We Have Indeed Found a Hidden Haven…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

We touch down in Christchurch city New Zealand to scattered showers and a cool day,  but it’s better than the steadily lowering temperatures that we left behind in The Netherlands earlier and we won’t  to do too much in the first day or so while we get over the jet-lag so we don’t care.

We call Teddy, our favourite car rental man as soon as we get inside the airport and he arrives a very short time later with the minivan we will be using while we are in New Zealand.

After heading back to his office nearly to complete the paperwork Himself takes the wheel and we concentrate keeping tired kids quiet so that Himself can concentrate on driving on the left-hand side of the road.

Various relatives are coming to stay with other friends and relatives for Christmas,  my Aunty’s is in hospital, and will need some quiet recovery time later so we have elected to stay in a B&B just a few minutes walk from another Aunt and Uncle out in a suburb just outside of Christchurch called Belfast.

Accommodation in Christchurch wasn’t particularly easy to find because of earthquake damage,  as more often when I enquired, found that some of the  private accommodation I had bookmarked before the quakes were now utilized for personal used by their owners , or  owners friends and family due to their own homes being uninhabitable, or needing extensive repair.

We own a house in Christchurch too, but it’s got a family in it on a fixed tenancy and we can’t be  throwing them out to accommodate ourselves either.

Rae and Pete of Hidden Haven B&B are fabulous people… although the house is on the Main North Road, it’s on a back section, so once up the long drive to the house, we found that the road noise all but disappears.

There are two bedrooms, a livingroom/kitchenette area that consists of a fridge, microwave and tea/coffee/breakfast  making equipment and the use of a BBQ outside. There is also a seperate games room that we may use, a garden area and to our children’s extreme delight, a trampoline.

We can use Rae and Pete’s laundry facilities, and since we will be busy visiting and eating with friends and family and not be cooking here, this accomodation is perfect.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

A Post Office that Moves with Those On the Move…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

You know I like quirky things…

…and it doesn’t get any better then when Whimsy meets Practical and you wish you’d see something like this in every airport you visited.

This is a small post office van… not the delivery type of van but like a really little post office, where you can get a parcel weighed, buy stamps, post a letter etc.

Since I had written a small stack of postcards in Singapore but forgotten to buy the stamps I needed to post them, this little vehicle was a very welcome sight because it saved me from having to carry the cards around and then post them in New Zealand later.

The van parks up in various parts of the various Changi terminals so that  people who want to  post the cards or letters they wrote whilst waiting for their flight don’t have to go hunting for the terminals post office. Knowing how big these terminals are,  that  could involve some serious walking.

There’s even a post-box on the front…  into which my now stamped postcards were eventually dispatched ….Brilliant!

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Relaxing the Rules to Survive Long-Haul Travel with Kids…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

We arranged to check in as early as possible so that we could organise a seat with the necessary leg room for me for the trip to New Zealand.

Consequently we have quite a lot of time to kill before the flight boards and the kids are not wanting to be cooped up in the special waiting lounge for the next amost 3 three hours.

They are also starting to moan about being hungry so we head out in search of somewhere to eat. The signs direct us to a food court and after a small hunt to find a lift so that I can get up there in the wheelchair, we find a convienient spot.

The kids have request chicken nuggets, which are normally not an option I’d be wanting them to have, but I’ve long since learned that when travelling long-haul with kids it’s wise to relax the normal rules and be as flexible as possible so that you can make time-zone transitions and long flights as bearable as possible.

The Kiwidutch kids are well aware that as soon as the holiday is over it I will be doing my best to catch up their missed vegetable intake, and compensate for the sweets and less than healthy food they have been enjoying too much as we travel, or that they stuff themselves with when visiting friends and relatives who have tins full of freshly home-made baking.

It all tastes amazingly wonderful I know, but excess has a due date and in the meantime our children have been quick to learn to milk the travel leniency for all that it is worth, so chicken nuggets are ordered with a grin on their part and with resignation on mine.

