Hari Raya Haji to Deepavali

Today we visited the Botanic Gardens with Mervyn and Yvonne, who are now on their way home from the trip to Koh Samui. There is an exhibition of Zadok Ben-David's sculptures on show which includes 17 installations, some are single pieces where others involve a number of figures. They are all made of rusted iron and take their inspiration from nature so plants, butterflies and the human figure are featured.  All are interesting, some beautiful. Being a public holiday there were many people in the park enjoying the gardens despite the intermittent rain.

 This one is Midnight Dance

 A Crimson Sunbird at the Botanic Gardens

The night before we returned to Little India to enjoy the spectacle of the Deepavali  Festival. Meaning “row of lights,” it is celebrated by Hindus across the world and is the most important festival in Hinduism. The street decorations are amongst the brightest we've seen so far in Singapore with Serangoon Rd in Little India lined with thousands of lights, representing the oil lamps once lit by Hindus to celebrate Lord Krishna's victory over the tyrannical King Narakasura.  

Singapore celebrates with another Public Holiday but since it falls on a Tuesday this year MAE teachers are already on their 'weekend'. New clothes are worn during Deepavali and the streets and bazaars are stacked with outfits in every colour combination you could imagine. There are also stalls preparing flower garlands, sweets and cookies and henna artists who will paint your hands with temporary tattoos. Singapore has a significant number of Indians (nearly 10% of the population) and I think they all congregated in this one suburb last night. The streets were full of traffic and pedestrians, the footpaths crammed - especially when another downpour was unleashed upon us. The whole place was crowded with Indian families and throngs of Indian construction workers who have a rare day off the next day. And that's not counting the tourists and sticky-beak ex-pats! Taking shelter from the rain in the Mustafa Centre, we managed to pick up some bargains without loosing each other, which is quite a feat in itself since this mega-store is spread over a number of buildings and up to 6 floors. There are not many lines they don't carry with stock piled high and often spilling into the narrow aisles between. In the fabric department on basement Level 2, I was reminded of the old Job Shop in Collins St, Melb with bolts of cloth stacked to the ceiling, women diving their hands deep into the stacks, yet not a sign of advertising to be seen. It is certainly a contrast to the glitz of many of the modern shopping centres. After that little spending spree we were in need of another meal so we went to New Everest again to share a Nepalese dinner. 

Earlier in the day we skipped the walking group's bike ride and instead walked through Bidadari where the Corellas and Black Bazas are still in residence. After a swim we took the MRT to Bugis, essentially to look for materials but it is easy to get distracted by other shops of interest in this area. According to Mervyn it was a good thing I didn't mention the beautiful glass bead shops to Yvonne, or we would still be there! From there we made our way on foot through Albert Mall to Little India.

We are not the only keen birders most mornings at Bidadari

 Arab St district

Yvonne was in seventh heaven

On Friday morning before work we took our first trip to Expo which is a massive convention and exhibition facility comprising 10 interconnected halls. Apart from the international trade fares held here, there are also local companies holding 3 day sales most weekends, all year round. This weekend it was the turn of a chain called Wintertime who cater for locals taking holidays to China, Japan, Korea etc in the Dec-Jan holiday break. We were able to buy some thermals and woollen layers for our Nepal holiday. It would have been nice to put the money into the Nepalese economy but we are wary that we may not be able to find our sizes in Kathmandu.

Numbers in the senior classes are starting to drop away now as schools have finished assessment for the year and families are taking holidays. My junior classes are stable. Eric is noticing an obvious change in attitude in some of his classes and he is being challenged to keep the students engaged. Luckily, with all his broad experience and general knowledge he is up to it. He entertained the staff at our regular Wednesday meeting by running a tribute Melb Cup Race where the teachers made up the field and he had prepared a carefully crafted, but very amusing form guide. Once again he managed to amuse everyone while not  offending any one. Not an easy task with some personalities you work with over the years. Kovan Branch will miss his input next year.