Singapore

Late one evening in Singapore, the children sprung on their parents that the following day was Book Day at school, and that they were supposed to go to school dressed as a character from a book.  Yikes!  Why hadn't they said so earlier?

Sam was well taken care of as he knew exactly who he wanted to be, a character from Lord of the Rings (sorry, I forget the name).  He also knew what costume he needed.  He grabbed his home made bow, fashioned a cloak out of a length of fabric and raided his mum's jewellery box for a clasp.  Clever lad.

After much searching for a lost mouse tail, Hannah gave up on that and decided to go as Babe.

I made her a tail out of a coat hanger covered in pink fabric and secured to elastic around her waist.  She looked really cute, all in pink.

Ben hadn't even the foggiest of notions what he wanted to be, so Sair and I took over.  10pm found us sitting amongst the dinner debris, cutting out felt rats and making a hat, so that Ben could go as The Pied Piper of Hamelin.

He said a few people thought he was Robin Hood, probably because of the hat.  It was actually a lot of fun doing it.  Sair reined me back on some of my wilder ideas involving loads of rats attached to him by string, so that the rats could follow him around.  Oh come on, that would have been really funny!

John made it back from India whilst I was there, bringing with him a box of coloured and scented powders, which are used for the Hindu festival of Holi (Festival of Colours).  These powders are thrown at each other, along with water, generally making a huge colourful mess.  Sair and I wisely claimed camera protection, whilst John and the kids ran riot on the street.

Now that looks funny right?  But not as funny as the rest of the week, when it became clear that some of the colours had a bit of of dye in them.  John had his hair cut very short later in the week, only to reveal that parts of his skull and hair were now green or red, and quite obviously so!

NOW he knows why Sair and I stayed out of it!