Starting 2011 in Singapore

This term, as always, has been busy, and we have had the opportunity to do few new things in this little city- state.

We started off the new year with a cruise down Orchard Road to check out the Christmas decorations - always a bit of visual extravaganza.

Then one Saturday night, my friend Don and his new wife Yati, took us all down to Geylang to sample the food and other delights (!) of the area. We did a dinner on the run, sampling Chinese treats including 'phoenix claws', bao, old mother hen herbal black chicken soup, frog porridge , and to cap off the night some mao shan durian at one of the famous durian stalls down there.

Take a look at these jack fruit - absolute monsters aren't they??

Some of the delights we sampled in our wandering dinner through Geylang.

...and of course my personal favourite ...

Thaipusam, the hindu festival, was on a weekday (and workday) this year, so harder to get to, but as Jordy missed it last year cos he was sick, he and I ventured down to the temple after school. I also took Alison the Scottish girl on staff for a look and of course she was truly amazed. How could you not be??

We met Felicity and went to a local Indian place for thosai (say: dosa) afterwards.

Oh yes and the beardy, French guy we met in the Philippines turned up in late Jan. He is essentially walking and hitching around the world...very adventurous. He stayed a couple of days before setting off for Perth to hitch across the Nullabor. He was planning to meet his girlfriend returning from an expedition to Antartica in Tassie.

Chinese New Year came and went. Love that 4 day mid term 1 break!!!

I got roped into playing the Chinese god of fortune at the school CNY concert and got to bring the cossie home for a try out. He is called 'Cai Shen' (God of Fortune) but with me playing the role, my friend Jin Lan at school renamed him 'Wei Guo Cai Shen' - foreign god of fortune!!

Also at CNY, we had the St Gab's soccer team round for a traditional 'loe hai' lunch and afternoon in the pool. Some of the parents brought a good spread of satay, longton and bee hoon... and we did the barbie/potato salad thing. It turned out to be a great spread - as you can see.

The boys on the team, many of whom are Malay or Indian, and our own two Ang Mo's got to do the traditional loe hai salad toss. All the ingredients are poured in or sprinkled over and everyone simultaneously tosses the salad, lifting it really high with their chop sticks. Its great fun.

This, of course, was followed by further antics in the pool...

We had an evening at the Marina Sands Sky Park. Its a deck on top of the Marina Sands hotel-casino building. There's a swimming pool and extensive viewing platform. We went up around 6.00pm and stayed to watch the sunset and the lighting up of Singapore - spectacular views.

The traditional ang pow or red packet that is given to children at the New Year.

The double helix bridge leading to Marina Sands Sky Park. Its up on top of that surf

boardy-y looking thing.

Looking over Singapore from 57 floors up.

Great watching the city light up from way up here.

Sultan Masjid at Kampong Glam. One of the most atmospheric Mosques in Singapore.

At the end of term we headed off to Penang for a few days. Here we are starting off with a thali lunch at Restoran Kapitan in Lebuh Chulia.

We hired a car and drove around the island. We visited the butterfly farm which also had an array of amazingly camouflaged insects - the green leaf and walking stick insects were astounding... so was the fact that we were allowed to handle them!!!

A leaf butterfly...

...giant centipede...

...can you believe this thing...!?!?

...taking a breather from the heat at the Kek Lok Si temple ...

Driving around the island we found a house on the side of a hill serving traditional Penang laksa and popiah - great photo by Jordy - in crunchy cone cups...

A local temple where offerings were continually made, around the corner from where we were staying.

The highlight for Felicity and Jordy was two nights at Cheong Fatt Tze mansion (The Blue Mansion). A traditional house restored to a hotel. Very stylish.

We ate a few meals at Woodlands Madras veg restoran and got to try the paper thosai - very specky!! Pity I came down with my one and only travel tummy bug of the last 20 years!!!

... so that was Term 1, 2011 in Singers!!