Colours Of Nature: Deserted Island

Cerulean skies, white powdery sands, crystal clear waters with little fishes darting around, not afraid of human intruders. Lush overgrown woods with not a human soul in sight.

Silence. Pristine silence that lets us hear the diligent buzzing of bees and the whisperings of wild lallang that sways in the gentle breeze.

This is not a national park in a foreign land. Nor is it a beach paradise overseas. 

Instead, this is a little slice of paradise in Singapore - Lazarus Island. As part of hubby's and Big Bee's birthday celebrations, we had a bit of an escapade in Lazarus Island. We were far from the madding crowds of over-populated Singapore, and we could finally listen to the silence of nature.

We trudged in the luxuriant, deserted woods, occupied only by huge grasshoppers, crickets and swarms of angry, large red ants that freaked the girls out! 

We plunged straight into the spotlessly clear, unsullied waters and played with the teeming fish all around us. What untouched paradise is to be found just a stone's throw away indeed!

In the journey to the island, we also sailed past many of Singapore's Southern Islands. I find it sad that there are 63 islands in Singapore, yet the majority of Singaporeans had not touched foot on many of these quiet, uninhabited islands. 

After our little excursion, the girls were really curious about Singapore's offshore islands, and we spent a good afternoon exploring some of more popular offshore islands on the internet. Islands with fascinating legends and stories like Sisters Island, Kusu Island and Pulau Hantu. I wonder which island will we hop to next?

Travelling Back In Time (Part 6): Mozart's Home & The Sound of Music!

We spent a day in Salzburg, Austria, and its surrounding regions. The historic centre of Salzburg, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site, is elegant and classy. It is also Mozart's home, and I could certainly feel the inspiration behind the baroque, classical music of Mozart!

I did find the town centre a little too manicured and touristy though.



However, as we ventured into the surrounding countryside, the beauty of rolling hills and huge tranquil lakes in the Wolfgangsee Lake District captivated us.



The Sound of Music was filmed in these very hills, and I could finally understand why Julie Andrews pranced around the emerald-green hills, singing away!! The entire landscape was so picturesque and stunningly beautiful.

It was a truly memorable and splendid day, and the highlights are below:

1) Strolling across the regal Mirabell Palace and Gardens, admiring the gorgeously trimmed flower beds and ubiquitous mythology-themed statues.



2) Our first view of the historic centre of Salzburg was breathtaking. The wide, placid Salzach river with the grand, baroque dome of the Salzburg cathedral and the imposing Hogensalzburg Fortress created an unforgettable and remarkable backdrop. Apparently, the fortress is the biggest (and best-preserved) medieval castle in Europe!



3) Ambling across the Makartsteg Bridge, admiring the collection of charming love locks all over the railings of the bridge!

4) Visiting Mozart's home, amidst loads of interested crowds! We even bumped into Big Bee's best friend there! What a small world!





5) A relaxing lunch at the art museum where we were able to sit back and enjoy the leisurely pace of life in this city, admiring the ubiquitous grand fountains, watching horse carriages go by and slurping ambrosial pasta!

6) Strolling around the charmingly quaint cobblestoned streets of Hallstat, a small village at the gateway to the Lake District of Austria. The architecture remains unchanged since the 19th century, and the surrounding alpine landscape of rolling hills and tranquil lake was stunning beyond description.





7) Taking a cruise around the Wolfgangsee Lake. We inhaled the pure alpine air, dreaming pensively while staring at the cobalt blue lake, immersing in the landscape around us, and listening to songs from the Sound of Music on the boat! The girls were positively blooming in such beautiful outdoors. Meanwhile, Hubby and I dreamed of retiring in these alpine surroundings!

What a beautiful day, and the breathtaking vistas will remain indelible in our memories for a long time indeed! 

Colours Of Nature: The Colour of Drought

By now, everyone must be heaving a sigh of relief that heavy rains had been pouring down on us after a long spell of aridity. I am one who love sunshine and blue skies, but even for me, seeing the first showers of the season never felt better!

It was getting quite worrying when we visited Botanic Gardens a fortnight back - only to be met with ubiquitous brown patches of dried grass and dangerously low water levels!

