The best news to discover this week is that electrical power has at last been connected to Gudel. With all the bad news hitting the headlines it is so good to think what opportunities this will provide for the locals. We will always remember standing outside the guesthouse at Gudel with headlamps on, surrounded by blackness, while across the deep valley, lights from the village twinkled. How much easier it will be for them not to cook over smokey fires built into the earthen floors of the kitchens, not to have to chop firewood to heat the water, having 24hr refrigeration, to access the outside world from there instead of walking to that other village.... Of course it will also bring tv, the internet and other technologies that will not only have positive influences. It will be a minefield but the positives for the school are enormous. Fancy not having to rely on battery power to run the one computer and printer. Now the satellite dish can go in and the senior science lab can be built. Lots of work to be done and money to be raised. With the devastating earthquakes of late I had expected that the deposit Gudel paid to have the power connected back in 2011 may well have just evaporated.
Meanwhile, schools here have closed for annual holidays and so have a number of tuition centres, but we still have a week and a bit to go. Keep trying to not think about that 'bit', would have been so much better to have left the weekend before. Not to worry, we are well placed to make it to the end in good health and good spirits. Easing the way for us is that we have negotiated to stay in Cherry Hill Condo for the final year, and at a reduced rent to boot, so very happy about that. There are many new condos around here now, so demand has dropped in this area. Some of our colleagues are busily looking for options to relocate, don't envy them all the hassle.
On Friday we took a trip to Tampines to visit Eco Green and there were plenty of little birds to keep us on our toes, they flit so quickly between perches! Eric got some terrific shots of the brown-throated sunbird. Other highlights were the blue-tailed bee eater and the sooty-headed bulbul. Then we walked through to Pasir Ris Park and finished up at the newly refurbished Pasir Ris Mall.
Highlight of the end to our week was Bev's farewell at Roosevelt's in Outram Park. It is an American style cafe serving mostly burgers and pasta but the service was good. Peter took the Aussie classic 'Way Out West' and reworked the lyrics to fit Bev, our stalwart walker who often reminded us how she traveled more than most get to our meeting points. She is off to Canberra to join the ranks of the Public Service in Immigration and Child Protection. Don't envy her that career shift.
On Monday we joined the walkers at VivoCity at Harbourfront to walk the 11-storey (181 meters) Skywalk trail among the treetops en route to Fort Siloso which opened in July this year. It was obvious school holidays have started as there were plenty of people at the popular attractions like Universal Studios but the fort area was deserted other than us. In fact after that we walked right along the coast in the shade of the overhanging jungle and had the whole place to ourselves and the wildlife.
Being an important sea trading port for the British, they built three forts on Sentosa Island as defence against sea invasion. At the time, the island was known as Pulau Blakang Mati. During World War II, the Japanese troops invaded Singapore from the north and the guns of Fort Siloso were turned landwards to support the ground troops. Fort Siloso is the only preserved coastal fort in Singapore complete with a military museum and interactive exhibits. We didn't see many birds in the canopy but we came across plenty of peacocks on the ground. They are not natives, but were released here in the 1970's as a tourist attraction.
When we made it back to the busy
World Square, I noticed a package had fallen off a trolley delivering to different outlets and ran after the man to alert him. In so doing I upset something in my neck again and in the afternoon was quite locked up. A trip to the local acupuncturist has me on the mend now. She began with needles in the back of each of my hands. This made a big difference to my left side but not the right so then I had 7 implanted down that side of my neck and into the top of my shoulder. There was no current attached this time, but a heat lamp for 20 mins, after which I felt some relief. She finished the treatment with a deep massage which was painful but I was confident would be helpful as she really hit the spots. I did get a good night's sleep and felt much better the next day.
On Tuesday afternoon we headed off to Singapura Plaza to spend our vouchers, compliments of the MAE Annual Dinner lucky door prize. We each now have new shoes. From there we had a drink at Sque Bar in Clarke Quay and made a booking for the end of year drinks there for all the branches. On the way home we called in at Godhuli Sanjh where we had left our Nepal photobooks for Martin to make selections. Eric is now busy putting the electronic copies onto a thumb drive for him and then he will either be printing them or using them in a slideshow. This is one he chose and named 'Golden Evening', the name of his restaurant. It is actually sunrise from Poon Hill lookout, but only we know that.
