Birthday week begins

I know it is early to start celebrating, but you never know how many more birthdays you're going to have, so I think you might as well make the most of them. We spent a good part of Thursday searching out a new phone for me as my present this year. My last one was so often out of power and more trouble than it was worth. In the meantime we also bought Eric a new camera battery and lens hood. In the evening Peter came around for dinner and shared the corned beef Eric cooked the day before, complete with cauliflower and white sauce, potato and beans, To complete the experience we shared out the mince pies Peter left in our freezer more than 12 months ago with brandy sauce and ice cream. Talk about traditional tucker overload. it was fabulous!

On Friday morning we returned to Tanglin Halt area, via Wessex Estate, to try to find the Jerdon's Baza again, the one we saw last week just as Eric's camera battery died.  But that was expecting too much. Fortunately we didn't see the spitting cobra either and Eric enjoyed good light for some more wildlife and at the same time I tried out the camera on my new phone. From there we continued north along the rail trail then found an exit that led to a park connector which delivered us to Dover MRT. A new app has just been released with all the park connector trails so that will be helpful to us in the next few months.

Travis, a new teacher at Punggol branch, is a good photographer and he has been talking lighting, composition and Fstops with Eric who is now highly motivated to explore all the features of his camera. He has been viewing online courses and experts' blog sites so soon there will be even more pics to share. It is great to be in the company of someone at work who understands all this and Eric can tap into the knowledge. 

Once again the weekend flew by and before we knew it another week was over. I was given a lovely surprise in the last break on Sunday with a birthday cake to share with colleagues.

We finished the week with friends at Saturday House, just down the road, and then enjoyed a sleep-in as the scheduled walk was from Stadium to Satays by the Bay in the evening. Having run out of excuses, I got on with the belated tax return that I have been procrastinating over for the last few months. And what do you know, most of it is done already. 








A good sized group joined the evening walk which was cool but well lit. 

On the way home, after dinner, a small group of us finished the evening with a walk over the helix bridge and around Marina Bay. Lots of night shots were taken. How do I decide which are the ones to post? 

They are gearing up for Chinese Hew Year here, so plenty of decorations are under construction on the pontoon and in the area under the stands. This will be the year of the Monkey, Eric's celestial character. The Chinese New Year Day of Red Monkey Year is on February 8. Unfortunately, it is said people born in the year of Monkey won't have good luck during any Monkey years, however that is not a complete picture. I sought out an astrologer and Eric ........

We continued the walk to Esplanade theatres where we had a drink at Barossa Bar, then climbed to the roof for more spectacular views across the bay and a close-up of the durian roofline. Can you call that a roofline? 

And then Google did something special. They used those pics to create a photo story which you can view here. Just click on the arrow if you hover to the right of the screen. Then it was Australia Day, and my birthday. For us, it began with a train trip to Raffles Place then breakfast in Dome at the UOB Plaza in Boat Quay. We were rewarded with a window seat from which we could watch the morning light brighten the day and people scurrying to work along the riverside as we ate a delicious breakfast. It reminded us of our occasional Sunday morning bike rides followed by Big Breakfasts in Darwin. We look forward to getting back to them. Then we set out to walk as far as we could along the river, something we haven't done before. First there was Boat Quay with its colourful cafe umbrellas right by the water's edge, the supreme court with Peninsula Excelsior (our first abode here) behind, bronze statue of a boy with his dog and the Elgin Bridge.

Then we hit Clarke Quay, another picturesque area famous for its nightlife. During day,  when all the pubs and bars are closed, you get a better chance to admire in details of the colorful, refurbished shophouses, and the social creatives project artwork as you pass through the pedestrian underpasses. Street art and murals are illegal here, unless commissioned, of course.

