Six Months Down The Track...

It's been nearly 7 months since my last post (I almost feel like I'm in a confessional!)...the last time I wrote we had just returned from China, and had plans to be in Singapore for a long time. Now as I type, we are halfway through our final year here in Singapore - in another 6 months time we will be farewelling this wonderful city-state and heading off on our next adventure - to the Netherlands! We are very fortunate to have been offered what we see as an opportunity of a life-time - to live and work in Europe :-) We will be living in a town called Wassenaar and teaching at/attending the American School of the Hague (ASH). Lachlan and Caleb are excited about experiencing winter, spring and autumn, in contrast to the tropical heat we have here year-round...and they're also excited at the prospect of no school uniform!

Within a couple of hours of us telling the boys about our impending move they had already searched the internet and discovered that there are three Legolands and one Disneyland relatively nearby in Europe :-) There is much to plan and organise over the coming months but I love that challenge and am already immersing myself in real estate websites and Netherlands information. Very exciting!! It won't be easy to say goodbye to Singapore though - we have loved living here and we have many friends whom we will be sad to say goodbye to. Hopefully we will have lots of visitors in our new home...

Caleb is enjoying 2nd grade - he has a wonderful teacher, Trent Williams, who really 'gets' Caleb's quirky humour and outlook on life. He has a best friend, Joshua, and lots of other good friends, and enjoys every subject area - although he says RLA (Reading Language Arts) is his favorite. His cartooning skills are constantly being honed, and his version of doodling is to to draw little characters with funny speech bubbles on all his work (including his spelling tests!). It seems that Caleb has appointed himself as the class clown but, fortunately, even with his goofiness he is doing very well at school. He continues to learn the piano, has tennis lessons every Friday afternoon, and is passionate about all things dog-related. He has also become an enthusiast of our new Nintendo Wii (an unexpected, but much enjoyed, Xmas present!) and his boxing moves can be quite entertaining:

Lachlan is in 6th grade which, in our American School system is the first year of middle school. For the Aussie's reading this post, 6th grade here is very much like the first year of secondary school in Australia - a different teacher and room for each class, lockers for all belongings, and an expectation of organisation which has been Lachlan's biggest challenge so far! Having said that, he is doing very well in his subjects and has achieved mostly A's with a couple of B's for both the first and second quarters of the school year. He continues to learn the violin and actually has his first ever violin exam in a couple of weeks. I think I am more worried than he is - his laid-back approach to life means that the word stress rarely enters Lachlan's vocabulary! He is a sociable child who will greet anyone with a smile and a friendly conversation. Of the four of us, he will probably adjust to our new school and home the easiest as he loves to meet new people and approaches new situations with an ease that I envy :-)

Darrell is currently in the midst of preparing for a trip to India at the end of March. He is taking a group of strings students and together they will perform for, and with, the music students of Woodstock school where we taught in 1995. They will also get to do a bit of touring which will include the Taj Mahal so it is a very exciting trip to look forward to and one which he has been trying to organise for a couple of years. Two weeks ago he very successfully helped coordinate a major music festival (International Honor Orchestra) held at our school from February 4 - 7. In the past this festival has been held in other countries and Darrell has taken part as a teacher or conductor, but this year he was an integral part of the planning. It was a huge undertaking for which he was extremely organised and insightful. I was very proud of him - this was one of the biggest festivals of its kind with a total of 180+ students coming from around the world to participate in 3 days of tutorials, rehearsals, master classes and concerts with world-class teachers.

I continue to potter along, relishing my family of boys, enjoying my job as K-2 ESOL teacher, and soaking in the lifestyle that Singapore offers. In the Netherlands I will be teaching mainstream 1st grade which will be a change but one I am looking forward to. 1st graders are so quirky with their mouths full of loose or missing teeth and an enthusiasm for school that seems to diminish as kids get older!

I have become a fan of Facebook over the past 12 months and through it have been able to reconnect with many friends from the past. The itinerate lifestyle we have chosen sometimes makes it difficult to maintain contact with family & friends, but Facebook and emails help make that so much easier. If you are on Facebook and are not yet my 'friend' please let me know! How did we ever survive before the internet was created?!?

We had a wonderful break over Christmas catching up with our family in Australia. Darrell's family are all in the Newcastle area so we had a week, including Christmas Day, with his Mum, as well as his sister, brother and their families. We then moved on to Tuross Head on the NSW South Coast where my Mum and Dad have recently moved. 16 of us, including my parents, us, my sister + family and my brother + family all lived in the same house for a week - and survived to tell the tale!! It was a wonderful week - my boys got to spend loads of time with their cousins, and the adults all had plenty of time to just relax, hang out, and catch up. I also got to catch up with some of my cousins and their extended families so it was a very happy time :-) On our way back to Singapore from Australia we spent a week in Bali, one of our favorite holiday destinations. For the first time ever, we all got sick at the same time: 'Bali belly' hit us with a vengeance! Fortunately it only lasted a day or two with each of us but it made for a very quiet week with little adventure or touring.

