Sunday 14th June 2009

We had a leisurely start to the day. Relaxed breakfast.

This morning we went up Orchard road to the Meritus Mandarin hotel. Lots of construction work going on but it was still open for business.

Found our way to Pine Court Chinese restaurant on the 35th floor. Had a look at the menu and booked a table for that evening. It seems that they no longer do the famous duck menu where you get not only the special peking duck, but all the courses are made of duck, soup, main etc. Grozzie had experienced this here before. Fortunately they still serve the traditional peking pancakes, hence we made our reservation.

We then went to Concorde hotel and browsed around the shops and bars. So silly they changed the name as we were due to stay here and the agent couldn't find "Le Meridian". The shopping centre is still called this on the maps though. Anyway, we made our way into the food court below and snacked on dim sum for lunch. It was hot and not air conditioned so we didn't stay long.

After lunch we strolled back up Orchard road and decided to hide from the heat inside an air conditioned mall, Orchard Central. The cool air flowed down as we climbed the escalator from the street. The funky blue strip lighting beckoned.

It is not even  properly open yet but we wandered around anyway. Most new shops haven't even stocked their shelves yet. We went up as high as we could, went outside and looked down on the street below. It looks surprisingly lush from up here. We went into areas that weren't even finished, concrete on the floors etc.

We took the glass elevator to the 7th floor, and found some funky arty walls made out of stereo equipment and industrial gadgets. When we got back in the lift we were discretely ushered to the ground floor by the lift guy (LOL). Think we weren't supposed to find the unfinished top floor which will be the parking area.

The Mall is open now (as of yesterday) as I write this. It's funky inside with sofas, sculptures and a climbing wall! Very modern. You can't miss it as it has the changing lights on the outside. Well worth a visit, especially to cool off from the heat. It was great to see it relatively quiet before the official opening.

I'm not a huge fan of shopping, but golly Singaporeans are so lucky to have all those wonderful food outlets in a modern setting. pasties, chocolates and cakes until 3am, now that's a seriously dangerous place to live :)

Back at the hotel we put lots of sun block on, wore baggy loose clothing which covered and protected from the sun. Collected our kites and got a taxi to East Coast Park to meet our local friends for a fly meet.

East Coast Park, is a long stretch of beach with great facilities if you want to just chill out, or go cycling, or running! and the like, or fly a kite.

We drove via Raffles hotel and passed the Flyer. The taxi driver took us along the coastal route which was lush with trees all the way along.  The taxi guy was on a bit of downer and we lifted his spirits because we were going to do something fun and free, in search of wind to fill our kites.

We finally made it to the right car park near the pier. A short walk along the path and we could see the beach, palm trees and a rev flying. It was Teo, he was running 360s too! The wind was a bit light and we could see he was in a tight space between the shoreline and the pier, working very hard!

Fortunately the wind picked up a bit and after our initial greetings we got out our standard B-series kites with race frame (for light wind). We flew a little team flying. Lines were shorter than we're used to at 80 foot.

Then the guys went off to fly from the pier, more room there flying over the sea. Some nice pairs flying, kissing the kites. Teo was happily dunking his kite in the sea, making it dance and walk on the water and completely submerging - kite swimming.

We flew some more on the beach in between the palm trees which was so fun. Balancing on the palm leaves. Tracing around the shape of the trees.

Then some more flyers arrived, Darryl, Zul and their friends.
They all had a great collection kites not just revs.
Their team have at least 8 Lime fade B iQuad specials!
They are quietly getting on with flying and impressively too :)

We took it in turns to watch each other fly as space is a premium here. The guys are fantastic with their dual line kites too tricking them and stacking them. Zul and Teo's multiple simultaneous rev axel spins were amazing. 

It was fun to watch the guys scuttling their revs sideways like crabs :)

We decided to pack away the 1.5 Bs, on 80 foot. We got out our travel rev 2s instead on short lines, 18 foot.
Much better in the tiny space, but faster :)

I was amazed that while lots of people sat and watched, no one bugged us or interfered with our stuff.

It was a really wonderful afternoon, if a little hot. Flying or sitting in the shade of the palm trees, views out to sea with the incredible tankers approaching the harbour. It was like nothing I'd experienced before, and it made us so humble these guys welcomed us into their beautiful flying zone. We shall treasure the Singapore badges for all time. Thanks guys :) We would have stayed for the famous Crab but had already made dinner plans for that evening, so we said our farewells and thank yous and cooled off, close to dehydration in a local cafe before getting a taxi back to the hotel.

You know what I could never get used to is being hot and having no cold water to cool you off. The water in the cold tap is just as warm/hot as the hot tap!! Madness. I think it's unusually warm in Singapore at the moment.

Relaxed in the club lounge for happy hour. Yummy fried chicken drumsticks and sushi tonight. Grozzie tried a glass of red wine, and I tried the super chilled Australian white. Huge glasses again and they will insist on top ups!

Pine Court Chinese restaurant

A short stroll up Orchard Road to Meritus Mandarin, and the stunning views over the city from the 35th floor. It's a seriously classy restaurant. Where the waitress show you each dish as they arrive, then take it to one side and prepare it for you.

We had Japanese style wasabi tempura prawns, one of the signature starter dishes. A little too rich for our taste. Followed by the famous Peking duck skin pancakes. The pancakes are green and are made with natural colourings from the salad onions I believe. The sauce was a bit tart for my liking. I think it was plum and orange rather than the usual hoisin. The chicken fried rice was huge and we couldn't finish it. 

I had the most adorable tiny jasmine tea pot for one. Too bad they didn't have any for sale. It's a popular request apparently.

A shame the food has changed to more Japanese fusion style, rather than Chinese.
Would have loved to try the whole duck menu.

Feeling full we decide a slow walk up to Paragon Mall was in order. I was on a quest to find the 'posh' patisserie Chanele cafe. We found it eventually amongst the many food outlets and stores. I will be coming back here during the week. We watched them make fresh cantonese dim sum at Din Tai Fung. These are the ones filled with soup. Naturally at some point we made it onto the roof garden, but not for long as it was too hot and humid.

Groz had made arrangements to meet an old colleague who had just flown into town.

We finally met him at the Concorde hotel bar for drinks and a very pleasant chat.

And so to the end of a wonderful varied day in vibrant Singapore.

Grozzie copies all the photos off the memory cards onto my laptop, and resizes one picture of my kite flying between the palm trees, which I later uploaded to the kite forum gallery.

[total number of images taken today: 390]

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