Singapore Silly Season

Our Christmas decor at home

This year Christmas is definitely taking on a different smell and flavour for us. Singapore is abuzz with shoppers taking advantage of the pre-Christmas sales on offer which is quite different to the post-Christmas sales I'm used to in South Africa. I'm still trying to overcome my shopping anxiety which is resulting in some very strange and unfamiliar "non-shopping" behaviour - something I'm not very used to as I don't often find myself having to be convinced to indulge in some retail therapy. I suspect it has something to do with my newly acquired status as a 'financial dependent'.....bank sms's to your husband every time you swipe your card is something that takes a bit of getting used to. Certainly makes you think twice about punishing the plastic :)

Unfortunately our 'Singapore Silly Season' didn't get off to a very good start with a complete no-show at Nick's work Christmas doo. I had trawled the malls and settled on 'Elvis' for Nick and 'Cleopatra' for me and had even managed to find full costume garb including wigs at a dress-up shop in Far East Plaza. Thankfully I didn't buy the kit as I thought it best to let Nick try on the bell bottom pants beforehand. The plan was that he'd go through, fit the pants and buy them the next day (the day of the doo) which in turn never happened. Instead, he got caught up on a deal and only got home after 9pm, grumpy and tired and in no mood to dress up and head back across town for a night of alter-ego tomfoolery. Instead, we headed across the road to our local 'Two Fat Men' for a burger and a beer. Not the worst thing in the world...

Set up for our braai

With Friday 16th being a public holiday in South Africa I began to feel homesick at the thought of everyone we know marking the beginning of thier annual leave and the delight that is Christmas in Jozi or 'Durbs-by-the-sea'. To allay the homesickness that has been creeping up on me over the past week or so I decided that a braai was in order and invited our Indonesian neighbours, Christina and Agus, to join us for our first 'barbeque' abroad! What a disaster!!! Firstly, we forgot to buy charcoal and firelighters which meant Nick was sent off on a public transport expedition to the shops to find what he could, taking, in total, an hour and a half! Not fun! The games continued when we tried to light a fire in the built-in-braai that was clearly designed my somebody who has never cooked a piece of steak over coals in his life. The bathtub sized braai and its 500cm  high grid resulted in some creative beer can positioning to get the grid closer to the poor quality coals to make sure that we actually had cooked meat. The beautiful veggie bake that I had prepared in a tin foil baking case proved to be nice in theory but was utterly raw by the time we had cooked the meat so it was agreed that we'd leave it to cook and eat it the next day instead. After our midnight feast of salad, chicken kebabs and a slither of steak each, we enjoyed a delicious cold dessert, prepared by Christine, consisting of coconut and condensed milk soup with strips of young coconut meat, avo and another fruit that I can't remember the name of. It was after that delightful treat that I was talked into trying some Durian which is a big ugly looking fruit that stinks to high heavens but has a soft fleshy inner that is very popular with the locals. I had been told that you either love or hate it and being the 'foodie' that I am I decided to give it a go. It was the most bizarre tasting thing I have ever come across. The only way I can describe it is like a stinky cheese infused avo. It has a creamy consistency but is very pungent in odour and in taste. Surprisingly, Nick gave it a taste too but we unanimously decided that it was not going to be a re-occuring treat but thanked Christine and Agus for thier generousity in sharing it with us. At least that's one high fat, high cholestrol item that we won't be indulging in too often whilst here. A must-try-once item ticked off my list.

Cycling in East Coast Park

Nick and I have decided to look around and see if we can buy some secondhand bicylcles for the rest of our time in Singapore. This idea was initiated a couple of weeks ago but was driven home for us on Saturday morning when we met Yu-En and Celine at East Coast Park, hired bikes and spent the morning cycling in the rain! You can get around so much more quickly on a bike than on foot and it's a great way to nip to the shops or to the MRT station rather than having to wait for a bus that can often extend your travelling time by up to 30mins if you get the timing wrong. We need to price them but Scobie, an Australian guy we met through Yu-En and Celine, rekons we can pick one up for about $100 which certainly makes it worth while. I'll keep you posted on our progress with that one....

I've just been interupted by an inspector from the National Enviornmental something-something who asked if he could do a one minute inspection of our apartment to check for mosquitos. I'm telling you, I wouldn't be surprised if there are secret cameras mounted in our apartment to make sure that we take the rubbish out and wash our dishes! This place is incredible! It's one of the most humid spots in the world and I swear I haven't seen a single mosquite - probably due to the 'men-in-black' mosquito hunters that drop in unannounced for random searches!!

Monsoon rain!!

Cloudy, rainy Singapore

It has been raining a lot the last couple of days - monsoon season so I'm told. There have been devastating floods in the Philipines with casualties now over 1000. The flooding in this part of the world is really terrible and you can only imagine what it must be like in a rural area when that rain comes down. Nick and I had to take refuge the other night whilst walking down East Coast Road back from the new 112 Katong shopping centre. It just started coming down in buckets for about an hour! Thankfully Singapore is designed for shelter and in most areas you can get around without getting completely drenched. Unfortunately that wasn't the case for Nick on Friday night when he got off the bus without an umbrella and the heavens opened for the duration of his 10 minute walk home. I greeted him at the door with a towl and a giggle - he was soaked to the bone, leather shoes included. Not fun!

My Mum arrives in 4 days and I'm so excited I don't know what to do with myself. I'm really looking forward to having someone here to spend days with and share all the fabulous spots I've discovered. I have booked a 3 day trip to Penang, Malaysia for the 3 of us over New Year. It's going to be such a treat to have Brig with us and I've planned some really nice 'surprises' for her - I'll share them with you once they're done. Will miss my Dad though as he is not coming with but I'm not sure that the sight-seeing style trip would excite him much anyway. 

Know that we are thinking of all our family and friends over this period and sending so much love to you all. It's not an easy time of the year to be away from home and we miss our Highlands North pozzie more than we ever thought we would. BUT, we are happy and grateful for this experience. It is very scary to think that half way through February we'll be half way through our time here and that makes me think 'Yikes!' - we still have so much to see and do!

I can't promise loads of updates while Brig is here but I'm sure I'll be in touch with most of you via bbm and email over the next couple of weeks! If not, have a wonderful Christmas and New Year. Travel safely, behave and look after yourselves. God bless and lots of love.

xx