My New Kakak

This is Anna, our new domestic helper who came to join us on 29 Nov. She hails all the way from Flores Island. We are all amazed by the courage she has to leave home and work in a foreign country at this young age of 21.

Though she no previous experience working as a domestic helper, she learns very fast and we only need to teach her once on how to use the electrical appliances and she would just pick it up! It is almost impossible for us to imagine or live in her kampung, where there is no electricity, gas stove or cars. What would our lives be like? Hmmmmmm .... I guess that is why her family sleeps at 8pm and wakes up at 6am everyday.

We are really thankful to have Anna with us and even Sofia has accepted her with open arms after three days. It has been a month now and we starting to let Anna share the same room with Sofia at night without my presence. I would have loved to continue to sleep with Sofia, just that with the second one coming in May, we think that the baby would disrupt Sofia's sleep at night and it would be best to keep them in separate room for the time being.

We hope Anna would also have a good time staying with us and be a good role model to Sofia too!

Botanic Gardens

We went back to Singapore for a short break on 26 Dec. Sofia was very very excited this time round because we kept telling her she was going on an aeroplane one week before the trip. And we told her the aeroplane has got a tiger! She must have thought it was a REAL tiger, but unfortunately, it was not. But she was equally as excited to see the "tiger" on the aeroplane so much so that she refuse to nap nor eat.

It was a beautiful day today and we actually thought of going to the zoo but there was little time left when Sofia woke up from her nap. So we went to the Singapore Botanic Gardens instead. It has been ages since I been there and it was very refreshing to be there again. We used to go there very often, for school excursions when I was young. We would have picnics and outdoor lessons there, it was beautiful. Being there with Sofia brought back all the lovely memories.

Of course, she was more fascinated by the dogs out for evening walks and the black swans in the pond than the fauna. More importantly, the park is really huge and gave her a chance to run as much as she wants to.

Sofia is filled with boundless supply of energy and it amazes and tire us out. Thus we would always try to exhaust her energy during the evenings, be it at the playground or park. Though at times I certainly wish I could use some of her energy for myself!!

Artist's Impression

We finally started this very important project today - 09 Dec 08. No particular reason why today, but we should have started last week by right. We started off with chopping down two huge manago trees in the garden. I would have loved to keep the trees for their fruits but it is way too big and gets into the way. Also, mango trees sheds plenty of leaves and attracts too many ants so they have to go.

I loved the artist's impression our designer gave us, looks beautiful right? I certainly hope the house will turn out just as good!