Ready for adventure!

Hello everybody!! How have you been? It's the school holidays at last -- yippee!! Are you asking who is that up there? It's Isadora, my Blythe dolly! "Did you mention my name?" she's asking. Yes, Isadora, I am introducing you to my friends!

"Hi everybody!" says Isadora. 

Isadora is getting ready to go on our trip! Yes, we are going on a little vacation!! I am sooooooo excited. I'm going to take pictures of Isadora while we're travelling and at the places we visit. She likes taking pictures. Here, she is wearing her winter bear hat because we are going somewhere really cold. She already has her tights and her boots on, and she'll be getting her coat on next. It's still warm here though, so she's just sitting in the garden waiting.

Do you see her little bag? Yes! It's a teeny weeny Tabby satchel Mommy made for her; it's just like mine, except it's only an inch big! But it fits Isadora perfectly and she can carry all the things she wants in it for our adventures. So far, she has packed a book, a tennis racket, and a baguette!

Isadora is already dreaming of all the things we will be seeing and doing. We'll write again soon! Have a super lovely holidays everyone!!

Staycation Fun!

Do you know why I am doing the dance of joy here? Yes! It's because we went to our other home for a hotel staycation!! It felt like ages since we had been on a little holiday. Again my Mom didn't tell us anything about it till the lastest minute, and we were so excited!

Of course, we did lots of fun things! Even crafting is so much more fun in a hotel room! Here you can see Roro and me on the floor doing our drawings and eating McDonald fries and nuggets at the same time!

This is the velvet poster I was working on. It was so fun colouring the posters, and I like feeling the poster's soft velvet patterns. 

We went out a lot since we were right downtown. Usually we don't go because Mom says it's too crazily demented with psycho weirdos. Here we are at one of our favourite toy stores (although one of the things we bought there didn't work). The display behind us is actually moving -- there are adorable Steiff bears popping in and out of those boxes. And behind me is a giant Steiff bear -- I wonder how much he is!

See? Here is one of the sweet little bears coming out of his box.

Another favourite of mine is this little macaron shop called Laduree. Laduree is a French luxury bakery and they make really delicious macarons (though I don't think they are so much better than some other places which are cheaper). They have about 16 different flavours and the colours are really pretty, but my favourite is the vanilla one, which is a plain cream colour. I like vanilla anything really!

Here I am taking a picture of Pendleton Mouse in a jewelry store. Pendleton Mouse is actually a puppet, so you can actually turn his head from inside him as if he's really looking or listening! I took a whole bunch of photos of Pendleton in the different places we went to on our staycation.

This is a Japanese fish-shaped cake called taiyaki. Mommy was so happy to find a shop selling these since she hadn't had one since she was little. You can watch the lady making them -- the fish moulds are so cute! Mommy got us some to try and we really enjoyed it! Mine was a brown chocolate one.

Here we are heading HOME after a fun day out!

I did a lot of swimming of course! Swimming is a must-do on my hotel staycation list. I had to wait to swim every day in the evening because Mommy says it's too hot to swim in the afternoon. Night swimming was lots of fun too!

We also spent a lot of time just lying around watching FashionTV. Here I am lounging on my comfy Panda pillow pet. Do you know you can fold him together and he becomes a toy? That's what Pillow Pets are. The whole time there we kept singing the Pillow Pets song: "It's a pillow, it's a pet -- it's a Pillow Pet (dum dum)!"

When the weather was fine, we went out to play in the fountain! All we had to do afterward was wrap up in the nice big hotel towels and walk barefoot back to our room. Then we take nice luxurious bubble baths and relax some more!

It's so fun crawling through the watery "bridges". I love playing with water!

Well you know of course that staycation breakfasts are the best! Here I am on one of the mornings with bacon and sausages and hash browns and scrambled eggs and hot chocolate! I also always add orange juice, watermelon and plain yogurt for dessert .

This is Roro's breakfast plate. She likes Mommy to make smiley faces for her.

Finally it was time to go :(

It was too short, but Mommy says we will be back!!! Yes, we will return!!!

See you again soon!!!! More pictures here.

The Phantom of the Opera!

