Before moving to Singapore I was quite proud of the fact that I didnt own an umbrella. It's kind of a badge of honor to be umbrellaless in Seattle, which is known for its constant rain. Things are very different now, when it rains in Singapore it POURS and without a car around to save me I finally had to re-evaluate my stance on umbrellas.
Two weeks ago, Orchard road was flooded in just a few short hours by heavy rainfall.
Last week we had another torrential rain, which I was able to capture from our living room window.
This rain lasted for about 2 hours yet managed to flood the pool
I had to walk in the rain (with new umbrella) through this mini-lake to get to the train
Lesson learned: umbrellas are a necessary item to carry with you at all times. The weather is unpredictable, sunny one moment and stormy the next. Important to note- make sure your umbrella is not the tallest thing around as Singapore is struck by lightning every other day and more people die from lightning strikes than in traffic accidents.
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Living in Singapore
# 1 - This car is not a compact it's an SUV
# 2- You never have to worry about when laundry day is
# 3 - You are never sure about what you actually buying at the store
# 4 - Men have no problems carrying a ladies purse
# 5 - You can find sheep's placenta supplements at the grocery store
#6 - If the capsule version of sheeps placenta is not doing the trick, just go buy the real thing
#7 - It is perfectly normal to wear matching outfits as an adult couple
#8 - Lines...learn to love them or you will go crazy. We waited 45 minutes in this line to eat at Nandos. Well worth every minute.
#9 - You never know what you will find while reading labels
# 10 - No one is ever too old for Hello Kitty...even on your wedding day.
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Living in Singapore
I know its just been a few days and I am grocery shopping again, but don't forget that I have to carry home everything I buy. Anyway, I was better prepared for this shopping excursion as I had my handy granny cart with me. I know there are people out there that may mock the granny cart, in fact I used to be one of those people but this cart has saved my life! So I am shuffling along with my very heavy wheeled cart when out of nowhere this handsome man (Kingsley) comes riding up and asks if he can be of assistance. I was only too happy to offer him my (granny) bag which he valiantly accepted then rode off into the sunset...
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Kingsley
It's no secret that Singapore has a lot of rules. Some are written, for example there are signs everywhere telling you not to take durian in taxis or on public transportation (oops)
...and there are other rules that are just understood. Like when you see a line for a taxi you do NOT walk halfway up the street to catch the next taxi before it reaches the
official taxi line.
I have witnessed this horror a few times but today was the worst. I had just finished grocery shopping and knew that I had too much stuff to carry home from the store. So I awkwardly carried my brimming bags to the taxi line which was pretty long because I had managed to time my shopping completion with the dreaded change of shift for taxi drivers in Singapore. During this 30-45 minute window of time, taxis are no where to be found. This turns a typically orderly city into the wild west. However, as crazy as things get the aforementioned unspoken rule is not to be broken. After 30 minutes of waiting in miserable heat watching my groceries melt I finally made it to the front of the line.
At this point these two women walked up to the front of the line and stood casually right next to me as if they were waiting for the next taxi as well. Wanting to give them the benefit of the doubt I quickly asked if they were by any chance waiting for a taxi as well, when they said yes I very nicely directed them to the back of the taxi line. At that point things turned hostile and I suddenly realized I was dealing with taxi thieves. They gave me an evil look and then proceeded to walk about half a block up the road and flagged down MY TAXI and, before I could gather up my withered groceries and chase them down, they were gone...with my taxi. The level of anger and self-pity I felt at that moment was intense and if I hadn't had the rest of the taxi line staring at me I probably would have sat down and cried. I finally made it home apx 10 minutes later than I would have been home if my taxi had not been stolen. Worst of all I am seriously contemplating purchasing my own cane, I just need one small enough to fit in my purse....
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Living in Singapore
Kingsley is loving his job however he is also working really hard. So, I planned an awesome surprise for him. Only problem is that SOMEONE hates surprises. I had to suffer through days of militant interrogation regarding "the surprise".
"will I like it?"
"how long will we be there?"
"will it be inside or outside?"
but my all time favorite was...
"you are not going to make me dance are you?"
to that I replied...
