February...

Chinese New Year (the Year of the Rabbit) was the highlight of February with Lion Dances to attend at school and office.  These are noisy, colourful events usually performed as a ceremony to scare away evil spirits and to summon luck and fortune.  As you can see from the photo left, Yasmin wore a traditional red cheongsam to school that day.

During the festivities we visited the Chinatown night market and the Chinese Buddhist temple that supposedly houses one of Buddha’s teeth, and attended one of the nightly shows down at the Marina Bay waterfront.  Here we came within a couple of yards of the Prime Minister who was also attending.  Strangely, Yasmin found that almost as exciting as the ride on the bumper cars.

While in Chinatown we visited the Jamae Mosque, located on Mosque Street; the mosque was completed in 1830 by the Chulia Muslims from the Coromandel coast of South India.  We also looked in on the Sri Mariamman Temple, which is Singapore's oldest Hindu temple having been founded in 1827, and serves mainly South Indian Tamil Hindu Singaporeans.  To complete the picture of how mixed Singapore’s heritage is, we also spent time in Little India, where two of the main attractions are Chinese Buddhist temples!

Julian travelled to Miami for the annual corporate sales event launching the 2011 year - 36 hours door to door each way for just three days in Miami.  Needless to say he did not see much of Miami, although did spend a wonderful half hour watching the sun rise over the beach from the Miami boardwalk.  He is still wondering quite why, whilst peacefully stood on the beachfront at 7am in the morning in a smart business suit, someone would walk up and ask him quietly if he has ‘seen a lady feeding cats’  - can any of my American friends shed any light on that one...?  Did he behave as naively as a friend visiting in Nassau many years ago?  Whilst in the rest room of a casino, he responded to a guy who came up close, held his nostril and simulated a sniff - by offering him a tissue...

Julian did get the chance to walk out a couple of lunchtimes and admire the yachts moored across from the hotel, most of which would easily accommodate our apartment without any trouble whatsoever. That is, of course, after avoiding the limousines, Aston Martins and Bentleys while crossing the road - almost as bad as Singapore where Lambourghinis, Maseratis and Ferraris are ten a penny...  Clearly Julian still misses his Audi TT - he just needs to find S$242,000 to be able to buy one here...