The Leathers in Singapore

Summer Holidays

2008-07-08T04:52:00.024+08:00

So the UK summer trip is finally here, we've been in Kent for just over a week and we're having a wonderful time! Mary got her Visa (after much drama) and is here with us too. Both she and Annabelle are a bit taken aback by the cooler weather but are slowly getting used to a British summer. Poor BabyBelle was crying every time we undressed her or changed her nappy for the first few days and had goosebumps all over.

So far there has been blue skies...

...and dinosaurs...

...and castles....

...and choir boys....

...and palaces...

...and cuddles...

...and coats for the first time....

...and learning how to do headers...

...and more cuddles...

...and new friends....

...and old friends....

...and Nintendo DS marathons...

...and Mary's Famous Chicken Curry for dinner in England...

....and finally, a swarm of bees who came down the chimney and took up residence in one of the bedrooms on Friday!

All that after only 9 days! Leigh will be arriving on Wednesday morning and staying until we leave on the 24th July, so we will all be in the UK together for the first time in 19 months! An exciting and busy couple of weeks ahead.

V xxx

Visa forms at dawn

2008-06-15T23:50:00.003+08:00

Have been absent from blogging again and promise I will make sure I update this week with some news from Singers and photos.

Only 12 more days now until we travel back to England for our four weeks holiday and we are all feeling VERY excited. Some sad news is that Mary's visa was rejected by the UK Government. We're having another go this week but not holding out much hope at the moment. I'll rant about the evils of immigration soon but for now am just open-mouthed with surprise and bafflement at the whole system. Feeling very much like I need to write to the Daily Mail and advise them just how flipping hard it is to get a Visa to come to the UK when you are from a poor third world Asian country, especially as I fear most of us English believe anyone can get one at the drop of a hat!!

Off to bed now, need to rest myself before the showdown at UK Immigration office tomorrow morning.....

V xx

Oliver's Fifth Birthday

2008-05-20T00:23:00.005+08:00

Oliver turned 5 this last week and it couldn't come a day too soon for him. He was so excited and has been counting the days until his birthday for about the last six months!

He had a birthday party at a nearby playgym with all of his classmates and some other school friends and neighbours. They had a fantastic time playing traditional party games such as pass the parcel, musical bumps and musical chairs as well as the more modern hour running around the playgym till their clothes were stuck to their skin with sweat.

Oliver was very lucky to get lots of lovely gifts from his friends and he is now in possession of some serious electrical gadgets and lego which hopefully will see him through for quite a while yet.

On his birthday he woke us all up at 6.30am so we could watch him open his presents, which he did with his usual gusto. He got a new bike for his birthday from us but it had to be exchanged that day as no sooner did we get it home than we realised it wasn't quite big enough. Oliver didn't seem to mind and managed to pick for himself the only BMX in the world with a large shopping basket attached. Leigh is mortified but Oliver can't see the problem as it is just the right size for Optimus Prime to travel up front with a good view!

I'm experimenting with new ways of loading my photos as the Blogger system takes soooo long I lose the will to live when doing these posts (one of the main reasons they are sporadic really!). So, I'm test driving "SmileBox" this time after realising that the Picasa one I used below for Aimee's Communion had used up all my "Free" memory on that site and they wanted up to $500US for a year - sod off!!!! So, I'm going with the Free sites and seeing how I get along. Tell me if it works/doesn't work/is annoying so I work out what is best.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

PS The music is currently one of Oliver's favourites and was his choice - Sorry!

V xxx

Aimee's First Holy Communion

2008-05-19T22:44:00.007+08:00

Got a number of things to post about over the coming days, including Oliver's Fifth birthday, Leigh's parents visit and Aimee's First Holy Communion.

I'll start with the First Holy Communion as that is the only one I've finished organising the photographs for so far!

Aimee made her First Holy Communion on Saturday 17 May at St Ignatius Catholic Church in Singapore. It was a wonderful day with blue skies and glorious sunshine (which for those of you who've visited or lived here will know is not actually as frequent an occurrence as others may believe!).

Aimee has been going to class since last August in preparation for this big day and she has taken the whole thing very seriously. She looked absolutely beautiful in her dress and despite some nerves, handled the whole thing very well. There were 148children making their Communion on the day so it was a very busy afternoon at Church with lots of children, families and friends packing the church to standing room only. Crikey, I would have been nervous with all those people watching me.

I was so proud of her I nearly cried. I can't believe she is going to be 10 years old soon. Leigh and I gave her a small Cross to wear with her dress and to mark the occasion and whenever I saw her getting a bit too anxious, I noticed she would touch her necklace and smile. She is a sentimental little thing already - definitely a romantic in the making with our Aimee!

After the mass had finished we went to a nearby pub/restaurant with about 10 other families for drinks, dinner, cake and games for the kids. It was all very lovely and a great way to end a fantastic day.

There are lots of lovely pictures to share with you all so I'm trying out a new way of posting them by putting them into a slide show and adding that here. So this is my attempt, lets hope it works.....

PS If you click on the Slideshow you should jump to the webpage where the online Album is stored. Then you can have a clearer look at the photos and download some if you like (thinking of you Mum, Dad, Sarah & Natalie xx)

love V xx

One Night in Singapore

2008-04-30T17:02:00.009+08:00

My old school friend Mary had a 24 hour stopover in Singapore during the Easter holidays with her boyfriend Richard (aka "The Brummie")and their son, Elliot whilst on their way to Australia to visit Brum's sister.

Their stopover coincided with Dad's visit, so there was a bit of bed reorganisation required, but everyone had somewhere to sleep for the night and Aimee especially enjoyed giving up her bed as it meant she got to sleep on the camp-bed in our room!

They arrived at 8am on Tuesday and were on the 9am plane the next day so we had lots to fit in during their short stay. No sooner did they step out of the taxi before the boys were doing some serious bonding (that's Oliver and Elliot - not Leigh and Brum as poor Leigh was off to work) over Lego, toy cars and all manner of boy stuff.

Mary and Richard had lots of lovely cuddles from Annabelle, who was on her best behaviour (as if there is anything else from the best-behaved-baby-ever!) and was cooing and smiling lots to their delight. Their second baby is due in the Autumn so it was great for them to see Elliot coping so well with them holding another baby and not having a mini-freak out!

We had a lovely chat over cups of tea and toast, then off to the British Club for some swimming and lunch. Back home for a while to let the travellers have a nap whilst me and kids shopped for a BBQ in the evening, then Ollie and I took them down to see Sir Stamford Raffles' statute before hoping on the BumBoat for the Singapore River tour. Unfortunately we had a tropical downpour whilst on the boat but it was only us so we had lots of space to keep dry and I think they enjoyed the drop in temperature and humidity that a storm brings.

Back home for pizza tea for the kids before Elliot crashed out in the bunkbeds much to Mary and Richard's relief. BBQ for the grownups before we all fell into bed early after a lovely long day of fun, food and catching up with old friends.

