Random thoughts

What a week! We now have a beautiful baby daughter, Philippa Jane Evans, who was born on 28th June 2007 at 10.48pm weighing 3.52kg (7lb 12oz). She is feeding and sleeping like a dream and currently seems to be a very relaxed baby. We love to just sit and look at the funny facial expressions that she pulls, and we are loving learning to be parents. We have received some lovely gifts and flowers, pictures of the flowers are below...I love being surrounded by fresh flowers! I've recovered pretty well and was out and about yesterday shopping and meeting people for lunch. I went to high tea at the Shangri La hotel for a friend's leaving do. Philippa had her first public nappy change in the rather posh marble-clad bathroom at the shangri la and her first public breastfeed in the dining room (discreetly hidden in a sling, as they're not too keen on breastfeeding over here). I've included my favourite photos from the first couple of days, obviously we've taken hundreds...bu

We picked up a new 'point and shoot' camera for me yesterday - the old one gave up the ghost. So here are the first shots from it. Our Phil and Teds buggy...very cool. The Moses basket complete with hand-sewn white liner. The cot doesn't come until the end of June so baby will be sleeping in this for a while to start with. A beautiful hand quilted and appliqued playmat lovingly made by my stepmum (Thanks Jan, it's gorgeous!) Red, black and white mobile (made by me) - apparently these are the colours and shapes that babies find easiest to focus on when they are newborn. A small selection of the clothes that baby has already been given...many thanks to Mum, Mark and Nikki, Julia and Marianne for their kind gifts. Baby now has around 40 outfits...that's much more than I have! Wow, I can't believe it's been two weeks since I last posted. Time is flying, I thought the last few weeks before baby came would drag...but it's certainly not. I've been real

Feeling quite cultural today as we went to see an outdoor performance of Midsummer nights dream on Saturday night at Fort Canning park. It was fantastic, we took a picnic and set up our mats (and cushions) on the grass. The whole play was done on boardwalks in and around the audience and it was very 'Shakespeare' with it's bawdiness, lewdness and audience involvement. It was awesome sitting under the warm Singapore night watching the stars, moon and bats in the sky. The play incorporated lots of modern stuff; hairdrier, popcorn, a rendition of 'I will survive' and football shirts - but I think they did it pretty well. Only Bottom and Titania's rendition of 'I will survive' complete with flashing disco lights would have had Shakespeare turning in his grave, the rest was pretty fun. The pregnancy is progressing well, only 5 weeks to go! We are all set and I'm just glad that we don't have to move house...

Click here to view map Jervois Grove

The property market has gone mad. In four days, I will have only seen four properties (compare that to 26 properties in 5 days a year ago!). Looks like we might have to stay put and pay the rent increase. They have an odd agent system over here. Both the tenant and the landlord have an agent, these are often two different people, both of whom expect their cut of the fees. This means that when taking out a year's rental agreement (the standard is two years), the tenant must pay half a month's rent in fees, this is as well as the landlord paying at least that if not more to their tenant. Being a property agent in this country is lucrative, and it seems they don't have to be all that good, and they certainly don't have to speak clear English...

I've recently discovered the Facebook phenomenon. It's kind of addictive and a great place to keep in contact with friends old and new. It's also an easy place to upload photos, so for those of you who are looking for somewhere to put photos this might be your answer. Only people who you decide are 'friends' can see your profile and communicate with you, so none of this dodgy web stuff. Here's the link www.facebook.com , I hope to see some of you on there soon. Look me up and send me a message. Below is my facebook piccie.

