Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Pancake batter in the making.

The second weekend with hatchling Sophie was quiet - recovering from the first week of school for some and storing energy for a big opening event for others ;-)
We started again our Saturday tradition of pancakes.
Just have to add apple sauce to our shopping list ;-)

At church on Sunday we found out about a Chinese tradition concerning newborns. The first month the baby and mother stay home, they apparently don't go out and some families don't even open the windows. So everybody 'was looking when we rocked up with a 10 day old Sophie, but the comments were all encouraging. I guess Singaporeans are used to different cultures and traditions and can tolerate without taken offence or looking down on others nor having to prove they know better.
After the first month the first haircut is celebrated - "Taimao", it is said that the babies have 'foetus fat' secreted from skin which can cause bacterium reproduction. So apparently the first haircut keeps the head clean, the hair will grow better and even fuller. On top of all those advantages it brings good luck.
Some families have the cut hair made into a brush. The story goes that a student, who studied to become a scholar, was too poor to buy a calligraphy brush. His parents made him a brush with his hair they kept from his first haircut. He became the top scholar in Beijing. Other families followed as the infant-hair brush (taimaobi) seemed to bring good luck and knowledge. People regard those brushes as the best ones for writing and painting because of its unique softness and smoothness. Katrin loves to kiss Sophie's head due to the softness! The price of those brushes range from $38 to $428 depending on the material of the handle. By the way couples brushes are made too, "joe fa" = 'The joining of hair' (prices from $199 to $999). All in the name of good luck and eternal happiness.
Another keepsake is Umbilical Cord Stamp or "Wealth Stamp". By keeping the umbilical cord in a crystal ("liuli") it apparent brings good health and wealth to the baby, after all the cord is an unique tube supplying the baby with oxygen and nutrients without a direct air source. The baby's name is engraved on it too and the top can be decorated with an animal.


Monday, 16.01.12 was the big day: This was Sophie's due date ;-) and also the opening ceremony of the Singapore Research Centre, for which Karsten has toiled the last few years. It was a huge success.

Tuesday, Jonas was sick at home, probably a relapse from Glandular Fever, he stayed in bed almost all day. While the other children either went to school or did their schoolwork at home. Noah has a sticker book to keep him busy and he dilligently brings it along to do his schoolwork. Katie found next to the recylcing bin a stack of school books typical for this part of the world. One book was about telling the time, it's the same over and over again, which we find very typical for the "Asian" way of learning: repetition, repetition, repetition. Which has it's benefits, but can dim creativity.

Katie got busy with David, Yannic and Noah baking Chocolate Brownies:

Busy bakers!

Hawker centre Ghim Moh, the wet market is in the background.

Wednesday Esther didn't feel well, so she stayed home and Michael went on the public bus all by himself. Being-Wan had offered to take us to the Wet Market, so off we all went. We ate once more Thosai and had Kofi (= coffee) with it. We also tried a sweet variation called "Appam", this crisp pancake is eaten mixed with orange coloured sugar and coconut. Katrin and Katie both love coconut and since they both have a sweet tooth, it was a favourite!
We also ate some sweet snacks there: Sesame Balls and You Tiao. Esther loved the Sesame Balls, David, Yannic and Noah loved You Tiao, which is a long golden-brown, deep fried strip of dough, that can easily be torn lengthwise in
two. A Cantonese folktale regarding You Tiao says that an official and his wife plotted against a popular general and succeeded. The You Tiao is made as two foot long rolls joined along the middle, with one roll representing the husband and the other the wife, it is deep fried and eaten as if done to the traitorous couple.
Sophie slept soundly as we walked through the noisy market. She loves to be carried around! It's great to have Katie here, she is very patient and doesn't mind carrying Sophie for hours!

Beng-Wan, Esther, Katie and Sophie with Thosai (front), Appam (back) and Kofi.

Snack stall in the food court of the markets

The following photos show stalls which are typical Chinese New Year stalls: Mandarins/tangerines/oranges and special sweets/bisquits are sold for the festival:

Mandarin stall

Special Chinese New Year treats.

