transposable element

i’m a beach holiday kind of person and i’m lucky because here in southeast asia, it’s beach climate pretty much the whole year round. a holiday in Branson, missouri is not my cup of coffee, and if i were to travel to the states, this is a destination that will miss my radar for sure. would be different if i lived there, perhaps. if a laid back, country holiday is what you’re looking for, perhaps branson is just right for you.

Branson is said to be the live entertainment capital of the world (or maybe the people who coined that moniker just haven’t been to malate, manila) and you can book holiday packages that already include tickets to some of the shows. there is a variety of lodging options to choose from — from luxury hotels such as the welk resort and grand oaks, to picturesque cabins at grand mountain, to private and cosy condo units. kids will also be spoilt for choice on the fun attractions available: the titanic museum, ware rides, go-kart, mini-golf, imax, and other nature-inspired activities. the ultimate offering for the more gutsy ones, though, is the silver dollar city theme park:

Nestled in the forested hills just minutes from Branson, Silver Dollar City has everything you could want for a family vacation. Take a remarkable journey back in time to experience true, old-fashioned Americana and Ozark splendor. Silver Dollar City boasts over 30 rides and attractions and is home to the amazing Marvel Cave, but what makes this theme park truly unique is the dozens of craftsman that practice the same skills used by the residents of the Ozarks who lived here in the 19th century, from baking to metal crafting.

it’s definitely a different league from disneyland, but should be very educational as well as entertaining.

it wasn’t until a few days after that i was able to watch obama’s inauguration. i’ve recorded the entire cnn coverage when i figured out that he wasn’t going to get sworn in until around midnight in our part of the world. too bad, i even prepared a commemorative all american dish for dinner (hamburgers, hehe), thinking we could all have dinner while watching the usa president take oath.

it was difficult explaining to jan what the hoopla is all about, though. he already knew who obama was, praise his kindy and school teachers. but i wasn’t sure i wanted to get into the details of what makes obama special from all the rest of the U.S. presidents so far. so he’s black. and? to jan’s eyes, race or skin color does not have any meaning other than the literal definition. obviously he’s not blind and he sees the difference between someone from china to someone from bangladesh or america. but to him, it’s a simple recognition that people come from different parts of the world. born in a biracial family and raised in a multicultural milieu, he truly does not have any prejudice against nor preference to any race or nationality. how can he, when he’s mingled with all of them without any bias? he respects that some of his friends do not eat pork, and others speak some other language he does not recognize, or that some of his teachers wear a head scarf. he respects each individual, and their idiosyncrasies. he recognizes the person, not the skin color.

so how does one begin to tell a child blissfully unaware of racial discrimination what a milestone it is for someone of african descent to be the president of the united states of america?

i’m lagging way behind with my marble blogging. there’s the third weekend of the month, which was quite eventful, and the last weekend, which was chinese new year weekend, culminating in hubby’s birthday. my marbles have been well-used and unfortunately there’s no time to write when there’s living to do. and photos to download. and videos to edit. and memories to savor. like a butterfly that’s busily moving pods, i flit eagerly from one weekend to the next.

mia’s got friends in high places… quite literally. their playdates? on the 34th floor of the sail, overlooking the integrated resort under construction at the marina bay. something definitely not for acrophobics!

if this other activity room didn’t require 3 months advance booking, they could have been holding their playdates with this as the backdrop:

up on the 44th floor, the sky terrace afford unobstructed view of the marina bay, from the fullerton, merlion, esplanade and all the way to the currently non-operational singapore flyer. all these and they’re more interested in pulling each other’s hair. arrrgh, babies!

i’ve had chili chocolate before and loved it so when i saw this among the assortment sold at gelatissimo, an italian ice cream bar outside isetan scotts, i knew i had to try it. the first spoonful didn’t have the tongue-tingling sensation i was waiting for; it was more like a slow ember that makes itself felt after a few spoonfuls. an ice cream treat that’s cold… and yet hot. intriguing, confusing, and definitely interesting.

