April - Holiday

Welcome dancers at the resort

April started with a family holiday on Bintan Island, a 55min ferry ride across the South China Sea from the East Coast of Singapore. Bintan Island belongs to Indonesia, so we needed to cross customs and get a visa, luckily it's possible on arrival. But to book the ferry tickets, Katrin spend quite a while on the computer to type in all the passport details for each family member! As did Karsten while on board the ferry, but with his pen - surprise surprise, as he is our computer whizz and I am the pen and paper lady:

Another dancer group

Bintan Island is one hour behind Singapore, so it meant we left Singapore at 11:10am and arrived in Bintan Ferry Terminal at 11:05 am - time travel! 

Bintan vs Singapore time

We stayed in one of many resorts and they are planning to build more there. Everything is in Singapore Dollars and using Singapore power plugs. Apparently it was established with financial help from the "Little Red Dot". 

Our hotel was great, it had a family pool with two slides, you can guess where we spent most of the time. There was also another pool with a swim-in bar and basketball hoops. Both pools were unusually shaped, it was fun to swim around the corners and under the bridges.  

Pool with swim-in bar 

View from our balcony

Here are a few impressions during our stay:

Jonas jumping

Esther jumping too

Yannic and David walking on the water

Laser-Quest

Beach, glorious beach!

We had the choice of three restaurants (standard, Mediterranean and Japanese) and a few cafe style eateries. The children were very impressed with the Japanese Teppanyaki Bar. Those chefs put on a good show - dinner with a show!

In one of the cafes we ordered mocktails (cocktails without alcohol), the lady then made us an offer to double the next order of mocktails, so we ended up with 12 mocktails for the price of 9. The next day we repeated the order, due to a misunderstanding we ended up with 6 coconut milk and vanilla ice cream based cocktails, boy, that was rich!
Here is a photo of an Indonesian signature cake: Lapis Surabaya, a yummy sponge cake (vanilla - chocolate - vanilla) - just to avoid misunderstanding: cake in the front, Katrin behind it ;-)

Three happy children and an afternoon tea spread:

Noah and ice-cream:

An impressive coffee machine

These are a few photos of our delicious dinner in the Japanese restaurant, the children were impressed by the flambé variation:

On our way back to Singapore we had to 'cek-in bagasi' as a sign told us, no need for translation here.

cek-in bagasi

Esther bought a little instrument called Karimba ("thumb piano"), which originated apparently in Zimbabwe, but is sold at every shop in Bintan, one of the salesmen entertain us during our wait at departure.

BACK IN SINGAPORE:

We came back to celebrate Good Friday and Jesus' resurrection. Our church here (Methodist Church) presented seven symbols of the resurrection which then 'decorated' the altar:

CLOTH - used as Jesus' burial clothes was found empty
SPICES - brought by the women to embalm Jesus, they were the first witnesses to His resurrection
STONE - this seal of the tomb was rolled away
BREAD - on the road to Emmaus Jesus talked with two of His followers, only when He broke the bread with them, they recognised Him
WINE - representing Jesus' blood and His death for us
CROSS - is empty
CANDLE - Jesus is the light of the world

Jonas had a sleepover at a friends' place, Katrin and the other children accompanied him part of the way. It's good to meet Jonas' new friends, since we jumped into life here without the time to gradually get to know others from Kindy onwards. At the meeting point/bus stop we found a Reflexology Path, the children had a blast:

Don't they just love it?!

It was quite painful nevertheless the children conducted races on it - ready for an Indian fire walk!
The pictures show in the background a row of houses around the park, a rather typical outlook here.

Another typical view is the count down on traffic lights:

Katrin and the children saw this sign on the way to the shopping centre Bukit Timah Plaza:

Apparently there was a fatal accident and the authorities are calling for witnesses. The date and time when the accident happened are recorded too. This sign was up for over a month.

Below is a picture of a very handy band-aid, it was easy to pull off because it had a kind of handle: part of one side was bend over and therefore not sticking to the skin:

JACOB BALLAS CHILDREN GARDEN
Since the children had holidays we took the time to visit the Jacob Ballas Children Garden, a section of the Botanical Gardens down the road from us. We had a great time.

Entrance for adults is only if accompanied by a child!

