Jocelyn has arrived!

For those of you who don’t know my family, Jocelyn (a.k.a. J) is my sister.  She flew in on Thursday night for her first ever trip to Asia.  She arrived bearing the smallest amount of luggage I’ve ever seen someone bring for a three-week stint overseas (luggage that seemed mostly to be filled with a haul of nuts and dried fruit from Trader Joe’s that she kindly brought over for me).  It’s an impressive packing job.

We started our day yesterday with a walk to the nature park near my house.  We both agree that this is the cutest dog you could have in a “no dogs” sign:

We walked slowly, allowing J to get used to the heat and humidity, while we hoped that monkeys might appear.  J wisely pointed out that wildlife rarely shows up on demand, but to our we were happy to find a group of monkeys running around above us on our return journey.  We spent a long time watching them clamber around in the trees.

After a quick tour through our condo’s pools and a swim, J and I next ventured to Chopseuy Cafe for lunch and then to the Botanic Gardens.  We wandered through looking at plants, an activity we both love.  We found this bizarre cannonball tree:

And then we spent some time on these great swings that they have in parks all over Singapore:

Our plan was to go to the National Orchid Garden, which is inside the Botanic Garden, but we got diverted by the Frangipani Collection…

… and then by the formal Sundial Garden, and then by the Bonsai:

That’s a bonsai banana plant!  Amazing!

We finally made it to the Orchid Garden, which is always stunning.

J used to grow orchids with some level of earnestness, so she knows the different varieties and is assisting in my orchid education (though I spent all afternoon trying and failing to memorize the name Paphiopedilum).  I paid better attention than I have before to the many, many different kinds of orchid flowers:

We sat amongst the orchids:

And visited the orchids up close:

We also ran into Santa and the gnomes again!

It’s hard not to love the Botanic Gardens, no matter how many times I’ve visited.  I found flowers I’ve never seen before:

J and I ended the day with a workout at the gym and then at dinner with Prescott at the Italian restaurant downstairs.  There was a huge thunderstorm while we ate — it looks like the rainy season may truly be here.