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!