Another one of Nigel’s creation. All he did is just to dot anywhere and anyhow on a piece of paper. Then he joined the dots… PRESTO! Can you spot a Scottish terrier and a cat? Nigel did that many times at home and most of the times, one can spot a dinosaur!
After travelling to five cities around the world, the world’s first Youth Olympic Flame arrived in Singapore today for a 6-day traditional torch relay run. The Youth Olympic Flame represents the Olympic values of Excellence, Friendship and Respect. 2,400 torchbearers (aged 11 to 82) will have the honour of carrying the flame around the island in the six-day torch relay. On the first day, the flame was carried through Toa Payoh, Braddell, Thomson, Bishan and Ang Mo Kio, passing through the scenic MacRitchie Reservoir along the way.
In the evening, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong will lit the cauldron with the Youth Olympic Flame at Nanyang Polytechnic.
Can you believe it! Nigel can sing two verses from ‘The Whole New World’ taken off the movie Aladdin when he had watched the DVD only twice or thrice. Every note he sings is right to the key. Here are the two verses…
I can show you the world
Shining, shimmering, splendid
Tell me, princess, now when did
You last let your heart decide?
I can open your eyes
Take you wonder by wonder
Over, sideways and under
On a magic carpet ride
A whole new world…
He saw the trailers before the start of Aladdin and told me there are sequels to Aladdin - not one but two!. Being an animation fan myself, I tried to find the DVDs in Singapore but to no avail. I went online and bought them from eBay. Nigel LOVES them. He asked me the titles of the two DVDs and I told him Aladdin II is also called ‘The Return of Jafar’ and Aladdin III aka ‘Aladdin and the King of Thieves’. He can remember ‘Return of Jafar’. When I asked him what is the title for Aladdin III, he told me ‘Return of Aladdin’s Father’. I had a good laugh and he is right in a way… the King of Thieves is also Aladdin’s long lost father!
I was folding the laundry and Nigel offered to help. This is not the first time though. The last round, he folded his tees and shorts. He followed through my step-by-step instructions and got it right the first instance. He folded the rest of his briefs and stacked them neatly in the box.
Everyone commented that I stink even I have taken my bath. There is no doubt that I tend sweat a lot (even in an air-conditioned room) but the stench is somewhat different. Ah Ma suddenly remembered that I powdered my body as well as my hair. Maybe that is why my hair is so smelly.
Ah Ma is so kind to wash my hair again and she even took the trouble to blow it dry. Thank you, Ah Ma!
The biennial Singapore Garden Festival is back for the third time. Occupying over 3 hectares of space on level 4 and 6 of Suntec International Convention and Exhibition, it showcases 7 fantasy show gardens, 8 landscape show gardens and 16 floral windows created by 20 award-winning garden and floral designers from 11 countries around the world.
We had lunch with Ah Ma, Ah Yi and Yi Zhang at Marina Sqaure before making our way there. This is Nigel’s second visit to the Singapore Garden Festival. He was at the inaugural Singapore Garden Festival in 2006 with Ah Ma and Ah Yi four years ago. At that time, he was only 22 months old.
One of the exhibits new to this year’s festival is the Balcony Gardens Showcase where balconies in your own homes are transformed into retreat paradises. The eight balconies on display are put together by award-winning designers Ng Sek San and Jun-Ichi Inada.
One of the other returning favorites to the festival is the Best of Show Landscape and Fantasy Gardens which features creations by local designers and top award-winning designers from renowned garden shows around the world.
Daddy and Nigel acted nonchalantly when we only combed less than one-quarter of the exhibits on level 6… ARGHHH… Both of them sat at one of the counters (I had no idea what they did there!) whereas the rest of us continued with our flowers expedition.
The preparation for this year’s Festival involved the people in a bigger way than ever before. Singaporeans from all walks of life participated in creating an unusual massive garden display. 130,000 plants were planted on a five-metre tall huge metal man frame on 25 March 2010 at the Singapore Botanic Gardens.
This display is called ‘The Man Who Planted Trees’. It is inspired by a 1953 allegorical tale by French author Jean Giono. This is a charming story of a lone shepherd who quietly laboured to re-forest a sterile and desolate valley in the foothills of the Alps, near Provence in France. After several decades, he transformed the valley into a verdant forest that brought back water, wildlife and thriving human communities. It is a model of what individuals can do to help nurture greenery, on a planet faced with massive deforestation, environmental degradation and loss of biodiversity.
The efforts of the community will not be dismissed. The display will head back to the Jacob Ballas Children’s Garden in the Botanic Gardens for all to enjoy after the Festival is over.
We proceeded to the Singapore Orchid Show on level four. Daddy and Nigel left for Toys R Us the very instant we stepped foot in there. These two boys are really *%&#()%&*#)^ Never mind about them!
The Singapore Orchid Show showcases South-east Asia’s array of exotic orchids displays from Papua New Guinea, Taiwan, Ecuador, Brunei, the Philippines, Hong Kong, China, Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.
Guess what my boys did? They relaxed over a cup of tea and toast at Wang Cafe. Both of them are caught on my candid camera - one surfing the net over his handphone, the other playing his PSP! CAN YOU SEE HOW SERIOUS THEY ARE!!!
Daddy has all along been an avid Gundam fan. He had completed a number of Gundam model kits from High Grade (HG), Master Grade (MG) to Perfect Grade (PG). Daddy is now very much into assembling the Super Deformed (SD) Gundam model kits. And the reason is simply it is so much faster and easier to assemble (lesser parts). A SD Gundam model kit took him about an hour to complete. I guess the main reason behind the switch is the waiting time is shorter… AHEM… what I meant is Nigel just need to wait for an hour before he can play with it.
YES!!! All it takes is one to start off with and now Nigel is addicted to Gundam. Here is the collection of the SD Gundams they owned. I betcha more are coming the way!
Waiting for my egg prata at Jalan Kayu Prata Cafe (United Square) before my ICR enrichment class! Hurry… HURRY… I am going to be late for my class.
Finally, I am done with the long awaiting entries of our summer holiday in Perth from 31 December 2009 to 9 January 2010.
Click here or the entries below. ENJOY our journey…
- Singapore to Perth
- Swan Valley
- Cottesloe Beach
- Perth Zoo
- Markets
- Kings Park & Botanic Garden
- Barrack Street Jetty, Wheel of Perth & Swan Bell Tower
- Adventure World
- City of Perth - SALE
- Food Glorious Food
