Autumn Holidays 2016…

i know this is an extremely belated post. We have been back at school for 4 weeks now. i have tried a few times over the last few weeks to get this post written but somehow it never happened. So this week i decided that it has to be written and it got moved to the top of the ‘to-do’ list.

Our autumn holidays was the first 3 weeks of October and while it was not as exciting as last year’s, it was still fun-filled and we managed to do a fair bit.

In the first couple of days, we focussed on getting some housework done. Tobias then went off with one of his best friends to a nearby waterpark, Bernaqua, for an afternoon. The next day, we met up with some friends from Niderwalden at the Toni Zoo for lunch and a lovely walk around the small but well-kept zoo.

One of the highlights was the Foxtrail! We did this scavenger hunt type game around the city of Bern. We did have rather high expectations after reading great reviews. But it was a bit of a let-down. A few of the instructions were not well written, so we got confused and turned around quite a number of times. The helpline was not as helpful. But i think it was because this was originally meant to be worked out in German and being English-speaking meant we understood the instructions differently. We had also expected to learn more about the city as we chased the “fox”. However, there was little write-up to learn from at all. What was expected to take us 2.5 hours, took us 3.5 hours. Oh my, my feet were nearly falling off.

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Top Left: One of the clues, Top Middle: This tunnel took us ages to find, Top Right: Another clue, Bottom: Such a lovely view of the Aare!

It was not a great experience but it was not all that terrible. We did see parts of Bern we would otherwise never venture into and walking along the river was lovely. i can see that it can be quite fun for an adult group of close friends. But we had children with us so such long walking times with very little rewards of learning or anything else made it difficult to justify the costs.

After all that walking, we took it easy and took in a movie the next day. ‘The Secret Life of Pets’ was a great movie and we loved it. Even in German, the story came through nicely as did the funny bits.

As it is our tradition, every year in the first week of October, we attend the Suisse Toy Fair! This year saw us spending more time in the electronic games section (E-games) and it is no surprise as this has been the trend. There was even an entire hall devoted to LAN gaming! Tobias has said he might try and see if he can register for entry for that next year… hmm… this mama doesn’t quite like that idea.

Tobias had a great time in a pallet gun game. He had to queue for about 45 minutes but he thought it was worth it. And it did look like loads of fun.

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Top Left: LAN Gaming, Right: Trying out VR, Bottom Left: Pallet Gun Game

We also put in some practice in our squash game. And watched yet another movie, ‘Miss Peregrin’s Home for Peculiar Children’, which we absolutely loved! Definitely going to get the book!

In between all that, Tobias cooked a dinner of stewed meatballs and a breakfast of healthy blueberry donuts. We also painted our dining area wall a bright sunshine yellow!

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Stewed Meatballs for dinner, they were yummy!
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Delicious Breakfast!
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Our spot of sunshine in the house 😉

On top of that, we hosted 3 guests; Tobias’ best friends stayed for a night, another friend who just had an operation came to stay for a night too and another friend stayed one night as well.

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i took one of our guest on a walk on top of Weissenstein, the mountain behind our place. We were well-rewarded, don’t you think?

So as you can see, we were busy those 3 weeks in October!

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Summer Hols 2016…

We have been back from our annual visit to Singapore for almost 2 weeks now. i was going to post this earlier but we had computer issues. So finally, here is a picture summary of our trip this year:

People often ask what we miss about Singapore. And number one for me would be our family and friends.

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Just as Meredith Grey is Cristian Yang’s person, these are our people!

i don’t often post pictures of people outside my immediate family but these 2 pictures show some special people.

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30 years ago, we were 12 and leaving primary school. 30 years later, we find each other and have tons of fun catching up, such friendships are hard to come by.

Now the next thing we miss about Singapore is the food! We ate ourselves silly, as usual.

