Thunderbird

One thing I love about living here is the huge, deafening tropical storms (also love the clouds, but that's a different story).  We are in the middle of one at the moment.  Thunder that makes you jump out of your skin has been rolling over head for the last hour.  The rain is coming down in fast and furious sheets and the building site across the way is shrouded in mist, the banging drowned out by the sound of wind and rain lashing the trees.  Bliss. What I love most of all is that I am tucked up at home with a good book and I can put the lights on and feel cosy.  I have the balcony windows open to let in the cool, moist air and so that I can hear the thunder claps even better.  Actually, some of them are more like thunder explosions and I want to hide behind the sofa or under the covers, as if I was a little girl again.  But mostly I am an awed witness to Mother Nature's fearsome power.

p.s. just when you think it's over, and you are putting the finishing touches to your blog post, it all kicks off again.  What a great day!

Penang

Tim, Al and I made a short trip to Penang while Al was here.  It is a small island off the north west coast of Malaysia, just south of Langkawi and the equivalent of going to Edinburgh for the weekend - a short hop in the plane from Singapore.  We stayed in the heritage part of Georgetown, which was declared a World Heritage Site by the UN a while back.  It is a busy burg, bustling and brimful of quaint shophouses, one of which provided our accommodation for the three nights we were there.  The only downsides to being so central were the 5am call to prayer (we were hemmed in by mosques), the constant buzz of mopeds and the dog across the way that barked all night.  I'm not sure Tim caught up on his much-needed sleep.

A day and half would have been enough, but we amused ourselves for three days.  The guidebook said it was what Singapore used to look like, so it was good to see. 

Downtown Georgetown

Down by the harbour

Sunset

Chinese lanterns

Having an aperitif outside our shophouse

 One of the highlights of the trip was a visit to the Tropical Spice Garden, about 40 minutes out of town.  It was wonderfully done and best of all, they had a giant swing and we had so much pushing each other back and forth.  It really is the little things.  The garden was full of mozzies and the 'organic' citronella oil that they provided did not cut the mustard, so I reverted to the 'burning the very skin off you' spray that you can buy in Singapore. Works a treat.  Although in the final count, Al was bitten 17 times and I escaped with a mere 10 bites.  Damn those mozzies!

On the swing

The swing in action!

Ridiculously happy

Friends and F1

What a lot of excitement we've had, two weekends in a row.  Our friends JT and Sarah book-ended their trip to Thailand with two stopovers in Singapore with us.  They were officially our first 'non-family' guests and I think we were able to provide a similar level of hospitality as that which I was lucky enough to experience when I stayed with them in London.  Their feedback was very positive anyway. Potential future guests: take note. 

We visited a bit of old Singapore (the Changi Prison Museum - I would give it a 5 out of 10) and quite a lot of new Singapore, down by the Marina.  We had the obligatory cocktail in the bar at the top of the Marina Bay Sands hotel to take in the view.  Being a property man, JT was impressed with the scale of the building that has taken place in the last 50 years, especially as we had seen glimpses of the old Singapore during our tour of the Changi Prison Museum.

Taking in the view on top of the Marina Bay Sands

Awww, those two

Very impressive

We were lucky enough to get tickets for the Formula 1 night race last weekend and even had two seats in one of the stands.  While JT and Tim watched the start of the race, Sarah and I devised and implemented our buffet strategy at the Raffles Hotel's Billiard Room where we were able to enjoy some corporate hospitality.  You need to have a strategy when a buffet is as outstanding as that one was, otherwise you end up peaking too soon.  We did swap with the boys about half way through the race.  I didn't think I would like it, but was surprised at how exciting it was seeing these huge cars whizz past (too fast to take photos).  At one point, some brave track clearers ran out and started clearing the bit of road in front of us.  They were literally taking their life in the hands and I thought it was all going to end badly when Sebastian Vettel (who led for most of the race) turned the corner and accelerated.  The last guy made a dash for the side, just in time.

The lights of the F1

View from the stands - we were very close!

The aforementioned track cleaner who was almost ketchup all over the track

That blur?  Sebastian Vettel

We were sad to say goodbye to our friends, but know that we will see them again real soon.  Next visitor - little Al who is en route from Saigon as I type!