Nameday celebration in Singapore

So it's my nameday. Yes, I know, the whole nameday celebration thing is so weird. Since I moved abroad I have had to explain the whole nameday phenomenon thing many, many times. But whether it's silly or not - it's something I am NOT going to give up, because it's Polish and I am Polish and hey - yet another occasion to get gifts and wishes so why not?... I have been sitting at the computer all day today, listening to the Polish radio Trojka. And all day they have been talking about Annas on the radio. About Anna (Ania) being the most common and the most popular name in Poland. And interviewing people named Anna, and playing songs about Anna, discussing books with Anna in the title and asking random people in the street how many Annas they know. A lot of people share Bryan's frustration - at some point he believed that MOST girls in Poland are named Anna. And DEFINITELY all but a chosen few have names starting with "A". As if we never moved beyond the first letter in the alphabet. Then he met two Polish girls, both of them named Iza (both of them in Austin) and it shook his confidence a little. Well, no matter what anybody thinks, I LIKE my name. And I like the fact that my name has a nameday. And I get to celebrate it. I don't get to celebrate it today - which is the actual Anna's nameday day, because Bryan is working late tonight and I am on duty. But we have celebrated enough over the weekend so I am pretty happy :). 

On Friday we went to dinner and movie. It was the second movie we've seen since we came to Singapore and our second visit to a movie theater here. The first time we went to a Gold Class theater but it's far away, hard to get to, outdated and expensive so we thought  this time we would give a regular movie theater a chance and see if we like it enough to not be bothered with a trip to a Gold Class to the other end of the city. Let me tell you - movie theaters in Singapore - not nice. The whole "going to the movie" experience here - not nice either. The weirdest thing is that Singapore is supposed to have what is referred to as the "movie-going culture". Allegedly seeing movies and going to the movies is a BIG THING to do here. Well, for starters, the selection makes me want to cry out loud - it's so poor. They only play Hollywood big productions here, the American blockbusters, and some Asian class B thriller or horror movies that I have no intention of seeing. And usually they play like  no more than maybe five movies in a given week in the entire city. I was sooo frustrated for the first few weeks. Scanning papers and websites and trying to find just ONE theater that would play something else than Toy Story 3 or the likes of it... No way. So at some point you just give up and patiently make a list of movies to see After We Go Back Home (whenever THAT is going to happen). On Friday we went to see Inception. Rotten Tomatoes said no no no don't go but given a choice of Inception and nothing we chose Inception. The whole premise of the movie was really poor and I am not a fan of Leonardo di Caprio (although these days I don't HATE him as much as I used to) but overall it was good entertainment, good suspense and good cinematography. So I was satisfied. Although the screen was the size of four tvs in our Austin living room put together. And the chairs in the theater looked like our kitchen chairs wrapped in velvet fabric. Not to mention like NO leg room - the theater is OBVIOUSLY designed for non-Western size people, and definitely not for the somewhat oversized Western people whom I won't refer to by names here... As for the symptoms of the Movie Going Culture - yes, the theater was packed. It was packed with teenagers and young adults who did all the things you DON'T want your fellow movie-goers to do. They ate. They drank. They chatted. They texted. They were on the phones. They treated the theater like their own private living room or a party room for that matter. It did get a bit more quiet as the movie started but it was not like they were watching in silence. And then the moment the first credit appeared on the screen they were all UP and noisy and laughing and talking and leaving and I just wanted to get up and do to all of them all the things one goes to jail for.  To add  to the fun of the experience, the theater is in a shopping mall. But of course - where else. Everything in this city is in a shopping mall. The theater does not have bathrooms in the theater area - to go to the bathroom you have to leave the theater area go out into the mall and go to the mall bathrooms. Which I can't even begin to describe what I think about, for fear of smashing the keyboard. As for the confections - the movie theater offers M&Ms or Mentos. And to sweeten the deal - the movie theater is on  the 7th floor of the shopping mall and at some point the mall closes so they turn off all the escalators for the night. So in order to get out of the theater and the mall you have to walk down fourteen flights of escalators. Being on escalator with Singaporians is a torture even when it is turned on and actually working. And I don't even want to mention the whole coughing thing again. They really take it EASY on escalators. Most of them text or do whatever they do with their smart phones when they walk on moving pavements or go on escalators. They walk really slow.  And its really hard to pass by them, because they walk in herds. So all that multiplied times ten when the escalator is not moving and they actually have to use their legs to go down the stairs.  Well... next time we are going back to the Gold Class. Old and far away and expensive as it is, at least it has a bathroom... Unless enough time goes by before another watchable movie plays in Singaporean theaters that I will forget this traumatic experience altogether and maybe give a regular theater at ANOTHER mall a chance...  Enough said. 

