BBQ at Goodenough College

Syn Yee & Sophie fascinated by the twig that YL was waving in the air. So easily cheated... hehehe

YL's colleague organized a BBQ at the William Goodenough College near Russell Square this weekend. Weather was excellent, food was sumptious (huge prawns! authentic satay! yummy curry!), and the company was scintillating. The group barbequeing next to us paled in comparison. Come on, heating up burger patties is child's play! We had a real satay production going on! Hard-core, man!

I'm a girl!

It's the first time in a long while since we put Sophie in a dress. With grey fuzz instead of lush black hair, in a dress, she just looked ...well...like a bapok. The dress was a gift from Aunty An Pheng, and given the fickle weather here, I thought we'd better give it some wear at the BBQ this sunny weekend before another cold summer spell sets in.

Weekend on canal narrowboat

UK has a substantial network of canals criss-crossing the island. Five of us decided to do a cursory cruise last weekend with Paul, the skipper of the Angel Community Narrowboat Association.

The gods were smiling down on us as they blessed us with a sunny weekend while we were onboard the narrowboat, exploring the western suburbs of Greater London. Francis practically threw off his clothes once we were on board, exposing his smooth pearly white torso. It's a good thing that YL and FY showed a bit of restraint, or Evelyn & I would be stuck on a boat for 2 days, nursing sore eyes and the frequent urge to expunge ....

Loading our stuff onto the boat near City Road Lock

All ready to go!

We spotted numerous birds & fowls, complete with the young ones and nests, along the canal

Northamptonshire & Warwickshire

In a whirlwind road tour of Northamptonshire & Warwickshire last weekend, Aileen, Francis, Yoke Lim, Sophie & I covered, let's see... 11 towns/villages and sights too numerous to count. Some of them are fleeting scenes (e.g. Rugby), while at others, we lingered to our hearts' content (e.g. Oundle).

At the risk of boring everyone with the details, here are places we can now strike off our 'To See' list:

Northampton
- Quick 20-minute tour of the shoe museum
- Quick 10 minute stroll around the compound of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, one of 4 round churches in England

Wellingborough
- Picked up the 19" Sony PC monitor that YL bought from ebay from a computer warehouse

Oundle
- Checked out their weekly Saturday farmers' market & had ostrich burger for lunch
- Francis played tour guide & led us around some important buildings around the town center. Which reminds me, we need to tip the guy.

Church of Holy Sepulchre in Oundle

Rothwell
- Enroute to Rushton, we stopped here because the boys were in a kaypoh mood and wanted to see where a crowd of people were heading
- Quick tour of the Holy Trinity Church where visiting bell ringers from Colchester were showing off their skills at the church's full set of 10 bells. And that was the cause of the commotion.

Rushton
- 'Tricked' into paying GBP2.40 each to see a very compact building, simply known as the Rushton Triangular Lodge. Francis got away with a concession fee. Built in the 16th century by Sir Thomas Tresham as a sign of protest against the Protestant Queen Elizabeth I, and whose family was eventually implicated in the Gunpowder Plot, its walls were covered with puzzling letters, numbers and other religious symbols. Francis commented that it would make a great subject for Dan Brown's novel.

Brixworth
- Quick stop to see the All Saints' Church build on ancient Roman foundations.

Rugby
- Drove through on the way to our farmhouse B&B near the village of Church Lawford.
- And yes, the game was invented here.

Coventry
- Another quick stop along the way to Warwick to see an ancient Roman fort. Aileen & I stayed in the car because we were both still stoning in the morning, but the boys got off to wander around. They ran off when confronted by the lady who miraculously appeared from a barn that is supposed to be the ticket booth. All to save 2 pounds each. Tsk tsk, and you call them Doctors...

Stoneleigh
- Beautiful 690 acres of parkland surrounding the Stoneleigh Abbey were Jane Austen was inspired to write Mansfield Abbey, and where Queen Victoria once stayed.
- Aileen was particularly excited by the sheeps that were grazing and seeking refuge from the scorching sun under a big tree.

Warwick
- Charming little town with a village feel, very small & manageable.
- Warwick Castle looked like a lot of fun, and it would bound to be, since it's owned by Madame Tussauds, but we will save it for another day. We walked around the outer compound and managed to find a spot to take a picture with the castle towers in the background. As far as anyone is concerened, we've 'done' Warwick Castle...shhhh

Stratford upon Avon
- Shakepeare's birthplace and every attraction in this surprisingly modern town is connected to him.
- Being the cheapskates that we are, we didn't pay for entrance to any of the sights, but simply loitered outside them & took pictures so that we can say we've been there, done that. And no one's any wiser....

In front of Anne Hathaway's (Shakespeare's wife) cottage

In front of Shakespeare's birthplace

Church Lawford
- The farmhouse that we stayed in was very pleasant, very clean & very comfortable. Owned by the same family for 5 generations, it has a very charming garden & that historic character. Phew! After calling up 20+ B&B's and finding out that they were booked for the British F1 Grand Prix, I'm glad that this one wasn't available because of any undesirable features.

Breakfast at Lawford Hill Farm, our Bed & Breakfast

Sophie was generally easy, save for the last few hours, after we left the county and were on the way to Heathrow Airport to pick up Christine aka Mrs Pong who just returned from KL. To be fair, she must be very tired from all the travelling....

