Mooo

Nathan makes this funny 'mmooo' noise when he plays on his own sometimes. He has quite a deep voice there.

Chickies

My dad bought him these little rubber ducks when he was about 6 mths old, and I am sure glad I brought them over to cambridge, they are his truest companion at bath time! I would ask him to look for the duckies, he would do so, then he would have his duckies in his hands the whole time he is in the bath and sometimes, even after towel dry and change, he would still be holding them tightly in his small little hands.

He particularly likes banging them together to make the 'squeaky' noise.

Climbing stairs

Climbing up stairs has been his second favourite past time now, it's not the first cos we don;t have stairs around the house, but just outside our flat, there are two flights of stairs which he loves to go up and down it. They are alittle too steep for him to do it by himself, so mummie always helps.

Those flight of stairs in the video are taken in Basel, next to the river, a twice the size of boat quay. When he sees stairs, he runs towards them, then looks up at me, as if saying, 'help me now'. Guess his next mile stone would be climbing up stairs on his own.

Stuck

Nathan seemed to have this new habit of getting himself into corners, and sometimes he gets stuck like this in the video. It's just funny watching him get out of it by himself without our help. He has also developed the 'bad' habit of hiding things everywhere too, in between the doors, cupboards, underneath the beds and drawers etc, both lye chong and i have grown so tired from hunting things, esp when we're in rush, it can get us very annoyed.

Stool

Watch Nathan carry this aged old wooden stool from corner to corner. Boy, does he look cute? he was so fascinated with that stool. In fact, it looked familiar, I had one when i was little in my old Toa payoh house.

Walk on Ice

See little boy venturing out on snowy ground. He is thrilled to see the ground all white and bright. Unfortunately, he did not have a good pair of water proof boots, else he would be jumping and running on it. I had to grab him back before his toes got frozen.

Stamping

Just want to share a brilliant smile from my little boy.

Bern

The main attractions of Bern were the Bern bear, river, valley and high bridges. It was the most crowded city, flooded with tourists, and that made the trip less exciting.

Shopping was good as there were a number of malls, and street stalls were up since Christmas is round the corner. There were as many as 3 Macdonalds, and we actually went in all three during our 2 days stay – mostly to warm ourselves up with coffee and tea from the freezing temp outside.

We got our souvenirs, postcards and warm socks for Nathan. There was nothing much to say about this city, except for the big clock, which refused to work that hour we were waiting for it to chime. We were not the only ‘goondoos’ who waited below that ‘frozen’ clock.

Last day noon, Chong wanted to catch a sight of the Bern bear. I reluctantly followed, knowing that it would not be anything to rave about. True enough, these two bears were stopping low, munching on their hay stack the whole time while we stared into their wide open bear pit.

We caught the flight from Basel at 9.45p.m. reached Stanstead airport at 1015, took a train to Cambridge and arrived home at exactly mid night. Boy, were we glad to be home.

Thun city

Beat was kind to arrange for a night stay with one of his friends – old time church mate who stays at Thun, a city 30 mins from langnau.

Chris and Lilian have a 22mths old daughter, Lizie. She is absolutely adorable, a girl full of smiles. Chris is Swiss and Lilian, a Brazilian, how cool is that?

That night, we had another swiss meal, bbq chicken with melted cheese and pineapple, salad and potatoes. We had visitors for dinner, a lady and her 15 yrs old daughter. We talked much about our small city and they were amazed just how small a country can be. We looked around us and found that there were more than 5 languages spoken at the table – Portuguese, Spanish, German, Italian, French, Chinese, and of course, English – the common language amongst us.

It was special night. Thun had a match against Zurich. Everyone said Thun would lose, but the outcome, they won, 2 to 1. We had the privilege of having one of Thun soccer players for dinner, he came after his match. He was half Italian and Brazilian, which explains why he is a friend to this family.

Next morning after breakfast, we braved the cold and walked 40 mins to Lake Thun. I nearly gave up half way, my fingers were frozen although they were tuck in the jackets. Nathan was hibernating in his pram throughout the journey. I thought it was not spectacular but it was the fact that my brains could also be numb from the cold, couldn’t think much of the view – a pity.

Evening came, we bid goodbye to our new friends and travelled to Bern.

24 hr farm stay in Langnau

Third day in Switzerland. Took a train from Basel to Langnau and arrived at 12 noon.

Beat and Ann are nice to host us for one night stay at their farm house, or rather, beat’s family’s. Beat came with Naomi to pick us up from the train station, and drove us to their place, up, up, up in the mountains. On our left and right was snow. It was a glorious sight, and that was probably my closest encounter with snow in this trip.

They keep cows and pigs, grow berries and apple trees, carrots and some other crops. I lost count of the number of cats and just one half blind and half deaf dog, who always sat at the door.

We brought sunshine to Langnau that day we arrived. You could see from the pictures that the sky was clear blue, not a single cloud. Somehow the pictures turned out splendid because of mr sun. While Nathan had his noon nap, we strolled around the farm and snapped. Every corner is worth a shot.

