Finding our apartment and exploring Sentosa Island
Trip Start
Jul 01, 2009
1
4
50
Trip End
Sep 20, 2010
Where I stayed
New apartment...City Hall and Bugis
Singapore, Singapore
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
We managed to find a lovely abode! We had a look around the areas and first picked where we wanted to live and then ended up finding the best place for the best deal in our ideal location! We moved in on Saturday, the 11th, which is about 2 weeks ago.
Unfortunately, the wonderful b-fast buffet is no longer (although some of the places I looked at did offer it near Orchard Rd). I am the preparer of food...calling myself a chef wouldn't really be fair. We've managed to not starve as finding grocery stores were my second priority, after finding the apartment! I have found three in our area and two have most of the essentials from back home, the other is better on price but of course the furthest away. I think most people have their groceries delivered but I like grocery shopping and with all this time on my hands, mine as well make myself useful.
My first attempts at each grocery store were unsuccessful but I think I was just pricing things out and what was available that I could conjure up into something I knew how to cook! Breakfast and dinners are the meals I focus on as Steve is around for those and I can eat leftovers for lunch. I've found that salt is not heavily used here or else sold in realistic packaging for a reasonable price. I'm also not a fan of the milk I bought at the local store. It's incredibly sweet, like drinking cream that's a bit off. SO, I went to one of the other stores and asked if they carried something not so sweet (the carried the local brand as well). The man said they are all sweet here and that I need to find fresh milk... Ummm, ok, so I found a brand that I recognized (Horizon), although it was whole milk, and was more pleased when I went home and had a sip. Unfortunately, I was reading through the receipt and was shocked to find I paid nearly US $12 for it! Milk hunt tbc...
There is so much food (and shopping in general) here that we can't possibly eat in every night. We have loads of great restaurants (& even hawker stands) just around the corner & that's what I love most about living in a city...convenience! I have two restaurants that I love right now...Thai & Chinese...but we've recently vowed to avoid repeats for now. Surprised that there are so many Burger Kings, not so surprised by all the McDs, KFC and Starbucks. Did see that McDs and KFC deliver?! We have a Pizza Hut but no Papa John's thus far (China had 'em!).
Food aside, life is picking up again...a bit too much chaos for Steve but I'm managing to keep myself busy. I had two projects that I finished up for a friend. So now I'm concentrating on maximizing our time out here by planning...I was never a planner until I met Steve...he's right though, ya miss a lot by not planning anything. I prefer rough drafts still though...ya need some spontenaity.
One of the things we knew we wanted to take part in is the Formula 1 race coming up in Sept (apparently the 2nd yr in running). It's the only F1 night street race in Asia and maybe the world? So we have our tickets in coming in the mail. We decided to go with the walkabout tickets so we'll have lots of roaming to do and images to capture. I had a look at the event listing and I'm looking forward to photographing Strange Fruit, from Australia, where this group performs on standing poles. I am a bit embaressed to say that the Backstreet Boys are one of the main entertainers. Backstreet Boys?! This is a sexy race, I think the promoters need to step it up a bit....bring on some edgy group or something to get ya fired up...not the BB!! More to follow in Sept...
We haven't managed to really get into the night scene yet but it just so happens that the night we moved into our place, the Night Festival was going on just outside. (While we were at one of those grocery stores, Steve wanted to pick up a Time Out zine...which I thought we had enough stuff to look through being that we are traveling light...but we got it anways and I started reading up on events and saw the Night Festival.) We live close to the Singapore Art Museum (SAM) and the National Museum which is where a lot of the events were being hosted. Both museums were offerring free entry which we thought that was a very nice welcome to the neighborhood gesture! There was an outdoor flea market at SAM which was fun, a kickin' dj in the Glass Hall, movies under the stars (or sky), and a theatrical performance by some German group w/ fire, spinning people and huge psychedelic images projected on the National Museum. Well, it started with this chick walking on this uplifted, roving treadmill (did I mention it had been raining heavily off and on?) with spotlights chasing her as she pretending to be lost and searching her way through the woods...trying to make out what the voices were saying to her. Yeah, bizarre enough...was suppose to last 15 minutes!! Well she kept losing her grip and then catching herself until...we all saw it coming...she fell right off the contraption and it was not pretty. After she was ambulanced away, the show went on, as it must. Other then that awfulness, I realized that I was in a city that really embraces the arts and I'm falling in love!
Which leads me to us celebrating our 1st anniversay (which is actually our first 1 & 1/2 yrs of being married) this past weekend. Since we are new here we decided to do a stay-cation. We spent Saturday roaming around China Town on a photo safari. Singapore is right up with America for being a melting pot of people and cultures. So many fasinating things and I am excited to learn more about why things are the way they are...we need to find some local friends! On Sunday, we toured around Sentosa, Singapore's resort island. We went on a movie motion log ride, walked the three beaches, did a luge, rode cable cars over the islands and finished up with drinks over looking the city. To capture the moment, just as we were leaving, we got talked into getting our 3D images preserved in crystal. I would not normally purchase something like this but it actually is a perfect reminder of having spent our anniversary here in Singapore...after all it's etched in!
That's what I've got for this entry...will try to catch up more often (in shorter narratives)
...W
