Raffle winner

Arriving home from that lovely few days in Darwin last week, via Bali so we could arrive on Friday, we went straight to bed for a decent sleep. By the time we got to work on Saturday we were fully recharged. Luckily I had left a red shirt hanging on the wardrobe door so I wouldn't forget to wear it on Saturday for Chinese New Year which continues to be celebrated for up to two weeks. The staff at Kovan looked resplendent in their outfits featuring red but apparently the leader at Punggol forgot all about it. Strange how you don't notice these things at 7:30 in the morning across the breakfast table. Well, it is the year of the goat.

After nearly 15 months of weekly raffle draws I finally won the prize when the draw took place while we were in Melbourne for Anna's wedding. To prove it wasn't a fluke I managed to score second prize this week. The drought has broken and I mean to make up for all those lean months! Only three weeks to go until holidays at the end of term. Most of the usual drinking holes we frequent on a Sunday night to celebrate the end of the week are closed at the moment for CNY so we just ate at the Kovan Grill with Peter and Heather. 

On Monday Eric joined the walkers at Bukit Timah to walk to McRitchie while I went to Tan Tock Seng Hospital for the pre-op check up. I expected to be about an hour but it turned out to be a lot longer since they had not received some paperwork from the Health Insurance Co that takes care of me. Eventually it was all sorted but a waste of a day off. 

 At one stage the receptionist was on two lines at once trying in vain to sort it out. 

In the evening several MAE staff members enjoyed many and varied martinis at the Mandarin Oriental in Marina Square as a social club event. Apparently the Death by Chocolate martini and the Lychitini were the crowd favourites but I chose not to go after that long day. Eric joined them but stuck to beer usual. After happy hour they moved on to Gluttons Corner for dinner. Say no more! Next up is a 10 pin bowling challenge at Jurong. 

Mandarin Oriental in the foreground












To improve my mood I went for a swim on Tuesday morning and then got out the sewing machine to be creative. While we were in Melbourne earlier in the month Beth gave me some lovely pieces of material she has been saving for a long time with the intention of one day sewing but never finding the time. Now with the busy move of house she has given them to me which I really appreciate. The first piece was quite small so I had to be quite creative just to get a pattern to fit and was left with no more than a handful of scraps. I thank Mum for teaching us to cut very frugally when we were kids. 

Worth the trouble though for these colours and design. Quite like a batik.

Year of the Goat

Returning to Singapore and work on Wednesday coincided with Peter's birthday. A number of us joined him for a late supper after work at Grapevine and then a few wandered home with us for a nightcap. Some people don't know when to go home and in fact one even stayed over! It was a fun night.








Everything here is gearing up for Chinese New Year on Feb 19, the Year of the Goat (or Sheep or Ram, depending on your interpretation of the Chinese character 'Yang' which really means any ruminant mountain animal with horns).  In any case people born under the sign of the Goat are described as peace-loving, kind and popular. 

The malls are all dressed up and the shelves are overflowing with treats and red or golden decorations. Tiger Brewery always do a special promotion at this time of the year. We have been trying to win $8000 by collecting 4 different bottle tops that together make up Gong Xi Fa Cai. 

 On Thursday after work while we had dinner at our usual Kovan grill and the Tiger Girl surprised us with a Tiger bottle top that gave us $80.That paid for our dinner, drinks and put some in her pocket. I'm not sure who was the most surprised. 

On Friday Eric went for a bike ride to Bishan and Ang Mo Kio Parks. The bikes had been collecting dust since we went into serious step climbing training last year. 




















Last weekend, the Living and Learning Centre in Yarra Glen celebrated 50 years of operating in the community. My Mum was the VIP as she was one of the few who initiated the project.They had a pear tree there for her to plant in recognition of her efforts. She roped Dad in as well and he was the Treasurer for many years. Judy attended the celebrations. 

