Happy New Year 2014

To our family and friends,

 

Happy Belated Christmas and here’s to 2014!

A quick recap on our 2013. We started off the year in Singapore, having received the news in mid November 2012 that Gary’s job would be winding up sometime in 2013. This news was met with great excitement for us as we both felt that it was time to come ‘home’. Singapore had been very good to us and we had a brilliant 4 years there, but it felt like the right time to move on. It was a fantastic experience – Asia for beginners and Singapore will always hold a very special place in our hearts.

 

Since moving back to Adelaide, we have had a relatively busy time. We moved back to our family home in Dulwich and knew that we would try to sell it within 6 months. By the time we had moved in, and unpacked – in fact, just 6 weeks after we had moved in, we had the house on the market and our first open inspection. We were very fortunate in getting a number of offers after the first weekend and we accepted one on the Tuesday. Settlement was set for mid November. We then started looking in earnest to buy a new property – our preferred location being the Adelaide Hills. We had 2 properties that we were quite keen on and both got sold the weekend we sold ours. Obviously not meant to be! We then bid at an auction in mid-October, but again, it wasn’t meant to be. Time was ticking on, so we ended up getting a rental property in Stirling with a 6 month lease. We are still looking – my biggest fear at the moment is that we won’t find the right property before our lease expires – but hopefully this won’t be the case! Moving isn’t that much fun, however, the kids handled it with ease – in fact I think they are of the opinion that moving is something that happens with a reasonable frequency – we hope we can dispel this notion after our next move.

 

So we have been in Adelaide for 6 months now and it is great to be back here. I think all in all, everyone has settled in really well. Alex started school 3 days after we landed – he came home on his first day beaming from ear to ear and announcing what a great day he’d had. He did just over 2 terms in Reception at Rose Park Primary. His teacher Belinda was an absolute superstar – she is truly gifted in her chosen profession and I think we were so lucky to have Alex placed in her class. He really blossomed through the year and has loved school so that has been a great start.  He turned 6 in July and is into Lego in a big way as well as lots of imaginary play and Star Wars! 

 Not looking so happy here for first day of school but it did go well!

 

 

 Playing outside kindy.

 

Tara started at kindergarten 2.5 days per week in term 3 and also did 1.5 days in childcare. She seemed to enjoy both although kindy was a definite preference and she also loved Thursdays which she called “Daddy and Tara days”. She will begin school in January and I think is definitely ready for the structure that will come with that. She turns 5 today – New Year’s Eve and is very excited about her birthday, which we are also making a big deal over. She ran into our room this morning shouting “I’m 5!”

 

I started work in June back at my old work – I was lucky enough to pick up a maternity leave cover contract so that was fantastic timing. I am there till the end of July and will see at that time if there’s anything else available. It has been really nice being back somewhere familiar – although doing a different role. Gary has been kept pretty busy running the house, getting Dulwich ready for sale, and then getting us moved and settled into our new temporary home. He has also been looking for work although not too actively till the past month or so. He will begin a new contract role in the new year, so life will change again, with 2 of us working and no helper at home to do the cooking and cleaning!! We were spoilt in Singapore with fantastic domestic help. It will be a challenge to juggle 2 jobs in Australia but hopefully we will both have a degree of flexibility.

 

We had a few nice holidays in 2013. We started off the year going to Bintan for 5 nights just before school started. It was a favourite destination – January was our 3^rd visit there. We all had a brilliant time and it was sad to leave. Alex got his first wobbly tooth whilst we were there – it proceeded to be wobbly for 10 weeks finally falling out in the last week of term 1! In January, I also managed a girl’s weekend away to Bangkok with my friend Karen (Gary is so good to me, I am so very lucky to have him) – (obviously Gary’s editing!!). Oh, how I do miss those cheap flights from Changi! Karen and I had a brilliant couple of nights there, staying in a Club room at the Novotel – we made full use of the bar and canapés on offer! Many massages were enjoyed and quite a bit of shopping.

