December 2006

What another disastrous year at keeping the website updated and i started off so well! I am seriously considering adding some kind of blog component to the site next year to at least be able to give you little snippets of info to keep you going in-between big updates. That way i can also remember all the mad things Frosty gets up to and keep you informed! So this is really part one which takes us up to the end of of November!

The last half of the year was as busy and as eventful as usual. In June my mum came to visit for a couple of weeks. Weather was a bit hit and miss but we managed a lot of mornings out to various parks, the beach at sentosa, playgrounds and the pool. Sean got taken on lots of walks which he loves and Joe as usual had my mum playing picnics and pirates and anything else he could dream up.

In September Joe started at nursery at the British School. Since then my spare time which was pretty thin on the ground anyhow has now gone to zero! With school runs at 8.30 and 11.30 every day and all the other social and volunteer things to be involved in i have yet more things to keep me busy. I was involved in organising the class christmas party, there have been field trips, then there are days which need outfits, schoolbags to organise, show and tell, the list goes on. Next term i have 6 weeks of library duty and also cooking to do! Its a lovely nursery though and although the hours are short now, roll on September when he starts reception ha! ha!

Mike changed jobs and left BNP and went to work for Merrill Lynch. During the change over he had a month off work. He wasn't particularly put on when he was off and got plenty of lie-ins but you have never seen a bloke more eager to get back to work! His words the day before he started were "i don't know how you do this every day!" Well as us mums know we don't have a choice do we! Whilst Mike was off we went to Mac Ritchie reservoir which was a great place for a walk. We saw a huge monitor lizard, turtles, fish and monkeys. Seany started eyeballing the monkeys though and it got a bit scary when they started to show their teeth and come after us! We also visited the bird park. We haven't been there for a couple of years and they have done a few parts of it up and it looks much better. Seany loves birds so he had a wonderful time.

When Mike changed jobs he got to work with old pal Budgie. Life has not been the same since. I wouldn't describe him as the quiet retiring type. Budgie and long suffering wife Suzie and the kids also moved 2 minutes down the road from us which Joe loves because he is in awe of Jack and Henry who are big boys being 5 and 6. Seany also has a new friend to play with - Megan who is their 2 year old daughter. We have enjoyed a few good barbeques round their house and what with all our boys, are now heading the neighbourhood record for trips to casualty. Frosty and Budgie also organised a night out to the new James Bond film with a difference - we had to go to the cinema in Bond get up! Merrill's booked out the luxurious gold class cinema which we had all to ourselves. Its a great place, Frosty and I have been there by ourselves on another occasion. You get huge seats that fully recline, blankets to keep you warm because the air con is always too cold and you have a button you press whenever you want a waiter to come and bring you food and drink! It only seats about 30 people so its quiet and there is no riffraff! Frosty wore a tuxedo on top and a wetsuit on the bottom, Budgie shaved his hair off and went as Doctor Evil, sporting Seany's cat on his arm which insisted on mi aw-owing at regular intervals throughout the film and CJ swaggered in, in full voodooman getup from Live and Let Die. To get to the cinema we had to walk through the new shopping mall Vivo City much to the amusement of the locals who just didn't get it........ now hang on what did i just say about no riffraff!

Joe is now into birthdays and everyone in our house has to have a cake. We have celebrated Cherry, Mike's and Jimmy's birthdays in the past 6 months. We now even have a plastic cake for the pretend kitchen and happy birthday gets sung on a daily basis. Nan and Granddad Jimmy came to stay in October, during which it was Granddad's 60th birthday. We went up on the DHL balloon the next morning for Granddad's birthday. It's a tethered balloon which goes up quite high but we didn't get a good view as unfortunately it was during the few weeks that we had terrible smog in Singapore because of the fires from Indonesia. It happens every year but it was particularly bad this year. Jimmy also helped Joe carve a pumpkin for halloween and was also subjected to a medical check by Doctor Joe. He just scrapped through enough to receive his bus pass!

Sick of being rather tubby round the middle and unable to get rid of all the excess baby weight i got myself a personal trainer - oohh sound like a film star! My ex-navy woman trainer puts me through my paces twice a week. I wouldn't say that i enjoy it but i am slowly seeing results. Nothing drastic but i have gone down a dress size in 4 months - still a long way to go and need to make more of an effort once New Year starts again. If i can get through Christmas without putting on weight i will be well happy, that would be a miracle though with all the mince pies stacked up in our house.

There have been more babies, Ginny had Daisy, Amber had Ayla and Mike will be coming an Uncle for the first time next March. Joe has asked a few times when we are getting another one, which he has been told never! Joe and Rachel left Singapore, which was sad for us because they were so much fun whilst they were here and the kids loved them and their dog honey. They headed off to Taiwan saying come and see us soon... they probably didn't bank on me turning up three months later!

Tune in next time for part two featuring trip to Taiwan, Christmas, Quirky blowing up inflatable's in our living room and New Year!

Birdie x x x