Washington DC

It's 6 am in the morning and I'm awake. Actually, I'm not the only one. The whole family is up and about. And we've been that way since 3.30 am. In fact, we were SO awake that we went to have ramen at our favourite shop, Ichiran, at 4.30 am. (Kem, if you're reading this, we found a branch that opens 24 hours :). Eat your heart out!) Funny thing is, we've been awake at 4 am for the last three mornings.

You've probably guessed it by now. We're suffering from serious jet lag. We spent the last week in Washington DC meeting up with the kids' godparents: Kent, Stephanie and Sandy . It was a wonderful trip. The weather was great for the most part and we got to see the sights of DC.


The first day in the States was spent recuperating from jet lag.

The second day was slightly better. The children awoke to the generous gifts from Godma Steph. It was like Christmas in Spring. We managed to spend some time at the International Spy Museum later in the day. Before that, however, Benji managed to throw up all the hot chocolate that he had for breakfast in the car. His clothes were completely drenched and mummy dearest didn't have a change of clothes. So, her punishment was to run around the Chinatown area, looking for a shop that sold children's clothing. I dragged Godma Sandy along with me and we went from shop to shop, to no avail (United Benetton, Urban Outfitters, etc.). Finally, after 5 blocks of brisk walking, eagle-eyed Godma Sandy spots an H&M that sold kids' clothes (Sandy, being the more hip of us two, tells me that it's a pretty cool place to shop). We quickly picked up three items of clothing which, bless her heart, Sandy paid for.

On Saturday, the bunch of us went to the National Zoo. Joseph was thrilled to see the elephants and Benji was over-the-moon at the wonderful collection of turtles and tortoises that the zoo had.

Sunday was church day. We had the privilege of visiting the McLean Bible Church. It's one of the biggest churches in the DC area and has some dynamic programmes for the entire spectrum of its congregation. After lunch, we were given a tour of the National Mall by Godpa Kent. The National Mall is an open-area national park in downtown DC. It is the site of gardens and other greenery along with many Smithsonian museums, national monuments and memorials. Other than the grand monuments and memorials, I was struck by how well-planned the space was. There was such a vibrancy in the area. People were having picnics, jogging, playing dodgeball, soccer, volleyball not far away from where some of the most important politics in the world was taking place.

Other note-worthy activities included being taken up in a private plane by Kent, a tour of the aerospace museum (boys only) and shopping in Georgetown (girls only). Of course, there were also the nights spent catching up over wine and the mini-piano concerts.

And, yes, the boys got to zip around town in the back of a Porshe.

So, after a very full week, we're back and feeling the after-effects of a lovely trip.