An early start the next day and I couldn't see them off in a taxi as I wanted to squeeze as much out of my time with them as possible. So Annabelle and I took an early trip to the airport for morning coffee and cake before waving goodbye to Mary, Richard and Elliot as they set off on the next stage of their big adventure holiday.

A few tears on the way home from me as Mary's visit made me homesick for my friends in England. Whilst I have made some wonderful friends here and enjoy a great life, its hard to match life-long friendships; no matter how infrequently you service them with a chat and a cup of tea those friendships really are extra special. Plus, it made me realise how soon Dad would be leaving and as you all know, when anyone leaves I become a bit of misery guts for a while.

Still, its only 8 weeks now till we return to UK and its looking good on the passport front for Annabelle. The British High Commission have PROMISED me that her Birth Certificate and Passport will be ready by 12 May. Mmmm, watch this space to see if they come good....

No post would be complete without photos, so here's a few from Mary & Co's One Night in Singapore....

Elliot's first go down the slide - this was the moment before he was freaked out and refused to go on again!

Elliot doing his inadvertent Liam Gallagher pose.

Boys on the BumBoat Tour

Mary and Super-Baby Annabelle

"You mean I've got to get on the plane AGAIN???"

Not too bad for 7am!!

V xxx

In the blink of an eye

2008-04-29T23:03:00.003+08:00

8 years ago today. Crikey, time flies when you're having fun eh? Thank you Dad and Julie for hiding a card with the kids and Mary - it was a lovely surprise for us when we got up this morning. xx

Annabelle's First Visitors

2008-04-21T11:51:00.000+08:00

The first batch of Grandparent visits are now sadly over, with mum visiting us for a couple of weeks in March and Dad, Julie and Natalie for a couple of weeks in April during the Easter School Holidays.

Was so lovely to be able to show Annabelle off to them and of course, to see everyone as its been our longest stretch so far without seeing family. Between 7 and 8 months!! Leigh's parents are coming out in three weeks time, but he at least has seen them a couple of times since their last visit when he's been in UK for work but the kids and I haven't seen them since last August.

As it was Mum's third trip, Dad and Julie's second tip and Natalie's fourth trip we didn't really manage too many new things but just enjoyed our time together really. I think it was probably a bit of headache for all of them putting up with me getting to grips with being a mother of 3 but not much you can do about that when you are all living together for a couple of weeks and there is a new baby in the house!

We took mum to Shangri La Brunch on Easter Sunday, which she enjoyed hugely. We were accompanied by our lovely neighbours Jo and Magnus, plus their 19 month old daughter Evie (on her first Brunch trip!) and Mags' mum and stepdad. Lots of food eaten and Champagne was drunk and we followed it all up with an Easter Egg hunt in the afternoon with tea and toasted hot cross buns.

Here are the kids frantically searching for eggs and showing off their spoils...

Plus, a pic of gorgeous little Evie

I also took mum to High Tea at the Rose Verandha at Shangri La. You may have guessed from my entries on this Blog, but food is a bit of big deal in Singapore. Its not for nothing that Singaporeans are known to enjoy eating and window shopping as their first two favourite pastimes! We took little Annabelle along with us too and you can she that she loved the "101 Teas of the Shangri-La" as much as mum and I did!

Mum was subjected to numerous school events again having arrived as we were coming to the end of Spring Term. I think she is praying she'll get out of the Spring Soiree next year. Whilst wonderful to watch your child singing to the audience of 200 parents, its a bit tedious when you have to sit through everyone else's kids too. Three hours later we saw Aimee's grand finale in the choir and then ran to the car as fast as we could.

Here's a few pics of Grandma and her newest Grand-daughter...

Dad, Julie and Natalie arrived in the evening of the first day of the holidays and due to a lost bag (Thanks Emirates!!) they were a little late in arriving, by which time the kids had built themselves into a manic frenzy! Lots of cuddles as soon as they were out of the taxi, but Nanny Julie had to wait a day or two until her cold cleared up before she allowed herself the first cuddle with BabyBelle.

We tried a different Brunch with Dad and Julie at the Fullerton Hotel (one of my favourites for dessert you may recall!). It was every bit as lovely as we expected and is another foody thing to add to the list of things to do when people are in town. Dad and Julie went to Sea Gypsy again for 5 days but we all stayed back in Singapore as wee Miss doesn't have a passport.

(Don't let me get started on that long and sorrowful story. I'm off to the British High Commission this week with every document ever produced for Leigh and I's existence this week and am hoping they'll issue her a UK birth certificate and passport finally. THEN, its back to Singapore Immigration for her Dependent's Permit - uuuurrrghhh!!!)

Anyways...Am racking my brain for more on what we did this holiday but its a fuzz. Mary, Richard and Elliott had an entertaining 24 hours in Singapore but I'll blog that later. We did go on the all new Singapore Flyer which is basically the London Eye in Asia BUT it is 30 meters higher than the UK one which all in all gives you a spectacular view of the shipping lanes and Casino construction site - mmm, not quite historic London but not bad. (Shame we had greyish skies that day...)

Oh, we went to the new Sentosa Lights and Water show. Costs 2 pounds each and so had been poo-pooed by me as probably being naff but was actually fantastic. I was blown away by how good it was and will definitely be going with more visitors in the future. Rest of the time was spent shopping, eating, trips to Botanical Gardens and British Club, before sadly was time was up for them to go back home. Here's some pics of Grandad, Nanny Julie and Auntie Natalie with the kids.....

So its the last day of school holidays today and we're off for haircuts and school uniform buying this morning. The kids are having a growth spurt and can't have another term in mini-dresses (Aimee) and hotpant style shorts (Ollie). I've had to leave it till the last day as they are growing so quickly I worried if I bought it a few weeks ago they grow another inch in between times!

Summer term is ten weeks long with no break, though we may steal the kids out of school and have a few days away if we ever get a passport for Annabelle. Otherwise, its one long push through to 27th June when they finish for eight weeks summer holidays. We are on the plane back to UK the next day, Saturday 28th June arriving late that night. We'll be visiting for four weeks again, leaving on 24th July. We are staying in one place for the whole visit as we've rented a house in Hollingbourne (near Leeds Castle - about 15 miles from Hempstead Valley). Click on THIS to jump to the cottage's website if you want a nose and for address etc (though I will email details nearer the time).

Finally, a quick THANK YOU to everyone who has sent presents and cards for Annabelle. We have really appreciated all the effort you've gone to posting things to us on the other side of the world. All those trips to the post office made us feel like you hadn't forgotten us. As usual, I've written all my thank you cards but the school holidays got in the way of my putting all the addresses on so they'll be posted in the week. In the meantime, here's one last pic of our very own, Singapore Girl...

