3 new bars

Three friends of ours opened three different bars in the same week. Jay opened "Second Round Pub Lounge " in Far East Plaza (5th floor) ... seated on the left is a very grumpy-looking Edward!



Murphy opened "pod" in Telok Ayer Street, next door to the beautiful Thian Hock Keng temple, one of the oldest Taoist temples in Singapore ...



and Justin opened his new bar, still without name, in Hat Yai, Thailand. He's built the actual bar counter from timber and exposed bark. Photos coming soon. We might try and check out Justin's place in early Jan with Holly if she flies out then.

home

Snakes spotted outside the flat

Nick Baker, our neighbour and Chairman of the Vertebrate Study Group of the Nature Society (Singapore), who hosts the Ecology Asia website, has identified and photographed nine species of snake outside our flat:

Reticulated Python
Equatorial Spitting Cobra
Brahminy Blind Snake
Oriental Whip Snake
Paradise Tree Snake
Striped Kukri Snake
Banded Malayan Coral Snake
Common House Snake
Painted Bronzeback

The Reticulated Pythons have eaten ten cats on our street in two years (including our cat Fishball, RIP) and an Equatorial Spitting Cobra was responsible for the death of a neighbour's Jack Russel. We see Equatorial Spitting Cobras at least once a fortnight, sunbathing on the concrete path behind the flat or next to the mosque in the mornings.

Owl spotting

On Friday evening I received an urgent call from Sandy saying she had just seen and photographed a Collared Scops Owl roosting on a signboard outside the flat. It was about 7.30pm and I was already out drinking in town. I knew I wasn’t really supposed to be out drinking that night as we were going out the following night, so I wasn’t sure whether this was just a cunning plan hatched by Sandy to lure me back home with the promise of owl spotting. I wanted to see photographic evidence of the owl and asked Sandy to SMS me the photo she had just taken with her mobile phone. Sure enough, several swigs of Tiger later, my pocket started vibrating, alerting me to an incoming Collared Scops Owl. Below is the photograph I received ... (The owl is sitting on the left of the signboard, honest! —Sandy)

Slippery customers

Last week I trod on a third snake inside my flat. All three were Brahminy Blind Snakes. I stepped on the first two while walking to the bathroom in the middle of the night. It felt like an elastic band underfoot, until I realised I don't keep elastic bands on the hallway floor. The most recent one was attempting to burrow under my laptop bag but wasn't having much success penetrating the ceramic floor tiles. All three survived me stepping on them presumably because I jumped off pretty damn quick in surprise; all were rehoused in the garden. Our reptile-expert neighbour Nick (see snake post above) has identified nine species of snakes outside the flat; thank goodness I haven’t found anything larger than a Brahminy Blind Snake inside the flat. Yet ...

My nose

I haven't been able to breathe properly through my nose for 10 years so I finally went to see an ENT specialist in Singapore. A self-referral based on how good his website was and the hospital's proximity to my local bar! Anyway, I went for an endoscopy, where the doctor stuck a video camera the whole way up my nose and down the back of my throat. Nice. It was a tiny digital camera on the end of a computer controlled tube and it looked like an alien worm from a sci-fi movie as it approached my nostril, did a little dance of delight and dived right in. The video is destined for Cannes and the doctor kindly gave me a copy on CD as I told him I was heading to the bar after the consultation and wanted to play it back on the bar's big screen. (A mistake, one-foot-tall nose hair is not a pretty sight.) I then popped downstairs for a CAT scan. When the ENT surgeon saw my CAT scan x-rays he was shocked and asked if I'd been in any bar fights when I was younger. But I'm still young! Apparently I have a completely deviated septum. I don't remember breaking my nose as a kid, maybe I was hit by a tennis ball?!



The upshot is that I will need surgery to drain the gunk from my sinuses but due to my pathological fear of surgery, Sandy has offered to perform the operation at home with a pair of a chopsticks and a Chinese meat cleaver.

TreeTop Walk

Check out the 25-metre-high TreeTop Walk that extends for 250 metres through the canopy of the Central Catchment Nature Reserve in the heart of Singapore.





It's amazing that in the middle of Singapore you can walk for hours along the forest trails and see more than 500 species of animal including, if you're lucky, flying lemurs and pangolins! Of course Sandy and I saw absolutely squat. We did see one rather haggard-looking raptor that could have been a juvenile Brahminy Kite but I forgot the birdbook.

Black Studio is 1 year old

Potluck BBQ at Yeoh's place in Punggol to celebrate Black Studio's 1st birthday ... Sandy prepared Thai-style chicken skewers, I did prawn mousse on lemongrass stalks with tamarind sauce. Somebody sat on my prawn mousse sticks in the taxi (and it wasn't me or the taxi driver) so we had to remold each stick again, very leceh ...

