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Thursday, February 5th, 2009

Yesterday I went on a tour called "The History of the North". Eighteen of us traveled by bus from downtown north along Thomson Road to the old naval base and the surrounding areas. I'm always totally amazed at how much knowledge our tour guide has - she's just an endless supply of incredible information on history, culture, architecture, people as well as birds and animals! Today she pretty much talked non-stop from 9am till 2pm! No kidding! The funny thing is, it's all so interesting that you don't come away feeling like you've had a day-long history lesson, but you have!

We learned about how the Chinese came down from Malaysia, down through the rivers from the north, cut back the jungle, and planted Gambier vines. They would harvest the leaves from the vines about four times a year. After boiling the leaves in water, reducing it to a sludge, it was left to dry forming a chalky type substance. They would sell this to merchants. Gambier was very sought after as a tanning agent for leather and as a dye for wool.
John Thomson, for whom "Upper Thomson Road" and many other buildings and roads was named, came to Singapore in 1841 as a government surveyor. He later became the Super-intendent of Roads and Public Works and was responsible for the construction of numerous roads and bridges throughout Singapore.
One of the areas of Singapore, off Thompson Road, is called Ang Mo Kio. Ang Mo means white man and Kio means bridge. Since he was probably one of few white men on the island at that time we assume it refers to him. The village built around the area where the bridge on Thomson Road crosses the Kallang River became known as Ang Mo Kio. Today Ang Mo Kio is known as one of the older, less cosmopolitan areas of Singapore, retaining much of it's history.

The original Grand Prix track of the 1960's was along Upper Thomson Road. Racing was banned in the 70's after it was decided it promoted reckless driving among the locals, and also because the treacherous Grand Prix circuit had caused the deaths of so many drivers.

Further along Upper Thomson Road is an area named Yishun. Yishun is a pinyinised version of the words Nee Soon. After about 15 years of harvesting Gambier the soils were depleted and a new crop of pineapples was planted. Lim Nee Soon, a Chinese entrepreneur then planted crops of pineapples and then rubber plants. In some areas of the jungle the undergrowth rows of rubber plants can still be seen - if you're willing to venture in there!

Singapore is well known for planning ahead, unfortunately this doesn't always work out and there are many areas throughout the island where small villages were cleared in order to make way for new developments only to have empty fields still 20 years later! I'm sure it must be a thorn in the side of the many people who were moved from their homes!

Further, along the north shore of Singapore, the body of water between Malaysia and Singapore is known as the Singapore Straits. This is where the original Naval Base was built by the British in the 1920's and 1930's. Much of the area where the base was built was originally marsh land. The navy re-routed the main river flowing through the area, filled in the marshland and built the base on the land!
We visited some "black & white" houses which look much like a Tudor house, but designed for a more tropical climate, with shuttered windows and open corridors on either side to allow for a flow of cooling air throughout the home. These houses, built in the 30's, were the homes of the naval officers. Graded from "A" for Admirals, etc. to "D" houses for the Asian laborers. The "A" houses were large top-of-the-hill beach-front properties, while the later were inland about a mile, down the bottom of the hill! Unfortunately, many of the houses have been modified with the shuttered windows replaced with glass and A/C installed inside, ruining the integrity of the design.
We saw a few bomb shelters too, some of which you can still climb down into. One of the original gate posts has been preserved by a Bunyan tree. The tree has grown around the post, extending it's roots into the ground and completely surrounding the old concrete post.

As I stated earlier, our tour guide, Margie, was so knowledgeable and this is just the tip of the iceberg as far as sharing the information she gave us! What I have learned is that Singapore is rich with history!

I have other tours booked throughout February and March - "Black & White Houses"; The Civic District; Toa Payoh - The Heartlands; Emerald Hill. So keep coming back to check for pictures!

