Haw Par Villa

One thing I remembered as a kid in Singapore, was the strange garden of concrete statues called "Haw Par Villa" or "Tiger Balm Gardens". It's quite funny to imagine the effort that would have gone into creating such a park.



I thought we should all see this park again, and see how run down it has become. It was just as I remember, with less (almost nobody) there, and the cabbie on the way there mentioned it will be closing down soon.

Mack, one for not letting signs tell him how to live his life, had no drama sitting on, or touching any of the statues.



A highlight for me, was that there was a series of statues dedicated to the Monkey King, and his journey west with a boy priest, pig monster/angel and sea monster...... To any Aussie kid who grew up in the 80's would remeber this as the Monkey! tv series shown on the ABC. It turnes out that this is actually based on a legend/book in chinese literature called "Journey to the West" that is almost 500 years old.


One of the statues in the park


And a pic from the old TV series

Singapore Flyer

Yesterday, the 3 of us went and had a go on the Singapore Flyer. Its a big Ferris Wheel that is actually bigger than the London Eye. We got there early, so we were lucky to have a full carriage to ourselves. (the ones in front and behind us were also empty).

It was good to be able to let Liam run about in there, knowing he wouldn't get in anybodies way.




To view some more pics, click here

Newton Hawker Centre

A couple of nights ago, we went for dinner to this outdoor foodcourt place called "The Newton Hawker Centre". It was about 20 minutes walk from home. There used to be small street vending stalls all over Singapore, but I beleive the Government here only allows them to be setup in designated areas. This place seems to be one of the more popular ones, with many tourists visiting as well.

There must be a bit of competition for customers, as I did get harrased quite a bit by various stall owners wanting me to order from their stall.

The food selection was huge and the prices were great, as long as you don't get King Prawns. Well, compared to some other places at least, like getting Crumpets from the supermarket for $9.

This night we got Chicken Rice, Satay Chicken and Curry Roti, as well as a Tiger Beer in a big bottle :). All this ended up being a bit much, so we won't order as much next time.


A bit too much here!!

Helping Mum

As you can see below, Liam is starting to assert his independence. He now likes to use the spoon himself when feeding. He also likes to help mum out wherever possible.

Clarke Quay

The other day, we all went to Clark Quay to meet up with some friends and have a few drinks. The bar we were at even had the AFL prelim final being played on the plasma screens. It's a great spot in singapore, and we even got to see a bit of the River Festival, with some decorated boats comming up to where we were sitting.

One of the boats.

Liam trying to check out one of the boats

Old Photos of Dad's 50th

As we packed up our place in Melbourne, we came across a few old roles of film (remember those?) that we never got around to getting developed.

We got them put onto CDs before we left Australia, and here are a couple from Dad's 50th:

New Apartment in Singapore

I have just moved into our new place in Singapore, and to make it a bit easier to explain the layout, here is the floorplan I found in the switchboard.....