Iris arrives

Thursday we walked through Bidadari again, I haven't been here birdwatching for quite a while. Eric experimented with his new camera but we only saw a flock of Asian Glossy Starlings and heard, but couldn't find, the corellas. Eric wasn't the only photographer, there were two family groups out enjoying the morning.

On Friday we took the bikes out for a spin, returning to Bishan Park where we walked last week. The park was a beautiful place to ride and we enjoyed watching a majestic White Bellied Sea Eagle circling the pond hoping for a feed. We went in a loop of about 30 kms but we're not sure. Eric has now downloaded an app for his phone which will track us and give us more accurate estimates. There were no serious injuries though a walker with phone earplugs didn't hear me coming so I had to head for the bushes. Pity it was a Bougainvillea.
At last we both have our visas for the Sept holiday in China submitted. We now need to arrange an interview in the next week or so. It wasn't all smooth sailing, we didn't have some of the information required to complete the online forms so I got in touch with the agent that we originally dealt with, but she only sent through documents in Mandarin. Not much help at all. 
The walkers returned to Bukit Timah this week and we have some new recruits, Heather and Michael, who are considering Nepal and decided to take the challenge. We all enjoyed the cool weather as the thunder grumbled overhead but thankfully the clouds didn't send down a deluge. We met a new species of wildlife on the path who wasn't in the least perturbed about us trundling along. When we stopped it kept on going, passing within 10 cm of Eric's foot. If I am not wrong (and I never am, just ask the men in my family) it was a Spiny Turtle (Heosemys spinosa), its name immediately apparent from the sharp edged carapace, also known as the cog-wheel turtle. I'd like to learn the name of this flowering plant below but as yet I haven't had any luck. The perfume was beautiful. 

We were out at the airport Monday afternoon to collect Mum who had flown in from Melbourne. I watched as all the passengers from Flight JQ 7 collected their bags and made their way through the throng of waiting family or friends. It is so interesting to watch the range of reactions at these reunions; I had to keep dragging my eyes away to make sure I didn't miss Mum while I made assumptions about how the travellers and greeting parties were related. There was no sign of her as the baggage belt changed its flight number to the next flight. Where was Mum, should I be alarmed? We know it's a long way from the jet bridge through immigration and to the luggage belts but has something gone amiss? Eric was at the only other possible exit keeping watch but he had nothing to report either.  Eventually a tiny spec of a woman made it through the arrival doors and had no trouble recognising me. Welcome to Singapore Mum, sorry you had to walk all that way. One would expect her to doze off in the taxi on the way home but she was full of interest and wonder. Eric cooked for us and we shared a wine to celebrate her safe arrival. She has had a long day and it was something like 11pm Melb time before she got to bed. 

On Tuesday Mum and I took a taxi to town so we could take a ride on a jump on-jump off bus. There was no jumping going on but we figured this was a good way to see a lot and work out what she would like to return to. The first thing she said she would like to do is take a spin on the Flier! She turns 90 on Jan 1 but there's nothing phases her too much. We purchased the tickets and took the bus tour first. It took us by Marina Bay Sands, through the financial centre, by the Botanic Gardens and Embassies and finished along Orchard Rd. 

Unfortunately Eric rang to say he was locked out of the condo and needed us home to let him in. We had to pass up lunch and the loop on the flier and caught the train home instead. After lunch and a kip on the couch we went down to the pool for a refreshing swim before going out to dinner in the evening to New Everest Kitchen in Little India with the trekkers of 2013 and she still had the energy to join us. It was great that she got the chance to meet our good friends who we often mention here. We paid our deposit for the trek this week so there is no backing out now. 

This morning, Mum and I made a quick trip over to the Nex Shopping Mall before work. There was some idea that she might manage a movie while we are at work later in the week, so we needed to make sure she was well enough orientated to do it independently. Problem is the mall has 6 stories and so many escalators all of which are positioned to make sure you walk by all the different shops. You can cover quite a distance getting about in there. Anyway, we checked out the library and discovered there was really nothing at the movies to watch. What we did discover was that the shopping fairy was contentedly lounging on her shoulder and we had no trouble finding a few new items of clothing and a new pair of shoes without any trouble at all. It was nice for me to have such a choice because everything we picked up comes in her size. Nice change! 
Meanwhile, Sandy was busy setting up a skype session with her SRC executive of Clyde Fenton Sch in Katherine, ready to talk to me about the school in Gudel. We had agreed that Gudel Sch would be a good project for the SRC to fundraise for and I had shared some photos in dropbox for us to view during the session. Problem was I missed any email explaining when the skype session was scheduled. Not to worry, Eric was home and able to step in. I'm sure he did a great job. 

