Her Dance Odyssey

Last year was a monumental year for Big Bee in terms of her dance commitments. She was appointed as Ballet President for that year, and had to attend a leadership camp to groom CCA (co-curricular) leaders like her. She was chosen in an open audition to participate in the Singapore Youth Festival (SYF) national dance competition. And she was on the school performing team for her ballet CCA. Due to all these hectic commitments, unfortunately, we had to nudge her to drop her tennis CCA. There just wasn't sufficient time for her to be devoting time to all these commitments while juggling her schoolwork and other enrichment outside of school.

As Ballet President, she was tasked to be the assistant for the teachers, where she would need to broadcast important announcements to her team members. She was also required to check on the attendance of her friends in the CCA, and of course, to provide motivation and inspiration for her team members. However, in a performing arts group, competition - while present - is not as strong as that in a sports team, so she did not need to be yelling loud motivating cheers to drum up the morale of her team mates, which is not her style anyway.

She spent days and weeks with her SYF team, practising slick moves for a sanguine, upbeat jazzy dance item. I went to support her on the day of the competition, and was blown away by how grown-up and snazzy she looked in her fashionable black jumper and glittering gold beret. The parents for these girls cheered the loudest (as always), and we were elated when we learned later that they attained a Gold award for their effort.

After the exhilaration of the competition, the team had several performances - both in the public and within the school. All the performances were enjoyable to hubby and I, of course. It was truly intoxicating to see your own little baby on stage, dancing an electrifying jazz number or an elegant ballet item, looking all grown-up and out-of-this-world. There was this strange and unsettling sense of disbelief.

My favourite performance was the public show at Botanic Gardens where the group performed to hundreds of people at the Shaw Foundation Symphony Stage. Together with the beaming grandparents and our Yorkie, we spread out huge picnic mats and sprawled on the emerald lawns of the gardens to watch our girl perform.

The team's performance in Botanic Gardens

There were 3 other school performances, and for one of them, she had to dance in 2 items - a pop-jazz dance and a Swan Lake ballet item of which she was one of the lead dancers. We were kept busy last year!

When I asked her the kind of fulfillment she gets from dance, she would provide me with cheeky answers like "It helps me lose weight!". But I could really see that it helps destress her, and provides an excellent platform for expressing herself and for dispensing all those extra energies away, so that she comes away from a practice with a clearer, more focused mind.

This year, she steps out of her role as Ballet President and had gotten out of the jazz dance team, but will still be prancing around on stage as a classical ballerina :)

The Arabian Enigma

Even in urban, modern Singapore, our family seeks to find little beauties that are out of the ordinary. In this age where many Singaporeans lament about the humdrum monotony of our country and seek other countries to appease our search for the exotic, we chanced upon an alluring enclave some time back - the Arab quarters of Singapore.

Although we had visited Arab Street a few times, we never failed to be enchanted by its mysticism, its eclectic charms, its differentiation from anything typically urban Singaporean. It exists in a time and place in itself.

We wandered insouciantly through narrow, colourful alleys full of surprises like stumbling upon an entire wall of dazzling, psychedelic art never before seen around other parts of Singapore. Or ambling past a dusty hole-in-the-wall shop whose facade was filled with an amazing array of antiquated perfume bottles straight out of the middle ages!

We visited small but alluring shops filled with extraordinarily quirky items for sale. We strolled past umpteen shops with the most creative and awe-inspiring of facades. It definitely felt as if we were lost in another city in a different age.

The girls were fascinated by this little niche in Singapore that was so new and unfamiliar to them. Hubby and I hope to show them similar enclaves in Singapore - so that they understand the little beauties of the country we are living in....

Colours Of Nature: The Green Corridor

There is a vast meadow near our old house where we used to hang out over the weekends. It is a pasture where we could take long leisurely walks without seeing any cars or smelling their noxious fumes. A colossal verdure where we can observe the little things that make nature so wondrous. We were able to observe at close range the simplest beauties like an eagle soaring low over the meadow, verdant patches of lalang, and dense morning mist rising over the dewy, wet grass awakening from a night of slumber.

Recently, we went back to our little emerald playground, and we were devastated to see a proliferation of bulldozers, trucks and other horrible machines meant to annihilate the primary forest, undergrowth and the enduring greenery in that entire area. I think the government just cannot bear to see a large piece of unspoiled natural beauty gone to "waste", and prefers building sterile shopping malls and pricey condominiums instead. It is inexplicably saddening. 

We should really be teaching our children - who will be the next generation of leaders in this urban nation - the value of nature, the huge benefits of leaving forests unkempt and growing at their own pace (instead of terribly boring cultivated parks), and the power of heritage in this young children. Otherwise, there is no way for our children's children and other generations beyond to truly understand this fledgling country if everything is all about economic success and air-conditioned leisure. 

I am blessed to have parents who used to bring us to parks and beaches for picnics and outings. My brother and I grew to appreciate nature a lot - even until now. I am also very happy to have a husband who loves the heat of Singapore as much as I, who always refrain from going into boring, air-conditioned malls to spend a free afternoon. 

Some time back, my husband and brother made plans for a cycling trip along the Green Corridor. I would love to join them one day, maybe trekking behind them with the Bees. Here is a guest feature by my brother who wrote briefly about the sights and scenes from their dawn cycling adventure. I thought it was a very poignant post about grasping at the last vestiges of our memories. In the end, my hubby and brother cycled for a good 6 hours throughout the breathtaking Green Corridor! 

