Singapore - 2 -

Singapore is famous for its food, and we certainly tried as many different sorts as we could while we were there.....

 ...Sophie and Paul rented a barbecue pit at the flats (you have to book on-line) and we had a pleasant evening by the water. This complex is built on the site of an old dry docks, so there are channels of water , linked by bridges here...

We also went with Sophie and Paul to Jumbo's for food including the famous chilli crab - bibs for all of us.....there are several  branches of Jumbos, but this one is at Dempsey's, on the site of the old British military barracks....lovely food....

 ,,,including this fierce looking snapper..

 On Sunday, we went to  the MacRitchie Reservoir which has a nature reserve surrounding it....drought conditions, so the reservoir was well down (it did start to rain once we had left)...turtles and fish to be seen.....

I was intrigued by these clumps of very large bamboo..... 

...but the highlight for me was seeing various troops of long tailed macaques. This species is a commonly used laboratory animal, so it was great to see them in their natural habitat, eating natural foods. Lots of youngsters and mothers....

I do think that primates should be given special rights, they look so intelligent...

Mother and baby macaque....although you are not allowed to feed them now (this was popular in the past) they still attack when they spot bags of food; the girls ahead of us lost a bag of potato snacks which the monkeys enjoyed. However, the bottle of Pokai Sweat could not be chewed open and had to be abandoned...

This is the treetop bridge (built by HSBC) - it gave you a good look down on the tree canopy.....not many birds stirring in mid afternoon....

Rather than retrace our steps, we left by another exit, near a country club, and spotted another troop of monkeys - this one had stolen a piece of bread I think....

....eating the bread.....

Lots of exotic plants including rattans and "elephant ears"...

On the way back to the flat, spotted these buildings which are called the Interweave Buildings I think...builders and architects seem to be more adventurous in  Singapore!!

Singapore 1

After lots of hard work at home, finally we were off to the airport for our trip to Singapore, to visit my daughter Sophie and her partner Paul. We made good time, had to divert to Tesco Chelmsford when we ran low on fuel, but finally made it on to the airplane at Heathrow. But our flight was delayed by 90 minutes by a non working tow truck. We weren't sure that we would make our connection at Frankfurt, and were almost looking forward to a night in a hotel there. But, running to the gate, we found our flight still there. The flight to Singapore was a long one, time for at least three movies! But when we arrived, our bags did not. But we were handed 300 dollars for the inconvenience...and they were promptly delivered the next evening. Thanks Lufthansa!

Here's the large complex of flats where Sophie and Paul live, near Vivo City. We slept in, and then walked to Labrador Point....it was very sunny, very hot and very humid....how different from the UK.

Singapore has a number go really exciting and different buildings!these appear to be curving gracefully...

Of course, one of the things that Singapore is famous for is food, especially the hawker stalls and the food courts. We enjoyed this immensely and liked trying different styles of food. Our first visit was to the Food court at Vivo City....interesting fruit juices, too.....

On our first afternoon, we met up with Sophie in Chinatown, which had lots to look at....

A Hindu temple, interesting to wander around once we had left out shoes at the front entrance. This temple had some of the largest cooking pots that I have ever seen, some the size of a bathtub...

Then on to the nearby Temple of the Golden tooth, Tom's favourite....lined with statues of Bhudda...

Very colourful....

and on the top floor, a beautiful roof garden, with a large prayer wheel and tropical foliage...

The following day we took the tube to the Botanic Gardens, which were looking rather brown and dry, as there had been no rain and drought conditions prevailed, with trees dropping their leaves..

Lots of beautiful orchid cultivars..

Just a few of the many photos that I snapped...very hot, between 30 and 36 degrees and also very humid...

More orchids...

A slipper orchid....back to the flat...we got warned by the police not to eat or drink on the metro - we quickly complied....

Interesting News - Small Red Welsh Quilt

I showed you this quilt before Christmas, it is a child sized Welsh quilt in red and tan cotton sateen. I recently received an interesting email from Clare Claridge, who is an expert on Welsh quilters and quilting designs. The email reads: Hi Pippa, just noticed this little beauty on your blog 10/12/13 and thought that you might be interested in the following information: It is an RIB quilt made in Aberdare - the design is shown in the Country Industries Catalogue: "Quilting - Beautiful English [!] Needlework" fig 23 p18. Size about 3 ft x 2ft. Price in sateen £1.6.6 Also, photo in Muriel Rose's sample book for The Little Gallery and a drawing of the design at the Weymyss School of Needlework (Scotland). Hope that this is of interest, do you know where it came from? Of course I was thrilled at this news. 

The vendor bought it at auction, either in Crosshands or Carmarthen. £1.6.6 in 1930 was about £50 in today's money, so not a cheap item.

Here is another photo of the quilt - the leaf pattern was very popular, and according to Janet Rae in her article in QS12, was much used at the Weymyss School in Scotland as well (along with Durham designs, but curiously, no Scottish motifs).

Here is the photo in the QS article. You can see that the Weymyss quilt (unfinished) is made in a better fabric, silk not sateen, and the design is slightly different. There are two central leaf motifs, not one, and the edge leaf motifs are smaller and more numerous. I am really pleased to have an item that is definitely RIB, and thank Clare for her expertise.