It's still really cold and rainy but I think Spring is ALMOST HERE!

The flowers are starting to bloom! The insects and flies are returning!

After completing the 5km walk on Friday, our butts were a bit itchy and we wanted to get going again. We figured that I don't have long to go before I can't drive long distances. So on Saturday, we decided to spend the day as a family before DiDi (little brother) arrives to go shopping, walk around and just stop wherever we wanted.

We drove 30 mins to Cambridge to check out the farmer's market. Nothing much there but we always enjoy walking around Cambridge coz it's so pretty and the weather was great.

After that, we drove another 20 mins to Hamilton city for lunch and shopping. We managed to get quite a lot done! Got some stuff for Sophie (Pumpkin patch was having sale!), ourselves and baby. We even drove out of the city to Te Rapa Road where there is a huge shopping area with factory outlets and all. Reminded us of Harbourtown in Brissy. HUGE shops.

Finally, last stop at New Save Asian Supermarket to stock up our pantry and the base's pantry. That's where we found out that all the Asians come out at night! Normally when we are there in the day, there are not much people at the asian supermarket but the carpark was almost full that evening.

We finally got home about 7pm. It gets dark at 6pm here so I actually drove home from Hamilton in the dark for the first time. A bit daunting at first but it was alright. I was pretty exhausted by the time I got back and James was wonderful, he cooked dinner and cleaned up. All in all, we had a really great time.

We joined the new DTS on their first school outing last Friday to the Waihou River Walk.

The Waihou River walk is only about 30-40 mins drive from our base. It is generally well-known for its clear blue-greenish colour of the water and you can even see trouts swimming. It is BEAUTIFUL!!! The later part of the walk passes some farmland and we got to see some cows really close up too.

It takes about 1 and a half hour to walk one way or you can also walk halfway and turn back. It's an easy trek, even for us city people. I didn't know I could walk 5 km being pregnant and all but it was really quite a nice walk! Even Sophie walked some of the way and was in the stroller the rest of the way. Best of all, the weather was great!

The new school (DTS) just started this week! All the families are here. They come from all over the world – Denmark, New Zealand, Holland, Singapore (YES! another couple from Singapore!) and Switzerland.

But, we're not staffing in the classrooms this term. Instead James is the main lunch cook and I'm staying home with Sophie until baby comes. He has to go in early in the morning to the kitchen at 8/9am to cook for 60 ppl everyday. He also does one dinner per week. I do odd jobs around like rearranging the library (which I LOVE!) and other random stuff.

During the break, James was on a roll and experimenting with different recipes. He made Nasi Lemak and made an amazing sambal sotong (squid) to go with it. Shiok!!!

He's been doing a great job for lunches the past few days and looks like he's gonna introduce more asian food and ingredients into the kitchen. He's been sneaking lotsa garlic into the soups too. YUMS, plus it keeps the colds away!

The weather has been great the past few days. It's still cold at 4-15 degrees but lots of sunshine instead of rain!

We celebrated Jed's 6th birthday at the base playground and went to Hamilton with the Freestones over the weekend.

Last week, we went to visit the much talked about NZ Fieldays (about an hr's drive from where we are) – it's Australasia's definitive agri-business exhibition! The exhibition is to the local farmers what the IT expo is to Singaporeans. Where everyone goes to, whether or not you're into IT and where the gadget lovers gather once a year.

Most of the expo would have been boring to city people like us e.g. tractors, milking machines, tools and stuff. But the atmosphere was amazing! I've never seen so many Kiwis gathered at one place before! It's like the whole of NZ was there! Most times when you drive along NZ roads, all you see are cows, horses or sheep so it was pretty unusual to see so many cars and people. Even got traffic jam!

Sophie got to ride on a real huge farm tractor, ride on kid sized tractors, see horses and other farm animals (we even saw a real highland cattle, not cut up in the supermarket! It was HUGE!), eat an ice cream, sample NZ's latest gourmet food and beverages (my fav part!) etc…

The weather was wonderful today! It was 15 degrees but the sun was shining bright and strong.

I took the opportunity to bring Soph out for a sun bathe! She played in the sand pit with Toby and Eli for a long long time before lunch. We spent most of the day outside. It was great fun.

I'm finally driving after more than 10 years of getting my license!

I've had a phobia of driving after getting my license coz I was horned at by a police car (!) and almost reversed into a drain with a group of youths in the car. And I'm generally a scaredy cat. Driving was just too stressful a thing for me. There was never a real pressing reason for me to drive since transportation was so easily available in Singapore and it was too expensive to own a car anyways.

But here in Matamata, we can't go anywhere without a car! Plus James doesn't have a driving license although I think he can prob drive better than me.

