Birthday Weekend in Singapore

Here are a couple of photos from Paul's birthday weekend. Raye returned from the US around midnight on Friday night. Saturday night we went out to dinner again at Banana Leaf Apolo. It is in the middle of Deepavali season so everything there was beautifully lighted and very busy. We stopped by a specialty market, the cultural equivalent of a Hanukkah (or Christmas) shopping bazaar. We'll have more about Deepavali in a future post.

On Sunday, we were invited to a brunch hosted by one of the members of the UHC, the progressive Jewish congregation here with which we've affiliated. It was a wonderful chance to enjoy some lox & bagels (and many, many other wonderful treats). It was a great mix of people with ages ranging from early 20's to seniors, and geographical homes from Argentina to the USA to the UK to South Africa, to Israel. (The Israeli ambassador to Singapore was one of the guests.)

One of the non-culinary treats was listening to our host play the piano with an impromptu accompaniment by one of the students from the local music conservatory.



Monday morning meant back to work but not without the traditional breakfast in bed. Dinner was at home, with marinated leg of lamb using our favorite recipe. It's expensive here (and there's only two of us) so we bought a slice of the leg. Raye sacrificed greatly (i.e. her sense of smell) and surprised Paul by buying a durian for dessert.

It was delicious and wonderfully creamy. However, like a fine cigar, it had to be enjoyed outdoors on the patio.

Another noteworthy event of the day: Raye passed her written exam and earned her Singapore drivers license. (Now all we need to do is get a car...)