The departure lunch was our first authentic swiss meal – much loved fondue. I had forgotten how nice it tasted, since 5 yrs ago when we had it at Interlaken in summer. I still remembered we had to scout around for a restaurant which would serve us fondue, cos nobody eats it in summer. In winter, it’s perfect.

The most amazing thing about this place was, everything is home made. Talk about home-made products at commercial stores, the milk and juice we had, even the vegetables were home grown, no sugar added nor preservatives. Nathan had his first taste of cow’s milk, yes, straight from the cows. All we need to do was to bring the milk to a boil, then down his tummy, he loved it.

Nothing beats spending time with friends in a trip. Switzerland is a beautiful country, very clean and neat, and filled with the wonders of nature – high mountains, rivers and lakes. We were glad we made it.

Switzerland – To go or not to go

Monday night, we had a Singaporean family over for dinner. I prepared asian gourmet chicken curry mix and fried some veg. For dessert, we had bailey ice cream cheese cake. They stayed till past 10.30p.m. We had a good time.

But, Chong started complaining that his tummy hurts, and he was feeling cold, his teeth were practically chattering. I didn’t think much of it. I washed up the dishes, and was too beat, laid my head down to rest and knocked out in seconds.

Poor chong chong, he ran a fever, vomited and had diahorea a couple of times during the night. When we awoke the next morning, Tuesday, he was down the entire day, ate very little, swallowed panadol and charcoal tablets, and slept.

He didn’t quite recover after all the rest. Until Wed 12 noon, we were still contemplating if we should make the trip. Then, he decided, he should be gamed enough to leave. So, I started packing. Never in my life did I had such a mad rush to pack for a holiday! An hour later, the cab came to drive us to the train station. We had a plane to catch from Stanstead airport at 5p.m.

We managed. We reached Basel, Switzerland that evening, walked 10mins to YMCA hostel where we stayed for 2 nights.

We were glad we made it, visited 4 cities in 7 days.

Stock check – 20mths (24.12.07)

Well, not exactly ‘stock’, but just jotting down what dear Nathan can do at this stage of his life.

Motor skills
Wheel a car on the floor
Kick and throw a ball
Climb up and down stairs with one hand held
Stack blocks
Screw a bottle cap on and off
Shake his head left and right
RUN

Follow these instructions:
Story time ( pick up a book from the shelf and bring it to me)
Keep toys
Pass the ball
Look for his ‘duckies’ before bath time
Switch on the light
Follow the direction of finger pointing and pick up something
Do ‘cute cute’ – point his index finger at his cheeks. (got this idea from a friend)
Give mummie a hug
Kiss mummie (put his cheek next to mine, as if asking me to kiss instead)
Come
Wave bye bye

Habits
Bring his shoes to me to wear before going out
Drink water in between feeds during a meal
Eat a pear a day at tea time
Drink 350ml of milk upon waking and before bedtime
Eat cheerios and raisins on his high chair when mum and dad have their dinners (he’s been fed)

Words understood
Cartoon (bang on the tv screen)
Book (story time)
Pray (cup his hands together)
kiss

Point to body parts when asked
Nose
Eye
Ears
Mouth
Hair

Words he can say
Duck
Ball
Dog
Dada (intentionally means daddie)

Pot luck lunch

Last Saturday, we held a pot luck lunch party at our place. We invited the families whom I have bs with every Thursday mornings. We were expecting a total of 7 families, which means at least 14 adults, and about 10 children as a couple of them have two children. The turn out was 10 adults and 5 children, a very good size.

I prepared sausages on skews, there was Korean salad noodles, bbq chicken thighs, French quiche, sushi, American creamy salad and English green salad. The spread was nice.

Our current apartment is about the same size at back home, so you can imagine the ‘squeeze’, especially with two 6 yrs boys running and kicking balls around. Nathan was fast asleep, his usual nap at noon, he was awake to bid good bye to our friends.

We have been studying the bible together for almost two months, and now we will break until jan when everyone returns from their homes.

His own game

Natha still loves throwing, and the cute part about this is, when ever he does that, he seems to really enjoy it, so it is hard to discipline him on that matter. That is our problem. So, we try to teach him to differentiate between the items, balls and some toys you may throw, but not books and other larger wooden blocks which can hurt others, not sure about this, then again, he may be confused by the instructions. We just got to play by ear now, any clue about this?

daddie was making some 'funny' noises while nathan boy grins happily at him. These days, we don;t have to do very much to get his most charming smiles, when he's in a good mood, anything you do will work. And when they do smile, don't they just warm your heart?

Wk end Away

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/carisbay/WeekendAway30nov2dec

Last weekend, we joined a group of graduate Christian students to Suffolk, 1.5 hr drive north from Cambridge. Needless to say, Nathan was the only child amongst 30 people. We saw some goats, a lonely horse, all by himself, and lots and lots of guinea pigs... no pics of them. sob

It was nothing spectacular, I had zero expectation. The reason we were there, Chong had fond memories of these wk end retreats when he was an undergrad at LSE, so he persuaded me that it would be nice.

We were in a huge villa with many rooms. 30 international students lived, ate, played games and sang together. There was only one Sunday morning talk, the rest of the time was entirely free and easy. Sat afternoon, we drove to a seaside small town, the coast was raging with very strong winds, reminds me of Peter in his boat when he met Jesus, such faith - he wanted to walk on the waters… not me.

