide and we could see many mudskippers, snails, tiny liitle crabs and hermit crabs crawling all over the beach. It was fun. We even caught 2 hermit crabs which we thought we can rear at home.

At 11.30, hubby's friend arrived with his son and we hopped into a speedboat and off we went. The trip lasted no more than 5 minutes and the kids were absolutely thrilled!

The kelong is a mussel farm and I found out from the uncle there that they just let down the ropes and the mussels and barnacles will attach themselves to it and they will then harvest it after a few months. Then they have to dry the ropes again before they let it down, otherwise the eggs will not be able to attach itself to the ropes.

The kelong is quite a fruit haven. There were rose apple tree (above), orange tree, lime tree and chiku tree and many others that I do not recognise. According to an auntie, they even grew vegetables but for some reason, they stopped. There was also a chicken coop that Kyle and Meryl were happily scaring the chickens and sending them flapping all over the place.

The hubby couldn't wait to start fishing and dumped the kids with me. They explored the place with me running after them lest they fall into the water. Meryl was busy feeding the fish with bread while Kyle was ALL over. In the end, I couldn't care less and let them be.

They had otak(no chilli) with bread for their lunch and I even did some marking whilst I was there. Then I tried to get the kids to sleep on a foldable chair but they ended up fighting with each other over it. By this time, I was also busy fishing and couldn't be bothered. Luckily they were able to self-entertain each other. Kyle played mostly with Patrick Kor kor and Meryl was happy just on her own.

There were heaps of bread (all expired and mouldy) given by confectionary to be fed to the fish at a nearby kelong. The workers were busy removing them from their wrappers and Meryl happily took the bread to feed 'her' fish. We used the mussels as bait for the fish and I managed to catch about 3 but 2 of which were catfish.

Patrick caught this fish and we also managed to catch quite a few of this towards the early evening. Patrick's dad went hunting for fish literally with gun and arrows. He also managed to catch quite a few fish. I was worried for a while when I did not see him surface after a long time.

We only left at about 6 and my 2 kids did not nap at all. Meryl got punished for getting into the speedboat without waiting for us. Once we were in the car, she knocked out almost immediately followed by Kyle. Picked up helper on route to fil's place.

Weekend Rendevous

My weekends always pass by in a frenzy of activities after we have kids. The list of activities keeps on increasing as we seek out new experiences for them. They include:

• Singapore Zoo (esp when Kyle was younger)
• Night Safari (since we have the Wildlife card...a waste not to go!Usually weekdays after dinner for an hour or 2)
• Farms at Lim Chu Kang- frog, goats, organic vegetables etc (ongoing)
• Animal Resort at Seletar Farmway-not been there for a while..must revisit again.
• Mushrooms farms-loved the mushrooms, still taste better than when you buy from NTUC
• Fish farms at Pasir Ris Farmway- for our aquarium, last visit on National Day
• Downtown East - Explorer Kids and Wild Wild Wet
• Fishing at Punggol/ Pasir Ris- Kyle will go with the hubby to fish or we go usually after dinner to see pp fish
• Cycling at Pulau Ubin- quite a fun thing to do ..rent the buggy to attach to the bike if you have baby too small for the baby seat
• Nature walks at Lower Pierce/Macritchie Reservoir-usually in the morning after breakfast
• Bukit Timah Nature Reserve-tried out a few routes. Meryl can do solo to the summit
• Tree-top Walk at Macritchie- long walk!
• Swimming at Keppel and SRC and yeye's place
• Kelong - mussel farm off Lim Chu Kang - great getaway
• Sentosa picnics- with my family at Tanjung and Siloso beaches
• Birthday parties
• Grocery shopping at Giants-weekly affair
• Lunches at Ikea
• Visit gong gong at the Home
• dinner at yeye's - my sis-in-law is a fabulous cook!
• RC events such as Family day, movie night, funfair etc- I am a very supportive resident in Sengkang

Of course, it's not all about the kids...there's also the occasional mahjong sessions after the kids sleeps...hee..

2 Patriotic Citizens

It's been amost one week after National Day but on Sat morning, my girl woke up singing 'We are Singapore' and reciting the pledge. My son soon joined in and they were both singing at the top of their voices in no time. It was only 7.45am much to the despair of both the hubby and I who were still very much in dreamland!

Meryl has shocked us one evening when she recited the whole Pledge in Mandarin. Found out that the school taught them that. Then Kyle also started singing some National Day songs and we had been 'treated' to a few weeks of Nationalistic display by my 2 children. On National Day itself, we were all home watching the National Day Parade while having our dinner in the living room. It was pretty amusing to see the 2 stand at attention, without any prompting, when the National Athem was sung on TV and again when the Pledge was recited at the end of the parade. Puts the mummy to shame...ha ha.

So thoughtful

Called home as usual at about 9 plus to check on the kids. Kyle answered and said that he finished breakfast first today. He then passed the phne to Meryl and I asked her why she finished breakfast so slowly today as usually she finishes 1st. She replied, " I eat so slowly becaue I want my kor kor to finish first!" So young and yet so thoughtful...I can only conclude that it's a 'char bor' thing, cos I know my son will never think of doing that as boys are usually more 'self-centred' than girls!