TGIF…

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Thank God It’s Friday! Today’s Friday and the start of a the weekend! While most people rejoice at the thought of two blissfull days of doing other stuff, my weekends usually entail doing the same stuff that I have been doing the rest of the week – in fact if I can say so, my weekends are even more busy!

On Saturday, I do have the luxury of sleeping for another 75 minutes and wake up only at 6 am compared to the 4:45 am that I usually wake up. Then it’s a flurry of activities to get BB & GG ready for their Mother Tongue classes aka Hindi classes. I have opted them to take Hindi as their Mother Tongue since here, you have to take an another language in addition to English and the other options with us – Tamil and Mandarin were not really options. Tamil, because even though we are linguistically Tamil speaking, I can’t read or write the language to save my life and Mandarin because we do not speak the language at home and so even though they’ve been learning it since Pre-Nursery, I was scared that when the higher levels of the language kick in, it will be difficult for them.

Coming back to the point, they are out of the house by 8 am and then I have some free time till they are back at 1 pm. After lunch and some rest (read afternoon nap), we then go for their music lessons at 5:30 pm. They are learning Carnatic music. Carnatic music is the classical Indian music more common in south India. They will complete one year of learning in October and this year during the Navratri festival, their class will be singing a song at a nearby temple. More about the festival and their performance later.

From tomorrow, GG has additional ballet lessons on Saturdays. These are special lessons specifically for the exams which her class will take sometime in the first quarter of next year. GG has been learning ballet since she was about 3.5 years old.

Sunday’s are relatively free with just GG’s regular ballet lessons. Normally S will take them both – and it’s just some days when he has to work that I take over. This weekend, being the last day of their semesteral holidays, we’re taking them to see the Smurf Movie. I love the Smurfs and it brings back memories for me too, so we’re all looking forward to it. I’ll review the movie next week!

Singapore in second spot in WEF Global Competitiveness Report 2011-2012

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So Singapore has jumped one spot up and is now second in the recently released World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Report 2011-2012. Switzerland has retained it’s top spot while Sweden has moved one spot down and the USA has also fallen one place to come in at number five this year. Finland is at number four and Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Japan and the United Kingdom round up the next five places. Japan has fallen three places since last year, but other than Singapore it’s the only Asian economy on the top ten which has been dominated by mostly European economies. China stands at number 26 while India is halfway down the list at number 56.

Well what this means to us will probably be the justification of the PAP’s foreign talent scheme and no end to our respite! This also means that more foreign talents will enter Singapore and the country and it’s resources will get more and more crowded! I am quite ambivalent about this whole thing – on one hand as someone who has majored in Economics and Finance, I know the importance of getting in foreigners who can do the tasks who can’t or won’t do, but on the other hand, I worry constantly if the country would not become so filled with Foreign Talent or FTs for short that we become a foreigner in our own land. I also worry for my children – 10-12 years down the line, when they are ready for university, will there be space for them here or do they have to become FT in another country?

Singapore has always been shaped by foreigners, most Singaporeans today are the descendents of someone who came into the fledgling country. The original inhabitants of this land – probably the Malays no longer count as the majority of the population. Hopefully the situation is not as dire as I see it – but then I have always been a worrier.

In My Hands Today…

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 A Kiss at Midnight – Eloisa James

Forced by her stepmother to attend a ball, Kate meets a prince…and decides he’s anything but charming. A clash of wits and wills ensures, but they know their irresistible attraction will lead to nowhere. For Gabriel is promised to another woman – a princess whose hand in marriage will fulfill his ruthless ambition. Gabriel likes his fiancé, which is a welcome turn of events, but he doesn’t love her. Obviously he should be wooing his bride-to-be, not the witty, impoverished beauty who refuses to fawn over him. Godmothers and glass slippers notwithstanding, this is one fairytale in which destiny conspires to destroy any chance that Kate and Gabriel might have a happily ever after. Unless a prince throws away everything that makes him noble….Unless a dowry of an unruly heart trumps a fortune…Unless one kiss at the stroke of midnight changes everything.

In My Hands Today…..

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These are the books I have read since Sunday….

The Smart One and the Pretty One – Claire LaZebnik

Smart, successful Ava Nikerson is closing in on thirty and has barely had a date since law school. When a family crisis brings her prodigal little sister Lauren back to Los Angeles, Lauren stumbles across a forgotten document – a contract their parents jokingly drawn up years ago betrothing Ava to their friends’ son. Fustrated and embarrassed by Ava’s constant lectures abut financial responsibility (all because she’s in a little debt. Okay, a lot of debt), Lauren decides to do some sisterly interfering of her own and tracks down her sister’s childhood fiance. When she finds him, the highly inappropriate, twice-divorced, but incredibly charming Russell Markowitz is all too happy to reenter the Nikerson sisters’ lives. And always-accountable Ava will soon realise just how binding a contract can be…

Never After – Laurell K. Hamilton

The bonds of love…the bonds of matrimony…the bonds between husband and wife…Some bonds are meant to be broken. Here, for the first time ever, are four stories based on the classic idea of the “Faerie Tale Wedding” – except this time the damsels aren’t the ones in distress. #1 New York Times bestselling author Laurell K. Hamilton spins a story of a princess who decides to take her own destiny in hand and rescue a pampered Prince Charming from an evil sorceress in “Can He Bake a Cherry Pie”. A selkie on the run from a century-old broken marriage arrangement has finally found true love – only to have the darkness from her past return to threaten both her and her dearly beloved in New York Times bestselling author Yasmin Galenorn’s “The Shadow of Mist”. New York Times bestselling author Marjorie M. Liu tells the tale of a young princess who escapes a betrothal to a warlord by entering a magical forest. But when an evil queen sends her on a questto “The Tangleroot Palace”, she faces dangers more perilous than marriage. When a princess refuses her boring betrothed, the king holds a competition to see who will win his daughter’s hand. But in matters of the heart, is a winner truely worthy – or can a loser offer even more in international bestselling author Sharon Shinn’s “The Wrong Bridegroom”

In My Hands Today…..

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Ok, here is a confession – I am a bookworm and I can read books like it’s going out of fashion! I am almost never without a book in my hand, hence the title of this series. I usually borrow books from the library every weekend and since each card lets you take 6, I borrow my full quota and at times, if S or the kids are not using their quota, eat into those too. During school holidays in order to encourage children to read, the libraries have the Drop Everything And Read (DEAR) thing going, which basically allows you to double up your books quota. When that happens, I am in book heaven since this means I can borrow 12 books on my card alone!!

Since I used to put down the list of books I read in the other tab and it didn’t work out, this time what I thought of doing was put the blurb of the book plus a picture of the book cover (I got this idea from a blog I browsed today). This also lets me know what I actually read.  But be warned, since I go through an average of 5-6 books a week, so this type of post will happen almost daily! Some days it can be two books in a post also. So here is what is in my hands today…

Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? – Agatha Christie

Was it a misstep that sent a handsome stranger plummeting to his death from a cliff? Or something more sinister? Fun-loving adventurers Bobby Jones and Frances Derwent’s suspicions are certainly aroused – especially since the man’s dying words were so peculier: Why didn’t they ask Evans? Bobby and Frances would love to know. Unfortunately, asking the wrong people has sent the amateur sleuths running for their lives – on a wild and deadly pursuit to discover who Evans was and what it was he wasn’t asked, and why the mysterious enquiry has put their own lives in mortal danger….