Thaipusam

We were compelled to go to this festival as it is only held in two countries now. Here and Malaysia. Several hundred devotees spear their cheeks with long, shiny steel rods - often a metre long - and pierce their chests and backs with small, hook-like needles in penance. To many Thaipusam is the day of thanksgiving or atonement for wrongs.
Spectacular edifices or kavadis are often carried or pulled by the devotees with chains and ropes anchored in the skin of their backs or chests.

But kavadi carrying need not be so arduous. Just carrying a small pot of milk up the steps to be poured on the vel is enough. Most devotees do this.
Some parents carry newborn babies slung in a cloth-cradle hung on a pole shouldered at both ends by the mother and the father as thanks for a safe birth.
Some also carry kavadis made of wood or metal adorned with pictures or statues of Hindu deities, flowers and peacock plumes.
Others shave their heads bald as a symbol of humility and atonement.
It is not for the faint hearted...have a look at the following photos....

the washing machine

We moved in and expected to be able to use the washing machine straight away...the landlord showed us where to set the dial and what else to do...well you would have thought we could understand that....yeah right....we did it and the washing was dripping wet....and soapy...we tried another setting and the same thing. We emailed the landlord and he came around and showed us again. Once again we tried all the settings he suggested but to no avail...the clothes were still dripping wet and soapy and then Wayne worked out that the water tap was not turned on....that got rid of the soap from the washing but not the dripping wet part...don't ask how come the clothes were wet when the water was turned off....it is a mystery to us too.

The landlord texted (they call it SMS here) and said they were going to get a new washing machine for us...and it arrives today. I only hope we can drive this one.....

New Place to live

We arrived back into our old condo and found that the air con had again gone in the bedrooms so we were down to using two fans and it was still hot. We got in touch with the new landlords to see if we could move in earlier and we moved within two days...fast aye? We packed everything up and then Lawrence organised a mover to come in and truck our stuff to the new place. What a rigmarole this was. We didn't know that you need to get permits to move out of the the condo....this cost us $10 and then Wayne went over to the new place to meet up with the truck and found he had to pay $200 bond to move into the new one....he only had $100 on him so they accepted that. The truck guys carried everything into the new place then they had to sit around for 3/4 of an hour to get their money as the management office was shut for lunch. But hey we are in and it a great place to be. We had a swim in the pool today and it was so lovely.
Wayne is enjoying the rest time after biking back from Admiralty to Yishun.
Looking along the pool to the condos at the far end.
The lounge area and the view outside is of some grass with some jungle on the other side of the road.
Kitchen area where it opens straight out onto the wet area.

This place is a bit smaller than the other but it is quieter...we can have the windows open and only hear a bit of traffic noise. We wake up in the morning to hear birds waking up too. There will be lots of places for us to ride our bikes here too.

We have tried the hawker centre close to us...like 2 minutes walk...and the food was wonderful and cheap.

Last night we went to Nigel and Shirleys for dinner of roast lamb and the trimmings along with the many other kiwis that are working for Morris Allen English. Was a great night but we came home ealry as we were exhausted after cleaning out the old place so we could meet with the agent today to hoepfully get all our bond back.

2008 has started

Wow Christmas has come and gone and it seems like we have been back here for a long time instead of a few days.

We flew home on the 4th and arrived on the 5th where we walked from the international terminal to the domestic one to board a plane to Wellington to have a birthday dinner with the boys and their girlfriends. It was so lovely to see them all and to give them all a real cuddle.

We stayed there a few night and then went back up to Auckland where Beth picked us up from the airport and took us back to Thames. Wayne and I stayed there a night and then took off up to the caravan - he just couldn't wait to get there and get the boat in the water...unfortunately the weather wasn't very kind.


but we did catch these two good sized snapper.
Wayne and the family secretly organised a surprise party for me to be held on the 15th and this was so nice of them but also so naughty. I think Wayne still has the bruise. It was great to catch up with family and friends. I am not sure I will forgive them for not telling me...a little warning would have been nice.



We then drove back down to Welling to spend Christmas with the boys. They did us really proud in that they had organised everything and we had nothing to do but eat, drink and talk with them. We love you guys.

We are now back in Singapore after arriving on the 31st December. We went down to the waterfront to watch the firewoprks and were absolutely amazed at how great they were. We were also amazed at the crowds of people and they were so well behaved even the ones who were on the bridge with us and it took us 40 minutes to cross the bridge.

It is now back to work time and time to get an agenda set up for some more travel this year.

Hi Tea

Lawrence and Wayne sharing a joke. Lawrence is one of our E.A. which means he's on the front desk.

This is the group enjoying the food, company and tea.

I did enjoy the food but not the tea. The coffee was great though which made up for having so many teas.

Dinner with Friends

After meeting at Coffee Bean we went along to the next restaurant and negotiated a deal where we got two free bottles of wine, beer at half price and 25% off the dinner price. The wine, beer and company was lovely.

At the end of the evening some of the friends bought a Nemo hat and proceeded to have fun wearing it and making the fish faces.
This is Angela and Gordon.

Sue has put her best face on.

As has Christina.

The evening was fun and were in fits of laughter. We are going to miss our get togethers but will have to arrange it so we all meet up somehow next year.

Nearly the end of the year

Well it is so close to the end of the year and we are both counting down till we hit NZ soil and see our boys. It has been a wonderful year, we have met some lovely people and made some lovely friends.

Yesterday we had a joint staff lunch at Sakura and the meal was superb. It was the last chance to see some of the people before they head away for Christmas.

Saturday we are having our 'in house' end of year drinks and then it is only the Sunday to go and I am having some drinks at the Simei branch before heading to a friends house for some last Christmas drinks.

It is sad to say goodbye to some of the children but we should see them around the centre next year.