"dont worry you wont be given that kind of pre-warning when I execute my dancing revenge"
The surprise for Kingsley was an opportunity to spend 60 minutes with a pilot in a 737 flight simulator. They are the exact same simulators that airline pilots spend hours training on before going up in a actual plane.
Kingsley hasn't flown a plane since moving to Singapore so I thought it would be great for him to get back in the (virtual) air. He was pretty nervous to fly again but also incredibly excited. I was allowed to be in the cockpit as well.
We started out at SeaTac airport, I wasnt prepared for how realistic the expereince was. As we took off the first time I caught myself putting my seat belt on!
In 60 minutes we flew in China, Hong Kong, London, and Cape Town
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Kingsley
Today we took Carmen to the East Coast Park. Still very pleased with her impressive surfing skills she was eager to try wave boarding. Wave boarding is similar to skate boarding but you only use two wheels and all the cool kids have one.
First we went for lunch at a casual dining Japanese restaurant called Waruku.
Carm had the largest bowel of ramen noodles in her life!
Still a little stiff from my surfing wipeouts yesterday I did try the wave-board again but took it easy. Carmen and Kingsley were insane. They had the local boarders helping them out and probably spent close to 2 hours practicing. Christmas shopping will be easy for me this year!
A storm is brewing...
Midway into hour two of the wave-boarding extravaganza the wind picked up and some very dark clouds rolled in. A big storm was heading our way. Lighting, thunder, heavy wind gusts. So what do Carm and Kingsley do? Carmen kept practicing her wave-board pretending like nothing was going on. Kingsley ran to grab his kite, because obviously flying a kite in gusty winds with lightning is SUCH a fun thing to do! I swear these two feed off each other, its like having two naughty kids!
Kingsley was so happy after flying his kite in the storm.
Carmen however was not so happy. She managed to lose her balance on the board during a wind gust and fell and hurt her wrist. An hour and a half later the swelling kicked in and the pain did not improve so we headed to the ER for my 3rd visit in the last 4 weeks. I swear the ER staff has me on some kind of watch list.
In the ER waiting for an Xray of her wrist.
the Pain Scale
Thankfully no fractures, just a bad sprain and small laceration.
On our way home from the ER Carm said "I would be up for doing that again tomorrow!"
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Family and Friends,
Living in Singapore
Carmen arrived late friday night for her second visit to Singapore in the last 2 months. I am so fortunate to have a friend who is willing to fly 22 hours to spend a long weekend with me. I was incredibly excited to pick her up at the airport! Saturday morning we started our adventure fabulous weekend bright and early. Our mission was to conquer Sentosa, a man-made island right off the southern coast of Singapore which is a strange blend of Miami beach, Disneyland, Vegas and the Amazon rainforest all rolled into one. Our goal was to do as many bizarre and unusual activities as we could fit into one day. Our first stop was the Luge. When doing the Luge you travel to the top of this hill via a chairlift and then proceed down a 650 meter winding racetrack where you reach speeds of up to 40km/hr. Carmen and I are pretty competitive so when she challenged me to a race we both pulled out all the stops to get to the bottom first. I was leading the pack for the majority of the track but got caught behind some crazy lady who had her brake on the whole time and was weaving back and forth along the track. Carmen somehow managed to inch past her in the final stretch and beat me across the finish line. I'm still a little bitter...
on our way up in the chair lift
only in Asia, umbrellas on a ski lift in 95 degree weather with no rain in sight
Our next stop was the mega zip which is the longest zip line in Asia. We had the Singaporean boy scouts in line in front of us so we were given detailed explanations of all the potential hazards of the zip by the scouts before we harnessed up.
We then took a short break for lunch and observed the segway "off road adventure" tour which was one of the activities we decided to pass on and I'm glad we did. The off road section of the trail involved taking the segways off the freshly paved sidewalk and onto the beach. A few priceless moments were captured on video.
Our energy renewed, we tackled the trapeze where we harnessed in and were taught how to do knee hangs and somersaults 10 meters off the ground. I would humbly say that in this activity I really stood out. Carmen might have had slightly more natural ability, but I had more flair. I even ended my routine with an impromptu somersault off the safety net.
