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Back from work feeling kinda exhausted but the children wanted to play UNO, obliged and the children tasked to get the cards from the room. Little girl started to role-play with her red bilbo on her back pretending to be snail crawling her way towards the room. Progress was slow as a snail should rightfully be. 5 mins later and halfway through, she got distracted by her brother lying on the floor pretending to be an obstacle. Then both decided they shall be baby horses learning how to gallop, munching their hay, playing with each other, sleeping in the stables. 30 mins later after lounging comfortably on the sofa watching them, I announced its time to go for their showers and get ready for bed. Big protest ensues “But we have not played UNO yet!” Chuckling I said, “Who asked you to become horses in the process of getting the cards?” and packed the grumbling children upstairs!

Last week was the March one-week holidays. With world war III raging at home, it was a relief to Rose our helper when we hauled the children away for a short getaway to Bintan’s Nirwana Gardens. We joined Jac and her family on this trip and the kids were glad to have friends to have fun with together. We told Talia about this getaway some time back and now that she has a better grasp of dates and all, has been counting down to this day!

We met at the Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal to take the ferry at 5pm.

From the moment they met, it was non-stop chattering, non-stopping chasing, non-stopping giggling and squealing!

The ferry ride was 55 mins long and I think the journey was bumpy, with both Jovey and Thaddeus getting seasick towards the end. Even the little girl who is typically ok, went a little green in the face at the end of the ride.

The kids sure were glad to be back on unmoving ground and having the sun on their faces again.

The little girl is at this stage now that she doesn’t want her brother to join her in photos anymore because “he doesn’t know how to pose and it takes forever to take just one pic”. so the poor little boy gotta be in photos all by himself now. Incidentally, if you haven’t figure it out, he’s pretending to be an eagle!

The resort provided transfers for us and the journey was short. What greeted us when we alighted was this absolutely amazing breeze and a breathtaking view of the sea and this unceasing sound of the waves breaking on the shore! I could stay here forever!

While the adults are walking around really admiring the view and all, the boys started their duel!

We were informed however that they were not informed of us coming so would need 3 hours to get the villa ready! Tell me why I am not surprised at all? Anyway, it was almost dinner time so we were given a buggy and we decided to drive towards this new Japanese restaurant to look for food. It was a fine dining restaurant and the boisterous crowd that we are destroyed the ambience the minute we stepped in! We settled down and even though we have been warned about food prices in Bintan, were amazed to see the prices presented there. Nonetheless, since we were already settled down. We went ahead to order but were informed that almost all the items that we wanted were sold out! We ordered udon for the kids and the waiter very kindly came back and informed us that for S$15, the udon would just have udon+soup+seaweed! That sealed it for us, we decided to venture to somewhere else for food and eventually settled at the lobby restaurant for buffet at S$36++ per person. The food’s nothing to shout about but at least there is variety and lots of dessert for the kids!

We finally went back to the villa at 9pm and really liked what we saw! Huge and sprawling, own private pool that oversees the sea (except we couldn’t see a thing at night but we could hear the waves), nice aircon and nice hot water out of the shower! Actually the latter two are all that matters to me!

The next morning, the children jumped into the pool first thing in the morning. Its a bit scary to have the pool so close to the house actually so we constantly hear adults shouting at the children not to go near the pool on their own. Seriously you can’t be too careful when you come to things like this.

But what a time the children had in the pool! With Talia and Thaddeus in arm floats, even I hardly need to go into the water, and just need to keep a watchout by the side of the pool.

The last time this little inflatable boat has seen daylight was when we used this to ferry cookie girl to the little island across the beach in Sentosa!

Perfecting the art of floating!

Perfecting the art of balancing!

After almost an hour in the pool and after showering the kids, it was only 9.30am! We set off to explore the mini zoo we saw the night before while driving back to the villa.

First stop was to feed the deers!

Then I have been told a really really HUGE python rests inside one of glass enclosure and my little boy very kindly told me “mummy! look the other way! don’t look this side!” *shudders*

But I obliged when told to take a pic of Talia and Jovey with the fake snakes! *still shuddering*

This is our buggy that we can drive around in! With the hilly terrain, its practically a roller-coaster ride with the children squealing and laughing all the way! No better way to get around I tell you!