On to Robertson Quay, now the largest of the three quays, but this area was originally mud flats and swamps at the upper reaches of the river. As the population and commerce of Singapore increased, the area was reclaimed in the mid nineteenth century.  Alkaff Bridge, Singapore's pedestrian art bridge, is a colourful landmark. It is situated near the former Alkaff Quay owned by a prominent Arab family, who were among the wealthiest at the time. Now the banks on either side are lined with imposing hotels, one of which has retained the birdsong corner. The other footbridge here is Jiak Kim Bridge, named after a man who was a wealthy businessman, member of parliaments and made generous donations to Singapore's development.

Once beyond Roberson Quay the river becomes Alexandra Canal for a further 2.5kms. Near Tanglin Road it has been decked over to create an interesting water cascade and play area for children and where you can enjoy the reed beds of the wetlands. We found turtles, and white-breasted waterhen doing the same, while sunbirds flitted between the flowers on the trellis. 

We left it there, although a walking trail does continue where the canal continues underground. We were only two blocks from Red Hill station so we went home for a late lunch. In the evening we met up with a number of friends at Wine Mansions in Outram Park to celebrate my birthday. Kim had a birthday just three days earlier so we made it a joint celebration. Jo wrote a poem and we all received a screaming monkey (Syd had a birthday just recently too). Mine must have got up to some mischief on the way home because the next morning he was filthy! 

All i know is I wished I hadn't made that 10am hair appointment for the next morning. I really didn't need to look at myself in the mirror for that long after a very long night. Feeling my age.

Ssh, don't mention the footy

With the announcement this week of the ASADA verdict, it seems there will be little talk of football in this household for the duration of the season. Quick, lets change the topic to tennis and Lleyton's swan song. 
I joined the MAE leaders at a meeting on Thursday in my new role. This was held at Kovan but each month it moves around the branches so it will be quite interesting to have a look at them after all this time. From what transpired at the meeting there are a number of classes without students (slightly worrying for the bean counters) and I have the opportunity to give those teachers editing tasks to do. No one is to be sitting around twiddling their thumbs on my watch. If it is done well it will help clear a big backlog of work. Both of us have full teaching loads and we would rather that.   

Friday we walked through Bidadari and Woodleigh Park and while we didn't see many birds we were happy to be in the verdant surrounds after plenty of rain lately. It seems most days we are getting good downpours at the moment, 'tis the wet season here after all. Nothing like Darwin's though. Speaking of Darwin, on the 26th Luke and Tahlia should have settlement on their home. Guessing it will be pushed forward to the 27th due to the public holiday.

Our Monday walk was from Tampines through Eco Green then Pasir Ris Park to the lake for lunch. Along the way we saw woodpecker, weavers busy building their intricate nests and the colourful bee-eaters. The best sighting though was of the pair of resident spotted wood-owl in Pasir Ris Park. Although these birds are huge, they are very easy to miss, there being so many trees and dense foliage. Luckily we got chatting to a local fitness enthusiast who passed us over to his friend the bird expert and we were soon escorted to their favourite perching spots. There they were. This birder turned out to be Yip Roland, he has a mighty collection of bird photos on Facebook, but Eric took these beauties. Aren't they amazing birds? 48cms

In the evening we went to Outram to book Wine Mansions for dinner on Australia Day for a few friends. We noticed that the decorations are going up in the streets for Chinese New Year already. Having done that, we moved on to Casbah in Telok Ayer for dinner where Eric really enjoyed his lamb chops. 

On Tuesday we went to see Railtrack Songmaps, a multimedia presentation about relations between people and birds along the former Malaysian railway tracks at Tanglin Halt. This is a site where a survey conducted by the Nature Society of Singapore Bird Group recorded over 100 species of birds, but which faces considerable social and environmental change in the name of development. Tanglin Halt was one of the first public housing development estates in Singapore. Some of the blocks alongside the old railway line are being demolished, and it is unclear what will happen to the informal tree shrines, kampung gardens and songbird clubs that exist along the tracks. The pockets of mature trees, wetlands, long grass and thick undergrowth are also being damaged and reduced by construction in the area. We walked the old railway line in this vicinity in the morning from Buona Vista to Coldbar, then came home via Solaris at Fusionopolis having met with management to try to establish permission for the walking group to access the green spiral terrace in a few weeks time. We hadn't even walked 50m when we came across a black cobra who flared out his hood in annoyance at being disturbed. We watched in fascinated horror as it slithered into the long grass and so Eric missed capturing the hood in his lens but he got the second half. At least 2m long. Hhg! That got the heartbeat up. We were thrilled to see a number of rare birds including the stork-billed kingfisher, blue-rumped parrot and Jerdon's baza. This last is a rare visitor and we had excellent views of it both flying and perched. Unfortunately Eric's camera decided to play up just when we had it perching near us, but he did get some shots on the wing. 

