February - Celebrations

 February is the month of celebration for us. It begins with Karsten's father's birthday and ends with Karsten's birthday and in-between it's Valentine's romance. The 22.02. holds special significance for us, 22 years ago we met!
This year Karsten could not attend his father's birthday, he has been the surprise guest a few times before ;-)

Valentine's day we were on the road regarding Sophie's dependent pass, her 'visa' for staying in Singapore. We had 42 days to get the paperwork done: Obtaining her birth certificate and with it her Australian passport and then her Singapore dependent pass ("green card" due to the light green colour). For  that we had to get passport photos done, the Australian High Commission recommended a photo shop and as mentioned earlier they did a great job. It just took time to get the photos back (initially one week, but after Katrin asked it took 'only' 5 days), not like at the post office or Kmart where you get them straight away. Sophie is Australian and German  by descent, her birthplace is Singapore, but she is not Singaporean citizen because we are foreigners, not citizens nor permanent residents. Since we could only apply for the passport after we had her Australian birth certificate this all took time too. So now on Valentine's day we picked up her passport and drove on to the Ministry of Manpower branch. On the second floor were almost hundred people queueing up, but luckily that was for Singaporeans :-) On the next floor were also hundred of people waiting, but the ladies handing out the waiting ticket send us to a booth were we had to wait only a short time. The lady gave Sophie's passport a stamp - in a way proofing her arrival in Singapore like at the airport. Then off we went again, Karsten to work, where he will further the application of her dependent pass, and Katrin with the 4 younger children back home.
After we had left the Australian High Commission Katrin mentioned to the children that we just have been to Australia which let to a discussion regarding citizenship. David explained that when Katrin feeds Sophie, the milk coming from an Australian mum makes Sophie Australian! After a moment of thinking David added, that the left side makes Australian and the right German milk/citizenship!

Another funny comment: Yannic was sitting in the front of a taxi and was curiously looking around. Upon studying the gear shift, he asked if "R" stands for 'racing' ;-)

A few days later Katrin realised after eating ice cream that a part of her tooth is missing. She got a dental appointment the following day. In the GP practice is a dental surgery as well. That's where she went, but was told she hadn't made an appointment, after a moment of confusion the receptionist said there are two other dentists in the centre, one is right next door. So that's where Katrin's tooth was patched up (it cost S$65!), apparently the tooth had a big and old filling, after some time those fillings destabilise the remaining tooth and especially after hot-cold foods (like coffee and ice cream...) the tooth can crack and break. The dentist was were friendly and patiently explained to the boys what he was doing. He had written some booklets for children regarding caring for your teeth. We bought three of his 12 titles which the children read straight away.

Friday afternoon Esther had a friend from school come over. Her parents are from Germany, but they have been living here for many years, Natasha was even born in Singapore. Katrin had a good time chatting to Andrea, Natasha's mum. They have met since for a lovely morning chat. The girls have had a get together a week later as well, at Natasha's place, where Esther enjoyed their dog! When this family rented their current home, the maid came with it, not binding, but it makes life easier for the helper if she can stay. An agency sometimes keeps the helper's salary for three or more months as fee. Some helpers work for many months before they see money. At the moment a new law is being discussed to guarantee them one day off per week! Yes, most helpers work nonstop, they are even not allowed out of the house or are being abused. Some children can't tie their shoe laces or do their hair because the helper does it always. In some families both parents work, so the domestic helper does all the household chores including child minding. But there are also the voices saying domestic helpers earn so much that well educated woman leave their countries to clean for other families.
A feature article in the newspaper reported on families who make do without helpers. The main reason being they want their children to do their share in the household.

Another feature included the cost of weddings: One couple spend S$ 600K, they had an engagement party (theme 'fairytale'), a solemnity ceremony (theme 'Western style wedding') the next day and then a traditional Chinese wedding the day after. In contrast a friend is on a mission trip to another Asian country and reported that A$ 200 gets a child one year schooling. How close together lie those two worlds but on the other side they are aeons apart. We could do so much and often choose only ourselves.

On Saturday Jonas and his class fundraised for their trip to India through car washing at their school. They were not allowed to advertise outside the school community, and even though they raised S$800, mainly through the cake stall ;-)

Jonas has an interesting way with words, that's why he reminds us of a lawyer, he just doesn't say "Yes" or "No", it's either "Maybe" or some other wishy-washy wording. He toped it recently when we asked him if his Spanish tutoring helps for school. His answer in German was: "Ich beginne ein klein bisschen dem Unterricht zu folgen." meaning: "I start to be able to follow the class a little bit." Not sure if he could have been a bit more unprecise?!

Karsten's company has bought two electric cars. Karsten was able to borrow one of them, so Karsten, Katrin and Sophie could do the groceries shopping one night. It's so convenient to have a car and be able to get straight to a shop and straight back without waiting ;-) It's quite a change to go out, since most buses have not enough room for a pram, we carry Sophie and also all the stuff we need like nappies, drink bottles etc. To store all these items in your own car makes life easier. All in all it's a good experience to make do without the luxury of a car, at least we have great public transport and inexpensive taxis here.


 Sunday we finally visited Singapore Zoo.

There are many interesting animals: Have you heard of the Mousedeer? It is neither mouse nor deer, it has no antler, but is rather small in size:

 Or the Pigdeer/Babirusa?

But there were also quite normal animals like White Tigers:

On the picture below you can see a rhino horn, which is made up of hair! There is also an antelope horn, which has a dark colour outer sheath inside is a bone! The next item (yellowish colour) is one elephant tooth - an elephant has four of those. At the bottom of the picture you can see a lion skull.

Karsten holding one elephant tooth!

 Monday marked Karsten's birthday - HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

 And the month almost ended if not for the leap year  with Captain Noah on the hunt - Hunger Games?: