Katrina's birthday

P: Katrina and Steve threw another great party yesterday. We started in the garden but were forced inside when it began to rain. Dinner was a delicious Greek moussaka with garlic bread, pasta salad and green salad ... and a fantastic raspberry and chocolate mousse cake baked by Vicky. Greek coffee and Ouzo was the perfect way to round off the meal.

DIY man

S: Phil is getting better at DIY! Putting up the curtains he only chopped off one finger. Amazingly the curtains are still up after two weeks; his shelves lasted ten days before falling down.

Thalia busy in the kitchen

P: Thalia, our Australian neighbour, aged 2 (almost), sent up a surprise breakfast for Sandy and I this morning! Delicious savoury muffins with feta, sausage and olives. Thank you Thalia!

Hanging bed

S: A tree frog has moved into, or onto, one of our hanging orchids and spends the day sleeping there.

frog's legs

S: hmm, delicious. this baby's just asking to be deepfried.

dead fridge

P: the fridge died. RIP. new one arrived. half the size. need to fit the food in. did my bit and drank all the cans of beer. now there's plenty of space.

Fear Factor

P: I would love to send Sandy onto the reality show Fear Factor. Whereas most contestants baulk at the thought of eating intestines, bugs and other creepy crawlies, Sandy would probably ask for seconds.

Makeover, Pt II

P: The second part of Sandy's makeover involved visiting the hottest (and sweatiest) hairstylist in town. Yes, out with the books, in with the curlers. I realize now why hairstylists wear clothes ... I managed to dye my chest hair quartz. Luckily I wasn't allowed to use the scissors.



The end result? Not only have I been fired, I'm not even allowed to post an "After" photo! Sorry, Sandy! You can always wear a hat!

Makeover, Pt I

P: Sandy's annual haircut. Can borrow some or not?

where we live now

P: one the few remaining pockets of green in Singapore!

Garden Party

Phil and Sandy entertaining in their garden in Singapore ...



Not. Unfortunately our garden is only 2 metres square. This was a shoot we did for a catalogue cover, taken in the garden of a bar in Dempsey Road, Singapore.

Twas a rough night

One of Singapore's claims to fame is that there are more thunder storms here than in almost any other country. In one year, thunder can be heard on about 171 days. The worst period is April/May ... now! According to weather stats, thunder storms occur on 20 out 30/31 days in April and May. Sandy and I were both woken by last night's storm at 3am. It was LOUD! I didn't sleep back till 6am. Mind you, that's also because I'm enjoying reading Julian Barnes' "Arthur and George", a beautiful book.

Australia Day

Steve and Katrina threw a bbq to celebrate Australia Day.



Steve and Terry:



Steve setting fire to Jalan Hang Jebat:





Pavlova Man Simon:

Blue eyes

Trying out my Christmas present from Holly and Nel: an eye mask from The Body Shop. For extra soothing, I placed the mask in the fridge for two weeks. It definitely soothed and cooled my eyes but it's pretty difficult to see.

Dressing the tree

The Christmas tree arrived this evening and Thalia had the honour of hanging the first bauble (before pulling it off again).





Thalia flies to Melbourne with her parents Katrina and Steve tomorrow. Have a great Christmas Down Under!







Janie dropped by to see the tree ...

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.

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.

Steam inhalation

Fever, sweating, muscle aches and pains, dry chesty cough that feels like coughing up razor blades from your lungs, sneezing, running nose and a blocked nose ... yes, it's flu time again. I don't think I've caught flu (as opposed to just a cold) for years and it's really knocked me for six. I've been in bed for three days but at least it's given me time to read a bunch of new manuscripts, two of which are great and are definitely worth publishing.

As well as swigging back various over-the-counter medicines, I'm also trying to relieve congestion by sticking my head in boiling water.



If this doesn't work I'll have to break into our secret stash of Tamiflu.

bloody lizards!

"They're sooo cute, they eat mosquitos and bring good luck" ... get real! I've never seen a cicak / gecko / jinjok do anything as useful as eat a mosquito, they seem to prefer ants and flies. They crap everywhere. They fall off the ceiling into the ceiling fan and splatter round the walls. They commit suicide in our washing machine, toaster, microwave, chicken curry and window and doorframes. And now in my HP laser printer! OK, this time it's a case of reptilicide not suicide. I saw the lizard jumping into the machine via the paper-out slot and everything in my body told me to turn off the machine but I just couldn't stop myself from pressing "PRINT"! Uh oh, I think we now have a two-legged, two-dimensional lizard. And I can't get it out. I might have to take the printer to HP and ask them if this model is supposed to come with a lizard in it.



UPDATE: How embarrassing ... I had to take the printer to HP Service Centre after two days 'cos I couldn't get the lizard out and it was beginning to smell! I called HP to warn them I was bringing the lizard in and all the service centre girls screamed and ran off when they saw me. Well, I'm quite used to that. At least I managed to meet Sri for a coffee at HP, where he works as an IT Solutions Architect.