It was a glorious day today. The warm sun lured the 3 Lil' Pigs out their cozy sty for a stroll in the fresh cool autumn air. Thank God, there was no big bad wolves.
A walk in fall is like no other. The cool fresh air spices up the romance, while the colorful fall foliage with its bright orange, red, yellow and brown on the trees is a treat to the eyes. Walking on thick piles of crisp fallen leaves is very therapeutic too.
We chanced upon a free admission to the local museum of natural history so we thought we'd just drop in for a quick 5-min look around. In the end, we stayed for almost an hour as our Golden Piglet squealed in delight and pointed at the exhibits as we went from hall to hall. Midori was totally fascinated by the museum.
Today is Germany's unification day. It is a national holiday, commemorating the day that East and West Germany re-united.
We stayed at home, which by the way is in the most eastern part of Germany, and I made takoyaki. I know, it has nothing to do with Einheitstag nor Germany. But who cares! They are so oishiiiiii!
I noticed Midori has been reaching out to babies and kids. She squeals in delight and points at kids whenever she spots them. However, I had yet to see her play with kids until today when my Japanese friend, Y, brought her baby, A, to our place. It was the first time that Midori and A played together!
Y and I were amazed and amused at how our 2 golden piglets seemed to understand each other via their baby verbal and body languages. They enjoyed chasing each other on fours which left us laughing and snapping away with our cameras.
4.5 months ago, both of them were just sitting in their baby car seats without interacting with one another.
A, is exactly 6 weeks younger than our Sweetie Pie. Technically, she is our Pumpkin's first friend because the 2 Eurasian piglets have known each other since they were still in our tummies! However, the first few meetings weren't fun as both babies cried when they were put next to each other.
Today, Muslims around the world celebrate Eid ul-Fitr which marks the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan. In South East Asia, this holiday is celebrated for a month with family and friends over lots of delicious cookies and food.
Festival likes this makes me miss South East Asia. Oh, how I crave for rendang, sate, kue lapis, pineapple tarts and many more mouth-watering yummies. Yeah, I'm greedy!
Of course, I could cook up a feast here in Germany, but that would miss the whole point of getting together with friends of different cultures and joining them in their celebrations.
Living harmoniously in a multi-cultural society is both enriching and delicious!
Wishing all Muslims around the world a wonderful Eid ul-Fitr!
PS: Selamat Hari Raya to my dearest friend X and her family! X, loosen your belt and feast!
Our Piglet missed a step and fell the other day, hitting her temple on the hard floor.
Thanx to her thoughtful MM99 who suggested to her dearest BB11 to send Zam-buk all the way from Singapore. The irony is Zam-buk is produced by the German chemical and pharmaceutical giant Bayer, but is not sold in Germany.....at least not that I know of. The ointment worked wonders. Midori's boils subsided within an hour and the bruises were gone by the following day.
I'd been wanting to visit Prague since 1996 but never made it there until yesterday. Thanks to S, whom I met while taking French in Alliance Francais Singapore a decade ago, I can now strike the Czech capital out of my travel wish list. Incidentally, S is also my older bro's ex-classmate in middle school. Yeah, Singapore is small.
The weather was beautiful and we had a few hours to walk around before meeting S and her lovely Spanish friend, R, for coffee and cakes.
Prague is indeed one of the most beautiful and visited cities in Europe. Its baroque and renaissance architecture is attracting tourists from all over the world who pack the city and jam the streets and bridges.
Since Prague it's only 2.5 hrs by car from our place, we didn't stay the night and drove back in the evening. But rest assured we'll be back with more Czech Korunas to spend.
Oh, don't ask me about French! Except for the notorious French phrase, I can't speak Francais but I can understand the ingredients written in French cookbooks. Ha ha ha.
We drove to Hamburg last weekend to meet our dear friend Dr. R from India. Dr. R was on a short business trip to Hamburg so we decided at the very last minute to head north. Stephan's younger brother, U, and his lovely pregnant wife, S, were very kind to put us up for a night in Germany's second largest city.
It was our first visit to the free & Hanseatic city of Hamburg and we totally love it. The Hamburgers (not the buns) are chic folks who dress to their nines. The bustling city is Europe's the second largest port and has over 2000 bridges. I particularly love the Fischmarkt for its very good bargains on fresh produce. Errrr we didn't see any fish auctions nor many fishmongers as we'd expected, but I was over the moon with my tutti-frutti bounty. The housewife me just couldn't pass off good bargains so we went home with crates of figs and peaches which kept me smilling for days.
S & U, thanx again for your great hospitalily! We'll see u in a couple of weeks with your lovely bundle of joy!
Today is the official start of autumn, my favorite season. I'm very happy to say goodbye to summer and welcome autumn with open arms. I'm one of those few "weird" people who long for fall during summer.
The days are getting shorter, while the nights longer. I love the cool air, beautiful fall foliage and fallen leaves. They create a certain romance in the air and make strolling such a joy during this time of the year. Ich liebe Herbst!