Durian king

An afternoon snack for Sandy's family in KL — 73 durians ... nice ...

Sandy's 30th birthday

We spent Sandy's 30th birthday (16th June) at the Six Senses Evason Spa in Phuket, Thailand. Strangely enough at the same time Mum was spending her 60th birthday in a spa in Wales!

We arrived late at night and the funky entrance tunnel ...



led into a stunning reception sala



Sandy enjoyed a Steam and Sauna, Traditional Thai Massage, Natural Thai Facial, Scalp Massage, Thai Herbal Body Glow, Foot Acupressure, Six Senses Signature Tea ... and the hotel pool overlooking the sea



The hotel had it's own private island — the jetty was destroyed by the Tsunami and walking on the temporary jetty was like doing the cake walk at the funfair. Talking of the Tsunami, we met six forensic pathologists staying at the hotel who were still identifying bodies six months after the tragedy happened.





Eating Phad Thai on the island



... and then back to the hotel pool again



We shot this menu in a café at the airport in Phuket; in any other country you would assume this to be a spelling mistake but in Thailand you can never be sure ...

NEW ZEALAND, May 2005

Some pix from our recent trip to New Zealand — two weeks touring the South Island by campervan. Click on the photos to enlarge them.

Campervan#1: Phil & Sandy; Collin & Sharina
Campervan#2: Yeoh & Shannon; Henry; Yang
Campervan#3: Ling, Eric & Jolin; Andrew, Tsegumi & Misaki

First night in New Zealand and supper of Beamish and cheese in freezing temperatures.



Our home for two weeks.



We headed down the east coast, stopping for more cheese in Timaru ...



... and penguins in Oamaru. The blue penguins spend the day at sea and return to their burrows at night.



We didn't really like Dunedin but enjoyed it from a distance, above the town on the Pineapple Flagstaff Walk. This was our first experience of thermal underwear!



Back row (from left): Phil, Yang, Ling, Sandy
Middle row (from left): Henry, Sharina, Eric, Jolin, Misaki, Tsegumi
Front row (from left): Shannon, Collin, Andrew



Henry and Jolin ... and Ling in the background ...



Collin takin' it easy ...



The lighthouse at Nugget Point was spectacular. Small islands just off the promontory were covered in seals and sea lions. We saw gannets, shags and terns but didn't stay long enough to see the albatrosses and penguins that can be seen there. Next time!



Not far from Nugget Point was Cannibal Bay, a beautiful beach empty apart from half a dozen wild sea lions! Pictured here is Misaki with her new pet (not approved for HDB) ...



... and another one



John & Yoko ...



Jolin ...



Curio Bay, last stop before Antarctica, and it felt like it. COLD. I have my heart set on hiding away in cottage here, swimming with dolphins, whale watching, having sea lions roll into my back garden, roasting penguins on the BBQ ...



The drive into Milford Sound was incredible: the views stunning and the roads steep and winding. The boat ride on the 22-km fiord afforded beautiful views of snow-capped mountains and waterfalls.





Everybody loves Queenstown!



Sandy did the famous AJ Hackett bungee jump ...





... I opted for a wine tour!



"Chups", the national dish of New Zealand ...



Heading up the west coast ...



... we stopped at Franz Joseph glacier for a spot of ice trekking.





Having heard but not seen the Kea, the world's only alpine parrot, on the glacier, we finally spotted the bird high up on Arthurs Pass. The Kea is famous for attacking sick sheep and eating their bottoms! We kept our distance ...



... but, while watching the Kea, a huge albatross swooped down and carried off Phil's head for dinner.



After two weeks, we were proud to acknowledge that Campervan #1 was the dirtiest in the whole of New Zealand!



Modelling the latest in hiking ware at the top of Auckland's Skytower ...

Birds spotted in New Zealand

Brown Kiwi (in the nature reserves)
Blue Penguin
Black Shag
King Shag
Little Shag
White-faced Heron
White Heron
Reef Heron
Little Egret
Cattle Egret
Mute Swan
Black Swan
Canada Goose
Paradise Shelduck
Mallard
Australasian Harrier
Pukeko
Australian Coot
South Island Pied Oystercatcher
Variable Oystercatcher
Pied Stilt
Spur-winged Plover
Black-backed Gull
Red-billed Gull
Black-billed Gull
White-fronted Tern
New Zealand Pigeon
Rock Pigeon
Kea
Hedge Sparrow
House Sparrow
Fantail
Tui
Chaffinch
Goldfinch
Australian Magpie
Rook