RWS Lion Dance Championship

Sometimes browsing sistic could bring surprising & unexpected results. Here is one of them. I found myself drawn to & hence purchasing tickets for the RWS International Lion Dance Competition. The blurb says the event will showcase internationally renowned lion dance troupes. Hey why not right ?

Every year without fail when we were kids, my father, being the businessman that he was, would invite a lion dance troupe to our house to perform & to do the Cai Qing (translated to mean plucking the green). A Chinese belief that it will help the business do well. I love to watch Lion Dance & nowadays apart from Chinese New Year & the occasional shop opening, it's hard to see them in action.

There were 2 days of competition. Semi finals on one day & finals on the other. I figured I'll get tickets for the finals & see the best in action. From 15 groups (not exactly international, they came from China, Macau, Taiwan & even one from Australia), it was down to final 8.

Being the novice that we were, we didn't exactly choose the right seats - it was free seating. We were looking at the performance from this angle as you can see from the above picture. The problem is that you actually don't see how wide the poles go nor how far apart they are. It was only when we view from the big screen that we could see the difference & appreciate the difficulties in doing stunts on them.

This was one of the Singapore lions that unfortunately fell midway through the performance. But they gamely picked themselves up & continued but needless to say had points deducted for the misstep.

By the time we left, this Taiwanese lion was leading the pack. Yup we left at break time cos the noise was getting too much for the Girl & since we weren't supporting any particular group (apart from Singapore), after watching 4 groups perform, that was enough.

It was an interesting experience - quite unlike our usual shows at the Esplanade.

We've been busy watching rugby

X was of course supporting Les Bleus

Me I was quietly for the All Blacks

Moon cakes

I am so behind on my blog posts if I'm talking about mooncakes in October ! Oops

When it comes to moon cakes, I prefer them traditional. None of those fancy varieties that are everywhere. I get a headache just looking at them. If you are into those, where do you even start ?

This year I didn't buy ours from Tai Chong Kok but as you can see, their Chinatown branch was doing a roaring business.

I bought from Tai Tong & instead of my usual 2 egg yolks, decided to go for the extreme cholesterol experience of 4 egg yolks

Look at these babies

The first moon cake of the year/season is always the best.

Then diminishing return sets in.

There is one exception tho

Snow skin moon cake with champagne truffle

from Raffles Hotel

I can pop a few of these without feeling guilty

Getai in our backyard

So we moved. Not exactly to the heartlands but definitely to a more local neighbourhood. Proof of this is the fact that a make shift stage was set up over the weekend for a getai show.

For my foreign friends, getai translates to mean "song stage". These are performances typically staged during the Hungry Ghost Festival (which is now) sponsored by the Chinese clan associations or businesses in the area. Gosh I haven't been to one of these in ages & when I realised that there is one right in our backyard, it was time to introduce X & the Girl to this uniquely Singaporean experience.

It was a bit of a lost cause of course cos they kept asking me what was going on & my Hokkien wasn't good enough to do a meaningful translation & X could not appreciate the kitschy appeal of it all. But it was a walk down memory lane for me & I'm glad all this happened right in my hood.

Hungry Ghost Festival occurs in the seventh month of the Chinese Lunar calendar. During this time, the spirits of the netherworld cross over to wander. Hence it is time for the Chinese to burn offerings, incense, put up performances to appease the ghosts so that they may enjoy their brief sojourn & return happily to where they come from.

Be it a make shift stage

there will always be fancy lighting, band & a very powerful sound system

Glam or Kitsch ?

Our fellow audience members

Night festival

We love the Night Festival organised by the National Museum. We've been going to them the past 2 years - you can read about them here & here. This year it was no exception & the best thing is that they have extended it to 2 weekends.

One night in the museum

Eva Quartet singing Bulgarian folk songs

The Museum Rotunda provided good acoustics

This was my favorite

Marco Polo by Taiyuan Puppet Theatre

The story of Marco Polo performed in Hokkien & Italian !

(with subtitles of course)

Parking Mad by Benedetto Buffalino

parked Volvo cars in front of SAM flashing red & white lights from within

a crowd favorite

Curiosities by Alain Benini

Jellyfish attack - courtyard of SAM

Beautiful

Since it was raining on Saturday night & most of the events were pushed back, we headed over to the Peranakan Museum for their Night Ride programme.

The Girl got to do her sand art in their glow in the dark room.

Always popular with the children

Performance by Fusion Beats

Our biggest disappointment was not being able to catch the highlight of the Festival - Corazon de Angeles in Paradise. Originally scheduled for 10.30pm (which is already late for the little one) but got pushed back to 11.45pm due to the rain & there was no way she could stay up that late (she fell asleep at 10 in the cab on the way home).

There's more this weekend so grab a program & enjoy the museums at night.

Qian Hu Fish Farm

I'm fascinated with the story of Qian Hu Fish Farm and the rise of the Managing Director Kenny Yap. A family business that started as a humble pig farm is now a multi dollar business listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange. Even the story of how they decided on their logo is an interesting one.

The Managing Director calls himself Kenny the Fish. The youngest of 7 brothers & the only one educated abroad, is featured in the media constantly. He has a website selling his many business books, one of which is called "Guppies & Yuppies. Kenny Yap - the fishy smell of success". Another "The rise of an Asian Entrepreneur" has him on the cover posing practically nude with bags of fish. Even you might be interested now ?

So what does Qian Hu do ? It supplies ornamental fish & it's listed on the exchange - wow. One weekend, we were wondering aimlessly around & when my brother suggested visiting their fish farm, I readily agreed.

There is even a map of the compound so needles to say it is huge.

A huge part of their business is the ability to successfully breed Asian Arowana. There were some selling for tens of thousands of dollars. They aren't edible (or at least I wouldn't eat a fish that costs $25,000), they aren't particularly pretty, they don't change colors nor do they talk. So what's the fuss ? They are endangered & also called Dragon Fish, enough said.

The company is obviously very proud of their MD cos there are walls (yup more than one) filled with newspaper & magazine articles all about him. He is after all the poster boy for Qian Hu.

We enjoyed looking at the fishes. I suppose if you have an aquarium at home, this would be a great place to get your supplies. We went kelong fishing last year & decided to keep the fish. After spending more than $100 to get an aquarium & accessories, the fishes lasted no more than 1 week. So much effort went to naught & the poor fishes....

We couldn't tear the kids away from the terrapins

There was also an area for fishing

Although it's a little out of the way, Kranji is a place that we will probably be visiting more in future if we want to get away from the city

Check out the Kranji Countryside Association website

Now who says Singapore is boring ?

Summer is a state of mind

I miss Summer.

This may seem a strange thing to say given that I live in Singapore where it's summer all year round. Let me explain.

Summer is not just about the weather. Sure we look forward to the warmer temperatures after a long cold winter, wearing summer dresses & open toe sandals after having to be covered up for months.

But mostly summer is about BBQs, trips to the beach, concerts in the park, lazy days by the pool & the longer days. So to me, summer is like a different world after winter. I'm missing it especially when I look at friend's photos on Facebook or hearing about their plans to go to the beach.

I need to re-create that summer feeling here in Singapore.