sep09

Tis' the birthday season!!!

I was exposed to exotic Indonesian-Thai combo cuisine at the Bali Thai restaurant alongwith my Sweety mausi, Amma and Appa.

Amma and mausi were planning this party for a very long time and the house was transformed that day with a lot of decorations!!! There was also a rangoli of tools that my Appa did specially for me and followed a theme..
And at the right hour my friends started streaming in... and as soon as they got settled in were handed a couple of sheets to draw!!! My friends were all thinking... oh oh.. its almost like a classroom.. but they soon got over it..
Then after what seemed like ages, Appa brought the birthday cake. The topping was of tools.. wrench, screw-driver, nuts, bolts .. almost as if it was Bob.. the builder...
After this party, there was a separate dinner at Annalakshmi restaurant and we were joined by some of Appa's colleagues and friends too..
Then came the best part.. opening the gifts.. It was fun ripping apart those gift wrappers and looking at what I got...I loved all those gifts but the airport set and the Rheneas, one of the Thomas engines was special. I got a catalog of all of Thomas' engines as part of the package. The next few weeks were spent asking Appa to name each of the various engines.. I liked Gordon, a lot. Amma tried to arrange the airport set for me, gave up and Appa took over and then I had my airport set functional for my various adventures. Did you know - its got airport fire engines, airport transfer coaches, a control tower and a radar on top of it?

We went to Clarke Quay and Appa did the reverse bungy with Sweety. I was disappointed that I couldn't do it but I am sure I will do it when i grow big. We also had a nice 'packed' dinner by the river followed by ice-cream that made it a memorable evening!
We also went to the West Coast beach and saw the kite flying festival. There were so many colorful kites and Appa had half a mind to come over the next day too...but Amma vetoed it!!

There was the mandatory for Singapore visitor, Sentosa visit too. Appa took me to the underwater world where again i made my connection with the sharks and stingrays. I also was goaded on by Appa to hold a snake and pose with it. It was slimy... yet satisfying as Simba says in Lion King..We then visited the Marina Barrage, a newly built dam across from the CBD with good views overlooking the CBD and the flyer. There were some nice fountains too.. where you could dip your feet into and get wet.

Appa told me about typhoons, hurricanes, tornados and cyclones in the backdrop of Typhoon Ketsana ravaging Manila. I have been fascinated by them and keep asking Appa again and again as to what typhoons are and how they are created...

The song of the month is Love me, love me..

August 2009 update - The birthday season begins!!

Map reading ...........inspired by Appa!!!

The battle of lashes

The tricolor painting............

NDP rehearsals

We went to Marina Bay to witness the rehearsal of Singapore's National Day Parade (NDP-09), which hopefully will turn out to be an annual tradition for us. We went there last year as well and watching the fighters in formation and the final fireworks display was the highlight for me last year. This year was no different... only Sweety mausi joined as well.. The roar of the chinook in the sky leading the other helicopters in formation carrying the Singapore flag was breathtaking. We also waited for awhile to view the fireworks and when it started it was mindblowing (as all those judges in the Zee TV music program Sa Re Ga Ma Pa are seen to inanely utter)
I now am being taught Majulah Singapura in the school and Jana Gana Mana at home. One nation. One People One Singapore
There was also an inevitable Jurong Bird Park darshan for Sweety mausi. It was a race against time as always in these places trying to view as many scheduled live performances as possible with Appa performing cartographic optimization as only he can!!! A penguin feeding session here...a pelican session there... a multi-bird performance at the pools amphitheatre.

Another yearly tradition is the creation of a tricolour for the Indian Independence Day on Aug 15 every year. The change this time around was that I already knew which colors went in the flag.

Appa had to go to Bangalore as Bagyam-paati was to undergo surgery and paati recovered well after the surgery. Amma and Appa both say that paati is very strong!!

August at Toh Guan signifies the beginning of the birthday season that continues over a period of a few months.. The excitement is in selecting gifts for all the birthdays and then selecting a theme for the birthday cake and the return gifts as well..Fortunately, Amma and Appa had done some advance planning and picked up some good gifts from India for my friends' birthday parties. When it came to time for selecting my birthday cake, I selected an aeroplane cake but then finally decided on an Edible Tools cake.

The phrase of the month has to be "kids' dash". Here is the inside story. Appa registered to run the half-marathon at the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon in December. This year they introduced a new run called kid's dash, a 750 m run. Appa registered me for the kids' dash and he told me about it. You see, I am always amazed at the English language. I always thought that a kids' dash involved kids dashing against each other and told Appa and Amma how I would enjoy all the dashing. Appa, Amma and Sweety-mausi were rolling on the floor(??) laughing and then explained me the nuances of English phraseology and that things are not always what they seem!!
We have also started a weekly routine to sort out our recylable waste and then go over to the multi-coloured recycle bins (blue for paper, yellow for , red for ) and bin our waste that way.
Song of the month has been: Mein kahbi batlata nahin!!

Painting............inspired by Amma.