Eric rolls over again

The work week resumed with a number of interested and potential parents visiting classrooms. If the company are serious about making the most of this, they need to advertise more widely. At the moment we are not being very proactive about drawing in new clientele however, having just returned from a weekend away, I was happy to have only limited numbers of visitors observing my classrooms. Punggol, being a newer branch, had much higher numbers than Kovan. Lucky them is all I can say.
On Fri Yve and John spent the day with us, having more than a few hours in transit on their way home from Denmark. It was so good to see them again, looking refreshed after the holiday, though John is in pain management having some medical conditions that need attention. The rest of us walked to the bike shop in the afternoon and at last we have our longer bike seat poles. John would have assembled them for us except we have no tools. Next task is to get some allen keys. It never stops! Is owning a bike the same as owning a boat (bring on another thousand)?
We noticed on the way home that the local temples are celebrating something but it took us until much later in the week to find out that it is  known as the Qiqiao Festival. It originated from a romantic legend featuring Zhinu (the weaver girl) and Niulang (the cowherd). Their love was not allowed, thus they were banished to opposite sides of the Silver River symbolizing the Milky Way. Once a year, in the 7th lunar month, a flock of magpies would form a bridge to reunite the lovers for the one day. It is a very important festival, especially for young girls, and is also celebrated in Korea and Japan.

 puppet show in action

 the puppeteers

 embroidered lanterns and banners

It was Eric's birthday on Saturday, he took his new camera as he headed off to work in the morning. We met up with Peter and Bev at City Hall and walked to the Peninsula Hotel where we first stayed. Being on the executive of a company who annually make significant bookings, Peter has access to the bar and restaurant on the top floor. The view from here was fantastic. To add to the spectacle we were able to watch the fireworks that were exploded as part of the rehearsals for the National Day celebrations. The real thing will be held early next month, but in the lead up, rehearsals take place each Saturday and all P5 students get to attend.

 Glammed up

 Fireworks rehearsals

 And I thought it was for his birthday

 Did Peter really organise all of this?

 Oh, this is the usual show

 Here's the birthday boy

The view was great, the food was lovely and the company very companionable. As if that wasn't enough we went on to Boat Quay for coffee and port by the riverside. How beautiful the evening was with all the lights reflecting in the water and the temperature just perfect for being out in the fresh air. But Peter still had a surprise in store. Next he took us to 1 Altitude on Level 63 of 1 Raffles Place which claims to be the world's highest alfresco bar. The triangular shaped floor space provides an unobstructed 360 deg view of the city from the heart of the financial district. We thought we had seen it all from The Eye last year but this was phenomenal. 

Sunday was a very long day! But you just have to rally don't you? After all, there is another function organised. Punggol branch have invited Kovan out to their end of town for a celebratory meal for Eric and Kathy (she is on our staff and shares the same day for her birthday). On the train I bumped into Angie who manages the wine bar just around the corner from home. We haven't been to the bar for a few weeks and she got chatting, deliberately missed her stop and travelled all the way to Punggol just to talk to me and meet my work mates. Now I'm really feeling like a local when you meet up with people you know in a train carriage here! I promised her we would frequent her business very soon. It was a lovely evening but not a very late one!
On Monday we really needed a sleep-in but it was not to be. The walkers struck out through Bishan Park and Lower Peirce Reservoir then back to Ang Mo Kio Hub for lunch. We had a few extras along to expand the numbers this week which is great. I wore my new pedometer and clocked over 17000 steps (roughly 13 kms) by the time we had lunch and then ambled home. 

In the afternoon Eric adjusted the bike seats and tightened a few other connections with our new allen keys. Then he cooked a lovely dinner from his new Spanish cookbook. It was so nice to have a night at home for a change.  I feel like I spent most of the afternoon prone on the couch but I did manage a few accomplishments for the day, like finding the online Chinese visa application forms, our next venture. Also had fabulous skype sessions with some very special friends discussing possible locations for 2014 vacations. Never been considering plans this far in advance before!
The day of the first bike ride arrived at last. Not wanting to be too adventurous on our first attempt, decided on a trail from home to and around Punggol Park Lake; only about 20 kms and all pretty flat. The lake is where we hired bikes from once before. It turned out to be a good decision as coming home beside the waterways the wind was straight into us and surprisingly strong. 

