Fasting

It's Lent. We accompany Jesus on His 40-day sojourn in the desert preparing for His public ministry.

Last night, when I was tucking Matt into bed with the lights already off, he whispered to me, "Mommy, I'm fasting Thursday Colin McRae".

"Really?!"

"Really."

I was awestruck. Matt normally plays his favourite computer game every Tuesday and Thursday, clamouring for it the moment we get home from work. But this was not the only thing - earlier on he had told me he would give up watching Scooby Doo on Sunday mornings.

Later on Sean told me he had explained to Matt about prayer, fasting and alms giving. I thought Sean had suggested what Matt could offer up for Lent, but apparently he came up with them all by himself.

Sean then told him, "Matt, you realise that Lent is not just this week, it's six weeks all the way to Easter?"

"You mean Easter eggs?"

"Er... yes."

"Then when Easter comes, I can un-fast all the things I like?"

Take you down to Chinatown!

We actually went with the kids, all 3 of them, to Chinatown on Saturday night! Gosh it was crowded, and loud, and really exciting! We got out of the MRT at People's Park side, and were immediately engulfed by the rowdy sights and sounds as we came off the top of the escalators. We passed by stalls exploding with magnificent displays of fake flowers, a man painting calligraphy backwards on the floor, vats of all kinds and textures of nuts and tidbits, another man playing a sort of modern lively pipa accompanying a woman singing cantonese opera - all before we finally crossed the overhead bridge and plunged right into the heart of Chinatown. That stretch was packed! At one point we escaped into the oasis of a gallery right in the middle of the chaos. The simple clean lines of solid Chinese furniture, in their subdued neutrals and exquisitely finished smooth dark woods, were blissfully soothing after all the crazy flashing golds and reds and noisy everything people in your face experience outside in the street! Matthew loved the massive lion dance head hanging outside one of the shops where we did most of our shopping. We got the kids a little string puppet lion - it moves very like the real thing in a lion dance! I'm very pleased with our purchases. We didn't get all that much, mostly nice things for the house, and some trinkets here and there. The selection of merchandise was staggering! There were all sorts of cute strange things, like little mini Chinese jackets or cheongsams for your softdrink PET bottles! The whole place was fantastic. It seemed like we could hardly moved for the mountains of people, but little by little everyone made a slow wave of it all amidst the riotous stalls and stands, overhung with all kinds of fantastic things you can buy. When we had spent one and a half hours seeing and shopping and soaking up the heady atmosphere, and were finally ready to head home, we found we hadn't gotten beyond 50 metres into the busiest stretch! It was a blast.

ps Thanks, J, for the recommendation! We'd normally not have gone otherwise, crowd averse as we are, but this was one experience well worth the train rides there and back - which the kids also enjoyed.

Feliz Cumpleañoz!

The little sweeties at home gave me extra hugs and greetings when we got up this morning.

On the way in the car, Sarah asked me, "How old are you, Mommy?"

"Can you guess?"

"Erm, five?"

"No!"

Matt ventured, "Are you 35?"

"I'm not that old! Guess again."

Sean said, "It's one less."

I added, "Ya, what is one less than 35, Matt?"

Matt shouted, "I know, I know, it's 34!"

"That's right! I'm 34 years old."

Then Sarah asked, "What is your birthday, Mommy?"

"2nd of February."

"No, it's 34!!" she replied.

"No Sarah, it's not 'what is your birthday', it's 'how old are you'."

"I'm three years old."