Singapore - We came, we saw.... we ate?

Rather than sitting on a plane for 14hrs from Melbourne back to Dubai on the way home to lagos, we figured we'd mix it up a bit and catch up with one of our favourite ex-lagosians (now singaporean) - Maslina!!!

I think the title says it all. We were only in town for a weekend, but what a weekend it was!! Basically we spent the whole time bussing and walking around checking all the awesome food that Singapore has to offer. I'd never thought of having roti with egg for breakfast, but I would definatley recommend it to anyone (particulalry if you're feeling a little sorry for yourself).

Mas was the perfect tour guide, sharing our love of chinese, indian and malay food so we had a lot of fun exploring the shops and markets in the various quarters of the city.

Mas and I out the front of the tourist office where some of Mas' people were working
George and Mas and a fancy church
The night market in China Town
What's left of a few plates of peppered crab and seafood bits at the hawker market in china town
A much needed morroccan mint tea in the malay quarter on a hot, wet morning...

There's a few pics on Mas's blog here too for those interested.

Back in Oz for a bit...

Novemeber saw our annual migration back to the land of oz to get our yearly fix of the little things... you know, being able to walk down the street, actual coffee, drinkable water and fruit and veg that doesn't have to be soaked in bleach so you can eat it - the little things.

This year saw a few big things as well! Unfortunately we weren't able to make it back for for Mikey and Jo's nuptials - congratulations Mr & Mrs Smith!!! But we did bring some good weather back for Pen and Scoob to get hitched on the 24th. Whilst the signs of Mo-vember were still clearly visible (ranging from the iraqi fighter pilot mostache to the less prominent "baby with some fuzz stuck to it's face") it was great to see a whole lot of folk all dresses up - many of which neither of us had seen for a long time - including a couple of babies (seemes to be a new trend at the moment... congratulations to Hugh and Roz on the birth of their second daughter who shall be nicknamed "Gary Nathan Ablett Jimmy Bartell Junior The Third" to commemorate the cats fortune in the Grand Final, also to Jen and Tim on their little nugget, and to Luce and Simo for their little man)

Anyway, here's a few of our pics on the big day...

All dressed up and somewhere to go...

Mrs Whitehead, George, Mrs Smith and Dean

Mr and Mrs Whitehead enjoy an amusing speach about something or other...

The rest of our all to brief time was taken up touring the countryside saying a quick hello to all an sundry. It was great to see everyone, and I know we missed a few folk and ran out of time at the end so didn't quite get to say good bye... apologies. We were quite amazed how much things change these days, everyone's got new houses, kids, dogs, jobs you name it!! That, combined with a little culture shock - yes you heard me right, culture shock - why the fact that everything works and things are actually easy to do would be shocking is quite strange really, but we haven't left africa for just over a year, so it was all rather surprising.

Apologies must go out to anyone who saw us in the first week back (that would be everyone at Bonnie's party!) for our continual exclamations of "Jesus it's #$%^#& cold in this country!!" In my defence, it was actually cold - to the point where I bought a beanie and a jumper...

Anyway, here's a bunch of pics in no particular order

You forget that kids growing up means that they get bigger and smarter.
Ruby will be telling us how things work next time I come back...

The rest of the Holloway Clan down in sorrento (healesville won't be the same withou you all...)
Lucy, young Poppy, the latest Tom (congrats to dad, now you have someone one your team), and Simo

We managed to get to Albury for a weekend while Jane and Russell weren't working and have a great weekend checking out local vineyards, shops and just generally relaxing. Thank you both for looking after us - we had an awesome time!!

Jane and Russell in the new shed just outside albury

'twas a fine day so we thought we'd do a little "tubing" down the Murray for a few hours
- best fun you can have sitting around!!

George and Jane
(after an awesome lunch in a tine shed at some little vineyard)

The vineyard had a great view of the Keiwa Valley back up to Falls Creek

We also managed to get up to Mount Hotham and see a little nauture, breath in some clean air and just generally relax. Believe it or not, even hiking was involved (including getting soaked in a rain storm.. oh well) The one thing that stood out was the number of flys - those things were EVERYWHERE

Finally, I also managed to get up to Sydney and see the family. It had been a very long time, so I managed to fly up for a few days and head down to Bowral and see Sal and Buff and the girls. It was quite a shock to see the girls have grown in to little women - all in the blink of a eye. The weather was great, so I took the opportunity to take granny for a ride in a wheelchair aroung the streets near the nursing home she's in - 98 and going strong, amazing. It's funny how you can spend your whole life moving all over the place for work and family, yet at the end you invariably wind up in the same place - Gran showed me one of their first houses where dad grew up not 50m from the place she is staying in now. Well, it's bee knocked down and turned in to a block of flats like everything else in inner Sydney, but a few other houses were still there.
Heather, Pam and I also managed to get over to Bondi to see the sculpture exhibition they do every year where they put works out on the rocks along the cliff walk from Bondi heading south. Amazing stuff but very busy...