The highlight of Friday night happened when we were walking back from the theater. We discovered Emerald Hill. It's a place off Orchard Rd with really nice bars and pubs. Bryan claims he had been there once before but (was it all the beer?) did not realize it was the place and it was on Orchard. We walked by this side street and it was so lively with music and crowded with people that I said hey let's check it out and it turned out it was the Emerald Hill! We walked into a cocktail bar which served martinis at 15 S$ for 2 which is REALLY inexpensive in Singapore - usually a cocktail costs anywhere from 14 Singapore dollars and more. So I had two lycheetinis and they definitely cheered me up. The bar was one of these typical Singaporean bars that I knew they existed but have never been in a bar like that - the special thing about these "traditional" bars is that they serve you peanuts there in big bowls and everybody eats the peanuts by kilograms and just throws the shells anywhere. So the entire floor and bar countertop and tabletops are just COVERED with empty peanut shells. When I first walked in I thought it was part of the decor like the floor was covered with sawdust. That's what it looks like - sawdust. Sawdust everywhere. So I asked Bryan what it was and he explained - it's peanut shells... We did not eat much peanuts but it was still fun to just dump the shells on the floor. I know my brother-in-law would LOVE it there - he LOVES peanuts. So if he ever comes to visit that's where I am taking him to. We left the bar around 1.30 am and walked back to the apartment. That's pretty much the ONLY thing I really love about our apartment - its location. We can literally walk everywhere from here. And walk back from everywhere, too... And even at 1.30 am Orchard Road is alive on a Friday night. There are people walking down the street, and the street itself - this is an amazing sight, actually - the streets are PACKED with cabs. Literally, four lanes of every street are lined with taxis, all of them with the "hired" or "on call" light on, going somewhere. I have not seen so many cabs at the same time ever before. But cabs are the preferred mode of transport here in general, and when the MRT stops running (which definitely is the case at 1.30 am) they are the only mode of transport for all these people leaving movie theaters, bars, pubs and clubs... It really was something else to see all these taxis in the streets with no other cars around. Apparently people take the don't drink and drive rule here very seriously. As they should be. 

On Saturday we had dinner plans with some people from B's work and it was quite a pleasant evening. We went to Clark Quay where we ate, drank and walked around. Everybody seemed to enjoy themselves. For me it was nameday weekend celebration night number two. The only drawback was that I foolishly (but happily) decided to wear one of the New Pairs of Shoes that night. Very pretty Camper shoes but they gave me blisters :(... I will break them though and I will wear them and walk in them for miles on end, blisters or no blisters - I love my Nameday Shoes. But by the time we got back to the apartment, having walked around Clark Quay and then back to the MRT station and through the interchange station and back home, I felt that my feet and my oh-so-nice high platform shoes have melted together and are now ONE and there is simply no way to remove the shoes without tearing some flesh off. I was absolutely convinced as I finally sat down in the apartment on the sad little imitation of a couch that when I take off the shoes my pinkies - at the very least - will not be where they have been for the last thirty six years - they will be still holding on to the oh-so-lovely straps of my beautiful new shoes. It was not very FAR from being true. But no involuntary amputation took place and the only aftereffect was that the next day, on Sunday, when we actually were going to Celebrate with a Nice Dinner, I had to wear flip flops, because with the number of plasters wrapped around my toes I could only fit my feet into some oversized felt boots or flip flops. So I wore flip flops. I wore the flip flops to my Fancy Nameday Dinner at the No Signboard Seafood where B. took me to celebrate my nameday. Even though the whole Nice Dinner thing did not turn out as nice as it was supposed to be (and not only because of me wearing flip flops) we had a very good meal - I got to try the famous Singaporean Chilli Crab. It's basically a crab that is stir fried in a very thick semi-sweet and semi-savory tomato and chilli-based sauce. It's served in a big bowl with a large spoon and some bread to dip in the sauce. As