Archive for January, 2009

PHoetry

Wednesday, January 28th, 2009

I also, with the help of Ralph, started a new blog.  Phoetry.

PHoetry

Zen’s blog

Wednesday, January 28th, 2009

Yay, Zen now has his own blog, check it out!

His most recent posting is about Teen Titans, and there’s a YouTube clip of the theme song, sung by Puffy (a.k.a. Puffy Amiyumi).  In the full version they even have Guitar Wolf play a solo, it sounds a bit like Puffy, a bit like Lush – check it out!

Happy Chinese New Year!

Monday, January 26th, 2009

It’s the year of the bovine, the 26th year of the 60-year Chinese lunar calendar cycle, called ji chou, or Yin Earth Ox!  Gong xi, gong xi, gong xi ni, YA!

Today we went on a Chinese New Year jungle hike. It was fun.
monkey park

monkey park

monkey park

monkey park

We even saw a monkey!

Monkey park

Monkey Pete

It’s a wonderful blog

Sunday, January 25th, 2009

Happy Chinese New Year, gong xi fa cai (which, by the way, is pronounced “gong shee fa tsai”), welcome to the year of the bovine creature (in the plural, it’s called cattle, but there doesn’t seem to be a word for it in the singular – “cow” doesn’t apply, since it applies only to the females of the species).

A little recap of the last week or so. Saturday and Sunday last week were busy. There was lots of cleaning and tidying, then on Sunday Zen had a full day of softball (7:30 AM to 4:45 PM) followed by 30 minutes of swimming lesson. Monday night we went out for Mom’s 70th birthday. Naoko and I met early on in Holland Village, bought a present for mum, then went for a beer to kill time until mum ‘n’ dad showed up with Zen. We had found a nice place in to take her on the rooftop of the main building. The atmosphere was awesome – rooftop, breezy, lots of plants, so it hit two of mom’s prerequisites – the food was quite nice, and the service was even quite nice. We got home and ate local birthday cake, which was very sweet, but yummy.

Rooftop party!
oma's birthday

oma's birthday

Cake! (No room to put 70 candles, though, unfortunately)
oma's birthday

Zen had his Chinese New Year celebration on Friday morning; he normally has his school in the afternoon session, so there was an opportunity to walk Zen to school, which was great. Zen wore a blue Chinese-style costume that was very cute, some of the people we passed on the way in gave him great big smiles. Zen sang Chinese songs and had a very nice time.

On Saturday we slept in, then took care of errands, and in the evening had poolside drinks, then watched Woody Allen’s “Radio Days.” Everybody besides me fell asleep watching it, but most of us agreed that it was a pretty funny film. I found it less interesting than I had in my memory, with long passages that seems strung together, like when Mia Farrow is singing a long number. What did that have to do with radio or Woody Allen’s childhood? The acting was like the actors had performed it a million times on Broadway and they were going through the motions to put the film together, so the heart was not really there, but it’s a small complaint – the film was funny and warm. After that, I kept on watching “The Song Remains The Same.” I can’t believe that this world ever had a young Robert Plant and Jimmy Page who would put out a new album every year. What would it have been like to have gone down the store to buy Led Zeppelin II on the day it was released? I can hardly imagine. I was five months and two days old when Led Zeppelin II was released on October 22nd, 1969. Jimmy Page was 25. Robert Plant had just turned 20.

On Sunday we woke up early-ish. After breakfast we went to the local park and threw around the frisbee and played badminton, also played catch. Walked past Zen’s school and saw an interesting sign, with an iroic statement.

contiues

contiues

Went home, had a nice lunch, and wrote up my review for “The Song Remains The Same.” It was a nice, quiet afternoon, played guitar, went for a swim had a great dinner of Naoko’s scrumptious baked pork and baked vegetables.

Zen climbs on the Monkey Bars!

Saturday, January 17th, 2009

Today we had so much fun. We went to the Signature Park playground with Zen and Papa and Mama and Oma and Opa. We played games and played together. It was so fun, we couldn’t believe it. Zen and the kids threw a beach ball and played soccer. We also threw a frisbee disc, but it went up on the tree. Papa climbed up a lamp post to get the frisbee disc down. We met an interesting girl from Russia. She is 10 years old. She challenged Papa to do some tasks. Papa could do them, but the girl couldn’t do all of the tasks that Papa coul.

Here is a video of Zen on the monkey bars!

Fun in Japan!!!

Tuesday, January 13th, 2009

Yay, Naoko and Zen came back from Japan! They had a lovely time there and did lots of stuff. Zen went to the local primary school that his cousins go to and had a great time – he likes his Japanese primary school better than his Singapore primary school it seems (although he likes the Singapore primary school plenty enough). Naoko got to hang out with her family and friends. They took an overnight trip to the Sea of Japan to stay in a hot spring and eat crab. My brother and his family also visited them in Himeji in the days between Christmas and New Year’s Eve. Sounds like everyone had a blast. Here are some pictures and videos of the event.

Zen and Lauren and Evan and Haruka and Nanaka playing at Himeji Castle

Zen and Lauren and Evan and Haruka and Nanaka on the swings

Making motchi in a Japanese village

Making motchi in a Japanese home

Zen sings his primary school song

Zen sings the “Happy Life Happy Home” song

There was a monkey at my bus stop today!!!

Zen and Naoko and Jii-san and Baa-san went to Yamanaka Onsen
Zen Hiroshi Yaeko
Naoko

Having fun in Himeji
Daichi Haruka Nanaka Yuuta Zen

“Mountain” climbing in Himeji
Evan Lauren Zen Nanaka Haruka Megayama
Evan Lauren Zen Nanaka Haruka Megayama
Evan Lauren Zen Nanaka Haruka Megayama

Himeji castle
Evan Lauren Zen Nanaka Haruka Himeji-jo

Posing in the park
Evan Lauren Zen Nanaka Haruka Daiichi Park

Back in Singapore!
Oma Opa Peter Naoko Zen