February 2004

2003 was certainly eventful. I am hoping that 2004 is just as exciting but slows down the pace a bit and lets me catch up with everything like changing the photos on this news page.... maybe next time.

Since last time our maid, Josie, has now moved in with us and this helps a lot with having someone on hand to baby-sit and look after Joe when I need to go out for an appointment. Joe also loves playing with her because she is totally mad. The louder and more silly you are the more he loves it. We have been out more often in the evenings and are now starting to see a bit more of Singapore. More visitors are welcome as it's a great excuse to go and try out new bars and restaurants! It's not the same though when you know you have to get up at 7am the next morning!

In December we took a longer trip to Thailand. It was a bit of a disaster really because Joe decided that he was not going to like being away from home! We spent a couple of days in Bangkok with Mawfy and Amy. Caught up briefly with Mark and Karen but dinner was far too short to get up to speed on girlie gossip. Saw Noi's developing fine bump and found time for a bit of mother talk now I am Mrs. experienced! Ron and Phil also joined us for dinner of which I ate too much as usual. Ruby and Eric as always came out to see us at dinner but again there was never enough time in one night to really get down to a good conversation. I don't know how we remedy that. More of you must come and visit us maybe!

After Bangkok we headed to Hua Hin and stayed in the Evason Resort. It was supposed to be a nice relaxing few days which it was far from!
We had such a lovely pool villa too with an outside sunken bath surrounded by lilies and a sala which we had dinner under a couple of nights. We also had our own small pool which was ideal for Joe as we could chuck him in there for a few minutes dry him off and then put him in again without the rigmarole of constantly putting swimming nappies and swim suits on him. After a day Joe decided he wouldn't eat anything and survived for the rest of the holiday on a few cheerios. He wouldn't smile unless he was in the bath and the occasional dip in the pool. He didn't really want to play and then got an upset tummy so by the end of the week Frosty and I were so stressed out that we decided to come home early. I did take advantage of a few trips to the onsite spa which was just heaven. Its one of the things I miss most about Thailand.

Before we headed back to Singapore we stayed one night with the Chewts. Now that is where we should have spent our holiday! Maids and nannies galore on tap to amuse and pay Joe lots of attention. Jazzy and Kara also made a big fuss of Joe and brought him lots of their toys to play with. His smile made a brief comeback for a while. We also met Jamie for the first time, another little, well not so little 'luk krung'. Having heard so much about him from his dad Pete on the email it was finally great to see him in the flesh and hopefully will become one of Joe's mates when they grow up a bit. Joe continued to be a pain all the way home on the plane, screamed his head off in the taxi home and the little bugger on being back in the house after only ten minutes was back to normal! After this experience Frosty and I have decided that from now on we are going on separate holidays! Girlies please let me know when you fancy a weekend of fun.

We got back pretty close to Christmas time. Orchard Road was as pretty as usual with lots of gorgeous lights everywhere, huge Christmas trees and bands and carol singers. Joe didn't really appreciate it but I liked walking down there every day! We put the well traveled Christmas tree up in the house this year especially for Joe. It actually remained intact, though probably wouldn't have fared so well if we had all Joe's mates round.

We had a quiet Christmas. This was completely fine with Frosty and I after such an exhausting year. We spent the morning opening all Joe's presents that had arrived from all over the world of which there were many. Joe couldn't work out what Christmas was all about he just wondered why his dad was up earlier than normal and thought it was great to have so much paper and lots of boxes to play with. In the afternoon we went round to our friends Laura and Fred for Christmas dinner. It was superb because Fred is such a fantastic cook and we had this scrumptious traditional Christmas dinner and I didn't have to do a thing! I seriously need to trade Frosty in for a version that cooks. It was a really nice relaxing lazy Christmas afternoon with lots of food, drink and the two boys played all round the house with the new toys that Father Christmas had left Billy. All that was missing was the Queens speech and a cheesy Christmas movie on the telly.

New Year was just as uneventful! We had no babysitter this year so we stayed in and watched Pirates of the Caribbean whilst drinking Champagne. At least this year I wasn't in labour and I could also drink! It also meant no hangover for the second year in a row for which I was truly glad seen as Joe wants to get up at 7. It was also Joe's birthday with more presents form aunty Elaine and nanas and granddads. Joe was rather bemused when presented with his muffin with a candle in it for his tea.

We are now preparing for a couple of months worth of visitors so it will no doubt be April before the website is updated again! You can always email me for news.

Birdie x x x