Bryan says - eating the chilli crab is not for the weak of heart - you actually have to dig into the crab, break it and peel the meat off the shell and out of the claws and all the nice and tidy things, as crab eating usually goes... But because it was my nameday (and also because I would NEVER put my hands into that bowl and that spicy sauce - well, unless I was like REALLY starving...) Bryan did all the dirty work for me, and he enjoyed it too. He LOVES the chilli crab. I liked it too, but it was a bit spicy for me. But I would definitely have it again. We also had some good veggie stir-fried noodles to go with the crab. So overall it was a good dinner experience, although I think that the restaurant is just a tad overpriced for what it is. And really - if you charge some 40 - 50 dollars per main course, don't charge me for the pickles that you bring out in the beginning and put on the table together with water, chopsticks and wet napkins (which are also charged for). I have accepted the fact that they charge you for the pickles and wet napkins at the less expensive places (they just try to make some money off you) but in an expensive restaurant they should just try and refrain from charging 3 S$ for stupid little bowl of pickles that no one even WANTS to eat in the first place. But chilli crab was good and we had some nice drinks afterwards at a bar with a funky name 7atenine which me - blondie - could not figure out how to read / interpret that name until Bryan read it out loud to me and then I was like AAAW that's a cool funny name ;). We finished the evening with some ice-cream... And I thought that was it as far as nameday celebrations go... But today - out of the blue - when I was slowly beginning to lose hope - the Parcel arrived from Poland. The Parcel infamously mailed by my Dad (He-Who-Never-Goes-To-Post-Office) some two months ago... Which, judging by the pace at which it got here, must have been traveling first to the eastern border of Poland on a  mailman's bicycle... then on a mule... and on a raft... and then maybe local Malaysian mailmen carried it to Singapore on their heads... or something to that effect... The slowest mail delivery system imaginable, all because my Dad decided that since he actually set his foot in the post office for the first time ever he would introduce some good old work ethics and law and order there. I honestly thought that the parcel would never make it. But it has! Today. I have lots of goodies now sitting at the table and looking at me. And I am looking at them thinking that it's not been such a bad nameday overall. On Saturday one of Bryan's colleagues from work, after hearing the whole nameday story in the context of me trying to tend to my blistered new-shoed feet on a nearby bench suggested that I should Name the shoes I got for my nameday and then celebrate each shoe's nameday and get some more shoes on the Shoe Namedays. How brilliant (if just ever so slightly sarcastic) was that? I LIKE that idea! But until that happens - happy nameday to me. And to all other Annas of the world!

Our Bintain weekend

I looked at my profile picture as I was logging in and it's official - my man-hair is gone! My hair has grown out and it's back to its normal pre-man-hair length! What a relief. Another thing is that I have already gone TEN weeks since my last hair colour appointment and my roots are just now beginning to show! Every day when I wake up and look in the mirror I say a little thank you to my amazing colourist back home - Rashid who did an incredibly good job matching my natural colour so I don't have to run and have my roots retouched every three weeks. A true master of hair colouring, he is. Laurent also did a good job making sure that I won't have to go and get haircut in Singapore - hence the man-hair style... I will definitely NOT be getting a haircut any time soon :).
Work has gotten a bit slower this week, for the first time since we got here, really. Which is a good thing, I am enjoying a little bit looser schedule and the fact that I can actually leave the apartment and go sit at the swimming pool and read while the maid is cleaning the apartment, rather than dancing around her mop with my hands still glued to the keyboard... I've slept way too late today and I won't even admit here what time I woke up because Bryan may read it and get a heart attack - he was up at 5.45 poor thing to get ready for the first meeting he had at 7 am. I am really glad he got to rest and relax last weekend, because he really is working hard and with the Big Cut-Off / Go-Live (or whatever other weird two-word name it has) Week coming next week his work days are about to get even longer.
