islandhippy

Olivisms

islandhippy — Sat, 12 May 2012 00:34:01 +0000

Olive: Daddy, what work does Mummy do?
Daddy: Olive, that's a very good question.
Olive: I know Daddy, Mummy goes shopping.
Daddy: Wise words, Olive, wise words.
Olive: Oh, now I remember. Mummy's work is going out to meet her friends!

Leoisms

islandhippy — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 06:16:04 +0000

Leo (holding the hind legs of a plastic pig in the jaws of a plastic t-rex and looking smug): I did it!

More Leoisms when he learns more words.

Leo the backup dancer

islandhippy — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 09:49:09 +0000

Spinning on the beach

islandhippy — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 01:50:16 +0000

Olive spinning on the beach at koh Lanta, Thailand.

Koh Lanta with Phil’s parents

islandhippy — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 10:01:41 +0000

Olivisims

islandhippy — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 11:07:35 +0000

Daddy (at a salad bar in Holland Village): Olive, which salad would like to have for lunch?
Olive: I don't like veggie.
Daddy: This is a salad bar, Olive.
Olive: OK, you eat the salad, I'll eat the salad bar.

bubbles!

islandhippy — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 10:34:03 +0000

The kids gave me a giant bubble maker for my birthday a few weeks back and we finally got the solution to work. Great fun!

Olivisms

islandhippy — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 05:39:04 +0000

Mummy: Please eat your greens, Olive.
Olive: Mummy, when I'm your age I will like lettuce and salad. And when I'm your age I will like sausages and beans. No, wait, I already like sausages and beans!

Clipper Round the World Yacht Race

islandhippy — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 06:11:06 +0000

Following a serendipitous meeting in a bar, I was invited to join the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race crews in Marina at Keppel Bay during their stopover in Singapore. Sandy, the kids and I went aboard the Visit Finland yacht and were amazed at the sheer scale of the 68-foot-long racing yacht. The boats are large but they've been stripped out for racing with no luxuries at all. Ten canvas cloth bunks sleep up to twenty crew, in two shifts, and wet wipes make do for showers at sea. After a quick interview for a Nat Geo documentary on the race and a picnic on the grass facing the marina, I dropped by the race office to give the race office manager a gift from Monsoon Books: "The Boat: Singapore Escape, Cannibalism at Sea"!

Dickens 2012 in Singapore

islandhippy — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 03:45:15 +0000

[Click Charles Dickens to visit the official Charles Dickens 2012 website]

Dickens 2012 is a worldwide celebration of the life and work of Charles Dickens to mark the bicentenary of his birth. In Singapore, the British Arts Council is putting on a number of events in early February. For more information, click here.

One of Monsoon's authors, Alison Jean Lester, is the great great great-granddaughter of Phiz (Hablot Knight Browne, Charles Dickens's illustrator). Apparently, Phiz and novelist William Makepeace Thackeray both submitted portfolios of their work to Dickens's publisher and Dickens chose the drawings of Phiz. Phiz went on to illustrate ten of Dickens's books.

The bicentenary is a good excuse to revisit or discover afresh the works of Dickens. I've been listening to audiobook recordings of A Tale of Two Cities, David Copperfield, Great Expectations, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, A Christmas Carol and Nicholas Nickleby on my iPhone while jogging home from the office. Probably not how Dickens envisaged his work would be enjoyed.