Neat things about Singapore

Chris and I were chatting the other night and thought it would be fun to share with you some of the really neat things about Singapore - the things that make living here really easy and fun.

Travel

Lots of the really neat things fall into this category, and we should definitely start with Changi airport - absolutely the best airport in the world. If you have not had the good fortune to pass through Changi (more like "glide through" really, since it's so easy), think of the horror that is JFK, then its complete opposite, and that is Changi. The staff are charming, everything works smoothly and efficiently, they have wonderful shops, restaurants and public spaces, you get through immigration in a matter of minutes - in and out of the country - and by the (short) time you get from the aircraft to the baggage hall, your luggage is waiting for you. Class!

Moving on to cars. All cars that you buy in Singapore are fitted with am IU - an in-car unit, which is equipped with a smart card, which you load with cash and from which money is automatically deducted when you pass into the ERP (electronic road pricing) zone. The ERP is a form of congestion charging, but better in my view (differential pricing according to time of day; hence three or four times as much during rush hours). The result is that, for the most part, the roads are remarkably quiet and free flowing. The smart card also works in virtually all car parks, so the appropriate amount of money (a pittance by UK standards) is deducted at the leaving barrier. Clever stuff. Car parks themselves are pretty clever: there are signs at the entrance telling you how many spaces are available on each level, and in some car parks, a green or red light above the actual space will indicate whether it is occupied or not, so cruising for an available spot is made easy.

We have a car here, although I have decided not to drive in Singapore, so I have the pleasure of being driven to work and picked up most days by the lovely Chris. Now that is one of the really neat things for me about living in Singapore! When we get back to the apartment block, there is an LCD sign next to the security barrier that lights up with the words "Welcome home SGV 7085" (the number plate). I smile every time I see it.

And we drive on the left

And taxis are a fraction of the prices in London

Anf plugs are the same as in the UK

Leisure

It's fair to say that leisure opportunities are limited somewhat by Singapore's size, but it punches above its weight in this department, as in many others. Worth a special mention are the Botanic Gardens (http://www.sbg.org.sg/) which are centrally situated (within walking distance for us, although it's a half hour walk and if we attempted it most days in the heat of Singapore we'd be little more than a puddle of sweat by the time we got there), extensive, and free. You can see individuals and groups doing Tai Chi (and line dancing, bizarrely, on weekends), there is a concert stage set on the water and two fabulous restaurants inside.

Worth an extra special mention is the orchid garden set within the Botanic Gardens. It is absolutely amazing, and all the visitors we have taken to see it have been blown away. They began an orchid breeding programme in 1928 and today there are over 1000 species and 2,000 hybrids in the collection, displayed in the most beautiful tropical setting. Did you know that there are two basic types of orchid - terrestrial and epiphyte? The terrestrial grows on the ground, naturally enough, and the epiphyte establishes itself on trees. Just thought I'd let you know.


If that's not enough outside space for you, how about the MacRitchie reservoir? Named after James MacRitchie, one of the engineers involved in its construction, this was Singapore's first reservoir and today, as well as fulfilling its water catchment role, it has more than one square kilometre of primary forest that includes rubber trees dating back to the 19th century, acres of secondary forest, turtles in abundance, frolicking baby monkeys and a tree top walk which gives stunning views of the island.

If you're into music, you can have the indoor stadium experience minus all the hassle of getting to and getting from a venue like Wembley. Singapore Indoor Stadium is a 15 minute drive for us and while it's obviously a whole lot smaller than the big UK venues, it's just the right size for Singapore and you can get into and out of the car park in 10 minutes flat.

Sticking with the cultural side of life,the Singapore Arts Festival starts this weekend and we went to the launch event last night, which was an amazing piece of water theatre on the Singapore river. The picture below gives the teensiest flavour of what was going on. It's a show called Water Fools, by a French street theatre company, and the "plot" begins with a man driving a mini and towing a caravan (on the water). His car breaks down, so he gets out and reads a newspaper (not clear whether he was waiting for the AA to arrive in a speedboat). A cyclist passes by and sprays water into the man's face and then his head bursts into flames.

