Singapore Again- Part 2

We took a photo of that odd boat-shaped restaurant on top of the Marina Bay Sands complex. There was also a large mirror reflecting an image of the ArtScience Museum which was interesting.

When last in Singapore, we saw signs for a new Gordon Ramsey restaurant which would open soon. We decided to check it out for lunch on Friday.

I had the fish and chips with mashed peas. B had a pork chop with a fabulous cider and onion soup. There is a back room but all of the action is in the small front area of the restaurant. We were seated at a high top with full view of the kitchen. We were very close and could see everything. A view from our table:

My fish and chips was pretty good but now I know why Gordon Ramsey always talks about seasoning (salt) on his cooking competition shows. He must really like salt. My dish was too "seasoned" for my taste.  B said his pork chop was salty as well. We didn't order dessert but the waitress brought us a jar of cookies in case we wanted a little nibble.

We had a little ice cream at a Swensen's after visiting the Spotlight shop. We don't get much ice cream here so it was a treat.

There was a quilt store in a mall here on our last visit but it was closed due to Chinese New Year. We tried to visit the shop on this trip but it was closed. Gone for good. Also closed since our last visit was the Hediard shop from France. I was looking forward to a few pieces of paté de fruits, but it was not to be.

The Singapore Botanic Gardens is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The National Orchid Garden is on the far side of the place so we got a good walk from the entrance. So many pretty plants and flowers in this enormous garden. Here are a few:

Golden showers

A pineapple!

Renanopsis 'Lion Spendor'

Now this one has nothing to do with plants. We saw a small water monitor on the edge of this water feature. Naturally I squealed with delight a little too loudly and he popped right into the water. He was kind enough to leave a watermark which we are happy to share.

On our last visit to Singapore we did make use of taxis and the MRT. This time we stuck with the MRT (think subway) which could take us to or close to all of the places we wanted to go. Any extra distance was accomplished on foot. The MRT is clean, well marked and very easy to negotiate for the most part. We had trouble finding the correct route out of one station. We had the same trouble last year. Now we think we've figured it out. There is a station a few blocks from our hotel so it makes using the MRT pretty easy. I should mention we didn't get the best advice on which MRT stop to exit for the ArtScience Museum. We got off way too early or we took the wrong line. Anyway, we knew what the building looked like (a baseball glove or a flower or just the odd-shaped white thing depending on who you ask) so we just had to walk to it.

Singapore residents use the public transport systems in part because plates for cars are on a lottery system. You can't just buy a car and drive it.  But I think the system is also used because it is so efficient.

I must also mention that the escalators are the fastest I've ever seen. They probably need to be due to the number of people using the system. They could never run them this fast in Indonesia, people just don't move that quickly!

Singapore Again- Part 1

A long weekend trip to Singapore was prompted by the opportunity to visit an exhibit called "The Art and Science of Gems" at the Artscience Museum in cooperation with the French National Museum of Natural History.

There is also a new natural history museum in Singapore. Next we wanted to visit the National Orchid Garden at the Singapore Botanic Gardens. We didn't get the chance to see this on our last visit to the Gardens. Lastly, there is a very large craft store in Singapore. All good reasons, right?

On arrival Thursday we made our plan: Friday- ArtScience Museum and Spotlight, Saturday- Natural History Museum and Botanic Gardens, Sunday- fly back home.

It turns out our plan was not the greatest. On arrival at the ArtScience Museum Friday morning we learned it was Family day so kids were free. Crowds! Fortunately they were interested in 2 other exhibits which didn't really interest us so the Gem collection was relatively quiet. We didn't do enough research into the Natural History Museum. Both Saturday and Sunday on this weekend were free for all of the nurses in Singapore. We figured the place would be packed so we put this visit aside for another trip to Singapore and spent more time at the gardens.  If only we'd switched the days in our plan. Oh, well. Thankfully, though, the forecast of rain for both Friday and Saturday didn't happen but it was hot.

The ArtScience Museum is located at the famous Marina Bay Sands resort/shopping site. We see ads for it on TV all the time.

Just a few gems and minerals from the exhibit ( non-flash photos were OK!):

Possibly reconstructed emerald and pyrite on calcite. Another piece was labed "Reconstructed". This one might be real.

Rubies waiting to be mounted in the famous Mystery Rail setting

Papillon Oeil de Tigre Clip of gold, yellow sapphires, spessartite garnet, tiger's eye and diamonds

Gold, emerald, diamond necklace with detachable pendant. Can become 3 bracelets.

Emerald single crystal- 365 ct

Aquamarine with black tourmaline closeup

Blue topaz 21560 ct (yep, 21560 ct)

I'd like to be able to touch all of these. Can you ID the stones from the list in the caption?

includes  37 ct tanzanite, 653 ct purple flourite, 107 ct green ceryl, 109 and 57 ct kunzite, ametrine, orthoclase, citrine, danburite, 2624 ct smoky quarta, 308 ct green flourite, alexandrite variety of chrysoberyl, 111 ct aquamarine beryl, 107 ct blue flourite, chinese amber carving, 40 ct apatite, 54 ct spessartite garnet, 54 ct almandine garnet, 1436 almondine garnet sphere ! 