Surprisingly, there were 3 other Singaporeans, all girls, including the president and Vp of the graduate union, both doctors, finishing up next yr. What does this tell you, well, the Singaporeans are the enthusiastic lot, aren’t we?

The talk left me with a challenge, to allow God to use me, whatever I have to his glory and for his gospel sake. To me, that bit was worth the going.

2nd christmas party

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/carisbay/ChristmasParty


Friday, 30th Nov, we had a Christmas party at the University Centre. This is the Friday play group we go to every week.

In case you’re wondering why we r having so many parties so early in the month, well, most of these students will actually return home when term ends, last day of school is the 30th Nov.
I didn’t take many shots of the surroundings, deco was simple, I took Nathan involved in his usual favourite activities, like the kitchen top, slide, and push cart, these are the 3 things he would look out for each Friday at the play group. There’s another picture of 4 kids on a red riding horse, two of whom, the Korean boy and white Belgium girl’s mums are in the same bs group as me. We have become good friends now. It’s a pity Nathan can’t sit in with them, he’s too young to balance himself.

1st women evangelistic nite

This was organized by the Thurs morning mums BS group I go to weekly. We thought it would be timely to invite our friends since Christmas’s around the corner.

Only 10 of us, all mums, our babes were left at home with dads, how nice to have a night out with my friends without Nathan, for the first time. We made chocolates together!

Thereafter, an American lady gave a short explanation about Christmas – basically, the reason for the birth of Christ to the earth, and what he had to go through so that all men could have the chance to be saved. It was short and sweet.

The party ended around 10p.m. when I got home, Nathan was still sound asleep.

1st Christmas party

This afternoon was our very first Christmas party in Cambridge. There was a puppet show, and some singing, ended off with some fairies who distributed little gifts to the children.

I must say the only thing Nathan enjoyed was chewing on a balloon. He found the puppets too scary, I agree with him, they were low quality hand made puppets, definitely amateurs. The room was too dim, and the crowd was rowdy with too many ‘bigger’ kids, and only a handful of small lovely ones like him.

It was not only unpleasant for him, also for us. I met some friends there, had some good chats, but was having Nathan on me much of the time, it was darn tiring. We left shortly after an hour.

7 to 7

I used to think that having Nathan sleep by 7 at night is an impossible task, but not so these days. I’ve heard from some friends back home that they start training their kids to sleep through the night as young as 3 months old, I couldn’t believe my ears then, even remembered borrowing Gina Ford, the famous author of a parenting book who advocates good feeding schedules as well as sleep hours, but still, I wasn’t able to carry out as planned.
Since we arrived in UK, esp after we have settled down in Cambridge, Nathan has been sleeping well, minus those days when he was coughing hell. This past week in particular, after he totally recovered from cough, he has been sleeping by 7 and through the night without waking up at all. That is incredible for us, who have never experienced such quietness in the nights for as long as we can remember

Good Apetite

Nathan have had very good appetite for a good long week now, started the sat ago. Usually, I had to have his favourite cartoon switched on and he finished his meal, now, I don’t even have to do that, he would obediently stand right next to the table, and finish his meal, to the very last mouthful, his portion now, one and a half rice bowl of porridge, mixed with meat and veg, and marmite, can’t do without it, a good substitute for soy sauce.

I thank God that I don’t have to worry about him eating or not eating, he eats most things, , a cup of yogurt with rolled oats for breakfast, one banana at lunch and milk, then porridge for dinner. I try to put in different types of meat and veg over a week he has a good intake of different types of food.

Perhaps it’s the cold weather that contributed to his good appetite, cos both chong and I couldn’t help eating more each day too.

First word

I’m not sure if that was his first word, but it was the very first time he intentionally called something – duck!

See, we walk that same route every other day to the supermarket or to the city centre, and to the play groups, and we see ducks along the way – either swimming or sleeping, making a lot of noise. We fed them once, and Nathan adores them. Then came that day when he pointed at the ducks and said ‘uck’.

One friend commented that Nathan actually spoke ‘hokkien’ before English or Chinese, strangely, neither of his parents r hokkiens.

Another day, he did the same for ‘dog’, dropping the‘d’ at the front again.

Sadly, he hasn’t called me ‘mama’ yet, often calls ‘dada’, for everything, not just for daddie, so that gave me a little comfort, well, even if he does calls daddie first, no big deal la

Laugh laugh laugh

See Nathan laughs.

He is a happy chap, well most of the time, unless he is sick, sleepy or hungry, otherwise when he plays with dad or mum, he laughs pretty often, especially these days when he is older and gained more awareness, he seemed to know that we are amusing him, and he would entertain us by agreeing to laugh along as well. Fill our hearts with great joy to see a happy kid.

Raisin time

Nathan loves raisins. When he is upset about anything, offering him raisins always solve the problem. But we have to watch him carefully, sometimes he stuffs too many little black things at one go, he has his whole mouth full of them, he can choke. Yes, he won't choke on one little raisin, but he can if he has 10 and more in his mouth.

