My trip to Lille

Daddy, mummy, Timmy and I had a really nice holiday in Lille last week.


Instead of flying there in an aeroplane, we took a special train called the Eurostar. I was really thrilled when mummy told me that the train goes through a tunnel under the water in the sea! When we were in the tunnel, I looked out the window and said "Where's the water, mummy? I don't see any.."


The hotel was nice too. Mummy spent some time taking photos out the window, but I thought it was a lot more fun to fiddle with the TV and dishwasher.


We visited the small zoo they had, where I fell down on my butt in some damp muddy ground. I don't know why mummy was so bothered by the brown patches on my white pants... She also got daddy to stand next to a very fierce pelican who pecked him a couple of times (she pretended she wanted to take a photo of him)


I spent some time relaxing near the fountain while we were waiting for a museum to open...


... but after just a couple of minutes, daddy dragged me over to get me to practice my photo-taking skills. Ha, I got back at him by almost cutting his head off in the picture.


A kind man nearby must have felt sorry for me, sitting on the pavement with the camera. He came over and took a photo for all of us.


I also got to practice making funny faces at the camera. It's much more interesting than the boring old smiles that mummy keeps on trying to make me do.


The week was a lot of fun, but I was glad to go home at the end of it all. I was tired of walking so much every day. And I missed the rest of my toys and books.

We're off to Lille!

Hurrah hurrah, we're off on holiday tomorrow! This is our first long-ish break since we got back from Singapore so we're really looking forward to it. Our days of backpacking are long gone now but we do still enjoy travelling -- sitting at cafes watching people go by, strolling around in new places, perhaps even the odd museum!

It's a bit easier now that Matty is old enough to "take care of himself" i.e. he can walk and doesn't need a pram, he doesn't need special food, he doesn't need too many extra sets of clothes, diaper changing, etc.. We just have to worry about Timmy!

The other advantage of Matty being older is we can really see his sense of humour developing. He often tries to kid around with us and do funny things. But of course, the funniest things he says tend to be accidental (i.e. when he isn't trying to be funny).

A couple of weeks ago, the subject of younger siblings came up. Matty said he wanted 2 younger sisters (the number and sex changes every time you ask him) and then said "... then one sister can sleep in the guest room, and the other sister can sleep in the guest room, and Timmy can sleep in my room, and I can sleep in my room.."   and then he thought for a while and said  ".. but then Uncle Gordon and Auntie Elizabeth have nowhere to sleep.."  [these were guests due to visit the following week] .

So Mummy the educator decided to teach/remind him that babies don't come instantly, and instead of spoon-feeding him the facts, tried to draw him to reach that conclusion on his own. So, the leading question was "Matty, do you remember when mummy was pregnant with Timmy? Did mummy look different?"   [a question that's clearly supposed to remind him of the huge tummy which took a long while to grow to that size]. And his response was  "That's right mummy, you looked a little bit like a scary monster"  

And the other day when I was giving him his shower, he said "Mummy, when my eyes were closed because of the water I couldn't see clearly and I thought you were a troll.."  

I guess the comments clearly show who he thinks is the fierce one in this family...

Funny faces

Timmy's recently started making funny faces. He's got this one which really reminds me of Calvin (friend of Hobbes) -- see 2nd picture from left at the top. As you can see, I was a little trigger happy that day, especially since he was rather obligingly immobile in the high chair (not that he had much of a choice =) )



Slight dejavu? Yup, Timmy definitely has a very strong resemblance to Matty at that age. There are some differences of course, but you can certainly tell they're brothers. Timmy's hair is getting longer and also has the same fuzzy rambutan look (i.e. standing up and waving in the air). And the same toothless grin!

It's a miracle!!

Yes, the broadband at home has suddenly decided to work!! Hurrah!! This is no thanks to Orange/Wanadoo (our ISP) who once again has proven just how crappy service can be in the UK. After being promised and assured twice that a new modem would arrive on Friday, the day came and went with no deliveries. And when I called them to politely enquire, I was told that somehow they hadn't processed the order properly and I would have to wait for another 7 working days while they put in a new order [ok, I must confess that at this point, I just lost it and gave the guy quite an earful..]

Anyhow, just when I'd resigned myself to not having access to the outside world for another couple of weeks, and given up even trying to get online, we had some visitors come to stay. One was trying to decide whether to upgrade his computer/ISP and while idly trying to show him how ours doesn't work, it suddenly worked!! I have no idea why/how since we haven't changed a thing since it stopped working a fortnight ago...

We shall just call it a miracle. God really does work in small "unimportant" things too =)  Not quite making the lame walk or the blind see, but definitely making a difference to this little life of mine..

UGH!!!!

Sorry for the radio silence for some time. While I am sometimes a little tardy in putting up new posts, this time it's entirely not my fault. My broadband at home has been out of service for the last 2 weeks.. and it's been terrible! You don't realise how much you rely on something until it's gone. No email, no online news, no ebay, no online shopping, no checking out details of events, places, flights, etc.. I'm now holed up in the public library for an hour just to get "re-plugged in"

On the plus side, it's made me really look forward to going back to (hopefully) more efficient Singapore! It's amazing what terrible service and inefficiencies the people in this country put up with. It takes days (if not weeks) to do simple things like open a bank account, get a phone line installed, etc. And when things don't work, it's accepted as part of life (yes, those of you who've had to put up with cancelled/delayed tube services know exactly what I'm talking about).

What kind of ridiculous ISP goes and upgrades you (without asking/informing you) to a faster speed line, which the modem they've given you cannot handle! I thought it was just one of their regular hiccups, until 3 days had gone by without any improvement. After being put on hold for a total of 1 hour and speaking to 6 of their advisors, they've promised me a 2nd new modem which is due to arrive today so hopefully things will be up and running again by the weekend. Based on my experience over the past fortnight, I am a little skeptical...