"Midnight Express"

It's just gone midnight and poor Nick is still in the office! He's had a crazy couple of days, in the office all of Saturday and some of Sunday but it seems that whatever is so important will be completed and delivered tonight and then hopefully the rest of his week won't be too bad. I managed to get him home on Friday night by 9pm and we headed down to East Coast Road to go and find a cold beer and some dinner! There are loads of little restaurants and eateries lining the streets in and around our suburb and after 9pm is when people seem to head out on a Friday night. We've decided that we live in a fairly larney suburb judging by the cars that regularly line the streets and basement parking. I've honestly never seen so many Ferrari's, Porch's and zooped up Beamers in my entire life! This place will give Morningside Shopping Centre "there by Tasha's" a run for its money! When you realise the cost of owning a car in Singapore, you are allowed to presume that those driving high end luxury vehicles are stupendously wealthy! New friends of ours, Shane and Antoinette, were telling us that an entry level Hyundai SUV-type vehicle will set you back about $145 000 and that's after you've acquired the license to buy the car, which can range from $1000 to $45 000 depending on the current market demand! INSANE! Anyway, back to Friday night - I managed to get Nick past the Ferrari parked just the other side of a cute spot called "Margarita's" and up to the next couple of restaurants further down EC Rd. We weren't even 5 steps past the front of a spot called "Two Fat Men" and Nick stopped dead in his tracks - Usher - not blaring but enough for Nick to notice, was this spots soundtrack and after the week my hubby had had I knew I was going to struggle to pull him away from the sweet, sweet sounds of those hip hop beats. I managed to convince him to at least walk to the end of the road to see if there were any other spots we fancied as "Two Fat Men" was literally the second place we came across. He agreed but not surprisingly we found our way back by which time Snoop was getting some air time and Nick's smile had begun to grow!  2 Singha's and a green chicken curry later my husband was a happy man. I've got a sneaky suspicion that someone whispered louder than they should have that Nick is an undercover 'wigger' - his user name to get onto the system at work is 'NIGR'! Priceless! Not long now and they'll be calling him 'Mr Grossman'.

 My latest read is a biography on Freddie Mercury by Lesley-Ann Jones. I mention this because this is what I spent the day perusing on Saturday whilst Nick sat at the dining room table and worked. I also manged to get a run in and a Skype chat to Brig all before Nick announced he was done for the day and needed to get out the house! Not before buggering around with the camera and taking a bunch of "self-shots" and posing next to Audrey Hepburn who looks over our TV lounge with her excellent features :)

Chinatown - my favourite discovery last week was where we headed. It truly is a great vibe and I was so excited to see it at night and for Nick to experience it. We were not disappointed - the place was in full swing with it being a Saturday night. We ate some delicious Thai food, admired the surrounding Temples and had ourselves a fabulous evening. We decided to walk home from the train rather than catch a bus which meant by the time we got home we were both convinced a swim was required, which we did and then hit the sack.

Nick Tindale's sister's name is Sue. Sue has a friend here in Singapore called Antoinette. Nick put me in touch with Antoinette which I am exceedingly grateful for as we had the pleasure of meeting her, her husband Shane and their two children on Sunday afternoon. The Tyrell's had invited us over to their house at 3pm. Nick headed into the office early Sunday morning to get some work done, and I met up with him for a coffee at about 11am. We then proceeded to walk the length of the Singapore river (not quite, but it felt like it in the heat!) all the way from Marina Bay to Robertson Quay. It was a stinker of a day and the sun was beating down. The Lobsters are not shy to whip out our umbrella's as sun protection - honestly, you just about fry in direct sunlight. We made our way up to Clarke Quay and then on to Robertson Quay stopping at all the hotels along the way to price their Christmas Day lunch and dinner. By 2pm the heavens had opened and we found a spot for a quick drink before we jumped in a cab and headed to the Tryell's. Needless to say, our 3pm visit saw us leave only 5 hours later. What a treat to find such great South Africans living and working in Singapore. I'm sure that there are many others but as I said to Antoinette, they are in the enviable/unenviable position of being the first Safa's we've met since we've been here. We laughed about the fact that they don't miss Carte Blanche on Sunday evenings and we marvelled at the stark differences between Singapore and home. Shane told us that in order to get onto the presidential candidate listing for election in Singapore you have to have been the CEO of a company with a minimum turn over of $100 million, have a PHD and be a Singapore citizen. Quite steep requirements, however, it explains why Singapore runs more like a Top 500 listed company than a country. Food for thought really....I'll let you know my thoughts on this once I've got more of an opinion

I was missing Mr Price Home today - I did my Monday housework this morning and decided that our apartment needed something. Antoinette had mentioned yesterday that I should check out IKEA if I felt the need for home comforts so I did exactly that! OH MY GOODNESS! It is a home makers paradise! WHY don't we have IKEA in South Africa? It's the most fantastic, fabulous, amazing place EVER! I managed to buy us bedside tables for $12, bed side lamps for $9 and the most fab coloured picture frames and other bits and bobs for next to nothing! You can literally go in there and design and buy an entire interior for a house and the best part is - you assemble it yourself! Everything is flat-boxed and super-duper easy to assemble. What a fantastic store! It was quite interesting getting my 2 side tables, 2 lamps, a clothes horse, a box of picture frames and some other nik-naks home in a taxi. Thank goodness Antoinette had given me a heads up and mentioned that we should call the cab driver "uncle" as a sign of respect. I must have referred to my cabbie as "uncle" a gazillion times on the way home hoping like crazy that he would help me unload my furniture purchases. He was a real sweety and helped me unload everything - thanks Uncle!