Pictures From this weekend

Singapore Flyer

 Just a few of the pics from last evenings adventures.

Halloween or is it?

Well we have officially lived in our new place just over a week now and starting to settle in.

Today is Halloween but you wouldn't know it here in Singapore as it's sunny, hot, humid and very difficult to spot a trick or treater anywhere.  I did search out a restaurant called Dan Ryan's Chicago Bar and Grill that is supposed to be a nod to American traditions and they are doing a Halloween dinner tonight.  So we will be going to dine with the ghouls and goblins for Halie's First Halloween.  Costumes are rare to see here and even more obscure are costumes for little ones.  So I have pieced together a "giraffe" costume.  It really just consists of a brown pair of pants and onesie with a giraffe headband that I found in the dollar store here that fits little kids.  It won't be the elaborate first Halloween costume I had hoped for but at least we will have some pictures to show her when she gets older.  There is a neighborhood up to the north that is sort of "Little America" by the Singapore American School that has a neighborhood where apparently the whole world seems to go trick or treating and I had originally planned for us to do that.  However, my luck with planning events of late has not been so good (read the blog on Chinatown and keep reading to hear about last night's adventure) so I am feeling a bit gun shy about heading and hour or so north by public transit for something that could possibly be hard to find or disappointing.

On to last nights adventures.  I have been wanting to go see this event called iLight.  It's the first of its kind in Singapore and consists of 21 outdoor light sculptures around the Marina Waterfront.  Once again, the best laid plans...... should have known when things started out badly.  We had planned to head out around 5pm which should have given us plenty of time to get down towards that area, have dinner, find the event and be there right about the time they turn on the lights at 7:30pm.  This should have hopefully been easy and get Halie back home into bed by 9pm at the latest.  We couldn't end up leaving until 6pm as Dannette had a friend over whose helper was very late (supposed to be here at 4:30pm).  She was not answering her cell phone and turns out we learn at 515pm she is in a cab VERY lost.  Long story short, she didn't get picked up until right about 6pm.  Traffic was pretty heavy and we got down to the area and walked to the place we had planned for dinner, Paulaner brew house.  Nice place, great atmosphere......90 minutes into our dinner we still had no FOOD!  Turns out the waiter was so worried about serving our appetizer before our mains that he only put the app order in and NEVER ordered out entrees!!!!!  Food was good but was spoiled by waiting so long as once we complained the food arrived in about 4 minutes.  One difference here, complaining gets you nothing.  In the US that meal should have been free or very very discounted.  In Singapore, we got two free sodas and a scoop of ice cream with a side of VERY tired Halie to go. But wait, the adventures don't stop there.  A lovely irritating part of Singapore is that signage is poor.  The same area may be called about ten different things by different people.  Case in point, last night the signage for the iLight stated Marina Bay Waterfront.  The articles all referred to the Marina Promenade.  Google maps didn't seem to recognize either of those names.  In the end four very tired and worn out people found the area.  We looked at two exhibits and grew weary.  The display was interesting but VERY spread out.  Had we gotten there early enough it would have been a lengthy stroll around the entire waterfront that would have likely taken an hour.  We were all in agreement that it was time to give in and go home.  After sitting through what seemed like a great deal of traffic, we finally made it home right at 10pm.  Needless to say, not a very enjoyable evening was had by all.

Let's hope tonights dinner has some promise.  Or I will be permanently evicted from ever making plans again. Fingers crossed the food is good as this is also one of the few places that supposedly serves a real Thanksgiving dinner here.

No pics for now as Halie is asleep and I don't want to get up to get the camera and disturb her.  Her nap is key to the success of this evening.  I wanted to get a post up though as I know many of you watch for the posts religiously.  Pics to come later tonight hopefully.

Late Breaking Video!

Sorry this is just too cute not to share.  Halie has taken to her new home quite well.  The additional space is really paying off as our little 9 month old has taken off!
Enjoy.

We have a house!!!!!

