First week of Term 2

After a morning of domesticity, and discovering that I had left a drawer fully of clothes in Australia, I met up with June and Joy to visit Envision. ENVISION is part of iPreciation’s mission to promote, exhibit and integrate  public art in Asia. The exhibition trail starts from Arts House, Asian Civilisations Museum, Empress Place, The Fullerton Hotel, Clifford Square, The Fullerton Bay Hotel  and along the Marina Bay Boulevard.
The first display was an installation of 24 ‘ru’ stones in different shapes and sizes, weighing from 500 – 8000KG. These huge pieces of natural stones come from the sea bed, billions of year old lime stone corroded by the sea water. Each stone is inscribed with a simplified stroke of a Chinese calligraphic character that reinforces Chinese solar terms. The area was overrun by primary school students, with one particular group totally ignoring the pleas of their frustrated teacher. 

We then moved on to a series of bronze and stainless steel sculptures from the Living World Series, which aimed to capture everyday scenes of people coming together, playing and going about their daily lives.
 In the same area we found some giant saga seeds. Saga seeds are commonly found across Southeast Asia, sometimes they are called “love seeds” because of their vivid red colour and round heart-like shape. Continuing the 'giant' theme we also found some local myna birds!

My personal favourites were the set of Living World Series behind the Fullerton Hotel and the Javanese kebaya, the traditional women's blouse.The butterfly featured prominently on the sculpture as a brooch is a metaphor for change! 

One of my Favourites

Even without this temporary installation there are quite a few interesting sculptures in this area including the 'Window of Hope'.

Before our combined 'back to work' meeting on Wednesday I had lunch with Robert and Maria to hear about their holiday and to bring them up to speed regarding mum's progress. The good news was that early Thursday morning she was transported by air ambulance to Coffs where she will spend a period time in Rehab before they let her go home. I had arranged to walk to Punggol Barat with Liiby on Friday morning but by the time I got home on Thursday I was feeling decidedly unwell so I cancelled before going to bed by 10.30...a first for me on a work night. By lunch time on Friday I was feeling a lot better so we rescheduled for 3.30. Being Good Friday we didn't have to work and it seemed a shame not to do something on our day off. Plans for a pre walk drink were abandoned due the enormous numbers of people and we were happy to escape the crowds. It was a hot and humid walk to an open area where were saw a variety of birds, but the definite highlight was a pin-tail whydah, a small songbird with a conspicuous pennant-like tail in breeding males. It is a resident breeding bird in most of Africa south of the Sahara Desert. You may well ask 'Since when is Singapore in the Sahara?' but the bird has obviously been released here and is breeding. We saw 2 males and at least 1 female, with both males competing for her attention. We, along with several camera toting locals, were treated to an elaborate courtship flight display, which included hovering over the female to display his tail. The species lays its eggs in other birds' nests especially the waxbills, which we also saw a number of. 

We ended our 1st week back at La Nona, a new venue in Holland Village. After a slow start with the service the night improved and could prove to be a place to revisit.

Siblings

Holidays

After a long flight, interspersed with the screams of a very tired child, it was great to touch down on the Gold Coast before catching the bus to Byron. Sue very kindly picked me up and before heading to Ballina we had lunch at The Farm.

By the time Michael got home I had had a nap but I still didn't last long after dinner.

As I was carless, and Michael no longer has any days in Ballina, I was reliant on my legs and others for transport. I met Pam at The lighthouse cafe for lunch before she collected me in the evening for dinner in Lismore with the group. We had a pleasant evening and it was an opportunity to catch up with everyone at once.

The weather was wet and windy so Sue, Pam and I spent Wednesday at the movies seeing The Lady in the Van. It was an interesting movie kept moving by the performance of Maggie Smith. We followed up with lunch and a game of cards at home before Sue dropped me in town for a bit of shopping. The price difference between Singapore and Australian Taxis was brought home to me when the 2KM ride home cost me $15...a trip to work in Singapore of about 6KM costs around $5!

We caught up with Chris and Steve over dinner at the RSL and I made arrangements to walk with them, weather permitting on Thursday. It was pleasing to see that Chris has made good progress since her recent mini-stroke and is still getting in some golf although she did admit that by the second 9 she tends to lose focus, and skill. Fortunately the weather had cleared considerably so we were able to get in a walk on Thursday and she was able to tick off her 10 000 steps for the day. It was quite noticeable that she has a tendency to drag her left foot and must concentrate to stop herself doing it. We were lucky to see a large pod of dolphins chasing fish in the river and a bit of other local wildlife.

