Pretension’s eldest surviving relative, a maiden aunt on her mother’s side, passed away today. She was 96. The death comes at a particularly busy time for P as she is attending a large scale company conference with senior management next week and is due to fly off to (oh, irony) Melbourne for work immediately after.

Eldest Aunt went to Australia to study nursing when she was in her teens and continued working in Melbourne through the second world war and beyond. She never married although she reportedly had many suitors in her youth. P remembers her occasional visits to Singapore during P’s early childhood, often bearing gifts of Cadbury’s chocolates.

A plump, often irascible figure, who was well-known in her Ivanhoe neighbourhood – she often complained about aches, pains and ailments and was a bit of a hypochondriac. P caught it from her for accidentally unscrewing a doorknob during one visit to her home in the ‘80s.

Eldest Aunt was persuaded to return to Singapore by her sisters in her last years due to her increasing frailty and degenerating health. P was against this; she felt EA would have been happier in an Australian nursing home, since she had lived there all her life. P didn’t fight it tho’ and perhaps she should have as EA’s final years were not as happy as they could have been. She hated most local food, the hot and humid Singapore climate and became increasingly trapped in her small room as her mobility decreased. EA also missed her Australian friends, and though they corresponded regularly (by letter), this obviously did not substitute for the chats over the fence or at the shops. The couple of times P visited her in Singapore, EA was quite often in tears.

Eldest Aunt developed a stomach ulcer in October 2008 and was promptly dispatched to a local hospital by an officious sister. During the operation she contracted a respiratory virus which gradually escalated to Pneumonia. She has had several ups and downs since then and has been in and out of critical care. P last saw her just over ten days ago – it was one of her good days; she could sit up in her wheelchair and grunt responses to questions, but her once generous frame had collapsed in on itself like a bent sail.

Two days ago,  EA had another relapse and her lungs began to go. This afternoon, she was finally released from what had become an alien prison to her – RIP Eldest Aunt. P is only sorry she didn’t do more when you were alive.

Fear no more the heat o' the sun,

Nor the furious winter's rages;

Thou thy worldly task hast done,

Home art gone, and ta'en thy wages;

Golden lads and girls all must,

As chimney-sweepers, come to dust.

Shakespeare

This is British composer Gerald Finzi’s setting of that poem.

The Sentosa Flowers is a garden show where part of the artificial island of Sentosa (off the coast of Singapore) is covered with blossoms and blooms and all things green. Pretensions remembered really enjoying the 2006 Show and decided to take advantage of the 2nd day of the Chinese New Year (public holiday) to go see pretty Spring flowers.

Unfortunately, so did a large percentage of the population of Singapore, judging from the overflowing car parks that forced P to park on the other side of the island. Upon exiting from the car park, P had to join a long snaking queue that had formed in wait for the arrival of the shuttle buses between the Cove and Imbiah/Palawan Beach (the location of the flower show). The situation was not made better by the scorching afternoon sun and P’s lack of foresight (no hat, no sunblock). P was also dragging her aged parents around the flowers with her, so she was a little worried that she would wear them out.

Fortunately, the bus shelter was decorated for the festive season and the buses well air-conditioned, which helped a lot.

The buses dropped everyone off at Beach Station, where visitors had the option to stroll down Palawan Beach (School Gardens, Golden Harvests or Giant recycled statue) or head up towards Imbiah and the iconic Merlion statue. P chose the latter.

Visitors first had to climb a long snaking ramp to reach an area of Gaudi-inspired fountains. P particularly liked the wrought iron trellises that adorned this area. Very in keeping with the louche sort of architecture that characterised this part of Merlion Walk.

The multi-coloured mosaic fountains were also easy on the eye and kept the children in the area amused by spurting unexpectedly – P particularly liked these fierce-looking sea-dragons spouting water!

Coming up the mosaic colonnade, P succumbed to increasing thirst and heat and bought some shaved ice – interestingly, you could opt to have it with various kinds of Jam and condensed milk toppings – P chose strawberry (see below), while the parental types opted for Hokkaido Ice Cream.

From the icon of the Merlion, the Spring gardens spread in tiers down to Imbiah monorail station. P had been wondering how the show was going to manage since the previous show had been held on the grounds of the Fountain Gardens, which have since been closed to prepare for the new Sentosa casino, oops Integrated Resort.

What happened was that the gardens spread vertically up the slope and then down to the monorail station. P would like to congratulate the designers for coping, but she still finds the whole concept a lot more claustrophobic than the old Fountain Gardens.

Anyway, there were some nice displays – the theme this year was “Traveller’s Garden” aka Gardens of the World, so there were some kitschy items like Teepees and this Geisha (which all of us agreed looked rather like a transvestite) and hardly did justice to a noble Japanese tradition.

P much prefers a beautiful Dahlia any day!

Lots of people were queuing up to pose in front of the Sentosa Floral Wall or the Giant Ox statues (for the Lunar New Year), but P couldn’t be bother to do either, so excuse her taking pictures of other people.

  Anyway, P would prefer slightly more traditional oxen a la the Wall Street Bull.

Finally, P really liked the floral topiary swans that had been set up in front of the Merlion’s waterfall – wonderful stuff (see below)!

On the whole a nice flower show, but it would have been a lot more enjoyable minus about 500 people. Still a fun day out for all the family!

Related Links

Sentosa Flowers 2009 on SingaporeSights.com