You ask, how did we survive the past 1 and a half years? The first school we did, we thought we were just staying for 3 months and it wasn't so important that we couldn't get to places. There was a van run to town every week and if we needed to go into town, we could just get a lift from someone.

When we returned in July last year, Gin was here too and we decided to buy a car together. I thought I'll try driving then but still, the inertia was just too strong. She drove most of the time so I didn't feel like I really needed to.

BUT NOW! We have a car (7 seater at that!) and no one to drive us around anymore! So…………….. I decided to just get on with it. Turns out, it's really not that bad. Funny how fear can grip us so tightly that we can't see past anything and everything is an excuse to why I can't do it. But I believe God answered my prayer and gave me a breakthrough. I felt so at ease the first time behind the wheels and today, I actually drove into town and back with Claire as my coach. Sophie even fell asleep on the way home!

I'm SO thrilled!!!!! For those who know me well prob know what a breakthrough it is for me! I am so looking forward to driving into town on my own soon…. yay!

(P/s Bear with me, I’m post blogging coz we’ve done so much the past two weeks)

Before we left Auckland, we had some time between checking in and boarding time so we decided to pop over at Butterfly Creek for a visit. It’s right next to the Auckland Airport.

What a lovely time we had. Sophie loves animals and it was really really nice for her to just get upclose to some.

Butterfly Creek is small but very nicely laid out with an aquarium, farm, train ride, cafe, playground, crocodile farm and butterfly enclosure. All you need to keep a curious preschooler happy for 2-3 hours at the price under $50 for a family of 3.

We were really happy to have Auntie Claire join us too even though she was just recovering from an asthma attack. She kept us going at a very relaxed pace, which was really nice.

Last Friday, we had a family fancy dress and games afternoon.

The girls came as princesses and boys came as prince/superheros. The adults too had to come with fancy hats!

Oooo Sophie was SOOO pleased to dress up. I made her a crown, got fairy wings from the $2 shop and James made her a wand out of bamboo and paper stars. She had so much fun playing the games and running around with either me or James. But the best parts were the ice cream after dinner and the chocolate gold coin treasure hunt at the end.

From Left: James, Esther, Eli, Gin, Evan and Sophie. The table was full of food!

Last year, Chinese New Year just passed us by! This year I was DETERMINED with a capital "D" to do something about it! And when I’m determined, I’m determined! Hiak!

Two weeks before, I started planning the menu and hyping it up with friends (Asian friends that is. I tried telling a non-asian friend about it and he was like huh?. ) I got down with Sophie and made her make some semblance of firecrackers, lanterns and Chinese fans with me… ok we tried. Then I went to the library and borrow a kids’ book on Chinese festivals and menus and I looked at it every night to drool… Finally, it wouldn’t have been complete if James didn’t make a trip to Auckland to buy all the foodstuff.

Left: We made these firecrackers with toilet rolls and crepe paper. Sophie made them on her own, very simple. I just showed her a couple samples.

Right: CNY is not CNY if the kitchen is not FILLED with food. Just looking at it made me so happy. Felt like home…

So on Chinese New Year eve, here was what we had:- steamboat dinner with chicken stock I made, hot pot mix, waxed duck, roast duck, stir-fry veg with chinese mushrooms, prawn mix chicken wings and dumplings! We even had durian after dinner! We ate till we had to roll out of our seats! It’s not a CNY meal if we didn’t eat till we dropped and have leftovers.

Hope everyone had a wonderful lunar New Year celebration with friends and family. We missed everyone back home and it’s really not the same without you guys.

We have really full weeks.

From Mondays to Fridays, Sophie goes to school both in the morning from 9 – 12.45pm and on Monday, Wednesday and Thursdays, she also goes in the afternoon from 2 – 3.15pm. Personally i think it’s too long for a little kid of 3 years old to be away from her parents, I really struggle with that. I know she really misses us and sometimes she whines about going to afternoon school because she’s a bit tired and just want to cuddle up. Sometimes either James or myself have to do work duty in between those times. Of course in addition to that, she sleeps at 7pm so we really don’t have much time with her.

But but, it’s only for a season and only for 3 months at a time.

So we try to make it up during the weekends!

During the weekends, I spend the earlier part of the morning with her. We do some crafty things and sometimes we get the paints out and just do painting. And then I CRASH. Serious. By 10am, I need to go back to nap. That’s when James takes over and he’ll bring Sophie out. Last Saturday, he brought her to the old pool area by the back of the base and they had a great time jumping in their boots (Thks DN!) in muddy puddles and searching for tadpoles. It’s really great fun.

There’s something about a child jumping in muddy puddles that makes me smile!