Michael's visit

After a very hot, humid walk around Macritchie Reservoir I headed home to await Michael's arrival for a week-long visit.

He arrived in very good time and after a short catch up we headed over to District 10 where we caught up with Syd, Kim, Libby, Eric and Peter.  It is a very pleasant spot at Buona Vista which will be the venue for our mid-term drinks in a couple of weeks. When we return we will keep a closer eye on our spending as it turned out to be one of my most expensive outings in Singapore!

We had a slow lazy start to Tuesday before doing some shopping Michael had been tasked with from a friend back home. Who would have ever expected Michael to be shopping in a Pandora Store! We convened at Sque Bar for drinks and the opportunity to catch up with work colleagues that Michael knows. It was lovely sitting by the river and about half the cost of the previous evening! Kathy and Michael also got to indulge in their favourite after dinner snack...a papa beard...custard filled pastry puff!

After lunching with Robert and Maria in Kovan, before some us had to got to work, Michael and Robert met Peter at Lau Pa Sat for dinner.
We spent Thursday afternoon wandering around the newly opened National Gallery admiring the fabulous job they have done merging the old Supreme Court building and City Hall. We didn't have time to do any of the exhibitions before I left for work so Michael decided he wanted to revisit after dark to get some photos from the roof.

Daytime at the National Gallery

Nightime from the rooftop of the National Gallery

We decided that it was time to get some exercise so on Friday morning we rode the blue line out to Hillview. There was an ulterior motive as this is the stop closest to the Rail Mail, which just happens to have a health food shop/cafe that serves Thunder Tea Rice! But first we earned the food by following the Wallace Trail.  Alfred Russel Wallace, a contemporary of Charles Darwin, is the other "father" behind the theory of evolution. In 1858, Wallace hit upon the idea of evolution by natural selection, and promptly sent his theory off to Darwin. It was the same theory Darwin had dabbled with for some time, but he had yet to publish it. Wallace’s letter spurred him into action and two months later, Darwin presented a paper on the subject, acknowledging Wallace’s contribution in it. Wallace is a renowned naturalist. During his journeys to the Malay Archipelago, he made several stopovers in Singapore in 1854 and collected about 700 species of beetles in the vicinity of the Dairy Farm site. The Wallace Trail, celebrates his contributions. 

The walk is pleasantly shady although the day was extremely humid. There is an informative display in the Wallace Education Centre housed in a restored cow shed. Wallace would be spinning in his grave if he could see Singapore today as even back in the 1850S he said:

" future ages will certainly look back upon us as a people so immersed in the pursuit of wealth as to be blind to higher considerations."!

We did see a few birds, including the Greater racket-tailed drongo and a pink necked green pigeon, and Michael got to enjoy his Thunder Tea Rice at the end!