While those celebrations were winding up, on Saturday night we met Heather and Peter after work and traveled in to Chinatown to see the lights and decorations. It was packed with people but the displays were worth the trouble. We probably should have eaten somewhere else though as getting food in Smith St was for people prepared to stand in queues only. 

Sunday went so quickly and before we knew it we were heading back to the airport for another flight, this one to Darwin. I'm pretty sure the Duty Free Shop recognised Eric from the week before as this time the Lion lured him back. 

We were met at the airport by Sandy even though it was before 6am. We settled in at her new place in Lyons and then Eric drove her to school so we could use her car. After a sleep we dropped in to Luke's new store in the city only to discover he was on a rostered day off so we went back out to Koolpinyah Cres where we found both he and Tahlia home with the dogs. Ali is looking greyer again but still lively and their Xena could lick you to death. We arranged to have dinner with them later in the week as Mervyn, Tahlia's dad, is also in town then. We met up with Sandy, Di and Randall and their son Tristan at the Precinct down at the waterfront for dinner. It was a lovely evening sharing travel plans and stories. Di and Randall visited us with Sandy last year and are off to Wales about the same time we go to Ireland in June. In fact they invited us to join them for a few days on a riverboat in Wales if we have the time and we are considering it. 

Look who came out to meet us! These cheeky Magpie Geese were very comfortable in the damp green verge. 














On Tuesday we did find Luke at work and managed to book the flights for June. No trouble to him. The other chaps in the pic are his trainees. He is managing to attract a good staff from his old workplace (not sure how they feel about that). The shop is right on the corner of Mitchell and Knuckey streets and so an excellent location. He is very happy with the business coming through the doors and will have no problem meeting his target for the month. 

We had to buy a new phone as the one we took with us just locked up so we went out to JB-Hi at Berrimah where Luke's mate Noah looked after us and then took a detour out to Lee Point and Buffalo Creek to see the development on the way in the new suburb of Muirhead and also out at the new Club Tropical Resort. Its all very extensive.

Club Tropical Resort used to be a mozzie infested caravan park. 

In the evening we collected Sandy and she shared some EC resources with me for some writing I am doing with MAE. Eric cooked up a lamb bbq which we all enjoyed indoors. It is very hot here at the moment, as we expected, and in fact Severe Tropical Cyclone Lam is causing evacuations and threatening damage along the coast out in Arnhemland as I write this. Here we are relaxing in the knowledge the cyclone is well to the east.

We dropped Sandy at work on Wednesday and then went for a short walk through the Coastal Nature Reserve by the hospital, a favourite bird watching site of ours. It is so green at this time of the year and the spear grass above my shoulders. We saw plenty of birds but either they are getting faster or we are getting slower, all the small ones seemed to flit off before we got to identify them. Still we saw kingfishers, lorikeets, kites, finches, friarbirds, doves, honeyeaters ..... you can't be disappointed with that. Since I was already hot and sweaty I then spent about an hour in Sandy's garden which needed some attention. I was happy to see the gardener we employ at Koolpinyah is doing a good job and have been able to resist getting my hands dirty there, but just couldn't look at the state of this site any longer. In that short time I was able to fill her wheelie bin with invasive weeds and prunings. 

We took a drive out to Palmerston to visit Gray Primary where Eric spent 5 years as AP. There were still a number of staff there that he worked with. It was a tough school and the staff had to pull together and so built lots of long-term friendships. On the way home we called into Greening Australia to buy a few more plants for Koolpinyah, it is nice not having to dig the holes, just place them for Manuel. (Update: when we returned Thursday evening I found 2 chewed plastic pots and a very guilty looking Xena so had to do the digging after all). 

In the evening we collected Sandy and then all went down to the Dripstone cliffs to watch the sunset and enjoy the cool breeze off the choppy Arafura Sea. In fact the cyclone caused waves to be big enough for the foolhardy to surf and extreme tides while we were in Darwin. 