 At Punggol Park Lake

 More colourful festival flags

We had both had enough when we got back for lunch. We thoroughly enjoyed it though, and finding a family of tiny Sundra Pygmy Woodpeckers (13 cm) in the trees by the lake was an unexpected bonus. Lucky that I have my new glasses. We had the lake pretty much to ourselves, apparently we're the only ones silly enough to be out riding at this time of the day. We were even advised by a local fellow sitting in the shade that the best time to ride was morning and evening. True, but also crowded then, and actually we were in shade all around the lake. 

In the evening we upheld the promise to return to Angie's Wine Bar. After all, we felt obliged to. Angie shouted Eric his first drink as she remembered I had told her it was his birthday when we met on the train. Peter joined us there, as did Heather and Michael. We thought we had ridden by their condo this morning and now it is confirmed, they are not very far away at all. They have invited us over for a Portuguese meal at their place in a few weeks to relive some of the recent experiences, some shared in Lisbon.

Mid term trip to KL

So, it turns out the students were right. There was a murder in Kovan last week and not just straight-forward either. In the last 18 months, as far as I'm aware, Kovan has only been listed in the crime reports for bicycle theft, shoplifting and an occasional house burglary. Now we have had a double murder.  What is more amazing is that a senior sergeant of the police force has now been arrested as the prime suspect. Reports suggest he was seriously in debt (read gambling) and this was possibly a simple burglary gone wrong. In the event he killed an older man and then the son was run over and dragged underneath the getaway vehicle where it eventually came unstuck a kilometre away, right outside the Kovan MRT station. There were many, many eye-witnesses as you can imagine if you have travelled on the Singapore MRT.

We have a small problem to overcome before taking the bikes out for a spin; the seats are not high enough. In searching for longer seat poles we have discovered that the diameter of our model is not commonly available in Sg. Wouldn't you know it. I think we have two on order but we will see if that is so when we return later in the week. You see as I write this we are in KL for the weekend with 9 others from MAE for a social few days. We took a flight straight after work on Sunday night and arrived at the Furama Hotel right by the Central District at about 11 pm. We were offered an upgrade which sounded lovely but then realised they were going to charge us double so we settled very comfortably into our standard room.
On Monday morning we were met by Karen (from a local MAE branch and who came to Sg for the Great Race) who took us out walking, as we would on a Monday morning. She had planned a walk through Bukit Nanas Forest Reserve, one of the only tropical rainforest parks left in the city. We caught the light rail from Imbi to Bukit Nanas but then found that the park was closed to the public. Pity we couldn't scale those steps.

 Since August 2012

We ended up in the City Centre park at the foot of Petronas Towers. It has lakes with mesmerising fountains, a massive children's playground and meandering paths through shady areas. Through the trees we could see the park was surrounded by modern shopping complexes and plush hotels. I think I would quite like to stay in the Mandarin Oriental next time we visit. 

Note I am the only one with a camera between us, so have not yet featured in a pic. Did Eric have an ulterior motive? Time for a coffee, so we made our way to the third level of the complex below the towers for a fabulous view of it all and escaped the heat for awhile.  

Next, we walked to Menara KL (KL Communications tower) back on top of Bukit Nanas. Some ventured to the very top of the sixth tallest building in the world but most of us settled for the view at the first level. This gave us a 360 degree panoramic vista and it was surprisingly clear considering how much smoke has been around this zone lately. 

 Knew there would be some steps 

We  had lunch in a cafe together up top, then made our way back to the hotel for a swim in the pool. The view from here is much more typical of the real KL.  Outside the beautiful City Centre precinct you have busy streets with roadworks, footpaths that suddenly go nowhere or have gaping holes in them, buildings in all states of repair and ugly, ugly wiring. Sadly, the heritage of KL centre seems to be disappearing. It just makes you so grateful to UNESCO for listing all of Georgetown, on Penang, as a heritage site so that it is preserved.

In the evening we met up with a few others from KL at Traders Bar, one of those flash hotels that borders the park we walked in the morning.  From here we overlooked the towers and could pick out the route the walk had taken. It was very pretty watching the coloured lights come on  in the fountains and the towers light up one after the other. As it got darker they looked a bit like a pair of glittering drop earrings to me.

We moved on to Jalan Alor (Food St) for dinner where the road is virtually closed to traffic and crowds gather to eat from an amazing array of dining options. Prices are also significantly cheaper at this level. Great food, great company, lovely evening. We finished it off in Heather and Michael's suite (they were upgraded to a suite and didn't have to pay extra. How does that work?)

Tuesday morning those interested gathered for a local train trip to Masjid Jamek, one of the oldest mosques in KL but, being Ramadan at the moment, it is temporarily closed to the public now. 

