Scatterday - G

SCATTERDAY is the name of a fun challenge I've joined, designed for scatter-brained people like me who often need a little spark to help their creativity to keep firing.

It's the brainchild of my fiendishly creative friend, Michelle and her friend Dy, and it goes like this.......



Each week they pick a letter of the alphabet + 3 categories. Our assignment (should we choose to accept it) is to take a photograph of an item beginning with that letter of the alphabet in each of the 3 categories. We plan to post our photo mosaics on our blogs each Saturday. Sounds like fun, doesn't it?



This week's photos are brought to you by the letter "G" and the categories Car, Colour and Household Item.

Car - This is my little car, a Getz, which I love. It's only a 3 door manual hatchback, but that's plenty big enough for me. It getz me wherever I want to go, and twice a week it even ventures through the Sydney Harbour Tunnel to visit my parents on Sydney's North Shore and to pick up the typing my brother gives me.

Colour - Gold. Not exactly Wordsworth's "host of golden daffodils", but a single bloom from a bunch I bought for a friend yesterday. After all, it is Daffodil Day, the first day of spring.

Household Item - Grater! I love the idea of photographing an everyday item up close, or from an unusual angle, so that it takes a few seconds longer to recognise.

The Bugis Street Markets

Meeting Mona

This is me (and Boak below) with Mona at the Singapore Zoo.

She's a HUGE snake. I can't remember whether she's a constrictor or a biter, but either way I wouldn't like to get her angry, or frightened. However her keeper was just out of the photo, so I thought I'd be brave.

After all, if Sarah could hug tigers in Thailand, surely we could pat a python?

Singapore Slings at Raffles

No visit to Singapore would be complete, at least for us, without a long cool Singapore Sling in the Long Bar at Raffles, where you are actually encouraged to drop your peanut shells on the tiled floor!

Singapore - our last port of call

We're home now, but my account of our trip wouldn't be complete without a little on our Singapore stopover, which proved the perfect antidote to jet-lag.

Until we landed at Changi Airport in Singapore I had no idea where Boak had booked to stay for our 3 day Singapore stopover. It was to be a surprise, and I was so excited to find that we were to stay at the luxurious Raffles - The Plaza, across the road from the original Raffles.

Breakfast with the orangutans at the Singapore Zoo the next day was fun - and no, we didn't share the same food! While we sat at tables eating our delicious smorgasbord breakfast, zookeepers brought the orangutans across from their enclosure, via platforms and vines hanging from the trees, to a raised platform nearby. Here we watched them eating their own breakfast, and could have our photo taken standing near them.

Do you think it's just possible they might have thought they were being brought across to watch the humans having breakfast, and to have their photo taken near these curious creatures??

Afterwards we were able to spend a few hours wandering around this beautiful zoo. The gardens are lush and, like all of Singapore, immaculately kept. The animals all looked happy (if it's possible to make such an assessment from a brief visit) and their environments were very comfortable looking.

The Singapore Zoo also impressed me with its care for visitors. Bearing in mind the high temperatures and humidity all year round, they have built air conditioned viewing shelters beside various popular animals, so you can scurry inside and cool off while you observe the wildlife - how very civilised!

Below is a collage of some of the many animals we saw, including a polar bear, white rhino, zebra, giraffe, lioness, cheetah, turtle, crocodile and flamingoes.


Here is a collage of some of the brightly coloured flowers and foliage I photographed in Singapore, including a brilliant bright pink frangipani.

Flashback to Rome - Coins in the fountain

Oops, I almost forgot to assure you that we did throw our coins in the Trevi Fountain - once we had waded through the crowds that seemed to be there all hours of the day.

Fine? dining in Manciano

This is a wild boar, a stuffed one. He's called a cinghiale and we've eaten him in many forms this week - casseroled, roasted, skewered, cured, and minced on crostini. He's delicious!!!

And this is the view over Manciano, at dusk (around 9pm) from our regular table at our favourite trattoria. We loved it so much we ate here every night this week, and even had our regular table. Manciano isn't one of the most picturesque towns, but it's quite pretty and romantic on a balmy summer night at dusk nevertheless. We even danced (just one dance) one night!