Botanic Gardens as seen last August

The same spot now. All we see was brown aridity.

We were quietly shocked, and strolled around the ailing gardens with heavy steps. The wildlife of the parks - tortoises, swans, ducks and pigeons - seemed resilient enough, but who can hear their calls of desperation when water levels dipped further? Already, we were able to walk on the former bed of the receding lake, and explore the riverbank by the rushes that the swans called home. How much is this parched weather going to cost for these animals?

Which is why I rejoiced when the rains came pouring down for entire days last week. Even at the expense of blue skies and sunny rays. For I am waiting to see the gardens turn verdant all over again!

Lots of tortoises sunning by the dry riverbank and greeting many curious human visitors!

Little Bee standing by the rushes...the area on the left was formerly part of the lake and inaccessible to people. We took a walk over the wet, squishy former bed of the lake there.

Despite the dry weather, there are still beauties all around us! 

Colours amidst the crude brown of aridity....these leaves were so pretty!

Colours Of Nature: Complete Solitude

There is a place in Singapore where there is no one to be seen for miles, where we can be surrounded by carpets of lush grass and verdant giants, where our ears are privy to the hushed chirps of hidden birds, where silence is ... well ... almost deafening.

This place is none other than Kent Ridge Park! 

We chanced upon it one Sunday morning, and were amazed at how deserted the entire park was. We were filled with wonder at the sight of colossal trees with mangled branches overgrown with moss - clear signs of old age. 

Most of all, we cherished how alone our little family was - a rare occurrence in overcrowded Singapore. We ambled along endless paths without meeting a soul, we climbed up and down precarious grassy slopes, and we fiddled with the many fitness stations that look so forlorn and lonely in the park. 

We learned about yet another slice of Singapore's history in the tumultuous World War 2 era. 

And we had a bird's eye view of our busy port, perched right at the top of one of Singapore's rare hills. 

It was a rejuvenating morning where we escaped into another side of Singapore. We ended our little excursion with succulent pratas for lunch - a gratifying conclusion to a peaceful morning of discovery. We will be back for sure :) 

World War 2 sites in Singapore. How many have you been to? As World War 2 buffs, we had visited more than half of these sites...just to keep in touch with the battle-torn Singapore of yore. 

PSLE and CCAs

OK, I know I just put 2 incredible acronyms into the title of this post, which might be baffling for some! For those who do not already know, PSLE = Primary School Leaving Examinations in Singapore and CCAs = Co-curricular (or extra-curricular) activities.

I cannot believe that this year is Big Bee's PSLE year and I guess I am still in denial. Whenever people found out that I have a kid going through PSLE this year, their responses would invariably be, "You must be very stressed!" or "You must be very busy revising with her!". However, fortunately (or unfortunately), I am not stressed, neither am I busy revising with her! In fact, work takes up so much of my time now that I really hope fervently she knows what she is doing on her own.

But this post is not about how we are managing the PSLE, although the real answer to that is that we are doing the same things as per previous years. We are still planning for movies and musicals to watch and places to go to on weekends, and I am still planning for vacations in June!

This post is about how much I believe in a well-rounded education for our children, and a bit about my anger when I see parents in Singapore pushing their kids to a wholly academic path, just to get good grades in key examinations like the PSLE. To me, every kid has only one year in their lives when they are 12 - that milestone threshold between being a big kid and a teen, that year of awakening when they have more mature perspectives, that year of awareness and realisation of their changing bodies and increasing curiosity about sexuality and non-platonic relationships. And yet, sadly, in Singapore, it is also the year of the PSLE.

I heard of parents forcing their children to drop all CCAs in Primary 6, and worse still, schools advocating this policy! I heard of parents doubling up on tuition, just to have a last burst to drill their kids. And worst of all, I heard of parents artificially pushing their kids' musical, sports or leadership positions in school, just so they can get a bid at the Direct School Admissions (DSA) exercise - when passions are overlooked for a tangible outcome of getting into their preferred schools.

For Big Bee, she is still as active in school and non-academic classes as before. She wanted to have a break from ballet in school this year, despite her past achievements in this CCA, and despite the many requests from her disappointed ballet teacher who had been incessantly telling her to stay on. I guess this is a phase of exploration for her as well, where she wants to get out of her comfort zone and be challenged in things that she had not always been doing.