 

February saw the Chinese New Year break so we used the opportunity to come back to Adelaide and sort out a number of things. It was a bit of a house swap as Allisa was in Singapore so we made use of her house in Adelaide (and her car) whilst she stayed in our Singapore apartment. We then got to catch up properly with Allisa when we got back to Singapore so all around it was a win win situation. For Easter, Gary was off to Melbourne for a course. I decided I didn’t want to be in Singapore for the long weekend without him so researched cheap flights to go somewhere easy with the kids. We decided on Hoi An Vietnam as the flight was reasonably priced and direct. The day before we were due to go, Tara came down with a vomiting bug. The GP advised that it was a 24 hour virus and not to cancel the holiday. The next day, Tara was on the mend, but Alex had a fever. We got on the flight and by the time we arrived in Vietnam, Alex was looking very pale – he then proceeded to vomit in between customs and the taxi. Hmm, I was questioning my sanity in going away with the kids by myself – but it ended up being a good trip – the kids were both a bit tired – recovering from the virus but they swam every day and we had a pretty low key visit – still fun.

 

Gary finished work in April  (April 19^th) and then headed back to the UK on the 21^st of April for a couple of weeks to visit with family. This was a fantastic trip and all rather epic. Family ties reforged and old friendships celebrated! I had 2 of my nieces come to visit from Adelaide at the same time.

Gary, Holly, Lucy, Ann & Jim – what a great family reunion!

In early May, just after I had finished work in Singapore, we had the amazing chance to have a long weekend in Hong Kong without kids. We met up with Adelaide friends – Natania and Colm to celebrate Nat’s 40^th birthday. The Langham Place hotel was amazing and we had a fantastic weekend. Thanks Nat for giving us the excuse and thanks Anita for helping out in Singapore with looking after the kids – despite the fact we forgot to leave spare keys with her (to some this would have been a drama but she just breezed through)!

 

May saw us packing up the apartment, saying goodbye to our wonderful helper Marina who went to a new family (she is very happy there) and heading to Changi for our last time as Singapore residents. We boarded our flight to Yangon Myanmar and bid Singapore farewell. We had a great few weeks travelling before landing in Aus. We had a week in Myanmar, a few days in Thailand catching up with Gary’s family (Neville, Ann and Rachapon), and then 10 days in Sri Lanka. The kids are brilliant little travellers – they are really very adaptable and had a great time with all of the new experiences.

 Our last day at Aspen Heights…

 Posing with the locals – Yangon

 Myanmar – Lake Inle

 Yangon city

 Taxi on the way to Yangon airport.

 Bangkok – so great to see Neville again.

 Riding an elephant – Sri Lanka

 We climbed Sigiriya – Sri Lanka – well done to the kids!

 Galle Fort – Sri Lanka

We now haven’t been on a plane for 6 months – an absolute record! It has been really nice settling in though and I haven’t got itchy feet (yet)! 2014 will no doubt see some less adventurous travel – we hope to take the kids camping for the first time and will do a couple of driving holidays rather than anything long haul. Depending on what happens for both of us workwise, we may try to sneak in a family trip back to the UK to see Gary’s family but this is all up in the air – of course we now need to consider school holidays also.

 

We hope that 2014 will see us settling down properly with buying a new house (hopefully the house we will live in for many years) and putting down roots in Adelaide. We had a great 2013 and as always we are grateful for the support of our family and friends who make life a great journey. When we get set up in our new house, we are hoping that it will be somewhere we can have lots of visitors.

 

Legoland Malaysia – our favourite daytrip from Singapore.

Guess who loves roller coasters? In fact, both the kids now love them too!!

 

We wish you a safe and prosperous 2014.

 

Journey to Inle

Journey to Inle

Thursday May 23rd saw another early departure (better though at 6.45), for the short transfer to the airport for our 2nd Air Mandalay flight to Heho. At the airport I discovered the bank there (which I didn't notice on the way in), had better rates than the shop in town, but hey ho!

