Sleepless in Singapore

Before we came back, I was telling Louis that the jetlag that will hit Faith upon our return isn't going to be easy nor pretty. It isn't and its only been 1 night. I figured that we've got at least another 3 nights or more to endure before her body gets on track and back to Singapore time.

We arrived back in Singapore at 7.50 am yesterday morning. Louis didn't sleep a wink on the nearly 13 hours flight back. I caught about 1 hour's worth of nap cos I only slept about 3 hours the night before. And our dear daughter slept maybe about a total of 3 hours in all. So, you can imagine how exhausted we all were when we reached home.

Becos there was still such a long day ahead for all of us, we took a 2-hour nap after we got home, waking up only at 2 pm.

By evening time, we were zonked out and so it was early to bed for us. Faith went to bed at 8.30 pm and us, at 9 pm.

At 12.15 am, Faith woke up crying. She signed to us with her fingers to her mouth that she wanted milk (yes, she uses the same sign for eating and drinking). I didn't want to nurse her becos I know she wasn't hungry, just that she wanted to latch on and fall asleep. So, I tried cuddling her and pacifying her. She tossed and turn and flipped all over the bed, not able to sleep.

At 1 am, I decided to let her latch on and nurse. After 1/2 hour of latching on, she still didn't want to sleep. Again, I hugged and patted her to no avail. At half past 2 am, she again cried and signed that she wanted to drink more milk. Even though I know that I'm a human pacifier, I decided to let her latch on again. Yet, she still was awake after nearly 45 mins of suckling. By then, I feel like I'm all sucked dry!

I decided not to let her latch on any further, which of cos led her to howl and cry foul. And cried she did for 10-15 minutes. Louis, who woken up earlier at 12-ish when Faith woke hasn't slept since then. Instead, he used the time to check his emails and replied to some.

At 3.30 am, after Faith had cried and howled non-stop for 15 minutes without letting up, he told me that maybe we shouldn't force her to sleep. Especially when we know its the jetlag at work.

By this time, he wasn't the least bit sleep. I wasn't the least bit sleepy. Faith was definitely not sleepy in the least!

Hence, our little family trooped out of the bedroom and decided to watch some TV in the living room. Something that we've never done before with Faith. Ever.

I was feeling a little hungry and was thinking to raid the cupboard to make some instant noodles. Louis said he was feeling hungry too and asked me what do I think about having some McDonalds burger. Mmmm... seems fatty and sinful for the wee hours of the morning, but it sounded absolutely fantastic to me though.

Breaking yet another rule again, the 3 of us headed out of the house and into the car in our jammies to head to the drive-in Mac's and bought 2 McSpicy burgers. As I was downstairs at the carpark, I was surreptitiously looking around to see if anyone was about.

After all, it was 4 am in the morning and an ungodly hour for anyone to be about, what more a toddler. But there we were, and I was half-afraid that someone would pop into my view, scream and point their fingers at me and call me a horrible mom for bringing a toddler out at 4 am in the morning.

In my defence, I've never done this before and I know its the jetlag at work. I could continue to try to force Faith to sleep, but its going to an unpleasant affair for all of us. Plus, we're only making exceptions becos of the jetlag.

Thankfully, other than a little army of people focused on loading, unloading and packing the morning papers for distribution -- which they were too engrossed and busy to look at us -- nobody was about. We made our trip to Macs, got our burgers and made it home uneventfully.

Back home, we chomped hungrily into our burgers. Faith had some water and organic rice crackers to eat too as we all settled into our living room floor to watch TV. After our wee hour breakfast, we headed back to our room to enjoy the air-con and Faith was entertained with her Little LeapTouch toy.

At 5.15 am, afraid that she would be hungry, I made her 125ml of milk, which she downed pretty quickly. Feeling a little sleepy myself by then, I decided to let her latch on and sleep.
This time around, she fell asleep after drinking for about 20 minutes. The time was 5.50 am and we had all been awake for nearly 6 hours.

Louis and I thankfully sink back to bed and fell asleep in mere seconds. I had no idea what time he woke up and went to work. I only hope he would be able to make it to the office and back home safely in one piece today cos I know the jetlag will hit him hard mid-day. He only survived on so little sleep.

As for Faith, she woke up (or rather we woke her up) at close to 1 pm today. We'll just have to see how tonight goes :) *fingers crossed*

Going home...

Three weeks isn’t a long time, but it feels like we’ve spent much more than 3 weeks in London. I don’t mean it in a bad way though. Its just that we did so many things that the days just seem to fill up quickly and fly by before we know it.

Undoubtedly, London is one of the easier cities to adapt to for a family like ours with a toddler. There’s no language barrier, public transport is easily accessible, safe portable water from the tap, ease of procuring food for Faith, a melting pot of nearly all the world cuisines, same electrical socket and voltage system. It is also where a few of our closer friends reside. Undeniably, it is also one of the more expensive places to live in.

Despite all its plus points (and obviously it has its quirks too), we are just relieved and glad that we would be homeward-bound on a flight in a few hours time. I used to believe in the saying that home is where the heart is.

Obviously, Louis and Faith are the closest and most important things in my heart. The fact that we are here in this city, together as a family does make the whole experience enjoyable (as compared to if Louis was here for weeks on end and Faith and I are back in Singapore).

Yet, there’s something tugging at our heartstrings even as we enjoy our time in London. It is something that calls to us whenever we are away overseas...something that draws us to want to head home.

A large part of that something is the strong family ties that we have back home: our parents, siblings, nieces and nephew. Most recently, in the last couple of years, there is also a very tangible place that we have acquired and call our home -- our sanctuary to retreat and recharge in order to face every new day.

