From February

The weekend started off with a power walk, which was supposed to be effective and short. Instead we came home after almost 3 hours, just walking in a different direction than usual, exploring our hood.

We ended up at our favorite Indian restaurant by Serangoon and accidentally ordered food for a small village.   

My husband however, decided to with his old military motto: 'I don't see the problem, just solve the task'.

 He did on the other hand have some slight issues with the tiger shrimp curry with chili. After he finished this, he looked like he'd made out with a pineapple. I'm again convinced we could actually solve any fuel crisis in the future with Indian food, since at least this dish could easily start a jet engine.  

 This is then one of the perks living in Singapore: there's so  much different culture with all kinds of temples/churches/mosques/shrines etc everywhere, you quite often bump into something new. Here was an absolutely gorgeous temple (we think) just opposite the road from Serangoon. I actually have no idea what it is, but sort of looks Malay, with all the quirky gold spirals ['guldtruddelutter' in my Swedish vocabulary btw ;)] here n there. The men inside weren't overly impressed by my eager trigger finger snapping shots at their crib, so I didn't dare take pics any closer.  

When we came home, we dived into the pool for a few lapses and then headed over to Jonas' colleague's BBQ party. And it was smashing! Unfortunately we had to leave quite early (but of course made it back for the after party) to secure our seats at the Chingay Parade by Singapore Flyer, which is the really outstanding New Lunar Year Parade.

 When we arrived to the BBQ, we were of course very proud to see that Indian/American couples also have learned that kiddy pools can further serve as excellent drink containers. I thought this was an exclusive Swedish invention.

 

 Happy BBQers!

 Well down at the Flyer, we ended up in a mermaid convention, where one of them 'ripped da tail la n am sure someone stolen my hair'..

 ..but we finally made it to our places..

 ..in time to see how the participants unleashed the huge air borne festival dragon!

 And there was no way you could've missed it's the year of the dragon..

 ..because they were..

 ..absolutely..

 ..and utterly..

 ..everywhere. It was very cool though and all the participants (several thousands I might add), were walking in a shallow canal, which made the whole show even more magical. 

 This was a fantasy rainbow creation (most of the wagons are supposed to represent ancient stories from the primarily Chinese culture), made totally out of balloons. It gave me flash backs from an after party in Jonkoping, Sweden, where we for some reason got a hold of a full bottle of He-gas, that we'd previously used for Valentine's balloons. I remember having cramps in my jaw and cheeks for almost a week after, from laughing so hard.

 Taiwanese dancers with really beautiful costumes in green and gold.

There were several luminescent ships holding all kinds of characters looking like pirates and what not.  

And of course the characteristic dragons were all over, getting closer..

..and closer..

..but we managed to keep our calm..

..and were out of there just in time for..

..the whole sky to light up by fire works..

 

..almost being Tokyo class. Almost ;)