It was great to come back to Australia for a short visit, great to have Jonas back ;-)) We have missed him dearly!
Unfortunately Katrin came with a cold and couldn't shake it, it's hard to visit with friends while loosing one's voice and feeling tired - so we kept our visit low key and tried to recover, and therefore canceled a few visits... sorry!
Arriving in Australia meant being in the cold, night time temperature down to 5 C! But that didn't hinder the children to slide down the slide into the pool - they came out lighting fast ;-)
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| Esther sliding into the pool |
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| Contemplating the fastest exit route |
We had to borrow a sleeping bag for Sophie, we didn't anticipate these freezing temperatures. But the bag proofed to have many uses:
That's the way others kept warm during the cold nights:
The children were excited to see their guinea pigs again and have a play with their friends at the same time - thanks Stephanie, Matthew and Robbie for looking after them so well!
A visit to a playground with friends:
While we were away three other friends had babies (all boys), here is Sophie exploring the Baptist Church with Paul, just five weeks younger than her:
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| Doesn't she look great - thanks Nerina, Rosie and Jean! |
UQ makes for a great short outing, fantastic climbing tree:
Trying out the winter gear, just in case we can add a trip to Germany in December:
After two weeks which flew by, we headed back into the heat. While we were away we had fitted every cupboard, wardrobe and storage room with dehumidifier. These little containers have white pellets in the top section, they look like beanbag filling when they are new. It's time to change them, when the pellets have disappeared and lots of water has been collected in the bottom part (up to the black mark in the picture). In those two weeks some areas had used up all of the pellets, in other rooms they last longer (especially when air/con is in use). The kitchen is the most humid place, we had one cabinet renewed when we moved in, because it was disintegrating due to mould. These containers come in a pack of 3, depending on the brand one pack costs between S$5 and S$12, one brand is called Kiwi and has a very strong scent of Kiwi fruit, too strong for Katrin.
Sophie still loves to eat, mainly what the rest of the family eats, apparently it's a good face mask, to get a smooth baby-like face do the following: Apply the food generously over the face, even the head may be covered.
Regarding the fire tornado demonstration (last month's event):
The fire was lit inside a glass protected area, which didn't heat up during the demonstration, we could even touch the glass. The whole room was warming up nicely though. The glass didn't go down all the way to the floor, but left room for angled vents, who produced the tornado effect. The fuel for the tornado was a mix of kerosine and petrol (about 3-5l).
Who can spot Yannic sleeping?
Nope, not in the right bed, not in the left bottom nor top bunk.
He is sleeping on the box, blue and yellow pillow in the middle:
Not far from us railway lines pass along, right through the city from south to north. Last year the service was stopped, apparently the train drove to Woodlands in the morning and evening, it was very noisy and old fashioned. Now the tracks are removed and the vegetation has regrown. There is still a path and lots of people use it for their exercise and dog walks.
The children love these plants, they are called Mimosa Pudica and they are all over the place here. When one touches the leaves they close and fold in:
(There is also a youtube video which shows the closing in slow-motion)
Along the path:
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| Portable billabong |
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| Off the track to get onto an overpass. |
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| Underneath the overpass |
Here we left the path and went to a shopping centre (Jelita) to have morning tea:
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| David and Yannic feel the heat, even in the air/con restaurant. |
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| Michael and Noah |
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| Esther |
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| Sophie |
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| Karsten |
Karsten and Katrin celebrated their wedding anniversary this month, they have come of age - 18 years!!
Praise the Lord!
The children love to do something special now and then, for example this picnic inside, we had quite a bit of rain for a few days. It felt much cooler during those days ;-)
Sophie loves to eat:
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| " Am I tall?" |
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| Wow, what a big bite! |
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| Aha, not yet that tall! |
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| Michael as safeguard |
Esther is wearing a mini-magnet necklace. Karsten got those magnets as a birthday present from Grant Woolston and the children love to play with it making all kind of shapes, Karsten hardly has a chance to get his hands on the magnets himself.
We think Sophie will be a dentist - here is the proof:
(There is a German saying: Early training makes an expert)
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| Operation went well - patient is dead? |
Michael and Esther prepared the vegetable platter one night, do you see the picture?
It's a face, tomatoes on top are the hair, next row eyes out of carrots and cucumber in the middle and also the nose aka tomato, the next rows are the gums with teeth (carrots on top of cucumber) and a carrot tongue.
Another Sophie episode:
In her right hand she holds a fructose lolly (a typical German candy) and in her left hand a savoury brezel. Right side a lick, left side a bite.
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| lick |
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| bite |
The Peranakan Museum advertised they would have free entry from 6pm onwards on the 31.08. and 01.09. So we decided to go and enjoy the activities for the children and other fun. We left later than we intended and found ourselves in a huge traffic jam, probably all of Singapore was a parking lot. It took us more than one hour to get there - we were back home in 20 minutes.
Arriving near the museum, the road was blocked off due to the Night Festival (31.08. - 01.09). There were people everywhere, the museum itself was full of people, lots of singing on the street and also inside the museum. The festival was taking place at a few other locations too like the National Museum of Singapore. There the outside was used as big screen for a show or art installation, we saw a bit of it driving back.
It was like Carnival in Rio, the road was littered with paper which was blown unto a dance, who swung from a crane over the heads of the spectators.
We didn't see all of the museum, but we saw the ground floor which was about 'origins' and also had a craft activity for the children - decorate your own mask. After the first hour they had run out of masks, mainly because many adults participated, two of our children got the last two masks. Then we went on to the first floor which was all about 'wedding' from embroidery to furniture, like the one Noah is sitting on (yes, some furniture was behind a rope, some wasn't). The wedding took place over 12 days!
The Peranakan Museum was opened till 2 am! But we didn't stay that long ;-)
Sophie was so tired after the visit, she fell sound asleep at home, didn't want to hear nor see anything ;-)
By the way Peranakan refers to the descendants of late 15th and 16th-century Chinese immigrants to Indonesia, they assimilated to some extend into the new community. Peranakan means 'descendent' in the Malay and Indonesian language, but is mainly used for Chinese people. They were very loyal to the British and mostly English educated. Working as traders they were middlemen between the British or Malay and Chinese community. With time they tended to lose their native language but they held fast onto their culture.
