French Babysitting

After our camping trip in Corsica, we were taking the bus up to Ajaccio to catch our plane when we met a French guy traveling with his wife. It turned out that on that very same day, their daughter was commencing a university year in Singapore. After several emails, Irene came over today for the first time and gave me a list of her friends, one of whom already came to us when we were near Orchard Road, who will be able to babysit en francais.

The kids were thrilled. Frunty raised both arms up in the air, shouting "J'adore le francais!" It must be a comfort food for them. I surprised myself by talking quite well with Irene when she first arrived and eventually, I needed to make some calls and go to the shops. She will come over next week and hopefully on a regular basis to help our kids continue their French. I was really impressed to hear so much French coming from Pit, by the way. I couldn't be prouder of my two little guys, conversing away, en francais.

In the meantime, I am in the middle of negotiations regarding several properties we are interested in and definitely feeling the heat. The agents are working on behalf of owners and their tactics are good. Luckily I am getting some insider information on these properties as I have been hanging around the area and talking to people who actually live there, pay rent and one such woman who is herself a property consultant. I appreciate her support at this time. This blog is supposed to be about having fun with our darlings so I just want to comment briefly on how I am a little, Canadian blow fish up against some big, hungry sharks over here. Today I was actually followed down the street by another agent. They are all competing with eachother and it is pretty intense.

Frunty has successfully completed his second week of school and got 29/30 on his spelling B. I am really proud of him as we studied the words in the taxi on the way to school and he seemed a bit sleepy. Meanwhile, he clearly was learning them and his printing was really lovely to boot.

I think I have found a lovely kindergarten for Pit near our potential new home. It is a toss up between the one with a Montessori method which is very close by but in a tiny home and quite expensive versus the government run, brand new kindergarten facility a little farther away but considerably more reasonable. I figure the bike ride will do us all good and I took the route already to test it out. The side walk is quite wide and there is a piece of grass dividing it with the actual road plus big, beautiful trees along the way. The kids wear tiny, orange and yellow uniforms and look absolutely adorable. Unlike the Montessori one, I did not see another International student but only native Singaporeans. I still think that Pit will fit in okay and will take him there next week to have a little visit. He would then begin in January.

Well, I don't think I can get any more tired than I am right now and am so grateful for the Sakae Sushi resto down below us where we had dinner. Daddy is on his way home and will find some sushi take-out waiting for him which I am sure he'll enjoy. These days are a bit tiring and overwhelming at times and I wouldn't change them for anything. It takes a lot of work to build up a new life from almost nothing...again. But with smiling faces all around, including my own kids, I know it is all worthwhile. Frunty, on one last note, has gone from never wanting to leave Brussels to wanting to become a Singapore citizen...he told me tonight during story time. Imagine that!?