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Top: Kuay Chap, one of my favourite dishes, Middle: Best Japanese food we had this trip, Bottom: Crabs and Suckling Pig!
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And this stand out dish deserves to stand by itself… half steamed, half fried fish… yummy!
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Various Hotpots! Left: Hai Di Lao Hotpot with 4 different soup bases, Middle: Traditional Steamboat, Right: Chili Oli Hot Soup.
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Of course, we had to have desserts!! Clockwise: Tobias with his Holy Smokes ice cream, dessert buffet at a Japanese restaurant, Bingsu (Korean Shaved Ice), Lava Cake and ice cream.
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But my absolute favourite is this lovely piece of beauty from Kki! Yummy, light and tasty!

What we did most of this year besides eating was spending time with family and visiting elderly relatives. It has certainly hit home for me that my parents and their siblings are not young anymore. We visited Walter’s elderly aunt, my elderly aunties and uncles; most of them have health issues and a few have mobility problems too.

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Left to Right: At the Future World Exhibition at the Art Science Museum, Checking out Walter’s Alma Mater, Learning more about Singlish.

Of course, we also did some more action-packed activities such as canoeing on the Singapore River (no photo cos i have not transferred it from my WhatsApp yet). We played squash and went swimming as well.

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And we did some catching too… Tobias caught a catfish (catch and release pond at Orto where we also enjoyed jumping at the Katapult Trampoline Park ), and of course, a Pikachu!
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We made a couple of cat-friends too 😉

Last year, my dad bought Tobias a couple of terrapins. They were tiny and cute, fitting onto my palm. 12 months later, they are huge and outgrowing their tank fast! So we gave them back to the shop we bought them from.

Tobias then talked my parents into helping him look after a hamster which he bought with his own money.

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Bye Bye Biscuit and Brownie. Hello Sparky!

And finally, i leave you with a lovely night view of the Singapore skyline from the top of the Esplanade.

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12th Birthday Celebrations…

That’s right, my little boy; now not so little anymore, turned 12 a week ago!

Usually, i blog about his birthday pretty much on the day itself or a few days after, but this time, the husband was away so i had to wait till he got back before we could do our traditional birthday shot. (See end of blog)

So this year, his birthday fell on a Friday which was when i had to bake his favourite cupcakes (Red Velvet with cream cheese icing) for him to take to school and share with his classmates.

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He got to open one of his presents before he left for school and the rest after lunch. His friends loved the cupcakes! This has become a sort of tradition since he decided that Red Velvet was his favourite and only cake to have.

He had already decided that he was just going to have a small celebration with 3 friends. One of them could not make our Saturday outing so i took just him and his 2 best friends to the Schwarzsee on Saturday.

Isn't this scenery just to die for? LOVE IT! It was such a gorgeous day!
Isn’t this scenery just to die for? LOVE IT! It was such a gorgeous day!

We arrived in time for a nice lunch by the beautiful lakeside. Then it was off to ride the Monster Trotti (Monster Scooter) down Riggisalp. After a bit of a shaky start, the boys were off. But not for me, i had no confidence on the scooter and the gravelly path didn’t help. After a couple of falls, i decided to walk the steep parts and ride the less “scary” parts. So of course, the boys were already at the bottom quite a while before i managed to get there. Well, as long as they had fun.

Then we went off to ride the Rondelbahn (Toboggan Run). There was no space to have our bags with us, so i sent them off to ride it by themselves while i watch the bags. They made 2 runs and then i went with one of the boys for another 2 runs. This was so much more my thing. Heheee 😉

Before each of their fun thrilling rides!
Before each of their fun thrilling rides!

One of the boys had wanted to ride the Monster Scooter again but it was too expensive to go again. So they settled for ice cream and drinks by the lake.

i love this shot of them, trying to skip stones on the lake.
i love this shot of them, trying to skip stones on the lake.

We came home just a little earlier than planned, opened the presents, had some cupcakes and the boys played a little on the computer before they went home.

It was a good day of celebrations 😀

 

This is our traditional birthday photo!
Here is our traditional birthday photo!

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