Fort Canning, Singapore, illuminated at night

See the elaborate white grand gates and the giant tree. 

Fort Canning, Singapore. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

I walked past Fort Canning from SIM (Singapore Institute of Management), a complex of university and college departments linked to Bras Basah underground train station by a series of underground corridors. I had travelled to the area by Bras Basah MRT station.

 My new friend had parked her car at a cheaper car park. An uphill walk.However, I was rewarded by passing some interesting sights.

 Fort Canning is the hilltop fort which gives its name to the entire hill and area. We are on the roadside pavement circling the bottom of the grassy slope. Opposite this illuminated gate was the entrance to the museum. I saw two or three grand gates. I took the photo of this gate with my phone, in a hurry to keep up with my friend who was pacing ahead.

 I thought that if the photo was not sufficiently good quality to use, it would still be a useful reminder. I I had noticed only the white gate against the black sky, accentuating the outline of the was pleased with the results. When I I took the picture I was concentrating on the white gate silhouetted against the dark sky. Only afterwards did I notice the orange, green and yellow stripes on the ground.

Author

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speakar.

Label your photos and certificates - here's why

Paper Storage Problem

I inherited boxes, deed boxes, of old papers and certificates after the deaths of my parents and uncle. Some of the documents were clear. I was awarded a pass in a speech test as a child. I had totally forgotten it. Bu there was my name and the name of the organization and date.

Holiday Photos

  Later I looked at notes I was making. I had a photo with the name of an Italian restaurant, IO, in Singapore. I had other photos of an Italian restaurant in London, Osteria Modigliani. If I simply labelled the photo 'us in Italian restaurant', that would be meaningless years later. Since it was a restaurant I went to the previous week in Singapore, I knew where it was. However, if I had looked at it back in the UK twenty years later, I would have forgotten.

Awards And Ribbons

  Similarly, I found myself writing on the back of a ribbon for Best Speaker, from Toastmasters International, the date and place. What was missing? My name!
I know my name. I know I won the ribbon. But if I dropped it in another meeting, nobody would know which of the twenty people in the room the ribbon belonged to.

  My husband also won a ribbon. Which was his ribbon and which was mine? When we both die, our son will inherit all our possessions. He won't know which ribbons were won by which of us. If a stranger were to be your executor, and they find a certificate with no name on it, there's no record of who won it and what date.

Diary -  of a Nobody!

  Why would anybody care about your old diaries? Maybe you are not a VIP. Let's look at a few scenarios.

AA Certificate

  I have an AA award to my father from the 1900s. Maybe not very important to anybody but him when he was alive. Not important to anybody but me now. But in a few decades time that could be important to my grandchildren or even to the AA.

Roman Records, Victorian Victories, Recent Way Of Life

   A Roman inscription is fascinating to children and teachers nowadays. The everyday life 100 years ago is fascinating to schoolchildren.
   Cemeteries worldwide show that after people have died their relatives, and even strangers, think that a recording of somebody's life should be made and kept.

Language Preserved In Captions

Even the way you record names and places and people and events can be important.

Lockerbie Plane Crash

 Do you recall the Lockerbie plane disaster? A plane came down over Scotland caused by a bomb. All the possessions of the people were stored for decades afterwards. The curators of the possessions meticulously recorded every item. What use were the items?

a) They were used to identify who was on board. 

b )They were treasured by the relatives and descendants. 
  We went to Scotland and on the drive back to London, England, from Edinburgh (where we attended the jolly Edinburgh Festival with its street comedy acts) we passed the sign to Lockerbie.
If you go to Scotland you can visit the cemetery. At the far back, right, at the top of the slope, is the semi-circular memorial with the lives of each of the passengers and crew victims around the front and on the wall at the back. The lives of each person are meticulously recorded.

Why Label Awards, Documents & Photos?

   If an entire family dies in an accident, there's nobody left to ask. But the papers, photos, certificates, awards and other items with dates and names tell their story.
  So please label every photo and certificate with the name, date, place. Your moment of happiness and success will be recorded for the information and pleasure of your descendants and even complete strangers.

Author, Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker..

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The most luxurious - or the cheapest pull-on dresses in Singapore

I was intrigued by the name Homade Zakka. It sounds like home made. But it isn't. Mostly items made for the home, hangers and so on, but also inexpensive scarves and dresses.

Problem
Where do you buy a cheap dress in Singapore? I felt guilty after I made the impulse purchase of a 10 dollar dress from Homade Zakka. I could have spent only 5 dollars in the same shop on a satiny caftan in many prints, mainly of flowers.

Later that day I went into Robinsons Department Store on Orchard Road, Metro in the Paragon. Tangs. All had signs saying this percentage off and last chance. Lovely stuff.

