Eleven LORNA’s Leaping June 2010

I finished the last LORNA with the line “Bob and Marjorie are using the new Air Asia route to KL that we used in the summer……….. it hasn’t let anybody down……yet.”
Talk about tempting fate – who is to blame for the volcano – ME!! Bob and Marjorie have now spent longer in Singapore than Sir Stamford Raffles! We all had a really good time (not, admittedly as good as the bookies had the night we went to the races). Although the visit started controversially (never good to spill a whole pint down your mother-in law!) we pretty much covered all Singapore has – meals, waterparks, Chinese junks, a night on Sentosa, hawker centre crawls, the sailing club….you cover a lot of ground in five weeks!
But the highlight was a lunch at the equinox which enjoys panoramic views of Singapore and really was an incredible meal. The most shocking bit was the wine list, the cheapest bottle was 60 quid, even the mineral water was 7.50!! So we went local and asked for tap water.

Alex
This issue’s hero (or superhero as he would prefer to be called) is Alex. He is finally graduating from ‘little school’. The whole two years here has certainly been an adventure and although we have occasionally questioned the wisdom of throwing him into the deep end of Singaporean society he has loved it. He has a range of great Chinese friends (who I dare not name as if you slightly mispronounce any word he gets very angry!), and can always look back on being the ‘only white boy in the village’. We have at times found his life there pretty tough (naughty children get smacked!) and often despair at the heavily structured, almost OCD approach to education (Alex is now an expert in ‘the seven stages of good hand washing’, I mean seven!?!?!), but overall the little fella done great, he has provided a link to the locals and picked up local habits – both good and bad. And picking Alex up will always be remembered – in complete contrast to the ‘touchy feely’ approach at home, a tough looking Chinese women opens the door, sees us and shouts “Alex! Home!!” Love it.
Alex also had an early party for his birthday. We had a great time round the pool with his best friends – Pierce and Benjy. But it will be all change for Alex next year. He has a new home and a new school. Is he ready? Absolutely not.

Rhianna
Rhianna has finally had her obvious talent recognized. She won an award for being the chattiest girl in the grade (her grade has about 140 kids!). We’re not quite sure how to react to that one. However as they say ‘a win’s a win’ and ‘any publicity is good publicity’ so we’re sort of proud! Rhianna believes that she has finally found her sport – fencing!! She starts after the holidays. I have a feeling that we will soon have Rhianna and Alex swashbuckling around the apartment.
Rhianna has also had an early birthday party – she went to see ‘Nanny McPhee’ and then a sleepover with her friends Caitlin, Hila, and Sophie (or Caitlin, Nienke, and Nienke as Alex would say, he has this quite embarrassing and, let’s face it, slightly racist way of calling all girls of mixed race Nienke). Luckily they were OK with it.

Olivia
Olivia is now a cornet player. Oh happy days listening to her practise, reminds me of Jennie and her violin all those years ago! She was also inspired by a trip we made to the Polo Club to see a friend of mine compete in a show jumping competition. She now wants to learn to ride! I’m sure we can fit a pony in our apartment somewhere! Although worried about the cost I’m quite relieved she wasn’t inspired by the Polo ‘Chukka’ we watched between Singapore and Mongolia (yes, real life Mongolians!! The country really exists!!). It really was a level of society that we’re not ready for, I didn’t think they were going to let our Hyundai in!
Livvy and Rhianna have both also had their end of term plays (Livvy was a narrator, Rhianna a leopard) and both did really well in their swimming galas. Finally a family dream realised – both of them together in the junior school choir concert – with Alex conducting in the audience!

