Tuesday 9 June 2015

Believe it or not

As Michael was only staying until Saturday we shared dinner with him, Heather and Peter after work on Thursday night and then they all came back to our place. The boys had planned another whiskey tasting so it went on far to long and got far too noisy but so far the neighbours haven't complained. They have amassed quite a selection of labels over the last few months. It did mean that we dragged ourselves to work though, for the rest of the week. Would have been much easier to just stay home after that weekend away and then that late night on top. 



Despite all that, we still managed to attend the end of term drinks arranged by the MAE social club at Timbre@TheSubstation. As its name suggests, the building was previously a power sub-station, built in 1926. By the late 1970s the building was no longer in use and left vacant. In 1986, together with the Tao Nan School next door (now the Peranakan Museum) and the shophouses along Armenian Street, were all identified for conservation by the URA. In 1986 it was converted into an arts center and now houses an art gallery, dance studio and performance theatre. It was good to catch up with people we don't see often and chat about plans for holidays to all points of the globe. By the time the live music began at 10:30 though, we were ready to head home. I think some of the young ones will have kicked on a lot longer. It is the same building we found yarn bombed in September last year. 

Meanwhile the SEA Games have begun and a number of students from our classes have attended events. We caught some of the opening ceremony on tv after work on Friday night.  Ticket prices are very reasonable but we are not that interested in seeing any of the events that fall in our free time.  All the athletes and officials participating in the games are being accommodated in 20 hotels around the city so I'm glad we're not looking for a spare room at this time, the rates must be very high. 11 countries belong to the federation, Timor-Leste being the newest member, recognised in 2003.  There is a huge campaign on to get locals involved and show support. See the train carriage and taxi below.

This week's Monday walk was scheduled as an evening one on Sentosa Island. Who had the insight to make that clever decision I wonder? We enjoyed a sleep-in and then a stroll around Bidadari with binoculars. It was a very fruitful search turning up many different species despite the late hour of the morning. The biggest surprise was finding Common Hill Mynas, which we saw on Bintan last weekend for the first time ever. Common Hill Mynas are quite good mimics of human voices, and are still kept as pets by some people. Larger than the other species, it prefers the forest to an urban setting. It has a black glossy plumage with yellow wattles around the back of the neck and under the eyes. Although common in Singapore in the past, the Common Hill Mynas are now considered rare residents unlike their introduced cousins, the Javan Myna (white vented myna) brought from Indonesia as pets. The proliferation of buildings in modern Singapore, perfectly suits the feeding nesting style of this successfully adapted grey bird, which we commonly see around open air hawker centres. The Common Mynah (Indian) is distinguished from the Javan Myna by it yellow eye patch and brown plumage. Sometimes bald birds can be seen, a phenomenon not seen in the other mynas. It is usually seen in pairs and just like in Australia, these and its Javan cousins, are considered rats of the skies here too.  

Common Hill Myna, good guy at (L), Javan Myna, (C) and Common Myna (R), both bad guys


In the evening we made our way to VivoCity to meet up with a larger than usual group. It would seem others also enjoy a Monday morning sleep-in. The walk took us across the boardwalk, up to the merlion, down along the beautifully mosaiced waterfall to Siloso Beach then back along the boardwalk. We were joined by a few more of Bev's work colleagues at Marche on VivoCity's rooftop to celebrate her birthday to end a very pleasant evening. 
As you can see Eric got right into the 'Wear Red' campaign

On Tuesday morning Eric decided to have his camera serviced so while he was gone, Heather and I went in search of the Hill Mynahs again and a park I had read about where they installed the old gates of the original Bidadari Cemetery. We didn't find that particular bird but we did meet a Gurkha! I had no idea that there was a Gurkha Camp, tucked away beside this Vernon Park we had set out to find, that is home to 2000 Nepalese Gurkha soldiers, here to protect Singapore's most important people and places. The principal role of the contingent is to be a special guard force, and it is currently used as a counter-terrorist force. Their signature broad-rimmed hats and kukris, a curved blade, are familiar sights outside top ministers' homes. They have been here since 1949, once India gained independence from the British Empire. The Gurkhas of Nepal battalions from the Indian Army were divided between the Indian Army and the British Army. Those transferred to the British Army were posted to other remaining British Colonies. In Malaya and Singapore, their presence was required in the Malayan Emergency, and they have since established themselves against militant unions and whenever racial riots have occured. Their presence as a neutral force has been important because local police officers were often perceived to be (or were even expected to be) biased towards their own ethnic groups. We met Chandra Rai, who has been here for 23 years, and had just finished running laps of Bidadari, while we were birdwatching. He showed us a short-cut to the park. I found an interesting article in the newspaper about recruiting young gurkhas here .


