Just another weekend!!

Another wonderful weekend just gone (last weekend actually).

This weekend we did book printing meetings, chilling with Ollie's mates, shopping for shoes and presents, and then off food court hunting which you will see on my food blog. Sunday was a busy day getting food, then off to play football and then to meet a new arrival of our great friends Jeremy and Liz, 2 week old baby Julian (OMG he is gorgeous!!!!!!!).

Last weekend we did this;

Have to say feeling still very guilty re this. Invited to the twins birthday and then Schuey invited us to house warming. One was Changi Airport and the next West Coast. We were off to Tim's and then Kenneth asked me to drink a yard of ale, that was that - the kids were happy in pool and playing, not many kids at Schuey's, drinks were flowing, we were halfway to home etc etc. We stayed! So thanks to Kenneth and Faith we had a ball, and so so so sorry to Tim & Sarah for missing the party - we truly are.

Here's the munchkin watching the magician. He was pretty damn good actually, complete audience participation as you'll see below.

This is funny. Look nothing behind my back kids. Hold on a second, so why is you bloody hand behind your back you faker. I'm going to report you to the magic circle.

Actually the guy had really hurt his back earlier in the day and was standing like this because he was in intense pain, and was trying to support himself. Hey gotta laugh I suppose, especially wearing clothes like that.

Intense concentration.

OK kids don't forget to say the magic word. "aaaahhaahahahhahaha my back , the pain, bloody hell, ahahahahahah!!!!! - and hey presto a rabbit appears from the hat!"

This was very cute actually when the twins had to come up and be part of the act = trying to find the correctly spelt flag saying happy birthday from the bag. Very clever this one.

Holy Moly - check the cakes - Ethan and Alle very lucky with these. Amazing!

I'm swimming to Indonesia Dad, and I'm loving it.

Hun, you're in Uncle Kenneth's swimming pool you donut!

OK a new one - you've seen the "every day I'm shuffling". OK here is DJ Amy saying "Yoah" to all her listeners ....................

Don't ask, I have NO idea!

A wee trip to the cinema to watch a lovely new Disney flick, Brave. Before it was ready let's have some fun.

Bring on the arcades - bro and sis fighting off giant spiders, mosquitos, and other weird things in the jungle of the Amazon. OK OK a game on the 3rd floor of Kallang Shopping Centre. But hey the thought is there, and certainly the team work!

A lovely leisurely drive on a Sunday afternoon. HOLD ON A SECOND, is he driving with an infant on his lap, with no seatbelt (must be Singapore) - call the cops! WHO is this parent, shocking behaviour!

I like this one. We must have had about 6 goes on this. Father/Daughter basketball. What a giggle. Amy, you were really really good!

Me and my new friend Ted (It's a movie), he said "Come here ya bast*rd!" How could I refuse!?!?!?!?!

Home and the girls chilled out - BIG TIME. Need I say more??? It's all Daisy Duke shorts, legs and  iPADS everywhere. Comfy are we girls???? Hmmmm I don't think they heard me!!!!

The Amy's first time to Night Safari - so VERY limited on the photos, as er, well because it's night time. But here we are at creatures of the night show, hmmmmm, is this 4 year old a loonie tune or what???

"I love my map of the theme park Dad", or is "I lick my map of the theme park Dad"??
But a lovely snap of Ollie and Mary in the background.

OK OK we squeeze in one video of the guys doing the flame breathing thing. Pretty cool. And this is literally as you walk through the front door.

BOOM, stink of paraffin, naked blokes with six packs, fire everywhere, and lots of shouting, screaming and dancing - almost like being in a pub in the East End of London! 

But pretty impressive isn't it!

Proud Dad Moment - AGAIN - UPDATED with full speech now!

OK I can now update with the FULL Oliver Kennett, winning speech that has now made him Captin. He finally remembered to bring it home - bless!

Fingers crossed everyone.

Here is Ollie giving his "pitch" to the school as to why he should be voted for by them to be School Captain. Mary and I went along to watch this today - WOW, PROUD PROUD PROUD!

Sorry re the quality of the photos - but dopy Dad forgot camera, so I only had the camera on the Blackberry.

This is him with his new teacher, Mr Richard.

Look at this - like a Presidential Candidate campaign. These are all the kids going for the position, there will be a boy and girl position, and decision (once all votes are collated and counted) is made next week and announced at the assembly. Yes we will be there to cheer him on.

He was AMAZING. So clear concise commanding. He really was. SO SO proud of him if he gets or does not get the position, he was just amazing. 