Bye for now
V xxxxxxxxxxxx

Videos of Annabelle....

2008-02-25T21:37:00.003+08:00

Nothing fancy as haven't figured out how to load the film from my new HD camcorder onto the pc yet!! So you'll have to make do with a couple of little clips from the old point and shoot for now....

And a few new pictures...

Announcing the arrival of.....

2008-02-17T20:27:00.005+08:00

Annabelle Rose Leather joined us on Saturday 9 February 2008 at 6.22pm Singapore time, weighing 3.2kg (7 pounds and half an ounce). She was two weeks early but that is considered a great success after I went into premature labour at 34 weeks. Four weeks of daily contractions followed, plus the flu, a chest infection and a fall which left me with a busted nose, black eyes, bruised head and bruised legs only 7 days before her birth! (Hence no pics of me)

Fortunately, Annabelle seems to have arrived in fabulous shape despite my traumas (except for a bit of jaundice) and is already universally adored by us Leathers. There is much arguing amongst us as to who gets to hold her first, but being the breast-feeding mummy I usually win!

I was induced in the end and am glad to say the labour was only one and a half hours from first pain to first cuddle. The contractions were extra horrid thanks to the drip to stimulate contractions but as it was so quick I can honestly say I felt worse after the fall the week before than I did after the labour!

We're both home from hospital now and whilst its sad not having all of our friends and family here, we are being very spoilt by our Singaporean and expat friends and neighbours and feeling very lucky indeed.

Here are a few photos. Videos to follow once I get longer than 5 minutes to myself....

The other side of Singaporean life

2007-11-08T13:49:00.000+08:00

On Saturday Aimee and I joined our Dutch neighbours, Paul and Sylvia and their two eldest children Roma and Vince on a Charity Food Drive which was sponsored by Paul's company.

Paul works for Cargill, a privately owned American company. They seem to be highly committed to supporting charitable works in all of the local communities they operate in, from Singpaore to the American Mid-West to the Amazon. It was really refreshing to be asked to join in this type of event given the view of mulit-national business we have seen since Leigh started working for a company owned by dollar-hungry venture capitalists!

We went to the oldest social housing development in Singapore which is about a mile or so from our home. As most of the occupants have lived there all their lives, the average tenant is a senior citizen and often living on a very low income. Every weekend a food drive is organised by a local Charity and all of the eligible families in the development are able to turn up and collect groceries for the week, free of charge. Cargill sponsor the charity with other local businesses on an ongoing basis to ensure there is sufficient food available each week.

The Charity responsible for the project invited Cargill employees, family and friends along to see their work and to get involved with distributing the food and visiting some housebound recipients whilst delivering their groceries. That is how Aimee and I ended up there last weekend.

I've spoken to many of you about the "bubble" we live in here as expats. Singapore whilst in Asia, is often described as "Asia-Light" as it does have poverty but in comparison to what we see when we drive for 30 minutes over the border into Maylasia and beyond, Singapore really is the posh relation in Asia. Life for us as expats is so far removed from that level of poverty and even from the average Singaporean that unfortunately, I'm ashamed to say it is very easy to forget just how lucky we are living in our "paid for by the company houses", private schools and with great tax breaks to finish off the deal. As adults Leigh and I can keep ourselves grounded and remember our place amongst all of this, but for the children it is becoming harder and harder for them to know their place in the world when everyone else they mix with leads the same privileged lifestyle as they do.

Leigh and I can talk to the kids as much as we like about how lucky they are and through school they can learn about and be involved in charities which benefit the less fortunate of Asia but like all things in life talking can never teach as well as actively doing and participating.

Aimee didn't know what to expect from the event though I spent time explaing the economic situation of the people she would be meeting and how important it was for her to be interested in them and to show her interest to them if only through smiling and talking to people as she gave out the food.

We arrived at the distribution point and divided into groups of 2 or 3 to each food station giving out various items. I was giving out onions with Vince (age 3!) and Zion (age 5!). Aimee and Roma opted to give out the bread - this is them waiting for the event to get started...

It was quite a humbling experience meeting the poorest people of Singapore and I have to say that I was amazed by how well all the kids handled themselves. They were full of smiles and laughter and interacted well with everyone they met. Poor little Vince got a bit freaked out by the one-legged lady and the Hindu man with red paint all over his face but he is only 3 years old and I think his main problem was absolute tiredness as it was very hot. I was so proud of Aimee, she positively BEAMED at everyone she met and wasn't at all fazed by the old people wanting to stroke her curly hair and chatter away to her in Mandarin.

After the last of the people had been given their weekly groceries I took the 4 children off to visit 3 recipients in their homes with a member of the Charity. Unlike some of the estates in London and even Medway where I'd fear to tread, a Singaporean housing estate is actually a pretty safe place to be. The lifts work and they don't smell of wee!! Its amazing how well people respect property here but then I guess with a rather strict Government and a harsh penal policy its easier to wait till you reach the toilet than wee in a lift and risk a few years in prison!

The kids were interested to meet the families we visited and were amazed by the small living spaces. The people we met all live in studio flat of just one room with a kitchenette and a small bathroom. One man was sleeping on the floor when we arrived and clearly had not even a bed or chair to sit on. That was a visually graphic explanation of these people's situation for Aimee especially.

We stayed for a few photos after we'd finished our deliveries as the American Ambassador had come along to help so I guess there will be some publicity for the Charity at least due to his attendance. But for Aimee and me the main thing was that we'd had a chance to talk about and meet some people we would never normally ome into contact with here in Singapore. Aimee learnt a great lesson in appreciating her own lucky place in the world by understanding how others less fortunate than her are living only a mile from her home. Its hardly going to turn her or I into Mother Theresa overnight but its a start and you have to start somewhere right?

Halloween

2007-11-01T15:47:00.000+08:00

Halloween was great fun again this year. Being a street well known locally for its ex-pat population (and therefore willingness to dress up and doll out huge quantities of sweets)we were awash with kids and their parents trick or treating.

Aimee was a vampire's cat (basically a black cat with vampire teeth which she soon bored of) and Ollie was a skeleton courtesy of the Sainsbury's outfit Auntie Sarah bought him over last year which fortunately still fits him. Afraid I just couldn't contemplate dressing up this year in my pregnant state - all that man-made fibre and a wig in 33 degrees?? I'm suffering enough in the heat and didn't fancy making it worse for myself so I left the sweet distribution to Mary this year (who was NOT interested in being my substitute evil witch of the house) and went off trick or treating instead.

Was a great atmosphere with lots of people about, various parties going on and a lovely community feeling we've certainly never experienced in England. Halloween in our little expat community of Kingsville is how I imagine it to be in the US - certainly American friends and neighbours who've joined in the fun say its very similar to a US Halloween.

Leigh cancelled his trip to Bali this week due to a bad back but it meant that he got to join in the fun as he was away last year. He wasn't up for a costume, this was his sole effort towards anything remotely ghoulish.......

