And one more before we go

We enjoyed a lovely banquet at Window on the Gardens Restaurant in the Holiday Inn, Orchard, compliments of Peter early in the week.  The range of food was wonderful, like any other buffet we have done here, but they also offered us an additional 'Crab in a Bag' option as part of the service and you could select garlic or chilli. Something different. Then we enjoyed the Christmas lights along Orchard Rd on the way home. The launch of the annual Christmas Light-Up was back in November but we haven't been in the city centre at night since then. The theme revolves around bells and baubles and there is definitely no shortage of those. Unfortunately one of the Christmas trees outside Knightsbridge Mall went up in flames at around 9pm on Wednesday (Dec 2). Apparently, at first, some of the shoppers thought it was some sort of fire performance before realising the danger of the situation. Fortunately it was quickly extinguished by security staff and no one was injured. 

On Thursday morning Eric cleaned up his ironing pile while Heather and I went back to Bidadari. Amid the usual Asian koels,  Philippine glossy starlings, yellow vented bulbuls and mynas we found the ruddy kingfisher again (amazing really as there is only one individual there) and a new sighting, the Mugimaki Flycatcher (right) which was drawing a lot of attention from the local photographers. This is an uncommon passage migrant from eastern Siberia and north-east China, spreading to Japan where "mugi" means "barley" and "maki" means "seeding" and they appear there when the barley is in seed. The one we got the best look at had the plumage of a first winter male on its way to Indonesia or the Philippines for winter. Missing my photographer i had to use this image off wikipedia. Eric and I then went down to the local hawkers to say farewell to our chicken rice stallholder who always has a smile and shares cheerful banter with us. 

When work finished on Thursday evening our branch met at Joe's Bistro in Kovan for an end of year drink (yes, another one). Only Marie didn't make it, she is on a plane to KL in the morning to help out at one of the branches there for the next week or so. Peter joined us (to celebrate finishing his school reports) and so did Heather from Punggol. Even June came over from Bishan as she is joining the team at Kovan next year.


On Friday we had the respective real estate agents and the owners of our apartment over for an inspection. It was all pretty painless except we had to fudge around about receipts for the air-con servicing. Later we joined a number of others from MAE at the new National Gallery Singapore which opened to the public on 24 November after ten years redevelopment of two national monuments: the former Supreme Court and City Hall, both magnificent landmarks of Singapore’s colonial past. They overlook the Padang, sitting beside St Andrew's Cathedral so very close to City Hall mrt. In the permanent DBS Singapore Art Gallery we found plenty of art to savour and a majestic new space to explore.

On the 5th floor we enjoyed the Roof Garden Gallery with its water features which form the roof connection between the buildings and vertical gardens. 

Then we went up to the Coleman Deck on the sixth floor and enjoyed the view over Singapore and a cool drink in Aura Sky Lounge. An art class was being held up here, what a fabulous choice of subject matter. The padang (open playing field) was being prepared for the running of the Singapore marathon over the weekend, hence all the marquees and shelters. We met with the rest of the group over at Chijmes and then we moved on to Godhuli Sanjh for dinner. 

On Saturday morning we went back to Bidadari one last time before leaving. It seems the Ruddy Kingfisher also felt it was time to move on, but we were happy to find the dark sided and Asian brown flycatchers again, a brown shrike and the Drongo Cuckoo aka Square-tailed Drongo-cuckoo, an uncommon resident as well as passage migrant in Singapore. Eric got fabulous shots of it as its glossy black plumage appeared with a blueish sheen. 

We head to the airport in a few hours so I best start packing.