A famous zipper necklace. These necklaces can come apart to form  bracelets and earrings

Polished malachite

Gorgeous pin!

Amethyst crystal

Just one photo from several sets of animal related jewelry- inspired by cartoons seen in the 1950s. 

A hidden watch

An 800 kg quartz crystal discovered in the Alps in 1754 and presented to General Napoleon Bonaparte in 1797. (very difficult to get a good photo of this! It's not white but is lit from below.)

Bowl of sapphires

There were lots of items previously owned and worn by Liz Taylor, Princess Faiza of Egypt, Queen Nazli of Egypt, Her Serene Highness Grace of Monaco, Princess Caroline of Monaco and others. This one was worn by Her Serene Highness Charlene of Monaco (married Prince Albert III of Monaco).

gold, sapphires, diamonds

A multi-ruby display from raw ore to polished faceted stones

Butterfly gem and mineral mobile

Miscellaneous

This is really a miscellaneous post!

Here's a new green drink: a green apple slushy.

On another day B tried to order a black cow - also known as an ice cream soda made with coke and vanilla ice cream. The description sounded like he would receive an ice cream soda, a black cow. He did get the ice cream soda but some assembly was required.

I keep track of these things, but perhaps I shouldn't always do it. I started a pair of socks in August 2015. Various distractions delayed the conclusion of these socks but I am proud to say that I was able to finish them in less than one year! How to explain the delay. Let's see... I kept getting distracted by other projects and activities.

Here is a copy of a photo of the taxi queue on a post Idul Fitri day at the airport. I would not want to wait in that line!

This is a photo of the gate of the house where I usually have my Bahasa Indonesia language class on Tuesday mornings.

One morning I was waiting a little longer than usual for our driver to pick me up at our apartment lobby so I snapped a couple of photos of what I was looking at.  First, the view across from the lobby:

Notice a truck in the far right? A UPS van! I do see them, but it's a rare sight indeed, especially right in front of our apartment.

The Continuing Saga of the Wallpaper

Unless this is the first post you're reading you've no doubt read our tales about the apartment leaks. You've probably also heard about the mildewed wallpaper in the living room and dining room.

It's been a real struggle to get the ruined wallpaper replaced. I'm pretty sure the apartment management had tried to contract with at least half a dozen outside wallpaper companies to do the work. We got close a couple of times only to have them not show up and cancel doing the work. Apparently the job was too small and if they got clients with whole rooms to paper, that's the job they took. (I'm just guessing.)

I finally agreed to let the technicians from our building replace the wallpaper. I had requested that the unused rolls be left in the apartment when the wallpaper was originally installed so I had spare wallpaper to do the repairs. Rather, I believed that all of the wallpaper I was left was actually from our apartment. Alas, the largest roll was from a different run or dye lot or something because it didn't match.

I discovered the largest roll did not match when I returned home a few hours after the project began and pointed out to the workers that the wallpaper did not match. I'm not sure why they didn't notice it. On top of that, the guys that had tried to replace the wallpaper didn't really know how to paper so it was a mess. I was not happy. The top engineering guy and the building manager came and looked and they seemed to agree with me that they would try again to get actual wallpaper people to replace the wallpaper. The only trouble  was there now wasn't enough leftover wallpaper. How a roll that didn't match got into the box with the stuff that did match remains a mystery.

Fast forward some weeks and they were trying to locate more wallpaper. Luckily I could provide them with a small sample. The wallpaper they purchased, though, didn't match. It was close but the tiny, tiny lines in the original wallpaper were bolder in the new rolls. AND, the stripes were perpendicular to the roll itself. On the original rolls the stripes ran parallel to the roll. I thought it was probably close enough.

We set the date for the work. With Ibu Tin away (helping her daughter get married in her village) I had to supervise without any Bahasa Indonesia translator. Some of the building staff speak a little English but I won't say it was easy to communicate. Part English, part Bahasa Indonesia and very simple sentences.

The plan was to run the new wallpaper from a corner to a corner to make the wallpaper difference less noticeable. And that worked out pretty well except in one place where they did have to just patch. Fortunately, a large cabinet sits in front of most of the patch. We will obtain a large, decorative floor vase of some kind to place in front of the rest of the area. The team worked from about 10 am until 4:00 pm repairing the two small areas. They did ask to take a 1 hour lunch break, but came back in about 10 minutes. It was simply raining too hard to make going out for lunch sensible.

It really takes a team to repair wallpaper: one tenant relations manager, three people from the wallpaper fixing company and myself not to mention the others who visited during the project.One of the three people from the wallpaper company was a women and she gave orders/directions and then she left. The two men stayed to do the work. Shortly after the work began we were joined Pak Agung (I think he's the apartment manager and another engineering department guy who was "in charge" of the failed attempt I mentioned earlier. So much of the time we had 2 people working and at least 3 people watching the work. It was a long day. There are 5 people in this picture- one behind the other on the right side and a guy kneeling on the floor behind the guy in the white shirt (Pak Agung). Add me to mix and you have 6 people!

