Gearing up for another year

Happy New Year everyone! That means Mum's birthday has come around again! It was wonderful that she found me on skype this week and we were able to have a chat. She is a remarkable woman, enjoying life still in her 90's and not too daunted by new technology and how fast things are changing around her. 

When I was pushing myself through some tough limits on the recent trek I was thinking of her and her stubborn determination that saw her repeatedly knocking on doors seeking a way into nursing training and staying committed to her husband and family through some tough years while Dad was so unwell. I think I have more of her in me than I ever realized. 

This is a picture of her on her last visit to Singapore. We'll be seeing her in a few weeks when we go to Melbourne for my niece's wedding on Feb 7th.









I seem to have spent an inordinate amount of time sitting these last few weeks; at the computer sorting through photos or writing blog posts and emails. I've also had lots of fun making little animations to celebrate Christmas and New Year. And then there's the drudgery of chasing up docs for the tax returns. My knees have been happy in the sitting position though. We did venture out with Bev one night to catch the Christmas lights in Orchard Rd. 

Peter came over to share dinner with us one night, he had brought back some mince pies from his Aussie celebration in Sydney. Over dinner we discussed the fact that he has a real oven at his place that he has never used and that we have a leg of lamb in our freezer that needs cooking. So the next afternoon Eric walked to his place carrying the leg of lamb and all the raw vegetables and all the condiments in his backpack. When they turned on the oven nothing happened. It appears the oven was never wired in correctly so they both came back here and started again (in a bus this time). Our little bench top oven managed quite well and Peter supplied Christmas pudding and brandy sauce to boot. 

Eric shared breakfast with the new MAE recruits on Wednesday morning then took those who are joining us at our branches out to Kovan. There will be two new staff at each branch and at Kovan we have Robert and Maria transferring from Tampines. I waited at home for the plumber (one of our water heaters is corroded and needs replacing) and then relieved him at Kovan so the rest could move on to Punggol. I got a shock when one of them asked me if I was in my 4th year, I almost denied it and then had to agree. That's amazing. 

We celebrated New Year in the evening by returning to the Boomerang Bar where our colleague and good friend Jo won a voucher at the  Melbourne Cup Day function. She generously shared that with us over dinner and then we made our way along the river towards Marina Bay where the fireworks were held. We only made it as far as the Crazy Elephant Bar. Looking for a taxi afterwards was threatening to spoil a good night so we took the MRT instead which fortunately we found was still running until about 2:30am.

We only worked the Fri, Sat and Sunday of week 1 and then most staff from all the branches made it to Penny Black on the river at Boat Quay to celebrate a good start to 2015 (or commiserate the fact that the holidays are over). Eric is running the social club again and it was good to see so many show up to the first event. Our new staff are noticeably younger than we 'pasties'. 
The Monday walks resumed and this week we walked through the beautiful Botanical Gardens. Last year we saw them at about the same time, when Singapore was experiencing a dry spell and they looked like they were really suffering, but this week they were glorious. We finished up at Tanglin Mall for lunch.

 No new faces this week, most of the new staff are arranging to move out of the hotel and into their new condos this weekend. 

 At Swan Lake, Ive not seen white swans here before, only the black ones and some of these are sculptures.

A common kingfisher, not that common in Singapore actually.












In the evening we returned to Wine Mansion for dinner and farewell drinks for Michael Munro who is returning to Lismore after 2 years here as Heather's unemployed spouse. He has understandably had enough of twiddling his thumbs and is going home, planning to spend his days more purposefully. On the way home I stumbled and woke on Tuesday morning almost unable to walk on my left knee. Good thing I have an appointment lined up with a specialist in a few weeks.