Munching on Biscuit

See Nathan munching on the big round biscuit happily, not willing to share it at all man ..

Playing with leaf

Autum is a lovely time of the yr in cambridge where you see piles of fallen leaves everywhere, and next to our estate, we have many trees at the playground, and many rows of wonderful colourful trees, in bright orange, yellow, red and, green.

Most of these trees are maple trees, and they have a nice shape, christmas liked, nathan and i had a nice time picking the dried ones and brought them home to dry. I piled them up and pressed in a thick book, they are pretty now, ready for me to make cards for christmas!

Tea with friends

This week is nice. I’m supposing a newbie, but I took the initiative to invite ‘trusted’ friends over to my place for tea, one South African lady with her 18 month old daughter, Sophie, on Monday, and a Korean lady with her 28 mth old son on Tues.

Nathan played better with Sophie, cos they are similar in many ways, like hair pulling, and touching faces, shout when they don’t get things their way, and of course, physically, they are quite the same, though Sophie is younger and taller, she has the tall genes. It was nice seeing them ‘play’ with each other, most of the time, we had to stop them from hurting the other.

The mums of course had a nice time, haven’t drank so much tea in my life until I came here, everywhere you visit, someone will serve tea, it’s almost second nature to them, the English probably drink tea more than water, really.

Sparkler Party

Guyfolkes Day fell on Monday night. It was a night when the whole of England gathered together in many different places to display fireworks. And the story behind, one man, day named after him, attempted to set the queen on fire, but he failed. So, people these days celebrate the living queen by putting up fireworks.

The kids and their families had a slightly smaller party – the sparkler party, where they held on to sparklers which give out sparks. Nathan was not directly involved, he was in my arms, for fear that the sparks got to him.

The party was held at an English lady’s house, many internationals were invited. Met an au pair from Poland, she’s only 25, a really nice girl, she takes care of two British kids. Au pair is an equivalent term for nannies back home. They stay in the homes, free food and accommodation, plus pay, something like a maid, except that they only take care and charge of the children, and nothing else, no housework! Good job ya?

Daddie's shoes

Nathan loves imitating now, seeing him trying on new shoes - that's daddie's home shoes ... funny ya?

Makes us more careful too, that he is observing us every minute...

Walk to Grantchester

It was a bright sunny morning, Chong said we should walk to GrantChester. This place is one that the Locals raved about, a nice walk along the river, green pastures, colourful trees, cows grazing on the fields and occasional breeze all make the walk a lovelier one.

This place is often talked about for two reasons, where famous writers frequent to get their creative ideas for stories, like Virgina Wolf and EM Foster, and the famous scientist, Isaac Newton, discovered the idea of gravity while he was eating an apple under an apple tree.

We had scones, very large ones, and tea. The sun made all the difference to our visit. We were very lucky to have blazing sunshine in our face at the beginning of winter, indeed a rare sight. Thank God for that.

Women Bible Study

I am amazed myself that I could be acquainted to a bible study group so soon. Thanks to this Korean lady friend I’ve made at STAG church. She started the international BS for all newcomers to STAG this sept. Our leader is Brit, she has two sons, and they have just came to Cambridge two months ago from Kenya. One lady from Hong kong, but she’s lived abroad for more than 10 yrs, she has a son, 2 yrs old. One American lady from Michigan, married for 3 yrs, no kid yet. Two Korean ladies, and one Belgium lady, their children are around 3 yrs old.

Our first session was sharing of testimonies, and how we came to know Christ. It was a heart warming time, the last time I did that was at a mission trip. How often are you asked about your conversion story? This is one good way to start. We’ll be studying Luke 9-12 this term, looking forward to it.

Visit at the clinic

This afternoon, I brought Nathan for his vaccination. We are thankful that all vaccines for him are free, including check ups. It was administered by a practice nurse, but she is very knowledgeable, gave me information about what different vaccines do for Nathan, certainly helps me to make more informed decision in future. Should have waited to come here for his pneumococcal jabs, paid $300 back home, here, absolutely FREE.

Nathan at the swing

http://picasaweb.google.com/carisbay/SmilesAtSwing

Nathan loves going on the swing. You can see it for yourself, all the smiles while he was on the swing - my boy, the wind in his face, mummie pushing him, and making funny noises, he absolutely adores it. I enjoy bringing him to the playground, though we can't go very often these days as the weather is fast turning cold earlier everyday. The best time to get out of the house is at noon, but that's also nathan's nap time, so i usually only bring him out after his nap about 2. Today's a great day to be out in the sun, but it is still very cold.

Mum's Inventions

It was not difficult at all, ideas came about due to boredom, and lots of recyclable materials, like packet milk and bottle caps, boxes of cereals and some straws.

I started to notice that Nathan is fond of bottle caps. He managed to screw and unscrew them from the bottles, and other containers, then I thought, how about making a ‘piggy bank’? So I used an used tea box, cut a circle, and have him put the caps through the hole. He succeed without any difficulty, and soon grew to love this new game.

I moved on to making a smaller hole using colgate box, I wanted something longer so he could put straws in. I cut the straws up into three parts, so its more manageable for his little hands. And again, he did it, and had fun.

