All the family have been in touch and many friends joined us on Monday night at Plonk to celebrate another one of my birthdays. Some went to a lot of trouble to dress up in appropriate attire for a National Holiday celebration even though they weren't invited to. They were adorned with clinging koalas and other icons like Uluru and outback dunnies. Where do you find these fridge magnets? She must have some sort of dress-up box! Despite saying 'no presents' I now have the cutest elephant, we ate a stacked lamington, jaffas and caramelo birthday cake (the lamingtons were made from scratch), flowers and I was given a walking stick (but it didn't make it home unfortunatey). Peter innovated the lyrics to the song 'Mama' by B. J. Thomas (remember "Who's the one who tied you shoes when you were young...... " and sang to me.
Mahjong the elephant is the newest addition to the open-air exhibition dedicated to saving the Asian elephant from extinction. For one or more months, hundreds of painted elephant sculptures specially created by artists are placed in the streets of one or more host cities with the aim of increasing public awareness of the plight of the elephant and gaining support for Asian elephant conservation. They are then auctioned off, with the proceeds going to The Asian Elephant Foundation. They were here in Singapore from 11/11/11, a herd of over 100 brightly painted life-size elephants for two months so we saw some of them when we first arrived. You can purchase somewhat smaller replicas and a percentage of the money raised also supports the foundation. Kris chose Mahjong because on the trek to Annapurna I taught her some of the fundamentals of the game.
It can be very hard to make a choice from the range
A strange thing happened this week. I had ordered 5 bluetooth selfie sticks for Sandy, our very own gadget-fan friend, for the students at Alawa Primary who will use them with their ipod touches for digital projects. We were expecting them to be delivered but the SingPost man arrived at the door Friday morning to tell me the 2 packages had been stolen! He thinks he must have put them down while sorting letters at a big array of private boxes like our condo, and someone swiped them. To avoid the hassle of police reports and big trouble for him he insisted I sign to say they had been delivered and paid me the value out of a wad of money he carries around. I was so surprised a) that he carried that much money on him b) that he insisted this was a much better solution for him and c) that there is any crime in Singapore. And now I know why there is no crime in Singapore. They don't report it. Anyway, the sticks are back on order so we wait and see what happens next time.
We met Helen and Jo for lunch yesterday at Novena before my MRI. They are preparing to go to Cambodia and are happy to take more books to the Book Buddies project in Siem Reap. We offered some ideas regarding their itinerary and told them more about Socheat and his charity. We will lend them a suitable bag that can be used to transport the books.
The MRI went off without a hitch and then we met Peter and moved on to Chenguan's for dinner. His wife and daughter are in London for interviews, hoping Hong Yi will get into Medicine. Chenguan cooked up a lovely meal finished with copious amounts of Chinese tea.
Adrian has been in touch to say that he has arrived safely in Alice Springs to begin the next chapter in his life. His mate Jacob (ex Katherine High) drove up in a work ute and closed-in trailer. They filled it to the brim and headed back with the dog sharing the front seat. After 1,500 kms and a big night along the way with friends in Katherine they got back in time for Jacob to head out bush for the week of work. Good to be young. When we spoke to Adrian he was under Loretta's (Jacob's wife) orders to mow the lawns. It will be good for him to do some physical work in the very different climate. He was then heading off to enroll in a welding course and hopes to be on the job, travelling with Jacob as soon as next week. They will be doing all sorts of metal fabrication work, mostly out of town. They worked together some years back doing similar work, mostly fencing, in the remote communities of the Top End.
It's a shame we will miss him when we arrive in Darwin for a few days over Chinese New Year. We will also miss Yve and John who have just relocated to Adelaide and Sue Rose who is supporting her Dad in Nar Nar Goon. Never mind, I'm sure we won't be lonely.
No comments:
Post a Comment