Security Overkill

[FLASHBACK]

Saturday, January 31st

We had successfully opened a bank account last week, but unfortunately didn't have any money to put in it yet.  I asked about online banking, so I would be able to obsessively check to see when our cashier's check would come through.  Yes, online banking was available, I was told, I just had to follow a few simple steps:

1.)  Wait for an ATM/NETS card in the mail.

2.)  After recieving said NETS card, go to any ATM and request an online banking account.

3.)  At this time, also register a password for online banking.  (This is different than the ATM password.)

4.)  A few days later, I would recieve a notice in the mail, which would contain a different password to open an online banking account via my computer.

5.)  Separately, I would also recieve a "secure device" that I also needed for online banking.

6.)  When both of those are recieved, log on using initial password, and then enter second password recieved in the mail.

7.)  Turn on the 'secure device" (a keychain gadget-thing which turned out to be a random number generator) and enter a third number to verify account.

8.)  All set!  All I have to do from now on, is logon with my new (fourth) password and get my new random number from the keychain thing.  Easy peasy.

This in a country where people still don't lock their doors.

The One My Mother Warned Me About

[FLASHBACK]

Thursday, January 29th

Today was another day of work, but with David still off this week he talked me into a few errands over lunch.  There is a mall nearby called Bukit Timah Plaza, and it is here that there was one last ditch effort and finding manilla folders and standard 8.5x11 paper.  No luck - they don't exist in Singapore.  However, I did have the joy of the following conversation with David while in the office suppliers store.  Kids, pay attention, below is the number one reason not to marry a PhD who works for 3M:

Me, walking down the arts-and-crafts aisle:  "Oh, right, I need glue."

David:  "What do you need?"

"Glue."

"You mean epoxy?"

Me, with an exaggerated eye roll:  "Whichever."

"For what?"  What is the material?"

"Metal.  It's for a picture frame."

"Is it going to get hot?"

"Why in the world would it get hot?  I'll just get Superglue."

"Are you sure? Superglue isn't a thermoset."

Me, with another eye roll and the addition of an exasperated sigh:  "What?"

"It's not crosslinked.  So you can't put it in the dishwasher."

"Just stop."

Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident.  I need to find a girlfriend here.  Someone who will talk about normal things, like.. shoe shopping or brow waxing.  Things that do not cause as much pain as the above.

Finding Good Help

[FLASHBACK]

January 27th - 28th

The cleaning lady came for the first time today, and was a little surprised at my lack cleaning supplies.  (We've been in the house for a week, and I've been surviving on the bottle of dishwashing liquid that the last renters left behind.)  She went out and bought some herself, and then returned only to find I also did not own a mop or broom.  Let me take that back, I owned a mop and broom, but not a mop or broom that she wanted to use.  We had our Euro broom and super fancy mop we had gotten at the state fair, but she simply made a face and shook her head.  Instead, she preferred using this:

This is a fancy one because it has a handle attached.  Years of innovation and the bunch of sticks still works better.

One of the first questions people ask when they find out we've just moved here is "Will you be getting a helper?"  Most people here have live-in maids, or "helpers".  Most of the girls come from Indonesia or the Phillipines, and are pretty much like live-in nannies who also cook, clean, wash the cars, walk the dogs, run errands, and do yardwork.  It's pretty cheap, about S$500 a month (about $350 USD), and that's WAY more money that the girls can make in their home countries, so it works out for everybody.  Since we don't have any kids to take care of and I like cooking and walking the dog, we will not be getting a helper.  Occasionally it would be nice to have someone do the ironing for me and clean the floors, so I'm happy to pay Shirley S$50/week ($35USD) to at least do that for me.

David and I went to run errands today, and had three goals to accomplish.  To buy hanging and manilla folders, get our phone rebates, and apply for a credit card.  5 hours later, we were 0 for 3.  It took forever to find a place that sold office supplies, but a.) they only sell A4 size paper and therefore only A4 size hanging folders which will not fit in my file cabinet and b.)  none of the salespeople had ever heard of manilla folders.  We made it all the way back to where we bought our phones, only to learn that we could put in the paperwork, but it would b 4 - 6 weeks before we got our $600 back.  Last, we went to apply for a credit card, but the qualifications here a tad more stringent than back in the US - David needs a letter from his employer proving his income among other things.  Gah, this day was a bust.

But at least we could come home to clean floors!

They Check In But They Don't Check Out

[FLASHBACK]

Monday, January 26th

The streets are completely empty today, as it's the first day of Chinese New Year. Everyone has today and tomorrow off and are home eating lots of dumplings with their families. David has the week off too, but since I'm on US time, I have to work today. I was keeping busy checking emails, approving documents, researching the background of the... WHAT IS THAT INFERNAL RACKET????


