Last weekend was eventful - a disco fever party at the condo on Friday night, Saturday morning we woke a little early as the girls turned into savages, made enough noise for a whole tribe and then put on quite a good dance show. We then went on a trip to Kusu Island, the Melbourne Comedy Festival Roadshow was on Saturday night, and on Sunday, after church, we were invited back to a family's house where we whiled away the afternoon by their pool. busy but all fun!
Our trip to Kusu Island turned into another little adventure. Kusu is a small island and has a Chinese temple, a Malay shrine, a giant turtle statue and two swimming lagoons. Legend has it that a giant turtle saved two shipwrecked sailors, one Malay and one Chinese, and hence they built the shrines as a thank you. Loads of people come here in the ninth lunar month to write a message of hope or hang one in the trees - we read a few - lots of people wanting to do well in exams, a few more wanted ipods.... After exploring the island, which didn't take long, we settled down to our picnic lunch and a swim and a play on the beach. It's amazing being in Singapore and having a beach to yourself.
Matt and the girls did some scrambling on the breakwater rocks when they spotted a jet ski that had four people on it. The people began waving for help and Matt realised the jet ski had stalled, they couldn't get it started and were drifting out into the shipping lane where containers ship were frequently passing. As there were no giant turtles in the vicinity it was left up to us to handle the rescue. I ran to ask a gardener if he could ring for help, thinking he might know the coastguards number, while Matt ran to the office on the island to ask them if they had a boat they could use. The guy at the office told Matt he could see a police boat coming near to the jet ski so it looked like the drama was over. The guy I had been speaking hadn't actually rung the coast guard like I thought but instead had rung the office. So the guy told me "the police already know about it". So I rang Matt and say "apparently the police have been called". When we got back to the beach and watched the police boat pass by a few hundred metres from the jet ski without offering assistance we realised how the man at the office had assumed wrongly that the police knew and so we rang the coastguard ourselves. They said they would be half an hour. In the meantime the jet ski kept floating further out coming very close to the traffic in the shipping lane. Matt managed to hail another jet ski and ask that man to go out to the stranded jetski people, let them know the coastguard were on their way and see what the problem was. The jet ski man managed to start the jet ski for the stranded family and we were all mightily relieved. They had been floating out to sea for about 45 minutes by this time. What adventures lies in wait for the Bertram family next weekend...stay tuned to find out.
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