Its reptiles galore I tell you! Crocs! eeks!

It was almost lunchtime and we headed back to our villa for me to whip out my brocolli and pasta and canned mushroom *grin* while Jac whipped out her own stash of vegetables, canned food, pasta and sauce to cook lunch. Packed the kids in for a nap in the freezing cold rooms while the adults go relac one corner! Only some adults apparently, Jim and his father went down to the private beach right in front of villa and came back with a loads of hermit crabs, abalone, fishes. It was amazing!

When the children woke, we made our way to the beach.

When they got tired of the usual digging and building, they decided they will have their own little treasure hunt and started burying their sand toys in the sand for each other to find!

That night, we paid S$30 to get a car to drive us out to a local seafood restaurant for dinner. It’s still not cheap, very much Singapore prices. But the food’s decent. And you won’t see any pictures because everyone wolfed down the food the minute it came!

The next morning, Talia was up at 8am Singapore time (7 am Indonesia time) and joined Jovey who was already up and playing in the pool already. The other younger ones didn’t take too long themselves to get wet as well. After the pool, the kids were treated to a screening of Kungfu Panda II (Yes, we really came very very prepared to entertain the kids). After which, they settled down to play UNO. Even 3.5 years old Thaddeus could play unaided by himself and the kids had a blast of a time!

We had homecooked lunch again and packed the kids off for their nap. The duo who had such a whale of a time catching stuff the day before were at it again!

The plan was to perhaps go to this Pasar Oleh Oleh to do some look-see and then eat out in the evening. But it started raining.

The kids were treated to some snacks while we waited patiently for the rain to cease

Soon it became a drizzle and we decided to venture out to explore the very huge Nirwana Gardens.

The little girl in front of the villa we were staying!

We walked around and saw some facilities for ATV, shooting etc. The usually very grouchy Josef was in a jolly mood and even allowed Talia to hold his hand to walk around.

We walked around looking for food and ended up going back to the main lobby restaurant where we had our buffet the first night thinking we could have that again but alas due to low occupancy, they were only serving ala carte menu. Beggars can’t be choosers so we settled for that, which turned out to be a good choice as the Indonesian food we chose were delicious. We treated the kids to ice-cream as well!

There was a giant chess set outside the restaurant and I tried to give the kids some pointers on playing international chess but gave up after 3 mins as nobody was listening! What do you expect anyway right? Everyone was intent on moving the pieces from the chess board to the snakes and ladders board!

There was a little live band singing in the restaurant so the adults were chilling out a little, so the kids were summoned in and given some colouring to do which very successfully ocuppied them for a while.

When we got back, the water was so alluring I thought what the heck, and allowed the kids to jump in with their arm floats for another swim!

The next morning, MORE swimming!!! and after that we packed up, checked out and finally went to the really very very pathetic Pasar Oleh Oleh for a look. If ever you are in Bintan, don’t bother to even come here! There are 26 little stalls selling handicrafts and food but really all we bought were the cornettos for the kids!

Parting shot before heading to the ferry terminal!

When i was asked by my colleagues how was Bintan, I told them, kids really enjoyed themselves very much and I? I was just there to be the shower-maid!

Thaddeus reading a book we borrowed from the library

i can’t believe that I kept this under “work-in-process” and totally forgotten about it!

The little guy is into reading! In fact, very much into reading.

Just like his sister at this age, he is too eager to get whatever is in his head out as fast as possible and tends to stutter at the beginning of his sentences now. I pray it would all go away in due course as the mouth catches up with the brain!

When he gets upset with anyone of us, he retaliates by declaring that he is not inviting you to his birthday party! And that includes me, after i gently reminded him that if I am not invited, there would be no one to pack his goody bags, after solemnly thinking it through, he said “mummy must pack all the goody bags FIRST even if she is not going to the party!”

This year’s my birthday fell on Chinese New Year’s first day. How un-fun can it get? No cakes because nothing is open and I got to go for my birthday dinner way in advance but at least I got my first little hand-made birthday card from Talia which was better than any pressie in the world!

The kids love Chinese New Year…a lot more compared to me! Well, at least someone is enjoying themselves! Here’s wishing everyone a prosperous dragon year!

Visiting their grandma!