We met Bimal, the Chef from a village near the Indian border, who struck us as having some good business ideas. There is a blockade of Nepal’s border posts with India over political differences arising over Nepal’s new constitution, signed in Sept after years without one. Although the charter was passed by a large majority of MPs, members of the ethnic Madhesi political parties boycotted the vote, claiming the constitution failed to guarantee them fair representation in parliament and public office. They have imposed a general strike across much of the Terai, the southern plains that run the length of Nepal’s border with India. The blockade has led to acute shortages of petrol, cooking gas and other essential supplies across the country. Makes the problems we face pretty trivial doesn't it?
Thursday was the day Mum moved into Barradine. That all went well apparently and she sounded very happy, although tired, when I called her in the late afternoon before work. She was surprised to find a welcome card awaiting her which Heather had posted for me in Australia when she was there the week before. (Adrian was in Melbourne and he went out with Bec to visit her on Saturday). We spent the day at home waiting for our Ireland photobook delivery to arrive, but it never did.
On Friday we each separately walked through Bidadari so someone was home to sign for the overdue delivery. The small patch of forest was crawling with birdwatchers and photographers who had spotted the very rare Ruddy Kingfisher, with rufous plumage and a red beak it is quite easy to identify. It is noted as an uncommon winter visitor and passage migrant in Singapore. A beautiful bird, it sat patiently and unperturbed as the shutters clicked. I also saw, for the first time, the dark sided flycatcher. The Asian Paradise Flycatcher and Black Bazzas were also back for winter. Unfortunately when Eric went, after me, and armed with his camera, they were all being shy. He did see the Lineated Barbet though. Eventually our long-awaited delivery did arrive and it was worth the wait (but not sure about the weight of it). We will spend as much again shipping it home as it is twice the size we were expecting.
Work is easing back in the countdown to the end of the year. Most interviews were already completed last week, so we were just catching up with a few parents during classes. Some senior classes are without any students and the younger ones are often a few short as well, now that school assessments are over. The last day for most schools is Fri 20th, we finish on Thurs 3rd Dec. We have done a big clear-out of staffroom resources and identified classroom furniture that needs attention before the start of next year's classes. Parents have been informed of what classes are being held when and staffed by which teacher. Always a tricky time.
On Monday we walked through Clementi Woods Park and on into West Coast Park. Both of these are lovely areas with well established trees and gardens. The long dry spell followed by rain has proven to be a boon for the trees around Singapore. Many have burst into bloom and the flowers of the Tabebuia rosea or Trumpet Tree (gets its name from the distinctive, trumpet-shaped flowers) are glorious both on the trees or covering the grounds.
It is a hardy tree that grows up to 25m tall. Like the Sycamore, the fruits split to disperse winged seeds that are carried away by the wind. As we made our way along the coast it became quite blustery and rain clouds were gathering and heading our way. Arriving at Haw Par Villa at the same time as the rain, we decided to skip it and just go or lunch since everyone in this select group has already been there at least once. We ate at the hawker centre at Junction 8 back in Bishan.
On Monday evening we met Peter at the Spice Garden in Syed Alwi Rd, just beside Mustafa's, for a drink, and then together we tried out the new Godhuli Sanjh (translates to evening twilight) just a few doors down. This Nepalese restaurant has just been opened by Martin who used to run New Everest in Little India, which we frequented regularly in earlier days. He invited us to his new place as he would like to use some of Eric's pictures on his walls and also in a slide show he will have rolling on screens. We took along our photobooks and he will make his selections and then we are happy to let him have the images as his food is great and we want to support the new business.
On Tuesday morning Heather and I went back to Bidadari to see if I could be so lucky as to find that Ruddy Kingfisher again, and we did. In the very same area. The officionadoes with their super lenses suspect it is a different individual but I couldn't tell. I did have Eric's camera with me though. That is my effort on the left and in case you are wondering, no I did not take the one on the right, it was taken in Bidadari with a super lens. Nice looking bird isn't it? What a big beak though for such a small creature.
In the evening we went to the Melt Restaurant at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel for our combined branch dinner. Everyone from both Kovan and Punggol enjoyed a sumptuous buffet all paid for by our raffle contributions over the year. We concluded the night with a Kris Kringle gift giving which involved stealing and was a lot of fun.
Eric went back to Bidadari to track down the Ruddy Kingfisher on Wednesday morning and was thrilled to find it then swore at me (silently of course, so as not to frighten the bird off) when he discovered I had not replaced the memory card in his camera. Oops! Luckily he had another on hand and the bird obliged by staying put in the sunlight.
