Sunday

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Yesterday, after quite some time, we went out as a family. What with S’s erratic work schedule, we hardly get time to go out together. We decided to check out the new mall in Jurong East – JCube. My impressions – same as all the other malls. Nothing so very different except for one shop Payless Shoes. Wow! So many shoes and the best part is that there were so many options in my size. My size is longer than the average size worn by women here and so it’s quite difficult for me to get good and reasonably priced shoes. I tried on many, but didn’t buy any. I will definitely go back when (if) I start working again. GG was also super impressed there. She’s getting to the age when all these things – shoes, bags, make-up are simply fascinating to her!

The USP of this mall is that they have Singapore’s biggest and only Olympic sized ice skating rink. GG wanted to to go in and try it out, but since we didn’t come prepared, I had to persuade her not to. We’ve promised her to come back and try skating there another day though!

We also had dinner at Chilis. Normally at most malls, it’s a challenge to find food to eat as we are vegetarians. But Chilis had some vegetarian options and we had American Southwestern (Tex-Mex) food. The portion sizes were huge and we could not finish our food. So a lesson for the next time – order less and share!

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S’s dinner – Enchiladas

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My dinner – Veggie BurgerImage

My Drink – Strawberry Lemondae – Super Yummy

Our starters which we couldn’t finish and had to take home in a doggie bag!

In My Hands Today…

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Behind the Night Bazaar – Angela Savage

Thirty-something Australian Jayne Keeney works as a PI in Bangkok. Shaken by a serious incident, she heads north to visit her close friend Didier in Chiang Mai, though there’s no relief for her there.

Murder is in the air and the police, led by Lieutenant Colonel Ratratarn, have no interest in justice. But Jayne does.

With some help from Arthur Conan Doyle, she digs deep—past the tacky glamour of the city’s clubs and bars, arrogant expats, corrupt officials, and a steamy affair—to find out just what happened behind the Night Bazaar.

In My Hands Today…

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River of Smoke – Amitav Ghosh

(Second book of the Ibis triology, sequel to Sea of Poppies)

In September 1838 a storm blows up on the Indian Ocean and the Ibis, a ship carrying a consignment of convicts and indentured labourers from Calcutta to Mauritius is caught up in the whirlwind. When the seas settle, five men have disappeared – two lascars, two convicts and one of the passengers. Did the same storm upend the fortunes of those of the Anahita, am opium carrier heading towards Canton? And what fate befell those abroad the Redruth, a sturdy two-masted brig heading east out of Cornwell? Was it the storm that altered their course or were the destinies of these passengers at the mercy of even more powerful forces?

On the grand scale of a historical epic, River of Smoke follows its storm-tossed characters to the crowded harbours of China. There, despite efforts of the emperor to stop them, ships from Europe and India exchange their cargoes of opium for boxes of tea, silk, porcelain and silver. Among them are Barham Modi, a wealthy Parsi opium merchant out of Bombay, his estranged half-Chinese son Ah Fatt, the  orphaned Paulette and a motley collection of others whose pursuit of romance, riches and a legendary rare flower has thrown them together. All struggle to cope with their losses – and for some, unimaginable freedoms – in the alleys and crowded waterways of nineteenth-century Canton. As transporting and mesmerising as an opiate-induced dream, River of Smoke will soon be heralded as a masterpiece of twenty-first century literature.

In My Hands Today…

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A Murderous Procession – Ariana Franklin (A Mistress of the Art of Death Novel)

In 1178, King Henry II sends his daughter Joanna to Palermo to marry his cousin, the King of Sicily. War on the continent and outbreaks of plague make it especially dangerous, so the king chooses Adelia Aguilar to travel with her. As a medical doctor, and the king’s personal mistress of the art of death, it is Adelia’s duty to leave behind her own cherished daughter in order to safeguard the princess on the arduous year-long journey.

Someone else has also joined the royal procession – a murderer bent on the worst kind of revenge. When people in the princess’s intimate circle begin to die, Adelia suspects that the killer could be a trusted companion hiding in plain sight. But is his ultimate, intended victim the princess, or Adelia herself?

SA1 and PSLE

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The first semester exams have just ended and the results are in. BB & GG have fallen a full band down in raw scores. I asked around and was told this happens. Apparently Primary 1 & 2 are supposed to be the easy years and then Primary 3 takes that up a big notch! But the results have resulted in both BB & GG (and a very angry mama) being very disappointed with their marks. So we’ve decided to come up with strategies to make sure this does not happen for the next exam. Even though their school is not one of the branded schools, but just a neighbourhood school which is not a neighbourhood school, the papers were set at a level just slightly above what was taught in school. In BB’s class, apparently 40% of the class failed in the Maths paper! But the school also has alternative assessment so those marks may increase scores for the children and that 40% may drop.

The past few days I have been reading about about what is possibly the most dreaded exams every Singaporean child will undergo – the PSLE (Primary School Leaving Exam). Children here take it at the end of their primary school education when they are about 12 years old and in Primary 6. Although BB & GG have another 3.5 years before they sit for the PSLE, what I read has made me really scared. This exam pretty much determines your future and to get admission in a good secondary school means you need a very good/decent score. Also the exams are apparently set at about a year to two years more advanced than what the children are taught in school and all this higher order thinking skills means that they need to start now! So operation PSLE will start from the school holidays this year. I need to get BB & GG to start reading books meant for teens now so that they will be reading adult literature when they reach P5/P6. This will help them in English. Now to source for resources for Maths, Science and Hindi.