Whirlwind trip to Zürich

We took a 2-hour drive to Zürich recently to see my friend, Beverly and her family from Singapore.

We met them when we visited Singapore in January this year. Her two boys are around the same age as mine, so playdates are awesome. Sammy remembered Hunter and Carter too and he was so excited to see them, he went to bed the night before saying, "Yay, we're gonna see Hunter and Carter tomorrow!"

Originally, we had planned to spend the weekend at Zürich and stayover at a friend's place, but poor Gabe had a bad fall on Thursday. We had to observe him for the next 24 - 48 hrs so I didn't want to make any trips within that time frame.

Hence, we had to cancel out on my friend, but still decided to drive down to Zurich on Sunday. It was after all only a 2-hour drive away.

It turned out to be a fantastic idea to drive on a Sunday, cos the roads were empty!!! Apparently long vehicles are prohibited from driving on Sundays unless they had a special permit and I guess most people do road trips on a Friday or Saturday.

One thing I must say is that drivers in Switzerland are super obedient! They would always keep to the speed limit, whether or not there are traffic cameras around. I told hubby that they have probably been "fined into obedience!" Traffic fines in Switzerland are known to be cut-throat! My Dad once drove in Switzerland and was caught on a traffic camera for "speeding" at only 58km/h where 50km/h was allowed.

Guess how much he had to pay???

80 CHF!!! That's 80€ for exceeding the speed limit at less than 10km/h!

The weather was scorching hot that day! A real proper heatwave. So the girls made a spontaneous decision to go to the outdoor swim area at the lake rather than to the park as we had originally arranged.

The boys had to borrow swimtrunks from Bev's friend and I decided to be the offical photographer for obvious reasons that I had no swimwear and it was also that time of the month.

It was a beautiful outdoor swim area. They had cordoned off part of the Zurich lake so the boys went down a giant water slide right into lake which temperature was only a meagre 19 degrees!!!

I was so proud of my boys, cos although they were shivered (the younger ones), they very much kept wanting to go on that slide repeatedly!

We alternated between the chilly lake waters and the baby waddling pool which water was a little bit warmer. Read: little.

After a couple of hours at the pool where lunch was a mix of food we brought along with us and a pizza that cost a staggering 20CHF (that's double the price of pizzas in a restaurant in Stuttgart), we adjourned to a playground at the nearby park for even more outdoor play.

It was quite a cool experience to meet a fellow friend from back home, halfway across the world and share some common experiences on our continent. 

The kids were so knackered they fell asleep on the way home.

We got home by about 10pm and since the kids had slept in the car on the way home, they were awake until close to midnight before falling asleep again.

I'm so keen to head back to Zurich lake and try some outdoor swimming for myself! If only Zurich weren't so expensive, it would definitely be on one of our favourite daytrip destinations!

The giant slide that goes right into Zürich lake. The water was 19 degrees! Brrr!

Both Dads helping their little ones out of the water

Have I said how proud I felt at my boys? They were shivering but kept wanting to go for more!

And off they go for their next slide!

Picturesque

Switzerland for you

Chocolately-mouth Sam

Notice the difference in skin colour?

Gabe showing where he got his boo boo. He fell off a bench then, but all's good now!

They actually partitioned that circle on the left, so people could swim in a safe, enclosed part of the Lake

The 3 men I love the most in my life

 Sammy can be such a protective older brother!

 See what I say about how my boys lurrve their swings?

That  hat actually looks quite cool on Gabriel! It belongs to Carter btw.

Sam and Hunter "reconnecting" after not seeing each other for 6 months

And that's my friend, Bev whom we came over to see!

The best photo I could get of the 3 boys. Gabriel was already in the car.

Their expressions speak a thousand words

And with that, we said adios to our friends! Until we visit Singapore again!

Tina's wedding

My lovely friend, Tina got married recently to her long-time love, Frank. Congratulations!

I got to know Tina from my time teaching English at school and she's the only student with whom I kept in contact over the past few years! It's so nice to see how our friendship evolved from a student-teacher relationship to a that of a close friendship. :)

She had her bachelorette party in Strasbourg, France and I was invited to spend the weekend there. So that was where I had my first-ever weekend away from my little one.

