Shiva's and Metta's Mother's Sutra

On our way there - Oisin, she is wearing her freaking forest outfit. I am telling you we are going to a forest It started innocuously enough. Well, Swim or MYSTERY TOUR???? Mom. We will take mystery tour. (Said Oisin.) Damn it Oisin. Mystery tour means she is going to take us to a freakin jungle. And so I did. To the freakin jungle we went. The tens of kilometres which NParks has built in the jungle Admiring the view at the tree top walk I am happy to report that I am finally losing weight I know this because I am finally not dreading putting on my clothes Oisin, striking a pose Catwalk on the top of the forest On our way there - Oisin, she is wearing her freaking forest outfit. I am telling you we are going to a forest Baby and mommy - different but same Dragonflies In the wild Scaly breasted munia - our equivalent of tits That is just adorable Rainforest as far as the eye can see That butt don't look so bad anymore...

From recently discovered dig in Indonesia Majapahit era (11 - 13th century - coinciding with high and late medieval although the expression is far more Renaissance to me) I didn't work very much this week. I think that I just finally laid my tools down and just decided to actually take a total break. It does take about two weeks to wind down. Usually during this time I write the school reports and then I take a total break and then start class prep. Class prep begins when I get back from Malaysia. This Buddha head must have been concealed from vandals to prevent it from being destroyed. South East Asia has seen so many civilisations influence us. It began animist and in many ways still is. The spirits of place and our ancestors are very real to us. People don't die. They just move into another dimension. Their bodies go but we know they live on. We also believe in the difference hierarchies. And we know that gods are not perfect. They are more powerful but they are just ...

Arjuna - in a roundabout in Bali My favourite interpretations in art of the Hindu saga must be South East Asian. It has that sharp, feminine quality which is lacking in popular Indian art which I find garish and blockish. The delicacy and the strength cloaking that delicacy is something which I love. The pretence of effortlessness when great expertise is required. The character of Arjuna has always fascinated me. It is the name - I have loved the name even before I knew the man. In the Mahabharata he is the consummate warrior - the poet-warrior king. He also is one of five brothers - and they all share one wife.  Most of the Mahabharata, even though it is a fantastic story, is symbolic and it is about initiation. Listening to it, you receive the lessons without having to burden yourself with too much thinking or effort. In this sense, it is like a fairy tale. You understand the story on a subconscious level. This is how fairytales and folklore differ. In folklore, ther...

Changsha bowls Apsara Nara and Narayana So this week flew. When I say I flew, I mean flew.  Monday - Pulau Ubin and swim at the pool Tuesday - MacRitchie and Chinatown and swim at the pool Wednesday - Asian Civilisations Museum, dinner with Laurence and Leon Thursday - Passport office and Dim Sum Friday - Library and swim at the pool All the while I have been reading the Mahabharata. It is such an amazing book. Having read The Odyssey and The Iliad, they pale in comparison in terms of depth and meaning. They are like children's sketches beside a Masters. True, but naive and crude. I cannot imagine the civilisation which conceived them. No wonder the people of our region adopted them wholesale. And this has given rise to the subtleties of Asia. It has given rise to the rich, tolerant and beautiful culture that we have. It is entire underpinned by not just Hinduism but the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. But, in the meantime, I have also been watching M...

If you're fond sand dunes and salty air... Then Ubin is the place for you. I have been so busy over the past two days that I have had no time for blogging. Ubin - the trip to Ubin was really quite amazing. I was blown over by the Singapore I remembered. I can only hope that the government doesn't have its usual neurosis and just wipes everything off the face of the island again. Just let it settle... why won't you let it settle you assholes? Ubin has become an excellent example for what is possible. You CAN have a good simple life, a sustainable life, and you can also have that simple, mediated balance with nature. It had changed since I was there, and like MacRitchie, Ubin is a really good way for people to be reintroduced to nature. It is a happy balance between the human being and nature.  So too MacRitchie -  Tree top walk What is interesting about MacRitchie is that it shows how quickly the forest returns. It appears that most of MacRitchie was full ...

Myst come alive Yesterday, determined to not spend Saturday cowering from the horrible crowds of Singapore, I said to Ghin we are going to Sungei Buloh. So after a $45 meal at Srisun which consisted of THREE honeymoon pratas and THREE onion pratas and butter paneer...Ghin and I headed to Sungei Buloh. It was proper hot like. But I was prepared. The entire journey took just over an hour between train and bus, but I decided I would treat it like an urban adventure, rather than having to take a very long journey. But when we got there, I was first surprised that the side of Sungei Buloh was opened out and up - and it was just across from the bus stop. More amazing was the massive - I suppose small by Singaporean standards - Visitor Centre. So of course, I went into my super hypercritical mode - what is this, this is dreadful... and we got lost and a path was closed... then we met a super rude Singaporean man with his stupid Swarovski bins... man he was so fucking rude... and THEN ...

My mother is an amazing cook. Here is petai sambal udang and ikan asian chutney with timun and rice. My sister asked me yesterday of all the racial groups in Singapore, who do you feel closest to? I said, well, not any of them really... but closer to Chinese or Malay - well Malay, as this dish testified to. And anything Chinese I have in me has been heavily filtered by being half Peranakan.

I was just looking at the photos on the blog and man, my sons lead an amazing life. They are so lucky!

At the club - all for US After a week in Singapore, yesterday we passed our one week anniversary, I feel AMAZING. It started before we left, of course - just running daily and eating right, getting lots of sleep, NO ALCOHOL... but to add to this list I also have had no cheese and no chocolate since arriving back home. Rojak and fried rice - rojak for me fried rice for Ghin We eat really well - it is all now about simple hawker food - when I say simple, I don't really mean simple. I mean genius hawker food. Food which has taken millennia to evolve to the point that it can be prepared with minimal fuss, the fewest ingredients and taste utterly amazing. Like this rojak - the quintessential Singaporean food. Made with fermented prawn paste, you cha kuay, mango, pineapple, peanuts and lotus flower buds. It is literally heaven on earth. The boys and Pa waiting for Ma at a kopi tiam in Ang Mo Kio Mom, this is amazing Teh peng - nectar of the gods Pa and the...