During the past 6 months we have had three birthdays in our family: Caleb turned 8 in November, I turned 43 (yes, it is deliberately small so you can gloss right over the number!) in September, and Darrell turned 50 on January 21! I can officially now say that I am married to someone in their 50's - makes me feel SO much younger! Darrell didn't want a party or fanfare so we marked his big day quietly - he feels that his real present is our move to Europe:-)

Lachlan will turn 12 on March 10...and Darrell and I celebrated 19 years of marriage on January 1. We worked out that at the time of this particular anniversary we had spent exactly half our married life living in Australia and half of it living out of Australia :-)

That's it in a nutshell... I hope 2009 is shaping up to be a good one for you - keep in touch...

Beijing, China

We recently visited Beijing, China - we had a fantastic time and I have 1200+ photos to prove it!! We have returned to Singapore with a new appreciation of Chinese culture (and food!) and would gladly go back to spend more time there. Here's a 'snapshot' of our holiday...

Day 1: Saturday, July 12

We spent our first day simply travelling from Singapore to Beijing. It's only a 6-hour flight but by the time you add in waiting time at airports it becomes quite a long day. Fortunately the time zones are the same so we didn't have to cope with adjusting our body clocks. Lachlan & Caleb are great travellers - as long as they have some books and their Nintendos they are completely happy!

We were very impressed with Beijing airport - a new terminal has been opened fairly recently in time for the Olympics and it is very spacious, organised and modern.

We were met at the terminal by Xiaowei, our guide for the week (seen mid-picture next to Darrell, pulling our small green suitcase)...

...and after he dropped us at our hotel we ate, briefly explored the hotel surrounds and fell into bed in anticipation of an 8am start the following day.

Day 2: Sunday, July 13

Xiaowei wanted to get going early each day to try and avoid some of the Beijing traffic congestion, so we ate breakfast in our hotel room each morning - cereal and toast was our daily morning staple. But even the most basic thing can be surprising - after we cooked our first piece of toast we discovered that the hotel toaster cooked an image of a panda on every slice! I loved that feature and wanted to pack the toaster in my suitcase to bring home (I didn't however - probably would have set off all sorts of security alarms at the airport!).

At 8am Xiaowei met us with his car and we headed to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City where we spent the next 6 hours. Both places are enormous and very difficult to capture in a couple of photos - the sounds and throngs of people, coupled with the intense summer heat and lots of walking made it a very exhausting day for us all. It was fascinating, however - to be at such historical & political sites was quite sombering. Tiananmen square is an enormous open space but central to it is Chairman Mao's tomb which we duly queued up for and walked past. The boys found the queueing quite tedious but came out a little in awe that they'd seen a 'dead guy', as Caleb described Mao's body. It is perfectly preserved and on display in a glass case within the enormous structure seen below. Lachlan and Caleb both learnt a LOT about Chinese history and culture and absorbed more information than I expected.

We had hoped to fly kites in Tiananmen Square but as we were unrolling them in preparation for take-off we were stopped by security who informed us that some usual activities (like kite flying) were banned until after the Olympics...so we duly rolled them up again and headed to The Forbidden City.

The Forbidden City is right behind Tiananmen Square and was swarming with people but the immense size of it allowed us to not have to push and shove to get around. The buildings were magnificent and the detail in each and every structure was incredible.

As we were leaving The Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square I snapped this photo (below) of an enormous electronic Olympic countdown clock - proof that we were in Beijing exactly 26 days, 6 hours, 44 minutes and 37 seconds before the opening of the 2008 Olympic Games!

Olympic signs and paraphernalia are EVERYWHERE in Beijing right now - the Chinese are very proud and excited that they are this year's hosts. I was delighted to be in Beijing so close to the Olympics - I have always loved watching the Olympics on TV so to be this close to the upcoming action was very exciting for me!

