Shanghai

We were in Shanghai from 28Sep to 7Oct. It was Johnny's first trip to China and glad that he "survived". When my mum was there a week ago, her trip was affected by the typhoon. When we arrived, the weather was quite warm, not like the usual autumn weather.

The sky at SHA is very different from SIN. The place is hazy most of the time, the traffic is very messy, the pavements not all done properly, people can be pretty loud. What is interesting is that the buildings come in all shapes and sizes. The architecture can be very diversified. Some are much more modern than SIN.

Shopping wise, we didn't buy much. As usual, mainly spent on Kyrene's things. There is a place called Raffles City, they got all the brands/shops that you find here in SIN. But prices are a bit on the high side.

In general, the food in SHA is more salty than SIN. Personally, I find that its a bit like Taiwan food, eg. cold dishes like bamboo shoots, seaweeds. We tried the Da Niang jiao zi, I like it very much.

David and Stephanie have been great hosts. We made a short trip to Suzhou and Hangzhou to visit some of the places of interests there. As it was public holidays week in China, the places of interests were crowded and entrance fee went up. For some of the places, we decided to give it a miss, just not worth it to go join the crowd.

We had a nice dinner with a fantastic view on the day before we left. David's friends joined us for the dinner. They were telling us that typhoon is coming. I jokingly said that maybe we can't go back the next day. That night, no typhoon but our flight was delayed the next day. At arrival at the airport, upon check in, we were told that our flight would be delayed for 1.5hrs. Sigh, we spent 2hrs hanging out at the airport, nothing much we could do except to use the food vouchers to eat all we can.

The next day, read in the news that typhoon strike in SHA. Stephanie said it rained very heavily and gusty wind on the night we left. Whew... probably God is protecting us, let us come back to SIN before typhoon strike.

Achievements

A group of my friends just came back from their Mt Kota Kinabalu expedition. Congratulations! It does not matter whether they made it to the top, bravo for their interest, determination, endurance, freedom to go where they want, do what they want.

What about us?

Well, for me, I survived one year of being a stay-at-home mum. No income, no social life, but develop more patience, learn to slow things down, deepen the bond with Kyrene.

As for Johnny, can't think of much, except he managed to keep sane in his work and survived a year of being the sole breadwinner for the family.

A challenging year for Kyrene but she learns. Probably I am giving her too much stress in schoolwork???

Lucky for us, we still managed a few overseas holidays as a family. Quite a number of short trips to Malaysia, a trip to Hong Kong, and coming up next, Shanghai.

The most joyous event for us is probably we are getting a new addition to the family at the end of the year :)

Is it the environment or our human body?

Sometime ago, Kyrene developed some rashes over her body. We brought her to the doctor, as usual, was unable to deduce if its a case of food or dust or skin allergy. Or it could be just a case of what we used to call when we were younger, "feng mo" in Chinese. We suspected that it could be dust or dirt. These days, we make sure the surroundings are clean for the kids, very particular about their personal hygiene, etc. I somehow felt that they are too "pampered" that when come into contact with little contamination, they fall sick. For Kyrene, the rashes went away after 2 days. It strike again during National Day eve when she had a mini sport day in school. That really confirm that it was dust/dirt that she was allergic to cos she developed rashes on her legs after sitting on the floor. When we were at Port Dickson, the swimming pool water must have been dirty cos her rashes came back again. The only cure was to give her anti-itch medicine and apply calamine lotion.

Just last weekend, it was my turn. I woke up on Fri morning to find some red spots. It went away after I applied some anti bacteria powder. But that very night, the rashes got really bad and I couldn't sleep the whole day cos of the itch. I suffered real bad cos I could not take any medicine just like that. To be on the safe side, I went to KKH 24Hr Clinic to have it checked. I was sent to the Delivery Suite for observation for half an hour, then the duty doctor asked me for my medical history, then he said the rashes don't look serious, and sent me home with some anti itch medication. The rashes went away the next day. In the end, just like Kyrene's case, no conclusion if I was suffering from food or dust allergy.

Years back, I had similar attack. I recalled I went to SGH A&E at midnight. After 3 hrs of waiting, took blood test, and the doctor just said, they can't find what is the cause of the rash. They said if I am really need to know what I am allergic to, then to take the allergy test which cost a few hundred dollars. I didn't of course. My only deduction is that I may be sensitive to protein. That time, I ate too much egg whites and seafood and that could have triggered the rashes.

The rashes episode really set me thinking... why are we getting it so easily these days? Is it our environment more polluted? Or is it our body immune systems are weaker?

Catch up

Wow, didn't realised it has been 3 weeks that we have not updated our blog. LH, ok, I admit I am one of those that don't update our blog regularly.

So, what's up lately? Now, let me try to recall...

After the Port Dickson trip during National Day holidays, we haven't been anywhere else. Johnny wanted to travel again, either Port Dickson, KL, Cherating, anywhere that we can afford or I can still go, except those that involves ferry or boat ride. Johnny suffers from severe sea-sickness these days, don't know why. Guess I have been a spoil sport, keep reminding him that I am not working, so we should not spend unnecessarily.