These are the key things that call to us for every trip we make. The reasons why we will heave a sigh of relieve when we step onto the aerobridge of Changi Airport. Becos it brings us that much nearer to these things so close to our hearts.

So maybe, its really true that home is where the heart is. Wherever we are in the world, our hearts still stay in Singapore.

From Louis: In more ways than one, we’ve counted our blessings in being able to experience life like that as a family. I think Faith for example, has been probably one of the most fortunate kids we know and we hope she grows up appreciating these moments. Yet, when I look back at each trip we have taken as a family, it was always filled with a little trepidation. In all instances, a lot of courage was required. The thought of Faith getting sick when we’re miles away from home; of Eve getting sick with me still having to work and look after Faith etc – all these thoughts never cease to worry me each time I pack the whole family to trips like these. And I know it is not easy for Eve being with Faith cooped up in a hotel room - I guess one just has to experience it to know how easy it is to underestimate the strength and the will to go through this. In many ways, I will be happy when I get on board tomorrow’s flight just knowing that Eve and Faith have stayed healthy during this trip and work-wise, things have gone as smooth as they could have for me. As the perpetual optimist, I can only count my blessings, as I said. And for certain, when the plane touches down tomorrow at Changi, I’d be very relieved and will be elated to be home.

Last weekend in London

This is a day dedicated to food, both the taste and purchase of it. It was our last weekend in London and we agreed that we needed to revisit the Borough Market. Firstly, the taste of the roasted pork belly at Roast Restaurant was still lingering in my memory and I had to have it one last time. And secondly, we're going to make it to the front of the queue for those Spanish chorizo sandwiches that I was hankering for but were sold out last week.

As usual, we fed Faith her lunch in the room and rushed out to make it just in time for our lunch appointment at 2 pm. Faith fell asleep by the time we reached the London Bridge tube station. So, Louis and I had a peaceful time eating our salad while she slept in her stroller. However, she woke up just as we were being served our mains ;)

I had the roasted pork belly and Louis, the organic skirt steak. Unfortunately, the pork belly was a little of a disappointment this time around. I felt that it was a little too salty and the crust a little overdone. So, while the skin was crispy, it was a little hard, leaving one with a slightly overworked jaw at the end.

The skirt steak was fabulously done. It was grilled to perfection and we had it rare, as recommended. Thankfully, it was a nice red, not bloody when you cut through it. But the taste of it was awesome, leaving a nicely charred and smoky taste in the mouth. It was of course, very tender. Although it came with a sauce, which was rather nice too, Louis had it on its own becos he liked the taste of the smoky flavour of the beef.


We were rather full after lunch but I insisted that we should stand in line at the queue for the chorizo sandwiches. Like last week, it was a long queue, but that didn't deter us one bit. While Louis was queuing for the sandwiches, I told him that I would take Faith along with me to the other end of the Borough Market.

I wanted to see if it was possible for me to get some preserved lemons as I wanted make a lemon & olives chicken tagine. I certainly got more than the preserved lemons. I ended up tasting and buy 2 different bottles of flavoured balsamic vinegars (one with orange and the other, berry fruits), and some Moroccan amlou, a dipping paste made of argan oil, ground almonds and honey.

Loaded with all my purchase, I made my way back to where Louis was. Instead, we met midway in the market and he had the prized chorizo sandwich in hand. And that was some kick-ass chorizo sandwich that we bought.

Even though we were both stuffed, the chorizo sandwich was certainly very moreish. The sandwich was essentially a ciabatta-like bread, filled with roasted red capsicum and rockets. What made them so moreish I guess was the fats from the fried, and then grilled chorizos, flavouring the entire sandwich. We all know how flavourful fats are, even though they are so not good for one's health :)


But I had my limits and I had to call a halt after 3-4 bites. Louis wafed the rest of the sandwich down and we both headed back to the store again. Not to get another sandwich, but to buy the specific chorizos that were being used in the sandwich. And while I was there, I saw another dried type of chorizo and we ended up buying that as well.

Louis was shaking his head and groaning when he saw the amount of foodstuff I had bought. But I rationalised that we wouldn't be coming back to London for a while and I would be filled with eternal regret if I didn't purchase any of the stuff. I further assured him that he would be too -- cos I would be nagging at him for the rest of my life for it. Faced with such convincing reasons, of course he couldn't deny his wife these few purchases. But he did say we really have to look into buying a cheap luggage for the excess stuff we've been accumulating. Oops... :)

We headed back to the hotel after Borough Market and fed Faith her afternoon milk. She refused to go down for a nap since she had a short one earlier. As there was still some time before dinner, we decided to head out to the London Eye area to walk around, ride the carousel and watch the water fountains on display.

Being the weekend, it was extremely crowded and packed to the hilt with tourists. We spent some time watching a group of young, well-muscled men performing some cool break dance.



Then, we took a ride on the carousel. Faith and I were kicking our heels in delight during the ride, with Louis trying to take pictures of us with one hand. At the end of the ride, he said he felt a little giddy. Maybe it was becos he was focusing on the small camera screen while the horse was turning.


