Another weekend past

Can't belive it's Monday again. The weekend just flies past these days. I think it has something to do with the fact that this is my first summer as a mum (last summer I had just given birth and Chiara was a newborn so not counted) and my mummy is here and it is summer. So every weekend got so many things to do. Day and night.

This weekend was no exception. The funniest things is, on Friday night, Fred, my mum and I were all downstairs in the TV/play/pao-ka-liao room and my mum suddenly exclaimed,"Eh, it's Friday night, how come you both not going out? Got baby already that means no need to go out on Friday nights already is eeet?"

Waaaah. When my mother starts to say things like that to me means I am on the fast track to becoming loser extraodinaire. (I still clearly rememeber those days when she used to lament not seeing me at all coz I was either at work or out with friends). But I had gone out for a while on Thursday night and I was sooo tired and I was on night-feed duty so I really couldn't be arsed to go out. So Fred and I kinda grunted and he continued playing with his stupid Google Earth (this is a Mars vs Venus thing I am sure - it's not even bloody LIVE) and I shamelessly continued to watch crappy French TV.

Anyway, Saturday was packed with so many things to do. Shopping for new shoes for Chiara because....Dang dang daaaang - SHE HAS STARTED TO WALK!!!! Waaahhahahaaa!!! Yippeee yay yay! Unlike most people, I have been impatient for my poochoo to start walking. No need to worry about her crawling on dirty floors and in the grass anymore!

Then after that had to go for kids birthday party and after that my very first National Day do at the Singapore Ambassadors' residence in Geneva. It was really nice I must say. Had some reservations about spening an evening with Singaporeans in a foreign land, but I went with no expectations and no pre-judgements and I must say I had a really nice time. The ambassador is really young so it was kinda like having a lawn party at your mates'. We had to sing the National Anthem you know. HAHAHAAA!!! (I had visions of Mrs EE in my head while singing, i kid you not!)

Funnily enough, there was alot of talk about the Singaporean culture and Singlish when you are outside of Singapore. A couple of people actually told me that they refrain from speaking Singlish when speaking with foreigners and only reserve that "privelege" when speaking with fellow countrymen and women.

I have to say that I have influenced my fair share of Swiss people to include "lah" in their vocabulary in these last 5 years.

And I hope Chiara learns some Singlish too. Of course along with normal English. And French. Currently her nanny and I speak to her in English, while her paternal grandparents speak to her in French (they live next door to us by the way). Her dad speaks to her in English and French. I have no doubt that she will grow up to be effectively bilingual and I guess the German, Spanish, Italian, Chinese (her dad wants her to be ready for the China world domination phenomenon) can come later when school starts. In any case, at the minimum I just hope that she is able to speak at least ONE language really well. And seeing how she lives in Geneva, I hope that language is French. If it happens that she is fluent in 2,3,5,10 languages then fantastic. But I refuse to get caught up in this whole "my daughter can speak all the languages of the world" thing just because of the circumstances of her life.

I will certainly help her learn at least French and English simply because I think it's firstly easier for a child to pick up different languages at a young age, but secondly, she should be able to converse with both parents and both sets of grandparents coherently.

I am also not worried about Chiara losing her Asian heritage and becoming a bonafide yodeller (albeit with a Singaporean passport). I spent 28 years in Singapore before leaving which means that the Singaporean culture is pretty damned well ingrained in me. My sis on the other hand, left Singapore when she was 20 and has been here 16 years already. I think a large part of her is Swiss now and as a result, her children might be Asian influenced but certainly not Singaporean. Does that make any sense? It does to me.

So no worries. My daughter will grow up to be a true blue, half-Indian-Singaporean-half-Swiss-french-english-speaking-raclette-fondue-char kway teow-laksa-eating-snowboard-wakeboarding girl.

And I hope she gets her godmother's fashion sense and boxing skills as well.

Sunday was my birthday. I turned 33. So old already ah? Went for brunch in a nice restaurant in the Old Town and Ir eceived cool pressies from everyone. Fred and his parents gave me a lovely bicycle (Glo laughed her ass off saying I will never learn to drive now), Fred also gave a a beautiful PINK mini iPod, Mummy gave me a necklace and sis gave me a voucher from LV. Chiara of course gave me the bestest bday present - she started to walk!! Happy Happy Happy bday to me.

No pictures with this entry. More later I promise. I guess I better stop rambling on now. By the way, Rome trip has to be cancelled or postponed to a later date. Forgot I have a 3-bloody-day offsite meeting in bloody Montreaux the week I wanted to go. Chee bye lah. Never mind. Now I can go cycling already. YAY!!! (Yeah, right)