However, somewhere between Chinese New Year at the end of January and our driving test at the end of February, a few members of the Barrett clan arrived in Singapore. For my mum and sister in law, Claire, it was their first visit to Asia, so first impressions counted. My brother, Paul, had once briefly passed through Singapore many years ago, but for a number of reasons had not left with favourable impressions. So second impressions counted too.
So I was into tour guide mode. Singapore is an easy place to show off, it's clean and surprisingly green. There are a good number of things to do and I managed to organise a couple of outings that the average tourist wouldn't have done. So, we did the regular tourist bits like the Night Safari, Bird Park, Raffles Hotel, the colonial district, dinner on the beach at Sentosa Island, the Botanical gardens etc. We rode on a bumboat up the Singapore River, visited China Town, various temples and a good number of other places too.
We fitted in a couple of tours, one was a non-standard tourist one of shop houses that included going inside some private homes. I got to visit one or two new places and everyone went home with something (or somethings) new from the shops and/or markets here. We also did every kind of eating experience here from the local "hawker centres" which have stalls of all types of Chinese, Indian, Malay and other food, right through cafes and restaurants up to a Sunday Brunch at the Fullerton Hotel.
Here they are, admiring the views from the top of Mount Faber.
This lunch was my birthday lunch and I booked the table a month in advance to ensure we one on the terrace outside on the river front. The food is an amazing array of everything imaginable - all courses, all types and a constant supply of good champagne for 3 hours. The bill was fairly amazing too, but fortunately I don't have a birthday every day of the year! And here we are, sitting on the terrace and all looking (and feeling) pretty stuffed after 3 gluttonous hours.
One unexpected but fun event was a BBQ with some friends of Paul's. He has a friend from university here who has lived in Singapore for the last 5 years. He got in touch to see if they could meet up. Nick and his wife, Sue, kindly invited not just Paul and Claire over for a BBQ, but the four of us and my mum as well. We ended up having a really fun evening and the children, Hannah particularly, showed unexpected bravery with their two red setters and was found, later in the evening, sitting on the floor with one of them, stroking its tummy.
Well, the 10 days whizzed by, and they fitted in a two day trip to Bangkok too. They then went home for a rest. Our driving tests followed and since then, March has been a stream of school events.
The school does "curriculum days" where the parents go and sit in with their children's classes for a morning. We can even sit in on classes in the years they will join in September too. The annual swimming galas have taken place, I helped on a school trip for Hannah's year to the Botanical Gardens, both children took part in the annual concert known as the "spring soiree" (more on that in another entry), then there have been parents evenings, performance assemblies, "book week" assemblies.....the list goes on and everything is times two, of course. I feel as if I've been there almost as much as the children recently.
I also spent a morning at the British Ambassadors home and had elevensies there. It does, when put like this, sound like a personal invitation, but if I'm honest, it was actually part of a tour organised by an expat group. The house is fabulous and has quite a history and the resident head chef is known for his chocolate cake. I'm delighted to report that I got the opportunity to sample his cake and it is pretty good.
David has just returned from a week in China visiting clients. He went to Shanghai and Beijing, but only had two or three hours in each city to see anything other than the hotel and the clients' offices. They were also both pretty cold, especially after here. However, in Shanghai, he got to travel on the Maglev - a high-speed train that uses magnets rather than wheels. I'm not sure that description makes it sound very fast, but it is and reached a peak speed of 437kpm. Adam is so envious that he didn't get to go on it too, I'm not sure what is greener, Adam or his school uniform!