Unlike our friends Paul and Adrian who you can see really went to town and scared the living crap out of most of the kids! Paul's wife Sylvia is already well known on the street for her extreme enthusiasm for any kind of holiday/celebration. (She happily donned a full Easter Rabbit costume in this heat/humidity, played for an hour with the kids and led an Easter Egg hunt! I can't emphasise how nuts about this kind of thing you need to be to agree to that out here...)

Regina and I were the top-dogs of decorations till Sylvia arrived. Now we merely pale into insignificance! I'm gutted I didn't photograph her house but suffice to say she worked on her plan for weeks and painted a backdrop which covered the whole front of the house and added all sorts of props. That combined with the Paul and Adrian duo was quite a combination.

Here are some of my favourite pics of the evening starting with my favourite costume, Senhon's dead pirate. Loving the grey wig....

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Half Term Fun

2007-10-27T17:07:00.000+08:00

Half term is well and truly over for us and the kids are back to school. We were all glad of the break though and especially enjoyed the last day of term which was United Nations Day.

UN Day is a big deal at the kids school as there are between 35-45 nationalities represented in the school at any given time. This year saw a bit of controversy with the Scottish, Irish and Welsh branching off into a little group of their own. Last year I tried to manage a minefield of disagreement amongst parents on the Irish Question and other such regional battles. It amazes me that the adults are able to get so het up about this type of thing and they forget the day is meant to be about the kids celebrating the fact the school is a "uniting" of nations...ah well, some things are clearly lost on some parents!

I ended up being the co-ordinator for the English kids again despite a genuine get out of jail card with the pregnancy from hell - but then that got trumped by my friend's dad suddenly passing away and prompting her unexpected return to England. Poor love, it has to be every expat's worse nightmare to have that happen and so the least I could do was take over organising UN Day for her.

There were 124 English kids and in the absence of a National Costume (chav outfits do not count!) we opted for T-Shirts with the St George's Cross. The kids had a great day and they all looked great in the parade. Here's a pic of some of the kids and then Aimee and Ollie....

Once UN Day was over and done with we headed off to Bintan for a little holiday. Poor Leigh was feeling knackered after an especially stressful few weeks at work so it was great for him to have a break. The hotel looked spectacular on the website, was great when we got there but to be honest, lacked any real personality. It was also very quiet which didn't help but it wasn't school and it wasn't work so we can't complain.

Leigh and I have decided that even after only 18 months in Asia we just don't get that initial "WOW" feeling anymore on holiday out here as everywhere you go its stunning beaches, great scenary etc etc. When we're back in England we'll be beating ourselves but I suppose its a good thing that we are still able to realise the vista should be taking our breath away, even if it isn't! God, we sound like spoilt brats - I promise we're not and haven't morphed into hideous expats quite yet!!!!

The kids enjoyed the break despite the lack of other children to play with. They especially liked the garden and outside jacuzzi that came with our accomodation. I love this picture of them in the "bubbly pool" with Leigh - doesn't he look like a giant with those long legs hanging over the side?

That's it now though, definitely seems like no more opportunities to enjoy short breaks Asia style for quite a few months as my belly grown larger every day and my Doc puts a ban on travelling outside of Singapore. We do have an exciting Christmas and New Year to look forward to though as Jon and Tracey are coming to visit from England and Leigh has booked off the whole of the holidays from work.

In the meantime, we return to school and work for Leigh and the Kids and I get into some serious glueing and sticking for the Infant Nativity play - apparently, if I'm very good, I might be allowed near a sewing machine. See, would a spoilt expat brat put up with that????

"Useless Blogger Finally Updates"

2007-10-08T12:17:00.000+08:00

Its official - I am the worse Blogger around!! After a worried phone call from Lisa in England 'cause the Blog was "stuck" on 14 August and a little nudge from Nat (aka Marmite Breath) I've been kicked and shamed into action to get back to blogging.

I could bore you all with my excuses as to why I haven't been doing blog updates but you are probably all sick of hearing me moan about this pregnancy and its associated troubles already so I won't bother with that. Since we got back from England on 20 August its been pretty glum around here as we've battled with homesickness (me), work issues (Leigh), the move into big school (Ollie) and the increased levels of homework at year 5 (Aimee).

Some welcome relief came in the form of Maz (Leigh's sister) when she visited for a couple of weeks with her little boy, Laurie. Was great to have her visit us and experience Asia from a different perspective to her days globe trekking pre-children. I persuaded her to take a trip to Sea Gypsy which she really enjoyed, as did the little man himself.

Life is slowly settling down to normality again, though I'd be lying if I didn't say my hormone surges make me a little tearful for England at times still. The kids have now settled back into school and the routine of school events, parent meetings and such like continues. United Nations Day is fast approaching and with the usual parent "discussions" as to what the British kids will wear in lieu of a National Costume. It is shameful that we haven't got one really, especially in a school with kids from 35 different countries, all of whom seem to have beautiful, elaborate national costumes. Anyway, pictures will follow after the event on Friday.

Ollie has some big news to share though - he has not only moved into Big School but also onto the "Big Boy" bike - i.e. no stabilisers/training wheels (depending on which continent you are reading this on!) He was fantastic. I held his seat for maybe 5 seconds whilst he steadied himself and then, he was off. Now he thinks he can do tricks and become the Evil Knievel of Singapore. Here's what his face looked like after a couple of days with that mindset....

And a little clip of him riding...

Aimee had an exciting weekend as she was asked to sing with her school choir for the Singaporean President at a big event to celebrate the end of Charity Week here in Singapore. (And no, unfortunately no-one here says it like it Smashy and Nicey so my "Charrr-it-yyy" comments have fallen on very deaf ears and confused faces - another lost in translation moment). Anyway, back to Aimee. She was so proud of herself, especially when she was put at the centre of the first row, holding up a candle - "he'll definitely be looking at me mum!!". Bless her heart. Was Leigh's birthday this weekend so we couldn't go and watch her as we'd already invited half the street over for a BBQ but Aimee forgave us when I bribed her with the chance to stay up late and watch Cheetah Girls 2.

What else is new??? Ummm, we've booked a holiday for half term as we never managed to get away in the summer what with all my vomiting and being in hospital. We're off to a nearby Indonesian island called Bintan where they have golf, a kids club and a spa so all members of the family are happy! Our plans to go to the Maldives were crushed by my Docs due to lack of nearby decent medical facilities. Oh well, save that up for next year maybe. Well, better go as I have to collect the kids from school. I promise I'll get better at blogging again but for now here's some pics of life since August....

PS Its a girl in case you haven't heard by now!

Baby Leather Scan Pictures

2007-08-14T03:54:00.000+08:00

I went for the 13 week scan at the local BUPA hospital whilst in UK on holiday and came away feeling greatly relieved that all is well and where it should be after the eventful last 12 weeks.

