Long time readers of this missive will know that we lived for twelve years in Rotorua. When we arrived, The Engineer had just had her sixth birthday and The Farmer was fifteen months, we knew no one so I sought out a playgroup to join. This playgroup met weekly, with every fourth meeting being at the top of Skyline Skyrides where we would all ride the gondolas to the top of the mountain, drink coffee while the kids played, and watched the folk luging down. Before long we had a family pass and a great many visits were made over the years because, of course, we gave luging a try…cue: montage of happy family luging photos. Long story short, Skyline is here on Sentosa Island, Singapore! The Farmer was adamant we visit.
The day started with a bus ride and “short bush walk”.
and a ride in a glass bottomed cable car.
Full disclosure: my body is a little creakier than those heady luge- riding days and the end of ride melee requires the kind of luge alighting deftness I no longer possess so I sat it out (in an air-conditioned coffee shop clutching a decedent iced coffee – don’t feel sorry for me). The Engineer joined me because she likes coffee but the others:
Sadly, no actual luging photos; the professionals have quite the stranglehold
We then headed across the skywalk to Fort Siloso, a preserved coastal fort and military museum. It was incredibly interesting, harrowing in parts,
and eye opening, too, when we came to the Surrender Chambers final display, the Wall of Poppies. Around John McCrae’s poignant poem, In Flanders Field, you were invited to write your peace message on a poppy shaped post-it and attach it to the display. There were many really lovely, thoughtful messages but there were also a great many advertisements (a cookie baking business for example) and also several messages of the opposite of peace, one so vile The Farmer quietly reached up, quietly removed it and dropped it on the ground. No words…
Lunch was a collection of the cheaper options in the Market where we met this guy
before catching cable cars and countless elevators down to Palawan Beach (I think I’m right in saying this is the ancestral home of the indigenous people) for a paddle amongst the holiday makers and a walk across the swing bridge to the southernmost point of Continental Asia.
A series of elevators and a cable car -it might have been two – and we were back in VivoCity with what felt like the rest of Singapore. More shared dishes, a gelato dessert and we were all very happy to return to our rooms.
Today contained a lot more people than we are used to; it is lovely to be out amongst it but we are small town folk. I slightly ashamedly sent Cousin Lucas a message enquiring after the menagerie…just checking in.
He was very reassuring.
Union Homestead 
Luging and mixing with the crowds in a super modern metropolis are so completely opposite to Homestead life that I’m not really surprised that in a quiet caffeinated moment you reached out to home, where goats may be daredevils but would probably never luge, and chickens may be noisy but are not unpeaceful. Astonished to know that Canadian John McCrae’s poem is alive and well in somewhere like Singapore.
All of us were just a little overwhelmed and there was a bit of snapping going on. There were just soooo many people, everywhere was soooo noisy, and home seemed a long way away. Cousin Lucas took it all in his stride and beautifully defused my concerns. In Flanders Field is a beautiful, beautiful poem and deserves to be global.
Sounds like a great set of experiences!
Isn’t it awesome how many different ways there are to live this life!
The glass bottomed cable car is a winner for me.
As for luging, I resorted to Youtube as I couldn’t imagine you in lycra body suits lying down on a type of sled as you streaked down an ice tube – winter olympics style.
The Wall of Poppies? Some people have no shame!
I am sure, as you were feeling frazzled after a hectic day, that the image of contented sheep was very reassuring and comforting.
Laughing here at the thought of us in lycra. It was lovely to get a glimpse of home and to see all was well and then get on with the holiday. As for the Wall of Poppies…I just don’t get it.
You will need a total holiday to recover from all this when you get home. This is a day when I was very glad not to be accompanying you in real life. My head for heights would have meant that my eyes would have been tight shut for a lot of the time. It was fun to follow you on the post though.
Some of us are straight into it again on our return while others have a second holiday and I’m back into tending the menagerie and garden. Oddly, even looking down, everyone was fine. I think the blueish hue to the glass tricked the brain into thinking it was a screen.