Singapore
Tuesday 12/10/2013
Our visit to the Singapore Association for the Visually Handicapped (SAVH) yesterday was quite a trek. Once we left the hotel, it was about 45 to 60 minutes of walking and subway riding to get across town to the SAVH offices. Andy did a great job figuring out the subway system (they call it the MRT, Mass Rapid Transit), and we made our transfers smoothly.
The MRT, as the rest of Singapore, is very clean. As Andy says: "Not s stitch of trash anywhere. They post a $500 fine for littering, a $1000 fine for smoking and $5000 fine for carrying flammable liquids. Also no eating allowed on trains or in stations. "They also posted a sign for NO DURIAN. Durian is a native fruit that has a reputation for a powerful stench but supposedly has a delicious although an acquired taste. It is a huge odd looking spiny fruit that I first experienced in Hawaii years ago and I can attest to its smell but have yet to taste.
"There are security cameras on the rail cars as well as in the stations. The escalators slow to a crawl when no one is using them then speed up as soon as someone approaches - never seen that before."
Singapore is big on security. Security cameras are apparently but not always obviously everywhere. When we checked into our hotel, the first thing the desk clerk asked for was not our reservation number but our passports. He entered our passport numbers in his computer, handed us back our passports, and then took our hotel reservation information and checked us in. It occurred to me later that he'd probably just registered us on some police network to keep track of foreigners.
We're not complaining. Not only is there no litter around here, crime seems virtually non-existent.
Anyway, once we arrived at the SAVH, we were shown to the art room, where several people were seated at tables and working busily away. Andy said it looked like they were making coasters out of cork and local postage stamps. We met with someone who I assume was the art program director, a tiny gracious woman with dark glasses and a box of Tears Naturale Free eye drops in her hand!! A true kindred spirit dealing with lousy vision and painfully dry eyes.
She seemed impressed with the Butterfly Garden mosaic I'd brought along, and very interested in the materials I used to make it (which, for that mosaic, included stained glass, brass butterflies from an old wind chime Andy found somewhere, broken cups and plates, various glass marbles and globs, and some ceramic tile). She was interested in the kind of adhesive I used, and commented that they were having problems finding affordable and reliable sources of art supplies for their program. Andy told them how he finds stuff in his work as a conractor, and gave her some information about how he finds things on eBay, and the online sites I use for my glass globs and stained glass supplies. I also told her how, when I taught mosaics at the Canadian Helen Keller Centre in Toronto, I went to several ceramic tile supply businesses who were happy to donate tiles and materials when I gave them my card and explained that I was teaching deaf-blind students in Toronto how to do the mosaics.
So maybe, if I get a future opportunity to make a two- or three-week stay-over in Singapore, we might be able to arrange for me to teach a class here.
We also stopped in at the computer technology office, where we met with the IT support manager there. They are a Microsoft-based program, and are not yet using Apple computers. I showed them my new Pebble portable CCTV, which they had not yet seen and which they seemed to like very much. He had a Ruby portable CCTV, and I was interested to see how that worked. It is a bit smaller and more compact than the Pebble that I have, but I am glad I have the Pebble: I like the lighting and color change features better.
The IT support manager there said he has a friend who is blind and a metal sculptor. We might be able to get together while Andy and I are here.
As I am writing this in the early morning of Tuesday, December 10, Andy went out to find some breakfast and bring it back up to the room. He just walked in with a feast, gathered from various street vendors who are open early.
We get the impression that Singapore doesn't really wake up until noon. Most businesses don't open until 10 a.m., and things seem to be quiet during the day until early evening when it starts to cool off.
Here's Andy to describe our breakfast: "I ventured out to the bazaar area that was so vibrant last night and it was like a ghost town. Fortunately I found a wonderful Chinese bakery open that had some warm buns filled with either cinnamon raisin or almond paste (they called it yam) that just melted in your mouth. I also found a place to get some kopi (coffee) for Mary. This time, before I had realized it, they had put some sweetened condensed milk in it. They do love their sweet drinks.
"Eventually I discovered a dozen or so Southeast Asian food hawkers that were open and got some noodles with a fried egg and some vegetables for $3 and brought it back to the hotel where Mary was busily typing her blog."
And it was delicious too, even with the coffee saturated with sweetened condensed milk. To me it was like a dessert.
Eating around here … nope, they don't give you napkins, and half the time they don't give you eating utensils either. Yesterday afternoon we went into a sit-down restaurant close to the hotel for a late lunch and I was delighted to be handed a packet with a nice thick moist towel to clean my hands. Later, when he paid the bill, Andy noticed they had charged us thirty cents apiece for the towels. Sheesh.
I carry tissues and baby wipes in my bag. Andy assures me I'm doing a good job of eating neatly without making a big mess, but I am sure we must look barbaric to the locals here, not knowing how to eat neatly and cleanly in the local custom without utensils. I hope to develop my technique while I'm at Mother.
Eating manners are the least of our "standing out" issues, of course. There are very few Westerners here in the mostly Little India part of town where we're located. I'm sure people around here are taking notice of the two big palefaces schlepping around the neighborhood, and me with my cane to boot. People are not rushing up to embrace us, but they are very polite and pleasant, even when they're fleecing us for the cab ride from the airport to the hotel, grin.
We're off to the bazaar Andy found last night, and plan to take the MRT over to Chinatown.
