Sisterly love

A rare occurrence when both Katelyn and Katherine are awake at the same time AND not crying!

Comfortable Katherine!

Mum and Katherine enjoying some nice quiet time together :-). Notice the time? Its just the start of a long night!

Siesta time

Katherine and Katelyn enjoying their afternoon nap.

Katelyn sunbaking on Dad's lap!

In true Aussie style Katelyn has already learnt the art of relaxing :). And she's only 11 days old. We guess it must run in the family!

Katherine asleep with her angels

Little Katherine asleep with her angels! She's very different to her older sister...she's very patient and placid. Even her cry is timid compared to her sister. Right now she's in hospital with getting photo light treatment for her jaundice. She'll be there for 3 days so hopefully she'll be discharged tomorrow. Mum, Dad and Katelyn miss her a lot!

Katelyn asleep with the angels

Katelyn is fast asleep with her angels! We are starting to see her personality developing. She is very impatient when it comes to feeding and has a temper when it comes to changing diapers. Jon has already been hit by her golden spray while giving her a bath!

The twins are home!

On day 5 we brought the twins home. Here they are sound asleep in bed together! One of the rare times they are sound asleep together...amazingly when one cries the other won't wake up!

Proud Grandma!

Despite the prospect of 2 wailing baby girls living in her house, Jea's mum is one proud Grandma! Here she is holding Katelyn on the day we are leaving hospital. Looking comfortable there mum!

Welcome to the world Katherine!

Little sister Katherine pondering the mysteries of the world.

Welcome to the world Katelyn!

Here's a closeup of big sister (by 1 min) Katelyn!

The twins have arrived!

This morning our babies were born! On the left is baby 1 who was born at 8.17am, weighs 2.535kg, is 47cm long and head circumference of 32cm. On the right is baby 2 who was born at 8.18am, weighs 2.570kg, is 48cm long and head is 33cm. Mum and the babies are healthy and the babies even started feeding on the first day!

Twinnies are on the way

Our last dinner together before our baby girls arrive tomorrow morning! :-D

There is a mountain in Singapore?

Of all the places in the world, I've finally discovered the 'sport' of mountain biking in Singapore! So for the past couple of weeks I've been going to the one and only hill in Singapore to go mountain biking. And because its the only decent hill, every other Singaporean who likes biking is also there! So of course, like everywhere else in Singapore, even at this ulu (malay for 'remote') place there are squillions of people here!

Anyway I bike with some guys who have got some whizzbang bikes. The value of their bikes could buy a small crappy car back in Oz (like a pathetic old Holden Commodore). So i turn up to the Bukit Timah Hill in my 14 year old mountain bike which cost AUD$369 (back in the day), with no suspension, rusted wheels and rusting seatpost (cause its been shifted up and down so much that all the paint has worn off and its all rusted) and everyone around me first of all stares at my bike (cause its so old and has no suspension) then they look at me to see who is this crazy guy who comes to ride around the one and only hill without suspension on this dodgy looking old bike?!!! Little do they know that people who work Aussie's who work in Banks don't earn that much.

So anyway enough of my ranting. Just wanted to report that I've found a new sport using my old bike and having heaps of fun (like blasting down a huge hill through the forest at 30kmh and then having to carry my ancient rust pile up a huge hill cause i'm so unfit). Woohoo!

Snaggers vs. Spaghetti

Tonight is the big game. Australia vs. Italy....

So who is gonna win? Of course, a snagger on the bbq is always more delicious than spaghetti bolognaise, cause its not as fattening!

Anyway the Ozzie is proud to be supporting his team into the quarter-finals. He will even have some money on the game tonight...although he didn't win on the last game, the Ozzie is confident of this one.

Let the games begin!

Preggos

Well the Aussie's wife is finally pregnant. I like to refer to her as "the Preggo". Anyway its kinda fun as she's pregnant with twins - and its even more remarkable given that neither of us have any sort of history of twins in the family.

Anyway just like weddings, anything to do with babies seems to be exhorbitantly (however you spell that long word) expensive. First of all, the gynae costs are rather expensive. It'll cost about 20bux to see a normal doc, but a gynae will easily cost 2 to 3 times this (its a good payoff for them, given that they only have to do 2 more years of med school to become a gynae).

Secondly any physical objects to do with babies is expensive - like prams, strollers, clothes blah blah blah. And all our friends keep telling us how doubly expensive its gonna be for us cause we are having twins. So at least for the next few years, the Aussie cannot spend money on his number one passion - modifying cars. Although I managed to get a one-off exception purchase from my CFO, and she allowed me to buy some chrome rims for our new station wagon (at least i don't look like such a boring family man cause now I have some pimped out rims to make our car look half non-family).

Anyway off to bed now,
The Aussie

O Behave!

The Aussie has been a bit lazy in updating his blog...so time for an update!

Well the year in Singapore has been a hectic one...so the Aussie is taking a 4.5 week holiday to the 'ole US of A for some good R and R! Anyway the most cost effective way to visit the west coast was to join a tour. Little did i know that the tour was run by Asians...for Asians. So the break i really wanted from Asia hasn't really worked out. And let me tell u, Asians on tour behave no differently from when they are at home.

Lemme give you a few examples:

Incident 1 - Disneyland.
What a colourful place! Amazing! Anyway the Aussie was one of the first to board a mammoth 'Pirate Ship' to navigate around Tom Sawyers Island. As he got on, he was pushed out of the way by a gangly Chinese tourist with camera in hand, racing for the front of the boat to get the best possie for his home video! Crazy asians with their cameras...

