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