Ever Increasing Circles!

As in every place we get to know better over time, we tend to explore in ever increasing circles rippling out from the centre.  We did this today with the help of our friend here, Sze, who treated us to lunch in a wonderfully authentic Chinese ‘cart’ restaurant where an amazing array of plates come to your table on stainless steel trolleys pushed by older ladies for you to pick and mix!  

It’s on the seventh floor of a residential building in an area of government-provided housing outside the very centre and gave us a chance to see how the average Singaporean spends their Sunday in communal sitting areas and big, airy, ground floor restaurants underneath their flats.  Great to meet Sze’s mum visiting from Kuala Lumpar and see how her and C’s13-year old son is growing up so much and so well!

We wandered round Chinatown afterwards which is in full preparation for the arrival of the Year of the Dragon on 10th Feb., before Dd took us to an even further out circle where Yong Siak street is located.  We found, for us, a dream street with art galleries (Artblue Studios specialising in Vietnamese artists), an art shop called Cat Socrates with lovely gifts, and a Brazilian themed restaurant called The Butchers Wife with a real São Paulo/Literal Norte vibe to it where we had a glass of wine as we waited for a cab back to the centre.

We needed to relax into Raffles Hotel Long Bar a bit, not helped by the fact it’s not located in its original position and it’s rather weak attempt at authenticity, scattering monkey nut shells under the tables, had me immediately calling for someone to sweep up the mess!  

However, if you accept the place on its own merits, follow the mandatory Singapore Sling with a wonderfully different tasting local gin and let the setting sun, filtering through the narrow-slitted shutters, and the slow rendition of Love For Sale work their magic, then it ain’t half bad and certainly worth the detour!

Our day wasn’t over as we needed something to eat and retreated to our low-rise colonial area of Bugis around the Sultan Mosque for some beer and samosa in the lively area just outside Blue Jaz café, with some pashmina shawl shopping thrown in (ten euros each).  We had bought a couple last year from Javid and extended the colour options a little for the coming season!

There are a couple of collages in extras that give more flavour of the ever increasing circles!