Celebrating Light

How cool is this guy?!

One of the upsides to living in the cultural melting pot which is Singapore is being able to experience a range of cultures on a daily basis. One can head into the bustling streets of Little India, grab an MRT up to Chinatown, catch a bus to the Arab Quarter then another bus to the shophouses of Boat Quay within an afternoon. Not to mention literally eating your way around the world – any cuisine you would like to try, is here.

However, being able to experience the festivals and cultural practices of other cultures was what really made the last week memorable.

Diwali / Deepavali / The Festival of Light (literal translation of Diwali: row of lights) is one of the major festivals within the Indian culture. The Indian population is the third largest in Singapore (behind Chinese and Malay), and as a result, is widely celebrated. One of my Indian colleagues is in charge of orchestrating the schoolwide festivities which start with a whole school assembly including performances from children and teachers, (if you hail from The Ridge, you know I love a good staff act!) and even parents get involved. Then, throughout the day there are stalls to purchase Indian delicacies and trinkets and the children rotate through a series of workshops including henna, making rangoli, looking at Indian artefacts and of course, bollywood dancing.  Seriously, this day is huge and as a school community, $3000 was raised to go towards a charity in India. Well Done to my lovely colleague who organised such an incredible day with such a spectacular outcome (I won’t name and shame her publicly, but she knows who she is!).

Some of the work crew relaxing after our school Diwali celebrations

Anyway, this festival celebrates good overcoming evil from an Indian Legend where a princess was tricked into going off with an evil spirit. Of course, her prince rescues her and on their return back home, lights were lit to light the way back. Thus, a festival was born.

Rangoli at the Diwali Party - made of flower petals and coloured rice

Families celebrate by putting out lights to celebrate the triumph of good over evil, cleaning their homes, putting out rangoli to welcome the goddess of wealth into their home for the next year and receiving new clothes and sharing sweets and snacks with family members and friends. Firecrackers and sparklers are also lit to ward off the evil spirits.

One of the gods in the Indian Temple I stumbled across in Little India.

All of Singapore celebrated with a day off. I also celebrated by going into Little India for some amazing Indian food, getting Henna (in the same place Beyonce did) and watching the lights come on around the area which were amazing, seriously, the pictures do not do it justice. I was also fortunate enough to be invited to a fellow colleagues Diwali party and was treated to more amazing food, sensational company and witnessing the joy of children with sparklers.

Diwali Party

The lights in Little India

In love with our Henna - $5 for 5 minutes of work - those ladies are amazing!

 

The Upgrade.

Thursday the 6^th of October saw term 1 come to a close in Singapore. I had a return flight  with Emirates leaving on the Friday which I got for the bargain basement price of AUD$520. Upon arriving home on the Tuesday afternoon and quietly checking my email over a cup of tea, I discovered an email from Emirates. Offering me a SGD$350 upgrade (AUD$270) to business class. Would I like to partake?

Well, there went my quiet afternoon (and almost my cup of tea ) as I clicked the ‘is the pope catholic’ button and lurched out of my chair and into my room hunting down the glorious credit card to secure my position in Business. Class. To my surprise, I managed to book through and the opportunity to pop my business class cherry was upon me.

So, How Was It?

First of all, The Lounge was excellent. A wide selection of steak, curries, crab cakes, smoked salmon stuffed with crab, cheese (CHEESE!!!! – normally out of the price range of a lowly teacher in Singapore), skewers of meats with dipping sauces, cakes and delicacies. and One choice of Champagne. Verve. Help yourself Verve. Just leave the empty bottle on top of the fridge Verve and we will replace before you have time to empty your current glass of Verve Verve. Clearly it turns out, that the choice of champagne whilst limited, was satisfactory.

There was also an open bar to help yourself, but I didn’t want to appear like an alcoholic. Furthermore, I still had a whole 8 hour flight ahead of me. On these occasions, one does need to demonstrate restraint and consider the fact that this event was to be a marathon. Not a sprint.

Once it was time to board the plane, a friendly message came across the loud speaker to let us know it was indeed time to board the plane. So, 6 glasses of Verve and 2 coffees later (marathon – remember??) I passed through the boarding gates and past the line for economy and was one of the first to board the plane.

Once settled, the stewardess ensured I had all I needed by handing me a glass of champagne (Moet this time J) and a bowl of nuts. So, I started to check out the viewing list, started watching an episode of How I Met Your Mother and settled in for the flight. By this stage, the economy passengers had been invited to board.  Grumbling past us in Business.

There was delays to take off due to the Singaporean Army taking their jets out for a spin (as you can imagine, air space is as much at a premium in Singapore as all other spaces).  The planes had to wait for 4 minute intervals between take off from Changi. Normally, in economy class when one experiences this, you start wanting to climb the walls and just get going, however, in Business, you have time for another glass of champagne and you already have access to the entertainment so you are really only left with one though: take as LOOOOOOONG as you like Changi!

