Depending which way you look..

From our balcony, we look out on our lovely resort-style pool...

and currently can also see three contruction sites on the skyline. Mostly the noise is just all part of the general hum of city but as the building behind us has just started coming down we expect the noise level to rise. The other day Alice and I were out walking in a quieter part of Singapore and she stopped me and said "Listen, I hear nothing. How nice is that?"

Happy Birthday to us!

Well we finished off a great 10 days with Tamsin and kids by celebrating our 35th birthday. We woke to a pancake breakfast, lots of presents (thanks we felt loved!) and then we had a day at the zoo. In the evening the adults went out to a very nice dinner in the Botanic Gardens. Very spoilt. The next morning Tamsin caught her flight home but left Andy here at a conference - so the Bearsley invasion is not quite over...  We are looking forward to Roh and Kim and Zoe and Otto arriving on Saturday. They are our longest-awaited visitors as they booked tickets some time last year!

Universally good times

So the Bearsley's have blended in well into our Singapore life. Saturday we spent the day at Sentosa on the beach. It was very hot and so we had an excuse to be lazy. We did see a bird show at the Animal Encouters and what do you know? - both Andy and Matt were called up at different times to be a part of the show. Andrew left for the USA on Sunday and we dragged Tamsin and kids to church and then to a kid's party. She tells me she's quite happy to just tag along as I make the social arrangements during the week. On Monday Tam and the kids went on a boat cruise down the Singapore river and then I joined them for lunch at Little India. On Tuesday they enjoyed the Science Centre. Today I let my kids have the day off school and Tamsin and I took them all to Universal Studios. We chose the wettest day on record but a few raindrops won't stop our fun. Actually it was like a monsoon hovering over the park. http://news.xin.msn.com/en/singapore/article.aspx?cp-documentid=4153228
We spent the morning doing the indoor attractions until the weather dried up by which time the girls were already addicted to the Revenge of the Mummy indoor rollercoaster. It was quite scary. By her fourth turn Anna actually managed to open her eyes for the entire ride. By the 6th turn they were all making funny faces at the camera for their action photo at the end of the ride. We had such a great day - highly recommend it to our future visitors...

Bearsley invasion

At the moment we are enjoying a visit from the Bearsley's. It's cousin heaven. And I've enjoyed dragging Tamsin around town introducing her to my friends. Andrew leaves for a week in the US soon so I have to show Tamsin how abandoned expat wives fill in their time..

Disco Divas and other discoveries

Friday night was the School disco where the girls danced like divas and were a part of the well-rehearsed Hip Hop item. Although the teachers' cheerleading item was hard to beat! Later on in the evening, Matt and I also had our turn at dancing as we joined Jackie and Dave at a Salsa Fiesta at our dance school. After watching the more experienced strut their stuff, I think we have a long way to go but at least we have something to aspire too.

 On Saturday we visited a few parks in the Bukit Batok area and found one cache and planted another. I had chosen this location for a cache a while ago having discovered it on on one of my long walks around the island when I was training for Trailwalker. It's a beautiful oasis in the city with an occasional view of a pretty telecommunications tower or some condos to remind you that you are, in fact, still in Singapore.

On Sunday we checked out Church at St George's Anglican. I liked that there were no walls in the main church sanctuary. Just a roof and lots of ceiling fans and when it pelted with rain outside you could sit and watch it.The girls went into Sunday School and loved it. First impressions were positive and we saw a few people that we know so we may head back some time soon.

It's a sign

There are many signs and public information campaigns around Singapore that make me smile. These are just a few I've collected..

Happy birthday to Alice and Buddha

Alice turned nine today. She has thoroughly enjoyed the birthday celebrations. Cynthia and Alice made a pull-apart Turtle cake made out of cupcakes to take to school yesterday. Alice found it on you-tube about two months ago and has talked about it non-stop.

Today her actual birthday happily coincided with Buddha's birthday so we had a public holiday. As it was the non-party year for Alice she was just supposed to have a favourite friend over for the day but Alice wangled two - a favourite boy and a favourite girl. She wanted to visit the SPCA ( Society for prevention of cruelty to animals) so we did that with Harrison and Chloe and were able to pet quite a few dogs in their cages. We then went geocaching - successfully finding two caches and introducing two new geocachers to the world of treasure seeking!

Then back to our place for cake, an animal rescue treasure hunt, a swim and a BBQ with some more family friends and the spontaneous show by children with items titled "a good day to die" and "puffles attack". Our rather chatty three year old neighbour, Lil, is sleeping over tonight with the big girls and asking deep questions like "what's it like being 5?". The night is young... if she doesn't fall asleep she's heading back to level 20.