Henderson Waves is this funky pedestrian bridge that soars high over a roadway in south-central Singapore. It’s part of a system of trails through the jungle. It all sounded good to us, so one Sunday morning we laced up our hiking boots* and headed out.
(*Not really. We wore our usual sandals and Star Wars crocs. It was a very tame jungle hike.)
Here we are on the bridge itself:
And here’s Nyan in the jungle, pointing out a tree stump for some reason.
We saw some nice scenery of Singaporean developments on the hike (click to enlarge):
The section of the trail we were on ended up at Mount Faber, a hilltop restaurant overlooking Sentosa Island and the harbor.
They also had a bell – the Bell of Happiness – for anyone to ring. It sure seems to have made Nyan happy!
Nyan takes part in a pretty good variety of individual sports — taekwondo and swimming especially — but he didn’t have any team sports, and we noticed that he was perhaps a little lacking in the teamwork department. Happily, we found a group that teaches soccer* to kids around Nyan’s age, at a school field just around the corner from our place every Saturday in the late afternoon. Perfect. He’s been going for a couple months now and, well, he’s not showing a whole lot of natural talent, let’s be honest. But he works at it, and it’s great exercise, and he’s showing some signs of improvement we think, and it’s good to interact with a different group of kids…and best of all, he has a blast.
*We are aware that the game is called “soccer” pretty much only in America. We are using the term “soccer” here not because we are being chest-thumping, flag-waving #MAGA types. Rather, it seems to be called either soccer or football here in Singapore. The word “soccer” is even in the formal name of the group he’s in. So, we call it soccer.
Some pictures and video: He loves to hang out in front of the net:
Some videos from his very first session, in early January. (The hope is that we look back in months or even years to come and marvel at how far he’s come!)
Kicking:
Various drills:
A little one on one with a smaller kid:
And a scrimmage that first week:
Let’s fast forward to February and see if he’s made any progress.
Some warmups:
Dribbling practice:
Here’s a one-on-one drill against his pal Neeil:
And let’s look at some game action. Here’s our hero, celebrating a goal, of sorts:
More live action, with Nyan protecting the net:
And a bit more. This is the most recent game of this current batch. See any improvement?
Well, whatever; it’s not about skills. It’s about fun, and teamwork. And it doesn’t hurt that it’s a pretty nice little field. We’ll keep it up; check back for more videos – and perhaps even more skills – later.
A couple weeks after our return from Phuket, we were feeling the need again for some sun and sand. Despite being a tropical island, Singapore is not exactly blessed with great beaches – there are a mere handful of them strewn across the island, most of them small and man-made, and nearly all of them suffering from ocean debris (that is, trash and litter) washing up on shore. (This is, sadly, common across nearly every beach we’ve been to in Southeast Asia, we’re sorry to report.)
But we’d read about a small off-shore island just a short ferry ride away that had great beaches. It’s actually a pair of islands – St John’s and Lazarus – that have been connected over the years via reclamation. So early one Sunday morning we took a cab to the ferry dock and piled on for the half-hour ride across the still waters of Singapore Harbor and the Malacca Strait.
We were seated below decks on the way back, and up top for the return. The rides were fine, as we passed by plenty of other ships at anchor that made for nice viewing.
And here we are on shore. It’s obviously not exactly the deepest wilderness here, what with paved sidewalks and cut grass AND the like. Still quite nice though.
Here’s more scenery, including a view of the Singapore skyline a few miles across the water, and a shot of some of the dozens of stray (or feral?) cats that live on the island.
Finally: the beach itself! A perfect crescent of soft white sand, with bathtub-warm water lapping gently ashore. So beautiful. Unfortunately, it’s still Southeast Asia, and we got there as the tide was going out and leaving behind a fair amount of rubbish. There was a bit of trash floating in the water as well. Such a damn shame.
Still beautiful though, and a great way to spend a part of our Sunday.
One of Nyan’s favorite classmates is Kyra, who lives next door along with her younger sister Chrysa, who attends the same preschool. One Sunday afternoon and evening in October, the three kids, along with all four parents, headed down to Gardens by the Bay for some play.
Gardens by the Bay itself was as gorgeous as ever, by day and by night:
The kids had a blast together. Here’s Nyan with Kyra:
And here he is being Big Brother to Chrysa:
We didn’t end up in the domes that are home to the botanic gardens on this trip. We did manage to find a cool playground:
The main event, though, was the Gardens’ excellent waterplay area. We’ve been here numerous times before, and it never fails to impress.
The kids were out of control, in the very best possible way:
One of our first activities after returning from our ‘round-the-world travels during August and September was to take part in a 5k family walk for breast cancer awareness and fundraising. It took place around Marina Bay, the waterfront area in downtown Singapore.
