Asian Adventure: Singapore Arrival

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Second Impressions

Singapore is a long, long way from Florida!  We flew to JFK and then got a flight to Singapore which continues on the same aircraft after a short layover in Frankfurt.  Flying time to Frankfurt is six and a half hours, then about 2 hours in the transit lounge and then 12 hours more to Singapore.  In effect, two nights on the plane and lots of meals and beverages in between. Singapore Airlines’ service was excellent.  The plane was not full and the cabin crew were most attentive.

It is more than 10 years since I was last here and it is as lovely as I remember.  Changi is the only airport I know that has orchids and gardens throughout—even the baggage claim area is punctuated by pots of pastels.  Entry was quick and easy and soon we were at our hotel.  The hotel staff greet you at every turn and everything is orderly and efficient and works.  An oasis of calm and tranquility.

Except I did manage to lock us out of our room on our small balcony!  I hadn’t wanted to close the sliding glass door all the way earlier since I was worried about that.  I was persuaded by my spouse that closing it was just fine—otherwise if I didn’t, the air conditioning would turn off.  So each time subsequently, I gently closed or almost closed the door.  This time I inadvertently pushed it with some force, and lo, the handle didn’t move and we were trapped outside!

Fortunately, it wasn’t sunset yet and there were still a few staff around the pool area below.  Said spouse leaned over (fortunately we were on a lower floor) and hailed a man with the words, “the balcony door is locked.”  About 5 minutes later, a smiling lovely staff member came to our rescue. She chuckled as she let us back in.  Later we saw her in the lobby and she just grinned!  I think we will probably be the talk of the next management meeting.  Surely, someone else has done this before.  I blame it all on jet lag!

Tidy Tidbits: Opera & Books

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The Oscars

While not surprised, I was disappointed that Boyhood did not win best picture, but very pleased that Patricia Arquette got an award for her marvelous role in this film.  As one article I read pointed out, the award winners are more and more divorced from what the American public goes to see.  Compared to American Sniper, which I haven’t seen, millions more people saw that than went to view Birdman.

Sarasota Scene

As part of the Sarasota arts smorgasbord, we sampled two Sarasota Opera productions last week.  The theater is small and there is an intimacy not found in San Francisco or New York.  Tosca was very good and The Golden Cockerel a beautifully staged production of an infrequently sung work by Rimsky-Korsakov.  The sets were lavish, colorful, and the equal of any opera we’ve seen anywhere.

Footnote

I finished Galgut’s Arctic Summer and enjoyed the rest of this novel.  It is based on Forster’s diaries, letters, and biographies and one appreciates his reluctance to consider himself a writer and Forster’s struggle bringing to birth Passage to India.  I remember being puzzled by that book when I read it many years ago and much preferred his Howards End.

 On the Road

I will soon be on my way to Asia so have loaded up my Kindle with novels and memoirs and a few other nonfiction books.  I always enjoy the Wall Street Journal’s weekly column, “Five Best,” and last week’s was books about spinsters.  I knew of Winifred Holtby and enjoyed the Masterpiece Theater presentation of her Testament of Youth some years ago and so I now have her novel, South Riding, downloaded and ready to go.  I also decided that it is time to re-read Jane Austen’s Persuasion for the third for fourth time as it is my favorite of all her works.  It too was cited in the column along with that Barbara Pym classic, Excellent Women.

Tidy Tidbits: Grandparenting & Forster

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Part of this past week was devoted to the delights of grandparenting so this is a shorter post.  I continue to be amazed and impressed at what a not-yet-3 year old comprehends, expresses and imagines.  There is a steady stream of conversation, lots of singing (all the verses of “London Bridge Is Falling Down”—even ones I didn’t know plus a verse in Japanese—and her own made-up songs), and many play scenarios from having a birthday party to going to the beach.  We actually went to the beach for real and she was thoroughly engrossed in building a sand castle and stepping just enough into the water for the waves to tickle.

At Grandma and Grandpa’s house, she was always ready to “help” so I had her assistance in measuring rice, stirring soup, and then setting the table.  In the kitchen, she would position the fold-up stool (a great invention, by the way) just so at the counter and pop up to help.  We also read books and a new one about a bear and a duck called Good Night Already! was requested over and over as in “Again, again.”

