We will have to move

In October, our contract for the apartment will expire. We have been talking for a while now about what to do when it's due, mostly because it is known that rent can increase significantly after two years. By significantly, it can be easily 20-30% increase. Most people move to another place to avoid paying a higher rent.
This year however, it seems the market dynamic is different. A lot of new condos are available but with the latest government control over immigration, there are not enough foreigners to rent them. Thus, a lot of apartments are empty and rents are stable if not decreasing. Up until yesterday we were talking how to renegotiate our contract to ensure minimum the same rent, ideally even lower. If some of our colleagues managed to renegotiate down, why not us?

Then, there was this sign on one of the houses on Marymount Terrace that I saw during the week, stating: 'reserved for future development'

I realized that most of the houses in the street are now unoccupied. In the past six months, pretty much since Oskar was born, people must have left their house.
Why?
We googled and discovered the reason: the North South Expressway.
A brand new expressway is being built. Major construction work is scheduled as of 2015, but some has already started. That explains all the construction noise across the street while I was on maternity leave.
Searching further we found the detailed map of the new expressway and something scary came up:

A ramp! One of the access to the underground tunnel of the expressway will be pretty much right under our nose!!!
In the near future, those lovely houses will be replaced by a construction site and later on by an expressway tunnel.

We can expect lot's of noise and dust from the construction which we could choose to watch from our VIP seats... or not.

In 24 hours, we found out that we will have to leave our apartment and find a new place.
It sucks :(

Intensive playing burns a lot of energy

Especially for the father

Grand opening

Yesterday was the grand opening of our new technical center. While people and equipment moved back in November, the official ceremony was only scheduled for March. I guess to leave us the time to get everything up and running. Like any construction, there are always few things that do not go as smoothly as we would like.
This week was very busy for everyone as we were preparing for the opening as well as having reviews with all the top management visiting.
Grand opening was blessed on top of our top management with the presence of a few officials from the government. TV was even there for the opening of the 'largest private research facility in Singapore'. You can see here the reportage from Channel News Asia.

We are officially in business.

Yoga master

Still having some flexibility with his skeleton gives Oskar the opportunity to be more flexible than any yoga master or gymnast. More importantly, it brings his toes to his mouth and that's better than any toy!

Pomme Banane

What happened this week?

I limped my way around the office and other places. I never realized how far away things can be in an office. Take the toilets for example, why do they have to be at the far end of the building? Not to mention people who insist on meeting on a different level than mine.

I bought a pair of flat sandals to have other shoes to wear than flip-flops to go to work or any other place where flip-flops are not accepted. Which, actually, is not that frequent as those are quite popular in Singapore. Good that I broke my toe in a country where I can wear sandals all year long.

We started to broaden the solid food options for Oskar. We had carrots, which went ok. We tried apples, which did not go so well. I suspect it was still too chunky. We tried bananas, which was well accepted. On the positive side, it seems we can feed Oskar two, sometimes, three small teaspoons of food. We are making progress... and I rediscover how good compotes can be. I'm looking forward to mixing apples and bananas.

And I didn't sleep enough but that's nothing new and will most likely continue for the next 18 years.

He surely likes to show his tongue

Today, while having brunch, it was a festival of faces... the great enjoyment of the audience!

Panoramic view

I finally found a use for the panoramic function of the iPhone. 

It takes quite a wide angle to fit in my two boys.

70cm!!!

He's totally exploding the percentile chart.

Yes we are very proud parents :)

Crack

Yesterday as I was walking on Orchard road someone stepped on my foot. Nothing unusual there as it happens very often in Singapore with all the people walking while watching something on their smart phone.

This time however it hurt a lot. And the pain didn't go away. Not after 5min, nor 30min, nor a few hours.

We suspected a broken toe but I argued to wait tomorrow. Maybe it's just swollen and bruised. Wolfram applied ice and I kept my foot up for the evening.

The next morning was unfortunately not better. It was actually more blue than the night before.

Wolfram made the call to go to the 24h clinic at Mount Alvernia to have a doctor check my toe.

Registration and triage went pretty fast. Place was nearly empty so in less than 15min we were seeing the doctor who sent me for an xray. As anticipated.

After a little ride in a wheel chair (apparently my walking pace was not fast enough), I was back and we waited for the doctor to see us again.

In the meantime, Wolfram had fed Oskar who then took a nap and played until the doctor called us again... a good hour later.

To be fair he did apologize for the delay. Apparently someone came with a heart attack and they had to resuscitate him. Obviously broken toe was depriotized.

Well, my toe is not broken per se. There is a crack that's causing the pain, the swelling and the bruising but no bone is completely broken. That's good news.

It still means I need to rest my foot to ensure the crack heals properly. So the doctor asked a nurse to strap my toe to keep it in place and gave me 5 days of medical leave to rest my foot. He also advised me to see an orthopedic surgeon to confirm there is no need or surgery and get more time off is needed. I wonder if this is really necessary or if he is just pushing for more as they usually do in Singapore.

I'll think about it while resting my foot :)

They are everywhere

Today I came across another of one of those "top 10". This time it was about Brittany. More precisely, the top 10 reasons why Britons will invade the world (Top 10 des raisons de penser que les Bretons vont conquérir le monde). While I had a good laugh reading the different reasons, I realized the obvious.

Britons won't invade the world... they already have. Wherever you go, you will find people from Brittany proudly representing their region (mostly with crepes and cider, their "A l'aise Breizh" sticker and explaining that the Mont Saint-Michel is in Brittany), never missing an opportunity to pull out their Gwenn-ha-du (that's the flag from Brittany). 

Flag, that I, of course, have at home, in Singapore :)

If I had a car, my sticker would be on it for sure (as it was on my Micra).

Find out more here.

Slightly expensive

It's slightly expensive, but again it's imported all the way from Brittany: sardines and lobster soup.

Something to keep in mind for those days when I'm really homesick.

A little something

I received today a little something from Wolfram for the birth of Oskar. It's a lovely addition to my ring collection.

He didn't have to get me anything but he did. Don't I have the best husband ever?