That was Christmas lunch 2016

As usual, we had Sally and Ashok joining us for the Christmas lunch, and also it was time for culinary experimentation !

Kay's porchetta went down well - the crackling!

Sally's egg plant dish was unforgettable!

Sally's mango salad was not just pretty !

Obligatory potatoes.

Kay's multi-layer ice cream and sorbet that would impress Christine Manfield.

Sorry Ashok, the next photo the camera took was even worse!

Super Moon

Everyone had a shot at it, so did I. This was taken with my Canon SLR hand held, with a 18-200mm zoom, plus a bit of photoshopping.  Shot taken tonight, a night after official full moon because we were clouded out last night.

Coping with nature

This time of the year our Chinese Pistachio sprouts new leaves . . .

But within a week the new growths quickly become this . . .

Year after year, the tree ends up an unsightly mess with a denuded top . . .

We initially thought it was due to some insects, but we found the real culprit, the common possums . . .

The creature is protected, so we cannot do anything to it. The local shire does not even permit us to trap the mammals and transport it elsewhere. We tried many ways to deter the mammals but to no avail, such as hanging socks full of naphthalene, cover the trunk with smooth plastic sheet to stop them climbing up, and even offer apples as alternative feed. Ultimately, we may just have to replace the tree with one that is not so delicious.

Back to old haunts

Back to Singapore for a week and caught up with a few places I have not been for a while.

The house where I lived. I thought they had abolished trishaws . . .

Jalan Kayu shops. Last visit was probably when we met up with Michael.

Jalan Kayu, looking north towards old Seletar base.

Old British bungalow houses still there.

Another old British bungalow house.

Meeting up with Anthony at CSC.

Colours of Spring 2016

Not quite Kyoto, but always pleasing to the eyes.

City of Leicester

My friend Anthony asked me specifically to tell him about my recent visit to Leicester, of which he has some fond memories from a visit many years ago.

We found Leicester a quiet city that we could unkindly describe as having "seen better days" as it has a good collection of fine buildings that date back to the industrial boom years of early 20th century or even earlier, a time when the midlands and northern England were the manufacturing power house of Great Britain.

Today Leicester is well known for its football team that performed well unexpectedly, but more deservedly for the remarkable discovery of the remains of Richard III under a car park. These two attractions are giving a badly needed boost to the local economy.. For us, we will never forget Kayal, the Keralan restaurant that produced dishes that could easily match any Indian restaurants that we have ever been to.  After all, Leicester boasts of a large percentage of residents of Indian ancestry.

Pedestrian mall covers a large part of Leicester CBD.

The Clock Tower

The XY Club, whatever that is.

Town Hall

Leicester Cathedral

Final resting place of King Richard III.

Keralan meal. My dosa was half eaten before we remembered the camera.

Leicester market place.

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Ringing bells in London

We finally did it- rang bells in London, At this church .

No not St Pauls, but the one next to it, St Vedast alias Forster, shown in the illustration created after it was nearly destroyed during the war. Today it's more like this

Tower captain Tom Lawrence was most helpful but like all captains he worked hard to ensure the best results possible.  I was invited to ring the second of the six bells, which felt much heavier than the heaviest at Christ Church St Laurence back in Sydney.  Worse for me was the call for changes was a different system which meant I had to be reminded each time which bell to follow. Still it was a very good experience. Kay too had a go with Tom providing the hand stroke help. The practice was well attended, by about a dozen ringers of range of capabilities and nationalities (Americans, Canadians, Swiss and of course British).  Now for the next tower!  See other blog http://kansontheroad.blogspot.com/

Menangle and Camden

The main highway between Sydney and Canberra allow cars to speed from one city to the other - bypassing quite a few pretty country towns. Perhaps it was a blessing for those towns, for they have been able to retain their country charm.

Last weekend our band of bell ringers from Christ Church St Lawrence paid a visit to Menangle's St James Anglican Church and Camden's St Paul's Catholic Church, to ring at their bell towers, and we discovered that towns are hidden gems.

St James, Menangle

Bell ringers at St James.

St Paul's at Camden

Inside Camden's very modern St Paul's.

Bell ringers getting ready at St Paul's.

50th anniversary

Exactly fifty years ago today, a group of us including Rafflesians Teo Hock Hin (Roy), Teo Oon Hock, Khoo Pong Tiah (Paul) and Mak Fong Keng (from RGS) landed in Sydney with much excitement and enthusiasm to pursue various courses under the Colombo Plan Scholarships.

The locals were also looking forward to the day - no, not for our arrival, as Asian students in those days were more of curiosities than anything else, but to the Decimal Currency Day when the old imperial currency system of pounds, shillings and pence (and other denominations) was to be replaced with dollars and cents.

Of course we were quite familiar with the British currency for we were required to learn them during our school days under colonial administration, even though Singapore was mercifully given the decimal currency right from the beginning of British rule. But just like everybody else in Australia, we had to learn to cope with the inter-conversion of the two currencies during changeover years.

As Australia marks the half century of currency change, we look back at some fond memories!

Australia's first fifty cent coin.

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Terrys Creek

On Yvonne's anniversaries, we usually go for a long walk. Today was expected to be a bit hot, so we took a short walk to Eastwood via the Terrys Creek Walk instead. We were not aware of the existence of the  Terrys Creek Walk until recently and were quite surprised by its beauty. Could not resist a selfie!