Tuesday 12/10/2013
Our visit to the Singapore Association for the Visually Handicapped (SAVH) yesterday was quite a trek. Once we left the hotel, it was about 45 to 60 minutes of walking and subway riding to get across town to the SAVH offices. Andy did a great job figuring out the subway system (they call it the MRT, Mass Rapid Transit), and we made our transfers smoothly.
The MRT, as the rest of Singapore, is very clean. As Andy says: "Not s stitch of trash anywhere. They post a $500 fine for littering, a $1000 fine for smoking and $5000 fine for carrying flammable liquids. Also no eating allowed on trains or in stations. "They also posted a sign for NO DURIAN. Durian is a native fruit that has a reputation for a powerful stench but supposedly has a delicious although an acquired taste. It is a huge odd looking spiny fruit that I first experienced in Hawaii years ago and I can attest to its smell but have yet to taste.
"There are security cameras on the rail cars as well as in the stations. The escalators slow to a crawl when no one is using them then speed up as soon as someone approaches - never seen that before."
Singapore is big on security. Security cameras are apparently but not always obviously everywhere. When we checked into our hotel, the first thing the desk clerk asked for was not our reservation number but our passports. He entered our passport numbers in his computer, handed us back our passports, and then took our hotel reservation information and checked us in. It occurred to me later that he'd probably just registered us on some police network to keep track of foreigners.
We're not complaining. Not only is there no litter around here, crime seems virtually non-existent.
Anyway, once we arrived at the SAVH, we were shown to the art room, where several people were seated at tables and working busily away. Andy said it looked like they were making coasters out of cork and local postage stamps. We met with someone who I assume was the art program director, a tiny gracious woman with dark glasses and a box of Tears Naturale Free eye drops in her hand!! A true kindred spirit dealing with lousy vision and painfully dry eyes.
She seemed impressed with the Butterfly Garden mosaic I'd brought along, and very interested in the materials I used to make it (which, for that mosaic, included stained glass, brass butterflies from an old wind chime Andy found somewhere, broken cups and plates, various glass marbles and globs, and some ceramic tile). She was interested in the kind of adhesive I used, and commented that they were having problems finding affordable and reliable sources of art supplies for their program. Andy told them how he finds stuff in his work as a conractor, and gave her some information about how he finds things on eBay, and the online sites I use for my glass globs and stained glass supplies. I also told her how, when I taught mosaics at the Canadian Helen Keller Centre in Toronto, I went to several ceramic tile supply businesses who were happy to donate tiles and materials when I gave them my card and explained that I was teaching deaf-blind students in Toronto how to do the mosaics.
So maybe, if I get a future opportunity to make a two- or three-week stay-over in Singapore, we might be able to arrange for me to teach a class here.
We also stopped in at the computer technology office, where we met with the IT support manager there. They are a Microsoft-based program, and are not yet using Apple computers. I showed them my new Pebble portable CCTV, which they had not yet seen and which they seemed to like very much. He had a Ruby portable CCTV, and I was interested to see how that worked. It is a bit smaller and more compact than the Pebble that I have, but I am glad I have the Pebble: I like the lighting and color change features better.
The IT support manager there said he has a friend who is blind and a metal sculptor. We might be able to get together while Andy and I are here.
As I am writing this in the early morning of Tuesday, December 10, Andy went out to find some breakfast and bring it back up to the room. He just walked in with a feast, gathered from various street vendors who are open early.
We get the impression that Singapore doesn't really wake up until noon. Most businesses don't open until 10 a.m., and things seem to be quiet during the day until early evening when it starts to cool off.
Here's Andy to describe our breakfast: "I ventured out to the bazaar area that was so vibrant last night and it was like a ghost town. Fortunately I found a wonderful Chinese bakery open that had some warm buns filled with either cinnamon raisin or almond paste (they called it yam) that just melted in your mouth. I also found a place to get some kopi (coffee) for Mary. This time, before I had realized it, they had put some sweetened condensed milk in it. They do love their sweet drinks.
"Eventually I discovered a dozen or so Southeast Asian food hawkers that were open and got some noodles with a fried egg and some vegetables for $3 and brought it back to the hotel where Mary was busily typing her blog."
And it was delicious too, even with the coffee saturated with sweetened condensed milk. To me it was like a dessert.
Eating around here … nope, they don't give you napkins, and half the time they don't give you eating utensils either. Yesterday afternoon we went into a sit-down restaurant close to the hotel for a late lunch and I was delighted to be handed a packet with a nice thick moist towel to clean my hands. Later, when he paid the bill, Andy noticed they had charged us thirty cents apiece for the towels. Sheesh.
I carry tissues and baby wipes in my bag. Andy assures me I'm doing a good job of eating neatly without making a big mess, but I am sure we must look barbaric to the locals here, not knowing how to eat neatly and cleanly in the local custom without utensils. I hope to develop my technique while I'm at Mother.
Eating manners are the least of our "standing out" issues, of course. There are very few Westerners here in the mostly Little India part of town where we're located. I'm sure people around here are taking notice of the two big palefaces schlepping around the neighborhood, and me with my cane to boot. People are not rushing up to embrace us, but they are very polite and pleasant, even when they're fleecing us for the cab ride from the airport to the hotel, grin.
We're off to the bazaar Andy found last night, and plan to take the MRT over to Chinatown.
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