Our corner of Singapore

                                                           Front view of the house

As promised, pictures of our new home.  I guess technically I don't consider this "our home" since we are renting  and there's a pretty high chance that we'll have to move to another location in Singapore when this lease expires in 2 years, but here it is!  I backed up as far as I could to get the front into the shot.  If I backed up any further, I'd be beyond the gate blocking the neighbor across the street.  (See, our gate to the driveway is open!) We are on a corner, so there are no neighbors to the right of the picture.  The brown gate and fence wrap all the way around the house to the right and behind.   The neighbors to the left, Cara and Brian, are friends.  I wish I could have backed up a bit so you could see how close we all are.  Cara and Brian are just to the left...like the edge of the picture is the retaining walls and fences between our houses.  Also, I love the row of palm trees in the front.  There are 5  (you can't see 2) , one for each of us.  Behind those trees is the pool.

                                                          The hearse

 Here is a shot standing on the driveway, looking right.  The door up the few steps and beyond is our front door.  Here is a good shot of "the hearse" which is what we call my car, er, van.  It is a Honda Odyssey.  No comments on the color. We didn't really have a choice, okay?  I'm not trying to replicate my Peoria life here!!  (Turns out my neighbors Cara and Alain have the exact same Odyssey, color and all!)   I actually would have preferred the Toyota Picnic, but Jim thinks I'll be carting around kids and friends and therefore will need the extra space that the Odyssey offers.  So far that hasn't been the case, but we'll see.   I'm not bitter.  A car is a car.  Especially when it isn't permanent! (And he has been warned that the turning radius of the hearse is much worse than the shorter Picnic.  Future dings with the hearse are inevitable!)

  

This is the view from the front porch looking toward the driveway gate.  Maybe you can catch a glimpse of Cara's house....It's white and above the white retaining wall with the bushes.

                                                            Welcome to the Chaos!

This is our front door.  See how we take off our shoes and leave them outside like a good Chinese family?  This is all fine and good until it rains and the shoes get damp.  No fun going squish, squish, squish all day.

                                                             The pool

Here's the freezing cold pool.  You can't see part of the pool.  It is L shaped and wraps around the porch I'm standing on.  If you go way back to the front view of the house, you'll see a set of stairs on the left of the photo up the drive.  If you go up those steps, you are on the patio here with the pool.  The windows you see in this picture are the family room.  We are still shopping for pool loungers.

So that is part one of our house.  I have some pictures from the walk home from school coming soon.  It will give you a feel for the neighborhood.

'TIl next time,

Vicki :)

Grocery Glimpse #1

I am attempting to add pictures to the blog in the space I want them to go.  We'll see how this attempt goes before trying to post pictures of our house and area.  I did promise grocery photos so you could all be amazed at my powers of navigation through this gastric experience.  I guess it did not surprise me that the supermarkets would be so interesting, but some of these take the cake!  For example:

Would you like some prawn crackers?  Prawn is very big here.  There are prawns in almost every Chinese and Malay dish.  You can buy fresh prawns, frozen prawns, prawn paste.....Bubba Gump woulda loved it here!  

                                                                  Prawn Crackers

How about fish balls?  (not that kind, silly!)  I'm not really sure why you would want to buy fish that has been shaped into tiny balls, but what do I know?  I don't buy it formed into sticks and breaded either.   These are usually near the frozen duck and frozen chicken parts. ( Yes, parts.)

                                                                          Fish Balls

How about everyone's favorite snack: seaweed chips!  These make me think of my friends Suzie and Kara.

                                                                      Seaweed Chips

And now I truly admit that I am a big yellow-bellied chicken.  I just couldn't pull out the camera for a shot of beef lungs, fish heads, or pig's feet.  So sorry.  Maybe next time.

Until next time,

Vicki

Where's my glass slipper?

One month already flown by!  My "blogging" is not quite up to the caliber for which I was hoping.  Oh well.  It's supposed to be about our life and adventures in Singapore and any other travel spots we're hoping to hit.

Which will be later than we hoped.

As soon as we landed here in Sing, and even before we unpacked our 12 bags of clothes and shoes and most-needed worldly goods, people were telling us to "make plans".  Spring Break plans.  The American Expat custom seems to be that any 3 day weekend or more (such as Christmas and Spring Break) is the ideal time to leave town and vacation.  Shorter breaks mean Bintan, Phuket, maybe Bali.  Longer breaks: Australia, New Zealand, China, home.  Spring Break is clearly a longer break so most expats already learned that in order to leave town and go to an exotic locale of your choice, you must make your plan early and take action.

Short story long, the flights to just about anywhere are booked, and if a flight happens to be available, the resorts are full.  This works out okay for me.  I'm a whiz at planning Disney vacations back home, but trying to book a trip to Thailand is way out of my league.  I can't even pronounce half the names of the cities and areas of Thailand let alone know if  xxxxxx, Thailand is a safe, hip, vacation spot for a family with 3 active boys.  We decide to let this opportunity pass us and use it as a "learning the island of Singapore" week with the kids.  We'll hopefully hit some highlights such as Sentosa Island, the Aquarium, Wild Wild Wet water park, the science museum, and the zoo again.  We have a phenomenal zoo.

We also are way ahead of everyone for the next significant school break: Oct. 1 - 5, 2008.  Bali here we come!

But I've totally digressed.  This blog is supposed to be about me, erm, about the adventure we had last night at our first big social outing:  the George Washington Ball.   

We are invited to the ball by my husband's company and are expected to go and mingle and meet the other Company Folks, having dinner, drinks, and dessert at the Shangri La Hotel.  My first reaction to the ball was, "What!!!"  You see, I enjoy fancy social gatherings as much as the next gal, but I failed to count any formal wear as a most-needed worldy item and hence, like Cinderella, I can't go to the ball.  My fancy duds are somewhere in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.  Nice.  I have to go shopping first.   My Fairy Godmother, friend Jenni, offers to go shopping with me and find something appropriate.  Plus, she needs to find a silver purse and her Mother-in-Law is in town for a month.  The girl needs a break!  

Without too much fuss or going into too many details, I find a lovely gown at Takashimaya department store.  No one told me I was "too fat, lah"* so I claim success.  Jim rents a tux.  Apparently he didn't count his tuxedo as a most-needed worldly item either, which after seeing him in one, I cannot understand why.  He cleans up so well.  See Above.  (And yes, I curled up my hair for a "fancy 'do" and sprayed the bejesus out of it.  It held up well.)

The ball was smashing.  I felt like a little kid.  Honestly.  I've been to 3 black tie affairs in my life and this one had them all beat, hands down.  I wanted to stand against a wall and watch the parade of beautiful people in beautiful clothes.   Truly gorgeous gowns of all hues.  Academy Awards are nothing!  (A couple of men in kilts.  You know, I love a man in a kilt.)  I felt really fortunate last night to be in Singapore, attending a formal event and having fun. We even attempted to listen to the American Ambassador to Singapore make her remarks.  I say attempted because the sound system and where we were seated made it very difficult to understand.

 We enjoyed our dinner and met all kinds of people and when the clock struck midnight, like Cinderella, we headed home.

Until next time,

Vicki :)

* My friend Jenni  tells me that on one of her first shopping outings in Sing, she went into a store and the lady tells her, "No, no, no.  You want Plus size."  She's not a plus size, folks.  It's just the way things are here in Sing.  And I knew I was going to like Jenni's husband, Rick, when she related  his reaction to that: "I guess you don't want to go out for ice cream then, huh?"