Our last, and most exciting stop of the day was the riding "the barrel" at the wave house. Just to give some history, this activity requires 6 pages of consent forms and is only recommended for "advanced surfers". Somehow Carmen talked me into believing I was qualified for this activity and....WOW... was I ever NOT prepared. In fact, I am writing this a day and a half later and I still cant turn my head or shoulders without pain! Carm was a natural with her background in wake-boarding and snowboarding...however, my wipeouts were better. Carmen also had a secret weapon, she sings to herself while she boards (notice the head bobbing in the video) which puts her in "the groove" and calms her down. I wish I had known that trick before we started. An hour later, I felt like the coolest drowned rat ever...dude! I think Carmen had the time of her life and had the barrel rider not been closing due to a world cup game, I think she may have stayed all night.
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Family and Friends,
Living in Singapore
Even after 4 months of living in Singapore, I am still learning so many bizarre and wonderful things. For example, did you know that prawning is a major past time here? For those of you who are as clueless as I was to the art of prawning, here is how it works. You show up at a prawning center with all of your gear. Gear includes: multiple fishing poles, multiple fishing lines, multiple prawn lures, and most importantly...hot sauce.
Once at the prawning center you establish "your zone" around the pond and proceed to "prawn" for hours until enough are caught to satisfy your appetite. They are then taken to the BBQ Pitt, grilled, and eaten in "your zone" while you continue prawning for the next batch. Please note that this is all taking place in a concrete pond and the prawn to prawner ratio is openly adjusted as needed. Kingsley and I rode our bikes past a prawning center and I could not resist watching for a while.
This is so much more than a hobby, it is a passion.
First course of the evening, to be followed by...more prawns! This would be even better with a little Nandos Peri Peri sauce on top!
Notice the look of envy in the other prawners eyes as this guy catches a real beauty!
Kingsley has been begging me to try this new cool skateboard with only two wheels called the wave board. All the kids around here have them so, naturally Kingsley was dying to give it a try. I finally gave in and we rented him a board. First thing he did was bond with the local skater dudes to pick up a few tips and spent a few glorious hours imagining he was a kid again. In this video the "# 1 cool kid" took pity on him and decided to give him a few pointers to improve his technique. You can hear the kid yell "yeah you are doing it!" which absolutely made Kingsley's day!
Not to be outdone by my skater husband I rented Kangaroo Jumps which look like roller blades but in the place of wheels at the bottom there are springs. So instead of running you bounce along. If I ever run a marathon it will be in these shoes, they are so fun!
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Living in Singapore
Today was one of those days where you wonder if you should have stayed in bed. Everything went wrong today. It started off with a trip to the humane society to have the kittens weighed and to update their shots. After an examination by the vet they were deemed fat and healthy enough to return to the shelter to go up for adoption. I was planning to keep them for another 3 weeks or more! I was not at all prepared to give up the little guys today, so I was really sad! Bye Fraggle, Podge and Sandy...you guys were the best!
Then I somehow managed to screw up when and where I was meeting a friend for lunch, sorry Bonnie. Determined to be successful at something today I took a one hour bus ride and several mile walk to find this obscure plumbing shop that was suppose to have the exact plumbing attachment we needed for our shower. When I arrived the guy said he did not have the part I needed, but he didnt actually check for the part. When I questioned him again he said the dreaded "cannot" which in Singapore translates to either: "I dont know what you are asking me" or "I know what you are asking for but I cant be bothered" or "I really cannot do what you are asking". Either way, when the word "cannot" is spoken, the discussion is over.
I was feeling pretty low by the time I arrived home so I was really looking forward to the evening out Kingsley and I had planned. We were invited by the company that relocated us to attend a get-together at new Mexican restaurant with other people who are new to Singapore. When we arrived, I thought it was a little strange that everyone was wearing party/going-out clothes and were really dolled up. Also, there didnt seem to be any other couples at the event, everyone was obviously single...and looking. Finally, we started chatting with one of the girls at the event and learned that this was a SINGLES MEETUP group. How I somehow missed that in the initial invitation I will never know. Even though it was great people watching, Kingsley and I left pretty early. Thankfully I had already debriefed Kingsley on my very very bad day so he thought the whole thing was hilarious.