Lots of people have been asking us about names for the baby, and we aren't telling anyone until baby arrives. To satisfy that name curiosity that we all have, Paul found this cool website showing the popularity of names since the 1880's, I think it's just for America, but it's pretty darned cool anyway. Just type your name in the top left above the pink and blue box and it gives you a graph showing the popularity of your name. http://babynamewizard.com/namevoyager/lnv0105.html

Sleeping like a baby Well, it's 4.18am on Sunday morning and I'm awake again. This time the rain woke me up and the thunder and lightning has kept me awake for more than an hour. I really am 'sleeping like a baby' at the moment - that is to say that I wake up at the slightest noise and then can't go back to sleep, I also take about 3 hours of 'naps' during the day. I'm also eating like a baby, little and often. I guess this is all good preparation for when the little one arrives. Forgetfulness I've noticed over the last few months that I've become increasingly forgetful. I forget words, whole sentences, people's birthdays, lunch dates. Apparently this is all pregnancy related and 'will only get worse' (a favourite catchphrase of experienced mums when I mention any pregnancy-related woes). Here's a shot of an elephant we took at Addo Elephant park when we were in South Africa a couple of weeks ago... now I bet they never forget thi

Ok, I know it's been a while, but I've had a fantastic month. First Mum and Luci came over to Singapore for two weeks, then Paul and I flew off to South Africa for two weeks to celebrate Paul's brother's wedding and spend time with his folks. Tomorrow my step-sister and her boyfriend arrive - so it's all go. I now feel very relaxed and am very excited about the arrival of the little one(only 12 weeks to go!). Picture of us at Mark and Nikki's wedding. I'm currently spending my time researching buggies/strollers/prams, cots and nappies...all good fun. To those of you who've just had babies, any tips or recommendations would be gratefully appreciated. The flute playing is going well, baby definitely responds to the sound - I guess we'll only find out whether it's a positive or negative response once it's born! It's wierd to see little lumps moving and sliding across my tummy, and it's fun to guess the body part!

My sister's just given me the link for her boyfriend's band's music site. They are called Frostraid, they're from Greenland and their music is funky have a listen: http://www.musicforte.com/member/frostraid 'U&Me' is a good starting place. Happy listening.

I'm not quite sure how I used to fit work in...I now seem to be busy all the time. Of course it's 'good' busy ie stuff I have chosen to do, like meet friends for coffee, practice the flute, reply to emails, read books, cooking etc; but it's a busy time nonetheless. I'm making the most of all this free 'me-time' before baby comes along in July... We had a fantastic small group (church) meet last night, I cooked a fabulous bobotie (South African dish) and then we had chocolate cake and a pot of tea - perfect. Everyone is getting closer and sharing more about themselves, we even had a new member last night - finally another bloke for Paul! (Up to now the group has been only ladies). The chocolate cake was great, only $3 (about GBP1) from Carrefour supermarket, but really moist. But sadly still not a patch on Lou's Gran's chocolate cake that she used to bring back to Uni every time she went home - man, that was a treat - which will remain the ben

We're back from a lovely long trip to Cambodia. What an awesome country! It was great to see Angkor Wat and the surrounding temples, take a long (10 hour) boat trip from Siem Reap to Battambang and do some sightseeing in Phnom Penh. I'll write more later in the week, but for the timebeing here's a picture of me and the bump, since a few of you have been requesting piccies.

There is so much to learn about looking after a new baby. Everywhere you look seems to offer slightly different advice. I guess because I have some time on my hands at the moment I am reading quite a lot and talking to a lot of friends who have young children. It's amazing what there is to learn...and I'm sure most of it can only really be learnt 'on the job' as it were! That said, I'm thoroughly enjoying the reading and research into the various different things we need to know/buy/do/not do. I'm also loving having the time available to do them. Even more I love the fact that I can feel the baby kicking on and off throughout every day. Life really is a miracle.

Here are a few photos of our apartment for those of you who haven't been here yet. Tempted to visit...?

