Our new tortoise vivarium is almost ready. We have done various upgrading from a tiny plastic box, to a slightly bigger container. After realising the tortoise was suffering from inadequate space, we bought a 30cm tank, and now a 50cm tank. From a tiny room to a bungalow and now a mansion, I hope to further upgrade them into an estate using a 1m tank in future.

I was advised that my red-eared sliders are aggressive tortoise, therefore, aquatic plants aren’t recommended. I didn’t heed the suggestion and go ahead with several variates of them. A tortoise tank without any greenery is too dull to look at!

True enough, most of my plants didn’t survive for more then a 3 weeks. I weeded most of them away simply because the active tortoises trampled on them and made a big mess of floating leaves in the tank. Some of sturdy ones disappeared slowly, I suspect the tortoise have been nibbling on them. The only survivor is the Japanese Moss Ball. That was also my favourite, so I am going to get a few more of those cutie looking balls.

The aquatic plants and tank seller also advised me not to set the water level of my tank more then 2-3 inches high, because Slider doesn’t swim much. That was pure bullshit and I filled the tank with about 6 inches of water for a start. Beside spending endless hours basking under the fake sun, the sliders enjoyed their swim very much! I should probably start looking for more rocks to make a higher basking platform so I can increase the water level.

A comment from the post “It’s a strong foundation that counts”

“One bright and sunny afternoon…” gets you no where while “… the scorching sun shining like a fireball in the bright cloudless sky blah blah blah…..” gets good marks…”

I have come across such writing too from a lower primary student during one of my trips back Singapore. I was totally impressed when I read it. How could a little kid write like that? I couldn’t even imagine myself writing that when I was in Primary 6! Then the feeling of despair, disgust began to hit me too. Despair as I realised the English Language classes zeeyau is attending is grossly inadequate should we return to Singapore. Disgust, because such manner of writing is truly pretentious and ridiculous, and of course, maybe I felt defeated and jealous simply because my kids wouldn’t be able to do that!

Now, zeeyau has been taking short term immersion classes whenever we return home. I am glad we haven’t seen such exaggerated writing training yet. Perhaps they are still too young for that, but I hope her teachers will continue teaching writing styles that are down to earth in future.

First attempt carving rubber stamp.

Isn’t it really weird that parents exhaust all their means to get their kids into branded schools and then complain about endless home work, unhealthy competitions, pointless activities, unrealistic high standards and so on….

Transfer the kid out of the school or just deal with what you asked for.

Am I growing much larger in size or has the chicken at Long John Silver really shrink so much!

We don’t think we are being ridiculous.

Succumbing to the pressure of Singapore education system, spends all energy on stretching the kid, making sure the kid scores the highest possible marks, questioning the teacher professionalism when homework is scarce and when teacher doesn’t comply to the teaching norms (ie, more homework, more challenging syllabus, more notes, more worksheets and never try to go experimental about new teaching methods, more is always good). Ace the exam, gets into top school, becomes a scholar.

Or returning to Singapore every winter and summer vacation, put the child back into the primary school here for immersion before heading back to Beijing when school reopens for the new semester. No month long extended holidays, no academic stress, hoping the kid can excel too, somehow.

We certainly think the other person is ridiculous.

还没真正搞清楚何谓 zakka。但是能感觉到，如果再用“手工”二字，就是意图给自己贴上老土的标签。在淘宝，当当或胡乱search一下，“手工”条目所列，几乎都是一些无精打采的玩意儿。输入“手作”，“杂货”，却是另一番令人振奋，富有个性的创意作品。

嘿嘿，尽管落后了几年，亡羊补牢的工作还是是要地。就算不能成为什么手作杂货达人，也可以学学一些应时的潮流新语。在纪伊国屋书店买了夏米的《初学橡皮章的12堂课》和小间敬子的《橡皮章生活杂货》，芷遥也挑了一本《用纸粘土做超可爱娃娃屋》，回来后上网查了一下，发现实在是付了许多冤枉钱。算了，要我等上3个星期后回北京再上当当订购，我打死忍不住。先忍痛解解馋，稍后再回北京扫货。

手作－生活，随兴，情趣，创意。

真的是超可爱。

最后买了一本《乌龟饲养方法》，准备回北京后，好好为家里两只可怜的小乌龟打造一给优质的生活环境，希望它们能长命百岁。

There is only one reason why the kids love going Chinatown - besides getting to eat fishball noodles and drink Ribena, they get to go to OG after the meals, heading straight to the 4th floor to get new toys. Why do I absolutely condone such behaviour, because I enjoy buying toys as much as they do.

Ultraman Mebius Phoenix Brave and Zero

And the next day, I found this adorable Scooby Doo metal candy box at Candylicious. Couldn’t resist not owing this silly dog.

Couldn’t believe my eyes when I opened it. $5 for that tiny packet of candy that couldn’t even fill one tenth of the tin, luckily I still got to keep that tin.

新的一年，更新了网页彩图，希望找到重新出发的动力。

如果2012年是世界末日，那必须在灾难来临前好好整理并记录生活中的杂七杂八。若大幸没遭到灭绝，更不能在2013年感叹又让小小博客荒凉了一年。

Finally visited the Universal Studios Singapore! It was crowded, even though it is a normal weekday. We hit straight to the Lost World once we arrived while tourists still crowded around the entrance area busy taking photos or figuring where to go first.

Being kiasu helped, we managed to catch the Canopy Flyer with minimal queuing. It was such a short ride! But the shortest ride award has to go to the carousal at Madagascar, I have never rode a carousal that stops after 4 rounds.

The queue time was still tolerable in the late morning. The Treasure Hunter took us only 15 minutes. It was a 30-50min (estimated) queue time for that ride in the afternoon. It is such a children directed and thrill-less ride, why would grown-ups even want to spend that amount of time queuing up for it!? I reckoned they weren’t aware that ride is designed for children. I would have cursed and swear if I queued 30minutes and realised it is meant for babies.

I absolutely loved the river boat ride. It was the longest ride we had in the park, shaded, cool and safe on the lazy river, perfect for lazy parents to rest while the kids got entertained by the cartoons. We also took the junior roller coaster twice to enjoy some mini thrill as I believe I would have died mid air if I try the Battlestar Galactica.

Having survived so many carnival rides in various countries, I can’t help but feel overly protected, as they require an adult to accompany the kids, even on kiddy kiddy stuff like the Dino-soarin and Treasure Hunters.

It was an enjoyable day. Would have been better if we have a cooler weather + more attractions.