It is official!  As hoped, we officially took possession of our new home this past Thursday.  All went extremely well and was smoother than I could have hoped for.

Polo field outside our living room

I think all of us were excited to be able to check out of the temporary apartment Thursday morning and load our things into a 13 passenger van that transported us to our new home. We had done the takeover and key possession Wednesday night so this allowed us to walk straight in the door on Thursday morning and start the settling in process.

Thursday was really just a blur of deliveries and keeping Halie entertained.  The sea shipments were delivered at the exact time our rental furniture arrived so for about 2 hours the place was chaos.  This did allow us to have the rest of the day to quietly unwind and unpack. 

I returned to work on Friday and John handled the delivery of the TV and TV/internet installs with Dannette and Halie.

Saturday was an interestingly long day as we went to IKEA to try and do one bulk shopping trip of all the things we needed to purchase.  It took over 4 hours and we were all exhausted by the time we got home.  The worst part about that trip was that we had so much stuff, the cashier kept getting confused on what he had scanned and we ended up having to be checked out three times!  To make it almost comical at that point, we then rolled the three very large carts over to the delivery company that delivers for IKEA and they had to re-key every item as well to ensure it was all accounted for.  Thanks goodness for delivery and assembly services.  After all that it will only cost us $75 for the complete delivery and assembly of the four large items we purchased!  Some times there really are bargains to be had in Singapore!!!!

Eating dinner at home.  The wall of doors opens up to allow the outside in!

Sunday was very laid back.  Dannette, Halie and I went to explore the local shopping mall and John had some time alone to relax in the house.  All in all, a very nice weekend.  It really is great to see our things again and we are all enjoying the space.  Best of all, we are ecstatic to be able to cook for ourselves again and have eaten dinner at home every night for four nights!  Groceries are extremely pricey here so we will likely need to start mixing home cooked dinner nights with eating out as eating the local cuisine is far cheaper than purchasing food at the grocery stores.  I learned that the reason its so cheap to eat out here is that all of the local restaurants receive a food subsidy from the government which allows it to be so cheap.  This of course does not include any Western chains etc.  From the positive side, this will force us to get more adventurous and likely we will find some places that we would never have tried and will love them!

We officially have confirmation of our first visitors!  I am so excited that Dan and Anna are going to come stay with us for a few days at the beginning of January as they will be in the Phillipines.
Dannette is back to school day after her 10 day fall break and things are going well.  She went to a friends house last week for the day and is having a friend over this Saturday.  Halie is doing fabulously.  Since the move she is quite enjoying having so much space to explore.

Work is going well.  I will be heading to Germany for a week in November.  This will likely be my only trip this year unless something unforeseen comes up.  Next year will be packed with trips I am sure as the offices in Egypt and Saudi Arabia are quite keen for me to come and assist.  I do not have firm dates yet but I do know that I will be going to South Africa with my team in January or early February! I am quite looking forward to that. 

Now that we are moved in our next task is finding a helper. In Singapore it is quite common, to have full time help at home. Few families don't have help. All homes and apartments are fitted with a helpers room and bathroom.  We have started working with an agency and should be interviewing this coming weekend.  I want to get her selected and started before my trip to Germany so that John has help.  For interest sake, I thought I would give you an idea of how much work the helpers are expected to do here for little money.  To start with, helpers are only guaranteed one day of per month by the government, most families give their helper every Sunday and Public Holiday off.  They live in, so you provide them food (from what I have been told by others, most help only requests rice!) and a place to live as well as one trip home to the Phillipines each year.  Over 80% of the helpers are from the Phillipines (only four countries are legally allowed to work here as domestic help) and the vast majority of them have children at home that are being cared for by others so that they can come here to earn a living.  Earning a living to them amounts to approximately $300 USD/month!!! That is like a car payment for us in the US.  I am grateful that it is so affordable though as it will give us the time to really enjoy our time here and not have to focus on laundry, cooking, cleaning and all the other little details taking care of a house requires.

