( A day in the life of Bao, aged three-and-a-half )

I faced the beginning of this month with slight dread, wondering how I was going to occupy two restless children for four weeks straight. But the time somehow flew right by, filled with heatwaves, playdates, a lot of reading, a roadtrip, popsicles, parks and various bodies of water, and now we're in the final week of July. I was going to put The ( Read more... )

More random posting, because it's too hot to do much else right now except sit in front of the fan and type. You'd think that after more than three decades of life in Singapore, I should not be a stranger to feeling hot, but this dry, searing heat is not the same as the humid blanket of heat at the equator. I'm constantly thirsty, and my skin is ( Read more... )

It's merely the first week of the summer holidays and I can already feel myself going around the bend. It's just me, mind - the kids seem to be having a blast, they play right after breakfast and only seem to stop for Bao's nap and meals. A lot of their play seems to be mad, incomprehensible stuff to me, but as long as they take it easy on the ( Read more... )

Short notes, now that we're back to reality ( Read more... )

We've been lucky to enjoy some really good food on this trip, thanks to J who checked out restaurant reviews and did up a short list of where to eat ( Read more... )

Well well well, we've been far busier over here than I had imagined, and our stay in Venice is already more than half over. Before we came I kept wondering how we were ever going to pass the time here, especially on such a sleepy island, but somehow we did, and what's more, we've come to really enjoy our stay here. If anyone's wondering why we seem ( Read more... )

It's the little things that make each day pass faster, somehow.

On Tuesdays, there's a farmers' market on the Lido, and according to our guidebook, Venetians will take the vaporetto (water bus) over to shop at the market. I had a rough idea of where it was but was prepared to give it a miss if we couldn't find it, since J had tried to look for it ( Read more... )

Buongiorno from Venice! We arrived on Friday and it's been hot, hot, hot. We spent the weekend exploring parts of the city and our island, Lido, with J but he went to work today so the rest of us are spending the day at home because it's too freaking hot to do anything else. We did go for a short walk to our small neighbourhood supermercato in the ( Read more... )

We're leaving for Venice on Friday and since I'm in packing denial I thought I'd write instead. I spent all of today deep cleaning our apartment because my mother arrives tomorrow. Nothing like visiting relatives to make you suck it up (with a Dyson) and get on your hands and knees with an old toothbrush ( Read more... )