Our condominium has balconies for every unit or almost every unit, where we dry our clothes. Older style units use bamboo poles to dry the clothes, it's very effective, but also a hazard. Just the other day Katrin read in the newspaper of a maid who fell to her death while trying to gather in the washing.

Washing on bamboo poles

On Thursday Sophie and Katrin went to the Australian High Commission, which is just opposite the Gleneagles Hospital where Sophie was born. Sophie is born in Singapore but that alone doesn't make her Singaporean. One's parents has to be Permanent Resident (PR) or citizens for one to be Singaporean by birth. Well, none of us is PR nor citizen, we are foreigners. But we are Australians, so we have to have Sophie be registered for Australian citizenship by descent. Therefore we had to have passport pictures taken of Sophie and then we were able to apply for citizenship on behalf of Sophie. It was an interesting experience for Katrin. She had to leave her phone (because it has a camera) and some ID at the guardhouse before granted entry to the main building. There, six people were already waiting for the consulate to open. After 15 minutes we were allowed to go upstairs and get a ticket. More waiting until the first person was called - which happened to be Katrin (the last shall be the first!). It'll take 5 business days for the citizenship certificate to be ready, due to Chinese New Year and Australia Day, it's almost 10 days before Katrin can pick it up and proceed to apply for an Australian passport for Sophie. We need it to get her dependent pass, our Singaporean ID/visa.

In every waiting area there was a TV showing 'The Wiggles' and then 'Playschool' and the Australian landmarks on the posters made Katrin a bit homesick.

Thank God that Katrin and Sophie were in and out of the High Commission in less than an hour. We'll try to come back early in the morning next time as well. Soon, we will have to go through a similar process with the German embassy.

Sophie awake!

Another answer to prayer came on Friday. David was complaining about an earache on and off, with a long weekend before us, it seemed to be best to see a doctor before the holidays. But to see a doctor on a Friday could mean a lot of waiting. A few weeks ago Katrin rang a clinic close by which was recommended to her and the receptionist said that they don't make appointments, you come and wait (welcome to Singapore!) and Fridays would usually mean long wait. So off we went (Sophie, Noah, Yannic, David, Katie and Katrin) to Bukit Timah Plaza to go to the doctor and also get some groceries, since the little store at Maplewoods is closed for the next two weeks. When we arrived at the doctors there was only one other lady waiting. After the paper work we were straight called in. The doctor was very patient in answering David and Yannic's questions regarding her tools. David's ear is swollen, so she couldn't see enough, which means we have to come back after a few days of treatment to get the swelling down. No pool for David. 

Instead of going back to the first receptionist we waited at a second counter to get the medicine and pay for the visit. The visit costed $20 and the medicine $4, a bargain ;-) 

Then off to the supermarket which was crowded and half an hour later was crazily crowded, so we were glad to be done. The queue at the taxi stand was non existing, just one person in front of us. David looked at the lady, who had really short hair (almost like a soldier) and said to her, why she had a boy's haircut. To which she happily replied "Thank you!" The next taxi didn't want to take her (Katrin couldn't hear where she wanted to go, but it must have been the reason rather than her hair cut) and so the taxi driver asked Katrin where she needs to go and took her. Which left Katrin a bit perplex to have been jumped the queue, but the lady said smilingly she is used to taxi driver been unwilling to take her to her destination, still left Katrin uncomfortable. Nevertheless we took the taxi back home and came home in record time - praise the Lord!

Saturday was a quiet day with pancakes ;-) 

Monday was the beginning of the Chinese New Year Festival which lasts for 15 days and ends with the Lantern Festival. The Chinese Year is based on the lunar system, so the start of the year changes each year. It's a huge festival here in Singapore, some say it's even bigger and more traditional than in China itself. During the culture revolution under Mao many traditions were apparently lost, which on the other side Chinese people who moved to Singapore before that time still practiced and they passed it on to the next generations. This new year will be the year of the dragon, which is said to be a prosperous year. Well, looking at the world economy and the doomsday scenario the media depicts we could use this... 