Well, it was this:

Ah, a dragon troupe. I missed most of the dance part, but I caught the end.





And here's the guys climbing back in the truck to go back banging down the next street. You could hear these guys blocks away.

----------------------------------------------

You know how the only restraunts that are open Christmas Day in the US are Chinese? Well, here, the only restraunts open on Chinese New Years Day are - you guessed it - American. Or Austrailian. Western/European food, anyway. We had French food for dinner.

----------------------------------------------

To top off the fun for the day, later that evening, I spied this on my bathroom counter:



Okay, maybe it wasn't that big, but the one I saw wasn't tiny. This guy was thie size that I didn't even want to squish because of the mess it might make. I had to kill it, though, otherwise I'd worry that after I'd fall asleep it would fall from the ceiling and scuttle down my windpipe. The next day David found another one (dead this time) in Millie's food. "It wasn't that big though." he said, holding his fingers a good two inches apart.


But come visit! Really!

Happy Chinese New Year - United Nations Style

[FLASHBACK]

Sunday, January 25th

Tonight was our first party!  We had a busy day beforehand, though, re-arranging our furniture to fit into our new living room.  Where to put the chaise?  (In the corner).  Where to put the rocking chair?  (In one of the spare rooms).  Do we put the books in the bookshelves yet or wait?  (We waited).  I'll spare you the details of all the "discussions" we had in order to decide these things, but the room ended up looking pretty good.  Very comfortable, and Millie has a space for her bed in the corner.

I was nervous on the way over to the party, having to meet so many new paople and all.   Luckily, the whole affair was rather laid back, kid friendly (Guitar Hero and all), and they had plenty of wine, so what else could one want?  I even learned how to play Mahjong... I'll take it back to the US, and it will be the next Bunco, I swear.

The people in our neighborhood are from all over the world.  We are the only Americans as far as I know, the rest are from Hong Kong, Sweden, Russia, Germany, England, Austrailia, Turkey, India and France.  I would have loved to take pictures, but having just met everyone I didn't want to appear... weird.  When we finally get a dining room table and have people over to our place, I'll take some snapshots, that will look more normal.  After all, the people are the most interesting part!

Pictures of our newly arranged living room will not win fans.

My New Favorite Thing

[FLASHBACK]

January 24th, 2009

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens,

Pedi's and mani's and no need for mittens

New teak front porch swing at 38 King's

These are a few of my favorite things...

When the skeeters bite

When the sunscreen stings

When I'm feelin' homesick

I simply remember my new front porch swing

And then I don't feel... so.... ick

Git Er Done

[FLASHBACK]

Friday, January 23rd

I learned something today.  I learned that in Singapore, it is completely unacceptable to strap a mattress to the top of your car and drive it home.  In the US, if you need something moved, well, unless it's an entire room full of furniture, you do it yourself.  You either find a friend with a truck or in my case, call dad to borrow the trailer.  And if something shouldn't fit, say, a box spring, you just strap that baby to the top of your car and you're set.  It would be silly to rent a U-Haul for something as minor as that.  In the US, I'd be completely embarrassed at my waste of good money.

I had bought a full size mattress, frame, and box spring from another American who is moving back to the US soon.  The mattress and frame squished into the back of the Honda easy, but the box spring would just not fit.  So I called David to tell him that when I pick him up after lunch, we were going to buy some bungee cords and tie it to the top of the car and drive it back.  He, to put it mildly, was horrified.  "Seriously?"  he asked.  "Yes, why not?"  He couldn't think of a reason, but after much discussion, simply refused to help.  It was just not done here, it was... white trash.  I might as well wear my hair in curlers on the way while wearing my makeshift bandana tube top.

What was a girl to do?  I called our real estate agent, Joy, who is so helpful in all things Singapore.  What you're supposed to do, we learned, was to call for a mover who for a small fee would pretty much move anything at anytime, anywhere.  Because it was the day before Chinese New Year, however, we probably wouldn't have much luck.  "Everyone Chinese will have gone home..." Joy told us, "But maybe you can find an Indian.  But wait, they have Chinese drivers, so that won't work either."  She looked in her paper for non-Chinese, non-Indian names and came up with a few.  We found a guy, Robert, and he picked up the mattress and had it on our doorstep within an hour.  Viola!  The guest room now has a bed.  How easy was that?  I won't have to lift a finger from now on.

 By the way, Robert was Indian.  I know you were curious.

