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.