The Edge Of The World: An Australian Adventure!

Highly unpredictable weather, sometimes with 4 seasons in a day! Undulating hills and mountains. Endless meadows dotted with hundreds of puffy sheep, elegant horses and grazing cows. Boundless cerulean skies that take our breaths away. This is Tasmania and Victoria, where we spent 2 weeks in December. A gorgeous, untouched land that is teeming with magnificent and rugged wilderness.  

Churchill Island
There were multitudinous new experiences for the family in this trip. We practically lived side by side with wildlife that is so tame because they know naught about the harsh and evil nature of men. We observed thousands of wild penguins at very close range, walking beside them and gazing at how they lovingly feed their chicks after hunting for food all day long. Parental love at its peak. 

We trekked for hours in ancient forests and vast bush lands that are rife with very venomous snakes, wild wombats and wallabies. 

A cute and very tame wombat that is way more ferocious than it looks!

We saw this adorable wallaby that seemed to be communicating with us with its beautiful eyes and tame gestures - right outside the front door of our cabin!

We were farmers for one morning where we picked out succulent cherries, uncommon berries, apricots and strawberries in a fruit farm. We flew in a helicopter high above the stunning coastline of the Great Ocean Road, captivated by the beauty of the 12 Apostles. 

Can you spot where the Bees are? The low, bushy button grass land around them is rife with venomous tiger snakes *gulp*

And we took a roller-coaster adventure boat ride in the tempestuous and freezing Southern Ocean, alongside albatrosses and gleeful dolphins! What an adventure!

But most of all, we enjoyed the company of ourselves as a family, together with another family of close friends, over Christmas - high up in a secluded mountain lodge, without any mobile signals, TV sets or internet connection. A cosy, intimate and heartwarming Christmas! 

I will be updating with more entries (and I know it is crazy, because I had not even completed the blogging of our Europe holidays in June! Terrible me.)

Around The World In 5 Hours!

We meandered through 6 river systems, trudged through a flooded rainforest in the Amazon, and had a close encounter with a panda. No, we did not go on a whirlwind tour around the world. Instead, we experienced all these and more at the River Safari back in October! The kids enjoyed themselves thoroughly, and I am looking forward to going back there again, with the new river cruise that is opened now!

We saw the inhabitants of 6 river systems around the world - and these wildlife was truly amazing!

Some highlights:

1) The Amazonian Flooded Forest
I love discovering new facts with the family, and the fact that the Amazonian rainforest is submerged for months during summer was fascinating.

We admired a colossal tank of submerged man-made tree-trunks where the Amazonian manatees swam enigmatically like mermaids in an ocean. Truly enthralling.

2) Boundless expanse of verdant islets and lakes
Yes, this is Singapore. And yes, this is how beautiful Singapore was...and is...only if we are willing to look hard enough. The stillness of the placid waters and the serenity of the lush greenery are little reminders that nature exists near us in an urban city-state.

3) Sleepy and shy pandas!
I visited the Sichuan Panda Conservation Centre a few years back, and were captivated by the sights of dozens of gregarious pandas. So, I was not very impressed by our 2 pandas here in Singapore - one of which was sleeping throughout the duration of our visit (Kai Kai), and another who was so shy that she wandered out for a few seconds only to escape to the safety of her man-made cave again (Jia Jia). Still, it was eye-opening to see the resources that we had invested for these 2 pandas....pure luxury, compared to their poor counterparts with much smaller spaces in Sichuan!

4) Huge tanks and underwater tunnels
We can just sit in front of the many huge tanks and gaze non-stop at menacing crocodiles, cheeky beavers and exotic fishes. True escapism into another world.

We will be back very soon! 

Emblems of Happiness

The holiday season is descending swiftly unto us. The atmosphere is dense with merrymaking and a general euphoria. As the year winds down, so are people - who are walking with sprightly steps and glowing smiles, revelling in the ubiquitous twinkling lights and sparkling Christmas trees.

We decided not to put up our big Christmas tree this year, but instead, purchased 2 small Christmas trees for the Bees to decorate. We had a fun "Decorate Your Christmas Tree" competition, much to the excitement of the Bees! Using a small budget provided by us, they selected festive decorations and decorated the trees earnestly at home. It was a sight to see their creativity at work!

