Big Rainbow

It was almost a full arch. It only lasted 15min or so. Ashley and I were very excited and watched it till it disappeared over our balcony.

Gorgeous sky is back!

The rainy season must have kicked in earlier this year. We had some dull days for a while but today the blue sky finally came back!

Weekend & blue sky = We start our day downstairs - some yummy pratas and masala dosa - yum!

On Ashley's new pink bike, Luca and Ashley had a wonderful time playing together. 

I hope the weather will stay this way until we leave to NZ! Fingers crossed. 

The sunset

No haze, blue sky!

It has been extremely hot here in Singapore. People who have been here for a while are telling me they've never experienced this heat before! Yes it is that HOT!!!

But for a change we had such a lovely evening. No haze, nice breeze and slightly lower temperature. Yap time to dine out on the balcony!

The next day was super hot again but look at this lovely blue sky! I couldn't help myself. Trying to spend as much time as possible on the balcony (sweating...) . Ashley and I spent quite a while looking at the Air Force jets flying around. They are super noisy but pretty cool to watch. 

Rainbow

When I was feeding Luca and Ashley breakfast the sky went all white. At first I thought a really heavy haze came in but it was very fast moving rain clouds.

It only stayed around 10min or so and at the end this beautiful rainbow came out. I don't thing either Ashley or Luca had seen it clearly before. They were pretty impressed.

The rain came back at the pick up time (pretty annoying). This lady was very happy to be able to use her rain gear - her gumboots, raincoat and umbrella all at once!

Balcony life is back!

Finally, the never ending crazy WINDY season has finished! We had bad haze for three months since we moved to this apartment. Then since December it has been so super duper windy at this part of Singapore. The wind has been exceptionally bad at our side of the tower. It has been incredibly strong and blows all day and night forever and ever!
We have been very anxious not being able to use our big balcony :(

At last we can play swingball without being blown away, ride scooters & bikes and enjoy coffee and relax!

Lovely morning with my little miss

We had more fantastic weather today. It started off so nice, no haze, fresh air and blue sky!

I am not sure you can spot it but I could see Marina Bay Sands in the distance. 

Matthew had a late flight last night so I got up with the kids and took them to the kindy for a change (I am very lucky most days he does the drop offs and pick ups). Ashley and I enjoyed our little walk back from the kindy and had breakfast together. After breakfast she usually wants to play inside with lego or dress ups (or watching FROZEN movie over and over again!!!).

Somehow this morning she wanted to bike on the balcony. Do you think she can sense the different weather too? I made another cup of tea for myself and sat down on a sofa and enjoyed watching her play happily. 

I managed to do some gardening too - Singapore style of course! I trimmed some dry bits off my thyme. It was growing perfectly for a while but some extreme weather started to dry the roots :( I also took some time to check all the other plants we have on the balcony. I do miss my garden I have in Japan... I wish I can grow a lot more here but I think the weather is too challenging...

Meanwhile, Ashley was happily playing with her mini barbie and with her sticker book for quite a long time . It is certainly getting much easier to entertain her. The only problem is that she is a girl version of Luca and she just talks and talks! I should be graceful that her language development came along so well - only being 2 and a half years old, she is amazing. But you know, sometimes I want to enjoy listening to nice music while I have my cup of tea...

The beautiful weather got even better in the afternoon. That meant Luca finally got to join his swimming lesson, which has been cancelled for a long time due to the heavy haze. Oliver didn't want to go in the water, instead he played soccer with his friends. Ashley and Luca looooooved being back in the water. I had three very happy and tired kids by the time the sun went down. 

I think we will be spending all of November by the pool, it is just so nice!!! 

Welcome back beautiful weather, I missed you so much!

Finally I can see the sky

I couldn't believe my eyes this morning. No haze!? Blue sky??? Yes!!!

Finally we opened the doors and went out on the balcony. It felt like the first day of summer. We couldn't help ourselves to have BBQ dinner.

Fingers crossed this will continue to improve for the rest of the month.

Haze Haze Haze

We are totally fed up with this extremely bad HAZE. It is coming from Sumatra and largely caused by illegal agricultural fires. I think last time they had the air this extreme, we managed to escape from it as I was in Japan with all the kids to give birth to Ashley.

This time we were lucky to be away for the first 10 days in Osaka but since we came back it has been pretty bad. I thought it would last only a month or so but now people are predicting it will last till November, another whole month.

I took this picture this morning. Isn't it awful? It got worse as the day went on. We are now very cautious on both how it looks/smells outside and the official PSI levels.