So, she told me she wanted to try out in the trials for softball and netball, where they are looking for people in the school team. Being naturally athletic (not my genes!), she made it through the trials and into the school teams of both netball and softball. She chose netball in the end, for the kind of bonded teamwork and competition associated with it. And just yesterday, she was inaugurated into the school netball team!

Playing for the school team takes a lot of time and effort, of which many primary 6 mothers (including my own mother) frowned upon, who kept asking me if she would be better off studying and revising, instead of spending 6 to 7 hours a week after school to train for netball competitions. Sometimes, these questions got me worried - am I too relaxed? Is she falling behind in studies because of the crazy amount of time spent in practice, after which she will come home, too fatigued to do much work? Questions that frankly, after peer pressure from other mothers, make me question my objectives of encouraging her to take on a time-consuming sport in her PSLE year. Some mothers did ask me, "Why not chess club where they meet once a week and where their brains can be stimulated?" or "Why not Math or Science Olympiads because some schools prefer kids from the Olympiad programmes for their DSA!"

And recently, questions arose from Big Bee herself, "Mummy, why are you not putting me in English and Science tuition? Maybe they can help me boost my PSLE score!" (She had never had Science tuition before, and only went on less than a year of English tuition in primary 4, after which we stopped). Kiasu her even questioned why I am planning for a June holiday when she prefers to revise for the PSLE throughout the whole holiday! Swirling, disturbing questions. And I must admit, I am swayed sometimes.

Yet, I am glad that Big Bee's school is a holistic one, and I have fellow mothers there who are still putting their children through CCAs that are non-academic in nature, even in the PSLE year. And most of us have the same approach to PSLE - take it easy and "see how it goes." I am really thankful for that support of like-minded mothers.

I guess what I am trying to say in this blog post is to allow our kids to really pursue their passions in whatever things they request, for them to try new things, and get out of their comfort zones - even at the expense of time that could be spent on studies. Every time she is back from her netball practice, glowing with adrenaline but fatigued by the hours of competitive sportsmanship, I would tell myself that this is a right decision.

And I think as parents, it is important for us to put forth lots of calm and composure in front of our kids before major examinations. So that they understand there is more to life than academic achievements. Big Bee and I have had long discussions this year about many "what-ifs". There is a lot of emphasis from their teachers about academic achievements, and the biggest "what-if" question from her was, "What if I did badly in the PSLE?" which to me, is a masked question for "Will you still love me?". So, as parents, so long as we assure our kids about our complete acceptance and love for them, regardless of whatever they achieve, I think that gives them enough confidence to stride on in this world, especially in a cruel world where there are increasingly more depression cases amongst children.

人强马壮，龙马精神

As I grow older, I begin to appreciate and cherish the intricate rituals of Chinese New Year. How festivities and routines are completely similar year after year. How our elderly relatives ask the same old questions year after year. These grew more endearing to me these days, reaffirming just how precious family ties are. 

We are lucky to have very close bonds with all our relatives and family members. Which is why we had 8 family gatherings and visits over the first week of Chinese New Year - and enjoyed every single moment of these. The girls got to know 4 sides of their different families from Hubby's and my family trees, and they delighted in getting to know their great-grandmothers, grandparents, uncles, aunties and cousins more. Little Bee is the one who really looks forward to such gatherings, and would often feel sad whenever these occasions come to an end. She would not fail to entertain everyone with her outspoken antics and her comical expressions! 

Big Bee, on the other hand, is now a little adult. She had stopped playing with the little kids totally (much to Little Bee's distress) and had become more self-conscious. Most of the time, her nose is buried in her current favourite book (which is the Divergent series by Veronica Roth for now). Other times, she would join the adults for some casual chatting. She is in an in-between stage, and is finding her way around, yet enjoying the process, which I am relieved about.

This year, we also visited Chinatown in early January, where we were privy to the celebrations of the Chinatown light-up. We did not even plan for it, so we were pleasantly surprised to hear the deafening firecrackers and be dazzled by fireworks exploding in the skies just above us. Most of all, we enjoyed eating super yummy food in the Chinatown hawker centre and strolling around in the nostalgic People's Park. 

