New Year in Singapore: why double luck?; flashback to September 2025 in Singapore; New Year’s Eve at One Farrer Hotel featuring Queen Forever, Direct from Down Under (like us!); high tea at the Tanglin Club; Din Tai Fung with the Campbells; Swiss Club with Geri; Sunday Brunch at Ritz-Carlton (of course); catch-up in Katong with the Usual Suspects; Year of the Fire Horse in Chinatown; A Short History of Roy Being Unimpressed; Brasserie Astoria, Empress Place, with Lynn
Why double luck? Because I got to celebrate the new year twice … both times in Singapore. Not only the traditional 1 January festivities with Roy, but also a solo trip where I auspiciously caught the tail-end of Chinese New Year. More specifically, the 2026 Chinese Fire Horse Year.
One of the most charming things about Singapore is the enthusiasm with which everyone celebrates everyone else’s festivals, from Hari Raya Puasa, Deepavali and Vesak Day to Christmas, Good Friday and the Easter Bunny.
Flashback to September 2025
Another visit to Singapore hadn’t been on the cards for us. After all, were there as recently as September 2025 for our friend Paul Baragwananth’s over-the-top 69th birthday bash in conjunction with a trip to the frankly fabulous Bawah Reserve, Indonesia.
See here and here for related posts (complete with pics of Roy frolicking on the beach) from my other blog, Living Long & Strong with Verne and Roy (vernemaree.com). You can also click here and here for a couple of my previous posts on Singapore, if you like.
New Year in Singapore: Hello, 2026!
But when our Californian friends, the Campbells, announced that their whole family – Steve, Ellie and 24-year-old twins Payton and Prescott – would be spending New Year’s in Singapore, Roy and I couldn’t resist booking flights. They’d be staying at the new, upscale Artyzen Singapore in Cuscaden Road, close to where they used to live before returning to California. (They loved the hotel.)
Paul and Salinah kindly hosted us at their Hilton Baragwanath for the first three nights, after which we spent a few days at Lynn & Kim’s stylish apartment in the atmospheric Art Deco neighbourhood of Tiong Bahru.
New Year in Singapore at One Farrer Hotel
This was a super-fancy, five-course event with free-flowing wine, champers and a price to match. A Queen-themed Aussie band – direct from Down Under, just like us! – was the entertainment highlight. There was also, alas, a local magician, dancers and sundry singers. In self defence we danced, we drank too much and we were the last to leave. Pretty much par for the course, then.
Out and About
Apart from meeting up with the Campbells for New Year in Singapore, we caught up with whichever friends from our Singapore days happened to be in town.
Swiss Club with Geri
Now based in Mallorca, Geri luckily happened to be in Singapore for a few weeks. She was staying at the Swiss Club, just a walk away from Paul and Salinah’s in the Bukit Timah neighbourhood.
A couple of nights later, we returned to the Swiss Club for dinner with Paul and Salinah -– another lovely meal.
Sunday Brunch at the Ritz-Carlton, Singapore
Whether it’s New Year in Singapore or any other season, one of our favourite things to do, and also one of the city’s best-value splash-outs, is Sunday brunch at the Ritz-Carlton.
Tanglin Club Singapore, High Tea
Surrounded by refined wood panelling and colonial British charm, what better way to spend an afternoon than a leisurely chat over a series of large pots of Earl Grey with a steady supply of scones, cakes and sandwiches? This was New Year’s Day at the Tanglin Club with our hosts, Paul and Salinah, some of us looking slightly better than we felt.
The Mango Tree, Katong, Singapore
The Mango Tree is one of Bas and Malinda’s favourite local restaurants in a cast of literally hundreds. It’s in coastal Katong, on the East Coast and one of Singapore’s coolest neighbourhoods. We only just got to squeeze in seeing Sue, who was back from Christmas in South Africa, and Paul and Florie who’d just returned from a busy festive season at Bawah Reserve.
Of course the food was great, though I can’t remember what we ate. Never mind, these get-togethers with members of the Usual Suspects from our Singapore days are more about the company than anything else. We ended up with a loop-dop (one for the road) at a the cutely named Mooloolabar around the corner.
Hello, Year of the Fire Horse!
I had a jolly good excuse to go back to Singapore for a few days during the first week of March.
In theory, I could have asked a friend to pick up my new passport from the South African High Commission in Singapore and have it couriered to me here in Perth. But that august office doesn’t exactly make it easy, so I went myself. Passports can be collected only on a Wednesday, and only between 2pm and 3pm. That’s after making me wait for six months for the new passport… I applied in early September!
Fearing that my passport would not arrive in time for our upcoming trip to Spain, poor Roy has for many months been as anxious as an anteater with a blocked nose and as growly as a bear. You can’t blame him. He’s still on tenterhooks now as we wait for the French Consulate in Sydney to grant my Schengen visa, give it a good lick, stick it into the new passport and send it back to me. (Though I sagely remind Roy that no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should, he remains unimpressed.)
A Short History of Roy Being Unimpressed
Yay for Singapore Airlines!
Thank goodness that we’re flying SIA to Spain in May. Opposite Raffles Hotel, which is almost next door to the SA High Commission in Odeon Towers (331 North Bridge Road), is the Emirates HQ. It looked like a giant goldfish bowl wherein languished dozens of passengers, miserably stranded by the Iran war-related closure of Dubai Airport
Sleeping Like a Queen and Eating Like a Fire Horse
Salinah and Paul kindly put me up (put up with me?) for the three nights in the Baragwanath Hilton’s best guest suite.
As mentioned, I was lucky to catch the tail-end of Chinese New Year… especially as Salinah was hosting a small CNY dinner for me and another guest. Nick, an old friend of theirs, was stopping over just for one night on his way back home to England from New Zealand. (Not flying Emirates, happily for him.)
Chinese New Year in Singapore, Chinatown
With a few hours to while away before the South African High Commission deigned to open its doors to me, taking a bus to Chinatown was a good idea. Picturesque Pagoda Street was lined with stalls and eateries doing brisk business.
While tourists in the temporary cafés forked over for so-so $30 lunches and $18 beers, I ducked into People’s Park Food Centre for a $7 plate of roast pork, chicken, bok choy and broth that was enough for two people. (Yes, I ate the lot.)
Chinatown isn’t all pagodas and shophouses: here’s Sri Mariamman, Singapore’s oldest Hindu temple, located at 244 South Bridge Road. This national monument was built in 1827 by one Naraina Pillay, a pioneer from Penang who accompanied Sir Stamford Raffles.
Brasserie Astoria, Empress Place
This is higher-end dining, the other end of the spectrum from food centres like the one in People’s Park where I stuffed myself yesterday (see above).
It’s always good to meet up with Lynn, who was spending some time at her Tiong Bahru home. She suggested we try Brasserie Astoria, at 11 Empress Place, located inside the beautiful old Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall.
Again, it was just a $2 bus-ride from Bukit Timah to Empress Place… and I love the buses!
Next Up?
We’re hugely looking forward to six weeks in Spain, starting in early May. I’ve been hard at work learning the language on Duolingo – as hard as such a gamified app experience can be – but I have little expectation of actually being able to converse with the natives. Fortunately, I’ve heard that the new iPhone translation app works really well.
