Chingay - another reason to celebrate

Chingay kicks off today. Another big event in the Singaporean calendar. Sadly I won't be attending as I'll be travelling for work (seriously, it's already getting in the way of my alternate lifestyle!). The word Chingay comes from a Hokkien phrase which means 'to paint the face and wear elaborate costumes'. I think you start to get the idea of where this is going. Starting as a Chinese festival, Chingay has evolved to celebrate the Singaporean way of life and it's culture. A mass of colours, people, floats and parades explode through the very heart of the Lion City.
I even know people that are coming over from far away type places to watch it. A Twitter friend (@mindanaoan) is travelling from the Phillipines with her mum to watch it. And boy is she excited! I think it makes for a great weekend and if you're in town it's not to be missed. Which it will be, by me.
Here's the official website http://www.chingay.org.sg/. People are genuinely excited about it and it's not even the end of Chinese New Year yet. However, I'll be in Hong Kong for that, so maybe it's not all bad!

Courtesy of www.chingay.org.sg

Dhal '0' for curry

Here it is! Well, here it goes. Couldn't stop long enough to take a photo so T took one for/of me! Just superb! Reckon I could eat it every day!

Mmmmm, curry!

D loves the fact that we can pick fresh curry leaves from somewhere in the grounds of the condo (as do I). I say somewhere as Mary won't divulge where as I think she thinks it's a bit naughty and she's such an upstanding member of the community! Anyway, it Mary's very own dhal for dinner tonight and it is one of my very favourite dishes that she makes. My mouth is watering just thinking about it and might even blog a photo of it later if I remember. The chances are slim to be honest as I become rather obsessed once I start!!

Chinese New Year - It's still going you know!

Well, if I'm honest, I'm feeling a bit lazy which means I really shouldn't be blogging right now. However, it has been quite an eventful, cultural week all-in-all. Starting with a very nice Chinese New Year's Eve meal with new friends. A good traditional Chinese meal starting with throwing (with aid of chopsticks), the food in the air. This is accompanied with some shouting but I cannot remember what (I'm sure someone will let me know The higher the throw, the better your prospects for the coming year. I don't know if this works for random Westerners too but it's worth a try! Now, at this point it's worth saying that my photos of proceedings were rubbish so I have taken the liberty of pinching some from Pam Ha (who we met that night, along with hubby Kevin, both from New Zealand). Thanks Pam! The food was beautifully prepared and presented and tasted

Before the toss!

After the toss!

gorgeous. All washed down with a glass of Champers and of course beer. Courses included the traditional full chicken (meaning prosperity and togetherness of family) along with hard boiled eggs (meaning fertility, not sure I'll be needing those, but they tasted very nice). There were some very tasty meatballs (which I believe represents reunion). And then the traditional chocolate cake. Well, I'm not sure it was traditional, but it tasted great! After all that it was great to just chat round the table and enjoy some new company. Aussies (our hosts), Brits and Kiwis all chatting like we'd known each other for ages and not a sporting quip in sight (well, I'm sure that last bit isn't true, but it's nice to think it could happen).
We left the party happy, full and hopefully more prosperous than we've ever been!
Next day (Chinese New Year's Day) was quiet. I think there were probably a few sore Far Eastern heads about. I decided to take D to the Chinese Gardens to see what was happening there. T and Z decided to chill out and hang at home. So me and D set off on the MRT on a beautifully sunny, warm day to see what we could see. Turned out to be a great idea. Only the second time I had ventured to the gardens and I hadn't appreciated quite how expansive they were the first time around. The first thing we see as we stepped of the train (rather unexpectedly bearing in mind where we were), was a whole posse of Indians playing cricket. It was kind of like seeing Hackney marshes in the UK with all the guys playing football on a Sunday. Although the thing with this lot was there was a certain amount of style and technique with which they bowled and batted.

Clean bowled

Clearly enjoying themselves I left them to venture into the Gardens themselves. Red. It was all red. And yellow. Quite an awful lot of yellow too. Lots of lucky colours. First stop was the towering pagoda as we entered the gardens. A lot of people standing around, photos being taken, laughs being had. And then I realised, much to my surprise, most of these people were Indian too. I still don't know why so many visitors were Indian, although I suspect that they lived close by. Having said that one group of guys had come down from Johor for the long weekend and were busy enjoying themselves (as well as trying to take photos of D, not a chance, he is not impressed with strangers taking photos any more. The general cry is of "NO, only daddy takes photos!". Good boy!). Anyway, D decided that climbing the seven stories up to the top of the pagoda was feasible so we did. Normally he wants to be carried but he was off like a flash, eschewing all attempts at photography along the way. The views from the were fantastic and it was actually one of the clearer days I had seen for a while (as well as one of the sunniest).

I would comment on the colours and the flags and the (fake, I'm afraid), blossom on the trees but I think the easiest and laziest way to let you know what it looked like is by posting some more photos! So here you are! The day was much like New Year's Eve with much humility and good wishes. We had a thoroughly nice time just wandering. Even D couldn't stay in his buggy with the promise of fish and turtles to be seen.

