This has got to be a first

At 7 this morning, I jumped out of bed to answer my ringing cellphone, wondering who on earth would be calling me at that hour. It was Alexis -- calling me FROM THE LIVING ROOM.

""Why are you phoning me, Alexis?'' I asked. In my sleepy state I thought she might be at her grandma's though I had a memory of going in the children's room to check on them late the night before. ""I want to know who's taking us to the zoo today,'' she said.

""Put the phone down now,'' I growled as I walked out of the room. She was coming towards me, with a very sheepish smile. ""I thought you were at work!'' she said. I think she had dialled my number out of sheer force of habit.

This must be a sign. I'm not home enough. You reckon??

Not too soon for June

Isabel woke me up at 6.30 this morning, ready to have a bath and get ready to go to zoo camp. Usually on schooldays, we have to drag her out of bed at that hour. No such reluctance today.

It's not that she dislikes school, a fact she reminded me of when she called me at work on Thursday, upset that a file photo of her had been used for a blurb for Mind Your Body the day before. It was to illustrate a story about some children's anxiety over going to school.

She was in tears. It's not that I mind having my picture in the papers, she said. That's not why I am upset. But I mind people thinking that I don't like to go to school. It's not true at all. What if my classmates see it and think that I do? It would be very embarrassing. What if Miss Katherine sees it? Or Miss Ling?

I didn't really have an answer to the clear-minded logic of a seven-year-old. Instead I felt ashamed that it hadn't even occurred to me, her mother, to think about her feelings when Rishad showed me the blurb before it went to print.

Then she offered up her cousin for next time. Ethan wants to be in the papers, she said earnestly, and he doesn't mind frowning. Next time you need a picture of a frowning kid, you can take a picture of Ethan and use it instead. You could hear Ethan in the background agreeing.

I had to stifle my laughter. She was persuasive!

But anyway, although both she and Alexis don't mind school, it's also a drag to have to be up at 6.30 every morning and in bed by 8 every night. I can't tell you how much all of us have looked forward to these next four weeks. It won't be too soon before my leave starts on June 10. Sometimes one just wishes for a more quiet, less demanding life. Where would that be?

I mean, just this morning alone, it took us 20 minutes to locate a taxi so that we could get to zoo camp by 9am. We arrived at 9.10, in plenty of time but still, there had been some anxious looking at the watch along the way, and not by me alone.

Then we waved goodbye and after the children walked away, I bought a coffee and sat down near the entrance for the next half hour with my book. It was really pleasant -- beautiful sunny weather, greenery all around, the sound of water in the background, and nowhere to have to get to for the next five hours. Wouldn't it be great if every morning could be this way?

I hope the girls will be okay at camp today and that they enjoy themselves. It's the first time they've had to complete an entire day's activity without a grownup they know with them. Even when we went to riders' lodge, Jonathan and I were in the vicinity, if not with them during the activities. I hope they won't be anxious today and be keen enough to go back tomorrow!

Working party

Decided to finally do what every Singaporean has been doing the past week and go to a Workers' Party rally, the final one before polling day on May 6.

The last time I attended a rally was also a WP one, in the archery field in Portsdown Rd in 1997. I'd gone there to listen to Mr JBJ, drawn by his call to Singaporeans to ""take your power.'' The idea of an empowered citizenry was an attractive one (beginning with the power NOT to vote the ruling party), but I was disappointed by his meanderings with the occasional bombast. The crowd was a desultory one but appearances can be deceiving. That was the year the WP took it to the wire in Cheng San. I think so, anyway!

This year they are once again oh so close to winning a GRC in Aljunied. If crowd numbers are to be believed, victory should be theirs tomorrow. But as the elderly gentleman next to me pointed out: ""Don't look at the crowd. This is all wayang.''

But wow, what wayang. Once Serene, Ember and I were on that field, there was no getting out. At 7.10 there were perhaps 1,000 people; by 8.30 the crowd was swarming like ants around a drop of honey, but unmoveable ants. Bodies packed the entire perimeter of Serangoon Stadium and we were getting text messages (started by provocateurs???) that there was gonna be crowd trouble, so watch out.

As it turned out, there was none. At 9.55pm, everyone sitting on the field rose to their feet and cleared their belongings, as though to a pre-arranged signal though there was none. I realised they were all rally veterans. Mr Low Thia Kiang appealed to the people in the bleachers to let the people on the field out first. They obediently did so order prevailed. We heard that the lights had been shut off at 10 on the dot in an earlier rally. The folks at the stadium were kind enough to leave them on till everyone had made their way out.

And I must say that things are not the same anymore at the Workers' Party. They have worked extremely hard at communicating with people. Just about every speech was cogent and well-delivered and showed how much they must have practised their public addresses. And when Sylvia came up to the rostrum the crowd's affection spilled forth. They surged to the front with banners professing their love. She responded in fine form, saying: ""If two or three of you love me, that is okay. But if more than 10 of you do, I won't be able to concentrate!'' People roared with laughter. Not only do they know how to make speeches, these are also candidates who are genuinely likeable.

I scanned the crowd for the young English-educated intelligentsia who are the ones agitating for an opposition in parliament. I didn't see many. Yes, there were young people but by and large the crowd was older, poorer heartlanders clutching Chinese evening papers which they laid on the field to sit on. One uncle next to us even revived a leftwing anachronism when he told us to beware of Sor Luan (who had stopped to take our pictures). ""She's not a photographer,'' he cautioned. ""She's a running dog.''

Running dog???

We didn't tell the poor girl, who was just doing her job. As the night wore on, the running dog press was forgotten anyway. The crowd was held rapt by the candidates, who surely knew which buttons to push. But the reason they got such a wholehearted response, I think, was because the pain they tapped into was real. All around me people were looking for answers to the lot that life had handed them. They were looking for a saviour for their future.

I don't know if the WP has got the answers they want. I didn't hear any that night; mostly it was crowd provocation and very skilful provocation at that. But I think that they, as the underdog, can relate to the underdogs whose cause they say they want to champion.

The master stroke of the evening came at 9.55 when Mr Low suggested that we all recite the pledge together, in English and Chinese. Hand on heart, I have never heard the pledge said with such emotion. In one move, he'd managed to make everyone forget they were the ""opposition.'' We were all Singaporeans, all patriots, all in this together. Around me, aunties and uncles didn't even have to wait for him to lead. They knew every phrase by heart and said it with true conviction. I was almost brought to tears. It was an emotional high, like being at a national day parade, but one which wasn't carefully crafted with music and pyrotechnics.

Magnificent stuff.