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.
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
