Overacuppa in town

Good friend, May, came to town a couple of weeks back and we've been having a good reunion. Two sundays ago, Desiree, May and I paid a visit to the Asian Civilisations Museum. Desiree, who gives the occasional tour at any of Singapore's museums, told us that her friend was giving a tour of the Fantastic Mountains exhibit, which features Chinese landscape painting from the Shanghai Museum, so the three of us (Joan was in Sydney, and Van Tan had something on) agreed to attend. May's parents came to enjoy the paintings too. Unfortunately, Desiree's friend couldn't make it, but May's wonderful mom came to the rescue. I've never met anyone who knows so much about Chinese history and art!

Many of the paintings were set on scrolls and displayed great detail of trees, temples and clouds. I particulaly liked how the artists rendered billowing clouds. The rock formations were impressive and they lent a deep sense of peace to the painting (and the viewer). I was intrigued by the travel paintings - long horizontal works of art. The artist had travelled a great distance and painted the landscape before him during his journey. Looking at it, I was in awe of China's rural beauty, and very appreciative of how the mountains in China differ from those in Europe and in North America. The mountains in China just seem more...poetic.

We went round the Peranakan exhibition too, where I got to see a number of antiques that belonged to my uncle Tony and his friend Colin.

Just a few days ago, the five of us finally had a full reunion. We had an excellent dinner at an Indonesian restaurant in Ngee Ann City. We couldn't finish everything though, and Desiree had to divvy up the remaining portions and force everyone to finish. Dessert was yummy at Coffee Club in Paragon - fondue (dipped fruits in chocolate), hazelnut lattes, a slice of Royaltine cake...

The following day, May, Joan, and Desiree came to my place to watch the wedding video. Before the show started, I made them have some food and drink. The food was fine, but the drinks didn't quite work out. I somehow managed to serve them milk instead of soya bean milk. Ever the brilliant hostess, I am. And then the video wouldn't play on the projector, so we had to watch it on a laptop. Almost a year already, we had such fun last July - the girls rescuing me when I had no makeup to wear just before going to the tea ceremony at LK's home, Van Tan wearing her sarong kebaya and posing with me, May getting accosted (as usual!), Desiree making fun of me and telling me not to freak out, Joan telling Desiree off.

I can imagine that when the time comes for me to be a mom, my kids will be very lucky to have these four special godmothers or aunties or whatever they wish to be called!

Posted by Monoceros at July 5, 2004 8:30 PM