We spend a long time at the water play, it was only a small area, but that didn't limit the fun at all. Instead the children climbed one of the big trees which was between the water play and a huge sand pit.
A good many attractions in Singapore have water play area for children, which suits the climate. Interestingly enough though there are no water fountain to quench one's thirst, one has to remember to bring their own water bottle or buy water at the various stalls around.

Water play right at the entrance.

The children garden had a few displays, regarding the photosynthesis cycle for example, also a herb section or ferns and then lots of active play in Nature:

Balancing over a little creek - yes, Jonas did it while carrying Sophie and no, nobody fell in!

This bridge wobbled nicely, luckily we didn't had to cross a gorge or raging waters.

We intended to stay for only one hour and started early to beat the heat, but there was lots to explore and after two hours it was getting humid and hot and we were only halfway through. So we have to come back! Then we'll go around first and then refresh at the water play.


SENTOSA ISLAND

Out of the spur of the moment we visited Sentosa again, Karsten saw a picture of a new water park (Port Of Lost Wonders) which had just opened that week on Palawan Beach and off we went. We arrived too early and had an hour to spare before the park opened, so we went to the beach first. Palawan Beach is connected to a tiny island via a suspension bridge and is therefore the "Southern Most Point of Continental Asia".  Since 1992 Sentosa Island itself is connected to Singapore via a causeway and Singapore in turn is connected to peninsular Malaysia via a causeway since 1923. (Causeway is a road/railway tracks over broad water on an embankment)

All of us at the Southern Most Point of Continent Asia.

Father duck gathers his 6 ducklings.

Swimming across

Head count

Tropical island feel

View across to POLW (right at the beach) and Merlion (top right)

Two princesses

Port Of Lost Wonders
Apparently Singapore's first kid's club by the beach, has in the middle a large water play area around which are placed activity areas, picnic area, shops and restaurants.
The entrance is separated into one for  adults and one for children. The children's entrance has three to four door frames which gradually grow smaller (children are growing) and the adult's version is the opposite because adults become children again.

Through the adult entrance

The activities are scheduled and children have to 'pay' for it. With the ticket purchase each child receives a Port Pass to collect stamps and also 100 Curio coins to pay for the activities.
David and Yannic chose for example the Bubble Bath, which cost 30 Curio for half an hour of bubble fun:

Yannic and David

The children had a good time ;-)

All aboard!

Home-life:

Yannic and Sophie

David and Yannic in listening position to the bedtime Bible story.

On the road

A carry bag for Legos

The inventors with their carry bags.

We also managed to visit the Titanic Exhibition (http://titanic.sg/) just before it moved on. Unfortunately we couldn't take pictures inside, it was worthwhile, lots of personal artefacts and also ship owned artefacts were shown. Then there were portraits of people on the Titanic, their lives and a timeline of the events. Walking through the exhibition we felt the air conditioned air gradually getting colder. After touching the surface of an ice wall  (= iceberg) we followed the path and stood on the rebuild of Titanic's deck, fairy lights looked like stars and it was very cold. On the night of the crash, the temperature had dropped which should have been a warning sign of the danger of icebergs. Towards the end there was a long list with all the names of the ones perished. Each person was given a Titanic boarding pass at the entrance with a name on it, now we could check if we would have survived or not.... At the very end of the exhibition path we walked on what looked like the sea floor. We saw artefacts buried in sand under the glass floor that we walked on. Impressive !
Katrin was touched by Captain Edward Smith death, he was in retirement and came back just for Titanic's maiden voyage and stayed on board as it sank.

Helix Bridge (front) and ArtScience Museum (behind)

The Titanic exhibition is in the ArtScience Museum at Marina Bay, it looks like a peeled orange or open hand but it's to be reminiscent of a lotus flower. In the foreground is the Helix Bridge, the one Esther and her team colourfully rebuilt at school.

Helix Bridge and ArtScience Museum (left)

Some names around here are English origin or come from people like Stamford Raffles (who was the first to see and develop the potential of Singapore), Blackmore (a missionary who established  the Methodist Girl School next door, apparently one of the most prestige schools here) or Canning (Fort Canning was named after the Governor-General and Viceroy of India Viscount Charles John Canning).   

Other names are Malay. We had mentioned 'bukit' (hill). There are many more: jalan (street), kampang (village), jurong (shark) and pulau (island) to name a few. Some words written in Malay sound like the German or English word when read aloud, but then again are very foreign words.