We put our bags through the x-ray machine whilst the guy operating it ignored the screen resolutely staring the whole time at our kids. We then waited for our flight to be called. This flight had 'free seating' and this time we had 2 stops before arriving at Heho, but both were very short flights - around 30-40 minutes each.

At Heho airport, the taxi driver said 25000 kyats to Villa Inle but then as we were getting in, informed us it would be 35000 as it would be an additional 10000 from the main town. We tried to find someone else, but to no avail, so decided we had to go with this. On arrival in town, it was more negotiation on the boat price. The boat price was going to be 15000 then unless we agreed to use the boat for an excursion the following day. With the kids with us, we were in the situation of needing to agree this without the power to walk off and check the competition. However, as I had read a bit on trip advisor, I knew the boat price he was quoting for the excursion was reasonable and so we ultimately agreed 55000 kyats for transfer 2 ways, use of the boat the next day to tour the lake and return taxi to Heho airport on the Saturday. I knew from trip advisor our hotel was charging $35 for a 1 day boat tour and $70 for airport transfer so figured we were doing ok with our man from Sons of Inle.

The longboat trip to the hotel was good fun, but I got slightly burnt due to leaving my hat in the luggage. 

We checked in to Villa Inle and our room was stunning. It was huge with a freestanding bath in the bathroom, a rainfall shower and a large double and large single bed.

On our first day, we didn't end up doing much, apart from relaxing and exploring the grounds of the hotel. We were planning to go to visit Red Mountain winery but the hotel wanted $20 each way plus $20 per hour for the driver to wait. $60 for a 2 hour excursion wasn't striking me as great value so we declined this. The exorbitantly priced transport was an open air truck! I guess they have a captive market so can charge what they like.

On Friday morning we had breakfast in our room. There was a slight delay - some mixup with the ordering, however when it came, it was tasty and filling. We then headed to the jetty to meet our boat driver from the previous day. We went out on the longboat and after an hour stopped at a village. It was quite rural and we followed our driver through the village where we ended up at a house where some people were dressed up (seemingly in traditional dress). As our driver didn't have much English, it's difficult to say what the occasion was, it felt a bit strange with us sitting on the floor surrounded by locals. We ended up leaving there and heading back to the boat. Next stop was a weaving factory. We had a bit of a 'tour'. Some of the stuff they made was really lovely, but very expensive. I looked at a scarf and it was marked 100 - I later realised this was $100 US! We continued on to a place called the Inle Heritage Centre which had 36 Burmese cats and a lovely cafe. We had snacks and drinks and then sat out the rain (although we were travelling in monsoon season, this was our only rainy day and even then it was short spurts).

After this we headed back to Villa Inle for packing up and getting ready for our Saturday departure and dinner. It was a really nice relaxing day on the lake.

On Saturday, after breakfast we headed down to meet our boat driver to head back to town and to Heho airport. We had settled the bill at the hotel and then one of the staff was saying that we needed to pay for chips from the mini bar. We told her we hadn't had anything from the minibar. A few minutes later we were presented with an opened 2/3 full tub of chips. We again said we hadn't eaten them (and checked with the kids too). It was an awkward end to an otherwise lovely stay. We interrogated the kids later and I'm completely sure it wasn't them either. The chips were actually placed on a high shelf so it would have been very tricky for the kids to reach them. The mystery of the opened overpriced chips - they were $12!

Our boat trip back to town was good and the taxi journey was also fine. We got to Heho airport around 40 minutes before our flight and checked in. Our last Myanmar domestic flight was with KBZ and it was direct - what a bonus. The flight left 15 minutes before its scheduled departure time (everyone must have been there so why not?) and we were soon in Yangon again.

We caught a taxi to the Traders and checked our luggage in with the concierge. We then headed to the Yangon market, which was really good. Prices aren't stupidly inflated (for the few things we looked at). 

Back at the Traders, we headed to the Traders Cafe for lunch - a buffet called 'Crazy Saturday', with kids' entertainment. What a great spread. The buffet included free flow wine - an added bonus we didn't know about before. We all had a nice time - Gary and I eating and the kids playing. We then headed by taxi back to Yangon airport for our 5.50pm flight to Bangkok.

