So, What Are You Doing For Thanksgiving?

I love Thanksgiving. Our family tradition is to gather at one of my cousin's houses and eat, drink, eat, watch football, and eat. And sit around. And eat. The person hosting the gathering is responsible for the turkey, and the rest is pot luck. Only the most accomplished cooks in the family are allowed to bring the most important dishes, the rest are assigned ones that can easily be picked up at the grocery store. My favorites are the appetizers which usually take the form of something cheese-based, but also carries the additional requirement of the person assigned this course being extremely punctual. Woe the individual in charge of appetizers being more than 15 minutes late! My mother keeps threatening to bring only raw vegetables for appetizers as she thinks we eat to much and there isn't room for the good stuff by the time dinner time rolls around, so now she is no longer allowed to volunteer for such an important course. Green salad or kid's dessert for her. My brother, being male and unmarried, has only ever been assigned beer or dinner rolls. But I think he messed up the dinner roll responsibility one year and now he's only tasked with beer. There was a recent occurrence (that is now referred to as the the Potato Incident of '08) where I decided throw down the potato gauntlet and bring roast potatoes instead of mashed, and there was a small uprising among the older generation. Concerned phone calls were made. Keep in mind that there are about 25-30 of us at these gatherings, and they've been doing this for 40 years now, so the rules are set. Don't mess with tradition. And don't bleach the good silver.

This year was a distant second to all my family gatherings. Since Thanksgiving is not an official holiday here, I had to work during the day. Luckily there is enough of an American population here in Singapore that a few restaurants were hosting turkey dinners. At the last minute we decided on Dan Ryan's, which is sort of like Old Chicago without the good beer selection. Our friends Cindy and Gary had already made a reservation and were kind enough to let us crash their table as the place was fully booked and I waited too long to make up my mind.

The meal wasn't too bad. The turkey and mashed potatoes were dry (I like dark meat), and the yams were steamed, but there were cranberries and stuffing and gravy, and the green beans were surprisingly tasty.

The only true disappointment was the pumpkin pie. It was definitely from a box and the tiny amount of whipped cream (I prefer a 1:1 ratio of pumpkin pie to whipped cream) was so from a can. Blasphemy.

On the way home we drove down Orchard Road, which is sort of the Rodeo Drive of Singapore. Every year the streets are elaborately decorated to some sort of theme - this year it is "A Christmas All Decked Out". I'll take more pictures in the next few weeks, but here's a preview:

A 20-foot Santa playing the tuba. Makes sense.

The Weather Is Here, Wish You Were Beautiful

David's #1 thing to do was take a surfing lesson. I was a bit hesitant, figuring it would be really hard and I wouldn't be that good at it, but I didn't want to miss out on the chance to try it. I'm glad I did because it was so much fun! David was way better than I was, being stronger and able to do the pop-up thing, but I held my own.

It was completely exhausting and afterward we hit a burger joint where David did some streetside bargaining for a green laser pen. I swear these guys can get you anything you ask for and then some.

We visited a massage place called Chill that our driver recommended. Get this - 90 minutes of massage for $23. I love this place.

We headed back to the hotel to eat a great meal and watch the sunset one last time. Bali will be missed, and I really hope to go back someday.

Supporting the Local Economy

Day two in Bali was spent traveling to and from Ubud, which David described as "the Santa Fe of Indonesia". We had a great driver for the day (he was funny, that's always key to a good tour), and he was so patient with us as we wanted to stop at all the craft places. The first stop was to learn about Batik, where they had live demonstrations:

And of course a place where you could buy any number of things from paintings to hats, scarves, clothing and bags.

Next stop was a tour of a local Balinese home, where the tour guide had the hook-up and we were able to wander around inside the compound. It was pretty fascinating, with almost everything outdoors and open to the elements. Here's the kitchen:

The bedroom:

The workshop:

And the family temple area:

This was considered quite a wealthy family, take a look at their front door (the entrance to an air-conditioned indoor area - also wired for cable of course):

Next was a silversmith, where again there were demonstrations and a shop open to the public. Everywhere you go there are small offerings to the gods - on the dashes of cars, outside all the shops, at all the statues in the temples, etc. This one was next to a buffing machine as the silversmith shop:

Next up, Balinese temple from AD944. David had to wear a skirt!

I found the faces on the statues more humorous than regal...

Finally, we made it to Ibu Oka, famous worldwide for it's suckling pig. That's all they sell, and they do it well. Notice from the menu that you can buy an entire plate of skin:

This poor fella tried to sneak in and get some scraps, but it doesn't look like he was very successful:

Finally, the rice paddies. These are all over Bali, but this one is popular because it's not too far off the main road. Apparently we missed Julia Roberts by just a day, she was there on location filming the movie version of Eat, Pray, Love. The place was breathtaking, like stepping into a postcard.

