Maldives Dive Trip

Over the Christmas break this past December, The Daddy was fortunate enough to take 10 days to visit the Maldives and to take a week long trip living on board a dive boat. From my seat in 33A, I was able to get a good view of the reefs as the A330 Singapore Airlines flight approached the capital, Male'.


The reefs and atolls are very picturesque especially with the fancy resorts that have villas over the water. All of those places are too expensive for me and the Maldives does not have good infrastructure for the independent traveler.

Instead, I was on board the 31 metre motor vessel Eagle Ray with 14 passengers and 12 crew. We ate, slept, and relaxed on the main boat and transferred to a dhoni, a small local boat normally used for fishing, for all our dives. I went diving 17 times over the 7 days sometimes to a depth of 35 metres (about a 10 story building underwater) and usually for almost an hour each dive. The map shows the GPS route the Eagle Ray took over the week. We went diving in the South Male', Felidhu, and Ari atolls.

At this link: Dive Video 2012 Maldives, you can watch a 7:20 minute HD video that shows some of things I saw underwater. Enjoy!

Some Recent Pics

The Scout Gang Show

On December 21st, Frunty and Pit performed at their Scout Gang Show and I was mightily surprised that Pit had a speaking part in one of the skits as one of the main characters. Although I have been attending Scouts as a volunteer, taking my turns with the other parents, I waited in the gym when the boys and girls went out to practise for this show. So I only knew a little about that night. It was a really fun show!

Thanks to Auntie Dee, Gramma and Grampa for joining us for dinner and the show and sorry to the others who missed it because of bad health or other commitments. I'll post photos soon so you get an idea of our special month when I get more GBs.

Christmas Friends visit

On December 15th one of my closest friends in Japan, Roxanne, came for a visit with Christmas gifts and good cheer. Grampa babysat so Gramma, Roxanne and I could go out for sushi like old times. Gramma got to know Roxanne when she visited Japan in 1997. The following day, we rested up and started packing for the highlight of the month...a Christmas adventure at:

Niagara's Great Wolf Lodge

Frunty and Pit's first viewing of the famous falls along with hours of fun in the lodge's water park where the rides were extraordinarily fun and even mama could not get enough of shooting down all the rapids. Without reading anything about the place, we went on the Vortex ride very first of all which happens to be the scariest. No wonder we screamed our heads off. Frunty and Pit took turns getting stuck and needing to be rescued within the tubes of the Grizzly Falls ride. Mama needed to rest in the hot tub outside a few times with the snow coming down around here and the steam rising up. Heavenly. What a super fun place. Another highlight was being upgraded into a room with a cabin and fireplace inside as well as our own kitchenette where I prepared all the meals. But tied for best of all perhaps was the Magic Quest the boys enjoyed throughout the hotel with their wands. They ran around "buddy system style", following the clues and exploring the hidden treasures...for hours. But were excellent about checking back with me at appointed times to make sure all was well.

Thanks to Gramma and Grampa for taking us to such a magical place which was decorated beautifully for the Christmas season. Although we all miss Papa an awful lot, it sure helps to have these adventures so thanks ever so much! Hope you had fun too!

Night with the Dinosaurs

From the 7-8th we enjoyed the ultimate Dino adventure at the ROM with a Scout sleepover expedition. Whoa! It was too fun. Too exciting to sleep! I think by 4am, the hall was finally quiet as we snored under awesome dinosaurs...after karaoke and pizza parties, tours of the exhibits, digging for bones etc. The next day, you can guess that we all napped in the afternoon before heading out to celebrate Michael's birthday in Uxbridge that evening. We were pretty zonked and probably made lousy guests but what fun to have the experience to sleep at the ROM!

I was really impressed that when someone spilled water on Frunty's sleeping bag during the night, our Scout leader, Toby, leant his dry bag to him. I also noticed great team work and team spirit throughout the two day experience. I am so happy that our boys have found some wonderful, new friends here to enjoy their days until we are back in Singapore again. Maybe we can invite some of our Scout friends to visit us in Asia!

On December the 11th the boys and I headed down to the Glen Manor park for the annual Caroling in the Park which is a fundraiser for the Salvation Army Band. Frunty and Pit stood right beside the stage and sang their little hearts' out which is a big difference from last year when Grampa babysat them at home as they did not wish to come with Gramma and me. The Christmas spirit was surely felt by all and the three of us had a fun time, especially at the end, running around in the park. Frunty found a Scout scarf and took it the following Friday. Good job, Frunts! That's the Christmas spirit too!

Kitchener's Christmas Market

Throughout December, our regular activities of skating at Ted Reeve's, enjoying Art with Auntie Dee and going to Scouts on Fridays continued to fill our days with fun. On the 6th we went with Gramma and Grampa to the Kitchener Christmas Market and it was great to show the boys where their Papa used to spend some of his free time while at Waterloo. The German Christmas market of course is nothing like the ones we have enjoyed in Europe but it was small and quaint and had good gluhwein and sausages. The best part of the evening was the candlelight concert at Victoria Park and a wonderful Christmas craft table for children where they made candy cane reindeers, beaded candy canes from pipe cleaners and more. After the lighting of the tree back by the town hall, the kids and I went back to the park to make more crafts. The people who organized the event did really a fantastic job and everyone was friendly. It was a lovely evening and thanks to Grampa and Gramma for taking us on another adventure!

The 1st Day of Christmas!

The boys and I kicked off the holiday season with the Beach Christmas parade on November 25th and continued the season with lots of fun activities along with our studies throughout December. On the 1st day of Christmas, we attended an anti-bully workshop at a martial arts studio at Main and Danforth. Several police officers talked to our group of parents and children and we learned that no one is immune from being bullied. We learned some great techniques to use when one is being pullied which included yelling, "Why are you saying this to me?" in the face of the offender.

After the workshop which had presentations by teachers and principals too, we played in the icy snow at the nearby Ted's Hockey Arena with some others kids who were making snowboarding jumps. It was hard to leave because it was so much fun for Frunty and Pit to play in the snow but we got cold soon enough and headed to Feathers Pub for a live band which was too loud so we left after a few songs!

We met Gramma and Grampa at home and had a hot meal at dinnertime before heading down to Kew Gardens for Christmas in the Park presented by the Toronto Beaches Lions Club with Christine Bentley. We enjoyed the annual christmas in the park tree lighting with a gluten-free bakeries free samples and lots of good cheer. Back home for some gluhwein and off to bed with thoughts of sugar plums surely dancing in Frunty and Pit's little heads.