Hi everyone!!! How have you been?? It's the September school holidays at last -- yaahoooo! I am planning to do lots of fun things, like crafting, swimming, rollerblading and meeting up with my best friend!

We have been busy with my little brother of course, but now I have a bit of free time to tell you about some things I have been up to recently. First, let me share with you something I really enjoyed -- "The Phantom of the Opera"! The musical has been playing in Singapore since July but I think it ended on September 1st. The tickets sold out really fast, so we were really extremely lucky to get them.

Actually, Mommy got them secretly and didn't say anything about them the entire time. Ro and I kept saying we wish we could go and Mommy just kept saying, "We'll see" when actually the whole time she had the tickets hidden somewhere.

Then on the night of the show, she said we had to go to her friend's wedding dinner and had to get dressed up. So I wore my silk dress and Ro wore her rosy one. We were sorta excited to be going for a wedding dinner actually haha!

My Dad dropped us off at Marina Bay Sands and we still didn't know we were going to see Phantom. The place is huge and we had to walk and walk like crazy. It was only when we were in the crowd outside of the theatre and Mommy gave the tickets to the usher, that it finally clicked! I screamed with excitement!!

It was soooooooooooooooooooooo cool!! I loved the singing and the props and the music from the live orchestra. Just in case you don't know, "The Phantom of the Opera" is a musical with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Charles Hart. It is based on the French novel Le Fantôme de l'Opéra by Gaston Leroux, published between 1909 and 1910. We weren't allowed to use any recording devices during the performance of course, but here's a picture of the stage! Isn't it lovely!

During the intermission everyone was buying drinks and standing around trying to look cool. We just ate our hard-boiled eggs! Roro forgot to put in the forks like Mom asked her to, so we had to use our fingers, but that was fine with me.

After the show, we got some candy as a treat -- yum!

On our way to meet Daddy, we passed this awesome fountain. It's called the Rain Oculus and really, the sound it makes is just like a heavy heavy downpour. Here I am in front of it holding my Phantom programme (more about that later!).

It's like a whirlpool in a giant glass bowl that falls out of the hole like a waterfall. It reminds me of an hourglass!

This place is so big, it even has a canal going through it. You can actually be paddled along in a boat called a sampan.

Now let me show you my programme! What was so cool was that when we were in the theatre lobby and saw them being sold, Mom asked the lady how much they were. She said they were $25! So Mom said, "We'll think about it", which really means "That's ridiculous! There is no way we're buying that!" We started walking toward the one flight of stairs, and then Mommy suddenly said, "Let's just check if we should be going up the other flight instead" (the other flights of stairs was way on the opposite end).

Well just as we were reaching it, this Australian man just came up to us out of the blue and said, "Would you like to have this programme? They sent us a couple when I bought our tickets and we don't need this extra one". And he actually just gave it to us!! Wasn't that awesome? Mommy thanked God right there and then because these are the "little" things God does to bless us every day!

So, since I couldn't take any pictures of the show for you, let me share with you some pictures from my programme!

This photo shows the cast during the dress rehearsal of Hannibal. Seeing that huge elephant on stage was really thrilling!

Here are Christine and the Phantom! Roro says that in this photo Christine is slapping the Phantom haha.

Here is everyone at the masquerade! They're all really happy because they think the Phantom has left and won't bother them anymore. But of course, he hasn't. In awhile, he will appear at the top of the stairs in a dramatic red skeleton costume! I loved this scene.

Here is the little monkey music box. This scene is from the very beginning of the show where things from the Opera House are being auctioned off. When the music box is wound up, it plays the song "Masquerade" very sadly.

I loved it soooooooo much and I wish we could go again! Waaah! Oh well, I have to go now, but I've more to share, so see you again soon!

A Walk Outside

Hello everyone!! How have you been? I'm sorry I haven't been writing much -- besides being busy with school and my little brother, I've been having the flu! I had a fever for days, but am better now, just that I have this stupid cough and sometimes a head and tummy ache. So my Mom has been taking care of me and giving me my nasty tasting antibiotics. I've finished my homework now though, so I'm going to share with you some photos I took!