Himself goes for fried rice and I get a schnitzel and some spring rolls to share. It’s not healthy but tastes good and fills a gap…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Changi Airport, Ensuring a Smooth Take-Off…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

It’s time for us to leave Singapore and head onwards to New Zealand.

There is a time delay on my blog because I’m busy on the hop, thngs to do, places to see, long flights to make etc …so these photos were taken just before Christmas in December 2011.
Today I’m taking you though just a tiny section of Singapore’s Changi Airport. The airport consists of three terminals, comected by a skytrain.

Each of the terminals are massive and I could never manage any part of them in my current state of immobility so we have arranged wheelchair assistance which starts at the check-in desk and will deliver us right to the door of the plane.

So far so good. We arrive early at the check-in desk and luckily it’s quiet so our check in baggage is sorted in no time at all.

Not only is the airport massive but Changi’s Christmas decorations are too… a Merlion, a zepplin and Tour Eiffel are amongst the many different things scooted past on our way to a special waiting area that is a little tucked out of sight from the rest of the airport .
From what I can make out this waiting area is only for wheel chair passengers (or people who need assistance for one reason or another) and unaccompanied minors.
For all it’s vastness I actually like Changi Aiport, it’s easy to negotiate and there are lots of spaces where they hold exhibits, displays etc. Some of the displays are interactive and others are not (but clearly the kids would have liked them to have been,judging by the amount of interest in the Angry Birds  exhibit ). Here’s a quick tour…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Trapizza and the History that Brings Me Back Here…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Pizza and I have never been best of friends. I remember only too well my mother’s home-made efforts.. the toppings were ok enough but the pizza bottoms were thick and doughy.

Everyone else in the family seemed to love it like that and I was the only one sitting glumly at the table trying to think of ways to get out of the labourous task of wading though a pizza base twice as thick as  the thumbs that held the pieces.

From then on I avoided pizza whenever possible, and considered myself a confirmed non-pizza eater. If there had been a club with a life membership to not eat pizza I would have signed up.

Then, whilst touring “small town America” with Himself before the kids were born, we arrived late in a small place called Belle in Missouri and the one and only place open so late in the evening was a small pizza place.

I frowned and wasn’t extatic about the idea but it was the only place open for miles and we were really hungry so I steeled myself for the first pizza experience of my adult life and took a table with no enthusiasm whatsoever.

Himself made the order at the desk and I contemplated just eating garlic bread and nothing else. To my disappointment garlic bread wasn’t on their menu, or they were sold out of it, so pizza it was going to have to be.

Our pizza’s were duely delivered to us and my eyes opened in wonder… a thin crust, a wonderfully thin crust and topping to die for… bad pizza memories were being extinguished with every mouthful.

The lady who ran the pizzeria was called Arlene W. and she collected Coca Cola memerobilia. Himself had some coasters back home in the Netherlands that he’d found in a box load of stuff he’s been given from someone and he asked for Arlene’s address so that he could send them to her.

We duely sent them once we were home and she replied to say Thank You and thus began a tradition where we wrote once a year exchanging Christmas Cards. Arline’s handwriting was always a challenge to read and over the years it got less steady and even harder to read but we kept up with news and looked forward to the card that bore the USA stamp and Missouri postcode each Christmas.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

We learned over the years that her smiling husband had passed away, that she left the pizzeria business and her health was deteriating. Two years ago, after some 15 Christmase’s we received no reply to the card and letter we sent out, and we are now left wondering if she is just no longer capable of writing or of she too has passed away.

Either way we have very fond memories of Arlene and wish her rest and peace. I’ve tried pizza here in NL since that trip but not one of them have come even close to exciting my tastebuds as Arlene’s did so my pizza experiences remain few and far between.

Since Arlene W.  is the one who made me brave enough to order a pizza here at Siloso beach, I owe her too for the discovery of my second favoutite pizza place (considering how rarely I eat pizza, looking forward to one somewhere is saying something).

Here at Trapizza Restaurant on Sentosa’s Siloso beach I have again found a pizza that turned all my misconceptions about pizza on their head. Wafer thin crusts cooked in a piping hot pizza oven has left me with a new appreciation of how brilliant pizza can be, even enough to turn the head of a seemingly confirmed pizza hater.

