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.