Now that we are back at work I have time to read again. Funny that! In the book I have just finished set in Singapore, 'The Bondmaid' by Catherine Lim, it details many of the Chinese festivals, ancestral worship and the forces of tradition which dictate public duty but are at odds with private indulgences and brutality. It follows the life of a girl born into poverty and sold into a wealthy and powerful Chinese household as a 4 yr old. While the story was probably unfolding in the early 1900s you have to wonder just how many of these influences are still working away in the heads and hands of the people we share the neighbourhood with. We witness so many customs unfolding as one festival follows the next and we are mindful of the comments the children at work divulge about being scolded and beatings. In a complete change of style the book I have just started is 'Return to a Sexy Island' by Neil Humphries. He's from the UK but has lived in Singapore before settling in Australia, all the while writing travel notes. Now he is back and writing about how Singapore has done an amazing make-over in just five years. His first trip out is to see Marina Bay Sands and the way he describes his disorientation and amazement at the development just sounded like an echo of what Jenni Munday said when she returned to the site of her dragon boat regatta after 6 years. I'm loving his light-hearted, tongue in cheek recounts. For instance, in comparison he notes how it is possible to recognise a single tree in a paddock in Australia after 30 years of the making of the Mad Max movie. And that made me think of Mum and her landmark tree on the flats of Yarra Glen that would still be standing after a lot more than 30 (closer to 60) years of her living in the district, had it not been for a recent lightening strike. Fortunately she has a treasured painting of it now to keep the memory.
Work this week began with a second staff appraisal, the interview took forever but was positive. I got to speak some honest truths about how I think the leadership team could achieve more, who knows where that will lead. Never been known as one to just keep her mouth shut. Eric is yet to do his as he was off with a virus one day this week, the day he was booked in. He got over that, and was feeling good, and then stubbed his toe very soundly on a step and is going to loose a toenail next.
Meeting at the Coffee Shop before we head out.
On the weekend the walkers tried a new route through the Tampines Bike Park. The Mountain Bike trail is situated on a 60-hectare bush site and is seven-kilometres long with several climbs and challenging downhill (for riders) as well as sandy stretches. Being a weekday it was rare to see a bike and was a nice change to walk with a natural surface underfoot, as so often we are on concrete. Then we wandered the 3 km grassed trail around the freshwater wetlands, secondary rainforest and open grasslands of Tampines Eco Green. This is a new park opened in 2011, a haven for biodiversity and has the first eco-toilet in a public park in Singapore. The bare concrete roofs of the park's four shelters and eco-toilet are all covered with creepers and yellow Crotolaria flowers. There are bird hides too, but our present company were all too talkative for them to be useful. We will have to return on our own and in more discrete colours to see the resident birds. We saw more lizards than birds this time. This week we were joined by Peter's daughter Kate and her new fiance Luke who live in Geelong.
On the way home we took the shuttle bus from Tampines to Ikea. When we first arrived we were pretty pleased to have an Ikea store in town, since Darwin is so far from one, but its funny, we haven't had the need to return since the first visit in Jan. We found what we were looking for, and a few other items we can justify owning now we know we are here for 3yrs. Then I went on to Spotlight - we have a 'black and white' themed end of year dinner coming up and I am not prepared to put myself through the stress of dress-buying again after the last time for the wedding in April. I'll be going home-made. Before I begin that project though I am determined to finish the alterations and mending pile but guess what - my wonderful $50 Singer is playing up and I'm left frustrated amidst a massive pile of mess to tidy away. I've turned it off and hope it will just fix its own tension when I turn it on tomorrow.
In the evening we went to Chinatown for dinner and to enjoy the lovely lanterns on display. We appreciated these a lot more than the garish ones at Clarke Quay.
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