The cool thing about this age is, once they get acquainted with a game, it tends to occupy him for a good amount of time. I should start recycling more things now in view of the limitless activities you can use them for.

Nathan@18months

Nathan turned 18 months this month. What has changed? Today at Sunday service play group, he got into a lot of trouble pulling people’s hair, scratching faces and hitting heads, got a few parents upset with his violent behaviour.

He picked up some new skills, like stacking according to sizes, finally, throwing balls in a given direction, do fly kiss. What surprised me was picking up a book I ordered. He got it right quite a couple of times. I would say, ‘ Nathan, bring mummie ________ (title of book), and he would go to the shelf and picked the correct one up. I don’t know how he recognised it, but he just did it. I’m definitely looking forward to discovering more about him everyday. This phase is not to be missed.

A Very nice Singaporean lady

Two Sundays ago, I was introduced to another fellow Singaporean family. They have two girls, age 5 and 7. Her husband is doing a PHD in theology and she stays home and runs a toy library in Cambridge for the past 3 yrs. Unfortunately, our friendship is short-lived, she was going to leave for Singapore very soon, in fact, as I am typing, she is catching a flight Monday noon.

She was such a great help. Being an experienced mum, she shared several tips about bringing a kid around Cam, where to shop for groceries and other kid friendly places to hang out. Sat evening, she came over with 4 large bags of dried food for me, some pre mixed and sauces. Then on sun, she passed me her well used wok and big rice cooker! She even wrote down her all time favourite recipe for play dough, which I will try it out with Nathan very soon.

Thank God for allowing our paths to meet here in Cambridge, I wish she could be here during my one yr stay, but I have to be grateful that we actually had the chance to meet. Perhaps God has other plans for me with some other persons … I guess.

Internationals

I have never met so many internationals in a single month in my entire life. Cambridge is unique in that aspect – a university town, made up of mostly students, and their families, or teachers, and those who work are in one way or the other related to uni affairs like admin, or serving the community like the markets and shops.

In just 2 playgroups that I go to each week, I have met Belgians, Germans, Mainland Chinese, Koreans (lots of them), Africans, Japanese, Turkish, Chileans, Irish, Iranians, Indians, Scottish, Italians, French and of course, the English. Wow, just how many nationalities are there? And these are the ones I’ve spoken to, quite a bit, know them by names and some, even dined at the table at least once.

Makes you realize how small the world is. If we really take the time and effort, we can learn from one another the diverse cultures and historical backgrounds, there is a lot to talk about. I’m so looking forward to it, should I start a travel log then?

Prisoner of Christ

From today’s morning women devotion, I learnt something about being a prisoner. Isn’t it a negative connotation? Not to Paul. He regards himself as a prisoner of Christ, for the sake of the gospel for the gentiles, he chose to become one, and he is not ashamed nor despaired about his choice. How many times I’ve been prisoner of my own confining responsibilities at home, and have I spared a thought for the gospel? I should looking out. There is a great opportunity where I am now, in the playgroup, where mums and their babies meet every week, there is no strict agenda for conversation, but I can make up one on my own – sharing Christ! I pray that God give me the boldness to do so.

Charity Shops

One thing Cambridge does well in is the charity shops. There are a total of 8 shops here. Chong and I have been patronizing them almost every other weekend. Got a number of good quality stuff from there, like sweaters for Nathan for as low as 20 pence a piece, board games, we’ve got battle ship, chong taught me how to play it, a rather brain free game that relies a sheer luck. And Otello.

My favourite purchase so far was a sling leather bag for 4.99 pounds, branded from Ecco. I’ve been looking at those from Accessorize and Top shops, they r all over priced, I’m so happy with myself that I waited for one good buy at charity shop, and I finally got it today.

I’ve been looking out for story books for Nathan too, they r good and well kept. Bought some toys for him too, a stack of plastic cups, and number cards, and my favourite, colourful buttons with treading string! Sometimes I wonder I bought the toys for him or me, cos I seem to enjoy them more than him?

Visit from Joy

This week is a little more exciting due to a visit from Joy. She arrived at Cambridge on Monday morning, and stayed with us till Thursday morning. First day lunch, we met Linette at Eat Café. We had sandwiches outdoors. Then we went to the charity shops along Burleigh St.

Second day, we did the tourist thingy again, visiting the colleges. I flashed my spouse Uni card to get in for free. Felt quite proud of myself, being able to walk the roads all by myself with Joy, without Chong around, he was at school. We ended at Castle street then back strack to Sainsbury, and home for dinner.

We had a lot of time chatting, playing games, having coffee, and basically, spending time together. It was nice.

More pictures at home!

These are taken as wished by my brother. Some interesting shots of Nathan during his bath time, still one of his favourite activities at home, besides throwing and kicking the balls. He enjoys stacking things too, so we chanced upon these colourful cup set and bought it or him, he had a good time stacking them according to sizes.

As seen in the pics, we have a fairly long corridor, Nathan loves running up and down, sometimes kicking his ball along. We have two bed rooms, one where all three of us sleep in, the other’s a guest room with a single bed, a large toilet, only Nathan bathes in the bath tub, and a good size kitchen separated from the dining hall. We have many windows in this house, perfect for ventilation and letting the sun gets through, but it can get really cold at night, even with the heating on.

