Following a joyous holiday season we dashed off to Singapore for a week to relax. Located on the equator, SG's balmy weather promotes tropical jungle and orchids, a welcome change from Doug Firs disappearing into the mist and Rhodies glistening in the rain. With no agenda and having seen many of the sights on earlier visits, we poked around the markets, the hawker centers and the neighborhoods looking at what's interesting. Like two guys knocking down coconuts, and taking care so passersby don't get beaned.

J relaxes on a carved driftwood bench at the Garden By The Bay

News & Notes

• Our biggest holiday present was wrapped in white, a Christmas Eve snowfall. The snow added some excitement for the guests coming to our traditional party that evening, but it also decorated the neighborhood, encouraged sledding on the hills, and put everyone in a party mood as they crunched along the snow-covered streets the next morning.

  

  Dawn after the Christmas Eve snowfall

• Singapore is a photogenic city. It's clean, well designed and decorated with tropical plants. In the center of downtown, charming buildings survive from the colonial days and contrast with the Marina Bay Sands Hotel, three towers apparently topped by a canoe. We have hundreds and hundreds of photos, but you may prefer our postcards, the "Reader's Digest" version.

  

  Singapore, a mix of colonial and modern

• Singapore "Cuisine" borrows from Malaysian, Chinese, Indonesian and to a lesser extent a dozen others. What better place to take a cooking class?? And where better than a cooking school called Food Playground? The results, Nasi Lemak - spicy shrimp and "to die for" rice - plus curry puffs and Malay omelette, make an amazing lunch.

  

  J and her cooking instructor Sara Ting

• We joined our friend Shelley to participate in the Women's March. The event attracted citizens who, based on the placards they carried, were concerned about a variety of serious social issues.The award for the most succinct placard: OMG GOP WTF. This photo of the crowd, taken looking east up Pike Street from 4th Avenue shows the marchers as they come from Cal Anderson Park to this corner where they turn and fill the eleven blocks to the Space Needle along 4th to the left.

  

  J in red with her friend Shelley