By this stage we were ready for a break so we went and rested at the hotel for a couple of hours, ate dinner there, and then headed out again in the evening to a Kung Fu show. We all loved it - the show was very humourous and entertaining. The boys thought a very apt name had been chosen for the venue at which the King Fu show was held: 'Red Theatre'. No explanation needed :-)

Day 3: Monday, July 14
This was the day I had been most excited about - The Great Wall of China was our main destination of the day! We headed off at 7.30am and drove for about 2 hours through beautiful countryside before our first glimpse of the Great Wall came into view. After the intense heat and sunshine of the day before, the weather could not have been more different: grey and overcast with a light drizzle of rain. Initially I was a little disappointed with the rain as we were not able to get the typical views you see in travel books of endless mountains and winding Wall, and we look a bit wet and bedraggled in many of our photos. We were also unable to use the luge ride to get down from the mountain as the slippery conditions made it too dangerous - but the chair lift ride up and down proved to be wonderful (albeit a little scary for some of us!) and the boys loved it.

In hindsight the rain turned out to be a great blessing - the route we chose to walk was steep and quite a hard climb (at least for our poor underused muscles!) and the rain cooled us all down every step of the way. Because it was really only a drizzle it didn't prevent us from walking the entire stretch of Wall we had come to see, but it was enough rain that it kept other tourists away and we almost had the Wall to ourselves! It's so hard to choose the best photos to include as I took MANY...but here's a few:

For me, the Great Wall was a true highlight of the trip - I had so many 'favorite' experiences throughout the entire week, but the Great Wall was almost surreal, in a fantastic way... an unforgettable experience.

After a few hours at the Wall we had worked up an appetite so Xiaowei took us to the first of a number of local restaurants that we experienced during the week. I have to admit we were all a little apprehensive about experiencing 'local' cuisine as none of us are very adventuous eaters and Lachlan, in particular, is quite fussy. However, Xiaowei chose wonderful dishes for us to enjoy and we were quickly converted to 'real' Chinese food. Our sense of adventure really kicked in when Xiaowei told us that one of his favorite foods was donkey meat and encouraged us to at least try it. Caleb and I dutifully ate a bite and decided it was way too exotic for us but Darrell didn't mind it - and it ended up being one of Lachlan's favorite foods of the whole trip (see photo below)! Shame we can't get it here in Singapore ;-)

I have always loved using chopsticks, and Lachlan picked up the skill very quickly (that donkey meat works miracles!) but Caleb and Darrell needed a few chopstick lessons from Xiaowei before they could eat a decent amount of food without using their fingers!

After a walk on the Wall and a wonderful local meal we visited the famed Ming Tombs before heading back to Beijing. The tombs hold the bodies of many of the ancient Chinese Emperors and the boys were quite impressed with the amount of money that visitors leave for the deceased :-)

As we were leaving the tombs, Darrell found an impressive beetle in the carpark.

Not to be outdone by Lachlan's bravery with the donkey meat, Caleb agreed to hold the beetle on his arm - something he would have been reluctant to do in the past.

Throughout this entire trip both boys showed an adventurous spirit and a willingness to try new things - we were very proud of them.

We finished our day at the hotel restaurant - which became a favorite of the boys' since it had snooker and fuseball tables. It also had knives and forks :-)

Day 4: Tuesday, July 15
The Great Wall was going to be a hard act to follow but Xiaowei had another incredible day planned for us on Tuesday - we ended up being out for 12 hours straight and slept very well at the end of it. I managed to click off a photo of our hotel as we left it at 7.30am...our apartment was on the 16th floor at the back.

Our first stop was at the Beijing Zoo to meet our new favorite animal: the giant panda! They really are as adorable as they look in all the photos and we got there right at feeding time so they were active and happy. Caleb and I could have stayed and stared at the pandas all day!

What impressed us in particular was that a special enclosure had been recently completed to house the pandas who were rendered homeless during the recent devastating earthquake in China. Even the bamboo that they were eating had been brought especially from their particular province. All the pandas were healthy and playful and are certainly well-loved by the Chinese...and now us too! We did eventually move around and look at other exhibits - the Beijing Zoo is beautiful! - but the pandas stole our hearts.

From the Zoo we made our way to the Paleozoological Museum to check out the dinosaur skeletons. I had no idea that so many dinosaurs have been discovered in China - and Xiaowei was very proud to point out that many of those were discovered in the province that he and his family come from. All the boys (big and small) had a wonderful time - I was happy to just click off photos and smile graciously at all their excitement!

Lunch was another venture to a local restaurant - this one in the heart of the hutongs, the old-style housing which is rapidly - and unfortunately - disappearing in Beijing.

Not an English word in sight so we had to have faith that Xiaowei would order another wonderful meal - and we were not disappointed. Chopstick skills were honed to near perfection!

Darrell had hoped to buy an erhu (a Chinese stringed instrument) while in Beijing and Xiaowei made it happen! The boys and I happily waited in the car while Darrell made his purchase...we were tired but we were still only half-way through the day!