Perhaps Nathan looks a little puffy in some of the pictures cos of his clothes, if you look closely, he has not put on much more weight recently, just grown taller definitely. Started him on cow’s milk two days ago, and he seems to take it quite well, but fresh milk also makes his bowels more fluid and thereby needs changes more frequently as well, which is not enjoyable for both Chong and I.

Past two nights were horrid cos he woke up in the middle of the night wanting to play. He was active. But thankfully, he could go on talking and tossing on his own without much participation from either of us, but I had to keep awake to make sure he stays out of danger, like rolling off the bed. I am just wondering why he started this habit of waking up before sun rise? I hope this is not a new pattern, imagine the winter’s coming, and there’ll b no sun till late … o boy.

We visited another church this morning, after the service, we reckon that we would stay with the first, nearer to home, and generally friendlier environment.

Lunch at St Edmund’s College

Chong insists that we should try lunching at different colleges, to see what other colleges are like, but really, it’s the cheap meals he’s after. A good course meal costs less than 3 pounds, a much better deal than cold sandwiches from Sainsbury or M & S, plus, free drinking water too. We’ve been to 2 other colleges for meals, - Hughes Hall (Chong’s college) and Wolfson College (a Singaporean friend). Both served reasonable food but not this one today.

Chong’s course mate, an Italian brought us there. The meal was horrid. The rice Chong bought me was practically uncooked, with some miserable portion of minced beef sauce. Chong volunteered to exchange his with mine, not much better, I ate it up anyway, cos everyone else on the table did, though no one really enjoyed the meal, we cleaned the plates.

The fellowship was better, the largest group of whites we came in contact with thus far. A French student doc in his 5th yr, another Italian undergrad and a German girl. But we’re probably not going to see this bunch of people very much more. Some more acquaintances , eh?

Home

Some pictures taken at home. Nathan is still ‘stuck’ to ‘wheels on he bus’. And we often make use of this opportunity to cook, clean the house, or sometimes when friends are over, he is occupied for a good half an hour.

Does he look fat in the pictures, and with his rosy cheeks, his uncle commented that he looks like a ‘china’ boy now, or ‘jap’? We’ve got a weighing scale, but hasn’t given us any accurate readings so far unfortunately, all of three of us seems to be losing weight, which is so utterly untrue. Our meal portions have doubled, and we o nothing but walk a few minutes a day, rather unhealthy life style here so far, Oh, chong managed to steal some time to jog this afternoon, I can’t imagine myself doing any of that outdoor activity, in the cold freezing wind, gosh, no way!

Colleges

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We finally did the touristie thingy in Cambridge since settling here for 3 weeks. We visited the more popular colleges in our vicinity, like Kings', Trinity, and st Johns. Thanks to being student at cam, we didn;t have to pay a cent to get in, else, as tourists, you pay quite a sum. Not spectacular, but rather majestic some of these old buildings. and each one of them as a story of its own.

Neighbourhood

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I particularly love the walk in the neighbourhood. In fact, I bring Nathan out everyday along the same path. We see cows munching on the grass, and ducks swimming in the river, a very pleasant site. I tell people that I don't have to identify these animals on children books cos now, I could point them out to him from a distance.

We love the fresh air, and nature ever more since we came. And we thank God for that priviledge.

New friends at Play group

Last wed was my first time to the playgroup at STAG (St Andrew the Great) church located right in the middle of city centre. We were there roughly around 10 a.m. There were many parents and children there, almost the size of a childcare centre. Nathan was rather sticky, perhaps he was cautious of the overwhelming crowd. There were many types of games too, from wooden jigsaw blocks to big wheeled vehicles and plastic toys. Nathan liked the trampoline most. He doesn’t know how to jump yet, he just squats on it and bounces off. Cute guy.

I met a Korean lady, Sue. She seems to have a wide network, and wanted to introduce me to some Singaporeans worshipping at STAG. We chatted for a long while, asking about bible study groups and possibly women group. If we were to stick to this church, we could get into a community life pretty soon, but we still wish to look around for other possibilities.

Finally met a true blue English lady at fri playgroup. Well, there are many whites in Cam, but haven’t met many English ladies. This one is nice. She looks very young to have 3 kids. We chatted a little, didn’t seem to have any problems communicating. I think the reason why some say about the stiff upper lip, it’s more like the fear of being misunderstood. I didn’t put on any special slang, just the usual Singaporean English, no singlish of course, and people understand me perfectly. This helps cos it gives me the confidence to get around., esp alone with Nathan.

So far, I have met and been introduced to many faces in Cam, mostly mums, or dads, yet no ‘real’ friends, the kind that you could safely invite to your place for tea and cakes? Everyone at the playgroups seem to have plans after, no one initiates for anything else, should I?