I am happy to say that although it wasnt such a great day for me in Singapore it was a fantastic day in Germany. Today in Germany at 9am Sally gave birth to Damien Francis 3.2kg. Which means now I am officially an Auntie (favorite Auntie is the full title). I am SO excited about this and cant wait to meet him! Well done Sal for having him the same week as my birthday and for turning my very bad day into the best day ever!
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Family and Friends,
Living in Singapore
About a week before my birthday Kingsley started dropping hints about this amazing birthday surprise he had planned for me. The only solid information I could get out of him was "bring bug spray, because you are gonna need it". I'll admit that I did spend a bit of time on google searching for "Singapore, bug spray" locations but didnt find anything useful. So I grabbed my best bug spray and met Kingsley at the designated time with no idea what to expect from the evening. First thing we did was hop into a taxi where I was forced to block out all sound as Kingsley described the directions. A blindfold was deemed "not necessary" as I still dont really know my way around Singapore. We drove "north-ish" (I think) for about 35 minutes and arrived at....THE SINGAPORE ZOO NIGHT SAFARI! I was pretty excited as I love the animals and had heard that the night safari, which is the first of its kind in the world, was pretty amazing. We didnt just have normal passes for the safari, we had premier passes which means we had our own private tour guide and buggy for the night and were given special access to the animals. And boy did we get the VIP treatment, which is how it should be when it's your birthday! It also meant that I was the one chosen for the demonstrations all night which was fantastic but also lead to one of my most emabarassing moments ever!
The evening started with a very nice dinner at the Ulu Ulu restaurant. As we were eating I noticed a large group of Japanese photographers taking photos and videos of these two Japanese girls eating at the table next to us. They were very dressed up, hair and makeup professionally done and had a team of staff around them to attend to their every whim. Kingsley and I were speculating that they were perhaps famous actresses or popstars in Japan when the sound of tribal drums started beating and in walked 7-10 Borneo native dancers who proceeded to choose the 2 Japanese starlets and ME to participate in the tribal dance infront of everyone and the hundreds of Japanese photographers! I was MORTIFIED! Just to give a bit of background. The starlets were wearing designer dresses and high heels. They also already knew about the dance so had cute dance moves picked out and...they had each other for moral support. I on the other hand, was wearing adventure clothes. I figured anything that needed excessive bug spray in Singapore was going to be pretty rustic. I also had NO idea I was going to have to perform tribal dances in front of hundreds of people as well as the Japanese paparatzi. If looks could kill Kingsley would not have survived the evening. So there I was attempting to look as graceful and carefree as the 2 startlets while being forced to hop around on one foot, flail my arms and grunt and hoot in some other language. All of this was captured on video by Kingsley and hundreds of Japanese photographers. There is not a doubt in my mind that I will end up in some Japanese tabloid in the next few days.
After what seemed like hours, the song ended and we were allowed to return to our seats. At this point I was not sure I wanted to be sitting next to Kingsley anymore who had the biggest grin on his face, so I bonded with the starlets. They were impressed with my Japanese (they spoke no english) and we became great friends, for about 2 minutes. I found out that they are famous in some way but didnt understand what they did that made them famous (does anyone ever?). I also learned that they were at the night safari doing a photoshoot for some Japanese magazine called: grama, granma, gama? Eventually they were whisked away for the next photo-op and I returned to Kingsley and made this promise to him "I dont know when and I dont know where but one of these days, I will get my revenge." And I meant it!
The picture is blurry because we were dancing THAT fast!
Unfortunatly, my emotional scars are still too fresh to display the video of me dancing on the blog but I will show you a video of the tribal dance so you can visualize the moves I was trying to gracefully emulate.
After dinner we were introduced to our guide for the night who ushered us off to our front row seats for the fire dance. This performance was amazing and a little scary from the front row.
The rest of the evening was spent exploring the animals with our premier tour guide. We hand fed elephants, had to duck and cover as flying squirls dive bombed our heads, took photos with boa contrictors and saw so many amazing animals.
No flash photography is allowed so we didnt get many photos but I did find a video that gives a great overview of the Night Safari which I would highly recommend to everyone (minus the dancing).
It really was such a magical evening, almost magical enough for me to forgive Kingsley...but I will never forget!
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Living in Singapore
