Another Birthday

Wk 4 of term already and it was testing week, a pretty easy week really just administering tests in one session and then marking them in the next. What blows me away is that 6 yr olds don't even bat an eyelid when you give them a test paper 6 pages long, they are so used to the process already. And to think that our Aussie colleagues will just be returning today after their long summer holiday. Hope they all got home safely after all that terrible weather you have been having.  In the same paper we read about bushfires and floods. They'll have had a pupil free day I expect, long staff mtgs and pd before being able to get on with the real preparation (though of course they've all been putting in hrs at home while on leave). 

On Saturday I celebrated my birthday despite having to work. I had a lovely day really. My class of 4 yr olds are doing a birthdays theme so we had balloons and played pass the parcel. We ate Tim Tams for morning tea as a tribute to Australia Day and had birthday cake for afternoon tea. I have lots of beautiful flowers in the apartment. We seem to have been out a lot lately so Eric cooked me a lovely dinner and we stayed home. Peter came over and joined us, providing ice cream for dessert. What a day of over indulgence.
To mark the end of the working week about 30 MAE colleagues had $10 steaks, the house special, at Wine Bos in Bugis. We were able to see some of the Aust Open Final between Djokervic and Murray, but really there was too much talk going on to follow it. Need to remember in future not to be the last to leave when groups this size get together and have a few drinks. The last to leave get left with the remaining bill! I'm sure it will all come out in the wash this week.

On Monday I met up with the walkers, after they had walked around West Coast Park, and had lunch with them. I had been to see the Orthopaedic Surgeon in the morning for results of the MRI. He revealed that I have a hairline fracture, just a crack really, in the lateral end of my left femur. No wonder I was having so much pain walking downhill! This has been troubling me since November and since I have not had any falls he had me do a BMD, worried I might have chalky bones. But my results are actually in the upper range for both spine and hip density so that was the best birthday present of all. I think it must be a stress fracture and originated when I was doing a lot of stair climbing in preparation for the Nepal trek. I guess it hasn't healed because I haven't rested it. The good news is that with more rest and a knee support brace I have now been fitted for, I should mend in a few weeks. Thank goodness. Meanwhile I will try to keep off it more and just swim and walk in the pool.

The news reminded me of a weekend, many years ago, when we were teaching in Melbourne. We were booked in to the ski lodge at Mt Baw Baw, a resort you could only access at the time by chairlift. I had injured an ankle mid week and been put in a back slap and on crutches but was still determined not to miss out on a weekend with friends.  The chair operator at the car park on the Friday night had this incredulous look on his face as I hobbled toward him through the snow to the bottom of the lift. He said something like "I've seen plenty of people coming down off the mountain in your condition but you are the first I've helped get up there like this." Silly. Who would try trekking in Nepal with a stress fracture before they start?

Family back

Things here move forward week by week, toward the next holiday. We had another farewell for Ann on Saturday night with a few familiar faces around a table topped with pizza and beer. She has just spent a couple of days on the train up to Kota Bharu (east coast peninsula Malaysia, almost at the Thai border) and back through KL where she met up with another ex MAE colleague now working in a branch there. An email from NZ reports that settling back is not so easy. There's another holiday destination lined up for us.

We had Luke and Tahlia back from Koh Samui looking tanned and relaxed. Luke and Eric joined the walkers on a bike ride Monday at East Coast Park. A few new faces joined the group so it will be interesting to see which ones continue throughout the year. My knee still prevents me from doing much other than getting through the working day though the specialist has got me on some good pain killers and I find out the results of the MRI next Monday. Tahlia and I ended up checking out the shoe shops in Nex which was funny; my feet are too big and hers are too small for Asian styles. 

In the afternoon we took them to Chinatown which was a riot of colour and also now boasting writhing serpent lanterns to celebrate Chinese New Year - the Year of the Snake. Must look amazing glowing at night.

Later we met up with Peter and had dinner at an Italian place we have discovered walking distance between each of our homes. Tuesday we went to Arab St for lunch at Zam Zams and then VivoCity to see Life of Pi. I struggled through this book and was interested to see how anyone could make a movie of it. I'm amazed at what they were able to achieve and the retelling on film helped answer some doubts I had about the story.  Luke and Tahlia took us to  dinner overlooking the water and Sentosa Is for my upcoming birthday. Then we wandered out along the board walk expecting to watch the crane dance from the best vantage point, but it doesn't operate on a Tue night. Should have checked Google.