Chinese New Year is all about family. On New Year Eve it starts with a reunion dinner, the whole family comes together. Quite a few people said they will be going to their families as they themselves are the youngest. So it seems that the oldest hosts the younger siblings. 

According to tradition the New Year started with fighting against a mythical beast called Nian. Nian would come on the first day of the new year and eat the livestock and even the children. But one year the people observed how Nian was scared away by a child wearing red. Thus the tradition of hanging red banners, red lanterns and red spring scrolls in the windows and doors began and Nian never came back to the village. Apart from red fighting off evil, the sound for the colour red means prosperity, therefore red is the predominant colour during the festival. Red also stands for joy, virtue, truth and sincerity. 

Our neighbours' front door

Another tradition is the giving of red envelopes. After paying for the groceries Katrin was given a handful of red envelopes and Karsten got some from work. They are called "ang pow". Married couples and the elderly give them to the unmarried or children. The ang pow are filled with money, an even amount is supposed to bring good luck with the number 8 to be considered lucky (homophone with wealth) and also the number 6 which sounds like smooth (have a smooth year). The first digit defines odd and even in Chinese, so 50 would be odd. An odd amount would be given at a funeral.

Sometimes chocolate money is given.

Ang pow in a kumquat tree

Karsten was surprised when he came to work on Friday and found two mandarins on his and everybody else's desk. Like yin and yang everything should be in pairs. For example is salt and pepper mixed into one container, so that a soy sauce container can go on the table as well. Therefore everybody was given two mandarins. Also mandarins are very popular during this time of the year. They are like oranges available in abundance. An often seen sight are two mandarin/tangerine trees next to the front door. At a few places those trees were sold almost like Christmas trees during Christmas time. Mandarin oranges are a symbol of wealth and good fortune (homonym for gold).

Another food is the Celebration or Prosperity Salad "Yusheng". Shredded crunchy vegetables like white radish, capsicum, turnips, carrots, red pickled ginger, sun-dried oranges, key lime leaves, Chinese parsley, chilli, chopped peanuts, toasted sesame seeds, shrimp crackers, five spice powder and other ingredients. The main ingredient is raw salmon (rather than mackerel due to popular demand). Then plum sauce , rice vinegar, kumquat paste and sesame oil are pour on. The salad has a total of 27 ingredients. Yusheng means raw fish, but is also a homophone for 'abundance' or prosperity. It's a very tasty salad. The fun part is apart from obvious pleasure of eating the tradition of tossing it all together. Everybody stands up and tosses the ingredients around trying to only make a little mess or so ;-)

This salad is commonly eaten at the 7th day of the festival, but is available all throughout the festival.

Other traditions during New Year:
Lion dance
Visiting relatives (on the first and second day but not the 3.day)
Firecrackers (Singapore has banned firecrackers due to whole houses burning down and fatalities)
Wearing new clothes from head to toe as a symbol of abundance, wealth and a new beginning
Spring travel (migrant workers return home to celebrate with their families)
Spring cleaning before the festival
No sweeping on the first day as not to sweep out good fortune


And to solve the riddle in the heading:
Gong Xi Fa Cai means: Wishing you to be prosperous in the coming year!

A disclaimer: The Chinese words/sentences we used are from all the different dialects like Cantonese and Hokkien, to keep it simple we just wrote 'in Chinese'.


On Monday we went to:

Yes, right: Jurong Bird Park!

Roughly half an hour drive from our place lies Southeast Asia's largest bird park, an open concept park with the world's largest walk-in aviary which has the tallest man-made waterfall at 30 m (African Waterfall Aviary). There are also lots of other aviaries featuring birds from around the world, from penguins and flamingos to lories and toucans, around 5000 birds from 380 species. Quite a few displays and hands-on activities made the time entertaining for the children like a dino dig. Interestingly birds are very successful animal despite their bird brains: they fly, swim and roam all over the world, even otherwise uninhabited Antarctica. So we walked through the park and at the end sat in a monorail to be driven around in air conditioning to recap what we just had seen ;-)

The Schulz family in the African Waterfall Aviary

Penguins and other funny birds

Adventure is out there!

