Rosa d’abril.
Text and Photo © CM Cordeiro 2012
Mare de Déu de Montserrat or Moreneta, the Virgin of Montserrat, is a Romanesque sculpture in wood from the late 12th century. The hym to the Virgin of Montserrat begins with the words “Rosa d’abril, Morena de la serra…”, “April rose, dusky lady of the mountain chain”. It is for this reason that the Virgin is also known as “Rosa d’abril”. In her hand, she holds the globe of the world.
Continue reading “Visit to Montserrat, Barcelona, Spain”
At La Boqueria in Barcelona.
Text and Photo © JE Nilsson and CM Cordeiro 2012
Even if briefly visiting a new country, one of my most absolute favourite things to do is to go shopping for groceries at the local wet market, from fresh baked breads to cheese, eggs and various types of fruit both fresh and preserved. And while in Europe, the concept of ‘wet markets’ would differ from those in Asia, the spirit of trading at the break of dawn and the buzz of activities at a local focal meeting point would still be the fundamental connecting points in these entities.
Continue reading “Finding your way in Barcelona”
Morning coffee at La Roca shopping outlet Village, Barcelona
Text and Photo © JE Nilsson and CM Cordeiro 2012
A few years ago when visiting Italy, I had the pleasure of going “outlet shopping” at a large shopping centre just outside of Florence. It was more or less an entire village that was built just for the purpose of offering branded goods at discount prices. It was last seasons pieces, short series, not so successful colours, odd sizes and a fairly decent discount given to those who took the trouble to search through all this for something they liked. The prices are fine but you will also need to deal with the disappointment of finding a perfect pair of shoes in just that half size smaller model that would make them actually possible to wear on your feet.
This day in Barcelona, it wasn’t so much the shopping that we looked forward to, but rather just a reason to get outside of the city centre of Barcelona for a few hours. The La Roca Village (at La Roca del Vallès, Barcelona) was just about a 40 minutes drive from Plaça Catalunya, and this allowed for some indulgence in time to sightsee and catch-up on life whilst window shopping.
Continue reading “Morning in La Roca Village, Barcelona, Spain”
At W Singapore, Sentosa Cove.
W Hotels Worldwide are known for their luxurious interiors.
Text and Photo © JE Nilsson and CM Cordeiro 2012
Having grown up in Singapore, I’ve had the opportunity to observe Sentosa transform from a relatively quiet and exotic city getaway with accessible beaches that you could drive up to, park and picnic if you so wished, to one filled with attractions today such as Universal Studios alongside Resorts World that have both locals and visitors gather by the hundreds over the weekends for some fun.
This time my curiosity was piqued about the American W Hotels Worldwide’s newly opened W Singapore hotel and residences located at Sentosa Cove. A place targeted as part of the Singapore government’s efforts at building exclusive residential areas, this one in particular being currently the only seaside marina residential area in Singapore.
Continue reading “The tranquil at W Singapore, Sentosa Cove, Singapore”
Durian Cake.
Text and Photo © CM Cordeiro 2012
Part of my culinary adventures is to combine bits and pieces of knowledge and inspirations picked up from one context and transfer that to a different context, in anticipation of the results. Besides which, I didn’t think I could get away being back in Singapore without cooking or baking with the family.
Continue reading “Durian Cake, Singapore”
At Catalunya Singapore, The Fullerton Pavilion at Collyer Quay, Singapore.
Text and Photo © CM Cordeiro 2012
If it were not for a kind Samaritan I met along the way who pointed out directions to the Fullerton Pavilion in Singapore, I would have taken much more time before landing at the day’s lunch venue – Catalunya Singapore.
Coming in from the scorch of the mid-day tropical sun, it took a few seconds for the eyes to adjust to the dimmer interior of the bar and restaurant, though the line of sight didn’t need to venture farther than the reception to find a touch of Gaudí’s influence in the gleaming white broken mosaic pieces that clung to the columns of the dining interior. This influence of Gaudí would also continue, as I found, through the dining experience in the shapes and motifs of the plates and utensils on the table. Not two steps into the place, I was surrounded by individuals who spoke Catalan and Spanish, déjà vu and I felt right back in Barcelona again, and felt right at home.