Last Friday we left for our second long-weekend trip this summer, to an Indonesian island called Bintan. Bintan is a very popular destination for a weekend trip from Singapore, as it only takes a 40-minute ferry ride to get there. We left on Friday late in the morning and came back to Singapore on Monday evening. To travel there and back we paid a little extra and got Emerald Class tickets for the ferry and we've decided that the additional 50 or so dollars that we spent was the best we've done for ourselves in a long time. Our Emerald Class tickets got us not only nicer, more comfortable seats on the upper deck of the ferry but also, more importantly, priority check-in, priority boarding and then priority immigration and customs clearance in Indonesia. Which is worth any money, really (within reasonable limits, of course ;). The Indonesian government is very clever about earning money off the visiting tourists so every time you enter Indonesia you have to pay 25$ for a one-time visa (multiple-entry visas can only be obtained at the embassy and I don't even have a clue as to how much they are and how hard it is to actually get them). The visa needs to be purchased upon arrival - so first you have to stand in a looong line to buy a visa and then it needs to be placed in your passport, following a Very Thorough examination of the said passport, by the immigration officer. To meet the immigration officer you stand in another long line. And then you wait for your luggage. We avoided all this by getting our Emerald Class tickets - there was a separate booth opened for us and the few other chosen ones and we were on the other side and in Indonesia in no time, with our suitcase already waiting for us. We managed to pack into one medium-size suitcase but after we got back to Singapore we decided that next time - if there is ever a next time in Bintan - we will just take carry-ons with us, that will expedite the process even more... Another thing we needed to make sure before going to Indonesia is that each of us has an actual whole empty page in our passport - the Indonesian visa takes up a whole page and they simply won't let you in if you don't have a free page in your passport. While in our short line, we even considered asking the immigration officer to perhaps put the new visa on top of the old visa that they put in there when we went to Bali - but then we chickened out - all the Indonesian border officers are really serious and scary and so another page of our passports is taken by a big colourful Indonesian visa now. Bryan is running out of pages. But at least he is aware of that - he told me a story of some guys from his work who on the spur of the moment decided to spend a day on the beach away from Singapore. When they got to the ferry terminal one of them realized he forgot his passport. So he went back to the hotel to get it while the other two waited for him at the terminal. When he arrived with his passport the ferry to Bintan, where they were planning to go, was already long gone. They still decided to go somewhere and the only ferry available to them was a ferry to Batam. Batam is really NOT a place you want to go and spend a day in, but they decided to do it anyway. Once they got there, they knew that it's not where they want to be but decided to still go for it and make the most of their Day at the Beach. Two of them went through immigration paid their visas and waited for the third one who was not coming... It turned out that they would not let him in, because he did not have an empty page in his passport so no place to put the giant visa in. On hearing that, the other two guys just turned around and they all got back on the ferry and rode back to Singapore... That must have been fun, right? A funny story to tell, I guess, but I would not want it to happen to me... So anyway - a note to self - before going to Indonesia always check if you have an empty page in the passport and 25 USD per person IN CASH to pay to enter...
That was a long digression...
Our destination was Angsana Resort & Spa. And we spent a really great weekend there. The room was a bit outdated and in need of a remodel but it's Asia so you never know what you can expect. Otherwise everything was really great. Compared to our Conrad resort in Bali, Angsana was a really quiet and relaxing place, a much smaller resort with less to offer as far as entertainment goes but that's what we needed for our low-key weekend away. A really nice, wide and long stretch of beach to walk on, clear water to swim in and beach beds with umbrellas - that's all we needed. On Friday evening we had our couples massage at the spa - the experience was really amazing. The spa facilities are beautiful, we were in an outdoor room overlooking the sea, the therapists were amazing and the whole thing was just a great start for our weekend of relaxation. After the massage they offered us a hot ginger tea with honey (I realized that I LOVE ginger tea - I don't think I had had it before that Friday night!) and some fruitcake and we were just sitting, half laying down, in big wicker armchairs, wrapped in sarongs, breathing in the fresh air of the evening and looking at the evening outline of the palm trees and the beach and the sea, and it really made me feel like I was in my own little paradise. They had difficulties kicking us out ;). After the treatment we went to the room, changed and went to get some dinner - it was a buffet night. We tried so many things! And all the food was really delicious. One of the dishes was Indonesian red snapper - the fish was marinated in Indonesian spices and then grilled wrapped in a banana leaf - it was soo good I kept on going back for more... There was also entertainment provided - a local band who were performing all throughout dinner. Their choice of songs was so completely out of place that it was almost funny - they welcomed us with some old pop country song from the fifties (Bryan recognized it, I didn't) and then they sang everything starting from George Michael's Careless Whispers (which sounded hilarious in their interpretation, as the lead singer had a very nice voice but at the same time a very melodic way of singing, typical for local music, I suppose, and the way they played the tune was also so Asian and so not like the original - just the lyrics were recognizable) ending on Swing Low Sweet Chariot!!! Their set really got me going and I wanted to have a sing-along but Bryan was not really eager. We spent the rest of the evening on the beach with our whisky drinks in hand (this time we made sure we had alcohol with us and we bought a bottle of Ballantine's at the duty free store at the airport so that we didn't have to pay 15 USD per cocktail at the hotel). I sang some more and really missed my sister or my friend Alicja - they are such good singing companions! Bryan still remembers our trip to Masuria when Alicja and me sang all the way from Warsaw to Mrągowo, with Bobi trying to focus on driving and Bryan wishing he had an mp3 player or at least a pair of earplugs with him... It was so much fun - at least for Alicja and me :).
