1st of September 2007

This weekend had its ups and downs. It was Michael and Chloes Birthday on Thursday and we had a little party in the house. We went out for a meal at the local Raffles Restaurant (not affiliated with the Singapore Raffles) on Friday evening. The food and service is excellent. It used to be a dump but was recently refurbished and retains much of the original art-deco theme.

Seeing as we didn't have relatives we made some of our own and invited them along.



Don't eat it all!


















Raffles restaurant before it got busy. The picture doesn't do it any justice. it's beautiful.

At 4am on Saturday morning Michael heard a horrific crashing noise and ran around the house to see what had collapsed. Nothing obvious so back to bed. When we got up we soon realised what had happened. Thanks to termites (lovingly named white ants http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Termite) one of the big trees in the back garden, eaten from the inside out, crashed to the ground, missing the house but taking out a light wooden lattice roof that covered a barbecue area. Ooops. Glad nobody was there as it is a considerable weight and would easily have knocked the side of the house down had it gone the other way. Don't worry; Owner and leasing agent have been round to see the damage and assured us a tree-lopper will be round early next week to remove this and the other infected tree which is even bigger and still standing.

Later on Saturday we went for a drive and stopped off at a boat dealer. As you'll see in the photographs Chloe and Michael's idea of our first boat differs somewhat from Delia's! Guess we'll have to discuss it a bit more before coming to a compromise.

Chloe and Dad's first Boat

Mam's first boat!!!!!!!!!!!!!