Still, we decided to walk on further to see the interactive fountain that was on display at the Royal Festival Hall. Louis ran with Faith in his arms to try standing at one quadrant of the fountain to see if they wouldn't get drenched. Of course they did! Louis sheltered Faith with his body but he ended up getting wet. Faith wasn't too happy about getting wet in her clothes and made it known to her dad in no uncertain terms :)

For 2 days in a row, I bought a scope of ice-cream in a cone from a side store, Minghella. Supposedly, they had 44 Great Taste Awards, was the Best British Speciality Food in 2006 and World's Most Delicious Ice Cream based on a Sunday Times Style Magazine May 2007 issue. I decided to have the strawberry flavour ice-cream today. I think the verdict is out that Faith loves strawberry ice-cream -- as opposed to the chocolate ice-cream that I bought yesterday. She kept wanting to lick and hold the ice-cream cone :)



We walked back to our hotel room after the interactive fountain, with Faith tightly gripping the last bit of her empty ice-cream cone.

We'll be heading back to Singapore on Tuesday and given the 7-hour time difference, we're trying to get Faith to sleep earlier starting from today. Hence, dinner tonight and for the next few nights would be somewhere near the hotel or packed-in so that she can sleep earlier.

As much as we have all enjoyed our time in London, we're really glad that we're going home soon. There's just no place like home. Especially now that Louis and I are parents, we feel the need to be nearer to home whenever possible. The key reason is of course becos of Faith. Admittedly, its easier becos we have the help of our parents back home. But the most important reason for me to want to be home is that I think Faith misses playing with her cousins and especially, both sets of grandparents. Thus, our time away from home is time away from them.

Mama yay...

This morning, Faith was holding on to my cellphone, pointing and saying to me, "Mama Yay...".

"Oh...do you miss Mama? Do you want to call Mama?", I said. I thought that she was referring to my mom, whom she calls Mama (don't ask...that's what my mom wants to be called).

My daughter just blink her eyes and looked at me.

Evening time, Louis came back from work. While I was preparing Faith's dinner, he was playing with her on our bed cos she woke up late from her afternoon nap. From the kitchenette where I was prepping her food, I can heard the conversation going on between the father and daughter.

Faith was "talking" to her Papa and she said "Mama yay" to him. "Ah... Faith wants to sing that song, is it?", he asked.

Louis then turned around and asked me aloud, "Darling, how do you sing that Hippo song?".

What hippo song??!!

Then it strike me. Ohhh... that hippo song! Its the Happy Hippo Singing - The Lion Sleeps Tonight song. Its the video clip that we both now have on our cellphones, which we more or less play for her every night in a bid to get her to drink her bedtime milk.

So, my daughter was trying to tell me this morning about the Happy Hippo video clip on my cellphone. She wasn't trying to tell me about my mom.

DUH!!!

Anyways, here's the lyrics for it and the portion highlighted in red was what Faith was attempting to sing, although she sings it as "mama-yay".

The Lion Sleeps Tonight

(We-de-de-de, de-de-de-de-de de, we-um-um-a-way)

(We-de-de-de, de-de-de-de-de de, we-um-um-a-way)

(A-weema-weh, a-weema-weh, a-weema-weh, a-weema-weh)

(A-weema-weh, a-weema-weh, a-weema-weh, a-weema-weh)

In the jungle, the mighty jungle

The lion sleeps tonight

In the jungle the quiet jungle

The lion sleeps tonight

Near the village the peaceful village

The lion sleeps tonight

Near the village the quiet village

The lion sleeps tonight

Hush my darling don't fear my darling

The lion sleeps tonight

Hush my darling don't fear my darling

The lion sleeps tonight

On the carousel

There were all sorts of people who sat on the carousel. Children, obviously, rode on it. There were the parents accompanying their young children, teenagers, tattooed punks and even middle age ladies.

Every time Faith and I pass the carousel, we'll linger for a while to watch the people ride the fairy-tale-like ponies. I only saw carousels in my late teens when I travelled to the US for the first time. I've never in my life rode on one. I'd never thought that I would ride one.

Yet I did. Today with Faith.

First time for the both of us.

It was fun in a non-exciting kind of way. Me and my girl, sitting together on the horsey. Round and round we went for 3 and 1/2 minutes of ride. Faith was unfazed by the whole thing...although she seemed to get the hang of it after a while.

I caught a slight smile on her face a few times. And she even lifted her two hands off the pole to hold it up in the air, as if she's enjoying the slight breeze that comes with the up-and-down motion of the horse we were on.

Unfortunately, my camera does not have a wide-angle lens to allow me to capture the 2 of us together with the horse that we rode on. No matter. It was fun! I would do it again with her soon.

At the Borough with Paula

We finally got to meet up with Paula on Sat. This is one busy girl who's racing to do her lab research and get her thesis completed by September. Hence, we only met up after we've been in London for 2 weeks.

This lucky girl stays near the Tower Bridge, but that's not why she's lucky. She's lucky becos she stays within walking distance of the Borough Market. Paula's been telling me about it but it was only my first visit last Sat. And I wished I had gone there earlier.

Its like the open markets (or Marches) in France. Walking through it is like reliving the old memories of the open markets in Fonty. There were lots of vendors selling food like olives, cheese, French deli food (pates, cassoulet, wines), vegetables and fruits, artisan breads, dips and a whole lot more.

The entire place is so vibrant and alive with people and hunger-inducing wafts of food. We spent some time queuing for some Chorizo sandwich only to be told halfway that they were all sold out. Drats! I had wanted badly to taste the chorizo to see if they were as authentic as the ones that our Spanish friends have given us. Unfortunately, it wasn't to be for that day. Hopefully, we'll have time to go back another time so that we can make a queue for it again.

We spent some time walking the market and also tasting some of the food that were being put on display. I bought some organic strawberry ice-cream and shared that with Faith. She seemed to love it a lot :)

Lunch was at the Roast Restaurant, situation within the Borough Market itself. Louis had saw the advertorial for it on the mobile TV of a London Cab and it seemed to come highly recommended. The restaurant prides itself for using daily market produce from Borough and organic meats wherever possible.

