Are we there yet?

The local schools have now gone on 4 weeks mid year holidays. Some of the students finished as early as last Thursday and they found it pretty difficult attending our sessions in the evening. Might have been a good opportunity for us to do something a bit innovative with the language curriculum, but no, we just trudged on with the prescribed lessons. Many families are traveling back to their 'homelands' to visit grandparents and extended family. Same term but a very different scenario to the traditional meaning we are familiar with from the indigenous NT students. These students won't be crabbing, hunting goanna or mangrove worm. Apparently it is very difficult to get a flight out of here now unless you have already booked. On the other hand many students, especially those in the final year of primary school, will continue to attend school every day, enrolled in either catch-up or extension classes with the hope of getting the marks required to attend the best secondary schools. Poor kids! Some of the older classes have smaller numbers for the next couple of weeks until we finish for the term but it has made little difference in the pre school classes. 
 On Friday morning last week we went into town and visited a specialty Tea Shop. The last time we did this was with Bob abd Barb in KL where we got the full tea service experience. There was only one young girl serving in this one and she wasn't used to serving customers who really didn't know want they wanted to buy. When she asked me, I said I wanted to learn about the properties and qualities of the different varieties and she just looked at me with no understanding at all. We did eventually get to try some different brews and came away with loose ooolong and green and I bet she has been entertaining her friends by retelling the story about this strange Australian couple who don't know anything about tea. 

That same evening over dinner we met up with Avikshit (fortunately pronounced Avashek), Richard's housemate who is a most well informed Indian on all things cricket. He could name all the players in all the international teams and discuss their contributions to the game..... with Eric, oh my goodness but I was left behind. He invited us back to their place to watch the IPL final on the Sunday night but since it didn't start until after 10pm we gave it a miss. 

 As it was, we found getting out of bed on Monday morning for the walk hard enough. We've already done a 10wk term so our bodies are telling us it should be holiday time. We met at Bishan and walked through this beautiful park to the Lower Peirce Reservoir and back to Ang Mo Kio for lunch at the hawker centre. Then we called in on Chunjiao who had invited us back for fruit. She had called up in the morning to confirm we were still expected though she didnt feel well enough to walk. I think she just spent the time preparing the most expansive spread of fruit and juices, in typical Chinese hosting obligation style. Then, after eating as much of it as we could so as not to offend, she began opening all these delicacies her cousin had just brought in from Hong Kong, along with a genuine Gucci shoulder bag, if you don't mind. I wouldnt be exaggerating to estimate the combined weight of these bite-sized, individually wrapped treats to weigh 5kg and they included: 
~jelly sweets she had loved as a child in China, 
~peanut paste in a glutinous rice wrapping (my favoutite), 
~something else (in choice of 3 different colours) quite tasteless in the same glutinous wrapping 
~dried abalone which costs a fortune apparently, so after one I begged her to share them with someone who appreciates it 
~dried duck tongue (begged off that one too)
~dried duck liver 
~prunes 

I did mention we had already eaten lunch didn't I? We were bursting at the seams but she was forcing them upon us and eventually we all conceeded to take a doggie bag home. Our combined bag is still untouched in the fridge, perhaps we will take them along to work today to share at morning tea. 

 It was after 3 pm when we managed to extricate ourselves, I was committed to an early dinner with the book club in the evening. Not that I could imagine eating again this day. I met the other members at the Indo Chine Restaurant on the riverbank at Clarke Quay a few hrs later to discuss 'The Elegance of the Hedgehog' which is set in France. Though I had struggled early I did manage to enjoy it and discovered almost everyone else had the same experience. And yes, I did manage to eat again, as you do. By some strange coincidence the film was showing here this week so we saw it yesterday. Not sure how we have managed to see two foreign films here in quick succession but enjoyed them both. The young actress who plays a very insightful 12 yr old was extraordinary. On the way home we called in to Little India to check out bargains in the Mustafa Centre, a department store that boasts selling more than 150,000 types of merchandise from bargain household appliances to designer Indian Jewellery. It was overwhelming and we eventually left with nothing.  The Great Singapore Sale, where the whole island has a combined sale,  has begun so there is no shortage of bargains to pick up in the next 2 months. We had a delightful meal at the Banana Leaf in Race Course Rd, how convenient to have this area just 3 stops from home! 

 Today we had plans to further explore the local bushwalk we found last week but neither of us have moved from the living room yet and it is now after noon so that will have to wait.