Tailor-made!

Robert returned from Australia on Thursday evening so we met up in Kampong Glam for lunch on Friday. At the same time I collected my new clothes. I am happy with one dress...not so sure about the other and both the tops had to go back for alterations. Fortunately I asked to try them on and discovered that the sleeves were far too tight resulting in a rather uncomfortable fit. Time will tell if the adjustment improves the fit!
On my way through Hougang on Saturday night I came across a venue all decked out for family Reunion dinners. This is part of the Chinese new year celebrations and many of the local community clubs arrange temporary venues for families to get together. This one came complete with a monkey god...this is the Year of the Monkey!

I finished off a quiet weekend with dinner at Saturdays and then had to wake myself up for a morning walk on Monday...the first time in 4 weeks. Due to illness and other commitments we were a small group but the Kent Ridge to Vivo city walk is always pleasant.

heliconia, view from Mt Faber towards Sentosa

sculpture at Mt Faber, collared kingfisher, colours of Hort Park

On Tuesday morning I took a solo walk out to Lorong Halus Wetlands close to my workplace at Punggol. From the 1970s till the 1990s Lorong Halus was Singapore’s refuse dumping ground. After it went out of use in 1990 the city planners created an eco wetland in its place with the express purpose of cleaning the soil and water in the area. It is a very open area so it was extremely hot but there are several covered spots to sit so I caught some of the wildlife going about its business.

zebra doves, temple offerings, olive-backed sunbird, paddyfield pippet

long tailed shrike, blue tailed bee eater

After an afternoon rest it was time to prepare for an evening of Martinis at Mortons Bar in the Eastern Oriental. They have a happy hour from 5-7 each day with a variety of flavoured martinis...delicious! the chocolate one was more like a dessert than a drink! we finished up with a meal at Gluttons by the Bay before heading to the MRT. 

As we passed through the Esplanade theatre area we found this rather intriguing sculpture titled Óver the Horizon'. The artist Wang Ruobing, collected thousands of drifting plastic bottles from the waters around Singapore and created this plastic kinetic wave. Apparently they move up and down to replicate their drifting trajectory!!  Unfortunately we had just missed their 3 minute movement and were not inclined to hang around for another 57 minutes to see them in action.

On the Downhill Run to Holidays

As Robert was back in Australia for family business and wedding, Maria and I met up for lunch on Thursday at the new Punggol Waterway before heading off to work. We made arrangements to meet the next day in Kampong Glam to suss out some fabrics/tailors as some of my favourite clothes are getting a bit worn and need replacing. We had a successful day finding many attractive, inexpensive fabrics which I am now waiting, nervously, to see made up. The biggest issue was narrowing down the choices.
I arranged to meet June and Maria for dinner on Saturday night and they chose Joe's in Kovan, so Libby and Eric joined us as well.
Last Thursday was Peter's birthday and as he was in Sri Lanka at the time, we convened at Roosevelts after work on Sunday night to celebrate with him. It was time for the tables to be turned as usually Peter is the one to pen new lyrics to old songs...this time Eric had rewritten Sliding Away by Max Merritt.

For the 4th Monday in a row it was not necessary to rise early for a walk, as the walk has been listed for Tuesday this week. Funny how when you don't need to get up, you wake up anyway isn't it! After a day puttering at home I met with the Smith's to see The Dressmaker...finally. The theatres were much less crowded and we had no problem getting seats. I loved this movie, a good balance of humour and sadness, and i would highly recommend it. Judy Davis and Hugo Weaving were fantastic and Liam Hemsworth is certainly easy on the eye! We followed up with dinner at Jamie's Kitchen, where I had a tasty pizza, but $70 for pizza, 1 glass of wine and a limoncello really is a bit over the top.
Pinky, our new cleaner started on Tuesday, so I had to be up and functioning to greet her at 8. Once we gave her a few instructions we headed out for the days walk, a new one from one north MRT to the Colbar, more on that later. 
One north is a business park comprising biomedical sciences, infocomm technology (ICT) and media industries. Besides being a "science hub" another aim is to create a community where expatriates and locals can gather to live, work and relax together in one-north.

Our walk began at the very striking Solaris building. Libby had very kindly organised for us to be taken up to the roof top area. There is a 1.5km path that winds around the building but we were not allowed to use it due to 'privacy for the businesses' but the visit to the roof was interesting and gave us views of some of the  striking architecture in the area.

The building itself was designed  to create a completely ecological site. Instead of replacing natural habitat with a built environment, the design seeks to create a maximum amount of habitable green spaces in addition to a sustainable building. Two towers were designed to house research and development facilities, connected with a passively ventilated atrium. According to our guide there has been a 30% saving in energy consumption.

atrium, Solaris, view from the roof.

From here we continued through the centre of the Fusionopolis area where there is an interesting variety of modern architecture.