We ordered the fish & chips and the roasted pork belly on the recommendation of the waitress. The roasted pork belly was absolutely delish! Not unlike the Chinese version of roast pork, the skin of the pork belly was crackling and crispy. There was a thin layer of fat, which I cut off but the rest of the meat was fork-tender and fragrant with a hint of herb that was rolled with it. All it, the pork belly made a lasting impression on both Louis and I. Enough that we would want to go back for another taste of it before we head back to Singapore.

After whiling away some time at the Borough Market, we headed towards the direction of the Tower Bridge, walking past the London Bridge too. Did the usual touristy thing and took some photos before we headed back home.

Milestones

As parents, I realise that we have been recently taking Faith's milestones for granted. While we used to have to wait weeks on end to see her flip, and then sit up, then crawl, she is now doing something new practically everyday.

Running - Our little girl has reached the stage where she just likes 'running' around. Either with hands angled behind her torso, or with hands up in the air, she is now in the habit of literally stumbling forward.



Singing - We recently downloaded a Happy Hippo - Lion sleeps Tonight video on our phone for Faith - one of the usual things we play now to distract her when we want to change her diapers, or to keep her occupied. Just today, I had returned from the Hague and was humming the tune with Faith in my arms. And she actually started "mum mumming" to the tune of the song. At first I found it rather hard to believe and felt that it was perhaps just random humming. But I realised that as I repeated my humming, her humming also followed the same rhythm and ups and downs of the song. Yay Faith! :)

Packing - Faith is now in the mood of packing things into plastic bags - more accurately, she likes picking up the plastic bag, dragging it along with her, and then throwing random things she finds on the floor, into the bag. Favourite objects include her toys, shoes and socks.

Pressing the lift button - Kids, they say, press any buttons they see in sight - Faith is no exception. Now when we go out of the hotel room, the first thing we ask Faith to do is to help us press for the lift. She's quite good at it given that she can just barely reach the "down" button, so isn't able to confuse it with the "up" button. As with most kids, however, it's hard to stop her pressing the button just once.

Responding - The most fun part of this however must be the fact that we can talk to Faith pretty much like how we would communicate to an adult- with a high chance she'd be able to understand us. Besides asking her to press the lifts, remove her toys, or that the light is hot and hence a caution not to touch it, Faith seems to be gradually getting better at understanding and responding to our words.

Showing her impatience - We knew the day would come. Sigh. Our little girl is now starting to get a little impatient when her tired parents fall a little behind. A simple example, she waits rather impatiently at the door once she wears her shoes. A little longer and she sometimes just looks at us, and taps the door impatiently, signalling for us to move faster.

I'm sure I have not listed all her milestones that she has developed in the past 3 weeks here in London. But it'd probably be easier for Family back home to realise all these changes when we return back to Singapore in late July/early August (fingers crossed).

What do we do in London

If you asked me if its tough travelling and living overseas for short periods with a kid, I would say that this is our best trip so far. Discounting holiday trips, of course.

Not that its not difficult. Faith has her moments of crankiness and being naughty.

Perhaps she's getting older and slowly learning to be independent. Perhaps its becos we have made more effort this trip to make the hotel room as familiar as possible to home with her toys and DVDs and other knick-knacks. Perhaps its also becos London is one of those cities that is very livable and easily adaptable. Maybe its a combination of all the above that has made this trip actually pleasant. That is if you set your expectations right.

When my younger SIL knew that we were headed towards London, she said that I could go back to Paris, which she knew I love. If it was just Louis and me, without a doubt, we'll take the Eurostar to Paris and spend days reliving all the things and food we enjoy in Paris.

With a toddler on hand and a routine that we try hard to adhere to, the 2-hour train ride to Paris and the huge load of things we have to chug along just made the whole idea seem daunting.

Still, don't get me wrong. Its not that London is not fun for us. But instead of thinking about hitting the Oxford Street, Knightsbridge, SOHO or all those shopping areas to make the best of the summer sale that's ongoing, I've tempered most of my shopaholic inclinations.

Instead of going shopping, I now check out if there are farm visits, parks or other toddler-friendly activities that we can go to. Not that we managed to go any of these yet. Largely becos we spent last weekend with the Wenkans and also going heavy-weight groceries.

Whatever the weather, I make it a point to bring Faith out for a walk everyday. Be it a trip to the nearby cafes, the grass patch by London Eye, cloudy or sunny skies. Cos its hard to contain her within the four walls of the hotel room everyday. So, the time out serves for Faith to get her daily dose of exercise, especially when she's so enthusiastic about walking these days. In fact, the trip out usually tire her enough that I don't have to fight too much to put her down for an afternoon nap.

Perhaps, we might take a short trip this weekend, weather permitting, to a nearby craft village and farm centre for a visit. Hopefully, there's lots of open space and grass where Faith can walk to her contentment without us having to worry that she might knock a tooth falling on the hard floor.

During the time that we're here, hopefully, we will eventually make it to one of the many parks in London e.g. Hyde Park, St James Park etc.

Even as I'm posting this piece about moderating shopping expectations, I brought Faith out to one section of Oxford St today. Originally, I had planned to head out with her after our lunch -- I wanted to check out some lightweight tights for her and also get some Clarks shoes (they have more designs here). As with all plans, Faith was cranky during and after her lunch, so I ended up letting her sleep first.

