Good morning Keong Saik Street, Singapore

Mad dogs, Englishmen, and Smithsonian Librarians go out in the noonday sun ...

A scorcher here today in Singapore ... looked like there might have been some rain, but never panned out.

Shoes outside the temple, which are mine?

There's a reason a devotee does not war tie shoes...

Pandan kaya butter toast, flat white & soft boiled eggs

Breakfast at the Oriole Coffee Roasters .... No I had no idea what kaya butter was, it's coconut jam : http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaya_toast

Good morning Singapore, Keong Saik Street

The classic drink of the Straits, Slung, Slang, Singapore Sling

Ok, a confession, I didn't have a Singapore Sling in Singapore; not only that, I didn't have it at the famed Long Bar of the Raffles Hotel. That concoction (recipe varies) isn't my idea of a good drink.

I'd also heard they were really pricey at the Long Bar (not that most everything in Singapore is pricey).

I was tempted and peaked in, but the time wasn't quite right (yes, I do know that it's 5 o'clock somewhere).

So, in any case, looks like the Singapore Sling will have to carry on without me!

QotD: "Raffles stands for all the fables of the exotic East" - Somerset Maughm

"Raffles stands for all the fables of the exotic East" - Somerset Maughm

And my oh my, what a hotel it is! More like a compound or a small city, Raffles Hotel has just about everything you would want, including Sikh doormen.

QotD: "A sweltering day in Australia ..." Mark Twain, Following the Equator (and the lawn of the SLV)

My lovely day at the State Library of Victoria, was not very hot, but it was warm!

A SWELTERING DAY IN AUSTRALIA. (To be read soft and low, with the lights turned down.) The Bombola faints in the hot Bowral tree, Where fierce Mullengudgery's smothering fires Far from the breezes of Coolgardie Burn ghastly and blue as the day expires; And Murriwillumba complaineth in song For the garlanded bowers of Woolloomooloo, And the Ballarat Fly and the lone Wollongong They dream of the gardens of Jamberoo; The wallabi sighs for the Murrubidgee, For the velvety sod of the Munno Parah, Where the waters of healing from Muloowurtie Flow dim in the gloaming by Yaranyackah; The Koppio sorrows for lost Wolloway, And sigheth in secret for Murrurundi, The Whangeroo wombat lamenteth the day That made him an exile from Jerrilderie; The Teawamute Tumut from Wirrega's glade, The Nangkita swallow, the Wallaroo swan, They long for the peace of the Timaru shade And thy balmy soft airs, O sweet Mittagong! The Kooringa buffalo pants in the sun, The Kondoparinga lies gaping for breath, The Kongorong Camaum to the shadow has won, But the Goomeroo sinks in the slumber of death; In the weltering hell of the Moorooroo plain The Yatala Wangary withers and dies, And the Worrow Wanilla, demented with pain, To the Woolgoolga woodlands despairingly flies; Sweet Nangwarry's desolate, Coonamble wails, And Tungkillo Kuito in sables is drest, For the Whangerei winds fall asleep in the sails And the Booleroo life-breeze is dead in the west. Mypongo, Kapunda, O slumber no more Yankalilla, Parawirra, be warned There's death in the air! Killanoola, wherefore Shall the prayer of Penola be scorned? Cootamundra, and Takee, and Wakatipu, Toowoomba, Kaikoura are lost From Onkaparinga to far Oamaru All burn in this hell's holocaust! Paramatta and Binnum are gone to their rest In the vale of Tapanni Taroom, Kawakawa, Deniliquin—all that was best In the earth are but graves and a tomb! Narrandera mourns, Cameron answers not When the roll of the scathless we cry Tongariro, Goondiwindi, Woolundunga, the spot Is mute and forlorn where ye lie.
Mark Twain, Following the Equator (1897)

Qantas 35: MEL to SIN

Good morning and so long Melbourne!

1 martini, 2 martini, Manhattan ... shaken up at the Bar Humbug in Melbourne

As I walked from the Southern Cross train station to my hotel in Melbourne, I went via Little Bourke Street and saw "Bar Humbug". It immediately caught my eye, but since I was staying a ways away, I didn't think I'd go there.

But, when I returned to Melbourne after a few days in Lorne, it turned out my new hotel was just steps away ...

And thus began a string of three visits to Bar Humbug. First visit was with a colleague from South Africa and we spent our time cooking up schemes (and I enjoyed my rye Manhattan). The other two times, I stopped in on my way to our group dinners.

Both those times I went with a martini. First night, the great and most excellent bartender shook it up and it was so different, I had to ask why. Turned out he used a gin, Gin Mare, a gin from Spain with some interesting botanicals.

When I returned, I also returned to the Gin Mare martini, but went with a twist instead of olives. Also a great choice.

QotD: "The Australians did not seem to me to differ noticeably from Americans, either in dress, carriage, ways, pronunciation, inflections, or general appearance." Mark Twain

"The Australians did not seem to me to differ noticeably from Americans, either in dress, carriage, ways, pronunciation, inflections, or general appearance. There were fleeting and subtle suggestions of their English origin, but these were not pronounced enough, as a rule, to catch one's attention. The people have easy and cordial manners from the beginning—from the moment that the introduction is completed. This is American. To put it in another way, it is English friendliness with the English shyness and self-consciousness left out." Mark Twain, Following the Equator (1897)

 

QotD: Nature's fondness for dabbling in the erratic was most notably exhibited in that curious combination of bird, fish, amphibian, burrower, crawler, quadruped ... called the Ornithorhynchus

"Speaking of the indigenous coneys and bactrian camels, the naturalist said that the coniferous and bacteriological output of Australasia was remarkable for its many and curious departures from the accepted laws governing these species of tubercles, but that in his opinion Nature's fondness for dabbling in the erratic was most notably exhibited in that curious combination of bird, fish, amphibian, burrower, crawler, quadruped, and Christian called the Ornithorhynchus—grotesquest of animals, king of the animalculae of the world for versatility of character and make-up." Mark Twain, Following the Equator (1897)

This image is from the library at the Melbourne Museum. The museum hosted the start of the Global BHL meeting with "BHL Day" that included an open house for the visiting librarians.