Testing week has rolled around again, the last time for us. It is an easy week in terms of administration but requires a lot of recording and cross referencing. Not sorry it is the last time.
On Thursday Wendy and Miriam came out to Serangoon and we met for lunch then they came back to our place to get a feel for how an expat lives in Singapore. Not sure that Wendy isn't looking at possibilities for the future. Sadly, they have begun removing the durian trees in our street as they work on putting the monsoon drains under the footpath. The resident Asian Koel, who calls to us most days as we walk to the MRT, has had to relocate.
Before work we dropped 2 more smaller boxes at the post office for shipping home.
We woke to steady rain on Friday which didn't let up. Most unusual for Singapore, but then our northern neighbours have been experiencing cyclones recently and Australia has had widespread flooding so I guess we should expect a little more precipitation at this time. Unfortunately we had chosen this day to go to see the M.C. Escher exhibition at the ArtScience Museum. Big mistake. It was Children's Day so all the primary students had the day off. Since they couldn't go out in the rain, it seems most families chose to go to the same location as us. The queue for tickets was so long we just turned around and came home.
After work on Saturday we caught the train in to Little India to see Serangoon Road and Race Course Road which have been be transformed with colourful lights and decorations for Deepavali, the Hindu festival to mark the triumph of good over evil and light over darkness. First we had a quick dinner at Wine Bos which have now opened in Albert Court. In the five years we have been here they have moved from Katong to Bugis to City Hall and now Little India. It can't be a cheap option to keep moving but we think this is probably a really good position so we hope they do well. Their '$10 steak special' didn't disappoint.
This year the lights were even more impressive than before, with two 20m-tall peacocks in front of the entrance arch.
In the event marquee and local laneways, pop-up shopping bazaars were filled with colourful stalls offering Indian ethnic wear, costume jewelry, ornamental decorations, festival sweets and lots of henna. It was all a hectic, cheerful mass of colour and we were surrounded by the heady fragrances of sweet incense, fresh Indian spices or massage oils. Walking back through the crowds towards the station we passed by the flower stalls preparing floral garland offerings and could inhale the scent of marigolds, roses and jasmine.
After work on Sunday we caught the last night of the Nine Emperor Gods Festival at our local temple on Upper Serangoon Rd. This temple is now the oldest Nine Emperor Gods temple in Singapore, and is known as the Hougang Tou Mu Temple. A stone inscription at the temple indicates that the deities were invited from Penang in 1902, and the temple was completed in 1921. Devotees believe the Nine Emperor Gods bestow wealth and longevity on those that worship. Rituals begin with the lighting of a lamp on the last day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar and devotees begin a vegetarian only diet. The welcome ritual is held the following day with street procession from the temple and proceeds to the Serangoon River where the gods are to be invited. The procession consists of lion and dragon dance troupes and devotees following behind sedan chairs carrying statues of accompanying gods and the sacred urn. The bearers of the sedan chairs are dressed in white and cause the chairs to sway violently to symbolise the presence of divine forces. During the nine days, worshippers visit the temple with offerings to ask for the blessings and participate in parades to other temples.
The ritual to send off the gods starts on the ninth day with the transfer of the sacred urn to the sedan chair and a procession back to the Serangoon River accompanied by lion dancers, stilt walkers and musicians playing drums, cymbals and gongs. Devotees follow in trucks and buses. At the river a the ceremony to send off the gods is conducted. Selected temple committee members climb into a wooden boat with the flaming urn and travel towards the centre of the river to symbolise the departure of the gods. The festival officially ends with the lowering of the lamp on the tenth day. This is followed by the ending of the vegetarian ritual when meat dishes are laid out to thank the heaven guards. We only saw the last of them leaving the temple as we ate dinner at Grapvine next door.
On Monday we returned to the ArtScience Museum to see Journey to Infinity: Escher's World of Wonder. This time we almost had the place to ourselves. His works were captivating, more than 150 to explore in sections from early landscapes to tessellations, then to metamorphosis where the tessellations are transformed. In this section I was really impressed with the piece by the local Nanyang Polytechnic's School of Interactive & Digital Media that shows the evolution of Singapore into its modern day form. Following that was a section of Escher's commercial works, and along the way, we found little activity areas where you could do things like step into a room of mirrors and see yourself disappear into infinity or construct your own Mobius strip. That is the one that challenges Eric's maths brain the most. His works draw together art, mathematics, science and architecture. At one stage he even published emblems in collaboration with a poet who wrote proverbs. The last section is dedicated to all the artists, designers, filmmakers and musicians who have created works influenced by him. Many LP album covers among them.
Later in the afternoon we joined in the annual MAE 10 pin bowling challenge, this year held at the Kovan lanes. We both performed like those who haven't bowled before, which is not far from the truth. Our team scored poorly and were no threat to the current champs from Jurong so the trophy will remain in their cabinet for another 12 months. Despite that, it was a fun and different way to spend time together. Afterwards some of us retired to Nectar and Vine for dinner and refreshments then Syd agreed to help Eric lower the tides in his his whisky collection. Peter is in Australia on a mid-term break, otherwise I am sure he would have helped out too.
