wedding dinner

Ling's brother's wedding dinner at the Hyatt in Singapore ... the Nuts Ideas / Black Studio table (clockwise from top left): Joey; Jolin; Jolin; Eric, Ling, Jolin and Joey; Collin; cake; Yeo and Shannon, Collin and Sharina; Eric & Joey; Jolin; Phil; Sandy; Henry.

“My Cubicle”

Click here to watch this fantastic video from our neighbour Indi, which was shot, directed and edited by Judhi Prasetyo. Absolutely fantsatic, love it! Well done.

Radjah shelducks

We found this pair of odd-looking ducks patrolling the traffic on a lamppost on busy three-lane Bukit Timah Road. Ducks are not a common sight in urban Singapore and these two looked really out of place. We couldn't ID them using any local birdbooks but one of Singapore's top birders identified them as Radjah Shelducks from Papua New Guinea, the Moluccas and Northern Australia. Apparently these two are escapees that have been living in the Singapore Botanical Gardens for several years and regularly roost on lampposts in the Bukit Timah area!

The Mongol Rally

Cousin Harry (above) and his mate Geoff (below) will be racing from Hyde Park, London, to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, in a 36-year-old Morris Minor, called "The Baboon". (It has a red bottom.) The journey will take them through Germany, Czech Republic, Poland, Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Mongolia (unless they're going the other way around). The race is supposed to be for charity but I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that Ulaanbaatar actually has one of the highest concentrations of bars per population in the world. Current estimates stand at 680 bars for 600,000 residents. Take away the young, the old and the dry and you're looking at 1 bar for every 200 people. It's a long way to go for a beer but when you're paying in togrog you can drink until your yurt explodes.



To everybody reading this, please support this daring duo by visiting their official website Smithers and the Goon and donating generously to either of the two registered charities: "send a cow" and "Christina Noble Children's Foundation".

Good luck guys!

Twisted Logic tour

On Monday night Sandy and I joined Collin, Sharina, Fadzi and another couple to see Coldplay in concert at the Indoor Stadium. Despite having seats in the back row, we had a great view and loads of space to move around. It was worth it just to see Sandy dancing the 'fish dance'! Great music and some cool AV backdrops.

Nick and Sophia's party

Neighbours Nick and Sophia threw another great party in the garden.



In between knocking back pints of IPA (India Pale Ale), courtesy of a Brewerkz keg, we pigged out on naan, prawn masala, saag paneer and dhal, roasted pumpkin, Chinese pancakes with crispy duck and hoisin, and salad, sausages and potatoes.



Phil relaxing after a few glasses of IPA.



Unable to find any leftover sausages, Whisky collects ants instead and shares them with Dave and Joyce.

stompcast

Click here, check the righthand side and scroll down for four video clips of Phil and Gerrie and four very good reasons why not to consume lots of alcohol before a TV interview!

Heritage Tree

This 18-metre-tall raintree (Samanea saman) on Jalan Hang Jebat — the street on which we live — is one of Singapore's 161 heritage trees. It has a girth of 5.5 metres and will make a really impressive dent in Blk 109 should it decide to fall down.

UPDATE 7 July 06: Just heard from Nick that he found the local contractors trying to "trim" the heritage tree (read: chop down all the branches) because residents had complained it was hanging precariously over their block. Luckily Nick called the National Parks Board and they sent some guys down to stop the trimming. These trees do actually fall quite frequently. Since living here, we've seen two trees fall onto different blocks. One crashed through the roof exposing the kitchen in an empty unit (which is now Nick and Sophia's flat), the other kissed the back of our block taking out the windows, a chunk of roof and one of our red palms. But that's the fun of living here! Don't like it? Move to a high-rise flat in the concrete jungle!

UPDATE 1 December 06: The idiots finally called in a private contractor to trim the branches of the tree! By the time the other neighbours saw what was happening and called the police and National Parks Board, half the branches had been lopped off. There is a now a police investigation underway and the incident made the news on TV (shows what a boring place Singapore must be!). This being strict Singapore I reckon our neighbours will hang. From one of the stunted branches they created.