Shakespeare Ray

[FLASHBACK]

Thursday, January 22nd

Today was... exhausting.  Our belongings arrived mostly intact, with the exception of our little kitchen cart (the castors on the bottom had broken off), and a crack on bookshelf.  No biggie.  Here's a picture of the container backing into our driveway:

And here's what our living room looked like 20 minutes later:

Ugh.  

Millie was delivered in the middle of all this chaos, so we put her in one of the spare bedrooms that we weren't using.  The movers eyes were huge when I brought here in the house, and they said the same thing that everyone else here says when they see her.  "That... is a big dog."  We recieved all her paperwork, liscences, permits, etc. with her and noticed something.  Written in the Breed space was not "Chesapeake Bay", but "Shakespeare Ray".  Fabulous!  If we ever get another Chessie, that should be it's name.

Travolta Said It Best

[I have officially admitted to myself that I am NOT catching up on the blog.  But this weekend is fairly empty of comittments, so I'm trudging on.]

Wednesday, January 21st

We got invited to a party!  A family that lives on the block is hosing a Chinese New Year's Eve party, and we'll finally get to meet some neighbors.  I'm excited, but a bit nervous about meeting people.  And there's also the question of what to wear... it didn't give a dress code on the invite.  I mean, I'm sure everyone else knows or thinks it's no big deal, but this is our fist time invited to someone's home, and I don't want to offend.  If I wear something completely wrong I can always spill something on myself and then go back up to our place to change.  I do know to take off my shoes entering the house, though, our real estate agent briefed us on that one.

Tonight was also Millie's last night in quarantine, so we went to a nice place to celebrate not having to drive back and forth to the kennel every night.  We went to a place called IndoChine, which is a fantastic Asian Fusion restraunt in Holland Village.  A bit pricey, but they had 2-for-1 drinks that night so that certainly helped the celebratory mood.  By the way, they call them 1-for-1 here, not 2-for-1, as in "buy one, get one free", not "two for the price of one."  As John Travolta stated in Pulp Fiction, "it's the little differences".  There are many.

The movers are coming tomorrow with the sea shipment, so we'll finally have all our belongings, including decent living room furniture, and clothes.  The Pet Embassy folks are also dropping Millie off for us, so she'll get to see her new home for the first time.  David will be working, of course, so I get to handle it all myself.  Wish me luck!

I Don't Want It Looking At Me

[Flashback!]

Tuesday, January 20th

It was a good day today.  I was able to talk to my BFF for an extended period of time this morning, and she was able to pump me up enough for me to work up the courage to go to the wet market and ask the fish guy to chop of the heads of my prawns I wanted to buy.  And he did, with a great "Only for you, okay, I do this..." that I was hoping for, lots of hand-flourishing and everything.  As David keeps telling me, it's all about relationships.  I am building a relationship with the Prawn Guy.  Someday, I may even learn his real name.  His first, and then Fruit Guy, then  Chicken Guy, saving Vegetable Lady for last.  She intimidates me the most.  She's 4 foot 8 and terrifying, but her line is the longest to buy fresh produce so I figure the others must know something that I don't, so I keep going there.

One of the other great things about Singapore is the fresh fruit.  With fresh fruit comes fresh fruit juices, which are cheap and in abundance.  They also have interesting combinations, some of which are fantastic such as watermelon-lime, or sugarcane-lime, and others... well... I had green apple and celery juice with dinner at tonight.  It wasn't bad.  Light, and not too sweet.  You have to appreciate the juices because what Singapore does NOT have in abundance, however, is dessert.  Not even a plain old cookie can be found in the local eating places.  Some of the "sweets" may look appetizing, sort of like a danish, but will then have a label on it that says "with chicken floss".  I haven't yet worked up the courage to ask if they have any without chicken floss.  There's only so many times a day that I can have people looking at me strangely for what I consider perfectly reasonable requests.  

Like prawns without heads.

If I Had a Hammer...

[Flashback mode - I'm catching up... really!]

Monday, January 19th

We had another easy task today - drive downtown to meet with Deloitte Singapore to get a briefing on how the Singapore tax system works.  No biggie.  We had time.  We had the address.  We had a map.  Other than an argument in the car in downtown Singapore that severely tested the strength of our marriage (we could not find where to park), what was the most confusing part of the trip was.... the office building elevator.