We wandered through the streets and one north Park where we found we were at the planet Saturn! This is part of an off-site exhibition from the Science Centre, which represents the Sun, and then there are nine unique sundial sculptures placed at various locations around Singapore. The relative distances of these sculptures from the Science Centre represents the distance of each planet from the Sun. The Sun is position No. 1 and we were at position No.7.

After a short stretch of the Rail Trail, not far from where Libby and Eric saw a spitting cobra last week, we ventured through Wessex Estate where there are a collection of houses coined “black and white” after their distinct black timber frames and white walls. These Black and White Bungalows were constructed by the British from 1930s onwards to house British personnel working in the nearby military installations at Alexandra and Pasir Panjang. The term “bungalow” derives from a Hindi dialect word “bangala” which means “of or from Bengal.” Our destination for today was The Colbar, which is short for Colonial Bar. It was first opened in 1953 to serve as the unofficial canteen for members of the British Army.
On its 50th anniversary of establishment in 2003, Colbar was initially slated for removal to make way for the construction of a major semi-expressway. The Jurong Town Corporation (JTC) who were masters of the one-north development at that time decided to step in, and together with members of the community, worked with various governmental organisations to preserve this legendary eating house.  Colbar was moved from its original location to its current premises. Interestingly, the many fragile materials such as clay roof tiles, timber screens and solid timber swing doors were carefully reused in the construction at its new premises. Much attention was also paid to the unique architecture of the building, with the colours and texture of the old Colbar meticulously matched and applied throughout the building.
I thoroughly enjoyed the fact that on ordering a ham, cheese, tomato sandwich that was exactly what you got...no fancy trimmings (or price) just 2 slices of fresh white bread with the crusts removed! Having celebrated with a bottle of apple cider there was need for an afternoon nap before heading out to the Kazbar for the MAE mid term dinner.
As we were having an early start on Thursday there was no staff meeting on Wednesday so I took the opportunity for a stroll along the river and home via Punggol Park. During my walk I found a tailor bird, water monitor, an active beehive and a collared kingfisher.

As I was about to leave the park I spotted a yellow bittern, a shy water bird that I had seen in Sri lanka, but not previously in Singapore.

Yellow Bittern

Chinese New Year

After returning from Bali the rest of the week flew by in the lead up to Chinese New Year. Belinda had decorated our foyer and on Sunday we all wore red to work, as this is deemed to be a lucky colour.

Our reward was to finish at 1.30 on Sunday because this is the traditional evening for family reunion dinners and is always a public holiday. Elizabeth was in town and Robert was flying to Australia later tonight so I met up with them in Tiong Bahru for a late lunch and a bit of a wander before a relatively early night ...for a Sunday. The city was extremely quiet with very few people out and about.
The building with linked platforms is a modern HDB called The Pinnacle@Duxton. It is a public housing project and the 50th storey skybridge is open to both residents and the public. At a cost of $5 it is possible, on a clear day, to take in the spectacular view of the city, which I have done a couple of times.

wall art in Tiong Bahru, interesting architecture.

Apparently the plan is for the red building on the left to be totally covered with greenery!  
After another Monday morning sleep-in I met with Libby and Eric at Farmway for a walk to Waterway Point at Punggol, the recently opened shopping centre which is responsible for greatly increased numbers on the MRT and LRT that I sometimes use to travel to and from work.

After what appeared to be a slow start regarding birds we actually ended up seeing quite a few varieties including a pair of laced woodpeckers, a common flameback, a lesser coucal and a magpie robin.

female laced woodpecker, male with red cap, magpie robin

Elizabeth and Maria had expressed a desire to go ówl spotting' in Pasir Ris Park, so on Tuesday morning we headed over there for the morning. It was great to see large numbers of family groups enjoying the facilities and camping in the park, an uncommon activity in Singapore. 

I found the spot where we had seen the owls previously and were happy to see a couple of photographers in the vicinity. They very obligingly pointed out the 3 owls resting high in the trees. One of them spent 15 minutes showing me his bird photos from various spots around Singapore, inspiring me to do a bit more exploring...sometime!

Maria being a tripod, Spotted Wood Owl

 After the excitement of the owls we wandered through the cottage garden style area where there was an abundance of butterflies.

In the evening it was a bit of a shock to discover so many people in the movie theatre at Orchard. The plan had been to see The Dressmaker but it was sold out and so was the following session, so after a little adjustment we got the last three seats for Spotlight, another movie I had wanted to see. It would seem this is the year of the "expose" style movie and I can understand why this one has been nominated for a large number of Academy Awards. It was quite harrowing for the dedicated journalists who finally made the Catholic Church face up to their failings in Boston...although this was only the tip of the iceberg internationally.  The Cardinal who kept the "misdemeanors" of his priests under wraps ended up in Rome...very timely considering this week saw news that Cardinal Pell would not be returning to Australia to give evidence due to ill health!
After the movie we made our way to Chinatown for dinner and a look at the Year of the Monkey lanterns...a display I felt was not as good as previous years. There were a number of street entertainers including this sword swallower.

