I hope that the title is not tempting Providence,
but I’m checked in largely packed and nearly ready to go. The last few weeks have
been busy with all the usual teaching routines. I am very pleased with the
enthusiasm of my students, and in awe of their ability to engage in a language
which for quite a few of them is not their own. It’s nice teaching note to go
out on.
And,
talking of ‘going out’, an Australian colleague sent me an article in a prestigious English language marine
science journal in Indonesia which was largely about me and which ended with a
glowing obituary, because I had sadly died back in 2017, aged 76. I was also
born in Manchester I gather. Interesting.
So when I was taken out last night to
a Chinese restaurant by a couple of my long-time ex-students, I was pleased to encounter this which is basically a promise of a long life and lots of money. As you can see the décor was largely given over to gambling. Talking of money my insurance company finally paid up my medical expenses last may which was a considerable relief.
I’m not as fat as I
look in the picture it was just the way I was slouching in my chair. A lot of
Ipoh noodles and fish balls to process. One of the reasons why the weight is
under control before the fast approaching Christmas splurge is that I’ve been a
regular hiker through the Botanic gardens. There are always things to see. Their
collection of trees is fantastic and this time in a remote part of it that I
had never got to before, I found some delightful parkland with a couple of bizarrely
but attractive colonial buildings. One called ‘Iverturret’ which looked like it
sounds and housed an interesting botanical museum with to my astonishment
housed a collection of really enviable 15-17the botanical books. Surely they
must have been replicas, but the notices didn’t say so.
Another fun day was one out with the navy it was an occasion for naval families but I was shown round by a couple of my ex-students. We visited a landing ship, dressed overall as they say, and I got in some more sea time by chugging round the harbour in a little landing craft around Sentosa island which Cherry and I liked to frequent for some swimming and beach time. Nice to see it again this time from the sea.
One the memorable
events though was not Singaporean at all, namely a stupendous and very large exhibition
of the Impressionists at the National Gallery. There were at least a couple of
hundred of them. Must have been worth a fortune. They were nearly all from the Boston
Art Gallery so I suppose I must have seen at least some of them before as
Cherry and I visited the latter several times in our last ten years, but I
couldn't say I remembered any of them.
But it did remind me of how much I liked Pisarro, radical revolutionary though
he might have been.
Another treat was being invited to the Christmas party at the High Commission. It was packed and very British. Carols sung by a choir of little girls from the ‘Brighton School, ’ mulled wine and some really nice mince pies. And so on that un-Singaporean note, this ends with the usual Season’s greetings, outside one of the shopping malls nearby. But somehow the sunshine and hot temperatures make this look all wrong !