After getting through the airport-like security in the Deloitte building, we knew we had to go to floor 32.  We found the elevator, boarded with about 10 others, the doors closed, and I pressed 32.  It didn't light.  I pressed it again.  No luck.  Oh well, the little indicator light must be out.  "Only ott flo..." an asian woman next to me said.  "Sorry?"  I asked.  "Only ott flo... the lift..."  After pondering this second, I understood.  Ah, this elevator only goes to odd floors.  Whoops, must have missed a sign.  No matter, we'll get off on floor 31 and walk.

After exiting on floor 31, we disovered... no stairwell.  Only the entrance to an office that was locked.  Now what?  If the elevators only go to odd floors, getting back on would only take us to floor 33.  What if there was no stairwell there, either?  We stood there for a minute, feeling completely... inept.  We had made it all the way around the world and all the way downtown in a foreign crowded city driving on the wrong side of the road.  Why can we not figure out how to get up one d%#m floor???

Finally, a group of individuals carrying huge boxes of files came out of the office door.  "How do we get to floor 32?" David asked.  They pointed.  The lift, of course.  "But doesn't it only go to odd floors."  They all looked confused.  "No, go to all floor."  David finally got it.  It's only odd floors from the first floor lobby, after that, the elevators go to any floor.  We entered the elevator, and went up one floor to 32.  Easy peasy.

Silly Americans, can't even figure out the lift.

The second big task for the day was putting together the TV  stand we bought at Ikea.  Let me introduce Immediate Gratification David from yesterday.  The tools required were a wrench, which we had thanks to the hardware store trip yesterday, and a hammer.  Which we did not have.  It was 9pm, and there is no Home Depot here.  Fine, we'll wait until tomorrow, there are a lot of things we need a hammer for, it would be silly to start without a necessary tool.  No, David disagreed, we have to have something.  So he found.... something.

Yes, that is a rock.  We pounded our TV console together with a rock from the garden.  He called it resourceful.  I called it ridiculous.  You decide.

Idiot Proof

[Reminder:  Flash Back!]

Sunday, January 18th

I have a love/hate relationship with Ikea.  The have such cool stuff, and it's fairly easy to put things together yourself but.... you have to put things together yourself.  I know they have a service where they deliver and install everything for you, but the directions are supposed to be so idiot-proof that paying for this service is almost like you're admitting you're a lazy knuckle-head.  We were two confident, smart, capable individuals.  We could do this.  The instructions, however, were 40 PAGES.  And required a screwdriver.  Which we did not have.

This was us:

This was not us, we were too proud:

Anyway, after a small argument with Immediate Gratification David, Responsible Patient Chris delayed the assembly to take a trip to the hardware store to buy a screwdriver, and we spent the rest of the day assembling the desks.  Anyway, here's the final result:

It's pretty much a mess right now, but look at all the space!  Now I don't have any excuses not to be productive.

We did take another break in the middle of the day to go to Dempsey.  For you Minneapolis folks, if Holland Village is like Uptown, then Dempsey is like Linden Hills.  They have upscale restraunts, but also some great teak furniture outlets.  We found a fantanstic patio set which we cannot yet afford, but determined not to leave empty handed, we purchased this:

Yes, this is in our front yard.  I show pictures like this not to brag about living in the tropics, but in order to entice ya'll to come and visit us.  This is a perfect place to relax with a glass of wine at night.  Or frozen pizza and Tiger Beer.  Whichever.  We have both.

Ikea Hell

[NOTE: Still in FlashBack Mode...]

Saturday, January 16th

We had a list of "stuff" we "needed", so we decided to head to Ikea, which isn't too far away from our house. To sum up the experience, here's the quote of the day from David:


"The only thing worse than Ikea on a Saturday is Ikea on a Saturday in Asia."


I'll have to add, that even worse than that, is having to go back twice for missing parts. We bought a desk, but had failed to buy the legs which inexplicably came separately. We also assumed (incorrectly) that by waiting until 8pm, the store would have calmed down a tad. It was actally more crowded - so much that we had to wait in line to get in to the parking ramp. David swore he'd never go back again. I was just exited to qualify as an "Ikea Friend" - free sodas!

Yes, they basically have the same stuff at the Ikea Singapore store - furniture and room set ups on the main floor and all the accesories on the bottom floor, but the menu in the food area is a little different:

For example:

Curry Noodle A portion of spaghetti noodle in curry gravy, served with 2 pieces of potatoes, app. 120g of boneless chicken leg, fishcake and a whole egg.

Nasi Goreng A portion of fried rice with green peas, onions and egg, served app. 120g of fried chicken, otah fish cake and fish cake, with sambal tumis chilli, tomato ketchup and cucumber slices on the side.



Did I mention that I now get free sodas???

Day "Off"

[NOTE:  Still flashing back!!!!]