A bunch of beautiful flowers all grouped together

We left the park around lunch time and took the opportunity to try Singaporean Laksa and the Celebration Salad. Laksa is a popular spicy noodle soup with fish or coconut based. It originated from the Peranakan community, Peranakan Chinese are the descendants of Chinese immigrants who came in the 15th and 16th century to the Malay archipelago and didn't intermarry with the natives, but sometimes they lost the Chinese language.

Singaporean Laksa

We couldn't leave without taking a photo of this special iPad:

Do you want to go to the airport ...?

Well, these were the words of the taxi driver when he arrived at lobby four at our home address on Wednesday evening. Katrin's waters had broken about half an hour earlier, so we had called a taxi to take us to the hospital. "To the hospital, please" was our reply to the taxi driver, as Katrin with a very round tummy slipped into the back of the cab. Our bag must have confused him.
The confusion continued at the emergency ward, the nurse asked why we were here and Katrin replied, that her waters had broken. He asked, how far along in the pregnancy she were and if she had any labour. Less than two weeks short of her due date and no labour pain was the reply. "So why are you here?", was his comment. Katrin again said that her water had broken and then some action took place. A wheelchair was brought and a fragile looking nurse pushed Katrin to the lift and further on to the labour ward, it was quite a few uphill stretches in this journey and Katrin felt sorry for the nurse, but this wasn't her first time obviously!
To make a long story short-ish: During the night labour started but in an irregular pattern. When Katrin arrived she was 2.5 cm dilated, in the morning it was still only 3 cm. Dr. Yam (our obstetrician) wasn't very happy, he feared the Caesarean scar won't stand this test if he was to induce Katrin, but to wait was heightening the risk of an infection since the waters had broken. He agreed to give us 45min of walking around to start labour properly - and Katrin had been so proud to be able to breath through those labour. Not much difference 45min later, so the drip started with half the normal dose. Around lunch time we had reached 4 cm and the intensity was almost too much for Katrin to cope. A nurse coming in took one look at the situation and then said, in her opinion the baby is posterior and after an examination, she was sure of it. So Katrin was told to try being on hands and feet, but that wasn't much better. Next time Dr. Yam came in he saw only two options: Epidural or Caesarean. Since one needs an epidural to perform a c-section, we went with an epidural first. By the time the anaesthetist came (around 3pm) Katrin was 8 cm dilated. The anaesthetist administered the epidural quickly and Katrin knew why one of the nurses called epidural "happydural". What a bliss and what seemed only minutes later Katrin was told to push and there she was:
SOPHIE CHARLOTTE JENNA
Charlotte is Katrin's mum's second name and Jenna is a deviation of Karsten's mum's second name.
Her profile:
Born: 05.01.12 at 3:49pm, weight: 3560g, length: 51.5cm and despite been born in Singapore she is Caucasian ;-)

For those of you who are super sleuth: We didn't leave the children alone at home. Being-Wan or her helper came and stayed with them. They did a fantastic job in reassuring and feeding the children.
In the evening Katrin and Sophie were taken to the maternity ward and Karsten went home. Before been taken up to the ward, the nurse said she would give a bath we thought to the baby, but she was then bathing Katrin, what a very nice service!
In the room there was already another patient with a lot of people around, quite a racket, but at 8pm they all left and only her TV was still running. Katrin couldn't see her, because both beds were surrounded by drawn curtains and due to the epidural Katrin needed to stay lying for at least 8 hours.
The next morning Katrin wanted to be discharged, which was fine by her obstetrician, but we had to wait for Sophie's blood group test. If she would be Rh + like Karsten, Katrin would have needed an antidote, as she is Rh-. The first test - taken from the cord blood - showed the same blood group as Katrin. But to be sure they wanted a control test, which was never needed before. Rh- is very rare in Asian people (that's why the AntiD syringe Katrin had to buy here was so expensive, whereas it wasn't an issue in Australia or Germany). It took till the evening for the results to come back confirming the earlier test. It was great that Karsten and the children came with Being-Wan to see and cuddle Sophie and it was also good that they left after some time and didn't wait for Katrin and Sophie to be ready to come home. They would have gotten cabin fever waiting all day. That is one thing we discovered here, not many things are done in a rush, which has it's advantages and disadvantages I guess. Interesting for Katrin was also even though many different people came to see Katrin (from nurses and paediatrician to lactation consultant, customer service,
hearing test nurse and others) there was no physiotherapist amongst them - maybe if she had stayed the two days. The smallest package for booking into the hospital was two days, one day would still cost the same.
Karsten, Katrin and Sophie were chauffeued home by a complimentary limousine service by the hospital, very thoughtful.