Lesley
Lesley is now a fully fledged member of the educational establishment having done her first residential, had a couple of confrontations with teenagers, and had an insight into the different parenting strategies out there! She went for three days to Malacca an old Dutch colonial town in Malaysia.
She has also spent a lot of time looking for our new apartment with our agent – Mad Jean. The maddest estate agent either of us have ever met, but boy does she negotiate. And we’ve found somewhere. But there is good news and bad news. The good news is that we snagged the penthouse! Who would have thought we could afford that? Well there is a catch. It is on the fifth floor and there is no lift. Thank goodness the climate is so forgiving of physical exertion………..
We’re moving to Brookvale, which is the condo Lis and Chris used to live in. It’s quite close to both schools and is very green with better access to facilities such as bars and restaurants. We’ll be sorry to leave Monterey Park as we’ve had some really good fun here and made some great friends but leave we must.

Me
Well I am now officially a triathlete. I love that word but I barely deserve it. Although I managed to get inside my target of 1 hour 40 mins - I finished an absolute mess. The swimming, with ‘Go Daddy’ scrawled on the beach was a tactical disaster, the cycling although uneventful was pretty soul-destroying with hordes of people passing me on their road bikes as I peddled furiously on Lesley’s mountain bike (I took Alex’s seat off!) and then I had nothing left for the run. Luckily the course was surrounded by people we knew so pure male pride prevented me from walking part of it. Instead of the glorious finishing sprint that I had imagined it was straight into an outside shower fully clothed to try and cool down and regain my composure! I am hooked though and I’m entered for October where I am determined to do a ‘90’.
I’ve also got a new job – an Assistant Houseparent. Basically it involves the odd duty in one of our two boarding houses. Although this sounds like a Mr. Chips sort of role many of the borders are actually scholars from all over the world (most from Aceh – the town most affected by the Tsunami but kids from all over Africa, Asia and South America are there). It’s a bit different from Corby! I’ve also extended my contract until August 2012.

What LORNA did next……….
We’re really looking forward enormously to coming home. Not just to see everyone but also to get a break from the heat, and the humid air, and the buildings, and the strange skin and eye infections, and the obsession with rice, and the outrageously priced alcohol, and….
Lots of Love LORNA (land on the 7th!)

TEN little LORNAs sweating all the time...March 2010

Lorna is back, and no bigger or better than before. It’s been weeks, it’s been months and so I’ve got a lot to get through. The theme really has been – Challenge. Out has gone the cosy, drunken expat weekends and in have come new goals, new objectives, and most importantly – a new Hyundai.

CAMBODIA

Cambodia was certainly a challenge. If the truth must be known we chose Cambodia because the flight prices at Christmas were all we could afford. I’m so glad we did because we all had a great time. We also did not have the usual Asian beach to fall back on, and were all sharing one hotel room (Hotel Ree) for five nights so it was a pretty intense family experience. The ruins of Angkor Wat fully lived up to their reputation and they were great for the kids. Perfect for exploring and solid enough to stand up to climbing. Also the Cambodians are an incredibly friendly and accommodating bunch – at one time as we viewed the main Angkor Wat temple that is practically on every world travel top 10 list, a small boy WITH PARENTS, just walked up to it and urinated up the side of it! The perfect family destination!! Alongside the temples was incredible poverty which shocked all of us and hopefully had some long term effect on the kids. More likely though they will remember the exciting life there, what with tuk tuk rides, night markets, fish nibbling your feet in the name of massage, and Alex even falling in love with a local 2 year old girl (he even gave a gift: A small elephant whose legs had broken off an hour earlier. She was overcome with this token of his love but may not have been so impressed if she’d known he had a fully formed elephant safely stowed away. The swine!). Overall though, the warmth of the locals was phenomenal, bordering on obsessive with Alex. If ever a week demonstrated to us why we came out here – this was it.

Rhianna

Since Cambodia, Rhianna has been heavily involved with a Tabitha Global Concern, established to raise money to build houses there. She also won a prize for the best ‘Re-cycle poster’ produced by her grade, I have a feeling that her slogan ‘Reduce, Re-use, Recycle’ has itself been recycled but why not? Her prize was a choice of either 30 minutes off lessons for herself, or 20 minutes off for her whole class. After a few days of discussion and negotiation I am proud to say she made the right choice!

