Day 11, Year 4: We’re Going to be Grandparents, Again!
Date: Sunday, November 2, 2008
Weather: Mostly Sunny Day; Rain Shower Late in the Afternoon
Location: One 15 Marina, Sentosa Island, Singapore

We’ve been bursting at the seams for two and half months with the news that Justin and Jo are going to have a baby. Not just any baby, mind you, but our second grand baby. They actually called us on our cell phone when we were in the Seaworld anchorage on the island of Flores. We were so excited, but were sworn to secrecy until now. This morning we received an email from Justin announcing to friends and family that he is going to be a father, so we called to make sure it was okay for us to finally make the announcement to “our” world. The baby is due near the end of April and that is the reason we have been considering changing our sailing plans. If we went ahead as planned, we would be somewhere in the middle of the Indian Ocean in April and would not be able to fly home until December when we would reach South Africa. That’s just not going to work for us, so we are still considering the options. But one way or another, we will see that baby before it is a month old. Jo looked great while she was visiting us in Indonesia and you could hardly tell she was pregnant, but she emailed this week saying “the bump is showing.” So “wee gerbil” is starting to grow.

We were able to successfully talk to both of our children for over an hour each today via Skype. We’ve had an awful time with the wireless connection here, but after connecting an old antenna we bought back in Tahiti, we have had a great signal. We can’t believe we didn’t do this sooner, but we’ll take advantage of it now that we have it. Our visas are up on Thursday, so we have been planning to leave then, but as the time grows closer we have begun to think about extending our visa and staying a few more days. We’ll see how much we get done in the next two days and then make our final decision.

So I talked on the phone all morning and then worked on naming photos until mid-afternoon. I’m now working on naming the photos from Bali and that seems like another life ago. Hopefully I’ll get those done in the next day or two, and then I will start working slowly backward from there. When I look through our photos, I am amazed at how much we have seen and experienced this cruising season. But it just doesn’t stop. In the late afternoon we headed out to Little India with Robert and Tina of
Shirena. My goal was to visit some of the wonderful temples and then have dinner. So we did a “temple walk” around Little India. Our first stop was Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple on the main street in Little India. We have walked past it a number of times, but we took time to enter and watch as the devout Hindus were engaged in prayer and worship. We then walked to the other end of Little India passing a mosque on the way that was a hub of activity. We walked past the Temple of 1000 Lights and then around to the Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple which is a national monument. We’re not sure what was happening while we were there but it was so special to watch. There was music being played on a type of drum and a flute of sorts. The temple was just full of beautiful carvings, both inside and out, so it was a wonderful place to be this Sunday afternoon. After the temple experience, we walked through the crowds and found a place where only locals were eating in a back alley. We stopped and had a beer and ordered dinner, very cheaply, and then headed back to One 15 Marina by way of the Vivo Center. We made a quick run through the supermarket and bought more paper products and a loaf of bread and made the bus back to Sentosa. Tomorrow morning we plan to make an early morning trip to Arab Street. Since we didn’t make it to Java to buy batik material, I read that they have it on Arab Street. There is also the Sultan Mosque which is the center of Islamic Singapore. We read that its golden dome and massive prayer hall makes it one of Singapore’s most impressive religious buildings. We will then return to Windbird, I’ll work on naming photos, and if the weather is good, we will go to the Night Safari. Another busy day in Singapore!

081102 Day 11 Singapore–Temple Walk in Little India