General ramblings and random musing about the last couple of weeks....

I have a little spare time today and have been wanting to write for a few days now....so here I am, striking while the iron is hot! It's not much - just a few little snapshots of life over the last couple of weeks. But this is as much about me keeping a 'journal' as anything else, so read on if you're interested - but if not, no worries :)

The kids had last week 'off' - no school, no camps. The previous week they had been at separate camps - Josh at an all-day camp run by his rugby squad, Centaurs, involving outdoor games, activities, lots of getting muddy, etc. - he had a blast. His favourite part was the day they spent at MacRitchie reservoir, literally just around the corner from our house, kayaking. fabulous fun! Isabel spent the week at an all-morning art camp run by her regular art class, Abrakadoodle. She is such a great little artist and had a wonderful time being creative and using her imagination. The theme for the camp was 'Once Upon A Time' so, as you can imagine, she was in her element - what with unicorns, princesses, knights, castles, fairies, magic lands.....she loved it! Among other things she made a Faberge egg and a fairy castle out of modelling clay (the egg comes in two parts and has a tiny unicorn inside made of modelling clay), did a copy of Van Gogh's 'Starry Night' painting, made a princess's crown, a knight's shield, a Chinese dragon.....the list goes on. Of course it all had to go on display in her room (apart from the Faberge egg, which is "for YOU, Mummy and Daddy", so that's on display in the living room!)

So, last week was free and we did some fun things around Singapore. I had plenty of work to juggle and we didn't get out and about every day (apart from anything else, it rained a lot...) but we did get out a bit. We had lunch at Bollywood Veggies one day, and explored Kranji a bit...and we went into town a couple of times to eat at their favourite food courts and do a bit of shopping (for Moshi Monsters, mainly....the latest craze!)

On Wednesday evening we decided that we would go for a picnic on Thursday, at Pasir Ris Park (north-eastern Singapore). Thursday morning arrived with black clouds looming large and rain forecast but, being true Brits, we decided we would go anyway. The kids went to the local playground with Jenny first thing so I could squeeze in a couple of hours' work and by the time they got back it was raining....but the radar map showed no rain in the north so off we went! Well, by the time we got there the rain map had changed rather a lot....the rain had started to come down in a drizzle and it really was too wet for a picnic outside. But we headed off to the playground area, found a shelter and sat in there to eat. Then the kids went out to play.....by that time it was pouring! No thunder though, so they carried on. The lovely thing about rain in Singapore is that it cools everything down so much but you don't get cold! So when there's no lightning it's great to play and run outside in the pouring rain - beautiful. The kids got wet, muddy and tired, tearing about in the rain, playing on the playground. The park was deserted, of course - Singaporeans really don't like to be out in the rain. It was great. But then there was a rumble of thunder.....and a flash of lightning. Josh freaked! He is quite scared of lightning (rightly so - Singapore has the highest frequency of lightning strikes in the world....something to do with the level of metals in the ground, I think?) So it was time to run back to the car and head home. Quite an adventure!

We calmed things down with a visit to the library. Josh, true to form, was delighted to find a Dick King-Smith collection of 5 books in one ("look, Mummy - 5 books in one, that means less to carry and I only have to borrow one book!) while Isabel chose her full allowance of 8 books (I didn't tell her that she could have had another 7, on Josh's card - we'd have been there all year) and off we went home. Isabel went straight in with her pile of books, curled up on the sofa and settled down with a Magic Tree House book to start with. Josh dumped his single book on the dining room table and went upstairs to play the piano!

Last week was also marked by Josh's first drum lesson. He has been begging for drum lessons for several weeks now and we finally gave in. He now has piano, guitar and drum lessons and is soaking up the music like a little sponge. He's got to the point with his piano playing where he is composing his own stuff, improvising, jazzing up pieces from his books, etc. With guitar, he plays stuff by Snow Patrol, Bruno Mars, The Eagles - we pull it up on YouTube and he practices by playing along with the music video. Quite how he will practice his drums I don't know - of course he wants a drum kit for Christmas. It might have to go out on the balcony....!

This week they are at another camp - Camp Magic. This involves arts and crafts, storytelling, circus skills, baking, dancing, music, outdoor games.....you name it, it's in there. The theme is 'Ecuador' this week (they run a 6-week series with a different theme each week and this year they have all been South American countries). So I'm fully expecting them to finish the week having made some Ecuadorean food, painted Ecuadorean pictures, made a sombrero, played the pan pipes and the drums....lots of fun!

So I've got the house to myself all day this week, between taking Bob to work and the kids getting home at 3.30. It's lovely and quiet and right now I'm sitting out on the deck with my computer, planning to get on with some work in a while. On Monday morning I was on the balcony cooling off after my workout and a beautiful kingfisher came and sat on the fence for a while. The garden is looking gorgeous at the moment - I love living in a house with a garden, next to the jungle! Yesterday we took a trip to the zoo right after the kids got home from camp, but really we needn't have - we have our own zoo right here! Monkeys, birds, butterflies, squirrels, snakes, geckos....not to mention the gazillion neighbourhood cats and of course my two munchkins and their hundreds of Moshi Monsters. We love to visit the zoo occasionally though - Isabel likes the zebras and Josh enjoys seeing the lions and pygmy hippos. Then of course there is the carousel and the water play area - always a big hit.

Next week is free again - no camps, and they don't go back to school until 28 August. So I need to get my thinking cap on and plan some activities for next week! We already said we would go to Sentosa one day and visit the butterfly park there, and have lunch at Coastes. Maybe we'll go over on the cable car - that's always fun and they have an Angry Birds event on at the moment. There is certainly no shortage of things to do here - I love it. Fingers crossed for good weather - not TOO scorchingly hot and no storms, please!