The time in need came earlier than we thought. I am expecting a tricky year to come when it comes to managing annual leave. 20 days of AL never seem enough, as most will be burnt up visiting Singapore, leaving none for holidays. With a new born coming in November, the situation will only get trickier. There is no room to take occasional leave, such as accompanying the wife to the hospital for check ups.
That check up was a particularly long one that took 3 hours or more and it was unlikely that toddler Albany was going to find it interesting enough for her cute smiles to last. So we decided to give the "free childcare services" offered by the hospital a try. I was the reluctant one, worrying about whether Albany would react badly in a new strange environment and her safety and other what not. You could take a Singaporean out of Singaporean but not his kiasi nature. But there is also another thing called bo bian. So off the creche they went!
That was a new word to us. Neither of us could pronounce it. The wife sent me some pictures of it while I was at work. It looked pretty homely, though clown-like pictures on the door spooked me a little. Fortunately colourful flags made it feel better.
Fortunately Albany was receptive to the idea of staying there for a few hours. She has grown. A year before she would have kicked up a big fuss and hung on to me like a koala like she still does regularly these days. After registering themselves, Jen was given a large pager like one of those you will get while waiting for your meals
It turned out pretty good. The carer told Jen she Albany was well behaved and played with one of the kids there. She was delighted when she saw mummy and managed to last another 50 minutes drive without going cranky. It was a good day for mother and daughter as well as the brooding father elsewhere.
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