In the end, we gave out 2 awards - the most stylish tree and most colourful tree! Guess which award goes to whom? :)

The most colourful Christmas tree award - Little Bee's creation

The most stylish Christmas tree award - Big Bee's creation

Travelling Back In Time (Part 5): Munich

Munich was a kaleidoscope of sensations, an explosion of cultures, and a motley mix of multi-faceted textures. We were immersed in German high-technology efficiency in the world-renowned Deutsche Museum, charmed by bucolic products in alluring pastoral markets, fascinated by Gothic architecture from the Middle Ages, and were exposed to sleazy casinos and strip clubs in shady back alleys.

Some of our more memorable moments in Munich were:

1) Living in a big, spacious suite for 4 days, where the Bees felt so at home in. We dined in almost every night, after long arduous days of exploring different parts of the beautiful city. It is so important to have a place that is cosy and homey when we had longer pit stops in a bigger city.

Part of our apartment suite - the living and dining areas

We bought cherries from this roadside stall and feasted on them every night! 

The hotel has a "book" theme, and we were bombarded with titles of classics or quotes from books all around us. We love it!

2) Losing ourselves wandering down the colossal Deutsche Museum, the world's largest museum of science and technology.

The regal facade of the Deutsche Museum

The scale of the museum was mind-boggling. We strolled through the birth of technology, witnessing the creation of flight machines, submarines and trains.

Little Bee sitting on a submarine torpedo! 

The Bees walking into a World War 1 bomber. How cool is that!?

We traipsed together with the first men on the moon and the first machines in space, and were awestruck by the evolution of the written and printed words through the ages.

This is only a small segment of a life-size rocket. It was about 8 storeys high! 

We found this fascinating - the sizes of rockets from different countries. Guess which country has the largest rocket? ;) 

We ended our tour of probably just a quarter of the museum with a gratifying traditional German lunch with a beautiful view of the still-swollen Isar River.

3) Sauntering in meandering alleys overflowing with all kinds of cheese, fresh vibrant flowers, succulent fruits, delectable pastries and all kinds of agrarian products in Viktualienmarkt, a delightful farmers' market right in the centre of Munich.

The Bees playing with a refreshing fountain in the middle of the market

4) Doing crazy star jumps in the Gothic city centre of Marienplatz, in front of the inexplicably beautiful city hall with resplendent and breathtaking architecture.

The Bees were awestruck by the sight of the Gothic city hall when we first chanced upon it

Look what we found, nestled at the side of a cathedral!

5) Witnessing hundreds of Munich residents sunbathing beside rivers and in parks under the long, slanted rays of sunshine that stubbornly resisted sinking down the horizon on long summer evenings.

The famous beer gardens of Germany. This place would look insane during Oktoberfest! 

Life in Munich can be rich, fulfilling and leisurely, and I have a feeling that we will be back for more!

Ghoulish Glee

Halloween this year was once again spent with good food, yummy treats and even better company! LP and I brought the kids to PF's house where there was a huge gathering of little ghouls and monsters for tricking or treating.

Before the gathering, Hubby spiced up our day with a trip to a costume shop in Arab Street. And boy, was the shop crowded with everyone looking for the right costumes for themselves! The girls had fun rummaging through costumes that ranged from the bizarre to the most enchanting.

Eventually, the three of them became the following characters: Chucky the freakily scary doll, a kind pumpkin witch and a young ghoul with snow-white long hair!

At PF's place, the kids had lots of fun going around the different houses to have a feel of the ghoulish experiences. Some houses were really decorated elaborately, while others created a haunted ambience just to challenge the kids. The bunch of them were lured into a pitch-dark house with candies strewn on the floor deep in the house, and were scared silly with white figures lurking around the house! That was so funny!

While the kids chilled out together, playing games like trading the candies they received and hide & seek, the adults had a whale of a time chatting over great food! With the kids so much older now (2 of them are into their teens and tweens!), this is the best time for us adults to sit back and relax, and spend good bonding time with friends!

The gang back in their "normal" clothes!

The loot

"I Love Acting!"

Through some connections from Little Bee's kindergarten classmate, she was asked to appear in a short video skit for Class 95 DJs Jean Danker and Mike Kasem for the upcoming Radio Awards gala show. Essentially, Little Bee was supposed to act as a little Jean Danker who was constantly annoyed by a little Mike Kasem. Mediacorp will play this little clip on TV, before the award nomination for Jean and Mike in the Radio Awards.

