Trainspotting

Boy, does this country love its trains. A quick google search revealed all these railways, just on the first page. It's nice to see that someone is taking care of all these retired trains.

The Midland Railway
Perrygrove Railway
Welsh Highland Heritage Railway
Mid Hants Railway
The North Norfolk Railway

We decided to check out the Eastleigh Lakeside Railway because it was only a 15 minute drive from us. DN was so excited when we told him he was going to see the trains. He kept bugging us to get out of the house to "see Thomas".

We paid 6 pounds each for 3 return rides. DN rode free. Heh heh.

Being the true Singaporean, I told PF, "If we don't ride together, DN can go on 6 rides!" And of course, being the true tropical Singaporean, I was freezing my cheapo ass off so as much as I would have liked to bleed our tickets dry, we stuck to the 3 rides. And it took us 4 hours to complete those 20-minute rides, can you believe it! It was so cold, we hid and thawed out in the cafe between rides.

The trains are mini open-topped ones, so the little guy was really cold. Here he is pushing PF's hands to his face to shield it from the wind.

Even though DN looked like this 80% of the time while we were on the train, we know he enjoyed the trains because he keeps asking us to play the videos we took. We now put them all on a playlist, AND on repeat.

The boys on the train. Yes, I know DN looks like a brown dumpling. It's for his own good!

DN will probably sell his soul for us to bring him to this and this, but too bad, we won't be around for them. :( To make up for it, we're going to try to see the big trains at Didcot Railway Centre tomorrow. It's a "Steamday", so the entrance fee includes unlimited free rides on the steam trains. (And these are covered trains, so the Singaporean can make the most of her ticket now. Woot!)

Pass the detergent and scouring pad

Before PF and DN got here, I had been on my own for 2.5 months. That's 10 weeks of home-sickness. 10 weeks of boredom. 10 weeks of bad eating. And 10 weeks of unrestrained swearing! Woot!

When DN arrived, I really had to watch myself and curb the sailor in me. But just the other day, I tripped on the pavement while carrying DN and I forgot myself. Before you can say "what the hell?", a few choice words exploded out of me and rained on DN's ears. Here's the exact conversation that ensued, adapted for all ages.

Fisherman's wife trips on the pavement and almost drops the baby.
FW : F***!
(realising that I'd just said the BIG no-no) FW : Sh**!
(realising that I'd just sworn again BECAUSE of swearing) FW : Ah, dam**t!
DN : !!!

And then, I really shut up because swearing at a rate of 1 choice word per second is not funny when your toddler has entered the parroting stage and has already started saying "oh dear" when he drops something.

Pass the detergent and the scouring pad. If I'm not careful, soon, little children, their mothers and other assorted little animals will be running away from my toddler at the playground, who will probably be (notoriously) known as "that BAD one".

How we spent our Christmas Day

It wasn't a white Christmas (BIG phew) but it was an unexpectedly sunny one. This was a pleasant surprise because when you look up at the sky over here, you usually see something resembling an elephant's bum - grey and threatening.

So we happily headed out to the New Forest to see the ponies and deer. By the way, the New Forest is anything but new. It is in actual fact terribly old (trust the English to confuse us all... think 'Reading', the city and 'reading', the verb) because it was created in 1079 by William the Conqueror. It was the only place we could go to because it's a complete shut-down here on Christmas Day.

As I packed a light lunch for all of us, I thought of the nice little picnic we would be having in the bright sunshine. And I was so proud of myself because I didn't forget the cutlery! Nothing could dampen my spirit.

DN's lunch? Check.
Our lunch? Check.
Vegetables for all? Check.
Fruits for all? Check.
Cutlery? Check.
Assortment of beverages? Check.

Nothing could go wrong! ... Right?

Wrong. It was too blinking cold to eat outside! We ended up retreating back to the car for lunch. -_- Oh well.