All in all, it does look pretty good. There were some loose spots I later glued down and the roman shades weren't centered over the windows when replaced, but eventually I'll have them adjusted.

If you're asking yourself, "What about the leaks?" here's the scoop. I am pretty sure the leaking in the LR and DR has been addressed fully. The ceiling in the guest bedroom is all closed back up so I'm not sure whether that's fixed or not.  I'm hopeful, but I'm not confident, that it's all fixed. It may take a big, big rain to see something and possibly multiple rainy seasons. On the day of the wallpaper repair, we did have very heavy rain for an extended period. That evening I went into my office for something and there was a large wet area on the wall in the exact spot I photographed leaking in February 2015. It could almost be the same photo. So, is the leaking all fixed? Belum (not yet).

By the way, in Bahasa Indonesia the word for leak is bocor. Wall is dingding. A leak in the wall is bocor dalam dingding.

Summer and New Friends

Many (or even most) of my local friends have been traveling on and off this summer. A couple of my friends have been away 6-8 weeks. Usually this is due to long visits to their home countries.

As a result of all of this traveling, our crafty group of quilters, knitters and sewers has been pretty small at our meetings. Parents of children not already traveling have the kids at home because they are not back in school yet. So, while we generally don't have children at sewing, we've usually had 3 children at our recent meetings. The trio of children met for the first time a couple of weeks ago. Initially there was not too much interest in playing together. Then all of the sudden, they were the best of friends. I would have liked to witness the moment when it all changed.

And along the way this summer I have a new friend. She's 5 years old. I had met her before but we'd not really spent any time together until her mother brought her along to a recent crafting meeting. The next week my new friend invited me to join her and her mother for a post-sewing lunch. I didn't want to disappoint her especially because it was the first time she invited me so I joined them. We had a lovely lunch at an all organic cafe called Tasty Homemade.

I had some fabulous miso noodle soup and a yummy ginger lemongrass iced tea. Quite nice. I hadn't been to this place and probably would never have found it on my own. I did decline to accompany them on some errands after lunch. I had my own errands to run. We had some fun at lunch creating a bowl of fruit on paper. My young friend insisted I take our drawing. It's now displayed on the fridge.

Later in the week, I invited my new friend and her mother to join me at a 4th of July celebration and they said, "Yes!" Events to celebrate the US 4th of July here were delayed because the date fell during the same week as Idul Fritri (the end of Ramadhan). To avoid that week, most places planning celebrations for the 4th either held them early or delayed them. This party was at the American Club, an official entity of the American Embassy Commissary and Recreation Association here. It was held on July 23.

There were kids games and activities like face painting and some great coloring stations (for kids and adults alike now that adults are getting into coloring, too). There was a Harley Davidson motorcycle parade which included a rather dramatic (and extremely loud) ensemble engine roar to conclude their parade. Note: When you witness a Harley parade and the bikes start lining up next to each other apparently this is not so folks can walk around them and say how pretty or cool they are. It's so they can rev their engines simultaneously while causing hearing damage to those who stood too close!

There was also a release of red, white and blue balloons. All children were invited to assist. It's funny how so many of them stuck in the trees.

And of course there were fireworks. In the 30 minutes preceding the fireworks we noticed distant lightening. Less than 5 minutes after the conclusion of the fireworks the skies opened up and it rained heavily. I was prepared for the rain. I was prepared for everything. I'd taken a hat for the late afternoon sun, lathered on the sunblock, dowsed myself in insect repellent (yuck to both) and carried an umbrella. I'd carried a small bag to hold the umbrella but that also worked to hold my little friend's shoes and balloon animals and the materials we received at the door. Incidentally, the balloon animals didn't last very long. Rubber bands and balloons degrade with long term storage. Must be the heat, the air or a combination of both. Anyway, I saw balloon animals popping all around us.

I didn't think to shoot video of the fireworks until it was nearly over but here's a small bit.

It was a nice afternoon and early evening. Remember the sun sets between 6:00 and 6:30 all year long and the so the fireworks were over before 7 pm.

Trees and Road Supports

I will share a couple of examples of odd things I see when out and about. One day while sitting in traffic, I noticed a large tree growing right out of the roadway itself. It was not a major thoroughfare, but still heavily used. I investigated further and could see multiple trees all growing out of the road. Hmmm. There were quite a few of these mysterious trees all along this one section of road. My driver told me he's seen it before but he couldn't explain it anymore than I could.  One guess I have is that the homeowners on the street got together and somehow prevented the trees from being cut down. Instead, they were just paved around and that has continued with all subsequent pavings. Any guesses from the readers?

Here's another odd thing: shrink-wrapped elevated road supports??? They are building several elevated roadways. The construction has been going on for quite some time. One day, suddenly, nearly all of the road supports in one area were all wrapped in plastic wrap at the bottom. Why? To help prevent graffiti? I ruled out any attempt to keep the concrete moist during curing because these are not newly built. Any guesses?

Creativity is encouraged when proposing reasons for these two oddities.