Security for your Safety

I've just returned from an overnight trip to Manila. The hotel was in one of the newer areas of the city, surrounded by western-style shopping malls and populated by gun-toting private security guards. I had to go through a metal detector just to enter the shopping mall.

Coming home last night, the authorities were taking no chances when it came to ensuring my safety. I had to:

• put both my bags through an x-ray machine and walk through a metal detector, just to enter the Manila airport terminal
• after checking my bag and going through customs, I had to do the same again - X-ray machine and metal detector, followed by a physical pat down
• upon getting to the departure gate, my carry on bag was manually searched
• we arrived ahead of schedule into Singapore. Great! Apart from the fact that the entire planeload had to stand in queues, waiting to be security checked again. According to the signs, this is "security for your safety". X-ray machine for the bags and an extra-sensitive metal detector which beeped due to my watch and belt, requiring an additional check by a guard with a hand-scanner.

Arriving back at Newton Gems, the guards on the gate waved the taxi through and I was home.

Condo Life

Last night we went out to dinner at the British Club with a group of families from the Condo. We are finding living the condo lifestyle very relaxing. The kids are enjoying having instant friends down at the pool. On weekends we often spend half a day at the pool. We grab a table, bring lunch down and games and books and settle in for a few hours. There are also regular mum’s nights at someone’s apartment when the husband is away. Other advantages are the great grounds but no maintenance work and there's no need to put the rubbish out either - it all goes down the chute. The apartments are surprisingly soundproof. We do however hear a cabaret singer at nights who has a regular gig over at Hotel Royal which is next door to our condo. I’ve nicknamed her Lady La-La and now I don’t think I’ll be able to go sleep without hearing her muffled, distant lullaby.

Other news this week: Thanks for the presents and greetings for my birthday. I celebrated with coffee with a friend, lunch with Matt and a family dinner at a riverside Tapas Restuarant at Clarke Quay. Felicity had mild tonsilitis and had to stay home for two days during the week. Matt arrived back from Japan.

Konichiwa, Mat-to des

(Hello, I am Matt) Hi from Tokyo! I arrived on Sunday and enjoyed a dinner with my colleague Yuichiro and his wife Yuiko. We went to the area of Shibuya which met my Tokyo expectations of crowds and neon. At the Shibuya crossroads there were no less than four different huge TV screens amid all the advertising and lights.

On Monday afternoon I had my first experience of presenting at quarter pace due to everything I said needing to be translated. It really does feel like the translator is probably saying what he thinks you should have said! It took some getting used to but now that I've done three customer meetings, I'm feeling a bit more comfortable. It's just quite hard to get through much material in an hour.

The train and subway system here is amazing. Lots of different lines criss-crossing the city and each other. I've spent several hours each day travelling to customer meetings, usually with 2 or three line changes along the way. It feels like things are very spread out. Luckily the railway signs are also in English, unlike what I see in almost all of the shops and restaurants.

I've eaten a variety of Japanese foods, including sushi, sashimi, tempura, tori suki, ramen and other things I can't remember the name of. It's all been very yummy and generally better not to know exactly what I was eating.

Disco, Doggy Day-Care and Daddy Departures

Friday night was Avondale Disco which was a great night - a bit like a night club for tweenies. The hall looked fantastic and one of the Dads was the DJ. Pictured left is Alice and her friend Anna. On Saturday the whole family went to drop Buckley off at his first day of Doggy day care. He arrived in time for the socisalisation class before being taken for his morning swim. Agility class and walks are held in the afternoon. This place has everything. A doggy cafe for owners and their pets, a doggy bakery, a doggy beauty parlour and dogmitory for those who need to sleep over. We get a progress report of how Buckley went at the end of each day. We can also spy on him across the internet during the day as they have permanent web-cams set up. We noticed that Buckley hung around the staff a lot - probably wondering why he and the other people were stuck in here with all these dogs.

Matt left for Japan this morning . I got a phone call from his Aunty Glenice at 8am this morning saying she and Uncle Ted were at Changi Airport, and had been there for the last three hours, on their way back to Australia after a trip around Scandinavia. Matt's flight left at 8.15am so they had just missed a chance for a catch-up coffee...ah-well maybe next year.

Champions

It was Avondale Cross Country at the scenic MacRitchie Reservoir today. The children were red and dripping with sweat before they even started racing. It's also been the only running event I've been to where participants were warned not to make eye contact with monkeys. Two runners got stung by bees which I suspect made them only run faster. I was very proud of our two girls who demonstrated a great attitude and lots of determination. Alice won her race and Felicity came third in hers. Both were thrilled to receive ribbons.

Digging in the sun

On Saturday afternoon we took part in a working bee at Avondale. The mission was to create a vegetable garden where once was just a patch of grass. Digging a hole through clay in the hot sun was hard work. It was a well planned activity and with a good crew of parents it went quickly and the outcome was satisfying. Afterwards we enjoyed a swim in the pool and a sausage sizzle.

Also this weekend:
- on Friday night, Lucinda and I went to a Year 1 "parents" night out. Emphasis on "parents" because I was one of only two dads to turn up. Apparently when Lucinda read "Dads Welcome" on the invite she didn't read between the lines to get the (but not encouraged) subtext!

- Today I took the girls to see Monsters vs Aliens in 3D. Luckily we knew to rug up with jeans and jumpers because the cinemas here are over air-conditioned. I enjoyed the funny one liners and references to other movies. The 3D effect was actually really good too.