Mid-Life Crisis

I really believe that mid life crises exist.

When you reach a certain age and a certain stage of your life, and you realise you have probably reached the half-way mark of your life span, you will start to think about doing things that you have always wanted to try but have never got around to do it because of all the procrastination. It's always because you were busy with work, family, friends etc previously.

Recently I hit mine (I believe). I decided I will stop talking about wanting to learn to play the guitar and instead really go learn it. So I enrolled in an elementary pop guitar class and I totally am enjoying it.

I can now play (very slowly) some songs and sing to them. Songs like Stand by Me, I'm yours, 关怀方式. It's a long time dream come true!

When I am ready, I will post some of my playing videos here. : )

Family education on race, culture and ethinicity II

In Feb this year, we visited the mosque. The blog post is here.

Today, we visited the first Hindu temple built in Singapore, Sri Mariamman Temple. It was built in 1827 and building it was quite an accomplishment at that time, with little technology, especially its very interesting entrance.

Yan asked me why some of the Hindu Gods are blue. I was stumped! I googled later and found out that the blue colour is supposed to represent the all-pervasive nature of the god. The blue colour represents the colour of the infinite space and infinite ocean that the god resides upon.

There is much to be learnt, just by walking around Singapore.

Friends in KL

On our way back from Ipoh, we made a 1-day stopover at KL to visit Uncle Sow and his family. From the looks of the pictures, the kids enjoyed one another's company tremendously. We heard from Aunt Lorna that Megan was so sad after we left that she cried to sleep.

No worries Megan. We promise to meet up again soon!

Pedicure

I went for my monthly pedicure last night. Yan decided she wanted one too.

Julian and Yan

The 2 good buddies share a reading moment..

Istana Open House

I have very vague memories of having visited the Istana when I was very young. Now, many years later, we returned to the place again.

Despite the heat, the children had fun at the playground, climbing trees, visiting the presidential residence. We were awed by the size of the Istana.

Finally...Merly and Lyo

We finally met up with the 2 YOG mascots!

YOG torch relay

Singapore has the privilege of hosting the inaugural YOG this year.

And we are fortunate enough to be living in an estate where the torch relay will pass by.

So at 3pm this afternoon, we took our only Singapore flag, camera and headed to the main road where the torch relay team will pass by and waited. It was a good 30minute wait but it was well worth it. How often does one get to witness the passing of an Olympic torch?

Residents nearby had turned out in droves to witness this significant moment. The position we were standing at was excellent as the torch was strategically passed from one bearer to another right next to us! Great camera moment!

X-periment!

There is a Science Exhibition going on at Marina Square, in conjuction with the Science Festival. We went to check it out after Yan's ballet class.

Booths were set up by the various organisations, such as AStar, NUS, Science Centre. They provide the public, especially the children, a chance to pick up science concepts through interactive and hands-on experience. Among those we learnt were:

1. How the corn starch shares similar properties to a bullet proof armour due to its ability to turn hard upon impact and stay fluid when there's no impact.

2. How red cabbage juice acts like litmus paper and is able to tell acidity from alkalinity

3. How various chemicals can be mixed together to make scents of strawberry/soursop/banana

4. How to make slime using Borax solution and PVA

I must say I learnt quite a bit during that 1.5 hour.