On Tuesday the walking group met up at Changi Village to take a bum boat to Pulau Ubin for a walk or bike ride. I had been to the gym earlier in the week to see if my knee was up to it and decided it was worth the risk of a short ride. It was lovely pedaling along the mostly shady lanes with virtually no traffic, just the occasional monkey troop or monitor lizard.
We saw only a few birds, heard many more, but notched up 2 new sightings among them including the mangrove whistler and the great billed heron. Both are considered rare sightings in Singapore, so it was well worth the cycle out to Chek Jawa Wetlands.
Returning to the mainland we couldn't drag Eric past the Little Island Brewing Company without stopping in for lunch. Then we took a long bus ride home in the front seats upstairs for the view.
On Thursday Wendy and Miriam came out to Serangoon and we met for lunch then they came back to our place to get a feel for how an expat lives in Singapore. Not sure that Wendy isn't looking at possibilities for the future. Sadly, they have begun removing the durian trees in our street as they work on putting the monsoon drains under the footpath. The resident Asian Koel, who calls to us most days as we walk to the MRT, has had to relocate.
We woke to steady rain on Friday which didn't let up. Most unusual for Singapore, but then our northern neighbours have been experiencing cyclones recently and Australia has had widespread flooding so I guess we should expect a little more precipitation at this time. Unfortunately we had chosen this day to go to see the M.C. Escher exhibition at the ArtScience Museum. Big mistake. It was Children's Day so all the primary students had the day off. Since they couldn't go out in the rain, it seems most families chose to go to the same location as us. The queue for tickets was so long we just turned around and came home.
After work on Saturday we caught the train in to Little India to see Serangoon Road and Race Course Road which have been be transformed with colourful lights and decorations for Deepavali, the Hindu festival to mark the triumph of good over evil and light over darkness. First we had a quick dinner at Wine Bos which have now opened in Albert Court. In the five years we have been here they have moved from Katong to Bugis to City Hall and now Little India. It can't be a cheap option to keep moving but we think this is probably a really good position so we hope they do well. Their '$10 steak special' didn't disappoint.
This year the lights were even more impressive than before, with two 20m-tall peacocks in front of the entrance arch.
In the event marquee and local laneways, pop-up shopping bazaars were filled with colourful stalls offering Indian ethnic wear, costume jewelry, ornamental decorations, festival sweets and lots of henna. It was all a hectic, cheerful mass of colour and we were surrounded by the heady fragrances of sweet incense, fresh Indian spices or massage oils. Walking back through the crowds towards the station we passed by the flower stalls preparing floral garland offerings and could inhale the scent of marigolds, roses and jasmine.
The ritual to send off the gods starts on the ninth day with the transfer of the sacred urn to the sedan chair and a procession back to the Serangoon River accompanied by lion dancers, stilt walkers and musicians playing drums, cymbals and gongs. Devotees follow in trucks and buses. At the river a the ceremony to send off the gods is conducted. Selected temple committee members climb into a wooden boat with the flaming urn and travel towards the centre of the river to symbolise the departure of the gods. The festival officially ends with the lowering of the lamp on the tenth day. This is followed by the ending of the vegetarian ritual when meat dishes are laid out to thank the heaven guards. We only saw the last of them leaving the temple as we ate dinner at Grapvine next door.
On Monday we returned to the ArtScience Museum to see Journey to Infinity: Escher's World of Wonder. This time we almost had the place to ourselves. His works were captivating, more than 150 to explore in sections from early landscapes to tessellations, then to metamorphosis where the tessellations are transformed. In this section I was really impressed with the piece by the local Nanyang Polytechnic's School of Interactive & Digital Media that shows the evolution of Singapore into its modern day form. Following that was a section of Escher's commercial works, and along the way, we found little activity areas where you could do things like step into a room of mirrors and see yourself disappear into infinity or construct your own Mobius strip. That is the one that challenges Eric's maths brain the most. His works draw together art, mathematics, science and architecture. At one stage he even published emblems in collaboration with a poet who wrote proverbs. The last section is dedicated to all the artists, designers, filmmakers and musicians who have created works influenced by him. Many LP album covers among them.
On Tuesday the walking group met up at Changi Village to take a bum boat to Pulau Ubin for a walk or bike ride. I had been to the gym earlier in the week to see if my knee was up to it and decided it was worth the risk of a short ride. It was lovely pedaling along the mostly shady lanes with virtually no traffic, just the occasional monkey troop or monitor lizard.
We saw only a few birds, heard many more, but notched up 2 new sightings among them including the mangrove whistler and the great billed heron. Both are considered rare sightings in Singapore, so it was well worth the cycle out to Chek Jawa Wetlands.
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