The new year began rather quietly for us. The children went back to school with me tailing the boy on his first alone on the school bus. It was a non-event. He immediately took to the teacher and classmates like fish to water.

Dashed to the play area and started having fun!

Started whipping up a big feast too!

Water play? His favourite!

Snack time? A close second!

And so that was his first day back in school! His kindergarten started earlier for the younger kids but Talia only had her first day on Friday. I didn’t even bother to follow them to school! This will be Talia’s fourth and last year at the kindergarten and *drum roll* she will be reporting at a primary school same time next year!

A while ago, just before bed time she started sobbing and told me she wanted to “stay this size!” Until now I have not figured out what triggered the outburst but she has always been more sensitive and emotional. “Stay this size” you can’t my dear in real life, and you will always “Stay this size” in my heart!

Little boy was glad to have a companion in the the school bus again!

See the really tiny uniform they are in? >< There were no uniforms to be sold on the first day and I have not had the time to go down to Funan to get new ones for them. You reckon I can skip buying the uniforms this year?

and so I have changed jobs. It has been one month and has been going well. I now work out of a home office of my colleague till the new office’s renovations are done, likely to be mid December 2011.

I eat home-cooked lunch everyday by my colleague’s dad, goes to work in my bermudas and tees when there are no meetings and generally leave on the dot at 6pm! woohoo!

But this is because things are just picking up and I have been told, “Pls enjoy the honeymoon period as much as you can now!” I have just hired another staff in anticipation of the pick-up in workload but till he join us, the 4 of us (me + owner + 2 other permanent part-timers) sit facing each other in the small home office, meaning to say I have absolutely no privacy! But even though it has been just 1 month, it seems like I have known them forever and have been doing this for the longest time! The hustle and bustle of Raffles Place seems like a lifetime ago!

90% of the staff here including bosses are believers, we give thanks together when we go for meals. Bosses share with me how they are doing out-reach using marketplace ministries! How cool is that!

Even the best laid plans of mice and men often go array, I figured I will just leave it to the divine and pray this is indeed the place He has intended for me.

Sometimes, impromptu trips are just so fun.

One saturday morning, Dee’s family and my family just decided to spend the whole day at Sentosa! As usual, we reached first and decided to have some fun at the luge first!

We had 2 gos at the luge and the skyride before Dee’s family came along and it was lunchtime already. We went to the nearest eatery which was Macdonald’s (gasp!) I am now a bit more relaxed about what they eat but still it was their first Mac’s burger and both could gobble up the whole burger themselves!

After that we decided the whole group shall just troop towards Resort World and along the way, the boys went bonkers!

Mad running and laughing took over the boys!

Being the sole girl in the group (Philson’s little sister was still too young to join the rest to play), Talia was a bit more subdued!

She skipped along by herself. I guess even she could not take the rowdiness of the boys! tsk tsk!

But when something proved too fun to miss, she definitely would rise up to the occasion!

Then we had enough of wet shirts (we only have that many changes of clothes you know) we ripped the shirts off the boys!

We finally reached Resort World and dried the boys up and took a tour inside. Dee, just see how your philson posed?

By this time, the little guy was already napping the stroller but Dee’s boy simply do not need to nap! Talia typically naps at home but when she is out and having fun, she can do without one as well but her eyes will be all droopy by 7pm.

We headed towards the beach and had a good 3 hrs fun time at the beach!

Any other impromptu trips anyone?

I think sites like groupon, deal.com, street deal etc has forever change the way I shop, especially when it comes to eating out and travelling. Restaurants and places that I would normally not try/go tempts me when an attractive discount beckons.

And which is why during one weekend in August, the whole family descended at Tanah Merah Ferry terminal in the morning to board the ferry for a 2D1N trip to Turi Resort in Batam.

The ferry journey was only 40 mins and quite comfortable and uneventful. What we found out though was gamblers are immediately transferred to the shuttle ferry that will take them directly to the casino ship floating somewhere in the international waters nearby. And they even credit the $22 ferry charges back so its virtually free for the gamblers to come on board to gamble vs the $100 they have to pay if they go to the casinos on mainland Singapore.