On their last morning they took off early to the zoo and we had gone to work before they returned and then left for the airport. We have really enjoyed spending time with these two, they have lots of tentative plans for the future and no doubt at least some of them will come to fruition while the others morph into some other direction. It is lovely to be involved in the journey. Meanwhile, Adrian has begun the serious business of looking to buy his first home.  We are keen to be involved in that journey too, which is a good thing since he is expecting he might need some help too. 

It must be time to consider the next holidays

Tuesday started with a visit to the dentist to have the cap on my front tooth replaced after it fell off the night before. I've begun the ordeal of having a crown embedded, can't be avoided as it is my front tooth but what a lot of money!  On Tuesday night we went to 'One Fullarton' on the esplanade overlooking Marina Bay, the view across the water featuring the amazing Marina Bay Sands Hotel, the Singapore Flyer and the Financial Centre of the city. We had gathered to farewell Margaret, a colleague from Simei Branch returning to Geelong. As the twilight faded to night we were entertained by the nightly laser show. 

Just before work on Wednesday I found an offer too good to refuse on Groupon. 5 days, 4 nights stay at 5-Star Xinyuan Hotel or similar in Beijing. It is a fully guided tour and visits include The Olympic Village, Tiananmen Square, The Forbidden City, Great Wall of China, Temple of Heaven, The Summer Place, Wang Fu Jing Street for down town shopping and Dong Hua Men Night Market where apparently one can find a row of unusual food stalls. All meals and airport transfers are included for the ridiculous price of Sg$38 ea (not per day, that's total) plus Sg$6 compulsory tip per day. Now there's a saving of more than Sg$1,700 as the usual price SG$888 ea. (Just recouped the cost of my crown). I dithered about, worried that a deal like this can only mean we finish up at endless centres where people are pressing us to buy jade, cloissonne, calligraphy and the like (or Turkish carpets god forbid) but I have been assured that they all do this anyway so what the heck. We've bought them. We must book before the end of Feb but it doesn't expire until the end of Dec 2014. Looks like Autumn is the best time to visit and that fits nicely with our holidays at the end of term 3. 

Work went smoothly though Eric had to attend his first Senior Staff mtg, and we returned to Joe's for end of the week drinks on Sunday night. We had a quick bite and then went home early though as Luke and Tahlia arrived for a few days on their way to Koh Samui. On Monday morning they went to Nex, the shopping mall nearby, while Eric went walking with the Nepali trekkers up Bukit Timah once more. This time they got a good look at a flying lemur, correctly called a Colugo.  These creatures have membranes that connect their legs and tail which enables them to glide from one tree to the other. They are largely nocturnal so hard to find. The picture immediately below of a mother and baby I found on the internet. The one below it was the one Eric was able to get.

In the afternoon Eric took Luke and Tahlia to the gardens by the Bay, they were very impressed with the mirror walk out of the MRT. 

I stayed home on the couch watching the Aust Open Tennis. At least this year we get coverage and Stosur got through the first round. Life isn't too bad. My knee is giving me heaps of trouble now, just managing to work and that's about it. I see the specialist on Friday regarding my knee. What interests me is how much your mental state influences your physical one. I know I haven't injured it any further and if I was still on the trek I would just keep going because you really don't have a choice. Here, because there is a couch I choose to sit on it. I did manage to get myself to the New Everest Kitchen with all the trekkers (minus Jim, and with L&T)  that night for the last time before 2 of them return home, Judie to Ocean Grove near Geelong and Ann to Auckland. We burnt some Nepal trek pics to dvd so we could watch them as we ate on the big screen. 

The rest of the family went for a walk to Kovan the next day and caught the bus back. Luke and Tahlia are very independent travellers so all we need do is give them the travel cards and off they go. The good news is Tahlia has decided to enrol to begin a teaching degree and Luke is beginning bible studies. His latest thinking is he would like to become a counsellor, perhaps with Fire and Emergency Services one day. We played a few rounds of mahjong when they returned. They bought their own set last trip but haven't really played, so this was a good opportunity to show them the rules and strategies (though we had to refresh our own memories first as we haven't played since they were here last year). In the late afternoon they headed back to the airport to catch the direct flight to Koh Samui. How things will have changed there since we went in 1986 when you had to catch a ferry across.