Walk with Chris and Steve

When Michael returned from work we took a stroll along the beach and I had the opportunity to get my feet wet. The initial contact took the breath away but in fact the water was quite warm. On the way back we found some rainbow lorikeets feasting on seeds and decided it was time for us to follow suit...not seeds for us but champagne and hummus instead.

I had changed my travel plans, forgoing the Gold coast to Canberra flight, for a direct flight to Sydney. Departure was at 6.30 on Friday morning so it was an early start and by shortly after 9 I was sitting in mum's hospital room in North Sydney. She was looking pretty good considering it was only a week since major surgery, but still having a few digestion issues.  By 12 it was obvious she need a bit of a sleep so I took a walk up to Crows Nest for some lunch and a window shop. By the time I returned she was looking rested and fresh after a shower. She had 2 nurses on the ward looking after her, both from Northern Ireland and sounding just like Michael's cousin Barbara. By the time I left at 4.30 they had made contact with her surgeon and returned with the news that he would be removing the drain and staples over the weekend with a view to transporting her to Coffs for some rehab time, possibly on Tuesday.  That gold Card is invaluable as she will be transported by air ambulance and it will all be covered.

It must be rainbow lorikeet season as there were several of them flitting around the trees outside her window.

I caught up with Anna for a quick drink before catching the train to Canberra. I decided to go first class, a great decision, as I was able to relax with some wine and cheese, get in some nap time, do a bit of reading etc before Duncan picked me up at Queanbeyan and took me round to Margarets. He was about to head out to collect Michael from the Airport when he got a message to say he was still on the Gold Coast. He eventually arrived at 12.45, an hour late!
Duncan collected us for brunch at one of the trendy areas of town. It would appear Canberra has realised that there is plenty of potential for this type of thing and is redeveloping many areas close to Civic. Bev joined us there for a coffee before we made our way to the Craft Beer and Cider Festival at the Mecure. Some people dressed especially for the occasion! while the rest of us just enjoyed the many and varied offerings. It seemed to come as a surprise to Bev that Yes cider is alcoholic!! It was good to see her looking so well and getting on top of her health issues, although she is hanging out to start work, with still no start date in sight.

After a few hours of tasting we strolled back to Duncan's place for a rest before heading back to Queanbeyan, where we met my grand niece Frankie. She is a happy little soul who likes to keep moving. She and her mother, Mistie, joined us for dinner at the Queanbeyan RSL.
As Duncan had a birthday coming up on Tuesday he met us at Ikea so we could buy him a few furniture items. He is now the proud owner of a bed, desk and set of drawer. Then we crossed the road for my first ever visit to a Costco which is a membership warehouse club. They sell pretty well everything and Duncan joined as he can buy diesel for 90cents/litre. Not my idea of a fun place to visit, at least not on a Sunday! The boys spent several hours building some of the purchases while Margaret and I stayed out of their way...2 people with their own way of doing things is enough!
We had arranged to have lunch with Bev at her local pub, so after Michael spent a short time tinkering with her computer we headed down to The Duxton for a late lunch. Michael has decided that Canberra could be a pleasant place to spend some time...although I would restrict that to the warmer parts of the year.

Fortunately our flight back to the Gold Coast was on time so we got a good nights sleep before we went our separate ways...Michael to work in Byron and me on the return flight to Singapore.

Final week of Term 1

As this weeks walk was scheduled for Tuesday night I was able to have a little sleep-in before meeting up with the Smiths for a bird walk through Venus Drive a section of the Central Catchment area. Unfortunately the birds were rather scarce although we did see a few monkeys. By the time we finished the walk Libby was quite unwell, a theme that seemed to continue through both Punggol and Kovan for the rest of the week.
After a 'nana' nap I headed in to town for the MAE end of term drinks at WineBos. At $40 this was one of the cheapest nights out in Singapore, $20 for free flow wine and $20 for a pork knuckle you couldn't jump over. In fact after the meal, Robert declared he wasn't ready to go home so a few of us found a whiskey bar for a nightcap...this cost $30 for one drink! Robert and Eric shared a whiskey 'flight'!

On Tuesday I had to wait around for our new washing machine to be delivered so I took my binoculars and sat down by the river for a little while. I was lucky enough to see a flock of blue-tailed bee-eaters catching their lunch over the surface of the river. Unfortunately they never sat still long enough for a picture but I did get a close up view of the Sunda Pygmy woodpecker.

The washing machine was delivered and installed and works well! 

Our evening walk was around Chinatown ending with dinner in Smith Street, an outdoor undercover area which was extensively renovated recently. The walk was not long but made people aware of how close and interlinked areas they may have visited, really are.