That was such a big week! We needed a quieter one to recover and make it through parent teacher interviews. By Thursday Eric had relapsed with a stomach bug ad spent the whole day in bed. He wasn't alone; others from the workplace were also succumbing to the same condition. By Friday he was back up on his feet.
On Friday Mum went for the pre admission meeting at Barradine and everything is on track for her to move in this week thanks to all the help from Col and Beth, Judy and Rog. Mum is quite excitied now. Meanwhile with Col's help she is still attending many of the clubs she has long supported and keeping up her social interactions. Settlement on the house went through smoothly during the week.
With the hazy seeminly gone for good we cleaned the house thoroughly on Friday, something well overdue as it didn't seem worth dusting shelves when the air was full of minuscule pieces of ash. And sometimes they weren't that minuscule. Sadly, on Monday we were getting alerts again to say the haze was on the rise again but in the moderate, not unhealthy, zone. Glad to go to work for a rest by the evening.
To see out the working week we met up at Wine Bos in the City Hall area for a #9 steak nite. I rarely order steak here as it is often disappointing or too expensive but this was a lovely, tender piece and we must do it again.
Bev is returning to Australia at the end of the year and she has been a member of the walking group since first arriving in 2011. She did EBC that Dec. Since she has very few walks with the group left it was her request to go once more to Bukit Timah. The summit is still closed to walkers while they renovate the trails so we walked from the base to McRitchie Res. We started in glorious sunshine, the golden rays of sunlight filtering through the trees was definitely worth a snap.
Then, as we approached the edge of the golf course and our leafy shelter diminished, the heavens opened and we were at the mercy of the rain which fell in a drenching downpour. We did find a shed with an eave big enough to shelter about 8 people but since we were already soaked, and there was nothing to suggest it was going to ease off anytime soon,, we just continued on. At first I was trying to avoid the puddles but that became impossible, and fruitless anyway, since our feet were wet. It was still another hour to the end. We eventually got to Mushroom Cafe in the park and had a curry lunch, like everyone else, leaving puddles of water on the chairs and floor. Caught the MRT home from Clementi as we figured we could stand on the train but it would not be good to be in that condition on a bus. We will laugh about it one day.
After 12.5 kms and a curry I spent most of the afternoon on the couch with my feet up. In the evening we traveled across to Lakeside, near Chinese Gardens in Jurong for dinner at Syd and Kym's. They are the couple who joined us in Bali that weekend we escaped. They have a lovely pool, where we started the evening, and that was good therapy too for the tired legs. It was a very convivial evening but late and we had to catch a taxi home.
Reading of the fairytale which seems to be coming true for Aung San Suu Kyi as her party appear to be headed for a landslide victory in Myanmarr's historic elections is uplifting isn't it? One can only hope that it comes true without bloodshed. In 1990 the results were similar but a brutal crackdown ended with her spending 15 years in house arrest. The military have promised to honour these election results but they could never have predicted this sort of landslide, so we wait with baited breath.
Did you see where 'The Interlace', a cluster of 31 apartment blocks stacked at angles, won the Completed Building category at this year’s World Architecture Festival? Instead of dense high-rise apartment living, the architect chose to build six storey high apartment blocks, then stacked them together in piles of four. We have seen them from the road, they are quite close to Hort Park and also when we walked the southern section of the rail trail.
On Tuesday afternoon we went to Tangs in Orchard Rd to spend a gift voucher I had cashed for one of the local assistants at Kovan Branch because they would never shop there. I spent it on a new SG50 elephant from the Elephant Parade Collection. Then we went on to Satays by the Bay for an early dinner before seeing Cirque du Solei perform 'Totem' in their signature blue-and-yellow Big Top beside Marina Bay Sands. The show traces the journey of the human species from its original amphibian state to its ultimate desire to fly. Wow! I can't begin to explain how enthralling the show was and I can't pick a favourite act, they were all captivating. Everything was fabulous; the staging, sound, lighting and costuming. My pictures don't do it justice.
Wednesday and Thursday were glorious sunny days with the psi remaining below 100. We threw open the windows and went walking agian. On the Bidadari_Wooleigh Park trail we found a number of birds were out enjoying the fresh air too. Between September and March every year, thousands of migratory birds fly in and out of Singapore, which is one of the 700 staging sites along the East Asia-Australasian Flyway. The birds rest and refuel here, particularly at wetlands and inter-tidal flats such as Sungei Buloh and Chek Jawa on Pulau Ubin. Of the migrants, we spotted the Asian Brown Flycatcher and Asian Paradise Flycatcher. Others we will be looking for over the coming months include the Barn Swallow, Blue-Winged Pitta, Common Kingfisher, Blue-Tailed Bee-Eater, Japanese Sparrowhawk, Masked Finfoot, Javan Pond Heron, Orange-headed Thrush, Red-legged Crake, brown-chested jungle flycatcher, and then there are all the waders and shorebirds too.