Kyrene has developed some unwillingness to go to school. We spent a lot of time trying to find out what's wrong. I figured that it is because at home, she gets a lot of attention, but in school, her teacher pays more attention to the rest of the kids, rather than her. She is starting to get lazy to do her school work, or even to use her brain. She complains that school is boring. As I shared with Johnny, this is part of kids growing up, they go through this phase. Kyrene just got to learn that she cannot be in the limelight all the time. Anyway, to cut it short, I learn a lot about kids, bringing up kids, etc, eversince I became a SAHM.

What did we do during Sep school holidays? Johnny took a week leave to keep us company. For the 1st few days, we basically went out shopping everyday. We went to check out Giant supermarket at Tampines. That day, while we were at Suntec, we decided to catch a movie. Think it is the 1st time that I watched a movie with Johnny at the cinema. 2nd time with Kyrene. On Fri evening, brought her over to Eng Huat's place, while she spent time with Isaac, we, adults, enjoyed our steamboat dinner.

Kyrene must have enjoyed the outing to Wild Wild Wet on 8Sep, Sat. She got to have lots of fun with Ernest, Kayla and Steffi. She enjoyed but I suffered after that, because I came down with a cold. The cold developed into cough (which I hate most) on Sun. Especially during this time when I can't anyhow take medicine. Got doctor's appointment on Mon, so I asked for some cough syrup. Strangely, I feel that the cough syrup is kind of strong, it makes me loose my voice and drowsy. But am getting better...

No time to update our blog these days...

Not sure how many people actually read this blog but got to admit that we have not been updating it as often as we should be. Time is never enough for me (helena). Probably I spent more time resting my body these days.

During the National Day period, we went for another short getaway. We went back to Port Dickson but stayed at Avillion Port Dickson Premium Water Chalet this time. We went to the place with Billy, Grace & Isaac. Overall, the trip is ok, except that Kyrene developed rashes just before the trip and during the trip. Kyrene is very sensitive these days, we suspect her rashes were due to the dirty water in the swimming pool in Avillion. When she's at the beach, she's ok. Johnny tried his hand at fishing (the very reason why he wants to go back to Port Dickson again and again) but no luck this time. One unforgettable thing that happened over there is probably Isaac decided to "bomb" at the restuarant where we were having breakfast on the last day. Gosh, should see how we quickly got out of the restuarant and rush him back to the chalet to wash up.

If you were to ask us, we prefer The Legend Water Chalet over Avillion. Johnny wants to go back again, I have to remind him we have to wait till next year to travel again.

2 more weeks and its going to be Sep sch hols. Gotta make plans for Kyrene to keep her busy :)

Hong Kong Trip

2 weeks ago, we went to Hong Kong for a week or so to visit Keith, Pris and their families. Oh, how Karis has grown! As she just recovered from a bad bout of fever & flu, she lost a bit of weight. But she is still sooooo cute...

It was pretty much eat, sleep, swim, shop in Hong Kong. Places of interest that we went were Ocean Park, The Peak & Disneyland. Probably because we have been to the Disneyland in LA & Tokyo, the one in Hong Kong was quite a disappointment. We felt that the entrance fee is expensive, the place is small thus not too many rides & the parade is much smaller scale. By late afternoon, we were not enjoying the place and just wanted to get back to the hotel, not even wanting to stay till 8pm for the fireworks.

We extended our stay for a day to make a 2D1N trip to Macau. We stayed at Westin Resort Macau, thanks to the wonderful recommendation of Pris. We like the place very much as it is tucked in a quiet corner of Macau, away from the Casino. We did nothing but eat & swim at the resort. Kyrene loves the swimming pool.

Before we knew it, it was time to head back home. Now, we looking forward to the next holiday, coming up in Aug... heehee... :)

Mid Year School Holidays is over

Time really flies... Kyrene's 1 month Jun school holidays is over. So, what did we do during the school holidays?

No overseas holidays this time. Signed Kyrene up for 2 school holidays program, one in the 1st week, and the 2nd during the 3rd week of school holidays. Its a 3-day program each. The 1st one is about environment/recycling. She learnt to make crafts from recycle materials, the thing I am impressed was that they made a piece of recycle paper out of newspaper. They got to visit the New Water plant and Bedok Reservoir. The 2nd program is about food and science. They learnt to make chocolate cookies, jelly and how to season a chicken. For the outing, they went to Farm Mart to see goat, cow, quail, frog, organic vegatables farm.

In between Kyrene's school holiday programs, we arranged to meet up some friends and their kids. Kyrene had a great time with Ernest, Kayla, Huixin & Huiyin at the zoo. Then, she also got to meet Adeline & Anne where they had an hour of fun at Safra Toa Payoh Kids Adventure Land. Other days, she was just following me to run some errands and shopping.

It was pretty much a no school work or studying school holidays for her. Well, give her a break,she probably won't have achance to relax once into primary school.