Kites

Ok this is a stacked up version of a greek salad, I will try this at home some day. Speaking of which my basil is coming nicely, tomatoes are also giving a big crop but the clear winner are the green peppers in my garden.

Umami the restaurant is really really good and worth a visit if ever in Durbs.

We packed our kites along and had some kite fun... I am now in search of a big kite bag, maybe I should rebuild our kite collection.

Mabo took a bit tub of sea water back for her family and sand as well. hmm. We're off to Madikwe on the 26 of dec and will also head up to Gabarone, capital of Botswana, I wonder if I will recognise any of the places mentioned in "the number 1 lady's detective agency". We'll also stop into sun city on the way to Madikwe. We're going to a game lodge that is supposed to be very children friendly, ie shorter game drives and more suited for them, I hope to see a dung beetle, tis the season!

uShaka Waterpark

I was hoping that there would be a museum dedicated to the history of King Shaka, the great Zulu King that forged the Zulu nation and redefined spear warfare but there was none... instead there is the waterpark.

The boys really enjoyed zipping down the slides, they swam everyday usually twice and are becoming quite good, nate goes without floaties and ike would like to as well but still sinks to the bottom of the pool. He likes jumping and does a backward step in to the pool, one day that will come in handy when he goes deep sea diving with a big tank strapped on.

The tall middle slide is Mabo... fulfilling yet another dream... so far she has done the paragliding and now this... she is quite keen to do the bungee as well.

This is a great park for kids. Can't remember if there are waterparks in singapore?

Gateway

is the largest mall there and it is pretty big but all the shops are the same as in Joburg and everywhere else in this country. Overall not very exciting shopping but this one had a science center, they should definitely build more science centers and in malls.

We also hit a few toy stores to "look". Ike was quite attached to this pig and likes soft toys as well. Nate is up to 120 piece puzzles and I think it may be time to get him 3-D ones.

We took them out for a steak dinner at a place called butcher boys one night and they enjoyed that experience, its the only night ike broke his vege and fruit fast.

Durban city

Here are some pictures of the buildings there, I only took pictures of the nice old buildings, the city itself is not "great", its run down in many parts and just seems old, tho the roads were block on the main beach strip so maybe that is an unfair statement.

We went to check out the Natural History Museum. As Ike wakes up with the sun... he is up at 4 sometimes and if we are lucky at 5. At about 9 he takes his first nap and by noon another one. A lack of sleep child with a terrible two tantrum is not an amusing child. he is learning alot of words now, once in a while a 4 sentence word like "gege bit me here".

The football stadium being built for the 2010 games...

We drove north as well but didn't stop at any beaches as it was a cloudy, windy day. Zimbali area is like a dainfern on the beach.

What to do on a cloudy day...

Well going to the aquarium is a good idea... this one is really well done, the Ushaka Marine World. The aquarium is built like a shipwreck and the theme carries throughout the whole place.

We got to watch a dolphin show as well. Ike now refuses to walk and especially loves his stroller. Nate is a good trooper and walks everywhere. Had a good yummy lunch at Mojo after the aquarium.

I can't decide whether that one big fish that stuck its head in the pot was sleeping, depressed or dead.

Beach...

Here's a pic of the apartment block, I quite liked the apartment that for a while I was tempted that we could maybe live in an apartment in singapore??

Nate in front of a big waterball at the entrance of the Beverly Hills Hotel. Not sure how this hotel can get away with such exorbitant room rates. Uhmlanga Rocks is much smaller than I thought, not quite the quaint beach town nor the Florida or brisbane beach either.

Our morning routine included a walk to the beach, searching for shells, barnacles... treasures as nate calls them. The late afternoon we hit the beach again. Strangely no one sells beach umbrellas.

Ike with his pants pulled up high, looks strangely like Mao. His diaper training... well is kind of coming along. He likes to copy gege peeing together in the bushes but seems not to know to make the association to go to a potty.

Umhlanga Rocks, Durban...

Ok, firstly, Uhmlanga is pronounced.... Ooooshmalanga, not Oooohmalanga... strange but true, now try Uhmloti...