My Mom takes us for long walks to the beach almost every day and each time there's lot of different things to see. These are photos I took on one of those walks (except the one on top of course, which was taken by my Mom! I was about to go for ballet then haha).

So first let me show you the mangrove swamp we always walk past. The canal leads to the sea. The swamp area used to be much bigger, with lots of herons, snakes and monitor lizards, but that has greatly decreased :(

That day, we were so lucky to see this little bird in the bougainvilleas! He or she looks like a hummingbird, don't you think? But my Mom says we don't have hummingbirds here, and he is actually a sunbird. In fact, she thinks he may actually be a spiderhunter, one of the largest species of sunbird.

Like hummingbirds, sunbirds feed on nectar, and also insects and spiders. They have long, curved bills, and tubular tongues for nectar feeding. They're so cute!

Some sunbirds can take nectar by hovering like a hummingbird, see? They fly very fast, so I was happy to catch these shots!

There are lots of beautiful trees and plants by the sea.

My Mom says many of them have been here for years. I hope they stay around for many years more!

Many ships pass through here. Singapore is the world's second-busiest port and the world's busiest transshipment port. Ships like this one are so huge they look gigantic even from the shore. My Mom says LNG is a tanker that transports liquefied natural gas. The ship has a double hull or body to protect the cargo from damage or leaks.

Out at sea, there are lots of these kelongs. Kelong is a Malay word for these sorts of offshore wooden structures. They are built mainly for fishing, though there are fishermen and their families living in the bigger ones. They are secured to the sea bed by tall wooden posts that go down several metres into the sea. These ones look like they're resting on the water surface, but there are many that are elevated high above the water and you have to climb up the rickety beams. My Mom told us she did that when she was younger. The kelong she went to was out in the deep sea and she could see big shiny barracuda in the water below!

Now let me tell you about this thing. We had been seeing it in different parts of the sea for days already and I finally remembered to take a picture of it. The first time we saw it, we said it looked just like the head of someone with goggles and greasepaint on, half-submerged like those people on secret missions. Then I said he was in some competition for treading water, and that he had outlasted everybody.

You see -- he refuses to give up! That's why he looks like this now.

There were many poor dead crabs on the shore that day. The bottom of this crab shows he is male. When they are alive, we can see them running about in the shallow water and then suddenly diving and disappearing into the sand.

I read an article that said that unlike what a lot of people think, crabs and other crustaceans DO feel pain. My Mom has always believed this and refuses to eat them (and animals in general). Once, we rescued some crabs from the supermarket. My Mom says that those poor crabs and lobsters we see tied up in the supermarket or in the tanks at restaurants are boiled alive. Now a university study has proven that these poor animals do feel pain! And if you read how the study was done, you will see that they are smart, thinking creatures too! So please don't eat them!

There are lots of sea stars washed up on shore too. Don't call them starfish because you know they aren't really fish. They don't have backbones for one thing, but fish do. Did you know that sea stars can grow a new arm if they lose one? They also don't have brains or blood, and move by using hundreds of tube feet on their undersides.

Now let me share with you a very sad picture. This is a beautiful bird we have to walk past every time we go to the beach. He is quite far away so we can't tell what kind of bird he is, but he has a very long tail and sings very loudly and sweetly. I think it is very very wrong to keep a bird caged. Caged birds cannot stretch or use their wings and are lonely and bored. Imagine being trapped like that all day, every day! He must be so sad when he sees the wild birds calling to each other and flying past. Mommy says there is a poem by one of her favourite writers called "I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings". One verse of the poem is:

The caged bird sings with fearful trill

of the things unknown but longed for still

and his tune is heard on the distant hill

for the caged bird sings of freedom

Isn't that sad?? Please don't ever get a bird for a pet, unless you are going to build a bird sanctuary in your backyard or are rescuing one that has been abandoned.

Well, before I go, let me share with you something happy -- a picture of my little brother who is now one month old! He is getting cuter and cuter every day! I love him!!! He is soooooooooooooooooooo adorable! I just want to hug him and squeeze him FOREVER!!!

Thank you for visiting! See you again really soon!!