Myanmar was an incredible place to visit. It is just opening up to tourists and I can imagine it will be very different in ten years time. The accommodation we stayed in was great. Relatively speaking, it's an expensive place to visit compared to other South East Asia destinations. However, I'm really glad we had the opportunity to visit and see it when we did. Thailand and Sri Lanka next!

Bagan - Temples Everywhere

Bagan - temples everywhere!

On Monday morning (May 20th), we had a very early alarm call due to a flight scheduled from Yangon for a 6:20 departure. Thankfully, we weren't completely adjusted to the 90 minute time zone change so waking at 4.30 wasn't so much of a hardship, despite our neighboring room waking us at midnight when they rolled in. We checked out of the Traders and received 3 'breakfast boxes'. They were full of fruit, pastries, boiled eggs and sandwiches. No one was going hungry! The trip to the airport at 5am was quick and we checked in without any drama and sat down to eat our packed breakfast. No such thing as nothing over 100ml of liquids on this domestic flight - it all seemed very casual. Soon enough our Air Mandalay flight was called. We walked up and headed to a bus to take us to the plane. On the flight, we actually had assigned seats - something we didn't get on our other domestic flights in Myanmar. What we didn't realise was that the flight wasn't direct, so on its first landing, we got up until we were told this wasn't our stop. 20 minutes later we took off again and landed 35 minutes later in Mandalay. Another 20 minute stop - it was a bit like catching a bus or train. A further 25 minute flight and we arrived at Nyaung U which was our stop. Hooray!

We wandered out and got a taxi without an issue and headed on the short journey to our hotel for the next 3 nights - the Hotel at Tharabar Gate. We were very grateful to get straight into our room and rest a little - it was only 9am! Later that morning, we headed out for lunch to the Vegan restaurant "be Kind to Animals". Good food, but a little trickier for the kids - we ordered fried rice, but it was spicy. On the afternoon of our first day in Bagan, we went for a wander and were inundated with offers of horse and cart. One entrepreneur offered us a free ride back on the condition we use his services the next day. After a swim in the afternoon, we headed to dinner to a restaurant next door to the hotel. Then an early night for all! 

On day 2 in Bagan, we decided we would take a horse and cart for the morning. After some negotiation, given how hot it was (we were melting the previous day), we decided we would take 2. We agreed a price of 10000 kyats each (I'm sure overpaying however as I've got older, my willingness to bargain has diminished!) We headed off to a number of temples. They were all pretty impressive. Alex and Tara particularly liked the old palace where they went up some stairs and found a viewing platform. Being low season, we weren't hassled too much by touts, however sand paintings were available everywhere. There were some very young kids selling too. The temples are plentiful (they are everywhere you turn) and also beautiful. It was a great half day. We finished our horse and cart tour at lunch and ate at Star Beam (very impressive bread). That afternoon we headed back to rest and go for a swim before dinner.

Day 3 in Bagan was spent resting in the morning. We ordered a taxi to take us into Nyaung U- the main town. We left around 11am, with the intention of exploring the markets - however, it was really hot already and we were all pretty hot trudging through the markets. We bought a couple of t-shirts for the kids (less than $3 each with no bargaining), and some mangoes for 200 kyat (around 20cents) each. We then decided we should get some lunch and headed to a place called Bagan Beach Bar. It was on the river (which was really low). It was huge inside, but we were the only customers initially (us and many flies). Food was ok, nothing to write home about. We then went in search of a taxi and found an old uncle with a taxi sign on top of his station wagon who would take us. No seat belts and the car had seen better days but we made it back ok - we had to stop for roadside fuel on the way. He was very friendly (as most Burmese are).