It was very nice to be back home!

Saturday was a very quiet day with lots of sleep for Katrin, Sophie and Karsten (who didn't get much sleep neither on Wednesday nor Thursday night). Pool, tennis and entertainment for the children. Late in the evening Katie H. arrived from Australia. She kindly agreed to help us in the first few weeks to settle into school and newborn baby. We are truly blessed.

Sunday was also quiet. The children enjoyed holding Sophie, we nearly set up a roster! We also had to get ready for school, which wasn't as intensive as it would have been back in Australia. Firstly because only 3 not 5 children go to school and also because, the books and textbooks provided at school for Esther and Michael. Jonas' supply was wrapped the German way with easy slip on plastic covers, so mainly the labelling was needed.

Monday was the "big" day for the three "big" children. Karsten went with Jonas to his campus. They left shortly after 7am to be there before 7:45am, on the way they overtook a student wearing the same school uniform. He later drove past in a taxi, stopped and asked if Jonas wanted a lift - what a start!
Michael and Esther were accompanied by the rest of the family who took conveniently the bus. A few chores needed to be done: We had to pre pay for this month's canteen meals for Esther, which can only be paid in cash or cheque. It seems that the main payment method is cheque except at the supermarkets and bigger shops. Then we purchased two school hats - one size fits all baseball caps, hm, sun protection is taken much more serious in Australia. One of the teachers even said that there is no rush to buy the hats, the children could still play outside without them.

On the funny side we saw some monkeys climbing on the school fence - well no, it wasn't David, Yannic nor Noah! ;-) In the school's handbook we read that the children have to watch out for monkeys who like to steal the lunch boxes or backpacks and disappear with them over the fence into the jungle...

 Monkeys?

Found the monkey?

Esther's class teacher is Mr. Landrum and seems to be very friendly and kind, there are 11 girls and 9 boys in her class - what a difference to last year's class!
Michael's class teacher is Ms Carroll, who also is very welcoming and caring.
Each year level has two to three German and two to three English speaking classes.
Back home David, Yannic and Noah did their school work and in the afternoon Katrin took Sophie to see the paediatrician, David and Yannic came along, - all is fine according to Dr. Y. Y. Yip (just read that name aloud!). To have the heel prick test (Guthrie Test) done we needed to go to the laboratory on a different level. The paediatrician has his rooms also next to the hospital (Gleneagles) like Katrin's obstetrician. The receptionist verified the referral, apparently we had the wrong form. A little while later, they could perform the test and David and Yannic gave advice on how to comfort Sophie. Then the receptionist set to work regarding the bill, in the end we had to go along a few corridors, downstairs through to the main office of the laboratory where again we waited - seems to be a great lesson in patience, living in Singapore! Finally we were able to pay, again a nice little sum, I guess this test is also a rather Western tradition. We took the bus home after we had the luxury of taking a taxi to the hospital due to the starting rain. In the bus we sat next to a young man, who tried to get some contact in order for him to become Australian citizen, a bit bizarre. Good to be back home!

Happy birthday could be heard onTuesday in the Schulz home, t'is was the day of Esther's birthday. Both our girls are born just a few days apart!

