Good Friday Inaugural Tennis Tournament

Oh, it's not easy going back to work after a holiday like that. The students were all happy to resume classes and meet up with their friends, they find it much more fun than the teachers do. The holiday photos are all downloaded and the blog has been updated. We are looking forward to our first lot of visitors in awhile.  

The first week of term 2 had the advantage of a public holiday for Good Friday. In the  morning we held the Inaugural Good Friday Tennis Tournament for MAE staff at our condo. We really only invited our walking club mates and the staff at our 2 branches. 8 players turned up and did a sort of on-court rotation thing which was working well until I left to get the fruit and nibbles. When I returned the system was in a shambles but everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. The stands were full (another 4 people). Bev brought cheerleader pom-poms which she flipped and waved about in between playing ball-girl. We had a swim then chicken rice for lunch across the road. It felt so good to have a hit out with enough players to have a partner at my end; mind you I was often heard calling out 'Yours!' No scoring, no trophies. Just good fun and all ability levels catered for. We should do it once more, before we rust up again. Spent the afternoon flat out on the couch! Gosh it was hot out there.

 Still got the style

 Bev and Carolyn cheer squad 

 June and Helen 

 Libby, Peter and Bev cooling down

After work on Saturday we met up with Sue Rose from Darwin and friends she will be travelling through Butan with. Sue is staying with Margot who teaches at a school here and lives very close to Peter's place. He, and 2 of his friends from Geelong, joined us at Fat Cats for dinner and then we all returned to his place. Shame you have to be mindful about   time when you have a very early flight to catch or work the next morning. It was lovely to see Rosie though, she looks as energetic and fresh as ever. It must have been in the early hours of Sunday morning when it dawned on us that we had allowed a double booking to slip by unnoticed. On reflection, I think what has happened is that the days for my sister Judy's visit were logged into my old phone and when I switched phones the data in the calendar didn't transfer. When Sandy asked about coming over, either during Easter or the  week of the NT term break we didn't notice Judy's booking. Oops! Sorry everyone. There is not enough room in our cosy apartment for 3 more bods for more than one night but fortunately Peter left today for a week in Bali to celebrate his son's wedding so he has offered that Sandy and Trish are welcome to stay there. Thanks Pete! I hemmed up the trousers he bought for the wedding and Eric has lent him some shoes so we have already started to pay back our debt. They all arrive saturday night and despite the embarrassment of our mistake we are excited to have them here.

On Sunday evening our numbers at Joe's after work drinks were swollen by the presence of all the staff at Punggol as well. It was a most enjoyable evening, especially in the knowledge that we didn't have to rise early the next morning for the usual Monday Walking Group. This week it was decided that we should do an evening walk around Sentosa and finish at The Songs of the Sea. 

 It does have beautiful gardens

 And the beaches are clean

 despite the busy harbour

This sound and light spectacle was conceived by the same person who has produced many international multimedia shows including the 2008 Beijing Olympics. How to describe it? The water jets were fabulous and highlighted the lights and lasers. The fireballs were unexpected and thrilling.  Unfortunately the storyline, music and lip-synching performers were ridiculous. Might have been entertaining to an 8 year old perhaps but not adults. We saw the lights and fireworks from the Chinese Junk that we cruised the harbour on during New Year 2012 as part of our orientation. You can be assured we will not make our visitors sit through the show. 

We wandered back towards the boardwalk hoping to catch the Crane Dance on the way but they chose this week to close it for maintenance. It seems we are destined not to see it, this is the second time we have missed it. Instead we enjoyed a meal on the harbourfront at The Queen and Mangosteen outside Vivi City. 

 A glass display outside a candy store

 On the boardwalk

In the morning, but not as early as usual, June and I met and set out 2 more legs of the Great Race, Richard and Eric did the same, so now we think we just have to type up all the questions, sort the other point scoring challenges, buy the trophies and fix a venue for the concluding ceremonies. Almost there!