More musings from Singapore

Greetings all,

Kafil and I have now been in Singapore for 10 weeks, my time has flown. It feels like I have never lived anywhere else and yet. ..I am now contemplating the fun and games that will ensue on my return to Melbourne in just 4 more sleeps!! Can't wait to catch up with as many people as possible, and to give my Mali boy lots of walks and hugs.

Kafil and I have been busy getting to know our new home and its surrounds. We have been to Chinatown, exploring the streets and enjoying the less modern and sterile environment that feature. Funnily enough one of the highlights of Chinatown, is a beautiful Hindu temple.


This temple is very much used by the local Indian population. The Sunday we went there was a group of musicians practising their percussion on big old drums. In the opposite corner were a group of women of varied ages going thru some dance practice.

In the other corner some labourers worked at preparing the trunks of banana palms to be used as poles within the temple.



Indian temples are very colourful with lots of statues of various multi limbed gods, and sacred animals. Enjoy the photos of Sri Mariamman temple.


We ventured out to a nearby suburb Eunos for a meal at the local hawker centre, we were the only westerners amongst the largely Chinese and Malay locals. Sometimes living in the burbs makes us objects of curiosity as most Expats seem to live around the Orchid Road area. Whilst we were there we noticed a religious celebration.


I have met some great people here and have made 3 lovely women friends who are happy to meet for a meal or a drink or....... Yesterday I met a friend and we had a great Indian meal at a local shopping plaza. She then took me to have my feet nibbled by Doctor fish. This is a therapy where you sit with your feet in a tank of hundreds of little fish, and they eat the dead skin from your feet. It sounds weird but after the initial giggles and shrieks from me I sat back and enjoyed the experience. The fish are a type of small carp from Turkey. She and I attracted a lot of other interested passers by as we sat in full view of passing shoppers.




Last week I ventured to Malaysia by local bus with an English friend Corrine. JB is only 45 minutes from Sing Central, and is a great place to buy DVDs and "designer" handbags. It was an interesting day out and the contrasts in fortune of people from Malaysia to Singapore was quite obvious. Singapore has a lot of millionaires whereas more people struggle financially in Malaysia.
The buildings there are quite different because of the higher percentage of muslims.



I also met up with my friend Sally and joined her and her mum Betty at the swish Fullerton hotel for High tea. It was very posh with multiple tiered plates of sandwiches, cakes and scones. We drank our coffee and tea from fine china, and it was quite a contrast to the hustle and bustle of Boat Quay where the hotel is situated on the river.


I then ventured into the Asian Civilisation Museum to admire and learn from the many exhibits on show. They had a great exhibition of Vietnamese artifacts, which reminded me of our fantastic 5 week holiday in northern and middle Vietnam earlier this year.


I have started training for 5 a side women's football (round ball). It is the only time of the week when I am surrounded by people who are as hot and bothered as I am. It's fun although my lack of knowledge of the game is one of my many barriers ( you can guess the rest) It is a league of nations with women from India, Singapore, Switzerland, NZ, Brits, Malays and of course Ozzies, all getting together to run around. The season starts at the end of October. Kafil and I even went down to the local park for him to coach me on the weekend. It was great to get out and do something energetic, although I really felt it in my legs the next day.

There are a whole array of religious festivals celebrated here, and tomorrow (Kafil's Birthday) is a public holiday. We have invited a few people to join us for a seafood meal down at East Coast Park. He feels pretty special having a public holiday on his birthday. Singapore embraces and accepts its multi cultural population, and has days off for Buddhist, Muslim, Hindi and Christian religious significant days.

Enjoy all the photos of the temple, some unusual foliage, and some of the delicious culinary delights we have enjoyed.

FYI, for those who don't know, you can click on the pictures to get a full screen view "Hint from Blog Assistant Kafil"

Until next time.
Kerri

Random ramblings

Greetings all,
I thought I would catch you up with some of our leisure pursuits here in Singapore, the last couple of Sundays Kafil and I have ventured out to East Coast Park. It is an 11km part skirting the sea, and only 3 bus stops from our home. It is said that the park is where people play, and its true. Hordes of people young and old, with children or not gather together. ECP has more than 6o barbecue pits following the length of the park. There is a bike and roller blading track, running parallel to the walking and jogging paths. People stay overnight in small tents, fly kites, water ski , swim& build sand castles together. It is a little weird as it is on the ocean and not far out you can see the myriad cargo ships going about their business. The Park also has it's fair share of restaurants, cafes and pubs so there is something for everyone. This weekend there was a Chinese lantern festival happening, and once it was dark the Chinese were releasing large paper lanterns into the evening sky.

It is a lovely place to visit on the weekends and everyone is in relaxed mode when they go there.
The first time we went we walked for hours and watched the goings on. This week we went to lunch at a renowned seafood restaurant Jumbo, the food was fantastic, and so cheap when Kafil and I saw our meals we thought they had given us the large serve mistakenly but the bill confirmed it was the small dishes. We had great scallops wrapped in taro, which gave a lovely creamy texture to the outside of the scallop. We then had mussels in a tomato, garlic chilli sauce, the dishes were delicious, we will have to have crab or lobster next time we go.

Until next time
Best wishes Kerri

A photographic catch up

Hello Out there in Cyber Space, Greetings and Salutations,

I thought I would take this opportunity to catch you up with some of the photos we have taken since arriving in Singapore.

I am happy to forward our address and home and new mobile phone numbers by personal email if you would like them.

So on to the photos - beginning with our arrival at the Changi airport, complete with teddy given to be by Bronte at school, and Kafil with his huge cigar given to him as a work farewell by colleagues.



The next shots are of the breakfast dining area and swimming pool at our centrally located serviced apartment. We loved the convenience of city living, however after 4 weeks the lack of space was really getting to us.


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The helliconia at the Botanical Gardens were spectacular as you can see.





And on to our Maria Avenue home, we have already had a couple of barbecues in our cosy front garden. We installed a ceiling fan under the verandah, to ensure the of enjoyment some outside time.


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Most people live in flats condo's and apartments here, so the house is a bit of a novelty amongst our new friends.


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The down stairs rooms, as you can see spacious light and airy.


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The main bedroom and the landing. I had to call on the services of a handyman to put up our pictures and such, as the solid brick walls, were too difficult for Kafil and I too mess with.

I am still loving being a lady of leisure, I just finished reading a brilliant book "three cups of tea"
written by Greg Mortensen. He was an American mountain climber in the 80's and spent lots of time in Northern Pakistan trying to conquer K2. He started to build schools in remote areas in an effort to provide education especially to girls. The book is inspirational if you have time give it a read. He is not your typical "missionary" type do gooder.

Until the next time we meet
Kareema