Parisilk Revisited

In the 80's, living in Butterworth, if you wanted anything electronic you put your order through to Paris Silk in Singapore and before you knew it, a phone call announced the order was on base waiting for pick up. It had arrived courtesy of a Hercules transport that the RAAF flew on regular runs between the here and the Singapore Base. Paris Silk was located at Sembawang at that time, conveniently close to the Air and Naval Bases. It was established in 1952, selling textiles, mainly silk, hence the name. Over the years, very good rapport was fostered with the military personnel from both Australia and New Zealand and their reputation for service and delivery was excellent. 

Nowadays, they are re-branded as Parisilk and trade in computers and electonics from 5 stores; 2 in Holland Village, one each in Bedok and East Coast as well as Sembawang. 







Heather has developed quite an interest in birding since walking with us so she decided it was time to invest in a pair of her own binoculars. I offered to go shopping with her on Friday and we found ourselves at Parisilk in Holland Village. I was very impressed by two pairs they showed us, but kept reminding myself I wasn't shopping for myself. Besides I love my Nikon Monarchs. To cut a long story short I have since sold my Monarchs to work colleagues and returned Saturday night to by a set of German Steiners. Same size and weight but improved contrast to help see wildlife most easily. Oh, and Heather got herself a pair of Vortex.  
Peter has now moved out of his place and is sharing temporarily with ex MAE staff now working at the Overseas Family School. They live in Yio Chu Kang, so not too far away. He has left a few pieces of furniture with us here until his next, permanent move. Glad to be able to pay him back a favour after all he has done for us. His good friends, Chen Guang and Chunjiao, have offered to organise a trip, for a few of us who have trekked in Nepal together, to their home region of China. She is from Changchun, the capital and largest city of Jilin province, He is from Harbin. Both are in the Northeast corner. above Korea and not too far from Vladivostok across the Russian border. We are considering it for the September break, a rare opportunity to visit China with local insight. 

I struggled with a sore throat and headache on Sunday so didn't join the walkers on Monday. They walked through Kampong Buangkok, the last remaining kampong in Singapore. It was mentioned in the local newspaper as recently as February when a resident began renovating one of the remaining 26 old homes by tearing down its wooden roof and walls and replacing them with metal and brick, not the traditional building materials. 

Some heritage enthusiasts were voicing their concerns that it would result in the loss of the area's character. The kampong, which is on private land, is not a conserved site. Most of Singapore's kampung architecture no longer exists, the best examples are now on Pulau Ubin. 

From an era long gone, these traditional clogs called “terompah“ were usually worn within the confines of the home.

They were preferred by women when working on wet surfaces particularly when they were washing clothes, working in the kitchen or going to the bathroom. This was because clogs would not slip and they prevented wet feet. Vendors in the market place also preferred them as the high wooden base kept their feet away from the wet and dirty floors in the markets. Earlier clogs were hand-painted with two coats of paint; red for women, green for men. No good for my knees and arches.



We visited Bidadari with our binos and Eric's camera on Tuesday morning. While we didn't see anything unexpected we would have listed at least a dozen different species without difficulty. Happy with the new purchase. Top is a male olive backed sunbird, below the Chinese Pond Heron in breeding plumage. 

Every time we visit here we see more destruction of the habitat. Below are the envisaged new neighbourhoods. They have already begun Alkaff and Sennett so we only have half left of what we started with. Same for the birds. According to the Urban Development Authority, there will be a park measuring one tenth of its total size, as well as a cycling path for its six neighbourhoods. These will serve residents of its 11,000 flats. 

The Singapore Nature Society has proposed quite a different parkland boundary as seen in

the image. This was once the Muslim section of the cemetery and has become very overgrown with trees since the graves were exhumed in the early 2000s. We feel it would be a good compromise, a win win for all but - this is Singapore. Population growth is high on their agenda.

In the afternoon we cooked Sri Lankan dishes to take to Heather and Helen's and share along with Peter, Robert and Maria. It was a fun night and the food was fabulous. The pictures are too ridiculous (so not to be posted here).