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The Green Corridor (The old railway track)

Text and photography by my brother

As I cycled on the old train track along Ghim Moh, I took a moment to look up at the block of flats that my eldest uncle once stayed.

Every first day of Lunar New Year, all my relatives would congregate there. I still remember vividly during my childhood days, my sister and cousins would rush to the windows and catch a glimpse of the passing train. As it whistled by in a hurry, it brought us smiles.

Today, the block of flats stood silently cordoned away from the public, awaiting its final destiny.

Further down, Tanglin Halt comes into sight. It is here that my mum spent many of her growing years in. Once again, the block of flats had met with the same fate as those in Ghim Moh - en-bloc.

Queensway is just round the corner. There are news that it is up for sale. Will the Mecca of sports shoes meet the same fate as Ghim Moh and Tanglin Halt?

Ironically, in this day and age, nothing can withstand urbanisation. A stretch of dirt path filled with rich memories - and yet, its fate is in peril.

What other sacrifices do we need to make in the relentless pursuit of economic growth in Singapore? Have we all lost our soul and innocence in the process?

  

The Road Not Taken

Robert Frost is one of my favourite poets, and I really love his evocative poems about nature, love and sorrow. He had an amazing power to convey the smallest nuances of reality through his concise but vivid writings.

Recently, I chanced upon this poem of his again (The Road Not Taken, as reflected below). As a mother, I thought long and hard about how I can convey this message to my children, how I should be imbuing in them the inspiration to do what they truly want, even if that would be unconventional and different from the others. I also thought about how this poem can inspire them not to be too easily influenced by peer pressure, especially with Big Bee embarking onto her tweenhood journey.

And most of all, I thought about what we should really be teaching our children in a stressful Singapore - to go with the flow of rigid studies based on rote-learning, or to listen to their hearts and excel in something they are good at? I guess the big question would be: Can we parents learn to accept the different roads our children may choose to take? How can we be sure that we will always be standing beside them, advocating them unconditionally, without putting any of our expectations on them?

These are tough questions as our children grow bigger, with more societal pressures on them. But I hope to be always inspired by my own mother, who had always advised me to follow my dreams and to pursue my passions. In an age when most parents preached professional degrees like Medicine and Law, I remember vividly the day that she told me to follow my heart when I was choosing between a law degree and a more broad-based communications and social sciences one. Most parents will nudge their children to a professional degree, but my own mother took a look at me and said, "I do not think a legal profession will be suitable for you, and I do not think you will be happy. Just choose what you are interested in." It was a bold and wise statement coming from a woman without much education, and it had remained indelible in my mind since then. And since then, I had never felt happier in my university journey and my various careers.

Will I be able to tell my children the same message when they come to the same crossroads?

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Robert Frost

Colours Of Nature: The Virgin Forest

Virgin forest
Definition: A forest that had attained great age without significant disturbance, and thereby exhibits unique ecological features. Includes diversity of tree-related structures that serve as diversified wildlife habitat that leads to higher bio-diversity of the forested ecosystem.

Also known as: Primary forest, old-growth forest, primaeval forest, or in the UK, ancient woodland.

(Source: Wikipedia)

Sounds like nothing that we would encounter in Singapore? Well, one of our favourite to-do things over weekends would be to look for stretches of greenery in sweltering Singapore, and revel in the lush, verdant beauty. A tall order in blazing hot Singapore? Not surprisingly, nature reserves, forests and parks have one of the lowest temperatures due to the nurturing canopy of giant trees. So, even if we are trekking around under the mid-day sun, it will be cooler than walking around in the concrete jungle of Orchard Road!

The gorgeous forest canopy enveloped us from all perspectives

Which is why I love to immerse deep in the woods of Singapore. The smells of age-old trees and their leaves, the sounds of orchestras of unseen birds and insects chirping and shrilling away, the visual spectacle of endless verdure and minimal human traffic....all these are divine, to say the least.

We traipsed around the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve recently, in the Taban Loop of the Taban Valley, to be specific. It was just a hike almost in mid day, but one could never guess it was high noon from the cooling temperatures underneath that dense canopy. The Taban Valley is undulating, so there were plenty of really steep and high stairs built into the ground and lots of rustic forest paths. We deliberately avoided the masses of people thronging the main asphalt road just outside the woods, as we would rather have insects and trees as our companions when trekking. And true enough, many people avoided the more challenging forest walk, preferring instead to stroll in the comforts of the man-made roads outside.

We saw big spiders spinning intricate, colossal webs; we caught glimpses of amazing wildlife through the density of the foliage (we stood at a tiny rundown bridge on a tiny languid stream, enthralled by a rare rusty-brown bird bathing itself in the stream!); we listened to different calls of the wild and wondered what they are; we focused a lot on the narrow, rugged forest path to prevent ourselves from falling into the wooded valley below, and feasted our eyes on myriad plants.

According to the National Parks website, our nature reserves are home to more than 840 flowering plants and over 500 species of animals - and that the number of plant species growing in the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve alone is more than that in the whole of North America! And some of the trees in this forest are a few centuries old. How amazing is that...!

We completed the loop just under 1.5 hour, which was way too fast for Big Bee, who wanted to trek up to the summit. However, we had to consider poor Little Bee, whose short legs were so tired from scaling those numerous high steps cut into the ground!

Which means we will be back very soon, in a bid to climb to the top...

