Singapore
Monday 12/9/13
We continue to eat our way through Singapore. At least half the places here are strictly vegetarian, and even the mostly carnivore places offer substantial vegetarian meals. The food is usually so good that Andy says even he would be willing to go completely vegetarian … for a little while anyway.
But he's hungry for lamb, so for dinner tonight we'll choose a place that has a good lamb curry selection.
The colors and fabrics in the sari and clothing shops are exquisite. Most of my view of Singapore is foggy khaki and grey, full of traffic and happy music noises and smells ranging from the heavenly flowers to heady incenses and tempting delicious spices and foods, to the horrible polluted gasoline exhaust fumes. We walked by one meat processing plant that was awful indeed.
The smells are sharpest, and with the CI I'm picking up an amazingly clear sense of the sounds of Singapore, even without any directional hearing, and I always struggle to understand voices. I usually feel like I'm walking in a noisy fragrant foggy tunnel with Andy, but I can still pick out some colors, mainly the brilliant jewel tones. Andy helped me select some lovely shawl/scarves in deepest pinks, lavenders, and blues and greens. The colors I see best are the bright deep blues and turquoises, and the brilliant deep reds, pinks and oranges. The darker blues, greens, purples, grays and blacks are all the same, and brown could be almost any color to me.
But once again I am finding my brain doing its weird best to give me color. We were walking along a covered sidewalk with what I thought were light tan pillars. After a couple blocks, Andy said, "Interesting how they have all these orange pillars here."
"What orange pillars??"
"These pillars, the ones we're walking past."
"They're orange?"
"Yah, deep bright orange."
"All of them?"
"All of them around here anyway."
So I took another look at the light tan pillars, and lo and behold, they were deep bright orange. For the life of me, I could not find any light tan pillars anywhere.
Later, we were walking through a different part of town, I think just outside of Little India, and I noticed the pillars were not quite as deeply orange. Still orange, just a bit lighter. "Are we still in orange pillar territory?"
"No," Andy said, "these are all white pillars."
"You mean a light tan?"
"No, I mean white," Andy said. "Maybe sort of off-white, but they're white, not tan."
I was actually affronted by this information. A light tan would have been acceptable, but orange for white? Oh well, such is life in my lane.
And my lane here in Singapore is full of hidden steps and curbs and curves and ramps. It's been a challenge both for Andy to guide me and give me a running description of what's around us, and for me to be guided through such an obstacle course. In a single block we'll come across a couple steps up then a couple more steps up then a ramp down then another ramp up and then some more steps down and then a little tiny step up and another little tiny step up and then another ramp down and another ramp up. Trace would have some hard guide work here. I miss my dog, but I have to admit he's better off with MaryLouise in California, and I'm better off with Andy and my cane in Singapore.
And Greg at the Sacramento Society for the Blind will be happy to know that I'm using my straight cane. I would not want to venture out by myself here; it's the lack of directional hearing that makes me so vulnerable to street traffic danger. Andy's learning to give me clear signals and a little extra time to navigate, and I'm learning to give him better feedback on what works and what doesn't work.
There is a service organization for the blind here in Singapore, that shows art by blind artists for sale. Andy wants to go check it out and see if they'd be interested in selling one of my mosaics. I brought five small mosaics to use as teaching pieces and gifts, so … we'll see.
We're off to breakfast and more of Singapore, and next post will feature some comments from Andy.
Monday 12/9/13
We continue to eat our way through Singapore. At least half the places here are strictly vegetarian, and even the mostly carnivore places offer substantial vegetarian meals. The food is usually so good that Andy says even he would be willing to go completely vegetarian … for a little while anyway.
But he's hungry for lamb, so for dinner tonight we'll choose a place that has a good lamb curry selection.
The colors and fabrics in the sari and clothing shops are exquisite. Most of my view of Singapore is foggy khaki and grey, full of traffic and happy music noises and smells ranging from the heavenly flowers to heady incenses and tempting delicious spices and foods, to the horrible polluted gasoline exhaust fumes. We walked by one meat processing plant that was awful indeed.
The smells are sharpest, and with the CI I'm picking up an amazingly clear sense of the sounds of Singapore, even without any directional hearing, and I always struggle to understand voices. I usually feel like I'm walking in a noisy fragrant foggy tunnel with Andy, but I can still pick out some colors, mainly the brilliant jewel tones. Andy helped me select some lovely shawl/scarves in deepest pinks, lavenders, and blues and greens. The colors I see best are the bright deep blues and turquoises, and the brilliant deep reds, pinks and oranges. The darker blues, greens, purples, grays and blacks are all the same, and brown could be almost any color to me.
But once again I am finding my brain doing its weird best to give me color. We were walking along a covered sidewalk with what I thought were light tan pillars. After a couple blocks, Andy said, "Interesting how they have all these orange pillars here."
"What orange pillars??"
"These pillars, the ones we're walking past."
"They're orange?"
"Yah, deep bright orange."
"All of them?"
"All of them around here anyway."
So I took another look at the light tan pillars, and lo and behold, they were deep bright orange. For the life of me, I could not find any light tan pillars anywhere.
Later, we were walking through a different part of town, I think just outside of Little India, and I noticed the pillars were not quite as deeply orange. Still orange, just a bit lighter. "Are we still in orange pillar territory?"
"No," Andy said, "these are all white pillars."
"You mean a light tan?"
"No, I mean white," Andy said. "Maybe sort of off-white, but they're white, not tan."
I was actually affronted by this information. A light tan would have been acceptable, but orange for white? Oh well, such is life in my lane.
And my lane here in Singapore is full of hidden steps and curbs and curves and ramps. It's been a challenge both for Andy to guide me and give me a running description of what's around us, and for me to be guided through such an obstacle course. In a single block we'll come across a couple steps up then a couple more steps up then a ramp down then another ramp up and then some more steps down and then a little tiny step up and another little tiny step up and then another ramp down and another ramp up. Trace would have some hard guide work here. I miss my dog, but I have to admit he's better off with MaryLouise in California, and I'm better off with Andy and my cane in Singapore.
And Greg at the Sacramento Society for the Blind will be happy to know that I'm using my straight cane. I would not want to venture out by myself here; it's the lack of directional hearing that makes me so vulnerable to street traffic danger. Andy's learning to give me clear signals and a little extra time to navigate, and I'm learning to give him better feedback on what works and what doesn't work.
There is a service organization for the blind here in Singapore, that shows art by blind artists for sale. Andy wants to go check it out and see if they'd be interested in selling one of my mosaics. I brought five small mosaics to use as teaching pieces and gifts, so … we'll see.
We're off to breakfast and more of Singapore, and next post will feature some comments from Andy.
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