After researching I discovered the Equatorial Spitting Cobra, is commonly encountered in lowland, secondary, disturbed areas (that fits): where it has adapted to heavily disturbed habitats in towns. It is a highly venomous species which should be treated with caution. Large adults will stand erect, expand their hood and hiss loudly if feeling threatened.

We visited the presentation with Heather at Gillman Barracks, a former colonial military camp, now home to galleries, restaurants and the NTU Centre for Contemporary Art. The 14 buildings were constructed in 1936 to accommodate the expansion of the British infantry in Singapore, then handed to the SAF in 1971 as part of the British withdrawal. After the SAF vacated the camp in the 1990s, the buildings were used for commercial purposes until 2010 when it was re-developed and launched in 2012 as a contemporary art centre. This is the first time we have visited the centre. The Railtrack Songmaps was not that interesting to tell you the truth, but we dropped in to see the photographs of Steve Curry in a second block and that made the trip well worth while. He is probably best known for the green-eyed Afghan girl which appeared on the 1985 cover of National Geographic. His colour photographs, many taken in Asia, were stunning and we could relate to them since we had seen the same scene like the nuns in Myanmar bottom right.

Then we caught a taxi to the Shaw Cinema Centre in Orchard Rd to see Carol. We were too early so grabbed a drink downstairs in a fancy Japanese Coffee House which served cold brewed coffee. Nice dispenser but I couldn't determine any difference in flavour. Loved the beautiful jewel-like cut glass “Edo Kiriko” display though, one of the original Japanese crafts founded in the Edo period,about 180 years ago.  We all enjoyed Carol but once again suffered in the very chilly temperature. Why do Singapore have their theatres so cold? 

Back for one more year

It didn't take us long to get out among the birds of Bidadari again once we returned to our island home, spotting blue throated bee-eaters, pied trillers, collared and white-throated kingfishers and black-naped orioles on our first outing. It is good to be back for one more year, we look forward to our last year of full time work and making the most of what Singpore has to offer. 
Eric spent Thursday 31st Dec at work with the new recruits. He has a Canadian couple joining the staff at Punggol. First impressions are good. Then we joined other NYE revellers at Sque Bar in Clarke Quay with about a dozen other workmates to see in the new year amid lots of noise and colour. 

We began classes on Sat 2nd and by Sun night it felt like we had the place ship-shape again after the painting. We had many happy students who were keen to return to reconnect with classmates, share their news with us and find out where we had been. Can't say the staff were as enthusiastic to be back. We returned to Penny Black at Boat Quay for the 'End of First Week Back' drinks with all the branches. It was interesting to hear all the travel stories as always. I was glad the first week was only 2 days long, it is hard to get back into the routine.

On Monday the walking group reassembled at the Botanic Gardens which we ambled through, then Dempsey Hill and finished at Tanglin Mall. A lovely walk in the fresh air after lots of recent rain and good to see some unfamiliar faces among the group. Apparently exercise has been mentioned in many recent NY Resolutions. We will see how long it lasts. Something new we learnt was that the pool at the bottom of the Dempsey Hill fountain is home to two giant fish. We haven't seen anything like this since the giant grouper we found off Seguntan Is when we used to scuba dive there years ago from Butterworth.  These fish are called Arapaima and according to Wiki they are “a South American tropical freshwater fish… and one of the largest freshwater fish in the world.” Whatever the case, these fish are huge and pretty amazing. No picture can do them justice so you will have to go and see for yourself.  Peter joined us, he is just back from Christmas in Aust but Bev has left after 6 years. 