Surrounding this activity, there is a woman in a big red frock (she of the piccy below) sat atop a giant hamster wheel being driven around the river by a (seriously perspiring, I imagine) young man. Fireworks are going off, there's a giant four poster bed occupied by a young woman with pigtails (don't ask) a woman with a bicycle and coloured balloons and all manner of strange goings on. Ah, the whimsical French.....

And finally - the prices. Apart from housing, cars and cheese (no cows on Singapore), pretty much everything here costs less than a half of its UK equivalent. Hot lunch at a hawker centre can be had for a couple of quid and the taxi ride from Changi airport (about the same distance as Heathrow to the West End) is about 20% of the price of a black cab. Go figure.

Skiing in Dubai

It's a natural high!

A couple of months ago, I set myself the target of having at least one new experience every month. Last month was the trip to Bali, which included some new experiencettes, like having lunch at the rim of a volcano, but this month is set to wipe the floor with March. First up, dune bashing in the desert. For those of you who are new to this sport(?), it is the name given to a roller coaster ride up and down the sand dunes in Dubai in a 4 x 4. It was great fun - although best undertaken on an empty stomach, especially if you are sitting in the back seat! Apparently you can also engage in a spot of sandboarding on the dunes, but that will have to wait for the next trip. I also fitted in a camel ride - more of a lurch really - and saw the palest sunset I have ever experienced. It was so white, it was like watching the moon set.

But the piece de resistance was the skiing. My friend Steve - he of the super cheffing skills - is also a huge fan of taking your life in your hands on the powdery white stuff, but has never been able to persuade me that this was a sensible use of my limbs. How wrong I was! Now you are probably wondering if the Dubai I was camel riding in is the same Dubai I went skiing in. Can there be two Dubais, one existing in a parallel universe, as cold as the other is hot? Not quite, but close, since the ski slopes (there are 5 of them) exist in a huge shopping mall - the Mall of the Emirates - and I consider all giant shopping malls to be part of a parallel universe. But enough of my shopping prejudices and on to the skiing.....

My only previous experience of skiing was on the nursery slopes at Aviemore, in north east Scotland one rainy February many moons ago. In fact, I never actually got to ski, although I did do a fair bit of falling over. I had to borrow the skiing instructor's skis because they had run out of skis the right length for me, the nursery slopes had almost no snow on them (remember, I did say that this was a rainy February) and the instructor was an impatient sort, with no gift whatsoever for teaching beginners. Not the perfect mix of ingredients you will admit, for an inspiring introduction to the sport. Suffice to say that after falling over a few times I did actually manage to ski a few yards downhill, but not to stop. Fortunately (my opinion, not shared by Mr Nasty who was more worried about his skis than me - imagine!), there was a picket fence at the bottom of the slope, with gaps the width of a ski between the fence posts and my skis, swiftly followed by my legs, slid through and stopped when I sat down on my (by now extremely damp) bottom. So, not a great start. After that, I gave up and have never really fancied trying again, but there was something so surreal about the thought of snow skiing in the desert that I had to give it a go.

There was a group of us, several of whom were beginners, and we had two really great instructors. I managed to get the hang of the snow plough (the action that makes you slow down and stop) early on, and after that there was no stopping me. I came flying down the hill (well maybe I had not entirely mastered the snow plough) screaming and laughing and didn't fall over once. Magic!

I really thought the trip couldn't get any better, but a couple of days later I learned African drumming as part of a team building event. It was totally and absolutely the business! I have attached the drumming and skiing links so that you can see for yourself. Next month's new experience is Tai Chi, and I'm hoping to persuade Chris to come along, since he has a bit of catching up to do.

http://www.dubaidrums.com/about.html

http://www.skidxb.com/English/default.aspx

War on Buffet (geddit?)