Obviously Leigh wasn't there but my lovely Lisa came with me and held my hand, which was actually more necessary than I realised as I was terrified - easy to admit now!

Anyway, all well, have loads of pictures and and some DVD clips, including 4D which was AMAZING!

V xx

PS Doctor told me the sex of the baby and was 80-90% positive (best we can ask for at this stage). Boy or a Girl??? What do you think??? Not telling you till I've told Leigh....

Summer Holidays...

2007-07-26T14:06:00.000+08:00

The children and I are now in England for our 4 week summer holiday, which we have been greatly looking forward to.

We are spending the next 2 weeks or so staying at Jacinta's house in Rainham, doing cat-babysitting whilst she is on holiday. It is so kind of her to let us stay here, I really appreciate her hospitality and hope to return the favour next year as I seem to be persuading her a trip to Singapore is a good idea....

I've been a bit useless on the blogging front again in the last month as I've been pretty ill and have been in hospital twice due to a ruptured ovarian cyst and some other lady complications due to the fact I am pregnant!!! Yes, we have decided to add a third and final baby-leather to the gang and am currently about 10 weeks pregnant. Things have been a little complicated by the cyst and the fact I have hyperemesis - basically the worst form of morning sickness you can get. Typical!! After my last stay in hospital for severe dehydration I was put on some tablets which have reduced the vomiting from about 25 times a day to an average of 5. Much better but still feeling yuck. Keep your fingers crossed for me it goes off in next couple of weeks.

The kids are bursting with excitment and can't quite grasp how long the pregnancy will take. Ollie is talking to my belly constantly and kissing it a lot which is cute.

Unfortunately Leigh hasn't been able to come with us as he is busy at work so that is going to make this trip tough. We have also had to cancel our week in Turkey with Dad and Julie as my consultant wouldn't authorise the travel given the medical problems I've been having. So instead, on 9th August the kids and I will be moving up to Mike and Maureen's place until we return to Singapore on 19th August.

Well, I will try to email you all in the next few days with contact numbers etc and hope to catch with many of you over the next 4 weeks.

See you soon

V xxxx

Birthdays, Bali and Babies

2007-06-14T16:08:00.000+08:00

Hello everyone,

Apologies for being pretty slack this month and not blogging, but its been an action packed month and I'm only just slowing emerging from the yucky flu and chest infection I've been suffering with for the last week, which was my reward from the Gods for rushing around like a loony for weeks.

Ollie's Birthday party was a great success. He shared the day with his friend Lola from school. She holds a special place in his heart as she is the only girl in the class who will not give into his Romeo ways. Barney the Dinosaur came along to the party too and it was absolutely the best kids party I've ever been to. The kids were happy, calm (I know - at a kids party!) and totally transfixed by Barney's games. The fact they could see the lady's face didn't detract from their absolute belief in her Barneyness either. I never felt a moment's stress and will happily be hiring out this entertainer again and again whilst we live here.

Here's a few clips of the action....

The day after Ollie's birthday the 4 of us were off to Bali for 5 days with Mike and Maureen for a lovely holiday. We stayed at a beautiful villa with its own pool, so the kids were in heaven. We just chilled out really, eating and drinking our way through the week. Here are a few pics of the holiday....

When we got from Bali we had a few more days with Mike and Maureen so thought it would be rude of us to let them leave Singapore for the second time without having tried a Sunday Brunch. So off we trooped to Sentosa for a lovely afternoon of free flowing Champagne and food, followed by some napping around the pool whilst the kids were playing. My friend Michelle and her 2 kids joined us too....

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We said Goodbye to Mike and Maureen on the Monday, then Hello to my friend Emma and her 2 boys, Declan and Joseph on the Friday! It was wonderful for me to have Emma here, Singapore is wonderful but having her to stay made it perfect. We are having a great time here, but missing friends and family is still tough.

We definitely had an action packed week whilst she was here. Both of my kids had their Sports Days, plus we did the usual tourist stuff of Raffles, River Boat Tour, Photos with Sir Raffles and the Merlion, Night Safari, Science Centre etc etc. Emma and I even managed an evening out shopping, cocktails at a posh hotel and my favourite Singapore Restaurant, Din Tai Fung - mmmm, lovely. There was also a Brunch [Emma was not feeling the full ticket so didn't eat much] and some vodka drunk in the first few days.

I'll let the pictures do the talking - are you checking my new super-duper camera yet with 10.1 megapixels...??? I love it and am even more of a photo pest than ever now....

Oliver's Sports Day efforts deserve some photos of their own. He started his 100 metre sprint in prime position to take the Gold...

...and then, disaster strikes [or rather, his Barney trainer fell off]...

...his nemisis, Lola was confused, should she stay and help or run for the prize.....

....Hugo tears past them both with glory in his eyes....

...But our lovely Ollie is the Hero of the Hour, when he puts his shoe back on and races to the finish line like nothing had happened to lots of applause and smiles from all the mums and dads watching in the stands...

Well, that's all folks for now. In just over 5 weeks me and the kids will be back in Blighty for 4 weeks of our summer holidays (though a week will be with Dad & Co. in Turkey) so I'm hoping to catch up with as many of you as possible. All dinner invitations, nights out, shopping trips, BBQs etc will be gratefully and cheekily accepted! Missing you all,

love V xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

PS For of you with the Beady eyes, I did talk about Babies in the title. Well, its not me, but my lovely Emma who is pregnant...

For the even more beady eyed amongst you, did you notice I said Babies as in plural???? That's right, we discovered whilst Emma was here that not only was she pregnant but also expecting two. TWINS!!!! OHMIGOD!!!!!

So that's TWINS by the way - TWO Babies!!! Emma, good luck to you, glad I was there to share the discovery with you but glad its you not me. Phew! Here's what Emma's number 3 and number 4 child are looking like in her tum so far...

Ollie the fish!

2007-05-10T16:50:00.000+08:00

Ollie is now starting to swim unaided and wanted to show off his new skills on the Blog to all of you. So I duly took my camera to the Club on Sunday and took a little clip of him at his fish-like best. Aimee makes a short cameo at the end.

Its hard to believe that a year ago we had just returned from our first visit to Singapore and neither of them would get into the pool without either Leigh or I to attach themselves too - quite literally by grabbing us round the neck and nearly drowning us!

Hope you are all well in Blighty. Mike and Maureen arrived this week and its been lovely to see them after four and half months. We are now busy with the preparations for Ollie's Birthday party on Saturday, his actual Birthday [so another cake!] on Sunday and then off to Bali on Monday.

Life is good. Definitely not a drop of homesickness in the air at the moment which is great after the recent months when it has at times, plagued me and made me wonder what we are doing here. All too soon I 'll be back to the UK and kicking myself for wasting those days. My closest friend here, Michelle, has recently found out she is returning to the UK with her family in July. She will have been here for only 9 months by then - that is less time than us Leathers have been here already! Its been a kick up the bum to remind to enjoy this time whilst it lasts.

