Today is Anzac Day.........

I have just arrived back home (in Singapore) from the Dawn Service that was held at the Kranji War Memorial. The candle (superimposed on the photo of the graves) was lit a couple of weeks ago at Changi War Memorial for Edward George WALKEDEN (my great uncle) who was a POW here from 1942 - 1945.

The Australian High Commission in Singapore hosts ANZAC Day on even years and New Zealand High Commission hosts on odd years. The New Zealand High Commission hosted the ANZAC Day Dawn Service this year and the service was held at the Kranji War Memorial and commenced at 6.30 am.

I did take some photos, but they are not of good quality as it was not appropriate to use flash. So they are a little blurry, but you get the idea of what it looked like.

It was a very moving experience for everyone that attended. Probably more so as we were sitting behind the graves of the servicemen and women buried here.

There are 4,458 Second World War casualties buried or commemorated at Kranji. Over 850 of these are unidentified. The Chinese Memorial is a collective grave for 69 Chinese servicemen, members of the Commonwealth forces, killed by the Japanese in February 1942. Kranji War Memorial is located along Woodlands Road where the Japanese Imperial Guards advanced down this road on 9th February 1942. There are also 64 burials and commemorations from the First World War which include special memorials to three men who were buried in civil cemeteries in Saigon and Singapore, whose graves could not be found.

http://www.visitsingapore.com/publish/stbportal/en/home/what_to_see/world_war_ii_sites/kranji_war_memorial.html

ANZAC DAY April 25

Leonard PETERSON
b.1889 at Cheltenham, Victoria.
d.1915 at Gallipoli, Turkey.

Ernest Lister ROBERTS
b.1914 at St Kilda, Victoria
d.1943 in PNG

Charles Richard Le BRUN
b.1899 at Darlimurla, Victoria
d. 1943 "at Sea" HMAS Centaur

Edward George WALKEDEN ( POW Changi)
Clarence Joseph CREEK
James John ROBERTS
Gabriel (Jack) William DELANEY
Frederick George ARTSO
Eric PETERSON


They shall grow not old,

as we that are left grow old;

Age shall not weary them,

nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.

Lest We Forget

not so bad after all....... !!

ahhhh ...... not so bad after all .......

Here it is toasted, with a wee bit of butter and washed down with a banana smoothie!

Still can't get John to try it though. :-)

Green bread !!!!

I am not overly keen on eating GREEN colored food......love green vegies like spinach etc, but green drinks or green cakes are not on the top of my "favorite list".

But today I just went over to the little supermarket to get bread, milk and pasta sauce......which I dropped (and naturally it broke) right at the checkout. But thats another story!

But once back at home I opened the bread to have my sandwich for lunch ............yikes, it is GREEN!
I have seen green bread rolls and cake on the shelves, never game to ask what it is let alone try it.

On checking the packet - that looked quite innocent on the supermarket shelf - I see it is called Pandan Bread. Because that does not mean anything to me I "googled" it and came up with:

Pandan (P. amaryllifolius) leaves are used in Southeast Asian cooking to add a distinct aroma to rice and curry dishes such as nasi lemak, kaya ('jam') preserves, and desserts such as pandan cake. They are known as daun pandan in Indonesian and 斑蘭 [bān lán] in Mandarin. Fresh leaves are typically torn into strips, tied in a knot to facilitate removal, placed in the cooking liquid, then removed at the end of cooking. Dried leaves and bottled extract may be bought in some places.
Throughout Oceania almost every part of the plant is used, with various species different from those used in Southeast Asian cooking. Pandanus trees provide materials for housing, clothing and textiles, food, medication, decorations, fishing, religious uses and the manufacture of Dilly Bags (carrying bags). Most important are the mats, which are handwoven from the dried leaves.
Pandan is said to be a restorative, deodorant, indolent and phylactic, promoting a feeling of wellbeing and acting as a counter to tropical lassitude. It may be chewed as a breath sweetener or used as a preservative on foods. It is also said to have flavonoids which are believed to have a variety of healthful properties, including antiviral, anti-allergen, antiplatelet, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant.[citation needed]

and I even found a bread recipe:

Pandan Bread

Water 200ml

PrimaMix High Fibre White Bread Mix 500g

PrimaBake Instant Dry Yeast (sachet included with bread mix) 4g

Fresh Egg 1 no. (50g)

Coconut powderPowder 20g

Pandan Flavour 2 drops

Apple Green Colour 2-3 drops
Instructions
Pour water into bread pan.
Add bread mix and yeast.
Add egg, coconut powder, pandan flavour and colour.
Select FRENCH setting and press START.