After she woke up nearly an hour later, I made her a bottle of milk and got her to drink it in record time. The time was nearly 4 pm by then but I still determinedly headed out with her, desperate to catch some shopping before dinner.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find the the specific H&M outlet (kids clothes are only in a few) nor the Clarks shop cos I went to the wrong tube station. So, I ended up buying her some t-shirts and a pair of jeans on sale from Marks & Spencer. Also managed to get a top for myself from H&M.

I went out without the stroller cos I wasn't sure how stroller-friendly the tube station along Oxford St would be. Luckily I didn't -- the tube's not stroller-friendly. Hence, I ended up carrying her for the most parts and for the rest, I partly held her hands or dragged her along -- cos Faith decided that she wanted to stop somewhere, go in some other directions, climb the stairs or escalator or pull out all the knee-height displays of clothes and accessories.

I must be a sucker for trouble becos I'm actually contemplating to go to Piccadilly Circus tomorrow becos I badly wanted to check out those Clarks kids shoes! I've done some homework and more or less memorise the rough location.

Wish me luck!

Spending the day with the Wenkans

I was 5 weeks pregnant with Faith when we took a trip to Pattaya to meet up with the Wenkan family as they were vacationing there for the summer holidays. We went ahead to take a flight becos I only found out about my pregnancy after all the air tickets and hotels were booked.

Fast forward to 1 year, 11 months later, we met again with the Wenkan family. This time, the place of rendezvous was in London.

Their family of 4 took a bus ride early in the morning from Cardiff to London to meet us last Sunday. The ride was 3 1/2 hours one way. It was a day trip for them and they would head back via the bus in the evening for another 3 1/2 hour ride.

Louis and I were extremely touched by their thoughtfulness for coming all the way down. We would probably have spent a weekend in Cardiff but the Wenkans are leaving for Taiwan this week and Sunday was the only time that they were available.

We didn't have anything planned. All we wanted was to see Nicolas, Lorenza, Keanu & Jonathan to catch up. What we did that day wasn't as important as catching up and seeing each other again after nearly 2 years.

In the end, we spent the day at the Science Museum after lunch cos the 2 boys wanted to visit. The 2 kids seemed to enjoy their time at the museum and found it extremely interesting. Nicolas said in his own worlds that he felt like sleeping while at the museum. Louis and I were mostly occupied with trying to chase Faith around the museum during the time that we were there.

Nonetheless, we still managed to chat and talk over lunch and tea at the museum while waiting for the kids to take the SpongeBob ride.

Becos we are all busy with our respective lives, we don't always catch up over the phone or emails. Yet, the time apart didn't seem to make that much of a difference when we finally do meet.

We are indeed fortunate to be able to take this trip to London, allowing us to meet these few close friends that we have made in our time in France.

Faith sleeps too late

We were walking along Wardour Street yesterday after dinner, a street off Leicester Square, on our way to the tube station when we passed by an elderly lady. She said loudly to us: "Its too late for her to be out!".

The time was about 9.50 pm.

My initial reaction was: "so what?". But on reflection, she was right.

Unfortunately, its true that Faith's been keeping lots of late nights since we arrived in London. Back in Singapore, she would be off to sleep sometime around 9.30 pm, sleeping until about 9-ish or 10 am the next morning. Here in London, time just seems to fly by even though we don't seem to do much.

Louis has been hard at work in the office. He leaves the room each morning before 8.30 am and mostly comes home around 7 pm or slightly after. So, Faith and I have one another for company until her Papa comes home, which is where we spend some family time.

Faith and I have settle into some sort of a routine in the day here. She wakes up at around 9-ish to 10 am every morning (she's gotten over her jetlag after about 4 days), I'll feed her, take my shower and hustle the 2 of us off for my breakfast. Then, we'll head back to bath her, rest a while, feed her lunch and then we'll head out again for me to have mine.

Lunchtime for me is usually around 2 pm or after, cos that's when I'm done with her. Some days I'll do a sit-down lunch at the many eateries near our hotel, or grab something quick to go. I replenish Faith's groceries about every 2-3 days and do our laundry around the same intervals too. Otherwise, I try to bring her to the nearby patch of grass near London Eye so that she could walk around.

Before you know it, its past 4 pm and its time to head back to the hotel room for Faith's afternoon milk feed and a nap. By the time she wakes again, its usually early evening and time for her dinner.

Our preference here is to feed her dinner in the room before we go out for ours. The key reason is that she's very distracted these days and its just simpler for everyone else to feed her first. The other reason is that sometimes, the places that we go to do not have baby chairs, which makes feeding her twice as hard and challenging.

So, by the time we actually step out, its usually closer to 8 pm. Since all of us live and work around Waterloo area and eat there for lunch, the tendency is to want to go somewhere different for dinner. And thus, we take the train, have dinner, take the train back and viola! It is past 10pm... long past her sleeping time.

Still, I do think there's some truth in that old lady's words and we should try as much as possible not to let her sleep too late. Yet, we ourselves do need a break too and going for a decent dinner everyday is a relaxing wind down ritual for Louis and me.

Louis would be heading off to Hague for 3 days starting on Wed. Faith and I would stay in London. At least for the next 2 nights, Faith should be able to sleep earlier.

Here's some pictures of our family, taken near places where we have our dinners.

London Eye

Make hay while the sun shines. That's exactly what we did yesterday when the sun was out and everything was so bright and sunny.

Now I understand why the Londoners rejoice at whatever brief spells of sunny weather that they get in a year. Or rather, I can understand why London parents do. Its tough to be trapped in the house with an energetic kid on hand.

