First month, lah

This month we have mostly been enjoying...

- The Tan family clan's eight course feast at the Ritz-Carlton, where we enjoyed our first 'yu sheng' salad, a symbol of prosperity and good health amongst the Chinese.

- The ten-feet long fire crackers set off at Lunar New Year in Chinatown. Sadly, the credit crunch put paid to the rest of the fireworks display, which lasted all of 1.5 minutes.

- Hiking to the top of Bukit Timah Nature Reserve. Good combination of sweat, monkeys and inch-long ants. Shame about the 'view' from the top - there isn't one. There are, however, two large electricity pylons. The stuffed tigers in the cabinet on the way out are an interesting reminder of how Singapore was before condominiums and cranes.

- Our first (and last) ride on a tandem in East Coast Park. There is no 'I' in 'team' and certainly not one in 'tandem', either. We consoled ourselves with a seafood feast at 'JUMBO'.

- An impromptu lion dance in the Funan DigtaLife Mall, whilst shopping for electronics. Being treated to a lion 'triplets' (each comprising two people) balancing on a large red ball on a make-shift see-saw was rather good value given that it was free.

- Our resident cockerel, who belts out a proper 'cock-a-doodle-do' every Sunday morning. Life's great down on Tiong Bahru Farm.

- A Geylang gander at the seedy side of Singapore. Sadly it was not quite dark enough to hide the scars on the faces of girls whose lives have been dedicated to the 'entertainment of men'.

- Seeing The Prodigy in concert at Fort Canning Park. Despite being (at one point) too close for comfort to a bunch of British lads who were moshing small Singaporeans into the ground and being victim of a golden shower, which splashed onto my ankle, as yet another ridiculous British man decided that relieving himself in a small plastic cup was a good idea, it was still cool to hear classics such as 'Voodoo People' and 'Out of Space'.

- Counting the calories of local food, now that we have joined 'Globo Gym' in an effort to get fit and lose some of our London weight. The spinning class we tried was not only one of the most difficult things we had done, but it was also hard to stifle giggles at the small instructor shouting in her best Singlish, "Dun gif up, lah!"

- Our first Asian Adventure!

Next month, further explorations into the dining, nightlife and entertainment scenes as we find our feet on this fair isle...