Later that afternoon, I went to go to the money changer at the local store that our horse and cart driver had taken us to the previous day. Tara and I were accompanied by a young boy who chatted to us the whole way. He told us he was 9 years old and learnt English at the monastery where I think he went to school. On our return journey he wanted to sell us some postcards. The previous day, kids at the temples were selling 10 for 1000 kyat (just over $1). My young friend mocked shock when I suggested 1000 and said no madam, these are 2000. I think he expected me to bargain, but the grin on his face when I handed over the 2000 kyats was worth it. He was very good company for Tara and I on our short walk and later on when we ventured out or dinner greeted us like old friends.

Bagan was a great place and somewhere I could see us returning to 1 day.

Myanmar Musings - Yangon

After a few emotional farewells, we left Singapore on Saturday May 19th, bound for Yangon - the first stop on our 3 week holiday before our return to Adelaide. We were at Changi with time to spare so grabbed breakfast at the airport (pancakes and milo for the kids, local coffee and kaya toast for Gary and I). Alex was impressed with the speed of getting his pancakes and declared it true fast food. Our flight to Yangon was good and we landed around 10 minutes ahead of schedule. First impressions were of friendly people - everyone was smiling.

We got a 'taxi' to our hotel. It was a sort of van, without working seat belts (a common theme here). The driver tried to sell us some tours for the next few days which we politely declined. As we got closer to Yangon centre, the traffic got much busier so it was a sense of relief to see The Traders hotel.

Check in was smooth and we were soon up in our room. We had paid for an extra bed - something that hotels here charge a lot for - in this case it was $65 US and when we arrived no bed was there, but it was soon delivered - along with an extra bottle of water and an extra towel!

Our travel agent arrived and I went to meet her and collected flight tickets etc which was all very smooth.

We ventured out for lunch and tried to find a recommendation from the LP - Aroma Cafe but it was closed, so we ended up at the East hotel - which was very pleasant. The rest of the first afternoon was spent at the pool and we went for an early dinner to Pa Pa Pizza, which was excellent.

On Sunday, after a fabulous breakfast at the hotel, we decided to try the LP Yangon walking tour. About 300 metres into it, Tara declared we were walking "so far"! Ah, the delights of travelling with kids. We stuck to the walk for a bit and then decided to take a look at the ferry. We were sent to a window / room for foreigners. The fare for foreigners was $2 US each way but they did a 'discount for the babies'. This meant the kids were free. One thing in Myanmar is they often refer to the kids as 'babies'. The ferry was very local but some fabulous photo opportunities. There were all sorts of vendors on there and some young boys tried to sell us all sorts of things. It was very interesting. Over the other side of the river, we got off and decided to go for a drink and a sit down to watch the world go by. Gary commented that it felt like a mixture of India and Thailand. I have to agree it did feel like that!

On Sunday afternoon, after a swim at the hotel, we headed by taxi to the Shwedagon Pagoda. It was very golden and very  impressive. Tara and Alex were tolerant about their photos being taken numerous times. Tara especially is also getting a lot of people touching her face or arms, but she is very good with it.

On Sunday evening in Yangon, we decided to try a local restaurant recommended on Trip Advisor which was just across the road from the hotel. This was Takifuji - with some Western choices for the kids, and local food and beer for the adults, everyone was happy! We had a very early start the next day so headed to bed pretty early in anticipation of our 4.30am wake up call!

3 weeks to go till we leave Singapore

Around about August or September last year we found out that Gary's department at work were being relocated and after some discussion, we realised that this would be the logical time for us to move on from Singapore. It has been an incredible place for us and I'm so glad we decided on a whim that an Asian adventure would be good for us. It has been, but it is time to move on. In mid November we received the letter verifying dates. By February I had given in my notice. It has been a long time coming and in some ways I mentally checked out of Singapore a while back. I feel like I'm serving the world's longest notice period (12 weeks). And yet, today, I was at the library choosing books and I realised that the books would need to be returned before their due date because we are leaving in 3 weeks. All of a sudden it is racing towards me and mild panic starts to set in. Will I get everything done in time? Of course I will! It's an exciting and daunting time, but I am looking forward to our next chapter.

Merry Christmas - 2012 in review from Singapore...