The deep red flags blew and flapped in a pleasant and refreshing breeze. Just what was needed to blow away the cobwebs from the night before. D and I ate the most enormous lumps of ice-cream for only a dollar each (D paying with his newly acquired Hong Bao money. Well chuffed he was). We passed on the 'live' tortoise and turtle museum (that by all accounts is quite a pull). It does makes you wonder about the fact that they make a point of calling it 'live'. I would imagine if the artefacts on show got much slower that you would indeed have trouble calling it 'live', but I suspect that the real reason is more to do with the penchant of people in this region to feast on these slow moving fellas and that live is a bit of a novelty.
To top it all we even managed to miss the rain by a whisker as we got back on the MRT bound for Dover station.

See more photos at Flickr

Top 5 Chill Out Bars in the Lion City

To help him with his first guest blog entry (whilst standing in for his fiancé Laura), I thought you might like to read about @asksirstamford (for tis his nom de plume on Twitter) and his favourite chill out bars in Singapore.

N.B. the views expressed are those of @asksirstamford and not mine as I haven't managed to hit all these bars..... yet!

Expat Adventures in Singapore: Top 5 Chill Out Bars in the Lion City

New Year's Eve - Chinese of course

Just a quick comment really. Had been out to Fairprice (our local supermarket), this morning and found a general excitement in the air. Of course it is Chinese New Year's Eve, I know, but I haven't been here to experience it before.
There seems to be a general levity in the air that I've not experienced since I've been here. People are happy, excited, smiling and everybody is chatting. Even the often maudlin shop staff are smiling!
So I decided to hop on my bike and take a little turn around some of the local neighbourhoods. First stop was Ghim Moh, our usual stop off for fresh meat, veg and fish.

Normally open all day, the market was practically closed by 11am when I turned up. It would seem that most people had taken to the hawker centre already and beers were already flowing. Again, the atmosphere was jovial and good natured. Many of the hawker stands were closed and the ones that were open had large queues forming for their wares even in the late morning. Most popular, noticeably, was the Chinese duck stand. Just on the fringes of the hawker was a temple which I've not seen before so obviously up especially for New Year.
People were coming and going leaving prayers and incense sticks. Good wishes and luck for an auspicious New Lunar Year I'm sure. Then on to Holland Rd HDB where the fires were burning for traditional offerings. I could smell the burning incense and fires way before I arrived.

Smoke and ash pouring from the braziers. Kids were out of school by now finishing early for the festivities. Massive excitement and lots of noise. Much more than usual, even from school kids. It will be interesting to see how the evening's events unfold. But at the moment it feels like it's brewing up for something special!

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Bali - Part 3 - School and mountains

Tuesday and back to Bukti today to visit the school in Putu's home village. The schools in Bali are private and parents must pay for their kids to get educated. Having spoken to the Villa gardener it's not that cheap but  most parents (as parents do), will find the money somehow as they realise how important it is. As we have littl'uns we went to the primary part of the school where the kids are aged between four and six years old. As soon as you arrive (for those of us with families) you get a very familiar feel to the place. Toys in the playground, bright colours and cartoons adorning the walls and cheeky kids everywhere. Well, not everywhere. The school was slightly emptier than usual owing to the fact that the village was celebrating Black Moon Day where the majority of the village stops to make flower offerings and gather in the temples to pay devotions to nature's energies. Those children that were in school were dressed in their traditional robes topped off with the 'peci' or hat. Also in evidence was the traditional Batik design (which is actually named after the technique used to make it), so famous in Indonesia.

I really like Batik, but I don't think it's something I could get away with wearing. It just doesn't suit me. I've seen many westerners that have tried it and not many pull it off!
A little reserved at first, it didn't take the kids long to come out of themselves. The girls gathering round D (how does he always do that?), while he ignored them coz he had scissors.
You'll notice that in my pictures on Flickr they are mainly of the boys being cheeky. I thought the girls were being reserved through some sort of cultural reason but the teacher told me that their 'gang' wasn't together today whereas the boys 'gang' was which gave them the confidence to show off. Same the world over, eh? The children sang some songs. A lot of which were exactly the same as songs they sing in the UK and Singapore (only with Indonesian words of course!). D even recognised some of them and thought about joining in. But not quite. He decided afterwards that he'd like to go to school, on his own. Which was nice, because he will be soon (nursery is on the agenda and then proper school in September)!
Back in the car and off to see a waterfall in the mountains. Was pleasantly surprised by the great quality of the roads a we ventured up the narrow tacks into the hills. One village was particularly large. It turned out that these were the well off guys in the area as the nature of the weather allowed them to harvest different types of fruit the whole year round. Just enough rain and just enough sun to grow most fruit, vegetables, spices and cocoa throughout the year. Parking up at a friend of Putu's house, we embark on the long, hot and humid walk to the 'falls. Putu immediately takes control of the buggy with Z in it and ploughs on up the hills with the aroma of the many clove trees hanging in the dense, humid air. The steep track through beautiful padi fields lead us up to the 'spice-man'.