Have to say though the other kids were all so so good. Quite a daunting task when you have parents, teachers and the whole school in front of you. But they all nailed their speeches, just wonderful to see how well 9 and 10 year olds can carry this off. SO good.

Here's his speech, well what he can remember (yes he forgot to bring it home - so there is actually a lot more to this, about 1.5 minutes long) - all written from scratch by him - how good is this?? 

Proud Dad over and out.

‘Hi! My name is Oliver, I am 10 and I am half British and Japanese! I am saying this speech because I would like to become your school captain from 2012 to 2013. If you are wondering why I should be captain it is because I would like to make the school a fun and safe place.

During the past year, bullying and teasing has been a big problem and if it carries on it will get worse. I have also done a play called ‘A Few Good Kids’ about this issue. I would like to be captain so I can stop it and become a friendly person to all of the school, teachers, parents and students.

If you have not got a friend to play with or you have nothing to do or you feel lonely don’t worry just ask me and I will play with you!

I have been with the SRC once and I have joined the Big Buddies because I want to see school as a life long memory not a kid's worst nightmare. I think I show three qualities a captain should have, Caring, Cooperation and Open-Minded.

I show that I am caring because I do not want to be popular I just want to be a friendly icon in the school. If someone is new in my class or not I do not leave that person, I become friends! I show Cooperation because I help others during group work or group games or teams in an activity. I also show Cooperation with other students to bring the school to a whole new level! And I also show I am Open-Minded because I listen to other people’s ideas and I share my ideas too with everyone.

I know a lot of other boys who would make a great school captain but I would try to be a captain to change the school. At the moment I have many friends and I hope to get more in the future. So I would like to be your school captain in tis school to make the days, weeks and whole year the best we ever had. Thank you for listening to my speech. Vote for me and take the school above the limits.'

Did anyone see this yesterday?????

Yes we had a sun halo in Singapore yesterday 18th August 2012.

I don't think I have ever seen one before. Certainly Mary and the kids had not, so we spent about 15 minutes passing my sun glasses between each other to look at this absolutely amazing sight.

Basically a halo is, as the name suggests, a ring around the sun or moon that looks like a circular rainbow. Just a beautiful thing. We saw this yesterday at about 1300, just after we left hawker for lunch.

Check this out, how beautiful is this. Not the best quality sorry as I only had the camera on my BlackBerry. But saying that, you get the picture right - just amazing. What you don't get is the colours, truly it was rainbow rings, huge rainbow rings around the sun in a beautiful clear sky.

There are many types of ice halos. They are produced by ice crystals in the very high cirrus clouds, usually about 5 miles up in troposphere. Apparently the shape and position of the crystals will make different types of halo.  Sunlight is reflected and refracted by the ice crystals to give the rainbow effect - literally the crystals act as prisms/mirrors reflecting the sunlight. So similar to a rainbow, BUT a rainbow is reflecting/refracting water droplets not ice crystals as in this BEAUTIFUL Halo!

In touch with my feminine side?????????

OK OK OK - I have to title is as so, because I know if any of my football mate see this blog and the amount of photos of flowers I am in deep deep trouble.

But anyways here we go .......... a MONSTER blog, I think circa 90 photos, BUT I personally think ALL worth showing. I will keep them all to large size too so you can see the beauty. But where is this??

This place is 10 minutes from where we live in Singapore. It is called Gardens on the Bay, a newly opened attraction in Singapore. We literally look at it from our condo, it's just across the river. So yesterday with a "free" day for once we went on over, had an amazing time - like breath taking amazing time, we ate like kings at Mango Tree restaurant in the place too.

To my family;

Mum, Nan, Nikki and if only Joe were with us - you would LOVE this place, it is amazing. It's like Kew Gardens on steroids. Mum PLEASE show this to Nan and Nikki they are gonna love this blog.

Yuko, Miz - when you are here in October, you HAVE to go. I'll let the kids show you around. You are going to be amazed at how good this is. Bring a camera not a butterfly net - ha ha.

DK, Claire - we will absolutely be taking you here when you're here in September. You are going to enjoy this day guys. Dinner on me.

Haruko - you just gotta come here with the girls. They/you/we would have such a lovely day. Bring an umbrella for the outside bits (gets a tad hot).

To my friends living in Singapore;

You GOTTA go to this place. We are now annual members, and will be back many times this year.

Now to follow is over 90 photos, I won't give any commentary unless it makes sense - "picture paints a thousand words" and all that.

OK so here I am breaking what I just said. Here are some "moody" shots of these huge fake trees they have erected. These ones do nothing but look impressive and at night light up and play music. The "bark" is all orchids, yep thousands upon thousands of individual orchids in little pockets with little hoses to water them. This only gets more amazing and more "better" (sorry bad bad English).

