Mocktails & A Beach Clean-Up!

Bundled up the dog and went to Pasir Ris Beach to join Ocean Purpose Project (OPP) for the morning for their reception to mark the closing of Singapore Maritime Week. 

Ocean Purpose Project is a lot more than just doing beach clean-ups and planting TCM and Ayurvedic herbs in its eco-garden. The chillies and bittergourd and all are happily flourishing. I'm so glad they've got this little plot of land allocated by our National Parks Board (NParks). 

It was a good turn-out. We did a short 20-minute beach clean-up. We've done countless beach clean-ups, which literally means bending over to pick up litter brought in by the currents. It's a never-ending job because our oceans are soooo polluted.

I gotta admit I didn't really pick up litter. I had to hang on to Choya. It isn't conducive for her to be walking in all that litter and sharp bits, or hot sand. I had to make sure she didn't get heatstroke. I delegated the husband to do my part. The dog was in charge of supervising the humans, looking cute, and I was just her minder. Heh. 

Choya was soooo pleased to be rolling around and sniffing all these new-to-her and new-old smells. She identifies places by smells, so when this is a spot that she doesn't come often, she goes crazy. She also loves the beach. She totally enjoyed chilling out with us in this manner. 

But OMG, Choya's licking. Grrrrr. Clostridium strains are heavy in decaying leaves and marine sediments. I had to clean her up thoroughly, but I was still frightened by the idea of her mushy poop for the next two days. (It wasn't too bad. It was foul-smelling; some clostridium spores activated, but very manageable.)

After the hot-hot-hot bits, we retreated to OPP's little hangout. There were house-made pesto with bread. NOMS. The pesto was super garlicky. Loved it. Went well with small bites of bread. I loved the mojitos that they served up. The sea grapes were sooooo cool. (It is an algae.) I loved that salty tang. It was a mocktail, to be specific. This was at 11.30am. Too early for alcohol. The mocktails were "crafted with seaweed, sea grapes, and herbs grown using our own seaweed fertiliser — part of Singapore’s first seaweed blue carbon sequestration site under UN Ocean Action (Project Tanah Air)".

It was also meant to be a networking thing. You know me. I left it to the husband to do so; he returned with a big bag of garbage, as much weight as it could hold. I watched the dog, and chilled. After all, I would be networking next week at a conference, and I would have no choice but to be social. So that would be sufficient for me.