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.
No comments:
Post a Comment