Our trips to Singapore would no longer be complete without a meal here at Trapizza.

I’ve made blog posts on this place before and no doubt will again in the future… and why not, when this place cooks a pizza that I adore and nowhere at home in the Netherlands even comes close? .. but love as I do their Pizza’s, all kudos goes to Arlene in Belle Missouri for changing my relationship with Pizza forever.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

I even get to try and take photos whilst being wheeled home by Himself. What more does a girl need? (answer: lessons in how to take night photos if you saw all the out of focus ones I deleted)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Dune Buggy to the Rescue!

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

We return to Sentosa Island after the Duck Tour and Himself and the kids head straight for the swimming pool whilst I take a nap.

Later in the afternoon they return to the room complaining that they are hungry and urge me to get out of bed and dressed so that we can all go out and eat.

Himself remembered that our favourite Pizza restaurant “Trappizza” on Siloso Beach is now open again after the Zoukout event and we all are eager to go there.

There is just one small problem: beach + hill + crutches are not a good combination. The hill we can get around (partly) with the lifts but I would still have to negotiate the pool area, a carpark and then the beach itself.

The hotel does have a normal style wheelchair for me to use when I need, and that’s been helpful, but it would be too hard to manage one of those on sand.

The solution comes from an unexpected quarter: Himself and the kids have made friends with one of the Lifeguards at the the pool… The lifegards name is Joseph and he’s been super helpful.

Himself mentioned to Jospeh that it’s a shame that we won’t be able to make it down to the beach for our favourite pizza and Jospeph starts to grin… “Please wait here” he says, walking down a path at the back of the pools…

…and he returns a short while later with a most excellent mode of transport to take me to Siloso Beach.

My “transport” arrives at the patio door of our hotel room with Kiwi Daughter and Little Mr.  on board,  grinning their faces off and with  small bevy of envious children from the pool area in tow.

My carriage awaits, Himself takes over as chief  dune-buggy pusher and we happily head off for pizza.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Down Town Singapore, … a Duck’s Perspective.

It’s almost time for our Duck to get out of the water… I’ve shown you some of the bits I found really interesting, but there is still more to see…  here is a round-up of some of the other sights around down-town Singapore.

A few decades ago these would have been affordable housing, these days you need a seven figure bank balance to afford an apartment here on the river…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Bridge photo because I liked the contrast of light and shade, positive and negative space and shapes and lines…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Skyscrapers…  interestingly shaped skyline…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

…palm trees to remind me later of the wonderful tropical heat (especially once I’ve returned to a Dutch winter)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

… the architect designed this with eight sides so that the all important feng shui  principles work from all angles… (apparently it does).

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

yes, these photos were taken a few weeks back… just before Christmas in fact … decorations.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

.. The High Court…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

The old High Court is being renovated and a new High Court (the “flying saucer building” in the background) is under construction…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Beautiful church…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

…A quick glimpse of the famous Raffles Hotel… (low rise, red roof).

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Helix Bridge … DNA and Child’s Play…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

My next photographic “target” on Singapore’s Duck  Tour sits right next to the ArtScience Museum and Gallery of  the day before yeaterday’s post.

If you have been a reader of my blog for any length of time, then you will know how much I appreciate old stuff, especially old stuff made in stone, wood, wrought iron, hand blown or leaded glass.

I love “antique”, I adore “quirky” and I appreciate craftsmanship and detail in many different mediums.
That said, sometimes a little bit of “modern” can catch my eye and turn my head as well. This is one of those times.

This bridge is known as the “Helix Bridge” and so logically enough, it was no surprise to find out from our Duck Tour guide that the design is based on the double helix format of DNA strands.

Wikipedia tells me that:

“Canopies (made of fritted-glass and perforated steel mesh) are incorporated along parts of the inner spiral to provide shade for pedestrians.

