Remember the Alamo

Aunty Jo Jo and Julie at the Alamo, San Antonio - Texas

Ever since reading James Michener's "Texas", I have wanted to visit the Alamo - the site of one of the most heroic stories of the American frontier. For 13 days in 1836, a small band of 200 men defended the fortress against the 6500-strong Mexican army of General Santa Ana. The heroes who fell include legends like David Crockett, Jim Bowie and William Travis. A small number of women and children who were hiding in the church survived to tell the story of their heroism, which rallied the rest of Texas to fight for independence from Mexico.

The men who died defending the Alamo were not even from Texas. They came from all over to help other men who were facing insurmountable odds. As I soaked in the history surrounding the site, I began to have a better appreciation for the principles of freedom and fairness that Americans have always defended. These values have extended from the early frontier days to World War 2 to Vietnam and today's war in Iraq.

Remember the Alamo

Sonoma

Julie and I visited the little town of Sonoma, which has great historical significance for the state of California. The town began with the Mission San Francisco Solano founded in 1823 by Father Josepth Altimira of Spain. This mission was the farthest north of all 21 California missions connected by a "Royal Road" called El Camino Real. In addition, it has a great little coffee place which does delicious cinammon buns :-)

The plaque at the base of the Bear Flag Monument reads:

This monument was erected to commemorate the raising of the Bear Flag on this spot June 14 1846 by the Bear Flag Party and their declaration of independece of California from Mexican rule on July 9 1846. The Bear Flag was hauled down and the American flag here raised in its place by Lt Joseph Revere who was sent to Sonoma from San Francisco.

I know I'm in America

I know I'm in America when I..

• Grab a Starbucks coffee and sausage biscuits for breakfast
• Watch two episodes of Little House on the Prairie
  
• Enjoy a lunch of Southwest Taco Salad (lettuce, tomato, shredded cheese, tortilla chips, chilli, sour cream) from Wendy's. Yumm..tasty and healthy!
• Watch non-stop news on CNN America with endless cycles of Obama-Biden-McCain-Palin-Clinton
• Think about Popeye's Southern Fried Chicken for dinner
  

...all in one day!

Sounds like the perfect recipe for clogged arteries and brain meltdown :D

Where's home?

"Why do you travel so much?", "Aren't you tired?", "Don't you want to settle down?", "How can you sleep in a different bed every week?" are just some of the questions I'm bombarded with whenever I mention my next travel destination. Usually, I find it quite easy to side-step the cross examination. However of late, there is one question that I'm finding increasingly hard to answer. Where's home?

Is it Malaysia where I was born? Or Singapore where I earn a living? Or China where I've spent the last six months? Or Lake Tekapo in New Zealand which feels like home in my heart?

I found the perfect answer in the most ironic place. Between the pages of Silverkris - Singapore Airlines' inflight magazine. It's an essay written by Pico Iyer, a critically acclaimed novelist, which captures so eloquently my sentiments about 'home'.

"For many people, I know, this lack of a single fixed home is a challenge, which leaves them feeling neither here nor there. But for the rest of us - the ones who see the glass as half-full, perhaps - it allows us to root ourselves in where we're going and not where we came from, to be free of resentments of the past and be honorary citizens of tomorrow.

I savour the fact that 'home' is a work-in-progress for me, like a manuscript I'm constantly extending and revising and fine-tuning; and I savour it because I know I can't change the fact. There's no single tradition I can go back to and cling to as my own; but there are any number of traditions I can weave into the carpet that is my mobile home.

When, one day, while at my parents' house in California, I went upstairs and saw that we were surrounded by 70ft flames - by the end of the evening, a forest fire had reduced our house and everything we owned to ash - I knew more than ever that home would have to be something I constructed within, invisible and portable, a state of mind or a part of my soul more than a piece of soil."

Simple Pleasures

I'm back in Singapore and loving it! This weekend, I even got to try something I've never done before - kite-flying. Yes, I've jumped out a plane, run off a cliff, climbed a mountain but Aunty Jo Jo has never flown a kite until today.

I often spend time with my long-time friend, Jaclyn and her family whenever I'm back in Singapore. Her boys, Justin and Jared, are my godchildren and they have a special place in my heart so I take every opportunity to spoil them with gifts. This time, I brought back a large eagle kite from Shanghai. So, off we went to East Coast Park (ECP) to try it out.

Aunty Jo Jo with Jaclyn, Jimmy, Justin and Jared (yes...we love our "J"s)

Boys being boys, they managed to fit the pieces of the bird together without any instructions. Thank goodness...I would have tied the string to the beak! Very soon, we were proudly showing off our unusual kite to all the Singaporeans dotting the shores of ECP.

Jared, Justin and Aunty Jo Jo showing off our kite

Up, up and away!

We spent a happy hour watching Archie (that's what we named our eagle) soaring in the bright blue sky, while enjoying the delicious sea breeze. We also traded stories and jokes between gulps of green tea and handfuls of Lay's potato chips, while the boys tussled over the latest collection of "cool" songs on my iPod. These are the simple pleasures that I'm so grateful for, especially since I'm on the road so often.