May 2004

Hi all,
Plenty of news this update, its been a busy first half of the year.
The middle of February saw the start of a long line of visitors. First to arrive was Joe's Aunty Elaine and Uncle Gray. After an initial 5 minutes of shyness Joe had them on their knees wrestling with Sausage and demanding their attention whether they had a hangover or not! Uncle Gray is a fireman back in the UK so this prompted a trip to the fire museum here and a look behind the scenes in the local firestation. Joe wasn't as impressed as Uncle Gray with the firebike but he did like driving the old fire engine.

Wanting to get away for a few days we all headed off to Sentosa and had a wonderful few days on the island. It was the first time that Joe had actually been to the beach and he loved his new bucket and spade set, the little watering can went quite well with Frosty too, (see photos page) so he had a ball down in the water. An inflatable version of the Millennium Falcon made its way from Liverpool. Once resurrected it could be seen floating off the coast of Singapore with various dodgy scousers at the helm. Its amazing what you can find in your mums shed before you set off on holiday. We stayed at the Sentosa Resort and Spa which had a great pool for Joe to bob around in and great cocktails for the rest of us! Uncle Gray abandoned his fireman beer drinking ways in favour of pina coladas and umbrellas.

Elaine and Gray hit the shops in Orchard with a vengeance, just to keep up the Frosty tradition. Shop rage was evident on a couple of occasions which I think is catching after spending too much time with Frosty. We should put a health warning on our house to warn people who come to stay. To chill out they took Joe to the Botanical gardens and judging from the photos I am not sure which of them were drinking the beer as Joe was very giggly, Gray also decided to become a hairstylist and Joe had a hair style to rival Beckham on his return.

Only 7 hours after Elaine and Gray left to return to the UK, my mum and dad arrived in Singapore. Joe thought all his birthdays had come at once..... a new set of people to terrorize with Sausage. Joe having no concept of age soon had the creaky bones of nana and granddad well and truly put to the test whizzing him round on his bike and crawling under the table. We had a lovely day out at the Chinese Gardens which during the week are very quiet and it was so peaceful. The bonsai garden was particularly wonderful to walk through. Joe was made up with having so much space to roam around freely in. If you want peace and quiet I thoroughly recommend this place for a day trip. We also went to Sentosa for the day to the beach, well that's what nanas and granddads are for - for building sandcastles! Another day was spent at underwater world, where I must confess I nipped off to the spa up the road, having been to underwater world a million times in the past year. Joe never tires of the jellyfish and sharks so anyone who wants to take him put your hands up now! Same goes for the zoo, we have done that to death as well. The things for kids to do in Singapore are really well done though so I recommend anyone to come here with children.

Either before, after or during, I can't remember now because its all a blur, Claire was in town for a couple of days with work and we managed to get together for a nice dinner and a good old gossip at Chjimes. Didn't manage to swap much girlie wedding talk because Frosty was with us and he never shuts up once he gets going with Claire. It was here I dropped a comment about my birthday which was the following day and saw Frostys jaw drop like in a looney tunes cartoon.

Ant also paid us another visit, this time along with Tracey. Ant comes to our house with somekind of voodoo illness curse everytime he visits, where one of the three of us is ill and he is forced to stay in with us and eat takeaway Indian curry. The visit with Tracey was no exception from what I can remember but can't remember which one of was ill. Actually as I write this Ant has just been to visit again and we made a concerted effort to be healthy and we managed to go out for dinner! Think he was rather relieved!

Just as we thought we might get a weekend with no visitors the Sheridens made a surprise visit. This was the first time that we had had another baby in the house to stay. Joe didn't know quite what to make of it and was rather shy instead of relishing the fact of having another playmate. He shared his toys though and Emmet didn't seem to mind too much. It was quite a feat co-ordinating everything around both their routines but we made it out for lunch and dinner and Carole got to see all the things you can't buy in the supermarkets in Bangkok!

Mawfy has passed through the airport on several occasions but a few weeks back he managed some time off from work and we got to see him for the first time in ages. After a quick play with Joe before bedtime we had a nice meal out down Club Street and a good laugh about the joys of work!

There has been lots of good news all round. Miles and Liz had baby number 3 in March called Silas. Phil and Noi had a baby girl called Carolyn in April and this month saw Jemima and Richard also having a little girl called Felicity. Can't wait to see them all. Exiting news for us was to hear that our friends Joe and Rachel Baker are moving to Singapore. Joe is already here and I am eagerly awaiting Rachel so we can do all the girlie stuff. We also attended the wedding reception of Crystal and Mark on the 30th April. It was the first time I had been to a wedding where the bride gave a speech and what a funny one it was too. In fact all the speeches were hilarious and it was a lovely evening at Raffles Hotel. Hope I haven't missed anyone out in our news update. I'm amazed I have remembered this much! I really should enlist Frosty to take notes on his new palm pilot as the weeks go by.

Birdie x x x