Love, Forever

They say the mind's memory archives fade with time. But they also say that the human heart remembers breathtaking moments in life, rather than specific, chronological days. For me, special moments are etched indelibly in my heart, in my soul - making some of these moments ineradicable in my mind.

I spent some time looking through some really old photos tonight, and these magnificent moments serve as a reminder for me to cherish every single day and to truly count my every blessing in life. For life is pretty marvellous indeed.

Big Bee at 4 years old, and Little Bee was barely 1 month old!

The girls in Arab Street 2 months back...

Of Felicity And Gatherings

One of the best things last month was that we managed to catch up with lots of family and friends for fun gatherings. The Bees are lucky in that they have lots of cousins and childhood friends to play with - other children who had stuck with them since babyhood, and who had grown up together with them. I thought this gives very special meanings to their first understandings of friendships - that friends grow and blossom together, and that - try as they should - friendships should really be all about long-term cultivation and sustenance.

We were lucky to have connected with our usual 3 groups of friends and families last month.

1) The Cousins
They had been hanging together since they were infants! Not only did the Bees have lots of girly cousins to play with (we need more little-boy cousins!), the grandmothers (all sisters!), who are usually chaperones of such gatherings, can use these beautiful opportunities for well-deserved gossiping and chatting!

We met up on the Thursday of the March school holidays at my house for a day-long of playing and swimming. Everyone was so reluctant to leave each other at the end of the long day!

2) PF and kids
These children literally grow up together from babyhood. Playing with baby toys like building blocks, bumbling baby gibberish together, exploring the world together and building sandcastles as pre-school kids, and now, as 3 of them are trundling into their teens, their idea of play is now playing chess and sitting around, chatting and gossiping. I am glad that the tiniest one amongst them - Little Bee - is being accepted wholeheartedly and is holding her weight very well with these big guns!

We had a great playdate on the last Friday of the March school holidays for a whole afternoon of Kinect and chilling between the girls. By evening, the hubbies as well as Eugene were back for a cosy steamboat dinner where the adults were busy chatting and eating on our dining table, whereas the 4 big kids ate rambunctiously and talked amongst themselves in another table! Talk about independence!

3) The Clique's kids (wow, it rhymes!)
The mothers (us!) had been very very good friends for 27 years. 27 YEARS!!! Oh my! And although our busy lives sometimes prevent our kids from meeting all that often, we still hope our kids will continue to hang out with each other until we are old, toothless grandmothers. I am glad that we are all meeting a little more frequently as our kids grow older.

On Good Friday, all of us trooped down to LP's house for a sumptuous dinner as well as fun and games for the kiddos. The adults had such a wonderful time catching up and gossiping, whereas all the kids (7 in total!) screamed, ran, chuckled and had a blasting great time in LP's house. We vowed to have more of such gatherings in future!

To The Zoo They Went

Little Bee had always relished field trips with schools since her pre-school days. When she first heard about the very first field trip to the zoo with her primary school, she was beside herself with excitement. I had never seen her more enthusiastic to attend school on the morning of her field trip!

I love the Bees' school for their beautiful balance of work and play. They are never too academically driven - and they make sure that their students have a very rich experience of student life activities and out-of-classroom programmes. In this age of crazy rote learning, with stressed out teachers attempting to churn out high-achieving but one-dimensional and somewhat robotic students with no passion for life, I think their school's approach to learning is very laudable and refreshing. And you could tell from the students - they are energetic, with a genuine love for the school, and they walk around in school with a spring to their steps and sparkles in their eyes.

Little Bee is also blessed with a wonderful form teacher who teaches them English and Math this year. She had been so supportive, nurturing and caring, albeit she is fresh from NIE. But that is perfectly fine. I had never seen a more devoted or committed teacher - not even with Big Bee's many teachers. She emails the parents all the time, and replies to our individual emails. She also maintains the class blog regularly, and takes photos of the students in all the various activities consistently - before posting these up to the blog almost every week. I feel totally blessed to meet with a dedicated teacher like her.

Little Bee came back from the zoo trip, rejuvenated and happy, of course. The following day, she wrote a little diary entry about her trip....

Marina Celebration

There is a place in Singapore that does not resemble frantic, urban Singapore. Where the pace is relaxed and halcyon. Where it reminds us of the origins of Singapore as a small island country with water all around us. And that is the place that we brought our parents there for their birthday celebrations a couple of weeks ago.

Raffles Marina is a charming place for dinner, especially on a day with a resplendent sunset - just like what we witnessed on the evening we brought our parents there for dinner. The sun was a bright tangerine orb hovering low in the horizon, and the sky was clear and cloudless. The dazzling sunset was nothing short of spectacular. Even the service staff commented that such sunsets will only appear a few times per year. How blessed we are!

Dinner was at a Chinese restaurant within Raffles Marina, but we almost had the whole restaurant to ourselves. So, it was a very warm yet private affair, where we could spend time bonding and joking with each other with all the privacy we wanted, yet chatted amiably with the very friendly service staff. Overall, it was a very homely experience with superb food at very reasonable prices.

The highlight of the gathering was the walk around the Marina after dinner. The breeze was balmy, the tide was placid and the night sky was so clear that we could decipher what could be Jupiter beside the Moon!

