Luc is "wild" about cars!

If you've ever spent any time with Luc, you know that he can name any make of car from 100m away and just by looking at the wheels. Much of his knowledge comes from his growing collection of car magazines.

This morning I was on the computer and Luc was flicking through one of his magazines at breakneck speed. I then became aware that he'd stopped turning the pages. Wondering whether he had stopped to admire a picture of a Ferrari, a Smart car or perhaps a Jaguar. I looked up from my screen to check out the object of this prolonged attention. Imagine my surprise when I discovered he had been staring (complete with mischievous smile) at a full page ad for the latest "Girls Gone Wild" dvd....

Here's a photo of Luc at an auto show in Paris recently.

Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble!

At the tender age of 5.5 months, Scarlett's witch from the islands costume won her a fancy dress prize this week. Here she is with her proud mum.

Life is a highway ....

"Life is a highway..." according to one of the song's in Luc's favourite movie, Cars. We certainly wouldn't have disagreed with that on our recent trip to Europe which has us drive 13 hours from Budapest, Hungary to Sigisoara, Romania. Our two little travel bugs coped fantastically.
I will post some photos soon but in the meantime highlights from our trip (which began with a week in our beloved Paris) include:

* Aunt Violet finding a relative in the Transylvanian town she born in.
* Watching waiters' jaws drop when we asked for a table. At one stage we numbered 18 with ages ranging from 5 months to 80 yrs.
* Champagne boat trip on the Danube. The best part was that the moon's reflection on the water pacified a fussy Scarlett.
* Meeting up with so many old friends in Paris and Budapest many of whom have also had new babies since we last saw them.
* Somloi Galushka at the Fatal restaurant Budapest. Hungary's answer to tiramisu is so-so except at this restaurant that is not only served in an enormous serving bowl but is absolutely delicious. I had it 3 times in 4 days!
* Spending time with the US family and Luc hanging out with his cousins.
* Eating wine and cheese in France. It just doesn't taste the same anywhere else.
* Visting local food market in Paris. My first morning in Paris, I went out to look for a supermarket but stumbled upon the fantastic Boulevard de Grenelle Sunday market. Reminded me of the best thing about living in Paris ... the love of food.

Not so high lights:
* Severe jetlag on return
* Snotty waiters in Budapest. I think they went to the same finishing school as some Parisian waiters.
* That road trip

We are the champions!

Bart recently led a Philippines all-star Ultimate team (Pula, meaning "red") to victory in the men's division of the largest annual regional tournament, held in Singapore.

It was the first time that a Philippine team has won a competition in the sport abroad. There are now hundreds of teams up and down East Asia competing in this growing sport.

Bart served as player-coach of the 14-man squad, which was all Filipino save for him and one other pale-face from the States residing in these islands. As you can see, Bart was rather pleased!

Here is his team (Bart was off somewhere drinking that beer!):

Strike a Pose!

A Marketer's Dream

I think my first real movie craze was Grease when I was 8 yrs old. Just to prove how fast kids grow up these days, young Luc is already obsessed with Cars the Movie and he has a full blown crush on Sally (the cute Porsche). Word has spread and now Cars merchandise from his family all over the world has made its way into his little hands. I hate the thought of being the ultimate marketers dream but then again all his stuff makes him so happy and at least he doesn't have photos of Lindsay Lohan all over his wall!

Bowling for Manila

Luc and his classmates (plus tag along mummies) went bowling today. Luckily, he's not yet at the age where he's embarrased by silly things his parents do because he would have disowned me when I slipped and fell flat on my behind trying to chase a bowling ball down a very greasy bowling lane!! He was rather concerned about me after that which was rather touching and proceeded to ask me "are you ok?" every few minutes. Luc definitely has his own style; it was his kicking the bowling ball that led to my icescapades audition. But I think he actually might have won (I say 'think' because we absentmindedly forgot to check the screen at the end!!).

Hand Signals

Lately, Scarlett has discovered her hands and feet. She spends many happy moments staring at her hands and scrunching them together. If only we were all so easily amused!

Conflict Resoluton

My current masters degree course (Information Systems for Managers) is presenting me with challenges and conflicts on many levels. From a logistical perspective, I'm trying to find my groove in terms of scheduling productive study time (as opposed to staring at the page of a text book) alongside feeding time (necessary) and play time (voluntary). There's no quick fix for this and I just have to be mindful on a daily basis of the different pulls on my time.

The more troubing conflict is the approach to learning and assessment of the course itself. 75% of this unit will be awarded on the basis of a written exam taken at the end of this semester whereas my previous courses have been 100% assessment based. The idea of this terrifies me. Apart from the fact that only time I write is to sign credit card slips, the approach frustrates me as it contradicts my fundamental learning philosophy. Learning theory has evolved so much in the past 10 years that the concept of memerising facts and regurgitating them in a stressful timed situation seems all but archaic to me.