That night we joined a few other Nepal trekkers at Godhil Sanjh, Martin's Nepalese restaurant to see his new wall panels. Check these out! Eric's pics in montages. His place is called Godhuli Sanjh which translates to something like evening twilight so he has adopted the top pic as his own.

Peter took these shots below.

On Wednesday I began my new role as Curriculum Coordinator. I met with Renee and she stepped me through the current resources. I am a little alarmed at the way they are managed and one of my aims is to streamline, standardise and back-up. I will be doing this on a Wednesday afternoon now instead of teaching the three classes I used to have then. Something of a challenge to keep it interesting. 


We had a walk through Wessex Estate on Friday to scope out a walking trail for the Monday group later in the term, We discovered this enclave of colonial black-and-white bungalows and small blocks of flats last year. Check out 'Sleeping Dragons' Post 13/10/15. We began at Buona Vista where there always seems to be a new piece of public art to be discovered. This time we found 'Oh Yeah' (below left) by Gao Xiaowu, a Chinese sculptor who has a number of pieces installed in Singapore, all human figures. Outside the Ministry of Education was another piece, this one a boy taking a leap of faith from an adult hand, into an uncharted realm. The sculpture named 'My Way' was designed in 2000 by a talented secondary school student,  Tan Wei Keong.

We walked through One North Park which runs the entire length of One-north, forming a continuous green corridor between the very modern, surrounding buildings. One-north was designed as a business park and a high-tech research and development hub. It is home to shiny skyscrapers with "sci-fi" names such as Chronos, Genome, Galaxis and Solaris. Buildings are placed in various clusters named '-polises' (from the Greek word for cities), including Biopolis, Fusionopolis and Mediapolis. Companies with similar businesses, such as healthcare, media or biomedical science, are usually grouped in the same cluster. Even the shopping mall at Buona Vista is called Metrololis. 

We found a sundial and sign denoting a landmark for Saturn. Reading on we discovered that if the sun was depicted as being located in the gardens of the Science Centre, then keeping distances proportionally correct, all the planets can be found in different parks on the island. This has given us the idea to locate them all before the year is out. 

Cresting the hill we were very impressed by a building in the distance which has a continuous spiral landscaped terrace that winds its way 15 floors up to roof gardens. Now that looks like something that needs further investigation in case we can include it in the group walk. The building is called Solaris@fusionopilos and the ramp is 1.5kms long. So much of interest already and we hadn't even got to Wessex Estate

So much of interest already and we hadn't even got to Wessex Estate. Built in the 1940s by the British, they were homes for non-commissioned British officers and soldiers up to the 1970s, with the iconic COLBAR known to be the unofficial mess. Each block of flats was also given a name (e.g. Tangiers, Gallipoli, Blenheim) that corresponded to military sites of British engagement. The Wessex estate is now managed by the Jurong Town Corporation which over time has transformed it into a shady enclave that includes studio space for local artists and a few restaurants in the village-square. Our walk will have us enjoying lunch at Coldbar. 

After work on Sunday, with lots of others, we caught up with Syd for his birthday at Wine Connection in Robertson Quay. Peter came along and once again provided the lyrics for a song adapted from 'Lily the Pink'. Syd's surname is Pink.  

Monday's walk was from Labrador to VivoCity. Our group is growing week by week, great to see. It was hot though, very good to get into the shade or catch a sea breeze around the marina.

We hosted a Spanish night at our place that evening for some friends who previously have hosted Moroccan or Sri Lankan nights for us, inspired by recent travel. We began with a few simple tapas ideas then Eric tried out his new paella pan on them, which was a great success, and Heather provided the salad. Maria brought along a smashing creme caramel to share for dessert. My only contribution was filling up glasses and teaching all the women to tie their heads in Berber scarves (sort of Moorish). 