All in all, a very hectic but satisfying weekend.

Crippled mom

I fell while perched on the kitchen counter trying to reach the uppermost cupboard shelves this morning. I missed the wooden stool coming down, and whacked my right feet against it instead. That's the disadvantage of being short. Now I'm hobbling about and not able to run after Sophie. She looked amused when her Mommy screamed and wailed as loud as her when her Baba was rubbing Chinese tit tah ointment and bandaging her Mommy's feet up.

Just when we've got so much planned for the weekend... Hope the swelling goes away and it recovers enough to allow me to be mobile for our Northamptonshire / Warwickshire road trip.

Roseola Infantum - aka RASH

Warning: Medical terms abound! I am not sorry for the headache that you will develop from reading the below, because that was what I had to endure from the resident Doctor at home and his medical friends. At least you don’t have to learn the embarrassing way.


Sophie developed one of the classic childhood exanthem (rash), roseolo infantum, after nursing a fever two days ago. Initially we dismissed it as a result of teething. On the first day of the febrile presentation (fever), we had 4 doctors and a nurse – two of them, mothers, too – over at our house, and everyone sort of concurred. That probably lulled me into a false sense of security. We gave her a supp (suppository; that means up the a**), and later a liquid dose of paracet (paracetamol; Panadol) which is supposed to be TDS (administered three times a day), and happily returned to our marathon steamboat session.

Her temperature fluctuated over the next 24 hours, but eventually came down. The gastrointestinal symptoms (diarrhea) also ceased. That was when I noticed red blotches on her face and arms. Initially, I assumed they were heat rash. When it got worse today – she looked like she was in a battle, and probably lost – we hauled her off to the clinic for a second opinion. First opinion was from Dr Soong aka ‘Baba’: “…it is a viral infection…’ (as if that means anything to me). Second opinion from Dr Fitchett aka ‘real Doctor working in a clinic’: “…it is a viral infection…’. OK, OK, but what does that mean?? For the record, Baba was smugly happy because he was right.

There is no medication for the condition; we just have to monitor it to make sure it does not get much worse. Apparently, this condition is especially prevalent in Japanese, Morroccan, Ecuadorian and Malaysian babies (Malaysia boleh!). At least Sophie is exhibiting normal behaviour – sleeping & eating well, and most importantly, screaming & wailing well.

The following are extracts from www.drgreene.com:

Roseola is a mild viral illness with a fever followed by a rash. It is caused by human herpesvirus 6 (HHV-6) or occasionally by human herpesvirus 7 (HHV-7). Roseola is also called roseola infantum (because it occurs mostly in infants), exanthem subitum (meaning “sudden rash”), and sixth disease (because it was the sixth of the similar childhood rash infections to be described). It is one of the classic childhood exanthems.

Who gets it?

Almost all cases of roseola occur in children before their third birthdays. The peak age is between 6 and 15 months. Fewer than half of children ever get roseola. Nevertheless, almost all children have had HHV-6 infections by age 3. For the majority, who never get the rash, the HHV-6 infection usually causes a fever, perhaps with other symptoms. It is a common cause of baby’s first fever.

What are the symptoms?

Classic roseola features a high fever (average 103°F) that lasts for 3 to 5 days (worse at night). Most children behave normally, even with the high fevers. In most, the fever ends abruptly, although it can disappear slowly over a day or so. A rash appears within hours of the fever subsiding. The rash is rose-colored, as the name roseola suggests. The rash may be present on the upper arms, legs, and face, but is most prominent on the neck and trunk, where it usually begins. It consists of numerous, small (2- to 5-mm), slightly raised patches that blanch when pressed. The rash does not itch and does not cause blisters. The rash typically lasts for 24 to 48 hours. Sometimes the patches coalesce before the rash disappears. In some children, the rash may be fleeting—gone in minutes or hours.

Is it contagious?

Once people have been infected with HHV-6 or HHV-7, the virus typically stays in their bodies for the rest of their lives. Antibodies prevent them from getting sick again themselves, but they can infect others. Most infected adults have the viruses in their saliva. Children typical get roseola from close exposure to caregivers who are themselves well—not from being around sick children or adults. Once exposed, the incubation period is 5 to 15 days.

How is it treated?

Antibiotics do not help. No treatment is needed in otherwise healthy children, except perhaps for acetaminophen or ibuprofen to lower the fever or increase comfort.

How can it be prevented?

There is no clear way to prevent roseola. There is no reason to exclude children with the roseola rash from daycare.

Steamboat

YL invited colleagues and friends over to our place on Saturday for a steamboat lunch. I had initially thought that our little dining table could not hold everyone, but it turned out to be relatively comfortable. It helped that the children were dashing around as children are bound to, so one of us always had to watch over them and that made space for the others.

YL made two delicious soup stock - tom yum and chicken broth - and we had stocked up on mountains of ingredients - fishball, squids, prawns, tofu, wanton, and vegetables of every kind - plus dessert as well, so I think everyone went home caressing a bloated stomach. I didn't eat much, because poor little Sophie was ill and even vomitted, and was a little startled in the beginning with so much noise around her. But rest assured that I ate my fair share after the guests left! Yum yum...