V xx

Weekend in Bangkok

2007-05-06T22:18:00.000+08:00

Leigh and I went up to Bangkok last weekend to celebrate our 7th wedding anniversary. We have some "Cheltenham" friends, Kieran and Susan who moved there at the same time we moved to Singapore last year. We were even able to go without the kids as they stayed at home with Mary [aka Filipino Mary Poppins] for the weekend, but not without a little bit of bribery from me....

Kieran and Susan are renting a beautiful new house in the central district of Bangkok, so we were conveniently located to check out their favourite eating, drinking and shopping spots.

Driving around the city, I have to say that I found the Bangkok we saw as mainly very ugly - lots of dirt, grey and concrete. Things improved dramatically when we went into restaurants etc but just driving through town was not pretty. Mine and Leigh's expected ladyboy spotting contest came to nothing as we didn't see the seedy side of things at all. There were no flying pingpong balls in our line of vision this weekend and I think I've seen more "working girls" along Rochester's New Road on a Wednesday night than we saw over the weekend!

We ate out at three fantastic restaurants over the weekend. On Friday it was a very modern place with a good selection of Thai food that we ordered Tapas style and munched whilst plying ourselves with lots of drink. The thunderstorms we've had in Singapore over the last month followed us to dinner and there was a terrific storm, the likes of which Kieran and Susan hadn't seen in their time in Bangkok. I keep forgetting Bangkok and Singapore are a 2 hour flight apart as we think of them as being so close now we live here for some strange reason??

Anyway, Saturday was probably the greatest shopping experience of my life - and that is saying something! I thought I'd died and gone to BARGAIN HEAVEN!!! otherwise known as, Jatujak Market. It was flipping brilliant. Its the biggest market in the world, covering 35 acres. We were there for 4 hours and I think we saw about 10% of it. Imagaine hundreds [and hundreds] of alleyways like this full of every type of thing you could ever want to buy from an antique chinese statute to a puppy!

And I wasn't joking about the animals either...

I shopped like a woman possessed. I bought Buddha heads, Buddha pictures, Buddha dolls [yes, the asian Buddha thing has taken hold of me], clothes, jewellery, toys, football kit for Ollie and plenty of other bits and bobs. Once I've got them distributed round the house I'll take some photos and post them. I felt like the Beckhams as I was dishing out my 500Baht notes left, right and centre. When we were finally done, mine and Susan's shopping required a trolley man and looked like this...

The grand sum spent on my bargain bonanza.....under 100 pounds!!! I was plenty pleased with that, as was Mr L's wallet.

The market was the highlight of the weekend for me and definitely requires a return trip. Susan and I have been making plans for what I can get shipped down to Singapore as the furniture costs about a tenth of the price we get charged here - and I've been thinking that was cheap! Susan took us to a very popular chicken and rice lunch place within the market. It was the real deal street food and in sharp contrast to the 3 places we ate in over the rest of the weekend. The food was lovely and I only remembered to photograph it when we'd eaten it all...

Kieran and Susan wanted to go out very early on Saturday evening, so after a quick dip in their pool [sooo jealous of that in the heat - our ELC Thomas the Tank Engine paddling pool just isn't the same!] we were ready to go out by 5.30pm. On our way to the State Tower it became clear we were going to the top of the building with the gold Dome you can see in this picture....

Despite being as tall as he his, those of you who know him well, will understand this was not a good option for Leatherman who is a little unhappy about heights. As it was our anniversary and he was being an all round wonder-husband for the weekend, he put on his brave face as we rode the elevator to the 64th floor and smiled as we walked out to the bar with this view...

Its obvious how mind-blowing the view was and easily becomes one of our favourite moments in Asis so far. Watching the sunset over Bangkok and the lights of the City come on was great, and thinking of it now, its a hard call between Bargain City Jatujak Market and the Dome Bar for the winning part of the weekend.

We left the Bar a couple of hours and a few vodkas later to go to their favourite restaurant in Bangkok - an Italian! Great place, fantastic food and definitely not something we would ever have found without the benefit of Kieran and Susan's local knowledge.

Sunday saw us nursing sore heads again [I was doing my "It was the Olives" thing to explain my poorlyness] so that was cured by more food and drink at the Oriental Hotel. Its Bangkok's Raffles I guess, as it was the first "posh" hotel in the city many, many moons ago. Lunch lined my stomach for the return journey to Singapore which was the worst turbulance either of us have ever experienced. The crew had to get me some anti-sickness tablets but I was too ashamed to tell them my hangover probably wasn't helping.

Arrived home late in the evening to 2 very happy and very tired kids. They'd had the time of their lives over the weekend with movies, popcorn, playdates etc. They dived straight into our bags to find out what we had bought them and if they'd had their way, would have slept in their new football kit and sarongs.

Was a great weekend break for the two of us and worth the guilt I felt about leaving the kids. They were absolutely fine with Mary, just as we knew they would be, so I'm now planning our next weekend break to take before the school summer holidays.

These are some of the photographs from the weekend....

Sea Gypsys

2007-04-30T22:22:00.000+08:00

The trip to Pulau Sibu off the east coast of Malaysia was a great success. We stayed at the Sea Gypsy resort again as we had such a good time when we went for one night in November 2006 with Jon and Tracey. Was definitely worth the return trip.

Leigh and I had our 2 and Natalie in one large family chalet. Natalie kept commenting it was just "like being on Lost!!" and was even more convinced she was being drawn into the Dharma Initiative when she opened her bedroom window to look at the sea AND a little concrete bunker.

Dad and Julie definitely got the best chalet available - "V1" in case I forget in the future. It sits right on the beach - and I say this with ours being not so close at maybe 15ft from start of the beach! Their bed was opposite the door and when it blew open on their first night, this was the view Julie woke up to......

Not bad eh?

The view from my window wasn't quite the same and I'm afraid I didn't wake for sunrise. However, I did have a little afternoon snooze one day and this is what I saw when I woke up...

Wish the view was like that from Waterside Lane!

We were lucky that the resort was coming to the end of a busy period as all the international schools in Malaysia and Singapore were back to school except for ours. On the first night there were about 20 people there but by the next morning, we were the only ones on the island with just the staff. By afternoon we were joined by 2 British girls who were backpacking around Asia, but they seemed content to sleep in their chalet so we pretty much had the place to ourselves.

The staff took us to a deserted island one morning for a bit of snorkeling. The islands are within a marine conservation area as it contains a coral reef. It was great fun but the kids found the most exciting thing to be the dead giant turtle we found on the beach. No camera with us so can only say, take it from me this thing was huge!

