Oh to be in England, now that May is there

 

And yes, I know it’s really April, but it will do. Before departing for Singapore for a month, I managed to squeeze in a trip to the New Forest. Then the muted browns and dark greens of winter still predominated, but in the garden spring was bursting out all over and floppy bright light greens were everywhere. May is my favourite month and it’s a shame that my teaching at the Singapore staff college always appears at that time, but I’ll be back soon and hope that by the time I am the late ash and oak will be out as well. However my two (! ) temporary gardeners will have been observing ‘no mow May’ so it will look very lush and abandoned I expect.

In fact I had to leave a bit earlier than usual as I had been invited by the High Commission to an engagement session of the Five Power Defence Arrangements in Malaysia, at the enormous Butterworth air force base near Penang. Penang was one of our favourite places in the old days especially the truly iconic E&O (Eastern and Oriental) Hotel – which is Penang’s answer to Singapore’s Raffles and originally operated by the same entrepreneurial pair of Armenian brothers back in the late 19^th Century. Really stylish and surely one of the nicest swimming pools anywhere.  The old city itself is fascinating too redolent of the same period and predominantly Chinese in atmosphere. Not quite so well-manicured as Singapore with bits of romantic decay here and there – especially the local cemetery. Unfortunately, I wasn’t housed there and only drove through it en route from and to the airport. Instead, I was in another ultramodern hotel (but much less offensive than the Rotterdam one) still on the island rather than the mainland but quite far away. In an any case it was all jam-packed so not much time either. See if you can pick me out in the inevitable closing session.

Otherwise, I had a much more leisurely trip over to Jakarta to perform for their naval staff college and the University of Indonesia, plus meeting some colleagues, now known for sometime and having a number of interesting meals as usual.

Here's me looking rather serious. Limited didn't refer to my expertise (or at least I don't think so) It meant by invitation only. It was all very informal and I wore my blue batik shirt for the occasion. 

At the former I was presented with yet another shield that I inadvertently left on the returning aircraft. I had some excuse for this as most unusually for Singapore Airlines it didn’t go like clockwork. For a start, the RSIS team jumped into a flight earlier than booked. Then just as we were about to take-off the news came in that Changi airport was closed because of bad weather. So we had to sit tight on the tarmac for a couple of hours waiting for it to clear. Fortunately, I was able to keep myself entertained by plugging into 5 episodes of HBO’s ‘Veep,’  profane but funny. We eventually made it, still an hour ahead of that originally planned. It really had been a heavy storm, with a fair amount of flooding. Its unusually hot and muggy here at the moment 33-37 and really, really humid. What some ex-pats call ‘three shirt weather’. Heaven only knows how our Victorian predecessors – who made absolutely no concession to the climate – bore it with their elaborate dresses, ties, frock and waist coats. No wonder they died early. The following two shots taken from my window perhaps 5 minutes apart capture the spirit of a the tropical downpours usual in the afternoon accompanied of course by loud cracks of thunder and lightening. So that’s another reason for wistful thoughts about the crisper English versions of May.

Even so, I’ve had one or two minor excursions to favoured places, that have to be planned around the ferocious and torrential showers that happen most days . Almost everywhere there’s construction going on reducing the green spaces that Lee Kwan Yew insisted on as a visible emphasis of building his Singapore. Despite a hugely inflated population, they just about manage an impressive balance – between the green and the concrete, the old and new. The potential threat is illustrated by this slightly skewed shot of the out of window of a MRT carriage window of new-building cranes crowding around the Chinese Gardens.

It looks terrible but will probably be OK in the end. All the same Singapore is a lot better designed and built than either Jakarta or KL, but it’s not easy or free. A tribute towards the concept of ‘guided democracy’ perhaps ! Certainly, that’s how it seems given the crazy consequences of the unguided versions in the US and Europe. It all contributes to the widespread gloom about the state of things globally, that I encounter amongst my colleagues everywhere I go. 

But the best way of looking on the brighter side is indeed to plunge into nature, whether to grow cabbages, spot birds, supervise the cutting down of dead trees or just wander about enjoying it in the Botanic gardens here or back home next month.  Something else to keep one going and to look forward to.