Well that's all for now.  We enjoy hearing from all of you so please leave a comment to let us know that you are reading : )

Palawan Beach

Another weekend slipped past far too quickly for us here in Singapore. We find that keeping ourselves out of the temporary apartment and needing to eat out for most meals tends to take up so much of the weekends that we find ourselves wondering on Sunday evening where the time has gone.

This weekend we explored the beach on Sentosa Island called Palawan Beach.  Of the three beaches on Sentosa it is defined as being the most geared towards kids. It was a nice afternoon of playing in the sand and sun for all of us.  The beaches here are not exactly the tropical beaches that one might picture in Southeast Asia.  As Singapore is mainly a shipping port, the beaches are nice enough but certainly the water is not the crystal blue waters that you might see in photos of Thailand or Malaysia. We will hope to see the more amazing beaches soon enough! For an afternoon and being only 20 minutes from our location it was certainly well worth the time.

Halie's first experience at the beach was humorous as all babies.  Just like Dannette at that age, Halie enjoyed scooping the sand up and trying to eat it.  I think we even have several pictures at home that are near identical to the shots we got of Halie and the sand.
Sunday was hot and very humid.  It rained for a good part of the morning making the afternoon excessively humid. We toughed it out though and spent the afternoon having a picnic at the Botanic Gardens.  As you may recall from one of our first posts we all very much enjoyed the gardens.  We chose to go back and have a picnic as part of the celebration for John and I, as our two year wedding anniversary is on Tuesday.  Halie especially seemed to enjoy  the picnic as she had a large grassy area to explore freely.  After a picnic on Symphony Hill we explored the Jacob Ballas Children's Garden.  A free garden that is geared towards children to 12 years of age.  

Picnic at Symphony Hill

Rope Bridge

A petrified tree

The garden was very nice and had things for all ages including a sensory garden, potting garden, displays on photosynthesis, a rope bridge and even a playground or two mixed in.  

Durian Fruit growing from the trees in the Botanic Garden!

And my favorite pic of the weekend (photography by John, creativity by Amanda)..............................

This week is shaping up to be quite busy! We will be collecting the keys to our new home on Wednesday evening and moving in on Thursday! We will be receiving a delivery of rental furniture on Thursday (beds, sofas, etc) to get us through until our sea container arrives in November.  We also expect to receive our air shipment which is already here in Singapore on Thursday so we will have many of our immediate needs like more clothes, bedding, pots and pans etc.  This finally means an end to so much eating out which is welcome news to all of us.  In addition, John was able to purchase a new TV for us today today so that it will be delivered and allow for cable installation. If all goes well, we should be up and running by the end of the weekend with internet and TV but please be patient.....we may be out of communication for a bit.  We will have limited email access via Blackberry when Halie allows us to take a moment to check it :)
I hope you all enjoyed the very pic heavy post.  I just couldn't narrow down the pics to use. 
And for a blogging first, here is a very small video of Halie at the beach.

The work week is coming to an end

So it's nearing the end of the work week here and we are all looking forward to the weekend!
Dannette has been on Fall Break for three days now and is already starting to get bored.  Its difficult when she is used to running around town with all her girlfriends and now she is confined to hang out with John and Halie. Hopefully by the next long break she will have made some friends and have the chance to do some things.
Work has been busier this week as I start getting more involved in my new department.  I have some training early next week to help me learn some of the finer points of my job so I expect next week will go by quickly.
In exciting housing news, we feel as though it may finally be happening!  The letter of Intent has been signed by both my company and the tenant which leaves way for us to begin occupying the new residence on Thursday 21Oct!!!! That is less than a week from now.  We are all holding our breath for fear of something falling apart but all signs are in the right direction.
As our sea containers have arrived they will be delivered on Thursday to the new place and the relocation company is currently arranging for rental furniture for us to get by until our sea cans arrive.  We expect it will be early November by the time they arrive, clear customs and can be delivered.
Just having the extra space will be a welcome addition!
Halie continues to progress in learning to walk.  We all got to see her take 3 steps in a row yesterday. It won't be long now before she figures out walking can get her places faster.  Once she learns that I have a feeling she will never look back.
This coming weekend we have laid out some loose plans.  We hope to get to the beach on Sentosa this weekend.  It will help with Dannette's boredom and its one of the things she has been requesting since we arrived. Although this is an island, beaches are relatively hard to come by as shipping is such a huge part of the economy here most of the waterfront is taken up by harbors. 
The other plan we have is to enjoy a picnic celebration for our 2 year anniversary.  We will be bringing the girls along, hence the daytime picnic.  I am looking forward to this as it will give Halie a wide open space to explore.  We will likely head back to the Botanic Gardens for this or possibly Fort Canning Park which was suggested to me as a popular local spot for picnicing.