The last couple of stops were more artists areas, one for woodworking where David bought a mask to add to his collection:

And last but not least a painters co-op, where again we tried to support the world economy by investing in the local art scene. We'll have to host an art show when we get back to MN!

Early to bed, tomorrow we'll be up with the chickens to take our first surfing lesson.

Bali Hai

I have a love/hate relationship with the blog. On one hand, I enjoy recording everything so I can share it with friends and family, but on the other hand there is sometimes so much to report that I don't know where to begin, and I'm paralyzed with indecision. "Begun Is Half Done" is a cross-stiched saying my mom had on her sewing room wall, and I use it often. Like now. Here we go.

I've been anxious to go to Bali ever since I read the book "Eat, Pray, Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert. David insisted he needed a vacation "like, now" and Bali is just a 2 hour plane ride away, so twist-my-arm, Bali it was.

We arrived late on a Thursday, and after being greeted at the hotel with leis and mint tea, we were ushered to our bungalow. At first I was a tad unimpressed, but then the bell hop opened a door and we found our awesome bathroom. I love it when showers open to the outside.

David slept in a bit the next morning, so I headed out to have breakfast by the beach and catch up on my reading. I never cracked my book because watching the waves and the surfers was just too enthralling. I could have sat there all day.

Our first stop on the city tour was a local tailor, where David got a custom made wool dress jacket for $160.

Kuta, which is considered "too touristy" by local standards, was surprisingly fun to walk around and buy cheap crap, if that's what you like. And I do.

We walked along the beach for a ways, then headed back up the main drag to find some food.

Along the way, we decided to stop and get 30 minute foot massages which were exorbitantly priced at $3 a person. No, that is not a typo. Three. Dollars.

Since this was supposed to be a relaxing vacation, we headed back to the hotel to sit by the pool and watch the sun set.

We changed and took a short taxi ride to a nice italian place up the road. It was crowded, but we were happy to wait 20 minutes with a glass of wine in hand.

We had a fun walk back along the beach, our only problem was figuring out which hotel was ours. There are huge spotlights beaming out from every resort/hotel along the way, and it's hard to tell where you are. We found it though, much too soon, as the weather was lovely.

Tomorrow, Ubud and suckling pig. Yum!

Halloween, Singapore Style

Halloween here in Singapore turned out to be sort of a big deal. I know that in the American neighborhood (not where we live) they ship kids in by the busload, and a single house has been known to give away 1,000 pieces of candy or more. I was hoping that our neighborhood would be a bit quieter, but I heard from a neighbor that our block was second only to the American neighborhood in popularity for trick-or-treaters, so no luck. David and I originally planned on gettin' out of dodge for the evening, but my friend Margaret talked me into staying home and promised to help out all with the swarms of kids who might appear.

I drew the line at actually wearing my own costume, but went to the grocery store to get candy to prepare for whoever might stop by. First, I had to find decent candy, which was not easy. Some of the candy here is... weird. Like things that are prawn-flavored. I found a shelf that had bags of Reese's and Crunch bars, and grabbed 10 bags. The bill was $98.86. Ouch. Well, at least I had my good friend Margaret to hang out with and help hand out all this candy. Wait, is that a voicemail? Former good friend Margaret has left a message that she's at a wine tasting and probably isn't going to make it. Gah. That's okay, David is just as fun around kids, right? Well, at least he'll show up if there's candy.

People on our block went all out on decorating their gates. Fake spider webs, blinking lights, pumpkins everywhere, and even that woooooo-whistle ghost music that turns on when you walk by. We were heckled more than once by neighbors who thought that since this is an American holiday, we should be the ones who go all out. "Where's all your Halloween stuff? You're American!" I made a little ghost out of kleenex and taped it to our buzzer, but that was the extent of my decorating. I just like to see the kids in their costumes and chow on the left-over candy.

The first kids were our next door neighbors - Olivia, Selene and Lucinda with Jasmine the dog, otherwise known as Princess, Scary Whatever-You-Call-It, and Leopard with Mini-Leopard.

Of all the kids who stopped by, most of the girls were witches and princesses, and most of the boys were pirates. I guess the stores don't sell Disney or Pixar characters, except for this one:

And in case you were wondering - yes, the maids take the kids trick-or-treating, too.

The festivities started at 6:00pm, but by 6:15 there was a huge storm brewing, and it had already started to thunder. By 6:30 it was raining cats and dogs and I had already given away most of the candy. We shut down early for the night.

Where was Millie during all of this? At the first sound of thunder she high-tailed it to the spot she apparently feels most protected. Behind the toilet.

Happy Halloween.