January 16th, 2009

David's working, and this is the last day of my week off.  I was supposed to relax, sleep in, etc., but here's what I ended up doing:

1.)  Trying to find our mail box.  It may seem obvious, but it was hidden in the big square posts by our driveway.  We also got our first piece of personal mail - thanks Chandra!!!!  BTW, it's $0.94 to mail a letter and takes a little less than a week to get here.

      

No, it's not here...             It's there.  See it?

2.)  Going to the nearby wet market to attempt to buy some food for the house.  The wet market is sort of an open air market, with everything from chicken and fish to vegetables to dried goods to flowers.  After wandering around and realizing I was pretty much the only white face in the bunch, I figured I should at least buy something to start fitting in.  There are no signs by any of the vegetables, telling you what they are, so I bought a packet of spices and then tried to find whatever the vegetable was on the picture of the spice packet.  I couldn't find anything that looked like the vegetable, so I bought something that looked somewhere between broccoli and baby bok choy and figured it should be edible.  I was also going to buy some prawns to go with it, but there was a slight problem.  These prawns were BIG, and they all had the heads still on.  Now, I know how to peel and de-vein a shrimp as well as anyone, but I wasn't quite ready to start chopping the heads off things.

Figuring this was enough newness for one day, for lunch I bought bread, PB and jelly from the little 7-11 that was nearby.  That should tide me over for a while.

2.)  After I got home, the washing machine guy stopped by again to replace a switch that I think really didn't need replacing.  I think he was just trying to make me feel better about the whole the-door-just-wasn't-shut-properly situation.

3.)  Listened TO THE GOPHER MEN'S BASKETBALL TEAM BEAT WISCONSIN IN OVERTIME!!!!  I love the internet.

4.)  Unpacked clothes.  Why I thought I'd need any of my fall jackets is beyond me.  Or my cowboy boots.

5.)  The curtain repair guy also stopped by to fix one of the curtains in the guest room that wouldn't close.  (Did you hear that?  Guest room.  For guests.  Like you.  Come visit.)

6.)  Two assessors stopped by to evaluate the house for taxes or something.

7.)  I tried to set up a sort of make-shift office for work on Monday.  As long as I have internet we should be good to go.

After that, I took the usual bus to visit Millie with David, and we had our usual dinner out.  A day of no rest, but there was accomplishment, which is sometimes all you can hope for.

Brrrr....

NOTE:  Still flashing back.... I haven't caught up to real time yet!

January 15th, 2009

I've been getting more messages from home about how cold it is in Minnesota today!  More specifically, -21F.  Painfully cold, though I do miss it.  A little.  Or rather, I miss not sweating profusely everytime I walk outside for more than 60 seconds.  It's amazing how much brain space is freed up when you don't have to think about the weather.  David and my discussions about the weather used to take up a good 10 minutes every morning, mostly after I'd been out walking the dog before work.  Here, I still walk the dog before work in the morning, but our conversations go something like this:

David:  What's the weather like?  Is it humid?

Chris:  [Sarcastically] What do you think?

After that, there's pretty much nothing left to say.  It rains sometimes in the afternoon, but nothing else really changes.  I remarked to a native Singaporean once about how great it is to always have nice warm evenings to sit outside, and he said, "I suppose, but it can get monotonous."  Spoiled native.

I took the bus up to Woodlands where David works to meet him for lunch and to open a bank account.  We were running late, so I ran into Long John Silvers (funny I've never been until we arrived in Singapore), wondering why there were so many Muslim women in the place, and then I read that LJS is Halal!  Who knew?

After that we went and opened a bank account.  We had some cash, but most of our money was in the form of a cashier's check from our bank in the US.  There is a $3000 minimum to open a bank account, and not wanting to bring all our money in cash form, we brought the cashier's check.  We then found out it will take 21 days to clear.  Crap. 

After we signed everything and recieved our starter checks, the person who was helping us showed us where to deposit the check.  She pointed to a small slot in an obscure wall that was sort of like where you put your mail in the post office.  But it didn't even have a sign.

"In there?"  I asked.

"Yes, in there."

"Don't I need to sign it?"

"No"

"No envelope?"

"No"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, it's very safe."

"And I don't need to sign it."

"No."

"And you know that this is a cashier's check, not a regular check.  This is actual money."

"Yes."

So in it went - all our money.  No electronic assurances, a hole in the wall doesn't give receipts.  We felt like we just threw away $10,000.

2/4/09 update:  We're still waiting for the money.

Later that evening, we went for drinks with people from David's work group.  I title it:  "One Of These Things Is Not Like The Others".  Can you spot it?