Not a mis-spelt reference to the sage of Omaha, but a comment on the prevalence of buffet deals in Singapore restaurants. I don't know about you, but buffets are generally anathema to me ( I will make an exception for the Sunday Champagne brunch at the Four Seasons and my sister would insist that I exclude the chocolate buffet at the Fullerton), but the attraction of the all-you-can-eat offerings so beloved of Singaporeans passes me by. That said, I think you would like to hear about some of the more exotic buffet choices on offer - at pretty knockdown prices by comparison with most UK dining opportunities. So here goes:

Sunday brunch (a favourite pastime here) first. How about a Taiwan Porridge Buffet? This is rice porridge, of course, not hot oatmeal as eaten by men in kilts, and comes with a variety of "toppings", I suppose you would call them - like sweet potato (atop the rice in the picture to the left), roast chicken, duck, silverfish ( a sort of teeny weeny whitebait), carrot cake (it's carrot cake, but not as we know it), fried wontons, fish cake, mushrooms, stewed peanuts (yes, really), bamboo shoots and black fungus, to name a few. I'd like to say that the black fungus tastes better than it sounds, but since I have never plucked up the necessary courage to put any in my mouth, I'm afraid I can offer no opinion. I am sorry to say that this is true of many of the items considered a delicacy in Asia, and quite frankly, I blame my upbringing. This has nothing to do with my mother's cooking; she hated cooking as it happens, but that's beside the point. It has to do with custard. Now I am sure you must be asking yourself the question, "How so? How can an innocent substance like custard be responsible for my culinary cowardliness?" Allow me to enlighten you.

Those of you who know me well may already have encountered my aversion to "slippy pudding", by which I mean anything sweet and gelatinous, like cold custard, tapioca, blancmange and jelly, for example. This aversion also extends to savoury slippiness, like aspic jelly and gravy, and emanates from a meal I ate about 45 years ago, every detail of which I remember as if it were yesterday. It was a weekend lunch, and pudding was tinned peaches (slippiness epitomised) and custard, which started out hot and therefore not too slippy, but when cold and congealed was gag inducingly so. It became cold and congealed because I refused to eat it - because of the slippy peaches - and I was made to sit at the table when everyone else had left until I did. Of course, every time I tried to get it past my throat, I would gag. To this day I come close to hyperventilating whenever I come across a tin of Bird's custard powder, and since many Asian dishes are fairly slippy (innately so, like shark's fin soup and some of the fungi, or made so, like many of the sauces), I tend to interrogate the waiting staff and insist on "dry" food, whenever I go out. But enough of my phobias; back to buffets. There are seafood buffets, dim sum buffets, high tea buffets, Thai buffets, Japanese buffets, and Indian champagne brunch buffets (the food is Indian and the champagne, fortunately, French).

I mentioned the chocolate buffet at the Fullerton Hotel earlier, which is served from 8 to 11 pm on week nights. Just the thing for a stressed chocolate lover after a hard day at work.

Movie news

I'm conscious of the fact that I haven't contributed any movie reviews to the blog recently, so let's rectify that right away. First up, "The Other Boleyn Girl". I saw this yesterday, having read the book when we were in Bali, and I am in two minds, If I'd not read the book, the film would probably have impressed me more, and to be fair, I was mightily impressed by Eric Bana as Henry (yum!), but because the book was able to develop several plot lines by virtue of its being a book, and a pretty long one at that, the film seemed rather superficial by comparison. That said, definitely worth seeing, if it's just to wonder how they managed to disappear Scarlett Johansson's bosom in those frocks.

A book that I have not read is The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, which has now been made into a film of the same name. It describes the life of the writer - Jean-Dominique Bauby, who suffered a massive stroke when he was 43, which left him with a condition called locked-in syndrome - completely paralysed apart from the ability to blink his left eyelid. He managed to dictate his book by dint of blinking his eyelid when the relevant letter of the alaphet had been reached. The film makes for quite harrowing viewing, but it is quite brilliant.