1st day on the ground

Rick met us at the airport with our friendly driver Nelson Ooi. We met him on our trip out in March and have become friends. He runs a van service and we needed a van for all our luggage. The 2 bottles of wine and tequila arrived unscathed. After resting a bit we waited for the apartment maintenance to come and replace a cabinet door & oven door. This is a story in and of it's self. Three weeks ago Rick opened the cabinet door and 1/2 of it fell off it's hinges (the apartment is brand new, we are the first tenants) He went out and bought duct tape, why not a screwdriver I don't know. He taped the door shut until he could deal with it. Mind you in Singapore you have air con/ac units in each room and only run them when you are in that room. While Rick was at work the duct tape came loose in the heat and the door fell completely off! On the way to the floor it hit the oven door and broke the glass. He came home to a kitchen floor covered in glass. Fast forward 3 weeks and the repair man was finally here. Got a new cabinet door no problem. The oven door not so easy. They wanted to just replace the glass, NOT. After about 2 hours they finally decided to just replace the oven with a new one. I guess they took it out of a vacant apartment.

We ventured out to stay awake, you walk everywhere! On the way out of the neighborhood Rick told us stories; this is where I see feral cats, here is where I see the "goat girl" every morning on the way to work. "Goat Girl" is about three and each morning she and her maid are out at the pool with a bottle. Apparently the nipple on the bottle is quiet big and when the girl wants a drink she goes up to the maid, with the maid holding the bottle and takes a swig. Rick thinks she looks like a baby goat. Then we saw where the old man sells papers on the street each morning, the ice-cream shop that is packed with customers all day and the Starbucks Rick stops at on the way to work. All these stories were very helpful to me in find my way back to the the apartment by myself later in the day in a haze of jet lag.

We took the subway down to Orchard Road so that Rick & Amanda could see Harry Potter. Orchard Road is the shopping Mecca of Singapore. Not my favorite place, I was having serious culture shock.........or jet lag or whatever. Envision a mile stretch of multi-level malls full of stupid stores like; Rolex, Louis Vuitton, Cartier etc.....the streets and malls jammed pack with people and the noise is defining! That is Orchard Road....... After eating a disgusting lunch, (I ordered a club sandwich without the fried egg on it. It came with a lump of dark chicken meat on it.....yuck! ) Rick & Amanda got in the line/que to buy movie tickets. In Singapore you get to "pick" you seat at the time of purchase. This takes a looong time as people can't make up their minds. Everyone has an assigned seat. We agreed I'd walk around while they were in the movies and if I got tired I'd try to make my way back to the apartment myself.

I tired, I really tried to walk around and you all know I like my retail therapy. I ended up in Borders and bought a nice Bon Jovi CD that was on sale for 50% off. It was crowded with people, kids were crying and I was the walking dead. I decided to find my way back to the apartment and take a nap. Rick had already set up my cell phone/mobile, I knew he'd call when the movie let out. I did pretty good using the subway/MRT and made my way to the big landmark in our neighborhood, United Square Mall. From there I walked past the ice-cream store, the spot where Rick buys his newspaper from the old Indian man. I turned at the condo where the "goat girl" lives and passed the spot where the feral cats hangout & into the back gate of our condo complex. That was all good but I didn't know how to get up the elevator. I know it sounds dumb, but you have to use an access card to get to each floor. I tried several different ways and finally figured it out. I went straight to the bedroom, turned on the air con, put on my PJ's and took a nap until Rick called at 6:15 p.m. and woke me up.

A funny story about Amanda. She asks me, "Mom why are their baby wipe containers in my closet?" "Honey they are not baby wipes they are to keep you clothes from molding because of the constant humidity." Mold & mildew are a constant battle here.

I'll end with a bit of Singapore trivia: Apart from Monaco, Singapore is the most densely populated country in the world.

Be Well!