Well done Luke!

Luke, you certainly know how to share the love!.  Not only did you leave the lousy cold with Tahlia as you left Darwin, but you managed to infect your father with a horrible dose of it too, and you were only here for about 10 hours. Lucky it wasn't longer or I might have caught it too.  He got through the work week but by the time he met me after work on Sunday evening he really didn't look enthused about taking me out for dinner to celebrate our 35th anniversary. He insisted though and we did manage a quick meal over at Serangoon Gardens. As it coincided with Mother's Day there were a lot of people dining out. At Chillax Cafe our food was quite nice, but typical of many places here, the service was lousy and I had finished my meal before Eric had been served.  We didn't linger over dessert or nightcaps but got home early so Eric could get to bed. 
Before Eric started feeling unwell, we had a lovely morning with Doug at our place. He came out to see what the real Singapore is like, not just what you can see from Marina Bay Sands or on Sentosa. We found some old photos from college days and early years of teaching in Melbourne as Eric and Doug shared houses together in Mitcham, Croydon and Mooroolbark before we were married. We were so young then! Here is Eric, Jake and Doug at their Graduation in 1977.

It was the annual MAE Golf Day on Monday, which Eric had organised, but unfortunately he was too unwell to go. 7 of us made the long journey across to Johore Bahru and we had a lot of laughs, hit a few good shots and got some exercise. My first drive was a cracker and I managed to birdie the last though none of the shots were actually what I pictured when I lined up for each shot. Somehow my 30m pitch into the green didn't leave the ground but was drawn into the hole like iron filings to a magnet. No one was more surprised than me but I'll take it.  Good way to finish, I'll return to play another day. 

 Heather and Graeme, my playing partners

On Tuesday a large group (but still excluding Eric) met at Beauty World and we made it up to the summit of Bukit Timah amongst a huge crowd of locals who were out enjoying a public holiday for Vesak Day. The day commemorates the birth, enlightenment and nirvana of Buddha and is celebrated by Buddhists around the world. It was a shorter walk than normal as we then travelled on by bus to the original Ford Factory on Upper Bukit Timah Rd which was the first SE Asian car assembly plant. Today it is most remembered as the site where the British surrendered Singapore to the Japanese on Jan 15, 1942. It is now restored and is a national monument which houses a WW11 exhibition gallery and Singapore archives. In the forecourt I was really impressed with a game of Snakes and Ladders that has been painted onto the ground. Each square represents one of the 44 months (3 yrs and 8 months) of life during the occupation. It seems like a terrific way for children to interact with and learn about a significant period of history. 

We took the opportunity to join a guided tour of the gallery which was very interesting. We learnt things like how the Japanese flag, that every soldier carried in his pack and signed by any friend or relative, was cherished like a physical piece of moral support as the soldiers had no idea how long it would be before they returned to Japanese soil. We also watched footage of the signing of the surrender and it was very interesting to see the different body language and of Lt Gen Percival and Lt Gen Yamashita. Percival didn't once look his opponent in the face and blinked continuously while Yamashita was very forceful, in a terrible rush to get the task completed and with eyes that stared unblinkingly. In fact he was full of bluff, had far fewer men on the ground and was also running out of water and supplies too, but he wasn't sharing that with anyone. Their far superior airpower had put them in the dominant position and he didn't want to lose the advantage if it came down to street fighting, so the quicker he got this signed the better. Renamed Syonan, meaning 'Light of the South', those here were never treated with respect, never treated as Japanese citizens, but rather slave labour. The Chinese were particularly targeted as they were all suspected of sending money home to China to support the motherland in the Sino-Japanese conflict. We saw portrayals of the massacres, atrocious living conditions the internees and POWs suffered and learnt more about the courage and resistance of many individuals and small operations groups. In this gallery there wasn't a lot of space dedicated to reconciliation. 

We then made our way 3 bus stops further along Upper Bukit Timah Rd and crossed over to join the rail trail. This was the original railway line that ran from Tanjong Pagar in the south to Woodlands in the north and over the causeway to Peninsular Malaysia. You can actually join the trail at a bridge that we walk under every week we go to the summit, but it is an exposed walk and by the time we had come back down it was pretty hot. Apparently the old Bukit Timah station is still standing. On the small section we walked we found that in some places the old track is still in place and in others, all that's left is a lovely, wide green path. We ate lunch at the Rail Mall which had plenty of options to choose from. 

Eric spent most of Wednesday morning in a queue at the Drs and came home with the expected diagnosis of a virus, a further 2 days rest recommended. Hope you are all feeling better than he is.