Singapore does have some odd advertising campaigns, and I'm guessing this one is to encourage the young to start breeding early! This sign was on the floor of the MRT!
 Occasionally we see signs regarding crime statistics in an area and obviously someone in my neighbourhood did something 'ímmodest' last week!

Bali

After a midnight arrival and a peruse of the duty free we were pleased to see a smiling Janie to greet us and then settled in for a nightcap (or two) before bed. It was great to see the villa was as good as we remembered, and even better in some ways, as this time both the wifi and upstairs showers worked well.
Monday morning was a slow start with Kim very kindly cooking scrambled eggs for all of us before we headed off to Hardy's to stock the pantry. On our return we created a couple of bottles of sangria for later on and the rest of the day was spent doing very little, napping, reading, swimming etc. The resident bat from our last visit had moved on to be replaced by grasshoppers! The baby who was just 2 weeks old on our last visit is growing in to a happy smiling little girl.

 Once again Fatma cooked us an evening meal of fish, chicken and vegetables for the princely sum of $5/head. The evening was spent listening to favourite songs and having discussions about music which resulted in us each having to compile our favourites under a number of headings. Eric plans to make a "Bali" playlist for us to share. 
At 6 the next morning I doubted that we would get our bird walk in as the rain was falling heavily, but by the time we were ready to leave it had stopped although the sky was still overcast. After a bit of a mix-up over our destination, requiring a trip back to the villa to get Fatma to translate, we had a very pleasant couple of hours at the Water Treatment plant. We are now aware of the confusion caused by calling it a 'lagoon', sounded like Legian. Luckily Libby realised we were going the wrong way before we had gone too far. 
Once again we saw the small blue kingfisher, scarlet headed flowerpecker, pied triller, munia and a large number of water birds. A first sighting for me was the tanimbar corella, a near-threatened species, and one that was not supposed to be in Bali but I guess he didn't see passport control!

tanimbar corella, scarlet headed flowerpecker, scaly-breasted munia(nutmeg mannikin) pied cormorants

Water treatment works, platter for two at Bumbu Bali

After another afternoon much like Monday ie lazy, we went to Bumbu Bali, the traditional Balinese restaurant we visited last year. Again they provided us with an amazing amount of tasty food for a very reasonable price. By the time we got home everyone was lethargic so it was not a late night as we had an early start in the morning.

As we were in the taxi on the way home in Singapore we found out that Travis and Jaime had had a spill from their scooter in Phuket, but apart from some missing skin they were, thankfully, ok. Jaime managed to make it to work, walking a bit stiffly but Travis was feeling a bit worse for wear so had a couple of days off.
In my absence the condo had received the finishing touches for Chinese New year and my neighbour had up-dated her door decorations from Xmas to CNY, but bizarrely the Halloween decorations remain!

Test Week

A couple of times each term we do an evening walk which allows Peter to join us. This week was from Stadium to Gardens by the Bay, always a pleasant stroll, and it was especially lovely with a cooling breeze tonight. Last time we were in this vicinity it was almost impossible to see across the Bay due to the haze so tonight was a vast improvement.
On the walk Helen gave me a little cardinal bird ornament she had brought back from the USA. At the end of dinner I went to show it to Libby and couldnt find it in my bag, so I backtracked to where I had taken my camera out but no luck. Backtracking was to become a theme this week!

After dinner the few of us that were left wandered over the helix Bridge towards Promenade so people could experiment with new cameras, phones etc. Preparations were well under way, on the floating pontoon in the Bay, for Chinese New Year. As I removed my wallet when we stopped for a nightcap one of the inside pockets of my bag popped open...and voila there was the little bird!
Tuesday was a quiet day catching up with mum, Michael and Duncan before heading in to Wine Mansions to celebrate the January birthdays..ie Syd, Kim and Libby. They always look after us well there and tonight was no exception. Jo had penned a rap for the birthday folk, which they all thoroughly enjoyed.

This was my second 'backtrack' of the week as when we arrived at the MRT we discovered Libby's bag of goodies were still back at the Bar...fortunately it wasn't a long walk!
This week at work is Test week so it is a relatively easy week. On Friday we went for a Birdie walk to Sungei Buloh. Unfortunately about half way round Eric decided he wasn't well enough to continue so he headed home while Libby and I continued on. Lucky for us we did as we were fortunate enough to see a sunbird busily building its nest. We also saw some storks which are not supposed to be in Singapore, but obviously no-one told them.

Sunbird nest-building, slimy monitor, storks, flameback woodpecker

My third backtrack of the week happened when there was a mix up with work keys. I met Libby in Kovan to collect some keys but they weren't the correct ones so instead of continuing on to work I had to jump in a taxi to collect keys from Eric then continue on to work...they say things come in threes so that should be it for a while.
After a relatively quiet few days it was great to be sitting in the departure lounge at Changi by 7pm Sunday ready for our flight to Bali.