Vesak Day and Our First Night Out

Just over a week ago, we had our second bank holiday here. This one was Vesak Day - the Buddhist day that celebrates the birth and enlightenment of Buddha.

The children had learnt about this in school and when Hannah came home she proceeded to draw lots of pictures of Buddha. She particularly liked his elongated ears - to be honest, I'm not sure I'd noticed them particularly before, but she's quite right. She even made us a little Buddhist shrine for our bedroom out of paper, making and colouring a tray, statue of Buddha and some candles (coloured bits of paper). Unfortunately as they're all paper and a little flimsy, when we turn the aircon on, they all blow over, but it was a nice thought.

We decided to visit a Buddhist Temple on the day itself, as they are open to worshippers and observers alike. It was a Thai temple, wonderfully decorated with bright colours and masses of gold. It was very busy and in addition to numerous workshippers and monks, there were stalls, shrines and candles everywhere. Next year, when the children are older, I hope they'll be able to stay up to see the evening candlelit parade that finishes the celebrations.

Last weekend, we had our first night out. Having found a cleaner to come in one morning a week, she offered us babysitting if we went out on a Sunday evening (she is a live-in maid in the block next door and this is her day off). Well, having just had our wedding anniversary and not having been out for over two months, we decided to treat ourselves a little and set off first to a bar on the 24th floor of the Shangri-La Hotel. It has great views and from there we could see our condo, along with the lights of many other buidlings. We had our first "Singapore Sling" which was rather delicious and when we discussed the ingredients, the waiter wrote them all down for us so we can try and make our own. I think it may take some practice!

Afterwards, we set off by taxi to a restaurant whose location was described as "just inside the Botanic Gardens". The taxi driver had never heard of it, so took us to the main entrance. From there, golf buggies were doing a delivery service to a nearby restaurant. On arrival, it was the wrong one. They gave us directions and we then took a 10 minute night time walk through the gardens. They are beautifully lit and it turned out to be a delightful walk. We weren't alone as there were quite a few joggers there too.

On arrival, we found a restaurant with a small indoor area entirely enclosed by glass walls and doors and a larger outside terrace. We'd booked a table indoors and it turned out to be a gorgeous place to sit, with the floor to ceiling windows right next to the tropical plants. It was almost like being outside, but without the mosquitos. A live jazz band, fantastic food and first class service made for a suberb evening. We took a taxi home and discovered that we should have gone in through the "Ginger Gate", just 2 or 3 minutes walk - but we now know for another time.

Well, my plan to go the social tennis organised by a group called ANZA (an expat social group) on Monday morning was thwarted by a thunderstorm. With all this wonderful food around, I felt the time had come to hit the gym here. It's so easy - just change, grab a towel, water and IPod and off I go. Trouble is, when it's that easy and doesn't involve packing a bag, driving there and fitting it into my plan for the day, I don't always quite get around to going, but I finally arrived. It's been a while and I'm feeling pretty unfit. However, I do have to question the accuracy of their machines. Surely all that exercise and pain was more than 150 calories' worth? I mean, that's just a few squares of chololate and I need to make space for far more than that here - there is just too much good food around.

It's no good, I'll just have to keep going back. At least I may eventually feel I can face buying (and therefore standing on) some bathroom scales!

School Charity Week and a Visitor

Last week saw the children's school charity week. For the duration of the week, various events took place to raise money for a selection of good causes. Each section of the school - infant, junior and senior, had an afternoon when they provided stalls and events that the other children paid to participate in, with all money going to the charities.

For the infant afternoon, the parents were also invited. Hannah's class had set up a nail painting stall, with her teacher and classroom assistant quickly decorating the finger nails of numerous little girls. Hannah queued up but instead of choosing one of the many pretty bright pinks or sparkly purples, as one might expect, she chose what can only be described as bogey green. It looked disgusting and for the rest of charity week her fingers all looked as if they'd just emerged from a particularly deep nose excavation. Thank goodness that at the end of charity week I had a good reason to remove what was left. She also managed to return home with very brightly coloured hair two days running and the last remnants of colour have only just come off her scalp.
The week culminated with an infant assembly for the parents, in which Hannah was a cheerleader for one of the sponsored events and we went to watch as proud parents. It also gave us a chance to meet up with some of her classmates' parents and see the school in action.


The same day, after several failed attempts, I caught up with a friend from last year's Spanish class, Jane. She was here on business for a few days, planning a conference and had extended her stay over the weekend to do some sightseeing, as it was her first visit to Asia. With Hannah at a birthday party and Adam at a friend's house on Saturday, we met up on Sunday. After lunch at our local "coffee shop" (not Starbucks or anything similar, but a local, small scale foodcourt, which serves only the most local of food and drink), we then headed to Clark Quay for a walk followed by a ride on a "bum" boat up the Singapore River.

As the weather last weekend was probably the coolest it's been since we arrived here, we then took a late afternoon walk in Fort Canning Park, where the trees and tropical flowers looked wonderful as we climbed up the hill and down the other side to the shopping area of Orchard Road.

On Monday, Jane and I took a trip to the Botanic Gardens and the Orchid Gardens there. The gardens are stunning as is the range and array of orchids. A pleasant surprise was to find it is less than 15 minutes away by bus. We were caught out by a downpour of rain , but fortunately, nothing too heavy (well, not by local standards, anyway) and it considerately rained whilst we were close to shelter so we didn't get too wet.

As the gardens are so glorious, I will undoubted be visiting them again, many more times. As for Jane, she will be returning here next March for the conference proper.

It's great to see a familiar face here but next time, as we will have been in the UK over Christmas, hopefully we won't be asking her to bring out a small mountain of Boots sun cream for us again!

Photo is of Jane, Adam and Hannah at Clark Quay - not sure about the other guy though, he doesn't seem to want his picture taken.

Impressing the locals

Friday night brought about our dinner party for the office staff and Seiw Mei's friend, Brian (before he departed back to the UK).

After some intense discussions to agree a menu suited to accompany the long awaited Tiramisu (see earlier blog entry), we decided that something more local would be good to offset this very rich, European dessert. So we opted for a Thai style chicken rice dish. (Here, although you never see ready prepared meals in supermarkets, there are a handful of cook-in sauces and we've found one Thai brand which is particularly delicious and we thought might go unnoticed).

As for the rice to accompany it, due to a shortage of saucepans, and following several sets of verbal instructions from our landlady, we decided to experiment with the rice cooker. Let me explain: When we first viewed this apartment, there was a very large, round, electric kitchen gadget taking up most of the work surface (that which was not already occupied up by the oversized microwave). Our landlady said it was a rice cooker and naturally, I commented that I'd never used one. She looked astonished and asked if we'd never eaten rice! I explained that we've always cooked it in a saucepan, thereby confirming her belief that we're slightly odd in the UK.

Here, people usually eat their rice plain - steamed, but David often flavours his with stock, spices and sometimes lime juice. This time, he made his lime rice. When dinner was served, they all really seemed to enjoy it and ate loads. David's rice received particular compliments and requests for the recipe - David is so proud of himself, actually making rice for Singaporeans, who eat it almost every day of their lives for breakfast , lunch or dinner (or even all three), and impressing them with it! He likened it to selling ice to the Eskimos!

Finally, they all ate the dessert too, and some people even had seconds, so I'm happy too.