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.