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.