Day 2 with the kids

Monday was the real start of Mayhem.

This week is Tien Hsia week for Nigel and Shannon and their morning Chinese classes are in Simei at 930am. My plan each morning is to get there comfortably by 910am, but in reality if I can leave the house by 910am, that would be marvelous. Breakfast is eaten during the car-ride which is somehow just the right duration to finish a piece of bread with cheese/Nutella/ham/floss - pick one only. No eggs and sausages though.

Amber gets away with no class - I don't mean she has no class, which sometimes might seem true given how she screams and shouts at her siblings, but what I really meant is we didn't sign her up for Chinese enrichment. So, I get to hand out with her - sometimes literally at the playground, but not that day. On Monday, we stayed around the coffeeshop and she got herself a croissant. It was drizzling slightly.

Then we walked around the pet-shop and talked to the fishes, hamsters, Guinea Pigs. They stared back, but didn't say anything.

Watching animals is actually quite relaxing. You just stand there and stare into their cages/glass boxes and they run around like crazy, sprinting on the wheels, falling over each other and just going nuts. We could have done that for hours, except that we had to go up to pick the other two. Nigel has a habit of borrowing the school phone and calling me saying "where are you, why are you not here". One more reason to not get him a handphone yet. Shannon also does that after her ballet class - cute, somewhat.

We went to use up more free vouchers for lunch at our favourite Siglap cafe - I think the kids like the place more for the Lego blocks because I had to chase them to finish up their food, as usual.

I had a Terayaki Chicken Chop while the girls shared a Fish and Chips. Actually I shared the Fish and Chips too as they couldn't finish it - I feel like I'm getting fatter - finishing up food, no gym. Nigel decided to be different and ordered breakfast.

We had a dinner picnic at the Punggol Promenade, which we have never gone to before. It is actually right at the end of the Punggol Road before your car zooms off the pier and plunges into the Johor Straits - something the police boats would not advise as it might look like an attempt to flee the country and escape to Malaysia. Gene is the one that suggested this - no, not the car plunging stunt, the picnic. Stop trying to be funny!

Fred and Mervin came by with their families too and we had lots of food, drinks and screaming kids to keep us occupied for a few hours. We took over a 80m stretch of the cycling/jogging path and made it into our own personal soccer/scooting/frisbee/running/standing-around arena - threatening members of the public who dared venture into our area with flying objects and children hurtling down the nearby slope on scooters at 180kmh. It was fun for us and luckily the cops that were on duty there were mostly focused on the sea to ensure no cars tried to jump the pier.

Overall, a fun-filled day, although if everyday were like this, I wouldn't have any energy left to update this blog.