Sandy went home to get some work done while we shared a lovely Indian meal with Colin and Denise. They have recently become grandparents for the first time ("winning" a competition with us) and also visited Ireland last year so we had plenty to talk about. The evening went so quickly! We shared the winnings, a lovely Claire Valley red, with them. 








Much of Thursday was spent doing errands; we paid the bills, got the groceries, repacked and cooked dinner to share with Luke and Tahlia.  When we collected sandy after work she took us for a tour of the Alawa School farm. They have chooks, turkey, peafowl, goats, pet rabbits, a turtle and lizard to mane a few. Usually there are poddy calves and next they are looking for pigs. The chooks free range around the fruit trees and the veggie garden is a great source of fresh supplies for the kitchen, canteen or for sale. The farm program provides hands-on, real life experiences for the students and is integrated into many areas of the curriculum and tied to the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program. Note the geese on the roof in the second picture 

It was a lovely evening shared with Mervyn on the back verandah with the dogs. How did we manage not to take any pics of luke and Tahlia at home? 

We should have had no trouble flying out at midnight since it was expected STC Lam would hit landfall well east of Darwin. In fact it it scored a direct hit on Ramingining and Milingimbi as a Cat 4 storm about 2am, I can't imagine how frightening it would be to be present in a remote community shelter there in the dark. 

What we hadn't realised was I booked the first leg of the return tickets via Denpasar for 19th March instead of Feb! Thankfully Jetstar were able to get us on and our only penalty was having to check in the bags instead of taking them as carry on. Its only money she says as she grinds her teeth, what a waste of holiday dollars! There is no doubt Denpasar airport has improved since we last spent a night there between flights. That was back in about 2005 and nothing was open and you had the choice of lying on the dirty tiled floor or the teak chairs, a very long and uncomfortable transit stop. The new facilities are fabulous with all-night food outlets and cushions but you pay for it. We had to purchase visas on arrival which we had not expected since we were staying in the airport and then we had to pay departure tax. Both these have increased exponentially no doubt paying for the new airport. 

Anna and Yaaren Becktash

It felt so strange only working 2 days of the week and then on Friday evening flying to Melbourne for Anna's wedding. Unfortunately the only flights on a Friday leave late so we arrived about 10 am on the morning of the wedding. 

Eric didn't have any trouble passing the time at Changi Airport though once he found this corner of the duty free. We watched a few movies to help pass the time. I saw 'Grace' and 'Boyhood' while Eric saw 'Jimi Hendrix'. 

















He did a great job driving out to Mooroolbark where my brother Colin and  Beth are in the process of moving into a house in Bickleigh Vale. This area was once the farm of renowned landscape architect Edna Walling. She lived there in a stone cottage she built while she worked as a gardener at Dame Nellie Melba's Coombe Cottage at Coldstream. In the early 1920's she bought the adjoining property and then subdivided. Vetting the buyers as suitable, she then oversaw the construction of 16 cottages and gardens. From the 1920's to 40's Edna held open days at her stone cottage known as 'Sonning' and became sought after as a garden designer by Melbourne's elite. She designed city and country gardens in Victoria and some in New South Wales. Clients included Dame Elizabeth Murdoch, Mrs Harold Darling, Sir Clive and Lady Steele and the Baillieus. She wasn't impressed with the encroaching suburbia though and in 1967, at 71 years of age, she moved to Buderim, Queensland where she started a new home and garden. In 1989 Bickleigh Vale joined Victoria's Garden Scheme. The gardens of five of her original cottages, some now extended, are open to the public one day each spring and autumn. Colin had visited during that time and always thought it would be an ideal place to live but never actually thought it might one day happen. It is so lovely to see them so content in a house probably built in about the 70's. 

You can't put a value on a magnificent tree like this in your front yard. We were constantly distracted from our conversations on the front deck by passing wattlebirds, cockatoos, magpies, fantails and many more.















The wedding took place in a small church in the main street of Yarra Glen. Presided over by Pastor Luke from the outreach church Anna and Yaaren belong to, it was a joyous occasion for everyone who attended and standing room only for any late arrivals. Anna's brother Nat is in London, but other than that it seems everyone was able to attend.