Sorry I don't have any great pics today.  I am enclosing a pic of the funniest campaign sign I have ever seen.  I snapped it in the restroom of a hospital.  Apparently standing on toilets is a major issue here thus the campaign.

As I close, I just want to wish my nephews, Jeremy and Zachary, a very happy birthday!  I know it's not until the 24th but we will be missing your party this weekend.  I hope you enjoy it.  Your gifts have been mailed, I hope they arrive prior to your party but if not, they should be there before the 24th.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Singapore Zoo

The Zoo turned out to be as amazing as all the literature claims!
We spent about 4 hours there on Sunday and saw approximately 1/3 of the zoo.  We will definitely be back to continue exploring.
The zoo itself is nestled north of the city in one of the only remaining true subtropical rainforest areas that remain on the island.  It is flanked by a giant reservoir that supplies much of Singapore's drinking water.
From the moment you enter the zoo there are natural exhibits of animals very near to you. They refrain from the use of fences or glass enclosures so we often found ourselves eye level with a small tamarin monkey or other creature.  The animals remain protected by their own behaviours and the zoo visitors respect to not touch, tease or feed them.

Halie seemed to enjoy the zoo as well.  Her new skill is pointing at items that she wants or wants you to know that she has seen.  In many areas, we were able to take her out of the stroller and allow her to see the animals up close.  She particularly enjoyed displays like the underwater viewing area for the otters.  This allowed her to stand up against the glass tank herself and track the otters as they swam past her.

The zoo does a terrific job of allowing you to see the animals in their most usual habitat and letting you join in the fun.  Most exhibits listed the animals feeding times so that you could come back to view them up close as they are fed.  We took advantage of this with the probiscus monkeys and enjoyed seeing them eat.  Interestingly, they are served a diet of green leafy plants but they do not eat the leaves! Instead, they tear off the leaves and eat the soft, chewy stems to which they were attached.

The zoo also includes a small kids discovery area that includes up close viewing to your typical farm animals as well as a zero depth water park experience.  Halie will be ready for enjoying that as she begins to walk.  It was different to see the parents that had dressed their kids in swimsuits to come to the zoo, let them run about in the water and then pull out a towel to dry them off all before heading off to see the next portion of the zoo.  This seems to be a trend here due to the heat as we have experienced similar water areas at some of the shopping malls! It certainly makes it far more appealing as a child to tag along on errands with the lure of some water play!

The heat wears some of us down more quickly than others (insert picture of me here) and we wrapped up the day mid afternoon with some lunch, a quick bite of Ben & Jerry's ice cream and headed back in a cab for a much needed rest.  Luckily, Halie has begun to learn to fall asleep anywhere when she is ready for a nap and she was out cold in her stroller and transferred into the cab without waking up. I on the other hand seem to be struggling with being outside for too long.  This is the second time we have gone out for an excursion during the day that I wound up with a tremendously strong headache that also gave way to a fever.  Not sure what is causing this but we are going to start shopping for a hat and some cooler linen type clothing to see if that helps.
No big plans this week on the radar currently.  Hoping to hear progress on our housing.
And a shout out to all those that have gotten or have skype, we would love to chat with you.  Timing is sometimes an issue currently as we can really only talk on your evenings as we cannot speak in our house after 7pm (the place is too small and the talking would wake Halie).  If I do not already have your skype info please email it to me. Talk to you all soon!

