Foire aux vins

The French online shop is organizing a
wine fair. It started Friday morning. Right after the alarm went on, I was connected and buying a few bottles. Wine is so expensive in Singapore that when there are discount, we cannot miss them. 

Should keep us happy for a while...

500 000 steps

In a moment of weakness, I said yes when Eleni asked whether I would be part of her team to compete at work on the following challenge: be the first team to complete the distance between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. In case you don't know that is 350 km or half a million steps.

Am I crazy? In this life where time is limited I now have to walk one fifth of the above as quickly as possible. Let's say that Eleni can be very persuasive.

Starting Monday, I'll have to reach 100 000 steps as quickly as possible measured by the Fitbit the organizers kindly provided as part of an effort to get all of us in better shape.

How many steps do you think I can make in the plane on my way to Japan Monday afternoon? 

Better pack my gym bag and use the hotel gym so at least I can make the daily target of 10 000 steps ... Minimum :)

Wish us luck!

Chinese fortune cookie wisdom

So true...

Fortune cookie

With Chinese New Year around the corner shops are filling up with delicacies. 

Today we picked cashew nuts, pistachios and fortune cookies!

Our first round of fortune left Wolfram perplex (be determined to move forward, opportunities will be missed if thinking too much), Tess happy (good luck of wealth and may have windfall) and me in control (lucky, everything can be mastered as you wish).

Let's see what the second round brings.

Chinese New Year is approaching

All shops have switched from Christmas to Chinese New Year decorations.

All brands have started to sell their CNY limited edition, including Nutella.

Obviously we had to buy those :)

And we are back in Singapore

Time really flies. 

It feel like yesterday that we left Singapore for Europe. In four weeks we've been to three countries, met friends, celebrated Christmas and New Year's with families and of course baptized Oskar. We are leaving behind a lot of people we will miss a lot.

We are back in town all tired, with a sure throat but happy of our European winter tour :)

Honey

Oskar had been coughing for a couple of days. Nothing serious but somehow getting worse every day. When fever came into the picture together with sleepless nights because of the cough, we took him to the doctor.

Of course, it was a holiday in Germany leaving us with the ER. It would not be a complete trip to Germany without a visit to the ER.

The doctor probably thought we were clueless parents rushing to the doctor to the first signs of a cold. While it is true that we are not used to Oskar  having colds because it is hard to catch one in Singapore, we were more worried about the baptism the following day. Ideally we wanted to have a happy healthy child and not a sick one.

Doctor dismissed us with the good news that it was just cold and that we could manage the fever with paracetamol. And for the cough: honey. We had tried honey the night before but Oskar didn't like it. So I asked, what if he won't eat honey on a spoon. Answer from the doctor: put it on bread. He was barely eating any solid food so surely puting honey on bread will make it easier.

Nevertheless, two days later, Oskar was worse: had not slept at night except when carried by us, was coughing like hell, started a runny nose and had 39.9 fever. We were exhausted and went back to the doctor. This time it was Monday so  we visited Fabian's pediatrician. He confirmed that it was only a cold - did not get to the lungs or ears which was good because we were flying the next day - and gave ibuprofen to help with the fever as well as some syrup for the slime in the throat. He did say that it would take 5 to 10 days to overcome the cold and that fever could last 5 to 7 days. The good news was that we had survived already 5 days. 

And indeed, the same night, doped with all the good drugs, Oskar slept 6 hours in a row (and so did we!). The next day was a festival of disgusting runny nose moments which of course he would prefer to rub on your clothes instead of a tissue. But fever had broke down. Not fully gone but significantly better. Oskar slept a lot throughout the day and we are hopeful that he will sleep through the night (and so will we!).

Keep your fingers crossed and have a teaspoon of honey thinking of us!