I'm so happy the unpacking is done and everything is put away! Yesterday had a guy from the moving company show up and hang all the pictures for me. Rick really enjoyed the fact that he didn't have to do this. It took an industrial strength drill to screw into the concrete walls. That's a good thing since we are on the top floor and I hope that means the building is typhoon proof.
Only had 2 broken items so that was a relief. Rick worked half a day yesterday. It was his 47th birthday. Amanda & I walked to the grocery store with my "little old lady cart". She was embarrassed I was bringing the cart. On the way back home with all our bags she was "happy" I had the cart. She had to carry a mop & bucket while I put all the food in my "granny cart". The carrot cake batter came out fine. We put it in the oven only to realize after 5 minutes the oven was on the convection setting (which may come in handy on Thanksgiving). It was really brown on top. After I adjusted the setting the cake finished cooking and tasted really good. Rick was very happy to have his favorite cake.
Tonight we will try and cook tacos with "minced beef" that is what they call ground beef here. It was $10 Singapore dollars for 300 kg (1/2 lb) about $8 usd.
Cute story.....Tuesday night Rick & I went to dinner at the HR managers apartment. She was having a farewell for a couple whom are leaving. Amanda baby sat for a family who moved here a week before us. The Dad is from the UK and the Mum is from New Zealand. The kids were 7 & 9. The next day the kids told theirDad that it was so fun to have Amanda over. She is the first American they have spent anytime with and found her "accent" fascinating "just like the movies"! Funny since Amanda found their accents darling.
Our Lindsay will be leaving for her job in Japan on August 1st. It's hard to believe she'll only be about a 7 hour plane trip for us. We are planning on going to see her for a long weekend in September. She's going to be teaching English in a middle school in Fukui, Japan.
Now that the hard stuff is over I'll have time to take some photos and upload them. TGIF!
Singapore's name derives from the Malay words for lion & city. The Malay Prince Sang Nila Utama is said to have founded Singapore in the 13th century and given it the name Sigapura after seeing an impressive wild animal on the island. In all likelihood, the animal was a Malayan tiger!
Be Well!
Friday, July 31, 2009
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
A Singapore Day!
We had a saying when we lived in China, you either had a good, bad or China day. We'll there is such a thing as a "Singapore Day" too. Sunday night we tried to cook potatoes in the oven, yes the new one they replaced Saturday. It kept shorting out and causing the breaker to go off in the kitchen. I also realized we have no ac/air con in the kitchen and it's hot as hades in there! We ended up cooking our meal on the stove top and buying a fan to sit on top of the fridge. This will NOT be a friendly place to go through "hot flashes" Can you say Cassie is really bitchy when she's hot? In China we had 2 one butt kitchens, we had 2 two bedroom apartments that were connected for us. I had 2 kitchens one on each side of the apartment and only 1 butt would fit in them at a time. Singapore is much more civilized and I have a 2 butt kitchen now!
On Sunday morning Rick and I took a walk to get the newspaper from the old Indian gent. On the way out the back gate of the complex there were 2 huge and I mean huge snails. I will get a picture, you have got to see these guys, the shells were as big as hermit crab shells. On Monday Rick went into work for an hour, ha....... 3 hours later he arrived home. I busied myself with cleaning the shower stall (Rick doesn't clean showers) and the black soot off the white kitchen cabinets and lining all the shelves with shelf paper. Yes I can play "Martha Stewart" in Singapore! Laundry........must take a picture for you..... I will have to wash at least 2 loads a day because the washer/dryer are so small. The washer will only hold one set of sheets. You can wash from 48 min. to 2.5 hours. I'll washing everything for 48 min...... I think that should be enough cleanliness! The dryer vents right into the laundry room, Did I mention the laundry which is off the kitchen does not have ac? I have told Rick we need to figure out a way vent the dryer out the window! I will be buying a stand up ac unit or endustral fan for the laundry area which also has the maids "room, more like closet" and bath. Cassie is sweating her arse off, maybe the 10 lbs I put on in Lower Slower Delaware will come off quicker than I thought! See I'm trying to stay positive!
Time to go, the movers will be here soon with our household goods. It will take 2 days and they will unpack everything and cart the boxes etc. away. Unpack means take things out of boxes and put on floor. Cassie will have to put everything a way and do my favorite thing "organize" Someone will come back on Thursday and hang pictures in the cinder block walls for me. They apartment management is supposed to come and fix the "new" oven today!!! I sure hope so I plan on making Rick a cake on Thursday for his b-day. It might have to be a micro-wave cake! Does Martha have a recipe for micro-wave cake?
Singapore Trivia: The largest fountain in the world is in Singapore at Suntec City.
Hugs,
Cassie
On Sunday morning Rick and I took a walk to get the newspaper from the old Indian gent. On the way out the back gate of the complex there were 2 huge and I mean huge snails. I will get a picture, you have got to see these guys, the shells were as big as hermit crab shells. On Monday Rick went into work for an hour, ha....... 3 hours later he arrived home. I busied myself with cleaning the shower stall (Rick doesn't clean showers) and the black soot off the white kitchen cabinets and lining all the shelves with shelf paper. Yes I can play "Martha Stewart" in Singapore! Laundry........must take a picture for you..... I will have to wash at least 2 loads a day because the washer/dryer are so small. The washer will only hold one set of sheets. You can wash from 48 min. to 2.5 hours. I'll washing everything for 48 min...... I think that should be enough cleanliness! The dryer vents right into the laundry room, Did I mention the laundry which is off the kitchen does not have ac? I have told Rick we need to figure out a way vent the dryer out the window! I will be buying a stand up ac unit or endustral fan for the laundry area which also has the maids "room, more like closet" and bath. Cassie is sweating her arse off, maybe the 10 lbs I put on in Lower Slower Delaware will come off quicker than I thought! See I'm trying to stay positive!