We also saw a pair of Tanimbar Corrella, the smallest and the most common of the four corella species. They are the only ones with a pinkish lore and are endemic to the Tanimbar Islands in Indonesia. They are classified as globally near-threatened by Birdlife International. Apparently large flocks used to congregate around the Changi Jetty area but are now widespread all over the island, though we rarely see them.
On Friday we walked from home to to the National Stadium as Eric was keen to get a new pair of shoes at the sales in the shopping mall there. My neck was giving me trouble so when we returned I had a massage at the 'blue room of pain' under the HDB, the effects of which didn't kick in until Sunday. After work that night I noticed that I could see traffic approaching when I went to cross the road, or perhaps it was the relaxant effects of the alcohol consumed at Saturday House. Either way I'm sure it is safer to be able to turn your head.
But I've jumped ahead. The next highlight of the week was seeing Tommy Emmanuel play a one-night-only concert at the Esplanade Theatre on Saturday night. We took a taxi in from work and easily found Peter in the crowd as he was wearing an Aussie shirt in support of the Wallabies. Tommy played every different style from beautiful melodies like 'Somewhere over the Rainbow' to 'Classical Gas", adding the rhythm section and the bass, all on his own on the one guitar. A one man band, he doesn't use double tracking or synthesized pre-recorded accompaniment. What's more, he adds percussion by playing the drums on his guitar too, sings and entertains in his congenial yet laconic style. His unique playing style — he calls it simply “finger style” — is drawn from the country style made popular by his hero, guitar legend Chet Atkins. Fingerstyle guitar is used by many of today's talented young players, forming a huge fan base around the world. This has also given rise to festivals entitled Tommyfests where the master plays, teaches, jams and inspires a new generation of talented musicians. Not bad for a boy from Gunnedah. He did bring on stage an old friend and keyboard player for a couple of songs.
Our Monday walk was at Tiong Bahru which we haven't walked for ages. A good thing as we were both feeling a little jaded but the destination enticed us out of bed early. The few who made it this week were distressed to find the coffee shop at the mrt station closed so and we had to walk to Flock Cafe in Moh Guan Terrace for our first caffeine hit of the day. This area, Singapore’s first housing estate (built in the 1930s) has a rich, colorful past. Apparently, it was referred to as Mei Ren Wu (directly translated as “den of beauties”), as many rich men housed their mistresses in this estate. Unlike the Lego Land-like HDB flats found in the newer areas of growth, the Tiong Bahru apartments with their rounded balconies and shuttered windows have a quaint art deco style.
On previous walks in the area we had found street art but that has all been lost in the latest repaint. Approaching the end of the walk we suggested a lap of the 50th storey skybridge at Pinnacle@Duxton, an HDB of 7 connected towers. This was one of the features of the Great Race we designed in 2013 but some of our group today have never been up there.
After lunch in Neil Rd we walked to Outram Park and caught the train home for a rest before glamming up for the MAE Annual Dinner. By that time though Eric was feeling lousy with a churning stomach and headaches so he had an early night and I went on my own. Last year we enjoyed an incredibly colourful event with a Bollywood theme. This year it was Shanghai Nite and once again everyone made a great effort. It was held at the Mirrimar Hotel where they served a delicious Chinese banquet.
As if that wasn't enough for one week, we then backed up at the Melbourne Cup function held at Boomerang Cafe by 9:30 on Tuesday morning and I'd already been to the Pools shop to put my bets on. Last year they got me all confused and it happened again. They tell me there is no race 7 and that there are not 24 horses in the field. like last year I put my money on another race but it turned out to be the wrong one. As per last year Jo won in the fashions on the field and so did Eric this year! Winners are grinners.
Have now returned to the Pools Shop to check my tickets and I have worked out what happens. They remove the first 4 races from the program, so if you want to bet on race 7 you actually have to bet on race 3. Do you think I will remember that next year? Anyway I backed No 11 in Race 5 which is actually Race 9. It came nowhere in the Cup but it won the race on my ticket. I just collected $27 for my each way bet, my shout tonight at the Hawker Stall.