It was also a busier day than we expected. Esther is learning to play a string instrument through school and needed a cheque as a security for the instrument. Since we don't have a cheque account and therefore no cheque book, we thought that Katrin could quickly get a cheque book at the bank, which seems to be a more common way of payment and more convenient than getting cash from the ATM. Off we all (Katie, David, Yannic, Noah, Sophie and Katrin) went to the shopping centre. We went to the bank, and were told to go to the main hall to get a cash cheque or for Katrin to come back with Karsten in order to open a cheque account. Katrin has a dependent pass due to Karsten's work, so he is needed too. Going into the hall, there was a queue like at the airport check in. On the very right sight was Priority Banking, on the very left side was business accounts and the three counters in the middle served the rest of customers. Katie took all the children for a walk around in the centre, whilst Katrin queued up. After a few minutes a lady joined the queue. Katrin asked her if it was always that crowded which she confirmed adding "Welcome to Singapore", well we had had some taste of this. After a few more minutes without any progress, Katrin left the bank to do the grocery shopping hoping that afterwards it might be less crowded at the bank. One and a half hours later Katrin returned to the bank to the same situation just different people waiting. The lady who came after Katrin was in fifth position now, nearly there to be served but clearly annoyed. Katrin waited for a few minutes then decided to ask how to be eligible for Priority Banking. So she went to the counter at the entrance and was told that you have to have $200 000 in your account as a foreigner, so back she went... Then God moved the hearts of the clerk at the entrance and he had her sit in a waiting room, handing her a form to fill out for the cash cheque. After a while a lady came and escorted Katrin into her office. In 5 minutes the formalities were sufficed and Katrin had the cheque. The clerk asked how far along Katrin's pregnancy were - Praise the Lord for Katrin's baby belly! Meanwhile Katie and the children were waiting in the taxi queue, which was quite long too due to the rain. But they had a taxi even before Katrin was finished in the bank. All that time, more than two hours, Sophie slept happily on Katie's arm. Once again everybody was glad to be home again!
Esther came home happily with a Viola, she played a bit and everybody wanted to have a go too. Quite a racket!

Wednesday came, Jonas walked to school as before, Michael and Esther took the public bus with Katie and planned to come back on their own (which went well). After schooling for David and Yannic and Noah, who takes his sticker book activity very serious, all of them with Sophie and Katie went to Tanglin Mall at the beginning of Orchard Road to have Sophie's passport photo taken. The Australian High Commission recommended that particular photo shop. Tanglin Mall is only two bus stops away from the Gleneagles Hospital. Sophie was sound asleep when we arrived at the photo shop, what a shame to wake her and what hard work! But the staff there was fantastic and we got a good shot, open eyes and no crying! But the Singaporean lesson hit us again (patience) - we had to wait for the photos, they would be ready in a week. After some discussion, we arranged pick up for Monday providing they have texted us to say it is ready and also the pick up is in a different mall a bit further down the road (Forum Mall, where we went to the huge Toys'r'Us and which has lots of kid's related shops). Oh well, off we went to have some late morning tea at Starbucks ;-)
Michael went on an excursion to an organic farm and he managed to take over one hundred photos! His year level is preparing for an in depth study on the topic of recycling and waste which will cumulate in an exhibition in a few weeks. On Thursday they are going to Marina Barrage (a dam at the mouth of the Marina Channel to create a reservoir,  http://www.pub.gov.sg/Marina/Pages/default.aspx) and to a water plant to learn about recycled water.

Thursday was now a home day - wow what a first week for Sophie! But she took it all in her stride, sleeping and feeding and filling nappies! She is the darling of all, even Jonas comes and happily carries her around - which looks great, he is so grown up and she is so tiny! The children marvel at her tiny feet and toes.
Jonas has quite a challenging time to catch up with his class, but he raises to the occasion and thrives. Most of his class mates are turning 16 years old this year, so he the youngest. Karsten loves to sit down with him in the evening to go over Maths or Physics homework.