We spent Tuesday morning at the Australian High Commission having signatures witnessed on documents regarding Luke and Tahlia's recent home purchase, then sent it off in readiness for settlement next week. We are so happy we are in a position to help. 

Singlish Lah

About this time last year I uploaded a post about the things that are still amusing us about Singapore and those that interest or disappoint us. I thought we could follow that up with something else quintessentially Singaporean; Singlish. 

When an English-speaking foreigner first arrives here, one of the first things you note is that most locals have a fairly good grasp of the English language. As time goes by, and you spend time living and interacting with the locals, it soon becomes apparent that English alone is not enough to fully converse on local topics like ordering at hawkers or purchasing veggies at the market.

In Singapore, you will hear all levels of English from BBC-like English (if you tune in to Channel News Asia), Standard Singapore English (SSE) spoken by English-educated Singaporeans (the teachers, real estate agents for example), and the more colloquial variety known as Singlish which is really a dialect. There is a considerable minority in Singapore whose native tongue is this Singlish which is heavily influenced by Malay, Chinese and Indian. These people would speak, think and dream almost exclusively in Singlish, and in their working days it is continually confirmed. You can watch the students (who have been speaking Standard Singapore English all day at school) call in at the shops under the HDB on their way home, and seamlessly code switch into Singlish with the stallholders. Singlish is spoken at the speed of light and complex phrases are avoided in the written form. Verbs and definite articles are left out, plurals are ignored and tense is unnecessary. It should be noted, that I consider Singlish to be a part of the essence of Singapore and it's culture! It would be a shame if it was lost, but they don't pay me to support that sentiment.

Our job involves working with students who bring Singlish to class but generally have a pretty good handle on SSE. We aim to lift them a level higher without embarrassing their teachers who mispronounce so many words and know the grammar rules by heart but not the instances when they don't apply or when synonyms are equally correct. Common written errors look like these below. 
I go always to school by mrt.
Will I off the lights?
They cooked it themself.
My brother has 10 years.
I’ve been here since three months.
I like very much ice cream.
We could of gone there today.
She was better at it then him.
We were boring in the class.
I am suppose to clean the classroom.
I wish I can pass my test.

So some of these are not too difficult to explain and use as teaching points, but try explaining why:

'The very sort of cake I like' is correct but 'He's very sort of funny' isn't.
'John and I sit here.' is correct but 'Give it to John and I to look after.' is not.
Then do you 'lay your jacket on the chair' or 'lie your jacket on the chair' ?
Why is it that the game can be very good,  but not very fun ? 


You don't realise how much you don't actually know about a language that you grew up listening to from birth, until you have to explain why something isn't correct. I know it is incorrect because it sounds incorrect but.....then I have to consult the Parrott's bible of grammar. Signage can be quite amusing here. 

Occasionally in the classrooms but more often in the streets or MRT we hear:
Shiok (Wow)
I go back already. (I'm leaving)
We go holiday next, next week. (holidays in 2 weeks time)
How you know?  (Is that right?)
I also can. (I can do it too.)
Can I lend your correction tape? (Can I borrow it?)
Ah, so smelly one! (That stinks!)
Aiyoh! You surprised me. (Oh No!)
Why he anyhow do things? (Why doesn't he do it properly?)
It was Peter, he just act blur. ( He is just feigning innocence)
Aiyoh! You don' act blur, okay! I know you ali baba my pencil when I went to the toilet! (You took it, don't pretend it wasn't you)
Ang Moh, he botak. (The bald Caucasian man)
No colour, double confirm? (You really want to be grey?)
Abuden? (What else did you expect?)
I chope it orredy. (Don't take this seat, I have reserved it with my tissue packet). 
Go hawker centre better! (I'd rather eat at a hawker centre)
Tonight eat what, ah? (What would you like to choose from the menu?)
Can pass or not? (Can I come through this door?)

So, plenty for us to work on in our classes for one more year. Our biggest problem with the oral form is taking the care not to slip up ourselves, lah! It's very efficient.