Friday, February 6th, 2009

Rory is off work today so we did some running around this morning. I have two "bulky items" waiting at the Post Office for me so I went to get them this morning. After waiting in the queue for over 20 minutes they couldn't find the parcels! I think it might be my books from Amazon. Apparently they're now at the main sorting station on the other side of town! So, I now have to wait till they call me to say they've got them here! Grrr! I'm waiting on my books!!!! Our Post Office is the most inefficient place on EARTH!!! They usually only have 2 people on the desk, with a queue of at least 10 people. You can pay your cable and phone bills there, as well as buy car, TV, dog licenses. It's also a "Western Union" office which means all the maids go there to send their earnings home to Indonesia, China or the Philippines. Most people take at least 10 minutes each, so you end up waiting ages! Oh well - it was my turn to keep everyone waiting this morning, for a change!
After the post office we went to a warehouse selling ceramics - a different one to last week! This one sells more decorative items. I got some "blue & white" Chinese patterned balls, for $2 each! Plus a few ginger jars - all very pretty of course. On the way home we called by the flower stand at Holland Village for some orchids - they always look so pretty and make me happy!

Sunday, February 8th, 2009

Last night we took a taxi into Little India to see the Hindi Thaipusam Festival. The festival is held in honour of the Hindu deity, Lord Subrahmanya, on the full moon day in the month of Thai. For a month, devotees have been preparing and purifying themselves through meditation and fasting. By being able to enter into a trance-like state, Kavadis, with huge metal frames, are attached to their bodies using hooks, spikes and chains.The devotess then walk a four-mile route from Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple on Serangoon Road, through the heart of the city to the Sri Thandayuthapani Temple on Tank Road. Many of the kavadis were decorated with dozens of peacock feathers. Lord Subrahmanya's "vehicle" is a peacock, and peacock feathers signify purity, reminding the devotees of their original purity. It's very much like a "Ripley's Believe it or Not" experience! Although it's an Indian festival, it has been outlawed in India; Singapore and Malaysia are the only places this festivla is still held every year.
Although much of the preparation of the Kavadis is done the night before, I think we got there a little early since not much was happening. We took a walk up to Mustafa's Center to pass some time and to see if I could find some bead containers. No luck. We decided, since Rory's back wasn't feeling so good, to go home and come see the "finished product" in the morning. So, this morning we headed back to Little India at 8am and got some fantastic pictures! and video, which you can see on You Tube.
You'll see many of the men hang limes or small vessels of milk from their bodies using large fish hooks. Limes symbolizes protection from the deities while milk is given as an offering. Holy ash is massaged into their cheeks and bodies before the spikes, etc. are inserted - apparently to stop any pain.

Monday, February 9th, 2009

I got all my errands done first thing this morning - I was even waiting at the post office for them to open the door, and then again at the grocery store! Got everything done and packed away by 10am - so I could look through my beading books. I have to say I was a little disappointed - from what I read about them I was expecting more pattern-type designs and not so much simple threading, But, there are still some very nice projects that will help me use up some of my accent beads.

I spent a few hours this morning looking at patterns on the internet. I managed to find a great site and downloaded a few, so we'll see if I can get some made up - will have to get some printer ink first though. I'm out of everything except yellow! I now have 86 different bracelet patterns saved on my computer and probably another few dozen in books!

I also spent some time going over my geneology information. My dad's brother has come up with a huge load - about 10 pages - of information which I need to put into the program. It's going to make such a huge difference to the family tree, being able to fill in many empty spaces! Rory is printing it out at work and I can't wait to see it all.....

Wednesday, February 11th, 2009

Our vacation is booked! We're off to Cambodia for 8 days at the end of March! We'll spend 3½ days in Siem Reap, 2 days in Phnom Penh, and 2 days in Sihanoukville on the beach! Yippeee!!!!

I made two more bracelets - new patterns - yesterday. The patterns were great - I ordered them online. The designer did a really good job with the instructions and they went together really quickly! Even better!!! I've got beading group tomorrow morning and have 3 more projects that I can start on, and of course I'll have to take the ones I've made for "show and tell" !

Rory got his suit yesterday. I haven't seen it on him yet - I rushed it off to the dry-cleaners so he could get it back before he goes to China on Sunday. He's been a bit stressed lately - the had major job-cutting annoucments today and he had to tell all his staff. Not a nice position to be in - on either end of that news!

The kids are doing great. Maxine almost missed the bus this morning - not sure what she did for an hour, but by 7:55 she still had no shoes on, no shirt on, and hadn't had any breakfast! The bus arrived as she shoved her water-shoes into her backpack! She does kayaking and needs the water -shoes to take part. It's amazing how, in the morning, we can never find any white socks! I swear I've bought dozens of pairs....and still I find Sydney wearing the same pair more than once! They can't find ANY others!!! Truly amazing!