We spent the whole Saturday doing literally nothing. The night before we asked the nice hotel staff to reserve two chairs for us on the beach, which they happily did for us and so on Saturday morning we rolled ourselves out to the beach after a nice big breakfast (buffet again) and stayed on our beach beds pretty much all day, taking breaks to walk on the beach or go swimming. The two chairs next to ours were occupied by an older British couple, two very sun-tanned people who seemed like they lived in the region, completely oblivious to the harmful effects of sun, just sitting there all day out in the sun, reading books. Every hour or so they would get up and take off walking quite briskly to the farthest accessible end of the beach, spend some time there and walk back. After they made a few such walks we realized that she would always carry a little pouch in her hand, and it dawned on us that there was a reason for their little beach trips, other than just getting a little bit of exercise... Aw, who would not want to retire like that?... Mr & Mrs Doper (as we started calling them) of Angsana Resort quickly became our retirement role models ;)
It rained all day on Sunday and it rained hard, too, so everybody stayed indoors, except for a few hard-core Japanese tourists who stayed in the pool in that pouring rain - funny thing about the Japanese, if they are on holiday they apparently MUST do the holiday thing, sun OR rain... As for us, luckily we had more massage treatments scheduled at the spa so we did not complain. Bryan read and napped and relaxed and I... I was sick. I will draw a curtain of silence on the details of my tropical sickness, suffice to say it was some kind of an Indonesian variety of the Montezuma's or Pharaoh's revenge... I was a very miserable bunny for most of the day but it all went away by Monday morning so just a lesson for me to be more careful about eating spicy food? Or using ice cubes in my drinks? Who knows what might have caused that... It did ruin my Sunday relaxation just a little bit, if you can imagine, but overall it was such a nice and relaxing weekend that I will just try and remember the good things about it and erase the unpleasantries from my memory. Monday turned out to be a bright sunny day (isn't it ALWAYS the case? That when you go away somewhere for a weekend it RAINS most of the weekend and then it clears up on the day when you are supposed to go home?...), and we managed to get a bit more sun and beach time before we had to go. Angsana is really a nice resort to go to, the staff is so welcoming and friendly. They all make an effort to greet you by your name, it's really hard to believe! A nice guy at their gift store told us that a major remodeling is planned for September, which is really great news. If we come back to Singapore again we will definitely visit Bintan island for another weekend. The weather there is unpredictable and one can never be sure that it is going to be nice and sunny - it's so close to Singapore that I guess the weather forecasts are the same for Bintan as they are here - 60% chance of rain. every day.. But at the same time even if it is cloudy it's still nice to stay at the beach and at least you don't feel like a shrimp on a skewer frying in the sun... And when it rains - there is THE SPA. And the spa in itself is a good reason to go back there. With the two massages I had last weekend I am now ready to face another month of working hard at this tiny desk, with my wrists hanging off the edge. I will be fine :). And as for Bryan - he already started looking at resorts for our August trip last night. The guys has to have a purpose. And something to look forward to :). I THINK we have given up on the Paradise Beach quest... We are still considering places in Thailand and some Malaysian islands, including Borneo. We will see what he will find - and I am sure he will find something good. And in the meantime - it's Singapore again, babe :). Let's see what else this city has to offer...

Fort Canning Park

Hello and welcome to my weekly report from Singapore... It's Sunday evening here and we are struggling with the decision whether to stay up and watch the World Cup Final game (which starts at 2.30 AM!) or rather be functioning and clear-headed tomorrow and for the rest of the working week... We have a very pleasant and relaxing weekend behind us so maybe we will give it a shot and act irresponsibly and at least TRY to stay up... We shall see ;).
