New Art - Queentown Bird Fanciers

Queenstown Bird Fanciers
Drawing
Roger Smith  2013

This small sketch is based on a photo I took with my mobile phone's camera as I was walking under an HDB block; en route from Queens condo to the Queenstown Public Library, Singapore .

It is a scene that was quite common with groups of retired men hanging their bird in wicker and metal cages above, sitting on plastic chairs and passing the time before the sun got too fierce.

Copies are available for $US 8.25 from  this online site.

Today's Drawing - Strathmore Drive

Strathmore Drive
Roger Smith, 2012

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Morning Rambles In Queenstown

It's not usual that I feature the photographic portfolios of other photographers on this blog but the exception is the work of Frank Starmer.

Frank lived in the same condo as I did,Queens, which is as its name suggests in Queenstown, Singapore.  I would often seem him trudge off in the morning with his camera gear and tripod as he went in search of insects and particularly spiders.  He is still doing so and generously puts his work online and allows non commercial sites to share it.

Bee Harvesting - Frank Starmer

Morning Butterfly - Frank Starmer

Hoverfly - Frank Starmer

I always find it interesting that two photographers in the same environment can respond to their surroundings in totally different ways.  Frank takes macro images using special lens to capture the structure and colour of nature while I chose to focus on the broader visual aspects of Queenstown.  Both in our own way recording the things that inspired us about Singapore life.

Queenstown Compositions

Queenstown #1
Roger Smith - August 2012

These two compositions are based on the sights, colour and textures of the old Queenstown Bowl building in Singapore.  I use to walk past it regularly and the patterns of decay always fascinated me.

Queenstown #3
Roger Smith - August, 2012

Copies of the above for sale here and here.

Strathmore Strolls

Strathmore Avenue - Queenstown

This photograph I took from the shady side of the street; not an uncommon approach to photography in Singapore.

We used to walk this way from Queens Condo to the NTUC supermarket at Dawson's Shopping Mall where we did most of our shopping for basics.

You could take the slightly longer route along Commonwealth Avenue turning left into Alexandra Road which was always a wet weather option.  Most of the time though we pushed our small shopping trundler and sheltered under a personal and silver topped umbrella to deflect the heat.

At first glance such housing developments might look fairly sterile places but the planting around the HDB blocks and in the adjacent open spaces means there is always a variety of bird life and other small animals.

A Year On - Pandan Thoughts & Hot Soup

This week marked the 1st anniversary of our departure from Singapore and arrival back in New Zealand; for me a moment of sad reflection.

Being one of those people who did not go to Singapore to live an Expat lifestyle, I found myself welcomed by colleagues and made good friends over the four years of our stay - most of the time living in Queenstown.

I admired Singapore before I went to live there and I admire it still.  It's not perfect but no place is.  It is a safe and there are no winters!  The sound of night birds and the lushness of tropical foliage even goes some way to mitigate the omnipresent heat and humidity, although I confess July in the Republic can be very trying.

By contrast, here in Auckland it is the season of porridge and hot soup.  Prices of good quality, tinned soups such as the Watties brand are great value; two servings for $NZ2.50 and these keep us fortified.

It is also the season for multiple layers of clothing and a quick sprint across the cold bathroom tiles first thing each morning.  At least as I write there are patches of sun between the strong westerlies and showers, which meant that I could get out for a walk.

It remains somewhat of a challenge to circumvent slowly pacing pensioners, their dogs on leash, as they hog the pavement and force one into the muddy slush on either side of the concrete.

Quite a change from my walks to the Queenstown library in Singapore where I hugged each patch of shadow under the HDB's to avoid the cranium-boiling sun.  A bottle of water was always in my carry bag as was my small umbrella, its silver side upwards to deflect the worst of the rays.

One of the more distinctive and welcoming smells of Singapore is that of the pandan leaf, which is used in a variety of kueh kueh and gives kaya toast its sweet aroma. Now these same leaves are being used in Asia's first aquatic science centre to filter out nitrates and phosphorus which promote algae growth and effect water quality.

While the NEA has problems stopping people littering their condos and HDB's to their credit they are on the ball when it comes to water quality.