  

Sandy has sent some potential dates for a visit at the end of the NT first school term which got us looking for possible weekend getaways with her. We had considered taking her to Bintan Is but we will be returning there for the annual MAE visit at the end of February so other possibilities needed to be investigated. Tioman Is looks good but we are going there for Chinese New Year at the beginning of Feb, so we can check that out for other visitors or her next one. In the end we settled for Batam Is, a 40 min ferry trip away. Like Bintan it is one of the islands that make up the Riau archipelago of Indonesia just to the South East of Singapore.

We spent most of yesterday putting together a photobook of our time spent in Gudel using a compilation of photos from all the trekkers. When it is published we will send it back to the school.  Next job is to discard all the unwanted pictures off this laptop and do a back up before we loose the treasured memories. 

One week down, 10 to go

NYD, a very slow start to the day but then we had a family from Darwin Top End HHH visiting which was the motivation for getting out of bed after a late night celebrating the end of 2012. They were on their way home from a fabulous 2 weeks in Florida and NY. I finished off the latest sewing project, a dress in a knit fabric. Remind me never to tempt this again, while quick to make because the edges don't fray I just hate the way the material keeps falling away from you as you try to sew a straight line. But in the end the result was good and I've wore it to work, best thing of all it needs no ironing!

Back to watching my one and only weekly tv program. It's 'Offspring' with Asher Keddie in the lead role but a lot has happened since I last saw an episode and was a bit confusing this week. It is also a favourite of Nepal trekker Ann, from Auckland, so good to know a quality program from Aus is being exported across the Tasman.  By coincidence her bike trip in India ended successfully and she arrived here for a final 2 weeks before heading home. She will stay with us for a few of those days before Luke and Tahlia arrive. 

Work started very smoothly, all the new recruits at both our branches seem to be settling in well and the kids are happy to be back. Eric has had no issues as the new Administrative Head at Punggol, everything falling into place though nothing where he expects to find it so spending a bit of time sorting that out. I just love the fact that I know most of the children and they are mostly excited to be back in my classes. What a difference to this time last year when I was reluctant to start casual conversation with them in case I couldn't understand them or they couldn't understand me. We had a lot of awkward moments as I recall. I only had 2 boys this week who were initially sobbing, but we were able to settle them in. I'm sure there were at least 10 last year. We have two new teachers at Kovan, Kathy from Auckland and Nicole from Hallifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. 

On Monday the walkers took a stroll through Bishan Park to Pierce Reservoir and returned. I had a swim instead and then met them for lunch at the hawkers stall by Bishan Park. Ann had just got off the plane from Deli but joined them happily to retell the adventures in Nepal. It was good to talk with Bev too who has just walked the Alpine Trail in the High Plains in Victoria. By the look of the weather reports from Victoria lately this is the only region where you want to be out walking. What a scorching time you Vics are having! 

 

That evening we met up again at Vivo City to see Les Miserables (the movie) which Eric and I loved. I actually know more details of the story now than ever before through the clearer delivery of song lines. Guess that's a difference in focus for a singer and an actor.  I was expecting to cringe a bit when actors like Russell Crowe or Anne Hathaway sang those powerful solos but they carried them all off really well in our opinion. loved seeing samantha barks playing Eponine, she sings the role in the 25th anniversary concert which Eric was given a copy of as a parting gift from Humpty Doo Sch. Didn't get to sit in recliners with blankets like last week though. Afterwards we shared a meal at The Queen and Mangosteen Restaurant  on the harbour front overlooking Sentosa. A fabulous spot to eat, with fee fireworks about 9pm at the Crane Dance (though not the best angle to view, apparently you should get to the wine bar half way across the boardwalk for that). Be sure to remind us to take you there when you visit. Food was fabulous but camera work lousy. 

One thing that wasn't to plan was that the cap that Fabulous Phil (the dentist in Butterworth 1986) put over the gold filling in my front tooth came away just before the movie. Now I'm off to the dentist.