Our week was so filled with work that it was not even funny so we really had no plans for the weekend except for the Grand Plan to get some alcohol in our systems as soon as possible on Friday night. We went out to dinner with Bryan's colleague from work, to our good, tested and always welcoming Vietnamese Orange Lantern (the Trainee Waitress there who does not speak a word of English is starting to recognize us - on Friday night she actually SMILED when she saw us and said: TWO ICE WATER? Well, there were three of us but it's a start of a well established relationship right?). After dinner, we got back to the apartment complex and worked on a bottle of Australian Chardonnay that we opened before dinner (me), a bottle of red (Bryan) and some vodka and cranberry juice cocktails (Erin and Jason - our now-regular hang-out-at-the-pool-and-drink-our-sad-expat-asses-away buddies) till well after midnight. So the plan for Friday night got accomplished. I slept very late on Saturday, Bryan went and got his haircut and then, well into the afternoon we decided that since we had no plans for Saturday we should just hang out at the pool. Which we really wanted to do and even attempted to do. We took all our swimming pool paraphernalia with us and got down there and spread our towels out and about fifteen minutes later it started to rain. So we got back to the room. Our alternative plan - in view of absence of any plan, we should just go out and have a nice meal. That's a great plan for a Saturday evening! Especially considering the fact that after we got scared off having NICE meals at NICE restaurants as a result of the very unfortunate PEKING DUCK mishap (which I am not sure if I described here but it was such memorable a rip-off that I don't even feel the need to write it down to remember it) we really have not gone to a restaurant with an intention of having a NICE meal. We just go out to experiment with food and of course satisfy our hunger but not to, you know, spend a pleasant hour or two at a nice restaurant and have food coming and enjoy the whole experience. So we booked a table for 7 pm at a Persian restaurant at Clark Quay that we heard nothing but good things about - SHIRAZ. The rest of the day was spent just waiting for 7 pm to arrive so that we could go and have our nice meal. It was a nice relaxing Saturday, to the extent that we are able to actually relax in this sad little imitation of an apartment. In the evening we headed down to Clark Quay and we had the most wonderful meal at Shiraz. The exciting aspect of the whole dinner thing was also that we hardly ever get to eat anything other than Asian food these days, so we deliberately chose something else for our Special meal. The food was absolutely delicious! We started off with some hummus and the thinnest tenderest crispiest pita bread I have ever tasted and another appetizer that I do not remember the name of but it was a mixture of eggplant lamb meat onions pistachio nuts and lots of other flavorful things grated, mixed together and baked and served warm. It was sooo good! After these two appetizers and an additional serving of the pita bread and some tasting starters that were brought to the table (like cubes of REAL feta cheese that tasted like feta cheese is SUPPOSED to taste, which I ALMOST forgot about in the five years in the US) we were, naturally, full, considering that our stomachs have shrunk significantly since we left the US. But still before us was the main course - a mixed platter of grilled kebabs - chicken, filet mignon, lamb and fish, served with Basmati rice and grilled vegetables. The meats just MELTED in your mouth. This was the best meat that we've had since we left Austin and Bryan had tears in his eyes (well, not really, but almost) when he took the first bite of the beef and sighed from the bottom of his heart "man, I miss steak...". We tumbled out of there after a very satisfactory hour and a half of devouring all that delicious food and, to complete our absolute bliss, we rolled towards Haagen Dazs, where we treated ourselves to the flavor of the month (chocolate caramel brownie) in a cone. Sheer happiness. We strolled around Clark Quay and my beloved hubby even got me a pair of earrings from a jewelry stand where a nice Chinese lady seemed to be picking prices from behind her ear (the price went up about 2 S$ with every pair of earrings I tried), but since they were all acceptable and affordable, I got a pair of beautiful long new earrings. We got on the MRT close to 11 pm and headed back home.
