Inedible crabs

-


First off, apologies for no pictures from today. We went to Changi to meet up with the Nature Society of Singapore people. They had hired a bunglow and were spending the weekend beach combing and tree hugging. OK, maybe not tree hugging. Flutterby chasing. Changi is a very beautiful part of Singapore. It is free of high rise developments and the village there is still mostly unchanged. The improvement brigade has left it alone and so trees are tall, grass is a little wilder and it is filled with laid back types who seem to know how to have a good time with very little. The beach front is chock a block with tents. Lines of wet clothing flutter in the breeze. Off shore oil tankers and cargo ships bob lazily. Bumboats scoot past in the sharp glinting waves. It is a reminder of a more peaceful, less consuming time. We were late, but found the group poking about on the most unappealing beach. Singaporean beaches are mostly rough sandstone and debris at best. But this stretch they were on was downright ugly. Just under the balconies of the Changi Beach Club and plagued by crumbling staircases, it looked filthy and pretty miserable. But the group was thrilled. They had found worms, sponges, shells, crabs and slugs. You couldn't have gotten happier pigs in mud. My parents were pretty non-plussed about it, of course. Minature crabs, purh-lease. and you can't eat them?? I had a friend in the RSPB who used to joke that my trips back to Singapore

I was pretty sad that i didn't spend all the time i should have. The group were made of mostly scientific types. It would seem that you could travel half way across the world and come across the recognisible scientific type. Not that i HAVE any issue with the type, it's just that i wish they were less certain of their empiricism and more taken in by the wonder of it all. The poetry. They mysticism. The magic. All this obsession with dissection and latin terminology. It hurts the heart. I think i have ranted about the scientific bias before, so i'm not going to do it. However, i have spent so little time with them that it wouldn't be fair at all to start doing so.

Yesterday we celebrated the Onam sadya with Prema and her cousin, Sunita. No photos there either. What am i like. We ate at Spice Junction at Race Course Road. Serangoon Road needs a few entries to itself to do the place any justice. But after that we returned back to Prema's where we caught up. Exchanging thoughts about men, babies and parenting. Lianne was telling us how she had parents calling up asking her if they could give their two month old babies brain gym classes. Lianne siad that she wanted to tell them they should spend time playing with their kids - that's what their kids wanted them to do, but she just didn't have the energy.

Popular posts from this blog

Geylang sepaku Geylang

-
Image
Geylang Serai is the place i feel most at home in Singapore. Possibly because a vast majority of the population are still Singaporean and i speak the language they speak there - Malay. Also, it hasn't changed that much. OK, it has, but i'd like to think it hasn't. We ate at the new market there which used to be a little better than an open sewer. But it was our open sewer and we loved it. Geylang was heaving with people getting ready for Ramadan. On the table we have sup kambing, otak-otak, nasi padang and rojak. Drinkswise we have lime juice, Kickapoo and teh. It is hot - really hot. We are all pespiring and we can feel our clothes stick to our skin and bellies and thighs. Our hair is continuously in our faces, dripping and sticking too. The only thing that brings relief is a soak in the pool or a shower and an airconditioned room. No wonder when the boys came back, the first thing they said was, ah, it's great to be back in th cool weather again!. Singaporeans love th...
Read more

The Central Business District

-
Image
The Thinker in the OUE building Yesterday i attended a talk which was organised by some environmentalists here. It was held in the NTUC building which was in the middle of the business district. It has been years since i have been here, so i set out early to walk about the place. Everything is very very large  I arrived during rush hour and people were simply pouring out of the MRT. The crowds were swarming down escalators and out of offices - but they were not overground. No, they were underground, at the MRT. In fact thee was no one above ground. For the business district at rush hour, above ground was eerily quiet! There must be dozen of buildings which look like these To think that hundreds of thousands of people work in places like this. I used to work in a place like this. Admittedly these buildings are far more swishy and very sleek. It was like being in some espionage film set in the future. There were rehearsals for the National Day Parade and Sarah...
Read more

19.3.26 - 74 - Eulogy: What will survive of us is love

-
Image
I wrote and read this for Pa at the service. It was in long hand, but I have it here typed out now. It is peppered with verses from the New Testament, because I was asked by the priest to refer to Jesus occasionally, so I made that concession. Big shout out to Ben and the Christian Community whom I spent many a delighted evening reading and discussing the Bible during Bible study class. =========================== Thank you everybody for coming here to honour the life of husband, father and legend which is Eric Sim Chin Seng. Pa crossed over on the 16th of March at 7.30 am. He went peacefully and gently. He breathed his way slowly past this life and on to the new one, leaving his bark, his body, which carried him and his indomitable spirit and endless capacity to love, for 81 years, to say farewell to one last time. This tribute is to you, for you, Pa, who always walked in the sacred steps of Jesus Christ and lived the best life which could be lived. Part I: John 1:14 "The word be...
Read more