Highs and lows - the way life goes



Flower Dragon ushering in the new year

Goodbye January 2012. Can you believe it? First month of the year is over leaving us one month closer to ending our time in Singapore. I'm  excited about that, excited to think that we'll be home soon to see all our friends, cuddle our dogs, drive our own cars and sleep in our own beds. I'm really looking forward to it but I'm relieved we still have 4 more months on this sweat drenched island in the South China Sea. I'm not quite ready to come home yet.

I'm not even going to try and give a sequenced account of the last couple of weeks simply because I don't recall it. It's been somewhat of a roller coaster on all levels. Rather, I'll remember the highlights and the low lights because unfortunately we have had a few.

Night Safari

The Singapore Night Safari surprised us on the enjoyemnt front. It is actually something we hadn't intended to do at all, but we did, and loved it. We were really impressed with the mangrove bat sanctury which is an enclosure that you go into and you can observe different bats and flying foxes eating and doing thier thing. It can get a bit freeky when they fly right over you but I had my big strong husband with me so it wasn't too bad. It's great being able to just walk around the premises of the zoo after dark and it cerainly is a different experience. They have very cleverly designed the enclosures so that you often don't see fences or glass at all but rather have a view directly into the enclosures as if there were no barriers at all. It was a stinker of a night and we got our sweat on properly but we thouroughly enjoyed it.

Drinks before the Ballet Revolution

I managed to get us tickets to Ballet Revolution at the Esplanade Theatre for thier last night performance. The dance company is a Cuban outfit who have produced an incredible show combining various dance genres from ballet to hip hop all to the sound of a live band. The talent was exceptional and the lean mean male cuban dancers had the predominently female Singaporean audience screaming for more. As one of Nick's colleagues put it, she went to see the show "to see some real men with muscles" :) It was a phenomenal night out that left us both feeling like we need to see more theatre and more live shows. I think the display of ripped torsos was motivation enough for Nick's gym work out for the week.  

Fort Canning in the rain

After Brig's whirlwind visit I needed a couple of days to get back into my solo flying again, which admittedly, took a couple of days and some determination. My visit to the National Museum of Singapore with Brig had wet my appetite for more museum encounters and as a result we've seen more of what Singapore has to offer on that front. We spent a very wet but lovely afternoon on the Fort Canning grounds admiring the original Fort facade that still remains as well as the incredible foliage and flora adorning one of the most historically important hills in Singapore.

Fort Canning original fort gate

Nick is currently reading 'Singapore Burning' which is an extremely detailed account of WW II's approach and impact on Singapore. As a result, I don't need to hire the little audio travel guides that are available when visiting these historical sites as I have my own very knowledgeable (and far better looking) tour guide who buys me lunch afterwards too :)

Display at Asian Civ Museum

After one of these lunches (all be it during the week and prior to a museum encounter instead of after) I made my way to the Asian Civilisation Museum and spent the afternoon there. I was blown away by their exhibition from the Tang Shipwreck. The Tang is a 9th century Arab vessel discovered in the Java Sea in 1998. The ship is believed to have been travelling between China and the Middle East and was laden with ceramic and gold goods thought to be designed and produced by the Chinese for foreign markets in the Middle East. It was absolutely astounding to see artifacts dating back to 830 AD and see the craftsmanship and design talent that already existed back then. There were items on that ship that look like better quality than what you can buy in the shops today! Astounding!

Massive Dragon at Sentosa

Of course, our daily January experiences have all been taking place against the backdrop of Singapore's preparations for Chinese New Year. This year CNY took place over the 22nd, 23rd and 24th of January which meant that Singaporeans had a 4 day weekend. Just about everyone takes the rest of the week off too, resulting in a 9 day break for 3 days of leave.

Tempat Senang

Unfortunately Nick wasn't taking any leave but we did decide at the last minute to try and get away for the Saturday night and managed to book ourselves into a little boutique spa on Batam island which is just 45 minutes away from Singapore by ferry. We were torn between getting out of Singapore all together for the 4 days or staying to witness the CNY festivities. We figured that one night away would be perfect and then we could enjoy some time out in Singapore on the Monday and Tuesday.

