National day is approching

It's funny in Singapore. National day is Aug 9. Singapore will be 42 years old as a nation. Congrats! It's no civic holiday, like we had back in Ontario, but it will have to do. It is actually a really big event here. There will be fire works, parades, air shows, concerts, and lots more. To celebrate this we are going to go to Malaysia!! I know it's not very patriotic, but we aren't Singaporeans.

I believe I have mentioned before that Emma loves taking photos. She is pretty good at it too fro being 3. If she takes 1500 photos (so about a weeks worth) she will get 2-3 good photos. Well last week she decided, after filling up a memory card, that she didn't need the card any more and threw it away. It was very funny when Jen picked up the camera to take a cute pic of our new cats, and noticed there was no memory card. Emma non shalantly announced she had thrown it away because it didn't work anymore. Three year old logic. It's infallible sometimes!!

We will try to take lots of pictures with our old Sony.

lunch

I was served my lunch on a leaf. It was good. That is all.

Familial changes.

So my life has been fairly complicated in the last 6 months. My leaving and going to Singapore, the police incident with the people we had been living with, the joys of traveling on a plane for 27 hours with a three year old, working in a foreign land with people I just don't understand, missing our family from home (we really do miss you guys), the addition of a maid, and now, I'd like to announce our two new cats. Princess Ashley, and Clementine. They were strays that Mel and Jen adopted. The are good cats, and incredibly well mannered for wild cats. I will post pictures soon. I'm sure Mel will have some on her blog first. ;)

Monkey business

I was reminded today that Singapore is a tropical island. Some times I forget how fundamentally different it is here. I can ride the subway (mrt), and go to burger king. I can hail a cab and go to the movies. The main past time for locals is shopping, and the malls are immense. All things that seem very normal, and not really all that different from home. But today... around 10am this morning.. Jen, Melanie, Emma, and I, were walking to my work with lily our maid for what we hope will be an annual family day... when, in our own back yard, three monkeys ran past us and down the street. Monkeys. Three Monkeys. Three wild Monkeys. In our back yard. Then ran past us maybe 20 feet away. It was amazing.

Little India

Wow, we've had some big changes this last two weeks. I almost quit (that would have been disastrous), we got a maid, and yesterday we went to little India. What a week.

Little India is basically central in the island. It seems to be a fairly small district, but it is intensely packed with stuff. We got off the mrt (mass rapid transit) at the little india stop and walked to the ferrer park mrt stop. Most of our walk was along one street, and up and down a few allies. There were lots of shops selling colourful silks and incense. We stopped a few restaurants and tasted lots of different foods. Jen is working really hard to expand her flavour selections by trying more spicy foods. I applaud her for that and thank her because it means I get more selection of foods! The end of our walk was a gigantic shopping mall called Mustafa's. Not my favourite place here so far let me tell you. It was the first time in Singapore that I have gotten claustrophobic. I actually had to yell at people who stopped at the top of an escalator to discuss where they were gonna go next. There is nothing like being ushered into a wall of people.

There were lots of savings to be had there, but I do not plan on ever going back. Especially not on a weekend. Blah!

Our maid is named Lilly. She is a "foreign domestic worker" from the Philippines. She is very nice and having her here has been great. I wake up in the morning and come down the stairs, and everything is sparkling. She washes the floors every day!! She will get annoyed if we try to clean up our own dishes. It's difficult, but we will suffer through it. ;)

Emma took this photo. It was great having the whole family with me, even if I did have to carry emma for hours and hours. :D

Here are some pictures from little india.

Some funky temple. This one has neat carvings all over it. I think it is hindi but I really don't know.

and lunch! There is nothing like green chicken!! mmmmmm

a quick note...

The star wars trailer has had more than a million hits since it was released, and was written about in every major newspaper in the world. Not too shabby for a TV show.

three months

Well isn't this sad? I've been in Singapore for three months. This blog site is three months old. Not nearly as many posts as I'd like, but I've felt very limited in what I can say. I don't want to talk about work. It has dominated 90% of all my relationships since it began. Everyone knows that I'm working on the star wars 3d animated TV show that will air in mid to late 2008. I'm contractually not allowed to say more.

Last Sunday I took my family to the Singapore zoo. It is really nice. Surprisingly nice. Much nicer than the Toronto zoo and really a lot cheaper too. The animal selection is great, and always close by. It must suck to be an animal there. No privacy at all. But for people it's awesome. Melanie was able to have her picture taken with a family of orang utans (that's Malay for man of the jungle). We were only there for a few hours. It's hard with a 3 year old and we didn't bring a stroller. Lets see if I can dig up some photos.

At the entrance to the zoo there were 5 or 6 big bronze statues of some animals and we got a few good pictures here.


This was a cool spot with 5 huge parrots. For a small donation ($5 sing) Mel was able to hold one. Remember she's more than 5 feet tall now. She said the bird was very light.


The feeding of the polar bear wasn't very exciting (though you would never have guessed that based on the crowd it drew). I guess maybe it was more exciting for Singaporeans who have never seen a polar bear before. It did have an air conditioned den, but seemed to prefer being out in the 35degree weather. There were some interesting facts posted here. Things like the fact that polar bears live in a climate that reaches 35 degrees . It neglects to mention that it only hits 35 degrees once a year.

This fearsome kamodo dragon. This guy was the hardest to see at the zoo. She is about 5 feet long (maybe 6), and liked to hide in the back corner. According to the sign she had just had babies. It also said they will eat their young. Maybe that's why we didn't see any.

This is just a reminder of home. Or the home that once was. I miss it, but it's not mine any more.