Continue reading “Catalunya Singapore, a touch of Barcelona, Spain at the waterfront”
A weekend morning at the Strysö yacht marina – ’twas the time before breakfast, when all through the lull, not a creature was stirring, not even a gull… (freely after C. C. Moore)
Text and Photo © JE Nilsson and CM Cordeiro 2012
The summer has been unusually rainy they say. But for me, it has felt like each summer’s day thus far has had something interesting to share or show. Perhaps it was the growing up in Singapore, in the midst of warm tropical rainstorms that hits you one minute just to be replaced by sunshine from a clear blue sky the next minute that makes it impossible to think anything bad about rain, especially the warm kinds. Perhaps it is the fresh Nordic air, the complete silence or the deep sapphire blue waters lined with green, softly waving gossamers of seaweed that touches the primordial in you. The sense of serenity that greets you in the early mornings of the southern archipelago of Gothenburg is priceless.
In the land of the Midnight Sun, where the nights are short during summer, the stillness of the early weekend morning goes uninterrupted with nothing much stirring. It’s difficult to tell if the occasional persons are early risers or just on their way home from a yesterday’s come-together.
As I sit at pier side contemplating the breaking colours of a seaside dawn on the late summer days of 2012, I overlook the narrow waterway that leads the occasional boating tourist to this place that is also an important coastal route for commercial trawlers and bunker boats servicing containers ships en route to the Gothenburg harbour. I think it marvelous too that the same waters would come in rich shades of azure when lapping off the shores of the Swedish west coast archipelago that turns various shades of mangrove green when curled around the granite littered shores of Pulau Ubin in the archipelago of Singapore. Sitting here at dawn, that one force that swirls around the two entities that are continents apart in different climate zones reverberates at your core.
Continue reading “Weekend dawn, Swedish west coast marina”
On an island vintage transport moped, with an Emilio Pucci beach shopper bag.
Sail preppy in nautical red and blue at this year’s Donsö Harbour Festival organized by the local sports club.
Photos JE Nilsson and CM Cordeiro © 2012
As is the tradition the first Saturday in August, it was festival day at the island of Donsö in the Swedish west coast archipelago just outside of Gothenburg.
The crowd filled up fast along the Market Street as soon as the festival began. Compared to the Donsö Harbour Festival of 2011, where an enormous Skandia engine from the 1950s caught everybody’s attention with its comforting low key chug of a ship’s heartbeat, there was no real crowd stopper around this year.
The narrow street between the small red storage huts for shipping goods huddling near the seafront soon filled up with stands carrying all kinds of items. Everything from Swedish homemade marmalades and candy to hand knitted woolen scarves that one would always need up here in the Nordic countries, to high style cruising outfits.
Besides being something of a tourist summer’s paradise, Donsö island is also a functioning suburb to Gothenburg with the extra feature of having more ship owners and freight companies per square meter located here than anywhere else on the planet. Nothing much hints of this though except than that the number of luxury yachts and motor cruisers that are docked here side by side, reminds you more of Cannes at the Cote d’Azur than a Swedish fishing village.
Continue reading “Swedish west coast Harbour Festival, Donsö 2012”
On July 4, 2012, AsiaOne News ran an online article entitled “Social media drives MOE to revise sex education”.
In the past few days, news of sex education in Singapore had hit the international scene, crossing both geographical and virtual boundaries. Having only read some about this happening, I can share here that I remain ambivalent on the choice and use of words between “sex education” rather than “sexuality education”, the distinction of which might seem inconsequential but shows a general attitude and level of comfortability / approachability to the subject, AsiaOne indicating greater comfort in managing the topic than Singapore’s Ministry of Education (MOE), the very institution responsible for the education policy planning and general dissemination of knowledge of the subject at hand to promising young individuals upon whose shoulders Singapore will need to depend upon for its future success.
In today’s world of the Internet savvy where information is literally at one’s fingertips, and where search retrieval results act as general classifications, associations and even branding of identity, what is perhaps more important than a false sense of modesty is the accessibility and availability of information retrieved.