This is flower dome. I mean just look at this place. We have looked at it from across the water, from the sister gardens on the bay on our side (nice for a walk/bike ride - but NOTHING like this), wondering what it's like inside. You walk in and BOOM literally breath taking. HOT HOT HOT outside, you walk in this huge greenhouse structure and it's COOL COOL COOL. It really is ( and I can't think of another word to use, hence repetitive) AMAZING.

Here's me ann the gang literally 5 steps in to the place. Welcome to Flower Dome.

Seriously check this place out. I just hope the photos do justice to what our eyes and other senses were experiencing as we wandered though here.

I mean what are these? Like fluffy banana plant or something. Beautiful.

Come on come on, check these out - Mr Bailey in the house. What beautiful beautiful photos. But the audience are the stars. Just stunning! Mr Totton has been teaching me some new tricks when he's been photo'ing the cook book - Ged what you think mate???

So this is Africa - the whole place is zoned in to different geographical areas. All sort of placed on their own stage as it were. You start to see the scale of this place when I photo back along the length, it is indeed huge - and this is just one of the indoor pods.

Oh of course it's a blog isn't it - can I hear a faint whisper of "FaceBook FaceBook FaceBook???"
Yes indeed I can, ha ha ha!

NO words needed, just have a look at these.

And to my football mates, get a life - these are beautiful and I don't mind saying it.

Yes I still drink, smoke, and play football - and I do NOT wear a dress, do croche, like Earl Grey Tea, Oprah, Sex in the City, or walks along the beach ............................

Ahhhhhh cute guys, I love this one - dear me, did I get just get a desire to do some knitting ..................?

Echo Echo Echo - FaceBook FaceBook FaceBook ......................

AMAZING!!!! Just beautiful!

And when I say we sit in our condo and look across at these weird domes wondering what's inside. Well here is the condo we live in shot from flower domes. The orange topped place next to the bridge - do you see it?

Back to those geography zones. I'll say again, how can you NOT be impressed with this. This place is like Willy Wonka's on steroids. Where's the oompaloompas?

Off we trot outside now to the OCBC sky-walk. Can you see it? The yellow walk-way thing, 6 stories up in the fake trees. You take a lift and walk around getting birds eye views. Here's the word again, AMAZING!

This is taken from up on the walk. See the dome in the background, the Singapore flier, Marina Bay Financial Centre on the left.

Walking through the outside gardens to get to pod number two, cloud forest. Here we are going through the Chinese Gardens.

OK here is THE most amazing part of the experience. Cloud Forest.
Cloud Forest is worth going to see on it's own, let alone all the rest of the place.

You walk in the doors, to this cool and temperate place, mist everywhere, smells of moss and dampness - and then F*ck me a 35 metres tall waterfall. This thing is so so impressive. What are the walls of this THIRTY TWO METRE waterfall made of - flowers. All the green you see is flowers. It is truly breath-taking. You then proceed to take a lift 6 stories up to the top and then walk down a spiral footpath 6-5-4-3 type thing, and on the way experiencing loads of different things crystals, to stalagmites, to ponds, to waterfalls and so on - again I will let the pictures do the talking.

OK you see the wall from afar, now see the wall up close. Yep every step you take you get eye-fulls of this!

Did I just get a strong desire to read Women's Own, and Marie Claire .......................?

Come on how can you not be impressed by this place. This from the top of the waterfall, looking back at the entrance.

Some lovely snaps of our carnivore plants - Venus Fly Traps and all that. But all that aside these things are absolutely stunning!

Sorry a lighter moment.

Whilst gawping at beautiful flowers I aspied these two beautiful things and could not resist a photo. Believe it or not they were not posing for me, I sneaked a photo. The one in blue, or dragon lady as the kids called her, had this kind of mullet thing, too much makeup, an outfit from the 70's, clearly an attitude, and well ............ the rest I leave to you ................! Sorry to the lady!

Phew back to the flowers!

Ahhhhhhhh, bless you Mary. See even Mary became a tree hugger this day, kissing the flowers and all!

HUGE crystals, cut open for all to see.

Stalegmites (sadly) cut from caves and on display - but still very beautiful things to look at.

Supposed to be in a cave, so clearly caves echo and here it comes - FaceBook, FaceBook, FaceBook .........

The they turned on the mist to make this "cloudy".

You'll be glad to see, the final photo. A moody one to finish, the fake trees.

A wonderful day.

A wonderful experience.

All linked to green initiatives too.

Well done Singapore, this is a keeper - we loved this today - thank you!