Our Golden Piglet loves to go through the garbarge. She likes to take out the papers and cardboard and starts biting them. Sometimes she even eats them! I suspect our Piglet is the reincarnation of a Chinese spy from the Song Dynasty. Either that or she is preparing herself for some detective works when she grows up.
Our Golden Piglet is 11-month today. Midori can climb up and down the bed and sofa and she loves to follow me wherever I go.
With 6 new teeth popping out at the same time, our usually happy Sweetie Pie has been whining and grinding her teeth quite a bit. Yes, 6! Wonder what's the hurry. Maybe the 4 top and 2 bottom teeth are catching up with lost time and rushing to make it to Midori's 1st birthday. I bought Dentinox teething gel to help soothe her sore gum.
Hang in there, Sweetie! At least, u'll look good (even cuter) when u smile on your first birthday next month.
Midori and I just came back from a 4-day trip to Salzburg to meet my high school friend SW and her wonderful family. Papa Pig had to work as it was a last minute decision to join my old fencing mate in RJC and her family for a short holiday in Austria. Stephan was the sweetest. He bought me a TomTom portable GPS car navigation system, lest we'd be lost in Europe.
My heart was beating faster minutes before I arrived at the B&B. I was both nervous and excited to see my long-lost friend whom I found through Facebook a few months ago. The now famous opthalmologist SW and her equally famous cardiologist hubby, E, had conferences in Munich so they squeezed in the time in between for a family holiday inBavaria and Salzburg with their 2 wonderful kids and SW's supportive parents.
I had not seen SW for more than 6 years and when she called me, I knew I had to meet her by hook or by crook. The last time I saw her was in Singapore when she drove me and her then-baby A to our fencing mate E's place. A will turn 8 this year and she has a charming 5-yr old brother D whom I met for the first time.
Despite her success and achievements, SW remains the humble, generous, bubbly and forever helpful girl I used to know almost 2 decades ago. Seeing SW revived my memory of the good old days we had in RJC, Singapore. Time flies and I feel old given the fact that we travelled with kids and family instead of backpacking.
So now u know why I had to drive some 720 km with a teething baby just to see her. U would too if u had a good friend like SW!
Thanx again for your invitation to Salzburg, SW & E!
I brought our Sweetie Pie to a photo session for "The Best Smile" contest organized by Spiele Max today.
Our Golden Piglet wore a golden baby cheongsam by H&M. We are keeping our fingers crossed that Midori wins the 100€ Spiele Max voucher. If not, all is not lost cos our Cutie Pie had fun.
Stephan bought me a new Olympus Mju 1030SW after my Fuji camera went dead after just 9 months. Not only did he have the careless me in mind, but he also thought of our lil' Piglet when he bought this "tank" camera which is: shockproof (Midori likes to bang things and I tend to drop things) waterproof (Midori puts everything in her mouth) freezeproof (the freezing winter) crushproof (in case I/Midori step/s on it)
Stephan insisted that we buy only Hipp products for our Precious after watching a documetary on Claus Hipp, the chairman of Hipp Baby Food. Papa Pig was very impressed by the humble millionaire. Our Piglet is showing more interest in food other than breastmilk, but the latter is still her favorite. She loves all kinds of fruits and most vegetables but dislike meat. I've also started feeding her bread and rice, even though she only has 2 short bottom incisors. Apparently it's normal for exclusively breastfed babies to be late at teething. Guess, it's nature's way of sparing nursing moms from a lot of pain. Already my Milk Pi(g)ranha almost always bites me whenever I nurse her. Ooooooouch!!!
When Stephan came back from Nuremberg last month, he bought not just one but 2 Steiff stuffed animals, a lamb and a hippo, for our Precious. He grew up with stuffed toys from this classic German brand and insisted that Midori should have them too. Lucky Piglet!
I brought Midori to the playground at Luthersplatz to meet the other Indonesian ladies and their kids. It was Midori's first visit to the playground and she loved it. Our piglet was the "star" and made new friends who volunteered to babysit her. We'll be going there more often.
Doesn't Midori look like her Papa? No wonder she's almost always mistaken as a boy even when she's dressed in pink.
Midori was having fun while waiting to see her new pediatrician for the 10-month check-up. We didn't like her previous pediatrician. She failed to draw blood from Midori even after poking her head twice with a syringe. I crinched in pain as our usually brave piglet with high threshold for pain cried her lungs out. That was the final draw and we knew we had to look for another pediatrician.
Midori was making sure the nurse didn't overstate her weight.
It was a glorious day today. The warm sun lured the 3 Lil' Pigs out their cozy sty for a stroll in the fresh cool autumn air. Thank God, there was no big bad wolves.
A walk in fall is like no other. The cool fresh air spices up the romance, while the colorful fall foliage with its bright orange, red, yellow and brown on the trees is a treat to the eyes. Walking on thick piles of crisp fallen leaves is very therapeutic too.
We chanced upon a free admission to the local museum of natural history so we thought we'd just drop in for a quick 5-min look around. In the end, we stayed for almost an hour as our Golden Piglet squealed in delight and pointed at the exhibits as we went from hall to hall. Midori was totally fascinated by the museum.