Christmas Eve 2012 - Singapore.

To our friends and family,

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year or for those of you who don’t celebrate – Happy Festive Season.

2012 has been a good year for us, with a few challenges thrown in along the way to keep us on our toes (or on our crutches).

Highlights of our year – holidays! (as always). Alex and Tara are turning into great little travellers. To prove this to us, on our trip to China in September, we hired a driver to take us to the Great Wall. It was a 2 hour car journey there and 2 hours back – due to the heavy traffic in Beijing. With just 2 transformers to amuse them, we managed the 4 hour journey time without any whining. They are both troopers!

This time last year saw us celebrating Christmas in Siem Reap Cambodia. Alex, Tara and I flew up before Gary as somehow he had forgotten to book a leave day – so came up the following day. We all had a brilliant time, and our tuk tuk driver was very pleased when my husband turned up, waving and greeting him like a long lost friend. Kids are adored in this part of the world, and the temples proved to be a tourist attraction for both the kids and adults.

In January, Alex, Tara and I headed back to Adelaide for a get together with the Leydon side of the family for a significant birthday for my brother. It was a lovely time to spend with all of the family and for the kids to reacquaint themselves with their cousins. Unfortunately Gary had to work over Chinese New Year so couldn’t join us but we all had a fabulous time catching up with friends and family.

In March, we went on a 3 week trip to England and France. After landing at Heathrow, we got the hire car – Gary did a fantastic job of navigating us onto the M1 and driving to Nottingham to pick up Ann who joined us for a few nights in a cottage near Chesterfield. What a gorgeous part of England to visit – we had a great time. We then dropped Ann back to Nottingham and headed to Glastonbury where we managed to catch up with Sarah, David and Megan (Gary’s cousin Sarah) and Holly (Gary’s sister). A lovely few days there before we headed to Gatwick for an overnight hotel stay before our early flight to France.

We had a wonderful week skiing in Tignes – it was the first time Alex and Tara had seen snow. They both did ski school and really enjoyed it! On our last day skiing, I managed to fall over (spectacularly) and tear 2 ligaments in my left knee – my ACL was completely torn. Not the end to the holiday we had envisaged – me on crutches and in a brace. We managed to make it on to our flight back to London the following morning (a few tense moments when we thought they weren’t going to let me on the plane due to needing to keep my leg straight), and then to a lovely hotel in Surrey for a few nights where we caught up with Mark and Liz and their girls Rachel and Gemma. Gary did a fabulous job of managing me on crutches or in a wheelchair and 2 kids who got tired of carrying their bags on the way home.

In July, Gary went to Sydney for a course and I had a couple of days in Adelaide and then we all had a lovely few days in Bintan – the easy getaway from Singapore – being just 45 minutes on a ferry.

In September, we had a great week in China / Hong Kong, including some drama before we got Chinese visas as Alex’s Australian passport had less than 6 months and the Chinese embassy refused to put his visa in his British passport so off to the Aussie embassy to get an emergency passport we went. Beijing was great and actually really easy to travel around, despite language barriers. Hong Kong was a lot of fun, especially visiting Disneyland and Ocean Park.

In November, we had a long weekend in Bangkok where we caught up with Gary’s family – Uncle Neville, Ann and Simon. A great time was had by all.

Other highlights of our year – Alex started at ‘big school’ this year – he began at Avondale Grammar School – which is a small International school based on the Australian curriculum here in Singapore. He loves school and took the change in his stride. We bought a car after 3 years of living here – it has been brilliant to have freedom to come and go as we please without relying on taxis. Yes, they are stupidly expensive but ho hum, it’s been great!

Tara has really changed from a toddler to a child this year; she looks so different and is such lovely company (except when she is fierce Tara). Alex and Tara seem closer now than ever before and are good friends who generally like playing together. Alex is devoted to Lego, Star Wars and Ninjago this year while Tara is starting to make real friendships and is becoming the resident TV addict (taking on that role from Alex this year). She also loves Lego as well as dolls and strollers.