Ollie learnt to climb trees whilst we were away, but often got a bit too high and would shout till someone would come and save him. Aimee was ecstatic to find one of her classmates was on the island for the first day and even managed a sleepover that night. Unfortunately she had an allergic reaction to some sand fly bites but that didn't kick in until we got home. No doubt the reaction was assisted by the fact she was rolling in the sand and sea constantly and took the sea gypsy motto to heart again.

These are some of favourite pics of the trip and of course, a video clip just cause i got it and know how to load it on this blog!

Other than the snorkelling we just chilled out, ate and drank really. Was a great way to end Dad, Julie and Natalie's visit as they went home a few days later. Before they left, Dad and I did manage to drag Natalie to the nearby McRitchie Nature Reserve so we could cross the rainforest canopy via a wibbly-wobbly bridge. You can see Natalie and I were just a bit sweaty by the time we got up there - and you'll see just how impressed she was that we made her walk for 2 hours to look at the tops of trees...

Aimee and I cried at the airport AGAIN saying goodbye to Dad, Julie and Natalie. It was great having them to stay but holidays have to come to an end. I've made my peace with my crying in the airport now but its tough for those leaving when I'm sobbing. The distance never seems quite so bad until someone is getting on a plane to go back to England.

Still, we have some friendly faces to turn to in the airport now as the staff in the sweetshop and the coffee shop know me and the kids so well they've started to say "oh its you lot again" and promptly ply the kids with free jellybeans and know my coffee order before I even open my mouth.

Next visitors are Leigh's parents who arrive next tuesday. In between times, Leigh and I just took a quick visit to Bangkok over the weekend to visit some friends, but more about that next time as I'm all blogged out for now.

V xxxxxx

Easter in Singapore

2007-04-14T12:57:00.000+08:00

Dad, Julie and Natalie arrived early on Good Friday for a 16 day visit. We've been having a great time doing touristy stuff (yes, i've been on the bumboat tour and had drinks at Raffles AGAIN!!) and generally enjoying no school and lots of chocolate!

Discovered that storing easter eggs in the tropics is quite a chore and am dreading the electricity bill this month as have had the air con on permanently in my study to keep the chocolate from melting into a Willy Wonka like chocolate river!

At the end of term Aimee was Mary Magdalene in the school easter assembly and Ollie was an Easter bunny. Cute but you can see he wasn't having any of it when I asked to take his picture!

On Easter Sunday we went to the Shangri-Li Hotel for Easter Brunch. Brunch is a "Singapore Sunday Institution" where all the big hotels put on lovely all you can eat buffets (usually with free-flowing champagne etc) for a couple of hours. The choice of food is unbelievable - lobster, prawns, steak, sushi, bbq, deserts like you've never seen and lots more.

We've only recently come round to the Brunch thing but I can see it going to become a regular thing with visitors as they are such fun. Not really helping with the diet though! Ah well...

The kids went on an Easter egg hunt at the Hotel and got MORE chocolate then finished their lunch with some pink candy floss. I'm still scrapping them off the ceiling 6 days later from the sugar rush.

Dad and Julie went off to Kuala Lumpur by train for a couple of days and had a fantastic time. They stayed in the new Traders hotel beside the Asian Twin Towers (Petronas Towers - until recently the tallest buildings in the world). Their bedroom had one wall of virtually all glass looking out at the Towers. Definitely worth the trip in their view and something to add to our stash of ideas for visitors to do when coming to see us. They travelled up first class by train - thought they'd treat themselves as it was the grand sum of 19 pounds each!

I stayed here with Natalie and the kids and we managed to keep ourselves busy with a history trip to Fort Siloso so the kids could learn about the fall of Singapore to the "Dhastardly" Japanese. Lots of walking through tunnels and playing with very large guns so they were happy. Trip to Underwater World to look at lots of Nemos and Dorys (Ollie's favourite fish of course). We had a picnic and ball games with some of the kids from Ollie's class at the Botanical Gardens which was fun but a little too warm after a couple of hours. All in all, a busy week.

Last night we had dinner at Boat Quay followed by drinks on the terrace at the very posh Fullerton Hotel. Lots of fun and a fully expat evening.

Tomorrow we're all travelling up to Malaysia to go to Pulau Sibu for a couple of days which are all looking forward to.

STOP PRESS - BABY NEWS

2007-04-03T20:32:00.000+08:00

I've had the nod that the big announcement has now been made so I'm ok to share on my blog.....that Virginia is having baby number 2 sometime in November.

Fantastic stuff, very pleased for the three of them. Have to confess to going a bit silly and having a tear on the phone when she told me as I realised I won't get to see the baby until he or she is a few months old as we aren't planning to visit england over xmas this year. It just doesn't feel right that Ginny's having a baby and I won't be around to see the little munchkin till its a much bigger munchkin!

I knew these events would come along and make me sad about being so far away, but it still surprised me when I started crying! Anyway, great news - now Ginny has two projects - a new house to get ship-shape and baby number 2!

Congratulations Crosbys!!!xxxx!!!xxxx

End of term-itis....

2007-04-03T20:13:00.000+08:00

The end of term is getting closer (tomorrow and we're all counting the hours). School seems to get more and more hectic at the end of term as there has been a bevvy of events including Ollie's assembly from last post. Then we had "Book Week" which was busy for the kids and culminated in Parades for both Infant and Junior school when the children all dressed up as characters from their favourite books.

Here's a picture of Aimee and her friends Katie, Eve and Emily. Aimee was Hermione Granger in her ball-gown (Goblet of Fire); Katie was Amelia Jane; Emily was Horrid Henry and I can't remember who Eve was....oh well!!

Ollie was one of Captain's Hook's pirates from Peter Pan - luckily he had a foam sword as he was only too happy to threaten his classmates!

We've also had a Year 4 BBQ for Aimee's year group. An excuse for all the parents and kids to get together, eat, drink and have a good time. We congregated at one of the family's condo so the kids could spend the afternoon in the pool. One of the father's bought along a 6-foot wide trampoline which floats in the water - I was a bit concerned when the kids went wild and bundled on it, but no major damage and no A&E trips required!

Mum has gone back to England and we're really missing having her around.

Last weekend was a bit of chill-out as I was out for a (ahem) few drinks on Friday night with my Turkish friend Berna - man, that woman can drink!!! Consequently spent Sat suffering. Sunday was an Easter Egg Hunt at Oliver's friend Connor's house.

So tomorrow we've got two easter assemblies (oh joy!) then Oliver's class has its easter party - mmm, chocolate!!! Mr Bean Movie after school (kill me now!!!!) and a day to recover on Thursday before the next arrivals....

Dad, Julie and Natalie arrive on Friday morning about 10 minutes after Leigh's plane lands from India. Be a busy morning at Changi airport for us but the start of what I'm hoping will be a great Easter Holiday.

love V xxxxxxxxx

Ollie's Class Assembly

2007-03-18T17:49:00.000+08:00

On Friday 16 March, Ollie's Nursery Class and the Special Needs class for pre-school children joined together to present their first Assembly (without the help of Reception Class) to the rest of the Infant School and their parents. It was very sweet.

