2016 Kicks Off

After an uneventful flight to Singapore we took a wander up to the recently opened Fairprice/Hawkers Centre where we decided it was probably time to have some dinner. This may have been a mistake as Michael spent most of the next day in bed! By about 4 he was ready to get up, for the third time, and we made our way down to the Smiths for a catch up drink. The plan had been to go to the new Nepalese restaurant but as Michael's tummy was a bit delicate we opted for Saturday's Bar with western style food and a relatively early night.
 My roomie, Helen arrived back in the early hours of Thursday morning and after a short sleep was up and about waiting for the removalists to arrive. By lunch time she had cleared her belongings and the room was ready for the next arrival. By the evening we were both ready to make our way to Sque Bar by Clark Quay where we celebrated the arrival of the New Year with colleagues from MAE. The staff handed out party blowers and whistles so the noise began well before the witching hour!

After a slow start on Friday we welcomed my new room-mate Pip who had arrived during the night. In the afternoon we introduced her, and Robert and Maria to Bidadari, an area frequented by many migratory birds. The site used to be the Istana residence of one of the wives of Johore Sultan Abubakar's. Unfortunately by the time I leave Singapore it will be a building site as it is to be redeveloped for residential use. We didnt see too many birds, perhaps they were sleeping off NYE excesses but I did see the Common Hill-myna, which despite its name is not all that common.

Work resumed for me on Saturday morning and it was great to welcome two new staff members, a young couple from Canada. They seem to be very positive and I am looking forward to a great year. Michael spent part of his day wandering the SimLim centre and came home with a new lens for his camera. Thanks to the contributions for Birthday/Christmas it was not as expensive as it could have been. By Sunday night it felt as though we had never been away and it was good to catch up with many of our old friends at Penny Black, where we also toasted our 35th Wedding Anniversary.

Our first walk of the year was the Botanic Gardens/Dempsey Hill route. It was great to see some new faces in the group and it gave Michael the opportunity to try out his new lens. He was especially pleased with the shot of the flower!

After an afternoon rest we caught up with June, Peter, Libby and Eric at Nectar and Vines before moving on to the Godhuli Sanjh, the Nepalese Restaurant we had intended to visit last week. Previously we had often eaten at another Nepalese restaurant called Everest Kitchen and one of the owners has gone in to this new venture. The walls are adorned with pictures from MAE treks, including some from our trek to Annapurna in 2013. Michael and I are actually in some of the group photos...who would have thought that we would ever appear on the walls of a restaurant in Singapore.

After a quietish day on Tuesday we met Jo and Helen, along with Pip at Telok Ayer an area near Chinatown which Michael had not previously visited. Helen and Jo had a little birthday presentation for Michael  and Jo had written him a little poem about the re-appearance of the Órnum' bird. Jo was suitable dressed in her chicken hat and managed to turn a few heads! 
We introduced Michael to the Kazbar, a middle Eastern Restaurant which serves delicious food and which he decided was his new favourite place in Singapore.

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