DN's lunch
Main Box :: fried rice (with egg, mushrooms, yellow pepper, carrots, beans)
Sweets Box :: 1/2 granola bar, dried apricots and blueberries, almonds, multi-vits
Vege Box :: broccoli, apples

Our Lunch
The same as DN's but with more chilli and salt! (not on the apples though)

Merry Christmas Everyone!

I know we aren't dressed in red and green, but we're holding a Christmas fruit cake! Surely that counts for something. (Please ignore the toy car that DN is trying to drive over the fruit cake.)

Have a Happy Christmas and a good 2009!

Wow, Thomas.

Lucky DN. He got to open his presents 3 days before Christmas because his Uncle Josh and Grandma Wee had to fly back to SG on 23 Dec. We miss you! It has been wonderful having them both here because DN absolutely adores his Uncle Josh who by the way, has a latent talent for making a mess out of any sort of wrapping. Josh and DN had tons of fun together and DN often requested for his Uncle Josh to sit in the back of the car with him. And of course, what would we have done without Grandma Wee's delicious cooking? Well, besides not putting on 20kg, I guess we would have done pretty much nothing in the kitchen. DN loved all the food that Grandma Wee cooked. Yums.

Here's a short video of DN opening his presents the night before they left. His deadpan "wow" whenever he opened a present was hilarious. I know he didn't look it, but he was thrilled with all his presents. Except maybe the CD set. When he opened that one, you could see the "You call this a present? It's just a white box, but I'd better say 'WOW' anyway and pretend to be happy..." look on his face.

Thanks everyone for all your presents for DN. :D



Postscript:
Mom, we got lost after we left Heathrow! We missed a turn and drove to Windsor, can you imagine? It's not really that far, it's not like we drove to Wales. We're not that kayu. Since we were there, we decided to have lunch there and we got to see Windsor Castle (from the car) too. As we tried to navigate out of Windsor and onto the motorway, we got lost (again!) and visited Ascot accidentally. Can you say "accidental tourists"? By the time we got back to Winchester, I think you guys were already over Cyprus. -_-

Josh, I think you would really have puked in the car this time!

It's time to diet

I thought really long and hard before deciding to blog about this because it's kinda embarrassing. But I figured, "Everyone's already seen my son squatting like a coolie and his pink thermals, so bugger it!"

Look at the amount of food PF and my mom brought up! I've now got my very own Asian provision shop in the store room. Sweet. We've got mixes for nasi lemak, chicken rice, laksa, sayur lodeh, bak kut teh, rendang, herbal soups, and we have dried hokkien noodles, dried soba noodles, (low-fat!) coconut milk, tau kee, mee sua... and erm, *whisper* lap cheong.

DN said, "Mmm... nice!" after he tried to take a bite of the lap cheong.

We've feasted on nonya chap chai, bak kut teh, chicken curry, char siew, wan ton mee, suai gow... I can't fit into one of my jeans anymore. :(

DN the Homemaker

I burst out laughing when I found this in the fridge compartment of DN's kitchen set. He told me he was washing his thermals!

Yes. My son has pink underwear. That was the only colour they had left in Sainsbury's. Real men wear pink anyway. Humph!

Oh dear. And he has a pink sponge for his kitchen set! Again, what colour do real men wear? Roar.

DN has been having a ball with this kitchen set. He makes kopi-o-kosong (yes, he actually says "kopi-o-kosong" as he serves it!) for us everyday and when he serves his pizza/burger/etc, he makes sure that it's on a plate with a fork. He even forgets to do the dishes!

Bento Box

DN's Grandma Wee bought him a new bento lunch box/plate.

He's been having a great time with it and demands to have all his meals in it now.

Here are some of the meals he's had in it so far.

Bento #1 :: Breakfast
Chewy Multi-Vits, Potato Omelette, Grapes, Egg Burger with some ketchup

Bento #2 :: Breakfast

Toast with Strawberry Jam, Grapes, Cereal, Crackers

Bento #3 :: Lunch
Shredded Chicken with Red Peppers, Soup, Tofu, Egg Noodles with Spinach

Bento #1 :: Dinner

Onigiri, Brussel Sprouts, Braised Chicken, Tofu Soup