Chinese New Year meetups.

 Paternal relatives.  Older folks sit in the front row!

A separate catch-up.

Maternal relatives.

A lovely three days!

More looking at Singapore

With Kin Mun's tummy and my cold, we had to cancel two lunches, and took it easy over a couple of days.  Feeling much improved today.

But some pics...

We went for a wander around Katong.  It is not easily reached (yet) by the MRT, so we took a taxi.  It is an area of Singapore where there has traditionally been a lot of peranakans (chinese who have lived in the area for generations and absorbed many local customs)  as well as english speaking local households. 

Some Chinese New Year decorations, private and public.

It is the year of the Horse.

Today we went to Clementi, way out in the "heartland" and where Singapore's best known sewing machine company is.   To get there, we had to go through some heartland food stalls, and it is still possible to find mess in Singapore.  But I must say, it is clean mess.

And a new dish...  The tadpoles are a kind of jelly with tails.

Bits and pieces

Travel is catching up with us.  KM has a tummy upset, and I have, hopefully, hay-fever and not a cold.  Kin Mun cancelled our lunch tomorrow, and we will stay in.

But today we went to Orchard Road to Kinokuniya - KM to buy a gift for tomorrow's host, and me to get in and out without spending anything.  But I got lost in the Japanese-language craft section and managed to escape, just Sg$11 poorer, with a dress pattern.  Japanese are great with diagrams, and Google translate is a good back-up.

Pics around the traps today.

In the MRT (subway)  station - contradictory messages!

 

The surfaces are SO enticing for all these modes of transport!  But no fines involved.

Ran out of space to put the "g' in Sing?

 

Claudines

We decided to enjoy a nice meal at one of the many restaurants in Singapore.  We tried Les Amis, which has 3 Michelin stars, but they had a rigid requirement of having to eat 3 courses - which I just cannot manage.  So we opted for another french  restaurant - Claudines - instead.  They had bouillabaisse (for the fish/pulpo/prawn eaters)and  ile flottante for me!

Beo Lan kindly drove us there.  It was a lovely setting - a former RC  church, in Dempsey Hill.  Some pics...

A shared bouillabaisse - a mixed seafood casserole, from Marseille, in the south of France. There is a lot there that I don't eat, but seafood makes a beautiful looking meal!

I had Murray Cod, which was  another name for barramundi -  or is it the other way round?!

 Kin mun had lobster roll.  Sorry, no pic.

And dessert was a re-constructed ile flottante!  Ile flottante, literally floating island, is poached meringue adrift on custard, and other decorations like caramel, nuts and whatever the cook decides. 

Very unusually, it came to the table like this:  We were given careful instructions on how to deconstruct it.

Firstly, you lift the lid:

 

 And then you pierce the meringue to allow the custard to flow over the base of the plate.

All lots of fun!

Singapore

 A good flight from Sydney last Sunday.  Several periods of turbulence - one quite bad but didn't knock over my glass of water.  Singapore Airlines is quite strict now, as are other airlines.  They have lost a passenger due to turbulence (2024), so they aren't mucking around.

Went ringing Monday evening, nice bells but with a massive draught, and two layers of rope guides  Good to catch up with the ringers we have met before.

And dinner with Beo Lan, with food cooked by Beo Lan and Mugyi.