February | 2022 | Nyan Thomas L's Blog

Covid Vaccine and other January fun

(Editor’s note: yes we remain months behind in posting these! Sorry. Life gets in the way…)

We were happy to sign Nyan up for his Covid vaccine as soon as he became available. He was nervous but put on a brave face.

On the walk home we spotted a prize: his favorite car, a Rolls-Royce!

He had few side effects other than a slightly sore arm. Here he is the next day:

And some Covid-related art he drew:

What else did he get up to in January 2022? Let’s take a look. Some random photos:

He went to a movie one day with Nadia and a few other classmates.

And a few more random photos:

Not a bad month, all in all!

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Posted by Chris L. on February 25, 2022 in Uncategorized

Hungry Birds

20 Feb

Long-time readers will recall we’ve had a few olive-backed sunbirds build a nest outside our apartment. Early in the new year, we noticed a new nest going in, in a small shrubby tree that sits in a secluded corner of our balcony. After some research, we determined it was the nest of a yellow-vented bulbul.

We did our best to keep a serene environment, being very quiet and cautious when we opened the balcony door and closing the curtains at night so the interior light didn’t disturb. We also snapped a few pics through the window. Momma bird, resting on her eggs, didn’t look too pleased.

Before long…they hatched! We had two baby bulbuls. And they were hungry! And not shy about it either:

Mommy Bird took good care of them, and we took lots of video of her taking care of them:

We watched them get bigger and bigger over the span of just a couple weeks:

They really did grow up fast and we knew they’d be leaving soon:

And sure enough, without warning, a few days later… it was over: the nest was empty. The babies were gone. The bulbuls never came back.

Such is life! We enjoyed it while it lasted though.

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Posted by Chris L. on February 20, 2022 in Uncategorized

Tags: animals

The Return of the Light Festival

15 Feb

Singapore used to have an annual “light festival” downtown every year – basically a chance for artists to display some public light-based sculpture. We made a habit of going – see here – and it was always a pleasant evening out.

Of course, Covid put a quick end to that tradition. But in early 2022, even though we still had to wear masks indoors and out, the festival made a comeback. One Friday evening we renewed our tradition. It was smaller than in years past but still quite nice.

The main thing was a series of lights projected onto the façade of one of the museums downtown. Kinda cool:

Nyan enjoyed it:

That museum, by the way, is the National Gallery, and it was open for touring, so we checked out some of the exhibits.

Afterwards we strolled along the river. In years past there’s been plenty of exhibits along here; this year, none at all. But it was still nicely lit, a pleasant stroll and a great way to end the evening.

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Posted by Chris L. on February 15, 2022 in Uncategorized

Tags: art, Singapore

The Great Outdoors

10 Feb

January in Singapore means winter – but that doesn’t mean snow and ice. Instead it means slightly cooler temps (very slightly, but noticeably) and, often, a refreshing breeze out of the north. It’s certainly almost always the nicest month weather wise, and we took advantage of January 2022 with a good amount of time outside.

That included, of course, the swimming pool. There was plenty of slow-motion jumping into the water:

And flips too:

Our hero also continued to work on his diving, with the help of his swimming instructor Pang:

We also went for bike rides along the coast. I mean, just look at that:

Look!

Just lovely.

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Posted by Chris L. on February 10, 2022 in Uncategorized

Tags: outdoors, Singapore

A Day at the National Museum

05 Feb

During a day off from school in early January, Daddy decided it would be a day of culture and walking around. So we headed to the National Museum of Singapore, which is all about the history, culture and art of Singapore. Pretty cool place!

There’s a big exhibit about life during WWII, when Japan occupied the country. Nyan was especially captivated by the tanks.