Today, since the No Plans Weekend was still continuing, we decided to explore. The day seemed perfect - sunny, with clear blue sky, for some exploring of the city. We decided we would start off by going to Istana Park, which was supposed to be nearby, and see how far it is to walk to the Dhoby Ghaut MRT station. We have wanted to check that distance for some time now, since Dhoby Ghaut is the interchange station of the MRT where we ALWAYS have to change trains to get WHEREVER we want to get to. Which I personally feel a VERY STRONG dislike towards, as the station is just huuuuge and sooo crowded that when we get off the train to get on another one I just want to close my eyes and get through the station as fast as possible. So I do just that, with my eyes wide open, I march as fast as I can past all the coughing slowly moving MASS of people, willing to just get through to the other side. And it's a long distance to walk. And a few escalators to get on. Just to get, in the end, on another crowded train... Anyway, that's where we wanted to walk to today to see if it's a walkable distance so maybe we don't have to change trains in the future, we can just WALK to Dhoby Ghaut and take a train from there. But first things first - we had brunch/lunch at a tiny but nice place at Orchard Central that serves kaya toast sets. Kaya toasts are grilled slices of bread that are served french toast-style with kaya, which is kind of Asian spread, like a very sweet jam. The set comes with two SOFT BOILED eggs that are to be eaten with soy sauce... It's an interesting combination and the first time we got these at a Toast Box place I had to watch people around me to determine what to do with these soft boiled eggs? So I learned then that they skillfully crack them open by hitting them with a small spoon and breaking them in half, spill them out onto a small bowl, pour some SOY sauce on them and eat them. I did the same. Bryan said he would not touch such eggs to save his life and I, at this point in time, would eat a raw egg if it was presented to me, because we don't get to eat eggs very often these days. So now it goes as follows - Bryan eats the toast and I eat the eggs. Our brunch cost about 4 USD ;) - which counterbalanced nicely the quite expensive dinner we had last night. After a short stop for the brunch kaya toast set we headed out and towards Istana Park. It turned out to be a tiny strip of green surrounded by skyscrapers, nothing like what we imagined. The only nice thing about it was a reflection pool and a tiny little pond where we found a friendly turtle sunning on a stone, completely oblivious to humans moving around, staring at it and taking pictures. Having checked Istana Park off our list of places to see, we also determined that Dhoby Ghaut station was just a stone throw away from there. So mission was accomplished - we knew then that we could walk the distance from our apartment building to the interchange station any time. But since the walking actually felt good, we continued to walk. Down to Fort Canning Park - a much bigger park, actually the biggest inner city park in Singapore, where they have concerts and such, just like Zilker Park in Austin, or the Cytadela Park in Poznań (which the Fort Canning Park reminded me of very vividly, as they both have very steep and high stairs that you need to climb in order to get to the park). We walked around the park for a long long time . There are a lot of interesting things to see in the Fort Canning Park. There is a sculpture garden with quite a few metal, concrete and wooden structures. There are heritage trees, some of them really impressive - one that looked like the tree of life or whatever it was called in Avatar... On little information boards along the walking path you can read a chronological account of Singapore's history. The most interesting and definitely entertaining piece of information was a description of how Singapore became a British territory. Once the British ascertained their ruling over a section of the island over the Dutch, they - as the board informs - CONVINCED the sultan to give them the remaining part of the island. Which he happily AGREED TO. It actually made me laugh out loud. I imagined the British going over to the sultan, knocking on his door and asking him - could you please give us the rest of the island, because the Dutch have already conceded their part? And the sultan was like - sure, no problem, since you are asking nicely... Another interesting thing we saw at the Park was the Time Ball. The story is that in the times before watches and clocks were common, in order to synchronize time and to introduce some order in the city life, once a day the British lifted the time ball at exactly 12:55 and let it drop at exactly 1:00 pm from a mast at the highest point of the park, where the entire city could see it. The time ball is not in use any more, but the structure still looks cool and impressive. After a good bit of walking around, we found our way to the other side of the park, which turned out to be a bridge away from Clark Quay. That was quite a walk, close to 2 hours on our feet, so we decided to reward ourselves with some ice cold beer at Brewerkz. Which was just what we needed after a good few hours spent walking around in the heat. Let me say at this point that I will never let anyone tell me that it's HOT in Singapore. Trust me, it is NOT really hot here, compared to Austin. It's hot but it's bearable. It's really not too bad. It rains very often and that keeps the temperature down. The only problem is that on the days when it's not too hot and it's overcast and pleasant to be outside and walk around, there is always a chance of getting SOAKED with rain. Because when it rains here it does not joke around - it RAINS HARD, it pours down. So taking a chance on the non-sunny day to get out and go walking in a park or explore the city - a brave thing to do, because it WILL, inevitably, RAIN. On the other hand, when the day is nice and sunny, like today, it is HOT. I remember just a few days of such heat here, one was when we walked around Chinatown a few weekends ago, one was today and there were a few other. When it's HOT it's HOT. But I always keep telling myself that in mid-July I would not be enjoying walking around in Austin because it's scorching hot in Austin. So here we just suck it up and walk around, telling ourselves - it would be WORSE in Austin. And the prospect of sitting down and enjoying a beer really helps ;). We hanged out at Brewerkz for some time, then we got some dinner and then, crazy as it seems, we decided to WALK back to the hotel. As if walking TO Clark Quay was not enough. It was a good two mile walk back and my battery almost died just a few blocks away from the apartment building. Even the Energizer Bunny battery dies at some point ;)... But somehow we managed to walk back all the way to the apartment, where we crawled up the stairs, changed into swimsuits and went back out to finish the day in the swimming pool. That felt so good! Bryan was ambitious enough to do laps, I was just enjoying the jacuzzi and the general bliss of being in the water after a day on my feet. Overall, our No-Plan weekend turned into a wonderful relaxing weekend spent outside discovering yet another aspect of this new temporary home of ours - that Singapore, or at least the section of it that is of any interest to us - can be explored without a car or even MRT - you can get everywhere just by walking. Yet another thing I will miss in Austin, when we get back. We are officially half way through our planned stay here, with as many weeks behind us as we have still to go. This coming Friday we are off to Bintan! I really hope this four-day work week will go by in a blink and we will soon be on a beach again! Wishful thinking, but sometimes the right attitude helps just a little bit to get through the week... I hope it's going to work this time :).