Then there are obviously Chinese names in Chinatown, we still have to learn those, especially the writing ;-) Just like in Brisbane the street names in Chinatown are in Chinese characters and only sometimes in English too.

Another interesting wording is: "Can" as an affirmation. If you ask something, the answer is, if positive "Can!" instead of "You can do this" or "I can do this".

Not far from us is a small district called 'Holland Village', some shops but mostly restaurants can be found there. Wikipedia has a good photo of this enclave: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hollandv.JPG

We had lunch there in a Steakhouse, inside it was too cold, so we sat outside on the veranda, which was just beautiful, surrounded by plants and some fans we enjoyed our meal away from the hustle and bustle of the inside or the village itself.

To get home we used the MRT, train exit and entry at the platform is exactly regulated through coloured arrows (looks like the South African flag):

Katrin was talking to a senior guard the other day. In course of talking about Sophie he mentioned he himself has nine children because he's Catholic. At that time though Singaporeans were fined when they had more than three children, so for each child after his third he had to pay a fine and also higher fees for schooling etc. Nowadays Singaporeans are encouraged to have more children with incentives similar to a baby bonus. He wasn't bitter about the change in fact he said he's glad his children reap now these benefits. So far he has already 4 grandchildren. 

March - On the move!

March started off with Student-led-conference in Esther's year level. Parents are invited to see their child in the classroom. There are four stations in each classroom and the parents and student get 15 min for each station. The first had to do with spelling/writing, Esther and Katrin had to sort words into groups or had to build sentences using as many words as possible from the pile.
The second station was all about maths. Esther had prepared a game called: "I am... Who is...?", for example: 'I am 25. Who is 4x5?' is one card, the second part is read and then both players have to find the answer-card: 'I am 20.' and then read out the question on that card and so on... After that first Esther and then Katrin did the 'Mad Minute', a sheet of Maths questions had to be answered in one minute or less.
Off to the next table: Storytelling. Esther wrote a story about 'Three Wish Fairytale' called "The Winged Horse" complete with illustrations ;-)

The last station was an interview with Esther's class teacher, who was very happy to have Esther in his class and said she is doing well, settling in and contributing to class. Good to hear, it is difficult to join a class halfway into the school year, even though Singapore has a lot of coming and going. (There seems someone to be moving in or out every week in our condo. Many notices about garage-type of sales.) Esther didn't find it that easy to get into the exciting groups (girls!) but after a birthday party at a water park, where all girls of the class were invited, the ice was broken! Thank God!

cubby house

Sophie is being more and more alert. Her smiles light up her whole face, how wonderful and heartwarming a baby can be!

Mozzie (mosquito) combat Singaporean style:

Every week at least those men go around the complex and fog out the mozzies, Dengue fever is of great concern here, there is even a Dengue-alert-website which issues email-warnings about where the latest cases of Dengue fever have occurred. This fog smells like exhaust-fumes. Once whilst in the pool we were called out because they wanted to fog the vegetation around the pool. Instead of going upstairs we hid in the restroom/sauna area. It took a while for the fumes to disappear and the boys had a great time playing around in the sauna. The sauna had a glass-wall through which Katrin kept watch if it was safe to come out.
The first time we encountered this method we were in our unit, level 7 and suddenly we heard this loud noise as if a big swarm of locust was approaching. Then the fog appeared. It was quite surreal. Now when we hear the swarm of locust we check that all windows are closed, one reason being the fumes the other the aggravated mozzies.


Esther's year level showed off their progress with the string instruments (violin, viola and cello) at a concert, which left us very impressed. They played 6 pieces ('London Bridge is Falling Down', 'Super Trouper' and others) and sounded really good, not like beginners at all. Well done, Esther and class!

Sophie had her first dip in the pool:

The pool is rather cold so she has not been in before, despite the heat. But the children couldn't wait for her to join them. So far she has been in the pool only three times.