Hollow Echoes

Image via Wikipedia

This is the final week in our condo and with all the boxes gone the place has a hollow echo.  I have never tired of looking out our lounge window at the changing Singapore skyline, with its steady procession of cranes as new buildings rise from their foundations.

I have watched the tropical storms come and go and felt the building reverberate to the sound of the thunder.

The night view is particularly attractive with the various coloured lights from the high rises much in evidence.

Just this morning I watched a large raptor ride the the thermals above Margaret Drive as it searched for prey hundreds of feet below.

These past three and a half years have been my first experience of apartment living. While I have enjoyed the change, it is fair to say that my wife has regarded it as a form of penal servitude and longs for the quietness of New Zealand. She is a Singaporean and has not enjoyed coming back whereas I have always felt a strong affinity to Singapore, going back to the 1980's when I first  visited.

To put it into context, I doubt I would enjoy going back to the town of my birth to live either.  Not that there is anything wrong with Waitara I hasten to add, it is just that we have nothing in common and the childhood memories are largely of wild west coast beaches and burning black sand in the heat of summer.  I have moved on.

The BBC World Service is broadcasting in the background as I write this.  What a marvelous thing quality radio journalism is.  It has keep us connected with the wide world during our time here; in a way that local media simply does not.

I only hope that we can get the World Service in New Zealand.  I recall it was privately sponsored by a wealthy NZ businessman several years ago but I am not sure if the service still exists?  There is a web site which says that the service still exists on 810 AM so here's hoping.

Dawson Road Now And Then

Strathmore Avenue / Dawson Road Now .................................... Roger Smith 2010

Dawson Road as it used to be - pre 1942

We walk down Strathmore Avenue to Dawson Road, then onwards to our NTUC supermarket at Dawsons Place

Dawson Road used to an area of Atap houses inhabited by hundreds of Hokkien and Teochew who grew vegetables and fruit, as well as raising pigs and chickens.

Later the same area was the site of the Buller camp run by the British military.

In 1942 an Indian POW, John Baptist Crasta, described Buller Camp as being on the tip of a small hill -  a quiet place admist trees.  It was evacuated ahead of the advancing Japanese on February 12th of that year.

On June 12th this same solder moved back to Buller camp under the orders of the Japanese.  The camp became known for its anti INA (Indian National Army) attitude. The image is of INA prisoners in Singapore.

Buller Camp was disdestablished in 1953

Of Mangoes And Thunderbolts

I don't really count myself as superstitious although I have been known to have the lucky number of 8 about my person when trying to better the odds.

Nor do I believe in most of the old Cantonese tales associated with food, particularly those that decry the consumption of raw fruit and vegetables in the fear that they may produce 'wind'.

If I recall correctly from boarding school days it was the consumption of cooked cabbage that produced this intestinal malfunction.

The sorry sight of the old mango tree beside the Queenstown MRT therefore had no bearing upon my mood.  One of its boughs, which had once sported eight ripening fruit,  had broken under the weight of the heavy crop and was blocking the drain that it had overhung.

It belongs to the TrueWay Presbyterian church which is on the site but they never seem to crop it.

I was making my final Sunday pilgrimage to the Queenstown Public Library where I have spent many happy hours in the reference section on the second floor.

Quite by chance I happened across Bill Bryson's memoir The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid (click on cover image right).

This is one of the funniest pieces of writing I have read for some time and I had to stifle my sobs of inner laughter to maintain the quite sanctity of the building. Even then the leather sofa on which I sat shook with my mirth.

I know Bryson from his travel writing but his description of his childhood in the 1950's was extemely enjoyable and a pointed commentary of the consumer society of the time.

It somehow seemed fitting that I should end my final library visit  in such a jovial mood, even though I am not one to believe in omens.

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Queenstown

In the boiled bone
miasma of the morning
the ochre brown of a cockroach
its dead legs spread towards the sky
and the soil
a root claw holding back results of rain

The two glazed elephants
are standing guard
next to the purple of a bougainvillea
while nearby a man with sinewed legs
searches for life
in the dry canal

Roger Smith.  May 27, 2010