Weekend

It was a busy weekend for us, also a very good one. We had two great feasts over sat dinner and Sunday lunch. Calvin and Vicky, ex church members from home have been in Cam for two yrs, and they invited us to their place at Cherry Hinton, a 10mins bus ride away. We had dinner there, some dishes with rice. I particularly like the baked chicken prepared by Calvin. Definitely motivated me to make one for myself. Wah Onn, Shu En’s dad came to visit her over the weekend too, and he was there with Shu En and Linette. It was a fair night of eating and chatting. Feels like having an ARPC dg gathering, just not in Singapore.

Lunch was at our place, the same bunch of people, plus Grabriel, a young chap from the same hall as Chong, a Christian brother, a nice guy whom we are attempting to match mate him to one of the girls. We had steam boat! Yum yum, think everyone enjoyed the meal.

Weekends are made nicer with gatherings of friends over sometimes, rather than the usual shopping at market sq or patronizing the charity shops, to get more, well, jackets for Nathan. Shopping at the second hand shops can get quite additive, you may end up buying things you don’t really need. But we’re still looking out for a scrabble game set …

Cottage Stay @ East Sussex Oct 5-7

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Joelle and Luigi invited us to a cottage stay last weekend (Oct 5-7). It was a lovely place. A big old fully furnished house with 3 bedrooms. Her closer friends were there.

There was nothing very much to do in the small village. But it was truly the company that mattered. We did what we would do when we were teenagers like playing card games, scrabble, and my favourite, gramble. The guys introduced us to drinking games called the pyramid thingy, I was spared. I chose to distribute the cards instead, which clearly was an easier job.

The better part was meal time. There was always a lot of food on the table. 9 of us gathered round for breakfast, lunch and dinner, including Nathan, there would be laughters and lotsa of smiles. We even had an afternoon of bbq lunch, which turned up splendid. The weather was perfect for a wk end out. We found badminton rackets and net, and some metal balls, the outdoor games bonded us further. There’s something about team work and games that bring even the most unliked people together. We love it.

Thank you Joelle and Luigi for driving us to and fro Cambridge to the cottage, and taking such good care of us, and for loving Nathan the best you could.

Visits with Friends Oct 3-4

Thanks to Joelle and Luigi, they practically emptied their old flat and brought everything to fill up our cabinets. Much of it was kitchen stuff, but they even brought along their quilt and cover, comfy pillows, inflatable bed and my favourite, bath robes!! Really helpful during cold days when you want to wrap yourself up immediately after a hot bath. Boy, they must have worked doubly hard past week having to move out of their flat and pack for us… thank you so very much, friends!

Our first stop with the car was Tesco Extra at Bar Hill, outside Cambridge, some 20 mins drive away. It was a gigantic double storey supermarket, about 4 times the size of Carefour at Suntec city. Yes, I am not exaggerating at all. Amazing the amount of things you can find there. We filled our trolley to the brim, thanks to Joelle’s advice, buying our next month’s supplies – can food, sauces, frozen packs, diapers and wipes, and a big tub of jasmine rice grains, she nearly persuaded me to get two of those. I enjoyed myself so much shopping for groceries.

Next day, we visited it again, got our universal rain cover.

We didn’t go many other places around Cambridge, there wasn’t much to see beyond anyway. We went to Wicked Fence (reservoir and nature reserve) and Grandcester. Both were roughly similar, large greeneries with cows grazing on the fields, nice stream of water running through the grasslands. I thought Nathan had most fun roaming the big open fields, we were his good company, watching out for him to make sure he did not fall into one of those large cow dung.

Lake District Sept 13-17

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Chong been here once, and he claimed it is not a place to be missed in England. Well, after a 5 day stay here, I believed much of it.

Once again, the weather made all the difference. Back home, everyday is the same. You can either have sun, or sun with rain. Somehow, you don’t appreciate the sunshine much cos you have it all the time. Not so in England. People talk about the weather all the time. I really mean ALL THE TIME, cos you make your decisions based on it, a lot.


Orrest Trail

Just 10 mins walk from our B&B, another 30mins to walk all the way up. The trail was buggy-friendly, we could almost push it all the way up except for the highest peak where we had to carry Nathan and the pram separately. But Nat didn’t give us a chance to carry him in our arms, he insisted on walking all on his own two tiny feet. There were difficult terrains, but we congratulated him on his determination to succeed. The walk was made more trying with occasional strong winds. But when we reached the top, the view was breathtaking. We could only sit there to enjoy for alittle while, cos the wind and rain came shortly after. We had to walk down quite hurriedly. Thank God, we made it.

We had a nice encounter with a donkey along the way. It looked lonely and seemed to want some play mates. It actually followed us some metres before he turned and left. I was a little afraid that it might knock down the fence and come straight out at us. But a donkey is really very harmless.



Beatrix Porter house at Hill top

This wasn’t a track at all. We took a boat ride across a lake, then waited for the local bus to take us up there. We attempted to make the climb, but it was beyond us. If we had brought a carrier with us, it might still be possible, but not with the pram.

The house was nothing to ‘wow’ about, it was a cultural experience. It was known that there was where the famous author got all her inspiration for writing. We wanted to take in some creative juice from the tour.

Of course, I bought some souvenirs from the shop.