The reception was held in the RSL Hall across the road. The playground proved a huge hit for all the children who attended, many who took part in the service. The families and friends had transformed the hall into a fabulous venue, so far removed from the memories the Caddy offspring hold of the place as teenagers who spent Saturday nights here at the 50/50 dances. Mum enjoyed the whole event and lasted as long as we did into the evening.

On Sunday we drove out to Yarra Glen again to collect her and bring her back to Bickleigh Vale, the first chance she has had to see the house. Then my sister Judy joined us and we all had lunch together in Croydon to celebrate Cols birthday. It is only about 20 mins to Mum's and Croydon is their preferred local shopping centre and where we bought our first home. After lunch we dropped by to have a look at the little 2 bedroom weatherboard home in Rose Court. We bought it for $26,000 in 1981 and we can see that it sold in 2011 for $401, 000. It was nice to see it still loved and well cared for. 

In the evening, after dropping Mum back home, we shared a lovely relaxed meal with Col and Beth. They are very happy 'nesters' despite the fact that there are a lot of items on the 'to do' list.

On Monday Eric went into the city to meet his brother Laurie and wife Sue who had come down from Maryborough to meet up. They had lunch at Federation Square and then walked down to Rod Laver Arena and did a tour which they all found interesting. Eric particularly enjoyed walking the Avenue of Honour and seeing the past champions from back as far as 1988 when it took over from Kooyong as the home of the Aust Open. 

Meanwhile I drove down to Judy and Roger's in Beaumaris and spent the afternoon enjoying their company in another lovely home with a great outlook. Eric caught a train down to Sandringham in the late afternoon. Despite the fact that Rog had undergone a medical procedure on his calf in the morning, he cooked a lovely risotto for dinner which we shared with their children Jas and Bec who drove over to join us. Bec is planning a trek in Nepal soon so we had lots to talk over and Jas and Georgie are off to the USA not long after. The dining room table was strewn with maps and planned itineraries for Judy and Rog's trip to Portugal and Spain finishing with a golfing trip on the courses around Paris. Aren't we a lucky lot? Our grandparents could never have dreamed travel would be so affordable. 

On Tuesday we drove back towards the airport but called in on a dear friend at Essendon. We first met Glenice teaching together at Katherine School of the Air, then she joined Eric at Gray Primary, eventually retiring and moving south.  She expected Geelong to be where she would resettle but after renting and joining her beloved Cats at many games she has now bought a lovely single fronted home in Essendon, home of the mighty Bombers of all things! To our delight she also had Yve and John staying with her, friends from Darwin who have also retired down south. We were not sure when we would catch up with them again since they are planning to eventually settle in Adelaide. Together with Glenice, we interrupted the three of them planning their itinerary for a trip to France later in the year.

After a lovely lunch we returned the rental car and caught our flight home. We have enjoyed an incredibly social few days and it was so good to see everyone enjoying good health and having interesting plans for the near future. 

Thaipusam

We are gearing up to be ready for our trip to Melbourne next weekend to celebrate another family wedding. We fly out Friday night and on landing will drive straight out to Yarra Glen. Anna is my brother Col's eldest daughter, a teacher and social worker. While she was doing her teacher training she visited us in Katherine and was able to accompany me on a School of the Air visit to Limmin Bight Fishing Camp. It will be lovely to spend some time with the family again and see some of the Yarra Valley where I grew up.

At work we need to have everything up to date in the green boxes for the relief staff. We get back in time to work the following week and then fly out five days later to spend Chinese New Year in Darwin. Sadly Adrian has already left for Alice Springs, Sue Rose has returned to Melbourne to care for her ailing father and Yve and John have retired to Adelaide. No doubt we will still find enough people to enjoy some social moments. We are staying with Sandy this time in the new place she is renting in Lyons, very close to Tiwi. 

