Shopping - Singapore's National Pasttime

One thing that has been very apparent since we arrived is that there are two primary activities - eating and shopping. I will tackle the food subject on another day when we have experienced more of it (we continue to be sticking to mostly Western establishments or cooking for ourselves). Shopping however, we have spent a good deal of time walking around and I think we have a sense of that.
First off, the developers who designed the shopping concept here really have cornered the market! When I say it's truly a national sport it is. You can't go anywhere without a shopping mall being part of the route. All of the transportation is linked to the shopping malls, you walk through and under the malls in many cases to reach the MRT lines. Aside from ease of access the malls here are much more all encompassing, there are very few free standing shops. Your grocery store, dry cleaners, tailor,drug store, department store and electronic shops are all under one roof! It makes it extremely convenient but also makes shopping something that seems to be done here without much thought. The malls also house your restaurants, hawker food centers and food courts. Basically, if you need something you can find it......in the mall.
In an earlier post it was mentioned how opulent the malls are, we took some sample photos of just one mall for you to get an idea. Keep in mind that right next to this mall is yet another mall, often with the same items. Right outside our hotel, on the same block and probably only 15 stores apart from each other are two Louis Vuitton stores! This continues with almost every recognized store. Hopefully the pictures help to better illustrate what I am describing.

ION Orchard

Ngee Ann Shopping Mall (this is directly next to the ION Mall pictured above, note the Louis Vuitton sign yet again!)

 I am also enclosing a few scenic shots.  It was supposed to be fabulous photos of the Chinese Lantern festival that I was all excited to go see.  In the end, I dragged everyone around for a long time last evening to get lost and find out in the end that the lantern fest ended several days prior! 

Today we went to see Dannette's school. It seems nice and I think she will enjoy it. The only disappointing thing right now is that they cannot secure busing for her yet so John will need to escort her to and from school each day. That is quite an undertaking with Halie as it was slightly over 40 minutes by MRT each way! We are hoping to locate a more direct method before next Monday.
No new news on our permanent housing, the last we heard all was well and the paperwork was being processed. For now, we all just continue to hope it goes smoothly and we can get into our new space as soon as possible. The service apartment we are staying in is fine but it's crowded and we all need some space and our things!

I love this shot! She looks so much like John.

One final note, we are all on Halie alert as she took two steps for Dannette over the weekend and a step for John the following day! Looks like she is going to be walking soon enough. For now, we just enjoy her attempts.
Well that's all for now, Halie is in bed and we have a bit of downtime before bed. Good night, will write more soon!