Sojourn a journey through life

Thanks Mommy!

Monday’s highlight was receiving a special package from home containing all sort of goodies from the family. Something extra special was the homemade cookies. Mom remembered one of my old time favourites … Puffy Raisin Cookies I even shared with the boys. They sure won’t last long in our fridge!

Will you be mine?

We never miss an excuse to show some extra lov’n! Though Dad’s annual V-day rose was certainly missed…Daniel to the rescue! With a morning letter left for me on the table, he also had these delivered to my classroom which of course created quite the stir

Don’t be fooled. I didn’t slack off…there were some nice banana pancakes, fresh pineapple and coffee for Daniel in bed that morning. We also met at a nearby coffee shop (Coffee Bean) that evening after our working day.

The two of us enjoyed a date together this past Sunday taking in High Tea at the Shangri-la, wandering a part of Orchard we’d never been to, and then heading to China town to investigate antiques. The High Tea was amazing and we loved sitting for hours just chatting, sipping various teas from the selection of 101 and working our way through the tables of delicacies.

Thaipusam

Thaipusam is a Hindu festival celebrated annually either in January or February. Last weekend Daniel, Jeffery and I headed into Little India to observe Thaipusam. There were people everywhere – watchers, partakers, and supporters. At the temple where preparations were being done for Kavadi we found people were very friendly even as pictures were being snapped in every direction. The noise, concentration, smells and emotions were overwhelming. We were all, however, glad that we went and had this experience.

Thaipusam is a feast for the Hindu’s Lord Subramaniam. They believe he is the universal granter of wishes. Hindus partake in this festival for one of three reasons 1. to seek a favour 2. to fulfill a vow for a favour received or 3. to repent for past sins. Kavadi is the piercing component of the festival where men will carry the Kavadi, a large offering, through skewers or spikes in their bodies.

Jeffery’s Arrived!

Last Thursday our friend Jeffery DeJong arrived for his stay with us here in Singapore. We showed Jeffery how to kick off the weekend right with a substantial helping of Canadian Pizza, wine and great company.

Gong Xi Fa Cai !

Chinese New Year is celebrated on the first day of the first month of the Chinese calendar and continues until the fifteenth day when there is a Latern Festival. The Chinese calendar is a lunisolar calendar (based on the cycles of the moon and the sun). For the Chinese, this year is the year of the dog and lunar year 4703-4704. Though China uses the Gregorian calendar (used almost everywhere in the world and is a modification of the Julian calendar for daily events, the Chinese calendar is still used to mark traditional holidays.

The New Year celebrations include children being given Lai-See envelopes (red envelopes containing good luck money), parades, dances, firecrakers (to scare evil away), new clothing, family reunion dinners, cleaning and much more.

The traditional New Years greeting in Mandarin is “Gong Xi Fa Cai” (which is what you’d commonly here in Singapore) or in Cantonese is “Kung Hei Fat Choi”. The greeting basically means “congratulations and be prosperous”.

Here are a couple photos from a Lion Dance and Dragon Dance put on at CIS.

Bintan, Indonesia

Our Chinese New Year long weekend was spent on the resort island of Indonesia called Bintan. A great place for a relaxing, “do nothing”, weekend getaway. After a VERY bumpy 45 minute ferry ride from Singapore’s coast, we arrived in Bintan.

Soon we were whisked away to our weekend abode – The Mana Mana. We loved the cabanas! They were just rustic enough and only a couple minutes walk from the gorgeous beach. The beach and restaurant/lounge always had a nice warm breeze. There were many kite surfers to watch as they were getting ready for the competition to come the following weekend. A must try is the Mana Mana’s hand made pizza – delicious!

Dan thinks he might get some work done! Ha!

This butterfly was just outside of our cabana and about 8 inches across in size.

We took a day trip into a local village – Tanjung Uban. It was quite “memorable”. Our driver (or was he a tour guide?) didn’t speak too much English. He wasn’t sure what we wanted and we weren’t sure what his job really was, either. We ended up having a sweet kopi (coffee) with him and his buddies, driving around, and laughing at not understanding each other.

In Bintan we also enjoyed a nice dinner at a seafood restaurant out in the ocean – The Kelong. This is just a photo of the bar attached to the restaurant.

Christchurch

After we left Dunedin, we spent one night in a small town called Oamaru, but all we did was sleep there. It’s worth noting that the drive from Dunedin to Oamaru was terrific, as you could take some smaller roads that wound up along the coast, instead of the main highway. Some absolutely beautiful views of the Pacific Ocean from the coast.

So after all that, we happily ended up in Christchurch at another awesome hostel called the Rolleston House. It was right on the Tram Line that took you through the center of town, and it just so happened that the guy at reception handed us some free tickets that another guest wasn’t using anymore. Sweet.

Christchurch was pretty much as great as Dunedin was, lots of pedestrian areas to the city, and tons of cool cafe’s and coffee shops. If that wasn’t enough, there was life-size chess in the square!

Now this was my kinda place. Carly and I just meandered about, through some of the buildings and art centers. Picked up a few souvenirs and drank coffee. It was our last day before flying back to Singapore, so I also had to get my last fix of Hokey Pokey ice cream. It is truly an evil that none of the Hokey Pokey manages to get exported from NZ, either.

After all this travel, one gets tired… So Carly decided that while I was resting my eyes, listening to my iPod and minding my own business to take a picture of me in my peaceful state.

And with that, we say goodbye to NZ, and good riddance! The “good riddance” is mostly just because these blog postings took so much time. But we like to try to keep you entertained… All 2 of you (whoever you are) that are still reading this drivel.

More soon! We were in Bintan in Indonesia last weekend, and need to put up some photos from that trip as well.

Dunedin

After leaving Milford Sound, which is on the southern west coast of the south island, we took a cross-island drive to a city on the southern east coast of the south island called Dunedin. Dunedin was probably my (Dan’s) favorite city in New Zealand (of the cities we visited, at any rate). We arrived in Dunedin at some time, on some day, neither of which I am sure of anymore. The hostel we stayed in was called Stafford Gables, and was a super interesting old building that had (in a previous century) been both a hospital and a hotel.

Here are a couple shots (outside and bedroom) of Stafford Gables

Some of the things that were great about Dunedin was the “Octagon” at the center of town. Quite literally, instead of like a city “square” or something, they have a city “Octagon”. And in the Octagon are tons of great coffee places, cafes, pubs, etc. Quite an awesome place to just walk around, or have a yummy coffee. Also, spattered all throughout Dunedin were many fabulous buildings with old-word feel and architecture.

In addition, Dunedin is home to the only castle in New Zealand. It certainly isn’t Neuschwanstein, but that’s alright.

I must also say that while in Dunedin we took a tour of Speights Brewery, who happen to brew some of the best beer I’ve ever tasted. It’s terribly depressing that none of it manages to get exported to Singapore (or Canada, for that matter). It’s also worth noting, that Speights sells the yeast they use to make the beer to Sanitarium, who in turn make it into Marmite. So if you’ve ever wondered why Marmite tastes like something that came out of the back side of an animal, instead of something you put on toast, you now know why.

Another neat feature of Dunedin is that they are home to the steepest street in the world. It’s called Baldwin street, and even looking up it made me tired enough to know that I didn’t want to walk up it. The average gradient is 1 meter in 3.41, and at it’s steepest point it’s 1 meter in 2.86. The street is 161.2 meters long and rises a total of 47.22 meters over the stretch.

So, as much as we wish we had more to type, we’ve forgotten everything else, but suffice it to say, Dunedin was an awesome town.