But not in my price range.
I saw the pattern and had to have it. Lively reds. Soothing but vibrant royal blue.

Above all the pattern - Indian dancing girls.

I love my ten dollar dress. I wore it straight away.

The shop was Homade Zakka.

I asked, "May I try it on?"

"Cannot," she said. I wasn't sure whether she meant no fitting room or no trying because that creases the garments and you risk not wanting it if it doesn't fit. It looked like it might be too small. In which case I would have to cut the side seems and make it into a tabard with a waist level ribbon linking front and back, either pieces tying into a bow, or just fixed to make it larger, or maybe elastic.

I said, " I must try it to see if it fits" Before she had time to protest, I pulled it over my head.

"Yes, I said, "It fits. I'll buy it."

I always like to buy the item I have tried on - not another already wrapped and folded. The other one could be a different size, have a defect, or be a different pattern altogether. I once made a mistake, twice I think, and ended up with an item which was not what I wanted.

In a trice, I was out. Mission accomplished. Not a brilliant item. No cut. Not ankle length. I would need to wear it over a long underskirt. But with four colours, white red, royal blue, green, yellow and traces of black, I would be able to find something to co-ordinate.

If it did not turn out to be a firm favourite, or not nice enough to wear out, only good enough for lounging around at home, never mind, worthwhile at that price.

I thought it was good value. It even had a string-width belt with two loops to tighten it.

I happened to like the pattern which reminded me of my paintings.

The painting is religious, with the God born on a lotus flower in the middle, with his milkmaids and holy cows. 

My painting's design, I presume will cause no trouble offending any religious sensbilities, is a tree with a bird, with horses below.

You might like something else. If you arrived in Singapore and lost your luggage and needed an instant outfit, or need lots of gifts at reasonable prices, dash along here.

Cheap clothes have certain disadvantages, they may pull apart if you put them in a washing machine. The colours could run even if you wash them by hand. So hang them to drip dry over a plastic bowl or something which won't stain.

If you'd rather buy designer clothes, go into Isetan in Nex next door, and read my next post.

Zakka
Zak-ka is Japanese for miscellaneous things. Cutesy and kitch.

Homade Zakka
Ground floor
Near the bus station at Serangoon MRT beside Nex shopping mall.
I searched online for Homade and found several locations and qoo10 had other items from the same store and different dresses at budget prices from other stores.

Homade Zakka
#B2-21 Serangoon Nex
23 Serangoon Central
Singapore 556083

https://www.qoo10.sg/gmkt.inc/Search/Default.aspx?keyword=Dress
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zakka

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Sculpture on Orchard Road

Outside the right hand entrance to Robinsons department store. A short walk from Somerset MRT. Only a bit further along the road to Orchard MRT underground station.

What is good about it? People. Movement. One person helping another.

Happy Train Travel - Blow-up Giraffe and Balloon

Always somebody or something to admire. I asked where she got her blow-up giraffe and balloon. She said artbox. She and her half a dozen friends amused themselves at that spot taking photos before setting off for another photo frame spot.

Deepavali decorations on trains in Singapore.

The River Walk Indian Restaurant On The Singapore River

Problem
Where can we eat an Indian meal, for a set price (no surprises from the management or a fellow guest who eats double).

Answer
An Indian buffet lunch. We chose the River Walk Tandoor restaurant. A tandoor is an oven, traditionally clay. tandoori, means tandoori style food. Restaurants in the UK are frequently called  (X... X... ) tandoori restaurant.  Here in Singapore in theory you have a choice of outdoor and indoor seating.

We went for a Sunday lunch and were told to eat outside. In theory you can't make a reservation for an individual or small group. There's no reservation number. However, a large party had booked the whole of the inside so they could be together - or maybe the restaurant kept them together for ease of  counting the number of them dining and ease of payment.

Luckily we took our main course just before they arrived.

What was good, bad, or indifferent?

Good
You can wash your hands in a basin below a mirror near the eating area without going out to the toilets.
Service was smiling and obliging.
Fruit for our health conscious family member and a diabetic family friend.

Bad / Indifferent / mixed
Toilets
The toilet seems to be part of the restaurant at the end of a corridor - then I wondered whether it was communal to the building's occupants. It has, as the popular saying goes, 'seen better days'. Beautiful blue tiles. If you concentrate on the tiles, you will be happy. If you frown at the state of peeling and dirty paint on the back of the cubicle door you will be less happy.

Best of All
A little aquarium by the door to the outside seating.
Gulub jamun - my family's favourite
Proper chairs - no problem with chairs being high backless bar stools nor backless low stools. (I have sat in gourmet restaurants in London paying high prices to perch on a high stool several miles away from my handbag which was on the dirty floor, bag kicked by passers-by, with hankies and business cards out of reach.)

A board