The four days passed all too quickly.  I’ve stored up memories, hugs, and the sound of her voice until the next visit.

This Week’s Book

Arctic Summer by Damon Galgut  Arctic

I was attracted to this novel for its promised portrayal of E.M. Forster.  I enjoy historical novels about artists and writers and thought Colm Toibin’s The Master about Henry James was itself masterful.  But, despite its nomination for the Man Booker Prize, I’m finding this book slow going, especially the opening chapters.  Forster’s travels to India and back, around England, and then to Egypt are sometimes hard to separate making for a muddled story line, but do show him gathering impressions and insights for his later novels, particularly Passage to India.  The book gets better farther on and is primarily a novel about the hurt and anguish of unrequited love as Forster, in his early thirties, comes to terms with his homosexuality.

I am persevering and having passed the midpoint will complete the book.

 

Tidy Tidbits: Boyhood, McEwan & Chocolate

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This Week’s Movie

Boyhood

I loved Boyhood. We watched it almost in one sitting with only a short break and it was so real.  It’s fiction, a scripted story, but because of its pace, it seems like a documentary.  Mason, the boy, is amazing, but there is something satisfying about watching the parent actors, Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawk, age too over the twelve years.   Being a mother, I was reminded of situations when my son was a teenager.

Boyhood is considered groundbreaking, but there is some precedent in Michael Apted’s Up series.  Apted has filmed the same group of people every 7 years since there were seven years old; the latest installment released several years ago captures them at the age of 56.  The difference is these are individual interviews about what has happened in their lives since the last filming and they are great social and life history. Boyhood creates the daily life of one young man continuously over 12 years.  It is fiction, but feels true.  Up is real people, but it is their reflections on events, not the events themselves.  I’m a fan of both.

One critic I read also examined the role of Mason’s sister, Samantha, and stated that she went from being quite vocal in the early years to getting quieter and less present and that this indicated something about the upbringing of girls.  So I watched Samantha more closely than I might have otherwise, but don’t agree with that critic’s assessment.  Samantha is not the focal point of the film to begin with and I don’t think she got lost.

This Week’s Book

The Children Act by Ian McEwan

I have now read several novels by Ian McEwan and find his writing to be concise and pointed.  Compared to some authors, his works are short to moderate in length.  There are no long descriptions, but rather short, pithy sentences that conjure up in the reader’s mind a person’s appearance or delineate a character’s feelings.  He is particularly good at shame and embarrassment.   Judge Fiona Maye in this his latest novel is walking home from work contemplating her feelings about her husband’s recent departure.

“She went slowly along Theobald’s Road, still holding off the moment of her return, wondering again whether it was not love she had lost so much as a modern form of respectability, whether it was not contempt and ostracism she feared, as in the novels of Flaubert and Tolstoy, but pity.  To be the object of general pity was also a form of social death.  The nineteenth century was closer than most women thought.  To be caught enacting her part in a cliché showed poor taste rather than a moral lapse.  Restless husband in one last throw, brave wife maintaining her dignity, younger woman remote and blameless.  And she had thought her acting days ended on a summer lawn, just before she fell in love.”

Childless Fiona is an intriguing character; I was drawn into her personal and professional life and the family law cases she must adjudicate.  Although I figured out much of the ending, I could sympathize with the approach she took in the Jehovah’s Witness case, the crux of the novel.  She is an appealingly imperfect human.

chocolates Sweet Treats

Valentine’s Day is this week which brings to mind candy hearts and flowers, but especially chocolate.  When I was a child, candy was a special treat and fancy boxes of chocolates something rare.  I have fond and tasty recollections of the special candies my parents received for their birthdays.  My grandparents would send them each a box of Gilbert Chocolates on the appropriate days in February and April.

The box was white and more square than rectangular with a green banner on it.  This was the era of milk chocolate and Gilbert Chocolates were milk chocolate that had tiny bits of nuts in the chocolate surrounding the caramel or cream center.  The favorite collection in our house was called Panama.  With four children eager to share in them, I’m not sure how many pieces my folks actually got for themselves!  I was pleased to discover that the Gilbert company, founded in 1900, is still doing business in Jackson, Michigan, with an expanded line including truffles, fudge, dark chocolate, and of course, the Panama Collection.  The web is wonderful!