How did he do it?

3 days ago, the weather station in baby A's room set off its alarm at 6am. The next day, it happened again. Somehow, baby A had managed to activate the alarm while playing with it. How he did it, I have no idea. We have the weather station (similar to this one) for years and I never bother with the alarm function. Seb finally figured out how to deactivate the alarm function yesterday night and he put it by his bedside this night as a precaution. He was the one who went into baby A's room each morning to switch off the alarm.

And this morning at 12am, we heard another alarm. Seb woke up but could not find the source. This morning, my mum told me that it was the alarm from the sliding world time calculator. It was a corporate gift from my previous company and it was always on the computer table. Yesterday, baby A played with it. Somehow, he set on the alarm function and by default, the alarm went off at 12am. My mum said she had to put the calculator under her pillow cos she did not know how to turn it off. I took 5 minutes this morning to figure out how to deactivate the alarm function. This was something that I never use.

Baby A had already played with phones and laptops and computers and had sometimes given us trouble. With the phone, he had called Seb's colleagues and my brother. He woke up my brother at 2am Singapore time and I got an email from Tim the next day. Oops. I deleted the neighbourhood police number from the phone in any case. With the computers, he had done things that we never knew existed. Magnifying the screen of Seb's laptop and giving his dad a hard time looking for his icons and putting the default settings back.

I hope that this night, we won't be awaken by any alarm any more.

So french and so singaporean

1. Riots, riots again.
2. Strikes, strikes non-stop.
3. Flooding in Singapore a common sight.

1. Grenoble, France. An armed robber was killed by the police during action. He had fired at the police first. What happened next was beyond me. Riots! In the suburbs Grenoble, people started to attack police vehicles and set cars on fire. The girlfriend of the killed robber had filed a complaint for the murder of her partner.

Saint-Aignan, France. A man in a car crashed thru' a police roadblock and was shot dead. Again, there were riots. Cars were set on fire, a city hall was set on fire, police station and shops were attacked.

Lost lives are never easy to accept especially for families and friends of the deceased. However, there is no need for material destructions. There are other canals of venting. I am not even sure how many of those trouble makers are real friends of the deceased.

2. Paris, France. Air traffic controllers were on strike 2 days ago. This had interrupted many holiday makers who were travelling during this summer holiday period. They were on strike over a plan to unify European airspace. This would affect their job status as public servants.

Pharmaciens were on strike a few weeks ago to protest against . . . . I had no idea and did not look up. Just heard it over the radio.

More strikes are forecasted for September. Students are going on strike due to increase charges for university entries; unions are organising massive strikes against the retirement age of 62.

3. Singapore, Singapore. It was amazing watching the videos of Orchard Road being flooded. Not once but a few times in recent months. In the videos, people were just patiently watching the rain and flowing water at the entrance of shopping malls. How could this happen in Singapore, I asked. Like everyone else. Yet, the Minister Mentor said that "Singaporeans expect everything to be perfect ". Who won't when the govt has a perfect income?

If he had said that to the French, would there be another riot or strike?

Flower arrangements

When we were at Brittany the last time, we visited a flower exhibition. Here are a few flower arrangements displayed for your viewing pleasure.

Summer sales is here

The summer sales is here. What are the damages to my wallet so far. . . . . .
I bought some summer maternity clothes from H&M Maman but all of them except for a 3/4 length pants were new collection. Thus, no discount.

Also got 2 Longchamps Pliage bags at half prices. A document bag and a big travelling bag. Of course there were not much choice of colors.
That's about it for me.
For Baby A, I bought some bodies from Petit Bateau, clothes from Absorba and Vertbaudet. I got some pyjamas and day wear for baby A from Vertbaudet and was surprised when paying that an extra 20% discount was given for more than 4 items bought. It was really a bargain.

As baby A was starting to walk and everyone stressed on the importance of having a good pair of walking shoes, I bought 2 pairs of Kickers for baby A. One for autumn and one for winter. Seb paid for them and though there were 30% discount, he was shocked by the price of such small shoes.
I really like the soles of these little shoes. They are cute, aren't they?
I think I am done with this sale. I am looking forward to the winter sales where I hope to get some bargains on clothes for myself and for the second baby.

Parc de Thoiry

Last Saturday, we went to the Thoiry zoo. It is famous for its safari drive through.
When we reached the safari, we took baby A out of his car seat and granny put him on her lap. The little boy was more intrigued by the fact that he was out of the car seat and started to explore the car. He was not interested with the animals roaming around. He even wanted to come to the driver's seat and Seb put him on his lap. Bad decision as baby A started to touch all the buttons. We had to put him back in his car seat despite his protests and only then, he started to be aware of the animals around him. Still, he was too young for this.
After the drive through, we visited the other part of the zoo by foot. The big attractions were the lions. A big glass tunnel allowed us to see these big cats up close and personal. In the ticket, it included a small palace for visitation. Nothing much special and in 15 minutes time, my mum and I were done visiting while Seb fed baby A his afternoon milkfeed.
I did enjoy the safari though I would still prefer Singapore's Zoo and Night Safari. Hopefully, baby A will appreciate it when we bring him to the Singapore zoo next year.

Munich again

I just realised that the last time we visited Munich was almost 4 years ago. Wow. Time flies. We spent 4 days over the long weekend to visit Nicole and celebrated her birthday.

The weather was great and at times too hot. This time round, we flew there. Once everyone was settled on the packed plane, the pilot announced that a technical problem had to be fixed before we could fly. It took 2 hours for the repairs to be done and during this time, no one could leave the plane because we were in the middle of no where. We took a bus to get to the plane. No other plane was available and some passengers were complaining as flights between Paris-Munich catered mainly to business purposes.

Baby A fell asleep once the plane started moving. He woke up only when we landed. My fear that he would have ear pressure due to altitude changes were unfound. At Munich, Nicole and her dad came and fetched us. We had a late lunch prepared by Nicole's mum before heading back to our hotel to freshen up. Baby A enjoyed exploring their home and even played with Nicole's childhood toys.

In the evening, we had dinner at Ratskeller's in the city hall's court yard. The next day, we celebrated Nicole's birthday at the Beergarden in the English Garden. During this trip, we visited the uptown, the Residenz Musuem and the Tresury Musuem. Seb had a great time browsing thru' the huge collection of Jazz and Classical CDs in Ludwig Beck and of course trying to be reasonable in his purchaes.

As the FIFA World Cup was going on, we watched in a beergarden the live broadcast of Germany against England on Sunday. Germany won and the atmosphere was great. Baby A entertained himself with the pebbles on the ground.

As this was not our first time in Munich, we were cool with this trip. No rushing, no plans. Just leisure. Still, we were dead tired at the end of each day. It was not easy to travel with a baby who just walked and me being pregnant. Baby A did not want to eat baby food jars and throughout the trip, we shared our meals with him. We ordered food in function of what Baby A could eat. One thing for sure, he loves bretzels and we love Munich.