I was a little worried that Father could not walk for the entire perimeter of the Marina, but he was perfectly fine with our evening stroll, and we could admire the dark expanse of sea, looking across at the Tuas Checkpoint as well as pitch-dark land of Malaysia just across the straits. We also gazed with interest at the various yachts and boats around us, and spent a long time relaxing beside the alluring lighthouse of Raffles Marina, spotting fishes like barracuda and garoupa. The girls were thrilled with this fish-spotting activity, and my parents were delighted because of the extended time spent with their grandchildren. What an excellent way to wind down and leave behind the typical urban worries of a frenetic Singaporean lifestyle!

It was with reluctance that we left our dinner venue, but I can foresee us coming back soon!

Pancake Design

We discovered a pancake joint where the Bees could design and cook their own pancakes, with different flavours and lots of condiments.

Every table was equipped with a grill where customers could just squeeze the pancake batter in any shape or form, and then have fun creating their very personalised pancakes!

The batter was available in different flavours - from buttermilk to chocolate to strawberry to pandan!

 

The Bees loved the fact that they could create any pancake shapes their hearts desired - in all sizes! They created teeny pancakes, heart-shaped pancakes, alphabetical pancakes, and decorated these beautiful shapes with rainbow sprinkles, M&M chocolates and fruits. This was an excellent way to make picky eaters like Little Bee eat lots of pancakes!

Hubby was like a big kid - and a creative one at that! Check out his pancake creations below...the girls loved his creations!

Definitely worth a visit again and again - and such great bonding over the dining table too!

 

Her Primary One Adventures

A full quarter had passed, and Little Bee had just enjoyed her very first one-week March break in primary 1. She seemed to have adjusted really well in primary school, much to my relief. My biggest worry was that she would not be able to wake up at the unearthly hour of 6am, but she had proven me wrong (despite some episodes of her lolling around on bed, chanting incessantly "I am very tired", poor girl!).

Recess Bento Boxes
The days in primary school start much earlier these days for me. I am no longer living in a place within walking distance of the girls' school, so they now take the school bus which would fetch them at 6.30am. So, I tend to wake up at 5.30am to make bento boxes for Little Bee, who is always a very picky eater. These bento boxes can range from really simple ones to fairly fun ones which I enjoyed preparing.

Some of the bentos that I enjoyed making...

Social Life In School
Little Bee had always been a super gregarious social princess, so it comes as no surprise to me that she has plenty of friends, and she goes for recess with a big bunch of friends.

She had also adjusted well to her CCAs. She is part of a Chinese CCA (I put her there to cultivate her love for the language, and it seemed to be working!) and is also in Gymnastics. Recently, I received a slip from the school, informing me that Little Bee had been selected to go into the training development squad of the school team because they see potential in her. After some serious discussions with Hubby, we decided to forgo this opportunity for her because there are just too many practices, and I feel that Little Bee needs more time to rest at this stage of her young life. Ha, as you can tell, I am no tiger mother at all!

My Little Independent Girl!
Finally, what amazes me was her atypical responsibility in doing her homework and informing me about worksheets or notices that I needed to sign. Little Bee in kindergarten life was someone who needed a lot of supervision and monitoring with regards to academic work. But she had since transformed!

I guess she is developing the Big Bee syndrome - a syndrome of "Oh my god, my mum is really blur, so I'd better make sure I tell her what to do!"

Secretly, though, I find this approach (of me being blur, and not monitoring their work much) to be working really well with my girls - inadvertently, to say the least. I am usually very busy at work, and by the time I am back at home, I am usually exhausted, and all I can do is to spend a swift couple of hours with them over dinner and chilling around, sometimes without looking through what their homework is. Little Bee was initially very dependent on me, but after a few incidents where I forgot to sign her worksheets, thereby resulting in her being reprimanded by her teachers, she learned to be independent and take charge of her own schoolwork, which is really what I wanted for them! These days, she would remind me of what worksheets to sign, and would finish her homework by herself in the afternoon. So, I think it pays to be a blur mum like me, because it fosters lots of independence in the kids!

I will continue to blog about her adventures in primary one in time to come, but I thought I would like to share this little journal entry by Little Bee on her first day of school - which shows her excitement and beautiful optimism. I hope this optimism and zeal shines brightly for a long long time :)

Tweening It Out At Universal Studios

7 girls in their 11th year. 2 little sisters. 3 mothers. This was the group that descended unto Universal Studios last Sunday. And what immense fun we had!

Big Bee and a bunch of her best buddies had been planning for an outing to Universal Studios for quite a while. It was a gathering that the girls organised entirely on their own, with minimal parental supervision and maximum peer involvement.

The anticipation from the girls was inexplicably dense throughout the entire CA1 week, just before the big day. In fact, they were already planning the routes to explore and had even printed out an itinerary! What precise planning! This excitement really helped them tide through the CA1 week blithely. I guess this was a coping mechanism for the girls who were managing a much tougher primary 5 curriculum for their first formal assessment in school.

We were in Universal Studios from 10am to 3 plus pm. Some of Big Bee's friends were hanging out until almost 7pm! Little Bee and I spent time by ourselves in the first 2 hours upon entering Universal Studios, as Big Bee had already rushed into different rides with her friends, and started the whole momentum going.

Meanwhile, Little Bee and I ambled languidly around, taking our time with the Transformers ride, the new Sesame Street ride, interacting with Ernie from Sesame Street, and the Madagascar ride. We could even squeeze in time to eat lunch in an almost-empty food court at the Jurassic Park section! It was gratifying to be able to spend some quiet, quality time with Little Bee, listening to her never-ending sunshine-like chatter.