Lowlights have been surgery. I had my ACL repaired at the beginning of June and had to wear my brace again / use crutches again for a time. Gary had to have surgery on his shoulder in October to repair a tendon that he tore in a freak fall on a wet path. Ouch! We are both recovering well – Gary is now able to drive again and is slowly getting back into exercise. We have been keeping the orthopedic surgeons / physio in business.

We had Ann come to stay in August and my nephew Daniel came to stay a couple of weeks ago on his way to Vietnam. As always, it’s great to have visitors.

I have had to do a little (Gary says seemed like more than a little to me!) travel for work this year, which has been quite fun really. I got to go to London in February for a conference as the project I’m working on is global with key stakeholders in Europe and North America. It was fun to be back in London for a few days including drinks on Valentine’s Day with Molloy! I have been to Shanghai 3 times, Bangkok once and then Sydney last week (great for a spot of last minute Christmas shopping!) Probably no more travel for me now, which is also good.

2013 is shaping up to be another big year. I am already into planning our holidays - we have Bintan, Adelaide and Vietnam in the frame and hopefully some further afield later in the year.

Anyway, enough words, time for the photos! We wish you health and happiness in the year ahead and hope that our paths will cross again in 2013.

Christmas Lunch 2011 - Siem Reap - Cambodia

Hong Kong Disneyland - September 2012

Alphabet Playhouse End of Year Concert - November 2012

Loving siblings.

All the grandkids - Leydon side - January 2012 Adelaide

With our cousins

With Auntie Holly - Glastonbury - March 2012

Skiing - Tignes - France - March 2012

First day of school - April 2012

Universal Studios Singapore - July 2012

Tiananmen Square - Beijing - September 2012

Great Wall of China - September 2012

Excursion to the Botanic Gardens

Alex has been going to 'big school' for a term now. He will turn 5 at the end of July so we made the decision to send him this year - we would have sent him in term 1 except that we had a 3 week trip away in the middle of the term, so we elected for term 2. He has been going to Avondale Grammar, a small international school here in Singapore. It's Australian based, but has a mixture of nationalities attending. He has really loved it and I think we made the right decision to send him now.

On Tuesday it was his first class excursion. They were heading to the Botanic Gardens - specifically Jacob Ballas - the Children's garden. I volunteered to be a 'parent helper'. Although I work full time, I do get pretty generous leave allowances here. We get 25 days annual leave as well as 6 'childcare' days, which is awesome - you can take them for pretty much anything. Technically, because I'm not Singaporean or PR, I'm not eligible for 6, but as my company doesn't discriminate, we get 6. This is for anyone who has kids under 7. So, I booked my day off work with my childcare leave allowance and headed to school to accompany the class.

What a great day we had. Alex caught the school bus in and I left home 10 minutes after him just beating him to school. I met him at the front of the school and he very excitedly grabbed my hand and took me to his classroom.

We had a really fun morning. We got onto the bus at school. I had been assigned to look after Alex and Ollie. Ollie is this gorgeous little boy who was so sweet and affectionate, holding my hand as we went around the gardens and slowly warming up and chatting more and more. After touring around Jacob Ballas, we went to the nearby lake to a gazebo to sit down and have morning snacks. Then we sat down and listened to a story told by one of the teachers and then the children were able to do rubbings and colouring in. We headed back to school around midday and I dropped Alex and Ollie back to the classroom then headed off to do a spot of shopping (shoes at Takashimaya!) before going home to Tara to spend the rest of my 'childcare' day with her. Alex got off the school bus at 3:20 and we all had a lovely afternoon playing together.

Working full time can be difficult with young kids, but I'm very grateful that my work is quite flexible allowing me to work from home a bit and also to have days off such as these. I do really enjoy working and I think that I am probably a better Mum because it helps me to value those special moments that I have with the kids. I think they appreciate me more when I'm around too. I know that everyone is different and what works for some people won't work for others, but I like the balance of our lives. Our next holiday is in Bintan in 4 weeks time - I can't wait!!