Don't tell mum I work on the rigs...

Reading this blog, one might get the impression that life is one big holiday over here. It's taken a while, but I've got off my bum finally and got a few pics of the real reason we're over here - work... Not quite the kind of tall tales the Paul Carter sprouts in his book "Don't tell mom I work on the rigs, she thinks I'm a piano player..." (haven't read it all, but some of it's quite funny)

Anyway, these were taken by George back in August during a stint out on a rig for one of her jobs

you can see quite a lot of cool stuff from out on the rigs and platforms, like sunrise over Mt Cameroon
or whales!! (seriously, they really are as big as busses)

Trip up North...

With the end of Ramadan upon us, Nigeria has paused briefly for a long weekend - particularly up North in the predominantly Muslim states. It's also the time of the year Durbars up at Kano and Katsina - one of the most sought after NFS trips on the calendar. George and I managed to make it onto the trip with thirty others. I won't get into it too much, other than to say that is was an absolutely amazing five days diving around - we took HEAPS of photos, so I've thrown plenty up below.

The Durbar festival dates back hundreds of years to the time when the Emirate (state) in the north used horses in warfare. During this period, each town, district, and nobility household was expected to contribute a regiment to the defense of the Emirate. Once or twice a year, the Emirate military chiefs invited the various regiments for a Durbar (military parade) for the Emir and his chiefs. During the parade, regiments would showcase their horsemanship, their preparedness for war, and their loyalty to the Emirate. Today, Durbar has become a festival celebrated in honor of visiting Heads of State and the culmination of the two great Muslim festivals, Id-el Fitri (commemorating the end of the holy month of Ramadan) and Ide-el Kabir (commemorating Prophet Ibrahim sacrificing a ram instead of his son).

The Durbars are held in a number of Emirates such as Katsina, Kano and Zaria. They usually begin with prayers outside town, followed by processions of horsemen to the public square in front of the Emir’s palace, where each village group, district, and noble house take their assigned place. Last to arrive is the Emir and his splendid retinue; they take up their place in front of the palace of receive the jahi, or homage, of their subjects. The festival ends with each group racing across the square at full gallop, swords glinting in the sun. They pass just few feet away from the Emir, then stop abruptly to salute him with raised swords.

The last and most fierce riders are the Emir’s household and regimental guards, the Dogari. After the celebrations, the Emir and his chiefs retire to the palace, and enjoyment of the occasion reigns. This fanfare is intensified by drumming, dancing and singing, with small bands of Fulanis performing shadi, a fascinating sideshow to behold.

Katsina Durbar

The Katsina Durbar is regarded as a more "rural" affair, not quite as fancy as the pomp and ceremony of the one in Kano. That said, it was a great family fun day, with the locals getting up close to the action and plenty of rides for the kids and street vendors etc. Personally, I thought it was a better day.

Young and old turned up in their thousands to see the festivities

plenty of fun for the kids

this guy was carrying this thing on his head all day... not quite an ipod, but hey

Part of the show of strength for each family involved a bunch of young guys with improvised weapons (some serious stuff - hoe made axes and swords etc) They'd mock-fight each other, and surprisingly, no-one actually got hurt.

The title of Emir is not a birthright - the successor being chosen by a group of wise folk called "the kingmakers" - it's therefore important for families to get their kids out into the public eye ASAP. So you see lots of tiny kids strapped to horses in the Durbars, I guess their parents are hoping that one day they might get a chance at the title...

The emir arrives under a fancy golden umbrella, surrounded by his guards etc

The emir give a rousing speech to the crowd!!

After the Durbar, we managed to get in to the palace and meet with the Emir's Prime Minister (the Emir himself is actually quite unwell at the moment, so he wasn't taking visitors)

Kano Durbar

The Kano Durbar is regarded as the Durbar in Northern Nigeria. This is the one that all the dignitaries turn up to see. We were up in the stand on the walls of the Emir's Palace with ambassadors etc - not so much a family day, but very fancy. There's a lot more money around these parts and you can see it in the horses and costumes...

It's still the same deal with parent's getting their kids all dolled up so that they can be seen in the right circles...

Whilst the Durbar ground is huge, the general public was not allowed in, masses of police and army folk keeping them outside the gates - a real pity really.

each family came through and presented themselves to the Emir

There were some seriously fancy costumes etc

some, however, were probably a little too fancy. More kind of Elton John going in to battle on a horse...

a future Emir...?

The Emir's cavalry made a grand entrance with plenty of explosions and dust raising as they literally stormed the parade ground - you wouldn't want to bump into these guys in a dark alley

Emir's Cavalry

Emir's Private guards

The Emir himself

The Emir gives a speech to the crowd

Each family gets to charge at the Emir at full pace to show their strength (one guy actually fell off)

The Emir's guards circled the Durbar ground and let off their ancient Dane guns that had been packed full with black powder... seriously loud stuff. After the thirtieth shot my ears started to hurt and my heart was skipping a few beats

I managed to get one the explosions on film - way too much black powder...