Just before Daddy left, we celebrated ???’s birthday with good seafood by the sea at East Coast Park. It was a wonderful evening under the stars, with sound of waves lapping on the shore and cool sea breeze. It will be a while before we have another reunion like this. We gonna so so miss the food and people when we go France!

Mal tucking in with chopsticks!

I used to prefer staying in the east, close to the sea. The sun seem brighter and the air fresher. It is nearer to the airport, a good place to hang out if you are not there to see your loved ones off. East coast park is always buzzing with activities and it gives an impression of a resort living kind of lifestyle.

Due to proximity to Daddy’s workplace, we ended up staying in the west, nearer to the island’s industrial area. The air seem more polluted, the sun doesn’t shine as bright and malaysian bikers rule the highway BKE and KJE.

After staying here for close to 6 years. I realised that the west side does has its charm. Every weekend, people flocked from different parts of the island to climb our ‘highest’ peak. Maybe as a measure to neutralize the pollution, the west side seem to be greener. Just outside our house, you can see lush green tropical rainforest.

and just behind our house, among the overgrowth, there is a little path that leads to this….

a railway track!

This is the Malayan Railway Track that is still in operation today and it is right behind our house!
At certain time of the day, if you are lucky, you get to see train, those old ones, not MRT, passing by with long carriages filled with goods. And if you are the more adventurous sort, you may want to try hiking and retrace this forgotten railway. Some interesting reads from here and Singapore Expat before you set off!

Daddy sent this picture back. His first dinner in Paris! St Dalfour Jam , my favourite jam, the all natural, pure fruit with no added sugar jam and it is french! I had to ship almost half a dozen to States the last time cos they don’t have it there. Guess I can have all I want this time in France, so far it is the only thing in Paris that is cheaper than in Singapore. But still, I hope I don’t have to end up eating this for dinner!

‘I want Daddy’
‘I want to go with Daddy’
‘I will miss Daddy’
‘Can we go with Daddy’

Mal was bawling at the departure hall of T3. If you have seen how he cried over his beetle and his water bottle, his bawling at T3 won’t come as a surprise. Daddy is leaving for France, 6 weeks before us, to lay the ‘ground work’, which is mainly to find accommodation in Paris. It is going to be tough, finding decent accommodation that doesn’t cost us a bomb right in the middle of Paris and with the language barrier, it will only make it even harder. I had only recently found out how freaking expensive it is to stay in Paris. In a way, I was glad that both me and Mal was spared from this tough chore, the price for that will be a month of separation from Daddy.

We had been preparing Mal for this moment, telling him that Daddy will be going away and he won’t get to see Daddy for the next month, however he seem oblivious which made Daddy a little disappointed. But Daddy’s disappointment soon turned to heartaches when he saw how sad Mal was at the gate entrance. He took a good half an hour after Daddy left to finally calm down.

That night, before going to sleep, my little boy told me
‘I want to sleep with you tonight’
‘because Daddy is not around’
’so that you will not be lonely’

Mal’s maternal grandma whom he calls tai gong (great grandfather) grew up in our neighbouring country Malaysia and we have a whole bunch of relatives who are still living in rural Muar today. ?? comes from a very big family with 11 siblings whom she still keeps in close contact. Each of them have huge family of their own and I have lost count the number of cousins I have. There are quite a number of them who are as young as Mal but if you go by generation, Mal should actually call them uncles and aunties! Once in a while, during special occasion, we will accompany ?? to visit great grandfather in his very humble, laid back and simple home in the rural village. Just last week, we celebrated great grandfather 82nd birthday in rural Muar. Though it wasn’t Mal’s first visit, we brought him there more than 2 years back before we left for US, it was his first visit since he became more aware of his environment and could make more sense out of the things he sees.

We went on a Friday night and stayed over the weekend. I call it a 3 Day 2 Night Kampong Getaway and Mal had so much fun. There were so much things to see, try and play and the trip was simply rejuvenating for us.

It is hard to imagine the huge difference in living standard and lifestyle for these 2 places which are merely 2 hours apart by car. It is a place where you wake up to a rooster Kakadoodledoo in early dawn, eat ‘organic’ vege and fruits right from the backyard, collect freshly laid eggs from the chicken pen, watch brood of chicken take flight from the chicken pen and explore the plantation in a mini scooter. It is a little paradise in its own way. A lifestyle that many city dwellers can only yearn for.

I can’t wait to get over and done with this MESS!!! Urrrggghhh!
It’s moving time again and it’s driving me nuts with this mess around the house! How I dread packing and how I hate seeing brown carton boxes! It is very disruptive as this time, we need to vacate the house. Alot of the things are not JUNK, they are just not so important and not so urgent and belong to the group where ‘you can keep and use them when you need’ category. It may be a few months, it may be a few years. Most of these stuffs were bought during sales. Yes, SALES, darn cheap and good sales! and if not for this trip, I still think I have helped to save some good money for the household.

But for now, I am so sick of filtering through the mess and deciding which ones should stay and which one should go. Go not because we don’t need them anymore, but because it is not worth or too cumbersome to store them for the next 2 years or so. I am at the verge of pulling hair and I can almost feel Daddy gloating, cos his words have been marked.

Both myself and my hubby ain’t the arty farty sort but still we have hopes that Mal will turn out to be more artistic than us. I love kids’ drawing and seriously, I think my drawing today is still stuck at preschool level, Daddy’s a little better than mine. We had a little drawing competition the other day, for 3 of us to come up with a family portrait and Daddy joked that mine could easily passed off as Mal’s work and I think he was right.

Mal’s very First Family Portrait

In my 30 over years of life as Singaporen, I am ashamed to say that I have hardly step foot into any museum here. Thanks to Mal, for the last month of 2007, we had visited 2 museums in Singapore, the Air Force Museum in Paya Lebar and the Singapore Art Museum at Bras Basah. Needless to say, Mal prefers the former and urge us to bring him back again. We brought him to the art museum in an attempt to expose him to the more artistic world and it was quite an eye opener for me. It surprised me how peaceful and relax the place is, maybe because it was very quiet and there was hardly any people.Admission to the Singapore Air Force Museum is free.
Admission to the Singapore Art Museum , is free during lunch time from 12pm to 2pm. Check out National Heritage Board for more interesting museums to visit in Singapore.

For this first entry for the new year. I had decided to compile some of our best and special moments of year 2007.

Greatest Achievement - Sleeping Alone
Sleeping Alone (Part1)
Sleeping Alone (Part2)
Sleeping Alone (Part3)
Sleeping Alone (Part4) - A Little Happy Note
Sleeping Alone (Part5) - In His Own Room
Sleeping Alone (Part6) - Under the Stars

Most Joyous Moment - Happy New Year

Best Performance - Jingle Bell

Most Teary Moment - Mummy I Am Very Sad

Bravest Moment - Mon Bon Garcon

Most Touching Moment - Welcome Back

Wildest Night - Girls Nite Out

Favourite Video - Happy Father’s Day (To Daddy with Love)

Most Courageous Act - We Did It

Best Message to Parents - Importance of 5 Point Harness”

Most Courageous Baking Attempt - Bacon Cheese Rolls

Most Courageous Cooking Attempt - Salutate to Mum aka ?? aka PoPo

Best Local Delight - Hokkein Prawn Noodle

Most Adventurous Weekend - An Adventurous Weekend

and the Best Vacation should go to our YellowStone Trip which till now I still have no time to compile the pictures.