Eric's branch at Punggol have been through the annual audit process and it would seem they have emerged the other side with lots of positives. Well done to them, its Kovan's turn this week. Some of the checks are quite reasonable but others seem to be extraordinarily pedantic and hangovers from an era well past. Nonetheless, they remain and nothing is going to change them in a hurry. On Sunday Eric also had his appraisal interview, where he received lots of affirmation for his leadership skills, so our contracts are not about to be rescinded. Phew! No, just joking. No surprise for all of us who know he has good leadership qualities. At this point we are here until the end of next year, but that may yet be extended. The students are all on school mid-year holidays. For some this means travel OS, for others it means fulfilling requirements at school (like revision support classes) or at least completing several hours a day at home doing homework on your own. We've discovered its not a good idea to ask those still attending our classes if they are enjoying their holidays, invariably they say no, they are bored and sick of doing homework! One lovely boy I have in Yr 5 tells me his mothers says "Get used to it. We all know it is no fun being a child in Singapore. When you are an adult, then you can have fun!"
While Yve was here the idea of a 'weekend getaway' in Darwin cropped up. While Eric was having his interview about what was outlined on p756 of the Operations Manual I was browsing the internet and found Jetstar Friday Frenzy deals to Darwin for $60. Didn't have the gumption to book them until we had double checked the dates and visitor schedule. By the time I had confirmed them with Eric the deal was over. Better luck next week, fingers crossed everyone. We are looking at flying out Sun 18th/arriving early 19th and returning on the 20th Aug.
Now that the visitors have all headed off in their separate directions Eric and I have put some more thought into our holiday trip. We start in Porto, the town that put the 'port' into Portugal. Story goes that in the 1600's the English armies were short of wine and at the time the merchants were forbidden to purchase from France in a quarrel over duties, so they tried Portugal. They found the varieties not to the liking of the English palette, so added a small amount of grape spirit, or brandy. This also had the added bonus of protecting the wine during the long sea voyage. From Porto we move to Lisbon and Faro in the famed Algarve on the Atlantic coast. Everywhere we go we are looking forward to being immersed in the Portuguese history, they have had such an amazing impact even here in Asia with early navigation and trade. Then we cross the border into Spain to Seville and back to Madrid to fly home. Sounds like we need a month but we only have 2 weeks. Pity.
On Sunday night we received the sad news that my Uncle Royston had passed away. He has had a form of Leukemia for some time it seems. He is my mum's younger brother and as a child growing up I remember him as a regular visitor to our farm. As far back as I can remember he lived in the same house in Reservoir and I often went with him from there to watch the mighty Bombers play AFL matches. The two of us would go home to their place where Lois would have dinner waiting. They later adopted children of their own.
Our Monday walk took us to Labrador Park where we ventured into three very different habitats. First we followed a mangrove boardwalk where we heard lots of birds enjoying the insect frenzy after recent rain.
Then we climbed up through the jungle around old defence post bunkers and gun emplacements, relics of the failed defence of Singapore during WWII.
Finally we followed the waterfront along Keppel Harbour where the rich and famous moor their craft, and had lunch at VivoCity.
In the evening we dined at La Salsa in Dempsey Hill, an MAE social event to mark the end of the first semester.
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