November - December...

November started as October ended with visitors to Singapore for us to entertain, this time in the form of six Koreans including one of So Young’s sisters.  Because Koreans get so little vacation, their package tours are packed to say the least.  They arrived in Singapore at 6am on a Thursday and were whisked off for breakfast and sightseeing, and then left from the Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal late the same afternoon for two nights on the nearby Indonesian island of Bataam.  They returned on Saturday afternoon for dinner and a trip on the Singapore River after which we intercepted them and took them for drinks at Ku De Ta so they could see the spectacular view from the top of Marina Bay Sands.  We then headed off to an old seafood restaurant on Upper East Coast Road for Singapore’s famous chilli crab.  We deposited them back at their hotel around 1am allowing for a few hours sleep before more sightseeing and a 2.30pm flight back to Seoul.  Not my idea of a relaxing weekend but they certainly saw a lot!

 

Julian attended the Rugby Sevens hosted on the Padang by Singapore Cricket Club with a few of the Lion City Hash folk.  It was a weekend of good rugby won eventually by a Fijian team, who looked far too big and solid for sevens rugby but managed to be agile and fast at the same time and almost literally flattened the opposition.  A late addition was a team of Ghurka officers who flew in on the first morning en route to their base in Brunei after a six month tour of Afghanistan.

 

We returned to the Singapore Cricket Club on the morning of the Singapore Marathon for brunch and were joined by a number of people who had completed the marathon, showered and changed and were still in time to watch others cross the finish line.  Julian entertained the idea of running next year for a few minutes but realised it might be a bit ambitious given he was in the middle of a four week layoff from exercising in order to recover from an injury. Yasmin meanwhile almost single handedly emptied the chocolate fountain and remove all the icing decorations from the cakes.

December saw us at various events including Yasmin’s school’s Christmas concert and Christmas Day out letting someone else cook the turkey. We also were lucky enough to find a dry morning on which to visit the National Orchid Garden as you can see from the photos, although it absolutely bucketed it down as we left.  However, it looks as if the monsoon may finally be over as New Year’s Eve was the first dry and sunny day in months giving Julian and Yasmin the chance to get out on East Coast Park on their bikes for the first weekend in a long time.

 

Happy New Year!