RSS

Category Archives: Uncategorized

Jungle Hike for Mother’s Day

Singapore celebrates Mother’s Day in May, like the U.S., rather than following the U.K. calendar, which celebrates the day in March. Last year, we ended up taking a hike through the jungle along the seashore. This year, completely coincidentally, we wound up…taking a hike through the jungle. Wasn’t on purpose, but it was nice nonetheless.

We went to an interior part of the island, a hilly part full of water reservoirs surrounded by dense jungle, cut through with a number of well-maintained hiking paths.

This being Mother’s Day, Nyan allowed Daddy to take a fair number of photos in which he posed with Mommy:

We also tried out a newly discovered feature on Daddy’s camera phone, which takes “bursts” of shots – like dozens in a row. We thought we’d try to capture Mommy and Nyan both leaping high in the air together. We didn’t quite get the timing down. Nice photos though:

But maybe best of all: the rainforest here was thick with monkeys! We steered pretty clear, as we’d heard they might try to steal a water bottle or whatnot. Managed to get some good pics anyway.

Oh, and yeah, Nyan posed for some photos with Daddy. Although they pale next to all the shots with Mommy, and the monkeys too.

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on June 6, 2017 in Uncategorized

 

Tags: , ,

Swim, Swim, Swim

Nyan continues to take weekly, hour-long swimming lessons in our condo pool, and he continues to get better and better. He’s at the point now where he can do several different strokes and shows zero fear in the “big pool” – i.e., the pool where he can’t touch the bottom while keeping his head above water. (Not to worry – we still stay right by him when he’s in the big pool.) Let’s take a look at some recent videos and pictures.

This gives a good overview. It’s in the big pool (with little sound, because Daddy shot the video from far away so as not to disturb the lesson):

Backfloat!

And the backstroke, of sorts, plus some other strokes:

Look at this. No fear:

He’s also learning to dive, sort of.

Some fun times: Nyan likes it when his teacher, Pang, tosses him high in the air:

And finally, just a few still pictures from various lessons and back-floatings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
1 Comment

Posted by on June 3, 2017 in Uncategorized

 

Tags: ,

Random Fun in the Month of April 

Just our usual random collection of snapshots and goofy videos from the month of April. Lots of reading, napping, funny faces, playing with friends, etc. Also we’ll throw in a picture of one of his recent drawings, just for good measure.

We got him a history book. He enjoyed reading it to us:

And of course he digs just running around the house, being goofy.

(Yes, that’s some of his original art work.)

 

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on May 27, 2017 in Uncategorized

 

Tags:

More Fun at School

Classes at Nyan’s school end around 5:30 each afternoon. From then til 6pm, the kids go play in the indoor playground as they wait for their parents to pick them up. It makes for lots of great photo ops!

We also often capture some nice memories on video:

And Nyan often runs into various classmates on his way to school in the morning. Here he is holding hands with Kyra, and sharing morning hugs with Kyra and Yew Min.

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on May 22, 2017 in Uncategorized

 

Tags: ,

The Singapore Slingers

Singapore has a professional basketball team. Who knew? Not us. But we read that they were scheduled to play Game 4 of a best-of-five playoff series, at an arena a short ride away from our apartment one Sunday afternoon in April. So Daddy and Nyan snapped up a couple of tickets and off they went!

It wasn’t just any best-of-five series; this was against Hong Kong for the ASEAN Basketball League championship, no less! Nyan put on his best Singaporean finery to support the home team:

20170423_152317

It wasn’t the biggest arena ever, but it was pretty good sized, and it was packed. We had decent seats too. The Slingers even have their own mascot. I think it’s a Merlion.

Nyan was really into the game – much more so than Daddy expected, to be frank. Although he got a little restless late in the game and decided he’d stand (or sit) just off the court. Nobody seemed to mind.

It was a fun and exciting game – but unfortunately, Hong Kong won in double overtime, and won the series, 3 games to 1, and thus the championship. But we had a blast and will definitely try to catch more games next season!