The Assembly was called "Our Favourite Songs" and showed off all the songs the kids have learnt since starting school last September. They worked really hard to prepare for the assembly and all the kids decorated their own t-shirts with pictures of their families. You'll see from Ollie's photo that his works of art are still a little abstract.....

Aimee swims in her first Swimming Gala

2007-03-18T17:23:00.000+08:00

On Thursday 15 March we enjoyed watching Aimee swim in her first Swimming Gala organised by the Sports Department at her school for children in Years 3 and 4.

Regulars to the leather-blog will remember Aimee has only just learnt to swim, so it was a great achievement for her to be picked to compete in not one, but two of the Relay races. She also swam very well against some of her classmates in the individual Breast-stroke race.

The video clip above shows Aimee getting her team off to a good start in the Freestyle Relay which her team did go on to win. One of the kids got a bit overexcited and tried to do another length when they'd already won - you can see the looks of amusement on the Senior kids faces and hear one of the sports staff frantically blowing her whistle to stop him!

My mum came along to the Gala too as she is here visiting for a couple of weeks. Mum has been overloaded with school stuff this week as we've been into school to observe some of Aimee's lessons as part of the Observation Week, had the Swim Gala and also Ollie's Assembly (next post). Next week we'll be off to see some as-yet-unvisited-by-the-leathers tourist stuff. I'll let you know what we see next week.

Video clip of Oliver's class singing at Christmas

2007-03-05T22:38:00.000+08:00

Obviously I'm a bit muddled timewise at the moment whilst I put some stuff on here. Sorry to have xmas stuff muddled into march but there we are!

This is a clip of Ollie's Nursery Class and the Reception Class singing a very cute song at Christmas. They performed it in assembly then did a special in-class show again for us.

Hello everyone!

2007-03-05T21:16:00.000+08:00

If you found this page then my email link worked - success finally!!

Welcome to our online diary which I will try to keep up to date, especially with tales of our visitors and our adventures beyond Singapore.

Enjoy xx

Rik, Tracey & Isabella Wood visit Singapore

2007-03-02T14:09:00.000+08:00

The Woods visited Singapore for two weeks in February 2007 and I've attached a few photos of their time here. Leigh was able to have a week off work during their visit as it coincided with CNY which is a long public holiday in Asia.

We spent the first few days of their visit chilling out and waiting for them to get over their jetlag. Issy did very well on the long flight (amazing for a 17 month old!) and was sleeping fine very quickly much to Rik and Tracey's relief. We enjoyed lots of swimming and sunbathing at the British Club over CNY and also the street party I've written about in another post.

Leigh and Rik got plenty of "man time" together flying their remote control airplanes (& losing them in trees, on rooftops....) and playing footie games. We had a couple of days out shopping, girls getting nails done and massage and generally enjoying ourselves whilst eating and drinking far too much!

Tracey and Rik had a couple of nights out sans-Issy to Boat Quay for obligatory first visit Chilli Crab and also a trip to the Night Safari. Needless to say, Leigh and I passed on those trips as I now know the commentary for the Night Safari off by heart and we've eaten our own weight in Chilli Crab since we arrived with various visitors......

I gave them my one day whirlwind tour of Singapore's main sights and sounds - check Issy out trying to steal her mum's Singapore Sling in the Long Bar at Raffles. She REALLY liked it, though to be fair it doesn't taste of alcohol at all, just sweet stuff but good.

We spent their last day at Singapore Zoo with the kids as Leigh was on a plane heading to Europe for two weeks. When I took them to the airport we were all saying how relaxed the journey was and I commented it was the quickest trip to the airport yet when there was a horrible noise from the car. Flat tyre! We were only 5 mins from the airport but it was less than 2 hours till their flight (Changi is mega-efficient) so I was flagging a taxi on the motorway - no recommended. Still, we got one in the end and they made their flight in plenty of time and I was rescued by a very nice man from Singapore AA.

The house is strangly quiet now without them. It was a wonderful visit and hopefully they'll come and see us again next year....?

Chinese New Year

2007-03-01T22:25:00.000+08:00

We recently celebrated Chinese New Year - 'tis the year of the pig. Rik, Tracey & Isabella were in Singapore visiting us for a couple of weeks over the holiday period too.

CNY is a BIG deal in Asia. Put it this way, on Christmas Day many shops, restaurants and bars were open but over CNY just about everything is shut. Its like a ghost town.

The kids had a big celebration at school and Leigh and I learnt the story of CNY twice in one day by watching not one, but two assemblies at school. (The joy of kids spread between the infants and junior/senior school!) I've attached some photos of the kids in their costumes. All the kids in school dressed up, which they do for all holidays, regardless of religion or culture. With kids from 36 different countries in one school there is always something to celebrate.

We then had a street party with all our expat and local (well just the friendly ones) neighbours. We drag a couple of BBQ's and tables onto the street, let the kids run wild and eat and drink ourselves silly. Leigh was over intoxicated & in bed by 10pm (after stealing ollie's quilt, poor little fella); Rik & Tracey retired with a cuppa tea at 11pm to our neighbour's amusement "so british", and I collapsed into bed at 3am after a vodka session with the funny germans next door and our friendly locals. I suffered the next day and swore off drink again....

Maz Photos of Kids

2007-03-01T22:15:00.000+08:00

I'll be adding lots to this blog over next few days before I email the address to eveyone so there will be plenty to look rather than just one or two bits of waffle from me.

These are some pics taken by Mazzy at xmas time of the 4 Leather grandchildren (Carlos & Laurie are Mark & Sylvia and Maz's new babies) - very cute and fabulous shots by Maz as usual.

Video clip of Aimee Swimming

2007-03-01T21:09:00.001+08:00

This is a clip of Aimee swimming at a friend's house on 26 February 2007. Four months ago she couldn't swim - now look at her! We are really proud of how hard she has worked to become a good swimmer. She's proud of herself too and will tell anyone who will listen that her Sports Coach at school says she is the most improved swimmer in the whole school.

(I find you have to click the play button twice and wait a few seconds for it to download to get it to work. I got it on here, that is enough technology from me!)

Hello!

2007-02-26T14:34:00.000+08:00

Hello everyone,

I've finally sussed this Blogger business (with Rik's help during his recent visit) and have managed to create one you should have been able to log straight on to and view our photos and video clips to see what we've been up to.

This is about the only whole family photo we have since we moved here, mainly because I'm always the one with the camera snapping anything that moves!!

We waved goodbye to the Wood's today after their visit and dealt with a flat tyre on motorway - long story, won't bore you all with that one.........

Will post more soon once I've figured out how to get my video clips onto this site - might be a bit much technology for me but I'll give it a try!