There was quite a bit of things that we had to do in the day, including getting our clothes laundered. Thankfully, the hotel provides a complimentary laundry room. You only need to get your own washing powder. Unlike most of those commercial or hotel laundromat that you see, this one is actually pretty good. They use what looked top end Miele washing machines and tumblers.

Becos I wanted to bring Faith out for a walk while the weather was good, I decided to try to rush all of Faith's morning routine plus put the clothes to wash and dry at around the same time. Thus, when Faith woke up, I fed her oats, took my shower, changed her and we both headed out for breakfast. After breakfast, I brought our clothes to the laundry at the basement of the hotel to put to wash.

As we had a significant amount of clothes piled up between the 3 of us by then, there were 2 big bags of washing that I had to get to the laundry. Instead of making 2 trips, I got Faith to walk/wobble all the way from our room to the laundry room. She did well walking/wobbling on her own with some bit of encouragement.

After we put the clothes in, I took her back up and gave her a bath. She's enjoying her bath time in the big tube. That seems to be what she looks forward to each day. After her bath, I hurried down with her to transfer the washed clothes to the tumbler.

Satisfied, we both came back up again, fed Faith her mid-morning milk and put her down for a nap. By the time she woke up past 12.30 pm for her lunch, I took her down to collect the washed and dried clothes back up. Again, she had to walk back on her own on the return trip cos I had both my hands full.

By the time she had her lunch and we both washed up a little and head out, it was past 2 pm. Deciding against having my lunch since the weather was just so good too pass up, I took her for a walk towards the direction of the London Eye and the Thames River, since we were just 5 minutes away from them.

It was such a gorgeous and beautiful day that everyone must have felt the same. When we reach the bottom of the London Eye, there was a massive queue of people waiting for their turns to board the observation wheel! Having had our ride on Singapore's own SG Flyer, we weren't hyped up to want to go up the London Eye, especially with the queue.

Nonetheless, its one of London's famous landmark and it was time for us to be touristy and whip out the good 'ole camera for some picture time :) Going pass the crowds at London Eye, you could see the Thames River running. To the left of the London Eye was the Westminster and Big Ben. We both walked along there for a little while.

Again, I let her out of her stroller to walk a bit. She was pretty happy to do so, but there was just too many people walking along the riverside. Plus it was a hard floor that she might fall onto. She wasn't too happy and made a lot of noise protesting her displeasure when I put her back into her stroller.

We turned back towards the direction where we came from and walk the other end. Here, there were lots of buskers plying their trade, amusing, posing and entertaining the largely touristy crowd.

Interestingly, there's a guy who is like an invisible man, dressed up in suit and bowler hat, flipping newspapers. There was a ring of people gathered around him trying to see where the busker was.

My conclusion after scrutinising him was that he/she must be a pint-size person such that the head probably reach to the shoulders of the tux. Cos the hands and ankles are quite delicate, rather like one of a teenage or a young child.

Coming across a patch of grass plot, I decided to free Faith from the confines of the stroller and let her walk around. She's definitely into walking these days... she wants to walk everywhere. Certainly, she was cheered at being given the freedom of walk around.



We headed back to the room after a while for Faith's afternoon milk and nap. The sun and fresh air did her good cos she slept for a long time. After she woke and had her dinner, the daddy and both of us headed off to Leicester Square for our dinner. Louis and I decided to take the Tube for a few stops towards Satsuma, a Japanese casual dining place that we ate before on our last trip to London.

It was late by the time we reached home after dinner. Faith was as usual, all tuckered out by the day's events.

Without realising it, so was I. The insomnia that I had while back in Singapore seemed to disappear while I'm here. Maybe cos my days are filled with chores and activities from the time I wake up :)

Faith doing the handstand

Don't know what prompted the little one to do handstands on her own. But she was doing it after we came back from breakfast.

Was also game enough to do a few more times for me to take a nice picture.

I just love when she's being cheeky :)

Wet & dreary day

Usually, I wouldn't mind a little bit of rain... if I was alone and not trying to push a stroller with Faith in it. Without an umbrella.

Thankfully it wasn't a heavy rain. I guess you could classify it as the typical dreary and wet day that London seemed to be notorious for. Still, we ended up somewhat wet and poor Faith had her feet and parts of her legs splattered with rain. I totally forgot about bringing along the rain cover for the stroller.

The reason why we still ventured out even though it was raining? We made a pact to meet Manisa and Saniya. Saniya's been eager to meet us and Faith ever since she was told that we would be in London. And I needed to replenish the woefully miserable vegetables that I'm left with for Faith's meals.

We took the Tube from Waterloo to Canary Wharf. It was a good trip. Faith had her morning nap and lunch, so she was in a fairly good mood to venture out with her mad mum. Even if it meant getting wet with the rain and all. She acquiesced to me taking a picture of her while waiting at the platform for the train. How could I resist? I needed to take a picture of Faith in the Tube, the quintessential mode of public transport in London :)

While waiting for Manisa and Saniya to arrive, we took more pictures. Being Faith's first time in London, she decided to consult the Tube map, as well as to check out TimeOut's brochure on the current summer activities that are ongoing all over the city. Hmmm.... looks like she's going to follow in the footsteps of her father, planning down to the minute details for all our overseas trip. Hahaha...

Deciding that she was bored after some time, she wanted to get off her stroller and walk around. I ended up chasing her around the station with the stroller, worried that she might wander too far away on her own and cry when she is confronted by the number of people going in and out of the station.

When Manisa and Saniya arrived, we headed to one of the malls connected to the station to take a look. Originally, we wanted to go to Vodafone to get me a pay-as-you-go SIM card. Somehow, there was a miscommunication and we ended up cancelling the line after we got it. For one reason or another, the staff cancelled Manisa's existing line instead of the new SIM. Sigh... She spent nearly an hour at the shop waiting for them to undo their mistakes.

