Golf again

Teacher topic this week in class and the junior classes also presented show and tell. It is always interesting to see and hear what they choose to share. We give them a topic as the focus. In K2 it was 'Something you have made' and one big surprise was being presented with a hand-made invitation to a family home for Deepavali in a few weeks. It was so unexpected and will be a lovely opportunity for us to experience this 'festival of lights', the most important Hindu celebration of the year. I chose to do 'Wonky Donkey' with the P1 classes and they really enjoyed Craig Smith's book and song. We had lots of fun making up other ridiculous rhymes. 
June, who walked to Gudel with us last year, is volunteering for 4 weeks in Dec with a division of The Sir Edmund Hillary Foundation, to help up-skill remote teachers in Nepal. She will spend some time in Kathmandu, meeting the others and establishing what her role in the party will be, then they all trek out to remote locations, work for 4 days then trek on to the next. She and I spent a few hours together on Thursday (while Eric was at a seniors mtg) trawling through hundreds of ESL resources I have collected over the years. I brought them with me thinking they might be useful, but haven't used much of it at all. It reminded me of many useful tips and tools I could use here too in the early classes. 
Peter returned from his holiday on Saturday and came over for dinner bringing with him his 2 ukeleles he has bought for Gudel Sch. Eric's also arrived by delivery during the day so we all got them out and thanks to the wonders of technology we were able to tune them and learn a few cords. Lots of laughs, on reflection perhaps they should have got larger sizes as the boys are having trouble getting fingers between the frets. We will probably carry them with us on the trail since they are so light so we need to get some songs sorted between now and then. Of course there is also the annual dinner which has an Hawaiian theme this year........... Peter loves to perform and he thinks we can accompany him with Somewhere over the Rainbow/Beautiful World by then. 2 weeks!

The walking group was suspended this Monday as a number of us crossed the Johore Strait to play a round of golf in Johore Bahru. It was a nice cool morning but we missed most of that taking almost 4 hrs to get to the first tee. First, one in our group missed a connection as we passed through the Singapore and on to the Malaysian Immigration posts. We reunited as a group but then lost two more between there and the taxi stand. On arrival at the course we discovered that the pro shop was closed, so we couldn't hire clubs until the owner was phoned and he arrived. Having lost so much time we all agreed to play Ambrose so we could get home before dark! It was a long day, we left home at 8am and got home about 7pm. Both of us shot some nice balls and some we would rather forget, we'll go back again but not for awhile. The round trip is just exhausting. 

So the walkers who were up to it met up on Tuesday and we walked from Pasir Ris Park Lake to Bedok Reservoir and finished with a lap of it. All up it was 11 kms and all on Park Connector walking paths. An overcast morning was just what we had hoped for. 

In the evening on Tuesday we went to Bugis with the friends we met up with in Lisbon earlier in the year. Wine Bos is having an October special on Sangria and Tapas. We shared stories again of our travel adventures in June and a few more besides. 
Having watched the end of the fourth season of Off-Spring (oh my that was emotional) this week we began watching Serangoon Road, the joint production between ABC TV and HBO Asia. Set in the 1960s, the first thing we recognised was Sam's vehicle. We had come across the very same combi being used in a photo shoot on a Bidadari walk in July. 

Then in episode 2 there were the shop houses of our recent Joo Chiat walk. 

For us, these details make it compelling though the story itself has yet to get us enthralled. It reminds us of the No1 Ladies Detective Agency series, different location, different politics but same, same. On the other hand, the music is good, Motown at its best. We discovered Irma Thomas as a result of hearing snippets of her 'Anyone Who Knows What Love Is' through episode 2.