My learning theory guru, George Siemens, wrote recently;

... much of our learning is a connection-forming process (the conduit, not content, is what is king) where we add new elements that augment our capacity to know more. We rely on Google, libraries, friends, social bookmarks/tags, etc. to serve as our personal learning network (we store the knowledge external to ourselves). When we need something, we go to our network (know-where is more important than know-how or know-what)...or we expand our network. In the end, the constant act of connecting in order to stay current is a much more reflective model of learning ...

I couldn't agree more. Assuming I do manage to memorise enough relevant facts in order to pas the exam, there is no gurantee that I will I have made my "personal learning network" which will enable me to continue to learn about Infomation Systems.

Convenience Shores

Now that we have two young kids, gone are the weekends of white water rafting and trekking through remote jungles. OK, so we didn't do that Before Kids (BK) either but the point is that we could have!

We can now seek out destinations that involve large doses of relaxation without the guilty feeling that we should be doing something more active like diving with killer sharks. With this in mind, we recently spent four days on an island called Mactan, a one hour flight from Manila, at a manmade plantation style resort that boasts "one of the largest privately-owned waterways in the world". There indeed seemed to be water and pools everywhere. Our room overlooked a huge (filtered) saltwater 'lagoon' with an asphalt bottom that is drained and refilled every week. The 'beaches' surrounding the lagoons have the cleanest most perfect sand. Noticeably absent are sand creatures or washed up diapers. The 'diving rock' appeared to be made from plaster of Paris and would not look out of place at Disneyland.

Despite the un-naturalness of the place (or perhaps because of it), we had a really nice time. The service was probably the best we've experienced certainly in the Philippines and perhaps at any resort-type establishment. There is a strict no-tipping policy so you know that staff are not just being polite and helpful in the hope that you'll slip them a note and the food was very decent. Although the resort was supposedly full, somehow we never felt that there were many people around.

Mother Nature did provide the finishing touch though ... four days of almost unbroken sunshine. It made such a lovely change from Manila where it has been raining for so long that Scarlett had never seen the sun.

Anyway, enough words, now for some pictures:

Is Luc too young for a tatoo?

Last weekend we hosted a big barbecue party. The fun started around 3pm with the last revellers being shown the door 1am! I was worried that the kids would be bored so we brought in a 'tatoo artist' for the afternoon. He was a big hit. Here is Luc getting a dragon painted on his arm.

Angels

Don't they look cute napping together on the couch?!

Check out how curly Scarlett's hair is getting. Her mummy is very envious!

Beckham avoids paparazzi

Note: For those of you on distant shores, this clip gives you a sneak peak of our dining and living rooms.

Getting to know you

It's pointless rushing Luc to do anything. He does everything on his own terms when good and ready. Once he decided to walk at 13 months, that was it with barely a stumble. The same went for potty training.

No surprise then that he has waited until now to start taking notice of his sister. Their relationship is still a work in progress but he now talks to her (if you count telling her to stop crying because he can't hear the tv) and he even tries to interest her in his beloved car magazines.

Watch what you say!

Luc's bedtime ritual includes a couple of minutes after lights out where we talk about what the next day holds in store for him.

Recently, during one of these conversations, we were lying down and I told a sleepy boy, "You're going to wake up, get dressed, have breakfast, drive to school ...". Luc sat up straight in bed and asked "I'm going to drive to school?".

The heat is on

When it gets too hot playing in the garden, what fun to cool down with the sprinkler.

Got milk!

Look who's talking!

I asked Scarlett to say a few words to her growing fan base. Here's what she said:

Nobody said it was easy!

This entry has a dual purpose. Firstly, I'm experimenting how to upload video clips to the blog and secondly to let you hear Luc's favourite song at the moment. After our trip to Hong Kong, we were listening to Coldplay alot. Then one day out of the blue Luc started to sing 'Nobody said it was easy!'.

P.S. It's a very clever video!

July

During my sister, Bo's, recent visit to our side of the world, we made a trip to Hong Kong to Luc and Scarlett's great grandmother. We stayed at the luxurious residence of our newly engaged pals, Deebs and Mei. Luc's highlight of the trip was Ocean Park where he experienced his first thrill ride, a log flume journey that ends with a steep drop and a big splash!! Our highlight was a brilliant Coldplay concert.

Also in July, our friend Ha and her little girl Vy visited us during their month long stay in Singapore. Luc and Vy got along great and he misses her lots. The picture shows them playing in the playroom.