It turns out that Little Bee's kindy classmate's parents are friends with Jean, and this was a favour for her. And the main reason why Little Bee was chosen was because the little boy told the mummy that Little Bee is the prettiest friend he has! That was hilarious!

Unfortunately, I could not make it to the filming in Mediacorp Studios due to work, so Hubby went instead. How exciting!

After a fun afternoon, Hubby's verdict was that Little Bee does not have an ounce of shyness in her, and that she truly relishes the limelight. She enjoyed being in front of the camera, and her performance improved after every NG ("Not Good" in filmography terms).

After the filming, Little Bee and her kindy friend were then invited by Jean and Mike into the Class 95 studio. There, their curious little selves tinkled about the intricate audio equipment, and Little Bee got to select and broadcast a Taylor Swift song that she thought her jiejie would love! Both of them also did a little recording to introduce Jean's and Mike's radio show, and had the most immense fun in the studio!

At the end of the day when I saw her at home, her only words to me were, "I love acting!!!"

This photo was posted by Jean Danker on her Facebook. We could tell that Little Bee had a smashing time! 

Of Shakespeare And Dickens

Little Bee is not as avid a reader as Big Bee, although she is fairly fascinated by Enid Blyton's Enchanted Wood series and some of her short story collections. She is also captivated by the simpler Princess Posey books, although this series of books had been really elusive. Hence, when she discovered the entire series in the library this past weekend, she was elated and promptly borrowed all she could find!

Lately, she was also mesmerized by the Usborne compilations of Shakespeare and Charles Dickens. I could never thank Usborne enough for bringing the usually inaccessible classics (especially Shakespeare!) to young, inquiring minds - opening up their minds to the literary giants that had enthralled us when we were teenagers.

These 2 books are never far from reach in her bedroom, and she would potter around with them, reading stories that had enraptured so many people around the world. Her favourite Shakespearean stories are the romances - Romeo and Juliet, and Twelfth Night. To be fair, I had not introduced the tragedies like Macbeth and King Lear to her yet, although I would not think she would relish them at this age.

As for the Dickens classics, she really enjoyed Oliver Twist, and would pore over the pages before bedtime on most nights. I must also thank the attractive illustrations in the Usborne series for grabbing the attention of my little visual learner. It is amazing to see some of those stories illustrated in vivid, brilliant colours!

There had been plenty of debates about whether children should be exposed to the original texts of Shakespeare first, or through the live performances of his plays. For Big Bee, she has friends who had started reading the original script of Macbeth, but I wonder how much can 11-year-old tweens absorb in terms of the language, themes, plots and personifications through the original texts? Don't get me wrong - I am a fan of Shakespeare, and would spend hours poring over the scripts, and memorising quotes from Shakespeare's myriad plays when I was a young literature student. But I am just not convinced that the original scripts of Shakespeare could enrich the language competency of younger school children.

This is a more challenging, but still compelling, read - more suitable for kids who are 9-year-old and above. 

This is why I applaud Usborne and Puffin Classics (which Big Bee had devoured since the age of 9) for simplifying Shakespeare into the palatable and riveting stories that they are, so that younger children can now read them, before attempting to enjoy the original scripts when they are older.

Their enjoyment of Shakespeare's works in stages of comprehension can be summarised in one of my favourite quotes from Romeo and Juliet, I think!

"This bud of love by summer's ripening breath,

May prove a beauteous flower when next we meet." 

What are your favourite Shakespeare or Charles Dickens stories? For me, it had been Twelfth Night and Romeo & Juliet from Shakespeare, as well as Great Expectations from Dickens all these years :) 

Young Inventors

In the beginning of the year, Big Bee's teacher announced that their class would have the opportunity to participate in one of 2 special programmes outside of the usual academic curriculum, with the objective of enhancing the students' knowledge in whichever programme they chose.

One of the programmes focuses on critical thinking, with the ability to debate on current affair issues, nurturing the students' creative problem-solving competencies, while cultivating a strong understanding of socio-political issues in the world. Or at least, this was what I gathered after listening to a talk by the teachers in charge. This is a programme that is linked to other similar programmes internationally, and finalists may get a chance to travel to a conference in the USA to present their findings.