isn’t that always the case? when we add new things into the mix, it transforms the otherwise boring and normal, to something much more interesting. we don’t always need something new, something big, something totally radical. often, it just takes a bit of tweaking to bring about a big change.

remember the 52 marbles for 2009? here’s how we spent the first marble -the first weekend- of 2009. a walk at the labrador nature reserve.

a 10-hectare park housing world war II relics, secret tunnels, secondary forest, a cool playground, watching men rod fishing, and a walk on the only rocky beach in singapore accessible to public. too bad it was such a short one; jan had fun navigating the rocky paths along the seashore.

a bit of nature. a bit of adventure. a bit of reprieve from the city living. spent with the family. a marble well spent.

i’ve been planning on weaning mia onto formula for quite some time now, but hasn’t really succeeded. she turned up her nose on the first formula we tried (as in mukhasim wrinkled face; i’ve got to take that expression on video one of these days!) and all the bottlefeeding paraphernalia have remained unused since. so i’ve been browsing the supermarket shelves for the next formula to try and chanced upon dumex. du..what?! i was like, “isn’t that a brand of rubber?” only to realize much later that the latter is durex, hehe.

no, thank you. everytime i’d fix mia a bottle of milk, i’d prolly be thinking of effing condoms. same way i don’t think naming a food suplement as Leptovox was a good idea. it may be effective, but the brand name kinds puts you off. sounds more like a villain in transformers.

really, you’d think there’s a shortage in possible brand names.

i’m bracing myself for 2009. even without the help of an astrologer, i can already foresee that this year is going to be challenging. no, not because of the global financial crisis (in fact the crisis’ effect on residential and commercial real estate might even work to our favor as we are due to renew the lease on our flat this year), but because of the changes in our daily rhythm now that jan has started school.

for one, i’ve never prepared lunch for anyone except myself for the last 6-7 years, and now suddenly i need to have lunch ready on the table when jan gets home from school. where do i squeeze in the time to fix lunch? and when do i get to do activities with mia? she’ll also need to start playgroup soon. how will i help jan with homework with mia around?

i have absolutely no idea how to juggle all that needs to be done without meltdowns (mine, not the kids’). i can’t imagine how other parents do it and manage to stay sane! there must be a secret, a key, a combination of buttons to push. if you have the code, would you mind sharing it?

most were having hangover from the holidays and january 2 was a friday, so you’d expect people to just take the extra day off eh? well, not us. january 2 was jan’s first day in school and the whole family trooped to the new school at 7:30am. in our previous life (until last year), we would still be asleep at this hour!

except for a few big yawns, the day couldn’t have gone better. jan was happy to be going to school and seemed very relaxed. it definitely helped that we enrolled him in a getting-ready-for-school program that was held in the school premises. it was like an orientation program, a taste of what “big” school is like. he was able to meet some of his classmates already and the school premises were already very familiar to him. so when the big day came, there was no trace of anxiety whatsoever. whenever we would see him from a distance, he would be chatting up someone, smiling and laughing. he once spotted me during recess and gave me the thumbs up sign, assuring me he’s ok and everything’s alright. he just had cookies and his water bottle for recess because we thought the first day will end after the recess, but when we figured out they were resuming activities until 1:45pm, hubby handed him some money to buy additional food from the canteen. his school buddy, a boy from the third grade, helped him buy his food: a spicy noodle soup from the indian food stall, haha! during dismissal, he boarded the schoolbus without any angst. hubby was there to make sure he got on the right bus (which he manged to do on his own anyway) and i went home to greet him at the end of his bus ride. as usual, he was chatting up his bus pals, and was still bubbly, considering he hasn’t had lunch yet and it was already 2:30pm!

it was a great start, the best any parent could wish for. i hope it’s a harbinger of what’s to come.