If you have to be sick, don't do it on holidays

After a few quiet days at home I have now thrown off the cold, and we are both in good shape. Only working evenings mid-week makes it much easier to still get the rest you need when you are not at your best. Managed to get some more photo scanning done and recorded old travel diaries while I was taking it easy. The travel diaries were our first trip to Thailand in May 1985 and the drive around the Malaysian Peninsula in '86. Good memories to revisit. Meanwhile, Eric has kept up his fitness routine and also been to the skin clinic for a check up. Have just the two final weeks of the term to get through and then we are off to Darwin. So looking forward to seeing family, friends and sharing bbqs. Just typing that work evokes the delicious smell of sausages grilling (and I dont even like sausages). I will get my drivers licence renewed at last, should have redeemed all my points by now. 

Peter joined us for one of Eric's scrumptious home cooked dinners on Saturday night then on Monday we did a walk we planned as he was unavailable. Since we had such a good number of walkers the week before we decided to keep it central and went through the Botanic Gardens and out around the Foreign Embassies. From the Melati Gate we walked right through the gardens and sections to the Tanglin Gate. The gardens are looking very dry, the water's edge has retreated about 2m on each of the lakes as Singapore experiences its longest dry spell on record and some parts of Malaysia are on water rationing. 

 Cycads didn't seem to mind the lack of water

 There were a number of different Tai Chi groups practicing

 Heliconia, still a favourite of mine, this one Sexy orange

 both the monitor and the grass looking thirsty

The plan was to see the Australian, American, British, Myanmarr, Philippine, Russian and Japanese Embassies before returning to our starting point back at the Gardens. All of these are within walking distance of each other. As it turned out I miscalculated and took a wrong turn into Nassim Hill, instead of Nassim Rd, so missed a couple of them but we still found it interesting.

Walking in the residential streets of Tanglin, around the embassies, we saw some astonishing mansions. The most impressive was Arwaa Mansion, which we were drawn to by the beautiful wrought iron gates. It seems this property is one of the most expensive private properties in Singapore but the subject of a court battle between a family member of the Sultan of Brunei and Brunei’s National Investment Agency. 

We re-entered the Gardens through the Nassim Gate and finished back at the Melati Gate where we exited, crossed the road and ate lunch at Adam's Hawker Centre across the road. All up, we had covered just over 10kms.

On Monday evening, after meeting with Heather and Michael at our place to discuss progress on the Great Race, we all met up with Deb and Michael at Da Paolo Pizza Bar in Holland Village. It was a lovely evening to sit on the sidewalk and enjoy good company and food.

We spent quite a bit of time researching details of Cape Town on Tuesday morning and trying to narrow down the accommodation choices. In the evening we met up with all the music lovers at Molly Roffey's Irish Pub in Bras Basah before making our way to the stadium in Kallang for the Eric Clapton Concert. This is the first time either of us have ever had the chance to see him so we were quietly excited. He didn't disappoint, and to our surprise his band were also all very accomplished musicians, well known to our Eric. He'd seen Steve Gadd play last year in his own concert tour and here he was on drums. On piano keyboards was Chris Stainton who played with Joe Cocker on 'Mad Dogs and Englishmen' amongst many others. On electric organ was Paul Carrick, who also sang a few solos during the night. He has played and sung with Mike and the Mechanics, Roxy Music etc. On Base guitar was the Nathan East who we have seen on dvd's of other Eric Clapton concerts. A couple of times during the night we just squeezed each other as if to say 'Does it get any better than this?' We really didn't think we would ever get to see him live. His tour continues; first he was in Japan, next stop Dubai and then on to USA and Europe.