Friday, 13th February, 2009

Today, Rory and I had our first Chinese lesson! Our tutor, Angela (which is her "western" name) was born in China and moved to Singapore ten years ago. She quite young, and keeps on refering to us as "older people" - might have to have a word with her about that!!!

We'll be doing lessons from 8 to 10 every Monday and Wednesday morning till we leave Singapore, and then we'll take them up there again. Not only do we learn to speak Chinese, but we also learn to write the characters too! Since many words have different meanings, you really need to know the characters in order to differentiate. Today we learned grammer - in about three mintutes! There's not much to it. There's no tenses, conjunctions, or other "unecessary stuff" - they just use the basics! There's a little more to it than that, but in general it's supposedly not a difficult language to learn. So, today we learned to speak and write the basic vowels, the 4 tones - which are very important, some short greeting phrases, and to count to five.

Tuesday, 17th February, 2009

Today I went on a tour of the "black and white" houses throughout Singapore. We drove by many so we could take a look at the different styles and sizes of the homes. We got to visit inside four houses. I think the gardens, which are very large by Singapore standards, and carefully manicured, are just as intriguing as the houses.
Although it wasn't the most interesting tour, it was nice to be able to see the houses up close and to get inside. Many of the houses still have the original architecture - shutters and open corridors, servants quarters and portico's. Many of teh portico's have been turned into outdoor seating areas. The "black and whites" were originally built for the British navy. A lot were built in the 1930's although many date back to the 20's and beyond. There are apparently about 600 "black and whites" around Singapore. The term "black and whites" really only came about in the 1990's when expats started referring to them as such. Before that, the Chinese servants with the long pony tails, and black pants and white shirts were known as "black and whites" because of what they wore.
We got to stop at a little tea shop for some tea/coffee and cookies. It's owned by an American lady, and they do catering, wine tastings, and open up in the evenings as a wine bar/pub.
I bought a really nice coffee table book on the "black and whites" which I'm hoping to find time to browse through soon - in the meantime I'm getting ready to roll some dice tonight!!!

Wednesday, 18th February, 2009

Bunco went off without a hitch, as far as I know, and everyone had lots of fun. Everyone enjoyed the food too - phew! Max and Syd had cake for breakfast this morning! It had lemon in it, so it was healthy. Amazingly Syd's sore tummy vanished at the thought of yummy cake for breakfast!
I gave one of the bracelets I made away as a gift for the traveling bunco prize. I might have recruited some more members for our beading group! I don't think many of the ladies even knew of the beading group....
Talking of beading group, we're off to a new shopping center tomorrow - Fu Lu Shou Center - with a few bead-type stores in it. I think they sell more "exotic" style beads, which is fine - maybe I'll find something I like, or can use as a gift. I need to go to "my" bead store again! It seems I'm always a few beads short when I make a bracelet. I've realized that it's because most patterns, I think, are scaled for a 7-inch bracelet, and I have a larger wrist so end up making them longer, thus running short of beads. So, I'll just have to get in the habit of picking up an extra few in the begining.

Maxine has her second photography lesson today. She really enjoyed the first one and was on such a picture taking pluck afterwards - thank heavens for digital photography is all I can say!!!

Rory is doing great in China. It's cold! A few of them drove to Shanghai yesterday for a conference today. He says that Shanghai is just so incredibly large that words just can't describe it! He goes back to Nanjing this afternoon by high-speed train. And then home on Friday.

Thursday, 19th February, 2009

Shopping today, with my Beading Buddies, was a lot of fun! We went to Fu Lu Shou Complex on the outskirts of Chinatown. We found lots of stores selling natural stone beads and accent pieces. I bought some nice accent stones for some stringed necklaces. I'm not sure what some of the stones are but they're very pretty! Of course I also bought some crystals to make some rings. I think I got the wrong size though - too small - but I think I can adapt the patterns. I've actually started creating my own patterns, and actually been able to copy a few pictures that I saw on the net, based on what I've learned so far! Yippee!
We had lunch at an organic vegetarian restaurant. It was actually really good - I had sushi rice rolls, an asian salad, along with a Passionfruit drink - delish!!!!
We also found a florist who does flower arranging lessons, and if you have a group of 5 or more she'll come to your home to teach! We got 4 interested ladies so far, for Friday mornings. The price was really reasonable too - $280 Sing, which includes all learning materials, FLOWERS, tools and supplies for 8 lessons! She teaches bouquets, small arrangements in both "traditional" and "asian" style. I really hoep we can get a group together!

