Gimme A Break

It’s after midnight here. We’re just back from watching the fireworks. We went to a street party at 10:00p to wait for the fireworks - parked the car and walked 10 mins to the shopping malls where they’d closed the main street for the party.

Big mistake, the mall was crowded and crazy - many people walking there, many in their cars trying to get into the parking lot. On the main street where the street party was supposedly being held, there was music and nothing much else. We peeked outside, it was going to be a long one hour wait. The restaurants were full - we couldn’t even sit down for a drink! So we walked back to the car and drove home.

On the way back, we figured another vantage point where we would get a good view of the fireworks. At 10 mins to midnight, we drove there. By this time, the road had turned into a parking lot. We couldn’t move but suddenly, we were right in front of the fireworks. Great view! Spectacular fireworks display up close! Mmm, guess we lucked out after all ;).

Whew, that was quite an adventure. Now I think I need to go get some sleep. Happy New Year, everyone and thanks for your support in making this blog a success - couldn’t have done it without you guys. Good-night for now (yawn…)

Ooops, I almost forgot to tell you guys about the new RSS feed I’ve put up. You can get updates to your favorite RSS reader by clicking on one of the colorful buttons (of your choice) on the right column here. This way, you’ll always know when I post new content to this blog - enjoy!

• the long crawl
• selfish new neighbor
• lines, lines, lines
• island vacation (1) - rooms with views
• fight or flee, that is the question

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Herding everyone in and out was much like mobilizing an army. Everywhere we went, we descended like a swarm of locusts, ate and drank up everything in sight leaving behind empty glasses and dishes.

We filled up the elevators. We filled up the tram car ride. We had the entire boat to ourselves when we took the harbor cruise. In fact, we had to leave Michelle and baby behind because the boat could only accomodate 12 people.

The day on the beach was the best, I think. Being on an island with the sea breeze blowing all day is really a refreshing change from living inland. I grew up on an island and have always loved the smell and feel of the sea breeze and watching the waves as they roll up.

It’s good to be home. Surprisingly none of the kids complained when we had to leave. But in case you think we’re going to sit still and be quiet after five days of intense activity, well, guess what, Lissa and her brood are driving into town Thursday for Wild Vacation, Part II. Can this be why none of the kids complained?

• island days
• island vacation (1) - rooms with views
• I get that sinking feeling
• haze fighter cleans the air
• camping memories

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You know how crazy it gets when my cousins, Lissa and Michelle, and their kids come to KL (short for Kuala Lumpur) to visit. This time, it was our turn to drive south to Singapore to visit them. It was a throbbing non-stop five days of action, food and laughter from morn till late night from start to finish.

Tuesday morning, the kids and I loaded up Big Blue to the brim and started the five hour drive to Singapore. It was a pretty nice drive - thank goodness for our fantastic highways with lots of pit stops, so traveling with kids is never a problem. My girls, Bliss and Skye wanted to get there quicker so we packed drinks and sandwiches to eat in the car.

My cousin Lissa and her two girls aged 11 and 8, our ‘tour agents’ had carefully planned out our agenda for the week. Lots of cheering and jumping up and down when the agenda was announced. My other cousin Michelle has two boys. Between us, we have three minivans, and seven kids aged between 14 and 10 months.

Within an hour of arriving, we were on our way to the Night Safari. Just getting everyone out of the house and into the cars took a half hour! If you come from a large family, you know what it’s like (LOL)!

Sometimes it worries me that we may actually drive off leaving the baby behind or something (LOL). So we’re obsessed with doing headcounts everywhere we go. I’ve lost track of how many times a day we stopped for food and drinks, and toilet runs.

Friday night, we ended up at a bar restaurant for dinner. Not exactly your family restaurant. I didn’t see any kids in there. But we’d just finished our boat tour and this bar just happened to be there and Lissa said they serve pretty good food that the kids would love.

In just that one meal, the kids spilled a drink, sent a glass crashing to the floor and shortly after, the fish and chips went flying and landed with a splat under a table nearby! The waiter wasn’t pleased and started circling our table like a vulture clearing our plates like there’s no tomorrow.

Oops, I gotta go now. Stay tuned, I’ll be back with more later…

• breaking the busy record
• shiver me new drivers
• spicy breakfast
• celebrating family and good food
• food is good but service sucks

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