Mahjong Lessons begin

Well, we've posted in our votes for the federal election. It was by far the hardest decision I've had to make. I've always found some good reasons to support my decisions in the past but this time I disapprove of them all! No wonder the donkey vote in Australian politics is growing, I think I can now understand why people would go to the trouble of deliberately doing it. In the Solomon Electorate there were 9 candidates, including the Sex Party, the Voluntary Euthanasia Party, the Palmer United Party, the Stand Up Aust Party and I still haven't worked out what the A.F.N.P.P stands for. If anyone can find out I would be quite interested. No information on the AEC website.  

The festivals continue here. In the HDB across the street the Taoist Chinese believers are still congregating regularly at the small altars to burn incense sticks and present their offerings in the form of prayer, Mandarin oranges, foods like roasted suckling pig or bowls of rice and a local Chinese cake. This week a huge pavillion was erected in the grounds for a performance on Friday night because they also believe in entertaining the souls of the dead, that are freed from the gates of hell and allowed to roam the earth at this time, with boisterous live wayang (puppetry) and getai (song and dance) performances. 

At the recent High Tea I offered to begin teaching Mahjong to some colleagues and so during the week I got out the notes from the classes I did with Sandy in 2008. I needed to refresh my memory as I've really only played on a handful of occasions due to lack of playing partners. I found the quality of print pretty bad, some of that occured when I was trying to copy them for Luke and Tahlia and knocked over a vase and they got wet. Some of the explanations could also have been clearer and I wanted more diagrams so I began redoing them from scratch. Its a big job but will be satisfying to finish. Our first lesson was on Friday at Heather and Michael's in Hougang with Robert and Maria from Tampines Branch. Heather works with Eric at Punggol and is Robert's sister. 

Last week I returned to Dhoby Ghaut to collect my orthotics and met Bev there for coffee, which turned into lunch. Nice to catch up away from work functions or in large groups. She is at Jurong Branch, way out west! After lunch we went looking through Spotlight for options for our Annual Dinner which has a Hawaiian theme this year. I now have a new sewing project to get underway. 
Unfortunately, I have found the orthotics don't fit into any of my work shoes. The first chance I really had to break them in was on Monday's walk which ended up being 10.5 kms and that was overdoing it for a first go. I paid the price that evening, with very sore feet, but they were fine the next day.  I didn't expect, when I paid all that money, that it was going to cost me another pair of work shoes too. I have been recommended a new brand that are available here, so I'll check them out next time we are down town.
Eric and I have come up with a new design for this year's trek to Annapurna so we will soon be getting an order finalized. The group numbers keep changing though so we need that finalized before we proceed. peter has 3 Chinese friends that might join us and just this week another work colleague made his final decision. We could be up to as many as fourteen. Here's what we came up with 

The walk this week took us out to Tampines. Initially we expected Heather to join us so Eric suggested we join her and Peter in a taxi. If anything could go wrong with that plan it did. First Heather pulled out, then we couldn't get a taxi so we had to take the MRT even though it was by then too late. Then at every change of trains we found ourselves arriving on the platform as a train was leaving. We just couldn't get it right, but none the less we met the group and still had a coffee before walking over the mountain bike trails of the Tampines Bike Park and then on through Eco Green. Lots of birds this week including a rare (in Sg) Oriental Magpie Robin, a white-headed munia and a weaver bird. We tried hard to find one of the weaver birds' extraordinary nests but no luck this time. 

Unfortunately, earlier this year, it was reported that the 60 hectare Tampines Bike Park will be cleared for development into a new town, less than 3 years after it was given to the public as a legacy of the inaugural 2010 Summer Youth Olympics held here. 

After returning home from the walk and having a swim,we didn't have much time before it was time to meet all the other music lovers at Lau Pa Sat and then making our way to Kallang Theatre to see George Benson in concert. He turned 70 this year but is still playing wonderful guitar and his voice is great. He had an excellent band though the acoustics at the venue were not as good as others we've enjoyed. It was amazing to hear so many classic hits in one concert. Most of us went home via Peter's where we had no trouble talking Michael Cananway into playing a few sing-along songs. Not sure the neighbours would have been impressed as it was about 2 am when we left and all 7 of us had been in full voice. Oops!

Bev stayed over for the night and after she left I used up the over ripe bananas in muffins, but wasn't thinking too clearly apparently, and made a complete mess of it. Too long since I last tried baking of any sort. I have to retract the disparaging comments I made this week when Eric tried baking date scones and they tasted more like salt licks One day he will learn more is not necessarily better! But it was so good of him to try, I have been hankering for a real date scone since I found a jar of dates in his kitchen cupboard. I say his because he is the only one who shops or cooks. I can't see the point here.