After bead shopping we went to a baking supply store, Phoon Huat & Co. They have a chain of stores around Singapore selling everything you could ever need for baking and decorating - in bulk! I didn't get anything there - I didn't want to get anything perishable if we're moving soon. But, I might have to go back and get some mooncake molds - they had some very nice intricately carved ones. Not that I'll be making any mooncakes anytime but they're very pretty for putting on the wall in the kitchen.

By 3:30 I was pooped and ready to get home. Sydney had to jump the gate to get in since I wasn't home in time! Oh well - it doesn't happen often! At least it wasn't in pouring rain!

Sunday, 22nd February, 2009

Rory got home safely from Nanjing, via Hong Kong, on Friday night. It was a full day traveling after a week of back and forth between Nanjing and Shanghai so he was glad to be home. When he was in Hong Kong airport waiting for his luggage he met an American guy, along with his wife and 3 very young kids. They got chatting and Rory asked him where he was from and he said Dallas area, from a place called Coppell !!!! WHAT are the chances of that!!!! In freakin' Hong Kong - there's a billion people in China, and the one that Rory starts chatting with comes from Coppell, graduated from Coppell High in the late nineties! They spent a few minutes catching up on what's changed in Coppell over the last few years. He hadn't been back in a while - he's there studying, planning on opening his own company helping Chinese universities integrate with the American way of studying, etc. It was just soooooo unbelievable. Sydney still just can't get over the odds!

The girls were very excited on Friday - they didn't have to wear school uniforms. They had to wear red or pink. Of cuorse their closets got torn apart in the process fo trying to find something suitable, that fit!

It's Rory and my 17th Anniversary today so we went out for a nice supper last night - Mexican, of course! But then moved on to an Italian restaurant where we finished off with Italian dessert and coffee! We had a fun evening trying to think of good memories from each of the years we've been married. Somewhere around 10 years it all becomes a blur!

Sydney was sleeping over at a friends house, yet again, and Maxine was at home working on a making a movie with a friend for her Technology class. They're making a horror movie....something to do with Rory acting as a pumber and killing them both! All very strange - they couldn't stop laughing at each other though so it took a while longer than anticipated to film.

I made three bracelets yesterday afternoon. It rained the whole time, so it was a perfect time to sit quietly and follow some new patterns. Will take some pic's soon.

Maxine and Rory have gone on a filed trip with her photography instructor. She seems to be really enjoying the course and has learned so much - she's teaching Rory some things already! They're going to Raffles Place, near Boat Quay, to take pictures.

Thursday, February 26th, 2009

The kids are off school tomorrow (for what reason I, have no idea!) and Rory has his "second Friday off" so....we're all going to get our vaccines for China! EEEEK! I have no idea how many we'll need. I'm hoping we got most of them when we moved here.

Maxine has spent the the last few weeks working on a school project. There's a bunch of them still at it - 10pm! And they'll be starting again tomorrow morning 10am! They've made special T-shirts and done a movie, a brochure, madea game, interviewed people, etc, etc. etc. Tomorrow afternoon they're going to Orchard Road to gather donations for Red Cross so I hope they have good weather. They've spent so much time, and money, on this project that I think it would have been more worthwhile donating the money spent and volunteering their time!!
Sydney has also been working on a group project about the environment. They're making a huge cave in their classroom, with a big paper tree outside the cave, stuffed with all their beanie babies, Webkins and other strange things! They also made a movie and are coming over tomorrow afternoon to edit it, as Maxine and her crowd leave! Then on Saturday, Sydney is going to a friends house, and Maxine is going to a birthday party at Sentosa, and...Rory and I are going to see Rod Stewart! Should be a hoot!