Packing it up

It never fails: the day before we take a big trip with the kids, one of us gets sick. Maisie woke up saying her throat felt funny so after lunch, I took her to the walk-in clinic around the corner. Another four-year-old girl was there obviously quite sad and sick. Maisie? She was flying around the room, bouncing off the furniture like a wild woman. I thought she might be faking it, but sure enough, she has tonsillitis - a very contagious infection. Now here's the cool thing: the doctor has all the medicine right there in his office. No pharmacy needed. And no patient needed either. He gave me meds for ALL of us so we wouldn't get sick in China. Hudson was so cranky today that we decided he was probably sick, too. One dose of antibiotics and they're both feeling much better. Truth is, Maisie was in a fabulous mood all day - yesterday, too. There's nothing better than Maisie happy!

I thought Maisie was faking it because she heard me talking about going to the doctor early this morning. I paid another visit to the Chinese doctor. We still have a hard time communicating, but I think the tea is working so I decided to go back and get a month's supply. I'm defiitely more patient with the kids and that's about what I'm most concerned. Interesting because she had to give me all sorts of paperwork for customs so there wouldn't be any questions about all my packets of herbs. Since Tom got in so much trouble with his stupid apple coming into Philadelphia, I'm a bit leery.

For the most party, I felt like a rat today - scurrying here, scurrying there. Packing is like that, right? I ran to get Tom's birthday shirt, the cleaning, some of this and some of that.

I just happened to walk by a store on the way home that sells weird crap, including these two, very cool, antique wedding hats. I bought them as my trinket from here. It's hard to say where they're from exactly and they probably aren't from the original local people, but could certainly have been used locally. Many of the Asian tribes have these incredibly elaborate wedding headpieces for not only the woman, but the man, too. One of my favorite things about the Peranakans (the locals) is that they have TEN day wedding celebrations. I thought they'd remind of me of that. I'm thinking maybe these wedding headpieces would be kind of a cool thing to collect.

Cheryl was with us today - our last time together - so she helped me a ton doing laundry and getting last minute groceries. It was nice to have her here again. I think maybe she was a little sad saying goodbye to the kids, but she's hard to read so I'm not sure. I know we'll all miss her terribly. Maisie wanted Cheryl to read to her tonight and not me. 

We'd hoped to ride the giant ferris wheel here - the Singapore Flyer - but it was hazy and rainy all day so no Flyer. Bummer. 

 

Tonight, however, we got a pretty good look at it from above. Tom and I went to Ku De Ta, the restaurant at the top of the Marina Bay Sands. We figured we'd splurge for our last night out here. The food was fabulous and the view second to none. We had a long meal with an even longer conversation weighing the pros and cons of living here permanently. It's time to make a decision, eh? It was a lovely way to discuss our future - and say goodbye for now to the city.