We had tried to do the same event last year, but horrible air pollution — haze from rainforest fires in nearby Indonesia — forced its cancelation. This time, the air was fresh and there was no need to wear air masks. But Nyan had brought his own mask, and happened to bump into this friendly Imperial Stormtrooper.
(What do Stormtroopers have to do with breast cancer awareness? Great question. We have no idea. Nyan was happy though.)
A five kilometer walk is a decently long stroll, and Nyan got tired about halfway through. Luckily for him, Daddy’s shoulders were right there. He didn’t look too tired as soon as he got up there, though. Hmm.
So Daddy ended up with a little bit of a sore back – the kid ain’t so light any more! – but all’s well that ends well. And it was for a good cause, too.
Back over the Christmas holidays, we took a family trip to Bali for five days or so. This Indonesian island is, in a lot of ways, the quintessential tropical island vacation spots, with beaches, hotels, nightlife, watersports, mountains and other beautiful scenery. And it’s only a two hour flight from Singapore! We were, to be honest, a little put off by the rampant over-development and traffic in some parts of the island – typical, of course, of any popular tourist destination, sadly – but other parts of the island were just stunningly beautiful.
Plus we had a nice hotel on the beach, with lush grounds and a great pool. Let’s check out a bit of what Nyan (and Mommy and Daddy) got up to. With lots of photos and videos!
Nyan played his first ever game of ping pong. Let’s just say that he needs a bit of practice.
We spent a lot of time away from the resort too. Ain’t Bali beautiful? (click on any photo to enlarge)
Mommy’s Aunt Jessica used to live on Bali. She lives in Japan now with her family, but they still own property in Bali, and happened to be on the island at the same time as us. So we got to hang out with them, including Nyan’s cousin Grace. They got along great.
They had fun drawing and coloring together:
More photos from around the island (and one from Changi Airport in Singapore on our way out):
Maybe the highlight of the trip was all the time Nyan got to spend in the resort swimming pool. And Daddy had borrowed a waterproof GoPro camera for the trip, so there’s plenty of video footage.
Goofing in the pool with Mommy and Daddy:
Doing something he called the ‘alligator slap’ and ‘whale swim’:
More splashing, plus making friends with a random woman:
Whale song:
Bali is known for its art and design, though we didn’t take too many pictures. Here are a few:
Music and dancing are also important parts of Balinese culture. Our resort put on a dance show one night. Nyan was suitably impressed:
Here are some shots from around the resort. Plenty of koi ponds, which gave Nyan plenty of chances to feed the fish:
Another night, they had a cocktail reception for guests, with live music. Nyan enjoyed it:
And finally, we leave you with this bit of brilliant nonsense. I think he wanted to send a video message to Grandma. Instead, we got this.
We hear it’s well into autumn back in the US and UK. Well, it’s been lovely and hot and humid (but no haze!) here in Singapore, which I guess has put us in a summer-y sort of mood. So we’re looking back at some lazy days over the summer, when Nyan got to hang out in Grandma and Grandpa’s backyard, building a fire in the evening and lounging on the hammock in the afternoons. And always, always, his little mind whirring, his imagination in full gear.
At the end of that video, there’s reference to a time capsule. You see, Grandma and Grandpa had him fill a little metal box with some coins, a toy car and a note, and then they buried it near the apple tree they planted earlier. In a few years, we’ll dig it up.
Here’s video of the actual burying:
Finally, a panoramic view of the backyard itself. Lovely place to spend some summer time.
(Note from the editor: We’re back! We’re not sure why we missed a month there — well, there were some more travels, and a birthday party, and this and that — but we’re back! More regular blogging to resume immediately. First up, a look back to our summer trip.)
Iowa City has lots of great parks, including City Park — not a creative name, but it’s got a lot going on, including some amusement park rides. They’ve been around since Daddy was Nyan’s age, and they’ve somehow survived all the years (and all the cold winters and all the floods) in pretty good shape. Nyan’s been there before (check out this entry from 2012 – look how little he was!) but he still had fun every time we went this summer – which was at least three separate occasions.
His favorite ride was probably the train, which rides around in a slow loop:
On one of our visits, the train wasn’t running, so Nyan just took a stroll and a jog along the tracks:
And what little kid doesn’t like to pilot his own plane?
Of course, as this video makes clear, it’s a rather rickety-sounding plane. But hey.
The ferris wheel looks a bit like a prison but safety first, I guess. And Nyan enjoyed it.
And finally, a Merry-Go-Round ride with Grandma. What could be better?
The dude loves all things mechanical, it’s been well-established. If it roars and moves, all the better. So when we visited Uncle Scott and his gigantic lawn, and when Uncle Scott was happy to show off his riding lawnmower, Nyan was in little boy heaven.
Pictures are great, but they don’t do it justice like video does. Roll tape:
Mommy took Nyan down the street to Willow Creek Park, and shaped a ton of photos. It wasn’t intended to be a sort of modeling shoot, but that’s kinda what it ended up looking like!
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