A google search and retrieve (dated 10 June 2012) for the terms “sex education” and “sexuality education” renders 661,000,000 hits in under 20s to the former and about 45,700,000 hits in about half a minute to the latter.
On the perspective of branding by association, the term “sexuality education” in contrast to the more direct “sex education”, carries ambivalent connotations. While the term is used by UNESCO under its efforts on improving prevention on HIV/AIDS, it at the same time appears in retrieved searches that tend towards the ultra-conservative in political views. From The Huffington Post, for example, a news article entitled “Abstinence-Only Sex Education Bill in Utah Prohibits Teaching Contraception” (posted Feb 2012) appears close in searches retrieved with Singapore’s MOE pages. Utah is one of USA’s most religiously homogeneous state, with approximately 60% of the population reportedly belonging to the Mormon Church that greatly influences their culture and daily life. Other closely associated results retrieved with the search terms “sexuality education” include videos, one of which is a cartoon version of “sexuality education” from Belgium targeted at children aged 6.
At MOE’s website under “Education > Programmes > Social and Emotional Learning > Sexuality Education > Scope and Teaching Approach of Sexuality Education in Schools”, readers will find find in the opening paragraphs (retrieved Tuesday, 10 July 2012, 22:40 hrs):
Sexuality Education
Scope and Teaching Approach of Sexuality Education in Schools
Abstinence before marriage is the best course of action for teenagers. Sexuality Education teaches students the possible consequences of sexual activity and that pre-marital sex is not desirable as there are inherent risks.
To reduce the incidence of STIs/HIV and teenage pregnancies among our young, a practical approach is adopted. Sexuality Education teaches students facts about contraception, repercussions of casual sex, and the prevention of diseases from a health perspective. This is in addition to teaching teenagers about building healthy relationships and how to say “no” to sexual advances.
Sexuality Education teaches students what homosexuality is, and the current legal provisions concerning homosexual acts in Singapore.
Both teachers and MOE-approved external speakers should respect that they are in a position of trust with respect to students and ensure that schools are not used as arenas for advocacy on controversial issues.
A quick discourse analysis of the text uncovers the Singapore governmental institution’s underlying sense of Victorian values and lack of ease with the subject of sex education. The opening paragraph that outlines the “scope and teaching approach” of sex education in Singapore schools raises a few questions due to inconsistencies in conceptual definitions (defining “secular” vs. “mainstream” values in multicultural, multi-religious Singapore) and logical fallacies, one of which is faulty correlation that the discourse tries to equate facts (how STIs are spread) with social values (preferred abstinence from pre-marital sex).
One wonders what kind of cat and mouse game teachers and students would play during class on the topic of sex education, or on whom the blinkers will lay when “abstinence before marriage” (a material act of individual choice) is considered “the best course of action for teenagers” (a social value hegemonically advocated in this discourse) that is also “a practical approach” (begs the question, from whose perspective and for which party concerned – the teachers, the parents or the teenagers?). Even the Roman Catholic Church in their long history of struggle and balance of politics and power, where abstinence, the result of which was a purposeful lack of heirs that dissolved assets in their division amongst many, was deemed a necessary measure of wealth building, power retention and consolidation for the institution and regime of the Church, has had trouble keeping their ordained leaders chaste.
Continue reading “Singapore needs a more mature perspective to sex education”
At Tjolöholm Castle for a Swedish summer wedding, 2012.
Text and Photo © JE Nilsson, CM Cordeiro 2012
Even in secular Sweden, the magic and stardust of a fairytale wedding never fades. This wedding was appropriately set in the last castles ever to be built in Sweden, Tjolöholm Slott, built between 1898 to 1904.
The relatively modern castle, located on the grounds of an older one that dates back into medieval times and beyond, is as romantic as could be. Though heartbreakingly enough the original owners, Blanche and James Fredrik Dickson never got to enjoy it together, since her husband James Dickson passed away when the building was just about to begin and only the facade had been decided on.
How apt too, that just two years ago in 2010, the Danish film director Lars Von Trier shot the exterior scenes just here, for his film Melancholia at this castle.
Continue reading “A summer wedding, Tjolöholm Castle, Sweden”