The resort was only 5 mins away from the ferry terminal and our “hotel room” was a hut effectively on stilts, kinda quaint but the interior was ok. Beds have mosquito nets on it and I suspect that mosquitos could be an issue (which induced me to slap on so much anti-bug that there was not a single bite the whole time we were there).

We dumped our stuff and went to explore the place.

The little hut for chilling by the pool was reminscent of the actual bigger hut we were going to sleep in! It has the exact rooft!

The beach was right beside the pool.

There was also a loooong jetty which we promised ourselves we were going to explore in the evening!

The girl tried out the hammock and refused to get out!

We went for buffet lunch at the restuarant in the hotel and it was actually pretty decent. Not cheap going by the local context and not expensive too in our view (especially when I have two little foodies who are going through a humongous pile of food and need not pay for anything as they are below 5! *cue evil laugh*)

We went back to the room for the kids to have a nap and headed for the beach the first thing they woke.

There were nice shady spots and the children happily settled down to dig away.

The little boy also overcame his fear of the waves and went into the water to fill up his watering can!

And the water was so inviting, eventually the whole family sans me was inside the water! What a whale of a time they had!

We rinsed off and jumped right into the pool. The kids tried out their arm floats and were so gleeful they could float without us that we alternated between the kids pool and the adult pool.

Then it was time to explore the long jetty we promised ourselves earlier on.

The breeze was amazing that we had to wrap the kids up in their towels! The family sat for a while at the end of the jetty, enjoying the sunset, the breeze, the beautiful waters, the lights on the shore as dusk approached…

We had an outdoor alfresco bbq dinner right at the lawn beside the beach with live music. The kids obviously were enjoying themselves so much that they left their seats and started to gyrate to the music, much to the amusement of other nearby diners!

The next day’s plan was to have a go at the pool before hitting the shopping centres in town for lunch, massage, food and some shopping.

Guess who and who were having a good time by the pool?

We took a cab to Batam City Square and the journey was about 35 mins. We had lunch at one of the local food restaurant inside, walked around for a while before taking a cab to Nagoya Hills for massage. The timing was impeccable as the boy just fell asleep in the cab, so when we were having our massage, he was happily sleeping on one of the beds as well! Hey hey! The little girl was entertained with one of our ipads.

The massage was fabulous at only about S$9!

We later checked out the shopping and let the children have a go at one of the indoor playgrounds. The shopping was completely way out, as in I found absolutely nothing to buy!

We took a cab back to the resort, took the shuttle from the hotel to the ferry terminal for the last ferry leaving Batam at 6.05 pm and the kids were asleep in their beds by 9pm.

Turi Beach is a pretty decent resort so we really enjoyed our time there. The trip out to town was silly actually except for the wonderfully good and cheap massage!

In May this year, together with my MIL, we embarked on a 18 day road trip starting in Brisbane and ending in Sydney. Brisbane is special to the hubs as he studied there and also because MIL’s elder brother and family has since relocated to Brisbane so it would be great to catch up again.

To save myself and everyone a looooong post of too much details, this will be just highlights with alot of pics.

The MIL was obviously pleased to be out and about with her grandkids!

and what else but a lot of close encounters with animals?

and lots of fun at playgrounds!

lots of snoozing in the car!

lots of posing with cartoon and comic characters!

lots of rides!

lots of trooping around in nature reserves!

lots of different hotels!

lots of beaches!

lots of lighthouses!

lots of sightseeing!

and finally lots of shopping!

and are you exhausted yet! We sure were when we came back!

Lately, I have been experiencing the “fried brains” syndrome. I don’t seem to have much to think about nowadays, which explains I don’t have much to blog about recently as well. Well, the issue has always been time, but hey, it would be like I have much to blog about, just that I don’t have the time. These couple of months, time’s still a scarce commodity but there ain’t much to talk about…

I can think of a few reasons for the dry spell I guess, I haven’t read a good book in like 6 months, whenever I am in my reading season, I tend to get more introspective. Work has been, OMG, like whirlwind! I get sucked into it and am just struggling to stay afloat, that certainly will not help.

I haven’t done anything different like in the longest time too…routine has very much set in and I think that certainly will not help matters here too! and too much mundane and day-to-day things to sort through, to worry about that its firefighting day after day!

But anyhow I hope its a phase though and my brains will regain some of its activity soon!