February 2008

Happy Belated New Year as usual! Wondering where January went even though I feel I am more organised! Making a really concerted effort to try and keep on top of things. I even have managed to write half my Christmas thank you cards for the kids - something that usually doesn't get finished till about May! Maybe I just have even more things to do as I don't seem to be making much of a dent on the to do list.

Way back last summer holidays my mum came over for a visit. Was well glad of the extra help seen as Joe had eight weeks off school. We hung around the house a lot, especially round the pool, because as usual when my mum comes the weather is gorgeous! Since she left it feels like it has never stopped raining. Its really been much worse then usual I'm sure. We went to visit a small horse riding school over on the north east coast and was amazed when Sean climbed on the back of this huge horse and went for a walk round the track on his own. You could also feed the small horses and hang around in the small grounds. It was also based in this huge park near the sea so we had a walk on the beach and collected shells - all the kind of stuff Joe and Seany love doing. Joe is not into being dragged round the shops any more, unless its a toy shop. Sean still likes shopping but much prefers a trip to the botanic gardens.

If you haven't yet met Snaily then you will if you ever visit - the newest member of the family even had to have his own birthday party when my mum was here. Not content with the plastic birthday cake, Joe wrapped up some of his toys as presents and insisted we had party bags for everyone. Snaily comes on family outings and holidays, sleeps in your bed and basically gets thrown about a lot. Last week he ended up in Joe's porridge, which Sean thought was hilarious and insisted that snaily was hungry and just wanted his own breakfast. (by the way, its not a real snail, although I wouldn't put it past them to try and sneak a real one into the house).

After my mum had gone, we still had a couple of weeks left of the school holidays so we tried out Bintan for the first time. An Indonesian island only 55 min's away from Singapore. The beauty is that you go by ferry so much easier with the kids who spent most of the journey just looking out the window at fishing boats. We went to Club Med for 5 days and although all that self service is just not my cup of tea these days, the kids on the other hand had a ball and absolutely loved it. As the weather was appalling - it rained every day we were there, it was a godsend to have all these kids clubs on tap to entertain them with activities. The private beach was nice too and after 2 days managed to get Sean on there with no shoes on. Tricked him really as I had him walking by the swimming pool and then kept him talking until he realised he was on the beach and then he was stuck in the middle and had no choice but to walk. After that he was ok! No more hysterics and the same with the sea. Now he really likes sand! Makes you wonder what on earth goes through their heads. We also found a rock pool that filled up with fish if you brought bread from the breakfast buffet and he loved that too.

The kids clubs had various activities such as flying the high trapeze, tightrope walking, golf, football, beach walks, their own swimming pool with slide, nature walks, motorised cars when it was wet, really nice staff too. The food was also good though didn't really get to enjoy it because as soon as Joe and Sean were fed they wanted to get up. The nightly entertainment was a show by the staff. Reminded Mike and I of something you would put on at school but Joe thought it was the best thing since sliced bread and we had to go every night!

Mike went to the UK for a brief visit in November to have a Tilney work reunion with all his old work mates from 20 years ago! Nothing much has changed apart from their ages as they went out, had a curry and got drunk, just like they did all those years ago! Mike stayed at his mum and dad's and met his niece Lyla for the first time and celebrated an early Christmas complete with full Christmas dinner before heading back home to Singapore.

Just before Christmas we went to Bangkok for Mawf and Amy's wedding. The weekend before Frosty kited out Joe in a cool outfit and then had to take Sean back the next day to get him a matching one. The wedding was about an hour from the centre of Bangkok in an old Thai style house. The sun was shining all day and it was unusually hot for a December day in Bangkok. Seany being the yob he is managed to remove his waistcoat and make himself look disheveled and sweaty within the hour, compared to Joe who looked a picture of composure 5 hours later, without a hair or sleeve out of place! After all of us filing through the house over the steps and under the arches we watched Amy and Mawf exchange rings before going downstairs to the garden for the reception. It was a lovely day and also a great opportunity to catch up with Mawf's mum and dad Sue and Alex, and Elizabeth and Steve and their children Marc and Amalia. Marc and Joe got on like a house on fire and Joe could be overheard bossing Marc around because he said "I am 4 and a half and I'm older than you!" We also caught up with Mark and Karen and Rangit and Sandra and Mike had another drunken night out with Ron.

We didn't have a right lot of time in Bangkok but we fitted in a trip to the aquarium as the kids were bored with us dragging them along to lunches to meet people. Even the chocolate buffet at the Sukhothai didn't go down that well with them until Noi arrived and gave them their christmas presents. Then they were quite happy to run around with Kerryann and Connor. Rachael met us there also and we were all a bit disappointed in how little we actually troughed our way through. Rachael also came out for a curry with us with Ruby and Eric and we were expecting Joe Baker at midnight but his plane got delayed about 4 hours and the light weights we are these days just couldn't stay up for it. So hoping we see him soon in Singapore.

Christmas this year was really nice, we always have a good time at christmas but this year was far more relaxing for me as I didn't have to cook! The kids were really into the whole Christmas festivities. Joe understood the concept of the advent calendar this year. They both loved it when the tree went up and managed not to break any ornaments. I did find about 8 hot wheels cars stuffed in it and other assorted toys when I did take it down. They got really excited when the postman delivered parcels for them, especially as Joe can now read the names on the boxes if the writing is clear! They sang jingle bells constantly until mid January.

Christmas morning we were woken up at the usual time around six thirty so that wasn't too bad as we stayed in Christmas Eve. Joe opened all his presents in record time, Seany copied. I for once sat on the sofa enjoying it all rather than worrying about the spuds. At eleven we all enjoyed a bacon sandwich and Mike and I had a huge glass of champagne which I then spent the next hour trying to sober up from so I could drive us all to Steph and Simons. We had a lovely christmas dinner round at the Quirkys whilst Joe and Sean played on Ed's new trampoline. Joe was also kept amused all afternoon by yet another new transformer and Sean and Ed were well into a bubble machine shaped like a barbeque! which was a good job really as I ate so much of Steph's turkey and brandy butter on the pudding her dad had made her that I couldn't pretty much move all afternoon. It did feel weird though not cooking the turkey and there were no left overs in the house! Though Frosty said that was a good thing as I eat too much as it is. I did the house proud when it came to consuming mince pies and Mike even rang me up from work one day as his mate Vinnie in the office was enquiring when Marks and Spencers were getting theirs in - and of course I knew!

Boxing day was much of the same, this time we had a relaxing afternoon at Ginny and Jay's house. Its always quite an easy afternoon for me when I go round Gins as Joe and Sean love playing at her house so much that I pretty much don't have to get off the sofa and can supervise Seany running round dressed up as a power ranger with Theo from where I am sitting. Joe usually disappears off with Josh to his bedroom and they only reappear when they want a drink. Probably my favourite place to go out with the kids!

New Year's Eve we went round to Penny and Gary's and Sandra and Rangit who were in town tagged along with us. Most of us girls made a curry and a dessert so the food was really good. The weather was coolish and it didn't rain so we had a perfect evening out on the decking of Penny's house and lots of lovely people to spend it with chatting and lounging around in the garden. Even though it was tipping 30 degrees plus we were all over dressed compared to some of the photos I saw in the papers of the New Year in England!

Birdie x x x