(actually S7B had a few representatives too, besides Jona, there was Minhao and Huang hao but i'm so sorry i didn't get the chance to take photo with you.)
(for other church photos, mary has kindly uploaded them so you can view or download them from her site)
The cold is terrible. Temp ranges between -3 to -15deg celsius. But that is still combatable, I think. It's the super low humidity and dryness. Just getting from airport to the car, wham! it struck me. Both my and kids' lips are chapped now. Bit too late for lip balm but we are religiously applying it now.
The other thing is transport. In Singapore, I could get anywhere with the kids easily, and buying things is not a problem. Today, I experienced the inconvenience.
There is a long story regarding our car... We have a car now, bought second-hand but we can't drive it. Our Singapore driver's licence is good for 6 months but only to be used when driving a rented car cos insurance is included with rentals.
So dh found out when he drove the car and got caught by police, for not having valid local driver's licence and insurance, and had to appear in court somemore. His case was adjourned to Jan so we dunno yet how much fine we've to pay but it seems like in the region of US$400. So he can't drive the car, and me too. and we wanted to rent but cars were out till after New Year's day. And we had some urgent things to buy, like baby diapers, groceries, gloves and boots.
So we trudged out feeling prepared cos we took 1 hour to dress ourselves and kids, several layers, thermals and such.
But it was still bone-cold. Walking to the bus stop was still ok, then began the wait. We had checked online for the bus schedule already and it was due to arrive at 10am, but we waited for 30+min and it still didn;t arrive.
(view at the bus stop - so beautiful)
(waiting at the bus stop- N.B.: no seats or shelter)
(Even though I look so silly bundled up like that on a non-snowing day, I need to post this photo to thank those who contributed to my whole sponsored outfit. haha. mag-for the leather gloves fr Scotland, 18 hc trs for the Zara jacket, the Utah church for the boots, sab n peter for the scarf wrapped ard ds2, angeling for ds2's socks, woon keat-for large ang pow to buy the rest of the stuff) Of course I've got tons other warm clothing "sponsored" by more people, the credits will come in ltr... :-) I'll rem to wear different stuff and take photos ok? haha
(thank you ganma for the mittens, church for the shoes and jacket, ah yi Grace for thick socks, gu gu SH for the knitted sweater underneath)
It was such a long wait for us. The chilling wind blew incessantly and mercilessly, and every minute seemed like an hour! (it was about -3deg celsius) Cos Justus started crying first, but we managed to walk up and down to pacify him. Then Titus started crying too, but he wasn't able to pinpoint exactly where he felt discomfort. Then Justus fell into a deep slumber while dh carried him and walked up and down the path. I was worried it was hypothermia or something, cos one moment he was crying then suddenly so quiet and not moving! So since Titus was still crying and could not be pacified, my mom was freezing until she could not talk, my fingers too felt numb and frozen, and the cold seemed to have seeped into my toes... We decided to walk home again.
So stupid right! We spent the whole morning getting ready just to go out but in the end everything had to be cancelled.
When we reached home, the warmth from the heater was undescribably welcome. I decided then that I was not going to go out with the kids the whole of winter if we didn't have a car. Yes, I may face the four walls everyday and go crazy but I rather that than die in the cold. So miserable.
Re the car, dh has applied for the local driver's licence for 4 months already and has not gotten a test date, so I guess I have to start now too, else we may never get to drive the car parked in our garage. :-(
Ok, have to go order groceries online now and incur more expenses, and then get ourselves some lunch (which will be exactly the same food we had for the past 2 days). Cos we couldn't get any shopping done.
Hey thanks everyone for the messages and concern. And the cards and sentimental stuff that kept me entertained throughout the flight! by the way, the kids were ok, Titus was esp good, since he slept so much. He slept on the SIA plane from 9pm till we arrived in LA. Then he slept again on the domestic flight to Salt Lake. Justus didn't sleep much on the SIA flight so I was pretty tired. 16 hours! I dozed off a couple of times when he was entertained by the Kris World thingy. He slept later on the domestic flight though. So all in all, the journey was ok... I am still thinking findly of the Ben and Jerry's icecream that SIA served as dessert, so delicious but too bad the serving was so huge, and I had my own, plus some of mom's and half of Titus' so we actually had unfinished food. The meals were also very yummy and portions were huge, so I enjoyed myself very much on the plane wrt that.
OK have to go..
I miss all of you!!
