Tuesday 4th - On the way from Lisbon to Perth, I landed at Changi Singapore Airport at 6,30 am.
Just outside the corridor was a booking counter advertising "Free Singapore Tours", which is sponsored by Singapore Airlines, Changi Airport Group and the Singapore Tourism Board for transit passengers who have more than 5,30h stop-overs at Changi Airport.
I had an 8 hour stop-over so good to go! Funnily enough the tours had just restarted the day before, so I was lucky to have somewhere to spend my time.
I enrolled in the 8AM tour, which can also be booked online or at the tour counters in transit terminals 2 and 3. I had to leave my luggage at the Luggage Storage and then joined another 6 people for the tour. We had to go through Immigration to get a day visa, which we applied for online when booking the tour.
There are 3 different tours but the 8AM one was to the suburb of Tampines - a 2 1/2 hours tour, where we could see the local housing, Central Park and its playgrounds, Tampines Hub - Singapore first integrated community and leisure hub and then Changi Beach Park.
Tampines has won the United Nations World Habitat Award, for being an example of high quality, high density affordable housing and community living.
The very neat suburb is full of high-rise buildings, but there was a huge park - Central Park, with kids zones, garden zones to plant, exercise zones, meeting zones...
We were told that in Singapore all buildings get an external paint renovation every 5 years, to which the apartment owners contribute with a monthly fee. No wonder everything looked neat and new! But then, life is expensive in Singapore, and the guide told us one of the 4 bedroom apartments in the building across from the park had recently sold for the equivalent of about 1,5 million AUD!! Wow!!
But despite being among the world's most expensive property markets, about 90% of Singaporeans own property! Very impressive.
The Tampines Hub - It had about 7 floors, with sports court, library, theatre, a garden at the top, a community centre, a Services hub where people can register births, weddings, deaths, find jobs, do their wills, register a business, submit medical claims... all central to the suburb.
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| Our Tampines Hub |
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| The top floor garden for the community |
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Advert for Subway - It's cheesy, but you can do this, you're almost there! and
Olive, your efforts will be worth it! |
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| Outside the Tampines Hub |
From the Tampines Hub, the bus picked us up and took us to the Changi Village Markt Hawker Centre where they sell street food at very reasonable prices, and where the guide bought us fried bananas while we sat down to taste them.
Then we visited the nearby Changi Beach Park, a 28 hectare beach park, which retains the village atmosphere of the 1960's and 70's. It's apparently not a very good swimming beach as it is near the container harbour, but the gardens are great for picnics, there are cycling lanes, and I saw lots of birds too..
And it was time to return to the airport. The guide asked if anyone still had extra time, and those could be dropped at the Jewel if they wished, and I was one of those.
The Changi Jewel is open 24 hours and most shops operate between 10am to 10pm and can be externally or via Arrival Hall of Terminal 1.
The 10 storey high building (5 above and 5 below ground) with a 40mt indoor waterfall surrounded by lush plants, has over 280 international flagship stores as well as exclusive stores, eating outlets as well as a myriad of attractions.
It is recommended you take 5 to 6 hours to see it all, but I took no more than 2 as I wanted to make sure I had time to collect my luggage and then take the internal train to another terminal for my flight.
I also just visited 3 floors, and even though I'm not a big shopper nor a fan of big shopping malls, I was mainly wowed by that amazing waterfall and plants.
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| Celebrating Disney's 100th anniversary |
When I finished, I went back to the airport, retrieved my bag from the Luggage storage, and went and sat close to my departing lounge.
On the way I took photos of sweet "Easter bunnies and eggs" - it was just before Easter....
The Louis Vuitton shop front which seems to have different "murals" on its facade, statues scattered all over the airport....
On the train from Terminal 1 in front of Jewel to Terminal 2 from where I was departing to Perth on a Scoot flight.
Before we landed in Perth the Scoot plane cabin came alive with rainbow lights. What fun!
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| Rainbow light just before landing in Perth |
A youtube video about Jewel if you want to get a better idea of what can be seen.
Friday 21st - we were invited to join friends for a Portuguese Buffet dinner at the Perth Flying Squadron Yacht Club in Dalkeith.
Food was fabulous with so much choice....I just felt sorry I couldn't try it all.
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| The menu |
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Welcome to the Perth Flying Squadron Yacht Club
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Sunday 23rd - A morning picnic at Point Walter, by the Swan River, organized by the Perth Codfish Academy.
In the afternoon I met up with one of the Doctors from my clinic and her husband and another couple, and we went to watch the movie: "Vermeer - the Greatest Exhibition". The movie offers people a chance to experience this sold-out exhibition at Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum, where 28 works of the Dutch painter, who lived between 1632 and 1675 are on show. The film is narrated by the director of the Rijksmuseum and the curators of the exhibition. The small movie house was full, and we really enjoyed the movie.
Afterwards we went to the Drs house for snacks on her balcony overlooking the river.
Friday 28th - The members of Community Harvest got together at the Canning Agricultural Society kitchen to make sauerkraut and kimchi. I'm not a fan of kimchi as I find it too spicy for my tastebuds, so I made 2 jars of sauerkraut.
Afterwards we sat down for coffee/tea and shared the snack we had each taken. I had made "Portuguese tarts", not as good looking as the original thing, but they were tasty :)
Saturday 29th - meeting of the committee members of the Portuguese Women's Association at Espresso and Prosecco Cafe, in the city centre, to plan our next event in July.
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| Hot chocolate and cheesecake |
Sunday 30th - we joined a group of Portuguese friends for a picnic at Perth's botanic gardens - Kings Park. It was a beautiful day, warm, great food to share and we met new members of the community.
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| View of Perth city when we were leaving the picnic at Kings Park |
I haven't painted furniture for a while but was inspired to paint a few sterling silver odd tea-sets that I had bought for very cheap on Marketplace.
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| Pink set, gray set, green teapot and turquoise set |
This month I also made a few loaves of Sourdough bread from a starter that was given to me and I tried my hand at soft fresh cheese with rennet I brought from Portugal.
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| Cream cheese, sourdough bread, a slice of bread with fresh cheese and fig jam |
Signs:
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| A caboose (number plate seen on a truck) can be a railway wagon with accommodation for the crew |
Waggi = small waggon