While Manisa was waiting for the Vodafone staff to rectify the problem, Faith was squirming in her stroller. Ended up taking her out for a walk, with Saniya and myself trailing after her. Halfway through, afraid that Faith would be tired out and needed to head back for her milk and nap, I told Manisa that I would meet her at Waitrose so that I can quickly grab the few items that I didn't manage to do so the day before.


As usual, I let Faith out of her stroller to walk around as I browsed the aisles. Regrettably, my very mobile and somewhat independent toddler decided that she would like to grab, touch, pull and rearrange whatever items on the shelves that were within her reach. I ended up doing a 2-step dance of sorts -- looking for what I wanted, as well as keeping an eye on her from the side to make sure she didn't upend everything on the shelves onto the floor.

Amidst chastising her for her mischievous acts, I was also the proud mum -- my daughter is now able to trail and wobble behind me as I shop. Now that she's walking, there are times when its easier to bring her out. At least, she can be pacified and distracted by walking, instead of being confined to the stroller in the earlier days when she could only sit or crawl.

By the time I checked out my items, Manisa was done too. We decided to head to her home. Unfortunately, it was still raining. At this point, Faith decided that she didn't want to go back into her stroller. She bawled and scream and cried whenever I tried to put her in.

Finally, we decided that I would carry her in my arms while Manisa would push the stroller and help carry my purchases. Manisa had brought along 2 umbrellas. Since I didn't have one, she insisted that I took one, passed her remaining one to Saniya and she walked back the entire trip without one, getting her hair and clothes fairly drenched. I felt pretty bad about it, but Faith clamped herself tightly to me and wouldn't let go. Sigh..

After Faith napped and woke, Saniya and her played for a while. Faith took a while to get used to Saniya's enthusiasm though :) She cheered up considerably when her daddy arrived. We cooked Faith's porridge with Manisa's pressure cooker. After we were done, we headed out to Royal China for dinner.

Royal China is a Chinese restaurant that serves pretty good Chinese restaurant fare. It was Louis and my favourite Chinese place when we were there nearly 2 years ago. That time, Faith was with us too, but I was expecting her then. It would be so interesting to revisit some of these sights that we went when we were here last time. This time, with her in the picture :)

By the time we were done with dinner, it was past 10 pm and Faith was all tired out from the day's events as well as some remnants bit of jet lag. She fell asleep quickly on the short ride from the restaurant to the train station and remained in deep sleep all the way from the Tube ride to our hotel.

Through it all, the rain did not let up. It continued to fall in a slight but steady stream. What a thoroughly wet and dreary day.

No matter how I look at it, its always more enjoyable to view a blog that's plastered with pictures. In order to put some pictures online, I'm just writing and rambling about nothing and anything so that I can put up some images today :)

Partly, I feel its becos a picture says a thousand words and that it also spice up the blog and makes it more colourful. While we have not made it out of London to take any of the numerous landmarks and sights that this bustling city is famous for, we did take up pictures while in the hotel in our short time here.

Here's one of Faith and the dad, clowning around in the room and taking pictures of all the silly little things.

Like most kids, Faith loves to play in the water, be it the little green bathtub at home, the big tub in the hotel rooms or swimming pools. This hotel bathtub is no exception.

The weather in London is slightly colder today. I haven't stepped out yet, but from the weather forecast on my laptop, its supposed to be 13C and is expected to be rainy most of the day. Looking out of the window, the sky outside seems overcast too.

Strangely, it actually doesn't bother me that much, the fact that the weather is gloomy. In fact, I enjoy the cold, which is a relief from the extreme heat and humidity back home. But for Faith's sake, I do hope the sunny skies will return cos I could hopefully bring her to the park to run around.

In London

Faith is taking her afternoon nap as I'm writing this post. Hopefully, she will get to sleep some 1-2 hours as she woke up at 7 am London time this morning and didn't get to sleep at all in the morning.

Our flight to London was a fairly good one on account that Faith was mostly well behaved. No temper tantrums of any kind for being confined in the narrow space for more than 13 hours. She was entertained on the flight with the controls and gadgets found on the seats, as well her Barney VCDs/DVDs that we played for her on a portable DVD player. In between, we let her walk around near the aisles and galley of plane so that she can get whatever little bit of exercise.

There was a family of 3 sitting behind us on board the plane. I believed that the young boy in the family is autistic, cos he didn't really talk much, mainly screamed and grunt whenever he's upset or even happy. I'm filled with admiration for the mom cos even though it can be tiring to bring Faith on board the plane especially on long trips, its nowhere as difficult or tiring as compared.

What's even more admirably about the mom was that she was rather cheerful and positive throughout the trip. She didn't lose her cool but speak calmly and normally to her son whenever he was in a snit.

Even though I've been to London a few times, I've never passed through Heathrow Airport. In fact, yesterday was the first time that I arrived in London through Heathrow and I must say it didn't set a good impression. Even though our flight to London was shorter than expected, we ended up circling in the air becos there was a long queue of other flights taking off or landing.

Upon landing, we had to wait nearly an hour in the plane becos it was so crowded that there was no available berth for the plane to park. By the time we actually cleared customs and got out of Heathrow, it was past 8 pm London time, even thought we were in London slightly past 6 pm. Oh... I forgot to add that the queue at the customs check point was ridiculously long...thankfully, we were given priority clearance and managed to get out ahead of everyone else at the regular queue.

