Will tomorrow never come?

At last we come towards the long awaited holiday, we will drive to KL tomorrow and relax in our favourite hotel. I have been retiring to bed even earlier recently and trust that a decent break will revitalise me and thus make me less cranky, Alice is good not to berate me too often.

I have a horrid suspicion that we will spend far too much, particularly on wining and dining, but luckily we have already been invited to two separate barbecues. This will reduce the spending but not the eating and drinking so that we will return with a dire need to reduce. How nice it would be if my stomach would allow me to do the belly dancing like Alice, we are quite convinced that this has caused a major return to her earlier waist size.

Fun, Frolics & Food

Halloween comes upon us, as does Deepavali and Hari Raya, and a short holiday, packed with fun, is called for. I should prefer the genteel pleasures of past ages, as above, to those of today; below you can see Alice and I at a more modern Halloween do, where she is demonstrating the reasons why she is head honcho.Next Saturday we will drive up to Kuala Lumpur and spend a week at my favourite hotel, the Shangri-La, where I have little doubt that the kilos so laboriously lost will come piling back. Unfortunately it does have some great restaurants. And KL itself still has some of our great friends so we look forward to a week of seeing pals and dining far too well both in the Shangri-La and in the many other eating places we have fond recollection of. These range from outside Chinese to Lafitte (well, OK that is in the Shangri-La, but let's be honest it is the best restaurant in the Pacific Rim) and each gives its own special pleasure. The Green View for crabs, the Lobsterman for lobster (obviously!), the Fresh Unique for all live fish, here Alice and Alistair were selecting part of our meal back in 2002.

I suspect that it will take some extreme efforts to get rid of the excess weight almost certain to be added and get back to the model-girl thinness that surely must be in me somewhere, but who cares? Eat, drink and be merry, tomorrow we diet - or at least sometime after the holiday I will be dieting.

Dancing, like my heart

Did I ever mention ("yes, far too often" came the cry) that Alice enjoys tennis? She plays with different groups, Japanese and Singaporean ladies mostly, most weekdays. However, convinced that she has a slight "pot", wholly insignificant compared to mine of course, she has also taken up belly dancing. As ever, she throws herself into this whole-heartedly. Not only does she take the lessons, but also watches videos to pick up tips.

Last week I almost missed the F1 racing since she had me tied to a chair watching belly dancing, which I have to say becomes a shade boring after the first 17 hours. Luckily our son called me just before the start of the F1 and I managed to see the race.

Many years ago, and before I met Alice, I was in Saudi, and a Yemeni who worked for me presented me with a video of belly dancing. This was an interesting compilation, from various countries and with ladies of all shapes, including one rather like me in width! One performed in what must have been a strict Islamic code country since she did her dance in a thin muslin shift. Oddly enough this was far more sexy than most of the dancers, and the idea of Muslims viewing erotic muslin rather amused me. The Yemeni had told me to be very careful not to let anyone know about the tape in view of Saudi law. I did not tell him I had both far more "naughty" films plus plenty of sid* for the team entertainment on a Thursday evening, the start of our one day weekend.

Well, this has been rather a pointless load of drivel this time, so I will come to an abrupt halt.

* Sid is short for, I believe, the Arabic word for friend, "siddiqi", and is illegally distilled liquor, normally provided in what looks like a sealed water bottle but actually it is often about 90% proof. Only idiots drink it uncut, most people using at least a one to one mix with water before adding the actual mixer of cola or whatever. At that time I happily drinking it uncut with only a little ice, which seldom had time to melt! Leukaemia had taken my first wife and I had yet to meet Alice, and how glad I am that eventually I did so; since she always makes my heart dance.

Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon

Well, by the time I was joined by wakened family the rain was just commencing and the walk did not seem appealing, so in order to maintain doing things together Alice and I spent the morning laid on the bed watching "Enemy at the Gates". We both enjoyed it, which came as a slight surprise but then I realised it had a love angle as well as the fighting. I seem to have been hit by snipers recently having also read two books about them, one fiction and one non.
But after a quick snack lunch and with improved weather we dropped Alistair back at the Condo and set off. I was pleased that he did not spend all the time on virtual games but took out the basketball and had some fun with others at the court, so far below us.

