A really good day in Adelaide

This morning I went back to the naturopath to find out the results of my iridology analysis. When Michelle brought up the photos of my eyes I was struck again by how beautiful the human eye really is. She took me through the images and pointed out brown splotches which indicated a build up of toxins in certain areas in my body. She also pointed out a whitish area which indicated that my kidneys were irritated and the top of my iris above the pupil was a bit murky indicating problems with digestion.

She also mentioned that the shape of my pupils indicated that I have problems with my shoulders - but she did say that she was no pupil expert! So we talked through these things and also the questionaire I filled out relating to stress and anxiety. She asked me to stay on the detox diet for one more week and prescribed two other herbal supplements - one general one that will work on shifting the toxins and aid my digestion and the other one that helps relieve tension and anxiety. I booked in to see her one more time before I leave where we will do all the tests again to see if there has been an improvement in two weeks.

Once I got home, Dad and I were both ready for lunch. We walked down and around the lakes before going to the cafe for lunch. Dad had brought his paperwork for the pension with him so we could go through it.

After we walked home, we got in the car to do a few errands. First we stopped at Sam's Warehouse where I bought Dad a 35mm slide scanner so that he can transfer all his slides into a digital format. Next, we drove down to Enfield to go to Centerlink so that Dad could submit his paperwork.

While Dad went there, I walked around the shops and bought some neat placemats and table runners as well as a spiral peeler which makes long strands of vegetables such as zucchinis, carrots or cucumbers. I had heard about these things before and my friend Elyse has one and makes "pasta" out of peeled zucchini - yum!

I met Dad again in the coffee shop and we drove into town to go to the museum. We wandered around the exhibits and I was particularly interested in the minerals exhibit - just beautiful! We left the museum at closing time and walked back to Rundle Street to have a look at the shops and then go to see a movie.

I bought a pair of earrings in one of my favourite boutiques. At the cinemas, we decided to go and see Inglourious Basterds (yes, that is how it is spelt :-)). We bought our tickets and then went to the Stag Hotel to have something to eat and drink. The naturopath told me I could drink things that weren't sweet like vodka, lime and soda so I had one of those and we ordered some hot chips to tide us over.

Back at the movies and we both really enjoyed Inglourious Basterds. You could definitely tell it was directed by Quentin Tarantino. It was a dark subject (Nazi occupied France during WWII) but in true Tarantino style, the quirky characters, over the top violence and comedic plot made it a great movie. Brad Pitt was really good and it was suprising to see Mike Myers in a serious, albiet small, role.

We had a quick coffee at Scoozi before heading home. A great day in Adelaide and I think the weather is finally warming up! (Or maybe I am finally getting used to it!).

Wandering around Singapore's Museums

This morning I had breakfast in the resident's lounge. It was OK; not great, but OK. I came back upstairs and got ready to go out. I wanted to visit some of Singapore's museums today. I walked down to the Somerset MRT station and caught the train to Dhouby Ghaut. From there, the National Museum of Singapore was only a 200m walk.

The museum was in a beautiful old colonial building. Inside the atrium was an interesting piece of art work - pink flowery tanks stacked on top of one another (see photo)! It made quite an impression as you entered the building.

I paid my S$10 and headed upstairs to the History Museum. A lady gave me a headset and I entered the exhibit which basically talked you through the history of Singapore. It was an interesting concept because you could follow 2 paths through the exhibit; one that told the history through people's stories, a more personal history and the other than took you through facts and figures. I started by following the personal stories. So at each exhibit, you would key in a number and listen to a story based on written documents or other evidence from the time. Singapore would have been an incredibly interesting place under British rule in the 1800's (although it had obviously been around much longer).

Although I didn't have the patience to listen to every exhibit - there were a lot! - I did listen to some key ones from each period in time. Singapore has the most incredible history for such a tiny piece of land. The British and Japanese both ruled Singapore. After WW II, Singapore became a state of Malaysia and eventually, 44 years ago, Singapore became its own independent country. Just like Malaysia, the ethnic diversity is incredible.

From the History exhibit, I walked through the 'Living Galleries'. There were four galleries; each one dedicated to a different aspect of human life - photos, film, food, fashion. The exhibits were interesting but I did think it was a bit strange to do it this way. There was nothing else in the museum other than the Living Galleries and the History Exhibit. I did like looking at the Chinese Opera puppets and costumes and the food gallery was interesting because they showed all the common ingredients in Singapore food.

After I finished at the National Museum, I walked down the road to the National Art Gallery. The art gallery is in an old church. This time the entry was free so I headed upstairs only to find that quite a few of the galleries were closed. The layout is really confusing and I finally stumbled upon an open gallery with some really interesting sculpture pieces about earth and water. A Thai artist had created life size bronze crocodiles that sat on traditional Thai canoes and overlooking them were resin black crows sitting on wooden oars. Also in the corner was a piece from a Cambodian artist using bamboo. It looked like a giant seed pod and was woven out of one piece of bamboo and stretched from floor to ceiling. Very cool!

In the hall way, there was a ceramic exhibit. I love ceramics and some of this was amazing. A lot of the pieces were inspired by the ocean and some of my favourites looked like sea urchins. The rest of the galleries were dedicated to one Chinese artist who uses ink and paint. After I had seen a couple of galleries of his work I was a bit sick of it as a lot of it was the same. Just before I left, I stumbled across one last gallery which had some amazing black and white photography from a female American artist and some other unusual pieces.

After I had had my fill of culture, I dropped in to the Dome at the museum for lunch and from there wandered on further up the road to look at the Raffles Place mall. I killed a good couple of hours browsing around the shops, a lot of which were different from those I had been in on Orchard Road. Just before 4, my feet were aching so I found the City Hall MRT station and went two stops back to Somerset and walked to the apartment.

It was just before 5 and I caught up with Ross on Skype. I was so exhausted from the day that I took a little nap before heading to the supermarket at Paragon to get a couple of things for dinner. I made pizza with all the leftovers in the fridge - yum! I played a bit more of Ice Age III before heading to bed to keep reading my book. Almost at the end!

Walking around Makati

After leaving Ross at the hotel to do some work, I headed out of the hotel and wandered around Makati - through the malls, down Makati Ave, Alaya Ave. In Greenbelt, I stopped in at the Alaya Museum to check out the exhibition. There was a great display of gold found throughout the Phillipines - jewellery, belts, bowls. It was all very well done.

On the lower floors of the museum, I ran into a school group in the diorama exhibition. Kids are always the same no matter where you are! I spent most of my time saying hello and telling them what my name was - very cute.

From the museum, I headed to the Museum Cafe for a salad and glass of white wine while looking out on the greenery and sculptures in the garden. A very nice way to spend the afternoon. The photo is of the gardens by the cafe.

Tara met us at the hotel and we walked to a pizza place in Greenbelt for dinner. It was a nice, early night.