The trip from the hotel to the airport was short. After checking into our room, I quickly put Faith to bed cos she was so tired out and didn't sleep much except for a total of 3 hours on board the flight. She was really zoned out as it was 4 am by Singapore time, way past her regular sleeping time.

This morning, she woke at 7 am London time. We had breakfast with Louis before he headed off to office. We spent the morning doing nothing much in the room. Faith had the pleasure of taking out every single item of toys from the luggage and placing different bits all around the hotel room. It was almost like she was staking her territory. In no time, the living room was like a disaster zone, strewn with all her toys. Still... whatever makes her happy makes me happy :)

She missed her morning nap cos just as I was going to put her down for her nap, Manisa arrived. After we fed Faith her lunch, we headed out to have ours before circling back to the Waterloo train station to recce the supermarkets and Boots for some daily necessities. Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury and Boots all had small outlets at the station. We managed to get things like diapers, toiletries and all, but not organic food for Faith.

Manisa told us to wait till tomorrow to go to the Waitrose at Canary Wharf. Cos, we're headed there tomorrow to spend the day with Manisa and Saniya (her 4-year old daughter). The Waitrose, Marks & Spencer and Tesco are all much bigger outlets than the ones at Waterloo. Sounds like a good plan cos I'm certain we would be able to get whatever that we need there.

Even though there's a sale ongoing in London during this period, I only have very simple wishes for this trip: mainly, that Faith would behave well on this trip and to spend some quality time catching up with a few very good and treasured friends living in London/Cardiff area. Anything else that I can do (e.g. sight-seeings, shopping, day-trips etc) other than the two listed is a bonus :)

Trip preparation

Even though its been said that there's not much difference in packing for a 3-day trip versus a 3-week trip, for me, I feel that there's a difference. At least there are when you're packing for trip with a toddler.

Part of the reason is that we have learned from our past trip experiences with Faith, especially now that she's a toddler and more aware of her environment. Hence, it is only natural that when we travel, she tends to be more clingy and fussy becos her familiar care-takers, surroundings, toys and play areas are no longer the same.

For short holiday trips, there's just no point for us to bring most of her toys along. So, we tend to take things that are easier to bring along, which usually tend to be a block toy or 2 and mainly books. Now that we are going for a 3-week trip, it definitely warrants us to bring along more of her toys that she plays with regularly, as well as her favourite sets of DVDs/VCDs of Barney and Sesame Street. No doubt, I ought to be flayed alive for letting her watch too many DVDs/VCDs at such a tender age, but what can I say? I'm no perfect mum and am the one with her 24x7 for the next 3 weeks in a totally different environment...

Still, even though it feels like we are packing nearly half our house into 2 luggage and maybe another cabin-size one, there are some pros to packing for a long trip. For one, I don't have to lug along all X days worth of diapers (plus a few extras for emergencies), as well as worrying about what non-perishable, yet tasty and nutritious food fto bring for the entire duration. I pack just enough to last me for a couple of days. We plan to hit the supermarket(s) the next day after we arrive.

Nonetheless, our 2 luggages are being filled to the brim with lots of clothes, mini kitchen, toiletries (Faith's mostly) and what-nots though. Even though its summer, we're heading towards London and the current temperature is about 12C-22C. So, I brought along a little of every type of clothes for the cold, hot and in-between type of weather. As always, an extra of everything too. Partly for vanity sake (you don't want to be seen wearing the same few sets of clothes all 3 weeks right, do you?) and practical reason.

We're staying in a hotel and in case I don't do laundry everyday or if the clothes don't dry in time, I have [lots of] others :)

Anyways, just for the fun of it, I've taken a picture of her playthings that we intend to bring along for the trip. Just realised that there's another that we forgotten to add in -- her LittleTouch LeapPad, which is missing in the picture. Hmmm... total of 12 items altogether - which is what the cabin-size is for!

Our friend, Manisa, told us not to bring too many things cos we would have an even bigger luggage than when we arrive cos there's a major sale going on in London. I just don't see how we can squeeze in any more things!

New laptop, new lease of life

So much for all our talks about economic drive (ED) within our little household... just when we have decided to watch our budgets and all, our trusty old laptop of 4 years decided to act up. In fact, we are so afraid that it is on the verge of collapsing on our that we hurriedly got another laptop.

Well... it sounds like a drastic move, but really, its not. Being that ancient (it is going by laptop years), our old laptop takes forever to boot up and the DVD drive cannot write information onto CDs nor DVDs. Plus, we had problems connecting it to an external hard disk so that we could back up all our files... or rather, the huge amount of photos that we have amassed especially since Faith's birth.

The other deciding factor was that we are about to take a 3 week trip to London in a few days. We had every intention of bringing along a laptop so that I could hopefully communicate with the rest of the world and blog while there.

And since our old laptop has been acting up, we were afraid that it would breath its last breathe sometime during our trip. Hence, we decided to act quickly and procure a new laptop. After we have fully transfer all our files and date, we shall retire our current one, which has served us very well over the last 4 years.

Technically, we bought this laptop off my FIL. Cos he had recently bought his on a promotion from Harvey Normans. We had seen it at his place and decided to get exactly the same model as his. Turns out he decided that he didn't want the laptop now cos he wouldn't need it after all. But he had it for less than 2 weeks and its really brand new. It also saved us the trip down to Harvey Normans cos we're both pressed for time trying to pack our luggage and run any errands to get all the necessary stuff for the trip.

Now that we have a new laptop, we are also that much poorer cos we had to dip once again into our savings for this unexpected purchase. Oh well... chalk it up to life's unexpected moments then :)