Apparently Singapore has improved their integrated air quality reporting index since last year. Now they have included PM2.5 into the current Pollutant Standards Index (PSI) as its sixth pollutant parameter according to the National Environment Agency (NEA). I have an app on my phone with the 3 hour PSI which takes into account PM2.5 concentration and I can also see 1 hour PM2.5 concentrations.

It was very scary last week when the index hit "Hazardous" level which is over 300. Less than 100 is considered good/moderate then goes up to unhealthy and very unhealthy.

I kept the kids at home today. Even they wear protective masks during the school run, I cannot get Ashley to wear one plus at their kindy they have to have doors open for ventilation - the kids are pretty much exposed to the bad air all the time.

I might have to seriously look into spending this awful time somewhere with fresh/crisp air. My only concern is that Oliver only has a month and a half left till his graduation. Plus I have finally finished running around organising the house, enjoying my house and my time.

But my head and eyes are sore. I went out to water the plants and now my lungs are hurting... You can categorise me as a "healthy person" but even a "healthy person" is starting to suffer.

It is extremely depressing!!!!

Rainbow before rain

When you live up high in a tower you can see some interesting natural phenomena.  There were some rain clouds moving towards us. At the same time we could already see a rainbow in a distance. Pretty cool I thought.

Amazing picture

The typhoon that was over Japan the other day. I found this AMAZING picture on the internet. It is taken by an astronaut who is working in the Space Station. You can see the eye so super clear.

Luckily our family in Japan wasn't affected by this big typhoon. But they are getting lots of them this year. I hope they will stay safe for the rest of the typhoon season.

Cosy afternoon

It rained all day on Sunday. We had to have the windows closed as the rain was quite heavy. Using the aircon on a cool day makes the kids too cold.

So they were all wrapped up in a duvet  - nice and cosy plus CUTE!

The wettest BBQ ever

Ok, I have mentioned we are having VERY VERY dry weather at the moment. Until... you plan a BBQ & swim playdate on the weekend. We picked this day especially as all the other daddies work Mon-Fri (yes we do have non-pilot friends too!) hence they are only available on the weekends. When we got up it was looking very marginal but we weren't expecting this much rain.

We have watched the rain for over 30min deciding whether to cancel the BBQ or not, but our keen friends were very optimistic and they were sure it would clear up soon. Well... here are the kids in their gumboots and ready to walk out our condo. We were having the BBQ at the next condo so the walk wasn't long but...

We must have picked the worst time, as soon as we came to the front gate of our condo it bucketed down even more. Our buggy and the chilly bin were half floating in the water, the wind got worse so you couldn't really hold the umbrellas properly. Basically we were all soaked from heads to toes. At least you don't feel the cold here...

Nick and Madoka were much smarter, they arrived in their togs. It didn't bother them at all being in their swimmers to begin with.

Anyway we thought about it for a while but decided to go ahead.

Unlike our condo The Bayshore has their BBQ pits under cover - Phew! 

The kids were all wrapped up in their towels before they even hit the pool.

Matthew cooked super good ribs, he has been working on it for a while experimenting different rubs and sauces. Everyone there was so impressed and in no time they were all gone! Great job honey!

You cannot NOT have marshmallows - especially on a cold(?) rainy day! The kids enjoyed them not cooked tho.

After an hour or so into the BBQ the rain stopped and the sun came out. The kids had a ball both in and outside the pool.

We were all happy drinking and watching the kids play all nicely together in the end. This BBQ will be talked about for a long time I think. After packing up we decided to have dinner downstairs in our condo together. Not to mention us adults continued drinking and the kids were still in full swing till late.

Autumn leaves

It has been unbelievably dry here in Singapore. We literally had one rainfall since we came back from Japan. Luckily it has been quite windy so we are not suffering from the heat too much - but we REALLY need a good rain.

The grass is totally burnt & turned brown and the leaves are falling - making it look like we are in Autumn! Even Oliver mentioned the change of seasons and we have been enjoying "leaf chasing picnics" in the late afternoons.

The other day, we were invited by some of Oliver's little friends to see a "leaves show" which was organised by 4 little girls. They found a spot where the winds were making little tornados taking the leaves up in the air. All they had to do was stretch their body up to the sky and think hard to get the tornados to happen. How cute is that and yes it did happen! So Oliver and Luca were very keen to go back to the spot to try the same and chase some leaves themselves.



Whenever I am out with the boys I really think they don't need ANY MORE toys! Love the nature :)