On the eve of Chinese New Year, we had a sumptuous and festive reunion dinner with the girls' great-grandmothers. How rare it is to have a four-generational reunion dinner! That is so special in every way. 

As we wind down from these convivial celebrations, I constantly have to remind myself not to limit our interactions with the extended families just to an annual New Year gathering. Let's hope we get to see more of our family members this Horse year! 

Our Thankful Journals

A good friend of mine, J, started listing 3 things she is thankful for - on a daily basis. It is amazing to read her gratitude reflections on Facebook at the end of each day. This concept is so simple yet brilliantly beautiful - encouraging us to remember the delightful things of the day, and in the reflection process, try to forget about the unpleasant events that happened. It is very rejuvenating and detoxifying. In doing so, I think we become happier and more optimistic souls, with a stronger ability to see the good in everything...and hopefully, becoming more resilient human beings in the process.

Inspired by J, I started gratitude journals for the Bees and myself - encouraging ourselves to see the silver linings in the billowing clouds of our lives.

We were not able to write daily journals in the hustle and bustle of everyday life in Singapore, although the girls try their best to do so whenever I encourage them to. But on vacations, we would write daily reflections, and the process is so therapeutic because we get to reflect on the affairs of the day. Memories also become more indelible in our minds.

The Bees rolling down a lush hill slope in a Tasmanian winery! 

I am pulling out a couple of pages from the Bees' thankful journals. Enjoy!

Big Bee
20 Dec 2013
Things I am thankful for:

1) Going to Churchill Island!
We took a bus to Phillip Island and our first stop of the day was at Churchill Island. There were long grasses everywhere and even a farm with many different kinds of animals! We saw chickens, ducks, turkeys, cows, dogs, rabbits and even fed and petted a horse whose name was Sophie!

2) Going to the Koala Conservation Centre!
There was a koala boardwalk and we saw loads of koalas but most of them were asleep! We still had a lot of fun taking photos of them though! They were really CUTE!

3) Going to the Noobies (weird name, but never mind)
The Noobies was just so spectacularly overwhelming...there were tons of seagulls EVERYWHERE and a huge massive island rising from the ocean! Also, I heard that there are sharks in the ocean! *screams*

4) Penguin Parade
We saw cute little penguins waddling in to their burrows from the ocean. It was extremely cold there and we all had to wear thick jackets to keep ourselves warm! However, I think we frightened away one penguin from its burrow cuz we were sitting too near it. Still, it was a wonderful experience.

Little Bee
24 December 2013
3 things I love about today:
1) Eating delicious food. So yummy!
2) Taking a very, very good walk. It was so fun.
3) I love the Park Explorer tour! I put my legs near the lake beside Cradle Mountain!

I love today because it is fun!

Stargazing

I had always been fascinated by astronomy and the stars. Those mysterious, twinkling diamonds in the sky constantly beckon to me, taunting me that there is so much more to this universe than the everyday woes and joys we are going through on Earth. Making me feel so much like an infinitesimal speck of insignificant stardust in the limitless universe that knows no boundaries.

And yes, according to some astrophysics' theories, we are all made of stardust - because almost every element on Earth was formed at the heart of a star. Isn't it magical...and almost existential?

Last March, in one of our trips to the Science Centre, I bought a huge telescope as a birthday present for Hubby. It was a long-held dream of mine to gaze regularly into the stars and examine our universe, and thus understanding our world and who we are. And I know it is sneaky of me to buy something I really want for Hubby's birthday!

The telescope is a real beauty. It opens up panoramas that are literally out of this world. We saw - in vivid details - almost every little crater on the moon. We glimpsed into elusive galaxies where clusters of stars reside. We went back in time to look at stars sparkling at us now. It was all so fascinating. My only grouse is that I need to learn to handle the telescope better because I can never focus onto Saturn despite us spotting it gleaming high in the skies. To be able to see Saturn's rings would be a feather in the cap! And oh, the repercussion of nights of viewing is that I ended up with a very tired left eye which I usually kept closed when peering into the telescope with my right eye...and an aching neck!

Enjoy the photos of the moon from the eye of the telescope that I took using my good old mobile phone!