I should also mention that I hope you all enjoy the photos that I am enclosing.  John took all of these (and most of the photos since we arrived).  He has renewed an old passion for photography since our arrival and I think is quite talented!

Weekend update

We have finished our first full work/school week and I can say that we are all happy for the weekend. Dannette seems to be getting involved at school quickly and has joined the basketball team. We all got a good laugh when she came home and told us that she didn't need to try out for the team as it's an American sport......thus as she is American it's assumed she can play (clearly they have never met me or any other equally unathletic American or they would never presume athletic prowess again!) Most excitedly, their basketball coach informed them that he is trying to arrange them to play in a tournament in Bangkok!!!!

 I continue to get used to my new role at work. I am still receiving training so although I am not doing a whole lot yet I am learning quite a bit.  This week, a colleague from Australia will be in to do some training with me so that should be enjoyable. I also collected my official Employment Pass and John and the girls Dependent Passes this week.  This now allows us to start setting up utility accounts etc once we have permanent housing. More importantly, it allowed us to get local handphones (cell phones to us Americans) for John and Dannette this weekend.  My local Blackberry is being arranged by work and I expect to receive it shortly.

Today we took Halie to her 9 month doctors appointment.  She is healthy and received only one shot.  She continues to be a little peanut having grown only 2 ounces since her 6 month appt.  The pediatrician was fantastic and very thorough.  The medical office that we take the girls to specializes in expatriate families so they are well versed on the various vaccination schedules by country.

Tomorrow we are planning a trip for the day to the Singapore Zoo.  We are all looking forward to this as it is supposed to be one of the best in the world.  Their claim to fame is the free range orangutans and theirs wide open approach to zoo life.  They use natural boundaries like large drop offs, waterfalls and landscaping to keep the animals contained in their area but refrain from the use of fences and cages.  Disney actually replicates this style of animal containment in Animal Kingdom if any of you have experienced that. I am sure we will have lots of pictures for you all to enjoy from that.

In other news.......busing is no longer such a big obstacle as the bus company was able to arrange pick up in the morning leaving us only the afternoon to worry about.  This also has been solved as we are very proud to say that on Friday Dannette successfully negotiated the whole way home from her school to our temporary apartment ALL BY HERSELF!  This is no small feat to perfect in the course of four days as it requires a walk from the school to a city bus stop and then taking two MRT (subway lines) to eventually end up where we are staying.  Here is a pic of her that I took when I escorted her home from school on Thursday.

In housing news, we lost the unit on the 33 floor that we were waiting on. In the end the landlord would not provide the document my company insists on that proves the owner has the legal ownership to rent the place out without the deposit and the company would not provide the deposit without it.  After two weeks of no one budging the deal fell apart. This left us out house hunting again Thursday afternoon.  Fingers crossed, we found another unit with the identical floor plan on the 32nd floor. Thing appear to already be moving better as by the end of the day Friday the company was already in possession of the document that never appeared on the other unit.  We still have no idea when this means we will be able to move in but any progress is good at this point!

Well good night to all, enjoy your Saturday!

A Culture of Consideration

I decided that for today's post I wanted to explore a very interesting phenomenon here, that is consideration. When people who have been to Singapore describe it, they tend to mention how very clean it is. And that is absolutely true.  I have never seen a cleaner city or suburb for that matter.

However, I think that many people miss the root cause for the cleanliness and that is consideration. I have found that cleanliness of the city seems to be directly linked to the consideration that the people have for keeping their city clean. It doesn't end at cleanliness.  I find that the country has decided on certain ways that are acceptable and the population follows suit.  For example, I mentioned the other day that napkins are not readily available.  Turns out in most places they are available, one simply has to ask. It appears to be again about consideration.  This time consideration for the environment, using only what is needed. I noted in a McDonald's the other day  that they have large napkin dispensers ready for the taking, just above those dispensers are signs reminding you to consider the environment and to only take what is necessary.