Its a 6 hour drive... surprisingly the way there seemed shorter than the way back, maybe its because we set out later in the day for the route back? We stayed in a very nice spacious 4 BR place on the 13th floor with a nice nice ocean view. The first night, there was a big storm, there were wind wheezing noises and the outdoor furniture was practically going to fly off. Too bad the beach was not also just right outside.

The beach is not that great but a beach is a beach, the first two days were cloudy then hot pounding sunshine.

Halfway thru the trip, Ike decides to eat only vege's and fruits and even with that he maintained his belly welly. He has definitely hit the terrible twos on this trip and exerting his new found tantrum power. Sigh. I thought we may have skipped that stage.

Here's the lighthouse outside our place. The gardens which get some monkey visitors, the big rock outside our apartment entrance and the pier. There are shark nets here to protect swimmers from those sharkeys.

Got a ton done and my gardening fix

Ahhhhh. Am so glad i found this caro person who would let me come gardening with her, I now have practical gardening experience... I really enjoy our excursions and this will be the biggest part I miss leaving joburg. Today we were at a place called River Club which is in Bryanston, another area that without this gardening thing, I would have no idea of.

I got to see artichokes at all stages of bloom. The only thing I remember about them is Chris (le gourmet chef) making them for dinner one sunday evening when I was single and used to hang out with them. Ah... chris, I am back soon to savour your cooking. Please don't spend so much time with your new beeemer.

The metal tree from the cedar square mall, apparently at night its all lit up.

I got to practice alot of "living in the present moments" training recently, the markets have been really whippy and this present moment stuff is hard work! Can't wait to also go to the yoga retreats in Ko Samui... speaking of which I had a really tough yoga class yesterday. This class everyone is quite advanced! I am struggling! how to I balance my leg over my shoulder while doing a push up? one day...

So this week I managed to... get the dogs and their flights and bullets medication sorted. ooo forgot to ask about the status of his cage. Finalised the activities for durban and the lodging etc and also for madikwe. Got circus tickets for the gang, got the school application out, got the movers checking out stuff for singapore, edited 20 over images for the next newsletter, tried to navigate the new website that is being rebuilt for huangyao.org but thats not coming along that well... oh also may have finalised car, harassed the black and white agent, who won't let me bid now for a commencement date in end Jan (lets see what bids they get! hah!).

We are off to Durbs on sunday back the saturday of hanuka eve.

Swimming and sleep

Now that its summer, the boys are up really early and asleep early as well. Ike had to be put down at 6 today as he had a short nap and only 10 hours of sleep the night before. I tried having them sleep together, they quite like it, may implement that in singapore.

Nate swims everyday now, ike insists that I go in with him which is a bit of a bummer. These pics are from our afternoon at Christines... after the swim, nate asked to have dinner there and then Kellyl, the minnie mouse bride comes looking for a boy to play "getting married". Ike volunteered to play the music on his new found music machine and nate was too engrossed in the wooden puzzles to ponder the puzzles of love.

Here is the big tree in their school compound, first its a mystery how the cactus got up there and the next mystery is how it flowers? loads of succulents are flowering now, what we call 1000 year blooming cactus in Asia, well they bloom every year here, not just one flower but a succession of flowers, with flower buds sticking out like snakes on medusa's head.

I repotted my cactuses and they are looking for a good home... our tomatoes will be ripening soon, 20 o f them probably a day or two apart and we will be in durban! aiya.

Ike's toe - bump

Ouch, he tried to take his mini DVD player by himself and dropped it on his toe, was not obvious but when i went to pick him up from school there it was, red and swollen!

So my cactuses are in need of a new home, the worms have found a home, here is a pic of the rich worm castings. I can harvest my first tomato of the season tomorrow, we're also getting something like 20 green peppers and loads of young green spinach. Am debating to plant more or just start eating and reducing and then packing up my vege boxes.

Am already thinking of how to build a vege garden in Singapore... if we get a black and white, if I'll revert back to planting orchids.

Swimming

The boys have been going swimming every day or as much as they can... yesterday Nate even took off his floaties and dog paddled around. Ike is on the floaties and although he would rather hold your thumb tightly, he does now launch himself into the pool and does quite a good dog paddle.

This means mommy also has to go into the pool with these guys. Actually Nate would go with Meera into the pool. I think with a month of swimming in uncle T's pool they may be swimmers yet...