As this was the weekend just before many schools' CA test week, the entire Park was not crowded at all. So the restaurants were empty, the queues were short, and there were lots of spaces around the Park to stroll around. Lovely. We eventually joined Big Bee and her friends when they had lunch in a restaurant in Far Far Away, and then hung around with them as they dashed to all the different shows and rides in the Park.

Chilling out with tweens is thoroughly enjoyable - especially when they are happy, and not feeling moody nor temperamental! Big Bee's friends would chat incessantly and excitedly with me as if I am part of their group, and I am thankful that they treated me more like a friend than another stuffy adult.

One of the biggest achievements for Big Bee was taking the Battlestar Galactica (Human) ride. She had been wanting to take this ride for a long time, and was elated when she was able to do it with her friends finally! That exhilaration and thrill on their faces after their ride was priceless.

We left early at 3 plus pm because we had to walk Big Bee's best friend out of the Park. What a thoroughly enjoyable day!

Back In Business (Hopefully)

The first quarter of 2013 had trundled along, and I just realised that I did not blog a single entry in February...yet, we are now in the middle of March. The speed at which time zooms past us constantly amazes me. Memories of last October where Little Bee was preparing for her K2 graduation celebration were still fresh in my mind. Yet, in reality, she had already eased into a new chapter in her life, adjusting perfectly to life in primary 1. My mind was still speckled with memories of my little celebration with Big Bee for her 10th birthday last year, and now, we are staring at the imminent approach of her 11th birthday next month.

As I look at how crazily fast time slithers through our fingers, I decided that I cannot let this little blog of ours lapse. Remembering indelible moments in our lives is so much more important than working on that extra email or work project. So, I am trying my best to pick up the little pieces of my neglected blog, and would be posting a lot of back posts.

Work had been so insidiously busy that it is overwhelming, but I am glad that I can still spend quality time with the girls and family by attempting to be home early. It is essential that we spend quality time with the kids as working mothers, and if I have to work, I will only do so after the kids sleep. Which is why I am just so exhausted on some days.

For now, I am trying to do more blogging because I realise that I miss the writing. Let's hope I will keep to my own promise :)

Reining In Versus Letting Go

Big Bee has entered tweenhood full swing this year - the year that she turns 11. There are now a lot more peer pressure, more playdates (or outings, as the tweens would like these to be called) where parents are strictly kept out of (!). Her priorities had shifted to her friends (although she is still a very homely girl who loves her family a lot!). She has more unfathomable meltdowns and mood swings over issues which we parents think are trivial, and she is a lot more sensitive about her privacy.

Welcome to the challenging world of tweenhood - where they are straddling that thin line between childish innocence and cynical adolescence, where parents like us cannot help but still perceive them as our little babies, although they are actually struggling to break free of our smothering embraces in public (although they can still be very affectionate in private, at home! "Just play it chill in public, please, Mum, for goodness' sake!") Sigh.

Last Sunday, Hubby and I reluctantly agreed to letting her attend her best friend's birthday party at the Marine Life Park of RWS. When I first received the SMS from the birthday girl's mum, I was unfazed, thinking that she would be safe, just going to the S.E.A Aquarium. Until the mother informed me to pack a swimsuit for Big Bee for the Adventure Cove Park.

Thoughts of big, dangerous waterslides and deep, thrashing wave pools circulated around my head. I could not imagine Big Bee with a handful of close friends, with minimal adult supervision, going crazy all alone in a large water theme park. What if an accident happens? What if she slipped and fell? What if she met some baddie stranger? Lots of negative, imaginary incidents started populating in my crazed mind.

We could easily say no to her outing, but this will undermine her trust in us, and could possibly aggravate her alienation from us. I thus spent the whole Sunday twiddling my thumbs (while enjoying some precious quality time with Little Bee!) and waiting for her to text me once in a while - filled with worry and trepidation.

At the end of the day, she came back - radiant, joyous and liberated in the fact that she had such wonderful fun with friends. And yakked incessantly about all the fabulous water rides she took with her friends. And I am sort of relieved that I had not disagreed to this outing.

I guess this is the beginning of yet another threshold for Big Bee and me. The threshold of letting go for a parent. The new chapter of balancing my child's personal social life with her family life. The dawn of a new era where I need to sit back in the shadows, quietly observing her with eagle-sharp eyes, and letting her grapple with life's realities on her own, only to emerge from the shadows with help whenever she asked for me.

{Thankful For}...A Brand New Year

Last week (31st Dec 2012 to 6 January 2013) seemed like a beautifully long week - a week of sparkling new beginnings, a week of radical changes, a week of new chapters and newfound friends, and a week of settling into routines.

I am most thankful for the opportunity to see my little baby, Little Bee, step into a new threshold of her life - primary school. I am also exceedingly thankful for the fact that Big Bee had blossomed into a mature young lady, and is now a buddy to a primary one girl.

Here were some things I was truly thankful for, in the past week:

1) With the blessings of wet weather on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, we could spend lots of cosy family bonding time at home, chilling out, playing board games and having loads of fun conversations. I am also grateful that Big Bee recovered from her short bout of New Year fever in time for the first day of school.

2) Big Bee's very first time watching the countdown television shows with us, staying up way past midnight, giggling secretly, and wishing us Happy New Year as the clock struck 2013.