From there we walked to Merdeka Square, the spot where the flag of Malaya was raised in 1957 to mark Independence. The padang is overlooked on the one side by the Tudor style Royal Selangor Club and on the other by the very grand Sultan Abdul Samad Building, once the centre for state government and now the home of the Ministry of Heritage, Culture and Arts. It is a beautiful precinct and towering overhead is the national flag on a 95-meter flagpole, one of the tallest in the world.

 My favourite, the SASB

Most of the others took a bus tour but since Eric and I have been here before we made our way back towards the hotel, walking through the market and Chinatown. We were sidetracked in a number of shopping centres along the way and Eric is now very happy with his birthday present, a new SLR camera. I did wonder....

 Colourful shophouses 

 Market area

 More steps, but these play music!

In the evening most of us went to dinner in a steakhouse nearby. We all have early morning flights on Wednesday morning to be home in time for work at 2pm. 

Beginning Semester 2

I have to take it all back! For the last 18 months I have been correcting the students who insist that Ikea is pronounced with a short vowel sound for the 'i' as in itsy bitsy. I keep insisting it should be with a long vowel sound as in icecream. Well, I'm wrong, and I always have been wrong (to steal and adapt a line from Les Mis). On the long flight home from Paris we sat next to a lovely, and well travelled, couple from Sweden. Turns out the correct pronunciation is with a short vowel. Now, you cant laugh at me because I know that you have all been mispronouncing it too! We had plenty of time to chat with this couple about Malaysia (their current destination) and other destinations they have enjoyed. Poland and Croatia sound interesting............but we just love Spain, cant get enough of it.
It was straight back to work on Wednesday after arriving home about 7pm on the Tuesday, so good that we don't have to start until 2pm. The staff meeting and first two sessions were ok but oh, that last one was long and we couldn't wait to get home and have an early night and long sleep-in. 
Our bikes turned up unexpectedly on Friday morning. We weren't expecting them for another 2 weeks so Eric roused himself off the couch to assemble them, but we soon realised we need some tools so our first ride will have to wait until after the weekend's work commitments.  

Two colleagues that were here with us last year have returned for holidays here after their first 6 months back working in real schools in Victoria. It is interesting to hear their different reactions and reflections. Different horses for different courses. We all have our reasons for staying or going and these 2 were on leave rather than having resigned. Judie was with us in Nepal last year and she is making the most of her return to the real world providing release in a primary school outside Geelong with a major focus on Asian Studies. Marg is back at the senior secondary school, swamped with school expectations and student marking.  Both are making the best of it but don't like the short days and cold weather which leaves little time for anything other than work commitments all week long. On Sunday night we all met up at Wine Bos in Bugis again to share the night with these two and also all our workmates who have just spent holidays in many far flung destinations. Judie had returned to Cambodia to spend time with special friends in Siem Reap.

Monday morning we were due back at Bukit Timah for that climb. Bev had stayed over at our place, much easier for her to get home and to Bukit Timah from Serangoon than way out west in Jurong. It also gave us a better chance to chat about her experiences in Vietnam over the last 2 weeks. I got up pretty fresh but was deteriorating badly on the hot back seat of the bus. We had chosen one of those articulated buses that are extra long and the back end seems to bounce all over the place. By the time I arrived at the end of the journey i was green. Was it the bus ride or the one too many glasses of red wine last night? Who will ever know? Anyway, I made it to the summit by which time I was thankfully feeling a lot better. 

In the evening we returned to New Everest Kitchen to spend the night with Judie. Peter had created a dvd using some photos from our trip so we could enjoy it all over again. Everyone in the restaurant seemed to enjoy it. We even had a return visit from Trudie!

 Trudie 

 Bev

 

You see that very special neck band I am wearing? It was presented to us in Gudel last year. Well, what I have since learnt is that the plant they use to dye it does not create a colour-fast result so you should never wear white trousers with it. I have since had to throw them out despite a number of laundry treatments, all of which proved fruitless. 

Our original plan for Tuesday was a bike ride with Michael (husband of Heather from Punggol and most recently in Lisbon with us). But we took the bikes for a short spin yesterday and there are some issues we need to solve like wobbly disc brakes and seats that wont rise high enough. Our new plan is to take them to the distributor on Thursday morning. 
Meanwhile work resumed again, why can't these weekends be longer? Eric needs at least one more day of rest to throw off the flu he has developed. There was some sort of incident at Kovan while we were on taking classes, the kids kept arriving and the stories went from car accident to murder. Guess I'll have to buy the paper tomorrow. Stay tuned.