Moroccan Dinner and Thaipusam

The build up to Chinese New Year is well under way with the condo looking very colourful at night when the lanterns and lights are all lit up. At work Belinda and Catalina have been busy creating decorations for our front office area and it all looks very colourful.



 

Purple heron

I was allowed/encouraged to set a walk on Friday so we met at Fernvale LRT for what I thought would be a shortish, easy walk around the old airport at Seletar. Perhaps relying on a 3 year old street directory is not such a great idea in Singapore as we found that some areas that appeared to be accessible were not and so we continued to walk forward when it may have been wiser to turn back. In all we walked about 12 km and by the end it we were all a little weary. However we did manage to see some interesting birds, and I even identified one, the purple heron.

Long-tailed shrike

Collared Kingfisher

Last year we often finished our Sunday nights at Bliss restaurant in Kovan but unfortunately it closed at the end of the year. There is another Bliss in Ang Mo Kio where we have another branch so on Sunday night a number of us from 4 branches gathered there to start our weekend . It measured up to the Kovan Bliss and has definitely been added to the list of places to eat/drink.

Mondays walk this week was from Buona Vista to the Rail Mall along the Rail Trail, which is a stretch which used to be the train Line from Malaysia into Singapore. It was decommissioned several years ago and the tracks have been removed. It is a pleasant, shaded walk and Eric generously bought his binoculars along for me to share. Unfortunately as the day was rather overcast, although we did see some bird varieties, they were difficult to identify as it was hard to pick up the colours. One we didn't need the binoculars to identify was the Laughing Thrush as it was in the trees right beside the track.

Laughing Thrush

After finally finding my preserved lemons it was decided it was time to put them, and my tagine to good use so a dinner was arranged for Monday night at Robert and Maria's new home. Everyone contributed something towards the meal and over dinner the decision was made that we should do this every second month, with a different food theme...so next one will be at Rio Vista with a Sri Lankan theme sometime in early April. I'll have to get a cookbook while we are there in March.

On Tuesday Helen and I went in to Farrer Park to experience Thaipusam! Thaipusam is a Hindu celebration which sees Hindu devotees in Singapore seeking blessings, fulfilling vows and offering thanks. The festival is celebrated in honour of Lord Subramaniam (also known as Lord Murugan), who represents virtue, youth and power, and is the destroyer of evil.The Thaipusam ceremony starts in the early hours of the morning. The first batch of devotees carry milk pots and wooden kavadis. Some pierce their tongues with skewers and carry a wooden kavadi decorated with flowers and peacock feathers balanced on their shoulders. Other devotees carry spiked kavadis that require elaboratepreparation. 'Kavadi' literally means ‘sacrifice at every step’ in Tamil. They then walk from one temple to the other, a distance of about 5km. We entered the temple where the preparations are made and witnessed some 'astounding' sights. We watched the transformation of one young man from beginning to end. His sister assured us he had done it many times!

After such an exhausting afternoon I headed back to Little India for MAE mid-term dinner  at the Banana Leaf for a delicious Indian meal, before ending the night with a nightcap in Albert Court.