Joshua's 8th Birthday

Joshua was 8 on 19 October, which was a Friday. We had a party on Saturday which was ten pin bowling with 14 friends. The kids all loved trying out ten pin bowling and gave it heaps. Josh had a wonderful day and was very lucky with the presents he received from family and friends all around the world.

October various

Josh and Tessa catch the "number 9" school bus to and from school each day from our gate, here are some photos of it.

Tessa has ballet and tap once a week and loves it, here are some photos of her class.

We visited the Kranji War Memorial which was a wonderful history lesson albeit very sad. The site includes the graves of thousands of Allied troops who died in the region during WWII. New Zealand's main contribution during WWII was Air force. The following weekend we visited Changi Prison Museum and Chapel to complete our history lesson. Changi commemorates the Allied POWs held by the Japanese during occupation 1942 till end of WWII.

Tessa now has a Singapore Airlines flight attendant outfit, and is very proud of it. It is actually based on Malay traditional dress, so she wore it to school for Hari Raya (a Muslim celebration).

Tioman Island - Malaysia

We went to Tioman Island, Malaysia for a holiday 5 to 7 October. We travelled by bus and ferry which took a long time (next time we fly!). It was very interesting crossing the boarder between Singapore and Malaysia but a tad stressful with children and luggage and crowds. Many thousands do this every day for work.

The best part of our holiday at Tioman was taking the children snorkeling. We went by boat to a floating platform quite a way from the beach. They dropped us there and came and picked us up when we had had enough. We all wore life jackets which was good as the current was fairly strong. We took food but the fish were so inquisitive anyway. It was really deep but Charlotte sat on Louise's back for a while then just floated on her tummy holding her hand. Tessa swam holding Wayne's hand and Josh did really well on his own. We were out for about an hour and a half. When we needed a rest we got back on the platform for a while then got back in. Amazing coral fans and antlers (even pink for Tessa). We found orange Nemos. The fish nibbled at us a little (Tessa didn't like that but Charlotte did).

Louise had time for a scuba dive. That was great - she saw 2 turtles very close (1 very big), a cuttlefish (like a big fat squid) and barracuda. Lots of real Nemos. It was just beyond where we had been snorkeling so many of the other fish and coral too. It's about 18 months since Louise's last dive so great to do another and remember what to do. When she came back in Wayne had brought the children up to see. The 4 tanks went into 2 large bins full of water - the size of spa pools. Josh was so interested in the scuba gear that eventually all 3 children ended up in the spa bins with their masks or goggles on breathing through the regulators. The staff and the other 2 divers were amazed at how much they loved the water.

Watching the All Blacks lose at 3am was the low point of the holiday for Wayne. The children went to bed happily shattered both nights. The only other way we could keep them still was at the sunken pool bar - how unfortunate!