The same thought seems to be popping up everywhere now that I look for it.  The giving up of seats on the subway to parents with children, only taking napkins as needed. All signs of a culture of consideration.

The most interesting example to date was an article I read in the newspaper discussing parental maintenance.  Turns out in this country all children are obligated to pay monthly maintenance to their parents once they reach a certain age. An interesting concept and not without its issues as the article describes but again I believe that at its root the law was designed out of consideration for their elders.

Before I wrap up my thoughts on this topic, I would be remiss if I did not say that just like anywhere else we see signs of impatience and inconsideration. No where is perfect, it just seems that maybe they have gotten a few things figured out better than the US.

In other news..................we are now official.  My employment pass has been collected and John, Dannette and Halie have their dependent passes.  We continue to await any word on our housing, it is stalled and hasn't moved in almost two weeks. We are trying to be optimistic but reality tells us that we may not be leased by the end of next week.
And at popular request, a few pictures.........Enjoy!

Istana Park - This is the park I get to walk through in the 5 minute walk from the MRT station to my office.

 

Dannette received Indian Mehndi henna today while celebrating "Uniting Nations" Day (UN Day) at school.

First day of school

Another milestone has been reached, Dannette started at her new school today. She seemed to enjoy it although she did say that it is extremely warm as only the classrooms have air con and all the passing from class to class is outside.
Her class is approximately 22 children from all over the world. She even met a girl from Texas!
I think she will be very happy there. She does have a nice easing in period as starting next Wednesday she will be on fall break for 10 days!!!!!

I have now had two days in the office and although very different from the large corporate office park I am used to, it is quite nice. One thing that is quite difficult to get used to here is that shopping, restaurants and office space is often in the same buildings! So literally when I went to find one of our offices, the directions were to take the lift between Levi's and the McDonalds! It is quite nice though as at lunch I have been able to run down to grab a bite, pick up some things we need and still fit in some time to window shop :)

The only downside currently is not having busing for Dannette. This means a 3 hour commute in the morning for me and then John and Halie do the three hour trek in the afternoon to go pick Dannette up. It is quite long and we are both exhausted. Glad this is very short lived.

On the home front, we haven't heard much of anything but no news seems to be good news. That being said we are all hoping that we will receive the keys to our permanent place on the 15th! If you could not tell from John's post last evening, the serviced apartment is really getting old and we are all feeling very trapped. While it is nice, we are doubly confined as once Halie goes to bed at 7 pm in the master bedroom it leaves all of us to sit in the living area, a space that is smaller than 10x10 and has far fewer than 20 TV stations.

Someone mentioned being curious about the grocery stores here. I decided that a picture can better describe how bizarre it is to shop here......even when you think you recognize a familiar product you have to watch out as it may have a unique twist/flavor to it! This picture is a prime example.

Who would have thought Pringles could be different?

Day 463 of my captivity

For 463 days I have been held captive inside of this "Serviced living facility", while it doesn't sound as daunting a place as say a prison cell it is no less.  My captors have chosen words to make "us" the captives feel at home and lead us to believe that we have a choice in our living arrangements, we do not.  Inside my cell, I am forced to watch the National Geographic Channel repeatedly, it is surely a form or either propaganda or brain washing! I find it hard to believe that my captors could not find a way to offer more than the 20 channels.  Actually it's more like 19 channels because the Diva channel doesn't even count as watchable television in my book.  To further weaken my willpower and resolve my captors have surrounded this prison with hundreds upon hundreds of shopping malls, all within view of my cell, with nothing I can afford.  Lastly, my captors have mocked my national origin and left me malnourished in one overwhelming and cruel act of torture.  To both spite the American celebration of Halloween and keep me malnourished my captors have been serving food to the captives with the Heads, Eyes and Fingers still attached after cooking!  Some of us have chosen, to stand strong and not allow them to mock Halloween by serving us food that scares the shit out of us.  We will prevail, I am planning an escape that is all I can say at this point.