3) It was also gratifying to see her messaging her good friends on her recently purchased mobile phone - just like a little adult. It is wonderful to see that she has her own circle of close friends, her little tweenhood life, as we parents take a little step back to observe how she manipulates her little vessel in the big ocean of life.

4) Little Bee eased into primary 1 effortlessly, with her signature sunshine beams and chatterbox yaks! She made friends with her classmates without reserve, and started warming up to her teachers immediately. It was heartwarming yet bittersweet to see her going for recess with her buddy, having a little life of her own, trying to swim around in a big kids' school.

5) I made lots of newfound friends and met old friends who are parents of Little Bee's classmates. I am thankful that many of these parents are amicable, enthusiastic and very involved in their children's lives. They will definitely be a marvellous support group for me!

6) 3 days of going to school and home with Little Bee, spending languid hours in school until school ends, bonding so much with Little Bee, and being there with her at the start of a very fundamental chapter in her life. These days were beautiful and memorable, and will forever be etched indelibly in my heart.

7) The discovery of a lovely street filled with quaint cafes and charming restaurants - we have new places to explore and chill in!

8) A lovely alfresco dinner at home on Sunday, as we dined and watched Nature's magnificence wind down to the end of a glorious day.

Let's hope every week this year would be as wondrous as this first week of 2013! Happy New Year!

A Different Side of Phuket

We spent 5 glorious days in northern Phuket from 18 to 22 Dec, doing absolutely nothing and yet indulging in everything we so desire. Languid days melted into one another, until we could hardly distinguish between each day. The tranquillity experienced in northern Phuket, far from the madding crowd, was therapy in itself, where we were able to feel at one with nature, each other and ourselves. Beautiful.

Here are some highlights of the different Phuket that we had experienced:

1) The Hotel
In keeping to my preferences for hotels situated in remote locations away from the city, I researched for and selected a hotel - Holiday Inn Mai Khao - situated in a secluded part of northern Phuket. The hotel was perched right beside the majestic Andaman Sea, and located right in Phuket's Sirinath National Park. We were truly removed from civilisation - with bustling Patong about 40 to 45 minutes away, ensconced in the arms of serenity and stillness.

The hotel was pretty luxurious with modern resort-like architecture, despite its 4-star rating, and the service was one of the warmest Hubby and I had seen in our manifold trips overseas.

We booked a Kids' Suite, which was the best decision we had made - it provided us with the luxury of space needed by 2 growing daughters, yet allowed us to be close together in one living space for perfect bonding.

Essentially, the Kids' Suite comprised of 2 rooms connected by one huge common bathroom, with bunk beds and bright, colourful bedsheets in the children's room. Needless to say, the Bees were thrilled with the bunk beds and their own little private space!

Food
Another excellent feature of the resort was the promotion that kids could eat free for all buffet meals! When we topped this off with very reasonable buffet prices (usually around S$20 to S$30), it meant incessant gorging for us during breakfasts and dinners - to the extent that I was frankly rather repulsed by food in the last 2 days!

The breakfast spread was good, and dinner buffets had different themes every night. We were very excited by a Southeast Asian themed buffet on a Thursday night, and were stuffing ourselves silly with favourites like Hainanese chicken rice, laksa, beef rendang, kuehs, Thai desserts etc! There were lots of Russians and Eastern Europeans staying in the hotel, and it was quite amusing to see their baffled expressions when they saw all these food that were so foreign to them!

Leisure Activities
We did not get out much from the hotel these 5 days (other than long walks on the beach and half a day of trekking which I will write about later). Firstly, we selected this hotel so that we could be staying within a national park; secondly, we wanted a hotel perched so close to nature's perfect beauty to purge us of our urban toxins; and finally, this hotel had a wonderful array of leisure activities within its confines, which was excellent to entertain the Bees when they got a little tired of long beach walks and wave surfing!

We spent a lot of hot lazy afternoons on team games like badminton and lawn bowling. The trampoline was also a huge favourite with the Bees and us - we loved that free fall feeling of jumping high up in the air, only to be sucked down by gravity, and then to bounce high up again. It was such a liberating, unfettered feeling!

There were plenty of board games and chess sets around. We spent a languorous afternoon amidst a thunderstorm, sipping coffee, eating Lamingtons and black forest cakes, playing Scrabble as a family (well, the Bees beat the 2 adults flat, sigh!).

Big Bee and Hubby also indulged in a late morning game of chess in a little pavilion just beside the sea, whilst Little Bee and I played Jenga (because lousy Mummy here was the only one in the family who doesn't know how to play chess!). With the balmy morning breeze twiddling its insouciant fingers through our hair while spending quiet time with one another, the feeling was divine.

There were also a good selection of DVDs and PSP games (the Kids Suite had a PSP playstation, although we did not use it) - and it was so easy to rent movies to watch in the comfort of our hotel room.

The marvelous thing about these activities was that the games and sporting equipment were all laid out for anyone to play, without the troublesome need to book or register your time. So, for people like us who prefer spontaneous play, it was so convenient and fuss-free!

We only went to the pool a couple of times, preferring to stay by the sea instead. However, the freeform, infinity-edge pool was situated just a stone's throw away from the beach, so it was quite an experience to swim in the pool while enjoying the seaview and sunset at the same time.

I am usually not one for Kids' Club, preferring to spend quality time with the kids instead. However, their Kids' Club was so attractive and colourful, filled with hourly fun activities that Little Bee could not resist them, and kept persuading me to let her spend some time there! There was a huge ball pit with a small playground in the middle of the club, and a huge playground outside.