Isn't it funny that sometimes something daft can make you feel like an adult...there I was walking along in my favourite shopping centre (Plaza Singapura) and I found the off-white queen-size bed vallance that I've been looking for for months, and suddenly I felt very grown-up. This does seem a little strange as one would have thought that either leaving home, buying a house, getting married, being pregnant or any number of other things might have made me feel this way over the past few years - but no- the bed vallance is what did it for me. Strange, but true. We finally have a cleaner, and it's bliss! What a great feeling to come home to a totally clean house, I love it... I notice that my blogs are sounding more and more domesticated, I guess it must be the hormones kicking in. I went for my 18 week scan today and the baby was kicking, writhing and waving with great enthusiasm - once again the doctor said "wow, you've got an active one there!". Good, go

I'm not a big fan of zoos, but Singapore zoo is pretty cool. Its layout is very natural with lots of rainforest and lakes. We finally went yesterday on a 'wildlife' photography quest for Paul, and it was a thoroughly enjoyable day. The orangutans were particularly visible, because they are an 'open display' which means they live in the trees in a certain area and are climbing above visitor's heads until they are brought down for feeding. The most amusing exhibit was the two polar bears (they looked a little warm!), their favourite food was watermelon - figure that one out!

Barra Brith They say you start 'nesting' when you are pregnant, well, it's true - I've been into baking these last couple of weeks. Today I decided to make Barra Brith (Welsh tea loaf) for my colleagues, since it is my birthday. What a disaster! First it overflowed, surgically welding itself to the intereior of our oven, then it burnt on top whilst remaining raw on the inside, then it rufused to be extracted from the loaf tin. I wouldn't be surprised about any of this with my track-record in baking, but I made exactly the same thing using exactly the same recipe last week and it was 100% successful. It still tasted great though - once I managed to extract it from its tin. I'm not, however, looking forward to dealing with the oven! That can wait until the weekend. Hard times I've had a number of emails from friends recently telling me of the death of close friends and accidents that people have had; it has made me realise just how fortunate and blessed we are

Life is good. I'm having a really good morning. So far I've done all the housework that needs doing, made some sunflower seed cookies, practiced the flute (learnt a new note...) and now I'm going for a swim (even though it's bucketing down with rain!). Then I'm meeting a friend for lunch, working for two hours, then meeting Paul to go and watch 'My Fair Lady' at the Esplanade theatre. Lovely. We went for our 15 week check-up on Wednesday, we heard the baby's heartbeat (150 bpm) what an awesome experience! Next check-up is in 3 weeks and we'll have another scan done then. We are really pleased with the Doctor we have found, she is very laid back and down to earth. Last night we had a really successful home group, I made cottage pie and we all had a time of sharing what's going on in our lives. We are so happy that this group has come together, it's so good getting to know everyone in it.

How is it that my stomach, once almost a taboo subject, has become public property overnight? Often people's first reaction when they find out I'm pregnant is to stroke or pat my (already expanding) tummy! I guess I'll get used to that over the next few months. Here are the scans we have so far. Photos- Top: Scan at 6 weeks Middle: Scan at 8 weeks Bottom: Scan at 12 weeks Weather It's started to warm up and dry up here again after the monsoon. It's lovely to be able to eat breakfast on the balcony in the sun again. The hoards of ants are back, any morsel left untended is soon found and turns black with the tiny creatures. Wedding We went to a wonderful wedding at the Conrad Centennial hotel on Thursday evening. Two of our freinds from church got hitched after 13 years of on-off dating. It was a touching ceremony (during which, to our surprise, the champagne flowed freely). The meal was great - traditional Chinese wedding fayre - jellyfish, prawns, shark's fin so

Sea Gypsy was, as always, relaxing and refreshing. We don't know anywhere else quite like it. It is on Sibu which is a tranquil island in the South China sea, just off the East coast of Malaysia. We stay in wooden huts on a beautiful golden beach. We sleep a lot, eat a lot and chill out for the rest of the time. Their New Year's bash in mid monsoon (they open just for five days in their off season) was no exception. Sea Gypsy attracts a certain kind of person, and we like that kind of person. We chatted, ate, drank, swam, sunbathed and played scrabble. The only thing missing for the perfect new year was all our close friends and family... oh well, maybe another New Year... I'm now in the process of looking for a flute teacher as well as doing some self-study on British history (finally I seem to have an interest in this area, perhaps it's something to do with being away from home for so long!). I've just read a great 'Teach yourself the British monarchy since