This guy is about 1000m up the side of the mountain selling, amongst other things, refreshments for the weary tourist. And a very good trade he does too. As well as the refreshments he sells spices, lots of spices. And coffee beans. Notably the mongoose coffee bean. I won't go into detail but sufficed to say, Mongoose love to eat the coffee beans. They'll only eat the really good ones and they don't get digested so off course they come out the other end. This apparently starts of the fermentation process and gives it a 'particular' flavour. I'm sure it does, but not quite my cup of, er, tea. But it does sell very well and for quite a lot of money (surprisingly there aren't too many people practising mongoose poo coffee making), so he can't be wrong. What I wanted to know was who had discovered this process in the first place? He seemed unable to answer that question. D was quite fascinated by the mongoose though. Of course, we bought some spices, quite a lot of them. I think I probably paid over the odds, but hey, I'm gonna pay a whole lot more in Singapore and they aren't going to be freshly harvested from a Balinese mountainside! And then on to the waterfall itself. Spectacular certainly, and very tall. But on account of us not being able to get too close because of the kids and heat we didn't really see too much of it. As they say, sometimes it's the journey not the arrival and to be honest, really the revelation was the 'Poo Coffee'. I like finding things like that.

On the way back down I start to become aware of the amount of people who do actually live and work up here. The smell of fermenting cocoa beans and spices out in the sun greets us at almost every homestead we pass. The aroma is terrific and a world away from the busy land of Singapore. D is doing very well with walking up and down these tracks until half-way back he trips and sprawls over the track, bangs his knees and ends up on dad's shoulders. Can't say I blame him. It is very warm by now and the water is being drunk by the bottle. I have to say though that it would have been much more of a struggle without having been acclimatised first in Singapore. We met some Dutch tourists on the way looking very red and hot and needing a long sit down at the Spice Hut. Think they were slightly amazed at the way Z and D were going at it. Even with D on my shoulders we couldn't catch Putu who by now was off like a startled rabbit with Z in buggy. Great fun, with the most beautiful scenery and great weather. Not to mention seeing the biggest spider since our arrival. A good six inches across. What's not to like?

See more photos of our Bali trip on Flickr.

Cocoa beans fermenting in the sun

Hillside homstead

Chinese New Year, Weddings and Work

Yes, work. It used to be a four-letter word to me but now my time is up and I have been recruited in to the massed ranks of city workers in Singapore. It all happened very quickly (although I am still awaiting the contract, but I'm sure that will be sorted soon). One day I'm browsing LinkedIn, next thing I'm being offered a job (a week ago today in fact) that, in principal at least, is exceeding all my expectations. I say in principal because I don't officially start until Monday week. But I have already attended a (phone conference) tender meeting and held my first interview for staff. So you could say things are proceeding at speed. I'll blog more about it when I start but sufficed to say I'm excited, a little apprehensive, excited and quite excited!

The reason I'm starting next Monday (amongst other things) is that Thursday sees the celebration of Chinese (Lunar) New Year. Quite the biggest event on a calendar that is already pretty crowded with big events. Chinese New Year (CNY), this year is being celebrated on 3 and 4 February and will go on until about 15 February (the like to make it big!). I must admit I'm not sure what to expect as unlike with Western celebrations, CNY is also about reflection and spending time with friends and relatives. Indeed, I have already seen the grandparents and possibly even great-grandparents being shipped into our condo to come and spend time with their kids and grand-kids. I am also aware that the majority of shops (most being Chinese owned) will close over the period. With this in mind, T and I set off to Cold Storage to get the essentials in before this happens. It's amazing how many essentials one needs when confronted by possible closure of the shops for two whole days! Not to mention the fact that Mary will be off for three out of four days this week (what are we going to do without her?!). So we bought everything we need I(and mostly don't need), and trotted home.  Tomorrow night we'll see in CNY with some brand spanking new friends from Perth (Australia, not Scotland), who have been kind enough to invite us over for dinner (Chinese of course), and a few drinks. I'm not expecting too much noise, firecrackers etc, but I'm sure their will be some at some point. Just need to find out when and where. And definitely have to find some Dragon Dancing. One thing we are going to do, hopefully, is get the kids down to Marina Bay to see the River Hongbao and watch the firework display to see in The Year of the Rabbit.

 If the Chinese can't put on a good display then who can, huh? The kids will be getting their hong bao (little red envelopes with token money inside for good luck and prosperity), but don't tell them, it's a surprise. Even 'Uncle' who they've befriended will be getting a card. It's a big ol' celebration here.
Saturday sees us off to a wedding in Little India. We were kindly invited by web-presence guru Prakash who owns Yolk (he's gotta get a plug after the invite). The ceremony is to be held at the Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple in Singapore and should be great fun. Interestingly, it was the starting point of the Thaipusam festival from two weeks ago. The temple is spectacular from the outside but I didn't go in which I was disappointed about on the day. This should more than make up for it. It will be (unsurprisingly), my first Hindu wedding and frankly I'm pretty excited. Definitely expect some big photos from that one!

Anyway, until next time,

Gong Xi Fa Cai - Happy New Year! - 新年快樂