island hippy: September 2006

Saturday, September 30, 2006

55: Snakes Alive!

This painted bronzeback was sunbathing on Steve and Katrina's aircon compressor outside Thalia's window. A week later it was replaced by a black spitting cobra. I think we're safer living upstairs!

Saturday, September 09, 2006

A Malay fisherwoman fishing off the pier at Labrador Park on the south coast of Singapore caught a huge boxfish. Over 30cm in length, this is easily the biggest fish I've seen in Singapore waters. The Malay lady said she's caught a 10kg stingray and catfish at this pier in the past. When asked if she was planning to eat the boxfish, she replied yes and added that it tastes like chicken!!

The only rocky sea-cliff on mainland Singapore that is accessible to the public ...

The water almost looks clean! The beautiful green hue must be from the all the chemicals in the nearby oil refineries ...

Protecting Singapore

Phil protecting Singapore's south coast from invasion by pedalos ...

A 6-inch Quick Firing gun found on the site of the Beach Road Camp and similar to the 6-inch Rifled Bridge Loading guns deployed at Labrador Battery to halt the Japanese pedalo invasion of 1942 (the Japanese sensibly arrived overland on bicycles instead)

looking through the barrel

The entrance to one of many underground ammunition dumps at the British fort, long since bricked up. Dated 1892.

weekend food finds

On Friday night Sandy and I went in search of Vietnamese food. Joo Chiat Road has recently been plagued (or blessed, depending on your POV) by illegal Vietnamese 'night butterflies' so that seemed as good a place as any to start. Sure enough, there were half a dozen Vietnamese restaurants and street stalls catering to the girls (and their customers). We settled on a place with no obvious English name then sat at a table on the street and ogled the miniskirts walking past (well, I did) while everybody else ogled us. The food was pretty good but I think we ordered the wrong dishes - we ignored the recommendations of the Vietnamese staff and decided we knew best! In the end we chose a plate of prawns (about thirty!) steamed in beer; a rather sweet beef salad with banana hearts, chillies and peanuts; and squid stirfried with celery and spring onion. Sandy also had a Vietnamese beef noodle soup, and a thick Vietnamese coffee.

On Saturday night, after playing tennis, we walked to Island Creamery (we deserved an ice cream!), our favourite ice cream parlour, where I stupidly tried kung pao cashew ice cream ... an arse-burning (to borrow an expression from Sri) ice cream containing dried chilli flakes. One small scoop would make an excellent dinner party conversation piece. A whole tub was just ... well, arse burning.

For Sunday lunch, after a quick walk around Labrador Park, we decided to try Lim Seng Lee Duck Rice House on South Buona Vista Rd in Pasir Panjang Village. Due to some miscomunication with the waiter, we procured two gross-looking duck tongues.

Needless to say, Sandy gobbled down both duck tongues. Sandy giving tongue ...

Saturday, September 02, 2006

Summer holiday in Paris, London, Baxter Farm & Wales

We started our annual pilgrimage to the UK by hopping on the Eurostar and getting straight out. But gay Paris was closed. It seems all the Parisians chose the same week as us to go on holiday.

We did all the tourist things, visiting Notre Dame ...

and the Arc de Triomphe ...

we took in the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo and Egyptian Antiquities at the Louvre ...

the Parthenon, which was up the road from the hotel ...

and the Eiffel Tower ...

unfortunately two million other people had the same idea ...

best of all were the breakfasts near the hotel in the Latin Quarter ...

and in the market ...

London

After returning from Paris we spent a few days at Holly and Nel's place.

The Ethiopian food was so good we ate the plate ...

Holly drunk ...

Sandy and her brother Thiam ...

Baxter Farm

After London we headed up to Baxter Farm ...

I think we ate every meal at Baxter Farm in the conservatory ...

apart from morning tea with one Granny

and Sunday lunch with another Granny ... and Justin, Kate and a great dane ...

Put to work cleaning the pool ...

Ruby taking Sandy to the kennels ...

Sandy praying for a larger slice of chocolate fondant ...

and wondering whether there are any normal people in Willoughby ...

Wales

Mum, Dad, Holly, Nel, Sandy and I stayed in a cottage on the outskirts of a village a couple of miles outide of Hay-on-Wye in the Brecon Beacons.

As well as trying some local restaurants, we also ate at the cottage and barbecued some sheep ...

Sitting under a statue of Henry VII on the gable end of the Cheese Market in Hay-on-Wye enjoying ice creams from Shepherds. Based in an Edwardian shop facing the castle, Shepherds makes ice creams using sheep milk; the gooseberry and elderflower ice cream was delicious!

Visiting the Thursday morning farmers market in Hay ...

and visiting the many bookshops in Hay ...

On the afternoon we arrived, Dad, Nel, Sandy and I walked for an hour to the Blue Boar pub in Hay-on-Wye. Due to some rather suspect map reading we found ourselves scrambling up an extremely steep, muddy hillside at one point.

Walking through a graveyard we came across this grave belonging to an RAF serviceman killed during WWI in Wales.

We finally reached the pub where Holly and Mum were already discovering the joys of Black Fox.

The following day saw us don hiking boots once again for a five-hour walk from the cottage to the beginning of the Black mountains (and back again) ...

On the next day we traded boots for canoes and spent a leisurely few hours paddling ten miles down the Wye ...

Halfway down the river, at Whitney on Wye, we met Mum & Dad (who chickened out of negotiating the whitewater rapids) for a beery pub lunch at the Boat Inn. Terrible food and service. Beautiful weather though.