Incident 2 - Dodgy all u can eat buffet in LA.
So we arrive at this dodgy looking restaurant on some back streets in LA...which our tour guide professes is the cheapest and best in LA. Cheap it was indeed...Anyway we get into the place and our Aussie is busting for the loo so he dashes to the toilet where he is greeted by a group of older 55 plus year old men...who were snorting and coughing in the toilets like a bunch of buffalo being electrocuted who had eaten too much chilli. It was disgusting..it was like an orchestra of snot noise. YUCK!Anway i'm on a tour bus to San Francisco now and the bus driver only speaks Spanish and he's LOST! We've taken a wrong turn, overshot our destination and now we've taken another wrong turn so we've missed our lunch destination. And to top it off our tour guide speaks English and Mandarin but not Spanish! Everyone is tired, hungry and needs to pee!

Until next time...adios!

Too many cyclists

Just got back from cycling along the East Coast Parkway, which is a nice stretch of palm trees and beach the extends along the east coast of Singapore. What madness!

Trying to cycle here is like trying to navigate your way through the Chatuchak markets in Bangkok. Impossible. Kids were running all over the path, cyclists cycling in front, behind and cutting across your line, and worst of all, rollerbladers going left, right and centre.

Well its no wonder we prefer cycling at 10pm at night, cause there is no-one around!!!

I can't believe there were sooo many people there. It was like tent city all along the east coast. Every man and his dog had a tent. And to top it off, for every tent, there would have been at least 15 people.

Today is Singapore's National Day, and lucky me managed to score some tickets. So I'm looking forward to experiencing some Singapore nationalism later today. Its gonna be real interesting. Funny thing is, I don't even attend Australia Day events in Australia! But the worst thing about today is that you can't drink beer at the National Day!!!! Who ever heard of a National Day without beer? Absurd! That is one thing Singapore has to change if its serious about its National Day. No amount of parades and army firepower can overcome the fact that you cant't drink beer.

To National Day we go!

Paper harassment

Just a short update. I was standing at a street corner today, waiting for the pedestrian lights to give me the ok to cross in front of the crazy Singaporean drivers hooning around. Anyway there's some dude there handing out flyers advertising some hair and beauty thing (by the way, there are heaps of hair and beauty adverts everywhere which generally tell the ladies here to get slimmer or get their skinner whiter). Anyway this old fella was going crazy handing out flyers - he was just handing them out left right and centre. And if you didn't take one, he'd slam one into your hand so you had no choice but to take it! I call it paper harassment…. Obviously this guy is getting paid by how many flyers he distributes. The poor sod. Now if he was an Aussie, he would have put all the flyers in some public bin first thing in the morning, and he'd be at the beach by lunchtime, lapping up some waves!

Earning too much?

Just went to some Opthamology joint at a place called Cambden Medical Centre to get my stoopid eyes checked out. Apparently I have been overwearing my contacts so now my cornea is wearing out. Jeez medical technology sucks. Now I have to wear glasses for at least the next 6 months and look like a 4 eyed geak.

Anyway back to the gist of it - I get dropped off at this clinic, and a doorman opens up my taxi door for me to fast track my exit out of the taxi. Not bad service i think to myself. Then i realise that i'm not at a hotel, i'm at a Medical Centre!!! Anyway I head up the lift to see the optical clinic, and i felt like i was at the Ritz Carlton. Anyway I arrive in the foyer, and this place is HUGE!!!

I reckon the practitioners in the place must earn a bomb. Marble floors everywhere, marble pillars everywhere, oak wood plastered all over the walls....and to top it off, plasma and LCD tv's were all over the place, as if they were going out of fashion! Unbelievable. Now usually hospitals etc are run down, low budget places, at least where i come from. Perhaps I should have chosen the career path of a medical practitioner, and practised in Singapore! This incident also reminds me of the time I walked past the Mt. Elizabeth Hospital carpark. Was more like a luxury car shop, as it was stacked with BMW's, Merc's, Audi's, Porche's, Lexus etc...if you were driving a Camry there i reckon you would have been asked to leave the carpark!

Well, such is the life of a medical professional!

Well Dressed Gentlemen

Well it’s been a while since of blogged. Been too busy moving house, working and eating. How sad. I don’t even have a few minutes to write…must be the Singapore lifestyle getting to me.

Anyway my last post was from Hong Kong, and I want to discuss something that has continued to stay in my mind.

Men in suits.

Now, typically in Singapore, the average office worker will arrive wearing pants (usually of the plain variety – pinstripes are a rarity), and either a short sleeve shirt (for those who are based in more ‘industrial’ type industries – I guess the short sleeves allow ventilation of the forearm) or a long sleeve shirt (normally of plain description, nothing too bright) and in some rare cases, you might find the odd “stylo milo” (Singaporean term for fashionable) wearing cufflinks. Now you ask...what about suits? Lets just say if you are 'caught' wearing a suit, Singaporeans will look at you as if you are a green alien. I should know. I wore one to my job interview.

Lets contrast this with the average Aussie office worker. Now, depending on season, the Aussie who works in Professional Services will typically wear a suit and tie, but nothing to “bling bling”. At most, you might find a pin-striped shirt underneath that plain coloured (usually navy, grey or black) pure wool suit. Cufflinks might be found on perhaps 5% of “suiters”. However again, the bulk of the population will generally wear just a shirt and tie, depending on season.

Coming back to Hong Kong. Now these guys really know how to dress. It’s as if they’ve all just been reading FHM Mens Collections and jumped out of some page in the magazine and onto the sidewalk. I have never seen sooo many guys in one city wearing qwwality suits, with sensational shirt fabrics, matched with the right contrast of tie and cufflinks. Truly wondrous. So it was no surprise to me than upon my visit to the tailor, I was presented with a sensational array of fabrics and colours. I was in metrosexual heaven. Well, apparently London is just the same. I’m sure I’ll verify this for myself one day, but for a city based in Asia (the land of shorts and t-shirts), it was certainly an eye ball opener.