Christmas is over

On the 24.12. Dimitrije arrived in Switzerland and I was very happy to be surrounded by my whole family. The highlight was my grand-mother who is 83 years old. It was the first time in many years she was joining our Christmas celebration.

The snow melted but still we need to wear quiet a number of layers of cloths. NiKo was totally not used to get dressed like that and it also took him a while to figure out how to get into boots, gloves are still suspicious to him.

Below a picture of great-grand-mother (Ur-Omi) and NiKo.

Jetlag in Switzerland

4:30am Jana is ready to go to the garden and finnish her snow man. Yesterday she got a ski dress after spending half an hour outside.

Advent Event @ Swiss School Singapore

Yesterday was the last school day at Swiss School in 2011. For this occasion they organize the yearly Advent-Event, where each class performs a song on stage. I only recorded Jana's class and captured a shaky video. You are welcome to watch it. If you can't spot Jana have a closer look at the virgin.

Medical Checks - ION Christmas Tree

The Australia visa of course requires health checks of all the family members. These checks were done yesterday and the kids were really great (me too BTW :)). After that we had a nice soup dinner and finally fulfilled Jana's wish to see golden Christmas Tree with it's huge balls at ION. WE QUEUED FOR ONE HOUR! We were the last persons admitted to the tree. The kids were so happy, Jana liked the gold and lights, NiKo liked to make the tree shaking by running around on the platform. Late and tired we reached home.

Bye bye Singapore Zoo

For one last time I wanted to bring the kids to Singapore Zoo. It was raining on Sunday so I thought not many people will be there. But what a surprise the car park was almost full at 11ish in the morning. Nevertheless we had a great time and NiKo really enjoyed to see all the animals in real. The size of elephants and giraffes impressed him. In the afternoon NiKo had his nap and Jana played at the water playground.

Santa Claus was in town

In some parts of Europe it's common that Santa Clause comes around December 6th to family homes and tell the kids their good and bad behaviors. Then the children sing a song or tell a rhyme and get a goody bag. Not to stress his reindeers too much we celebrated together with 4 other families. It was a lovely evening.

4th Anniversary and Leighton - Dinner and dance in KL

On December 9, 2011 I went to Kuala Lumpur to join Dimitrije for the Leighton dinner and dance. The theme was 70's but I felt quiet ok in my Hippie outfit. On top of that we had our 4th anniversary. We are very happy that we found each other and looking forward to the adventures to come.

Voucher Usage

Before leaving Singapore I want to redeem all the vouchers we have. Yesterday it was NiKo's Takashimaya birthday voucher. He got Thomas the Big Loader after having already Thomas the Big Big loader at home with a missing part. I was so happy that Big Loader also contained that part and I immediately made a copy of it...

Now it is working fine again and NiKo is very happy about that.

DVDs and first Cleanup Activities

On this photo you see our entire DVD collection. Every DVD is also in our multimedia database :-) - so proud! Next steps are Music CD (believe it or not, we still own some), Software and Photo CDs.

Today our dining area was rearranged. We went to buy another 15 drawer box and basically sorted out our whole 'tool-cupboard'.

Ready for Advent

In Switzerland we have prior to Christmas the tradition to give the children every day in December a small gift. So 24 gifts in total. By having these gifts ready I am also ready to start December 2011. I wish you all a peace- and thoughtful Christmas time.

NiKo's gifts are the blue ones, Jana's the figures etc.

Last day at UBS

After 11,5 years I had today my last day at UBS. My team gave me yesterday two great bye bye gifts, one picture mouse mat and an iPod shuffle. I guess I will rather use that one on my biking tours then while I am jogging :).

Yesterday Hari and I baked some saffron-cardamon-cookies. Today I had a farewell lunch with Eugenia and her team, thanks for the nice Thai food, it was very nice to chat with you there. Very stuffed I returned to my desk.

At 5pm I returned all UBS belongings and left Suntec Tower 5.

I will go to the office in Switzerland on December 22, 2011 to say goodbye.

How it all started

A few months back Linda was feeling locked in Singapore and told Dimitrije that she want to leave Garden City as soon as possible. Dimitrije started to look for opportunities in Australia but more as early market survey.

To see if we could imagine to live in Australia we decided to plan our autumn holiday in Perth. One week before the trip was about to start the decision was made, that Dimitrije will discontinue his position with Masstrans. So we decided not only to check out the life style but also the job market while we are there. Thanks to our dear friends in Perth Craig, Chemutai and Chemeli who offered us shelter during our stay, we really had the chance to see and feel how life in Perth is like. From all sides we got support in finding a job and Dimitrije in the End had two very tempting offers of which he accepted one. Currently our 4-5-7 Visa application in in progress.

In the meanwhile Dimitrije took over a short term assignment in Malaysia, where he is working in Port Klang. We don't see each other much, which is hard but Dimirtrije has a great chance to extend is work experience.