This morning, Prescott and I headed out to the National Parks Board’s “Parks for Everyone” celebration at Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park.  We were curious to see just what a parks festival might be in Singapore, and I wanted to peruse the plants (as usual).  The event itself looked just like what you would expect:  lots of white tents, a stage, people wearing matching shirts.  The only real surprise was a “Fringe Events” tent, which had kids’ activities (I still have no idea what’s “fringe” about that).

We arrived just in time for the “Success and Failure With Orchids” talk, only to find that the presenter had gotten his times mixed up and wasn’t there.  But the members of the Southeast Asia Orchid Society filled in nicely, giving us some tips on which orchids grow well in Singapore and answering lots of audience questions.  I learned a lot.  Prescott learned that he should pee and pour beer on our orchids.  I’m a little worried about that.

After the presentation, we walked around the Arts and Garden tent looking at the vendors’ wares.  I talked with the Orchid Society folks for a while, asking them a million beginner grower’s questions.  Their volunteer was really helpful (and badly wanted me to join their organization).

I especially love orchids like the ones below and was sad to learn that most of them won’t grow under my balcony’s light conditions:

Instead, I went home with a miniature dendrobium, a coelogyne, and a cattalya hibrid (information that will be interesting to exactly two of my blog readers, assuming that my sister and my old neighbor both make it to this post).  Here’s my new Frosty Dawn dendrobium:

Unfortunately, Prescott and I didn’t really get to see much more of the festival or walk around the park, because it started absolutely pouring rain about an hour after we arrived.  Fortunately, because this is Singapore, nice young people from the National Parks Board walked around handing out free ponchos.

As a side note on movies, Pres and I went to a very cool old (for Singapore) theater that shows indie films last night.  Most of the theaters in Singapore just show blockbusters — for example, we watched “Mr. Strange” in IMAX 3D last weekend — so this place was a welcome find.  It’s on the fifth floor of a seedy mall in the only area of Singapore that I’ve ever heard anyone call “dangerous” (that’s from our cab driver, and we have no idea what “dangerous” might mean in this country).  We saw “Hunt for the Wilderpeople.”  It’s charming and hilarious  in a way that only a film from New Zealand can be.  We recommend it highly.