Happy New Year!

Unbelievable! Another year has slipped by and it is the first morning of 2009 here in Singapore. It has been a few years since I last spent Christmas and New Year in Singapore. Last occurrence was December 2004!

The street party for Christmas was held on Christmas Day itself when Orchard Road was closed to traffic from noon to 1:00 am. 2009 was ushered in with street parties at a few locations such as Vivos City and by the "Durian" and most waterfront locations because the fireworks and count-down were launched there. My folks watched the countdown on television and we could see some of the fireworks from my mum's apartment.

I am not a reveler of such events. The only time I participated in a new year countdown was December 2000 - we went to the Thames with friends to watch the spectacular fireworks that ushered in 2001. It was kind of fun and a little scary to find myself amidst the wave of people that seemed to appear from nowhere and the crowd swelled as we got closer to the Thames. Traffic was closed for miles so the only way to get there was by leg power.

Last Saturday, I stopped by Justmen's at Tanglin Shopping center to drop off a sample of my H's pants and to identify some 12 different fabrics some wool, some woolmix so they could get swatches ready to bring home to my H. He would pick the fabric he likes and I would call in with the fabric code. Justmen's tailors would then proceed to tailor the pants so I could pick them up when I return to Singapore in late January for Chinese New Year. My H had in the late 80s and 90s tailored several shirts, pants and suits at Justmen's so they know us well. They did not even ask for deposits for the pants to be tailored.

After Justmen's, I took a taxi to King's Hotel near a friend's workplace to have lunch with three girlfriends. The cafe was supposedly known for its Peranakan buffet lunch - I didn't think the food was that great. Perhaps, it is because I was not used to the Penang version of Peranakan food. An interesting feature is that all the waitresses wore traditional sarong kerbaya which was nice.

After lunch, one of the girls drove me back to my mum's apartment to pick up my 10-year old nephew who was waiting for me to take him out to tea. As my girlfriend was free till dinner time, we proceeded to the Four Seasons Hotel to have high tea. The food there is always good. I especially love doing buffet lunch there. My two other sisters joined us much later after their shopping at Arab Street for beaded slippers to match the sarong kerbaya that we had bought for my mum's 80th birthday celebration.

I caught up with yet another girlfriend on Sunday. She came over to my mum's apartment to play tennis. We did not play a serious game. It was something different to do, other than "pigging" out at yet another hotel cafe. After tennis, my younger sis and I took my nephew to the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple in Chinatown where my older sis was waiting for us. The temple offered blessings to students who were getting ready for the new school year. The temple also offered blessings a couple of weeks prior to school exams as well : ) : ).

The Buddha Tooth Relic Temple is very interesting in that it was built without use of nails. It is extremely Chinese in its style of architecture. It was built especially to house relics of Buddha. It hosts interesting exhibits from time to time in its museum section. On the second floor is a typical old style Chinese tea room that serves vegetarian food, a good size souvenir store and library. The chamber that housed Buddha's relic is paved with gold floor tiles and few are permitted to step into that chamber. The public can view the relic from behind a glass panel in the ante-room. It is difficult to describe the architectural beauty of this temple - one has to see it to appreciate it. My family's ancestral plate is now housed in this temple.

After the temple, we strolled through some of the small lanes in Chinatown. It is kind of strange to talk about a Chinatown in Singapore when Chinese forms the majority of the population. Because Singapore is a melting pot for migrants from various parts of Asia in the early days, each ethnic group gather tend to concentrate in a particular part of Singapore. As a result, there are distinct areas such as Chinatown, Little India and Geylang where most of the Muslims can be found. While Orchard Road is the major shopping street with the highest concentration of retail outlets for luxury goods, hotels and restaurants, Chinatown is where you go to get traditional Chinese "stuff."

Chinese New Year falls on the last week of January, 2009. Visitors are treated to two interesting areas to visit - Orchard Road to get a feel of the Christmas spirit and Chinatown to get the feel of traditional Chinese celebration of the Lunar New Year. The streets of Chinatown are already decorated for Chinese New Year and the light-up is scheduled in early January. The stores in Chinatown are decked with Lunar New Year necessities - auspicious decorative paper and cuttings typically in red with auspicious sayings or symbols.

We headed out on Monday morning to talk to the banquet manager at the Four Seasons Hotel regarding a private function room for my mum's 80th birthday. After obtaining copies of the menu available and verbally confirming the function room which is very beautiful. It is on the 20th floor and has a balcony with a great view of Orchard Road by night. I had used the same private function room a few years ago for another event.
After the meeting, we used the "link" which connects Four Seasons Hotel with Hilton Hotel. The link is a nice short stroll that is lined with exquisite shops and the window display is simply beautiful. It was nice to also see the Christmas decorations along Orchard Road by day - they do look quite different.



We ended up having yet another buffet lunch, this time at the Marriott Hotel which used to be known as The Dynasty Hotel in the 80s and 90s. It was unique as The Dynasty, now it is just another chain hotel. Because of its ideal location, the cafe at the Marriott Hotel is always buzzling and advance reservation should be made to avoid disappointment especially on weekends and high tea (regardless of day of the week).

On Tuesday, my brother drove us to Arab street to look for traditional Malay dress for our domestic help to wear for my mum's 80th birthday. It was my first time there. I am one who prefers to hang out in Orchard Road. Small streets with tiny old style stores are not my cup of tea. One has to know how to bargain at these stores and I am not comfortable at that sort of bargaining. The weather in Singapore is too hot and humid to make hopping from store to store in such places pleasant. I prefer being in airconditioned shopping malls.

After shopping, my brother drove us back to Orchard, my comfort zone where we met up with my nephew's mum and we ended up back at Marriott, this time for high tea. Come evening, we headed back out - this time to the business district along the waterfront. We went to check out a cocktail bar called Cock's Feather at Far East Square, located between the business district and Chinatown. It is a nice place for office workers to unwind after a long day at the office.

The visit gave me an opportunity to take some photos of the night scene at the business district which is by the waterfront. The business district has been completely transformed since I last worked in that area more than 25 years ago. The Singapore River cleaned up nice and is now lined with pubs and eatery and very pleasant for evening walks after a nice dinner.

I was especially impressed by the change made to the old Fullerton Building. In fact, my first workplace after graduation in 1977 was the ground floor of the Fullerton Building. Then,it housed the office where I worked as well as the General Post Office - so it was commonly called the GPO building. Today, it has been converted into a lovely hotel, called the Fullerton Hotel. It is a gorgeous hotel bordered the Singapore river on one side and the waterfront is just a couple of feet away. It serves a great traditional tea on certain days of the week.

We will be having a New Year's Day family get-together around noon today. We will be having more local food such as curry chicken, ngor hiang (special Chinese spring rolls, not the kind you get at Chinese restaurants in the west), clear pig stomach soup, satay, otak otak, noodles etc. My flight leaves tonight at 11:45 for London and I'll be back state-side on Sunday.