With June's imminent arrival, J and I have embarked on that trial-by-fire journey that every Singaporean parent has to go through: registration for Primary One. The actual dates for registration run from July to August, but since we are overseas, our process begins slightly earlier because we need to scan and email all the relevant documents for ( Read more... )

I took myself off social media for most of this past week, only using the Internet to do some research for our upcoming Amsterdam trip and to feed my fanfiction obsession. (Some of the writing there reduces me into a wreck - how do people write so well? How?) It's impressive (and telling) how much free time one reclaims without things like blogs, ( Read more... )

One last long post about our Singapore trip, and then we can return to regular programming here in Geneva.


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Gotta keep writing about our Singapore trip, otherwise it will just fall into a backlog of inertia and never get written. Posterity, people. Posterity.


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Very early this morning, my family flew back home to Singapore. J sent them to the airport, and I remained behind with the sleeping children. In the past two weeks I had gotten used to having someone around to talk to at any time of the day (the kids don't count) and mostly enjoyed the hustle and bustle at home ( Read more... )

The kids and I spent our afternoon after school today on a playdate with a difference - it involved speaking Chinese, lots of it, and listening to it being spoken. The Bun's classmate, P, is American but her father was born in Taiwan, and he is keen that she and her older brother are able to speak at least some of the language. The kids' mother ( Read more... )

Chinese New Year for us this year was understandably low-key, and life went on as usual although J and I did try to keep up with some of the traditions like the reunion dinner, having the kids 拜年 (bai nian) in the morning, red packets, and some festive treats. We also called home to talk to our parents and to wish them a happy new year ( Read more... )

It has been almost two decades since I left high school, and whenever I tell other friends about my four years there they always end up laughing with a mix of disbelief and wonder. It's not surprising, because if you compare the rules, traditions and the actual school building itself using today's standards it would seem amazing that they let any ( Read more... )

I received a nice email today from The Bun's playschool, informing the parents about the success of their Christmas charity fund-raising drive. One of the activities organised was the Charity Art Sale, where parents were offered the opportunity to 'purchase' one of their child's (framed) art pieces by making a donation. There was also a Christmas ( Read more... )

J and I have lived in our flat for almost a decade (!) and we have seen various neighbours come and go. While we usually exchange polite smiles and greetings when we see each other in the lift lobby, we have never really gotten to know these other families very well, apart from the family right next door to us ( Read more... )