Olivia

Olivia’s main challenge was her performance in the school’s main annual concert – Opus. We basically hire out the largest arena of the Esplanade theatre and our students perform in front of a thousand people. The evening was incredible but seeing Livvy troop onto the stage with the Junior Singers choir made it doubly special. Bless her, she sung her little heart out – and Lesley and I struggled to focus as our eyes seemed to go a little misty for a while there. Next year Rhianna should also be old enough for the junior singers so we’re gradually catching up with the Von Trapps.

Alex

For Alex, every day seems to be a challenge. He still seems to charge around with such gusto and such a zest for life that it can be hard to keep up. He is clearly the most Asian of all of us – his favourite meal seems to be rice with soy sauce, in fact he loves the taste of Chinese so much he was in trouble at school the other day for biting a classmate!
His behaviour, much to the girls’ amusement, can be erratic. Last week he threw the biggest tantrum you’ve ever seen because we wouldn’t let him drive the car! Bizarre. It is thus particularly strange that his application for UWC has now arrived and he’s very excited at going to big school. He turns 4 on the 15th August, and begins on the 16th! Scary.

Lesley

Lesley had the challenge of tour guide for Sam for a week. Sam is the first party animal without small kids in tow that we’ve had out (no offence Bob!) and thus pressure was on to show her a good time. It was a great success – from a great opening night in KL to sipping 50 dollar cocktails from a medical drip in Clarke Quay. They also did Raffles, Little India, Chinatown, and of course our sailing club, darling. Pretty much everything really. She was also our first visitor to brave the Ayer Rajah Hawker Centre – the local equivalent of a transport caff, where you’re not only the only Westerner there today, but probably all week! Lesley loved having one of her oldest friends out and there are already vague plans for ‘Sam – the return!’ Lesley is also looking forward to her first residential school trip to Malacca in Malaysia. If this goes well trips to India and Australia beckon!

Me

Aside from swallowing my pride and driving a Hyundai with confidence, my main challenge has been my triathlon. Basically I have to swim 750m in the sea with 50 other nutters, then cycle 20km, and then run 5. The heat is obviously a factor as is the inevitable change of culture for a new sport. There are many demands from wearing a mankini (called a tri-suit), to being dunked forcibly underwater as you try to mind your own business in the swim, to the ultimate status symbol I’ve always wanted – black stenciled numbers on my arm. The race is on May 2nd and although I really enjoy it, iron man I ain’t!!
I also competed in the Horsburgh challenge which is a sailing race that goes from Singapore to Indonesia to the Horsburgh lighthouse in Malaysia and back. Although our inexperienced crew of 4 (Barry –the skipper, Wallace, and Tracey (?!?) Barry’s Singaporean wife) tried our best we unfortunately came last but sailing all day, whilst crossing a major international shipping lane was quite an experience. My experiment with sailing has not been a 100% success – sailing really is quite boring but steering Iggle Piggle’s ship between two trillion ton oil tankers is an experience I’ll never forget.

Mum & Dads visit

The first visit in the visiting season was from Mum and Dad. No time to waste as it was immediately Dad’s 70th. The only possible place to go was Raffles, and we all enjoyed a lovely meal at Doc Cheng’s restaurant. We also visited the New Asia Bar which offers incredible views of Singapore, and offers amazing cocktails served in ceramic Merlions. Kitsch at it’s very best. We took them around many of our new haunts and all had an excellent time. Probably the highlight was Chengay – the parade for Chinese New Year. It really was an assault on the senses and included more than a thousand performers. In fact we really nailed CNY. Chinatown, a reunion dinner with Lis and Chris, Hong bao (red packets with money in) and a lion dance bbq – a performance so lively it had you on the edge of your seat – with disastrous consequences for Grandpa.

What LORNA did next……….

Bob and Marjorie arrive today, and we have a packed programme of events planned. They are using the new Air Asia route to KL that we used in the summer. Sam also went that way and it hasn’t let anybody down……yet. I can’t wait to get back to good ol’ blighty for Jay’s wedding at Easter – Yes Jay is getting married!! And then we all return on the 6th July. See you all then.

Lots of Love LORNA