The place we stayed at was fabulous - little spot called Tempat Senang. It is a Balinese villa that has been converted into a tiny spa with only 9 suites. Located right next to the golf course (to torment Nick further) it is a little piece of heaven, cleverly laid out to ensure maximum relaxation.

Our 3 hour spa treatment was sensational and I can honestly say that its possibly the most relaxed we've been in years! However, we returned to our room to extremely sad news as Nick received an email informing us that one of his colleagues in the Singapore office had been killed in a bicycle accident earlier in the day. Nothing can prepare you for news like that. Nick had started to become friendly with James as they both go to the same gym over lunch time during the week. I had met James and sat next to him at the quiz evening we were invited to right at the beginning of our stay. James was from the London office originally and had been in Singapore for a year. He had just gotten engaged and his fiance was also over here, a lawyer too. The news of his death due to a bicycle accident in Singapore on the long weekend was devastating. We were and still are gutted. Life is so precious and can be taken from you so quickly and unexpectedly. God knows our family and friends have realised that in the most agonising way in the past year.

With that sadness in our hearts and all that comes back to you in times like that, we have been on the down low a bit since then. Certainly the reflection and contemplation intensifies and again you are able to see more trivialities that stand where they shouldn't and you find new strength to break through them in order to claim back relationships and celebrate what you do have instead of what you don't. Perspective. Again it has been revealed to me in a less than subtle way. I could be forgiven for thinking that someone is trying to get a message through.....

Karaoke

When life is getting you down you have to look for the fun and Nick and I found some on Friday night just down the road from us. After dinner again at Three Fat Men, we found our way into a karaoke bar. Nick had to do some serious convincing to get me inside because from the road it looked like a dodgy, dingy, divey spot that I would certainly not want to step foot into. After adopting the attitude of 'When in Singapore', we went inside and found a seat. What fun! People actually go there to sing! Not in the cane-and-cream-soda induced way that ex-Rhodians do at certain establishments located in Craighall. Rather, people were in there singing their favourite ballads, everything from Lionel Richie to Celine Deon. We even heard a few Cantonese ballads which were really beautiful. It was interesting. And of course, in true 'Nicola' style, I decided I had to try - 'once in a lifetime', right? Indeed - and never again! I decided that Elton John's 'Can you feel the love tonight' was an excellent choice as I'd sung it in my high school choir and even sang the last 2 lines as a solo! I clutched the microphone and began singing - OH MY WORD!!! Nick managed to catch the whole thing on video which he really shouldn't have. I sounded more like a choir of mating cats than the way I remembered sounding back in my red school uniform in 1998. HIDEOUS! Anyway, I was a hit regardless and the very polite patrons applauded despite my key change half way through the song that probably left them all with splitting headaches. Yikes!

We did another 10km walk through a series of parks on Sunday which once again reinforced Singapore's dedication to creating and maintaining public amenities. The walk starts at Mount Faber and then each park is linked by a series of pedestrian bridges, canopy walk ways and paved forest walks. What a splendid way to spend a Sunday morning.

About to watch the tennis

We made our way home for a swim and then headed out on our bikes to find a spot to watch the Australian Open Men's Final. We landed up at a Micro-brewery just down the road from us and had the most delicious fish and chips. We got the timing a bit wrong and ended up only watching the first set of the tennis and decided that our intentions of watching a 5 hour tennis match seated on a bar stool was ambitious to say the least. We headed home and resorted to bbm updates from 43 Old Main Road Kloof on the war of the titans, Nadal and Djokovic. My man won in the end and I suppose that's all that counts :)

We are off to Malacca this weekend. Very excited as we are driving up by coach which will mean we get to see some of the countryside into Malaysia and its only a 4.5 hour drive. We spend the night there and then head back late Sunday afternoon. Should be fabulous.

Of course next weekend is our Tioman trip - BRING IT ON! 4 days in island paradise - can't wait!

Love to you all and take care of yourselves. Be careful and be safe.

xx