There were also PSP games to play, movies to watch, and an interesting haxagon-shaped reading area for the older kids who did not want to be disturbed by nosy little children!

In the end, we did put the girls in the Kids' Club, while we indulged in a short spa session. When we returned after our spa to fetch them, we saw happy faces (yes, even from cynical Big Bee!). They had both learned a new skill from one of the club's hourly activities - balloon sculpting!

On the 3rd day of our vacation, the hotel also put up 2 huge bouncy castles on the grounds for the kids, much to the delight of the Bees, especially Little Bee!

Spa
I indulged in 2 sessions of Thai massages on 2 days - once with Hubby (when we left the girls in the  Kids' Club) and another time alone, with Hubby spending quality time with the Bees, watching a DVD movie. Prices were so reasonable for the massage, the ambience was so peaceful and relaxing, and both my therapists were superb!

2) The Beach

Gazing at the boundless expanse of the regal Andaman Sea for several hours a day was a daily ritual that rejuvenated our flagging spirits and jaded urban minds. The horizon was a clear line, unobstructed by any ships or islands. The skies above seemed grander and more magnificent than other skies viewed from other locations.

Staring at these beauties never failed to make me realise the immeasurable magnitude of the universe, and how terribly miniscule we human beings really are, just like fragile chess pieces that could be smashed into nothingness and scattered all over.

Yet, these supposedly insignificant human beings - us - seemed to possess such inordinate powers to potentially wipe out earthly existence with the industrial activities we indulge in. When faced with such breathtaking beauties of nature everyday, it is indeed forlorn to think that urbanisation has taken over so much of Earth, wiping out the colours of nature with ugly grey city structures.

OK...I am ranting! Back to the beach...

Beachcombing
Mai Khao beach is the longest beach in Phuket, with a 11km of near-deserted strip of sandy beach. There would be pockets of hotel guests in the few resorts scattered around, swimming in the sea or worshipping the sun on the sand. However, in between these resorts, when we went for long beach walks, we often ended up being totally alone without chancing on anyone. This was the pure luxury of solitude.

We went on a particularly long 2-hour walk on the beach one late morning, which culminated in us entering another hotel (Renaissance) for lunch and a short coffee break. In that 2 hours, other than the few hotel guests near the resorts, we only saw about 4 other people taking similar long walks. The sand was coarser and darker than the usual fine, white sandy beaches, which made walking a lot harder and more challenging. Little Bee was a little tired from all the walking eventually! Even my legs were aching after trudging through the undulating sand for a couple of hours!

The beach was fringed by miles of uninhabited land with myriad coconut trees, casuarina trees and shrubs. Yet, other than the beachfronts of the hotels, parts of the public beach areas were filled with debris and rubbish washed up from the sea or from campers who had left beer bottles or fishing nets behind. Thinking of how these rubbish could affect marine wildlife just saddened me, and we used this opportunity to talk to the Bees about keeping our beaches pristine (although the Singapore seas and beaches are amongst the dirtiest I had seen, sigh).

We have a tradition of picking seashells from the beaches wherever we are on a beach holiday, so this holiday was no exception. I love this activity for the fact that it gives the family an excuse to pore closely at the sand on the beach, observing minute details, and picking out the best of seashells, whilst observing marine life on the beach punctiliously. We started with a small handful of collected seashells, which expanded to a huge bag of gorgeous seashells on the 3rd day!

Wave-surfing
The waves and currents were very strong here, despite the fact that the sea had become much tamer in December. We spent hours in the sea wave-surfing. Little Bee was a little terrified by the intensity and strength of the waves initially, but gradually got over her fear, although she still preferred to play at the edge of these delirious waves. Adventurous Big Bee was more of a risk-taker. Together with Hubby, they would venture further out to the sea, despite red flag beach warnings. They would ride the surf, with Big Bee squealing in absolute delight. At times, the waves were so strong that they would crash right over the heads of Big Bee and Hubby, pushing them right to the edge of the beach or sucking them in with the strong currents.

I was a little skeptical and worried about the intensity of the waves, and insidious thoughts of the terrifying 2004 tsunami that hit Phuket kept creeping into my mind. On hindsight, I was quite glad that everyone was safe and sound, despite our hours of playing by the beach with rough seas!

Resplendent Sunsets

Both Hubby and I are unwavering fans of watching sunsets. For me, I love the brilliant, changing hues of the skies as the sun descends. Part of the advantage of staying up north in Mai Khao was that we faced the glorious setting sun to the west, and we sat on the beach almost everyday to gaze wondrously at the miracles of Mother Earth.

To be able to observe the gradually setting sun, to be immersed in the enchanting tangerine hues of the sunset, to feel at one with the ever-rotating Earth as we were plunged from golden brilliance to the lavender gloaming, and eventually dusky evening....we feel totally connected to the omniscient rhythms of the Earth indeed.

As Darkness Falls
We strolled on the beach one night, in total darkness, as we wanted to show the Bees a different perspective of the sea and beach in complete darkness. The swashing waves seemed louder, the breeze seemed colder, and the nocturnal world seemed more expansive in its darkness. We also hoped to observe a more active realm of marine life, but found it very challenging to achieve in pitch darkness. It was unfortunate that we had a new moon that night, which meant that sliver of lunar brightness could not emit any light for the mortal beings on the beach to see better.