Friday was busy again, Katie took on the homeschooling of the boys and Katrin took Sophie first to a Coffee Morning for new parents of GESS (Jonas, Michael and Esther's school) and then for her check up with her obstetrician, who said he had anticipated a very fast delivery, but it turned out to be Katrin's second longest labour, go figure! All is well though - thank God!
The first week of school went well for all children, the bigger ones made new friends and settled very quickly into their new school environment. Apparently the teachers of the other year level classes at the primary campus told their classes what new children have joined, so they know their names and can make them feel welcomed. The younger ones applied themselves also well to their new schooling experience. Good on them ;-)

The Week Between the Years

In German the week between Christmas and New Year's Day is called "Between the Years" ;-)

Tuesday we went to a supermarket named "Giant", it is a bit a mixture between BigW and Woolworth (good description, Karen!). We found lots of light bulbs, unfortunately none for the sewing machine, but since it still works, it's not an urgent item. The items in Giant are cheaper than in the two other supermarkets we've been to so far (i.e. Cold Storage and Fairprice). It's also not far from our unit, two bus stops down the road, opposite direction of the other two supermarkets and then a 10 min walk. There is a huge car park and other shops including a "hawker centre". A hawker centre is a typical Singaporean food court (although Hawker centres exists also in other Southeast Asian countries) usually next to bus interchanges or malls or housing estates. 50 to 60 years ago unlicensed street hawker were everywhere, but to encourage food hygiene those hawker centre were built. They are considered to be a venue for the less affluent.

On Wednesday Esther and Katrin went to the "Ghim Moh Wet Market", only a 10 min drive from our unit. Beng-Wan, a Singaporean friend Karen C. introduced us to, goes there almost weekly and took us along. Since most wet markets close by midday, we had to get there early, so at 8:15am we left. First Beng-Wan treated us to breakfast, yes, there was a hawker centre, too. We had a common breakfast dish and street food called "topai", which is a fermented crepe or pancake made from rice batter and black lentils, a staple in Southern India. Topai is rich in carbohydrates and contains no salt, sugar or saturated fats. Since it is made of rice and lentils it is gluten-free and contains protein. The fermentation process increases the vitamin B and vitamin C content. Two sauces served with it were hot and spicy and one was mild. Altogether is was very yummy. (We didn't take a picture, have to remember that for next time, meanwhile for those interested just search online, don't want to breach copyrights)
We also tried "fried carrot cake"(chai tow kwa), which is not made from carrots but from radish. The chinese word for carrot and radish is the same. The white radish is shredded, mixed with rice flour and steamed. Which then is stir-fried with eggs. It's available in white (original colour) and black (through seasoning). It has a soft texture and is very yummy despite it's looks ;-)
Beng-Wan said that most of their traditional cuisine is full of carbohydrates. That's a bit like the German cuisine, where we have lots of bread usually for breakfast and then in the evenings (Brotzeit). Mornings are in general sweet spreads (Nutella is our family's favourite) and evenings rather savoury (sausage/salami and cheese). The exception is a brunch when savoury spreads and dishes are served for breakfast. Whereas the main meal is lunch time, when the children come home from school. It could have changed over the last years, but that's how we grow up.

Esther wasn't too keen on any of those Singapourean dishes, so Beng-Wan bought something sweet, two pancakes with peanut filling in the middle. Those pancakes are quite common, too. The filling consists of peanuts or red bean paste. This is made from Azuki beans boiled with sugar (called "an"). Some Asian cultures enjoy red bean paste as a filling or topping for various kinds of sweets.
The adults enjoyed a kopi = white coffee and Esther was treated to soy milk.
There was lots of left over, Katrin just couldn't eat more. Even though groceries in the supermarkets are rather expensive, these dishes were cheap. Topai cost around $2, fried carrot cake $3 and kopi 80cents, that's what hawker centres are known for. But one needs to know where to buy from, it can end up pretty greasy... So it's was great to have Beng-Wan show us the best places. She then took us to her butcher for the beef and to a chicken stall, which was interesting. The butcher cut everything to our specifications. And again it cost much less than the supermarkets and was fresh. We stocked up on vegetables and fruit and made our way home again two hours later, time flies when you are having fun. Katrin was pretty tired, all those new impressions! While we waited at the beef butcher for our cuts, Katrin heard somebody speaking German just next to her. The lady then saw Esther and started talking to her and Katrin, saying she's seen us at the German School campus, where she works. Katrin was very surprised but then remembered that a large family and highly pregnant woman are probably not easily overlooked here ;-)) Oh well already known here - "like a coloured dog" (another German expression literally translated).
At home the boys had been very active, jogging, stretching and other exercises, one requirement to be able to play computer!
In the afternoon the children spent some time with Beng-Wan's two children in the pool.