William WordsWorth grave

Sounds ridiculous, but there was only his grave to be found, not his house. Another famous writer of his time, I remembered studying some of his poems at University. He seemed to write on love and how it revolves with nature, like the wind, clouds and water, yes, lake district’s got many lakes around, the smallest one is bigger than any reservoir found back home.
There was a Ginger bread house. Bakes yummy ginger bread. The tourist guide book says that even getting into the bakery to smell the aroma is good enough.

Playground

I started the morning BAD. Just felt really moody. Partly becos it’s Saturday, and Chong had to go to the hall for a meeting at 10 and would only be back after 3pm. What a shame that I had to be home alone with Nat all the day again.

Then the day took a turn when the glorious sunshine appeared! I made up my mind I got to go out with Nathan to take in the sunshine since it’s shining on us so nicely. We got changed quickly, grabbed my wallet, and set off.

It was lovely.

Nathan was well behaved for that hour. I went to Sainsbury supermarket to buy fish and Cheerios, then to Super drug stall to buy a fresh tin of milk powder and more biscuits. I even went to the open market to get 4 more super sweet pears. Well, yes, all these purchases for my little boy. He loves to those pears, finished one a day by himself.

The sun was so good, we had to hang outdoors a little while more. After I off loaded the things at home, I carried him out to the playground just across the road from our place. It is the largest playground in Cambridge. How fortunate for us. There were a few other families there. Nathan loves it. The moment I put him down, he ran fast ahead of me. The best thing he loved about the park – the swing. I haven’t experienced this before, but today, he wouldn’t come off the swing. He resisted so bad. I felt bad about pulling him off it, but I knew it is time for his afternoon nap. He laid on the ground for a while and refused to budge. I had to pull him off by great force. The thing is, a few seconds later, he wouldn’t remember when went wrong. He is another happy boy once again.

Sept 10 Hyde Park

Another lovely morning. Bright sunshine greeted us. We met up with Joy at Hyde Park. After a sumptuous lunch at Four Seasons Duck restaurant, Nathan was up and running to the park. He loved chasing the fat pigeons, but whenever they took flight, he would be scared. Then he would try again. There were many swans and ducks and other kinds of birds, it was a lovely sight, watching them swim in the lake, others bending over the grass patches to feed. The sun makes all the difference, really. It would be no fun in the rain or cold.

We sat down to have our strawberries and muffins.

I think Nathan had the most fun running in the wide open green space. He always loved trees and greenery. With all the parks and green in England, I believe he’s going to have a fantastic time training his legs up for a good run.

13 hr Flight

We were given our bassinet. Nathan took to it rather well. Whenever he fell sound asleep on me, I would lay him down in it. But the occasional turbulences didn’t help at all. There was once when we were too tired and ignored the sign, an air stewardess had to walk over and warned us to pick our boy up. My reluctant bones just couldn’t agree. Half the journey, Nathan was sleeping on me. But we were very thankful that he wasn’t cranky at all, he was a well behave boy.

Sitting next to our role were four kids with their parents. They were English. And three of them, except the youngest toddler, were the most amazing kids I have met. They slept in their seats, woke up, ate their meals all by themselves, under the dad’s close supervision, and played quiet games, read books, drew on papers, just enough activities to keep themselves occupied the entire plane ride. The mum and dad cooperated so cohesively together, no arguments, great team work!

Our plane arrived 20 mins before schedule. We were the first flight to touch down that morning according to the customs officer, there was very little queue, and everything cleared out within half an hour. We heard horror stories about having to wait for hours at customs, but we escaped that. God knew better, ya?

Since we were so early, we sat and waited for Joelle and Luigi to pick us to their place. About an hour and a half later, they came. Joelle, in her bright yellow top and shoes, and Luigi, looking friendly. They helped us with our luggages and off we went, took the tube for another hour’s journey to Clampham South station.

Departure at Changi Airport

Reality hadn’t quite sunk in yet that we were leaving for UK for a year. The whole of Saturday was spent at home. Pagon came over for a visit to give Nat some snuggle socks, while I passed her our left over nappies, fruit and soya milk. Her visit was very timely indeed, else our supplies would have been wasted.

Mum was with her from the night before. In face, she stayed over most nights that last wk before we left. Dad came over to bring us salty duck soup with rice, my favourite dish, he probably thought that I would miss this very much in England, and then in the evening, he came to help us with our two huge suit cases. Without his help, Chong would probably had broken his back before we reached the airport.

The taxi ride was a terror, at least for Nathan. He practically screamed all the way. He wasn’t hungry or sleepy, it was the ride in the cab, the darkness and cramped seats perhaps. Once we hopped off from the cab, he was as good as normal.

Check in was no trouble. We didn’t know about the new ruling of max wt of each luggage must be kept within 32kg. So we had to off load from the larger bag and pack 4kg in a box they kindly provided for us. That was it, we were off to have our late dinner, at an Italian restaurant. I wasn’t hungry at all, too overworked for the day. Nathan had a short nap.

Chong’s sister’s family and mum came to send us off. Cindy and Woo with Emily Koh came too. What a very pleasant surprise good bye from them. They prayed for us, we needed that very much. Took some shots, and at approximately 10.00p.m, we gave our hugs and waved our final good bye and went in.