And Alice and I headed for the Botanical Gardens, parking at the main entrance and strolling up to Orchid Gardens. Alice (never one to waste money) demanded to know from the ticket seller if the display was worth it, since it had been a bit bare last time. The poor soul admitted, under Alice's pressure, that in fact he had not been into it. I could quite understand this although Alice seemed a little surprised. I had a minor disappointment based upon the fact that if I was a year older I could have paid S$1 instead of the S$5 for my ticket. Alice of course must wait quite a bit longer to benefit in this way.

Unusually I allowed myself into being persuaded to have my photo taken, but although taking some of Alice with the orchids I felt that this was a bit "girly" and stuck to a green, stream, lean and mean theme; regretably I could not manage to look lean and also had a smile hence missing out on the mean as well. Anyway we definitely found the place better than the last time we went, and came out ready for a quick cold beer (for me although Alice did have one sip) and softie. Then we walked around the swan lake, amongst other things chatting about whether being minus the youngest son was good or bad. Some years ago Alice had noted that having a child with us prevented other's thoughts dropping us into the "old westerner grabbing young Asian girlfriend" category. I still sometimes worry about this but Alice assures me that once she hit 40 she stopped thinking that way. I am duty bound not to say when that major waystation was hit (but it was very recent!). Just to remind ourselves of how it was when Alistair was young I got this shot of Alice with a statue kid catching minnows. And much as we love Alistair he is commencing the surly stage of adolescence and sometimes it is nice not to have a trailing person seemingly capable only of saying "I'm bored, I'm really bored. It's all just so boring"; which by the thirty fifth repetition or thereabouts is becoming rather boring to us also.

So we just enjoyed being together, the enormous grin for which Alice is so well known arriving, on this occasion as I asked her to stand by the lamp-post, aiming for a picture with the avenue of trees behind her. Whereupon she shot off to the nearest tree and found me standing pointing the camera in a wholly different direction. It's quite amazing how much fun I can have just being with her, but I guess that's marriage, isn't it?

So, as the Kinks said, we were able to have a splendid lazy Sunday afternoon and I look forward to the next, especially since next weekend includes, unfortunately, my alternate working Saturday .

Walking, not After Midnight.

This weekend the plan was walking at the East Coast Park on Saturday, so that Alistair could cycle, followed by seeing the orchids in the Botanical on Sunday (today). This latter being a pleasure that Alistair intends to forgo, preferring to frowst at home with computer, playstation and the like. Well, as I wait for my two "A's" to awake I am wondering whether he will really want to miss such a great treat.

While not dramatically impressed at his preference for the indoors, I am impressed by the way he is growing. As you can see he is now undoubtedly taller than Alice and is determined to be taller than me within a short time. I suspect he will succeed. We stopped for lunch in a very pleasant bar, with surprisingly good food, where the record photo shows that he is well into the possibility of doing that in a month or two.

It seems to me that he grows upwards as fast as I grow outwards. But I will do a shade of boasting here, since I have actually lost weight this year, and even a couple of the latest made trousers bunch slightly round the waist. Yes, 9 kilos gone since January; not a fast loss perhaps but reasonably steady and, with luck, to continue.

But that's enough for now - I need to listen to the Cowboy Junkies, as should all sensible people.

17 Piglets more!

Alice was on the phone to Mama for some time last night as she was delighted to hear that two of our pigs had given birth, only five stillborn, which is not bad for first time mothers, and 17 living piglets. And two more sows likely to give birth over the weekend. How well it is going!

Alice was so excited she had a can of beer. I amazed myself with my strength of will and stayed off the booze. Alice, who would perhaps have more normally had a half glass of wine, is now convinced of the diuretic effects of beer!

Down on the Farm

Turning away from Singapore and back to the Phils, it is about time our pigs started giving birth again, Mama has reported the enormous size of those due and we can expect to have multiplicity of new piglets, squealling and yelling for more, at any moment.

Rather reminds me of some of the expat bars in Singapore, which do not attract me, or is that so obvious as to be superfluous?