While we were trekking to Base Camp in December Heather and Michael visited Morocco. They brought back a tagine and Heather decided it was time to put it to use. Over a quiet conversation, that one dish turned into a shared dinner where Eric volunteered another Middle Eastern recipe (though we don't have our tagine here with us) and in no time it turned into a three course dinner party. He needed dates for the recipe so that required a trip to Mustafa's in Farrer Park on Saturday night after work. The place was absolutely jam-packed with shoppers and as soon as we found what we needed, we escaped to the rooftop restaurant for dinner which offers both indoor and outdoor dining areas but no alcohol on the menu.

While we were there, the streets of Chinatown came to life with the official light-up to usher in the Chinese New Year. It was a night of song and dance - not just in celebration of the coming CNY, but also Singapore's Golden Jubilee this year. We will have to go down there in the coming weeks to see the motorised goat lanterns and dazzling gold coins weighing five kg each, hanging above the streets - all to ring in the Year of the Goat. The HDB across the road continues to be upgraded with a new preschool, mailboxes, covered walkways and lifts etc. To commemorate the pioneers one of the void decks has been refurbished with posters of local landmarks from the early days. Only last week a taxi driver was telling us that it was once a cemetery.

One of the residents died this week and the funeral is being held in the void deck. These are just some of the paper funerary articles donated by the family to make sure they will be comfortable in the afterlife. To give you some idea of the size, I could have sat in the car.



Scheduled tor Monday night, everything was going to plan until Eric ran out of time to cook his Moroccan dish so I was left with the task while he walked the rail trail from Buona Vista to the Rail Mall. And I had only volunteered to do brandied oranges for dessert. No cooking involved! Women's Weekly Cookbook doesn't credit that second dish as being Moroccan but who cares. Oranges are very plentiful here at the moment in the lead up to Chinese New Year. Anyway, it turned out to be a lovely dinner at Maria and Robert's and even the left overs of my lamb with dates recipe were snaffled up. 

On our way to the Moroccan dinner party we dropped by Melisa and Craig's condo in Lorong Chuan to share in her birthday celebrations. She held an all afternoon pool party, quite an event for a Canadian who usually celebrates her birthday in the deepest, coldest part of the year. Apparently all her friends back home were quite jealous. She turned 27, same age as our Luke. Everyone else at the bbq would have been in their 20s and 30s too so we felt a bit like the responsible adults, but no one there seemed to take any notice. 

This week Hindus celebrated Thaipusam which sees devotees take part in a procession seeking blessings, fulfilling vows and offering thanks Lord Subramaniam (also known as Lord Murugan), who represents virtue, youth and power, and is the destroyer of evil. 

 The procession on Tuesday was the culmination of a month-long spiritual preparation with a strict vegetarian diet. Devotees carry milk pots and pierce their tongues with skewers or carry a kavadi elaborately decorated with flowers, peacock feathers and spikes. 

We first saw this spectacle in Penang and this year the MAE Social Committee organised a mid-term dinner at Banana Leaf Restaurant in Little India, close by the starting point at Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple in Serangoon Road, Little India. The procession makes its way to Layan Sithi Vinayagar Temple at Keong Siak Road. 







That would be less than 5 kms but take a lot longer than an hour as they continually stop along the way, dance and spin for the chanting crowds. It is a very colourful and noisy parade and creates traffic havoc. 

In mid January Pongal is celebrated mostly in South India over four days, by farmers who give thanks to 'Surya', the Sun God and giver of life, for the blessings of a rich harvest. Celebrations begin with worship of Lord Indra, the Ruler of Clouds and Giver of Rains. Thorough spring-cleaning as well as the discarding of old belongings is carried out to signify a fresh start. Oil lamps are lit, new clothes are donned and colourful designs in rice flour are created on the floors of houses. One of the days is set aside to honour cattle. The lights of that festival still adorn the streets in Little India as the last of the Thaipusam parade makes its way to the end point.

We had a great turn out at our dinner, a good mixture of staff from all branches.