When the cemetery closed, they created this little garden at Vernon Park to commemorate 20 people who were considered important to Singapore's history, and who had been interred at Bidadari Cemetery. They include doctor and philanthropist Lim Boon Keng, Ahmad Ibrahim, and R. A. J. Bidwell–the architect who had designed the Raffles Hotel, Goodwood Park Hotel, and Chesed-El Synagogue. The old gates of the Bidadari Cemetery, which bore the lion emblem of the Singapore Municipal Council, were then placed at the entrance of Bidadari Garden. We found it a peaceful little corner tucked in beside the Mt Vernon Sanctuary which used to be Mount Vernon Crematorium and home to more than 20,000 niches for ashes stored in the columbarium blocks. It was opened in 1962 and was the first state run crematorium in Singapore to handle cremations. It ceased operations 2004 and current cremations are now done at Mandai Crematorium and Choa Chu Kang Columbarium Complex.

After the last few nights out socializing at bars and restaurants it was time for a meal at home and Eric spent the afternoon in the kitchen whipping up a huge paella which was delicious. 

Wednesday 3 June 2015

Bintan

On Friday we walked with Heather and June through Bukit Brown Chinese Cemetery. Of the estimated 100,000 graves, nearly 4000 have been exhumed to make way for a new 4-lane road that will cut through the cemetery. Roadworks are well underway but if you ignore all that, there is still a large area to wander through and the cemetery is home to many bird species and other wild life, making it popular with nature lovers. 


Among the flocks of many common birds we were fortunate to see a first sighting of a pair of Long-Tailed Parakeets and a good view of a family of Banded Woodpeckers. Of the three species of parakeet found here, the Long-tailed is the only native representative, and is sadly a globally near-threatened species. Males of this species are very colourful with bright red bills, peach coloured cheeks, black malar band and long flowing tails. The female lacks the long tail feathers and the reddish coloration on the head is limited to the cheeks. Like others in the parrot family, they might not always be seen but they most definitely make their presence known with loud, screeching calls. I had seen the banded woodpecker once before at McRitchie Res but this was a first for Eric and Heather. 


It has been announced that the rest of the cemetery will make way for a new public housing town in about 40 years time, but in the meantime we are likely to revisit this densely-treed pocket of land where nature has clawed back some of its territory and the spirits of the dead and so many birds call home.   

Both Bev and Jo came over to our place on Sunday night after work from Jurong to sleep the night and have a much quicker trip to the Tanah Merah Ferry on Monday morning. They had to let themselves in because we first had dinner at Grapevine on the way home and a few of those who joined us followed us home.

We were thrilled to get a phone call from Tahlia and Luke while we were at Grapevine and to hear all is good with them. They boasted about the fruits of 'their' garden and followed up with a picture including the red dragon fruit and red grapefruit but also mentioned the limes and jack fruit. 







We were reasonably careful and went to bed at a reasonable hour, but still the alarm on Monday morning roused us from sleep way too soon. Fortunately all 11 of us were at the ferry terminal in plenty of time because it departed an hour before the advertised time on the schedule! The sea was flat and I kept my breakfast for a change.

We were all heading to Bintan Lagoon Resort where Heather had booked a villa for us to share and celebrate her birthday. Nothing ever goes exactly to plan when there are that number of people involved and you are making arrangements with people who don't speak English as a first language and whatsmore, they are working on local time. Suffice to say it was a fun weekend with plenty of good company, food and alcohol. There were lots of laughs, dips in the pool and some new bird sightings to boot. 

The Bintan Lagoon Resort

Our private villa

The birthday party was held at the villa where a cook did a magnificent bbq for us. Enough food was served to feed us all the next day for lunch. It all began in quite a civilised fashion but then developed as the home grown entertainment began. 


Birding opportunities were plentiful. In fact a pair of sunbirds were building a nest in a small bougainvillia right outside the villa's kitchen window. We had a number of opportunities to watch them come and go with materials.  With the Jack Nicklaus Sea View Golf Course and the Ian Baker-Finch Woodlands Golf Course attached to our resort we went for a number of walks with our binos and were thrilled to see Hill Mynas with their characteristic yellow lace collars (middle top), the long tailed parakeets nesting (right) and a chestnut bellied malkoha (middle bottom). Of course we would have loved to have played them too, almost nobody else was, but at about $100 a round it was all getting a little expensive. 


The early ferry trip back on Wednesday morning was very smooth too so we all got to work on time. It was a long day though and I bet we all had quiet nights once work finished at 9:30.