However, we saw a few sky lanterns floating up in the ebony obscurity, and it was magical to see these little cylinders of luminance slowly but steadily progressing up to the high heavens, transforming into little baubles and speckles of radiance, to join the brilliant stars.

3) Marine Wildlife 

Elusive Marine Turtles
We are very fortunate to be staying on a beach where the endangered giant leatherback turtles (one of the largest and most ancient species of marine turtles) prefer to nest, and we are even luckier to be staying here in the midst of nesting season! There were also other marine turtles which will nest here. When I first found out, I was thrilled, and hence, wanted to stroll along the beach at night in the hopes to catch a nesting sea turtle. Unfortunately for us, the darkness acted as a natural shield for these amazing marine creatures.

The Bees standing around a big marine turtle's nesting pit! 

However, in the mornings, we would comb the beach, in a bid to search for the nests of marine turtles, and often, we were not disappointed! As this seemed to be a busy nesting season, we could easily find several large turtle nesting pits along the beach, sometimes on the section of the beach just outside our hotel! Miraculous.

2 big nesting pits were found side by side!

Turtle nesting pits resemble huge craters in the sand, always along the high tide line. The fascinating thing is that sometimes, we could literally see the turtle tracks leading to and from the sea, especially if we were combing the beach early enough. Once, Little Bee and I chanced upon a nest crater with the outline of a turtle's head, its 2 front flippers and embossed shell patterns on the sand! We were awe-struck, and just kept gaping at the nest crater.

The eggs should be underneath the high pile of sand, supposedly created by the marine turtles to camouflage the eggs

On our last morning in Phuket, we discovered nesting pits with tracks of turtle hatchlings (very likely the beautiful olive ridley turtle) heading towards the sea! It was a stupendous discovery for us.

Friendly Dogs, Shy Crabs and Some Nonchalant Fireflies
The beach was also dotted with an abundance of nervous crabs scuttling swiftly away and into their ubiquitous nests. Little Bee was a little spooked by these crabs initially (probably watched too many cartoons with evil crabs threatening folks with their sharp pincers!), but her fear was assuaged when she realised how shy and fearful these little crabs were.

The beach was also home to a few friendly dogs who would comb the beach for goodies from tourists, or look for a fun romp with a cordial beach lounger!

A friendly dog enjoying the sunset view

During our walk on the beach at night, we even saw a couple of fireflies cruising past us indifferently! They were very amiable, unlike the shy ones we saw in Desaru - hovering very close to us on the beach, with their glow accentuated in the pitch-black beach!

4) Treks with Nature

Bang Pae Waterfall
On our 4th day, we visited Phuket's largest waterfall, the Bang Pae Waterfall. It was situated in the Khao Phra Thaeo National Park, which was only about half an hour's drive from our hotel. We had to trek and climb through the lush forest of the national park for about half an hour before we reached the main waterfall (adults might complete the trail in 15 to 20 minutes, but we had 2 city kids with us, so progress was a little slower).

It was the Bees' first overseas trek in a somewhat challenging forest environment - slippery and steep mud tracks, rocky riverbanks, fallen tree trunks, etc.

The walk down was more treacherous than the trek up, due to the lack of a proper path. So, we had to lead the way, and asked the Bees to follow where we stepped, just to avoid the prevalent loose rocks on steeper slopes.

The walking path was really narrow, and the drop down seemed a little precarious...

I am very proud that Little Bee, being the little dainty self that she is, completed the trek up and down the waterfall on her own, without any complaints. And I could tell that Big Bee would be an adroit and adventurous trekker, keenly following behind Hubby and I as we walked through some difficult slopes. I am looking forward to future trekking holidays with them!

While the trek was thoroughly enjoyable, the waterfall itself was a little small, especially in the dryer month of December. However, we could see locals and tourists swimming in the water under the falls - how fun! For us, we merely splashed a little water by a rocky riverbank, as it was getting late and we need to adjourn to other places. But swimming under a waterfall is definitely an item on the family's to-do list!

Gibbon Rehabilitation Project
As we emerged out of the forest from Bang Pae Waterfall, we strolled past the Gibbon Rehabilitation Project. This is an incredible effort to house and care for adult gibbons that are abandoned by commercial touts in Thailand, before releasing them back to the wild.

As we walked around the area, surrounded by the dense forest of the national park, we were treated to the haunting calls of the gibbons echoing throughout the silent, majestic forest. We listened and meditated - and were touched by the fact that Earth is filled with so many beautiful creatures, yet discouraged by the acts of cruelty that much of humankind inflicted on our fellow creatures.

Promthep Cape

From Bang Pae Waterfall, we adjourned to the southernmost end of Phuket to Promthep Cape, known as the best location to view a stunning sunset. Hubby and I were always fascinated by promontories, hence he was lured to this place after seeing online photos of the various islets and the signature Promthep Cape's promontory.

It was a breathtaking place perched on a high vantage point in which we could view the limitless Andaman Sea. The hues of the sunset were indeed splendid and magical from this vantage point, but I thought the crowds of people distracted me from feeling at peace and at one with the world. Hence, I still prefer our little corner by the Mai Khao beach for watching the sunset!

In all, I love this short getaway because we get to see a beautiful slice of Phuket that is not commonly listed amongst the top ten things to do in Phuket. I love it because time literally drew to a halcyon stop. It was restorative and rejuvenating - and I hope the Bees get a few steps closer to nature here as well!