High Tea at Raffles

After the "Borders Date" we had High Tea at Raffles..........nothing like it used to be unfortunately. But it was a nice experience all the same. It is mainly Asian Snacks now rather than the English High Tea of Cucumber Sandwiches, scones etc.

After "Tea" we wandered around this amazing Hotel ....... it really is beautiful.

The following photos (taken by Janine) will show you what Raffles Hotel is like:

For more photos of Raffles, check Janines Flickr site at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/janinef71/sets/

Borders Date on Saturday April 7

Saturday April 7 was already "booked" in more ways than one ....... Janine had promised John a "Borders Date" for when she next came to Singapore. So Saturday was 'booked' for the Borders date!

According to both Janine and John the store in Singapore is larger than the ones in Melbourne. After 4 hours John still had not left the computer section and Janine had progressed from the Travel Books to the Music section.

At the store here in Singapore there are two (maybe even more) full time "book cleaners" that go up and down each aisle, taking out a book at a time, wiping, cleaning and then replacing it. Like Janine mentioned, it would be like painting a ship, by the time you finish at one end it would be time to start all over again!

The store hours are:

Monday to Thursday + Sunday: 9.00am to 11.00pm

Friday + Saturday: 9.00am till midnight

So plenty of time to browse, read and spend!

http://www.bordersstores.com/stores/store_pg.jsp?storeID=223

"Little India" on Friday April 6 2007

Just noticed my last 'post' was April 5 ............ time certainly flies around here!

Our daughter Janine arrived in Singapore at 7.00pm last Thursday evening (April 5) so no wonder I have not had a chance to add to 'my blog'. I met her at the airport and we had a Mercedes limousine to take us - in luxury - to Bukit Batok.

Took an hour, but we were not in any hurry, believe me. This is Janine's third visit to Singapore, so she knew a little bit about what she wanted to see and do.

The following photos will show you that we spent most of Friday in the "Little India" area of Singapore:

Laundry Day!

Now this 'post' will not be of interest to many people.......but there is one person (sorry, actually two) that are interested in the very basic "living in Singapore" items, like what is my kitchen like, what foods are in the cupboards, where do I shop and how do I do my laundry while living on the 18th floor......

This "post" is for them and they know who they are!!!!

Whilst doing the laundry today I took a few photos of the basic things like the washing machine, the detergents and where I hang the clothes:

Top right hand corner is the washing machine. It is really good and does extra small loads (one hankie?) to the big wash of King Sized Doona Covers!

The middle photo is the detergents, left item is the bleach for coloreds (??), then the bottle with ATTACK + softener on (which I thought was just softener!) and then the liquid laundry detergent. Yep, here I have been adding the detergent AND the Attack/softener 'cos I thought it was just the fabric softener, didn't find this out until last week......so have been using a double dose of detergent and no fabric softener!

Photo top right is the laundry as you come in from the kitchen. The washing machine is immediately on the left. On the right is the window space. (read window space below!) That silver square box you can see is the garbage chute......you're right, no longer do we need to remember when garbage night is. Just tie up the plastic bag and pop it in the chute........but IF you put the empty wine bottle in, boy what a racket as it goes all the way down the 18 floors!!!

OK...window space!

Well in the laundry there is a window space, I say "space" 'cos there is no glass in it. Just a grill like structure for safety! But it is a top spot for hanging clothes to dry - as in the lower left of photo. But if you have big items like the King Sized Doona Cover.....then string it out on the balcony as in the lower right of the photo.

There is a dryer.......but why waste power when you can have free breezes blowing like we have here on the 18th floor in a windowless laundry!!!

So there you have it ....

My laundry day.

A collage of flora....

.......from around the pool at The Jade condo (where we live). There are plenty of flowers here in Singapore so this is just a small sample of what is in "our back yard" !

Leone + John May 2001

Leone + John May 2001
Originally uploaded by Leonefabre.

am having a practice at uploading to "my blog" direct from my FLICKR site.
Am using a collage of a trip along the east coast of Australia that John and I did in May 2001 from Melbourne to Fraser Island.
On our return to Melbourne I was diagnosed with breast cancer.
We were very fortunate to have spent that months holiday together as we both needed all our strength and courage to get thru the following 12 mths!

Janine & Leone's FLICKR sites!

Have been somewhat slack with "my Blog" over the past week ....... I have been busy doing 'other things' like getting my FLICKR site up to date!
Here is the URL if you are interested in having a look, as it will be constantly updated you might like to save it as a "favorite" and check back again later.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/leonefabre/sets/

This FLICKR site belongs to our daughter Janine, she is the professional photographer of the family as you will see:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/janinef71/sets/