The other programme focuses on innovation. A little bit of Science and ingenuity combined, if you were to ask me. Where students would need to think out of their usual square thinking boxes, and create a new invention that would be useful for the community. This is a programme that is linked to the MOE Science Innovation Programme, and is a nation-wide programme for selected students. Finalists would get a chance to present their inventions in a science fair that is attended by selected primary and secondary schools.

The moment I heard about these 2 programmes, the first choice I made for Big Bee was the one on current affairs. As the days passed, Big Bee's strong preference for the other innovation programme came up distinctly, and we had several heated debates about her preference. I thought the first programme would be more useful to shape her understanding of the world, whereas she thought it was a lot more fun to invent new things.

Finally, hubby stepped in and gave me the best piece of parenting advice: "Let her choose what she is interested in, not what you think would be useful for her. Otherwise, she would never feel this is her own choice, and will not have interest in the programme. And will not excel in it."

The normally headstrong and stubborn me took a deep breath and an even bigger step back, and started more open conversations with Big Bee about why she preferred the innovation programme over the socio-political programme.

And then it dawned on me. Parenting is not about living vicariously through our children. It is not about enforcing our perspectives, opinions and preferences on our children. A good parent should listen to the wants and needs of our children with a really open mind. Even if we think they are making the wrong decisions, we should be generous enough to let them go and experiment in whatever ways they want. And learn through their mistakes or experiences. Because after a certain age, they probably know themselves better than we know them. And these are their first strides towards independence.

I admit I was not a very good parent prior to hubby's enlightenment. But thankfully, I was jerked into reality rapidly. And it gave me a warm glow in my heart to see Big Bee smiling contentedly as she filled up her preferred selection in the form. Albeit I still have reservations.

Ironically, my reservations came to naught. 2 of her fellow group mates and her enjoyed the programme so much that they invented something that made it through 2 successful rounds of internal and external judging. They were hence able to display and talk about their invention at their own booth in a nation-wide science fair with other finalists from other schools. She felt gratified and told me she learned a lot from the experience.

As for me, this is a huge wake-up call that I should never impose my preferences on my children.

You can read about her entire experience with the innovation programme (and what her group invented!) here. Enjoy reading!

The poster for their invention, taken by one of Big Bee's classmates on her phone, hence the poor quality of the photo 

Time Flies...

Am I the only one who thinks 2013 sped past us with an incredible speed? This is already October, and it is scary how vividly I still remember the chiming of the hour that gently nudged 2012 into 2013, and all those early days of January thereafter.

And now...we are counting down to the end of the year yet again. With bigger children. Older faces. More experiences. New things to look forward to.

Time is scary. It is even scarier in fast-paced Singapore where we are constantly forced to plan for the future. Our children's exams in the next fortnight. Our job appraisals in the next week. Our parents' birthdays in the next month. Our business trips in the next quarter. By planning for all these way in advance, we are losing precious sight of the current moment, in a bid to chase for the future. And I think that is why time flows exceptionally rapidly for us Singaporeans. It is sad. And somewhat unnerving.

I was reading The Timekeeper by Mitch Albom, and was struck by the poignancy in which the different protagonists in the book wanted to manipulate time to their own agendas - just to grasp that little slice of happiness that they think they desire. Yet, happiness and contentment is within everyone's reach - if only we slow down and appreciate every single moment. But - can we do it? Is this yet another instance of "this is easier said than done"? What can we do to appreciate every moment? To take time for its face value? To have a realistic balance of reminiscing moments long gone, relishing the present and anticipating the future? I have no answers to that for sure, and I am still trying to discover day after day.

Still, one of the tiny ways for me to cherish and remember every moment is to look at past photos. This evening, I was looking through some old photos from late last year, and realised that we had such a multitude of different experiences and activities just in the last quarter of 2012. Yet, at that point, I was probably too busy planning for the year ahead (Little Bee's first time in primary 1, Big Bee's entrance into stressful primary 5 territory, my heavy workload, etc) for me to really savour those moments. Until now.

Because of this, I am trying to play catch-up with time. I might be posting some really backdated posts which I think are fundamental moments in our lives that I would love to document here.

As for now, here is a photo that depicts a special time of the year that we are constantly looking forward to - the imminent year-end Christmas season! Enjoy the moment and look forward to the beautiful days to come :)

Taken at the Tanglin Mall's mock snow fiesta in December 2012 - just before they became wet and soapy!