One interesting discovery we made is McDonald's delivery their fast food here, for only additional S$2.50! ;-) Singaporeans like spicy food, therefore you have to be careful which tomato sauce you take - normal or chilli tomato sauce. We hadn't seen before the seaweed salt either:

This month saw the three oldest boys on the move all over the world.
Jonas spent two weeks in India with his year level. There they built a road or painted a ward in a hospital or filled sand-bags. Jonas was in the paint crew for the first week and then had to shovel sand during the second week. The hospital was in Mundakkayam, Kerala, India. The children flew into Kochi (on the West coast close to the Southern tip of India) and then took the bus for another two hours to the South-West into the mountains.  Apparently the mattresses were only 1 cm thick, so the boys looked around and found a spare room with more mattresses in it, they all grabbed a few. The meals in the hospital were yummy, but back at their quarters they had meat stew each night (40% bones and 40% fat). Jonas had quite a few funny stories to tell. On the weekends the group did some sightseeing.

Here is Jonas' view in his own words:

My experience in India was very unique. My class and I were shown India how it is today, with a boundary between rich and poor. Although we weren’t in the poorest part of India we definitely weren’t in the richest.
We were divided into two groups, one in Velichyani and the other higher up in the mountains. I was assigned to Velichyani where we were divided yet again into two groups, one working on a road and building a house and the other helping renovate the labour wards in the local hospital. I along with my new friends decided to help in the hospital due to the lack of volunteers.
For the first week there we painted the labour ward and in the second week we shoveled sand into 50Kg bags. On the last day we went to visit some waterfalls, which were located a good 2hr drive away from Cochi airport.
India was a very different experience and I am glad to be at home. It was nevertheless a once in a lifetime experience. It made me grateful for what I have.




A few days after Jonas, Karsten flew to the US on a business trip, he also did some shopping:

The children got new sport shoes and sandals and Esther also received new outfits, beautiful! Karsten resisted the temptation to buy another Apple electronic gadget, but came home with black Apple t-shirts for all including an Apple bodysuit for Sophie (in pink)!






Karsten came home in the middle of the night. Noah was counting down the whole week. The morning after Karsten's arrival, Noah went to check for the daily free newspaper and sat down to 'read' it as he usually does. Karsten came up to him and greeted Noah, who didn't react. Where upon Karsten said "I am back, Noah!", to which Noah replied without looking up "Yes, I saw you!"

Michael and his friend Mika

The day after Karsten arrived, Michael went off to his school camp, 3 nights in a resort in Malaysia (Lanjut Resort, Kuala Rompin, 4-5 hours to the North on the West coast of Malaysia)! He was quite thrilled that he would be sharing his room with his friend Mika. All the other rooms had three students. Wow, what a different world, Karsten and Katrin's Year 5/6 camp was a week in a youth hostel a few hours drive from home away. Well, in a way Michael was also only a few hours drive from home away, but in a resort!!
He had a good time, that's all we got out of him and that he didn't really enjoy the seafood BBQ on the last night. ;-)



We had a few typical German dishes, the German shop receives every Thursday a fresh/frozen delivery from Germany including "Maultaschen". This South-Western speciality is like ravioli, pasta filled with meat or vegetable. Traditional it is cooked in broth. Any left over can be fried in butter, this tastes even better.


The other food item came by post, Karsten's parents send over original Black-forest ham.

To stay with the food theme: The other day we bought a Malaysian watermelon and got a surprise when we cut it open: bright yellow! But it tastes the same as the red ones.

Karsten started to have special nights out with the children, they usually go to the restaurant around the corner and have a cocktail. But sometimes it gets a bit more special like the quick trip to Sentosa Island.

Karsten took David, Noah and Yannic with him to work, they loved it there!

The last week before the holidays, while the older boys were still all over Asia, Esther's year level and the younger ones had project week. They made some great constructions: marble-towers and bridges out of paper/newspaper:

Another project was reproducing Singaporean landmarks out of paper while being inspired by the late Hundertwasser, an Austrian artist, who is well known for the usage of bright colours. Esther's group recreated the Helix-bridge a la Hundertwasser:

Once again we were impressed by the artistic ability and creativity those student displayed.

We ended the month with a visit to the Marina Bay Sands Shoppe, a very posh and new shopping centre opposite the Marina Bay Sands Hotel, which has the amazing pool on the roof top. What money can buy!

We have been there before and shared pictures of the Narnia exhibition. This exhibition was on the grounds of a iceskating rink next to the food court. Now it's back to iceskating rink. Well, it's more a plastic oil skating arena, but works very well. The children had a great time, one hour flew by. Isn't it a convenient concept to keep the children busy exercising while the parents can supervise and enjoy yummy food. 

Ice-princess Esther enjoys herself!

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?: