why does the caged bird sing?

There are some who say the caged bird sings of freedom, or hope, a prayer for other birds, out of boredom or because she has an annoying song stuck in her head. Last weekend we decided to find out for ourselves and headed out to Tiong Bahru to see the Bird Arena. This is where a whole lot of uncles bring their caged birds in their ornate cages to have a little sing together on a Sunday morning. We are still not sure why they sing - Alice thinks its because they are happy and Felicity thinks its because they want to get a boyfriend. But for whatever reason the caged bird sings, at least here in Singapore, they have a support group of other caged birds.

Also on the weekend we discovered a really cool public waterpark at Jurong East that's almost as good as Wild Wild Wet and a heck of a lot cheaper. We can see we'll be heading back there again but only when Felicity is definitely 120cm. We managed to get her on the waterslides this time but more diligent pool supervisors may not have let her slide past the height chart for being ever-so-slightly on the short side of 120cm.

Lucinda joins the YouTube Generation

Last night, Lucinda and the girls had great fun avoiding bed by watching funny dog videos on YouTube.  This inspired them to create and share their own video of Buckly being unable to get off the swivel chair:

Encounters with the deadly snakes and other leisurely activities

Bintan Island is a short 55 minute ferry ride from Singapore. It's an idyllic spot (except for the prices!) and most people never even leave the resort. With beautiful beaches, a swim-up bar, waterslides and a kids club there is a lot of reasons to stay where you are. However we found we can only do so much relaxing by the pool in banana lounges so we signed up for the Mangrove Tour. Alice eagerly asked our guide, "Will we see snakes?" "Oh yes," he replied "lots of them." We all laughed... until we realised he was telling the truth. We were to look out for pythons, green snakes, Mangrove snakes and spitting cobras. The deadliest of these are the black and yellow Mangrove snake - if they bite you the venom reaches your heart in a minute. It wasn't long into the trip when we spotted our first Mangrove Snake. We got a really good view of it because the captain parked the our little dinghy right underneath it. The guide told us they are not dangerous during the day because they are asleep. "then why is it moving its head?" says the slightly-freaked-out Matthew. "That's because I'm shaking the branch a little and it can feel the vibrations," our guide explains. Yep, right, that makes sense. So we continue down through the mangroves which are dripping with deadly snakes and bizarrely enjoy the whole experience in the way one does a really scary rollercoaster. We were glad to disembark safely and head back to paradise.

Been busy...

School holidays have flown past so quickly this time around. During the first week of the holidays the kids had a tennis lesson followed by rollerblading lessons all at the Condo. After that we tended to head to the pool with the other families involved and settle in for the day. It was a nice routine. The girls also represented Avondale at the Internationals Schools Cross Country and both placed in the top 20 in their field. Felicity came 13th and Alice 19th. They were very hot and tired at the end but happy to have been a part of it all.

Last weekend we became a backpackers haven. Andy dropped in for the day. When he left, Ross and Alison arrived to camp on the living room floor for a night and at the same time Chris Wenban arrived to spend three days with us before embarking on around the world trip. Nights Safaris, a Tea Ceremony, Rainforest walks, steamboat and hawker centre dinners and trips to Little India and Chinatown all followed. This week we did a few more things with Avondale families - had sleepovers, went to the movies, been back to Forest Adventure and Wild Wild Wet. Need to relax a bit so now we're off to Bintan, an island in Indonesia, for the long weekend. Happy Deepavali!

Treasure hunting for big and little people

We've just had the pleasure of Uncle Andy coming to stay for a few days. Yesterday he took us Geocaching which is a worldwide game of high-tech hiding and seeking treasure. Anyone can hide a little box of treasures and then puts the GPS co-ordinates and some clues up on the internet. When you find the little container you take out a little treasure and replace it with another one and write your name on the little log book. It's great fun and we successfully found four. Three were small plastic containers hidden in trees while one was located on a busy street overpass in a shoe polish tin with magnets attached, discreetly hidden under a pole. Geocaching is a great way to explore areas we would otherwise never have discovered.

All four caches were within walking distance of our home.












Check out http://www.geocaching.com/about/ to find out more.

Mooncakes and Lanterns

The Mid-Autumn Festival is now in full swing. The Festival seems to revolve around decorative lanterns and giving people mooncakes (sickly sweet heavy cakes with chinese writing on them). Some taste better than others. We even came across a giant mooncake which must be Singapore's version of the big banana.

Last night our condo management held an event which included a traditional chinese music performance, taste testing lots of mooncakes and chinese tea and playing some kids games. First game was "questions and answers" which all the expat children looked confused about because they thought it was a pretty poor excuse for a game. At any moment I was expecting the organiser to handout worksheets but then the tone got a little less academic with musical chairs and "force feed your Dad a mooncake". The event ended with a lantern procession around the condo.