Exams, a route canal and a long weekend in Malacca

Things have been moving along in the last few weeks. We have had two long weekends recently, one for Labour Day and one again the next weekend for Veesak day, a Buddhist holiday. All the main religions gets a holiday - Buddhist, Christian, Muslim and Hindu. Exams are upon us - all four of us. The boys are busy trying to wrap their brains around Maths, Science, Geography and the way English is taught and examined over here. I have just written my first two English papers (and a challenging task that was) and now Felicity & I are marking a couple of hundred exam papers each.

The boys and Felicity went up to Pasir Ris water park 'Wild Wild Wet' last weekend. They enjoyed the opportunity to relax and take a look at another part of Singapore. I've been doing a bit of riding with a couple of guys from school - moved from a 40 k trip to a 70 k one, getting out west through the last remaining farm land in Singapore.

Xave played in a big soccer (football) tournament at the ANZA playing fields a couple of weekends ago. He is playing on a French team. The Sat/Sun tournament involved teams from Malaysia, Thailand, China and Indonesia - a very multicultural event. He played a swag of games in U14 & U16. He is certainly enjoying the opportunities here - especially the prospect of playing in a return tournament in Bangkok at the end of the year.

Jordy has just received a certificate for completing a conversational Chinese class at school. He has learnt quite a few words of Mandarin over the past few weeks and it's always amazing to see how quickly he picks up a new language. He has also been cooking some excellent bready foods like home made pizza (delicious!) and cinnamon buns (scrumptious!) - which he will be happy to try out on any visitors coming through.

I've been 'enjoying' a bloody toothache for a few weeks, I've finally had to bite the bullet and accept that I'm going to have to fork out for a route canal. Ouch!! Had the first treatment last week and going back for another one tomorrow, after that it's on with the crown. One of my nightmares - having to get some weird and scary procedure in a foreign country. The dentist turned out to be an expat Californian and seems to be doing a good job of it



We had a great trip to China town a few weeks ago to see a guy from school (Don) who plays in a band in a cafe down there on Friday nights. It was great walking around the narrow streets and old shop houses. Another place we have only explored once is Pierce Reservoir - really just across the road from where we live. It has great views across the Lower Pierce and walks built on boardwalks that snake around the edge of the water, then take you in through a lovely jungle park. We saw huge monitor lizard swimming through the water. Very nice first thing in the morning or in the early evening.

Our latest adventure has been a long weekend trip to Malacca in Malaysia. We took off on Friday night with Felicity taxi-ing it from a staff meeting directly to bus the terminal. Immigration was busy busy busy with heaps of Singaporeans and others heading in to Malaysia for the long weekend. After we cleared both we headed off up the west coast highway and arrived in Malacca at around 11.45pm.

We stayed in a Malay hotel which was a bit ordinary but at least it provided us with a bit of space and good aircon - believe it or not it actually felt hotter up there than it does down here. On Saturday, we spent the morning around the old Dutch church, Bukit St Paul and the museum reconstruction of the Sultan's Istana (palace). All very atmospheric, and interesting to read up a bit on the history of the place. The Portugese and Dutch certainly made a mangled mess of things round there.

Whilst we didn't lash out on accom, we did treat ourselves to some fine dining. On Saturday evening we ate at Resotran Peranikan, a restaurant specialising in the Babanonya food. It was set in an old, magnificently preserved Peranikan house. Both food and setting were inspiring. After wards we cruised around Chinatown and the Jonkers walk, where the streets were closed off for a night market. Lots of junk, but some nice bits as well and your typical narrow Chintown streets with lovely old shop houses festooned with lights. Amazing to think it's been going on there for hundreds of years.






Sunday we had a closer look at China town's streets, temples antique shops and the Peranikan Heritage museum which is set in an original Peranikan house. Incredibly ornate tile work, floors , furniture inlaid with mother of pearl - a real delight to visit. That evening we treated ourselves to a visit to Capitol Satay, a satay-steamboat style place where you select your satay sticks from an incredible assortment of known, lesser known and totally unknown items, sink it piece by piece into the cauldron of coconut, chili, palm sugar and other spices bubbling away in the centre of the table - and feast!! It was a very novel way to eat. We shared a table with two Irish girls on their way through to Bangkok.

Monday we had a leisurely stroll around the Dutch built 'Stadhuys' which was the Governor's residence and office, but is now a set of historical and educational museums - very nice buildings. The boys were back in the hotel room watching movies!!

It was a great weekend, but now its back to work, head down, noses to the grindstone until the end of term.

More pics to follow...