Time to go, the movers will be here soon with our household goods. It will take 2 days and they will unpack everything and cart the boxes etc. away. Unpack means take things out of boxes and put on floor. Cassie will have to put everything a way and do my favorite thing "organize" Someone will come back on Thursday and hang pictures in the cinder block walls for me. They apartment management is supposed to come and fix the "new" oven today!!! I sure hope so I plan on making Rick a cake on Thursday for his b-day. It might have to be a micro-wave cake! Does Martha have a recipe for micro-wave cake?
Singapore Trivia: The largest fountain in the world is in Singapore at Suntec City.
Hugs,
Cassie
Sunday, July 26, 2009
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!
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!
Friday, July 24, 2009
Day 1 the Adventure begins with a BANG!
It's finally time for the big move. I was awoken at 6:25 a.m. by a computer voice telling me my 5:00 p.m. flight from Washington, DC to Newark, NJ was canceled due to "weather". Minutes later Rick was calling to tell me my flight was cancelled. I spent the next two hours calling Continental Airlines, Singapore Airlines and Continental Airlines again. Everyone was passing the buck as usual! Singapore Airlines tried to "rebook" me on the same cancelled flight until I brought it to their attention, then they tried to tell me I'd have to wait until Friday to fly. (You do not tell a women who has been living apart from her husband for nearly 4 months that she has to wait another day!) Plus I was looking at at least 3 available flights on the Continental website! Then I was "wait listed" on a sold out flight at 3:00 p.m. Continental couldn't help rebook the flight they said it was Singapore Airs job. After checking the website and realizing the flights available had only a few seats left and had a 30-40% on time arrival, I decided to rent a car and drive the 4 hours to Newark to ensure I made the 11:00 p.m. flight to Singapore.
I got the rental car, packed it with our 5 suitcases, 1 box & 4 carry-ons. We waited to see Lindsay, she was returning from a week in Thailand visiting her boyfriend. She leaves August 1st to start her job in Japan. At 1:00 p.m. Amanda & I hit the road. We made good time until we hit the NJ turnpike. No surprises there! We were in stop and go traffic for 17 miles and then heavy traffic and rain the rest of the way to Newark. A good reminder of one of the reasons I hate NJ. (sorry NJ friends, I love you but have no love loss for NJ) We pulled up the the airport and unloaded all our baggage. I asked Amanda to go inside and bring out a trolley for the bags. She came out proud as a peacock with the carry on luggage guide, that sort of looked like a trolley but clearly wasn't! We lugged everything inside & Amanda waited in the terminal for me to return the rental car. Of course I left my cell phone in the car because all I could think about was finding a bathroom and peeing! When I remembered to the car drop off my rental car as no where to be found. I had to go to the main office and and they called around and went to lost and found to retrieve it. 45 minutes later I arrived at the terminal only to realize it would be another 3o minutes until we could check in. We lined up all our luggage and waited.
During the check-in I was told I'd have to pay $117 each for my two extra bags........hopefully I can expense that to Reckitt Benckiser as a move expense. We cleared customs with no issues which was a blessing since Amanda usually has some prohibited substance or water bottle in her bag and has to be searched! Maybe she's finally learned? Now I'm sitting in the business class lounge munching on cheese and crackers and enjoying my 2nd glass of wine. My prayer is our flight will be on time and in 19.5 hours I'll be seeing Rick.
It's been a long 3.5 months........ and I'm ready to start my life in Singapore. On the bright side our household goods are due to be delivered on Tuesday so that will be another good story I'm sure.
Hugs to all,
Cassie
I got the rental car, packed it with our 5 suitcases, 1 box & 4 carry-ons. We waited to see Lindsay, she was returning from a week in Thailand visiting her boyfriend. She leaves August 1st to start her job in Japan. At 1:00 p.m. Amanda & I hit the road. We made good time until we hit the NJ turnpike. No surprises there! We were in stop and go traffic for 17 miles and then heavy traffic and rain the rest of the way to Newark. A good reminder of one of the reasons I hate NJ. (sorry NJ friends, I love you but have no love loss for NJ) We pulled up the the airport and unloaded all our baggage. I asked Amanda to go inside and bring out a trolley for the bags. She came out proud as a peacock with the carry on luggage guide, that sort of looked like a trolley but clearly wasn't! We lugged everything inside & Amanda waited in the terminal for me to return the rental car. Of course I left my cell phone in the car because all I could think about was finding a bathroom and peeing! When I remembered to the car drop off my rental car as no where to be found. I had to go to the main office and and they called around and went to lost and found to retrieve it. 45 minutes later I arrived at the terminal only to realize it would be another 3o minutes until we could check in. We lined up all our luggage and waited.
During the check-in I was told I'd have to pay $117 each for my two extra bags........hopefully I can expense that to Reckitt Benckiser as a move expense. We cleared customs with no issues which was a blessing since Amanda usually has some prohibited substance or water bottle in her bag and has to be searched! Maybe she's finally learned? Now I'm sitting in the business class lounge munching on cheese and crackers and enjoying my 2nd glass of wine. My prayer is our flight will be on time and in 19.5 hours I'll be seeing Rick.
It's been a long 3.5 months........ and I'm ready to start my life in Singapore. On the bright side our household goods are due to be delivered on Tuesday so that will be another good story I'm sure.
Hugs to all,
Cassie
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