The Singapore Flyer

It's been over a week since I last posted anything here... I am trying to remember if the past week has really been that insignificant... And the truth may be just that... We have gone out and found new places to eat, if that counts - I tried Japanese KATSU dishes for the first time - Bryan's favourite, naturally, since it's FRIED breaded pork or chicken or seafood... Served with a quite yummy cabbage salad and a special dipping sauce. I liked it, I did not love it - you know, it was fried chicken, it tasted like chicken. Over all, we had a lot of Japanese food last week - we discovered Tonkichi (the place that serves the katsu) and another Japanese restaurant - Watami at the ION Orchard. Watami offers what they call "modern" Japanese cuisine, based on the so-called "ishakuya" dining concept - i.e. a bar serving a wide variety of drinks and cocktails but also a lot of dishes. There we tasted several things, including hot pot scallops with butter and mushrooms, and I also tried SHOCHU for the first time. Shochu is stronger than sake (25% alcohol) and it is distilled. It's no vodka for my Polish pallet but it was as close to it as you can get in a Japanese restaurant and I was quite happy.
Saturday, the 3rd was the day when we had our 4th of July celebration. We've planned it for some time - we bought tickets to the Singapore Flyer and we were also going to attend the 4th of July party organized by the AAS - American Association of Singapore. Unfortunately, it rained pretty much all day, which really messed up with our plans. We went out with another American couple from our building - Erin and Jason from Idaho, their two kids and another family of a guy who works with Jason. The other family turned out to be Polish! A Polish guy named Greg (Grzegorz), his Polish wife Mag (Gosia) and their two little girls. How weird is that? I think it's even more weird for poor Jason who came to work in Singapore and here he met new friends most of whom are Polish... He admitted he had never known a Polish person before (I was so sad for him - living a life without a Polish person in it is like... oh well, you know ;). The best part of the day was that we got to hang out with other living, breathing, English-speaking human beings! It was a lot of fun. We went to Brewerkz - it WAS our 4th of July celebration so we decided we deserved Western food. They ALL had BURGERS - I was the only one who had a sandwich - as close to a burger as I need to get. We had a very leisurely lunch and then we went to the Singapore Flyer. The flyer itself is really nice, great organization and infrastructure and everything, but the sights were not very impressive. I will say that to Singapore's credit - it was overcast and daytime so everything around looked pretty much gray. Maybe we should have taken the tour at night when all the lights are on in the marina and the city looks beautiful. Because it does not have much to offer as far as actually admiring landmarks from the top of the Flyer goes - it's certainly no London eye or Eiffel tower. All you can see is skyscrapers on top of even more skyscrapers. The only cool thing is the proximity of the casino building with the Boat on top. This is going to be our next destination. I don't want to discredit the Flyer or anything but I would like to do it again maybe in the evening. An interesting thing is that they turn the Flyer cabins into a mini-restaurant for private celebrations, offering what they refer to as the world's first full butler sky dining. It's 200 S$ per couple and you are served two courses during two rotations of the Wheel (each rotation lasts half an hour) and then a dessert in the VIP lounge. We did NOT do that, but it sounds interesting.
After our Singapore Flyer flight we went to get more drinks and then, having said good bye to the Polish family - it was time for their girls to get back to the hotel - we went with Erin, Jason and the boys to get some Taiwanese dumplings - my favorite xiao long bao :). It was fun to teach the boys use chopsticks - they learnt very quick! We all enjoyed the dumplings, followed by ice-cream at Haagen Dazs. We never made it to the AAS celebrations, as it was raining and we did not feel the fireworks in the rain would be much of an attraction. Instead, we sent the boys to sleep and came back up to our room, where we drank wine and watched Germany kick Argentina's ass in the World Cup quarterfinals. It was a fun day spent in a great company of fellow Expats.