October already

October already! Ai Yah (My Goodness), September seemed to be a busy month and it looks like October will be the same. We have a wedding in Melbourne on the 18th and tickets to the Women's Tennis the following week. In the middle is Deepavali which falls on the Wednesday so we have a long weekend. Hopefully all the renovations in our block will stop now that it is not so auspicious to renew outside the eighth month. There must be at least one project which has gone over the end date as I can hear a power drill operating as I type this. 
We saw in the new month with a night at The Crazy Elephant after work on Wednesday with Richard. It was Seth Roach's last night, a young American singer who can also play string, keyboard and wind instruments. What a show-off! Seth and the Blues Machine played many well known hits including a personal favourite, Jethro Tull. What a blast from the past.

The funniest thing that happened this week was looking back on the Friday walk. At the time it seemed far from funny, especially when I fell, but the pictures tell it best. We were attempting the northern end of the old rail trail, from Kranji to Bukit Timah. 

Our first mistake was choosing to walk along the left hand side of this canal - we should have selected the right. Our 'path' disappeared under impenetrable long grass just ahead.

 We could see the old rail bridge ahead but just couldn't get to it.

 Turn around and go back? No way, We can do this!

As we were walking hand-over-hand along the wrong side of the canal barrier, I noticed a local nonchalantly walking on a paved path on the other side of the canal looking somewhat bemused at our predicament. 

Then we realized why, if the threat of sliding down the embankment wasn't enough, add coiled razor-wire to the mix. It was either attempt that or scale an 8 ft fence (an option taken by Eric and Bev).

But we all managed it one way or the other and ended up back on the legal side. 

Our rail trail had a bit of everything. Here we walk on the old trail while a train passes overhead on the new line. 

At stages we were amid peaceful greenery punctuated only by bird-calls 

At other times it got lost under construction sites. 

Sometimes the vegetation got very thick and close.

Too close; this is about where I fell. At least it was a soft landing and no damage done except to my pride. 

 Almost at the end.

2 and a half hours later, just over 11 kms we made it to the familiar rail bridge at Bukit Timah.

And we reward ourselves with a fabulous lunch at Sunny Choice Organic Restaurant. 

Michael and I chose the Thunder Tea Rice and both struggled to find the bottom of the bowl. It was a good thing we had a long journey home so it had a chance to digest before a swim in the pool.  Just what we were craving.













The Saturday and Sunday at work went quickly. We all knew we should have had an early night on the Sunday since Monday was scheduled as another long walk. But of course we didn't, some ended up at Peter's place for night caps after dinner at Bliss.

Rising on Monday morning did prove to be a challenge but we found ourselves at Bukit Timah again for a walk to MacRitchie Rerservoir. It is about 12kms but a well maintained one compared to the rail trail. Being a public holiday for Hari Raya Haji, it also proved very popular (unfortunately - we are so used to having the trails to ourselves). 

We found this Slow Loris near the Ranger Station 

The crowd at the Ranger Station, many in the queue ahead of me for the toilets.

In the evening the same group reconvened at our place for dinner and the last of the Sullivan's Cove Whiskey. Eric cooked up Sri Lankan curries using recipes June collected from a cooking class she attended there.