 

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on May 17, 2017 in Uncategorized

 

Tags: ,

Return to Gardens by the Bay

As you’ve seen in previous posts (see here and here), Gardens by the Bay is one of our favorite places to go – and going there with Kyra and Chryssa is always a great time! So one weekend in April, we went back with the girls and their parents.

There was splashing around in the waterpark, playing at the playground, reading maps, looking at various exhibits, and also snacking.

 

And random dancing too:

Always a great time with these two girls!

20170416_144818

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on May 12, 2017 in Uncategorized

 

Tags: ,

Holiday in Cambodia

We’ve said before that one of the great things about living in Singapore is that it’s easy to jet away to all sorts of spectacular places. In late April, we did just that with a weekend trip to Siem Reap, Cambodia, home to the famous Angkor Wat and other thousand-year-old temples deep in the jungle.

Most famous is Angkor Wat itsslef, a UNESCO World Heritage site and, in fact, the largest religious monument in the world. It’s 162 hectares — thanks, Wikipedia! — and comprises a moat and numerous stone buildings, plus lots of open space.

This video gives a hint at the size:

And that’s just one small section of the place, just outside the main temple.

Here are a bunch of photos from in and around Angkor Wat. Click on any photo to enlarge it – and trust us, it’s worth it! A very photogenic place.

Just up the road is Angkor Thom, an ancient walled city with numerous old temples and monuments inside. It was the capital of the Khmer empire and established around 900 years ago.

This was our second stop on the day, and to be honest, we were a little worried that Nyan’s attention would quickly lag. There wasn’t a lot to actually *do* at these places besides walk around and ooh and ahh and be amazed at the sculptures and architecture. But Nyan was a trooper and was really into it! Here we are exploring around Angkor Thom, including a few shots of the moat outside the wall and the wall itself.

As awesome as Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom were, Ta Prohm was definitely Daddy’s favorite temple. Unlike the other two, officials have made a conscious choice not to do much if any restoration work here, so there are tumbled-down stones everywhere and, most stunningly, huge jungle trees and vines crawling all over everything. So beautiful.

The trip wasn’t all temple trekking though. We also spent some time in our hotel’s very nice swimming pool.

And maybe the highlight of the trip, for Nyan at least, was the tuk-tuk rides we took around town.

Finally, random shots from the trip. Including one of Nyan, before the flight, wearing a toy crown he had made at school. He slapped it on and took to calling himself the “King of Cambodia.” Alright then.

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on May 7, 2017 in Uncategorized

 

Tags: ,

March Madness

Random bits of fun and games that our boy got up to in the month of March.

Scooting backwards:

Trekking around the pool:

Fun at robotics class:

Trekking around the water fountain:

And finally, trekking through the subway station (with a slight blister on his toe, making it hard to walk):

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on May 2, 2017 in Uncategorized

 

Happy Birthday to Tanishka! 

Nyan’s friend and classmate Tanishka had a birthday in March, and her parents threw a great party in a hotel ballroom one Sunday afternoon. There was food, drinks, arts and crafts, dancing… and a magic show too!

A lot of Nyan’s fellow classmates made it out to the party.

And they danced…

Happy birthday, Tanishka!

 

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on April 27, 2017 in Uncategorized

 

Tags:

Bunky Visits Singapore!

As we’ve seen before, Nyan and Elizabeth – a.k.a. Bunky, a.k.a. Mommy’s BFF Sharon’s daughter — get along like long-lost brother-and-sister. So they were both super excited when she came for a visit! Bunky (and her parents) stayed with us a few nights and also spent a few nights at a resort hotel. Here’s some of what they got up to.

We managed to get a fair number of photos of the two of them posing:

Nyan is a bit older than Bunky and enjoyed playing the big brother to her, including reading to her at night:

We spent some time at their hotel, where Nyan and Bunky slid down the waterslide:

And splashed in the pool:

And chased around the peacocks that wander the hotel grounds:

Mostly though, they just enjoyed hanging out, skipping down the street, being pals.

 

 

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on April 22, 2017 in Uncategorized

 

Tags: