The Family's All Together

I have a feeling I'm going to start each post with an apology.  "Sorry it's been so long, but [insert excuse here], ...." and such and such.  It's been a week since the last update, but don't worry, I've been keeping track of everything interesting that we've done, and all will be posted eventually.  Both Millie and the sea shipment with all the furniture came today, so I'm completely exhausted from unpacking Tupperware, but I still wanted to post a couple of pix.

First, we finally got Millie today!  The Pet Embassy delivered her after 30 long days in quarantine (where she learned that she will live if only allowed to pee twice a day, not 20 like she's used to), and I continue to wonder what she thinks about this whole thing.  She seems to be taking everything in stride - happy just to have dinner and a belly scratch from time to time.  I should take a lesson.  After arriving, she explored the whole house and yard, and then proceeded to fall dead asleep on her bed for the rest of the afternoon.  We took her for a long walk tonight, and the locals are pretty impressed.  It's not exactly common to have a dog here in the first place, much less a huge one like Millie.  The neighbor dog seemed pretty interested, too:

This is Snickers/Tigger, owned by the Austrailian family next door.  He barks on occasion, but mostly only for attention, after you reach through the fence and give his chin a scratch he quiets down.  And even thought "he still has all his pieces" as David puts it, and "maybe they'll kiss..." like the little 4-year-old who owns Tika noted, we think they'll keep it platonic and get on like best of friends.

Another random observation includes smoking.  We forgot what it was like to have to choose "the smoking or non-" sections in restraunts, there are still quite a few smokers here.  Though with cigarette ads like these, who could light one up?

Zoom in if you can't see it, but every pack of cigarettes has  picture of a tumor, growth, or something else gross that can happen if you keep smoking.  I almost bought a pack just for the picture!

It's 10pm on Thursday, and American Idol is finally on!

History Lesson Part I

Can it be Thursday already??? There's so much that we've packed in during the last week and yet, sadly, almost nothing to show for it. On Sunday, I decided to tag along with David when he went to his yoga class, and I wandered around for a couple of hours in the Civic area of Singapore, which was right across the street from the mall where David takes his classes.

First Stop: Civilian War Memorial

"The Japanese invaded Singapore in 1942 (in order to"liberate" Singapore from colonial rule) and occupied Singapore until the end of the World War II in 1945. The Japanese occupation is generally regarded as the darkest period of Singapore history, as they were far harsher rulers than the British ever were. This memorial is to commemorate the civilians who lost their lives during that time.

"Four vertical pillars soar to over 70 meters symbolizing the shared war experiences of the Chinese, Indian, Malay, and other races.

"The remains of unknown victims are interred beneath the monument.

"Among the civilians who lost their lives were numerous Chinese targetted by the Japanese under the Sook Ching (literally "to purge" or "to eliminate") operations. On 18 February 1942, large numbers of Chinese were forcibly assembled at designated mass screening centres. Many were unjustly accused of involvement in anti-Japanese activities, or arbitrarily condemned. No one will ever know how many were taken away and massacred. Unofficial figures put the number of dead at about 50,000."

This place was pretty cool, I love history when there is something tangible to connect it to. Tell me all the facts above without actually being there and I'd think "Oh, um, okay" and wonder what's for lunch. But when you're there, knowing that there are people buried there, and that there was this place that I didn't know was even involved in WWII (I pretty much think Germany and oh yeah, didn't we drop The Bomb on someone?), it brings a clearer light.

Don't get bored already, more to come!

Terror on the Highway

We drove! They just handed us a car and let us drive! No, this is not an optical illusion, the steering wheel really is on the right (opposite) side. It's a bit disconcerting and I'll have to admit I pretty much white-knucked the drive back from seeing Millie, but the maiden voyage is over. We drove. On real roads. In traffic. Without (mostly) any incidents.

P.S. I have to keep taking pictures of these things before they become normal. Note not only the excessive fines for wanting to take your Diet Coke on the subway, but also that hauling along a durian fruit is actually illegal.

Wait, Did We Just Move To Singapore?

Since I'm a bit tired, I thought I'd rely on pictures do the talking. Among other things, we bought cell phones (iPhone for David of course, and a Blackberry for me) and finally saw Millie for the first time in two weeks. No pictures allowed in the Quarantine Station, but she's doing fairly well, other than wanting to get the heck out of Dodge, of course. Now the countdown is 14 days until we can spring her out of there.

Here's a pic from the hotel restraunt, they have a huge buffet and tropical scenery to boot:


We hit one of the malls to buy our phones, and in an effort to find a snack, I saw this. Pizza in a Cone! How are these not at the State Fair????


After a full day of trying to sleep in, shopping for phones and visiting Millie, we hit Newton Circus, which is a hawker center (read: cheap local food) by our hotel. They're already setting up for Chinese New Year with the red lanterns.



But what's this? Carrot Cake! Just like mom makes! At the same vendor as Oyster Omlettes, but it can't be that different, can it?



Or can it? Granted, I really didn't expect cake, per say, but there weren't any carrots at all! Just eggs, prawn, rice flour chunks, and some green onions. It wasn't bad though, I ate the whole thing.

Next time it's the Cereal Prawn, to see if cereal has anything to do with the dish. Ta from the island, I'm off to find the nearest Starbucks and a wireless connection, I'm sick of the hotel room already...

OMG, Now We're In Singapore!

David and I arrived safely at 3:30am Monday morning Singapore time (1:30pm Sunday afternoon Central), completely exhausted but at least with all our luggage and most of our sanity.  We had 5 pieces of luggage to check (limit of 4) - the extra one piece cost $150 and could have been another carry-on, but I figured after dragging that heavy thing around for 24 hours I'd gladly pay NWA to take it off my hands.  There was a two hour delay (after we got on the plane and the runway, of course) at Tokyo for an abnormal reading on a vibration sensor.  I'm hoping it wasn't a Honeywell part.

I'm wearing shorts and a tank top this morning, it was 83F when we got up.  I'll write more later after a decent meal at the hotel breakfast buffet - on the docket today is to acquire cell phones and open a bank account.  Wish us luck, and we get to see Millie later today!

Millie is in Singapore!

Here are a few pictures of Millie at the quarantine facitily in Singapore - she looks HOT! And a tad bewildered. We wonder if she has jetlag and gets up at 3am like we do during the first week.

17 Days and Counting

I made a list of things to do while I was bored in a meeting today.  I stopped at 25 things, and that was just off the top of my head.

Here's a quick snapshot:

1.)  Call Gabi to cancel

2.)  Hook up food/water dishes to the kennel

3.)  Update blog (done!)

4.)  Email Mindy about tax meeting

5.)  Call ARC to arrange pick-up of stuff left over

6.)  Post car ads at TA's Automotive

7.)  Call Darin to switch homeowners insurance

8.)  Make dentist appointment

9.)  Make appointment for shots

.... and on and on.

We're driving to Chicago on Saturday to see Millie off.  David is convinced that it is easier to smuggle nuclear arms than ship a dog to Singapore.  She needs three times the paperwork and shots we do, and it costs twice as much.  We can track her progress across the world, though, and they'll send us a message when she arrives in Singapore safely.  Say a traveler's prayer for her!

Jet-lagged, but home

I'm a little tired to write much, but notice that there are pictures now!  I also snapped a few of the delicacies you can find in the Tokyo Airport:

Wierdly, I could notfind where the rice part was.  Maybe inside the squid?  I was not going to pay $8 to find out.

I never considered this combination but it can't be too hard to replicate at home.

What is this?  The only words in English on the whole package were "It's made of good ingredients".  I was not reassured.

Yesterday we took a taxi from the hotel to our new place. We walked around the neighborhood and found the nearest bus stop, wet market and hawker center. We're also really close to the Botanical Gardens, a great place to walk Millie!

Last night we hit Night Safari, pretty much one of the coolest zoos ever. I've never been so close to a rhinocerous or flying squirrel.

It's been raining for 8 hours already today, and it doesn't look like it's letting up. I took a nice long nap and finally sent out some emails. I've been meaning to do some work, but it's just not happening. Maybe tomorrow.

We found a house!

That's right! We have a place to live - 38 Kings Drive. It's gorgeous, near a place called Bukit Timah (boo-ki-tee-mah - a sort of trendy area with fun shops and restaraunts), on a quite street with TONS of room for all our friends and family to come and visit. 5 bedroom, 4 bathroom so we can fit you all. So, start planning to come and visit all you friends and family!

Chris

P.S. We went to Clarke Quay last night for a great japanese dinner and walked around - a little touristy, but great people watching!