"Onomatopoeia is Fun for Me"

I know she's precocious, but I don't know where Sofie comes up with her material for the many songs she sings. This one really caught my attention. Hope you can hear/see it.

We had a little bit of excitement this week when Aron flew in for a quick overnight visit Wednesday night. The three of them stayed in a room down the hall, and I stayed up late watching stuff not found on the Cartoon Channel! I can tune in 25 or so stations, but half of those are in Malaysian, Mandarin, Hindu, Japanese, Korean and Russian. There's an Australian news station and the BBC and CNN, but American programs on HBO and the Fox Movie Channel. Sports fans have two stations to watch, but soccer and rugby are mainstays. I had hoped to stay current with my favorite shows on my tablet, but mostly I get screen messages that the program is not available in this country. Bummer...

Anyway, Aron stayed long enough for us to have breakfast together (free for us; $30 for him). Then he and Sofie played in the pool together before he had to leave again. His brief visit was possible because he was the advance man for a student trip that sounded like an Outward Bound experience somewhere on Java. When he left here Thursday, he then met up with the group as they arrived and he is still with them through this weekend. He is an education administrator and that is part of the job.

Thursday, May 1st, was a holiday here as it is in many countries. They call it Labor Day, but shops and eateries in the Novena mall were open. The MRT was lightly used that day, which was when we traveled to the next train stop at Newton to explore the area around where we are moving on Monday. Woo hoo! It's a done deal. Hapny gave the management at Orchard Scotts Residences a partial payment and we are set! The first thing we're going to do when we arrive is laundry in our very own machine! Glad I packed enough underwear for a month, which will be the length of my visit come Tuesday. Poor Hapny has been hand washing her and Sofie's garments in the bathroom sink.

Pool area at Orchard Scott, soon to be home!

After we move, we will continue shopping at the Cold Storage grocery that we like here at Novena. It's the closest option. That's ok, but we'll have to make frequent visits to avoid carrying big loads on the MRT. We found a Chinese restaurant we like in the mall and have become regulars already. Our food routine has been to eat lunch at the choice of American style fast food places, and at the Chinese place for dinner. I'll be so glad when we finally have a kitchen and don't have to rely on KFC, Burger King, or Subway and the like for daily sustenance!

Original recipe

The other thing we did this week on Tuesday was to pay a visit to the office clinic of Hapny's OB. We were hoping to pick up a letter Hapny needs to provide the Indonesian embassy so that a consular authority will attest that Blossom Clover will not be a citizen of Singapore, but Indonesia. She'll also get US citizenship and passport, but Aron will have to take care of that after the birth. Anyway it looks like Monday afternoon or Tuesday will be when we'll have documents in hand to present to the embassy. Hapny will be seen by her doctor at the scheduled time Monday morning and will retrieve the document then. The paper chase is on!