Wall mural

Smith Street decorations for Year of the Monkey

On a recent day walk Libby and Eric had seen some light installations around the Marina Bay area so some of us went to investigate them after dinner. They were installations for a sustainable Light Art Festival. Many of them were solar powered and it is quite amazing what you can create with a stack of the inner tubes from toilet rolls and some coloured cellophane and tissue paper. 

My personal favourite were the angel wings...where I was briefly able to channel my inner angel... there is one in there somewhere!

The news had come through earlier in the week that mum was to have an operation after all so it was scheduled for Thursday. She is in the Mater hospital in Sydney and we were pleased to hear on Thursday that all went well. My sister Bev apparently commented that she had more staples than a stationery shop! On Friday morning she had a visit from the Physio to start her moving again...they certainly don't muck about. 
I had catch up lunch with Kathy and Helen in Hougang before we all head in different directions for the holidays, then followed up with an afternoon coffee with Robert and Maria before heading to work.

Birds, cards and community art!

On Friday morning I met up with the Smiths for a birdie walk around Eco Green at Tampines. We had a very successful morning seeing quite a variety of birds, including some that aren't supposed to be here. 

sooty headed bulbul, scaly breasted munia, sunda pygmy woodpecker, crimson rumped waxbill

After a quiet weekend it was off to Bukit Gombok for Mondays walk. The neighbourhood consists of two hills. One of them stands at 133m while the other stands at 113m. They are Singapore's second and third highest natural point after Bukit Timah Hill.
The walk took us through Bukit Batok Town Park, a nature park, located in the precinct of Guilin.  The park was created from a disused granite quarry. As such, it has a resemblance to the granite rock formations in Guilin, China. Hence it is also known as Little Guilin or Xiao Guilin among the locals. 

We then continued on to Bukit Batok Nature Park another area developed on an abandoned quarry site. The pond runs deep and still – a relic from the mining days of the region. There is a memorial plaque in memory of soldiers and victims of World War II.  During World War II, the Japanese selected the Lorong Sesuai site as a memorial for the soldiers who died. All that remains are two pillars and 120 concrete steps leading up to a transmission tower. 

As we were about to leave the park an elderly gentleman drew our attention to some wildlife in the trees...a colugo, also known as a flying lemur...despite being neither a lemur nor a flyer! In fact it glides between the trees using the skin between its body and arms like wings. They did not appear to be particularly worried about our presence. Our walk concluded at Jurong after a short stop under a flyover to stay relatively dry!

After an afternoon nap I was off to June's for a game of cards where i was the winner. Most unusually Helen came in 6th place, an unheard of event in card circles!

I had planned for Tuesday to be a quiet day in, but when June suggested a walk around the Community Art at Jurong I had a change of heart. This self-guided Art Trail is part of the National Arts Council Community Arts and Culture Nodes initiative with Taman Jurong Community Club, which introduces visitors to community-based and commissioned art works created by artists and residents, on display across Taman Jurong landmarks. Despite the less-than-helpful self guided map we managed to see all the works listed without getting lost.

The shopping centre had the remnants of '50 Bridges’, Australia's contribution to Singapore's 50th anniversary, which is also the 50th anniversary of Australia-Singapore diplomatic ties.‘50 Bridges’ comprise three elements: ‘50 Walls’ - which brought public art to 50 Singapore heartlands locations; ‘50 performances’ - a program of puppetry performances and film; and ‘50 BBQs’ - 50 simultaneous BBQs, offering a meal of Aussie steak on a special night in June.

Aimed specifically at Singapore’s “heartlands”, the ’50 Bridges’ programme was fun, contemporary, and an apt reflection of the modern Australia-Singapore relationship.

A cohort of professional Australian street artists in collaboration with Singaporean artists brought their artistic talent to walls in hawker centres, HDB blocks, the Kampong Glam enclave and even schools.

not part of the árt'walk just some sculptures in the gardens of a HDB

My Favourite

We had extended an invitation to Kathy to join us but her morning was already scheduled but she did invite us to join her for lunch which we did.

 I spent the rest of the week finishing off some MAE work so only left the house to go to work. 

Lucky for us we have an excellent landlord as our washing machine gave up the ghost on Thursday night and by Friday they had organised a new one with delivery on Tuesday...and as far as we know at no cost to us. Generally, and according to our lease, we are supposed to pay the first $150 of any costs incurred but we have never been asked to do this.

By Friday I was happy to see the MAE work finished, at least for the time being, with just a check over before I submit it to the office.