The ancient buddhist Lama's Temple was next on our agenda. It is a magnificent cluster of beautiful structures of which I took a zillion photos. Here's one!

At 5.30pm we were booked to watch a Chinese Acrobatic Show which is a popular form of entertainment in China. I wasn't allowed to take photos once the show started so this pre-show shot was the best I could manage...

It was heaps of fun and we all thoroughly enjoyed the amazing agility of the performers. Our final venture of the day was dinner. According to Xiaowei, 'peking duck' is a must-try experience for the traveller to Beijing so we dutifully followed him to a local restaurant at which he used to work and one which is apparently famed for its duck.

The menus actually had English AND pictures so Darrell was able to help Xiaowei order our meal :-)

I have to admit that Caleb and I ate our token mouthful of duck and left the rest for Xiaowei and Darrell - and Lachlan who, amazingly again, loved it! The rest of the meal was delicious so no-one went hungry :-)

Day 5: Wednesday, July 16

Our only planned outing for this day was to the Temple of Heaven. It is another site full of wonderful buildings and amazing historical significance.

But it is not just a tourist attraction - it is also an everyday place where people - retirees, mainly, from what we could see - come to spend their days playing card games, meditating, doing Taichi, dancing, singing and playing instruments, as well as many other leisure pursuits too numerous to mention.

The place was swarming with humanity but everyone was smiling and seemingly oblivious to us watching them and taking photos.

Someone has asked me, since we returned, whether all of this was staged for tourists but we don't believe so. If it was, it was VERY well disguised! We didn't see many western tourists there anyway - we were vastly outnumbered by locals. We absolutely LOVED the Temple of Heaven - another 'favorite' for the view it gave us of local people and their ability to congregate and socialise in a such a happy, relaxed manner.

We spent quite a few hours at the Temple of Heaven and after a fun rickshaw ride along the banks of a river and around the hutongs...

...we headed back to the hotel to pack for our next adventure - an overnight train ride to Xian, 11 hours away.

Beijing train station (below) has probably the most impressive facade for a station I have ever seen!

The Terracotta Warriors were on our list of 'must-sees' and they were in Xian so we decided to give the boys the opportunity to sleep on a train for the first time. They loved it!

Not unexpectedly, our cabin was tiny - 2 sets of narrow double bunks...

...no shower facilities and only a rather grubby communal toilet. But we were up for the challenge and we actually managed to get a reasonable amount of sleep.

Day 6: Thursday, July 17

The Terracotta Warriors were our sole reason for travelling to Xian and we were not disappointed. We spent nearly 5 hours there then headed back to Beijing by plane. We'd decided in advance to play it safe and only travel one-way by train, just in case it was not the fun experience we were hoping for!

All of us were fascinated by the Terracotta Warrior army but Lachlan's enduring interest in archeology over the years became very real as he saw a functioning 'dig' site...

...and all of us were enthralled by the detail in every warrior's armour and face. A truly amazing place... Again, I took a zillion photos :-)

The flight back to Beijing was uneventful and we fell asleep by 8.30pm exhausted and glad to be in real beds :-)

Day 7: Friday, July 18
By this time Xiaowei had picked up on my excitement about all things Olympic (!) so he drove us as close as he could get to the two most prominent Olympic stadiums: Beijing National Stadium (the 'Bird's Nest)...

...and the National Aquatics Centre (the 'Water Cube').

As we drove past the Aquatic Centre Lachlan noticed men rapelling down one section of the wall and it turned out that they were cleaning a portion of the many 'bubbles' on its surface.

Both buildings are impressive and I was excited to get so close to them! The remainder of our day was spent at the Summer Palace, a beautiful, spacious area which was the summer playground for the Emperor's of the past. Xiaowei's goal for this day was to finally launch the boy's kites (which he had bought as gifts for them) and he didn't let us down. They used this wonderful bridge as their launch pad...

I'm not sure who was more excited about the kite-flying: Xiaowei or the boys!

With Xiaowei's expert guidance both boys managed to get their kites soaring - it was a joyful way to finish our week.

The Summer Palace houses yet another magnificent array of buildings...

...which provided an amazing view over the gardens and back to the bridge from where the boys flew their kites.

Day 8: Saturday, July 19
Unfortunately our adventure had to come to an end eventually, and after a leisurely morning of packing we had to climb into Xiaowei's car one last time for our trip to the airport. What a fantastic guide Xiaowei proved to be - I cannot praise him highly enough!!

Visiting China was a real eye-opener for all of us and we returned to Singapore feeling much more appreciative of the Chinese culture we see here in Singapore on a daily basis. Beijing is a wonderful city and is well and truly ready to host the 2008 Olympics!