>>> Last Nite In Singapore! <<<

OMG! This is our last nite in Singapore. I can't believe it.... 6 weeks have flown by so quickly and we are leaving tomorrow. Gosh, why do all good things have to come to an end?

Anyway, we made the best by going on a looong walk, from Harbour Front to Hort Park. (Singapore Govt created this nature walk through forest and bridges. It's away from the traffic and that's great! Took us a good 4 hours to walk but we did it. Thankfully it was cloudy so the weather did help a great deal. It has been raining quite a bit this whole week and I'm glad we had a slight respite from it today. I'm surprised the boys walked and didn't moan a bit. In fact Zac was the most enthusiastic.

There are about 9 different parts to walk, each named and colour-coded. We completed them all.

We started with Marang Trail, which is literally uphill through flight of stairs. That was a killer!

This is the Henderson Wave walk, a bridge and absolutely awesome.

This is the HortPark walk which is also another bridge made of steel.

We finally ended up in Hort Centre, a large area of horticulture display which had a few playgrounds too. Very handy for the boys.

Hubby and I managed to sneak away at nite to go to Raffles Hotel Long Bar to savour Singapore Sling. We had been planning to go this week but it eluded us. So finally we managed today, thanks to my parents who bath and babysat the boys. (I'm sure as hell gonna miss their help when I go back. They readily babysat the boys when we went out, and quite often too.)

I think I seriously need to detox and diet when I get back to the UK. I look absolutely fat here! Eeks!

Thankfully I had packed up some stuff last nite, namely my scrapping stuff, boys' toys and food. All that is left are the clothes, 3 luggage and 50kg. I'm praying we can somehow managed to get them below 50kg. (Each person is allowed 20kg luggage and 7kg hand luggage allowance) I've not really bought heavy stuff this time around. We'll see..... TTFN!

>>> Happy Birthday Dad! <<<

It's my dad's 78th birthday and he's lucky that we are there to celebrate. Well, got him a cake the day before his birthday and celebrated it. The boys as usual were happy to help him blow the candles!

Bought the cake from Bangawan Solo, a fabulous cake shop selling nonya kueh (cakes). Sheesh, each time I pass their shop (and there have many around), I can't resist the durian puki! Wish they would consider setting one up in the UK. I would be a regular customer!

My dad with his grandsons! Didn't use my flash but didn't use a tripod either hence the slight blurriness! Oh well, won't stop me scrapping it either! Luv ya dad and wish you many more living years. Just wish I wasn't living that far from you!

We're off to Genting Highlands, Malaysia tomorrow and no doubt, we will celebrate his birthday again albeit a small slice of cake. Can't really carry a huge cake with us on a bus journey!

TTFN!

>>> Happy National Day! <<<

Singapore is 43 yrs old! Happy Birthday!

I was lucky to get my hands on 3 National Day Parade tickets. I went with my dad and Oliver. Oh mine but what can I say! The Parade was simply spectacular and it was certainly worth going. Nothing like feeling the excitement when you're there in person instead of watching it on TV. You simply cannot feel the excitement. Sure as hell made me proud to be a Sinaporean! I leave with some photos of the event...

Each of us were given a goodies bag that consisted of snacks and some useful items like ponchos which came in handy as it did drizzile for a while during the Parade!

Moi and Ollie

A sea of red and white as it's the national colours of the flag. We were asked to dress in red and it's great that people were sporting enough to do it!

Singing of the National Anthem.
I'm surprised that I could still remember the words seeing that it's in Malay and I've not sung it for years!

The Black Knights in action!

One of the performances!

The finale and the singing of the National Anthem including reciting the Pledge. Sheesh, I was so tearful at the end. It has been ages since I recited the Pledge!

TTFN!

>>> On Display! <<<

Since they are already out, here are a couple of LOs done for the Homegrown Summer Survival PDFs. Gosh the kit packs a lot and it's just fab!

Played with flock here.

I've actually used 5 patterned papers here. Basic Grey (x2), Scrapworks, Cosmo Cricket and Daisy D's.

So far, I've done 9 LOs with this kit including a mini album. And I still have tons left.

The Fall Survival kit is now available for purchase and it comes with a 6 week PDF to download when the programme starts. Shipping starts from 22nd Sept. Based on the kit contents, it's gonna be a whopper of a kit with tons of new goodies from the recent CHA. Looking forward to the kit! TTFN!

>>> News Update! <<<

Sheesh, I've been enjoying myself too much here to blog! And I won't make apologies for it. It's so good to chill out and just enjoy doing nothing. I've not cooked since I landed here and don't intend to until I return. Can't say I like cooking and it's good to have a break from it.

I attended the photography class by John Arifin and it was a blast! The class was conducted over 3 days, each 4 hrs long. The first day, I learnt about my camera thoroughly and was made aware of the 3 main ingredients that compose the photo. I found out what each did and how to look for it in the camera. It was an eye-opener! The second day was a field trip to the Botanical Gardens and I learnt even more features and played around with them. Mostly importantly the histogram which I now used it all the time to check photos that I've taken. The final day was an overall review. Gosh, the class was worth every penny spent and now I can thoroughly enjoy my camera and explore the settings with understanding instead of merely hoping for the best!

I also attended the Photoshop CS3 class which was aimed towards photography and it was an eye-opener too. Now all I need to get hold of the software... somehow!

So what have the boys and I been doing? Chilling out big time. The boys love swimming so we brought them to the pool quite often. Luv it that it's outdoor. I absolutely dislike indoor pool. There is an enormous playground in the kids pool itself so that occupy them a fair bit. Here are some snapshots of what we've been up to:

The playground in the pool itself. How fun is that! It's a wee bit empty during weekdays so we prefer bringing them during the weekdays. Weekends are a no no! Hate crowds and it's more expensive too!

My eldest have a splash!

Not forgetting their trip to McDo!

At the nearby park.

This was taken at a recent Garden exhibiton. I thought it look simply unique and could probably be used as a scrapbooking inspiration!

Moi with the boys and the new look! It's a wee bit reddish though! Gotta luv those orchids behind us. Fab flowers they are.

The boys absolutely luv riding on these electronic bikes. S$3 for 15 mins!

Just watched the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony! Wow! What a performance! No wonder they spent so much. I wonder how much London will be spending for the 2012 Olympics! No doubt taxpayers might have to foot the darn bill!

Talking about spectacular performance, I'll be going to watch the National Day Parade live! Whoopee! Talk about being lucky but my dad's friend couldn't make it and asked if we were interested. Of course, I jumped at the chance as it has been ages since I saw a live Parade and I'm proud to say that I took part in one before, in 1990 I believe. Gosh, it was an experience I will never forgot and such a proud moment too. My dad will be joining Oliver and moi. I wasn't too sure if Zac would appreciate the event and might just be a wee bit disruptive since I'll be taking tons of photos. I'm sure the attraction of his DS might dissuade him from coming with us. I understand it's now being performed on a floating platform in the Marina Bay. It used to be held in the old national stadium but the latter is no longer in use. Wow, I'll be so excited tomorrow!

Rite, off to sort out my memory stick... I've got tons of photos in there and need to clear them for tomorrow. Despite it being a 4GB stick, I've used up almost 3/4 already. Will update more tomorrow with photos. TTFN!