The bridge has four viewing platforms sited at strategic locations which provide stunning views of the Singapoe skyline and events taking place within Marina Bay. At night the bridge is illuminated by a series of lights that highlight the double-helix structure.

Pairs of coloured letters “c” and “g” as well as “a” and “t” on the bridge light up at night in red and green to represent cytosine, guanine, adenine and thymine, the four bases of DNA. “

I just like the simplicity and cleaness of the structure… it’s pleasing and harmonous in it’s purity of line, and I find the grace of the interwoven curves mesmerising.     …And I knew I liked it even more when I found this little snippet of information on Wikipedia: “the bridge also functions as a gallery where children’s paintings and drawings are exhibited for public viewing.”

So, beautiful indeed, on so many levels.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Making Wishes, to be the Tallest?

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

I’m still taking you with me on our Duck Tour in the city of Singapore.

As we come into the Marina Bay, and cast our eyes toward the famous Singapore Merlion that stands on the other side we are fascinated by the presence of thousands of white balls floating in the water.

They are roped off by a series of buoys (and I think nets) and the Duck Boats don’t venture very close to them but clearly I’m not the only one wondering what all of these balls are for before just as I’m about to ask, another tourist gets in before me and asks the guide if these are artworks or…?

It turns out that before the Chinese New Year (today,  January 23,  2012)  people can pay for one of these balls and on them they write wishes that they hope to come true. It appears that the bigger the ball you purchase the bigger you wish can be.

So, what you see before you are many thousands of wishes that the residents of Singapore have made.  To any of you who celebrate the lunar New Year today, I wish you a very Happy New Year and I hope that  you have some wonderful festive New Year celebrations with your friends and family and that all of your wishes come true.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

So what else is there to see in the bay? Our Duck Tour guide also tells us that  the next building:  the five-star, Swissôtel The Stamford, is the tallest hotel in the world.

There are other buildings that have hotels in them that are taller, but apparently this one is the tallest that houses soley a hotel and where the space is not combined with commercial office premises etc.

At 226 meters (741 feet) I had troubles to get it all into the photograph when we travelled close to it on the road, but when out on the water we got a better view. Wiki tells me that it has 1,261 rooms and suites, 16 restaurants and bars, Raffles City Convention Centre, and one of Asia’s largest Spas.

For me, I find the 11 or so stories of the Rasa Sentosa quite high enough… I’m still making up my mind if I were ever in a room on the upper floors of this hotel, if making up in the morning to the view outside would be a dreamy experience or one of my scariest nighmeres. Jury is out on this one.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

There is also an outdoor stadium that seats 20.000 people…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

… and something that had Little Mr. pointing and getting all hot and bothered about… the clear highlight of the day for a six year old boy is, naturally:  a crane lifting a boat out of the water… (I was under strict orders to get the photographic evidence and to post the proof of this wondrous event in my blog) He may live to regret this demand when he’s 18 and I’m looking for suitable blackmail material to keep him in line.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

The ArtScience Assumes the Lotus Position…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

One of the buildings that is part of the Marina Bay Sands resort complex is the ArtScience Museum.

The museum and adjoining ArtScience Gallery is more of a host to touring exhibitions than having a vast permanent collection of it’s own, but what interests me more in today’s post is the actual architecture of the building itself.

Designed by Moshe Safdie to resemble a lotus flower, it’s also become known as the “Welcoming hand of Singapore”.

Wiki tells me that:

“The ArtScience museum is anchoured by a round base in the middle with ten extensions referred to as “fingers”.

The design concept denotes various gallery spaces sporting skylights at the “fingertips” which are included as sustainable illumination for the dramatically curved interior walls.

When completed the ArtScience museum will feature 21 gallery spaces equating to 50.000 square feet (6.000 square meters)”.

There is a small permanent collection here, so I do think that this is one place that I would like to visit on future trip to Singapore:  alone if the kids are still young and their attention spans are short, or with them if they are a little older and have learned to appreciate art galleries and museums more than they do at present.

In the meantime I will make do with the views of  the building that can be gained from the water as our Duck Tour progresses…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)