Thursday we hadn't planned anything, and since the children were always feeling hot, it was time for haircuts - for the male children ;-) Karsten used a shovel to get the hair out of our living room while Katrin took a shower to get the hair off her belly, we should have taken a picture, it looked pretty funny - another 'next time'. To keep the children still, we turned on the TV and let them watch Mythbusters, a family favourite.

Friday was check up time at the obstetrician. Buzzelchen has grown (around 3.3kg) and so has Katrin. As we mentioned earlier the doctors like to scan every time to measure the growth and check on the heartbeat. All is fine, Buzzelchen is always very active during the scans, makes me wonder if it doesn't like them ... Another interesting fact is that in the mornings when the children come into our bedroom and start talking, Buzzelchen starts moving, I guess a good indictor that it can hear. ;-)
After the doctor appointment, we went to the Botanical Garden just across the road. It was starting to get hot, so a nice stroll around Swan Lake in the shade of the trees was very welcomed.

This Pavilion was built around 1850 and not that long ago transferred to the lake.

Walking under the roots of a tree

Any guesses what's the name of this lake?

After the walk we had worked up appetite for morning tea. So we went to Orchard Road to have morning tea in "The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf", the food was good, but the ice tea and coffee didn't meet our expectations. Jonas and Michael thought the ice tea was too watery and Katrin's coffee was rather bitter, she was glad she didn't take the holiday roast, which would have been stronger, but just the house roast.
Strengthened we went to the mall next door and founds heaps of shops for children, lots of clothes shops (very exquisite), some book/toys shops and also a huge Toys'r'Us, which we manage to visit without buying anything! Well, the children just bought something when we were at Marina Bay Sands Shop earlier that week. And despite the size of the shop there was a lot of repetition. We would have bought some pool toys, but didn't find anything worthwhile. Another time ;-)

 Some Singaporean pedestrian traffic lights have a timer that shows you when the pedestrian traffic light will turn red.

At the moment there is an Elephant Parade throughout Singapore, an initiative to help save the Indian Elephant. Those elephants represent a country or are an artist's masterpiece. Esther liked this elephant.

Saturday was a quiet day at home. For a special dinner we tried a Japanese dish called "Shabu Shabu", it's like a beef fondue. The beef is cut very thinly. On the table is a pot with broth, in which one swishes the beef, then dips it into different kind of sauces and eats it. The sound of the swishing gave this dish it's name (shabu shabu). What a fun mealtime!
To watch Singapore's fireworks we would have had to go to Marina Bay Sands, which is very popular and busy at that time of the year, so we rather went to bed, not without watching "Dinner for One" ;-) That's a classic!
Since we didn't stay up all night we made it to church just to find out that the service starts at 10am instead of 9am because both services were combined (the 9am and 11am). So we were treated to the practice of the worship team, which was more like a little concert for us and some other early birds. Our pastor talked about Jonah (going through the first chapter). Some interesting facts he stated was, that God's call to Jonah could be compared to God calling a Jew from New York in 1942 to go to Berlin and tell Hitler about God's judgement if he wouldn't change and this Jew would instead go to San Francisco and board a ship to Antarctica - makes one think in different terms about a well known story, doesn't it? Another interesting fact which is also well known but sometimes we need to be reminded of it, is God's omnipotence and omnipresence. Jonah thought he could evade God, but God was still there right in the middle of the storm and He had the last word concerning those fellow sailors on the boat, who came to worship God.