Sammy was invited for both the solemnization ceremony as well as the dinner. He was such a champ and really enjoyed hanging out with all the adults. The only bummer was that since he didn't manage to nap properly in the afternoon, he was a bit cranky towards the evening and took a pretty long time to settle down to sleep.

Thank God for my lovely hubby who spent a lot of time walking around with him so that he would fall asleep in his stroller. We then found a snug little corner in a room next to the kitchen to park our stroller, while we continued to party until about 2-3am.

That's one thing I enjoy about weddings in Germany. Guests stay until way past midnight to dance and there's usually superb music. Tina engaged a house DJ from a club and he churned out a mixture of modern and hip hop music - amazing taste in music if I may say.

May God bless your union and watch over the both of you, Tina & Frank! ;) We had an absolutely incredible time at your wedding! 

The lovely hall near TeeHaus where the solemnization ceremony took place

And now I pronounce you husband and wife

With the beautiful bride. Notice I was the only one in a long dress?

Love the idyllic location for the solemnization. A LOT of people at this wedding were VERY tall.

With the newly-weds. Guess what. I was still the shortest even though I stood one step higher!  Ok, I didn't wear heels, but still....  

 Mesmerizing ladies even with a pacifier in his mouth. Hah

A nap-deprived Sammy, who was obviously cranky cos of it

Sammy had his own seat!

Ohhh, so nice to see little Sammy having his own nametag

 Snapshots of the wedding. We had superb BBQ for dinner.

Another lovely family pix, minus an un-cooperative Sammy

Awesome wedding!

One of the young adults in our cell group got married a week ago.

This was a couple with whom we did the Marriage Preparation Course over a period of 2 years. In our church, its compulsory for one to complete this course before one gets married.  It's sorta like a going for driving lessons before one gets a driver's license.

Well, we had really open and honest couple-to-couple sessions with them. Talked about issues varying from finances, to children, to life goals and basically anything associated with being married. Therefore it was such a blessing for hubby and I to be able to witness their holy matrimony after their time of courtship and wedding preparation.

Funny how in the past 5 years of leading our German youth cell, we've witnessed the marriage of 3 couples (!!!) in a group of about 10-15 people! How cool is that? I was talking to my mentor the other day and she said, "Wait until they get married and have kids!". And I was thinking, "Oh, she's referring to me!" - Since she mentored me and my girlfriends when we were in the youth ministry in Singapore. So amazing to see how we've been blessed so that we can bless others in return. :)

Enjoy the lovely photos! 

Church solemnization. The bride in her wedding dress was mesmerizing!

 A special item by the band for the bridal couple

 

The typical dress-up photoshoot for the guests

 

The amazing spread of finger food for the church reception

Couple shots with Christa and Michael, who are new parents too. Their little one is about 5 months old now. So cool that our babies can be playmates soon!

 Our young adults' cell group

 Us with the lovely bridal couple! It was a true-blue summer day and we were all sweltering in the heat. But hey, photos look superb!

 Next to the bridal car. Like this shot cos it "shows off" my huge belly!

 Together with Yvonne and Ari. I do look ultra round compared to both of them!

Together with my honey bunny. We're so thankful that our little baby continued baking in the belly so that we could witness this wedding! 

 You can tell the colour theme of the wedding was purple - same colour as ours 5.5 years ago!

Ok, each balloon was attached to a postcard, which read something like, "Dear Sir / Madam. If you find this card, please send it back to this address". Each of us then had to write something nice we would do for the bridal couple.

 The amazing table decorations which were all D.I.Y!

 Present table. We gave a really beautiful pop-up wedding card plus a red packet! - Gotta add some Singaporean spice to a German wedding right?

 The back of the bridal dress. I love the details and how intricate the workmanship is!

 

Yay, finally a solo shot with the lovely bride!

 Our personalized name tags. Another thing that never fails to impress me!

 The bride dancing the night away. She and her hubby did such a superb rock-and-roll first wedding dance, which I unfortunately didn't manage to capture on video!