Once in the air, we were served silver service a 3 course meal which was amazing. And we had real cutlery. 3 sets of it in fact! Much to many a person who may end up reading this’ disgust, I tucked into my meal whilst watching Justin Bieber’s “Never Say Never”. Don’t worry – I was waiting for one of the stewards to inform me that clearly there had been some mistake and I needed to go back down to economy for such appalling viewing choices. (Quite a good film though! Did come down with a touch of Bieber Fever, but am happy to report it was only a 24 hour bug).

By about 3 hours into the flight, it became apparent to me just who are these people that fly Business. Geriatrics. The whole cabin became full of flat out grey nomads (trave- in-style-grey-nomads but nonetheless) snoring. Or if they happened to wake up, they would do a couple of laps of the cabin to stave off deep vein thrombosis.

Leg room anyone?

Luckily, I had had my fill of food (and even champagne) and didn’t take full advantage of the service offered on business. There was no service, or even any sign of the stewardesses once dinner was over. I did eventually ding the buzzer for a cup of tea (turns out I DO belong in business – such a nanna!)  but felt really rude doing this! I might need to fly business again just overcome this.

At the end of the flight, it was so nice to hop straight off the plane, be one of the first in line for customs and out through the gates within the first 10 people – a positive of travelling with geriatrics: I have speed and agility on my side.

Hot and Sweaty..... :)

So my love of fitness has not escaped me in Singapore. I have officially signed up to my gym after weeks of lamenting should I shouldn’t I…. In the end it came down to one thing: the instructors.

I have been going to  ‘spin’ class of a Saturday morning (well, I lie, I have gone twice and meant to go two other times….. however Friday nights impaired those grand plans!) and it is more like a party zone than a spin class. The instructor has the music pumping, as per any spin class, however he also plays DJ. He sings along, chants ‘runawayrunawayrunawayrunawayrunaway’ repeatedly when there are no lyrics to sing along to and when he is not doing this, he is making honking sounds to the beat of the music similar to the whistles used in duck hunting. All whilst not even coming close to his spin bike! Hilarious! However, what I do not enjoy about this spin class is the fact that there is no mixing up the intensity during each song as per Les Mills style. But my love of sweating and the music and the instructors style is outweighing this slight con.

The gym also offers ‘hot yoga’ – yes, the poor man’s Bikram (and yes, clearly Singapore is not hot enough for me). The class only goes for 60 minutes (as opposed to the 90 minute Bikram class) and it poses and movement sequences decided by the instructor. My instructor is a small Malaysian / Indian man who speaks with a monotone voice that I have to really concentrate to understand. His accent is quite thick and my knowledge of all the poses is quite limited so trying to decipher what he is saying and put it into a pose is challenging to say the least! Particularly when standing on your head and trying to look into the mirror or at the other class participants to understand what the hell he is talking about! However, there is something quite humorous about the way he struts around the class speaking in his nasal monotone Indian accent that keeps me amused for the 60 minutes!

CLEARLY not me... but an example of what I look like doing the WRONG POSE..... ps the look on my face is more confused and scrunched up like. And sweaty.

The government are quite controlling in Singapore (what?? REALLY??!) and health is an area which has not been neglected. There are signs everywhere – bus stops, MRT stations etc recommending to get your 150 minutes a week of physical activity. Plus, there is always some fun run occurring along the ‘beach’ and a couple of weeks ago,I participated in a Breast Cancer awareness walk around Marina Bay. Unfortunately, there have been several occasions where a group of us have decided to try Dragon Boat racing but it has not eventuated due to the world cup matches / regattas / me reading the map and deciding I could find a short cut…… Trying this sport has been put on the back burner until after the holidays!

 The backdrop for the Breast Cancer Awareness Walk

Coutesy of Joanna - some of my colleagues

I have also been to MacRitchie Reservoir once which is an oasis just off to the west of the city. This is an amazing parkland with the water supply and a 11km walking track around the entire lake. There are monkeys, komodo dragons and tree top walks to allow you to get a bird's eye view of the national park. It is so amazing that a place like this exists in such an urbanised citystate.

Not my picture.



Again, not my picture.

I also had my first taste of trail running when I went along with a colleague of mine to a Hash run. Hash is quite well established in Europe – and Singapore for that matter – but I hadn’t heard of it before coming here. Basically, a trail is set by experiences hash runners and you run, following the trail. If you lose the trail, you need to back track to the previous marker and search for where the trail goes next. There are often false trails and the terrain is diverse (off trail, roads, paths – even train tracks and drains tomb raider style!) so constant communication with the fellow runners is required. I was laughed at for even considering wearing headphones. Overall, this was a totally new running experience for me and one that I thoroughly enjoyed and will participate in again.

(For my loser running friends... you know who you are.... you are probably intrigued so for more info, click here)

So by now you are probably thinking I am becoming one fit bunny over here huh?! Nope. Did I mention the national past-time is eating….??? Followed closely by the expat pastime of drinking…???!

After tennis at a colleagues swanky fitness club, we found this sign... Not very politically correct.... My invite clearly lost in the mail.