That blurry thing being thrown high high up is Ike... they eat better and sleep well too, it is just that its cold to go into the pool! I think i am going to get Mabo to go in with them since I just got her a bathing suit for Durban.

Ike's report card - Term 4 - 2008

13kg and 92 cm and absent for 17 days (chicken pox, hand foot mouth and the thumb incident).

Ike is a quiet little boy and he does not yet say much in English. He has (in a very soft woice) said "Please". Ike is still learning to interact with his friends and mostly plays on his own. He is starting to enjoy pony rides and his posture on the pony is getting better. Ike is also sharing more interest in his creative activities and loves painting! Ike is a shy little boy and has a beautiful smile.

Gross motor skills
able to step backwards - yes
able to run rhythmically, runs fast with better balance, changes direction when running or walking, runs with flat feet - yes
able to walk tip toe for a short period of time - yes
able to walk up and down stairs unaided - yes
able to jump with one or two feet - yes
run and kick ball, stand and kick ball without losing balance, can throw ball - yes
when ball is thrown can catch with arms against body - no
can ride pony in upright position - yes
can hit stationary ball on floor - yes

Fine motor skills
vertical, horizontal lines, circular patterns in his drawings - yes
hold pencil in fist position -no
emerging grip - yes
tripod grip - no
pencil control, scissors, building blocks, leafing thru pages, using a hammer - yes

Perceptual development
name primary and secondary colors - no
match colors - no
rote count - no
distinguish one vs many - no
biggest vs smallest - no
complete a 2 piece puzzle - no

Intellectual development
lots of yeses... no's were tantrums (hmm? really) and memory when object is taken away, toddler does not remember it!

he has good participation
language - please and thank you - yes (tries)
family and pets - no (hmm teacher prob doesn't know gege or wowo)
memorise songs and rhymes - no
2-3 word sentences - no
express needs and communicate with others - no
understands mine, yours, what where - yes
uses gestures - yes

Social development
Ike did well in this category...

btw the box of cookies came with ike's report card

Singapore - schools and homes...

I spent 3 very intense days looking at schools and homes and also got to catch up with some friends. Its going to be great moving back, especially on the friends front. The restaurant front, well there is definitely sticker shock!!! maybe back to hawker for me!!

So I started off looking at schools, I visited a total of 6 schools, 3 belonged to the same chain (PSH) and the other significant one was the Chinese International School (CIS).

Two of the PSH's I visited I bumped into people I know. Based on phone calls and websites, I went convinced that the likely choice is PSH, when I got there though the one branch that I liked had space for Nate but not Ike, also its on orchard road and am not sure I want to head there every single morning. I got a very slick marketing person but I didn't like the way she was treating a little girl who had some separation anxiety issues. I felt alot of noise and congestion.

On the other hand... I was not convinced on the CIS and found their admin staff, quite bad frontline person for the school. The teachers were alot better but very new, many times I heard them say they want to implement this or that and as the school is young, many things are work in progress. I did like the classrooms but found the teacher to child ratio quite small, for ike's class it is 2:7 and nate its 2:12. So for a social butterfly like Nate will this environment be too small? For ike, based on his report card I think this would be an ideal environment. I saw his energetic chinese teacher (to be?) sing songs and play so nicely with them in a small class.

Got feedback from their teachers and Nate seems to need alot of stimulation. I think CIS may be the way to go... one of the con's I initially thought was that they did not run the school for a full year, ie long summer break but then thinking about it more, I think I may take the kids, with porpor and bubbi to a city in China for a stretch of time, so they can practice chinese in a real environment. Porpor and I can do research on my granddad's stuff leaving the kids to Aunty SF and Bubs (hey bubs, mandarin lessons for you too)!


As for houses... here is a pic of a black and white we saw, magnificent big house, had a similar feel to my granddad's house in many ways, has a stable (turned into garage) and 4 smaller outpost houses. Its also facing the highway on one side and graveyard on the other... the other black and white we saw was located very well, big land but probably was built for the lowest ranking officer on that hill. It was also under our budget so we will pass.

It looked like we could get homes 30% below the owners asking prices and as that segment is highly elastic, I think waiting will yield us a nice house in Feb. So... no we don't have a house yet.

Pics... a black and white and the CIS.