where have all the fireflies gone?

I was concerned to read in The Star that the problems facing Sungei Selangor mangroves and the Kampung Kuantan fireflies has not improved but actually worsened. And believe me the state gov and NGOs have been "talking about it" for years!

I visited Kampung Kuantan to see the fireflies twice in the late 90s. Even then I was told that the fireflies were dwindling due to various reasons.

ice cream shop

just heard that one of our zoology alumni, Seow Hwa has become an entrepreneur and opened an ice cream shop in East Coast (Eastwood Centre).

Her joint, the Ice Cream Gallery, was featured in "8 Days".Some of the flavours include D24, Cappucino Almond, Strawberry Cheesecake, Cherry Choc, Rum Raisin and Baileys Irish Cream. Well, considering how much ice cream our friends can guzzle, we can expect more branches pretty soon!

When I crave for ice cream in Singapore, I usually head out Wish Bone in Bukit Timah Plaza for their home-made Happy Kappy range of ice cream. They even got a colourful kiddy children story about "Happy Kappy". Their durian, gula melaka, jackfruit flavours are shiok! Even better when consumed in the form of sundaes, floats or concoctions like Jackfruit Jumpaway or Black Glory (drooool!).

Another place with good ice cream is Akashi Japanese Restaurant in Tanglin Shopping Centre. My favourite is their green tea ice cream. you can actually taste the green tea, not some green-coloured gooey stuff. better still, the ice cream goes well with red beans(drooool!).

talking about ice cream, the local brands of ice cream in Beijing are cheap and good. two major brands from Inner Mongolia dominate the market, Yili and Mong Niu. apart from ice cream they also produce yoghurt, fresh milk and assorted dairy products. for some strange reason, there's something called "milk tablets", i.e. milk in tablet form.

one of the best ice cream here is also the cheapest. plain yoghurt flavour called "Little Pudding". costs only RMB 50cents or Sing 10cents! they also have many flavours like water melon, raisins, green bean (but no red bean?). the supply of cheap ice cream is one way Beijingers keep cool during the sweltering summer. incidentally, Haagen Daz costs an arm and leg here.

BTW, read from some other blogs that Japs have a weird range of ice cream flavours like octopus, whale, horse meat. Probably, Seow Hwa should not carry this range of flavours...

let sleeping dogs lie...

here's Sally sleeping like a dead dog, totally zonked out on our bed. the only life signs are occasional wheezing from her. She is totally kaput after a hard day's work at the riding school. Robina brings Sally over there since there are open spaces to run and many other people to keep Sally amused and occupied. Sally makes herself useful by begging for scraps, chasing chickens, bark at horses, eating horse shit, hoof clippings (aka horse toe nails) and generally reverting to her previous existence as a scallywag street stray. Then Sally comes home, gets hosed down by yours truly and chonks out for an exhausted sleep. you know what they say, a tired dog is a good dog. no energy to be up to mischief!

Day trip to Chengde

Robina and I visited Chengde for a day trip, together with our Singaporean friends, Sarah and Wei Peng. It is about 300km from Beijing and took almost four hours to reach by car. There was some excitement on the way back when traffic back to Beijing was brought to a standstill by a landslide which closed off the road. Thankfully just when we thought it would be a long, long wait, the road was cleared. Still, we were delayed for about one and half hours.

Chengde was a famous summer resort for the Manchu emperors who stayed there during the summer months. They also visited the resort in autumn to stage their massive hunting expeditions to the steppes in the north. As a result, there are still many imperial palaces, temples and tourists sites in Chengde.

National Day Reception in Beijing

This year's national day reception was held at China World Hotel. The turnout was very good! I estimate about 600 guests and Singaporean expats attended the event. Since the China World head chef is a Singaporean, we had a delicious spread of Singaporean styled delights like bak kut teh, rojak, rendang, chicken rice and kuehs. It was nice to catch up with foreign and Singaporean friends. I even spotted a long lost friend from Temasek JC who is now based in Beijing. what a small world! Robina had her hair done up for the occasion and she looked great in her kebaya. Her only complaint is that she can only take mincing steps. but she also agreed that it made her appear more lady-like! Happy National Day!

Rough Rider

Robina has become a horse riding enthusiast ever since she came to Beijing! She has also become tanned and fit from all the sun and physical workout. She tries to ride as often as possible if the weather allows. Summer days can be very hot and humid and it can rain heavily at times. At this point, she can trot and canter and she is working towards jumping obstacles eventually. We have become friends with the staff and students at the riding club. It always fun to join in the festivities and birthdays that are ususally celebrated with BBQs, singing and dancing!

Robina's national service

Robina was roped in together with the other spouses and the embassy ladies to perform for the Singapore Chamber of Commerce (Singcham) National Day celebrations last evening. They performed a line dance to the tune of "Rasa Sayang". Not having the faintest idea about line dancing, Robina learnt the steps from a NTUC line dance VCD and the practise sessions they had. At the event itself, Robina was concerned about being blinded by the spotlights and soap bubbles and falling flat on her face. The performance was well received by the audience!

The music of Arken

Robina and I went to a local pub to listen to Arken and his band. Hearing them play live was very different from listening to their CD. Our uighur friends are great fans of Arken. His music was constantly blasted from the boom box at the stables (so much so that I think the horses also know by heart). The Xinjiang ethnic rhythm is very infectious and I like his guitar music which is an unique blend of uighur folk tunes, spanish flamenco guitar and country-western.