School holidays are here!

We are in the second week of the school holidays. As I'm writing this, I'm recovering from a mild flu which I caught upon returning last week from a four-day visit to Cambodia. We had chosen to visit Phnom Penh after rather intensive deliberations within a week, from the aspects of airfare and accommodation cost, weather, travel time, and of course, suitable sights and food to suit both young and old. Lately, our short holidays have been rather last-minute in terms of actually deciding to take a holiday to deciding on where to go and what to do. Somehow, we always hardly have the pleasure of planning way ahead for holidays....

We're taking this week slowly as we recuperate from our travel and sickness (C's cough has been a prolonged one and she also had a fever for two days a few days ago). There's still the music classes and BM tuition for her to get back into momentum again, while my writing has been on the backburner for a bit too long...

And there's the Christmas shopping to start on too, although I still don't get it as to why we need to spend so much effort and money on getting presents and on feasting. Yes, Christmas is a time of celebration but I much prefer a quieter reflective one once awhile, and maybe give presents to the less fortunate instead of ourselves. C is involved in a church musical on Christmas eve so there's the additional practice sessions to attend starting December, which is just over a week away (!)

Although this year-end school holiday is seven weeks long, I foresee it whizzing past pretty quickly. While there's a lot one can do and be productive in seven weeks, especially for those super-achiever moms who somehow manage to get their kids into a myriad of activities indoors and outdoors, I'm resigned to the fact that I can't be, and don't want to be one of those. I'm sapped of energy just coping with the daily demands of life. As long as C covers the minimum requirements in terms of playing and learning, I shall try not to allow myself to get caught up with getting her to be a 'high-achiever' in every field.

I will certainly write a pictorial account about Phnom Penh soon, so you just have to wait if you're curious about what we did, saw, experienced and ate! Meanwhile I shall leave you with a picture of an eye-opening experience we had at the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum which detailed the atrocities inflicted upon Cambodians by the dictator Pol Pot.

 

A sombre display of skulls of victims of the Khmer Rouge